ADDINGTON OR PITT?
Once more doth Pitt deem the land crying loud to him--
Frail though and spent, and an hungered for restfulness
Once more responds he, dead fervours to energize
Aims to concentre, slack efforts to bind.
THOMAS HARDY, _The Dynasts_, Act i, sc. 3.
On 30th January 1803 there appeared in the "Moniteur" the official
Report of Colonel Sebastiani, Napoleon's envoy to the Levant. So
threatening were its terms respecting the situation in Egypt and Corfu,
that the Addington Ministry at once adopted a stiffer tone, and applied
to Parliament for 10,000 additional seamen and the embodying of the
militia. But the House, while readily acceding on 9th March, evidently
wanted not only more men but a man. The return of Pitt to power was
anxiously discussed in the lobbies. The Duke of Portland and Lord Pelham
strongly expressed their desire for it. Yet Pitt remained at Walmer,
feeling that he could not support financial plans fraught with danger to
the State. Addington therefore resolved to sound him again with a view
to his entering the Cabinet as a coadjutor. The envoy whom he chose for
this delicate mission was Henry Dundas, now Lord Melville. He could
count on his devotion; for, besides nominating him for the peerage, he
is said to have opened to his gaze a life of official activity and
patronage as First Lord of the Admiralty in place of the parsimonious
and unmannerly St. Vincent.[649] Pitt received his old friend at Walmer
with a shade of coolness in view of his declaration, on quitting office,
that he could accept no boon whatever from Addington. To come now as his
Cabinet-maker argued either overwhelming patriotism or phenomenal
restlessness.
[Illustration: HENRY DUNDAS, FIRST VISCOUNT MELVILLE. (From a
painting by Sir T. Lawrence)]
Nevertheless, the two friends resumed at Walmer the festive intercourse
of the Wimbledon days; and in due course, after dinner and wine,
Melville broached the subject of his visit. It was that Addington, who
was First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, should
resign the latter office to Pitt, and take Lord Pelham's place as
Secretary of State for Home Affairs. We can picture the astonishment and
wrath of Pitt as this singular proposal came to light. At once he cut
short the conversation, probably not without expletives. But Melville
was pertinacious where patriotism and office were at stake; and their
converse spread over the two days, 21st-22nd March, Melville thereupon
sending a summary of it to Addington, couched in terms which Pitt deemed
too favourable. The upshot was that on personal grounds Pitt desired not
to return to office; and, if affairs were efficiently conducted, would
prefer to continue his present independent support. If, however, the
misleading statements of the Treasury were persisted in, he must
criticize them. Above all, if he returned to office it must be as First
Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer.
But Addington, foreseeing that Pitt would claim his two former offices,
had concocted a sovereign remedy for all these personal sores. Pitt was
to take office as Chancellor of the Exchequer, serving under his
brother, the Earl of Chatham, as Prime Minister. Is it surprising that
he negatived this singular proposal "without reserve or affectation"? By
way of retort to this family prescription he charged Melville to point
out the absolute need of the Cabinet being under the control of "the
First Minister," who must not only have the confidence of the King and
administer the finances, but also in the last resort impose his will on
his colleagues. For himself he declared he would never come forward
unless bound by public duty and with the enjoyment of the fullest
confidence of the King.[650] There is a discrepancy between Melville's
letter to Addington and a short account given by Pitt to Wilberforce two
years later, to the effect that Melville, on cautiously opening his
proposals at Walmer, saw that it would not do and stopped abruptly.
"Really," said Pitt with a sly severity, "I had not the curiosity to ask
what I was to be."
Such was the bomb-shell exploded on Addington's bureau on 23rd March.
It must have cost him no less concern than Bonaparte's outrageous
behaviour to our ambassador, Lord Whitworth, ten days before. That scene
before the diplomatic circle at the Tuileries portended war. How would
Addington and his colleagues behave in this crisis? Would they sink all
personal feelings, and, admitting that they could not weather the storm,
accept the help and guidance of long tried navigators? Or would they
stand on their dignity and order the pilot-boat to sheer off? Clearly it
was a case where half measures were useless. The old captain and his
chosen subalterns must command the ship. Pitt made this clear during
conversations with Addington at Long's house at Bromley Hill (10th
April). While declaring that he would not urge any point inconsistent
with His Majesty's intentions, he demanded that Grenville, Melville,
Spencer, and Windham should enter the Cabinet with him on the clearly
expressed desire of the King, and at the request of the present
Ministry. The last conditions seem severe. But Pitt's pledge to
Addington made it essential that the Prime Minister should take the
first step. To these terms two days later Addington made demur, but
promised to communicate them to his colleagues; whereupon Pitt declared
that he had said the last word on the matter; and when Ministers
objected to Grenville and Windham, he was inexorable.[651] That their
anger waxed hot against him appears from the following letter sent to
Pitt by Lord Redesdale, formerly Sir John Mitford, and now Lord
Chancellor of Ireland, who had been with Pitt and Addington at their
conferences at Bromley:
Albemarle St., _April 16, 1803_.[652]
What passed yesterday and the day before at Bromley Hill, has
made so strong an impression on my mind that I have been unable
to relieve myself from the anxiety which it has occasioned.
