to the union
did not lead to the unseating of a single member who had voted for
it.[6] Meanwhile the ministry was strengthened by the admission to
office of Lord Castlereagh, already distinguished for his share in the
negotiations precedent to the union with Ireland. On July 6 he was
appointed president of the board of control in succession to Dartmouth,
and was admitted to a seat in the cabinet in October. The new parliament
did not meet till November 16. During the interval members of both
houses, with vast numbers of their countrymen, flocked to Paris, which
had been almost closed to English travellers since the early days of the
revolution. Fox was presented to Napoleon, as Bonaparte, since the
decree which made him consul for life, preferred to be styled. Napoleon
conceived a great admiration for him, and afterwards persuaded himself
that, had Fox survived, the friendly relations of England and France
would not have been permanently interrupted. On the very day on which
parliament assembled, a conspiracy was discovered, which, however insane
it may now appear, attracted much attention at the time. A certain
Colonel Despard with thirty-six followers, mainly labourers, had plotted
to kill the king and seize all the government-buildings, with a view to
the establishment of what he called the "constitutional independence of
Ireland and Great Britain" and the "equalisation of all civic rights".
The conspiracy had no wide ramifications, and the arrest of its leader
and his companions brought it to an immediate end. Despard was found
guilty of high treason and was executed on February 21, 1803.

When parliament met, the king's speech referred ominously to fresh
disturbances in the balance of power on the continent; and votes were
passed for large additions to the army and navy, in spite of Fox's
declaration that he saw no reason why Napoleon, satisfied with military
glory, should not henceforth devote himself to internal improvements in
France. Nelson, on the contrary, speaking in the house of lords, while
he professed himself a man of peace, insisted on the danger arising from
"a restless and unjust ambition on the part of our neighbours," and
Sheridan delivered a vigorous speech in a like spirit. On the whole, in
January, 1803, the prospects of assured peace and prosperity were much
gloomier than they had been in January, 1802, before the treaty of
Amiens. The funds were going down, the bank restriction act was renewed,