A 2 3 5 ':— o< mi >o-< u^ A- •4-;A;;A-A-;A-;A;;A;;A; -A;; . -;A;;A;;A South Devon Library, Totnes. No. dfU Time allowed* for Reading days. Books are not to be taken from or returned to the Library before eleven o'clock in the morning, or after four in the afternoon,' without incurring- a fine of one shilling on each volume. The members of this Soeiety are earnestly requested not to write upon or underline the books, or in any way deface them. V- -Y- .y.>,' 7. -T- .y. '.V.".f .".V-".y-".v.".y.".t.'VY".y.". 1 '■' ■ ■■* * " * ■•-••-.■•■••• ^Vl^Vsl V *•* - #K )J+ - , /fte/t'Ti'tdl &> ^ ^ v lAx ■ '7/ //ua^^Y - iS6 1630. Orat. xi. PRINTED FOR "J . WJMWfJHV 9 POULTRY, BY J. BELCIIEK AND SON, HIGH-STREET, BIRMINGHAM. 1809. \° TO THOMAS WILLIAM COKE, Esq. THE PERSONAL AND POLITICAL FRIEND OF THE LATE CHARLES JAMES FOX, THE FAITHFUL AND INDEPENDENT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE COUNTY OF NORFOLK, THE JUDICIOUS AND MUNIFICENT PROMOTER OF AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENTS, THE STEADY GUARDIAN OF CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOM, THE RESOLUTE OPPOSER OF INTOLERANCE, CORRUPTION, AND UNNECESSARY WAR; A GENTLEMAN IN HIS MANNERS AND SPIRIT, AND A CHRISTIAN IN PAITH AND PRACTICE, THE FOLLOWUS'Q PAGES 3RE MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY HIS SINCERE WELL-WISHER, AND MUCH-OBLIGED HUMBLE SERVANT, THE EDITOR- PREFACE. IT was thought by some friends of Mr. Fox that a collection of the best written Cha- racters which had been drawn of him soon after his death, would not be unacceptable to the public. Those which are here presented to the reader, have been selected from many others with the utmost impartiality. They were writ- ten by men of different parties, and perhaps, even to distant generations they will not be wholly uninteresting, by the views which they exhibit of Mr. Fox's merits or demerits, as they were estimated by some of his intelligent con- temporaries. The Editor has exercised his own judgment in republishing the whole, or what appeared to him the more important parts, of the articles which he found in newspapers, in periodical works, in sermons, and even in poems where the name of Mr. Fox was incidentally introduced. Remembering the ingenuous and artless mind of Mr. Fox himself, the Editor has excluded ( vi ) some complimentary statements, which, upon careful enquiry, he had reason to believe un- supported by facts. He thought it his duty to incorporate frequent commendations of Mr, Pitt. He has not refused admission to many censures upon Mr. Fox. But he has rejected all coarse and acrimonious invectives, because he was con- vinced that they would be disgusting alike to the warm admirers and the honourable oppo- nents of that illustrious statesman. He supposes that, by anonymous writers, no offence will be taken at his endeavours to give additional no- toriety to compositions, the selection of which is a proof that his own mind was not unfavour- ably impressed with the propriety of the matter, or the graces of the style. He trusts, too, that his excellent friends Dr. Symmons and Mr. Bel- sham will excuse him for* having made some extracts from the judicious and elegant discourses which they delivered from the pulpit, and after- wards committed to the press. The character of Mr. Fox, which some years ago appeared in the Preface to Bellendenus de Statu, is inserted, with the permission of the author, and the same person is to be considered as the writer both of the Letter and the Notes, which are placed at the conclusion of the work. ( ™ ) Having separated several quotations from clasw sical authors, and several remarks upon Mr. Fox himself, from the text of that Letter, and hav- ing thrown them into Notes, the writer did not chuse to disturb the epistolary form in which they had been originally prepared; and for the sake of consistency, he preserved the same form in all the additional Notes. It is necessary to state, that his observations upon our Penal Code were suggested to him by the remembrance of a most serious, and in truth, nearly the last conversation which passed hetween himself and Mr. Fox ; and upon this circumstance he would rest his apology for submitting them, on the present occasion, to the consideration of the public. As he had expressed some of his expectations upon the probable merit of Mr. Fox's History in the earlier part of his Notes, and before the appearance of the work itself he could not, with propriety, be quite silent when that History had seen the light, and when it was in his power to form a more correct opin- ion of its excellencies and its faults. He k aware that some controversial discussions, which in justice to Mr. Fox's memory, he could not avoid, will be interesting chiefly to ecclesiastical readers. But it should not be forgotten that ( viii ) among them will be found many persons of learning, sense, and virtue, to whose esteem Mr. Fox, if he were living, would not be indifferent, and to whose judgment therefore is more par- ticularly addressed the vindication of Mr. Fox's principles from the severe charges brought against them in a periodical work, which has, and deserves to have, a very extensive circulation, and a very favourable reception, among the teachers of the established church. As to the Notes, which in number and size have imperceptibly grown far beyond the ori- ginal expectation of the Editor, he must content himself with stating, that the additional ones suggested themselves to his mind when he was gathering a rank and huge bundle of errata in the sheets printed off — that the matter contained in them and the preceding ones, relates to sub- jects which he thinks important — that he in all probability will have no future opportunity for communicating his opinions upon those sub- jects, and that he sees no reason for believing even the present communication of them likely to be unacceptable to that class of readers to whose decisions upon questions of criticism, politics, and ethics, he is disposed to pay the greatest respect. ANIMUM habet Foxius, cum magnum et excelsum, turn etiam simplicem et apertum, eminetque unus inter omnes in omni fere generc dicendi. Sed quoniam oppressi sumus opinionibus non solum vulgi, verum etiam hominum leviter eru- ditorum ; nostrum de stylo ejus judicium, quod tandem sit, pauld fusius jam, et accufatius ex- plicabimus. Multos vidi Oratores, quos in verbis aggie perpendendis coagmentandisque, sollicitudo in- felix maceraret. Foxii autem animus varias in res continuas ita intenditur, ut eas tanquam pro- visas aptissimas voces haud invito sequantur. Omnia is quidem novit verba esse alicubi optima. Itaque, quas cultiore in parte viderentur sordida et humilia, ea nonnunquam in Orationibus ejus suam quandam vim habent, et locum suum. At sunt in promtu, si res poscit, aut magis omata, aut plus efficientia, aut melius et plenius sonan- A ( a ) tia. Exprimit quamque difficiliorem cogitatio- nem quzedam «*oyoj rpiGn, interque exprimendum expolit atque amplificat. Vivunt omnia moven- turque. Spiritu ipso ejus qui dicit, excitantur auditores, nee imagine solum et ambitu rerum, sed rebus ipsis novis et veluti nascentibus incen- duntur. Plufimum igitur sanguinis nervorum- que ejus in sermone esse, nemo est qui inficias eat. Aiunt autem nonnulli paulo morosiores abesse ilH, et quidem deesse plane atque omnino, stylum nitidum et lastum, qui omnes Undique flosculos carpat et delibet. Sed meminerint ii, velim, judicio ilium potius refugisse hasce dicendi delicias et ineptias, quam formidine ulla despe- rasse. Etenim, quaj attentum quemque, dum audiuntur, et docilem reddunt validae aptissimae* que sentential, illi^ sane ipsis, cum leguntur, sua- vitas inest, non dulcis et decocta, sed, quas a Cicerone merito laudatur, solida et austera. Habet Foxius hoc etiam vere admirabile: quod salubritatem dictionis Anglican et quasi sanitatem nunquam perdit, ut eos qui in calamis- tris adhibendis peregrinam quandam insolentiam consectantur, simplicitate prorsus inaffectata, et tanquam orationis sapore vernaculo obruat No- vit enim, qui non dicat quod intelligamus, eun- dem minus posse quod admiremur, dicere. No- vit etiam, qua? maximam utilitatem in se con- tineant, eadem in oratione habere plurimum vel dignitatis, vel srepe etiam venustatis. ( 3 ) Jam vero eloquentise fulmina intelligit vibrari jion posse, nisi numeris quibusdam eontorquean- tur. Hac de causa verborum perpetuitate, et conversione nonnunquam utitur, ut severos per ilia ungues junctura effundat. Saspe orationem carpit membris minutioribus, quae tamen ipsa rythmo quodam suo vinciuntur. Facile tamen in hac parte deprehendes negligentiam quandam haud ingratam, quae hominem magis de judicii certamine, quam de aucupio ullo delectationis laborantem indicet. Scilicet numeros illos min- utos nunquam ita sequitur, ut sententias conci- dat delumbetque. Nunquam verba inferciens inania et canora, quasi rimas orationis explere studet. Otiosis ornamentis nunquam onerat de- lassatque aures, quarum est superbissimum judi* cium. Inde fit, ut neque diffluens sit aliquid et solutum, neque infractum, aut amputatum, aut hians. In conficiendo autem verborum orbe non aperte omnia, nee eodem modo semper, sed varie dissimulanterque concluduntur. Cum rerum ipsarum usum Foxius percalleat, regiones videtur nosse omnes, intra quas venari quod quaeratur, et pervestigare oporteat. Qua de re agitur autem illud, quod Juris-consultorum formulis et argutiis Dialecticorum includitur, turn quo valeat, turn ubi situm sit, prudentissime videt; semperque de eo ample disserit copiose- que, aut distincte atque articulatim disputat. Quae divulsa et cjissipata sunt, ea omnia congfu- tinat, et ratione quadam constringit. Si quid involutum paulo-ve insolentius est, notitiam ejus aperit, non exiliter et jejune, aut ampullarum ope et sesquipedalium verborum, sed dilucide, expedite, et commune ad judicium popularemque inteiligentiam accommodatissime. Si in exordiis auditores primo movet leviter, reliqua illis jam inclinatis graviter incumbit acris et contorta Oratio. Ipsa? porro prolusiones, non ad speciem illas quidem composite, utSamnitum, qui hastis ante pugnam vibratis nihil in pugnan- do utebantur; sed ejusmodi sunt, ut ei magno usui esse possint, cum ad victoriam acerrime ni- tatur. Res eum si qua premit vehementer, ita, cedit, ut non modo non abjecto, sed ne rejecto quidem scuto, fugiat; suoque in presidio con- sistens, loci eligendi causa hTpo7raxi& quest, dispatched messengers to the Duke of Norfolk, Earl Fitzwilliam, Lord John Townshend, and Sir Francis Vin- cent. He then gradually became more weak and languid, and died about live in the evening, reduced to the lowest state of debility. f " Mr. Fox has so long made a distinguished figure on the stage of life, and has so much attracted the notice of the world, that the death of such a man is not to be classed among ordinary occurrences, and the distinction he acquired entitles his memory to particular observation. A rigid con- formity to the old latin maxim, -which inculcates only a favourable notice of the dead, would be absurd and useless. —Every man who has risen to importance in a State, when he is released from all human cares and duties, leaves his character as a legacy to mankind, that they may improve by his virtues, derive instruction from his knowledge, or be warned by his errors.— Indiscriminate panegyric can render no honour to the dead, nor can unmerited censure be of service to the living. A fair and impartial estimate of a dis- tinguished Character, when he departs from this transitory scene is, therefore, what mankind have a right to expect, because it may not only be of use to the race who immedi- ately survive him, but may extend the instruction, resulting from his example, to distant ages. Upon the present occa- sion we have nothing but truth in view; yet it is our anxious wish not to deliver too rigorously even what truth may di- rect, but to blend with its dictates the sentiments of candour. " Mr. Fox commenced his public career under the most favourable auspices. Nature had been liberal to him, even to profusion, in intellectual endowments, and he had all the advantages of fortune at his command. It has been justly observed, that neither our virtues nor our vices are entirely our own : The ill-judged fondness of a parent is too often the source of error in the offspring. Lord Holland, the fa- ther of Mr. Fox, was naturally partial to a son whose ta- lents held forth so promising a hope that he would rise to' the highest distinctions in the state. Hence, from the fear that curbing his son's spirit might tend to obstruct his ge- nius, it was a rule with Lord Holland that his son Charles ( 30 ) should be indulged in every thing. The consequence is ea- sily to be conceived — this unlimited permission to do as he pleased, give vigour to his passions in the same proportion as the progress of time increased the energy of his mental powers. — It would be painful to dwell on the errors of his youth, which was marked by a career of pleasure that led him into the most ruinous spirit of extravagance. He came so early into Parliament, before indeed he had reached the period limited by its regulations, that it has been said he was born in the House of Commons. He very soon made a figure in Parliament as an orator, even at a time when one of the greatest orators which the world had ever seen (the late Lord Chatham), was in the highest estimation, and when it was adorned by many other members of great oratorical powers, though their lustre was dim compared with that transcendant ornament of the British Senate. It is evident that if Mr. Fox had not suffered his political ambition to be diverted by pursuits of pleasure, he must have become one of the most conspicuous and useful props of the State. Un- happily, however, the man of pleasure and the politician were united in his character, and the former at length pre- vailed so much as to plunge him in dissipation and its con- sequent embarrassments. " It is in the character of an Orator that Mr. Fox is chiefly entitled to attention, and more particularly as the head of Opposition ; for his judgment did not bear an exact proportion to the other powers of his mind — and it does not appear that he was as well qualified to conduct the affairs of a Country as to watch the conduct of an Administration. He displayed great capacity, force of argument, splendour of imagination, and ingenuity in debate; but through the whole of his political life, those who are capable of fairly appreciating his powers, must acknowledge, that though he could object, he could not create ; and he was often so pre- cipitate and unguarded in his opinions and declarations, as to show that it would have been rash indeed to trust the con- cerns of a great empire wholly to his management. It must be acknowledged also, that the principles he supported were different in different situations, and, consequently, there was- ( 31 ) not that clear and decided judgment which forms an es- sential quality in the character of a great Statesman. It is impossible to forget the hasty eulogium which he passed on the French Revolution, notwithstanding all the arguments which were urged by his great rival Mr. Pitt, to the con- viction of all mankind, as well as the warning voice of Mr. Burke, whose admirable work on the subject will live in the estimation of all sound Politicians and friends of humanity, when Mr. Fox will be little more than a name in the records of History. Nor docs it appear that, notwithstanding all the horrors which that dreadful scourge of nations (the French Revolution) produced, and its termination in the most oppressive and disgraceful Despotism the world ever beheld, that Mr. Fox ever recanted his opinions, or at least delivered any recantation in that Assembly which witnessed his temerity. It is, then, as an Orator that Mr. Fox must be viewed, and in that light he was one of the greatest that has appeared in this Country. We need not expatiate on his talents in this respect, as the people are so well acquainted with the history of his public life. As to his private con- duct, we arc under no pressing obligation to render it a mat- ter of discussion. It is sufficient to say, that he was admired for the easy pliancy of his temper; that he was always ready to do a good-natured action ; and that though he was too negligent in the choice of his friends and associates, he could number among both some of the most amiable and distinguished men in the Country. The effect of parental indulgence, indeed, prevailed during the whole of his life, in public and in private, and the unbridled course of his passions in youth settled into an habitual indolence, except when animated by political exigencies, which prevented him from attaining that dignity of character which ought to have accompanied such extraordinary abilities." Extract ( 32 ) Extract from the Morning Chronicle of September 15, 1806. " MR. FOX. " AT a quarter before six o'clock, on Saturday after- noon, this great and illustrious Statesman yielded his last breath in the arms of his nephew, Lord Holland, and sur- rounded by all the Friends who were dear to him. — His dis- solution was so gradual, and accompanied by so little strug- gle as scarcely to permit the most anxious eye to ascertain the instant. His friends had at least the sad and melan- choly consolation of perceiving that he suffered no pain — and they had been prepared for the event by the unerring symptoms of exhaustion that had increased for the two day's preceding. On Friday, at noon, the Physicians announced to him the approaching close, and he received it, as he had done in the first instance, with that firm tranquillity of spirit which was characteristic of his nature, and which he main- tained to the last. He was born on the 13th of January, O. S. in the year 174S. He was, therefore, in his fifty-ninth, year. " It would be an insult to the gratitude of the Public to give a narrative of the life of Mr. Fox, for nothing can so indelibly imprint on the memory the transactions of a person's life, as the love and veneration which we bear to- wards him. The reverence and affection of the people of this country towards Mr. Fox were next only to the ties of consanguinity. They viewed in his services the protecting care of a parent or brother, devoting himself altogether to their interests, and making a cheerful sacrifice of his own ease to their welfare. — Every incident of his private life, therefore, as well as all the progress of his public exertions, have been treasured in the hearts of Englishmen, ( 33 ) rtid require no elucidation from Biography. It seldom happens to a Statesman that he has not a private, as well as a public history. There generally lies under the ex- terior of his political conduct, however apparently clear, polished and shining, the sediment of motives, that if stirred would affect, and even change the colour of the current. Not so with Mr. Fox : he was to the very bottom what he appeared upon the surface. He had no secret designs ; he had no personal objects. There was no mercenary traffic carried on by him under the aspect of public duty, but in all