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William Pitt the Younger

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   The Rt Hon William Pitt
   William Pitt the Younger
     __________________________________________________________________

   Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
   In office
   19 December 1783 –  14 March 1801
   10 May 1804 – 23 January 1806
   Preceded by The Duke of Portland
   Henry Addington
   Succeeded by Henry Addington
   The Lord Grenville
     __________________________________________________________________

   Chancellor of the Exchequer
   In office
   July 10, 1782 –  March 31, 1783
   December 19, 1783 – March 14, 1801
   May 10, 1804 – January 23, 1806
   Preceded by Lord John Cavendish
   Lord John Cavendish
   Henry Addington
   Succeeded by Lord John Cavendish
   Henry Addington
   Lord Henry Petty
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born 28 May 1759
   Hayes, Kent
   Died 23 January 1806 (age 46)
   London
   Political party Independent Whig

   William Pitt the Younger ( 28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British
   politician of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He
   served as Prime Minister from 1783 to 1801, and again from 1804 until
   his death. He is known as "William Pitt the Younger" to distinguish him
   from his father, William Pitt the Elder, who also served as Prime
   Minister of Great Britain.

   The younger Pitt's prime ministerial tenure, which came during the
   reign of George III, was dominated by major events in Europe, including
   the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Pitt, although often
   referred to as a Tory, always considered himself to be an "independent
   Whig" and was generally opposed to the development of a strict partisan
   political system.

Early life

   William Pitt the Younger, second son of William Pitt the Elder
   (afterwards Earl of Chatham) and Hester Pitt, 1st Baroness Chatham, was
   born in Hayes, Kent. Pitt the Younger's father was an important British
   statesman, as was his maternal uncle, George Grenville. Pitt the
   Younger was the fourth of five children; his elder brother, John Pitt,
   also had a political career.

   William Pitt the Younger, sickly as a boy, was educated at private
   school by the Reverend Edward Wilson. An intelligent child, Pitt
   quickly became proficient in Spanish and Greek. In 1773, aged fourteen
   years, he attended Pembroke Hall at the University of Cambridge, where
   he studied political philosophy, Classics, mathematics, chemistry, and
   history. In 1776, Pitt, plagued by poor health, took advantage of a
   little-used privilege available only to the sons of noblemen, and chose
   to graduate without having to pass examinations. While at Cambridge, he
   befriended the young William Wilberforce, who would become a lifelong
   friend.

   Pitt's father, who had by then been created Earl of Chatham, died in
   1778. As a younger son, Pitt the Younger received a small inheritance.
   He received legal education at Lincoln's Inn and was called to the bar.

Early political career

   During the general elections of September 1780, Pitt contested the
   University of Cambridge seat, but lost. Still intent to enter
   Parliament, Pitt, with the help of his university comrade, Charles
   Manners, 4th Duke of Rutland, secured the patronage of James Lowther.
   Lowther effectively controlled the pocket borough of Appleby; a
   by-election in that constituency sent Pitt to the House of Commons in
   January 1781. Pitt's entry into parliament is somewhat ironic; Pitt
   later rallied against the very same rotten boroughs that gained him his
   seat.

   In Parliament, the youthful Pitt cast aside the withdrawn and aloof
   nature that characterised him during his university days, emerging as a
   noted parliamentarian and debater. Pitt originally aligned himself with
   prominent Whigs such as Charles James Fox. With the Whigs, Pitt
   denounced the continuation of the American War of Independence. Instead
   he proposed that the Prime Minister, Lord North, make peace with the
   rebellious American colonies. Pitt also supported parliamentary reform
   measures, including a proposal that would have checked electoral
   corruption. He renewed his friendship with William Wilberforce, with
   whom he frequently met in the gallery of the House of Commons, and they
   formed a lasting friendship.

   After Lord North's ministry collapsed in 1782, the Whig Charles
   Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham was appointed Prime
   Minister. Pitt was offered the minor post of Vice-Treasurer of Ireland;
   but he refused, considering the post too subordinate. Lord Rockingham
   died only three months after coming to power; he was succeeded by
   another Whig, William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne. Many Whigs who had
   formed a part of the Rockingham ministry, including Charles James Fox,
   now refused to serve under the new Prime Minister. Pitt, however, was
   comfortable joining the Shelburne Government; he was appointed
   Chancellor of the Exchequer.

