Letter received from William Pitt to John Pollexfen Bastard, 31 March 1786

MLMSS 6548

fonds

31 March 1786

153610

Microfilm : CY 3928, frames 55-63 (MLMSS 6548)

0.02 metres of textual material (1 folder) - manuscript

John Pollexfen Bastard was MP for Devonshire from 1784 to 1816. He was a member of the 'country' party which supported Pitt's foreign policy while occasionally opposing his domestic measures.
William Pitt (1759-1806) became prime minister of Great Britain in 1784, a position he held almost unbroken for twenty years.

31 March 1786; 'Private' letter, in the third person, by William Pitt the Younger to John Pollexfen Bastard. It was written during the crisis of prison overcrowding in England that resulted in the sending of the First Fleet to Australia the following year, to one of the MPs whose pressure on Pitt forced him to that decision. Mr Bastard had brought a motion on 7 March 1786 with respect to the convicts in the hulks. He was unsatisfied with Pitt's reply that the government was considering various proposals and was preparing another debate when a concerned Pitt wrote this letter reassuring him and requesting him not to present another motion to the House.

Transcript available online - archival-classic.sl.nsw.gov.au/_transcript/2017/D47718/a1041.html

Microfilm copy made Oct. 1998.