DISSOLUTION OF THE WHIG PARTY. The bill, of course, was lost; nor was it revived until twenty years later, when a new aggression on the liberty of the press afforded the Opposition of that day another opportunity of protecting it by this constitutional safeguard. Fox's Bill of 1792, was in the same form as that of Dowdeswell in 1771, and became an act of parliament, after some ineffectual resistance on the part of the law lords. 131 Ch. 15. 1771 ham's failure This session was not allowed to close without Lord Chatexhibiting, in the House of Lords, the same want in the Lords. of union among the Whig party which had been so absurdly displayed in the Commons. Chatham, notwithstanding the dissent of the Rockingham party, and the remonstrances of his friend Lord Camden, persisted in moving an address to the Crown for a dissolution of parliament. This measure, which had originated with the Middlesex and city parties, and was the burden of the petition or remonstrance which, year after year, they had carried up to the throne, would not, on that account, be recommended to the Whig aristocracy. Deserted, therefore, by that proud exclusive connection, and opposed by the Court, Chatham found himself almost as forlorn in the debate as in the division. party broken These were the last faint efforts of an Opposi- The Whig tion which, devoid alike of union, energy, and up. public spirit, could neither agree upon any plan of administration themselves, nor offer any effectual resistance to a system of government, which 132 Ch. 15. 1771 DISSOLUTION OF THE WHIG PARTY. was making open no less than disguised inroads upon the liberties of the people and the constitution of Parliament. The corruption of the House of Commons was at length organised, and brought to a degree of perfection which had never been known to the rude art of the Walpoles and the Pelhams. The great Revolution-families were broken and scattered. New men had sprung up, the spurious offspring of a representative system which was a mockery and a fraud. The ancient laws of the land, indeed, were not openly violated; but under the form of a free constitution, and the hollow semblance of responsible government, the will of the sovereign, both in the legislature and in administration, was practically absolute and supreme. The immediate effect of this system was, as we shall see, the dismemberment of the empire; in its more remote consequences it brought the institutions of the country into disrepute, and had well nigh involved them in that terrible convulsion which crushed a neighbouring monarchy, and shook the most ancient thrones in Europe to their foundation. 133 CHAPTER XVI. DEATH OF THE PRINCESS DOWAGER-HER UNPOPULARITY POLITICAL MORALITY OF THE COURT-PROFLIGACY OF THE KING'S BROTHERS-INTERMARRIAGES OF THE ROYAL FAMILY SERMON AGGRESSION ON. THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH-PETITION OF THE CLERGY. WHILE the King appeared to be entirely suc Ch. 16. lotte. 1772 cessful as a politician, he was not altogether free from domestic disquietude. His marriage, Queen Charindeed, which had taken place under circumstances not very promising, had proved, upon the whole, suitable and fortunate. The queen, though singularly deficient in the superficial charms and graces of her sex, was not without qualities which harmonised with the character of her consort. ims of the No prince that had ever occupied the throne of Political maxthese realms carried his notions of prerogative King. higher than George the Third; but his interference in the details of government proceeded less from an avarice of power than a jealousy of English statesmen. This feeling, more than ambition, led him to resist the aristocratic tenden THE PRINCESS DOWAGER. cies of Whig principles; and, if he could have reposed confidence in the loyalty of his ministers, it is probable that he would have been well content to leave the control of public business in their hands, while he indulged his natural taste for domestic happiness and the pursuits of a private station. The Princess Dowager just lived to see the full accomplishment of her cherished hopes in the emancipation of the Crown from the dominion of party. George the Third was never more completely king, according to his mother's notion of sovereignty, than in the spring of 1772, when her Royal Highness deceased. Before, and ever since her son's accession, the Princess had been the constant mark of public obloquy; and the people were willing to attribute the arbitrary and odious measures of the Court to the evil influence of the Princess and her creature Bute, long after both had ceased to interfere in public affairs. The year before her death, and while she was suffering under mortal disease, Alderman Townshend denounced her in the House of Commons; and, at the same time, the blank walls of the metropolis were chalked with the words, Impeach the King's mother.' It is well ascertained, however, that neither the Princess nor Bute were ever consulted on public affairs after the administration of Grenville. The people were, therefore, as mistaken in the fact, as in their estimate of the character of their sovereign, when they attributed his misrule COURT OF GEORGE THE SECOND. 1772 135 to 'petticoat government.' George the Third was Ch. 16. a dutiful son and an affectionate husband; but the direction of his mother was wholly discontinued after he had himself learned to hold the reins of power. His consort appears never to have interfered until he was no longer able to hold them. While the political maxims of the King, and the Court of George the means which he employed for carrying them into Second. effect, were, to the last degree, pernicious, the manners of his Court and the tenor of his private life were decent and respectable. In both particulars he departed from the examples of his royal ancestors. The first and second sovereigns of the house of Hanover had each conformed to the principles of the Revolution, but could not retrench the gross license of their personal tastes and habits. A recent publication has laid open the interior of the Court of George, the Second. During many successive years, Lord Hervey filled a high office in the household of that sovereign, and was admitted to the confidential intimacy and friendship of the royal family. A man of birth, of fashion, and of letters, Hervey had no inducement to vilify the illustrious circle for which he entertained sentiments of friendship and gratitude; while, at the same time, the liberality of his mind. and the independence of his circumstances preserved him from that undiscriminating admiration of royalty to which ordinary courtiership is prone. The royal pair are represented by this accurate observer as living on terms of |