to be friendly to his measures, often without much regard to
party lines, and he was aways present at their meetings. With the
accession of George I, however, a great change took place. His want
of acquaintance with prominent men made it difficult for him to select
a Cabinet himself, and his ignorance of English rendered his presence
at its meetings wholly useless. For these reasons the new King
adopted the expedient of appointing a chief adviser, or Prime
Minister, who personally chose his own Cabinet from men of the
political party to which he belonged.

Sir Robert Walpole, who held this office of chief adviser for more
than twenty years (1721-1742), is commonly considered to have been the
first actual Prime Minister, and the founder of that system of Cabinet
Government which prevails in England to-day. He was a master hand at
managing his fellow ministers in the Cabinet, and when one of them,
named Townshend, aspired to share the leadership, Walpole said to him,
"The firm must be Walpole and Townshend, not Townshend and Walpole."
But later (1741) a minority in the Lords protested "that a sole or
even First Minister is an officer unknown to the law of Britain,
inconsistent withthe Constitution of this country, and destructive of
liberty in any government whatsoever." Then Walpole thought it
expedient to disclaim the title; but many years later the younger Pitt
declared (1803) that there ought to be "an avowed minister possessing
the chief weight in the Council" or Cabinet, and that view eventually
prevailed.[1] The Cabinet, or "Government," as it is usually
called,[2] generally consists of twelve or fifteen persons chosen by
the Prime Minister, or Premier,[3] from the leading members of both
houses of Parliament, but whose political views agree in the main with
the majority of the House of Commons.[4]

But this system, as it now stands, was gradually developed. It had
advanced to such a point under the dictatorial rule of Sir Robert
Walpole that George II, chafing under the restriction of his power,
said bitterly, "In England the ministers are King." George III,
however, succeeded, for a time, in making himself practically supreme,
but Cabinet Government soon came to the front again, and, under
William IV, the Prime Minister, with his Cabinet, ceased to look to
the sovereign for guidance and support, and became responsible to the
House of Commons (provided that body reflects the public opinion of
the nation).