However you may flatter yourself to the contrary, it seems to me
most clear that your return into office, with the impression
under which you have appeared to act, must have the effect of
driving from their situations every man now in office, and
making a greater change than has ever been made on any similar
occasion. I think myself as one of those persons individually
intitled to call upon your honour not to pursue the line of
conduct which you seem determined to adopt. The present
Administration, so far from having been formed in hostility to
you, was avowedly formed of your friends. When you quitted
office, you repeatedly declared that you should consider
yourself as obliged to those friends who would continue in
office or would accept office under Mr. Addington. You must
recollect that I expressed to you my disapprobation of the
change and my wish to retire to my situation at the Bar,
quitting the office of Attorney-General; and that you used to me
these words--"That you _must_ not do, for my sake." The words
were too strongly impressed upon my mind at the moment to have
escaped my memory. You encouraged me to take the office of
Speaker much against my will. If I had not taken that office,
nothing should have induced me to take that in which I am now
placed, and by which I have been brought into a position of much
anxiety, separated from all my old friends. Many many others are
in similar situations, and all are to be sacrificed to those men
who were said by yourself at the time to be acting in
contradiction to your wishes in quitting their offices or those
who dragged you out of office with them. You will probably tell
me that you have no such intentions, particularly with respect
to myself. But, whatever may be your intentions, such must be
the unavoidable consequence of the changes which you have
determined upon. I thought, when I took a situation under the
Administration at the head of which you placed Mr. Addington,
that I was doing you service. It was of no small importance to
you, whether you looked to a return to office, or to retirement
from public life, that the Government should not fall into the
hands of those who had been engaged in violent opposition to
you; and you yourself stated to me that you apprehended that
must be the consequence if Mr. Addington should not be able to
form an Administration.... Some of your last words to me induce
me to think that you have not yourself abandoned the plan formed
for giving to the Roman Catholic Church full establishment in
Ireland--for such I consider the plan suggested by Lord
Castlereagh, with any modification of which it is capable.
Indeed, if all those who went out of office because that measure
was not approved then (such being the ostensible cause of their
quitting their stations) are to come into office again, there
can be no doubt in the mind of the public that it is determined
to carry that measure....
That at so critical a juncture a supporter of Addington, not of Cabinet
rank, should rake up personal reasons why Pitt should let things drift
to ruin is inconceivable. And did Redesdale really believe Protestantism
to be endangered by Pitt's return to office, after his assurance at
Bromley that he would not press any point at variance with the royal
resolves? The King, who knew Pitt far better than Redesdale did, had no
fear that he would belie his word by bringing forward Catholic
Emancipation. But the phrases in the letter quoted above show that some
of the Ministers were preparing to beat the drum ecclesiastic, and, in
the teeth of the evidence, to charge Pitt with ingratitude and duplicity
if he became Prime Minister. Ignoring the national crisis, they
concentrated attention solely on the personal questions at issue; and it
is humiliating to have to add that their petty scheming won the day. A
compromise between Pitt and Addington was exceedingly difficult, but
their reproaches and innuendoes made it impossible.[653]
The outcome was disastrous. The failure to form a strong and truly
national Administration ended all hope of peace. Over against Addington
set Bonaparte; with Hawkesbury compare Talleyrand; with Hobart,
Berthier.[654] The weighing need go no further. The British Ministry
kicks the beam; and in that signal inequality is one of the chief causes
of the war of 1803. The first Consul, like the Czar Alexander I,
despised the Addington Cabinet. He could not believe that men who were
laughed at by their own supporters would dare to face him in arms. Twice
he made the mistake of judging a nation by its Ministers--England by
Addington in 1803, Spain by Godoy in 1808. Both blunders were natural,
and both were irreparable; but those peoples had to pour forth their
life blood to recover the position from which weakness and folly allowed
them to slide. Politics, like meteorology, teaches that any sharp
difference of pressure, whether mental or atmospheric, draws in a strong
current to redress the balance. Never were the conditions more cyclonic
than in 1803. A decade of strife scarcely made good the inequality
between the organized might of France and the administrative chaos of
her neighbours; between the Titanic Corsican and the mediocrities or
knaves who held the reins at London, Vienna, Berlin, and Madrid.
War having been declared on 18th May 1803, Pitt sought the first
opportunity of inspiriting Parliament and the nation. On the 23rd a
great concourse crowded the House in the hope of hearing him speak; and
cries of "Pitt, Pitt" arose as he strode to his seat on the third row
behind Ministers, beside one of the pillars. The position gave point to
a remark of Canning to Lord Malmesbury, that Pitt would fire over the
heads of Ministers, neither praising nor blaming them, but merely
supporting the policy of the war. Such was the case. Replying to a few
criticisms of Erskine, he defended the Cabinet and powerfully described
the unbearable aggressions of the First Consul.
The speech aroused a patriotic fervour which cannot be fully realized
from the meagre and dreary summary of it which survives. Romilly
pronounced it among the finest, if not the very finest, which he had
ever made;[655] and Sheridan, in a vinous effusion to Lady Bessborough,
called it "one of the most magnificent pieces of declamation that ever
fell from that rascal Pitt's lips. Detesting the dog, as I do, I cannot
withhold this just tribute to the scoundrel's talents." There follows a
lament over Pitt's want of honesty, which betokens the maudlin mood
preceding complete intoxication.[656] On the morrow Fox vehemently
blamed the Cabinet in a speech which, for width of survey, acuteness of
dialectic, wealth of illustration and abhorrence of war, stands
unrivalled. Addington's reply exhibited his hopeless mediocrity; but,
thanks to Pitt, Ministers triumphed by 398 votes to 67. As they resented
the absence of definite praise in his speech, he withdrew to Walmer,
there to serve his country and embarrass his finances by raising the
Cinque Ports Volunteers.
Before recounting Pitt's services in East Kent, I must mention a
bereavement which he had sustained. His mother died, after a very short
seizure, at Burton Pynsent on 3rd April 1803. Thus was snapped a link
connecting England with a mighty past. A quarter of a century had
elapsed since her consort was laid to rest in the family vault in
Westminster Abbey; she followed him while the storm-fiends were
shrouding in strife the two hereditary foes; and the Napoleonic War was
destined to bring her gifted son thither in less than three years. The
father had linked the name of Pitt with military triumphs; the son, with
futile efforts for peace and goodwill; but the lives both of the
war-lord and of the would-be peacemaker were to be ended by tidings of
national disaster.
