Description:From 1798 onwards George Granville Leveson-Gower served in the House of Lords as Baron Gower of Stittenham. Following his appointment as Ambassador to Paris, in 1799 he became the Joint Postmaster-General, a post which he served in until 1810. In 1803 he became the [2nd] Marquis of Stafford.
The early 1800s were overshadowed politically and militarily by the hostilities between England and Revolutionary France.
Many letters amongst George Granville's papers relate to English political and military actions against France during this time, including correspondence received from William Wyndham Grenville, Baron Grenville (1759-1834) who was appointed Prime minister in 1806.
In a letter dated February 25th 1805 Grenville writes to inform George Granville ‘that it is now fixed that notice shall be given in the House of Lords today or tomorrow, of a motion…for going into a committee on the subject of the Military defence of the Country’.
Grenville’s letter tells us about contemporary perceptions of English political and military action. He comments that ‘nothing effectual has been done to supply the want of an army, or to provide a permanent system for maintaining it. The necessity of some measures in that purpose is even greater now than before, because we are told that some prospect of Continental cooperation is opening to us;’. Referring to English military tactics, he adds ‘it is manifest that without a considerable…land force we can never Take that part in such measures which belong to the rank & station of this Country in Europe.’
Click on the image on the left to read another letter concerning war with France.
Biographical information about George Granville Leveson-Gower taken from
Eric Richards, ‘Gower, George Granville Leveson-, first duke of Sutherland (1758–1833)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16539]