Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/180

 suggested for him, but eventually he became secretary at war, with a seat in the cabinet. This was the first time that the cabinet was opened to the holder of the secretaryship at war. His change of front was somewhat resented at Norwich, but he secured re-election, and from August to October was with the Duke of York's army in Flanders. He held that the royalists in the west of France deserved assistance, and was the person most responsible for the Quiberon expedition in July 1795. Vigorously supporting the continuance of war, and steadily opposing projects of reform, he only after a sharp fight saved his seat at Norwich, 25 May 1796. He held office till February 1801, when he resigned with Pitt. To the Irish union he had been at first opposed altogether, but consented to it in consideration of the promise that catholic disabilities should be removed. He had by no means always approved of Pitt's war policy, and had held that, as the war was fought for the restoration of the Bourbons, more efforts should have been made to assist the royalists in France. Much was done under his administration to increase the comfort of the troops. Their pay was raised, pensions were established, and the Royal Military Asylum was founded.

Windham's chance in opposition soon came. He had a rooted distrust of Napoleon, and strongly opposed the peace of 1802. He assisted Cobbett, whom he greatly admired, to found the ‘Political Register,’ and thoroughly agreed with its attacks on Addington. He spoke against the peace preliminaries on 4 Nov. 1801, and moved an address to the crown against the peace on 13 May 1802. As the peace was popular in the country, this attitude cost him his seat at Norwich in June 1802. He declined to contest the county, and accepted from the Grenville family the borough of St. Mawes in Cornwall, where he was elected on 7 July. This seat he held till November 1806, when he was elected for New Romney, and later in the same month for the county of Norfolk. This latter election was afterwards declared void, upon a petition alleging breaches of the Treating Act. Windham being thus ineligible for re-election for the same seat. Throughout these proceedings he retained his seat for New Romney till the dissolution of parliament 29 April 1807. At the general election in May he was returned for Higham Ferrers, and held that seat till his death.

Windham welcomed the renewal of hostilities with France. He had never supported a policy of fortifications or of large land forces, and when in office had considered the erection of martello towers a sufficient defence for the coast, his chief reliance being upon the fleet. He doubted too the value of volunteers, and made somewhat savage attacks upon them, but took part in the general movement in 1803, and raised a volunteer force at Felbrigg, and became its colonel. He now became leader of the Grenville party in the House of Commons, and engaged in the attack on Addington, but declined to join Pitt again in May 1804, owing to the king's objection to the admission of Fox to the ministry. He then found himself once more acting with Fox and opposing Pitt, and at the time of Pitt's death he incurred some hostility in consequence. He accepted the war and colonial office in Lord Grenville's administration, and on 3 April 1806 introduced a plan for improving the condition of the military forces, and making the army an attractive profession. With this object he passed bills for reducing the term of service and for increasing the soldiers' pay. He had begun the arrangements for the South American expedition when, with the rest of the ministry, he was dismissed in March 1807. In the previous year he had refused the offer of a peerage, preferring a career in the House of Commons, and he continued to devote himself to the conduct of the war and to criticism of the policy of his successor Castlereagh. On general policy, however, he held aloof from debate, and, from growing dislike of London, lived much in the country. His only conspicuous speeches in the later years of his life on civil topics were (14 May 1805) in favour of the Roman catholic claims, to which subject he returned in 1810, and on Curwen's bill for preventing the sale of seats in May 1809. As Castlereagh's proposals with regard to the militia ran counter to his own plan of 1806, he opposed the local militia bill in 1808, and, as he was adverse to a policy of scattered and, as he thought, aimless expeditions, he spoke against the Copenhagen expedition in 1807, and the Scheldt expedition in January 1810. On the other hand, he was a very warm supporter of the Spanish cause, and even began to learn Spanish with a view to a personal visit to Spain. In his view, however, the objective of the English force should have been the passes of the Pyrenees, and not Portugal, so as to cut off the French from Spain, and he thought that Moore ought to have been sent with a much larger force to the north of Spain, and there could and should have held his ground. The Peninsular war, once begun, was to be pressed with vigour, and such an expedition as that to Antwerp did not seem to Windham consistent with the successful