No parleying now. In Britain is one breath;
We all are with you now from shore to shore;
Ye men of Kent, 'tis victory or death!
We all know these lines of Wordsworth. Do we know equally well that on
Pitt, as Lord Warden, fell the chief burden of organization on the most
easily accessible coast, that which stretches from Ramsgate to Rye?[657]
It was defenceless but for the antiquated works at Sandown, Deal,
Walmer, Dover, and a few small redoubts further west. Evidently men must
be the ramparts, and Pitt sought to stimulate the Volunteer Movement,
which now again made headway. He strove to make it a National Movement.
At the close of July he sent an official offer to raise 3,000 Volunteers
in Walmer and its neighbourhood; and he urged Ministers to have recourse
to a _levée en masse_, whereupon Yorke, Under Secretary at War, proposed
a scheme somewhat on those lines. Probably the encouragement offered to
Volunteers was too great; for, while they were required to do less than
was necessary to ensure efficiency, they were freed from all risk of
compulsory enrolment in the Militia. This force and the Army
consequently suffered, while the Volunteer Associations grew apace. On
27th October 1803 the King reviewed in Hyde Park as many as 27,000 of
the London Volunteers and showed his caustic wit by giving the nickname
of "the Devil's Own" to the Inns of Court Volunteers.
Pitt was not present on this occasion, he and his neighbour, Lord
Carrington, on whom in 1802 he bestowed the command of Deal Castle,
being busy in organizing the local Volunteers. As Constable of Dover
Castle, Pitt summoned the delegates of the Cinque Ports to meet him
there to discuss the raising of local corps; and he gave the sum of
£1,000 towards their expenses. Dover contributed £885; Sandwich, £887;
Margate, £538, and so on. As Lord Warden, he also took steps to secure
a large number of recruits for the new Army of Reserve, and he further
instructed local authorities to send in returns of all men of military
age, besides carts, horses, and stock, with a view to the "driving" of
the district in case of a landing.[658] At Walmer he kept open house for
officers and guests who visited that coast. By the end of the year 1803
more than 10,000 Kentishmen had enrolled as Volunteers, and 1,040 in the
Army of Reserve, exclusive of Sea Fencibles serving on gunboats. For the
whole of Great Britain the totals were 379,000 and 31,000
respectively.[659] Pitt's joke at the expense of a battalion which laid
more stress on privileges than drills, has become historic. Its
organizers sent up a plan containing several stipulations as to their
duties, with exceptions "in case of actual invasion." Pitt lost patience
at this Falstaff-like conduct, and opposite the clause that they were on
no account to be sent out of the country he wrote the stinging
comment--"except in case of invasion."
The pen of Lady Hester Stanhope gives life-like glimpses of him during
the endless drills between Deal and Dover. She had fled from the
levelling vagaries of Earl Stanhope at Chevening to Lady Chatham at
Burton Pynsent; but that home being now broken up, Pitt offered to
install her at Walmer Castle. He did so with some misgiving; for her
queenly airs and sprightly sallies, however pleasing as a tonic,
promised little for comfort and repose. But the experiment succeeded
beyond all hope. She soon learnt to admire his serenity, while his home
was the livelier for the coming of this meteoric being. Her complexion
was dazzlingly bright. Her eyes, usually blue, would flash black, as did
those of Chatham in moments of excitement. Her features, too, had a
magical play of expression, lighting up at a pleasing fancy, or again
darting forth scorn, with the April-like alternations that irradiated
and overclouded the brow of her grandsire. Kinglake, who saw her half a
century later in her Syrian fastness, was struck by the likeness to the
Chatham of Copley's famous picture.
Certainly she had more in common with him than with the younger Pitt.
During the time when she brought storm and sunshine to Walmer, Park
Place, and Bowling Green House, she often rallied her uncle on showing
undue complaisance to the King or to stupid colleagues whom the Great
Commoner would have overawed. Pitt laughingly took the second place, and
at times vowed that when her voice rang with excitement, he caught an
echo of the tones of his father.[660] Perhaps it was this which
reconciled him to her vagaries. For her whims and moods even then showed
the extravagance which made her the dreaded Sultana of that lonely
Syrian castle where she ended her days amidst thirty quarrelsome but
awe-struck servants, and an equal number of cats, over whom an
apprehensive doctor held doubtful sway.
But that bitter, repining, spirit-haunted exile was far different from
the joyous creature who shed light on Pitt. Her spasmodic nature needed
his strength; her waywardness, his affectionate control. As for her tart
retorts, terrifying to bores and toadies, they only amused him. In truth
she brought into his life a beam of the sunshine which might have
flooded it had he married Eleanor Eden. Hester soon found that, far from
being indifferent to the charms of women, he was an exacting judge of
beauty, even of dress. In fact, she pronounced him to be perfect in
household life. His abilities in gardening astonished her; and we may
doubt the correctness of the local legend which ascribes to her the
landscape-gardening undertaken in the grounds of Walmer Castle in 1803.
The dell at the top of the grounds was Hester's favourite haunt.
The varied excitements of the time are mirrored in her sprightly
letters. Thus, on 15th November 1803, she wrote at Walmer:
We took one of their gunboats the other day: and, as soon as she
came in, Mr. Pitt, Charles,[661] Lord Camden and myself took a
Deal boat and rowed alongside of her. She had two large guns on
board, 30 soldiers and 4 sailors. She is about 30 feet long, and
only draws about 4 feet of water; an ill-contrived thing, and so
little above the water that, had she as many men on board as she
could really carry, a moderate storm would wash them
overboard.... Mr. Pitt's 1st battalion of his newly-raised
regiment was reviewed the other day by General Dundas, who
expressed himself equally surprised and pleased by the state of
discipline he found them in.... I like all this sort of thing,
and I admire my uncle most particularly when surrounded with a
tribe of military attendants. But what is all this pageantry
compared with the unaffected simplicity of real greatness!
