n household? Was he to dissolve the
Parliament? And what was he likely to gain by appealing to Sudbury and
Old Sarum against the venality of their representatives? Was he to send
out privy seals? Was he to levy ship-money? If so, this boasted reform
must commence in all probability by civil war, and, if consummated, must
be consummated by the establishment of absolute monarchy. Or was the
patriot King to carry the House of Commons with him in his upright
designs? By what means? Interdicting himself from the use of corrupt
influence, what motive was he to address to the Dodingtons and
Winningtons? Was cupidity, strengthened by habit, to be laid asleep by a
few fine sentences about virtue and union?

Absurd as this theory was, it had many admirers, particularly among men
of letters. It was now to be reduced to practice; and the result was, as
any man of sagacity must have foreseen, the most piteous and ridiculous
of failures.

On the very day of the young King's accession, appeared some signs which
indicated the approach of a great change. The speech which he made to
his council was not submitted to the cabinet. It was drawn up by Bute,
and contained some expressions which might be construed into reflections
on the conduct of affairs during the late reign. Pitt remonstrated, and
begged that these expressions might be softened down in the printed
copy; but it was not till after some hours of altercation that Bute
yielded; and, even after Bute had yielded, the King affected to hold out
till the following afternoon. On the same day on which this singular
contest took place, Bute was not only sworn of the privy council, but
introduced into the cabinet.

Soon after this, Lord Holdernesse, one of the Secretaries of State, in
pursuance of a plan concerted with the court, resigned the seals. Bute
was instantly appointed to the vacant place. A general election speedily
followed, and the new Secretary entered Parliament in the only way in
which he then could enter it, as one of the sixteen representative peers
of Scotland.[22]

Had the ministers been firmly united, it can scarcely be doubted that
they would have been able to withstand the court. The parliamentary
influence of the Whig aristocracy, combined with the genius, the
virtue, and the fame of Pitt, would have been irresistible. But there
had been in the cabinet of George the Second latent jealousies and
enmities, which now began to show themselves. Pitt had been estrang