ruck out the word "Englishman," and had induced the King to
accept the word "Briton" as a substitute. The difference would not be
quite without moment now: it appeared very momentous to many then, who
read in the word chosen a most convincing proof of the Scotch influence
behind the throne. The King's pride in styling himself a Briton was
taken to be, what indeed it was, evidence of his affection for the
Scotch peer who had been so lately sworn into his Privy Council; and
the alarm and indignation of all who resented the Scotch influence was
very great. The Duke of Newcastle in especial was irritated by the use
of the word "Briton," and the evidence it forced upon him of his own
waning influence and the waxing power of Bute. He even went so far as
to wish that some notice should be taken of the "royal words" both in
the motion and the address; but in the end he and those who thought
with him felt that they must submit and stifle their anger for the
time, and so the King, unchallenged, proclaimed himself a Briton.

Whatever else George had learned in the days of his tutelage, he had
learned to form an ideal of what a king should be and a determination
to realize that ideal in his own rule. The old idea of the personal
authority of the sovereign seemed to be passing away, to be dropping
out of the whole scheme and system of the English Constitution along
with the belief in the theory of the Divine right of kings. The new
King, however, was resolved to prove that he was the head of the state
in fact as well as in name; that with his own hands he would restore to
himself the power and authority which his grandfather and his
great-grandfather had allowed unwisely to slip through their fingers.
The difficulties in the way of such an enterprise might very well have
disheartened any being less headstrong, any spirit less stubborn.
There were forces opposed to him that seemed to overmatch his puny
purpose as much as the giants overmatched the pigmy hero of the nursery
tale. St. George in the chivalrous legend had but one dragon to
destroy; the young royal St. George set himself {24} with a light heart
to attack a whole brood of dragons--the dragons of the great Whig party.

When George the Third came to the throne the government of the country
was entirely in the hands of the Whigs. The famous stately Whig
Houses, the Houses of Cavendish, of Russell, of Temple, of Bentinck, of
Manners, of Fitzroy, of Lennox, of Conway, o