In Politics
He now became owner of the controlling interest in the rotten borough of Old Sarum and a considerable share in that of Okehampton in Devon. At intervals, Pitt now played an active part in politics. He was a Member of Parliament of the House of Commons for Old Sarum from December 1761 until 1768, for Okehampton from 1768 until 1774, and again for Old Sarum from 1774 until he was raised to the peerage in 1784. He followed in politics his near relative, George Grenville, who made him a lord of the admiralty in his ministry of 1763. He was invited, in compliment to his uncle, Chatham, to continue in office with the Rockingham ministry; but he was politically at variance with Chatham, and followed Grenville into opposition.
He was one of the seventy-two whig members who met at the Thatched House Tavern, London, on 9 May 1769, to celebrate the rights of electors in the struggle for the representation of Middlesex; he seconded Sir William Meredith in his attempt to relax the subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles, and he spoke against the Royal Marriage Bill. Through his influence, supported by Lady Chatham, the reconciliation of his uncle and Richard Grenville-Temple, 2nd Earl Temple was effected in 1774. Horace Walpole, who quarrelled with him on political topics, calls him a ‘flimsy’ speaker, but Wraxall remarked that, although he rarely spoke, his family position guaranteed him an audience. He made a speech in 1780 on John Dunning's motion to limit the influence of the Crown. He was one of the strongest opponents of Lord North's ministry, and a warm antagonist of the coalition. In November 1781 he protested against voting supplies until grievances were redressed. In February 1783 he moved the address for the Shelburne ministry, protesting that he had always been opposed to the use of force against the American colonies, and he attacked Charles James Fox's East India Bill.
He spoke carefully in 1782 against parliamentary reform. Next year, when the same question was brought forward, he was ridiculed for a change of opinion, and his offer to sacrifice his rotten borough for the public good. He was satirised by the authors of the Rolliad (1795), and was chaffed in the House of Commons by Fox (13 March 1784) and Edmund Burke (28 February 1785). In March 1783, when the king was endeavouring to form an administration in opposition to North and Fox, the leadership of the House of Commons and the seals of a secretary of state were offered to him, despite opposition from Lord Ashburton. On 5 January 1784 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Camelford of Boconnoc, a promotion attributed to the influence of his cousin William Pitt the Younger.
Read more about this topic: Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford
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