ABSTRACT
Henry Pelham's earliest experiences in politics were dominated by the 'schism' within the Whig party occasioned by the resignations in 1717 of Lord Townshend and Robert Walpole from the Sunderland-Stanhope ministry. Pelham was still only 25, yet under Walpole's eye at the Treasury he soon showed a capacity for administrative and financial business, while in the Commons he figured as one of Walpole's devoted acolytes. In fact, it proved the beginning of a new period of political stability and Whig consensus which lasted until Pelham's death in 1754. Britain's gains from the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in October 1748 were but modest, and there was much opposition barracking on this score in parliament, but it enabled Pelham to turn to the much-needed task of financial retrenchment. Historians correctly identify Pelham’s financial reforms as his major achievement.
