Harryo was not looking forward to her coming out. She was aware that she had not inherited her mother’s looks or figure, and her lack of interest in fashion was partly a defence against unfavourable comparisons. But she was not shy like Little G and her witty conversation made a strong impression on visitors to Devonshire House.* Georgiana sensed her daughter’s dread of being teased because she was plump, and went to considerable lengths to ensure that she was never allowed to feel left out. The Morning Post reported a typical incident at a ball given by a Mr. M. P. Andrew on April 21. The heat combined with poor management of the ball had emptied the dance floor.
The music ceased. The gay scene then degenerated into a mere dull tête-à-tête party, from which however it was soon rescued by the Duchess of Devonshire. Her Grace introduced French Cotillions, which were led off by Lady Harriet Cavendish, Lord Viscount Ossulston, and Mr and Mrs Johnstone. In these dances, all those who comprehended them joined the set. . . . The grace and activity displayed by Lady Harriet Cavendish was unusually admired. . . . The Goddesses of Youth and Beauty seemed united in this lovely offspring of gentle Devon.2
The “lovely offspring,” however, did not attract any suitors.
As soon as the season was over Georgiana turned her attention to politics again. The outbreak of war had reshuffled political alliances to some extent, but not enough to make a difference to Addington’s hold on power. Georgiana would devote the next two and half years of her life to one cause—that of seeing Fox in office, in a government made up of all the most talented men in Parliament, which would bring peace to Europe.
When Georgiana wrote in 1782 that behind the accepted version of any political history lies a secret tale of the “intrigues and combination of Society” that are known only to a few, she was highlighting a problem encountered by all political historians who search in vain for missing links. “I have been in the midst of action,” she continued. “I have seen parties rise and fall, friends be united and disunited.” Georgiana’s privileged position had given her both knowledge and power, and she had often contemplated writing a “secret history of the times.”3 It was to her later reputation’s disadvantage that she did not. As a general rule, the Victorian descendants who took it upon themselves to preserve their grandparents’ papers employed a rigorous policy of sexual segregation: women’s letters were destroyed, men’s letters were preserved. In many archives Georgiana’s letters are mentioned but have not themselves survived. The meetings, the confidential conversations, the whispered advice and secret messages have been blanked out. In most printed accounts of the Addington and Pitt ministries Georgiana receives only the briefest mention, sometimes only a line to indicate her shadowy presence. The following account, pieced together from fragments, restores her to the tableau of political history, uncovering the face that was painted out.
The Whigs had no interest in supporting the government once the war was in process. Georgiana canvassed the Prince of Wales for his opinion on the war and found him hysterical about the dangers facing the country if France invaded. The Prince wanted to do something, to fight like his brothers, but his father would not allow him to hold a military position. The only outlet for his thwarted energy was politics. He began to toy with the idea of saving the country by organizing a coalition against Addington. He discussed his plans with Georgiana, who promptly offered her services as a go-between for his meetings with the different factions.
Meanwhile she sounded out Fox on the Prince’s behalf and was delighted by his encouraging reply. However, he was cautious about becoming involved with the Prince.* Robert Adair had also forwarded the Prince’s request and Fox’s letter to him survives:
I have just received your letter and the Duchess’s and can only say that if the P of W wants to see me, it will of course be my duty to wait upon him either in London or wherever else he chuses to appoint, but that as to attending Parliament at present, it appears to me impossible that any good can come of it. . . . At the same time you may tell his R. H. that I am very happy to find that my general opinions are nearly the same as his. . . . I think the best chance is to wait for the effect which these violent measures and untoward events will produce, and then if much Discontent should arise, a junction such as the P seems to wish may be produced and the exertion of his R. H.’s influence may very much contribute to give strength.4
Fox was prepared to contemplate co-operation with his former opponents but only if their aim was to bring peace to Europe rather than seek to defeat France. If they could agree on this, and on Catholic emancipation, there would be grounds for discussing some sort of provisional arrangement for the next parliamentary session. But Fox was frankly pessimistic, and wary of risking the ire of his supporters by entering into talks that would be futile and divisive.