Walmer Castle, _Nov. 19, 1803_.
To F. R. Jackson, Esq.
To express the kindness with which Mr. Pitt welcomed my return
and proposed my living with him would be impossible; one would
really suppose that all obligation was on his side. Here then am
I, happy to a degree; exactly in the sort of society I most
like. There are generally three or four men staying in the
house, and we dine eight or ten almost every other day. Military
and naval characters are constantly welcome here; women are not,
I suppose, because they do not form any part of our society. You
may guess, then, what a pretty fuss they make with me. Pitt
absolutely goes through the fatigue of a drill sergeant. It is
parade after parade at 15 or 20 minutes' distance from each
other. I often attend him; and it is quite as much as I am equal
to, although I am remarkably well just now. The hard riding I do
not mind, but to remain almost _still_ so many hours on
horseback is an incomprehensible bore, and requires more
patience than you can easily imagine. However, I suppose few
regiments for the time were ever so forward; therefore the
trouble is nothing. If Mr. Pitt does not overdo and injure his
health every other consideration becomes trifling. [She then
states her anxiety on this score. She rarely speaks to him on
it, as he particularly dislikes it. She adds:] I am happy to
tell you, sincerely, I see nothing at all alarming about him. He
had a cough when I first came to England, but it has nearly or
quite left him. He is thin, but certainly strong, and his
spirits are excellent.... Mr. Pitt is determined to remain
acting colonel when his regiment is called into the field.
On this topic Pitt met with a rebuff from General (afterwards Sir John)
Moore, commander of the newly formed camp at Shorncliffe, near
Folkestone. Pitt rode over from Walmer to ask his advice, and his
question as to the position he and his Volunteers should take brought
the following reply: "Do you see that hill? You and yours shall be drawn
up on it, where you will make a most formidable appearance to the enemy,
while I with the soldiers will be fighting on the beach." Pitt was
highly amused at this professional retort; but at the close of 1804 his
regiment was pronounced by General David Dundas fit to take the field
with regulars. Life in the open and regular exercise on horseback served
to strengthen Pitt's frame; for Hester, writing in the middle of January
1804, when her uncle was away in London for a few days, says: "His most
intimate friends say they do not remember him so well since the year
'97.... Oh! such miserable things as these French gunboats. We took a
vessel the other day, laden with gin--to keep their spirits up, I
suppose." Bonaparte was believed to be at Boulogne; and there was much
alarm about a landing; but she was resolved "not to be driven up country
like a sheep."
This phrase refers to the arrangements for "driving" the country, that
is, sweeping it bare of everything in front of the invaders. The plans
for "driving" were thorough, but were finally pronounced unworkable. His
efforts to meet the Boulogne flotilla were also most vigorous. On 18th
October 1803 he informs Rose that he had 170 gunboats ready between
Hastings and Margate to give the enemy a good reception whenever they
appeared. He adds: "Our Volunteers are, I think, likely to be called
upon to undertake permanent duty, which, I hope, they will readily
consent to. I suppose the same measure will be recommended in your part
of the coast [West Hants]. I wish the arrangements for defence were as
forward everywhere else as they are in Hythe Bay under General Moore. We
begin now to have no other fear in that quarter than that the enemy will
not give us an opportunity of putting our preparations to the proof, and
will select some other point which we should not be in reach of in the
first instance." On 10th November he expresses a hope of repelling any
force that attempted to land in East Kent, but fears that elsewhere the
French cannot be stopped until they arrive disagreeably near to
London.[662]
It is clear, then, that Pitt was not dismayed by the startling disparity
of forces. On the coast of Flanders and Picardy were ranged regular
troops amounting to 114,554 men seemingly ready for embarkation on an
immense flotilla of small craft, part of which was heavily armed. It is
now known that these imposing forces were rarely, if ever, up to their
nominal strength; that part of the flotilla was unseaworthy; that the
difficulties of getting under way were never overcome; and that the
unwieldy mass would probably have been routed, if not destroyed, by the
cruisers and gunboats stationed on the Kentish coast. Still, even if
part of it made land, the crisis would be serious in view of the
paucity and want of organization of the British forces. As bearing on
this subject, a letter of Lord Melville to a relative deserves
quotation:
"Dunira, _16 Dec., 1803_.[663]
"DEAR ALEXANDER,
"I received your letter from Walmer and was extreamly happy to
learn from it that Mr. Pitt was in such excellent health. Long,
I pray, may it continue. He has been very usefully and
creditably employed, but not exactly in the way his country
could have wished; but that is a subject on which I never now
allow myself to think.... If Mr. Pitt, from what he feels within
himself or from the enthusiasm he may have inspired in those he
commands, conceives that the defence of the country could at any
time be safely entrusted with the Volunteers alone, as the
newspapers seem to convey as his sentiments, he is by much too
sanguine. On the other hand it is talking wildly, or like old
women, to contend, as Mr. Windham and Mr. Fox do, that great
bodies of Britains [_sic_], with arms in their hands and trained
to the use of them, are not a most important bulwark of security
to the Empire. My opinion, however, lays perhaps in the middle,
and I would have greatly preferred a much smaller number to have
secured more effectually their uniform efficiency. I would much
rather have had 200,000 on the footing of Lord Hobart's first
letter in June than double that number selected and formed in
the loose and desultory manner they have more recently been
under the variety of contradictory orders they have since
received and by which Government have annoyed every corner of
the country." Melville adds that they would be useful if
thoroughly trained and not allowed to leave their corps; but
exemptions from the Militia and Army of Reserve ballots granted
to the recent Volunteer Corps are mischievous, and interfere
with the recruiting. The Militia is unnecessarily large and
interferes with recruiting for the regular army. He would have
enough trained troops at home to be able to send abroad "50,000
infantry for offensive operations either by ourselves or in
co-operation with such European Powers as may recover their
senses, as sooner or later they must and will do."
