for, but nothing by, the people.”  By liberal gifts of money,—­he spent 25,000 pounds in a single day (1762) in bribes,[3]—­by gifts of offices and of honors to those who favored him, and by taking away offices, honors, and pensions from those who opposed him, George III succeeded in his purpose.  He raised up a body of men in Parliament, known by the significant name of the “King’s Friends,” who stood ready at all times to vote for his measures.  In this way he actually revived “personal monarchy"[4] for a time, and by using his “Friends” in the House of Commons and in the Lords as his tools, he made himself quite independent of the checks imposed by the Constitution.

[3] Pitt (Lord Chatham) was one of the few public men of that day who would neither give nor take a bribe; Walpole declared with entire truth that the great majority of politicians could be bought,—­it was only a question of price.  The King appears to have economized in his living, in order to get more money to use as a corruption fund.  See May’s “Constitutional History.” [4] “Personal monarchy”:  see S15 of this Summary.

29.  The American Revolution.

The King’s power reached its greatest height between 1770 and 1782.  He made most disastrous use of it, not only at home but abroad.  He insisted that the English colonists in America should pay taxes, without representation in Parliament, even of that imperfect kind which then existed in Great Britain.  This determination brought on the American Revolution—­called in England the “King’s War” (SS549- 552).  The war, in spite of its ardent support by the “King’s Friends,” roused a powerful opposition in Parliament.  Chatham, Burke, Fox, and other able men protested against the King’s arbitrary course. inally, Dunning moved and carried this resolution (1780) in the Commons:  “Resolved, that the power of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished” (S548).  This vigorous proposition came too late to affect the conduct of the war, and England lost the most valuable of her colonial possessions.  The struggle, which ended successfully for the patriots in America, was in reality part of the same battle fought in England by other patriots in the halls of Parliament.  On the western side of the Atlantic it resulted in the establishment of national independence; on the eastern side, in the final overthrow of royal tyranny and the triumph of the constitution.  It furthermore laid the foundation of that just and generous policy on the part of England toward Canada and her other colonies which has made her mistress of the largest and most prosperous empire on the globe.[1]

[1] The area of the British Empire in 1911 was nearly 12,000,000 square miles.

30.  John Wilkes and the Middlesex Elections; Publication of
    Parliamentary Debates.