During the reign of George I and George II, a succession of
great Whigs (of whom one, Sir Robert Walpole, held office for
twenty-one years) formed the Cabinet Council of the King.
Their leader was finally recognised as the official leader not
only of the actual Cabinet but also of the majority party in
power in Parliament. The attempts of George III to take
matters into his own hands and not to leave the actual business
of government to his Cabinet were so disastrous that
they were never repeated. And from the earliest years of the
eighteenth century on, England enjoyed representative government,
with a responsible ministry which conducted the affairs
of the land.
To be quite true, this government did not represent all
classes of society. Less than one man in a dozen had the right
to vote. But it was the foundation for the modern representative
form of government. In a quiet and orderly fashion it
took the power away from the King and placed it in the hands
of an ever increasing number of popular representatives. It did
not bring the millenium to England, but it saved that country
from most of the revolutionary outbreaks which proved so
disastrous to the European continent in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries.
THE BALANCE OF POWER
IN FRANCE ON THE OTHER HAND THE ``DIVINE
RIGHT OF KINGS'' CONTINUED WITH
GREATER POMP AND SPLENDOUR THAN
EVER BEFORE AND THE AMBITION OF
THE RULER WAS ONLY TEMPERED BY
THE NEWLY INVENTED LAW OF THE
``BALANCE OF POWER''
As a contrast to the previous chapter, let me tell you what
happened in France during the years when the English people
were fighting for their liberty.
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