North, Frederick, Lord, 2nd earl of Guilford

North, Frederick, Lord, 2nd earl of Guilford (1732–92). North is one of several prime ministers—Walpole, Pitt, Asquith, and Chamberlain are others—whose careers were distorted by war. For the first five years of his ministry, he established a stable government, defused domestic problems, and introduced useful financial reforms. From 1775 onwards, he was increasingly overwhelmed by the American troubles, which not only brought him down, but established his popular reputation as a weak and ineffective minister.

North was the eldest son of Francis, 1st earl of Guilford, but in some ways his life resembled that of a younger son with a career to make. The family was not wealthy, nor his father generous, and since he lived to be 86, North inherited only two years before his own death. He did not use his position to enrich his family and ran into debt: when the king gave him £18,000 to clear it, it established a personal obligation that made it difficult for North to resign, though he admitted openly that he was not the man to wage war.

Returned to the House of Commons in 1754 for the family seat at Banbury, at the age of 22, North soon began moving up the ladder. He was a useful man of business, hard-working, fat, and cheerful. Almost the whole of his life he spent in the Commons, defended its privileges with tenacity, gauged its temper skilfully, and, according to Gibbon, became ‘a consummate master of debate’. He was brought onto the Treasury Board in 1759 by his cousin the duke of Newcastle. He remained in office when Newcastle went out in 1762, mainly because he needed the money. He went out with Grenville in 1765, declined to serve with the Rockinghams, and came back into junior office in Grafton's administration in 1766. His great chance came in 1767 with the sudden death of Charles Townshend, whom he succeeded as chancellor of the Exchequer. He was now the main spokesman for the government in the Commons and conducted the difficult debates on the Middlesex election issue. When Grafton resigned in January 1770, North took over as 1st lord of the Treasury at the urgent entreaty of the king. He was 37.

His first few years in office were impressive. Government majorities were restored, the Wilkes issue receded, North's reputation climbed. His relations with the king were excellent—he was given the Garter in 1772—and his mastery of the Commons undisputed. An acknowledged expert in finance, his budgets were received with scarcely a dissentient voice. He handled his first test—the dispute with Spain over the Falkland Islands—with skill and judgement. In his Indian legislation, he tried to co-ordinate activities under a governor-general, and it has been called ‘a revolution in policy’. His Quebec Act in 1774 was an important concession to the catholics and helped to persuade Canadians in 1776 not to throw in their lot with the American rebels. Horace Walpole, no easy critic, wrote in June 1770 that North was ‘sensible and moderate’ and in 1773 that opposition was almost at a standstill. The American question, which ultimately brought him down, had its roots deep in the past. (See American War of Independence.) Once the French had been expelled from Canada during the Seven Years War it was not hard to perceive the possibility of American independence. The British, heavily burdened after the war, resented the colonists' refusal to pay taxes. Grenville's Stamp Act and Townshend's duties brought in little revenue. North's first action was conciliatory—to abandon all of Townshend's duties save that on tea, retained more as a token of authority than a source of revenue. It is doubtful whether any prime minister could have gone further. The American response was the seizure of the revenue cutter Gaspée, the intimidation of customs officers, and the Boston Tea Party. Coercive measures against the colonists were inevitable. But once fighting began, North was marginalized and the military men took over. His conciliation proposals came too late to affect the issue. Repeatedly he begged to resign and warned the king that a stronger minister was needed: time after time the king refused, understanding the value of North's parliamentary skill in presenting government policy. Only after the surrender at Yorktown in 1781, with his majority down to single figures, was North allowed to go.

The last ten years of his life were largely a postscript. He returned to office as home secretary in the spring of 1783 in the coalition with Charles Fox, but was unwell for several months and content to let his more vigorous colleagues make the running. Dismissed in December 1783, he slid gracefully into the role of a premature elder statesman, defending the Church of England from dissenting attacks and the constitution from dangerous innovation. His parliamentary following dwindled with the years and from 1786 he was blind and had to be led into the House. Too unimaginative to be a great statesman, North's significance is as an extraordinary parliamentarian, whose sure touch in the House stayed with him to the end.

J. A. Cannon

Bibliography

Cannon, J. A. , Lord North: The Noble Lord in the Blue Ribbon (1970);
Thomas, P. D. G. , Lord North (1976).