George III was born in England, and prided himself on being an
Englishman. He came to the throne fully resolved, as Walpole said,
"to make his power shine out," and to carry out his mother's constant
injunction of, "George, be King!" (S548). To do this, he set himself
to work to trample on the power of the ministers, to take the
distribution of offices and honors out of their hands, and furthermore
to break down the influence of the great Whig families in Parliament.
He had no intention of reforming the House of Commons, or of securing
the representation of the people in it; his purpose was to gain the
control of the House, and use it for his own ends. In this he was
thoroughly conscientious, according to his idea of right,--for he
believed with all his heart in promoting the welfare of England,--but
he thought that welfare depended on the will of the King much more
than on that of the nation. His maxim was "everything for, but
nothing by, the people." By liberal gifts of money,--he spent 25,000
pounds in a single day (1762) in bribes,[3]--by gifts of offices and
of honors to those who favored him, and by taking away offices,
honors, and pensions from those who opposed him, George III succeeded
in his purpose. He raised up a body of men in Parliament, known by
the significant name of the "King's Friends," who stood ready at all
times to vote for his measures. In this way he actually revived
"personal monarchy"[4] for a time, and by using his "Friends" in the
House of Commons and in the Lords as his tools, he made himself quite
independent of the checks imposed by the Constitution.
[3] Pitt (Lord Chatham) was one of the few public men of that day who
would neither give nor take a bribe; Walpole declared with entire
truth that the great majority of politicians could be bought,--it was
only a question of price. The King appears to have economized in his
living, in order to get more money to use as a corruption fund. See
May's "Constitutional History."
[4] "Personal monarchy": see S15 of this Summary.