Henry Addington

Henry Addington (circa 1803)

Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth PC (30 May 1757 – 15 February 1844) was a British Tory statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1804.

Quotes

• Had he to choose between the re-enactment of the popery laws and Catholic emancipation, coupled with parliamentary reform, as the means of restoring tranquillity to Ireland, he should give the preference to the former; but it was because he objected to both those measures that he gave his cordial support to the contemplated union.
  • Speech in the House of Commons (12 February 1799), quoted in George Pellew, The Life and Correspondence of The Right Honourable Henry Addington, First Viscount Sidmouth, Vol. I (1847), p. 230

• My determination is to keep clear of all parties, to avoid the reality, and, as far as possible, even the appearance of cabal, to attend the house not constantly but upon such occasions as seem to me to require it, either from a sense of duty to the public or myself: but I will not be the stalking-horse or cat's paw of Opposition nor will I be extinguished by Mr. Pitt. My course seems clear before me.
  • Letter to Hiley Addington (1 November 1804), quoted in Philip Ziegler, Addington: A Life of Henry Addington, First Viscount Sidmouth (1965), p. 227

• I have said, and said most truly, that if the country was well governed, and its affairs ably conducted, I cared little in whose hands the Administration was placed. To a very few I have been more explicit, by declaring my strong and increasing repugnance to office, arising from various causes...and my fixed determination never to return to it, except under the positive obligation of public duty, and that, after the experience of the last four years, I could not admit the existence of such an obligation, unless I was to be placed in a situation of perfect and unqualified responsibility: in other words, to use a recent expression of the Speaker, that I would not be a Noun adjective to any Government.
  • Letter to Hiley Addington (29 November 1808), quoted in Philip Ziegler, Addington: A Life of Henry Addington, First Viscount Sidmouth (1965), p. 274

• The basis of Protestant Union, and the material of all public declarations against further concession should be an unshaken and inviable attachment to the Constitution as established at the Revolution, and a determination to uphold it against innovation, as the best security of our civil and religious liberty.
  • Letter to Lord Bexley (11 October 1828), quoted in Philip Ziegler, Addington: A Life of Henry Addington, First Viscount Sidmouth (1965), p. 414

• Until it is proved that some great practical evil is justly attributable to the present structure of that House, and that it would admit of a remedy which would not be productive of some evil of equal or greater magnitude, my objections to a general reform will remain unshaken. Still I am compelled to feel that this ground is no longer tenable; and that an attempt must be made to satisfy the more temperate and conscientious reformers, without endangering the established institutions of the country.
  • Letter to Reginald Pole Carew (12 December 1831), quoted in George Pellew, The Life and Correspondence of The Right Honourable Henry Addington, First Viscount Sidmouth, Vol. III (1847), p. 432

Quotes about Henry Addington

• The person who addressed me was a tall, square, and bony figure, upwards of fifty years of age, I should suppose, and with thin and rather grey hair; his forehead was broad and prominent, and from their cavernous orbits looked mild and intelligent eyes. His manner was affable, and much more encouraging to freedom of speech than I had expected.
  • Samuel Bamford, Bamford's Passages in the Life of a Radical and Early Days, ed. Henry Dunckley ([1893]), p. 96

• Pitt is to Addington
  As London is to Paddington.
  • George Canning, quoted in Lord Rosebery, Pitt (1891), p. 230

• But without Pitt nothing, in the opinion of the country or of Europe, could be strong—an axiom of which Addington was never sufficiently persuaded.
  • John Wilson Croker, 'Life of Lord Sidmouth', The Quarterly Review, No. CLVIII, Vol. LXXIX (March 1847), p. 514

• You must take the Home Department, Lord Sidmouth—it will be every thing to me.
  • Lord Liverpool, remarks to Henry Addington (8 June 1812), quoted in George Pellew, The Life and Correspondence of The Right Honourable Henry Addington, First Viscount Sidmouth, Vol. III (1847), p. 78

