ud, who looked to him as the fountain of all honor and dignity.
But, still, from the accession of the house of Hanover the political
history of England is a history of the acts of parliaments, and of
those ministers who represented the dominant parties of the nation.
Few nobles were as great as some under the Tudor and Stuart princes;
but the power of the aristocracy, as a class, was increased. From the
time of George I. to Queen Victoria, the ascendency of the parliaments
has been most marked composed chiefly of nobles, great landed
proprietors, and gigantic commercial monopolists. The people have not
been, indeed, unheard or unrepresented; but, literally speaking, have
had but a feeble influence, compared with the aristocracy. Parliaments
and ministers, therefore, may be not unjustly said to be the
representatives of the aristocracy--of the wise, the mighty, and the
noble.

When power passes from kings to nobles, then the acts of nobles
constitute the genius of political history, as fully as the acts of
kings constitute history when kings are absolute, and the acts of the
people constitute history where the people are all-powerful.

[Sidenote: Sir Robert Walpole.]

A notice, therefore, of that great minister who headed the Whig party
of aristocrats, and who, as their organ, swayed the councils of
England for nearly forty years, demands our attention. His political
career commenced during the reign of Anne, and continued during the
reign of George I., and part of the reign of George II. George I., as
a man or as a king, dwindled into insignificance, when compared with
his prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole. And he is great, chiefly, as
the representative of the Whigs; that is, of the dominant party of
rich and great men who sat in parliament; a party of politicians who
professed more liberal principles than the Tories, but who were
equally aristocratic in the social sympathies, and powerful from
aristocratic connections. What did the great Dukes of Devonshire or
Bedford care for the poor people, who, politically, composed no part
of the nation? But they were Whigs, and King George himself was a
Whig.

Sir Robert belonged to an ancient, wealthy, and honorable family; was
born 1676, and received his first degree at King's College, Cambridge,
in 1700. He entered parliament almost immediately after, became an
active member, sat on several committees, and soon distinguished
himself for his industry and ability. He was