his relations he was in heart and soul what he seemed to be, and therefore the public are in possession of his whole story. There can come forth no secret memoirs of his po- litical intrigues. No future Bubb Doddington can supply the craving appetite of curiosity with materials for scandal, nor with hints for imputation on the sincerity of his opin- ions, the truth of his friendships, or the disinterested purity of all his acts. What a character for a man who, from the very opening of his life to its close, has been the most emi- nent character of his time ! " This has been the great source of that unparalleled popularity which has distinguished him from every other statesman. It will be a fit subject of inquiry to the moral- ist, by what precious and estimable qualities (for a period of the greatest conflict of parties, that ever Great Britain sustained — of the most stupendous revolutions — the most extensive temptations to apostacy — and the most splendid ex- amples to keep it in countenance — of the most unblushing profligacy among the higher orders of society, and the most urgent necessities of the general mass of the people) Mr. Fox has been able to keep faithfully attached to his person, a steady phalanx of thinking men, such as never stood by the side even of a minister during the moment of his ascen- dancy. It cannot be ascribed to the extraordinary courtesies which he practised : for no man ever paid less regard than Mr. Fox to the blandishments of popularity. It cannot be owing to the promises with which he flattered their expecta- tions ; for no man was so scrupulous and reluctant on this F ( 34 ) score as himself — Nor could it be owing to the warm, cheer- ing, and seductive effect of the kindness with which he re- ceived the services of his adherents; for no man made less demonstration of gratitude for exertions in the common cause than Mr. Fox. To what then is the number, the con- stancy, the ardour of that body of friends and follower who have so long acted under his standard to be ascribed ? We believe it will be attributed solely to the deep conviction implanted in their hearts of his superior wisdom and incor- ruptible integrity. " If it were required, for instance, of the writer of this article to say by what charm he was drawn, in early life, to devote his faculties, time and opportunities to the publi- cation of the opinions of Mr. Fox, he would truly say, that entering the gallery of the House of Commons, as a mere auditor of the discussions which agitated that great body in the beginning of the American War, the impression made upon his heart by the eloquence of Mr. Fox was indelible. The wit and good humour of Lord North could not fail to entertain and please him. He was dazzled by the splendid oratory of Mr. Burke, and he has since been loud in the applause of Mr. Pitt, for masterly and musical elocution j but it was from Mr. Fox alone that the soul received the irresistible conviction of truth. It was not only that his powers of reasoning were superior to those of all other men — that he had the dexterous talent of converting the ar- guments of his opponents into corollaries of his own pro- positions — that he umformly rose in force, closeness, rapi- dity, and grandeur of reply, in proportion as he appeared to evince intellect to be crushed and overwhelmed in the de- bate — that he never was taken unprepared — that he never encumbered his argument with flimsy decoration, and never protracted a speech for the vanity of fame — None of these merits, though he possessed them all, were the great sources of his influence over the heart — But the genuine and pe- culiar authority which he maintained over the affections of his auditors arose from this — that all his powers were uni- formly and ardently exerted on the side of justice, and free- dom, and benevolence. ( 35 ) " We had in the character of his mind, in his feelings, in his expression, and in his conduct, a pregnant example of the effects of the English constitution on a frank and noble nature. In his manners, in his turn of thinking, in the discharge of all his duties, he was regulated by the maxims which that constitution had imprinted on his heart, and which, fortunately for our national happiness, has ever, to a certain extent, animated and pervaded the whole com- munity. An abhorrence of persecution and cruelty — an in- terminable war with craft and baseness — an unremitting jea- lousy of encroachment by the powerful on the weak — and an enthusiasm on the passion of rescuing human kind from slavery of every description, mental as well as corporeal, were the foundations of his popularity in life, and upon which will be founded the superstructure of his glory here- after. These appear to have actuated our ancestors in the forming of that beautiful scheme of order, by which, in these Islands, the due and just respect is paid, not merely to the life, but to the privileges of the subject. Mr. Fox was an Englishman of the genuine cast, and we have seen him surrounded, accompanied, and supported in a course of adversity, such as never occurred to any other leader of a party, by men of the same true national stamp as himself — by the RUssels, the Cavendishes and the Howards of one House—the Plumers, the Cokes, and the Byngs of the other, with a steadiness which nothing but principle could inspire, and deference which only his superiority could command. " It will no doubt be a subject of curious inquiry here- after, by what means a statesman, so eminently qualified to serve his country — so supported by the hereditary Pa- triots of England, as well as by the universal sense of the People, should have been only at intervals, and that for a few months at each time, called to the Councils of his So- vereign. This is a point which we shall leave to the histo- rian to develope. But we will now presume to assert that, however vehemently opposed, vilified, and counteracted, he lived to see the truth of his opinions recognised, and that in the place whero they were the most unwelcome. It was the fate of Mr. Fox, through that commanding power which ( 36 ) wisdom confers, to be always a twelvemonth at least before public opinion ; and it was constantly the misfortune of the country to have his advice adopted too late. If we were to pass the most unequivocal eulogium on the talents of Mr. Fox, it would be by a simple recapitulation, from the year 1774, of the measures which he seasonably proposed, and of the acts which were ultimately resorted to- We should re- fer to the well known but tardy acknowledgments of the deceased, made with all the sacredness of death-bed sin- cerity, as well as to the testimony of the living, for the na- tional importance of the counsel that he gave on the first burst of that volcano which has convulsed the world, and which is not yet extinguished. — The time is not distant when every enlightened mind of every country, will admire the sagacity and patriotism of his original thoughts on this subject, as well as on the propriety of every step that he advised tor our deliverance from the eruption since. One great good, however, results from his precepts in the last most useful stage of his life, and that is, that he has, as we verily believe, communicated to all his noble and honourable Colleagues in his Majesty's confidential service, his senti- ments on this important subject with the forpe of con- viction ; and that therefore his death will make no change in the system which he began, and which is now pursued. We have no doubt even but that a public manifestation will be forthwith given of this important truth, by the choice of the distinguished person who shall succeed him, and by which his Majesty will give the most unequivocal proof of the gracious determination of his own mind. " We could fill a volume, instead of a column or two of this paper (to which for this day, at least, we must con- fine ourselves), with instance? of the gentleness and magna- nimity of his deportment in debate. There never was a nature so entirely free from all the malignant humours as that of Mr Fox. His forbearance was not that of disdain from a consciousness of superiority ; but in him gentleness was a quality. It gracefully mixed itself with every action, of his life ; it softened the asperities of faction, conciliated the most discordant opinions, and put every one who cojy ( 37 ) versed with him perfectly at case. This unresisting kindness of heart, so amiable in private life, has its inconvenience to a Statesman. It sometimes made Mr. Fox too accessible to the importunities of friendship, and too ready to yield to judgments inferior to his own; but this was only in ordinary things— on the great principles of his duty, no power on earth could shake his resolution, or divert him from hjs path. And we may truly say that no man ever more firmly and conspicuously withstood the assaults that were made upon him than Mr. Fox. It was easy for a man so disinte- rested as he has always proved himself, to resist the tempta- tions of personal aggrandizement — but to resist the eager, assiduous, persevering siege pf the friends whom he loved — nay, to be obliged to separate from the connections of his youth, and from persons whom he knew to be actuated by motives as honest as his own, was a struggle which cost him many a pang, and which more than any thing else, illustrates the integrity of his convictions. " No man of honour and feeling, who looks back on the disastrous separation of the friends of liberty, and on the unsuccessful attempts which afterwards were made to reconcile all the parties by which the kingdom was con- vulsed, but must deplore the failure of the attempt. It was not the one coalition which Mr. Fox was prevailed upon to make that should be the subject of national regret, but the want of more coalitions. If Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox had at the time alluded to been brought to act together, it is most probable that the convulsions of the world would have been prevented, and that both these Statesmen would now be alive to enjoy the blessings of peace, to which they had con- tributed. But the die is cast — It is in vain to look back. We have now at least the consolation of knowing that all the principle, ability, rank and consideration, which remains of both the great parties are at length happily combined, and united in his Majesty's service, and we sincerely believe that the band will be indissoluble. " We have said that Mr. Fox never practised the com- mon arts of popularity. Though the esteem of his fellow citizens was dear to lus heart, he never could taste or esti- ( 38 ) mate the popularity that flowed from any other source than the result of faithful service. Provided that his own heart was satisfied of the rectitude of his conduct, he was indiffer- ent to the constructions of the Public. The consequence was, that he took no pains as to his future fame, and was so totally inattentive in this respect, that during the most vio- lent period of Parliamentary and popular contention, it was even unknown to him whether his sentiments were truly represented to the public or not. It follows that he has left fewer memorials of his talents than any other great speaker; aad that hereafter the sheets of The Morning Chronicle and Gazetteer must be ransacked for even the hasty and imperfect sketches of his eloquence that they were enabled to give. The great work to which he applied himself during the interval of his secession from habitual attendance in the House of Commons, though not compleat, will, we trust, be given to the public. The simplicity of his style, of which we have had some valuable examples in his official papers as Foreign Minister, as well as in his memorable letter to his constituents, will afford to posterity the means of judging of the pure and unadorned manner in which he constantly delivered himself. u Mr. Fox was avowedly the most exalted Statesman of the age in which he lived. He understood the political relations of Europe, and had made himself acquainted with the character of all its Courts more perfectly, perhaps, than any other man ; but that which chiefly gave him the ascendant in diplomatic discussions, and would, in the end, have secured to his country the splendour of acknow- ledged superiority, was the temper, magnanimity and dis- interestedness which he was desirous of introducing into all our negociations — of discountenancing all narrow, mer- cenary, and selfish considerations — and of bringing back the great Powers to a just sense of the criminal errors they had committed in each seeking to convert the public con- fusion of the world to its own advantage. May we not cherish the hope that the few months which he has been in office, though insufficient to accomplish his beneficent purpose, may have given him the means of inculcating the ( S9 ) sentiment, both at home and abroad, so as to dispose them all to the happy end which he had in view ! If so, his few months of office will be the brightest sera of his life." Extract from the York Herald of September 20, 1806. " MR. FOX. " IT is with heartfelt sorrow we have to announce this Statesman is no more ! He died between four and five on Saturday afternoon, at Chiswick. Medicine alone had sup- ported life in him for some days previous to his dissolution. " The public have to lament in Mr. Fox the loss of the ablest Statesman (along with Mr. Pitt) which this country has produced for a century. The circle of private friends was perhaps the largest and the most affectionate ever given to man, for the openness of his heart and the suavity of his manners were peculiar to himself, and endeared him every where. In the earlier parts of his life the warmth of pas- sion, and strong powers of imagination, led him undoubt- edly into those errors of character, which rendered him to the graver and moroser parts of mankind, a subject of suspicion in politics: and unquestionably he never enjoyed that confidence which monicd and commercial men reposed in the late eminent Statesman, Mr. Pitt: but when the day perhaps had arrived — that day for which he had laboured so long — when his ambition was to be gratified by a situation where he was to lead the Councils of his Country — and to show that he deserved it — then Fate, as if adverse to his hopes, or Providence to shew us, how vain is the little am- bition of man — doomed him to a premature dissolution." ( 40 ) Ed'lract from the Kent County Herald of Sep- tember 25, 1806, "CHARLES JAMES FOX was born on the 13th of January O- S. 1749- He was the second son of Henry the first Lord Holland, who was also the second son of Sir Ste- phen Fox. His mother was sister to the present [late] Duke of Richmond, and great grand daughter of Charles the Second. The late Mr. Fox may therefore be considered as having been related to the Royal Family of this country. His father perceiving in his son the beginnings of extraor- dinary genius, was anxious to promote his intellectual improvement, that the culture might be equal to the soil. He accustomed him to deliver his opinion on subjects of conversation ; and Charles, when a boy, acquitted himself to the astonishment of all present. He was accustomed to read his father's dispatches ; and, though only in the ninth, year of his age, when Mr. Fox was Secretary of State, his remarks on the contents are said to have been often just. One day he told his father, that a paper, which he had just read, was too feeble, and threw it into the fire. The Secretary made out another copy, without the slightest reprimand. He was sent first to Westminster school, where he greatly distinguished himself; thence he was removed to Eton; where, being now farther advanced in years, he became still more remarkably eminent. — His literary ac- quirements were indeed far beyond any of those of his cotemporaries. They were not, however, the effects of ha- bitual application, but of the occasional exercise of extraor- dinary genius. He displayed very uncommon readiness of apprehension, fertile and powerful invention, strength of judgment not uniformly exerted, a most capacious under- standing, and retentive memory. Charles is said to have in- troduced gaming at Eton, and very much to have increased other excesses. He was the leader of juvenile parties for frolic, pleasure, and excess. — He was bred a Tory, and was ( 41 ) sent to finish his education at Oxford. Here his talents and learning created admiration and even astonishment. Al- though his time seemed devoted to gaming, and every other species of dissipation, he excelled all his standing in literary acquirements. He was a profound classical scholar. He read Aristotle's Ethics and Politics with considerable ease. His favourite authors were Demosthenes and Homer. He staid but a short time at Oxford, made the tour of Europe, and though he plunged into every excess into which the pleasurable regions of the South allure Britons in the hey- day of youth, he acquired an extensive and profound know- ledge of the constitution, laws, government, nature, arts and manners of the several states which he visited. In his tour he lavished such immense sums of money, that even his father threatened to return his bills. In the 20th year of his age he was returned to Parliament, and young as he was, distinguished himself among the many eminent men then in the House of Commons. At first he took the side of Admin- istration, and was generally thought one of its ablest sup- porters. He had first been a Lord of the Admiralty, after- wards a Lord of the Treasury ; but opposing Government, in 1774. was dismissed very abruptly from office. " Before this time Lord Holland was dead ; and he bequeathed to his son Charles a great sum of money, and a considerable estate on the Kentish Eastern Coast. He was also Clerk of the Pells in Ireland : but his estate was either mortgaged or sold : his Irish place was purchased by Mr. JenkinsOn; he was turned out of office; and he was in the most distressed circumstances. Under such calamities the genius of Charles Fox rose superior to misfortunes. From that time he became a most strenuous and formidable op- ponent of the Minister. He had, before his quarrel with Lord North, become acquainted with Mr. Burke, then chid man of the Rockingham party in the House of Commons. Mr. Fox joined the party, and adopted the views of the Whig connections. His Parliamentary efforts, during the American war, formed a second epoch in his oratorical and political history. The misconduct of those ministers who entered into and conducted that disastrous war, afforded ( 42 ) an abundant scope for the display of his great talents. Hfe severest remarks were always directed against Lord North ; on whose defeat by the Rockingham party, Mr. Fox was nominated to a seat in the Cabinet, and appointed one of the Secretaries of State ; but very soon after, on the death of the Marquis of Rockingham, Lord Shelburne (the late Marquis of Lansdowne, who was then Secretary of State for the Home Department,) was immediately entrusted with the reins of Administration ; and Mr. Fox retired from office with his friends. In the mean time, Lord Shelburne's Ad- ministration concluded a