Pitt did not leave his post for long, except when high winds made an
invasion impossible. At such times he would make a trip to London. A
short sojourn in town in the early spring elicits from Lady Hester the
words: "I cannot but be happy anywhere in Mr. Pitt's society"; and she
hoped that she helped to amuse and entertain him. Certainly Pitt did his
utmost to enliven her stay at the little residence at Park Place. In
the Memoirs of the Comtesse de Boigne, who claims to have known her
well, we catch a glimpse of Pitt acting as _chaperon_ at balls which
obviously bored him. Yet he would patiently wait there until, perhaps,
four a.m., when Lady Hester returned to end his _ennui_. Is it
surprising that after his death she called him that adored angel?
* * * * *
Early in the year 1804 a ministerial crisis seemed at hand. The personal
insignificance of Ministers, the hatred felt for St. Vincent at the
Admiralty, the distrust of Hobart at the War Office, and the deep
depression caused by the laboured infelicities of Addington's speeches
presaged a breakdown. So threatening was the outlook that Grenville
urged Pitt to combine with him for the overthrow of an Administration
which palsied national energy. For reasons which are far from clear,
Pitt refused to take decisive action. During his stay in London in
mid-January he saw Grenville, but declined to pledge himself to a
definite opposition. Grenville and his coadjutors, among them Lord
Carysfort, were puzzled by this wavering conduct, which they ascribed to
_finesse_, pettiness, or even to insincerity.[664] But it is clear that
Pitt objected only to their proposed methods, which he termed a teasing,
harassing opposition. In vain did the Bishop of Lincoln, who came to
town at Pitt's request, seek to reconcile their differences. The most to
be hoped for was that Pitt would be compelled by force of circumstances
to concert a plan with the Grenvilles for Addington's overthrow. The
following letter of Carysfort to the bishop is of interest:
_Jany. 18, 1804_.[665]
Lord Grenville and Mr. Pitt being agreed upon so material a
point as the necessity of removing Mr. A[ddington] from his
present situation, it must be a matter not only of regret but of
surprise, that they should not be able to reconcile any
difference of opinion between them as to the sort of opposition
to be carried on in Parliament; and I cannot help thinking that
Mr. Pitt's avowal that he intends opposition would in itself be
sufficient to incline (not merely Lord Grenville and his
friends, who have made it a principal object to be united with
Mr. Pitt and place him again at the head of affairs) but all the
parties who may mean to oppose, to leave the mode pretty much
at his option!... [Your letter] leads me to think that Mr. Pitt
and he may not have understood each other. Lord Grenville's
attachment to Mr. Pitt has been so conspicuous, and I am
persuaded his communications have been so frank and so explicit,
that I cannot account for Mr. Pitt using any reserve with him,
and must be of opinion that greater openness, where there is
such solid ground of confidence, would lead to more satisfactory
results. [Lord Carysfort then says that Pitt should not keep
public opinion so long in suspense; for] the public danger from
a Ministry confessedly incapable is already great and urgent and
will be continually increasing.
Failing to get help from Pitt, Grenville, at the end of January, sought
the help of Fox! Through his brother, Thomas Grenville, as go-between he
offered the Whig leader his alliance for the overthrow of Addington and
the formation of a Ministry of the talented men of all parties. Here,
then, is the origin of the broad-bottomed or All the Talents
Administrations which produced so singular a muddle after the death of
Pitt. The Fox-Grenville bargain cannot be styled immoral like that of
Fox and North in 1782; for it expressly excluded all compromise on
matters of conviction. Nevertheless it was a tactical mistake, for which
Pitt's exasperating aloofness was largely responsible. Few occurrences
in this time of folly and blundering were more untoward. Pitt's letter
of 4th February to Grenville shows that he discerned the magnitude of
the error, little though he saw his own share in it. The result of the
union of Fox and Grenville was likely to be the fall of Addington, an
appeal of the King to him (Pitt) to form a Cabinet, which would be
narrowed and weakened by the present effort of Grenville to form a
strong and comprehensive Administration.[666]
Presumably the national crisis was not yet acute enough to satisfy Pitt
that he might conscientiously oppose Addington. But that he was drifting
to this conviction appears in the following letter from Rose to the
Bishop of Lincoln.
_Feb. 11, 1804._[667]
I showed Mr. Pitt your letter because it expressed so entirely
my own view of the interesting subject: he appeared at first
against anything like hostility, but I think is now disposed to
point out pretty strongly the neglect of proper measures of
defence in the naval and military departments and to suggest
the necessary ones; so [as] to throw on the Government the just
responsibility and odium of rejecting them if they shall
determine to do so.
Rose then states that the Bishop of St. Asaph calls the new Volunteer
Bill "the most wishy-washy thing that ever was produced." He also adds
that the King is ill, probably of dropsy. The fact was even worse. A
chill caught in drenching rain developed into the former mental malady.
Thus the nation was for a time kingless, leaderless, and open to a
deadly thrust from Boulogne. For a short time his life was in danger,
and all the troubles of a Regency loomed ahead. The Prince of Wales
having ventured on the compromising prophecy that the illness "_must_
last several months," Pitt quoted to his informant, Malmesbury, the
damning line
Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.
In truth, there now began a series of intrigues, in which the Prince,
Fox, and the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire played the leading parts,
for assuring a Regency and the formation of a Fox Administration. While
England needed to keep her gaze on Boulogne, the intriguers thought only
of the death or lunacy of the King, the accession of the Prince and the
apportionment of the spoils of office. Sheridan on this occasion played
his own game and for this was heartily cursed by the expectant
Creevey.[668]
In view of these last complications and the prospect of an invasion,
Pitt revised his former judgement, and informed Malmesbury that, while
declining the offers of the Grenvilles to help to overthrow Addington,
he would not refuse to take office if for any reason Ministers resigned.
