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  The British Constitution, 1714-1832; Part 4

The British Constitution, 1714-1832; Part 4

To one more point allusion may be made. There is no doubt that the politics of the eighteenth century were somewhat corrupt. Loyalty to a party or a minister was generously rewarded; in George Ill's reign, for instance, no less than three hundred and eighty-eight peerages were created, most of them for political services. There was bribery with places and pensions; it was reckoned that a very large number of members of Parliament had either the one or the other. Politics were regarded as a lucrative profession, and a minister might expect to be able to endow his relatives and supporters with desirable offices, which combined a small amount of work with a large amount of remuneration (Thus Horace Walpole, the letter writer, was the third son of Robert Walpole, the prime minister. Whilst still a boy at Eton his father gave him the offices of Clerk of the Estreats and Comptroller of the Pipe, which produced about. £300 per annum. At the age of twenty he became Usher of the Exchequer, which was worth from £1000 to, £1500 a year. His duties were not exacting; they were "to furnish papers, pens, ink, wax, sand, tape, penknives, scissors, and parchment to the Exchequer and Treasury, and to pay the bills of the workmen and tradesmen who serve these offices ". On his father's death, Walpole received in addition £1ooo a year from the collector's place in the custom house. All these offices Walpole held for the rest of his life. Of his two brothers, one held the lucrative office of Auditor of the Exchequer, and the other was Clerk of the Pells). But this was all part of the political system of that day. The direct bribery of members of Parliament to obtain their votes on a particular occasion was probably rare, except in some very corrupt years; and owing largely to the influence of such statesmen as the elder, and to a lesser extent the younger Pitt, and to a bill passed at the end of the century which reduced the number of places and pensions, the standard of political morality was gradually improved.

When all is said that can be said against the political system in existence between 1714 and 1832, it did, as a matter of fact, produce many statesmen of distinguished ability. Many of our greatest statesmen, including Walpole, Canning, Fox, the two Pitts, Gladstone, and Palmerston, began their political career as representatives of "pocket boroughs". Of course it is quite true that the House of Commons was not acutely sensitive to public opinion and did not readily reflect every change in the nation's ideas. But if the nation really felt strongly about anything, its feelings would in the end prevail in the House. And in some ways the system was good, for it gave the House a stability and the member an independence which were valuable, The accession of the House of Hanover not only marked an important stage in the development of our Constitution, but it also affected profoundly the fortunes of the great political parties in the State. For the next forty-five years the Whigs were supreme. The Tories were tainted with Jacobite sympathies, and the Whigs therefore remained in secure possession of the Government. The ministries, consequently, were of long duration, Walpole's lasting for twenty-one years (1721-42) and that of Pelham for ten years (1744-54). But with the accession of George III in 1760 came a change. The Tories were by this time reconciled to the Hanoverian dynasty, and their views on the necessity of reviving the monarchical power were congenial to the new king. Consequently, after a series of short Whig ministries-six in nine years- George III at last found the support he desired from a succession of Tory ministers. During nearly the whole of the period 1769-1830, the Tories, first under Lord North, then under the younger Pitt, and finally under Lord Liverpool, were in office; and their power was increased through the fear inspired by the French Revolution of 1789, which led many Whigs to join the Tory ranks. Not till 1830 did the Whigs, owing to their advocacy of Parliamentary Reform, return to power for any length of time (They were in office 1782-1783, but only for a very short period, and their leaders formed a coalition ministry with the Tory leaders 1806-1807).

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