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II. The Ministry of All the Talents: The Whigs in Office, February 1806 to March 1807

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

A. D. Harvey
A. D. Harvey
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University College, Cambridge
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Extract

The Ministry of All the Talents was essentially a coalition of three parties: the followers of Fox, of Grenville, and of Sidmouth. Yet in retrospect it was looked upon as principally a Whig ministry. This was partly because office consolidated what had hitherto been the rather uneasy alliance of Foxites and Grenvillites; partly also because for adherents of the main Foxite tradition of Whiggism the ministry of 1806 provided the only experience of government between 1783 and 1827.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , December 1972 , pp. 619 - 648
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

1 The nick-name is contemporary. The Grenvilles had, since 1804, worked for a ministry that would ‘comprehend all the talents and character’ in public life, and Lord Grenville's ministry was naturally supposed to be a fulfilment of this aim: but the name was applied usually as a jibe.

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45 Ibid.

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54 Ibid. p. 118. Windham to Lord Grenville, 24 Apr. 1806.

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57 Ibid. p. 443. Sidmouth to Charles Bragge Bathurst, 4 Dec. 1806.

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61 Ibid. vol. viii, col. 1050–1, 27 Feb. 1807, and vol. ix, cols. 136–7, 16 Mar. 1807.

62 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 146,Google Scholar Wilberforce to Lord Grenville, 20 May 1806.

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64 Parliamentary Debates, vol. viii, cols. 972 and 995, 23 Feb. 1808.

65 Anstey, Roger, ‘A reinterpretation of the abolition of the British Slave Trade, 1806–1807’ in English Historical Review, LXXXVII, 304–32, esp. pp. 327–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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67 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 65–6,Google Scholar minute of 24 Mar. 1806. The term ‘bloodhounds’ was often used by the Grenvilles in joking reference to themselves.

68 Butterfield, , Peace Negotiations, p. 28.Google Scholar

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70 Butterfield, , Peace Negotiations, pp. 9, 19–21.Google Scholar Butterfield's lecture should be read as a supplement to the more detailed but less critical account in Walter Fitzpatrick's introduction to vol. viii of the Dropmore MSS.

71 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 245,Google Scholar memo by Lord Grenville.

72 Ibid. p. 273, Lauderdale to Lord Grenville, 7 Aug. 1806. Cf. Butterfield, p. 21, for confirmation of the rumours.

73 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 220–1, George III to Lord Grenville, 5 July 1806.Google Scholar

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78 Buckingham, , Court and Cabinets, iii, 458, Lord Grenville to Marquis of Buckingham, 1 Dec. 1805.Google Scholar

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82 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 158, Lord Grenville to Lord Auckland, 26 May 1806.Google Scholar

83 Ibid. p. 324, Lord Grenville to Charles Stuart (secretary to the Embassy at St Petersburg), 12 Sept. 1806.

84 P.R.O. F.O. 7/83, Howick to Robert Adair (ambassador going to St Petersburg). 12 Sept. 1806.

85 P.R.O. F.O. 65/68, and F.O. 65/72, R. Crewe toG. Walpole, 4 June 1807.

86 For the war in the Mediterranean, see Mackesy, Mediterranean.

87 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 97, Lord Grenville to Windham, 12 Apr. 1806.Google Scholar

88 Later Correspondence of George III, iv, 458, Cab. minute of 26 June 1806.Google Scholar

89 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 235–6, minute of 15 July 1806.Google Scholar

90 Ibid. p. 333, Grenville to Lauderdale, 14 Sept. 1806.

91 Buckingham, , Court and Cabinets, iv, 72, Tom Grenville to Buckingham, 13 Sept. 1806.Google Scholar

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93 Ibid. p. 321, same to same, 11 Sept. 1806.

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102 H.M.C., , Dropmore, ix, 52,Google Scholar Sir Arthur Wellesley to Marquis Wellesley, 21 Feb. 1807. For Sir Arthur Wellesley's memos on the Mexico plan, see this vol. pp. 22–5, 40–4 and 481–93.

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104 Ibid. pp. 186–8.

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109 Statutes 46 Geo. Ill, c. LXXV, LXXVI, LXXXII, LXXXIII, CL: see also 44 Geo. Ill, c. cvi.