Georgiana was not deterred by Fox’s lack of enthusiasm. She and the Prince agreed that their next move should be to collar individual members of Grenville’s party, notably the former Foxites, and convert them to the idea of a coalition before approaching Lord Grenville. The obvious candidate for Georgiana’s initial approach was George, and she wrote to him on July 8, 1803. The letter is worth quoting in full:
You will think there is no end of my annoying you but this is not about a ball or a dinner, but by desire of the Prince, who has just left me—I would give anything to see you for ten minutes in your way thro’ town tomorrow if you will let me know the time—if you cannot come I will write what I have to say and convey it to you by a safe hand. Do not be alarm’d for it is nothing immediate, but the Prince wishes to state to you thro’ me (unless he could see you which he would prefer) what has pass’d between him and several people and I want to tell you the substance of a letter of Fox’s.
The only use of this now is a future consideration. That so far some concert may be established that nothing should arise before the next session to create new difficulties to a union of Talent and respectability.
Fox’s expression of you and Ld Grenville are that you are persons of whose abilities he has an high opinion as perfectly unexceptional men whom he has, and would still live on terms of friendship with, and whom he likes.
I quote from the letter because from circumstances it was one he had no idea would be seen.
The Prince I believe dines with Wyndham [sic] at Francis’s tomorrow. Dr. Brother write me word if you can see me tomorrow—remember it leads to nothing that conditions you . . .I do believe that the opinions of the wisest men are so near meeting in everything essential.5
As a result of Georgiana’s efforts the idea of some sort of co-operation gained currency. Fox considered the Prince to be malleable, Sheridan “treacherous,” and Carlton House—as people referred to the Prince of Wales’s political cronies because that was where they could be found—unreliable at best. Sheridan did not improve his position with the Prince by ranting in public that Georgiana had polluted his mind with the “Grenville infection” and tricked him into abandoning faithful friends like himself.6 As he continued to pursue Harriet, he had seen several of Pitt‘s associates surreptitiously enter Devonshire House for short visits, and he surmised from this that Georgiana was attempting to forge an understanding between the Prince of Wales, Fox, and Pitt. Harriet told Leveson Gower that Sheridan had confronted Fox with the words, “ ‘Can you say upon your honour that all those meetings between Mr Canning and the Dss at D. H. were not purposely to carry messages backwards or forwards between you and Pitt?’ Mr Fox laugh’d, assur’d S. he had not heard of the meetings, but was glad to hear there was so good a prospect of a strong opposition, and came away leaving Sheridan in a fury.”7 Sheridan’s fears were premature; neither man had any intention of working with the other—it was Canning’s idea and his visits to Devonshire House were made on his own initiative. On the other hand Georgiana was convinced by Canning’s arguments that if the two men could meet they might reach an understanding. She wrote Fox a confidential letter pointing out that it could only be to his advantage if Pitt joined them:
After saying all this to you, pray dear Mr Fox do not think that I am advising you to a junction with Pitt unless you yourself see the necessity of something being done. I have not altered my opinion of him. . . . Even if he only plans to make you the means of his return to power I should not think that ought to deter you, granting that his sentiments and opinions coincide with yours and that he is sincere in working for Peace and for that Peace to be made by you.
All I wish therefore, is to put yourself in the way of opportunities of intercourse without seeming particularly to seek them—If neither part will make a step how can they ever meet.
