Nor was the effort defeated without a struggle which went to the root of constitutional principle.
And George III attempted the realization of his ambition at a time highly favorable to its success.

Party government had lost much credit during Walpole's administration.

Men like Bolingbroke, Carteret and the elder Pitt were all of them dissatisfied with a system which depended for its existence upon the exclusion of able men from power.

A generation of corrupt practice and the final defeat of Stuart hopes had already deprived the Whigs of any special hold on their past ideals.
They were divided already into factions the purpose of which was no more than the avid pursuit of place and pension.

Government by connection proved itself irreconcilable with good government.