On that day (19th February) Melville wrote to him from Melville Castle
that the outlook was full of horror, and everything depended on the
formation of a steady and permanent Government with which foreign
nations could treat. For this reason he (Melville) urged that the King
should be relieved of his executive duties, which it was sheer cruelty
to exact from him.[669] Pitt's answer to this daring proposal is not
known; but later, on 29th March, in answer to further overtures from
Melville, he stated that the King's illness was less serious than was
reported by the Earl of Moira, the _confidante_ of the Prince of Wales;
and that while it lasted he doubted the propriety of taking any steps
to overturn the Ministry.[670] To this scrupulousness Melville was a
stranger, and on 4th April again urged him to form a compact opposition
for the overthrow of Addington, and promised him the votes of at least
twenty-six Scottish members (out of forty-five) for any such
effort.[671]
Meanwhile the King recovered but slowly. The nervous, excited, irritable
symptoms showed little abatement; and in the third week in March he fell
into a fit of anger of such violence that he had to be strapped to his
bed. Even more threatening was the military situation. Yorke, early in
March, proposed a Volunteer Consolidation Bill, which met with general
derision. As the state of the Navy was also unsatisfactory, Pitt freely
criticized Ministers, especially St. Vincent; and, on one occasion, when
Addington showed boyish petulance, he met with a serene and courteous
answer. Tierney, Treasurer of the Navy, attacked Pitt coarsely;
Sheridan, with his usual wit and brilliance; but neither coarseness nor
eloquence could rehabilitate that Ministry. The urgency of the crisis
appears in the following letter written by Pitt at Walmer Castle to some
person unknown:
_April 11, 1804._
... The experience of the last summer and the discussions of
this session confirm me in the opinion that while the Government
remains in its present shape and under its present leader,
nothing efficient can be expected either to originate with them
or to be fairly adopted and effectually executed. With this
persuasion, and thinking that a system of more energy and
decision is indispensable with a view to the immediate crisis
and the many difficulties he may have to encounter in the course
of the present contest, I mean to take an early opportunity of
avowing and acting on these sentiments more explicitly and
decidedly than I have hitherto done; and I shall endeavour to
give effect to my opinion by the support of all the friends whom
I can collect. My object will be to press to the utmost those
points which I think essential to the public defence, and at the
same time in doing so to make it, if I can, impossible for the
present Government to maintain itself. In this object I have
every reason to believe that I shall have the fullest
concurrence of all those with whom I have the most differed on
former occasions and with whom possibly I may as little agree in
future. With their number added to my own more immediate
friends, and to the few who have acted with Ld Grenville and
Windham, I am persuaded that our division on any favourable
question will probably be such as would be sufficient to shake a
much stronger Government than the present....[672]
On the same day he promised Melville to return to town in the middle of
April, and to make the "principal push" against Addington on 23rd April,
on the subject of Yorke's Bill for suspending the completion of the Army
Reserve. If they failed, he would return to Walmer for another kind of
contest. The joint assault by Fox and Pitt against the Ministry on 23rd
April produced a great sensation, the speech of Pitt being remarkable
for its suppressed sarcasm and thinly veiled charges of inefficiency. As
a call to arms, it stands without a rival. Ministers were utterly beaten
in argument, and escaped defeat only by thirty-seven votes. Addington
became alarmed, and advised the King, who was now convalescent, to
instruct the Lord Chancellor, Eldon, to confer with Pitt, a fact which
refutes the charges of Brougham and Dean Pellew against Eldon.
Finally the King allowed Pitt to make proposals concerning a new
Ministry. Pitt did so fully and courteously in a paper which George III
forthwith described to Eldon as containing "many empty words and little
information." To Pitt himself the King, on 5th May, expressed his deep
regret that he had taken such a dislike to Mr. Addington, after the
praiseworthy services of the latter to our glorious Constitution in
Church and State. He could never forget the wound which Pitt proposed to
deal it, and "the indelicacy (not to call it worse) of wanting His
Majesty to forego his solemn Coronation Oath." He therefore required
Pitt to give a solemn pledge not to propose the least alteration in the
Test Act. As to a proposal to admit Fox to the Cabinet, the King
expressed "his astonishment that Mr. Pitt should one moment harbour the
thought of bringing such a man before his Royal notice." References to
the "wild ideas" of Burke, and to Grenville being guided by obstinacy,
"his usual director," filled up the interstices of this strange
composition.[673] Evidently the enfeebled brain of George could form no
notion of the national danger. While Pitt thought only of the safety of
England, the King's thoughts continued to gyrate angrily around the Test
Act, the Coronation Oath, and the iniquities of Fox.
It was therefore with grave apprehension that on 7th May Pitt went to
Buckingham House for attendance upon the King, the first for nearly
three and a quarter years. He expected an outburst of rage when he
mentioned the chief subject at issue, namely the inclusion of Fox and
the Grenvilles in the future Administration. The King, however, kept
surprising control over his feelings, behaved graciously to Pitt,
tactfully waived aside smaller questions that he disliked, even
consented to admit the Grenvilles, but for ever barred the way to the
return of Fox. The utmost that he would hear was the employment of Fox
as an ambassador. Once again, then, the royal convalescent outwitted
Pitt. "Never," said Pitt to Eldon, "in any conversation I have had with
him in my life has he so baffled me." Fox being excluded by the King,
there was scant hope of bringing in his new allies, the Grenvilles and
Windham. Pitt broached the matter to Lord Grenville on 7th May, and
received on the morrow a friendly but firm refusal. The following
sentences are noteworthy: "We rest our determination solely on our
strong sense of the impropriety of our becoming parties to a system of
Government which is to be formed at such a moment as the present on a
principle of exclusion.... We see no hope of any effectual remedy for
those mischiefs but by uniting in the public service as large a
proportion as possible of the weight, talents, and character to be found
in public men of all descriptions and without any exception."
