...nfluence. When he ascended the throne, in 1760, George promoted Bute to a privy councillor, and, afterwards, a secretary of state; and, when Pitt and the Duke of Newcastle retired from the cabinet, Bute was made prime minister. He soon became unpopular, chiefly because the King had discarded the great Pitt, and preferred this Scotch adventurer, whose bad advice was misleading his sovereign. Insi...