At the beginning of 1803 the British political situation had remained fragmented. The general election of the previous year had made little or no difference, though one politician noted that the new House of Commons was ‘more loose and unsettled’ than before; perhaps this was due to the relaxation of the pressures of war. The government of Henry Addington still commanded a firm majority in Parliament, but there was a disturbing number of prominent political figures who were outside the government. Indeed, it was common for it to be remarked that all the talent in the House was on the opposition benches – a facile and inaccurate remark all too often repeated by later historians; it is worth noting that Addington’s ministry included three future Prime Ministers (Portland, Perceval and Hawkesbury), as well as Lord Castlereagh, the great Foreign Secretary. Nevertheless, although Addington had succeeded in bringing in such secondary figures as Castlereagh and Tierney during the past year, Pitt, Grenville, Melville, Canning and Windham, to say nothing of Fox and Grey, all remained out.

In January 1803 more discussions took place between the main leaders, in part with a view to a reconstitution of the Cabinet. Addington had regularly consulted or informed Pitt ever since he took office, either through his brother or his colleagues, or sometimes by letter. Grenville and his people were out of Addington’s reach by now, showing themselves to be thoroughly disgruntled at almost everything he did. It had never been worth attempting to bring Fox in. And yet all these men and groups had connections of various sorts as well as differences. Fox, for example, though insistent always that a war with France was quite unjustified, was now no longer such a friend of the French regime as he had been, particularly since his visit to that country, where he noted that liberty was ‘asleep’. He and his friends were socially connected with many of Grenville’s family and friends, and they had all been politically connected as well before the split of 1794. The only thing keeping them apart was foreign policy, and as Fox’s position modified, so did the distance between them all lessen.