a factious opposition. He caballed with the
very men to whom he had hitherto been most vehemently opposed for the
sole object of expelling Lord Shelburne from office. And when, at the
beginning of the session of 1783, the merits of the preliminary articles
of peace which had been provisionally concluded with the United States
came under discussion, though the peers approved of them, in the House
of Commons he defeated the ministers in two separate divisions,[77] and
thus rendered their retention of office impossible. He had gained this
victory by uniting with Lord North and a portion of the Tory party whom,
ever since his dismissal from office in 1774, he had been unwearied in
denouncing, threatening Lord North himself with impeachment. And he now
used it to compel the King to intrust the chief office in the government
to the very man whom his Majesty had refused to employ in such an office
six months before.

The transactions of the next twelve months exhibit in a striking light
more than one part of the practical working of our monarchical and
parliamentary constitution, not only in its correspondence with, but,
what is more important to notice, in its occasional partial deviations
from, strict theory. The theory has sometimes been expressed in the
formula, "The King reigns, but does not govern." But, like many another
terse apophthegm, it conveys an idea which requires some modification
before it can be regarded as an entirely correct representation of the
fact; and the King himself, especially if endowed with fair capacity and
force of character, imbued with earnest convictions, and animated by a
genuine zeal for the honor and welfare of his kingdom, will be likely to
dwell more on the possible modifications than on the rigid theory. Even
those who insist most on the letter of the theory will not deny that, if
the King has not actual power, he has at least great influence; and the
line between authority and influence is hard to draw. One of George the
Third's earliest ministers had explained to his Majesty that the
principle of the constitution was, "that the crown had an undoubted
right to choose its ministers, and that it was the duty of subjects to
support them, unless there were some very strong and urgent reasons to
the contrary."[78] And such a doctrine was too much in harmony with the
feelings of George III. himself not to be cordially accepted. For George
III. was by no means inclined to be a _Roi faineant_.