• No one in the present day will differ much from you in your estimate of the mediocrity of Addington and his Government as to abilities and intellect. Sincere as was my regard and esteem for him, and however warm my gratitude for his kindness, hospitality, and friendship (I never in my life met with a more honourable, upright, generous man, one whose judgment I would sooner have abided by in any question of honour or principle), I must acknowledge that he never seemed to me, according to the phrase, up to the very high position which he had attained.
  • Henry Hart Milman to Sir George Cornewall Lewis (27 January 1858), quoted in Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Essays on the Administration of Great Britain from 1783 to 1830 Contributed to The Edinburgh Review, ed. Sir Edmund Head (1864), pp. 273-274

• But however the higher and more intellectual class, perhaps London, might estimate him, Addington had a hold on the country of which you do not seem to me to be aware. The country gentlemen were for him almost to a man, and they had then a weight and influence which are now almost forgotten. They disliked the haughty and unbending Pitt and his contemptuous condescension; they hated Canning, who quizzed, satirised, and laughed at them; they held Fox for an irreclaimable Jacobin. The mediocrity of Addington suited their mediocrity... He was with them easy, frank, jovial, loved Port wine as well as the most resolute fox-hunter. To the end he described himself as the sole survivor of the "Port wine faction."
  • Henry Hart Milman to Sir George Cornewall Lewis (27 January 1858), quoted in Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Essays on the Administration of Great Britain from 1783 to 1830 Contributed to The Edinburgh Review, ed. Sir Edmund Head (1864), p. 274

• Upon the Speaker's arrival, therefore, in the royal presence, his Majesty immediately desired him to undertake the conduct of affairs; and when he earnestly requested to be excused, the King said to him, in the most emphatic manner, "Lay your hand upon your heart, and ask yourself where I am to turn for support if you do not stand by me." And undoubtedly this was a question which the Speaker must have found it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to answer satisfactorily. Such, however, was his reluctance to accept a station which would have been to many others the highest object of ambition, that he resolved again to endeavour to reconcile matters; and with this object, on retiring from the King's presence, he a second time consulted Mr. Pitt, whose reply showed that he viewed the question in the same light in which his Majesty had done: "I see nothing but ruin, Addington, if you hesitate."
  • George Pellew, The Life and Correspondence of The Right Honourable Henry Addington, First Viscount Sidmouth, Vol. I (1847), pp. 287-288

• During one of the debates upon the reform question, he held a friendly colloquy with Earl Grey, who, he always thought, had been carried far beyond the views and intentions he originally entertained on the introduction of this measure. "I hope," Lord Sidmouth said, "God will forgive you on account of this bill: I don't think I can." To this Lord Grey replied, "Mark my words: within two years you will find that we have become unpopular, for having brought forward the most aristocratic measure that ever was proposed in parliament."
  • George Pellew, The Life and Correspondence of The Right Honourable Henry Addington, First Viscount Sidmouth, Vol. III (1847), p. 439

• With respect to Mr. Pitt, his Majesty expressed himself satisfied in the highest degree, and spoke of him in the warmest terms of praise. He said, that finding from experience Mr. Addington was not equal to the government of the country, he was extremely desirous of having Mr. Pitt again; that he had thought very favourably of Mr. Addington, but was much displeased at his having said (while the intercourse was going on with Mr. Pitt about the change of administration) that he knew his Majesty did not wish Mr. Pitt to come in; and that in consequence thereof, he had resolved, in the event of the negotiation with Mr. Pitt breaking off, not to keep him (Mr. Addington) at the head of the Government.
  • George Rose, diary entry (30 September 1804), quoted in The Diaries and Correspondence of The Right Hon. George Rose: Containing Original Letters of the Most Distinguished Statesmen of His Day, Vol. II, ed. Rev. Leveson Vernon Harcourt (1860), pp. 156-157

• The general opinion of government is, that it is sadly blundering and inefficient. Yet people are afraid of the old set entire. Windham and Co. strong in opposition. Fox manifestly drawing towards them. Provoked by cursory remarks. 'Tis said Sheridan trying to pique him by saying, "You will get Pitt in again if you oppose." He peevishly says, "I can't bear fools, any thing but fools."
  • William Wilberforce, diary entry (17 December 1803), quoted in Robert Isaac Wilberforce and Samuel Wilberforce, The Life of William Wilberforce, Vol. III (1838), p. 142