the most
popular man in England--the darling and the hero of the multitude.
When Walpole was sent to the Tower in the late Queen's reign, Pulteney
had spoken up manfully for his friend. When Townshend and Walpole
resigned office in 1717, Pulteney went resolutely with them and
resigned office also. The time came when Walpole found himself
triumphant over all his enemies, and came back not merely to office but
likewise to power. Naturally, Pulteney expected that Walpole would
invite him to fill some place of importance in the new administration.
Walpole did nothing of the kind. He had seen ample evidence of
Pulteney's great parliamentary talents in the mean time, and he feared
that with Pulteney for an official colleague he could never be a
dictator. He was anxious, however, not to offend Pulteney, and he had
the curious weakness to imagine that he could conciliate Pulteney by
offering him a peerage. Even at that time, when the sceptre of popular
power had not yet {255} passed altogether into the hands of the
representative chamber, it was absurd to suppose that Pulteney would
consent to be withdrawn from the House in which he had made his fame,
which was his natural and fitting place, and which already was seen by
every man of sense to be the central force of England's political life.
Pulteney contemptuously refused the peerage. From that hour his old
love for Walpole seems to have turned into hate.

The explosion, however, did not come at once. Pulteney continued to be
on seemingly good terms with Walpole, and shortly afterwards the
comparatively humble post of Cofferer to the Household was offered to
him--some say was asked for by him. It does not seem likely that even
then he had any intention of a serious reconciliation with Walpole.
Perhaps he accepted this post in the expectation that he would shortly
be raised to a much higher position in the State. But Walpole,
although willing enough to give him any mark or place of honor on
condition that he withdrew to the House of Lords, was afraid to allow
him any office of influence while he remained in the Commons. However
this may be, Pulteney's ambition was not satisfied, and he very soon
broke publicly away from Walpole altogether. When a motion was brought
on in April, 1725, for discharging the debts of the Civil List, in
reply to a message from the King himself, Pulteney demanded an inquiry
into the manner in which the money had been spent, and even made a