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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2010
The greater part of the weight [is] upon the middle classes.
(John Nicholls in parliament on 14 December 1797 against the Triple Assessment Bill, as reported in the oppositional Morning Chronicle)It went to destroy the comforts of the lower classes … The measure went to destroy the lowest orders.
(John Nicholls in parliament on 14 December 1797 against the Triple Assessment Bill, as reported in the proministerial True Briton)In spring 1797, the young Tory wit George Canning addressed William Windham, Pitt's Secretary at War, with the following lines:
Come, Windham! celebrate with me
This day of joy and jubilee.
This day of no disaster!
Our Government is not o'erturned –
Huzza! – Our Fleet has not been burned;
Our Army's not our master.
Canning's sarcasm hit home hard. The year 1797 was, indeed, disastrous for the nation at war. February witnessed a thousand French troops actually landing on British soil at Fishguard in Pembrokeshire (following a larger attempt which did not materialize in December), exacerbating anxieties about an imminent French invasion. April saw one naval mutiny at Spithead, and May another at the Nore. In May the remaining illusions of business as usual were shattered when the Foxite opposition, in a most extraordinary step, withdrew from the House of Commons. In October Austria, Britain's last powerful ally, backed out of the conflict in the peace treaty of Campo Formio, while in Ireland unrest was increasing.
Perhaps even more ominous was the precarious state of British finances, encumbered by a rapidly swelling debt.
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