e the most prominent were the
American War, Catholic Emancipation, and Parliamentary Reform. Whether
his judgment was right or wrong on these questions, it was fixed and
unalterable; and the Ministers who took office under George III. knew
beforehand the conditions of their service, so far as these paramount
articles of faith were concerned. It was the knowledge of this rigorous
trait in His Majesty's character, that made the Marquis of Rockingham
insist upon submitting to the King a programme of the policy he intended
to pursue before he would consent to enter upon the Government in 1782.
His Majesty desired nothing more than a list of the persons Lord
Rockingham wished to propose for the Cabinet; but Lord Rockingham
thought that something more was necessary to his own security and
independence. He considered that when a statesman undertakes the duties
of Administration, he assumes a responsibility irrespective of the
Sovereign, and that his duty requires of him that he shall lay before
His Majesty, in the first instance, as the basis of negotiation, an
outline of the measures by which alone he can conduct the affairs of the
kingdom with honour and success. In the adoption of this clear and
candid line of procedure there was no coercion on the Sovereign, who was
free to accept or reject the propositions, while the constitutional
principle at stake was acknowledged and vindicated on both sides.

His Majesty's immobility on certain questions had the practical effect
of literally placing them in abeyance in the councils of his Ministers.
As it was found to be impossible to form a strong Administration that
should unanimously agree with His Majesty, and at the same time possess
the confidence of the country, no alternative remained but to enter into
a tacit arrangement, by which those questions were to be dropped out of
the list of what were called Cabinet measures, each Minister being left
at liberty to vote upon them as he pleased, without being held to have
compromised the opinions of the Government. Had it not been for such an
arrangement as this, Pitt, who was pledged to the relief of the
Catholics from their disabilities, could never have held office under
George III. And thus was introduced into the practice of Administration
a principle which is undoubtedly a violation of its theory, and which,
taking advantage of a dangerous precedent, has been acted upon since
with less justification.

In the invention of this e