226 Chapter X
sembly that did not start from some legally accepted base, such as the colonial
legislatures in America or the French Estates General of 1789, was made abun-
dantly clear. The association idea evaporated, leaving for a while a vaguely subver-
sive aura about the word, and slowly passing, in the long run, into the idea of the
modern political party, as a private and unofficial, but at the same time public and
organized, body, apart from government, yet using government and bringing pres-
sure upon it.
Yet the meetings and murmurs throughout the country had their effect. Streams
of petitions, while deferentially law- abiding, still showed a widespread dissatisfac-
tion with royal and ministerial influence. The opposition in Parliament, the two
great Whig factions, were temporarily able to capture a majority from Lord North.
The result was the Dunning resolution adopted in April 1780 by the Commons:
that “the influence of the crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be di-
minished.” The next logical step would be to reduce this influence by abolishing
some of the offices and pensions through which it was exercised, but this step the
Whigs were for a while unable to take—because, it is seriously alleged, at the criti-
cal moment the young blades of the Rockingham party made off for the Newmar-
ket races. The Dunning resolution itself, however, though nothing but a resolution,
gave some indication that Parliament was not inevitably controlled by the King,
that it could at times respond to public opinion, that it might, after all, be capable
of some measure of self- reform. It thus temporarily quieted the political agitation,
as did the Gordon riots that shortly followed.
Lord North recaptured his majority, but in 1782 was finally allowed to resign by
the King, who at last in desperation, with America lost, Ireland rebellious, and
England much disgruntled, called his enemies the Whigs into office, and put
Rockingham, Fox, and Shelburne into the cabinet. The Whigs opened negotia-
tions with the United States, and conceded parliamentary independence to
Ireland.
The Whigs also in 1782 obtained the enactment of Burke’s bill for Economical
Reform, or as Burke had called it in 1780, a “Plan for the better security of the
independency of Parliament.” The beauty of economic reform was that, by saving
the taxpayer’s money through the reduction of offices, it seemed simultaneously to
relieve Parliament from the wrath of the public, and to reduce the means of influ-
ence brought to bear by the King. Burke’s plan had many merits, and did contrib-
ute to the modernization of government. It abolished the clusters of idle but lucra-
tive offices that clung to the Principality of Wales, the Duchy of Lancaster, the
County of Chester, and other survivals of former times, “principalities,” as Burke
called them, which retained “the apparatus of a kingdom for the jurisdiction over a
few private estates.” It abolished also certain honorific appointments in the royal
household, with considerable difficulty, “because the King’s turnspit in the King’s
kitchen was a member of Parliament.” It turned over the King’s table, wardrobe,
and kennels to appropriate contractors or employees: “It is not proper that great
noblemen should be the keepers of dogs.” It introduced more order into public ac-
counting. Burke himself, as Paymaster of the Forces in the short- lived Rocking-
ham government, an office in which his predecessors had often enriched them-
selves by the flexible handling of large sums of money, introduced the novel