common for a king to choose or dismiss a single Minister without any
communication with the rest; and so far was even William from aiming at
ministerial unity that he had striven to reproduce in the Cabinet itself
the balance of parties which prevailed outside it. Sunderland's plan
aimed at replacing these independent Ministers by a homogeneous
Ministry, chosen from the same party, representing the same sentiments,
and bound together for common action by a sense of responsibility and
loyalty to the party to which it belonged. Not only was such a plan
likely to secure a unity of administration which had been unknown till
then, but it gave an organization to the House of Commons which it had
never had before. The Ministers who were representatives of the majority
of its members became the natural leaders of the House. Small factions
were drawn together into the two great parties which supported or
opposed the Ministry of the Crown. Above all it brought about in the
simplest possible way the solution of the problem which had so long
vexed both Kings and Commons. The new Ministers ceased in all but name
to be the king's servants. They became simply an Executive Committee
representing the will of the majority of the House of Commons, and
capable of being easily set aside by it and replaced by a similar
Committee whenever the balance of power shifted from one side of the
House to the other.

[Sidenote: The Junto.]

Such was the origin of that system of representative government which
has gone on from Sunderland's day to our own. But though William showed
his own political genius in understanding and adopting Sunderland's
plan, it was only slowly and tentatively that he ventured to carry it
out in practice. In spite of the temporary reaction Sunderland believed
that the balance of political power was really on the side of the Whigs.
Not only were they the natural representatives of the principles of the
Revolution, and the supporters of the war, but they stood far above
their opponents in parliamentary and administrative talent. At their
head stood a group of statesmen whose close union in thought and action
gained them the name of the Junto. Russell, as yet the most prominent of
these, was the victor of La Hogue; John Somers was an advocate who had
sprung into fame by his defence of the Seven Bishops; Lord Wharton was
known as the most dexterous and unscrupulous of party managers; and
Montague was fast making a reputation