he most momentous influence upon the fortunes of peoples
and the fates of empires. A famous and facile French playwright
derived the downfall of a favorite and of a political revolution from
the spilling of a glass of water. There are times when the temptation
to pursue this thread of fancy is very great. Suppose, for instance,
it had not chanced to rain on a certain day at Clifden, when a cricket
match was being played in which Frederick, Prince of Wales, happened to
be interested. A fretted Prince would not have had to retire to his
tent like Achilles, would not have insisted on a game of whist to cheer
his humor. There would have been no difficulty in forming a rubber.
There would have been no need to seek for a fourth hand. No wistful
gentleman-in-attendance seeking the desirable would have had to ask the
aid of a strange nobleman perched in an apothecary's chariot. Had this
strange nobleman not been so sought and found, had the apothecary not
been wealthy enough to keep a chariot, and friendly enough to offer a
poor Scotch gentleman a seat in it, it is possible that the {7}
American Colonies might yet form portion and parcel of the British
Empire, that Chatham's splendid dreams might have become still more
splendid realities, that the name of Wilkes might never have emerged
from an obscurity of debauch to association with the name of liberty.
For the nobleman who made the fourth hand in the Prince of Wales's
rubber was unfortunately a man of agreeable address and engaging
manners, manners that pleased infinitely the Prince of Wales, and
cemented a friendship most disastrous in its consequences to England,
to the English people, and to an English king. The name of the
engaging nobleman was Lord Bute.

At the time of this memorable game of whist Lord Bute was thirty-six
years old. He was well educated, well read, tall of body, pleasing of
countenance, quick in intelligence, and curious in disposition. These
qualities won the heart of the Prince of Wales, and lifted the young
Scotch nobleman from poverty and obscurity to prominence and favor.
The Prince appointed Bute a Lord of the Bedchamber and welcomed him to
his most intimate friendship. The death of the Prince of Wales two
years later had no disastrous effect upon the rising fortunes of the
favorite. The influence which Bute had exercised over the mind of
Frederick he exercised over the mind of Frederick's wife and over the
mind of Frederick's heir.