The death of Pitt, at the particular crisis in which it took place, was considered a virtual dissolution of the administration. The post of premier was offered to Lord Hawkesbury; but he deemed it too arduous, and chose rather to retire from office with the sinecure of the cinqueports. Lord Sidmouth also declined the task; and his majesty was compelled to repress his personal antipathies, and to seek the aid of Lord Grenville. The new arrangements were completed on the 3rd of February; and the ministry embraced the leading members of two parties, known as the old and new opposition, together with the party led by Lord Sidmouth. The arrangement stood thus:—Lord Grenville, first lord of the treasury; Fox, secretary of state for foreign affairs; Viscount Sidmouth, lord privy seal; Earl Fitzwilliam, lord resident of the council; Lord Howick, first lord of the admiralty; Earl of Moira, master-general of the ordnance; Earl Spencer, secretary of state for the home department; Windham, secretary for the colonies; Lord Henry Petty, chancellor of the exchequer; Erskine, lord high chancellor; and Lord Minto, president of the board of control. Among the minor appointments, Sheridan obtained that of the treasurer of the navy; Lord Auckland, the presidency of the board of trade; Earl Temple and Lord John Townshend, the joint paymastership of the forces; General Fitzpatrick, the secretaryship of war; and Sir Arthur Pigott and Sir Samuel Romilly, the posts of attorney and solicitor-general. As Lord Grenville’s office of auditor of the exchequer was thought incompatible with that of first lord of the treasury, and as his lordship was unwilling to resign that lucrative office, a bill was subsequently brought into parliament empowering him to name a responsible trustee for holding auditorship so long as he should continue premier. Law, who had been created Baron Ellenborough in 1802, was appointed to this place, with a seat in the cabinet; an act which created strong prejudices in the minds of the people at large against the new administration. But his lordship’s parliamentary interest was considered essential to the support of the new ministry, and the murmurs of the people were hence not regarded. Such a sweeping ministerial change as this had not taken place for years; all places were swept clean and new men put into them. The administration, however, was made of discordant materials. In it were Grenvillites, Foxites, Wind-hamites, Lansdownites, Addingtonians or Sidmouthites, &c. and this division brought so many expectations, hopes, and pretensions in their several trains, that it was easy to foresee that there would soon be quarrelling, and strife, and splittings among them. They had no general political creed; and their interests, like their theories, lay wide asunder. Moreover, it was soon found that it was on very few questions they could command anything like a respectable majority. They were triumphant, indeed, when it was moved in the lords and commons “that it was highly inexpedient, and tended to weaken the administration of justice, to summon to any committee or assembly of the privy council any of the judges of his majesty’s courts of common law,” in allusion to the recent appointment of Baron Ellenborough; but beyond this the present motley ministry could only command majorities of the narrowest kind; and sometimes during this session they were even left in a minority. Wearying and worrying debates, and all to little or no purpose, became the order of the day. Sheridan on one occasion, indeed, suggested that ministerial members, distributed in parties of twenty, should go home to rest in the midst of debate, and then come back to rest after they had slept and breakfasted. The house sometimes sat till seven o’clock in the morning, and then separated without having effected anything of importance.
NEGOCIATIONS FOR PEACE.
