| Copyright | ||
|
Home Domestic Affairs, 1760-1815 1760-1815; Part 9 |
1760-1815; Part 9The second period of Pitt's administration - from 1793 to 1801 - is a period of war, in consequence of the French Revolution. The earlier effects of that Revolution upon British politics have already been referred to. When the war broke out, in 1793, all attempts at reform : ceased. " One cannot repair one's house in a hurricane," said a contemporary in Pitt's defence, and instead of reform came coercion. For eight years in succession the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended, so that a person could be kept in prison for an indefinite period without being brought up for trial (If they were imprisoned on the charge of treasonable practices). Bills were passed by which political meetings might be stopped, political societies suppressed, and political refugees from other countries excluded. Yet the great majority of the nation, fearful of a revolution at home, demanded such measures. The bulk of the Whig opposition, including Burke, joined Pitt in 1793, and the opposition henceforward was confined to Fox and his supporters, who sank to such small numbers that a couple of hackney coaches, it was said, would comfortably contain them. Meantime Pitt was driven to desperate straits for money; enormous taxes were raised, and the National Debt went up by leaps and bounds.The "gagging" Acts - as the coercive Acts were called - of Pitt can be defended, but other parts of his administration during this period are more difficult to excuse. In the first place, as we have seen, his administration of the war was, in some respects, open to grave censure. And, secondly, it cannot be considered that his policy in Ireland was successful. Of this something will be said later. All that need be mentioned here is that the Union of Great Britain with Ireland was finally achieved in 1800, and that when the king refused to sanction the emancipation of the Roman Catholics, which, it was understood, would be accomplished along with the Union, Pitt was by dictates of honour compelled in 1801 to resign. To Pitt succeeded one of his followers, Addington. He it was who made the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, and conducted the early stages of the war when it was renewed in 1803. But he was quite unequal to the position. "Pitt is to Addington What London is to Paddington", sang Canning, rather unkindly. And as the administration grew more Paddingtonian, it was felt that the tried pilot must be recalled. Pitt returned to power in 1804, and lived long enough to see the crowning victory of Trafalgar in October, 1805. But six weeks later Austerlitz made Napoleon supreme in Europe, and this victory, and the impeachment of his closest ally, Dundas Lord Melville, for malversation of funds (A vote of censure on Melville preceded the impeachment. In the actual vote, the numbers were equal; but the speaker, after a silence of many minutes, gave his casting vote against Melville. There ensued a scene of wild exultation amongst Pitt's opponents, Pitt crushed his cocked hat over his brow to conceal the tears trickling down his cheeks; and his younger supporters, forming a screen round him, led him away from the House), broke down his already enfeebled health, and in January, 1806, he died. |
Chronology |
| copyright by www.uuo-ununoctium.info |