The 18th century in England saw the destruction of the political structures that had been built up in the century before, as the political parties once in power lost their footing (or found themselves entirely transformed) to be replaced by different ones and as the power in the government shifted along institutional lines to the cabinet. The result of these transformations was that the modern structures of the British government were in substantial ways established during the first and second quarters of the 18th century.1
By the middle of the 18th century, both Whigs and Tories found themselves changed from what they had been. This is hardly surprising, given how much history had changed around them since these parties had formed. It is in fact less surprising that they changed than that they survived at all. This is especially true of the Whig Party, which had to sustain charges of corruption and elitism. This last was perhaps the more serious of the two for a party that had modeled itself as (at least in some measure) the voice of the people. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that this became the more serious of the two charges as time passed and populist movements become more powerful and more insistent upon a government accountable to the needs of the people.
The fact that the Whig Party did manage to survive into the 18th century indicates that its platform did still have something of importance to contribute to the dialogue of public life in England as well as the fact that Whig leaders were themselves sufficiently charismatic (and one should perhaps add that in some cases devious and certainly well-connected here) to keep themselves if not precisely in favor than at least in office.
A brief history of the Whig PartyÆs rise to power is useful at this point. The Whig Party emerged in the 17th century in opposition to King Charles II and to the accession to the English throne of the Roman Catholic Duke of York as J...