At the death of Mr. Pitt the state of Europe rendered it difficult for Great Britain to negociate with France for a safe and honourable peace. As Mr. Fox, however, had succeeded to power, there were some who entertained expectations of peace, and he was thought to have undertaken the foreign department with that end in view. France manifestly desired peace; and but a short time elapsed before the government contrived to bring about some negociations, in order to ascertain what terms of peace the new ministry would be likely to allow. Before ten days elapsed from the appointment of the new administration an agent of that government arrived at Gravesend without a passport, and acquainted Fox by letter, that he had a very important communication to make. Fox sent him a passport, and admitted him to an interview; but indignantly repelled his disclosure, true or false, of a plot to assassinate Napoleon. Fox detained his man in custody, and communicated his designs, if they were really entertained by him, to the French government; and this led to a communication between him and Talleyrand. It appeared, from the negociations which took place, that the greatest obstacle was the determination of Napoleon to obtain Sicily for his brother Joseph, in addition to Naples. Fox, however, had sufficient penetration to discover that he had other ambitious demands to be satisfied, should this be complied with—that he would demand Holland for his brother Louis, etc.; and therefore he determined to break off the negociations, and to continue the war. He made this determination fully known, when he rejected the treaty of Amiens as a basis, and insisted on the Emperor of Russia being admitted as a party. Yet the French Government seem to have considered that England would one day soon consent to peace, even on the hard terms proposed. Negociation was renewed in June, when Lord Yarmouth, who had been released from prison at Fox’s intercession, was invited to a conference with Talleyrand. At this interview it was said that the Emperor was willing to restore Hanover, as well as to gratify the British court in other respects, while France asked for nothing. Pleased with this intelligence, the King sent a commission to Lord Yarmouth, but desired him to withhold the communication of his full powers, until it was promised that Sicily should not be alienated from the house of Bourbon. It was replied that Napoleon was anxious to obtain Sicily for his brother Joseph, and would procure the Hanstowns for Ferdinand; but this answer was not deemed satisfactory, and the negociations were still held in abeyance. The Russian Government, at this time, having become acquainted with the negociations in progress, sent an agent to act on Russia’s behalf, and to watch proceedings. The arrival of this agent was what the French desired, for they knew that they could soon cause a rupture between England and Russia. In a short time, indeed, through French intrigue, D’Oubril, the Russian agent, suspected the good faith, of Lord Yarmouth, and Lord Yarmouth suspected the good faith of D’Oubril. A quarrel ensued between them, and then Talleyrand raised his demands and abated his proffered concessions. D’Oubril returned to Petersburgh, but Fox still persevered in seeking peace. An accredited agent, in the person of Lord Lauderdale, was now sent over to Paris, and negociations lasted from the 9th of August to the 6th of October; when they were broken off by a demand for passports. France still insisted that Sicily should be given up to Joseph Buonaparte; and this could not be conceded, so the negociations finally failed. About that time Fox died, and the French government attributed publicly the failure of these negociations to his death. But the truth was, Fox had long ago expressed his convictions that peace would be unattainable; and after he had commenced the negociations, he had said in the house of commons:—“My wish, the first wish of my heart, is peace; but such a peace as shall preserve our connexions and influence on the continent, as shall not abate one jot of the national honour,—and such only:” how then could his death have been an obstacle to peace? Fox, with all his faults, had a heart glowing with love for his country, and he would not have lightly sacrificed her honour and her interest at the shrine of French ambition.
GEORGE III. 1804—1807
WINDHAM’S MILITARY PLAN.
On the 3rd of April Windham brought forward a plan for altering the military system, and particularly the mode of recruiting the army. His plan was that the soldier should enlist for a certain term of years; that this term should be divided for the infantry into three periods of seven years each; and for the cavalry and artillery, the first period to be ten years, the second six, and the third live years; and that at the end of each of these periods a man might have a right to claim his discharge, and that his privileges, pensions, etc., should be augmented in proportion to the length of his services. As a preliminary step to the introduction of this bill he moved for a bill to repeal Pitt’s Additional Force bill, which raised a storm of opposition from the friends and admirers of the deceased minister. His views were especially combated by Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Canning; but the repeal bill was finally carried, and then Windham’s plan was adopted: it was introduced and carried as a clause in the Annual Mutiny bill. A bill for the training of a certain number of persons, not exceeding 200,000, out of those that were liable to be drawn for the militia; a bill to suspend the ballot for the militia in England for two years, with a reserved power to government for recurring to it in order to supply the vacancies of any corps which should be reduced below its quota; a bill called the Chelsea Hospital bill, to give security to invalid, disabled, and discharged soldiers, for such pensions as they were entitled to; and a bill for settling the relative rank officers of yeomanry, volunteers, militia forces, and troops of the line, completed Windham’s system, and were all carried, though not without much opposition. An increase was also voted to the pay of sergeants, corporals, privates of the line, to the Chelsea pensions, and to the pensions of officers’ widows: similar benefits were also voted to the navy, and the Greenwich Hospital allowances to out-pensioners were increased.