The 'mince-pie administration' (1783)
Mocking name for a government expected to collapse before Christmas; it lasted 17 years
Prime Ministers · 18th century
Pitt the Younger
1759–1806 · English
Tory (independent Whig)
In office: 1783–1801; 1804–1806
William Pitt the Younger, son of the Earl of Chatham, became Britain's youngest Prime Minister at 24 in 1783 and served for almost 19 years in two spells. He rebuilt the public finances, introduced income tax to fund the wars against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, and carried the Act of Union with Ireland, resigning in 1801 when George III blocked Catholic emancipation. Worn out, he died in office in 1806, aged 46.
How to spot them
- ▸Youngest ever PM at 24; the 'mince-pie administration'
- ▸Introduced income tax (1798–99); Act of Union 1800; India Act 1784
- ▸Resigned over Catholic emancipation (1801); 'Roll up that map'
- ▸Never married; 'the Pilot that weathered the storm'; duel with George Tierney
In office
Introduction of income tax to pay for the war with France (1798–1799)
Announced in the budget of December 1798 as a temporary wartime measure
Act of Union creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1800)
Took effect on 1 January 1801
India Act creating the Board of Control (1784)
Placed the East India Company's political affairs under government supervision
Resignation over Catholic emancipation (1801)
George III refused to accept emancipation as the sequel to the Union
'Roll up that map; it will not be wanted these ten years' (1806)
His reported words on the map of Europe after Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz
Guildhall speech: 'England has saved herself by her exertions' (1805)
His last great speech, after Trafalgar, adding that she 'will, as I trust, save Europe by her example'
Duel with George Tierney on Putney Heath (1798)
Both men missed and honour was declared satisfied
Key ideas
- Financial reform: a sinking fund to reduce the national debt (1786), customs reform, and a commercial treaty with France (1786)
- Wartime repression: suspension of habeas corpus (1794) and the Combination Acts (1799)
- Helped shape the modern office of Prime Minister as head of a cabinet answerable to Parliament
Quick-fire facts
- •Went to Pembroke College, Cambridge, at the age of 14
- •Chancellor of the Exchequer at 23 under Shelburne
- •Never married
- •Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, living at Walmer Castle
- •Canning's song hailed him as 'the Pilot that weathered the storm'
- •Died at Putney on 23 January 1806 and was buried in Westminster Abbey
- •Handled the Regency Crisis of 1788–89 during George III's illness
Drill it — 8 cards
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Sources
- GOV.UK — Past Prime Ministers: William Pitt 'The Younger'
- William Hague — William Pitt the Younger