the press, or expelling refugees to please a foreign power. While he allowed that a check should be put on the designs of Bonaparte, he condemned the war as undertaken for British interests, for the retention of Malta (Speeches, vi. 485). For Addington he had an unmitigated contempt. Grenville, the leader of the ‘new opposition,’ wished a union between himself, Fox, and Pitt to turn Addington out, and, as Pitt held aloof, proposed in January 1804 that Fox, the leader of the old opposition, should join with him ‘for the purpose of removing the ministry, and forming one on the broadest possible basis’ (Memorials, iii. 449). Fox agreed, and resumed regular attendance in parliament. After the Easter recess Pitt, without pledging himself to Fox, let him know that in case of a change of ministers he would use earnest endeavours to induce the king to receive him and Grenville (Courts and Cabinets, iii. 349); Pitt entered into opposition, and on 30 April Addington was forced to resign.
Pitt submitted a plan of an administration to the king which included the principal men of both the oppositions, and in which Fox was proposed as foreign secretary. The king ‘positively proscribed Fox and no one else’ (Malmesbury, iv. 300), and wished it to be known that Fox was ‘excluded by his express command’ (Life of Sidmouth, ii. 288). Meanwhile Fox, who thought it not improbable that the king would take this course, informed both his own friends and the Grenvilles that he hoped that his exclusion would not prevent them from taking office. Both sections declined entering an administration from which he was shut out (Malmesbury, iv. 321). In the summer he went to Cheltenham for the benefit of his health. He had announced his marriage before going abroad in 1802, and his wife was now received at the houses at which he visited. Mrs. Fox had grown plain and fat, but her ‘manners were pleasing and gentlewomanlike.’ Fox read much to her, and never wearied of her society. He was extremely anxious that every one should do her honour, and it was said that considerations of this sort weighed too much with him. He enjoyed shopping with her; and Sir Gilbert Elliot marvelled to see them setting off together to buy cheap china, and notes that they were both very economical (Life of Elliot, 1805, iii. 361–2; Life of Sir P. Francis, ii. 352). On 13 May 1805 Fox made a remarkable speech in introducing a motion founded on the Roman catholic petition, but was defeated by 336 to 124 (Speeches, vi. 587). In July, and again in September, Pitt endeavoured to persuade the king to allow him to offer Fox office, but was unsuccessful [see under George III]. Fox's accession would have secured the adhesion of Lord Grenville. According to his own account he hoped that the scheme would be defeated, for he declared that he would not enter a cabinet of which Pitt was the head. If he was to take office the administration must be changed (Memorials, iv. 90–114). When Pitt lay dying, on 21 Jan. 1806, a political meeting was held at Fox's house, but Fox refused to proceed to business. He could not do so, he said, at such a time, adding ‘mentem mortalia tangunt’ (Life of Horner, i. 328). He opposed the motion for public honours to Pitt on the ground that he had not been an ‘excellent statesman,’ but agreed cheerfully to the payment of his debts.
On Pitt's death the king sent for Lord Grenville, who at once said that the first person he should consult on the formation of an administration would be Fox; the king readily assented (ib. p. 331). By the end of the month Fox took office as foreign secretary in Grenville's administration, called ‘All the Talents’ or the ‘Broad-bottomed,’ and was caricatured by Gillray in ‘Making Decent,’ and as a led bear, for he was supposed to be under Grenville's influence. His union with Grenville was not like his coalition with North; there was no difference of principle, for he now recognised the necessity of checking Bonaparte's aggressions, and he had no cause to think ill of his colleague. At the same time he gave way to his old partiality for coalition by bringing into the cabinet Sidmouth, whom he despised, and who was wholly opposed to his principles (Life of Sidmouth, ii. 412). Nor was he justified in the part he took in involving the chief criminal judge in party politics by giving cabinet office to Lord Ellenborough, the chief justice, a course which he defended by laying down the maxim that the cabinet is not a body recognised by the constitution (Parl. Debates, vi. 308; this maxim was ridiculed by Canning). He agreed to submit any plan for withdrawing the army from the control of the crown, through the commander-in-chief, to the king's approval (Life of Sidmouth, ii. 415), and, in deference to the king's known desire, abstained from attempting to forward the claims of the catholics, for which the state of the king's health is some excuse (ib. p. 435). George received him graciously, and was turned from his old dislike of him by his minister's respectful and conciliatory manners. On 20 Feb. Fox informed Talleyrand of the offer of a Frenchman to assassinate Napoleon. This led to a correspondence which gave some hope of a treaty between Great Britain and France. Negotiations were
