ABSTRACT
The development of early industrial Britain rested on two pillars–free trade and a new moral order. The political needs of the early Hanoverian Whigs, had necessitated ecclesiastical promotion on primarily secular grounds; in consequence, spiritual leadership was insecure. While Prime Minister, William Pitt fought a duel with the acting Leader of the Opposition–George Tierney–beneath the rotting remains of a hanged highwayman on Putney Heath on Whit Sunday 1798 to satisfy honour impugned during a bitter parliamentary exchange on national security. The incident led to a sharp exchange between Pitt and one of his few close friends, William Wilberforce, the leader of a new and increasingly persuasive pressure group of evangelical Christians. Wilberforce's good offices were instrumental in securing the nomination of T. B. Macaulay to one of the two additional seats given to Yorkshire. As Wilberforce and Dr Isaac Milner perceived, the problem was that the Established Church needed urgent reform.
