How Serious Was the Radical Threat Facing Pitt In The Period 1789-1801? The French revolution broke out in 1789, and while at first Britain was pleased and welcomed the changes that the revolution brought to France (i.e. the new constitutional monarchy mirrored Britain’s political system in many ways.) Pitt and his government began to become worried when the revolution in France stepped up a gear and became more extreme, they obviously didn’t want a repeat of the French experience in Britain.
The outcome of the revolution was inevitable and in 1792 when France became a republic, it was also the start of a period of time (1793-1794) that became known as ‘revolutionary terror’. Revolutionary terror is essentially force used or implemented against people or groups who are counter-revolutionary. This caused a great fear of revolution in Britain and contributed to Britain going to war with France In January 1793 after the execution of Louis XVI.
This led to a fear of French invasion of Britain throughout the country and worried Pitt and his government greatly from 1793-1801. This fear was not unfounded as France tried to invade Britain twice, firstly, in 1797 a small group of French soldiers landed in the small welsh village of Fishguard . Even though this small band of troops were easily captured and dealt with, it still began to plant a very real threat of invasion into Britain’s soils.
In 1798, a larger French military force landed in Ireland and successfully assisted the Irish Rebels, which again showed and proved that the threat of invasion to Britain was now significant and there were now also British worried that France would begin to use Ireland as a ‘stepping-stone’ to invade Britain. After Pitt declared War on France in 1793, he had hoped to fight a traditional colonial war, but due to the state of the army, he had to focus Britain’s army on the naval war and pay others to fight the colonial war for him. He paid for this by introducing income tax.
After France became a republic, it began to broaden its horizons and extended its trade which had the knock-on effect of damaging Britain’s as other countries began to see France as another trading partner. Another threat to Britain was individuals such as Tom Paine ( English-American political activist, author, political theorist and revolutionary) who wrote two hugely influential pamphlets and the start of the American War of Independence (AWOI) and the development of Britain’s society e.g.
Working classes stepping up, made the threat of radicalism seem very, very real. Pitt obviously wanted to stop the threat of revolution on Britain from spreading and in my opinion he did this effectively, he introduced as number of ‘repressive laws’, the main three being the Treason act, Seditious Meeting acts and the Combination acts. The Treason act was introduced in 1795 after the stoning of King George III on his way to parliament.
The act made it high treason to; “within the realm or without compass, imagine, invent, devise or intend death or destruction, or any bodily harm tending to death or destruction, maim or wounding, imprisonment or restraint, of the person of … the King.” This act was taken from the 1661 Sedition act which had expired and was meant to expire upon the death of George III but was made a permanent act by the Treasons act of 1817. The Seditious Meeting act was also introduced in 1795.
Its purpose was to restrict the size of public meetings to fifty persons. It also required a magistrate’s license for lecturing and debating halls where admission was charged and policies discussed. These two acts were also known as the “Gagging Acts” or the “Grenville and Pitt Bills”. The combinations act of 1799 and 1800 effectively made trade unions illegal. There were a vast number of reasons as to why the government was frightened about the possibility of a revolution. In 1791, the aforementioned Thomas Paine published hid “The Rights Of Man” which basically said that he supported the actions of the French revolution and advocated a greater political liberty.
This led to The Priestley riots which took place in Birmingham against supporters of reform and nonconformists. Then in 1792, the London corresponding society was formed which encouraged correspondence between supporters of political liberty, this led to more correspondence societies being formed and by 1795, the London unit had over 5000 members. The Fears of revolutionary action in Britain were again increased in 1793 when a trial of radical reformers was held in Scotland.
The fear of revolution on the streets of Britain was now great, so the last thing the government needed was the Royal Navy sailors mutinying at Spithead and the Nore in 1797, even though this was over wages, it led to more fear, this time fear of a revolution in the armed forces. In 1798 a rebellion in Ireland was led by the United Irishmen, a secret society which had links with the French revolutionary government. Theobald Wolfe Tone, a leading United Irishman, was an officer in the French army. It took a considerable military effort to subdue the rebellion.
Most discontent and radical protest was more to do with the economy than political radicalism. High food prices in 1795 marked the height of radical discontent and there were similar riots in 1801. However, the government’s actions had the effect of forcing revolutionary activity underground.
The following measures were passed; 1) The 1793 Aliens act- prevented French revolutionaries from entering Britain. 2) 1794, The Habeas Corpus Amendment act was suspended which allowed the government to arrest and imprison anybody without a fair trial. 3)The Treasonable Offences act of 1795 (previously mentioned) 4) The Seditious Meetings act of 1795 (previously mentioned). 5) 1798 – new taxes and government regulation of newspapers were introduced to prevent lower class people from reading about revolutionary ideas. 6)1799 – ban on London Corresponding Society and United Irishmen. 7)1799 and 1800 – Combination Acts (previously mentioned) 8)1801 – Habeas Corpus suspended a second time.
The fear of revolution was enough to divide the feelings of the Whig party, and in 1794, a group of Whigs led by the Duke of Portland joined Pitt’s government on the issue of defending law and order, and this greatly strengthened Pitt’s position. Most Radical middle class opinion was against revolution. While some radicals wanted the reform of the electoral system they were frightened by what had happened in France. The Act of Union in 1800 was after the Irish rebellion and it abolished the separate Irish parliament, uniting Britain and Ireland creating the United Kingdom.
The result of Pitt’s strong and repressive policies was that England and Wales did not have a revolution in this period. This doesn’t however mean that the radical threat facing Pitt was not significant or serious, I am of the opinion that the very fact that Pitt had to bring in all these special measures and ‘repressive laws’ means that Britain was under serious threat from radicals. It was not only under threat from the people, but also from the army, which meant that if there was an attempted revolution it would have no doubt succeeded. While Britain was under a fairly serious threat, Pitt definitely dealt with the situation very well, which to me indicates that Britain was never actually within reach of a reolution althought the threat was serious.
