Page 17 - History 2020

gentrified and aristocratic patrons, had become ruinous since the Triennial Act. The

Septennial Act came as a massive financial relief. Seven years also made it more
worthwhile for local grandees to spend on winning a seat. Holding a seat in
parliament could make or break the social status of a locally influential family. The
Act tended to favour wealthier patrons; this highlights another feature which we’ll
look at shortly: the growth of oligarchy. The main point here is that less frequent
elections “lowered the political temperature” (Tombs)*. The rage of party was
cooling.

*The Septennial Act provoked Rousseau’s jibe, “the English are free, but only once every seven
years.”

What was the “Robinocracy”?
To understand Walpole’s system, we must go back once again back to the Glorious
Revolution of 1688. In 1688 we didn’t just get William of Orange as king, we also got
his war. William knew that becoming King would bring him the vast economic,
financial and military resources of Britain in his life-or-death struggle with Louis XIV.
But William had to pay a price; accepting close parliamentary scrutiny of the vast

expenditure involved, which was a big factor in the process of strengthening
parliament against the monarchy. But the war had another big effect: it greatly
swelled the size of the state. More military and naval personnel, more admirals and
commanders, more diplomats, more Treasury officials, more tax collectors, more
administrators, more clerks… More jobs, in short; some of them very lucrative
indeed. This mattered because it helped provide an answer to a question: with all the
changes in politics, with no more rage of party, no more civil war by other means,
th
what would politicians find to argue about? Here was the answer: jobs. The 18
century called them “places”. Under Walpole, the rage of party gave way to the
competition for places.

Walpole grasped that the mushrooming of patronage during the wars with France
provided the means to manage parliament. Walpole was the first to grasp its
possibilities. Distributing patronage could become the new key to power. It would
require a clear-sighted, well-informed and determined minister. Walpole fitted the

bill to a tee.

How did the Robinocracy work?
Walpole’s biographer, J.H. Plumb (“Sir Robert Walpole” 2 volumes, “The Making of a
Statesman”1956, “The King’s Minister” 1960), calls him “for 20 years the colossus of
political life.” There is a popular image of Walpole, shown in his portrait in King's

College, Cambridge: short, fat, coarse-featured, jovial, proudly wearing the Garter; a
certain dignity, even mystery, his eyes, alert but guarded; a lover of peace, of “letting