Abstract
When Parliament opened in November 1779, an energized Opposition, riding a tide of public discontent, faced a demoralized ministry with a restless body of supporters, held together by a resolute, unyielding King. ‘I know they [Opposition] can vote at 180 — if they get all up —,’ John Robinson wrote to Charles Jenkinson. ‘They certainly are summoning all —.’1 North told Robinson that he knew his followers would desert him on some question, which would ‘overturn the Government [and] endanger the King.’ The prospect made him almost frantic, he said, ‘and prevented him from making decisions.’2
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Notes
PH 21:1–72. The text of the bill is in PH 21:111–35. The competition for seats in the gallery was so great that William (‘Memory’) Woodfall, the famous reporter, was unable to get in. A. Aspinall, ‘The Reporting and Publishing of the House of Commons’ Debates, 1771–1834,’ in Essays Presented to Sir Lewis Namier, ed. Richard Pares and A. J. P. Taylor (London, 1956), 234.
Bucholz and Sainty calculate that the government had ‘about 90–100 of the most desirable household posts at its disposal.’ Office Holders in Modem Britain 1660–1870: Officials of the Royal Household, 1660–1837. Parti: Department of the Lord Chamberlain and Associated offices. Part II. Departments of the Lord Steward and the Master of the Horse, ed. J. C. Sainty and R. O. Bucholz (1997), 1:xxxvii.
From 1760–79 the board of works cost £884,000, almost entirely for salaries, allowances, and operating expenses. Whitshed Keene, surveyor general, had a salary of £525 and the use of a house. Henry Fane, keeper of the King’s roads and bridges, had a salary of £918. George Selwyn, wit and bon vivant, received a salary as paymaster of £400 plus a poundage of 1 percent of all funds issued to the board of works. Joseph M. Crook, The History of the King’s Works: Vol. VI, 1782–1851 (H. M. Stationery Office, 1973), 6–7.
Life and Letters of Sir Gilbert Elliot, First Earl of Minto, from 1751 to 1806, ed. Countess of Minto (3 vols. 1874) 1:74–5. Later in the session he disapproved of the reliance of the Opposition on public pressure and supported the administration.
The Last Journals of Horace Walpole during the Reign of George III, from 1771–1783, ed. A. Francis Stewart (2 vols., 1910), 2:367.
Ian R. Christie, The End of North’s Ministry, 1780–1782 (London, 1958), 190–218. John R. Breihans offers calculations slightly more favorable to the Opposition in ‘The Constitutional Consequences of Defeat: Economical Reform and the Politics of the 1780s.’ Paper read at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association, 28 Dec. 1983. My thanks to Prof. Breihan for making this paper available to me.
Correspondence of George III, 5:30–31. For the origins and demise of this office, see Marion M. Spector, The American Department of the British Government, 1768–1782 (New York, 1940).
Arthur H. Bayse, The Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations: Commonly Known as the Board of Trade, 1748–1782 (New Haven, CT, 1925), 206. Burke’s speech spurred the board into activity, some of which was valuable. Ibid., 209–11.
N. C. Phillips, ‘Edmund Burke and the County Movement, 1779–1780,’ English Historical Review (April, 1961), 76:254–78. Petitions printed in JHC 37, see index ‘Public Economy.’
Ian R. Christie, Wilkes, Wyvill, and Reform: The Parliamentary Reform Movement in British Politics, 1760–1785 (London, 1962), 77–81.
John Sainsbury, Disaffected Patriots: London Supporters of Revolutionary America, 1769–82 (Kingston, ONT, 1987), 154.
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Reitan, E.A. (2007). The Crown, the Parties, and the People, 1780. In: Politics, Finance, and the People. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230211032_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230211032_4
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