   Fox, who became Pitt's lifelong political rival, then joined a
   coalition with Lord North, with whom he collaborated to bring about the
   defeat of the Shelburne administration. When Lord Shelburne resigned in
   1783, King George III, who despised Fox, offered to appoint Pitt to the
   office of Prime Minister. But Pitt wisely declined, for he knew he
   would be incapable of securing the support of the House of Commons. The
   Fox-North Coalition rose to power in a Government nominally headed by
   William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland.

   Pitt, who had been stripped of his post as Chancellor of the Exchequer,
   joined the Opposition. He raised the issue of parliamentary reform in
   order to strain the uneasy Fox-North Coalition, which included both
   supporters and detractors of reform. He did not advocate an expansion
   of the electoral franchise, but he did seek to address bribery and
   rotten boroughs. Though his proposal failed, many reformers in
   Parliament came to regard him as their leader, instead of Charles James
   Fox.

Rise to power

   The Fox-North Coalition fell in December 1783, after Fox introduced
   Edmund Burke's bill to reform the British East India Company to gain
   the patronage he so greatly lacked while the King refused to support
   him. The King was opposed to the bill; when it passed in the House of
   Commons, he secured its defeat in the House of Lords by threatening to
   regard anyone who voted for it as his enemy. Following the bill's
   failure in the Upper House, George III dismissed the coalition and
   finally entrusted the premiership to William Pitt after having offered
   the position to him three times previously. Pitt, at the age of
   twenty-four, became Great Britain's youngest Prime Minister ever, and
   was ridiculed for his youth. A popular ditty commented that it was "a
   sight to make all nations stand and stare: a kingdom trusted to a
   schoolboy's care." However, although it was widely predicted that the
   new "mince-pie administration" would not last the Christmas season, it
   survived for seventeen years.

   So as to reduce the power of the Opposition, Pitt offered Charles James
   Fox and his allies posts in the Cabinet; Pitt's refusal to include Lord
   North, however, thwarted his efforts. The new Government was
   immediately on the defensive, and was defeated on a Motion of No
   Confidence in January 1784. Pitt, however, took the unprecedented step
   of refusing to resign despite such a defeat. He retained the support of
   the King, who could not tolerate the Fox-North Coalition. He also
   received the support of the House of Lords, which passed supportive
   motions, as well as much support from the country at large, in the form
   of many petitions approving of his appointment (which influenced some
   local MPs to switch their support to Pitt) and he was accorded the
   Freedom of the City of London. Whilst returning from this ceremony the
   attendees chose to pull Pitt's coach home themselves as a sign of
   respect. When passing the Whig club the coach came under attack from a
   group of men who tried to assault Pitt. When news of this spread it was
   assumed that Fox and his associates had tried to bring down Pitt by any
   means. Pitt gained great popularity with the public at large as "Honest
   Billy" who was seen as a refreshing change from the dishonesty,
   corruption and lack of principles widely associated with both Fox and
   North.

   Despite a series of defeats in the House of Commons, Pitt defiantly
   remained in office, watching the Coalition's majority shrink as some
   Members of Parliament left the Opposition to join his side. The
   defectors, however, were not sufficiently numerous to give Pitt a
   majority. In March 1784, Parliament was dissolved, and a general
   election ensued. An electoral defeat for the Government was out of the
   question, for Pitt enjoyed the support of King George III. The aid of
   patronage and bribes paid by the Treasury were normally expected to be
   enough to secure the Government a comfortable majority in the House of
   Commons but on this occasion the government reaped much popular support
   as well. In most popular constituencies the election was fought between
   clear candidates representing Pitt or Fox/North. Early returns showed a
   massive swing to Pitt, with the result that many opposing MPs either
   defected, stood down or made deals with their opponents to avoid
   expensive defeats. A notable exception came in Fox's own constituency
   of Westminster, which had one of the largest electorates in the
   country. In a contest estimated to have cost a quarter of the total
   spending in the entire country, Fox bitterly fought against two Pittite
   candidates to secure one of the two seats for the constituency, with
   every possible campaigning method tried. When polling finished massive
   legal wranglings ensued, involving the examination of every single vote
   cast, which dragged on for more than a year. In the meantime Fox sat
   for the pocket borough of Orkney but many saw the dragging out of the
   result as excessive vindictiveness on the part of Pitt and eventually
   the examinations were abandoned, with Fox declared elected. Elsewhere
   Pitt won a massive personal triumph when he was successfully elected a
   Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge, a constituency he
   had long coveted and which he would continue to represent for the
   remainder of his life.

