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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
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.
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.
2 Fortescue, Hon. J. W., History of the British Army (13 vols., London, 1899–1930), vol. v, vi, passim.Google Scholar
3 SirButterfield, Herbert, Charles James Fox and Napoleon. The Peace Negotiations of 1806 (London, 1962).Google Scholar
4 Davis, H. W. Carless, The Age of Grey and Peel (Oxford, 1929), p. 120.Google Scholar
5 Roberts, Michael, The Whig Party 1807–1812 (London, 1939), p. 106.Google Scholar
6 Mackesy, Piers, The War in the Mediterranean 1803–1810 (London, 1957), p. 195.Google Scholar
7 Fortescue, , Army, vi, 38.Google Scholar
8 Davis, , Grey and Peel, p. 116. This refers to the order of 7 Jan. 1807 forbidding trade between enemy ports.Google Scholar
9 Watson, J. Steven, The Reign of George III 1760–1815 (Oxford, 1960), pp. 437–40.Google Scholar
10 The duke of Buckingham, The Court and Cabinets of George III (4 vols., London, 1853–1855), iii, 458, Lord Grenville to Marquis of Buckingham, 1 Dec. 1805; lb., iv, 9, 10, Lord Grenville to Marquis of Buckingham, 7 Jan. 1806.Google Scholar
11 See particularly T. Grenville MSS in B.M. Add. 41,856, Fox's letters to Tom Grenville, 28 Jan. 1806 (fo. 196), 29 Jan. (fo. 202), 4 Feb. (fo. 204).
12 See Memorials and Correspondence of Charles James Fox, ed. by Russell, Lord John (4 vols., London, 1857)Google Scholar and vol. iii, passim. ‘Clerks and secretaries’ is Lord Holland's phrase, in Memoirs of the Whig Party, ed. by his son (2 vols., London, 1853–1854), i, 209;Google Scholar ‘subservient squad’ is the earl of Carnarvon's phrase in a letter to earl Fitzwilliam, 8 Feb. 1804, Northants Record Office, Milton MSS dr. 64.
13 Selected Letters of Sydney Smith, ed. by Smith, N. C. (Oxford, 1956), p. 52, Smith to Francis Jeffrey, 30 Jan. 1806.Google Scholar
14 Fox MSS in B.M. Add. 47,569, fo. 187 foil. Windham to Fox, 15 Nov. 1804.
15 Correspondence of the Prince of Wales, ed. by Aspinall, A. (8 vols., London, 1963–1971), v, 327, Duke of Northumberland to the Prince of Wales, 6 Feb. 1806.Google Scholar
16 The Diary of the Right Hon. William Windham, ed. by MrsBaring, H. (London, 1866), p. 456, 28 Jan. 1806.Google Scholar
17 Milton MSS, dr. 68, fo. 3, Elliot to Fitzwilliam, 5 Feb. 1806.
18 Althorp MSS (at Althorp, Northamptonshire): Tom Grenville to Earl Spencer, 7 Feb. 1806.
19 Allen, John, Annual Register for 1806, p. 36.Google Scholar
20 Holland, , Memoirs, i, 209, 212.Google Scholar
21 Hobhouse, J. C., The Defence of the People (London, 1819), p. 42.Google Scholar
22 Memoirs of Sir Philip Francis, ed. by Parkes, J. and Merivale, H. (2 vols., London, 1867), ii, 457.Google Scholar The hon. Charles Grey became known as Viscount Howick after his father's promotion to an earldom in Apr. 1806.
23 Memoirs and Correspondence of Francis Horner, ed. by his brother (2 vols., London, 1843), i, 340–1, Horner to J. A. Murray, 4 Feb. 1806.Google Scholar
24 Parliamentary Debates, vol. vi, cols. 308–19.
25 Memoirs of the Life of Sir Samuel Romilly (3 vols., London, 1840), ii, 130–1, Journal for 1 Mar. 1806.Google Scholar
26 Cf. Hobhouse, , Defence of the People, p. 341.Google Scholar
27 Romilly, , Memoirs, ii, 128, Journal for 8 Feb. 1806.Google Scholar
28 Grenville MSS in B.M. Add. 41,852, fo. 22, Lord Grenville to Tom Grenville, 29 Jan. 1806.
29 Allen, , Annual Register, p. 27.Google Scholar
30 Smith, , Letters, p. 86, Smith to Earl Grey, 2 Jan. 1811.Google Scholar
31 H.M.C., , Dropmore, x, iiiGoogle Scholar, Lord Grenville to Earl Grey, 22 Jan. 1811.
32 Pellew, G., Life and Correspondence of the Right Hon. Henry Addington, First Viscount Sidmouth (3 vols., London, 1847), ii, 435.Google Scholar
33 Fox, , Memorials, iv, 139,Google Scholar Fox to Duke of Bedford, 13 May 1806; H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 50,Google Scholar Fox to Lord Grenville, 8 Mar. 1806.
