SIGNS OF CHANGE I From Hume until the publication of Burke's _Present Discontents_ (1770) there is no work on English politics of the first importance.

Walpole had fallen in 1742; but for the next fifteen years his methods dominated the parliamentary scene.

It was only with the advent of the elder Pitt to power that a new temper may be observed, a temper quickened by what followed on the accession of George III.

Henceforward, it is not untrue to say that the early complacency of the time was lost; or, at least, it was no longer in the ascendant again until the excesses of the French Revolution enabled Burke to persuade his countrymen into that grim satisfaction with their own achievement of which Lord Eldon is the standing model.

The signs of change are in each instance slight, though collectively they acquire significance.