y of the small and corrupt
constituencies which made up a large part of the borough representation.
It was spent yet more unscrupulously in parliamentary bribery.
Corruption was older than Walpole or the Whig Ministers, for it sprang
out of the very transfer of power to the House of Commons which had
begun with the Restoration. The transfer was complete, and the House was
supreme in the State; but while freeing itself from the control of the
Crown, it was as yet imperfectly responsible to the people. It was only
at election time that a member felt the pressure of public opinion. The
secrecy of parliamentary proceedings, which had been needful as a
safeguard against royal interference with debate, served as a safeguard
against interference on the part of constituencies. This strange union
of immense power with absolute freedom from responsibility brought about
its natural results in the bulk of members. A vote was too valuable to
be given without recompense, and parliamentary support had to be bought
by places, pensions, and bribes in hard cash.

But dexterous as was their management, and compact as was their
organization, it was to nobler qualities than these that the Whigs owed
their long rule over England. Factious and selfish as much of their
conduct proved, they were true to their principles, and their principles
were those for which England had been struggling through two hundred
years. The right to free government, to freedom of conscience, and to
freedom of speech, had been declared indeed in the Revolution of 1688.
But these rights owe their definite establishment as the recognized
basis of national life and national action to the age of the Georges. It
was the long and unbroken fidelity to free principles with which the
Whig administration was conducted that made constitutional government a
part of the very life of Englishmen. It was their government of England
year after year on the principles of the Revolution that converted
these principles into national habits. Before their long rule was over
Englishmen had forgotten that it was possible to persecute for
difference of opinion, or to put down the liberty of the press, or to
tamper with the administration of justice, or to rule without a
Parliament.

[Sidenote: Robert Walpole.]

That this policy was so firmly grasped and so steadily carried out was
due above all to the genius of Robert Walpole. Walpole was born in 1676;
and he had entered Parliament two ye