Manipulation and Control in Colonial Leadership: Hoodwinking William Pitt the Younger
The satirical caricature East India Stocks published in London in 1788 portrays an assortment of characters, referring to corruption and embezzlement of the East India Company stocks by the people in authority, specifically that of Henry Dundas, a lord advocate under George III, who would later become the president of the Board of Control. Although William Pitt the Younger, the English Prime Minister from 1783-1801, was seemingly the face of these charges, Dundas was the cunning politician dismaying Pitt from his vision for the United Kingdom and taking advantage of Pitt’s power. Dundus became exceedingly close to Pitt, and while carrying the “Dictator’s …show more content…
He came from a renowned family in Scotland, eminent for work in the legal field. Dundas too had joined the field, but was quite apathetic towards it and therefore commenced his parliamentary career. A proud Scotsman, he replaced the Disarming Act to allow Scottish Highlanders to wear kilts and tartans again—perhaps why the artist decided to dress him in a tartan kilt in his caricature. Three of Dundas’ younger brothers went to India and two passed away there so he felt a personal connection to the land. Unlike Pitt, Dundas is actually wearing the mask, confidently walking behind Pitt, and carrying a sizable sack, labeled as the “Dictator’s Wallet,” on the side. On the front of the sack, a drawing of the tea plant flower is impressed, following the words “annuities,” and “Indian Budget,” implying that claiming dividends from stockholders will not be a one-time compilation, but rather a recurring annual …show more content…
He was also a rather shy man, while Dundas was quite outspoken and often overpowered Pitt with the art of the rhetoric. However, many attest to Pitt’s purity of intentions and thoughts, further reaffirming the probability of Dundas’ manipulation of Pitt. William Wilberforce, a British slave-abolitionist and politician said:
Mr. Pitt had foibles…for that fairness of mind which disposes a man to follow out, and when overtaken to recognise the truth…for willingness to give a fair hearing to all that could be urged against his own opinions, and to listen to the suggestions of men whose understanding he knew to be inferior to his own; for personal purity, disinterestedness, integrity, and love of his country, I have never known his equal. (Wilberforce and Wilberforce,
The satirical caricature East India Stocks published in London in 1788 portrays an assortment of characters, referring to corruption and embezzlement of the East India Company stocks by the people in authority, specifically that of Henry Dundas, a lord advocate under George III, who would later become the president of the Board of Control. Although William Pitt the Younger, the English Prime Minister from 1783-1801, was seemingly the face of these charges, Dundas was the cunning politician dismaying Pitt from his vision for the United Kingdom and taking advantage of Pitt’s power. Dundus became exceedingly close to Pitt, and while carrying the “Dictator’s …show more content…
He came from a renowned family in Scotland, eminent for work in the legal field. Dundas too had joined the field, but was quite apathetic towards it and therefore commenced his parliamentary career. A proud Scotsman, he replaced the Disarming Act to allow Scottish Highlanders to wear kilts and tartans again—perhaps why the artist decided to dress him in a tartan kilt in his caricature. Three of Dundas’ younger brothers went to India and two passed away there so he felt a personal connection to the land. Unlike Pitt, Dundas is actually wearing the mask, confidently walking behind Pitt, and carrying a sizable sack, labeled as the “Dictator’s Wallet,” on the side. On the front of the sack, a drawing of the tea plant flower is impressed, following the words “annuities,” and “Indian Budget,” implying that claiming dividends from stockholders will not be a one-time compilation, but rather a recurring annual …show more content…
He was also a rather shy man, while Dundas was quite outspoken and often overpowered Pitt with the art of the rhetoric. However, many attest to Pitt’s purity of intentions and thoughts, further reaffirming the probability of Dundas’ manipulation of Pitt. William Wilberforce, a British slave-abolitionist and politician said:
Mr. Pitt had foibles…for that fairness of mind which disposes a man to follow out, and when overtaken to recognise the truth…for willingness to give a fair hearing to all that could be urged against his own opinions, and to listen to the suggestions of men whose understanding he knew to be inferior to his own; for personal purity, disinterestedness, integrity, and love of his country, I have never known his equal. (Wilberforce and Wilberforce,