110 Parliamentary Debates, vol. vn, col. 608, 11 June 1806.

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113 Parliamentary Debates, vol. VIII, col. 706, 10 Feb. 1807.

114 Ibid. col. 708.

115 Buckingham, , Court and Cabinets, iv, 133, Lord Grenville to Marquis of Buckingham, 7 Mar. 1807.Google Scholar

116 Lord Grenville was Auditor of the Exchequer (,£4,000 p.a.), his brother the Marquis of Buckingham was a Teller of the Exchequer (,£24,000 p.a. in wartime), and the middle brother,Tom Grenville, was Lord Chief Justice in Eyre, south of the River Trent (£2,316 p.a.).

117 Viscount Folkestone is still a somewhat obscure figure. His attacks on Wellesley can be found in the Parliamentary Debates of 1806. He was a close friend of Cobbett and seems to have shared his disillusion with the Whigs.

118 Parliamentary Debates, vol. vi, col. 574, 28 Mar. 1806 (Budget Speech).

119 Ibid. vol. iii, col. 554, 18 Feb. 1805.

120 Ibid. col. 558.

121 Ibid. vol. vi, col. 570, 28 Mar. 1806.

122 Ibid. col. 601, 31 Mar. 1806.

123 Ibid. col. 567, 28 Mar. 1806.

124 Ibid. col. 565.

125 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 456, Lord Grenville to Lord Auckland, 2 Dec. 1806.Google Scholar

126 Parliamentary Debates, vol. viii, col. 569–70, 29 Jan. 1807.

127 Ibid. col. 727, 12 Feb. (Castlereagh) and 598, 29 Jan. (Johnstone).

128 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 457, Auckland to Lord Grenville, 4 Dec. 1806.Google Scholar

129 Parliamentary Debates, vol. viii, cols. 729–30, 12 Feb. 1807. The tables from which Castlereagh took his figures are printed as an appendix to this volume, pp. ciii–cx (including variants).

130 Ibid. col. 586.

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135 It is sometimes believed that the Talents were dismissed. The distinction between resignation and dismissal may seem semantic; but the term used on this particular occasion was invariably resignation: George III seems to have tried to put the onus of the fall of the ministry on the ministers themselves. ‘We have not even now resigned, but have left it to the King to consider what he would do on our declining to give him the pledge he has required. His decision has been to look out for other ministers’ (H.M.C., , Bathurst, p. 56,Google Scholar Lord Grenville to Lord Bathurst, 18 Mar. 1807).’ ‘…his Ministers all understood that he would think of another administration; but they did not resign, nor were dismissed’ (Diary of Lord Colchester, ii, 104.Google Scholar Diary, 19 Mar. 1807). ‘The King acquaints Lord Grenville that he is now prepared to receive the resignation of the offices held by himself and the other members of his Majesty's present Cabinet’ (Aspinall, A., Later Correspondence of George III, iv, 540,Google Scholar king to Lord Grenville, 24 Mar. 1807). But in 1783 the Fox-North coalition was quite unambiguously dismissed: ‘Lord North is by this required to send Me the Seals of his Department and to acquaint Mr. Fox to send those of the Foreign Department. Mr. Frazer or Mr. Nepean will be the proper Channel of delivering them to Me this Night. I choose this method as Audiences on such occasions must be unpleasant’ (SirFortescue, John, Correspondence of George III, vi, 476, 18 12 1783).Google Scholar

136 Parliamentary Debates, vol. vii, cols. 146–7, 14 May 1806. The earl of Moira (Master–General of the Ordnance) favoured the reform.

137 Quoted in Gray, Denis, Spencer Perceval (Manchester, 1963), p. 63.Google Scholar

138 Parliamentary Debates, vol. x, col. 267, 3 Feb. 1808.

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148 Ibid. Lord Grenville to Lord Grey, 24 May 1811.

149 Proceedings of the Marquis Wellesley and of the Earl of Moira in the Recent Negotiations (London, 1812), passim, but esp. p. 50, Grey to Wellesley, 24 May 1812.Google Scholar

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151 Edinburgh Review, xxx, 197.Google Scholar