Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/159

 i822.] Death of George IIL to the Death of Castlereagh. 145 and had acquired its social habits and its political tendencies. The character of George IV. soon began to have an effect upon these feelings, and thereby upon the course of political life in the country. It could not, indeed, immediately affect the relations of parties in Parliament, for the classes and the interests which commanded the majorities in both Houses were not altered by the change of sovereign. The Tory supremacy remained intact, and the first practical consequence of the accession of a sovereign would naturally manifest itself in the release of some members of that party from the restraint under which they were held by respect for the opinions and prejudices of George III. This was seen when the Catholic question again came up for discussion ; but there was one subject which forced itself at once on public atten- tion, and did much to destroy any feeling of personal affection or even respect for the new King. This subject was the relation of George IV. with his wife, and the treatment by monarch and ministers of the unhappy Queen Caroline. The history of this unfortunate woman has to be touched upon here only as it affects the action and posi- tion of the several Parliamentary parties, and it must be said that little to the credit of either of the two old political sec- tions is to be found in the record. Tories and Whigs seem in turn to have taken up and dropped the cause of the Princess, according as they were in office or in opposition, and as a means of gaining either court favour or popular support. In 1806, when Fox and Grenville were in power, they consented to the issue of a commission, under which the servants of Caroline were examined without previous notice, either to them or to their mistress. At that time Perceval, the typical Tory, was acting for the Princess, and Eldon himself was one of her advisers. When in 1814 she, in opposition to the wishes of her friends, determined to go abroad, the Tories held office, with Eldon as Lord Chancellor, and they issued the Secret Commission which followed the Princess, and got together the scandalous evidence which, whether it was true or false, covered its collectors and publishers with disgrace, and shocked L