le i i i el 
OF THE BOSTON TEA PARTY 177 
state of things with the elder Pitt for leader, England 
brought to a triumphant close a truly glorious war, one 
of the most important in which she had ever been 
engaged. Whenever it was needful for carrying a 
point in domestic or foreign policy, the great Whig 
leaders made free use of parliamentary corruption, 
though Pitt always proudly abstained from such 
methods. Much of the time a decisive vote in the 
Commons was thrown by members who were simply 
owned body and soul by the great Whig families. 
When George III. came to the throne in 1760, a 
boy of eighteen years, he had learned to regard this 
state of things with a feeling which may fairly be 
described as one of choking rage. It was not the cor- 
ruption that enraged him, but the subordination of 
the royal power. His aim in life, as defined from 
childhood, was to overthrow the Whig aristocracy and 
make himself a real monarch. There were two sets 
of circumstances which seemed to favour his ambition. 
In the first place, the disappearance of Jacobitism as 
an active political force brought the united Tory party 
to the support of the House of Hanover, so that there 
was a chance for the king to control a majority in 
Parliament. In the second place, the relations between 
the foremost political leaders happened to be such as 
to enable the king to frame a succession of short- 
lived and jarring ministries, thus bringing discredit 
upon cabinet government. Under such circumstances 
the young man was busily engaged in building up a 
party of personal adherents entirely dependent upon 
him as dispenser of patronage, when all at once the 
American question was thrown upon the stage in a 
way that alarmed him greatly. 
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