ABSTRACT
Mr. Pitt had a powerful following in the City of London whose traders and merchants idolised him and whose very wealthy municipal institutions lent themselves to political demonstrations likely to give the lead to the rest of the country. The plans of Earl Temple, already rancorous against Bute, and of Alderman Beckford, M.P., Pitt’s wealthiest supporter in the City, had succeeded, perhaps, better than the “Great Commoner” himself thought proper. Events again favoured Pitt when, in January 1762, Lord Bute himself was forced, despite his wish for a speedy peace, to agree to the declaration of war upon Spain which Pitt had earlier pressed, to the point of resignation. John Wilkes had hardly yet thrown his most dangerous bomb—the insinuation that all events since the King’s accession were explained by Bute’s adulterous connection with the Princess Dowager.
