Action Of Prime Minister Pitt

Above : Portrait Of Lord Cornwallis

Pitt, when making his famous defence of the Union project in January 1799, had broadly hinted that, should success in this be achieved, the Catholic disabilities would probably soon be removed. That he really desired that this should be done, and done so quickly as to seem a direct result of the Union, there can be no doubt. He soon, however, realised that he had greatly underestimated the strength of the King’s opposition and the difficulty, perhaps impossibility, of obtaining his consent. This discovery evidently disconcerted and even for a time alarmed him, as any violent display of hostility on the part of the Catholics would be most inconvenient, or possibly, even now, dangerous. His chagrin was shared by Castlereagh and still more by Cornwallis.

Whether from a conviction of the hopelessness of the attempt; from a personal sentiment which rendered him unwilling to trouble the mental repose of the King, or from some less worthy motive, Pitt made no steady and determined effort to carry out his policy. He simply resigned office (February, 1801), and was followed in this step by Cornwallis, and other important members of the Cabinet. In March he wrote to the King promising never more, as long as his reign lasted, to bring forward the question of emancipation.

In 1804 Pitt returned to office. England, faced by the full power of Napoleon, was then in sore straits, and a firm hand was needed to steer the ship of State, so that patriotism demanded the sacrifice of every consideration other than the country’s safety. For this then he can scarcely be blamed, but in other respects his treatment of the Catholics on the question of their emancipation, and the little effort that he made to redeem what were practically, if not actually, pledges on the faith of which they had refrained from strong opposition to the Union, is highly discreditable and has left a stain on his public honour which cannot be effaced.