fierce attack on the whole administration, and accused it of something
very like downright corruption. He was dismissed from his office as
Cofferer, and, even making allowance for his love of money, the wonder
is that he should have held it long enough to be dismissed from it. He
then went avowedly over into the ranks of the enemies of Walpole inside
and outside the House of Commons.

The position taken by Pulteney is chiefly interesting to us now in the
fact that it opened a distinctly new chapter in English politics.
Pulteney created the part of what has ever since been called the Leader
of Opposition. {256} With him begins the time when the real Leader of
Opposition must have a place in the House of Commons; with him, too,
begins the time when the Opposition has for its recognized duty not
merely to watch with jealous care all the acts of the ministers in
order to prevent them from doing anything wrong, but also to watch for
every opportunity of turning them out of office. With Pulteney and his
tactics began the party organization which inside the House of Commons
and outside works unceasingly with tongue and pen, with open antagonism
and underhand intrigue, with all the various social as well as
political influences--the pamphlet, the press, the petticoat, and even
the pulpit--to discredit everything done by the men in office, to turn
public opinion against them, and if possible to overthrow them.
Pulteney and his supporters were now and then somewhat more
unscrupulous in their measures than an English Opposition would be in
our time, but theirs was unquestionably the policy of all our more
modern English parties. From this time forth almost to the close of
his active career as a politician Pulteney performed the part of Leader
of Opposition in the strictly modern sense. His position in history
seems to us to be distinctly marked as that of the first Leader of
Opposition; whether history shows reason to thank him for creating such
a part is another and a different question.

[Sidenote: 1725--Bolingbroke again]

Pulteney had some powerful allies. The King, as we know, hated his
son, the Prince of Wales; the Prince of Wales hated his father. No
reconciliation got up between them could be lasting or real. The
father and son hardly ever met except on the occasion of some great
public ceremonial. The standing quarrel between the Sovereign and his
heir had the effect of creating two parties in political life