34 Later Correspondence of George iii, ed. Aspinall, A. (5 vols., Cambridge, 1963–1968), iv, xxx–xi.Google Scholar
35 Ibid. p. 560, George III to Spencer Perceval, 10 Apr. 1807.
36 Holland, , Memoirs, i, 259.Google Scholar
37 Francis, , Memoirs, ii, 457.Google Scholar
38 Allen, , Annual Register, p. 74.Google Scholar
39 46 Geo. III, c. xxiii.
40 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 94, Windham to Lord Grenville, 11 Apr. 1806.Google Scholar
41 Ibid. p. 96, Lord Grenville to Windham, 12 Apr. 1806.
42 Allen, , Annual Register, pp. 64–5.Google Scholar
43 Francis, , Memoirs, ii, 363, Francis to Marchioness of Downshire, no date, prob. autumn 1806.Google Scholar
44 Edinburgh Review, xxx (1818), 196, in the course of an article on The State of Parties.Google Scholar
45 Ibid.
46 This pamphlet is reprinted as an appendix in Horner's, Memoirs, i, 490–4.Google Scholar
47 Fortescue, Hon. J. W., County Lieutenancies and the Army, 1803–14 (London, 1909), p. 162.Google Scholar
48 Ibid. p. 175 and Fortescue, , Army, vi, 179.Google Scholar
49 Wilberforce, S. and Wilberforce, R. I., Life of William Wilberforce (5 vols., London, 1838), iii, 268; from his notebook.Google Scholar
50 Fortescue, , County Lieutenancies, p. 203.Google Scholar
51 For support of Windham's criticisms, see contemporary pamphlets, A Vindication of Mr, Windham's Military Plan, Anon. (London, 1806);Google ScholarObservations on the Character and present state of the Military Force of Great Britain, Anon. (London, 1806);Google Scholar and Worthington, J. C., Address to the Rt. Hon. W. Windham on the Public Defence (London, 1806).Google Scholar
52 Fortescue, , County Lieutenancies, p. 173.Google Scholar
53 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 113,Google Scholar Lord Grenville to Windham, 23 Apr. 1806.
54 Ibid. p. 118. Windham to Lord Grenville, 24 Apr. 1806.
55 Diary and Correspondence of the Rt. Hon. Charles Abbot, Lord Colchester, ed. by his son (3 vols., London, 1861), ii, 77.Google Scholar Diary 15 July 1806.
56 Pellew, , Sidmouth, ii, 440.Google Scholar Sidmouth to J. Hiley Addington, 30 Nov. 1806.
57 Ibid. p. 443. Sidmouth to Charles Bragge Bathurst, 4 Dec. 1806.
58 Hunt, H., Memoirs of Henry Hunt (3 vols., London, 1820), ii, 286.Google Scholar
59 Parliamentary Debates, vol. ix, col. 279, 26 Mar. 1807.
60 Ibid. vol. VII, col. 808, 24 June 1806.
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.
63 Pellew, , Sidmouth, ii, 427–8,Google Scholar Lord Grenville to Sidmouth, 1 June 1806.
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
66 Cf. references in Horner and Bennet's pamphlet, Brougham's article, Allen, Sydney Smith's letter to Grey, 2 Jan. 1811, all already cited.
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
69 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 196, Lord Grenville to Fox, 22 June 1806.Google Scholar
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
74 Grey of Howick MSS in joint possession of University and Dean and Chapter of Durham, at Dept. of Palaeography and Diplomatic, Durham University; Howick to Whitbread, 2 Aug. 1806.
