rous mediaeval machinery thus
remained which had been formed in the time when the distinction between
a public trust and private property was not definitely drawn or which
had been allowed to remain for the sake of patronage, when its functions
had been transferred to officials of more modern type. Reform was
foiled, as Burke put it, because the turnspit in the king's kitchen was
a member of parliament. Such sinecures and the pensions on the civil
list or the Irish establishment provided the funds by which the king
could build up a personal influence, which was yet occult,
irresponsible, and corrupt. The measure passed by Burke in 1782[2] made
a beginning in the removal of such abuses.

Meanwhile the Whigs were conveniently blind to another side of the
question. If the king could buy, it was because there were plenty of
people both able and willing to sell. Bubb Dodington, a typical example
of the old system, had five or six seats at his disposal: subject only
to the necessity of throwing a few pounds to the 'venal wretches' who
went through the form of voting, and by dealing in what he calls this
'merchantable ware' he managed by lifelong efforts to wriggle into a
peerage. The Dodingtons, that is, sold because they bought. The 'venal
wretches' were the lucky franchise-holders in rotten boroughs. The
'Friends of the People'[3] in 1793 made the often-repeated statement
that 154 individuals returned 307 members, that is, a majority of the
house. In Cornwall, again, 21 boroughs with 453 electors controlled by
about 15 individuals returned 42 members,[4] or, with the two county
members, only one member less than Scotland; and the Scottish members
were elected by close corporations in boroughs and by the great
families in counties. No wonder if the House of Commons seemed at times
to be little more than an exchange for the traffic between the
proprietors of votes and the proprietors of offices and pensions.

The demand for the reforms advocated by Burke and Dunning was due to the
catastrophe of the American War. The scandal caused by the famous
coalition of 1783 showed that a diminution of the royal influence might
only make room for selfish bargains among the proprietors of
parliamentary influence. The demand for reform was taken up by Pitt. His
plan was significant. He proposed to disfranchise a few rotten boroughs;
but to soften this measure he afterwards suggested that a million should
be set aside to buy such boroughs