Whig

• Pitt was Prime Minister for a long time:

  • Pitt was in office for a long time, his first ministry ran from December 1783 - March 1801 and then May 1804 till his death in January 1806
  • He took decisive measures, and created effective reforms
  • However he also led with very limited opposition in Parliament -> This was because the Whigs were divided
• Splits in the Whigs - pre 1789

  • At the start, the Whigs were dominated by wealthy aristocrats who saw it as their duty to edged the constitutional settlement of 1688
  • After Rockingham had died in 1782, splits emerged within the Whig faction
  • Shelburne was the next leader yet he was unpopular and this led to Portland and Fox refused to join Shelburne’s government
• Splits the Whigs continued:

  • Fox and Portland overturned Shelburnes government by joining a coalition with Lord North
  • This was seen as artifical and unprincipled
  • Regency Crisis 1788 -> Fox’s position was further harmed s he wanted the Prince of Wales to take over, seemed advocating for royal power
• The election of 1784 saw the Whigs lose 100 seats
• Splits in the Whigs after 1789:

  • the French Revolution had divided the Whigs further -> Burke opposed it and Fox saw it as the great hope for the future
  • Whig aristocrats became more worried as the revolution came more radical
  • Edmund Burke wrote Reflections on the Revolution in France warning that it would be chaos and blood shed
  • War Crimes in 1793
  • supporters had dwindled to around 50
  • many joined Pitts government
• Whig Problems:

  • Fox though dynamic had a bad reputation as a womaniser and gambler -> he wasn’t liked by the King and he gave a lot of money to the Prince of Wales -> £100 000
  • publication of parliamentary debates made Fox seem exaggerated and extreme -> lacked detail unlike Pitt
  • Pitt also supported reform and was against the slave trade -> similar to the Whigs and thus gained their support
  • The French Revolution had revealed the gaps between fox and the aristocratic Whigs