75 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 304–5, Lord Grenville to Lauderdale, 4 Sept. 1806.Google Scholar
76 Ibid. pp. 366–8, Lord Grenville to Howick, 28 Sept. 1806.
77 Parliamentary Debates, vol. viii, col. 287 (Lord Eldon, 2 Jan. 1807) and 336 (Sir Thomas Turton, 5 Jan. 1807).
78 Buckingham, , Court and Cabinets, iii, 458, Lord Grenville to Marquis of Buckingham, 1 Dec. 1805.Google Scholar
79 Fortescue, Hon. J. W., British Statesmen of the Great War, Ford Lectures (Oxford, 1911), p. iii, quoting letter of Windham to Sir Gilbert Elliot, c. 1795.Google Scholar
80 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 43, Fox to Lord Grenville, 27 Feb. 1806.Google Scholar
81 Fox, , Memorials, iv, 133, Fox to duke of Bedford, 13 Apr. 1806.Google Scholar
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
92 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 353, Windham to Grenville, 22 Sept. 1806.Google Scholar
93 Ibid. p. 321, same to same, 11 Sept. 1806.
94 Grey, C., Life and Opinions of Charles Second Earl Grey (London, 1861), p. 135 ff., memo by Howick.Google Scholar
95 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 367, Grenville to Howick, 29 Sept. 1806, cf. Holland House MSS in B.M. Add. 51,530, Grenville to Holland, 14 Sept. 1806.Google Scholar
96 Holland, , Memoirs, ii, 112.Google Scholar
97 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 460, Holland to Grenville, 7 Dec. 1806.Google Scholar
98 Ferns, H. S., Britain and Argentina in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1960), p. 17 ff.Google Scholar
99 H.M.C., , Dropmore, viii, 415, Grenville to Buckingham, 31 Oct. 1806 and p. 419 ff., Windham to Grenville, 2 Nov. 1806.Google Scholar
100 Holland, , Memoirs, ii, 115.Google Scholar
101 Buckingham, , Court and Cabinets, iv, 123, Tom Grenville to Marquis of Buckingham, 17 Feb. 1807.Google Scholar
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.
103 Mackesy, , Mediterranean, pp. 160–1.Google Scholar
104 Ibid. pp. 186–8.
105 Henry, Lord Brougham, Memoirs of the Life and Times of Lord Brougham (3 vols., Edinburgh, 1871), i, 382, Howick to Henry Brougham, summer 1807. The book prints ‘Sir Henry Popham’ for ‘Sir Home Popham’.Google Scholar
106 Channing, E., The Jeftersonian System (New York, 1906) (vol. XII of A. B. Hart's The American Nation), p. 206.Google Scholar (See also Perkins, Bradford, Prologue to War (Berkeley, 1961), ch. iv.)Google Scholar
107 Channing, p. 191.
108 H.M.C., , Dropmore, ix, 139, Tom to Lord Grenville, 15 Oct. 1807.Google Scholar
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.
111 Fox, , Memorials, iv, 133, Fox to Duke of Bedford, 13 Apr. 1806.Google Scholar
112 See note no. 11, also Windham's letters to Lord Grenville in H.M.C., Dropmore, viii, 30–1 (13 02), p. 93 (11 04), p. 140 (15 05) and p. 171 (2 06).Google Scholar
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.
131 Holland, , Memoirs, ii, 156.Google Scholar
132 Holland House MSS, in B.M. Add. 51,468, unfoliated, J. A. Ryan to Fox, 24 Feb. 1806.
133 Grey, C., Earl Grey, pp. 145–6,Google Scholar Lord Howick to G. Ponsonby, and H.M.C., , Dropmore, ix, 103 ff. Spencer to duke of Bedford, 12 Feb. 1807.Google Scholar
134 H.M.C., , Dropmore, ix, 34–6, Buckingham to Lord Grenville, n Feb. 1807.Google Scholar
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.
139 Hobhouse, J. C., Authentic Narrative of the Westminster Election of 1819 (London, 1819), p. 340.Google Scholar
140 Letters to ‘Ivy’, by Lord Dudley, ed. Romilly, S. H. (London, 1905), p. 92; hon. J. W. Ward to Mrs Dugald Stewart, 22 Feb. 1810.Google Scholar
141 Horner, , Memoirs, ii, 13, Jeffrey to Horner, 21 Dec. 1809.Google Scholar
142 Smith, Sydney, Letters, p. 86, Smith to Grey, 2 Jan. 1811.Google Scholar
143 Buckingham, , Court and Cabinets, iv, 29, Lord Grenville to Buckingham, 9 May 1806.Google Scholar
144 Ibid. p. 148, same to same, 26 Mar. 1807.
145 H.M.C., , Dropmore, ix, 326, Spencer to Lord Grenville, 28 Sept. 1809; cf. x, 99, same to same, 9 Jan. 1911.Google Scholar
146 Milton MSS, dr. 79, Elliot to Fitzwilliam, 2 Feb. 1811.
147 Grey of Howick MSS, Tom Grenville to Grey, 18 Oct. 1809.
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
150 Grey of Howick MSS, Windham to Grey, 29 Sept. 1809.
151 Edinburgh Review, xxx, 197.Google Scholar
