upon the peace, after the treaty had been signed in March 1802. He became so doubtful, however, of the permanence of peace that in the beginning of 1803 he induced his colleagues to postpone the evacuation of Malta, for which the treaty of Amiens stipulated. Fruitless attempts were made to bribe Joseph Buonaparte to dissuade his brother from insisting on the cession, and Lord Whitworth, the English ambassador, was consequently withdrawn from Paris in May. In the subsequent debates in parliament Lord Hawkesbury was accused of causing this rupture by his own mismanagement, but he made a good defence and obtained large majorities in his favour. In November 1803 Addington raised him to the peerage as Baron Hawkesbury, somewhat against his will. He already felt the likelihood of succeeding Addington as prime minister, and the government had scarcely any one but himself to rely upon in debate in the House of Commons. When Addington gave way to Pitt in 1804, Hawkesbury was transferred to the home office (12 May), which, when held by a peer, customarily carried with it the leadership of the House of Lords. (The negotiations which preceded this change are detailed in C. D. Yonge's Life of Lord Liverpool, i. 147 sqq.; in the course of it a short-lived estrangement arose between Canning and Hawkesbury.) Towards the end of the year it was through his intervention and good offices that Pitt and Addington were reconciled and became colleagues (see Pellew, Life of Lord Sidmouth, ii. 225–65). He continued to lead the House of Lords after Addington's elevation to the peerage. On Melville's fall, Pitt preferred to keep him at the home office instead of transferring him to the admiralty, in order that he might retain the leadership in the lords, from which he would have had to retire had his successor at the home office been a peer. On the death of Pitt, George III insisted on naming Hawkesbury his successor in the wardenship of the Cinque ports, which was worth 3,000l. a year. Lord Sheffield expressed the disgust excited in some quarters in the words, ‘the Jenkinson craving disposition will revolt the whole country’ (Lord Auckland, Correspondence, iv. 269). When the new government of ‘All the Talents’ was formed under Grenville in January 1806, Hawkesbury became undisputed leader of the opposition. In 1807 Grenville prepared to reopen the catholic question. Hawkesbury thereupon addressed a letter to the king urging him to refuse his consent to the dissolution, by which Grenville might obtain a house more favourable to emancipation. On the fall of the whig ministry in March the king sent in the first instance for Hawkesbury and Eldon, and through Hawkesbury arrangements were completed for the formation of a new ministry under the nominal leadership of the Duke of Portland (ib. iv. 308). Hawkesbury returned to the home office and the leadership of the House of Lords on 25 March 1807. A dissolution followed, and a tory majority was returned. He continued strongly to oppose the whole catholic emancipation movement, and in the same year he said that ‘a protestant government alone was consistent with the laws and constitution of the British empire,’ and declared the Test Act to be an indispensable guarantee of a protestant government. By the death of his father in December 1808 he succeeded to the earldom of Liverpool, and, upon the resignation of the Duke of Portland in September 1809, he and Spencer Perceval were entrusted by the king with the formation of a new ministry, which was to include Lords Grey and Grenville. All attempts at combination failing, Spencer Perceval became on 6 Dec. 1809 prime minister, and Lord Liverpool for a short time secretary of state for foreign affairs, but from 1809 to 1812 was secretary of state for war and the colonies.
At the home office Liverpool had displayed both tact and industry. These qualities were severely tried by the quarrels between the Prince and Princess of Wales and between Louis XVIII and his brother, the reorganisation of the London police, and the maintenance of order in Ireland. On taking charge of his new office he at once urged the evacuation of the island of Walcheren, which, in spite of its value, he felt to be untenable. This was done, and he devoted all his efforts to supporting the operations of Wellington in Portugal. At first, however, neither the public nor at times was Wellington himself satisfied with the support given by the ministry. When the king went out of his mind at the end of 1810 Lord Liverpool took a leading part in the constitution of a regency, and on 27 Dec. introduced resolutions for that purpose in the House of Lords. In 1811 he proposed and carried measures for strengthening the army by systematic drafts from the militia, and for legalising the transfer of Irish militia regiments to England and the reverse, measures which proved highly valuable in maintaining the effective strength of the army. After the assassination of Perceval, Stuart Wortley straightway carried his motion for an address praying the prince regent to form a strong administration. Liverpool consequently resigned, and Lord Wellesley and Lord Moira made abortive attempts to form an alternative government. On their failure,