Peace with America, France, and Holland; but this Administration proved of short duration, for a grand political confederacy was soon after formed against them. This, under the name of The Coalition, soon subverted their power, and supplanted them in office. This event was made the subject of great and long continued obloquy against Mr. Fox, who was reproached by some for having united with Lord North, a man whom he had des- cribed as a monster, whom he had frequently promised to bring to the scaffold for his crimes. While others defended his conduct, on the ground of political expediency, and on the necessity of men forgetting their hostility for the benefit of mankind. " The celebrated India Bill, introduced by Mr. Fox during his second short Administration, was another sub- ject for which he had to encounter the censures of a large portion of the community, particularly of those who were attached to the Monarchy of the Country. We will leave it to future historians to decide on the merits of the contend- ing parties in this great question. The Revolution which broke out in France after this gave rise to another remark- able period in the life of Mr. Fox. It produced a division of opinion, a separation, and breach of friendship between him and Mr. Burke. On this memorable occasion we have bad an opportunity of observing that Mr. Fox's political sagacity was inferior to his benevolence. He cried like a child in the House of Commons the day when Mr. Burke spurned his acquaintance on account of his dangerous opin- ions; but so far from foreseeing (as Burke had done) the ( 43 ) dreadful calamities and convulsions with which the French Revolution was pregnant, he praised it as one of the most glorious events that ever adorned the annals of the world. Thus was the great Fox, who had been looked up to as the Oracle for Political wisdom, deceived, as thousands of others have been, with regard to this unprecedented event! The secession of Mr. Fox, together with his adherents, from Parliament, in 1797, was loudly censured by a great portion of the Public. It was considered by many as an act of an- ger and disappointment ; and nothing could be advanced in justification of it. The return of Mr. Fox to his place in Parliament, and the more recent events of his public life are so fresh in the recollection of every body, that it is un- necessary to detail them. We shall barely mention, that during the short Peace in 1802, he went to Paris, and was introduced to Buonaparte, at his levee, when that Tyrant made use of the memorable observation, that there ought to be but two Countries, the East and the West, having it at the time in contemplation to place himself at the head of the latter. " As an Orator, Mr. Fox was assuredly the first man of his age. He simplified the most abstruse details. He analyzed the most complex arguments: he reduced the most subtle positions to the test of first principles. Ani- mated himself, he animated others. Unambitious of melo- dious words and studied phrases, that dwell only on the far, the ardour and precision of his reasoning assailed the judgment, while the irresistible thunders of his eloquence at once subdued and captivated the senses." Extract from the Shrewsbury Chronicle of Sep- tember 25, 1806. " THE Right Honourable Charles James Fox was the second sou of Henry Lord Holland, by Lady Georgina ( 44 ) Carolina, eldest daughter of Charles Duke of Richmond, and was born January 13, (O. S.) 1749- In the most early period of life he gave indications of those great powers of mind which have since placed him so high in the public estimation. He was educated at Eton, under the care of Dr. Barnard ; and Dr. Newcombe, afterwards Bishop of Waterford, was his private tutor. He did not prosecute his studies with any remarkable attachment, but is said to have been distinguished for performing his exercises in a very superior style, and to have made himself conspicuous by an uncommon share of acute discernment, vivacity, and pleasantry. To the attention of his masters must be added that of his father, perhaps one of the fondest and ablest that ever existed, and who constantly treated his children as men, even in their earliest youth ; introducing them into all com- panies, and encouraging them to deliver their sentiments on all occasions; thus at least inspiring an habitual confi- dence, which, under proper restrictions, is doubtless of ad- vantage in the progress of life. Charles thus became a de- bater almost as soon as he could speak ; and very often became as troublesome to his father by asking questions and requiring reasons as he has since been to Ministers whom he has opposed. His mind was always manly, and he possessed a firmness and resolution altogether extraordinary at that time of life; yet even then his conduct was marked by many curious eccentricities. " From Eton he went to Oxford, where he certainly prosecuted his studies with unexampled industry ; yet was equally distinguished for gaiety and vivacity as when at Eton. His vacations were constantly spent in the metropo- lis, and he entered pretty deeply into its dissipations ; but he never failed to return to College with the most philosophic coolness. On leaving Oxford he set out on his travels ; and so congenial was continental vivacity to his own disposition, that his stay was protracted to the last moment possible; and we believe his return was at last compulsory, in conse- quence of his father having satisfied a bill for the trifling sum of ^£'16,000. — a debt which he had contracted at Naples. ( « ) f* Mr. Fox was now called upon to act a more interest- in<* part on the grand stage of public life ; at the general election in 176"8, he was returned for Midhurst, in Sussex, and was doubtless introduced into Parliament sooner than foe was by age qualified to be a member of that assembly ; but the influence' of his father stifled every disagreeable en- quiry, and Mr. Fox began his political career with consider- able lustre, in a speech of extraordinary merit for his years. It was not like the speech of a young man — there was all the quickness, the acuteness, the penetration of an old statesman, who at once could see the precise point in debate, enforce it, and at the same time expose, with a wonderful and rapid flow of eloquence, the fallacy, the weakness, and the absurd- ity of his opponent. But in his change of scene, Mr. Fox's fashionable propensities did not for some time forfake him ; and though his senatorial conduct was unquestionably res- pectable, yet he has not unfrequently left the gaming house, the ball-room, or the masquerade, to attend his duty in the House of Commons, without the smallest intervention of sleep. " In March 1770 Mr. Fox was appointed a Lord of the Admiralty, and in 1772 he became a Lord of the Treasury, which situation he continued to fill until 1774- During the time Mr. Fox held his seat at the Board of Treasury, Lord North was the ostensible Minister, whom Mr Fox supported in all his measures except those relative to America, to which he always declared the most determined opposition ; and the party which then held the reins of Government behind the curtain, fearing his power, determined to crush him. On many occasions Mr. Fox had seemed dissatisfied ; but the first time that his name appeared at once in the min- ority, was on the Bill for shutting up the Port of Boston, March 24, 1774. " At the General Election in 1780, Mr. Fox was re- turned for Westminster, with Admiral Rodney; and in 1782 was appointed Secretary of State, on the remarkable min- isterial revolution which then took place. But in this otlice he continued only a few months. His patron, the Marquis of Rockingham, died on the first of July following, and on ( 46 ) Lord Shelburne and the late Mr. Pitt coming into power Jo settle a peace with America, Mr. Fox retired in disgust. — The indiscretions of Mr. Fox — his vices — we wish not to disguise; but to his hononr it has been observed, that on his accession to office in 1782, he at once discarded all his former improper connections, and gave up his whole time to the business of his situation; nor did he succeed less in office than in the Senate, his method of doing business, his celerity and dispatch astonished the inferiors in his depart- ment, who frankly confessed that they had no idea of such a man. " The limits of our paper prevent us from giving a detail of the opposition of which he was the avowed head for up- wards of twenty years, and which only terminated with the death of his great and successful rival in the Cabinet and the Senate. His conduct during the short time he has since been in power is too fresh in the memory of our readers to re- quire any recapitulation or comment," Extract from the Liverpool Chronicle of Sep* tember 24, 1806. " IT was intended that the remains of Mr. Fox should be privately interred in the family vault in Wiltshire, but a request was made to Lord Holland by a number of the most distinguished persons in the kingdom, that the remains of their deceased friend should be deposited in Westminster Abbey, that they might have an opportunity of attending the procession — Lord Holland acquiesced. The body was therefore removed to the Stable-yard oq Thursday evening, where it arrived about eleven o'clock, and from thence will be carried in procession to Westminster Abbey; but the ceremony will be conducted with a simplicity suited to the unostentatious character of Mr. Fox. It is intended the re- mains of Mr. Fox should be interred in Westminster Ab- • r ( •» ) bey, on Tuesday the 7th of October next, and that the funeral shall proceed from his house, in the Stable-yard, St. James's. The funeral will be what is called a private one; but we venture to predict, that if publicity depend upon the most numerous attendance, both with respect to rank, character, and individual attachment and attention, it will be the most public this country has ever witnessed. " The death of Mr. Fox is one of those events in which the whole human race seem interested, as he was placed on an eminence from which he was conspicuous to all the world; these Islands, however, have peculiar cause to mourn his removal at a time when he was negotiating for that peace which they have so long and so unavailingly desired. But, profound as our grief is, and deeply as our sensibility is wounded, we must say, we were never of the number of those who imagined that the ruin or the salvation of tin; country depended on Mr. Fox, Mr. Pitt, or any other man, however elevated by rank, or distinguished by talents — but under Providence, on the public spirit of the people them- selves. Of this opinion we remain, and much as we wished for the life, and deeply as we deplore the death of this trail- scendantly great man, we fear not for our country ! Those on whose conduct her welfare depends still live, and will con- tinue to live so long as the waves shall encircle her shores. — Kings, Heroes, and Statesmen — Edwards, Henries, Marl- boroughs, Nelsons, Pitts, aud Foxes — from time to time arise, flourish, and disappear — the People never die! Then let them know their own dignity — let them depend on their own virtue — let them endeavour, let them deserve, to be free and invincible — and till their sea can be dried up, and their rocks crumbled, they shall never be conquered or enslaved. Of Mr. Fox we forbear at present to say more, than to quote the following noble lines, which were written several years ago in honour of his talents and character, but now, alas ! apply far more emphatically to both than they did even when they were first published : — ' If there exist a man design'd by Heaven, To cheer with wisdom a benighted land, < 48 ) Tho" foul detraction scowl upon his fame, Tho' the deaf adder scorns the charmer's song, Yet shall he feel within a still small voice Breathe an approving blessing on his toil ; And, when the grave inurns him, time shall speak him Wise in the manliness of ancient days, Simple in manners as the guileless child. His counsels late posterity shall hear, And weep at their neglect. His tomb shall stand Rais'd on the shore of some wave-girded Isle, The ' Sea-mark' of a nation.' " Undoubtedly the United Kingdom has, in Mr. Fox, lost more than any other nation ever had to lose ; and in vain would we endeavour to soothe the sorrows of our coun- trymen on this most mournful occasion- — To speak of his ta- lents or his virtues, of his admirable or his amiable qualities, would make the wounded heart bleed afresh ; and yet this is the only means of relief now left us but what pen can trace his brilliant career for nearly forty years in Parlia- ment? His indefatigable exertions on that great theatre are far above our praise; but we are happy to record what he himself approved of most — " It is with heartfelt satisfac- tion." said Mr. Fox, in the ardor of debate a few years since, " It is with heartfelt satisfaction I reflect, that, in every thing I ever proposed, / have supported the dignity of this country. I regard it as a circumstance of good fortune to me, that / never gave an opinion by ivhich one drop of Brit- ish blood ivas shed, or any of its Treasure squandered!! 1* May this truly noble sentiment never be forgotten in the British Senate. " SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF " THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES JAMES FOX, " SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS. If bright renown, if ancestry, or power, Grandeur or wealth could stay one circling hour* . ( 49 ) Or learning, wit, or elocution, save Th' august possessor from the silent grave, This mighty Statesman, long a nation's pride, Much prais'd, and justly valued, ne'er had died.— For, reader, in his nature were contbin'd A soul exalted — an enlighten'd mind — A heart in friendships and affections warm, And talents that e'en apathy might charm : Nay, on his eloquence persuasion hung, ' And truths received came mended from his tongue." While all in private life that men hold dear, And all in public stations they revere — Manners refin'd, and taste, and knowledge great. The love of Freedom and Oppression's hate ; In Senates with a Patriot's fire to glow, The will to foster worth and succour 'Woe; These, with a god-like zeal rude war to cease, And bless his country with the joys of Peace, To Fox belonged but envious that his name, On earth, should be immortalized by Fame, Proud Death, in triumph, bore his peerless prize, To happier regions far beyond the skies." Extract from the Tj/ne Mercury of September SO, and October 7, 1806. 4 * ALL the great men of the present day are either the offspring of, or immediately descended from, new families. The ancient nobility repose under the laurels of their an- cestors. Not deigning to apply to any of the learned pro- fessions, and deeming commerce and agriculture unworthy of their pursuit (a few illustrious characters excepted) they delegate their domestic concerns to the care of the upper ( 50 ) servants, and not unfrequently the business of the nation is entrusted to their proxies. This, perhaps, will be the best apology for the multitude of plebeian scions recently en- grafted on the stock of ancient aristocracy ; and, although it mny puzzle Garter, Norroy, and Clarcncieux to find them either arms or ancestors, certain it is, that the life-blood of nobility has been infused into the peerage through the con- duit of democracy. • " It may also be necessary to preface this article with another observation, of which some of the most conspicuous characters of the present political drama, afford more than one pregnant instance : that the younger sons of our nobility are more successful in their political efforts, than the elder. Lord Orford, better known by the name of Horace Walpole, observes, that " William Pitt, (Lord Chatham,) was a se- cond son, and became prime minister of England. His rival and antagonist was Henry Fox, (Lord Holland,) a second son likewise. Lord Holland's second son, Charles Fox, and Lord Chatham's second son, William Pitt, were also rivals and antagonists." This may easily be accounted for ; the heir to a great fortune, and an illustrious title, knows not how soon both may devolve upon him ; and when that event takes place, to what further object can his expectations point? He finds that he has been born a legislator, and that a large fortune is entailed upon his person; here, then, are wealth and honours not only within his grasp, but actually in his possession. It is otherwise with the junior branches, for they have in general but little in possession, and every thing to look for ; they inherit all the exquisite relish for plea- sure that their seniors enjoy to satiety, and are only deficient in the means of gratification. Like the dove of Noah, they scarcely find a resting place for the soles of their feet, on their oxvn earth; and they are exactly in the situation of an invading general who has burnt his 6hips, for they must go on, or perish. " Charles James Fox was the younger son of Henry, who was himself a younger son of Sir Stephen Fox, celebrated less for his own birth, than the circumstance of being a father at lb o age of eighty, an event not incredible, however, and ( 51 ) rendered, in the present instance, unsuspicious, by the deco- rous conduct, and acknowledged virtue of the partner of his bed. Henry entered early into public life; and such was his address in parliament, during the reign of George II. that he soon attained not only some of the most arduous and honourable, but also of the most lucrative situations in the gift of the crown; for, in the year 1754, he was ap- pointed Secretary at War; then Secretary of State for the Southern Department ; and, after being ousted by the great Mr. Pitt, less celebrated under the name of Earl of Chatham, we find him filling the immensely beneficial office of Pay- master General of the Forces, accumulating great wealth, and thereby incurring the animadversions of the first city of the empire. Such, indeed, was his consequence, that at a time when patents of peerage were not very common, he was en- nobled by his present Majesty, in 1763, by the title of Baron Holland of Foxley. *' His son, Charles James, was born January 13th, 174$, and if on his father's side he classed among the novi homines, by his mother's, his descent must be allowed to be illustri- ous; for Lady Georgina Carolina Lenox was the daughter of the late Duke of Richmond; and, as such, in addition to that of the King of Sardinia, she was allied to the two rival, but related families, which had so long contested for the throne of Great Britain — those of Brunswick and Stuart. " But it is not to such claims as these that the future his- torian will have recourse; he will dwell with ardour on the early promise of genius, the precotious talents of the boy, the matured wisdom of the philosopher and the statesman; and while the abilities and virtues that adorn the character of his hero bring him forward on the canvas, these inefficient and involuntary pretensions will be cast into the shade, and scarcely be distinguished in the back ground. '•' This second son proved Lord Holland's favourite child, and