The refusal of Grenville to join Pitt has often been ascribed to
jealousy of Pitt, and the latter is reported to have said that he would
teach that proud man that he could do without him. The sentiment is
alien to the tolerant nature of Pitt,[674] who must have respected his
cousin's decision, based as it was on a determination to break down the
bigoted resolve of the King. But Grenville's conduct punished Pitt far
more severely than the King. For while George in his feeble, irritable
condition thought only about the Test Act and Fox, Pitt was intent on
forming a truly national Administration, including Fox, Fitzwilliam, and
Melville as Secretaries of State, with Spencer at the Admiralty,
Grenville as Lord President, and Windham as Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster.[675]
The actual result was far inferior. Fox, Fitzwilliam, Spencer,
Grenville, and Windham being ruled out by the King's action and
Grenville's resolve, the Cabinet was formed as follows: Pitt, First Lord
of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer; Harrowby, Foreign
Secretary; Hawkesbury, Home Secretary; Camden, Secretary at War and for
the Colonies; Portland, Lord President; Eldon, Lord Chancellor;
Westmorland, Privy Seal; Melville, Admiralty; Chatham, Master of
Ordnance; Mulgrave, Duchy of Lancaster; Castlereagh, President of the
India Board; the Duke of Montrose, President of the Board of Trade. Of
these twelve Ministers, six had been with Addington, namely, Hawkesbury
(though at the Foreign Office, which he unwillingly vacated), Portland,
Eldon, Westmorland, Chatham, and Castlereagh.[676] Pitt dispensed with
the services of Addington, St. Vincent, and Pelham. Of non-Cabinet
appointments, the chief were those of the Earl of Hardwicke as Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland; Sir Evan Nepean, Irish Secretary; William Dundas,
War Office; Canning, Treasury of the Navy, in place of Tierney, who
declined to serve with Pitt; Lord Charles Somerset and George Rose,
Joint Paymasters of the Forces; and Perceval, Attorney-General. Canning
and Rose were dissatisfied with their appointments, the latter writing
to Bishop Tomline in deep chagrin at Pitt's neglect of his faithful
services.
The new Cabinet, besides being too large, was half Addingtonian and half
Pittite, a source of weakness which soon led to further changes. It was
also weighted with inefficient members--Chatham, Hawkesbury, and
Portland. The King disliked Hawkesbury, and said he had no head for
business, no method, and no punctuality. Harrowby, though a man of
brilliant parts in private life, and an excellent speaker, was oppressed
by a delicate frame, precarious health, and a peevish temper. During no
small part of his tenure of office he had to take the waters at Bath,
and was therefore a poor substitute for the experienced and hard-working
Grenville. Pitt, for some unexplained reason, disliked placing Melville
at the Admiralty, a strangely prophetic instinct. Camden and Mulgrave
were also misfits. Hawkesbury did better work at the Home Office than
the Foreign Office; but on the whole, the new arrangement aroused
widespread grumbling and distrust. The result of it all was the
dissolution of the great national party formed in the year 1794 and the
formation of three groups, following Pitt, Addington, and Grenville,
the Addingtonians showing much bitterness at the treatment of their
chief, while the Grenvilles and Windham inveighed against the new
Ministry, as formed on the principle of excluding Fox.[677] The charge
was unfair; for at that crisis Pitt could not stand by and see the
national resources frittered away by Addington. The King's Government
had to be carried on; and, like Wellington a generation later, Pitt
consented to do so in the only way which was practicable.
The limitations of his power were soon obvious. The two unfriendly
groups eagerly criticized him at all times and accorded grudging and
doubtful support even on measures which they approved. This was
especially the case with regard to the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
Thanks to the untiring exertions of Wilberforce, Clarkson, and others,
that movement had made considerable progress during the interval of
peace. The outbreak of war in May 1803 darkened the outlook; for once
again the cry was raised that England must not cut off a trade which was
essential to the welfare of the West Indies, highly lucrative to British
shipowners, and a necessary adjunct to the mercantile marine.
Nevertheless, the accession of Pitt to power and the goodwill of the
majority of the Irish members inspired Wilberforce with hope. True,
Addington always strenuously opposed him; and among the younger members
of the Cabinet Castlereagh had declared his hostility; but at first all
went well. At the close of May 1804 Pitt and Fox united in expressing
approval of Wilberforce's proposals. Addington, in remarks which lasted
exactly forty seconds, scouted the measure, but carried with him only 49
members as against 124. The majorities were nearly as great at the
second and third readings.
In the Lords the omens were inauspicious. Some bishops were away in
their dioceses: the supporters of the West India and shipping interests
were at hand, using their utmost endeavours to delay, if not to defeat,
the measure. Pitt despaired of thwarting these dilatory tactics, backed
by wealth and influence from all quarters. Wilberforce wrote indignantly
to Lord Muncaster: "It was truly humiliating to see four of the Royal
Family come down to vote against the poor, helpless, friendless slaves."
A wild speech by Stanhope told against the cause which he meant to
further, and the motion was adjourned to avoid defeat.
Pitt's subsequent conduct in 1805 disappointed Wilberforce. Certainly it
was half-hearted and procrastinating. But, seeing that he had to rely
more on Addington and finally to bring him into the Cabinet, his
difficulties were great. The Irish members also showed signs of
defection; and it was certain that the Bill would fail in the Lords.
Accordingly, Pitt begged Wilberforce to wait for a more propitious time.
A sense of religious duty impelled him to persevere, with the inevitable
result, a crushing defeat (19th February 1805).[678] On a smaller
question, connected with the prohibition of the supply of slaves to
Guiana, then recently conquered from the Dutch, he finally brought Pitt
to acquiesce. But here again the conduct of the Minister was tardy.
