Biography

William Pitt the Younger was born on May 28, 1759 to William Pitt, the first Earl of Chatham. Though sickly as a child and a young man, he was called to the bar and became Prime Minister in 1783. While in power, Pitt worked to reduce the staggering national debt by introducing sinking funds. He was also responsible for introducing the East India Bill, which set up a system by which English governors in India would be monitored, and if necessary, disciplined. In 1789, however, at the outbreak of the French Revolution, Pitt was unable to maintain a peaceful and neutral England. Though he refused to intervene and restore the French monarchy, England was nonetheless sucked into a war with France on February 1, 1793. Pitt's most famous legacies, however, are his suspension of Habeas Corpus in 1794, that would last until 1801, and his instrumental role in the Act of Union, which united Ireland and England into one country. Though he was in favor of this union, several of Pitt's supplementary proposals were defeated, and he resigned from Parliament in protest, an action that eventually helped lead to George III's mental illness. Although Pitt again became Prime Minister three years later, his second ministry was much less successful and shorter lived than the first -- it lasted only one year. Pitt died on January 23, 1806, one year after his final retirement from politics.

Role in the Conversation

Despite his high governmental office, Pitt was not a very prominent figure either during his life or in English history -- those who knew him often commented that he had a habit of slipping into the background. Nonetheless, several of his bills had quite large effects on the political discussions of the day. In the context of the radicals, the suspension of habeas corpus, which led to the trials of not only Thomas Paine, but of also of John Horne Tooke, and Thomas Hardy.

Summary of his Speeches on April 16 and 17 1794, November 10 and 23, 1795, and April 19, 1799

For Pitt, the justification for the suspension of Habeas Corpus comes in his worry that England is in a time of crisis and that radical, underground societies will try and succeed to attack Parliament. He makes it clear that these societies are not representative of the people of England, but rather represent "the dark designs of a few, making use of the name of the people to govern all: a plan founded in the arrogance of wretches, the outcasts of society, tending to enrich themselves by depriving of property, and of life, all those who were distinguished either for personal worth, or for opulence" (31). Because of the depraved nature of these societies, Pitt argues, it should be obvious to the moral Englishman that suppression is absolutely necessary.

Even after Pitt's the success of the original motion to suspend Habeas Corpus, the issue remains an important one in Pitt's speeches. Not only does Pitt take pains to acknowledge and refute criticism, but as late as 1799, he continues to introduce and pass bills to increase restrictions on radical political societies. In 1799, he introduces a bill that will prohibit all not only all secret societies, but all those that take money at the door, and all debating societies, because they "tend to undermine the principles of morality in the minds of those by whom they are frequented" (76).