ry, Walpole was the first of that line of
statesmen who, sprung from the class of the "Commoner," have become
leaders of the English Parliament. In position and in influence,
although not in personal character or accomplishments, Walpole may be
described as the direct predecessor of Peel and Gladstone. Just two
years before the death of William the Third, Walpole entered Parliament
for the first time. He married, entered Parliament, and succeeded to
his father's estates in the same year, 1700. Walpole was only
twenty-four years of age when he took his seat in the House of Commons
as member for Castle Rising in Norfolk. He was a young country squire
of considerable fortune, and a thorough supporter of the Whig party.
Walpole came into Parliament at that happy time for men of his position
when the change was already taking place which marked the
representative assembly as the controlling power in the State. The
Government as a direct ruling power was beginning to grow less and less
effective, and the House of Commons beginning to grow more and more
strong. This change had begun to set in during the Restoration, and by
the time Walpole came to be known in Parliament it was becoming more
and more evident that the Ministers of State were in the future only to
be men intrusted with the duty of carrying out the will of the majority
in the House of Commons. Before that majority every other power in the
State was ultimately to bend. The man, therefore, {33} who could by
eloquence, genuine statesmanship, and force of character, or even by
mere tact, secure the adhesion of that majority, had become virtually
the ruler of the State. But as will easily be seen, his rule even then
was something very different indeed from the rule of an arbitrary
minister. He would have to satisfy, to convince, to conciliate the
majority. A single false step, an hour's weakness of purpose, nay,
even a failure for which he was not himself accountable in home or
foreign policy, might deprive him of his influence over the majority,
and might reduce him to comparative insignificance. Therefore, the
controlling power which a great minister acquired was held by virtue of
the most constant watchfulness, the most unsparing labor, energy, and
devotion, and also in a great measure by the favor of fortune and of
opportunity.

Walpole was a man eminently qualified to obtain influence over the
House of Commons, and to keep it up when he had once obtai