 | Review waiting, please be patient.
This may take 2 months or more, since drafts are reviewed in no specific order. There are 1,782 pending submissions waiting for review.
Where to get help
How to improve a draft
You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Editor resources
Reviewer tools
|
Third Party | |
|---|---|
| Leader | William Windham |
| Founded | February 1793 |
| Dissolved | January 1794 |
| Preceded by | Foxites |
| Merged into | Portlandites |
| Headquarters | 106 Pall Mall, London |
| Ideology | Conservatism Anti-Jacobinism Interventionism Anti-radicalism |
| Political position | Right-wing[1] |
| House of Commons (1793) | 38 / 558
|
The Third Party (or the Alarmists) was a late 18th-century British political faction formed by politicians who had seceded from the Foxite Whig faction of Charles James Fox in the aftermath of the Execution of Louis XVI and Fox's perceived sympathies for the French Revolution. The faction, led by conservative Whig William Windham, ceased to engage in systematic opposition to the Pitt government while remaining independent of it and supporting its war policy.
Background
editThe Foxite Whigs had sat in opposition to the ministry of William Pitt since falling from power in 1783. The faction's unity was maintained by the personal affection of many of its members to the faction's leader Charles James Fox and its figurehead the Duke of Portland, opposition to Pitt, and a vague sense of shared Whiggish principles. By the late 1780s the faction was experiencing increasing personal and ideological divisions, exacerbated by frustrations over their failure to regain office in the Regency Crisis. By this time the Foxites had largely absorbed the small, moribund faction loyal to Lord North, whose conservatism and association with the American Revolutionary War left the Foxites suspicious of them, despite their long-time coalition in opposition to Pitt.[2]
Personal and political animosities were present among the faction's leading members. Portland, the faction's nominal leader and figurehead, held traditional conservative aristocratic Whig sentiments but was unprepared to threaten the party's unity and was unable to restrain younger and more radical elements in the faction. This pragmatic stance was shared by many of the faction's moderate-to-conservative MPs. Opinion within the Foxite faction ranged from radicals through to some High Tories such as Sir Francis Basset.[3] Fox, a political moderate at this time, was nevertheless increasingly influenced by the more liberal politics of Richard Brinsley Sheridan over the conservative Edmund Burke, who was increasingly isolated within the faction, with a small number of associates, namely William Windham and Sir Gilbert Elliot.[4]
The reaction of much of the British political nation to the Storming of the Bastille was, at least initially, supportive and optimistic.[5] Fox in particular would become a strong supporter and apologist for the French Revolution. Burke would quickly turn against the Revolution which eventually resulted in the publication of his Reflections on the Revolution in France in 1790. Among Burke's aims in publishing his tract was to provoke his moderate-to-conservative Foxite colleagues into adopting a clear stance on the Revolution.[6] While many of these MPs and peers were privately sympathetic to Burke's stance, they refused to publicly threaten the unity of the Foxite faction. Fox's increasing support for the Revolution would drive a wedge between Burke and himself which culminated in Burke's public severing of political and personal ties with Fox during the debate on the Quebec Bill on 6 May 1791. Burke summarily adopted an independent stance, sitting apart from the Foxite opposition and the Pittite government, while advocating a hawkish position against France.
Burke persisted in his strategy of trying to split conservative Foxites from Fox with the publication of An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs in August 1791, without any success.[7] Despite their refusal to budge, conservative Whigs were increasingly alarmed by events in France and the reception of their more liberal colleagues at home. Conservative Foxites supported the Royal Proclamation Against Seditious Writings and Publications, issued by George III, with various prominent conservative Whigs given prior drafts by Pitt.[8] One conservative Whig, Lord Loughborough was swayed to Burke's position and was later appointed Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. Further alarm was raised by the support of liberal Foxites such as Sheridan and Charles Grey for the reformist Society of the Friends of the People. The abolition of the French monarchy in September 1792 coupled with frustration over Portland's continued vacillation made a schism within the Foxite faction appear inevitable.
History
edit
The execution of Louis XVI on 21 January 1793 provoked a considerable shift in political and popular opinion in Great Britain against the Revolution.[9] This event in addition to the 1 February 1793 declaration of war by the French Republic finally provoked the conservative Whigs into action. By the end of February 1793 forty-five members of the Whig Club led by Windham resigned their membership, placing the blame for their secession squarely at the feet of Fox and his sympathy for French Revolutionary principles. While the conservatives had seceded from the Foxite faction, they continued to hope for Portland to secede as well, yet the nominal leader of the Whigs refused follow this action. Their particular concern over France and Jacobinism prompted the nickname of 'Alarmists', with Windham calling the faction a "sect of alarmists".[10]
The conservative Whigs first met at Windham's residence at 106 Pall Mall, where out of an expected turnout of 50 Members of Parliament, a mere 21 were in attendance. Ultimately membership of the faction would number 38 MPs, of which only 26 were former Foxites, with the remaining 12 varying shades of Independent or Country Gentlemen parliamentarians.[11] Windham proved a reluctant leader, hampered by lethargy and depression. He was finally roused to leadership with his spirited opposition to proposals for parliamentary reform by Charles Grey in May 1793. Under Windham the faction stubbornly adhered to a position of independence, dropping systematic opposition to Pitt while remaining independent of the ministry. Pitt, desiring to split apart the Foxite opposition, had taken to offering ministerial or diplomatic offices to several of the conservative Whigs. Opinions within the Third Party differed over the correct approach to these overtures from Pitt. Some, like Loughborough and Elliot, accepted government offices over the course of 1793 as individuals, while Windham insisted on continuing to maintain political independence and to bargain as collective.
