and spars could not be had when most needed. When a public loan
was floated the King's friends and they alone were given the
shares at a price which enabled them to make large profits on the
stock market.

The system could endure only as long as the King's friends had a
majority in the House of Commons. Elections must be looked after.
The King must have those on whom he could always depend. He
controlled offices and pensions. With these things he bought
members and he had to keep them bought by repeating the benefits.
If the holder of a public office was thought to be dying the King
was already naming to his Prime Minister the person to whom the
office must go when death should occur. He insisted that many
posts previously granted for life should now be given during his
pleasure so that he might dismiss the holders at will. He watched
the words and the votes in Parliament of public men and woe to
those in his power if they displeased him. When he knew that Fox,
his great antagonist, would be absent from Parliament he pressed
through measures which Fox would have opposed. It was not until
George III was King that the buying and selling of boroughs
became common. The King bought votes in the boroughs by paying
high prices for trifles. He even went over the lists of voters
and had names of servants of the government inserted if this
seemed needed to make a majority secure. One of the most
unedifying scenes in English history is that of George making a
purchase in a shop at Windsor and because of this patronage
asking for the shopkeeper's support in a local election. The King
was saving and penurious in his habits that he might have the
more money to buy votes. When he had no money left he would go to
Parliament and ask for a special grant for his needs and the