at length became the darling of his old age. Perceiving in him the seeds of all the admirable qualities that constitute greatness, he was at infinite pains to give scope to his intel- lectual vigour, to expand the shoots, and disclose the blos- soms of so promising a plant. From his earliest infancy he ( 52 ) intended him for parliamentary business, and by conversing always with him as if he had been a man, he actually made him one before the usual time. Lord Holland is said to ha\e submitted his dispatches to the. perusal of his favourite bov ; and, on one occasion, is actually reported to have complied with the alterations he suggested. " This country beheld, in the persons of two rival orators, two wonderful instances of statesmen, retiring, at different times, from the field of contention, and. devoting the remain- der of their lives to the education of their two younger sons, with whom they were accustomed to consult about public affairs, and sometimes to place on a table, in order to hear them declaim. Occupied during the early part of their days in hostilities against each other, the enmity of the families seems to have become hereditary, for it is kept up by their children, who still maintain a rivalship, even after they have abjured the principles of their respective sires. " In compliance with the future destination of his son, Lord Holland preferred a public to a private education, and accordingly sent Charles to Westminster school. After dis- tinguishing himself there, he removed to Eton, where Dr. Bernard, the late provost, found him not only uncommonly ea^er after amusements, but eminently successful in classical attainments. His private tutor, while a member of this cele- brated institution, was Dr. Newcombe, afterwards Bishop of Waterford, and now [late] Archbishop of Armagh, who, while he was frequently vexed at the dissipation of his pupil, had oc- casion, at the same time, to be highly gratified with his pro- gress. Here he formed his early friendship with the Earl Fitzwilliam, Lord Carlisle, his own relation the Duke of Leinster, and some of the first men of the age. " His father being, in the uncourtly language of those days, ' a rank Tory,' Charles was sent to finish his educa- tion at Oxford, where he is reported, in imitation of Pene- lope, to have regained, by his daily toils, the labours lost during his nocturnal aberrations. " At length he began to pant after a more unrestrained; intercourse with society, and consequently to be disgusted with the restraints, and tired with the uniformity of a college ( 53 ) life. The most easy, as well as the most likely way to rjd himself of this, was to evince an ardent desire to see the world; and as his studies were now completed, his father, as usual, indulged the wishes of his darling son. Those who have been accustomed to see Mr. Fox of late years, without being acquainted with the minute particulars of hjs early life, will scarcely believe, that at this period he was one of the greatest beuus in England ; that he indulged in all the fashionable elegance of attire, and vied, in point of red heels and Paris-cut-velvet, with the most shewy men of the times. These, and similar qualifications, were displayed in most of the courts of Europe, in the course of the grand tour; and jf he did not return like his maternal ancestor, (Charles II.) with all the vices of the continent, he at least brought a wardrobe replete with all its fashions. Nor will a strict re- gard to historical truth permit the omission of more culpable transgressions, for he is said, amidst the ardour and impetu- osity of youth, to have expended, or rather lavished, vast sums of money in play, and to have contracted immense debts. Dr. Bissct, in his life of Burke asserts, that his father, Lord Holland, who accompanied him to Spa, first excited an itch for play in his youthful mind, by allowing him five guineas anight to be spent in games of hazard. Let it be recollected, however, that he was, at this very time, between two and three years short of that period, when the law de- clared him to be no longer a minor. " His enemies have carefully reminded us, that the first political act of his life was a violation of the jurisprudence of his native country ; for at the general election, in 176'8, he took his seat for Midhurst, in Sussex, a borough under the influence of his family, when he was only nineteen years of age, and consequently ineligible. It is with pain too, and here reluctantly recorded, that the first effort of his elo~ quence was hostile to liberty. His first speech was in oppo- sition to Mr. Wilkes, then confined in the King's Bench; and whatever the motives of that gentleman might be, dispas- sionate men will now be ready to avow, that on this occa- sion his cause was not only popular, but just. But, besides his extreme youth, the bent of his education, the prejudices ( 54 ) of his family, and the wishes of a fond father, ou«rht all to be taken into consideration, and if a complete vindication does not ensue, a liberal and ingenuous mind will uot be at a loss for an apology. " During all the proceedings of the House of Commons, relative to the Middlesex election, Mr. F. stood forward as the champion of the Ministry, and exhibited no common address and activity on the occasion. From the first moment of his entering the Senate, he, indeed, displayed all the qualities of an accomplished orator; and Lord North, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, deemed his merits so consider- able, that, in the beginning of 1/72, he nominated him to a seat at the Admiralty board, and in the latter part of the same year made him, in some measure, a partner with him- self, in the management of the empire, by appointing him a Lord of the Treasury. " Amidst this seeming devotion to the court, there were not wanting opportunities when he shook off the tram- mels of dependence, and allowed his manly mind to take its full scope. Not the least memorable, of these occurred dur- ing the debate on the bill brought into the House of Com- mons by Sir William Meredith, to give relief from subscrip- tion to the xxxix Articles of the Church of England ; and in the liberal sentiments delivered on that occasion, Mr. Fox firmly and uniformly persevered, *• But the time had now arrived, when a new direction was to be given to his pursuits. The real cause of this event, which involved so many important consequences, can only be guessed at. The sons of the Lords Guilford and Holland, were, both possessed of talents; the one, perhaps, aspired to, the other enjoyed, the supreme command ; and, like two great men of antiquity, the first could not brook a superior, nor the second a rival. The enmity of the premier was de- veloped in the refusal of a petty appointment ; it encreased on the memorable examination of the Rev. Mr. Home, now John H. Tooke, at the bar of the House of Commons; and finally became public in consequence of a billet [of dis- missal] couched in terms of Spartan brevity. M Considering this pot merely as an injury, but an in- ( S5 ) stilt, the enmity of Mr. Fox from that moment became pub*- lic, and he at length raised such a constitutional opposition to the administration of the noble lord, who had thus treated him in a manner bordering on contempt, that he, in the end, subverted his power, and dragged his antagonist to the very edge of the scaffold. " In the mean time Lord Holland died, leaving a large sum of money/ and considerable estates in the neighbour- hood of Kingsgate, with the house there, built in imitation of Tully's Permian villa, on the coast of Baias, to his son Charles. He was thus in possession of a plentiful fortune; and had he retained it, would have stood upon high ground in point of consequence : for these bequests, in addition to the Clerkship of the Pells, in Ireland, soon after sold to Mr. Jenkinson, now Lord Liverpool, must have produced a nett income of more than .€4000 per annum. " After the dissipation of this large property, a com* mon mind would, perhaps, have bent under the calamity ; his, on the contrary, seemed to have rebounded from the fall; and instead of sinking into despair, to have actually soared into celebrity, and even independence. ** A new and noble field now opened to his ambition ; and he commenced his career as a patriot, on principles which Locke has upheld, and Sydney would not have blushed to support. '* The members of that administration (supposed by some to be only the puppets of a northern peer) had ren- dered themselves detested by the oppression of Mr. Wilkes, the prosecution of the printers, the countenance given to the riots of Brentford, and the military execution in St. George's-fields. ** Another event of infinitely greater magnitude, now fdled up the bitter draught of popular odium ; and the pre- vious oppression, and threatened subjugation of America, aroused a general spirit of resistance within the mother country, and pointed the finger of public vengeance at the devoted head of the premier. Fortunately fiw Mr. Fox's consistency, his conduct respecting the transatlantic contest Was strictly uniform ; and on this, as on a subsequent of ca- ( 56 ) aion, he saw afar off, anticipated the impending calamities; and predicted the accumulation of misfortunes, which after* wards nearly overwhelmed the nation. " Accordingly, in 1774, he opposed the introduction of the Boston Port Bill, and apologized for the conduct of the colonies. In his speech, on this occasion, he arraigned the measures of the minister in bold and energetic language ; and explained the principles of the violated constitution^ with a masculine eloquence worthy of the cause. The trea- sury-bench now began, for the first time, to calculate the loss it had sustained, the opposition to estimate the strength it had acquired ; while the people rejoiced to behold, in the person of a youthful senator, whom they had been taught to consider as an enemy, a firm, an intrepid, and an eloquent advocate, such as would not have disgraced Rome in her best days. " He now sat on the same seat with a Saville, a Barre, a Dunning, and a Burke, with the last of whom he had fre- quently broken a lance, in the war of argument, from the op- posite side of the house; and he has since candidly avowed, that from this celebrated man he first imbibed those enlight«> ened maxims of government, professed and acted upon by the pupil, alas ! when the master himself seemed to have abandoned them. " On the discussion of Mr. Burke's conciliatory proposi- tions in 1775, Mr. Fox strenuously supported the liberal schemes of policy pointed out by that gentleman ; and spoke and voted, during the whole contest, in direct opposition to a criminal system, which, as it had been fondly and falla- ciously prognosticated, was to produce the unconditional submission of the colonies, and lay them prostrate at thfc feet of the mother-country ! "At length all the evils that had been foreseen were realized. America, driven to despair, declared herself in- dependent ; monarchial France exerted her protecting arm across the Atlantic; the capture of Burgoyne and Corn- wallis proclaimed the triumphs of liberty ; and a new con- flagration lighted up in Europe, by the fire-brands that had been scattered, by the British ministry in another hernia ( 57 ) phere, wasted the strength and exhausted the resources of England. " At the general election, in 1780, the family borough of Midhurst falling into other hands, and Mr. Fox spum- ing, perhaps, at the idea of violating the very spirit and es- sence of a constitution which he now began, for the first time* to. contemplate and venerate, determined to become a can- didate for the city of Westminster, where he at length suc- ceeded, after a violent contest, in which he baffled not only the interest of the Newcastle family, but also all the influence of the crown, both of which were powerfully, but unsuccess- fully, exerted against him. Being now the representative, not of a petty venal borough, but of a great city, and that also without any expence to himself, he appeared in Parliament in a more dignified capacity, and acquired a considerable increase of weight and consequence. " Soon after this the ministry began to totter, and a few political rats were in motion, in order to desert the falling fabric. A minority, at first contemptible in point of num- bers, but always formidable in respect to integrity and abi- lities, and which then claimed the late premier ("Mr. Pitt) amongst the most zealous of its partizans, had increased in power and popularity. The ministry were assailed within by the thunders of eloquence, and without, they were over- whelmed- by the clamours of an indignant people : to pro- ceed in the war was ruinous, and to recede, betrayed them in personal danger. At length " the noble lord hi the blue ribbon," (as Lord North had been generally called,) was hunted into the toils; and it was hoped, by many, that pub- lic justice awaited his misdeeds : for in a contest in which torrents of blood had unjustly flowed, some one must have been criminal, and who more propel for an expiatory r^acri- fice, than the ostensible author of so many calamities? Alas! had punishment been but inflicted on one solitary in- dividual, all our subsequent calamities would ha\e been averted, and the world taught to believe, that even in res- pect to great offenders, some connexion still existed between gUilt and punishment! H ( 58 ) " But the Rockingham party contented themselves with the defeat of their opponents ; and Mr. Fox was nom- inated to a seat in the cabinet, and appointed one of the Secretaries of State. The merit of this short-lived admin- istration was conspicuous. Notwithstanding they had suc- ceeded to an empty exchequer, and a general war, they yet determined to free the people from some of their numer- ous grievances; and had they remained a little longer in power, infinitely more would have been effected. Contract- ors were excluded, by Act of Parliament, from the House of Commons ; custom and excise officers were disqualified from voting at elections; the proceedings, with regard to the Middlesex election, were rescinded ; while a reform bill, (rather specious, however, in name, than reality) abolished a number of useless offices. A more generous policy was also adopted in respect to Ireland ; a general peace was al- ready meditated ; an ancient ally (the Dutch) was at- tempted to be soothed by an offer through the medium of M. Simolin, the. Russian minister, to form a new treaty, on the basis of that of 176*4; and America, which could not be restored, was at least intended to be conciliated. " In the midst of these promising appearances, the no- bleman who was the key-stone that supported the discord- ant materials of the political arch, died suddenly, and the council-board was instantly divided by political schisms. " The Marquis of Lansdowne, who appears, at this "time to have had the ear of the king, but not a majority in the cabinet, was immediately intrusted with the reins of ad- ministration ; and Mr. Fox determining (to make use of his own language) " never to connive at plans in private which he could not publicly and consistently avow," re- tired from office with a numerous and respectable body of his friends. ' : In the mean time, the party left in possession of all ihe great offices, concluded a peace with America, France, and Holland; but their administration proved of short du- ration, for a grand political confederacy had now been formed against them. This, under the name of * the Coa- lition,' soon subverted their power, and supplanted them m ( 59 ) office. No event, in our time, has produced more obloquy than the alliance between Mr. Fox and Lord North; and it is not to be concealed, that it was even then pregnant with inauspicious results, and has since been productive of the most sinister consequences, as it enabled an ambitious young man to give the first stab to the constitution, by sett- ing a vote of the House of Commons, hitherto deemed in- violable, at defiance. The ' India Bill,' of which Mr. Burke is said to have been the penman, proved the rock on which the vessel of the ill-paired colleagues foundered; and it is not a little memorable, that their more fortunate rivals re- vived this very measure, and carried it triumphantly through parliament ! " We now behold Mr. Fox once more divested of power, reduced on a midden dissolution of parliament, to shelter himself against accidents in the representation of the Orkney Isles ; and to contend with an unexampled perse- verance for a seat as member for Westminster ; which, after a memorable scrutiny, and an immense expenditure, sup- ported by the great aristocratical families in his interest, he at length obtained. il He was afterwards re-elected to the same honourable post, and he steadily combated, as a representative of the. people, the influence of the crown; — that influence which, in his opinion, alone constituted and produced all their grievances. His subsequent conduct was such as to restore the current of popularity, and raise his name higher than before. His grand maxim, and surely it is immediately con- nected with the prosperity, and, perhaps, the existence, of a manufacturing and commercial country, was the main- tenance of peace. With this object in view, he opposed a contest with Russia^ about the fortress of Oczakow; and a conflict with Spain concerning the peltry of Nootka Sound. " During the first stages of that melancholy event which led to the Regency Bill, Mr. Fox was wandering through the delightful regions of modern Italy, and seemed en- chanted once more to tread on classic land. From this charming spot, he was called to witness, and to participate ( 60 ) in, far different scenes, and finally to behold the party he opposed more firmly seated in power than before. " He has been blamed for his conduct during the im- peachment of Mr. Hastings, but he was supported by a majority of the House of Commons on that occasion, and by nearly all his political enemies. This measure was ab- solutely necessary, in order to clear the honour of the na- tion, and prove to the oppressed inhabitants of India, that in England they would still find avengers. It is not to be denied, however, that the trial was spun out to a most op- pressive length, and that the supposed culprit at last ceased to be odious in the eyes of the people. The. forms of the House of Peers, as a court of justice, are, indeed, unfavour- able to the dispatch of business, but the managers ought, perhaps, either to have accelerated these, or to have with- drawn from a struggle, when they perceived that the first step towards punishment consisted in the oppression of even a guilty individual ! " No sooner did the French nation evince a sincere de- sire to shake off the dominion of absolute power, than Mr. Fox hailed the auspicious dawn of rising liberty, and depre- cated the interference of this country in a quarrel hostile to the principles on which she had founded her proud pre- eminence. On this occasion, he experienced the derilection of many of his former associates, and among others of that man from whose lips he had first imbibed