[Do not] betray what I have now written. I should never care for Politicks if it was not for you and Mr Grey, but when I think the country may be sav’d by a little exertion from the two men I think most highly of I should be a mauvaise amie et mauvaise citoyenne if I did not tell you my opinions.8
Georgiana fell ill shortly after writing the letter. Her health had become a serious handicap. The problem this time was a stone in her kidneys. “She had a very bad night,” wrote Lady Spencer to George on September 15. “Sir Walter and the Duke sat up with her almost the whole night.”9 Harriet was also at her side and cried as she watched her sister’s sufferings: “No Medicine, not the strongest, nothing that can be given her, has as yet taken effect. Six and thirty hours have already elapsed in the dreadful pain. I sat up with her last night. She was put into a warm bath and bled, which reliev’d her at the time so much that she slept from four till near seven leaning on my Arm and quite still.”10 It was almost a month before the Morning Herald reported that Georgiana was receiving “daily visits of the Nobility, who warmly congratulate her Grace on her perfect recovery.”11
Although the attack had left her weak it also increased her determination to promote her plan. Fox groaned when he received a summons from her to come to a meeting at Devonshire House.
I suppose I must obey [he replied on October 20, 1803]. I suppose you can give me some dinner. I dislike the thing more because I can expect no good from the P[rince], considering certain circumstances. I have not yet seen your speech, but the speeches of ladies can make no great figure now, because they can hardly . . . be allowed to make use of the words Scoundrel, Bloodhound, Atheist etc., which are the great ornaments of speeches on these occasions.12
However, the meeting was successful in galvanizing the Whigs; the general consensus afterwards was in favour of limited co-operation if the occasion was appropriate.
For most of the session Georgiana remained at Bath with the Duke, Bess, and Harryo, drinking the waters and trying to wean herself off laudanum. The heavy doses prescribed by Dr. Farquhar had left her with an addiction to the drug. Having fallen into the trap of “false tranquillity,” as Lady Spencer termed it, several times before, Georgiana was determined not to succumb again. Fox helped to sustain her interest in events taking place in London with a continuous stream of reports of political developments. However, she was not idle: the Prince’s “unsteadyness” required continual vigilance. He was far too susceptible to flattery from any quarter.
London filled up after the Christmas recess, but Georgiana and the Duke did not stir from Bath, both lying like invalids on chaise-longues in the overheated drawing room, nursing themselves with delicate self-absorption. Georgiana was now forty-six and the damp weather had brought on an attack of rheumatism. She was bored, even though there was plenty to occupy her time: despite her remorse and her genuine attempts to restructure her debts the unpaid bills continued to pile up in her closet in Devonshire House; their sheer number made it impossible for her to clear them without help. She was once more begging her friends for money, the Prince in particular. Writing from Bath she asked him, “if you should happen to be at all rich, a very small cadeau would make me comfortable, and if you do, send it by a half note in two letters,* but if you are not rich, I entreat you not, for owing to you I have been less tormented than I could have supposed when you found me in that anxiety last spring.”13
She cheered up considerably when the new Duke of Bedford invited her to write a poem about Charles Fox. The Duke was having busts made of all his friends, which he intended to arrange in a pantheon to Whiggery at Woburn and he thought it appropriate for Georgiana to provide the inscription for Fox. She took it as one of the highest honours ever bestowed on her to be singled out from among the plethora of talent in Whig society. “There is nothing I would not do to make [the poem] succeed at last,” she humbly told the poet and playwright Richard Fitzpatrick, who had offered to help.14 She wanted his opinion because “I can assure you I shall very willingly yield my place” if her efforts proved to be a failure. There was no need for her to worry: after reading the poem he wrote back, “I can however with perfect truth assure you that the very first reading of inscription entirely relieved me from all apprehension of this sort. I admire it extremely and think that, (like everything I have seen of your writing) it bears the marks of true poetical genius. . . .”15 True genius or not (“And whilst extending dedication for/Ambition spread, the baneful flames of war/fearless of blame, and eloquent to save, Twas he, twas Fox,” etc.), the inscription bears witness to Georgiana’s and Fox’s remarkable friendship, as well as to the adoration he inspired among the Whigs.
