III. Rose and Canning in Opposition, 1806–1807

Abstract

Shortly after the death of the Younger Pitt on 23 January 1806, his political heirs collected themselves into two principal groups. Lord Hawkesbury and Lord Castlereagh dominated one, and George Canning and George Rose were prominent in the other. The roots of this division stretched back to the interlude between the first and second Pitt Ministries, when Henry Addington, now Lord Sidmouth, had been Prime Minister. Some junior ministers in the first Pitt Government, such as Hawkesbury and Castlereagh, had taken Pitt's advice and accepted leading positions under Addington. Others, such as Canning and Rose, had refused to endorse Addington and were soon foremost among those who denounced his measures as insufficient. When Pitt formed his second Ministry, his separated friends, including the four mentioned above, came together and, though their union was none too stable, in part because of Canning's acute disappointment at being denied a major position, it did not disintegrate. Pitt's death, however, forced his friends from public office, and in their respective places succeeded the followers of Charles James Fox and Lord Grenville, who formed a government of ‘ All the Talents ’. This paper traces the reaction of Rose and Canning to the unfamiliar demands of opposition, especially strange in the absence of the self-assured guidance of their late esteemed and unquestioned leader.1