First Ministry

   His administration secure, Pitt could begin to enact his agenda. His
   first major piece of legislation as Prime Minister was the India Act
   1784, which re-organised the British East India Company and kept a
   watch over corruption. The India Act created a new Board of Control to
   oversee the affairs of the East India Company. It differed from Fox's
   failed India Bill 1783 and specified that the Prime Minister was to be
   a member of the Board and that the Home Secretary/Foreign Secretary
   (then Lord Sydney) was to be the President. The Act also centralised
   British rule in India by reducing the power of the Governors of Bombay
   and Madras and by increasing that of the Governor-General, Cornwallis.
   Further augmentations and clarifications of the Governor-General's
   authority were made in 1786, presumably by Lord Sydney, and presumably
   as a result of the Company's setting up of Penang with their own
   Superintended (Governor), Captain Francis Light, in 1786.

   In domestic politics, Pitt also concerned himself with the cause of
   parliamentary reform. In 1785, he introduced a bill to remove the
   representation of thirty-six rotten boroughs, and to extend the
   electoral franchise to more individuals. Pitt's support for the bill,
   however, was not strong enough to prevent its defeat in the House of
   Commons. The bill introduced in 1785 was Pitt's last reform proposal
   introduced in Parliament.

   Another important domestic issue with which Pitt had to concern himself
   was the national debt, which had increased dramatically due to the
   rebellion of the North American colonies. Pitt sought to eliminate the
   national debt by imposing new taxes. Pitt also introduced measures to
   reduce smuggling and fraud. In 1786, he instituted a sinking fund to
   reduce the national debt. Each year, £1,000,000 of the surplus revenue
   raised by new taxes was to be added to the fund so that it could
   accumulate interest; eventually, the money in the fund was to be used
   to pay off the national debt. The system was extended in 1792 so as to
   take into account any new loans taken by the Government.

   Pitt sought European alliances to restrict French influence, forming
   the Triple Alliance with Prussia and the United Provinces in 1788.
   During the Nootka Sound Controversy in 1790, Pitt took advantage of the
   alliance to force Spain to give up its claim to exclusive control over
   the western coast of North and South America. The Alliance, however,
   failed to produce any other important benefits for Great Britain.

   In 1788, Great Britain faced a major crisis when King George III fell
   victim to a blood disorder, porphyria, unknown at this time. If
   protracted and untreated, it has serious mentally debilitating effects.
   In fact King George III was thought to be suffering from some form of
   mental disorder. The laws of the kingdom included no provisions
   relating to insane monarchs; hence, it was unclear as to how a Regency
   could be put into place. All factions in Parliament agreed that the
   only viable candidate for Regent was the King's eldest son, HRH The
   Prince George, Prince of Wales. The Prince, however, was a supporter of
   Charles James Fox; had he come to power, he would almost surely have
   dismissed Pitt. However, he did not have such an opportunity, as
   Parliament spent months debating legal technicalities relating to the
   Regency. Fortunately for Pitt, George III recovered in February 1789,
   just after a Regency Bill had been introduced and passed in the House
   of Commons.

   The general elections of 1790 resulted in a majority for the
   Government, and Pitt continued as Prime Minister. In 1791, he proceeded
   to address one of the problems facing the growing British Empire: the
   future of British Canada. By the Constitutional Act of 1791, the
   province of Quebec was divided into two separate provinces: the
   predominantly French Lower Canada and the predominantly English Upper
   Canada. In 1792, George III appointed Pitt to the honorary post of Lord
   Warden of the Cinque Ports. The King had offered him a Knighthood of
   the Garter, but he refused, instead proposing that the honour go to his
   elder brother, the second Earl of Chatham.

