Pitt’s India Bill.
See East India Company.
Place Bill.
A Bill which, after several failures, became law in 1743, in spite of the strong opposition of the King, rendering pensioners of the Crown and holders of offices about the Court ineligible for seats in the House of Commons.
Plague of London.
The pestilence which broke out in London in 1665, and was not completely stamped out until the Great Fire of the following year. It carried off nearly 100,000 persons out of a total population of half a million.
Plain.
The name given to the Girondins in the French Convention, because they occupied the lower tiers of seats in the Assembly. The Jacobins, who sat on the upper benches, were known as the Mountain.
Plan of Campaign.
A combination of tenants to refuse their rents on those Irish estates where the reductions demanded were not conceded. The tenants bound themselves to act together, and to make no separate arrangements with the landlord. If the reduction was refused, they then paid their rent into a common fund, to be used for the support of those who were evicted. The Plan was put into operation on forty estates. In April, 1888, it was pronounced unlawful by the Vatican.