ABSTRACT
Between early 1798 and mid-1800 Pitt stood at the height of his power and prestige. He actually seemed to have fulfilled his disappointed hope, when North fell in 1782, of ‘presenting to the eyes of the world, what he had read with rapture, but almost despaired of seeing – a patriot King, presiding over a united people’. 1 He persuaded the King to set an example by heading the donations to the great patriotic subscription to pay for the war, which the nation enthusiastically followed. The public flocked to join volunteer regiments against the menace of invasion. Militia regiments volunteered their services to go to Ireland to suppress the revolt which broke out in 1798, and in 1799 many thousands of militiamen enthusiastically volunteered to join the regular army for the invasion of Holland. The Irish revolt, though locally alarming, was never as widespread as many had feared and was quickly suppressed. Most of the remaining rump of Opposition MPs absented themselves from Parliament, facilitating Pitt’s success in pressing through such extremely sensitive measures as the income tax in 1799 and Union with Ireland in 1800. All Pitt needed to elevate his reputation above all his predecessors was victory when war broke out again on the Continent in March 1799. But again victory eluded him. Instead his powerful position eroded in a process of virtually irretrievable decline.