French Revolution

   After the French Revolution began in 1789, Pitt's government attempted
   to delay intervention in European conflicts for as long as possible.
   The aggression of the French revolutionary government, however, did not
   permit Great Britain to remain neutral. Especially alarming to the
   British were decrees issued by the French in 1792, vowing to aid any
   attempts other Europeans may undertake to overthrow their own
   monarchies. On 1 February 1793, the French, believing that they could
   precipitate a British Revolution, declared war on Great Britain,
   forcing Pitt to reciprocate by declaring war on France. Pitt did not
   seek to restore the French monarchy by crushing the revolutionaries,
   instead confining Great Britain to the protection of its own interests.
   He agreed to take part in the First Coalition, an alliance with
   Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, Spain, and the United Provinces.

   The French Revolution encouraged many in Great Britain to once again
   speak of parliamentary reform, an issue which had not been at the
   political forefront since Pitt's reform bill was defeated in 1785. The
   reformers, however, were quickly labelled as radicals and as associates
   of the French revolutionaries. Parliament began to enact repressive
   legislation in order to silence the reformers. Individuals who
   published seditious material were punished, and, in 1794, the privilege
   of the writ of habeas corpus was suspended. Other repressive measures
   included the Seditious Meetings Act (which restricted the right of
   individuals to assemble publicly) and the Combination Acts (which
   restricted the formation of societies or organisations that favoured
   political reforms). Problems manning the Royal Navy also led to Pitt to
   introduce the Quota System in 1795 addition to the existing system of
   Impressment.

   The war with France was extremely expensive, straining Great Britain's
   finances. In 1797, Pitt was forced to protect the kingdom's gold
   reserves by preventing individuals from exchanging banknotes for gold.
   Great Britain would continue to use paper money for over two decades.
   Pitt was also forced to introduce Great Britain's first ever income
   tax. The new tax helped offset losses in indirect tax revenue, which
   had been caused by a decline in trade. Despite the efforts of Pitt and
   the British allies, the French continued to defeat the members of the
   First Coalition, which collapsed in 1798. A Second Coalition,
   consisting of Great Britain, Austria, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire,
   was formed, but it, too, failed to overawe the French. The fall of the
   Second Coalition with the defeat of the Austrians at Marengo ( 14 June
   1800) left Great Britain facing France alone.

Resignation

   The French Revolution revived religious and political problems in
   Ireland, a realm under the rule of the King of Great Britain. In 1798,
   Irish nationalists even attempted a rebellion, believing that the
   French would help them overthrow the monarchy. Pitt firmly believed
   that the only solution to the problem was a union of Great Britain and
   Ireland. The union was established by the Act of Union 1800;
   compensation and patronage ensured the support of the Irish Parliament.
   Great Britain and Ireland were formally united into a single realm, the
   United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, on 1 January 1801.

   Pitt sought to inaugurate the new kingdom by granting concessions to
   Roman Catholics, who formed a majority in Ireland, by abolishing
   various political restrictions under which they suffered. George III,
   however, did not share the same view. The King was strongly opposed to
   Catholic Emancipation; he argued that to grant additional liberty would
   violate his coronation oath, in which he had promised to protect the
   established Church of England. Pitt, unable to change the King's strong
   views, resigned on 16 February 1801, so as to allow Henry Addington,
   his political friend, to form a new administration. At about the same
   time, however, the King suffered a renewed bout of madness; thus,
   Addington could not receive his formal appointment. Though he had
   resigned, Pitt temporarily continued to discharge his duties; on 18
   February 1801, he even brought forward the annual Budget. Power was
   transferred from Pitt to Addington on 14 March, when the King
   recovered.

   Pitt supported the new administration, but with little enthusiasm; he
   frequently absented himself from Parliament, preferring to remain in
   Walmer Castle, where he helped organise a local volunteer force in
   anticipation of a French invasion. After a series of British military
   victories, the French agreed to make peace in the Treaty of Amiens
   (1802). By 1803, however, the war had begun once more. Although
   Addington had previously invited him to join the Cabinet, Pitt
   preferred to join the Opposition, becoming increasingly critical of the
   Government's policies. Addington, unable to face the combined
   opposition of Pitt and Charles James Fox, saw his majority gradually
   evaporate. By May 1804, Addington, who had lost his parliamentary
   support, had decided to resign.

