Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/183

 Grey Sir Henry Grey, to which he was much attached, and where he afterwards spent most of his time when absent from parliament. A very pleasant description of this place and of the family life there is given by his son, General Grey (Life of Lord Grey, p. 402). This greater remoteness from London (four days' journey), coupled with a growing indisposition to play a public part, owing to his father'a unwelcome acceptance of a peerage from Addington, and the consequent prospect of his own removal from the House of Commons, and the serious expense of frequent journeys to town or much residence there, helped considerably to detach him from politics during the last years of Fox's life. It was with difficulty that he could be induced to come to London even on important occasions, and when there his distress at his absence from home considerably impaired his value as a counsellor. Fox was obliged to write to him begging him to bring his wife to town with him. `God knows,' he said, `when you are in town without her you are unfit for anything, with all your thoughts at Howick, and as the time for which your stay may be necessary may be uncertain you will both be in a constant fidget and misery.' He remained at Howick during the whole of 1802, but he came to town in the spring of 1803, while the question of peace or war with France was in suspense. His views were, however, on this point no longer in complete harmony with those of Fox. He took no part in the debates upon the preliminary treaty of October 1801, and in 1803 was by no means disposed to go all lengths with Fox for the purpose of supporting the peace of Amiens. He did not believe that Bonaparte sincerely desired peace, nor did he consider that England had any lack of justification for a renewal of the war if she desired it. He moved an amendment to Lord Hawkesbury's address to the crown on 23 May 1803, assuring the king of determined support in the war, but lamenting the failure of his attempts to maintain the peace. His speech was made under all the disadvantage of following immediately upon one of Pitt's greatest efforts. The amendment was rejected after a splendid but unwise speech of Fox's on the second night of the debate by 398 to 67.

In the end of 1801 some overtures had been made to Grey for his inclusion in the Addington administration, but he did not encourage them. He called it, in writing to Fox a year later, the `happiest escape' he ever had in his life. In April 1803 his father, a supporter of Addington, by whom he had been created a baron in 1801, informed him that fresh overtures would probably be made to him, and he again declined to entertain them. He could only join the cabinet with Fox, and only if a majority of its members were whigs. He was at this time averse to any coalition, feeling that the Grenville party were too much identified with Pitt's policy at home and abroad. As the year 1803 went on he became gradually more favourable to a union with the Grenvilles, although he pointed out that Pitt was only joining with Fox in order to prepare his own reinstatement in office. On the formation of Pitt's cabinet there was some suggestion of an offer of an office to Grey, but he at once caused it to be known that he could not take office without Fox, which meant practically a self-exclusion from office as long as Fox and the king should live.

The Grenvilles and the whigs were now drawn together into a closer opposition to the new ministry; but Grey, though he attended the house in 1805, did not take a leading part, upon any question except the rupture with Spain. In moving an amendment to the address, moved by Pitt on 11 Feb., he vigorously attacked the government policy in regard to the affairs of Spain; and again on 20 June he moved for an address praying the king not to prorogue parliament until full information of the relations with foreign powers had been laid before the house, and in calling attention to the state of Ireland he demanded the immediate and entire concession of the catholic claims. His motion was lost by 261 to 110.

In January 1806 Grenville and Fox came into power, and in their administration Grey, now, by his father's elevation to an earldom, become Lord Howick, was first lord of the admiralty. He applied himself with his usual conscientiousness to the discharge of the duties of this office, and while it was under his control the success of the British naval operations was signal. Upon the death of Fox, Howick succeeded to his position as leader of the whig section of the government, and after some negotiation he became secretary for foreign affairs, with the lead in the House of Commons. he inspired in Lord Grenville he maintained for many years the entire union between the whigs and Grenville's personal following. Upon assuming the duties of foreign secretary he found the negotiations with Napoleon for a peace, which had been begun by Lord Yarmouth and continued by Lord Lauderdale, drawing to a close. Some attempt was made to throw upon him the blame of the failure of these negotiations, but it was not in his power to bring the French 