d run its course and reached its termination.

Two attempts were made to disturb this tranquillity. The banished heir
of the House of Stuart headed a rebellion; the discontented heir of the
House of Brunswick headed an opposition. Both the rebellion and the
opposition came to nothing. The battle of Culloden annihilated the
Jacobite party. The death of Prince Frederic dissolved the faction
which, under his guidance, had feebly striven to annoy his father's
government. His chief followers hastened to make their peace with the
ministry; and the political torpor became complete.

Five years after the death of Prince Frederic, the public mind was for a
time violently excited. But this excitement had nothing to do with the
old disputes between Whigs and Tories. England was at war with France.
The war had been feebly conducted. Minorca had been torn from us. Our
fleet had retired before the white flag of the House of Bourbon. A
bitter sense of humiliation, new to the proudest and bravest of nations,
superseded every other feeling. The cry of all the counties and great
towns of the realm was for a government which would retrieve the honor
of the English arms. The two most powerful men in the country were the
Duke of Newcastle and Pitt. Alternate victories and defeats had made
them sensible that neither of them could stand alone. The interest of
the state and the interest of their own ambition impelled them to
coalesce. By their coalition was formed the ministry which was in power
when George the Third ascended the throne.

The more carefully the structure of this celebrated ministry is
examined, the more shall we see reason to marvel at the skill or the
luck which had combined in one harmonious whole such various and, as it
seemed, incompatible elements of force. The influence which is derived
from stainless integrity, the influence which is derived from the vilest
arts of corruption, the strength of aristocratical connection, the
strength of democratical enthusiasm, all these things were for the first
time found together. Newcastle brought to the coalition a vast mass of
power, which had descended to him from Walpole and Pelham. The public
offices, the church, the courts of law, the army, the navy, the
diplomatic service, swarmed with his creatures. The boroughs, which long
afterwards made up the memorable schedules A and B, were represented by
his nominees. The great Whig families, which, during several
generations, had bee