ABSTRACT
The mobilisation of the English militia in late 1792 was followed in 1793 by the successful imposition of a militia system on the Irish population. William Pitt entered Parliament as member for a closed 'rotten borough' and without contact with the wider public until he joined the agitation for parliamentary reform. At a time of renewed radical movement for political reform, and against a background of direct popular action in Revolutionary France, he admitted that it was 'a bad precedent to establish'. A brief economic recession and the outcry against his East India Declaratory Act were hiccups in 1788, but the ensuing Regency Crisis of 1788-9 served to remind the public of Pitt's merits compared with his likely successors. The East India proprietors formed a defence committee which lobbied chartered corporations throughout the country for a wider backing, while the initial City address, supporting the King's decision to change his Ministers, provided the lead for the country.