the principles of freedom. Finding, however, that he and his friends were reduced to a scanty minority, he retired, jn a great measure, from public business, and left the minister to triumph by means of the majorities in his interest. Nor is this all, for bis name was struck out from the list of privy counsellors ; an event which never occurred before in the present reign ; rind was only once exercised during the last, in respect to a nobleman (Lord George Germaine) accused of cowardice and disaffection.. ".The return of Mr. Fox to his seat in Parliament, and the more recent events of his public life, are so fresh in the recollection of every person, that it is unnecessary to detail tbt in. We bhail barely mention, that after the death ( 61 ) of Mr. Pilt, in January, 1806, a change of Ministry took place, by which he was again called to power, and filled the office of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs till the period of his death. Every eye was now directed towards him, and every mind anticipated the good effects of the measures that they fondly hoped would have been adopted. But, alas ! how frail is man, how weak his reasoning. The first public acts of Mr. Fox were not of that nature to in- spire public confidence, for in the person of Lord Grenvillo he united the two offices of First Lord of the Treasury and Auditor of the Exchequer; and Lord Ellenborough, while filling the office of Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench was invited to a seat in the Cabinet. These two acts lost Mr. Fox a good deal of his popularity, as they were deemed unconstitutional, and pregnant with the worst of evils. After this, however, be brought forward a motion for the abolition of the Slave Trade, when the House pledged itself to consider of the best means of abolishing it, and a vote of censure on the traffic was entered on its journals. He also did much towards laying the first stone of the Temple of Peace, but was not permitted to see the stately fabric completed. " Struggling continually against the stream of power, he appeared inferior to no man; and he wanted only to stand on the ' vantage ground' of success, to be viewed as the greatest statesman of his age. u -As an author, he has produced several specimens of poetical composition, which, with due culture, might have attained excellence. His verses, to Mrs. Crewe have often been praised: ? Where the loveliest expression to features is join'd, ' By nature's most delicate pencil design'd ; « Where blushes unbidden, and smiles without art, ♦ Speak the softness and feeling that dwell in the heart, &c.' " His invocation 'to Poverty' must, however, be al- lowed to be superior, although it contains a national re- flection that may offend some; it ought, notwlthstanding> ( 62 ) to be recollected, that the English, at that period, were much disgusted with the temporising conduct of their north- ern neighbours : — 1 O Poverty ! of pale consumptive hue, * If thou delight'st to haunt me still in view, ' If still thy presence must my steps attend, 4 At least continue, as thou art, my friend. * When Scotch example bids me be unjust, ' False to my word, unfaithful to my trust, * Bid me the baneful error quickly see, * And shun the world to find repose with thec. ' When vice to wealth would turn my partial eye, * Or int'rest shutting ear to sorrow's cry; * Or courtiers' custom would my reason bend, 1 My foe to flatter, or desert my friend ; 4 Oppose, kind Poverty, thy temper'd shield, * And bear me off unvanquish'd from the field. * If giddy Fortune e'er return again, ' With all her idle, restless, wanton train ; * Her magic glass should false ambition hold, ' Or Av'rice bid me put my trust in gold ; ' To my relief, then, virtuous goddess haste, * And with thec bring thy daughters ever chaste, ' Health! Liberty! and Wisdom! sisters bright, 1 Whose charms can make the worst condition light, ' Beneath the hardest fate the mind can cheer, ' Can heal affliction and, disarm despair ; 1 In chains, in torments, pleasure can bequeath, * And dress in smiles the tyrant hour of death.' "The letter, published in 1793, "To the worthy and independent Electors of the City and Liberty of West- minster," is his only avowed prose publication, and this has experienced a nearly unexampled sale, having run through twelve or thirteen large editions. On this occasion, he makes a manly appeal to his constituents; and, in a clear and energetic style, deprecates the idea of foreign alliances, and insists on the necessity of acknowledging the French Republic as an independent state. While alluding to the ( 63 ) ridiculous project of subjugating that power by external force, he expresses himself thus : — •' The conquest of France! ! ! O! calumniated Cru- saders, how rational and moderate were your projects ! O ! much-injured Lewis XIV. upon what slight grounds have you been accused of restless and inordinate ambition ! O ! tame and feeble Cervantes, with what a timid pencil and faint colours have you painted the portrait of a disordered imagination!" " The following character of this great and pre-emi- nently gifted man is by that profound political philosopher and transcendant genius, the late Right Hon. Edmund Burke. It formed the peroration of his very celebrated speech on the occasion of the second reading of Mr. Fox's East India Bill, in the House of Commons, in Nov. 1783. — It exhibits, perhaps, the most beautiful and affecting spe- cimen of panegyrical eloquence that ever appeared in any language. " And now," said Mr. Burke, " having done my duty to the bill, let me say a word of the author. — I should leave him to his own noble sentiments, if the unworthy and illi- beral language with which he has been treated, beyond all example of parliamentary licence, did not make a few words necessary; not so much in justice to him, as to my own feelings. I must say, then, that it will be a distinction honourable to the age, that the rescuing of the greatest number of the human race that ever were so grievously oppressed, from the greatest tyranny that was ever exercised, has fallen to the lot of abilities and dispositions equal to the task. It has fallen to the lot of one, who has the enlarge- ment to comprehend, the spirit to undertake, and the elo- quence to support, so great a measure of hazardous bene- volence! His spirit is not owing to his ignorance of men and things. He well knows what snares are spread about his path, from personal animosity, from court intrigues, and possibly from popular delusion ! But he has put to haz- ard his ease, his security, his inteiest, his power, even his darling popularity, for the benefit of a people whom he has never seen ! This is the road that all true heroes have trod ( 64 ) before him. He is traduced and abused for his supposed motives. He will remember that obloquy is a necessary ingredient in the composition of all true glory. He will remember, that it was not only in the Roman customs, but is in the nature and constitution of things, that calumny and abuse are essential parts of triumph ! These thoughts will support a mind that exists only for honour, under the burthen of temporary reproach. He is doing indeed a great good, such as rarely falls to the lot, and almost as rarely coincides with the desires, of any man. Let him use his time — let him give the whole length to the reins of his be- nevolence. He is now upon a great eminence, whither the eyes of mankind are turned to him. He may live long; he may do much. But here is the summit — He never can ex- ceed what he does this day. " He has vices, but they are vices, which, though they may, in a small degree, tarnish the lustre, and some- times impede the march of his abilities, have nothing in them to extinguish the fire of great virtues. In those vices, there is no mixture of deceit, of hypocrisy, of pride, of ferocity, of complexional despotism, or want of feeling for the distresses of mankind. His vices are such as might be found to exist in a descendant of Henry IV. of France, as they did exist in that great father of his country ! Henry IV. wished " that he might live to see a fowl in the pot of every peasant in his kingdom." That sentiment of homely benevolence was worth all the splendid sayings that are re- corded of kings. But he wished for, perhaps, more than could be obtained, and the goodness of the man exceeded the power of the king. But this gentleman, a subject, may this day say at least with truth, that he secures the rice in his pot to every man in India. " A poet of antiquity, thought it one of the first dis- tinctions, to a Prince whom he meant to celebrate, that through a long succession of generations, he had been the progenitor of an able and virtuous citizen, who, by the force of the arts of peace, had corrected governments of oppression, and suppressed wars of rapine. ( 65 ) 1 Indole proh quanta juvenis, quantumque daturus * Ausoniae populis, ventura in secula civem. i Me super Gangem, super exauditos et Indos, 1 Implobat terras voca? ; et furialia bella ' Fulmine compescet linguae.' " This was what was said of the predecessor of the only person to whose eloquence it docs not wrong that of the mover of this bill to be compared. But the Ganges and the Indus are the patrimony of the fame of my Honourable Friend, and not of Cicero. I confess I anticipate, with joy, the reward of those whose whole consequence, power, and authority, exist only for the benefit of mankind ; and I carry my mind to all the people, and all the names and descriptions that, relieved by this bill, will bless the labours of this Parliament, and the confidence which the best House of Commons has given to him who the best deserves it. The little cavils of party will not be heard where freedom and happiness are felt; there is not a tongue, a nation, or religion, in India, which will not bless the presiding care and manly beneficence of this House, and of him who pro- poses to you this great work ; your name3 will never be sepa- rated before the throne of the Divine Goodness, in whatever language, or with whatever rites, pardon is asked for sin, and reward for those who imitate the Godhead in his uni- versal bounty to his creatures. _ These honours you deserve, and they will surely be paid, when- all the jargon of influ- ence, of party, and of patronage, are swept into oblivion [" " Of the private life of this great orator, the public may be anxious to know a few authentic particulars. Mr. Fox having in 1799 disposed of his house in South-street, he no longer resided any part of the year in town ; when he visited London, which was but seldom, he stayed sometimes at the house of his old friend General Fitzpatrick, and some- times at a hotel in the neighbourhood of New Bond-street. Except during the shooting season, when he visited Mr. Coke, &c. in Norfolk, he lived chiefly at St. Ann's Hill, near Chertsey. There- he superintended the cultivation of I ( 66 ) li i s grounds, enjoyed the pleasures of horticulture, aftd amused himself in forming his shrubberies. To ' the rose/ the theme of the Persian poets, he seemed particularly at- tached ; for he had a parterre near his house, in which there were no less than thirty different species of this beautiful shrub. He also possessed a great taste for Botany, and was at infinite pains to render himself master of the Linnaean system* " In general, he rose about seven o'clock, mounted his horse instantly, rode to the river, and plunged into the Thames. He then returned to breakfast, which was over before ten. The forenoon was, for the most part, dedicated to his books, and was accordingly spent in study. Before dinner, he took a walk or ride around the neighbouring village, sat down to table a little after three o'clock, and lived well, and like a gentleman, without any appearance, however, of luxury or ostentation. After indulging in a few glasses of port or sherry, he retired with his guests about six to the tea-room, which presented a most delightful pros- pect in the summer season ; and after a couple of dishes of coffee, a glass of liqueur de Martinique was handed round to the company. " The evenings were Usually dedicated to domestic en- tertainments. Oftimes he read, and then generally aloud ; at other times he played at some manly game on the lawn, or listened to the music of a favourite lady while fingering the piano-forte, or the pedal harp. The evening was not unfrequently .spent at the Holland, a charming octagon building, dedicated and inscribed to his nephew, Henry Lord Holland. From this building is to be seen a most luxuriant view of the surrounding country ; but the eye is unwilling to roam abroad, as it-is ornamented with beautiful paintings by the skilful hand of Mrs. Armstead. ft While the hirelings of ministry were representing him as ' plotting against the state,' he was, most probably, perusing Homer in the original Language of the immortal bard; or the ' conspirator' was, perhaps, dandling a child in his arms, or peradventure if it were in the summer sea- son, playing at trap-ball on the grass! ( 67 ) " In an early part of Mr. Fox's life it would appear that this great man was inspired with that passion, from which at one time or other of life no man is exempt— by a lady of great beauty, and the most elegant accomplishments — but, at the time of his first knowing her, the wife of his particular friend — whom, since his elevation to ministerial power, he has raised to the dignity of the Peerage — we al- lude to Lord Crewe. His ode in the Alexandrian measure, which he addressed to her, is one of the most beautiful com- positions in the language. We extract the following lines, Spencer; Marquisses of Tavistock and Hartingtori; Generals Walpole and Fitzpatrick; Master of the Rolls in Ireland (Mr. Curran) ; Attorney and Solici- tor General; Messrs. Whitbread, Sheridan, VV. Smith* Byng, Adam, Plomer, W. Wynne, Tierney, Giles, Fonblanque, Jervis, Sir Thos. Miller, and Dr Parr. A small black Banner with the Arms of the Deceased, carried by a gentleman on foot. Peers, Mourners. Sons of Peers, Mourners as above. Above 100 Members of the House of Commons. Mourners, with scarfs, &c. Banner of Emblems, carried by a gentleman on horseback, supported by two gentlemen on foot. Carriages of the Deceased and Relatives. State Carriages. Trumpets and Kettle Drums. Volunteer Cavalry. " The whole Procession proceeded up Pall Mall , down Cockspur-street, Charing Cross, Whitehall, and to the Ab- bey, in very slow time ; the trumpets sounding at intervals a solemn dirge; and the regimental bands, with muffled drums and fifes, alternately played the Dead March in Saul, jand the German Funeral Hymn. The Procession, upon entering the Abbey, was received by the Clergy, and con- ducted to the Grave, in the North Transept, where the service was performed in the usual manner. — In the interior of the platform which was erected around the grave, stood Lord Holland, and around, the Pall-bearers. Lady Hol- land and her three sons were seated in the gallery, which was hung with black cloth. u The spectacle was not so brilliant as the funeral of the gallant Nelson, it is true, but it was much more solemn and affecting. Lord Holland, the amiable nephew of the deceased, the Chief Mourner, was scarcely able to perform this last sad and solemn duty. — Indeed it was not the fune- ral of an ordinary man ; it was like that of the father of a family attended by affectionate children to his last home.— ( 75 ) Although the crowd was excessive, no serious accident oc- curred. " Some of the banners, not formal, were highly beau- tiful. One represented Britannia, reclined under a willow, and sighing over a medallion of her lamented Friend, the steady Guardian of her Rights and Liberties ! " The grave of Mr. Fox is immediately adjoining the monument of Lord Chatham, and within 18 inches of his son, the late Right Hon. Wm. Pitt. " The Noblemen and Gentlemen who assisted in the Procession had come from all parts of the United Kingdom to pay this last mark of duty to the illustrious deceased, to whom no funeral ordered by the State could have been so truly honourable. It marked the feeling of the nation — and proved that even in death, as in life, he was truly re- verenced as " The Man of the People." * * * " Thus were consigned to the Tomb the remains of one of the most distinguished Statesmen of the Age and Country in which he lived ; who will very long be remembered as " The Man who dared to be honest in the worst of times," in defiance of every obloquy endeavoured to be cast on his character by many of those who were afterwards constrained to acknowledge his almost prophetic foresight, which car» ried conviction to the minds of his enlightened countrymen, ©f his superior political sagacity !" "THIS ( 76 ) " THIS MAUSOLEUM ENTOMBS CHARLES JAMES FOX. Who died September 13th, 1806, aged 57 Years. His first Years of Instruction were under The paternal Auspices of Lord Holland; His latter were completed at Eton, and at Oxford, The SOVEREIGN of the UNIVERSE, At whose Command Nations flourish and decay, The more to scourge and afflict this Nation, In his Judgment for our Offences, Hath taken to Himself Men of transcendent Abilities, The most promising to save a sinking Nation, — NELSON, CORNWALLIS, PITT, and THURLOW; But a Loss, the most deplorably felt- By England, By the whole Human Race, Was CHARLES JAMES FOX, As a Statesman, an Orator, and a MAN. — The Follies of his Youth were oblitered by the Usefulness and Benevolence of his riper Years. The COMMONS of ENGLAND can best appreciate, The Force of his Eloquence, the Ingenuity of his Reasoning, His political Sagacity, his animated Expression, The Amplitude and Correctness of his Views, The Strength and Clearness of his Conceptions: ( 77 ) Tlie People of England, his Manly Wisdom, His Patriotic Virtue, his Love of his Fellow Creatures ; His Friends, who were of the highest Classes of Society, The Suavity of his Manners, The Frankness, the Honesty, the Feeling, the Generosity, The amiable and endearing Charities of his Heart; EUROPE, ASIA, AFRICA, and AMERICA, People the most remote, Have experienced the benign Influence of his consummate Eloquence In vindicating the Rights of Nature, In opposing Tyranny, Slavery, Oppression. The avowed Enemy to the Miseries of War, The steady Promoter of Peace, and of Good Will to Man, He uniformly supported the Rights of the People, Civil and Religious LIBERTY. Firmly adhering to, and boldly maintaining The true and genuine Principles of the Constitution, as asserted at the Revolution, In defiance of the rancorous Spirit of the Times, And the violent Malignity of the JACOBINS. As he possessed the Spirit to undertake, the Manliness to defend, The wonderful Ability to support all Measures that led to Truth, to Honor, and to Justice, So he spurned the Idea of shaping his Arguments, To court the Smiles of a Minister. He was traduced, calumniated, and abused, for his supposed Motives ; Misrepresented to his Sovereign, Who dismissed him from his Councils ; But the Disgrace was temporary :— He was honorably recalled by the same Sovereign, To fill the Employment of those Men, He lived to see, disgraced themselves, and who