Windham
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WILLIAM, an English statesman; born in London, May 3, 1750; was educated at Eton, at Glasgow University, and University College, Oxford, In 1784 he was returned to Parliament for Norwich. In 1783, on the formation of the Portland ministry, remarkable for the coalition of Lord North and Mr. Fox, he had become principal secretary to Lord Northington, then lord-lieutenant of Ireland, but ill-health soon obliged him to resign. He followed Burke in his view of the French Revolution, and in 1794 he became secretary-at-war under Pitt. He went out with Pitt in 1701, and denounced Addington's peace of Amiens (1801) in a speech of splendid eloquence. uence. This lost him his seat for Norwich, but he was elected for St. Mawes in Cornwall, and on the return of the Grenville party to power (January, 1806) he became war and colonial secretary. He helped Cobbett to start his "Political Register" (January, 1802), carried a scheme for limited service in the army (1806), and at the general election in October, 1806, found a seat in New Romney, and next year at Higham Ferrers. He went out of office in 1807, when the Portland administration was formed, having previously declined the offer of a peerage, and strongly denounced the expedition against Copenhagen, and afterward the disastrous Walcheren expedition. In 1808 a clause was introduced by his successor, Lord Castlereagh, into the Mutiny Act, permitting men to enlist for life, contrary to Windham's scheme of limited service, which was, however, readopted in 1847. He died June 4, 1810.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
William Windham died in 1810, and nothing in the century since Collier's wrote this in 1921 has disturbed the outline given here: Norwich, the break with Fox over the French Revolution, the secretaryship at war, the attack on the Peace of Amiens, the limited-service scheme of 1806 that Castlereagh undid in 1808 and that was revived in 1847. Two small corrections: the text's "He went out with Pitt in 1701" is a printer's slip for 1801, and Windham's own diary for 1784-1810, printed in 1866, has long since given historians a far fuller picture of the man than this summary suggests. Modern accounts also dwell on things Collier's passes over, notably his defence of bull-baiting and prize-fighting against reforming bills, which did as much for his reputation as any of his offices. Otherwise the entry reads as soundly today as it did in 1921.
Written for this edition, 2026.