ABSTRACT
William Pitt expected imposing supporting demonstrations and, meanwhile, he had good reason to concentrate upon the highly important British and Irish Bills that were being prepared in the hope of securing an agreed Anglo-Irish commercial settlement. Such a settlement was urgent because the new “independence” of the Irish Parliament made it impossible to disregard, any longer, Irish protests against the height of British tariffs upon Irish goods when Irish tariffs against England were, in the main, so low. Even before Pitt’s worst troubles on Irish Trade and the Taxes, his speech of March 9, 1785 bears obvious witness that Charles James Fox was gaining ground enough in the Commons to give the Minister anxiety.
