h the accession of the
Hanoverian dynasty, in 1714, that the bulk of those powers of
government which hitherto the crown had retained slipped inevitably
into the grasp of the ministers and of Parliament. George I.
(1714-1727) and George II. (1727-1760) were not the nonentities they
have been painted, but, being alien alike to English speech, customs,
and political institutions, they were in a position to defend but
indifferently the prerogatives which they had inherited. Under George
III. (1760-1820) there was a distinct recrudescence of the monarchical
idea. The king, if obstinate and below the average intellectually, was
honest, courageous, and ambitious. He gloried in the name of
Englishman, and, above all, he was determined to recover for the crown
some measure of the prestige and authority which his predecessors had
lost. The increasingly oligarchical character of Parliament in the
period and the disintegration of the ruling Whig party created a
condition not unfavorable for the realization of the royal programme,
and through at least a score of years the influence which the
sovereign exerted personally upon government and politics exceeded
anything that had been known since the days of William III. In 1780
the House of Commons gave expression to its apprehension by adopting a
series of resolutions, the first of which asserted unequivocally that
"the influence of the crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to
be diminished."

[Footnote 37: On the constitution as it was at the
death of William III., see Maitland, Constitutional
History of England, 281-329.]

After the retirement of Lord North, in 1782, however, the influence of
the sovereign declined perceptibly, and during the later portion of
the reign, clouded by the king's insanity, all that had been gained
for royalty was again lost. Under the Regency (1810-1820) and during
the reign of the reactionary and scandal-smirched George IV. (p. 036)
(1820-1830) the popularity, if not the power, of the crown reached its
nadir. In the days of the genial William IV. (1830-1837) popularity
was regained, but not power. The long reign of the virtuous Victoria
(1837-1901) served completely to rehabilitate the monarchy in the
respect and affections of the British people, a consummation whose
stability more recent sovereigns have done nothing to impair. As will
be pointed out in another place, the influence