rs chosen and dismissed, as the German ministers
are now, by himself; while the subservience of Parliament was secured by
the profuse use of pensions and places. To this attempt, and all the
abuses which inevitably grew out of it, the Whigs with Burke as their
intellectual head offered a determined resistance, and the conflict was
one extraordinarily well calculated to bring his peculiar powers into
play.

The leading events in this long struggle were the attempt of the House
of Commons to disqualify Wilkes for a seat in the House, to punish
reporting their debates as a breach of privilege, and the prosecution of
the war against the American colonies. It may be said to have begun at
the accession of the King, and to have lasted until the resignation of
Lord North after the surrender of Cornwallis, or from 1770 to 1783.

Burke's contributions to it were his pamphlet, 'Thoughts on the Cause of
the Present Discontents,' and several speeches in Parliament: the first,
like the pamphlet, on the general situation, and others on minor
incidents in the struggle. This pamphlet has not only survived the
controversy, but has become one of the most famous papers in the
political literature of the Anglo-Saxon race. It is a century since
every conspicuous figure in the drama passed away; it is seventy years
since every trace of the controversy disappeared from English political
life; most if not all of the principles for which Burke contended have
become commonplaces of English constitutional practice; the discontents
of that day have vanished as completely as those of 1630: but Burke's
pamphlet still holds a high place in every course of English literature,
and is still read and pondered by every student of constitutional
history and by every speculator on government and political morals.

In 1774 Parliament was dissolved for the second time since Burke entered
it: and there a misfortune overtook him which illustrated in a striking
way the practical working of the British Constitution at that period.
Lord Verney, to whom he had owed his seat for the borough of Wendover at
two elections, had fallen into pecuniary embarrassment and could no
longer return him, because compelled to sell his four boroughs. This
left Burke high and dry, and he was beginning to tremble for his
political future, when he was returned for the great commercial city of
Bristol by a popular constituency. The six years during which he sat for
Bristol were the mo