Though this offer was pressed by the directors, Burke, after anxious consideration, declined it.

What his reasons were there is no evidence; we can only guess that he thought less of his personal interests than of those of the country and of his party.

Without him the Rockingham connection would undoubtedly have fallen to ruin, and with it the most upright, consistent, and disinterested body of men then in public life.

"You say," the Duke of Richmond wrote to him (November 15, 1772), "the party is an object of too much importance to go to pieces.

Indeed, Burke, you have more merit than any man in keeping us together." It was the character of the party, almost as much as their principles, that secured Burke's zeal and attachment; their decorum, their constancy, their aversion to all cabals for private objects, their indifference to office, except as an instrument of power and a means of carrying out the policy of their convictions.