Whig nor Tory, which would look to the king for guidance and support. In this he succeeded very well, for the Tories, who had long been out of office, and the Jacobites, who had given up all hope of restoring the Stuarts, were glad to be taken into the young king’s favour. Besides the Tories and Jacobites, he managed by means of bribes in the shape of money, titles, and offices, to win over many of the supporters of the Whigs. Nevertheless, it is doubtful if he could have carried out his policy, had not the Whigs been split into factions which made war upon each other. Their quarrels gave the king the chance he desired, and he soon became so powerful that he made and unmade governments at his pleasure.
Lord Bute, who succeeded Pitt and Newcastle, did not hold his position very long. He was a Scotchman, and a great favourite of the king’s mother, and these things made him hated by the people. Besides he had no experience in politics, and the people knew he was a mere puppet in the king’s hands. He became so thoroughly hated, that he had to keep a bodyguard of prize fighters about him when he walked through the streets of London. Frightened at last by the evidences on every side of popular hatred, he resigned, and George III. had again to take a Whig for his minister. This was George Grenville, a conscientious, hardworking man, who made himself disliked by both king and people by his narrowness and obstinacy. His first trouble was with a newspaper, the ‘‘North Briton,” which very violently attacked the king and his ministers. The editor of this paper was John Wilkes, a member of Parliament. He was a clever, witty, but profligate man, who by a strange fate had a great deal to do in bringing in some much-needed reforms. Grenville, acting under instructions from the king, issued a ‘‘general warrant,” that is a warrant in which the name of no person was given, for the arrest of the publishers and editors of the offending paper. Wilkes, along with several others, was arrested and put in prison; but by appealing to the courts, he got his release, and then proceeded against the Government for arresting a member of Parliament contrary to law. The courts decided in his favour, gave him damages, and condemned ‘‘general warrants” as illegal. Parliament now charged him with libel, and Wilkes seeing that he had little chance of fair play fled to France, and was outlawed for not
