The new King George III was inept, obstinate, rash, tainted with madness. The monarch went from tyranny to tyranny and from disaster to disaster, until the loss of an empire, and overwhelming defeat at war, brought the nation to its senses.

John Wilkes was a politician who had a series of harsh contrasts with the government and the king. He was a member of parliament, a journalist, capable of making fervent speeches. He was also a supporter of William Pitt the Elder and criticized the action of the new government appointed by George III. His words and methods were very ardent so the government reacted furiously and he was dispossessed of his seat in the Commons and condemned by a court of justice. His life is an example of how democracy fortified in England. In the following general elections Wilkes was elected again, but the government deprived him of his seat and declared winner a Tory contestant. But the public opinion in England was becoming ready and conscious, newspapers sided with Wilkes and public discussion clubs started meeting regularly in all the great industrial cities. They debated on the principles of democracy, on religious toleration, on political matters.

Wilkes demonstrated how corrupt the Commons had become and that tyranny was always at hand, even in the liberal England. His victories brought new methods of rising public consent, new ways of being a politician.