The Fox North Coalition

Dr Cannon studies the workings of the eighteenth-century constitution, concentrating on the years of acute crisis from 1782 to 1784. He examines the formation of the Fox-North coalition, its achievement of office in March 1783, and the manoeuvres by which it was eventually ousted. In doing so he throws light on several obscure questions, such as the reasons for Shelburne's unpopularity, the part played by William Pitt over the India Bill (based on hitherto unused manuscripts in the Bodleian Library), and the causes of Lord Temple's resignation in December 1783. Dr Cannon shows that these were critical years in the evolution of political parties, and contributes evidence towards an assessment of the careers of Lord North, Charles Fox and William Pitt.

The latter half of the eighteenth-century saw Irish opposition movements being greatly influenced by the American and French revolutions. This two-part, six-volume edition illustrates the depth and reach of this influence by publishing pamphlets dealing with the major political issues of these decades.

List of Illustrations -- Preface -- Authors' Note -- Chapter 1. The Parliamentary Cockpit -- Chapter 2. Fathers and Sons -- Chapter 3. Charles James Fox: Early Life, 1749-74 -- Chapter 4. The Early Career of Pitt the Younger: A Chip off the Old Block? -- Chapter 5. The Third Man: A Stubborn and Determined Monarch -- Chapter 6. From Tory to Whig -- Chapter 7. Peace with America: The Rockingham and Shelburne Governments -- Chapter 8. The Fox-North Coalition and the King's 'Coup d'État' -- Chapter 9. The 'Mince-Pie' Government -- Chapter 10. The Young Reformer -- Chapter 11. The Regency Crisis -- Chapter 12. The French Revolution and Foreign Relations -- Chapter 13. The Younger Pitt as War Leader -- Chapter 14. Union and Resignation -- Chapter 15. The Addington Interlude -- Chapter 16. Return and Death -- Chapter 17. Fox's 'Last Hurrah' ... and Final Disappointment -- Chapter 18. The Long Aftermath -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Appendix I. Extract from Pitt's speech against the formation of the Fox-North coalition, 21 February 1783 -- Appendix II. Speech of Charles James Fox on 10 June 1806 -- Index -- Image Section.

In this second of two volumes, Carl B. Cone demonstrates once again that only through a study of Edmund Burke's active political life can one understand his thought. To Burke's important practical contributions to the art of government made prior to 1782 (Volume I, The Age of the American Revolution) must now be added the extension of his thought to new problems of empire and finally, in more theoretical directions, to the French Revolution, which Burke saw as the greatest crisis in the history of the Christian community. Mr. Cone frankly acknowledges the flexibility of view Burke displayed while active in politics, but he also reveals Burke's basic continuity of principle. His career as a public man was a quest for justice and good order in the affairs of men. Each of the great problems he encountered served to develop in him the belief that the duty of the statesman was to bring his society into harmony with the moral order of the universe. Burke was absorbed in four great causes after 1782. One was domestic the constitutional and social order of England. Burke championed the independence of parliament, the supremacy of the House of Commons, and the aristocratic political system against those who asserted the prerogative powers of the crown or the necessity for parliamentary reform. As before 1782, he continued to advocate party as the instrument for giving effect to the constitutional principles that would preserve the liberties of Englishmen. For the people of the British Empire too, Burke sought justice. With America gone, he turned his attention to the administration of India. Deeply entangled with domestic politics, the impeachment of Warren Hastings, governor general of India, for abuse of his office engrossed Burke through almost all of the last fifteen years of his life. Mr. Cone's account of the impeachment is the fullest that any student of Burke has published. Another great imperial problem, justice for the people of Ireland, also runs through the entire period 1782--1797. As during the American Revolution, Burke desired to preserve the unity of the British Empire and the integrity of the protectionist commercial system, and so he approached the Irish problem with the conviction that justice could be attained within the superintending authority of the imperial government. The crisis of the French Revolution dominates the last half of the book. Because it was based upon principles of man and society, the Revolution forced Burke, as no earlier crisis had done, to give the fullest expression to his philosophy in one of the great political documents of the world. Mr. Cone presents here a discerning analysis both of the nature of Burke's opposition to the basic ideas of the Enlightenment and an exposition of the historical-legal principle which had emerged in Burke's own thought from the experience of a full life.

A History of England, Volume 2 (1688 to the Present), focuses on the key events and themes of English history since 1688. Topics include Britain's emergence as a great power in the 18th century, the American War for Independence, the Industrial Revolution, and the economic crisis of the 1970s.

This fundamental re-evaluation of the origins and importance of the idea of 'party' in British political thought and politics in the eighteenth century draws on the writings of Rapin, Bolingbroke, David Hume, John Brown and Edmund Burke to demonstrate that attitudes to party were more complex and penetrating than previously thought.