ABSTRACT
In 1769 Chatham awoke from his long sleep to a world he hardly recognised. His Ministry was the same only in name. Shelburne, who most nearly shared his views, had been ignominiously expelled; Grafton and Camden, though they still clung to office and sought consolation at Newmarket or in sullen silence, were out-voted on every question. The chief places had been usurped by a solid phalanx of the Bedford connection, taught by three years' sojourn in the wilderness to abandon their chief's haughty independence and bow to the King's least commands. The real head of the Ministry was George III, who had at last satisfied the ambition instilled into him by Bute and the Princess Dowager. In a House so elected the constitution itself was no longer sacred. Jack Wilkes, whom George III had never forgiven for the attack in The North Briton, had returned from his voluntary exile for the general election.
