Nevertheless, Lord Rockingham and his adherents went on resolutely with the bill for repealing the Stamp Act.  They had on their side all the manufacturing and commercial interests of the realm.  In the debates the Government was powerfully supported.  Two great orators and statesmen, belonging to two different generations, repeatedly put forth all their powers in defence of the bill.  The House of Commons heard Pitt for the last time, and Burke for the first time, and was in doubt to which of them the palm of eloquence should be assigned.  It was indeed a splendid sunset and a splendid dawn.

For a time the event seemed doubtful.  In several divisions the ministers were hard pressed.  On one occasion, not less than twelve of the King’s friends, all men in office, voted against the Government.  It was to no purpose that Lord Rockingham remonstrated with the King.  His Majesty confessed that there was ground for complaint, but hoped that gentle means would bring the mutineers to a better mind.  If they persisted in their misconduct, he would dismiss them.

At length the decisive day arrived.  The gallery, the lobby, the Court of Requests, the staircases, were crowded with merchants from all the great ports of the island.  The debate lasted till long after midnight.  On the division the ministers had a great majority.  The dread of civil war, and the outcry of all the trading towns of the kingdom, had been too strong for the combined strength of the Court and the Opposition.

It was in the first dim twilight of a February morning that the doors were thrown open, and that the chiefs of the hostile parties showed themselves to the multitude.  Conway was received with loud applause.  But, when Pitt appeared, all eyes were fixed on him alone.  All hats were in the air.  Loud and long huzzas accompanied him to his chair, and a train of admirers escorted him all the way to his home.  Then came forth Grenville.  As soon as he was recognised, a storm of hisses and curses broke forth.  He turned fiercely on the crowd, and caught one by the throat.  The bystanders were in great alarm.  If a scuffle began, none could say how it might end.  Fortunately the person who had been collared only said, “If I may not hiss, sir, I hope I may laugh,” and laughed in Grenville’s face.

The majority had been so decisive, that all the opponents of the Ministry, save one, were disposed to let the bill pass without any further contention.  But solicitation and expostulation were thrown away on Grenville.  His indomitable spirit rose up stronger and stronger under the load of public hatred.  He fought out the battle obstinately to the end.  On the last reading he had a sharp altercation with his brother-in-law, the last of their many sharp altercations.  Pitt thundered in his loftiest tones against the man who had wished to dip the ermine of a British King in the blood of the British people.  Grenville replied with his wonted intrepidity and asperity.  “If the tax,” he said, “were still to be laid on, I would lay it on.  For the evils which it may produce my accuser is answerable.  His profusion made it necessary.  His declarations against the constitutional powers of Kings, Lords, and Commons, have made it doubly necessary.  I do not envy him the huzza.  I glory in the hiss.  If it were to be done again, I would do it.”