As early as 1761, the old rival of Walpole, Pulteney, whom a peerage had condemned to obsolescence, published his _Seasonable Hints from an Honest Man on the new Reign_.

Pulteney urged the sovereign no longer to be content with the "shadow of royalty." He should use his "legal prerogatives" to check "the illegal claims of factious oligarchy." Government had become the private possession of a few powerful men.

The king was but a puppet in leading strings.

The basis of government should be widened, for every honest man was aware that distinctions of party were now merely nominal.
The Tories should be admitted to place.

They were now friendly to the accession and they no longer boasted their hostility to dissent.