With all these grievances, Frederick soon followed his father’s example of caballing against his sire, and he found plenty of sympathy from those who were in opposition to the court and the Government. He had not been long in England before an opportunity was afforded him of playing to the popular gallery by an unpopular demand of the Crown to Parliament to make good a pretended deficiency in the Civil List of £115,000; it was really a veiled form of making the King a further grant. The measure was violently opposed by the Opposition, but Walpole succeeded in carrying it through the House of Commons. A great deal of ill-feeling against the court was produced in the country by this extortionate demand, and the _Craftsman_ did its best to fan the flame of discontent. The Prince of Wales, who was exceedingly sore at his father’s meanness towards him, pretended to disapprove of the King’s conduct in making this demand, and was inconsiderate enough to say so to certain personages, and his words, repeated from mouth to mouth, did not lose in the journey. Pulteney and Bolingbroke, and other prominent members of the Opposition, quoted with approval what the Prince had said, and condoled with him on the way in which he was treated by his father. The rumour of this reaching the King’s ears incensed him the more against his son, but he could not act merely on hearsay. He had no tangible ground of complaint against him, for the Prince was cautious. Another cause which drew the Prince towards the Opposition was his liking for literature and talent. He seems to have had a genuine taste for _les belles lettres_, he wrote poetry in French and English, some of it not absolutely indifferent.[92] The cleverest writers sided with the Opposition and the polished periods of Bolingbroke, the eloquence of Wyndham, and the wit of Chesterfield and Pulteney, all appealed to him. Bolingbroke, especially, gained influence with the Prince, and in time became his political mentor. Apart from the political aspect of the union, there seems to have been a sincere friendship between the two. Soon after Frederick came to England, Bolingbroke made overtures to him, to which the Prince responded graciously, and the first interview between them, a secret one, took place by appointment at the house of a mutual friend. Bolingbroke who was the first to arrive, was shown into the library, and was passing the time by turning over the leaves of a bulky tome. The Prince entered the room unannounced. The book fell to the floor, and in his haste to bend the knee, Bolingbroke’s foot slipped, and had not the Prince stepped forward to support him he would have fallen to the ground. “My lord,” said Frederick, with exquisite tact, as he raised him, “I trust this may be an omen of my succeeding in raising your fortunes.”