o Cornwallis, March 7, 1781, _ibid._, p. 338; see also
ii., 10.

[159] _Clinton-Cornwallis Controversy_, i., 43, n. 1b.

[160] Rodney to Germain, Dec. 22, 1780, _Hist. MSS. Comm. Rep._, ix.,
App., pp. 108-9.

[161] Chevalier, _Histoire de la Marine Francaise_ (_l'Indep. Amer._),
pp. 278, 280.

[162] _Parl. Hist._, xxii., 987, 1003.

[163] _Life of Shelburne_, iii., 125-32.

[164] _Memorials of C. J. Fox_, i., 292; see also p. 316.

CHAPTER XII.

THE ROUT OF THE WHIGS.

The new ministers at once attacked the sources from which the crown
derived its corrupt influence over parliament. They carried bills
preventing contractors from sitting in parliament and depriving revenue
officers of the franchise. As these officers, who were dependent on the
ministers of the crown, numbered according to one computation nearly
40,000, and to another 60,000, out of an electorate of about 300,000,
their disfranchisement was an important step towards freedom of
election. A message to parliament recommending economy was extorted from
the king as an introduction to a plan of economical reform which was
brought forward by Burke. It was not so drastic as his earlier plan, for
the king acting in the cabinet through Shelburne and Thurlow objected to
many of the proposed retrenchments. Nevertheless, in spite of
mutilations, the bill, which became law, effected a saving of L72,000 a
year, chiefly by abolishing useless offices. The act also again provided
for the payment of arrears of the civil list, amounting this time to
L296,000. Burke nobly continued his work by a bill for the reform of his
own office, preventing the paymaster from gaining the enormous profits
appropriated by nearly all his predecessors. Another declaration in
favour of freedom of election was made by the commons, for they at last
accepted Wilkes's annual motion for expunging from their journals the
resolution of February, 1769, declaring him incapable of re-election.
The corrupt influence of the crown would, Pitt declared, be checked most
effectually by a reform of parliament. Acting on his own account, he
proposed an inquiry into the state of the representation, without
bringing forward any scheme of reform. He pointed out that some boroughs
were in the hands of the treasury, that others had no actual existence,
and that many were merely the property of purchasers, the nawab of
Arcot, for example, retu