Frederick North, Lord North

Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford, KG, PC (13 April 1732 – 5 August 1792), better known by his courtesy title Lord North, which he used from 1752 to 1790, was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782. He led Great Britain through most of the American War of Independence. He also held a number of other cabinet posts, including Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Quotes

 * Am I to hear myself charged as the author of our present misfortunes? and— [Many gentlemen cried across the house, “You are, you are.”]
 * Speech in the House of Commons (6 April 1780), quoted in The Parliamentary Register: Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons, Vol. XVII (1802), p. 107


 * Oh, God! it is all over!
 * Response upon receiving the news of the surrender of Yorktown from Lord George Germain (25 November 1781), quoted in Nathaniel William Wraxall, Historical Memoirs of My Own Time. Part the First, from 1772 to 1780. Part the Second, from 1781 to 1784 (1904), p. 398


 * If you mean there should not be a Government by departments, I agree with you; I think it a very bad system. There should be one man, or a Cabinet to govern the whole, and direct every measure. Government by departments was not brought in by me. I found it so, and had not vigor and resolution to put an end to it. The King ought to be treated with all sort of respect and attention, but the appearance of power is all that a king of this country can have.
 * Remarks to Charles James Fox (14 February 1783), quoted in Memorials and Correspondence of Charles James Fox, Volume II, ed. Lord John Russell (1853), pp. 51–52


 * I was not, when I was honoured with office, a Minister of chance, or a creature of whom Parliament had no experience. I was found among you when I was so honoured. I had been long known to you. In consequence, I obtained your support; when that support was withdrawn, I ceased to be a Minister. I was the creature of Parliament in my rise; when I fell I was its victim. I came among you without connection. It was here I was first known: you raised me up; you pulled me down.
 * Speech in the House of Commons (7 May 1783), quoted in The Parliamentary Register: Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons, Vol. IX (1783), p. 713


 * Did freedom depend upon every individual subject being represented in that House? Certainly not; for that House, constituted as it was, represented the whole kingdom. Freedom depended on a very different circumstance. He was free, because he lived in a country governed by equal laws. Where the highest and the lowest were governed by the same laws, where there was no distinction of persons, there freedom might be said to exist as purely and as perfectly as in the nature of things it could exist.
 * Speech in the House of Commons (16 June 1784), quoted in The Parliamentary Register: Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons, Vol. XV (1784), p. 194

Quotes about North

 * Lord North is a good man, unlike the others. He is a good man.
 * George III's remarks to Robert Fulke Greville (4 or 5 February 1789), quoted in Nathaniel William Wraxall, Posthumous Memoirs of His Own Time, Vol. III (1836), p. 316


 * H[is] M[ajesty] continued this Evening to speak very kindly of Lord North, & said He was the Man He loved best in the World.
 * Robert Fulke Greville's diary (14 January 1789), quoted in The Diaries of Colonel The Hon. Robert Fulke Greville, Equerry to His Majesty George III, ed. F. McKno Bladon (1930), p. 166