ABSTRACT
Parliamentary majorities based on the success of cogent argument, of course, was the ideal. Practical politics required both the support of the King and at least a cadre of regular support in both houses of parliament. A good deal of political organisation took place under Pitt; people should certainly not consider that the so-called ‘spin doctors’ and ‘image manipulators’ of the late twentieth century had no precursors in late eighteenth-century Britain. William Pitt wanted Roman Catholic emancipation to accompany the Act of Union between Britain and Ireland; George would not have it. Pitt resigned because he had lost the confidence of the monarch, not that of parliament. Portland also extracted from Pitt two policy concessions important to his grouping: clear commitment to the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France and movement towards greater religious toleration in Ireland.
