ted the magnitude of the change. The old
rulers were taking a new partner of such power, that whatever
authority was left to them might seem to be left on sufferance. As
soon as he became conscious of his strength, they would be reduced to
nonentities. The Utilitarians took some part in the struggle, and
welcomed the victory with anticipations destined to be, for the time
at least, cruelly disappointed. But they were still a small minority,
whose views rather scandalised the leaders of the party with which
they were in temporary alliance. The principles upon which they based
their demands, as formulated by James Mill, looked, as we shall see,
far beyond the concessions of the moment.

One other political change is significant, though I am unable to give
an adequate account of it. Bentham's denunciation of 'sinister
interests'--one of his leading topics--corresponds to the question of
sinecures, which was among the most effective topics of Radical
declamation. The necessity of limiting the influence of the crown and
excluding 'placemen' from the House of Commons had been one of the
traditional Whig commonplaces, and a little had been done by Burke's
act of 1782 towards limiting pensions and abolishing obsolete offices.
When English Radicalism revived, the assault was renewed in parliament
and the press. During the war little was achieved, though a revival of
the old complaints about placemen in parliament was among the first
symptoms of the rising sentiment. In 1812 an attack was made upon the
'tellers of the Exchequer.' Romilly[62] says that the value of one of
these offices had risen to L26,000 or L27,000 a year. The income came
chiefly from fees, and the actual work, whatever it was, was done by
deputy. The scandal was enormous at a time when the stress upon the
nation was almost unbearable. One of the tellerships was held by a
member of the great Grenville family, who announced that they regarded
the demand for reform as a personal attack upon them. The opposition,
therefore, could not muster even its usual strength, and the motion
for inquiry was rejected. When the war was over, even the government
began to feel that something must be done. In 1817 some acts were
passed[63] abolishing a variety of sinecure offices and 'regulating
certain offices in the Court of Exchequer.' The Radicals considered
this as a mere delusion, because it was provided at the same time that
pensions might be given to persons who had held ce