ABSTRACT
In May 1803, the nation was ready and almost eager for war against Buonaparte, the Addington Government had, none the less, to undergo a considerable Parliamentary ordeal when debating took place on the chequered and finally unsuccessful course of its foreign policy. The “Grenvilles”, having prophesied disaster ever since they had studied the Peace Pre-hminaries of October 1801, were in an exceptional position to criticise during May and June 1803. The Addington Government was further helped by the very measures Buonaparte took to avenge himself on Ministers and on Britain. The detention of thousands of British travellers in France, Holland and Italy aroused nothing but indignant scorn, as did the overrunning of the King’s Hanoverian Electorate, in defiance of the proclaimed neutrality of Germany. The “new Opposition’s” leader, meanwhile, Lord Grenville, was making a last effort to induce William Pitt to join in an outright and open opposition as the only way to sweep Addington’s inefficiency quickly from the scene.
