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62 of Peers. He wisely divined that the surest way to accomplish this object was to fill the House with men whose descent was not such as to enable them to take liberties with their dignity; who would vote popular doctrines vulgar, and think that their new nobility compelled them to be exclusive. George III. had kept the doors of the House of Peers cautiously shut against the Coalition, but he threw them wide open to Pitt. The change was to be effected, not by a sudden inundation, but by turning a streamlet into the House. Without shocking the ancient nobles, the aggregate of the Pitt peers soon became considerable. Within four years after he had assumed the government, Pitt could reckon forty-two of his own creations in that House."

When this result was obtained, there was a union of the three elements of authority against any attempt to extend popular privileges. The battle had become not less social than political, and even if less personally dangerous, it was made more difficult by the number and variety of the forces. Sir Erskine May says, "There was a social ostracism of Liberal opinions, which continued far into the present century. It was not enough that every man who ventured to profess them should be debarred from ambition in public and professional life. He was also frowned upon and shunned in the social circle. It was whispered that he was not only a malcontent in politics, but a free-thinker or infidel in religion. Loud talkers at dinner-tables, emboldened by the zeal of the company, decried his opinions, his party, and his friends. If he kept his temper, he was supposed to be overcome in argument. If he lost it, his warmth was taken as evidence of the violence of his political sentiments." Against such forces the mild Whigs did not attempt to fight; indeed, by joining it they made the army of authority the stronger. From a Parliament elected by and representing narrow constituencies where such elements were predominant, there could be no hope of reform. It was more difficult to obtain it now than it would have