ABSTRACT
The prospect of the invasion of Britain and issues of national defence, including the mobilization of civilian manpower, played a crucial role in high politics during the early years of the Napoleonic War. National defence became politicized to a greater extent than it had during the Anglo-French War of 1793-1801. This was partly because the immediacy of the threat of invasion in 1803 injected greater emotion into parliamentary debates on the subject of civilian mobilization. The real source of this politicization was, however, the parliamentary instability that resulted from the resignation of William Pitt as Prime Minister in 1801, which presented the Opposition with opportunities to attack the government in Parliament more effectively than had been possible for more than fifteen years. This was manifest in the declining parliamentary majorities on votes over military manpower issues that resulted in Pitt’s successor, Henry Addington, resigning as Prime Minister in the spring of 1804.
