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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 327: CHANGE IN THE MINISTRY.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

CHANGE IN THE MINISTRY.

During these proceedings in parliament Mr. Fox, who, before he became foreign secretary, had insinuated in the commons that he possessed the means of detaching the Dutch from the French, offered to Holland a renewal of amity on the terms of the treaty of 1674. Mr. Fox had also been endeavouring to conclude a peace with the Americans, the chief terms of which were the recognition of the independence of the thirteen American colonies, and for the rest a status quo ante bellum. No progress had been made in these negociations—for they were obstructed by the great powers of Europe—when the Marquess of Rockingham died, which put an end to the cabinet. Immediately after his decease the king sent for Lord Shelburne, and placed him at the head of the cabinet, which so deeply offended the Rockingham party that they resigned: Fox, Burke, Lord John Cavendish, John Townshend, the Duke of Portland, as governor of Ireland, and others at the boards of treasury and admiralty instantly threw up office in disgust. In consequence of their resignations, Mr. Thomas Townshend was made foreign secretary; Lord Grantham obtained the secretaryship, which had been held by Lord Shelburne; William Pitt was raised to the post of chancellor of the exchequer; Colonel Barré was made paymaster of the forces, while Mr. Dundas was appointed treasurer of the navy in his room; Sir George Yonge succeeded Mr. Townshend as secretary of war; Lord Temple undertook the lieutenancy of Ireland; and Mr. Pepper Arden was made solicitor-general. The promotion which attracted most attention was that of William Pitt, who was only twenty-three years of age, and wild, by his promotion to the post of the chancellor of the exchequer, became leader of the house of commons; and that at a time when the pecuniary concerns of the country were, from the long and expensive war which still raged, in a state of great embarrassment. Fox and his associates were accused of heat and precipitancy, and of having committed the whole Whig cause by their sudden resignation, whence, on the 9th of July, Fox thought proper to defend his conduct in the house of commons; maintaining, that he and his colleagues could not act with honour and benefit to the country, either under or in conjunction with Lord Shelburne. In his speech, he arraigned the conduct of the new first-minister, and General Conway rose in his defence. While he lamented the retirement of Fox, Conway said, that in a cabinet of eleven ministers, there must be some shades of difference; but he denied that these were sufficient to justify the resignation of Fox and the other friends of the deceased marquess. Mr. Pitt was more severe in his remarks upon Fox than General Conway. He accused him of being more at variance with men than their measures, and of having resigned in pique and from disappointed ambition, rather than on any public ground. This language might have been just to a certain extent, but there were doubtless other reasons more cogent than pique and animosity for the retirement of Fox, as he was at this time in a desperate state of poverty. Be this as it may, the severity of Pitt was the commencement of a long conflict between him and Fox.

GEORGE III. 1782—1784