Ich, This petition was put to the commons by an MP who quoted it as a public petition and listed the names of the members of the public who had signed it. No link, I saw this on live broadcast from the Commons.
I liked ( hail even ) the reference to Lord North.
one of the Kings frenz 1783 who lost power to Pitt.
Pitt who was 24 demanded to be Prime Minister (*) and no lower - but it wasnt this first office - he had been chancellor for three months a year earlier
(*) yeah yeah kings first minister and first lord of the treasury - prime minister dates from around 1860
as for public confidence - J H Plumb did write a book
Voting Patterns in the eighteenth century. ( big Idea - the public had more choice in the general election 1714 than they did in the 1783 one )