ther political caricature nor popular
disapproval, neither the indignation of the King nor the opulence of the
fearful and furious East India Company, could prevent Fox from carrying
his measures in the House of Commons by means of the sheer force of
numbers that he had obtained by his unhallowed compact with North.

But the power of the new Ministry was vulnerable in another place where
the most unconstitutional weapons were employed against it. The King was
eager to avenge the affront that had, as he conceived, been put upon him
by the compulsion that had forced him to accept ministers so little to
his taste. He was prepared to stick at little in order to retaliate upon
his enemies, as he always conceived those men to be who ventured to cross
his purposes. Nothing could be done effectively to change the political
composition of the Lower House; something could be essayed with the
reasonable hope of modifying the composition of the Upper House. Lord
Temple, a second-rate statesman, whose position gave him almost
first-rate importance, was the instrument by which the King was able to
bring very effective pressure upon the peers. George wrote a letter to
Lord Temple in which he declared that he should deem those who should
vote for Fox's measure as "not only not his friends, but his enemies;"
and he added that if Lord Temple could put this in stronger words "he had
full authority to do so." With this amazing document in his {235}
possession Lord Temple went from one noble lord to another, pointing out
the unwisdom of each in pursuing a course which would constitute him an
avowed enemy of the King, and insisting upon the advantages that must
follow from the taking of the very broad hint of the royal pleasure thus
conveyed. Temple's arguments, backed by and founded upon the King's
letter, had the most satisfactory result from the King's point of view.
Peer after peer fell away from the doomed Ministry; peer after peer
hastened to prove himself one of the elect, to assert himself as a King's
friend by recording his vote against the obnoxious measure.

[Sidenote: 1783--Fall of the Coalition Ministry]

The course of action inspired by the King and acted upon by Lord Temple
was flagrantly unconstitutional even in an age which permitted to the
sovereign so much liberty of personal intervention in affairs. It was,
however, attended with complete success. The India Bills were rejected
in the House of Lords by a majority