Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/27

When George III. ascended the throne, this first inroad upon Whig supremacy had been made, and the new King and his advisers soon opened an attack still more effective upon the forces of the old party. When the old struggles between Tories and Whigs had ended in so complete a triumph of the latter that there was practically no opposition, and therefore no need to appeal to the feelings or the passions of the nation, the chief machine of government became what was known as Parliamentary influence. This consisted of two or three branches. There was first the possession of pocket boroughs; then the use of bribery and of official power and corruption in constituencies; and lastly, the direct purchase of votes in Parliament itself, either by money or place. All these instruments, which had been used with such vigour by Walpole, and were employed even more unscrupulously by Newcastle, the King and his advisers began to adopt. Some of them, especially those which depended upon the possession of places and the command of public money, were as easily available to the Crown as to its ministers. The effect was soon seen in the presence in Parliament of the body of political creatures called the King's friends, who opposed in turn every minister who did not obey the royal behests, and voted not in accordance with any principle or in unison with any party, but simply in obedience to the word of command from the sovereign. There had always existed in the House of Commons a small phalanx of Tory members, representing some of the counties, who hated the Whigs and loved the prerogative. These men could not give willing service or affection to either of the two first Georges, but they had no difficulty in transferring their active allegiance from the hopeless cause of the Stuarts to an English-born king holding Tory views. Besides these, which may be called the main constitutional forces, there were to be noticed one set of men, not numerous or powerful enough to be called a party, but able always to make themselves heard and often to make themselves felt. The city of London and most of the constituencies where city influence reached, were still possessed with the same love of liberty