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The Whigs and the Peninsular War, 1808–1814
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
Extract
The attempt of George III to revive personal government tended to embitter politics and to accentuate the differences between the two rival parties in the State. At the same time the distrust existing between the various sections of the Whigs proved that personal animosities were unusually prominent. Conciliation seemed to be regarded as a sign of weakness, and the general antipathy to compromise was strengthened by the unpopular union of Fox and North in 1783. Consequently it proved impossible to form a real Coalition Government in 1794, when only the Portland Whigs joined Pitt's administration.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1919
References
page 114 note 1 July 4, 1808. Part. Deb., xi. 1142.
page 114 note 2 June, 1808. Life and Opinions of Earl Grey, 218–9; cf. June 13,1810. Part. Deb., xvii. 598–9, Grey then said he should not have sent an army to Spain unless he had seen “a Sufficient spirit in the people of that country to profit by our assistance,” and “the means of providing a sufficient supply of provisions”.
page 115 note 1 In this category Sheridan included the English Cabinet: “The ministers of England have pursued a petty policy; they have gone about filching sugar islands, and neglecting all that was dignified and all that was consonant to the truly understood interests of their country ”
page 115 note 2 June 15, 1808. Parl. Deb., xi. 888–9. The reference is to C. J. Fox.
page 115 note 3 July 8, 1808. Memoirs and Correspondence of Francis Horner, i. 454.
page 116 note 1 Oct. 27, 1808. Memoirs and Correspondence of Francis Horner, i. 462.
page 116 note 2 The changes of opinion are admirably illustrated in the Correspondence of Sarah Spenser, Lady Lyttleton, 17, 24, 29, 33–4, 45, 48, 51, 59.
page 116 note 3 Aug. 4, Sept. 16, Nov. 18, Dec. 17, 1808. Dropmore Papers, ix. 210, 215, 243, 250; cf. Memoir of Sydney Smith, ed. 1869, pp. 313, 315–16.
page 116 note 4 Holland explains Brougham's pessimism by stating that he “had written himself into a persuasion that everything which postponed peace must terminate in disaster”. Further Memoirs of the Whig Party, 14–15.
page 116 note 5 July 2, 1808. Life and Times of Brougham, i. 405. This pessimism was not at this time shared by all Whigs. Grey wrote to rebuke Brougham: “Even if my own hopes were less sanguine, I would willingly deprecate you from using such language publicly. To assist the Spaniards is morally and politically one of the highest duties a nation ever had to perform. And to check those feelings whose operation is of so much importance to the success of our attempt may do great mischief, but cannot by possibility produce any good.” Sept. 2g, 1808. Life and Times of Brougham, i. 413–4.
page 117 note 1 Oct., 1808, p. 219. For the authorship of this article, see Cockburn's Life of Lord Jeffrey, i. 189–93, 421.
page 118 note 1 Oct, 1808. Edinburgh Review, 231–4. This article led to the production of the Quarterly Review.
page 118 note 2 Described in a paper called “Precautions,” Annual Register, 1808, 333–6; cf. Wordsworth, Convention of Cintra, ed. 1915, 16–17.
page 119 note 1 Jan. 19, 1809. Part. Deb., xii. 13–21.
page 119 note 2 Childe Harold, I. xxv.
page 119 note 3 Jan. 19, 1809. Part. Deb., xii. 7; cf. Dropmore Papers, ix. 214, for a similar criticism.
page 119 note 4 Sept. 29, 1808. Life and Times of Brougham, i. 410.
page 120 note 1 Dec. 6, 1808. Memoirs and Correspondence of Francis Horner, i. 466; cf. Life of Lord Jeffrey, i. 193–4.
page 120 note 2 Jan. 5, 1809. Dropmore Papers, ix. 273.
page 120 note 3 c. Jan. 25, 1809. Ibid., ix. 273.
page 120 note 4 Oct., 1809. Edinburgh Review, 231.
page 120 note 5 Life and Opinions of Earl Grey, 222.
page 121 note 1 Jan. 29, 1809. Dropmore Papers, ix. 275; Nov. 22, 1809. Life and Times of Brougham, i. 477–8.
page 121 note 2 Jan. 31, 1809. Dropmore Papers, ix. 275.
page 121 note 3 Jan. 25, 1809. Part. Deb., xii. 134.
page 121 note 4 April 27, 1809. Dropmore Papers, ix. 309.
page 122 note 1 April 27, 1809. Dropmore Papers, ix. 308.
page 122 note 2 Private Correspondence of the 1st Earl Granville, ii. 355.
page 122 note 3 Jan. 26, 1810.
page 122 note 4 Oct., 1809. Edinburgh Review, p. 232.
page 123 note 1 Feb. 1. Parl. Deb., xv. 283. The lines are misquoted from Part III., canto in., lines 279–80.
page 123 note 2 Childe Harold, canto i., xlii.
page 123 note 3 Feb. 22, 1810. Parl. Deb., xv. 523.
page 123 note 4 Jan. 10, 1810. Court and Cabinets, iv. 418.
page 123 note 5 June 15, 1810. Parl. Deb., xvii. 713.
page 124 note 1 Dec. 5, 1810. Memoirs of Sir Philip Francis, ii. 369.
page 124 note 2 March 21, 1811.
page 125 note 1 June 7, 1811. Part. Deb., xx. 545.
page 125 note 2 Aug. 14, 1811. Memoirs of Sir Philip Francis, ii. 372.
page 125 note 3 Jan. 23, 1810. Parl. Deb., xv. 8.
page 125 note 4 Jan. 22, 1810. Letters of Satah Spencer, Lady Lyttelton, 93.
page 126 note 1 ? Sept., 1809. Private Correspondence of the 1st Earl Granville, ii. 347.
page 126 note 2 Jan. 18, 1811. Memoirs and Correspondence of Francis Horner, ii. 48–52.
page 126 note 3 Jan. 25, 1811. Life of Lord Jeffrey, i. 194–5.
page 127 note 1 May 24, 1812. Annual Register, State Papers, p. 363.
page 127 note 2 Further Memoirs of the Whig Party, 118.
page 127 note 3 Feb. 22, 1812. Part. Deb., xxi. 873, 875.
page 128 note 1 July, 1812, pp. 232–4.
page 128 note 2 Life and Opinions of Earl Grey, 319.
page 128 note 3 Nov. 30, 1812. Parl. Deb., xxiv. 45.
page 128 note 4 Dec. 7, 1812. Ibid., xxv. 208.
page 128 note 5 March 12, 1813. Ibid., xxvi. 83.
page 129 note 1 Nov. 4, 1813. Parl. Deb., xxvii. 39.
page 129 note 2 Life and Times of Brougham, ii. 78–9.
page 129 note 3 March 18, 1811. Memoirs of R. P. Ward, i. 406.
page 129 note 4 Memoirs of the Whig Party, i. 257–8.
page 130 note 1 Political Register.