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king and his ministers. Addresses and other demonstra tions of popular sympathy were received from all parts of the country; and the king was thus encouraged to maintain a firm attitude in front of his opponents.1 The tactics of the two parties in Parliament, and the conduct of their leaders, were also calculated to convert public opinion to the king's side. Too much exasperated to act with caution, the Opposition ruined their cause by factious extravagance and precipitancy. They were resolved to take the king's cabinet by storin, and without pause or parley struck incessantly at the door. Their very dread of a dissolution, which they so loudly condemned, showed little confidence in popular support. Instead of making common cause with the people, they lowered their contention to a party struggle. Constitutionally the king had a right to dismiss his ministers, and to appeal to the people to support his new administration. The Opposition endeavored to restrain him in the exercise of this right, and to coerce him by a majority of the existing House of Commons. They had overstepped the constitutional limits of their power; and the assaults directed against prerogative, recoiled upon themselves.

On the other side, Mr. Pitt as minister relied upon the prerogative of the king to appoint him, the duty of Parlia ment to consider his measures, and his own right to advise the king to dissolve Parliament, if those measures were obstructed. The tact, judgment, courage, and commanding talents of Mr. Pitt inspired his party with confidence, and secured popularity for his cause; while, by maintaining a defensive attitude, he offered no diversion to the factious tactics of his opponents. His accession to office had been immediately marked by the defection of several members

1 Writing to Mr. Pitt, 22d Feb., in reference to his answer to the address of the 20th, the king said: "I trust that while the answer is drawn up with civility, it will be a clear support of my own rights, which the addresses from all parts of the kingdom show me the people feel essential to their lib. erties." - Tomline's Life of Pitt, i. 457.

from the Opposition, a circumstance always calculated upon by a minister in those times, — and was soon followed by the forbearance of others, who were not prepared to participate in the violent measures of their leaders. The influence of the court and Government was strenuously exerted in making converts; and the growing popularity of their cause discouraged the less realous of their opponents.

Mr. Pitt had waited patiently while the majorities against him in Parliament were falling away, and public opinion was declaring itself, more and more, in his favor. The results of the dissolution now revealed the judgment with which he had conducted his cause, and chosen his time for appealing to the people.1 Every preparation had been made for using the influence of the Crown at the elections, the king himself took the deepest personal interest in the success of the ministerial candidates; 2 and Mr. Pitt's popularity was at its height, when Parliament was dissolved. His enemies were everywhere put to the rout, at the hustings. To support Mr. Pitt was the sole pledge of the popular candidates. Upwards of one hundred and sixty of his late opponents lost their seats; and on the assembling of the new Parliament, he could scarcely reckon his majorities. The minister was popular in the country, all-powerful in Parliament, and had the entire confidence of the court. If such was the success of the minister, what was the triumph of the king! He had

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1"The precedent of 1784 establishes this rule of conduct: that if the ministers chosen by the Crown do not possess the confidence of the House of Commons, they may advise an appeal to the people, with whom rests the ultimate decision. This course has been followed in 1807, in 1831, iu 1834, and in 1841. In 1807 and 1831, the Crown was enabled, as in 1784, to obtain the confidence of the New House of Commons. In 1834 and 1841, the decision was adverse to the existing ministry."— Lord John Russell's Memorials of Fox, ii. 246.

2 Rose Corresp., i. 61, 62.

8 Tomline's Life of Pitt, i. 469.

4 His India Bill was carried by a majority of 271 to 60. He was defeated, however, on the Westminster Scrutiny, Parliamentary Reform, and the Scheme of Fortifications on the Coast.

expelled one ministry, and retained another, in defiance of the House of Commons. The people had pressed forward loyally to his support; and by their aid he had overborne all opposition to his will. He now possessed a strong government, and a minister in whom he confided; and he enjoyed once more power, freedom, and popularity. Not only had he overcome and ruined a party which he hated; but he had established the ascendency of the Crown, which henceforth, for nearly fifty years, continued to prevail over every other power in the state.

