Fox–North coalition

In A Block for the Wigs (1783), James Gillray caricatured the Fox–North Coalition. Fox is at right, followed by North, and then by Edmund Burke, with a skeleton leg. George III is the blockhead in the centre.

The Fox–North Coalition was a government in Great Britain that held office during 1783. As the name suggests, the ministry was a coalition of the groups supporting Charles James Fox and Lord North. The official head was William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland who took office on 2 April 1783.

Fox was a Whig by background and North came from the nominal Tory Party, however both had fallen out with the government of Lord Shelburne. They combined their forces in the House of Commons to throw out the Shelburne ministry and then formed a government of their own.

Charles James Fox, Foreign Secretary 1782, 1783 & 1806

King George III despised the government and Fox in particular but found that no other ministry could be formed at this stage despite several offers to William Pitt the Younger. As a result, the King declined to provide the government with the normal tools of patronage and they were forced to look elsewhere.

The Treaty of Paris was signed during his government on 3 September 1783, formally ending the American Revolutionary War. The government also came under strain when from the opposition Pitt introduced a proposal for electoral reform to tackle bribery and rotten boroughs. The proposal did not pass but caused tensions within the coalition which contained both proponents and opponents of political reform.

The British East India Company was in trouble and Fox proposed nationalising it, thus providing the government with a new source of appointments so they could reward and maintain support. The East India Bill was introduced and passed in the Commons but the King remained deeply opposed. He informed the House of Lords that he would regard any peer who voted for the bill as his enemy. The bill was defeated on 17 December 1783 and the King immediately dismissed the coalition. It was succeeded by a government formed by William Pitt the Younger.

After being dismissed, Fox and North tried to force Pitt from power through defeat in the House of Commons, but he refused to resign. The response of opinion in the country, evidenced by petitions, resolutions of borough corporations and the actions of the London mobs, showed strong opposition to the coalition and support for Pitt. In March 1784 a general election was called in which Pitt's government made massive gains, especially in constituencies decided by popular votes.

Principal members of the government, April–December 1783

^[1]

Office	Name	Date	Notes
First Lord of the Treasury	The Duke of Portland	2 April 1783	Leader of the House of Lords
Secretary of State for the Home Department	Lord North	2 April 1783	joint Leaders of the House of Commons
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs	Charles James Fox	2 April 1783	joint Leaders of the House of Commons
Lord President of the Council	The Viscount Stormont	2 April 1783
Lord Chancellor	in commission	9 April 1783
Lord Privy Seal	The Earl of Carlisle	2 April 1783
First Lord of the Admiralty	The Viscount Keppel	8 April 1783
Chancellor of the Exchequer	Lord John Cavendish	5 April 1783
Master-General of the Ordnance	The Viscount Townshend	28 April 1783^[2]
First Lord of Trade	The Lord Grantham	continued in office
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster	The Lord Ashburton	continued in office
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster	The Earl of Derby	29 April 1783
Treasurer of the Navy	Charles Townshend	11 April 1783
Secretary at War	Richard Fitzpatrick	11 April 1783
Paymaster of the Forces	Edmund Burke	8 April 1783
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland	The Earl of Northington	1783

References

↑ Chris Cook and John Stevenson, British Historical Facts 1760–1830, Macmillan, 1980
↑ http://www.history.ac.uk/resources/office/ordnance-master

Bibliography

Black, Jeremy (2006). George III: America’s Last King. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300117329.
Pares, Richard (1953). King George III and the Politicians. London.
Trevelyan, George Otto (1912). George the Third and Charles Fox: The Concluding Part of the American Revolution. 2 vols. online edition v2
Watson, J. Steven (1960). The Reign of George III, 1760–1815. the standard scholarly history online edition

Preceded by Shelburne Ministry	British Governments 1783–1783	Succeeded by First Pitt the Younger Ministry

British governments

Great Britain (1707–1801)	Godolphin–Marlborough Harley Townshend Stanhope–Sunderland I Stanhope–Sunderland II Walpole–Townshend Walpole Carteret Broad Bottom Short-lived Ministry Newcastle I Pitt–Devonshire 1757 caretaker Newcastle II Bute Grenville Rockingham I Chatham Grafton North Rockingham II Shelburne Fox–North (Portland I) Pitt the Younger I

UK (GB & Ire) (1801–1922)	Addington Pitt the Younger II All the Talents Portland II Perceval Liverpool Canning Goderich Wellington Grey Melbourne I Wellington Caretaker Peel I Melbourne II Peel II Russell I Who? Who? (Derby I) Aberdeen Palmerston I Derby II Palmerston II Russell II Derby III Disraeli I Gladstone I Disraeli II Gladstone II Salisbury I Gladstone III Salisbury II Gladstone IV Rosebery Salisbury III Balfour Campbell-Bannerman Asquith (I·II) Lloyd George

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