Background
Henry Addington was born on 30 May 1757, the son of Mary Hiley and Anthony Addington, a country doctor who owned a small estate in Oxfordshire and who was personal physician to the Earl of Chatham.
politician prime minister statesman
Henry Addington was born on 30 May 1757, the son of Mary Hiley and Anthony Addington, a country doctor who owned a small estate in Oxfordshire and who was personal physician to the Earl of Chatham.
Educated at Winchester and Brasenose College, Oxford, he trained as a lawyer at Lincolns Inn, a law school.
An uncompromising Anglican, Addington won the confidence of George III and was the king’s choice to succeed the Younger Pitt as prime minister after Pitt’s unexpected resignation over the issue of the emancipation, or establishment of equal and political rights, of Roman Catholics in Ireland in March 1801. Addington remained in office until April 1804—much longer than critics such as George Canning had predicted—combining the office of prime minister with that of chancellor of the exchequer.
Later Addington achieved a temporary reconciliation with Pitt, serving as Lord President of the Council in his second ministry from January until July 1805 with a peerage as Viscount Sidmouth. He also served in the “Ministry ot All the Talents” from 1806 to 1807, initially as Lord Privy Seal and subsequently as Lord President of the Council.
He resumed office as Lord President of the Council in Spencer Percevals administration in March 1812. He served more notoriously as home secretary under Liverpool from 1812 to 1822.
In 1820-1821, Sidmouth himself led a troop of life guards, or soldiers, in defending his property, which was mobbed on several occasions.
He resigned shortly afterward as home secretary, but he remained in the cabinet for two years as a minister without portfolio, largely because George IV wished it. After leaving office Sidmouth opposed both Catholic emancipation and parliamentary reform in 1829 and 1832. He died in his late eighties on 15 February 1844.
His ministry is often characterized, with some justification, as a lackluster adminis¬tration devoid of men of genius and debating talent. Addington himself proved ponderous at the dispatch box, but he appealed intuitively to the backbench country gentlemen whose prejudices he shared. His cabinet contained ministers with sound executive ability, including three future prime ministers, but his appointment of his brother Hiley Addington, his cousin, and two of his brothers-in-law to minor office exposed him to charges of nepotism from George Canning.
His ministry speedily concluded negotiations for peace with France at Amiens in March 1802, to the immense relief of the mercantile classes, but he incurred criticism for making too many concessions to the French, and the peace was short-lived. However, he proved a capable chancellor of the exchequer, and his sound fiscal management laid the foundations for war finances during the next 12 years. He abolished income tax following the Peace of Amiens but retained the high wartime customs and export duties. When the war with France was resumed he reintroduced income tax, but simplified its collection by adopting the principle of deductions at source, raising proportionately higher yields from a lower rate of tax than his predecessor, Pitt. He instituted annual budgets and proved able to forecast revenue with extraordinary precision. He consolidated the Sinking Funds to facilitate reduction of the national debt and reviewed the Civil List expenditure, transferring responsibility for government departmental salaries and for the colonial and consular services from the Crown to Parliament. He also enhanced the status of the prime minister by securing an agreement with the king that the latter would not deal direedy with ministers without prior consultation with the prime minister. After the resumption of the war Addington came under increasing pressure from the Fox-Grenville coalition and eventually from Pitt himself, and he ultimately resigned in May 1804.
He had been criticized for strengthening the militia and volunteers at the expense of the regular army, although his essentially defensive strategy was adopted by successive governments for the next 12 years. Moreover, he had dealt effectively with the threat of insurrection posed by the Despard conspiracy in 1803, and during his administration army morale began to improve as a result of reforms introduced by the Duke of York.
As a home secretary he succeeded in maintaining public order—a difficult task before the existence of a police force—through an effective if controversial system of intelligence gathering; by tem-porarily imprisoning radical leaders; and by increasing the summary powers of magistrates.
While out of office in 1811 he introduced a highly controversial bill into the House of Lords to control the activities of Non-conformist preachers (that is, those Protestants who did not adhere to the established Church of England). The bill was widely regarded as an assault on religious liberty and was defeated without a vote after nearly 700 petitions had been presented against the measure.
Sidmouth dealt severely with Luddism in 1812 but showed some sympathy for those engaged in industrial disputes after 1815, though he disapproved of attempts to exploit distress for political ends and was convinced that concessions made to popular pressure would produce instability. He sanctioned the last and longest suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act (which guaranteed trial by jury) in 1817 and introduced four of the coercive Six Acts of 1819, although their repressive impact has been exaggerated. He was no alarmist, and had the Manchester magistrates in 1819 followed his advice and refrained from confronting the large crowds assembling in protest, the Peterloo massacre might have been avoided. However, the government’s public congratulation of the magistracy and the military for “their prompt, decisive and efficient measures for the preservation of public “tranquillity” seemed insensitive in the aftermath of the massacre and further alienated public opinion. Sidmouth’s spies subsequently exposed the potentially dangerous Cato Street conspiracy of 1820, which aimed to assassinate the entire cabinet.
He entered the House of Commons in 1784 as M.P. for Devizes. He made little impact, however, until under the patronage of William Pitt, the Younger, a family friend, he gained high office. This provoked George Cannings comment that “Pitt is to Addington as London is to Paddington.”
He became an effective speaker of the House of Commons in 1789, winning respect for his common sense, courtesy, and fair-mindedness.
When serious rioting occurred in the capital during George IV’s abortive attempt to divorce his estranged wife, Queen Caroline.
He remarried in 1823 after the death of his first wife, Mary, daughter of Lord Stowell, and enjoyed a long period of retirement.
