Scandal whispered, asserted, insisted then
and has insisted ever since, that the influence which Lord Bute
exercised over the Princess of Wales was not merely a mental influence.
How far scandal was right or wrong there is no means, there probably
never will be any means, of knowing. Lord Bute's defenders point to
his conspicuous affection for his wife, Edward Wortley Montagu's only
daughter, in contravention of the scandal. Undoubtedly Bute was a good
husband and a good father. Whether the scandal was justified or not,
the fact that it existed, that it was widely blown abroad and very
generally believed, was enough. As far as the popularity of the
Princess was concerned it might as well have been justified. For years
no caricature was so popular as that which displayed the Boot and the
{8} Petticoat, the ironic popular symbols of Lord Bute and the Princess.

By whatever means Lord Bute gained his influence over the Princess of
Wales, he undoubtedly possessed the influence and used it with
disastrous effect. He moulded the feeble intelligence of the young
Prince George; he guided his thoughts, directed his studies in
statecraft, and was to all intents and purposes the governor of the
young Prince's person. The young Prince could hardly have had a worse
adviser. Bute was a man of many merits, but his defects were in the
highest degree dangerous in a person who had somehow become possessed
of almost absolute power. In the obscurity of a private life, the man
who had borne poverty with dignity at an age when poverty was
peculiarly galling to one of his station might have earned the esteem
of his immediate fellows. In the exaltation of a great if an
unauthorized rule, and later in the authority of an important public
office, his defects were fatal to his fame and to the fortunes of those
who accepted his sway. For nearly ten years, from the death of
Frederick, Prince of Wales, to the death of George the Second, Bute was
all-powerful in his influence over the mother of the future King and
over the future King himself. When the young Prince came to the throne
Lord Bute did not immediately assume ostensible authority. He remained
the confidential adviser of the young King until 1761. In 1761 he took
office, assuming the Secretaryship of State resigned by Lord
Holdernesse. From a secretaryship to the place of Prime Minister was
but a step, and a step soon taken. Although he did not occupy office
very long, he he