GREAT BRITAIN. 192 GREAT BRITAIN. He and his Ministry were responsible to Parlia- ment alone. The first act of the Whig Parliament of 1715 was the impeachment of Tory leaders for treason- able correspnudeme with the exiled House of Stuart. Oxford was sent to prison, Bolingbroke and Ormond lied to France. The badly led rebel- lion of 171.5, in favor of .James Edward Stuart, the son of .James 11.. in Scotland and Xortheni England, was easily suppressed. In 1716 the same Parliament prolonged its power by an act of pro- viding for septennial Parliaments, and in 1718 it provided relief for the Dissenters by the repeal of the Occasional Conformity Act and the Schism Act. In 1720 a mad wave of speculation in shares of the South Sea Company swept over the coun- try, based on exaggerated notions of the value of the trade with the Spanish colonies in South America. The majority of the Jlinistry were in- volved in the affairs of the Company, and when the bubble burst they were forced to resign. A partial relief for the sufferers was provided by the able Admini-tration of Sir Robert Walpole. who was the virtual head of the new Cabinet. For twenty-one years this astute man was the guiding spirit in English politics. He brought to the country the quiet it needed, and by his prudent measures reconciled it to the results of the revo- lution of 1088. He avoided exciting popular feel- ing, even withdrawing measures of undoubted excellence, because of the prejudice against them : as, for instance, his Excise Bill in 1733. which provided for the regulation of import duties in Government warehouses. With great reluctance, he permitted the popular feeling in 1739 to in- volve the nation in the unjust Spanish War. but resigned in 1742 rather than embark in a second war, that of the Austrian Succession. In his previous peace policy he had had the support of the nation, although he had never hesitated to maintain his majorities by making use of the most unblushing corruption. Carteret was the actual head of the next Ministry, a short-lived one. His pai'ticipation in the War of the Aus- trian Succession was indeed fortunate for Han- over, but brought neither glory nor profit to Eng- land. During this Avar occuri'ed the daring inva- sion of the Young Pretender. Charles Edward Stuart. At the head of the Highland clans he gained a brilliant victory over the royal forces at Prestonpans in 1745, and advanced into Eng- land as far as Derby, but was finally forced to withdraw to Scotland, and was overthrown at Culloden in 1746. In 1745 began the struggle be- tween England and France for dominion in India. After Carteret had been compelled to resign and the great Whig family of Pelham had sho-n its incapacity, and the Duke of Newcastle had dem- onstrated his incompetence to rule. Pitt entered the Cabinet in 1756. From this time until the day of his death he remained the most prominent iigure in English politics. Although nominally a Whig, he was in reality above party ties, and his political code was at least honest. The mid- dle class trusted him and formed his strongest support. He was hostile to France, and took ac- tive part with Frederick the Great in the Seven Years' War, in which the French were deprived of Canada, which became English, and of Louisi- ana, as well as of their power in India. He re- signed in 1761 because the Cabinet refused to follow him in the declaration of w-ar with Spain, which he considered inevitable. In the course of the Seven Years' War, and the ensuing years, Clive laid the foundation of a great British em- jjire in India. The Stkigcle Against Dexiocracy. 1760-1820. Meanwhile in 1760 George III. had a.scendcd the throne, with the fixed design of restoring, as far as practicable, the royal prerogatives which his two predecessors had allowed to slip from their grasp. He was determined to break up the party system as it then existed, to destroy the Whig oligarchy, and, by selecting his own Jlinisters, exert a detennining infiuence in English politics. Resuming the royal patronage, he had soon formed a party of .adherents, the 'King's friends,' who looked to him for political guidance. Avail- ing himself of dissensions within the Whig Party, he forced Lord Bute, his favorite, into the Cab- inet as Prime Jlinister. but the latter showed incapacity and had to resign. At last the King found in Lord Xorth a Minister through whom he could carry out his ideas. Under the North Jlinistry the American War of the Revolution broke out, and England lost her most valuable colonies. With the greatest reluctance the King allowed the Rockingham Jlinistry, with Fox as its leading spirit, to be formed. He was op- posed to Fox's grant of legislative independence to Ireland, and the actions of Shelburne. backed by the King's influence, caused the disruption of the Ministry' before the completion of the nego- tiations of the Treaty of Paris, 1783, conferring independence upon America. By his per.sonal in- fluence again the King overthrew the coalition Ministry of Fox and North, and in the face of a hostile majority appointed the younger Pitt Prime Minister. Although the King did not always approve Pitt's measures, they were agreed in the general policj- to he pursued. Pitt's India Bill in 1784 reduced the power of the East India Company by submitting its political measures to the con- trol of a commission named by the King. Pitt endeavored to do further justice to India by assisting the Whigs, under the leadership of Fox, Burke, and .Sheridan, in the prosecution of Warren Hastings. Although at first he was not in favor of the war against the French Republic, he soon became it-s principal advocate. He was joined by a majority of the Whigs, the most influential of whom was Burke. Fox, however, remained his opponent, arguing that the demands of the democracy should be met by reforms at home. The revolt in Ireland, in connection with this war, resulted in the Act of Union in 1800; but Pitt was compelled to resign because the King was unwilling to sanction Catholic emancipation in that country, which was one of the terms upon which Pitt proposed the union. He soon resumed power, however, and the war against Napoleon was prosecuted vigorously and with success. Nel- son conquered at Trafalgar and Wellington drove the French out of Spain. The Congress of Vien- na allowed England to retain a large part of the territories (Cape Colony. Ceylon, British Gui- ana), gave her ilauritius. "Tobago, and Saint Lucia, and confirmed her in the possession of Malta, which she had wrested from the Dutch in the course of the French wars. But while the war against Napoleon, simultaneously with which a less successful conflict was waged with the United States (1812-15). confirmed the naval su- premacy of England, it entailed upon the country an enormous debt, and greatly retarded the
