The Stamp Act was repealed in March 1766, but the Townshend Acts, imposing duties on glass, paper, lead, painters' colours and tea, followed closely.
This defeat proved a great mortification to Lord Chatham, and in his irritation against Townshend for this blow, as well as for some acts of insubordination, he meditated the removal of his showy colleague.
Before this could be accomplished Chatham's mind became impaired, and Townshend, who was the most determined and influential of his colleagues, swayed the ministry as he liked, pledging himself to find a revenue in America with which to meet the deficiency caused by the reduction in the land tax.
The repeal of the Stamp Act, followed as it was by the Townshend scheme of indirect taxation, displeased Virginia quite as much as had the former more direct system of taxation.
The latter feeling ultimately triumphed; he condescended to accept in the dying days of Grenville's cabinet, and to retain through the "lutestring" administration of Lord Rockingham - "pretty summer wear," as Townshend styled it, "but it will never stand the winter" - the highly paid position of paymaster-general, refusing to identify himself more closely with its fortunes as chancellor of the exchequer.