Now that Harryo was out of the nursery, Selina would have to find another family, yet no one except Bess wanted her to go. Princess Charlotte was in need of a governess, and Georgiana felt that releasing Selina to the Prince of Wales, who liked the proposal, would be almost like keeping her in the family. But the objections of the Queen, who thought the job should go to a person of rank, and Princess Caroline, who disliked the appointment going to someone in the Prince’s “camp,” stopped the plan. In the end, Selina remained loosely attached to Devonshire House, somewhat removed from the day-to-day running of the house but close enough for Bess to feel her presence.
Georgiana remained at Bath for the rest of January and February until the Prince wrote to her with the news that his father had once again become deranged. This was the second time in three years. The Devonshires dismissed their doctors and hurried to London to prevent Sheridan or anyone else from monopolizing the Prince at this crucial moment. “Everything is absorbed in politics,” Georgiana informed her mother a few days after her return. She had reached the Prince in time, and Devonshire House “is the only place he goes to and he only sees the D. and me, for he very wisely has resolved to see nobody till this is over.”16
Two weeks later the doctors were reporting an improvement in the King’s condition and the Prince put away his plans for a Regency government. Georgiana had been so caught up with affairs in London that she failed to take note of the bad reports coming from Bath about Hare, who died on March 10, 1804. He had never recovered from his ordeal as a prisoner-of-war in France, and a long walk with Lady Spencer on a chilly and damp afternoon had turned a head-cold into pneumonia. Georgiana was shocked: “Having deceiv’d ourselves about the progress of poor Hare’s disorder we had the Prince to supper here on Saturday.”17 She was aghast by the false reports in some newspapers that they had continued to entertain as normal even after receiving the news. “No one has been admitted,” Georgiana asserted to her mother. His death had torn a hole through the middle of the Devonshire House Circle and both she and the Duke wished to be alone. Bess shared their grief; Hare had known all their secrets, helped them in many of their scrapes, and had never betrayed his knowledge.
When Georgiana re-emerged from her mourning she found that Sheridan and his friends were still trying to secure the Prince’s support for Addington. Sheridan’s liking for the Prime Minister was a case of faute de mieux: he was not Pitt, nor Grenville, whom Sheridan hated with such intensity that he would leave the room rather than tolerate his proximity, and nor was he Fox.* Apart from Sheridan there seemed to be two further major obstacles to all the opposition parties working together. The first was the antipathy between Fox and Pitt, and the second was the Prince’s aversion
to having any dealings with Pitt. Although many people played a part in bringing these antagonistic men together, Georgiana’s contribution was particularly effective—perhaps even decisive—in each case.
George Canning watched the Fox–Grenville–Carlton House alliance work well together and decided that Pitt was making a mistake in staying aloof from the opposition coalition when its chances of success seemed higher than ever. Once again he turned, via Granville Leveson Gower, to Georgiana, and asked her to persuade Fox to see Pitt. Even though Fox still thought Pitt was a “mean,” “low-minded dog,” he now accepted that the coalition could not succeed without him. But the Prince was less practical and still objected to his inclusion.
The next time the Prince visited Devonshire House Georgiana asked
if he had vow’d eternal enmity to Mr P., which his wish to oppose him on the admiralty question, and the language of his people, had led her to imagine. He answer’d: “Certainly not; the enmity is on Mr Pitt’s side, not mine.” [and] . . . that no one party alone was strong enough to do any good, but that a union of all the great talents in the country was what he look’d to as the only measure that could be of any use. . . . “I am ready to meet him half way, but surely some little advance on his part is due to me.”18
Leveson Gower was duly given the message to take to Pitt. The outcome of these delicate manoeuvres was that a broad understanding between the parties (Sheridan excluded) was reached and Addington’s government was doomed. By the middle of April Pitt, Fox, and Grenville were coordinating strategy and by the sixteenth the government saw its majority slip to 21 on the third reading of the Augmentation of the Irish Militia Bill. On April 19 the government was defeated by one vote in a debate about India. It staggered on for several more days until Addington finally gave up and resigned on April 30, 1804.