But his "sincere and silent vote" was not valuable enough to command a high price from his patrons.

Once only was he able to help them with his pen, when he drew up, at the request of Lords Thurlow and Weymouth, his _Memoire Justificatif_, in French, in which "he vindicated against the French manifesto the justice of the British arms." It was a service worthy of a small fee, which no doubt he received.

He had to wait till 1779, when he had been five years in Parliament, before his cousin Mr.Eliot, and his friend Wedderburne, the Attorney-General, were able to find him a post as one of the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations.

The Board of Trade, of which he became one of the eight members, survives in mortal memory only from being embalmed in the bright amber of one of Burke's great speeches.

"This board, Sir, has had both its original formation and its regeneration in a job.