f God; but the only legitimate
organ through which the voice of the people could be uttered was the
Parliament. All power was from the people; but to the Parliament the
whole power of the people had been delegated. No Oxonian divine had
ever, even in the years which immediately followed the Restoration,
demanded for the king so abject, so unreasoning a homage, as Grenville,
on what he considered as the purest Whig principles, demanded for the
Parliament. As he wished to see the Parliament despotic over the nation,
so he wished to see it also despotic over the court. In his view the
prime minister, possessed of the confidence of the House of Commons,
ought to be Mayor of the Palace. The King was a mere Childeric or
Chilperic, who might well think himself lucky in being permitted to
enjoy such handsome apartments at St. James's, and so fine a park at
Windsor.

Thus the opinions of Bute and those of Grenville were diametrically
opposed. Nor was there any private friendship between the two statesmen.
Grenville's nature was not forgiving; and he well remembered how, a few
months before, he had been compelled to yield the lead of the House of
Commons to Fox.

We are inclined to think, on the whole, that the worst administration
which has governed England since the Revolution was that of George
Grenville. His public acts may be classed under two heads, outrages on
the liberty of the people, and outrages on the dignity of the crown.

He began by making war on the press. John Wilkes, member of Parliament
for Aylesbury, was singled out for persecution. Wilkes had, till very
lately, been known chiefly as one of the most profane, licentious, and
agreeable rakes about town. He was a man of taste, reading, and engaging
manners. His sprightly conversation was the delight of greenrooms and
taverns, and pleased even grave hearers when he was sufficiently under
restraint to abstain from detailing the particulars of his amours, and
from breaking jests on the New Testament. His expensive debaucheries
forced him to have recourse to the Jews. He was soon a ruined man, and
determined to try his chance as a political adventurer. In Parliament he
did not succeed. His speaking, though pert, was feeble, and by no means
interested his hearers so much as to make them forget his face, which
was so hideous that the caricaturists were forced, in their own despite,
to flatter him. As a writer, he made a better figure. He set up a weekly
paper, calle