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Domestic Politics and the First Two Georges, 1714-1760
Pitt and Wesley
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Pitt and Wesley
In the early Hanoverian period, the nation, it has been said, had sunk into a condition of moral apathy rarely paralleled in our history. It was due, above all others, to two men, William Pitt and John Wesley, that Great Britain, towards the middle of the century, was roused from her torpor, and of these two men and their influence something must now be said. Pitt, after an education at Eton, went into the cavalry. He entered Parliament in 1735. He became an opponent, first as leader of "the Boys", of Walpole's corruption, and secondly, of Carteret's continental foreign policy; and the violent expression of his views was so congenial to the old Duchess of Marlborough that she left him a legacy of £ 10,000. Subsequently he had become paymaster of the forces in Pelham's administration, but had refused to take the enormous perquisites which had hitherto been connected with that office. From 1757 to 1761 Pitt was the real ruler of Great Britain. No doubt he was inconsistent, and in youth when in opposition attacked measures which he subsequently supported when in power. He has been described, and not without truth, as something of a charlatan. He loved ostentation and lacked simplicity. He was always something of an actor, and even for the most unimportant interviews his crutch and his sling (for he was a martyr to gout) were most carefully arranged (Pitt was very fond of reading aloud the tragedies of Shakespeare to his family, but, whenever he came to any light or comic parts, he used to give the book to someone else to read. "This anecdote", says a distinguished historian, "is characteristic of his whole life. He never unbent. He was always acting a party always self-conscious, always aiming at a false and unreal dignity"). And it must be admitted that his conduct to other ministers was overbearing and at times almost intolerable.
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Chronology
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