William Pitt the Younger King refused to support him. Fox stated the bill was necessary to save the company from bankruptcy. Pitt responded that: "Necessity was the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It was the argument of tyrants; it was the creed of slaves." The King was opposed to the bill; when it passed in the House of Commons, he secured its defeat in the House of Lords by threatening to regard anyone who voted for it as his enemy. Following the bill's failure in the Upper House, George III dismissed the coalition government and finally entrusted the premiership to William Pitt,
William Pitt the Younger republic" naval mutiny at the Nore in June 1797 led by Richard Parker who blockaded London for a time inspired a more repressive approach from Pitt who made it clear he would not negotiate with Parker, whom he wanted to see hanged as a mutineer. In response to the naval mutinies of 1797, Pitt passed an act that made it unlawful to advocate breaking oaths to the Crown and passed the Defense of the Realm act in 1798, which further restricted civil liberties. In 1797, Pitt was forced to protect the kingdom's gold reserves by preventing individuals from exchanging banknotes