He was first Lord of the Treasury until Pitt the Elder’s resignation from office. Although he favoured a conciliatory policy towards the Americans, he was overruled in cabinet. He handled Wilkes’s return from exile badly, and was subjected to ferocious personal attacks by the satirical writer known as ‘Junius’. He held office again under North in 1771 and under Shelburne in 1782, but played little part in politics thereafter.