William Pitt and the Great War   By: John Holland Rose (1855-1942)

Italics have been marked with underscores, like ' this '.

Greek passages have been transcribed, using '', like 'atê'.

OE ligature and oe ligature have been changed to 'OE' or 'oe'.

Corrections, as listed in the "ERRATA" paragraph, have been made.

Besides, Page 4, "disance" changed to "distance" (owing to the long distance,).

Page 16, "circulalation" changed to "circulation" (and many of them helped on the circulation).

Pages 83 and 167, "Barrère" equalized to "Barère" (according to Index).

Page 104, "imdiately" changed to "immediately" (which was immediately granted.).

Page 208, "Möllendorff" equalized to "Möllendorf" (according to Index).

Page 325, "brother in law" changed to "brother in law" (Pitt, owing to news of the death of his brother in law,)

Page 399/400, "arewell" changed to "farewell" (just after saying farewell to Clare at Dublin,).

Page 419, "of couse" changed to "of course" (This proposal of course implied).

Page 422, "futher" changed to "further" (to make further concessions to that body.).

Page 451, "symptons" changed to "symptoms" (From these extraordinary symptoms he augured).

Page 456, Footnote 609, "Soo" changed to "So" (So, too, Tomline said).

Page 496, "convicton" changed to "conviction" (But that he was drifting to this conviction).

Page 528, "counsellers" changed to "counsellors" (and he and his counsellors saw far more hope).

[Illustration: WILLIAM PITT, IN LATER LIFE. (From a painting by Hoppner in the National Portrait Gallery)]

WILLIAM PITT

AND

THE GREAT WAR

BY

J. HOLLAND ROSE, LITT.D.

England and France have held in their hands the fate of the world, especially that of European civilization. How much harm we have done one another: how much good we might have done! Napoleon to Colonel Wilks, 20th April 1816.

[Illustration: Publisher's emblem]

LONDON

G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.

1911

CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

PREFACE

In the former volume, entitled "William Pitt and National Revival," I sought to trace the career of Pitt the Younger up to the year 1791. Until then he was occupied almost entirely with attempts to repair the evils arising out of the old order of things. Retrenchment and Reform were his first watchwords; and though in the year 1785 he failed in his efforts to renovate the life of Parliament and to improve the fiscal relations with Ireland, yet his domestic policy in the main achieved a surprising success. Scarcely less eminent, though far less known, were his services in the sphere of diplomacy. In the year 1783, when he became First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, nearly half of the British Empire was torn away, and the remainder seemed to be at the mercy of the allied Houses of Bourbon. France, enjoying the alliance of Spain and Austria and the diplomatic wooings of Catharine II and Frederick the Great, gave the law to Europe.