Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Note on references
- Abbreviations
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 The Accession of Newcastle, March–September 1754
- 2 The Defeat of the Pitt–Fox Alliance, October 1754–March 1755
- 3 The Reconstruction of the Ministry, April–September 1755: Leicester House and the Recruitment of Fox
- 4 ‘That Exploded Trick’: Newcastle, Fox and the Defeat of Leicester House Patriotism, October 1755–March 1756
- 5 The Resignation of Newcastle, April–October 1756
- 6 The Pitt–Devonshire Ministry, October 1756–March 1757
- 7 ‘The Arbiter of England’: the Formation of the Newcastle–Pitt Coalition, April–June 1757
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Note on references
- Abbreviations
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 The Accession of Newcastle, March–September 1754
- 2 The Defeat of the Pitt–Fox Alliance, October 1754–March 1755
- 3 The Reconstruction of the Ministry, April–September 1755: Leicester House and the Recruitment of Fox
- 4 ‘That Exploded Trick’: Newcastle, Fox and the Defeat of Leicester House Patriotism, October 1755–March 1756
- 5 The Resignation of Newcastle, April–October 1756
- 6 The Pitt–Devonshire Ministry, October 1756–March 1757
- 7 ‘The Arbiter of England’: the Formation of the Newcastle–Pitt Coalition, April–June 1757
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The true springs and motives of political measures are confined within a very narrow circle, and known to very few; the good reasons alleged are seldom the true ones. The public commonly judges, or rather guesses, wrong… I therefore recommend to you a prudent pyrrhonism in all matters of State, until you become one of the wheels of them yourself, and consequently acquainted with the general motion, at least, of the others; for as to all the minute and secret springs, that contribute more or less to the whole machine, no man living ever knows them all, not even he who has the principal direction of it.
Chesterfield to Stanhope, 15 March 1754: Dobrée, v, 2098For my part, I could never perceive such a mighty mystery in politics, as some pretend. I do not know anything else it consists in, but consulting the good of the community, and pursuing short, easy and lawful means, which are always the safest and best, to obtain the end.
The Monitor, 22 January 1757POLITICAL ACTION AND ITS HISTORICAL EXPLANATION
Eighteenth-century politics have been more often disparaged than understood. Modern writers sketching their general characteristics have held them up for condemnation as shallow, corrupt, incompetently conducted, lacking in principled commitment. Political tactics have been scaled down to cynical manoeuvres in which the issues at stake are presented as seldom more exalted than the distribution of place or pension, peerages or bishoprics, boroughs or military promotion.
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- Information
- The Dynamics of ChangeThe Crisis of the 1750s and English Party Systems, pp. 1 - 43Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1982