Who was Pitt the Younger? | Pitt and Parliamentary Reform

William Pitt or Pitt the Younger was Britain's Prime Minister for much of the war with revolutionary France fearing the spread of revolution to Britain Pitt was responsible for a series of measures designed to suppress radical societies calling for political reform this included the trial of Thomas Paine in 1792 for seditious libel prompted by the publication of the second part of the Rights of Man earlier that year Pitt described this as a monstrous doctrine under which the weakened ignorant was seduced to overturn the government law property security religion order and everything valuable in this country the return of a guilty verdict in Payne's trial paved the way for further arrests culminating in the treason trials in 1794 of the reformers thomas hardy john horne tooke and john fell wall all of whom were acquitted Pitt also suspended habeas corpus in 1794 meaning radicals could be imprisoned without charge and introduced the treasonable Practices Act and the seditious meetings act in 1795 the first measure made it illegal to imagine invent desire or intend the death of the monarch the second limited the size of public meetings to no more than fifty people these were followed up with the combinations acts of 1799 and 1800 which made any Association illegal regardless of whether it had been formed for political purposes or to seek improved pay and conditions from employers despite this record for which he is better known today Pitt had been one of Parliament's leading advocates of reform while he never supported universal male suffrage or annual column ins he was broadly in favor of removing MPs from corrupt rotten boroughs and creating up to 100 new seats for respectable County constituencies and London boroughs Pitt made several attempts to introduce measures for parliamentary reform including one while he was Prime Minister in 1785 but the king along with most MPs was opposed they felt the existing system returned a perfectly functional Parliament argued few outside London actually wanted reform and feared change might lead to radical reform in the future Pitt was responsible for one major reform during the war with France the 1800 act of union with Ireland which dissolved the Irish parliament and added a hundred Irish MPs to Westminster this was prompted by rising sectarianism rebellion and even a failed French invasion as an inducement to agree to the Act of Union the Irish had been promised Catholic emancipation which would have allowed Catholics to sit as MPs and hold high office this was a reform too far for King George the 3rd who felt such a move violated his coronation oath to uphold the Protestant Constitution Pitt resigned over the issue in 1801 and Catholics would have to wait until 1829 to sit in Parliament [Music] you

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Published: Thu Jan 23 2020