William Pitt

The year 1757 was one of discouragement to the British government, for scarcely one campaign had resulted successfully. Popular indignation was aroused against the Newcastle administration, and so violent was the temper of the country that Newcastle deemed it best to resign (November, 1757). A wave of popular feeling carried William Pitt into the ministry, as the first secretary of state and the actual prime minister. "The eyes of an afflicted, despairing nation," says a contemporary, "saw in this private gentleman, without birth and without fortune, the only saviour of England." Pitt, who was connected with none of the great Whig families of his day, became the leading minister, in spite of king, lords, and commons, because he was the only minister of his day in whom the people had absolute confidence.

Pitt's strength lay in his enthusiasm and incorruptibility. He was arrogant, affected, and deplorably unpractical and careless; but he was filled with patriotic fervor strikingly unlike the indifference, distrust, and helplessness of those who had preceded him. In an age of corruption, selfishness, and dilettante statesmanship, he was remarkable for his ability and honesty.

WILLIAM PITT, THE ELDER.

From a photograph of a painting by F. Hayder.

He was free from class prejudice and unusually keen in his judgment of men a true leader, in whom the middle class, the moneyed class of the nation, could have confidence. He taught the people to be hopeful, brave, and self-reliant, and to subordinate their individual interests to the interests of the country at large. In short, he was almost the only statesman of the century, except Walpole, who had a disinterested regard for England's future.

Two Years of Victory

Pitt's influence was felt immediately. A new treaty was made with Prussia, whereby a subsidy of £670,000 was to be paid to Prussia annually, for the purpose, as Pitt said, of winning America in Germany, by aiding Prussia to defeat France on the Continent. The duke of Cumberland as commander-in-chief was replaced by Ferdinand of Brunswick, who proved his ability, in August, 1759, by winning the victory of Minden, on the Weser, thereby driving the French out of Hesse and eventually forcing them back over the Rhine.

Events of even greater importance were taking place in India and America. In 1643 Robert Clive, a young Englishman, had been sent to Madras, where for three years his chief work had been the casting up of accounts. But in 1751 a war between native princes, involving both French and English in India, gave Clive his opportunity. At Arcot and Trichinopoli, in the Carnatic, he won victories over Dupleix, who in 1752 was recalled to France in disgrace. In 1754, during an absence of Clive in England, a native prince of the north seized Calcutta and thrust the captives into the garrison room of a factory there; famous thenceforth as the Black Hole of Calcutta, causing the death of a hundred and twenty-five men and women. Clive, returning in 1756, took a speedy vengeance on the despot, and in the battle of Plassey, June, 1757, defeated fifty thousand untrained native troops, and won for the British the protectorate of Bengal. This famous event gave to the East India Company the control of northeastern India. Lally, who was sent out by France to succeed Dupleix, failed in all his attempts to restore the supremacy of the French; and finally, in December, 1759, the battle of Wandewash practically ended the struggle in favor of Great Britain. In the Carnatic, one fortress after another fell into British hands, and at last, in January, 1761, Pondicherry was forced to surrender, and the power of the French in India was permanently broken. The responsibility for the loss of India rests, not with Labonrdounais, Dupleix, or Lally, but with the scandalously inefficient government of Louis XV. How France treated her generals may be inferred from the fact that Labourdonnais was thrown into the Bastile, Dupleix died ruined and broken-hearted, and Lally was condemned to death.

In America also success attended British arms. The campaign of 1755 had ended in the defeat and death of Braddock; of three expeditions against Canada, only one, that against New Brunswick, had succeeded, and even that success had been marred by the banishment of the inoffensive and innocent Acadians from Nova Scotia. In 1758, however, a change took place. Pitt thoroughly equipped three expeditions and placed them under the command of efficient men. Amherst, who was sent against Louisburg, captured the fortress, July 26, 1758, and obtained control of the island of Breton. Forbes took Fort Duquesne on December 25 of the same year. And finally, Wolfe, pushing westward from Louisburg, scaled the heights of the Plains of Abraham, before Quebec, and on September 13, 1759, won a great victory over the French commander, Montcalm. The surrender of Quebec followed five days later, and all Canada fell into the hands of the English. Only New Orleans remained to the French in America.

Thus the policy of Pitt, expensive though it was, received its full vindication.' Vast sums of money had been spent in equipping armies, in supporting the colonies, and in subsidizing Frederick II; yet Great Britain, in the period of commercial prosperity that followed, received back ten times as much as she had spent.

Accession and Policy of George III

While these exciting events were taking place, George II died, and was succeeded by his grandson, George III. The new king was a young man of twenty-two, who was strongly English in sympathies and was thoroughly imbued with a determination to rule as well as reign. He was resolved that he would not be held a prisoner, as his predecessors had been, by the autocratic Whig families who had controlled the government since 1688, but would break down the system of cabinet and party government that seemed to be limiting the freedom of the king. He proposed to restore the royal prerogative, to be his own first minister, to choose his other ministers himself, and to be the guide of his own policy. He had read Bolingbroke's The Patriot King, advocating such a kingship, and had seen the manuscript of Blackstone's Commentaries, which set forth the legal right of the king to rule. But he had no intention of restoring the monarchy of the Stuarts, nor did he wish to govern without parliament. It was his intention to govern with the aid of a party of his own in parliament, one that should be bound to him by flattery, bribery, and sentiments of loyalty. He saw no reason why he should not buy the support of a party in parliament, just as Walpole, Pelham, and Newcastle had done ; or why he should not have his party, known as the "king's friends," just as each of these ministers had controlled a party, known as the "minister's friends." In consequence of his efforts to create such a party, there arose the new Tories, no longer Jacobites, but Hanoverians; who upheld the king in his purpose of restoring once more the royal influence..

Fall of Pitt

The first business of George III was to get rid of the man whose overshadowing influence was distinctly an obstacle in his path. In this attempt fortune favored him ; for in the year 1761 such differences of opinion had arisen regarding the conduct of the war as to lead to a split in the ministry. Pitt, desiring to gain new colonial territory for England, wished to declare war against Spain, the ally of France. But Newcastle refused to support such a policy, and on October 5, 1761, Pitt resigned. His place was taken by Lord Bute, royal adviser and friend, a man as much hated in England as Pitt was beloved. Newcastle remained in the ministry. Though nominally the head of the government, he was treated with so much contempt and so little courtesy by the king that he resigned in May, 1762. Bute then became the nominal as well as the real head of the ministry.