William Windham
William Windham was a British Whig politician. Elected to Parliament in 1784, Windham was attached to the remnants of the Rockinghamite faction of Whigs, whose members included his friends Charles James Fox and Edmund Burke. Windham soon became noted for his oratory in the House of Commons.
An early supporter of the French Revolution, by late 1791 he shared Burke's hostility to it and became a leading anti-Jacobin. After war was declared on France in early 1793, he broke with the anti-war, pro-Revolution Foxite Whigs to form a small 'Third Party' which was independent of Pitt's government but supportive of the war effort. Like Burke, Windham supported the war as an ideological crusade against Jacobinism and was an enthusiastic supporter of the French émigrés and a Bourbon restoration. In July 1794 he finally joined Pitt's government as Secretary at War but did not control war policy. He discovered that Pitt did not share his enthusiasm for the Bourbon cause and he argued in Cabinet against a peace agreement with the French Republic.
In February 1801 Windham followed Pitt in resigning from the government over the King's rejection of Catholic Emancipation. He was the leading opponent of the new prime minister Henry Addington's Treaty of Amiens peace with France in late 1801 and early 1802. In the Ministry of All the Talents in 1806–7, Windham became Secretary for War and the Colonies, having reconciled with the Foxites. Together with them he resigned from the government, again over Catholic Emancipation. He spent the rest of his life in opposition, dying in 1810.
Early life: 1750–1778
Windham was born in 1750 at No. 6 Golden Square, Soho, London, the son and heir of William Windham, Sr. of Felbrigg Hall, whose ancestors had long been seated in Norfolk, by his second wife, Sarah Lukin. He was a great-great-grandson of Sir John Wyndham of Orchard Wyndham in Somerset, who in 1599 had inherited the Felbrigg estate, the seat of the senior line of the family, from his childless relative Thomas Wyndham.Windham was educated at Eton College from 1757 to 1766, where he was a contemporary of Charles James Fox and where he was noted for the ease with which he acquired knowledge, and for his success in sports. He became known as "Fighting Windham" as he was good with his fists. His father died in 1761 and his guardians became Benjamin Stillingfleet, Dr. Dampier, David Garrick and a certain Mr. Price of Hereford. At the age of 16 Windham was removed from Eton for fighting.
Windham attended the University of Glasgow in 1766 and studied under Dr. Anderson, Professor of Natural Philosophy, and Robert Simson the mathematician. Windham wrote three unpublished theses on mathematics. He then attended University College, Oxford, from 1767 to 1771 as a gentleman-commoner, where he was tutored by Robert Chambers. According to Edmond Malone, Windham "was highly distinguished for his application to various studies, for his love of enterprise, for that frank and graceful address, and that honourable deportment, which gave a lustre to his character though every period of his life". He took his BA degree in 1771, his MA on 7 October 1782, and was awarded a DCL at the Duke of Portland's installation as chancellor. He made a tour of Norway in 1773 and visited Switzerland and Italy between 1778 and 1780.
Windham was a Christian. Before he took a balloon ride, he wrote to George James Cholmondeley on 4 May 1785 a letter that was only to be delivered if he did not survive the trip. It contained Windham's confession of faith:
The best, the greatest, the most solemn office I can render in a letter of this sort, is to extort you to a steady contemplation of divine truths, and a sincere endeavour to confirm in yourself that faith, which after various fluctuations I believe to be the true one, and which, independent of evidence, is supported by too great authorities ever to be rejected with confidence. Whatever may be the diversity of opinion as to the particular nature, I believe Christ to be a person divinely commissioned, and that faith in him affords the fairest hope of propitiating the great author of the world. Cultivate in your mind this persuasion and dwell upon it till it grows into a principle of action. May it avail both to the purposes of final salvation.
Early political career: 1778–1789
In early 1778 Windham first took part in political matters. He felt strongly about the American War of Independence, writing to Richard Brinsley Sheridan on 5 January that "I never felt so much disposition to exert myself before". On 28 January Windham delivered in Norwich his first public speech, where he spoke against the war, and a few days later he wrote a remonstrance against it which was signed by 5,000 people and was presented to the House of Commons. His speech went down well and he was urged to stand for election. Windham stood unsuccessfully for Norwich in the election of September 1780.When in 1783 the Duke of Portland formed an administration, he appointed Lord Northington as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Northington offered Windham the office of Chief Secretary for Ireland, which he accepted. However, after only four months in the post, Windham resigned under mysterious circumstances. His contemporaneous diary did record his distrust in his own powers, and disappointment at his limited achievements; he was also probably unwell at the time.
On 5 April 1784 Windham was elected to Parliament for Norwich, a seat he would hold until 1802. He took part in the Impeachment of Warren Hastings and his speeches against him on 1 June 1787 and 22 March 1787 were admired. Though Windham opposed all proposals for parliamentary reform, to which most of the Whigs were committed, he remained in alliance with that party until after the outbreak of the French Revolution.
During the Regency Crisis of 1788–89 he spoke in favour of granting George, Prince of Wales full regal powers as Regent. He wrote on 26 November 1788: "If the King of a country is completely out of his mind, whatever sorrow may be felt for that event, the extent of the evil is, however, known: It is, for the time it lasts, just as if the King were dead. The same person must, upon all principles of reason, and all views of the Constitution, carry on the Government, as if the King were actually dead—should he again be restored completely to his senses, the case is then equally clear: he must be restored completely to his government".
