The revolutionists recalled men to the need of explaining, no less than carrying on, the government of the Crown.

They represented the new sense of power felt by elements of which the importance had been forgotten in the sordid intrigues of the previous half-century.

Their emphasis upon government as in its nature a public trust was at least accompanied by a useful reminder that, after all, ultimate power must rest upon the side of the governed.

For twenty years Whigs and Tories alike carried on political controversy as though no public opinion existed outside the small circle of the aristocracy.

The mob which made Wilkes its idol was, in a blind and unconscious way, enforcing the lesson that Price and Priestley had in mind.