Wilberforce urged Pitt to abolish the Guiana Slave Trade by an Order in
Council, and early in May wrote: "One very powerful and important reason
for your abolishing the Guiana Slave Trade by an act of Government, not
by, or in consequence of a vote of Parliament, is that it would tend to
confirm the disposition so strongly manifested by the Dutch to abolish
the Slave Trade, and give them the sort of compensation they demand."
The British Order in Council did not appear until 13th September
1805.[679]
Nevertheless, their friendship remained firm to the end. "Had much talk
with him [Pitt] on political topics, finding him very open and kind."
Such is Wilberforce's account of his last interviews with Pitt; and he
certainly could not have remained on friendly terms with one who was
deliberately untrue to the cause. He knew better than recent critics the
difficulties resulting from the compromise with Addington and from the
ceaseless friction with the followers of Fox and Grenville.
The case of the Slave Trade serves to illustrate the peculiar
difficulties of Pitt's position, which were to appear on even more
important questions. The King, Addington, Grenville, and Pitt had all
contributed to the tangle. Limiting our survey to the conduct of
Addington and Pitt, we must pronounce both of them culpable. Addington
should have seen that Pitt's promise of support, given at the time of
the King's lunacy in February-March 1801, was not morally binding three
years later when the existence of the nation was at stake in the
Napoleonic War. At such a time an enlightened patriot does not stand
upon punctilio, but gladly takes a second place if he can thereby place
in authority an abler man. Addington alone could release Pitt from the
debt of honour incurred in February 1801, and faithfully discharged for
three weary years, at the cost of the alienation of friends and the
derision of opponents. He never spoke or wrote that word of release, but
held Pitt to the bargain with an insistence which would be contemptible
were it not in large measure the outcome of a narrow complacent nature
blind to its own shortcomings.
Pitt, also, behaved weakly. The original promise, to support an untried
man, was a piece of astounding trustfulness; and when the weakness of
Addington's Administration involved the nation in war and brought it to
the brink of disaster, he should openly have claimed release from a
pledge too hastily given, leaving the world to judge between them. As it
was, for nearly a year he wavered to and fro between the claims of
national duty and private honour, thereby exasperating his friends and
finally driving the Grenvilles, Windham, and Spencer to a union with Fox
which in its turn blighted the hope of forming a national
Administration. Finally, he made only one effort to induce the King to
accept Fox. True, the situation was a delicate one; for pressure brought
to bear on George on that topic would have brought back the mental
malady. But the Grenvilles, viewing the situation with pedantic
narrowness, considered the attempt so half-hearted as to warrant their
opposition to the new Cabinet. On the whole, then, Pitt's
punctiliousness must be pronounced a secondary but vital cause of the
lamentable _dénouement_, which left him exposed at forty five years of
age, enfeebled by worry and gout, to a contest with Napoleon at the
climax of his powers.
FOOTNOTES:
[649] Addington desired the retirement of St. Vincent. See "Dropmore
P.," vii, 121; Stanhope, iv, 21.
[650] Pellew, ii, 114-6.
[651] "Lord Colchester's Diaries," i, 415; Pellew, ii, 121-4.
[652] Pretyman MSS.
[653] G. Rose, "Diaries," ii, 156; "Lord Colchester's Diaries," i, 416,
417; Pellew, ii, 119-28.
[654] Hawkesbury's remissness (so Vorontzoff told Rose) then lost an
opportunity of gaining the friendly mediation of the Czar (G. Rose,
"Diaries," ii, 43, 157). Romilly ("Mems.," i, 427) calls the Ministry a
thing of no account in comparison with Pitt, and says it was universally
despised.
[655] Romilly Memoirs, i, 427.
[656] Sichel, "Sheridan," i, 440. Spencer Stanhope declared Pitt's
speech the finest he ever heard. His wife wrote to their son: "He (Pitt)
spoke for two hours, but unless he can be prevailed upon to give it
himself, as the shorthand-writers were excluded, the speech will be lost
for ever. Your father thinks it will be made out by some of his friends
and submitted to his inspection; therefore, tho' we may lose much, we
shall not lose the whole" (A. M. W. Stirling, "Annals of a Yorkshire
House," ii, 282).
[657] "Dumouriez and the Defence of England against Napoleon," by J. H.
Rose and A. M. Broadley.
[658] Lyon, "Hist. of Dover," p. xxxiii.
[659] Hansard, i, 1899-1902.
[660] "Mems. of Lady Hester Stanhope," i, 174.
[661] Lady Hester's second brother.
[662] G. Rose, "Diaries," ii, 70-2; Desbrière, "Projets de
Débarquement," iii, 98-105; Wheeler and Broadley, "Napoleon and the
Invasion of England," ii, ch. 14; Cornwallis ("Corresp.," iii, 500)
thought ill of our chances if the French landed, but he doubted if they
could. (_Ibid._, iii, 503.)
[663] Pitt MSS., 157.
[664] "Dropmore P.," vii, 193, 196.
[665] Pretyman MSS. It is in answer to the one referred to in "Dropmore
P.," vii, 209.
[666] "Dropmore P.," vii, 211-14.
[667] Pretyman MSS.
[668] "Creevey Papers," i, 25-7.
[669] Pretyman MSS.
[670] Stanhope, iv, 139-44.
[671] Pretyman MSS.
[672] From Mr. A. M. Broadley's MSS.
[673] Stanhope, iv, App. viii-ix.
[674] G. Rose, "Diaries," i, 4.
[675] Stanhope, iv, 177.
[676] Pitt thoroughly approved of Castlereagh taking the India Board
under Addington in July 1802; in October he entered the Cabinet
("Private Papers of Wilberforce," 131).
[677] Wraxall (iii, 281) with his usual bias says that Pitt "affected"
to desire the inclusion of Fox.
[678] "Life of Wilberforce," iii, 168, 182, 184, 211, 212.
[679] _Ibid._, iii, 230-4; Pitt MSS., 189.