were The chief Instruments of his Obloquy and Oppression. ( 78 ) Enjoying the Confidence of His Sovereign and the People, He directed his great Mind, and mighty Talents, To the Restoration of Peace, to his Country, to Europe. To effect these Blessings, in allaying the Miseries of art agitated World, Objects nearest to his Heart, And the most anxious Wish of his Dying Moments, He just lived to begin a Negociation with France ; Hjs Death interrupted the Progress of this glorious Work : Even France deeply bewailed the common Calamity, And, with England, Equally lamented his irreparable Loss. Had PROVIDENCE Thought fit to lengthen the Period of his Days, Much might have been done To preserve the Repose of Europe, And the Happiness of the Human Rack. Such an illustrious MAN, returning to the Dust, Was borne to his Sepulchre, most sumptuously, But — not at the Nation's Expence ; He passed to the Tomb, amidst the Tears of the Multitude ; And the strongest Testimonies of Regard to his Worth, Are best known by the distinguished Persons, From the Extremities of the United Kingdom, Who attended his Remains To the Grave, Where the Mortal Part shall perish in the Dust,— But the Remembrance of His splendid Talents, his patriotic Services, His inestimable Qualities, Shall live to distant Ages. j. w: y ( 79 ) Extract from the Oxford Rcciexo for August 1807. FROM A CRITIQUE UPON A SATIRICAL POEM ENTITLED, ST. STEPHEN'S CHAPEL. " NEAR the beginning of the poem we find the follow- ing eulogy on Mr. Fox. ' Immortal Fox! around whose marble bed Britannia's children mourn a parent dead, Oh teach my dim and doubtful Muse to shine With words that burn, and thoughts that glow like thine: Lend her thy pow'rs, to stem Oppression's tide, To lash Presumption, Bigotry, and Pride; To drag Corruption from her caves of night, And force her forward on the public sight; To track the knave through all his doubling chace. And tear, at last, the vizor from his face!' " Subjoined is the following note : 1 The great name of Fox is best celebrated by the review of British history for the last five and thirty years. If ever a human being united the talents and virtues of a poet, an orator, a philosopher, a statesman, a legislator, and a man, that being was Charles Fox. He was called the enemy of his country — yes, because he was a friend who gave us good advice, contrary to the inclination of our passions : because he acknowledged that Americans were freemen, and denied the right of England to model the constitution of France: because, considering that a state, as well as an individual, should be just and honourable, he raised his voice against oppression, even when his country was the oppressor, and deprecated the sallies of folly, even though his country was foolish : because he could never learn the convenient art of bending the general principles of virtue to the endless sinu- ( 80 ) osities of circumstance. It was always the misfortune of Great Britain that his counsels were followed too late. The excellence of his remedies was acknowledged when the patient was past cure. So the famous Dr. Meade used to say, " I should have more credit for medical success than I now have, but that people never send for me till their disorder is desperate." Mr. Fox, through a public course of almost unexampled length, displayed a firmness as unexampled : He withstood the allurements of wealth, and even the still more seductive temptations of power: hcwas almost the only great man of his time, whom no artifice could shake, whom no promises could buy : for, as Lord Camden has expressed it, " his price was immortality, and he knew that posterity would pay it." Extract from the Universal Magazine for March and April, 1805. " THERE is scarcely a sentiment more debasing to the character of man, than u I have nothing to do with public men and public affairs, I leave the consideration of them to abler hands." Now as there is no one whose condition may not be bettered or rendered worse by the wise, or mal- administration of government, it becomes all to reflect upon the choice of those persons who are placed in the seat of public rule. It was Cato's opinion, that every man should take one side or the other in all questions of importance connected with the commonwealth. Every individual in the empire is, as it were, a proprietor in the stock of na- tional happiness and national fortune, and therefore ought to watch whether the best and fittest trustees are chosen for managing such great concerns. The mind of a man, whether rich or poor, cannot be more usefully employed sometimes than in estimating the capacities, developing the ( 81 ) principles, and ascertaining the virtues of those who offer themselves as candidates for high stations in the adminis- tration of public affairs. The celebrated man whose cha- racter fills the first few pages of this number of our Mis- cellany, comes under this description. An impartial ac- count of his principles, professions, and prospects, will afford the most rational evidence by which the justice of his claim for public confidence can be decided. It has been said that " the sun of liberty rarely shines but on the tomb of some great patriot." 'It should seem to be the fate of Mr. Fox to spend his whole life in unavailing struggles for ameliorating the condition of his country. But why do we say unavailing? his efforts are not wholly so: if he has riot exalted the political condition of his country, he has saved it from imminent peril. The influence of his talents put a period to a war the most destructive that ever a na- tion madly engaged in. Now though many are unwilling to give him his due share of praise on that occasion, be- cause the desisting from prosecuting that war was attended with the dismemberment of the empire; such persons ought to recollect that the perseverance in it could not but endan- ger the whole together. England had the world in arms against her, and nothing could have contributed so effectu- ally to accomplish the hostile views of France upon us at that time, as our continuing to wage a distant, expensive, and bloody war with a people whom the subduing (had that event been possible) could only have left in a ruined and exhausted state at our feet. " The writer of this sketch thinks it necessary thus early in the task he has assigned himself, to declare, that he has no connection with Mr. Fox, nor any of the friends with whom that gentleman associates. He is not personally known to him, nor has lie the vanity, as many others have, of hoping to raise himself in the remotest degree to the notice of this British worthy, by doing only that which truth and justice would extort from the greatest stranger. " Having therefore no personal bins for this great cha- racter, the writer is the more free to speak of that part of t ( 82 ) his public conduct for which he has been censured, and for which he is, perhaps, thought to have deserved censure. This sketch, then, is neither taken from the reproaches and surmises of Mr. Fox's enemies, nor from the assertions and panegyrics of his friends, but from those actions, concerning which every impartial man would be equally able to judge of the merit and demerit of their author. " A man so elevated as Mr. Fox, and whose abilities alone have distinguished him, must naturally occasion as much envy as emulation, and of course be exposed to the unmeaning panegyric of one party, and the indiscriminate invective of the other. We should hardly deserve credit for our professions of impartiality* if we were to assert that in the variety of scenes in which Mr. Fox has played so con- spicuous a part, he is free from all faults. But we trust that if, after making allowances for them as drawbacks against his transcendent virtues, it be affirmed that he is the first and greatest commoner in this country, the assertion is in m> danger of contradiction. " Charles James Fox was born on the 13th of January, 174:9, and is the second son of Henry, first Lord Holland, by Lady Georgina Carolina, eldest daughter of the late Duke of Richmond. By the mother's side, then, he is descended from the royal house of Stuart ; he is, therefore, not only related to most of the ancient families of rank in this kingdom, but actually allied to the present reigning family. By his father's side, however, Mr. Fox derives no consequence from his ancestors. Without giving credit to the idle stories about that parent, it is sufficient to say, that he laid the foundation of his own honours by his talents and application to business. Nothing was too intricate for him in the way of figures, and his address in parliament recommended him to the notice of George II. who, in the year 1754, made him Secretary at War, and on the follow- ing year, upon the resignation of Sir Thomas Robinson, appointed him Secretary of State for the southern depart- ment. In 1763 he was, in the present reign, created a peer, by the title of Baron Holland, of Foxley. The seven years war, as it has been called, broke out in 1756, and ( 83 ) •commenced under wry unfortunate auspices. The people grew dissatisfied, and wished for a change of ministry. The monarch, then so well advised, without relinquishing his prerogative, gave way to the nation ; and changing Mr. Fox for Mr. Pitt, all went well and prosperous. " Mr. Fox, however, was not long unemployed : for as most of those with whom he had acted were re-instated in power, by a coalition between the two parties, he was nomi- nated to the lucrative post of Paymaster-general of the Forces. It was in this office he accumulated that vast wealth, which he left to his heirs, and which exposed his character in the decline of life, to cutting sarcasm, and himself to the opprobrious appellation of ' the public de- faulter of unaccounted millions.' This nobleman com- menced and pursued his career in an opposite direction to that of his son, for he continued to the end of his life, the steady supporter of government. Whatever criminal spe* culations, therefore, he might be guilty of, he had nume- rous powerful friends, who were willing to wink at them. It is gencrclly found, that those persons who are determined to support government in all its measures, are the least sound in principle. They seem to say, with an equally culpable .nobleman of the present day, f VVha wants me, must pay me.' Indeed, it is with money, as it is with power, if it lie too long in the same hand, it will corrupt the pos- sessor. But the nobleman of that day was not half so much to blame as the nobleman of this. There was no law, at that time, forbidding the practice of turning the public money to private advantage.; whereas there is an act of par- liament, framed in part by the recent noble delinquent, who thought proper to break it. What will become of the virtue of our House of Commons, if a member of it, by the con- nivance of higher authority, rewards such persons as he pleases, with the interest of a few hundred thousand pounds now and then, for we cannot suppose he would be so inor- dinately avaricious, as to keep the interest of so many mil- lions to himself !! ! When we exclaim, Ah poor England! We do not mean to say that our country has not precious boons to bestow on the guardians of its virtue and honour ! ! f ( 84 ) But to return to the man who is the professed subject of this brief memoir. His father, though addicted to libertine habits in the early part of his life, was exemplary for the care he took of his children's education. He very soon perceived in his son Charles James a genius which would one day attract universal admiration. His rapid progress in the acquisition of classical learning at Eton school, ob- tained him a decided superiority in every class he entered. As his father had always encouraged him to think freely, he acquired the habit of speaking readily, and, therefore, in every enterprise which required an orator, he was gene- rally fixed on by his playmates for their leader. That man- liness which a wise parent inspired him with while young, never left him for a moment under any circumstance of life. He was under the direction of Dr. Barnard, while, at Eton, but he had Dr. Newcombe, the late Bishop of Wa- terford, for private tutor, who thought with reason, that he derived more celebrity from the circumstance of having such a pupil, than from any preferment whatever in the church. Nothing can better shew the strength of his mind, and of his constitution, than that by turns literature, by turns dissipation, appeared to engross his whole attention, and yet the apparent preference of the one was not allowed to interfere with the other. He was observed, never to be satisfied with mediocrity in any pursuit. Whatever he set his heart on, he followed with ardor. He soon demon- strated his attachment to the finer sensibilities of humanity, by always espousing the weakest side, in those contests which occasionally disturb the society of youths. He often presided as judge in disputes, and when he saw a school- fellow borne down by partiality and prejudice, he exerted his maiden eloquence in favour of justice. Lord Carlisle was a cotemporary, and so admired the young Mr. Fox, for his generosity and penetration in speaking, that he wrote the following beautiful verses in prophecy of what might be expected from this precocious and elegant scholar. * How will my Fox, alone, by strength of parts, * Shake the loud senate, animate the hearts ( S5 ) * Of fearful statesmen ! while around you stand * Both peers and commons, listening your command ; * While Tully's sense its weight to you affords, ' His nervous sweetness shall adorn your words. f What praise to Pitt, to Townshend, e'er was due, f In future times, my Fox, shall wait on you.' " From Eton hs went to Oxford, where he is said to have read nine or ten hours every day, during the whole jterm, without inconvenience from a series of nocturnal rambles, in which he displayed equal assiduity. The te- dious uniformity of a college did not agree with the ardour of his mind. His talents were not to be chained to the frigid acquisition of science, and the languid enjoyments of a contemplative life. He wished for active and enter- prising scenes, and obtained leave of his father to make the usual tour. " Though every thing in the form of luxury and dissi- pation struck his fancy, yet had he an equal appetite for inquiry, and no man was better qualified to derive instruc- tion from that novelty which travelling affords. To resist the attractions of French vivacity and Italian luxury, he had the considerations of his country's welfare, and the honour of his character. These were sometimes of too feeble an influence to prevent him from taking; intoxicating pleasure, and withholding him from the gaming table. His father being apprized of these excessss, urged him to return home. He was obliged to comply, though we doubt not with considerable reluctance, as he had entered into the elegant and pleasurable societies of some of the most beautiful women on the continent. From the theatre of dissipation and pleasure, he was transplanted into that of oratory and politics; if the former had been to him more attractive and fascinating, this was the most important and honourable ; and the father being no stranger to the lively and impetuous disposition of his son, foresaw that a scat in parliament would detach him from a course which threat- ened injury to his health and ruin to his fortune. Lord Holland, therefore, at the general election in 17C'8, pro- ( 86 ) cured him the return for Midhurst, in Sussex. Every per- son under age is by law incompetent to judge for himself, and still less, deemed capable of making laws for others: on this ground he was ineligible to sit in the House of Com- mons, not being quite twenty years of age. However this happened, whether by design or accidental oversight in the Committee of Privileges, and in the Speaker; it may be considered as a singular circumstance in this great political actor entering on the public stage. No notice being taken of his nonage (for it could not but be known; was perhaps* a compliment of indulgence, or some other venal motive in those who counted on his support at his outset. The ex- ertions and display of talents in a youth, never fail to con- ciliate good-will, and even affection: it has since been the case with his rival, Mr. Pitt. No member in his noviciate ever excited so much anxiety and expectation. He satisfied the fondest hopes of all who knew him. He was the sub- ject of conversation in every fashionable company. His mode of speaking had so much originality in it, and had so much of the voice of nature, that he attracted universal admiration. His maiden speech was on the subject of Mr. Wilkes's petition from the King's Bench prison, to be admitted to take his seat, and thereby satisfy the desire of his constituents. It is true that on this question he djd not take the popular side, the side on which the best and most constitutional lawyers declared the justice to lie. It has been imagined, that if he had favoured that side he would not have been allowed to retain his seat, on account of his minority. Thus his parliamentary career began in the sup- port of the measures of government, and so much did the minister of that day value that support, that in a short time Mr. Fox was advanced to a 6eat at the Admiralty board. No sooner, however, was he made acquainted with the arcana of government, than he retired in disgust, as his friends say (and we have no reason or desire to deny it) because his honest mind recoiled at the measures that were preparing for the great and iniquitous scene in the American war. The measures, however, were said to have been softened down, and he was persuaded to resume hi? ( 87 ) scat for a short time, when in December 1772, he was raise*! to a seat at the Treasury board. On this occasion he was twitted by the opposition as a placeman, and these re- proaches he parried by steadily, and in a manly way, deny- in that, without the most urgent occasion, peace was the best policy on the part of a commercial nation, so, from the commencement of the revolutionary war, he perpetually maintained, ' that we ought to husband our resources.' In 1794 he deprecated the idea of continuing hostilities without any settled object. After condemning the position,' 1 that, while the Jacobin system existed, no peace could take place with France,' he asked, ' provided honourable terms could be obtained, whether it would not be more adviseable to trust to our caution and vigilance for the preservation of the country, than to continue hostilities with an enormous waste of blood and treasure, but not more productive of security than a pacification ? Allowing the danger to be equal in either case, that which freed us from an immense charge was questionless preferable to the other. It was vain (he added) to calculate the resources of the French at the rate of a commercial proportion. They had no com- merce; they derived no expectations from any other funds than the productions of their soil ; the depreciation of their paper money had not depressed their affairs; and whenever men were willing and resolved to bear with hardships, his- torical