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 Parliament and People, which had lasted for five out of the seven years of war, was at an end. George III had his very valiant but obstinate mind set on only one thing, to raise the power of the Crown, and to get free from the government of the great Whig families. He meant to take as ministers whom he pleased. He knew that he could not keep such ministers in office if the House of Commons was always against them; and so he set himself to bribe the members of that House. He would distribute offices, pensions and favours to its members, until he had made a ‘Royal’ party, which should oppose the ‘Whig’ party. This Royal party would then vote with the ministers whom the King would choose. It took George nearly ten years to do this; but he had a good deal of success in the end. And the nation outside Parliament felt some sympathy for him; for every one knew how these great Whig families had kept all the richest jobs of the Kingdom in their own hands. George was also very popular with the middle classes and the country gentlemen. In fact, he was a sort of Tory; and this new Royal party became a sort of new Tory party. George was at least a thorough Briton, brave, homely, dogged, and virtuous in his private life; but he was in such a hurry to carry out this political job, that he was quite ready to scuttle out of his glorious war, and desert his allies just as Anne's ministers had done in 1713.

Yet, like the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713, the Treaty of Paris of 1763 could not fail to bring solid advantages to Great Britain. Though we gave back to Spain her rich colonies of Havana and Manila, and took from her only the useless American swamp, called Florida, we recovered Minorca. Though we gave back to France