y of Hawkesbury. After
this rearrangement the cabinet contained eight peers and three
commoners, no illiberal allowance of commoners according to the ideas of
the age. The recess was further marked by a violent war of pamphlets
between the followers of Addington and Pitt, which began early in
September, and which, although no politician of the first order took any
direct part in it, did much to embitter the relations of their
respective parties.[16] Not less irritating were the _jeux d'esprit_
with which Canning continued to assail the ministry in the newspaper
press.[17] The most famous of these is the couplet:--

Pitt is to Addington
As London is to Paddington.

A more openly abusive poem, entitled "Good Intentions," described the
prime minister as "Happy Britain's guardian gander". The following
verses refer to the appointment of Addington's brother, John Hiley
Addington, to be paymaster-general of the forces, and of his
brother-in-law, Charles Bragge, afterwards succeeded by Tierney, to be
treasurer of the navy:--

How blest, how firm the statesman stands
(Him no low intrigue can move)
Circled by faithful kindred bands
And propped by fond fraternal love.

When his speeches hobble vilely,
What "Hear him's" burst from Brother Hiley;
When his faltering periods lag,
Hark to the cheers of Brother Bragge.

Each a gentleman at large,
Lodged and fed at public charge,
Paying (with a grace to charm ye)
This the Fleet, and that the Army.[18]

[Pageheading: _THE KING'S ILLNESS._]

When parliament reassembled on November 22 the opposition was still
disunited, and, though Windham severely condemned the inadequacy of the
provision made for national defence, he did not venture to divide
against the government. But during the Christmas recess a distinct step
was made towards the consolidation of the opposition by the reunion of
the two sections of the whig party. Grenville had conceived a chimerical
project of replacing the existing administration by one which should
include all statesmen possessed of real political talent, whatever their
differences in the past might have been. True to this policy, he
persuaded Fox in January, 1804, to join him in attempting to expel the
Addington administration from office as an essential preliminary to any
further action. Sheridan, however, with some of the Prince of Wales's
friends, still refused to enter in