Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/96

 82 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [i goo- received from the King. We have seen the process by which this was done how he quietly dropped the reform question ; how, on the outbreak of the French Revolution, he commenced a system of repression and coercion which made every ex- pression of a Liberal sentiment penal, and branded every man who strove for popular rights as a criminal ; and how he had converted the House of Peers from an aristocracy in which many of the great houses were actuated by a traditional love of liberty, into an assemblage of mere landholders and placemen filled with the narrowest class prejudices. At his death he left a country from which the energy of political hope had been expelled, and a Parliament from which no national regeneration could be expected. The hopelessness of the position as respected Liberalism and reform was soon manifested by the issue of what might at first sight have appeared a favourable event. The com- ' plication, not amongst parties, but the leaders of parties, was so great that no Ministry could be formed which did not include Grenville and Fox, now become inseparable. The advent of Fox to office might well seem to be a triumph for the principles which he had so long advocated. It was really nothing of the kind. Office with him did not involve the power to accomplish any of the objects in domestic legislation on which his heart was set. The " all talents " administration was called a combination ; the word coalition, which properly described it, having been rendered unpopular by former trans- actions. But a coalition it really was, since it included Fox the Radical and Sidmouth the Tory. Efforts were made by the King and his friends to form a Cabinet without Fox, the prejudices of George III. being as strong as ever against the great orator. This was found to be impossible, and on the 5th of February, 1806, the new Ministry was announced. Grenville was Premier, Fox Foreign Secretary ; other members being Grey now become Lord Howick by the elevation of his father to the peerage Windham, Romilly, Sidmouth, and Ellenborough. The appointment of the last-named peer as a member of the Cabinet must in itself have been evidence