An ‘Unpleasant Dilemma’: The Portsmouth Volunteers and the limits of loyalism, 1803-1805

This article takes up Matthew McCormack’s appeal for the closer scrutiny of loyalism across the eighteenth century through a case study of the Portsmouth Volunteers at the height of the 1803-5 invasion scare. The part-time military forces of the town were riven by a dispute between its officers and the garrison’s military governor that ultimately shattered the unit. By utilising the extensive correspondence regarding the case, this article argues that loyalism had robust legalist and associational features which were employed as a bastion against the potential of unbridled military control inherent within mass mobilisation.