consequences followed.  To frantic zeal succeeded sullen indifference.  The cant of patriotism had not merely ceased to charm the public ear, but had become as nauseous as the cant of Puritanism after the downfall of the Rump.  The hot fit was over, the cold fit had begun:  and it was long before seditious arts, or even real grievances, could bring back the fiery paroxysm which had run its course and reached its termination.

Two attempts were made to disturb this tranquillity.  The banished heir of the House of Stuart headed a rebellion; the discontented heir of the House of Brunswick headed an opposition.  Both the rebellion and the opposition came to nothing.  The battle of Culloden annihilated the Jacobite party.  The death of Prince Frederic dissolved the faction which, under his guidance, had feebly striven to annoy his father’s government.  His chief followers hastened to make their peace with the ministry; and the political torpor became complete.

Five years after the death of Prince Frederic, the public mind was for a time violently excited.  But this excitement had nothing to do with the old disputes between Whigs and Tories.  England was at war with France.  The war had been feebly conducted.  Minorca had been torn from us.  Our fleet had retired before the white flag of the House of Bourbon.  A bitter sense of humiliation, new to the proudest and bravest of nations, superseded every other feeling.  The cry of all the counties and great towns of the realm was for a government which would retrieve the honour of the English arms.  The two most powerful in the country were the Duke of Newcastle and Pitt.  Alternate victories and defeats had made them sensible that neither of them could stand alone.  The interest of the State, and the interest of their own ambition, impelled them to coalesce.  By their coalition was formed the ministry which was in power when George the Third ascended the throne.

The more carefully the structure of this celebrated ministry is examined, the more shall we see reason to marvel at the skill or the luck which had combined in one harmonious whole such various and, as it seemed, incompatible elements of force.  The influence which is derived from stainless integrity, the influence which is derived from the vilest arts of corruption, the strength of aristocratical connection, the strength of democratical enthusiasm, all these things were for the first time found together.  Newcastle brought to the coalition a vast mass of power, which had descended to him from Walpole and Pelham.  The public offices, the church, the courts of law, the army, the navy, the diplomatic service, swarmed with his creatures.  The boroughs, which long afterwards made up the memorable schedules A and B, were represented by his nominees.  The great Whig families, which, during several generations, had been trained in the discipline of party warfare, and were accustomed to stand together in a firm phalanx, acknowledged him as their captain.  Pitt, on the other hand, had what Newcastle wanted, an eloquence which stirred the passions and charmed the imagination, a high reputation for purity, and the confidence and ardent love of millions.