The Third Party was ideologically conservative and functioned as the most conservative grouping in the House of Commons.[12] Its members were unified in their opposition to French republican and Jacobin politics and were all influenced by the political outlook of Burke. While supportive of the prosecution of the war, the Alarmists supported counter-revolutionary efforts in France, the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy, and were among the most sympathetic to the plight of the émigrés.[13] Most prominent Alarmists were opposed to parliamentary reform and supported anti-seditious and coercive legislation proposed by the Pitt government.[14] The strength of conservative Whig abhorrence of the French Revolution was seen with ambivalence of some towards the fall of Toulon, which had rallied in defence of the French Constitution of 1791, which many conservative Whigs viewed with deep suspicion.[15]
The faction functioned much like a ginger group, motivated by a desire to convince Portland to join them in secession from Fox, which would in turn convince a considerable number of remaining moderate-to-conservative Portlandite Whigs to bolt from Fox.[16] While supporting the prosecution of the war, Portland refused to engage in any action that would strengthen Pitt.[17] Events would conspire against the continued unity of the Foxite faction.
Dissipation
editThe execution of Marie Antoinette in October 1793, followed by the fall of the British-backed Royalists in Toulon, and a perception of Fox's increasing radicalism, would all gradually convince Portland of the futility of his position. On 20 January 1794 Portland would formally secede from the Foxite faction and formally adopted the independent line championed by Windham and Burke at the meeting which the two Alarmists attended.[18] In total 51 Portlandite Whigs would defect with Portland from the Foxite faction, leaving 66 MPs loyal to Fox, resulting in over half the Foxite faction from the end of 1792 having defected by January 1794.[19] The Third Party, having acted as a ginger group, quickly merged with the Portlandite Whigs, who nevertheless adopted the independent line that Windham had championed for much of 1793. Ultimately this position of negotiating with the Pitt ministry as a faction rather than as individuals would culminate in the formation of the Pitt-Portland Coalition in July 1794, with various conservative Whigs, including Portland, Windham, and the Earl Fitzwilliam entering cabinet as full coalition members.
Members of the party
editThe membership of the party, as it stood on its formation in February 1793 was recorded in several lists compiled by Windham, Lord Sheffield, and those who publicly seceded from the Whig Club in spring 1793. Most MPs appeared on at least two of these lists, though there was some disagreement between them, with at least two non-MPs included on each of the lists.[20][21] Nevertheless, a hardcore of around 38 MPs were acknowledged to have formed the new faction. The members of the faction were:
References
editBibliography
edit- ^ James J. Sack, From Jacobite to Conservative: Reaction and orthodoxy in Britain, c. 1760-1832 (Cambridge, 1993), p. 94.
- ^ Frank O'Gorman, The Whig Party and the French Revolution (London, 1967), pp. 26, 80.
- ^ "BASSET, Sir Francis, 1st Bt. (1757-1835), of Tehidy House, nr. Redruth, Cornw., History of Parliament Online". Retrieved 28 December 2024.
- ^ J. C. D. Clark (ed), Reflections on the Revolution in France (Stanford, 2001), p. 57.
- ^ George Veitch, The Genesis of Parliamentary Reform (2nd ed, London, 1965), pp. 112-3.
- ^ Carl Cone, Burke and the Nature of Politics: The Age of the French Revolution (Lexington, 1964), p. 340.
- ^ F. P. Lock, Edmund Burke. Volume II: 1784–1797 (Oxford, 2006), p. 562.
- ^ John Ehrman, The Younger Pitt. The Reluctant Transition (London, 1983), p. 172.
- ^ John Derry, ‘Opposition Whigs and the French Revolution, 1789-1815’ in H. T. Dickinson (ed), Britain and the French Revolution, 1789-1815 (Basingstoke, 1989), p. 49.
- ^ S. Benjamin (ed), The Windham Papers, vol 1 (London, 1913), p. 115.
- ^ Ehrman, Reluctant, p. 403.
- ^ Sack, Conservative, p. 94.
- ^ Boyd Hilton, A Mad, Bad, and Dangerous People? England, 1783-1846 (Oxford, 2006), pp. 67-8.
- ^ Hilton, Mad, p. 65.
- ^ Benjamin (ed), Windham Papers, p. 154.
- ^ "Parliaments, 1790-1820, Parliament in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, History of Parliament Online". Retrieved 28 December 2024.
- ^ O'Gorman, Whig, p. 158.
- ^ Cone, Burke, p. 435.
- ^ O'Gorman, Whig, pp. 252-3.
- ^ O'Gorman, Whig, pp. 250-1.
- ^ David Wilkinson, 'The Pitt–Portland Coalition of 1794 and the Origins of the 'Tory' Party', History, (vol 83, 1998), p. 253. in JSTOR
Readings
edit- Butterfield, Herbert, 'Charles James Fox and the Whig Opposition in 1792', The Cambridge Historical Journal, (vol 9, 1949), pp. 293-330. in JSTOR
- Ehrman, John, The Younger Pitt. The Reluctant Transition (London, 1983).
- Lock, F. P., Edmund Burke. Volume II: 1784–1797 (Oxford, 2006).
- Mitchell, Leslie, Charles James Fox (Oxford, 1992).
- Mitchell, Leslie, Charles James Fox and the disintegration of the Whig Party, 1782-1794 (London, 1971).
- O'Gorman, Frank, The Whig Party and the French Revolution (London, 1967).
- Wilkinson, David 'The Pitt–Portland Coalition of 1794 and the Origins of the 'Tory' Party', History, (vol 83, 1998), pp. 249-64. in JSTOR