French Revolution: 1789–1794
From 12 August 1789 until 6 September, Windham toured France. Upon his return, Windham sent his friend and fellow Whig MP Edmund Burke some books on the general state of public opinion in France in the aftermath of the beginnings of the French Revolution. Windham wrote to Burke on 15 September, saying: "My notion has been from the beginning, and is not altered by what I have seen or heard, that the new Constitution will be settled without a struggle. Whether perfect quiet and satisfaction may be established in the country is another question: but it does not appear to me, that there is any near prospect of civil commotion.—Any opinion, however, which I can have upon the subject is, of course, very vague conjecture."When Henry Flood introduced a motion for parliamentary reform on 4 March 1790, Windham famously said: "What, would Mr. Flood recommend you to repair your house in this hurricane season?"
After reading Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France in November 1790, Windham wrote in his diary: "Never was there, I suppose, a work so valuable in its kind, or that displayed powers of so extraordinary a sort. It is a work that may seem capable of overturning the National Assembly, and turning the stream of opinion throughout Europe. One would think, that the author of such a work, would be called to the government of his country, by the combined voices of every man in it. What shall be said of the state of things when it is remembered that the writer is a man decried, persecuted, and proscribed; not being much valued, even by his own party, and by half the nation considered as little better than an ingenious madman?"
Windham travelled to Paris in September 1791 and he was present at the ceremony in the National Assembly where King Louis XVI accepted the new constitution of France. Windham wrote to Mrs. Crewe that the ceremony was "necessarily humiliating...there was somewhat too much of "la nation," and somewhat too little of "le Roi"." Windham wished they had been more courteous and added: "I hope that we shall be the people to keep up a little of the "vielle cour" in our manners, while we lose nothing of the solid advantages and privileges that the new system can promise". In May 1792 Windham wrote to a friend on his opposition to parliamentary reform: "I have in general been far from adverse to the principles and cause of the French Revolution. So much otherwise indeed, that from the beginning almost, Mr. Burke and I have never exchanged a word on the subject. But when an attempt is made to bring the same principles home to us, Principles in a great measure extravagant and false and which at best have no practical application here, I shall ever prove myself as violent an opposer of them as Mr. Burke or any one can be".
Windham supported the Royalist uprising in La Vendée and he urged the British government to aid them with the aim of restoring the House of Bourbon to the throne: "I would, from the beginning, have made this the principal object of the war".
In a speech to the Commons, on 30 April 1792, he declared that he would unite with any body of men "who were determined to set their faces against every endeavour to subvert the true principles of the constitution". On 13 November Windham and Burke met Pitt and hinted they and their fellow conservative Whigs would support strong measures; however, Pitt desired "more certain and definite assurances of support from the heads of the party before the meeting of parliament". He still had reservations about completely separating from Fox and he denied in the Commons that they differed in principles. However, as he said in the Commons on 4 January 1793, he was no longer a systematic opposer of the government.
In the aftermath of the execution of Louis XVI, Parliament met in February 1793. Fox and his supporters excused France's actions short of supporting the execution and Fox claimed that the British monarchy was elective and that sovereignty resided with the people. On 9 February war was declared on France and the conservative Whigs met the next day. They decided that a reunion with the Foxites was now out of the question and that they would now call themselves the "Third Party". This faction consisted of only approximately 38 MPs, with less than one-fifth of the Whigs as members.
In the opinion of the historian Frank O'Gorman, if the Pitt government was to be persuaded to adopt the only anti-Jacobin policies that would be effective, "Windham was the only politician who might seriously undertake to accomplish these ends":
He was possessed of distinguished talents and a disposition so compelling as to endear him to all. The power of his intelligence was disguised by his self-effacing manner as a reserve of strength and firmness which he did not in reality possess. His talents and his nature, allied to unquestioned integrity, gave him a reputation and a standing among his contemporaries which was, perhaps, second only to that of Fox. It was not by accident that Windham was able to rally to him some of the most respectable independents in the House of Commons. Nevertheless, he was peculiarly ill-suited to the role which he was now called upon to play in...1793. He was daunted with the prospect of assuming responsibility for matters of state by the doubts and fears which gnawed away at the determination he could summon in his rare moments of enthusiasm and exuberance. Once his energy had been overcome by the exhaustion of his spirits, he would fall away into lethargy, despair and pessimism. Having formed the "Third Party", he promptly excused himself from leading it. Having committed its members to a distinct support of administration, he escaped to the solitude of Fellbrig, in spite of "the possibility of having lost an opportunity of distinction". He consoled his conscience by toying with the preparation of speeches which he never delivered while he ruminated on his inability to act out the part which he himself had chosen.
On 17 June Pitt offered Windham the office of Secretary at War. In a speech in the Commons that same day, Windham supported Pitt, arguing that intervention in French affairs might become a necessity if a government was formed in Paris "as we might with safety treat with". However, on 19 June he informed Pitt that he would decline his offer, although he added that he might accept office "sometime hence". From 12 July until 6 August, he was in Flanders. Windham was the contact between the conservative Whigs and the government; however, he was still at this time hesitant about joining Pitt's government.
In January 1794 began the trials of the leaders of the British Convention. In response, the radicals proposed another such convention. Therefore, the government decided to arrest leading radicals such as Thomas Hardy. On 13 May, the day after Hardy's arrest, the Commons voted to appoint a Committee of Secrecy to devise the measures necessary to counter a new convention. Windham was appointed to the Committee, along with Burke, much to Fox's chagrin.
The Duke of Portland, on 3 July, urged Windham that, if he took up Pitt's offer of the Secretaryship at War, he could make it "a real efficient Cabinet employment". His friend, Tom Grenville, met Windham that day and he succeeded in persuading Windham to accept office; Portland was therefore able to negotiate with the King a coalition government between the conservative Whigs and Pitt's government.