TIONS OF WHIG CABINETS.* WITH A PORTRAIT OF LORD ROCKINGHAM. rge III. ascended the throne there were three parties in igs, Tories and Lord Bute. The two former had come ne Revolution, and their creeds were well understood, with a f demarcation between them, which kept them in a position tagonism. The last had been nursed at Leicester House in of the Prince of Wales, and arrived at maturity on the 26th of 760, exactly at that moment of time when his Royal Highness, s riding out in the neighbourhood of Kew, received a note with a mark upon it, to inform him that his grandfather was dead. octrines of the Whigs and Tories were patent to the world, and as is the Constitution out of which they sprang. But the aims of the ecoterie were new. They comprehended a system of management her than a code of principles, and their chief object was to surround e Sovereign with a private circle of intriguers, who should render him dependent of his ministers, and who, by the force of backstairs cabal and secret influence, should finally break up the established combinations, and found their own power, with unimpeachable impartiality, on the wreck of both Whigs and Tories. George III., who dearly loved sinister schemes and stratagems, gave the full weight of his support to this closet conspiracy against the honour of the throne and the dignity of his responsible advisers. When his Majesty succeeded to the Crown, he found the Whigs in possession of all the power which great alliances, the traditions of long and faithful parliamentary services, and a wide basis of popularity could bestow. The policy of the Bute faction, or, more accurately speaking, of Lord Bute, for he was the head and front of the faction, was to break up the Whig party, to humiliate its members one by one, and, as it would have been too formidable an undertaking to assail them openly in the aggregate, the safer and meaner course was adopted, of endeavouring to weaken and disunite them by individual slights and dismissals in detail. The chapter of political manoeuvring opened up by this palace confederacy, is one of the most surprising in the annals of the country; and there is some difficulty in understanding how it could have been permitted to exercise so damaging an effect upon the government of England, scarcely a hundred years ago; at a period, too, when such men as Junius and Wilkes were searching out abuses and denouncing favouritism and arbitrary power in all departments of the state. In reference to the Whigs, apart from its treachery in other respects, it was especially ungracious and ungrateful, seeing that they had been all along the staunch supporters of the reigning family. But all considerations of that kind gave way before the personal antipathies of the King, who, like too many weak and vicious people in the world, was actuated by the bitterest animosity against those from whom he and his Hanoverian con * Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham and his Contemporaries. With Original Letters and Documents, now first published. By George Thomas Earl of Albemarle. VOL. XXXI. R TRADITIONS OF WHIG CABINETS.* WITH A PORTRAIT OF LORD ROCKINGHAM. WHEN George III. ascended the throne there were three parties in England, Whigs, Tories and Lord Bute. The two former had come down from the Revolution, and their creeds were well understood, with a broad line of demarcation between them, which kept them in a position of useful antagonism. The last had been nursed at Leicester House in the Court of the Prince of Wales, and arrived at maturity on the 26th of October 1760, exactly at that moment of time when his Royal Highness, who was riding out in the neighbourhood of Kew, received a note with a private mark upon it, to inform him that his grandfather was dead. The doctrines of the Whigs and Tories were patent to the world, and as old as the Constitution out of which they sprang. But the aims of the Bute coterie were new. They comprehended a system of management rather than a code of principles, and their chief object was to surround the Sovereign with a private circle of intriguers, who should render him independent of his ministers, and who, by the force of backstairs cabal and secret influence, should finally break up the established combinations, and found their own power, with unimpeachable impartiality, on the wreck of both Whigs and Tories. George III., who dearly loved. sinister schemes and stratagems, gave the full weight of his support to this closet conspiracy against the honour of the throne and the dignity of his responsible advisers. When his Majesty succeeded to the Crown, he found the Whigs in possession of all the power which great alliances, the traditions of long and faithful parliamentary services, and a wide basis of popularity could bestow. The policy of the Bute faction, or, more accurately speaking, of Lord Bute, for he was the head and front of the faction, was to break up the Whig party, to humiliate its members one by one, and, as it would have been too formidable an undertaking to assail them openly in the aggregate, the safer and meaner course was adopted, of endeavouring to weaken and disunite them by individual slights and dismissals in detail. The chapter of political manoeuvring opened up by this palace confederacy, is one of the most surprising in the annals of the country; and there is some difficulty in understanding how it could have been permitted to exercise so damaging an effect upon the government of England, scarcely a hundred years ago; at a period, too, when such men as Junius and Wilkes were searching out abuses and denouncing favouritism and arbitrary power in all departments of the state. In reference to the Whigs, apart from its treachery in other respects, it was especially ungracious and ungrateful, seeing that they had been all along the staunch supporters of the reigning family. But all considerations of that kind gave way before the personal antipathies of the King, who, like too many weak and vicious people in the world, was actuated by the bitterest animosity against those from whom he and his Hanoverian con * Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham and his Contemporaries. With Original Letters and Documents, now first published. By George Thomas Earl of Albemarle. VOL. XXXI. R TRADITIONS OF WHIG CABINETS.* WITH A PORTRAIT OF LORD ROCKINGHAM. WHEN George III. ascended the throne there were three parties in England, Whigs, Tories and Lord Bute. The two former had come down from the Revolution, and their creeds were well understood, with a broad line of demarcation between them, which kept them in a position of useful antagonism. The last had been nursed at Leicester House in the Court of the Prince of Wales, and arrived at maturity on the 26th of October 1760, exactly at that moment of time when his Royal Highness, who was riding out in the neighbourhood of Kew, received a note with a private mark upon it, to inform him that his grandfather was dead. The doctrines of the Whigs and Tories were patent to the world, and as old as the Constitution out of which they sprang. But the aims of the Bute coterie were new. They comprehended a system of management rather than a code of principles, and their chief object was to surround the Sovereign with a private circle of intriguers, who should render him independent of his ministers, and who, by the force of backstairs cabal and secret influence, should finally break up the established combinations, and found their own power, with unimpeachable impartiality, on the wreck of both Whigs and Tories. George III., who dearly loved sinister schemes and stratagems, gave the full weight of his support to this closet conspiracy against the honour of the throne and the dignity of his responsible advisers. When his Majesty succeeded to the Crown, he found the Whigs in possession of all the power which great alliances, the traditions of long and faithful parliamentary services, and a wide basis of popularity could bestow. The policy of the Bute faction, or, more accurately speaking, of Lord Bute, for he was the head and front of the faction, was to break up the Whig party, to humiliate its members one by one, and, as it would have been too formidable an undertaking to assail them openly in the aggregate, the safer and meaner course was adopted, of endeavouring to weaken and disunite them by individual slights and dismissals in detail. The chapter of political manoeuvring opened up by this palace confederacy, is one of the most surprising in the annals of the country; and there is some difficulty in understanding how it could have been permitted to exercise so damaging an effect upon the government of England, scarcely a hundred years ago; at a period, too, when such men as Junius and Wilkes were searching out abuses and denouncing favouritism and arbitrary power in all departments of the state. In reference to the Whigs, apart from its treachery in other respects, it was especially ungracious and ungrateful, seeing that they had been all along the staunch supporters of the reigning family. But all considerations of that kind gave way before the personal antipathies of the King, who, like too many weak and vicious people in the world, was actuated by the bitterest animosity against those from whom he and his Hanoverian con * Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham and his Contemporaries. With Original Letters and Documents, now first published. By George Thomas Earl of Albemarle. VOL. XXXI. R |