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Such results, however, were not without danger. Already the king was too prone to exercise his power; and Its results the encouragement he had received, was likely to upon the fu exalt his views of prerogative. But he had now a minister who with higher abilities and larger views of state policy had a will even stronger than his own. Throughout his reign, it had been the ten- Mr. Pitt to dency of the king's personal administration to favor men whose chief merit was their subservience to his own views, instead of leaving the country to be governed, as a free state should be governed, by its ablest and most popular statesmen.1 He had only had one other minister of the same lofty pretensions, Lord Chatham; and now, while trusting that statesman's son, sharing his councils, and approving his policy, he yielded to his superior intellect. Yet were the Royal predilections not without influence on the minister. Reared in the Whig school, Mr. Pitt soon deserted the principles, as he had been severed from the connections, of that party. He had been raised to power by royal favor, maintained in it by prerogative, and he was now in the ascendant, by having made common cause with the Crown. Hence he naturally leant towards prerogative, and Tory principles of government. His contests with his great antagonist, Mr. Fox, and the Whig party, still further alienated him from the principles of his youth. Until the

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1 See Lord J. Russell's Introd. tc vol. iii. of the Duke of Bedford's Cor respondence, pp. 1.-lxii.

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French Revolution, however, his policy was wise and liberal: but from that time his rule became arbitrary, and opposed to public liberty. And such were his talents, and such the temper of the times, that he was able to make even arbitrary principles popular. During his long administration the people were converted to Tory principles, and encouraged the king and the minister to repress liberty of thought, and to wage war against opinion. If the king was no longer his own minister, as in the time of Lord North, - he had the satisfaction of seeing his own principles carried out by hands far abler than his own. In prosecutions of the press, and the repression of democratic movements at home,2 the minister was, perhaps, as zealous as the king: in carrying on war to crush democracy abroad, the king was more zealous than his minister. They labored strenuously together in support of monarchy all over the world; and respected too little the constitutional liberties of their own people.

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Nor did the king relax his accustomed activity in public affairs. From the close of the American War continued ac- until the breaking out of hostilities with France, tivity. his pleasure was taken by the Secretary-at-War upon every commission granted in the army; and throughout Mr. Pitt's administration,— and, indeed, as long as His Majesty was capable of attending to business,

every act and appointment was submitted to him, for his judgment and approval.

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The influence

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And if, during the administration of Mr. Pitt, the king's independent exercise of influence was somewhat of the Crown less active, the power of the Crown itself, augmented. wielded jointly by himself and his minister,was greater than at any former period. The king and his minister were now absolute. A war is generally favorable to authority, by bringing together the people and the Gov

1 See Chapter VIII., Press and Liberty of Opinion.

2 See Chapter IX., Liberty of the Subject.

8 Mr. Wynn, 14th April, 1812; Hans. Deb., xxii. 334.

ernment, in a common cause and combined exertions. The French War, notwithstanding its heavy burdens and numerous failures, was popular on account of the principles it was supposed to represent; and the vast expenditure, if it distressed the people, multiplied the patronage of the Crown, afforded a rich harvest for contractors, - and made the fortunes of farmers and manufacturers, by raising the price of every description of produce. The "moneyed classes" rallied round the war minister, bought seats in Parliament with their sudden gains, ranged themselves in a strong phalanx behind their leader, cheered his speeches, and voted for him on every division. Their zeal was rewarded with peerages, baronetcies, patronage, and all the good things which an inordinate expenditure enabled him to dispense. For years, opposition in Parliament to a minister thus supported, was an idle form; and if beyond its walls, the voice of complaint was raised, the arm of the law was strong and swift to silence it. To oppose the minister, had become high-treason to the state.

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his ministers.

Great as was the king's confidence in a minister so powerful as Mr. Pitt, yet whenever their views of policy differed, the king's resolution was as inflexi- prepared to ble as ever. Nor were his ministers secure from ence against the exercise of his personal influence against them, when he was pleased to use it. The first measure on which Mr. Pitt was likely to encounter objections from the king, was that for Parliamentary Reform. Having pledged himself to the principles of such a measure, while in opposition, he was determined not to be unfaithful to them now. But before he ventured to bring forward his plan, he prudently submitted it to the king, and deprecated the opposition of the court. Writing, on the 20th March, 1785, the king said, Mr. Pitt's "letter expressed that there is but one issue of the business he could look upon as fatal, that is, the possibility of the measure being rejected by the weight of

1 See Chapter VIII., Press and Liberty of Opinion.

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