ABSTRACT
Pitt was born in Kent, the fourth child of William Pitt the Elder. His birth occurred at a time of great success for his father as Prime Minister during the Seven Years War. He resigned in 1801 because the King would not permit him to introduce Roman Catholic Emancipation as part of the package of measures associated with the Union of Ireland with Great Britain. While the 1784 general election ended what had become an increasingly bitter parliamentary and constitutional crisis, the calmer waters into which Pitt now sailed buoyed by reliable parliamentary majorities were still being buffeted by economic turbulence. In this situation, Pitt not unnaturally decided that cutting the debt had to be his government's first priority. In 1786, he introduced a new sinking fund. Only once was Pitts grip on power seriously threatened and that accidentally. Britain in the 1780s was still at least half a century away from the emergence of a clear two-party system.
