Wickham's Irish Question

Wickham returned from Europe in July 1801 to find all the familiar, seemingly indestructible political landmarks swept away. The Pittite coalition that had withstood the pressures of war had finally broken into factions. Henry Adding-ton, not Pitt, was Prime Minister and Grenville, who opposed the peace terms being negotiated at Amiens, was in self-imposed limbo, simultaneously opposing the negotiations but expressing lukewarm support for the new government. Portland remained in the Cabinet, but, after sorting out the potential financial scandal of the secret service accounts relating to Union payments in Ireland, had moved from the Home Office.2 Wickham thus faced a dilemma. He still needed an income to support his wider family, but in the choice between Portland and Grenville he had tied his colours to the latter's mast. Addington was not averse to employing Wickham, as he was seeking to gain Grenville's approval for his peace negotiations. The St Petersburg embassy was no longer an option, nor was Malta (if it had ever been), but Berlin was a possibility. The French government, however, soon destroyed any opportunity that Wickham may have had of a diplomatic appointment in Europe. Pressure on the major European chancelleries from Paris; hostile articles in the official French newspaper, Le Moniteur; and the British government's sensitivity while peace negotiations were underway ruined Wickham's hopes. He reluctantly accepted that his major espionage role in Europe had made him persona non grata. In ‘the present state and temper of things and persons’, he admitted to Grenville, I should not ‘be at all surprised if I were to become … the victim of that spirit of persecution to which everyone who has taken the line I have done will now be necessarily exposed’.

A solution was finally found when Charles Abbot resigned his post as Chief Secretary for Ireland to take the Speaker's Chair in the House of Commons in January 1802. On Abbot's recommendation, Addington offered the Irish position to Wickham, subject to the official agreement of Lord Lieutenant Hardwicke (he had already been sounded out unofficially). After discussing the offer with Dean Jackson, Portland and, probably, Grenville, Wickham accepted and was elected to the seat of Haytesbury (he subsequently moved to the Irish seat of Cashel).