Eighteenth-Century Politics
SINCE the publication of Sir Lewis Namier's Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III, professional histotians have concentrated a great deal of attention on the personal nature of mid-eighteenth- century politics. Old legends, still too often to be found in text-books, have been swept away. No longer is George HI considered "..) have attempted any constitutional revolution. The well-organised party of King's Friends, liberally supplied with secret-service money, has vanished into limbo. And with old legends have gone old heroes. Those paragons of Whig virtue, Edmund Burke and Charles James Fox, have been displayed, not perhaps without a certain excessive
relish, in their true colours as men resolutely pursuing self-interest in the guise of principle. The old legends have been replaced by a study of the intricate relations between the King, Cabinet and Commons and their manipu- lation, or attempted manipulation, by factions, a study which has been worked out meticulously in a score of articles and monographs. But there has been no book to which either the student or the general reader could turn for a picture of this political system. Professor Pares has more than filled this need, for, to a brilliant summary of recent work, he has added copiously from his own massive scholar- ship. These lectures are a tour de force ; they sparkle with wit and bristle with an acid wisdom. Experts may differ with him here and there on questions of emphasis or detail, but for a time, and perhaps for a very long time, this will be the orthodox view of the relations between George III and the politicians, a view which is not likely to be shaken by any new discovery of archives, for the bulk upon which this book is based is monstrously vast.
If a new outlook on eighteenth-century politics arises it will be due to a change of focus. And certainly some adjustment is now necessary. The tactics of politics based on patronage have been brilliantly explored—and nowhere better than in this book—but patronage, influence and ministerial relations are not the entire story of eight- eenth-century politics. In the last twenty years they have come to dominate the historian's interest partly because they were so wrong- fully m;sunderstood and also because the manuscripts for their study are so readily available. It is time perhaps for more scholarship to be devoted to the difficult questions relating to the influence of public opinion, a factor in eighteenth-century politics which, perhaps, Professor Pares dismisses too casually. Political controversy was public, vocal, well-informed and at times effective, partly because of the vigorous, politically-minded provincial Press which escaped both Government tutelage and oppression. And again there is the influence, so little explored, of groups with specialised interests—the brewers and bankers, the coal- interest, the shippers, the tea-merchants and tobacco-men ; all vocal, noisy, persistent, not without their impact on politics. The importance of such factors is more difficult to assess, yet they must be explored ; otherwise one distorted view of eighteenth- century politics will replace another. But Professor Pares' purpose was to summarise and to illuminate our present knowledge of the ministerial politics of George III's reign. This he has done, and by so doing he has enriched historical literature with a book that will be a delight to the general reader as well as the student.
J. H. PLUMB.
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