ew duties secured
in the distant days of his father's political power. Contracts to supply
the army and the navy went to friends of the government, sometimes
with disastrous results, since the contractor often knew nothing of
the business he undertook. When, in 1777, the Admiralty boasted that
thirty-five ships of war were ready to put to sea it was found that
there were in fact only six. The system nearly ruined the navy. It
actually happened that planks of a man-of-war fell out through rot and
that she sank. Often ropes and spars could not be had when most needed.
When a public loan was floated the King's friends and they alone were
given the shares at a price which enabled them to make large profits on
the stock market.

The system could endure only as long as the King's friends had a
majority in the House of Commons. Elections must be looked after. The
King must have those on whom he could always depend. He controlled
offices and pensions. With these things he bought members and he had to
keep them bought by repeating the benefits. If the holder of a public
office was thought to be dying the King was already naming to his Prime
Minister the person to whom the office must go when death should occur.
He insisted that many posts previously granted for life should now be
given during his pleasure so that he might dismiss the holders at will.
He watched the words and the votes in Parliament of public men and woe
to those in his power if they displeased him. When he knew that Fox,
his great antagonist, would be absent from Parliament he pressed through
measures which Fox would have opposed. It was not until George III was
King that the buying and selling of boroughs became common. The King
bought votes in the boroughs by paying high prices for trifles. He
even went over the lists of voters and had names of servants of the
government inserted if this seemed needed to make a majority secure.
One of the most unedifying scenes in English history is that of George
making a purchase in a shop at Windsor and because of this patronage
asking for the shopkeeper's support in a local election. The King was
saving and penurious in his habits that he might have the more money to
buy votes. When he had no money left he would go to Parliament and
ask for a special grant for his needs and the bought members could not
refuse the money for their buying.

The people of England knew that Parliament was corrupt. But how to end
the system? T