ABSTRACT
When Henry Addington stood up as Prime Minister in the House of Commons to announce the resumption of war with France in 1803, he described the readiness of the British people to join the volunteers as ‘an insurrection of loyalty’ – a phrase that playfully conflated current anxieties about military activity, political unrest and loyalism. Significantly, he chose to address the House for this speech in the uniform of the Woodley Cavalry Volunteers, the Berkshire volunteer unit of which he was Captain Commandant.