Second Ministry

   Pitt returned to the premiership on 10 May 1804. He had originally
   planned to form a broad coalition government, but faced the opposition
   of George III to the inclusion of Fox. Moreover, many of Pitt's former
   supporters, including the allies of Henry Addington, joined the
   Opposition. Thus, Pitt's Second Ministry was considerably weaker than
   the first.

   The British Government suffered under the unrelenting pressure of the
   French Emperor, Napoleon I. Thanks to Pitt's efforts, Great Britain
   joined the Third Coalition, an alliance that also involved Austria,
   Russia, and Sweden. In October 1805, the British Admiral, Horatio
   Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, won a crushing victory in the Battle of
   Trafalgar, ensuring British naval supremacy for the remainder of the
   war. Nevertheless, the Coalition collapsed, having suffered significant
   defeats at the Battle of Ulm (October 1805) and the Battle of
   Austerlitz (December 1805). The setbacks took a toll on Pitt's health,
   which was worsened by a fondness for port. On 23 January 1806, Pitt
   died due to liver disease; he was unmarried and left no children.

   Pitt's debts amounted to £40,000 when he died, but Parliament agreed to
   pay them on his behalf. A motion was made to honour him with a public
   funeral and a monument; it passed despite the opposition of Fox. Pitt's
   body was buried in Westminster Abbey on 22 February, having lain in
   state for two days in the Palace of Westminster. Pitt was succeeded as
   Prime Minister by William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, who
   headed an administration that included Charles James Fox.

Legacy

   Arms of William Pitt the Younger
   Arms of William Pitt the Younger

   William Pitt the Younger was a powerful Prime Minister who consolidated
   the powers of his office. Even though he was sometimes opposed by
   members of his own Cabinet, he helped define the role of the Prime
   Minister as the supervisor and co-ordinator of the various Government
   departments. He was not, however, the supreme political influence in
   the nation, for the King remained the dominant force in Government.
   Pitt was Prime Minister not because he enjoyed the support of the
   electorate or of the House of Commons, but because he retained the
   favour of the Crown.

   One of Pitt's most important accomplishments was a rehabilitation of
   the nation's finances after the American War of Independence. Pitt
   helped the Government manage the mounting national debt, and made
   changes to the tax system in order to improve its efficiency. Pitt's
   other domestic plans, however, were not as successful; he failed to
   secure parliamentary reform, Catholic Emancipation, or the abolition of
   slave trade.

   William Pitt the Younger was a personal friend of Thomas Raikes 1741-
   1813, Esquire, merchant & banker in London and Governor of the Bank of
   England during the crisis of 1797 when war had so diminished gold
   reserves that the government prohibited the Bank of England (national
   bank of Britain) from paying out in gold and ordered at the Bank of
   England to replace the payment out of gold by banknotes. On February
   26, 1797 the Bank of England, under the direction of Thomas Raikes
   issued the first £1 and £2 English banknotes.

Quotations

     * "I return you many thanks for the honour you have done me; but
       Europe is not be saved by any single man. England has saved herself
       by her exertions, and will, I trust, save Europe by her example."
       (reply, at the Guildhall, 1805, in response to the Lord Mayor
       toasting him as the 'Saviour of Europe'. From: Ellis & Treasure
       Britain's Prime Ministers (2005), p.80)
     * "Roll up that map; it will not be wanted these ten years." (On a
       map of Europe, after hearing the news of the Battle of Austerlitz.
       From: Stanhope's Life of the Rt. Hon. William Pitt (1862), vol. iv,
       p.369)
     * "Oh, my country! how I love my country." (Attributed last words,
       from: Stanhope's Life of the Rt. Hon. William Pitt (1862), vol. iv,
       p.382)
     * "Oh, my country! how I leave my country." (Attributed last words,
       from: Stanhope's Life of the Rt. Hon. William Pitt (1862), vol. iv,
       p.391)
     * "My country! oh, my country!" ((Attributed last words, from: G.
       Rose Diary 23 January 1806)
     * "I think I could eat one of Bellamy's veal pies." (Alternative
       attributed last words)
     * "Pie is the fuel of Britain."

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