experience had proved that their resources were in- exhaustible. " ' In war it sometimes happens (continued he) that courage and rage supply the place of ordinary arms. Xen- ophon, in his Cyropa:dia, observes, that iron commands gold, and when their assignats fail, the French may still ( 118 ) support hostilities bj 7 the plunder of their neighbours. It must be allowed, indeed, that this is but a fleeting resource, yet when a nation has abandoned habits of peace and in- dustry, and acquired the views and manners of predatory warriors, it is a resource that enables it to spread desolation far and near.' " The latter part of these remarks proved strictly pro- phetical, and now, when, in the fulness of time, we arc en- abled to judge calmly of events, it must be owned that the prosecution of the war was disserviceable to our own in- terests and ruinous to those of our allies. Fully impressed with this notion, and, at the same lime, conscious that he could not oppose the golden torrent that issued from the Treasury bench, he withdrew from Parliament for a while, and evinced a wish to retire altogether from public business. It has even been said, that his address to the electors of Westminster was actually penned, and that he had formed the determined resolution of abjuring politics for ever. " But the entreaties of his friends, and the occurrence of new and singular events, happily prevented this measure. We accordingly find him once more at the head of an oppo- sition, feeble in point of numbers, but truly formidable in respect to talents and abilities. " At length, after enjoying, an% in some measure, revelling in power during eighteen long years, Mr. Pitt vo- luntarily retired from office, and Mr. Addington, since cre- ated Viscount Sidmouth, concluded the treaty of Amiens, on which occasion he received the support of Mr. Fox and all his friends. The latter may be said to have now expe- rienced that species of triumph which arises out of political anticipation, for as the terms were not so good as might have been obtained in IJQti, it was obvious that all the miseries, calamities, blood and treasure, wasted to no manner of pur- pose during the preceding six years, would have been a- voided, had his warning voice been but listened to. '' When a renewal of the contest was meditated, Mr. Fox expressed himself avowedly hostile to that measure: ' I do contend (said he) that the continuance of peace is infi- nitely desirable. I feel its importance in the strongest man* ( 119 ) ner, and I am not ashamed to avow an opinion for which 2 have not unfrequehtly been exposed to ridicule. I now again explicitly declare, that I consider the preservation of national honour to be the only legitimate cause of war. " • This doctrine I hold (continues he) on the plain principle that honour is inseparably connected with self- defence. If it can be proved to me that the national honour has been insulted, or the national dignity disgraced, I will, without hesitation, declare my opinion, which is, that it would be a fair legitimate cause for re-commencing hosti- lities. I must, however, hear a very strong case made out before I can give my vote for replunging the country in those disasters which a calamitous contest had produced, and from which we have been 'so recently delivered *".' " It was in strict consistency with this notion, that, when the royal message was brought down declaratory of hostilities, Mr. Fox expressed his opinion at large, both against the war as unnecessary, and against the crisis at which it took place, as eminently impolitic. This proble- matical measure soon proved fatal to Mr. Addington's ad- ministration, and the Yeins of government having dropped from his hands, were immediately seized by Mr. Pitt. " It was now imagined by some, that the critical state of public affairs, and the common safety of the empire, would have produced a coalition between the new minister and his ancient adversary; but while the former expressed his own readiness to Comply, he, at the same sime, him.d that insurmountable obstacles had occurred in a certain quarter. **'•• ! htf following political maxim inculcated by an old wri- ter, is somewhat similar, and proves the coincidence between great minds, viz. — 11 ' That kingdoms are preserved by reputation, which is Is well their strongest support in peace, as their chiefest safety in time of war; when once they grow despised, they are either subject to foreign invasion or domestic troubles.' " ( 120 ) " After an opposition of twenty-two years — a period unexampled, in point of duration, in the annals of this country — Mr. Fox, in 1806', resumed his situation as Se- cretary of State for the Foreign Department, which he had surrendered in 1783—4. Soon after this event, the con- duct of the King of Prussia excited general indignation. Not content with seizing on Hanover, he excluded the English commerce not only from his own dominions, but also from every port which he could either terrify or influ- ence. On this, the new Minister published a spirited de- claration, and, at the same time, adopted measures for blockading all the ports, and intercepting all the trade of the House of Brandenburg. " But his mind was never for a single instant diverted from what may be considered as the grand object of his life. He had conceived an idea, from the very beginning, that the war was ill-timed, and no sooner had he obtained the seals, than he determined, if possible, to put an hon- ourable termination to it. As he had never made use of any intemperate language, or displayed any personal an- tipathies, the enemy of course could have no objection to such a mediator; but just at the critical period, when it was supposed that most of the difficulties had been removed, the man on whose fate the peace of the world, in no small degree, depended, was snatched away from his friends and the world by a confirmed dropsy. " As the political life and opinions of Mr. Fox havo been already detailed, it now remains to say something of him as a man of letters. His 7nagnu?n opus> which had en- gaged his attention for years, was a History of the period which immediately preceded and followed the Revolution; a subject alike congenial to his feelings and his habits. We understand that he was offered a very large sum of money for it, by a spirited bookseller, about three years since; but ft was then, and is still, we fear, in an unfinished state. "His 'Letter to the Electors of Westminster,' pub- lished in 1793, and which passed through no less than thir- teen editions within a few months, may be in some measure ( 121 ) considered as a legacy to posterity, as it contains a full and ample apology for his conduct during the former war with France. " Of his compositions while at Eton, the whole have been enumerated in chronological order; and in respect to his fugitive poetry, we shall here affix a list of such articles as have been seen by us. " 1. His Verses to Mrs., now Lady, Crewe, beginning with " * Where the loveliest expression to feature is join'd,' &c. "2. An Invocation to Poverty: stain from his parentage, his own conduct seemed not likely ( 128 ) to remove the blot ; and while men admired the brilliancy of his parts, they wondered and lamented that so much genius should be united to so little prudence or virtue. " The unfavourable occurrences, which crossed his po- litical career, might spring from accident; but they derived new force from the warmth, or the facility of his own temper. During the American war, he had derived much popularity from his resolute and violent opposition to Lord North : but when this nobleman and his friends passed over to the party of Fox, and were by him received with his usual facility and frankness, the people looked upon their patriot as guilty of the most unprincipled dishonesty,. in thus cordially coalescing with the men whom he had just pursued with the most opprobrious invective. The odium of the coalition continued ever afterwards to hang, like a noxious vapour, upon his brightest beams. " When Great Britain interfered to put a stop to the conquering arms of Russia, the friends of monarchy were alarmed and incensed, when they saw Fox not only oppose administration at home, but even carry his zeal so far as to send abroad an accredited agent to thwart the views of government. During the lamented illness of the sovereign, his activity drew down upon him a new load of indigna- tion. Men could not look upon the warmest friendship for the son, as a sufficient excuse for deserting his duty to the father. " The French Revolution followed close. Fox, in con- formity with his principles, applauded the first movements of freedom, and the nation united in his sentiments. The excesses which ensued altered the general feelings; the best principles became abhorred, when found in the mouths of atrocious villains : and in the ideas of the multitude, Fox became associated with those who spoke the same language, however different their intentions and actions. The con- sternation afterwards diffused throughout the kingdom, and the vast popularity of his great political antagonist, gave a still deeper hold to these impressions ; and no one seemed worthy of public trust, who did 'not revile Fox as an ene- mv to bia country. His own imprudence was, indeed, ( 129 ) scarcely less fatal to his Interests, than were the arts of his adversaries. He uttered expressions too violent at any time, but foolish in the extreme amidst the ferment which then prevailed. His patriotism became more suspected, when he declared his country to be in extreme danger, and then took the unmanly resolution of abandoning her councils, and consigning himself to ease and retirement. These acts are indeed attributed to a facility which led him to yield to men whose opinions he should have despised : But this is only to defend his heart at the expence of his head. " The same lamentable facility suddenly eclipsed the rays which began to break forth at his decline. After twenty years of opposition, he came into power without sacrificing his honour; but his first speech in the House of Commons, as a minister* was employed in the introduction of a bill to enable a colleague to possess, at once, two im- portant, rich, and incompatible offices. He seemed to feel his own degradation: He seemed conscious that he was setting at defiance all his former professions, and trampling to dust all the glory of his life. " The mind of Fox was naturally open and liberal ; and his principles bore the stamp of his disposition. He seemed from conviction the assertor of popular rights, and a decided enemy to arbitrary government. Yet his princi- ples could not at all times resist either his facility or his warmth ; and some portion at least of his consistency may be attributed to his permanent situation as leader of op- position. He was accused of rank democracy; but with much injustice. He entered political life among the an .-;- toeracy, and with them closed his career. It was by their prevailing influence against the crown that he twice became a minister; and by them he was supported throughout. He was a friend to extensive suffrage; but he knew that the votes of the lower orders must ever be at the command of the higher. In power, he had always the interest of the aristocracy in view. He endeavoured to throw the whole patronage of India into the hands of the parliament: He supported the property tax on the principle that men H ( 130 ) ought, as far as possible, to be retained in the station which they have once occupied ; and that it is quite as reasonable that the lower orders should be starved, as that the higher should be deprived of their usual enjoyments. " The knowledge of Fox was chiefly of that descrip- tion which may be drawn from conversation, or from books of easy perusal. In a country whose prosperity hinges on the arrangement of its industry, whose government depends on the skilful support of public credit, he acknowledged himself ignorant of political oeconomy and finance. He was not deeply versed in official business ; nor had pursued any subject with the accuracy of scientific investigation. But in the political history of his country, in the laws re- lative to its constitution, in the dispositions and views of foreign powers, in the arts which conciliate and lead man- kind, his knowledge was perhaps unrivalled by any modern politician. " His eloquence was the grand foundation of his fame. He had to struggle with the disadvantages of appearance. His figure was unpromising, his motions ungraceful, his voice shrill, and his enunciation, at the commencement of his speech, indistinct and hesitating. Every thing an- nounced that all was unpremeditated, and that the hearer had nothing to expect but the effusions of the moment. But as he proceeded, this circumstance became a source of admiration. As he grew warm, his words began to flow; his enunciation became clear and forcible ; his countenance glowed with ardour, and every motion spoke the force of his feelings. He hastened directly to his subject: It seemed to occupy his whole soul, to call forth every power of im- agination and judgment: He was irresistibly hurried on by his emotions, and his hearers were hurried along with him. In whatever he said there was an air of candour and earnestness, which carried in it scarcely less persuasion than his words. By the rapidity and strength of his conceptions he was enabled to place his subject in the clearest light; and he had an unusual facility in calling to his assistance the resources with which books or conversation had supplied him. His wit was very successful, and his sarcasms pecu* ( 131 ) liarly poignant : they were not delivered with bitterness, and they seemed always to fall justly on the head of their object. " Yet his eloquence was not free from the vices, to which it was naturally subjected by his habits. His ora- tions were never regular, never skilfully arranged. The hearer, borne along by his warmth, did not discover his desultory transitions , but on recollection, he found it diffi- cult to retrace the maze which he had traversed. As he always trusted to the moment, his exhibitions depended much on the state of his spirits; and it was not uncommon to see him labour through a hesitating, devious discourse, which scarcely retained the attention of his hearers. " Even those, who disliked his politics most, admired his disposition. His friends felt towards him a personal attachment ; and the open frankness of his manner often disarmed political animosity. He was regarded as the very model of a true Englishman. " His inviolable attachment to peace was the noblest feature in his public character. Even his most determined enemies lamented his death, when they saw the negocia- tions which had owed their birth entirely to him, expire as our only Minister of Peace expired." From Page 165. " THY soul, which o'er dark deeds of state arose, " And spurn'd th' assassin as the worst of foes, 335 " Half made the ruthless tyrant's hatred cease, " And half had lull'd the fever'd world to peace." " Line 335-] The conduct of Fox towards the pro- posed assassin of Bonaparte gave a glorious refutation to the calumnies which had been propagated in France against the statesmen of England. They had been accused of hif ( 132 ) ing assassins, of contriving infernal machines, of counten- ancing the most flagitious designs for the destruction of their enemies. But no sooner did an assassin present himself to Fox, than he caused the wretch to be secured, and sent immediate information to the bitterest foe of Great Britain. I should not, perhaps, have adverted particularly to this circumstance, had I not heard some persons, a-kin to the assassin, allege with a sneer, that Fox might have made a less boast of magnanimity ; that he might have simply dis- missed the fellow, without becoming guardian to the mor- tal enemy of his country." Extract from Mr. Roscoe's Considerations on the Causes, Objects, and Consequences of the present War, &>'C. " THE union of Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox with that of their friends, encouraged the hope, not only of a speedy termination of hostilities, but of that steady and gradual amelioration* in our domestic concerns, which, with- out alarming the fears of the weak, might satisfy the rea- sonable expectations of the country. Nor was much time suffered to elapse before measures were taken for realizing those expectations. In the month of February, 1806', an incident occurred, that afforded Mr. Fox an opportunity of displaying that character of rectitude and integrity of principle, which it is the first duty of every government to adhere to, and its chief honour to avow. An unprincipled wretch, pretending to be just arrived from France with matters of importance to communicate, obtained admission to Mr. Fox, and after a short conversation, disclosed to him a plan for assassinating the Ruler of France by fire- arms, from a house which had been hired for that purpose at Passy. Shocked at the atrocity of such a proposal, Mr-. ( 133 ) Fox drove the villain from his presence ; giving orders at the same time to send him out of the kingdom. But not satisfied with this proof of his indignation, he wrote to M. Talleyrand on the 28th February, giving him an account of the whole transaction. The reply of the French Min- ister, dated 5th March, conveyed to Mr. Fox the thanks of Bonaparte, and an assurance that, ' he recognized, in the conduct of Mr. Fox, those principles of honour and virtue by which he had ever been actuated, and which had already given a new character to the war.' On the same day M. Talleyrand transmitted, in another letter to Mr. Fox, an extract from a speech of the French Ruler to the Legis- lative Body, in which he openly expresses a wish for a termination of hostilities. ' I desire peace (said he) with England. On my part I shall never delay it for a moment ; I shall always be ready to conclude it, taking for its basis the stipulations of the treaty of Amiens.' By this corres- pondence the way was prepared for a new negociation, un- der auspices highly favourable to a reconciliation between the two countries. " It cannot be denied that the conduct of Mr. Fox, in this transaction, confers the highest honour on his memory. His letter to Talleyrand is to be considered, as Mr. Fox himself doubtless considered it, with respect to itself alone, and independent of consequences. In giving information to the chief of the French government of an attempt to assassinate him, he had performed an honourable, but an indispensible duty. Whatever effect it might produce upon the mind of Bonaparte was foreign to his object. If it had been slighted and contemned, Mr. Fox would never have regretted the part he had acted. If it induced that spirit of reconciliation which a noble action is so well calculated to inspire, the result was natural, and could not be raised on a better foundation. Even the political opponents of Mr. Fox ought to have felt rightly on such a subject. They ought to have known, that it was no effort to his great and generous mind to reject the proposals of an a- yowed assassin. It is not on this account