A short history of England . ign, he exercised his old claim tomake his own choice of a the man whom he selected provedto be more masterful than the kinghad expected, and George III neveragain became his own prime minis-ter, as he had been called. The resistance of America and theself-assertion of Ireland had thereforenot only gained the ends for which those countries were striving but had also saved England herselffrom a reintroduction of royal absolutism. 537. William Pitt the Younger.—The new prime ministerwho came into office in 1783 was William Pitt, the second son ofthe grea
A short history of England . ign, he exercised his old claim tomake his own choice of a the man whom he selected provedto be more masterful than the kinghad expected, and George III neveragain became his own prime minis-ter, as he had been called. The resistance of America and theself-assertion of Ireland had thereforenot only gained the ends for which those countries were striving but had also saved England herselffrom a reintroduction of royal absolutism. 537. William Pitt the Younger.—The new prime ministerwho came into office in 1783 was William Pitt, the second son ofthe great earl of Chatham. The elder son, who had inherited hisfathers title, was not a man of much ability or political impor-tance. The second son and namesake of his father, however, hadbeen trained from childhood for a public career, and he devel-oped qualities which made him almost if not quite the equal ofthe earl of Chatham. He is not a chip off the old block, heis the old block itself, was Burkes judgment of him soon after. ^ William Pitt 596 A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLAND he entered parliament as a young man of twenty. He had notthe fiery and impetuous eloquence of his father, but his speecheswere always clear, vigorous, and graceful. He knew what hewanted to do, and yet saw clearly what could or could not bedone in each set of circumstances. He knew how to managemen and was willing to be patient. He was moderate, even intellectual abilities he was therefore quite the equal, perhapsthe superior, of any statesman of his time, although in strength offeeling he was inferior both to many of them and to his father. Nevertheless he had unbounded confidence in himself, andalthough he had been in the ministry but a few months, was onlytwenty-four years old, and represented a small minority in par-liament, when the king asked him to take charge of the govern-ment in 1783 he did so without hesitation. He had a hardstruggle to keep his position. The Whigs were still in a majorityin
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