that he is intitled to our applause; but it is because he had the virtue and ( 134 ) the courage to bring forwards into public life, and to ex- emplify in the most striking manner, one of the most im- portant maxims of morality— that it is never expedient to do evil in the hope of producing an eventual good; because he could unite the speculative virtues of the closet with the public conduct of the statesman, and exhibit to the world a noble proof, that amidst the rage of national and individual animosity, the eternal laws of justice and of virtue were neither overthrown nor shaken." MR. STEWART, author of an elegant Poem called u the Resurrection," after paying a just and solemn tribute of praise to the memory of Archdeacon Paley, Hussey Burgh, and Mr. Howard, writes of Mr. Fox as follows : — " WITH these, the Man his mourning Country's Pride, "Whose Acts diffused Beneficence so wide; Who strove to calm a warring World to Peace, And bid the Horrors of Dissention cease ! From East to Western Worlds — where Indus glows, Or wild Ohio's beauteous current flows, — Or where Emana's hills of green appear, Or Winds Sclavonian chill the stunted year; His gen'rous Soul, by distance unconfin'd, Felt for the varied woes of human kind, And toil'd with pious zeal and patriot worth, To make the Olive shoot it's scions forth." PAGE 91» The following Note is subjoined by the Author. " CHARLES JAMES FOX, whose eloquence and commanding talents were uniformly directed to every hu- J ( 135 ) mane and liberal object. The giant powers of his mind, far from being confined to any isolated spot, embraced the universe in their exertion. Asia, America, Europe and Africa, they have successively, and some of them success- fully, advocated. His famous India Bill, his Plan of Con- ciliation to America, his recent endeavours to give Peace to Europe, and his death-bed Legacy of Liberty and Hap- piness to Africa — emblazon a recorded glory to his Memo- ry as imperishable as the existence of virtue and prin- ciple." page 234. Extract from a Sermon preached at the Gravel-pit Meeting, Hackney, on Sunday, September 21, 1806, on occasion of the recent death of the Right Honourable Charles James Fox ; by Ro- bert Aspland, '« HE was a zealous and steady friend to The LIBERTIES AND HAPPINESS OF THE PEOPLE. His love of freedom was the result of sound principles, not of warm passions merely ; hence, it did not die away with the fer- vour of youth, but was uniform and constant: it was moulded up with all his habits of thinking and acting. He considered Liberty as the natural right of all men, and as the peculiar birth-right of Englishmen, guaranteed to them by the political Constitution of their country ; and, therefore, he was invariably its champion t>nd guardian; protecting and defending it under a strong sense of duty, and, in doing so, superior to all anxiety, whether he pleased or displeased those whom his labours were intended to serve, whether he brought upon himself the brand of re- proach, or earned the laurel of praise. ( 138 ) " His ardour in the sacred cause of freedom never car-* lied him, at the same time, beyond the limits of modera- tion. His language was never inflammatory, his measures never precipitate. He knew that the same wise and free Constitution which secures the people's liberties, protects also the rights and prerogatives of the Sovereign. He con- sidered that order is always a certain good, that change is frequently an evil. His moderation was the more virtuous on account of the peeuliar circumstances in which he stood; he was at the head of a considerable political party, and great bodies, once set in motion, often move with dangerous rapidity, and easily take fire; he incurred, inconsequence of his principles, an extraordinary degree of opprobrium and angry persecution, and persecution and opprobrium have sometimes overborne the patience of the most prudent, and as Solomon observes, made wise men mad ; and he lived and took a part in troublesome times, when men's opinions were generally heated and warped by their pas- sions, and when the nation was divided into two virulent parties, who ran into the widest extremes — extremes, equ- ally distant from prudence and incompatible with freedom. Looking back upon the animosities and contentions of this period, those of us that were then most oppositite in our notions and designs, shall now unite in praising his moder- ation, and in acknowledging that it was the offspring of wisdom. His wise and temperate conduct has established a model of patriotism, which will be appealed to, in all future periods of dissention and contest, by the lovers of their country. " It is a truly honourable trait in the character of this ever-to-be-lamented statesman, that he was, at all times, the ADVOCATE, IN THE SENATE, OF JUSTICE AND HU- MANITY. Never, during the whole of his long parliamen- tary life, was his voice lifted up to justify oppression or persecution: Never did the injured or oppressed appeal to the British senate that he did not exert his noble eloquence on their behalf. He made the cause of all that were wronged his own ; and, even where he failed, through the perverseness of the times, of procuring justice for them, he ( 137 ) in a measure compensated their sufferings by lending his great talents to their cause, and by drawing towards it the sympathy of mankind. In him, the most discordant sect? and the most distant provinces found an ever ready defender and a generous patron : he pleaded (and with what strength of argument, what rich variety of illustration, what dignity of sentiment, what majesty of diction ?) for the equitable privileges of the Roman Catholic and the Protestant Dis- senter; and he contended, with an eloquence alternately indignant and pathetic, for the rights of the harassed Irish, the oppressed Hindoos-, and the suffering Africans. lie brought into office the same just and benevolent principles which he had maintained while out of power. One of the first acts of his late administration, (too short, alas! for his own glory and our happiness !) was a measure for the restriction of the Slave-Trade, and by his means, a solemn resolution was voted by the Senate and laid before the Sovereign, on the justice and policy, the duty and necessity of ' the total abolition (to use his own strong expression) of the abominable traffic' In discussing the former of these. measures* he declared on behalf of himself and such of his colleagues as had voted with him on the subject when out of office, in a fervour of philanthropy, which quickly com- municated itself to the breast of the country, and rekindled our warmest hopes, that ' they still felt the total abolition of the Slave Trade as a step involving the dearest interests of humanity, and as one which, however unfortunate this administration might be in other respects, should they be successful in effecting it, would entail more true glory upon their administration, and more honour upon their country, than any other transaction in which they could be engaged.' Could party-spirit so far blind this nation as to render it insensible to his merits, the grateful African would commemorate his name, and plead with the Parent of the Universe, in language which is not disregarded in Heaven, for a blessing on it. " He was on all occasions the steady promoter of peace, and, as a peacemaker also, our religion enjoins us S 1S8 ) to bless his memory. He repr bated the wickedness, he deplored the calamities of war, begun unjustly or protracted unnecessarily. He opposed with all the vigour of his great mind, that unnatural and violent struggle between America and England, which terminated in the disruption of the Colonies from the mother country ; he unmasked the false pretences, demonstrated the utter injustice, and foretold the ruinous consequences of the late war — a war which impo- verished this nation, desolated a great part of Europe, filled the world with misery, and sowed every where the seeds of future hostilities; and he deprecated with all his profound wisdom, all his manly eloquence, the contest in which we are now unhappily involved, beginning with a violation of the national faith, and likely to end in the aggrandisement of that overgrown and menacing power which it was de- signed to check and reduce. On every favourable opportu- nity he interposed his pacific counsels. He was the advo- cate of human nature ; he spoke its wishes and sustained its cause; and mankind looked up to him as their patron. When, at length, the necessity and distress of his country, which, let it be remembered, he predicted, imperiously de- manded the aid of his great powers, and he took the helm of affairs, he began, in the true spirit of his character, negociations for peace; and Providence, in its inscrutable justice, has removed him from us while the event of those negociations is yet uncertain. He expired, breathing those wishes for peace which it had been the purpose of his life to carry into effect; and peace, whenever we obtain it, will be considered by a grateful country as the legacy which he has bequeathed to us: his memory will be associated with the blessing, and will be for ever honoured in the association. " We feel and cannot but feel — we lament and must deeply lament his loss — but we do not feel or lament alone; all Europe sympathises with us; — for there is not a ci- vilized nation that did not confide in his integrity' and re- vere his wisdom." ( 139 ) Extract from a Discourse occasioned by the death of the Right Hon. Charles James Fox, delivered at the Unitarian Chapel in Essex-street, October 12, 1806, by the Rev. Thomas Belsham, " TO delineate a finished portrait of the mind of this patriotic minister of state, would require talents commen- surate with his own, and an intimacy of access to his per- son of which few comparatively can boast. But as upon the present occasion it is impossible to avoid saying a few words upon the subject, I shall limit myself to a faint outline of his public character, the correctness of which may be easily appreciated by all who have paid attention to the state of the country for the last thirty years, and to the incidents of the public life of the late right honour- able Charles James Fox. " To an extraordinary natural capacity, improved and embellished by a liberal education, and to a quickness of apprehension which instantly seized every object that was presented to it, and which with incredible facility developed the most intricate problems, this great man added a memory richly stored with the treasures of science and literature, and well fraught with historical and political knowledge. He was profoundly versed in the history, and the constitu- tion of his country. He perfectly understood its external relations, its connexion with foreign powers, its political and commercial interests, its financial resources, its military and naval strength. He was well acquainted with the his- tory, the strength, the policy, the separate and relative in- terests and views, of those states which once constituted what has not been improperly called the great republic of Europe, and upon the just equipoise of the political powei and influence of which, the liberty, safety, and prosperity of the whole was supposed to depend; and, in a word, he was ignorant of nothing which was necessary to constitute C uo ) the consummate statesman. To this was abided an extent of views, a comprehension of mind, and an energy of cha- racter peculiarly his own. All these were combined with a philanthropy which originated in a natural goodness of heart, improved and extended by historical knowledge, and personal observation, of the inestimable blessings which re- &ult from civil liberty, and from a wise administration of government, and of the miseries which accrue to mankind from unjust wars, from tyranny and persecution, and con- firmed by generous exertions in defence of the injured, in- sulted and oppressed ; so that what was originally nothing more than a natural bias of the mind, became by degrees a moral principle, and grew up into a fixed habit of univer- sal, active, and disinterested benevolence. " His eloquence, that divine eloquence, which aston- ished and captivated the world, consisted, not in pomp of diction nor in melody of sound : not merely in a happy selection of expressions, though the best and the most ap- propriate which the language could supply, spontaneously offered themselves to his use; not in dazzling the fancy with brilliant imagery ; not in bewildering the understanding with plausible sophistry ; not in flattering the prejudices of his hearers, nor in exciting false hopes or groundless terrors to render them blindly subservient to party-purposes — to such unworthy artifices his manly spirit disdained to stoop. His eloquence was of a nobler kind. Plain, nervous, energetic, vehement; it simplified what was complicate, it unravelled what was entangled, it cast light upon what was obscuret and through the understanding it forced its way to the heart. It came home to the sense and feelings of the hearer, and by a secret irresistible charm, it extorted the assent of those who were most unwilling to be convinced. And to crown all, this astonishing eloquence was uniformly exerted in the cause of liberty and justice, in defence of the oppres- sed and persecuted, and in vindicating the rights, the free- dom, and the happiness of mankind. " Political discrimination was another characteristic of this illustrious man. In questions of the utmost diffi- culty and delicacy, and of the greatest importance, such as ( HI ) have occurred in the present age beyond any former period, his penetrating mind hardly ever failed to distinguish with the greatest accuracy the right, the honourable, and the Useful ; and to steer an even course between opposite and perilous extremes. He was the friend of reform, but of temperate and peaceable reform. He was the advocate for peace; and had his counsels been pursued, they would pro- bably have ensured universal peace: but it was his avowed principle that even peace might be bought too dear; when it was purchased at the expence of the honour, the liberty, or the safety of the country. Tyranny in every shape was the object of his implacable aversion ; but he was equally an enemy to licentiousness and anarchy, and was a zealous supporter of the authority of the law as the only security of rational liberty; and in all the turbulence of the times, he seldom, if ever, failed to observe that temperate and guarded medium in which true political wisdom consists. " And tt) these splendid talents, this extraordinary man added an unaffected simplicity of manners, the character- istic of true greatness of soul, and an amiableriess of dispo- sition, which won the hearts of all who were honoured with his personal acquaintance. " Such are the faint and imperfect outlines of the pub- lic character of this incomparable man. His political ca- reer is still fresh in the memory of us all. Early in life he burst forth in all his glory, like the sun in his strength, in opposition to those measures by which America was se- parated from this country. And when his powerful efforts combined with all the talent and eloquence of the senate, seconded by the voice of the people, and enforced by the critical and alarming situation of the country, had driven the unwise and unfortunate authors and advisers of them from the councils of the sovereign, he occupied a very im- portant office in the new administration which was formed under the auspices of a distinguished nobleman*, whose eminent abilities and conciliatory spirit united many dis- * The Marquis of Rockingham. ( 142 ) cordant interests; but who, unfortunately for the country, died within a few months after he entered into office. Political cabals soon compelled Mr. Fox and his friends to quit the cabinet; and resentment for what he regarded as ungenerous treatment impelled him to a measure, which, though it restored him to power with a high hand, was condemned, perhaps, for want of attending to the circum- stances of the case, too severely condemned, by the general voice of the country. Nevertheless, in the pleniiude of his power, however acquired, it cannot be proved that he ever departed from those wise and liberal principles which he always professed ; and happy had it been for the country had he continued to direct its counsels. But power did not long remain in his hands ; and the manner in which he was dismissed from office will not soon be forgotten. Still, however, his adherents and supporters were numerous and powerful ; and his active and brilliant exertions in the cause of peace and liberty were gradually raising him again in the estimation of the public, when the grand and unparal- leled revolution which took place in a neighbouring country, like a terrific meteor, shot forth discord and confusion over the surrounding nations. In this unprecedented crisis, a system was pursued by this country directly the reverse of those mild, temperate, and conciliatory measures, which were recommended by this enlightened and liberal states- man ; who, in a celebrated publication written at the time in his own vindication, predicted with a precision little short of inspiration, the miserable consequences which en- sued. But so little regard was paid to his warning voice, that the country, seduced by the fascination of a delusive eloquence, as though it were under a supernatural infatua- tion, hurried into the opposite extreme. And this great man, this oracle of political wisdom, was left almost alone; neglected by the court; insulted by his enemies; deserted, with a few illustrious exceptions, by his friends; by those who used to look up to him for advice, and in whom he had been accustomed to place the greatest confidence; he was forsaken by the people, of whose rights and liberties he had ever been the fearless advocate : and was almost ( 143 ) proscribed as an enemy to his country. This severe disci- pline, so unexpected and so unmerited, gave the last polish to his sublime character. It purified his public principles. He now learned to practise patriotism for its own wake. His great mind rose superior to popular applause : and he persevered in the path of public duty, from a proud sense of honour and conscious rectitude ; from a regard to dig- nity and consistency of character; and from a high and generous principle of love to his country. Thus he per- sisted in exerting his amazing energies to enlighten, and to save from impending ruin, a people that turned a deaf ear to his earnest and benevolent remonstrances ; till, in the end, truth and reason, aided by his potent eloquence, and by the testimony of sad and dear-bought experience, gained a complete victory over prejudice and passion : and this great statesman enjoyed the peculiar felicity of living to see the loftiest of his opponents giving way to the cogency of his arguments ; and his illustrious rival himself acknow- ledging the wisdom of his political principles, earnestly soliciting his co-operation in the direction of the national counsels; and, almost, with his latest breath, recommend- ing him as the only person whose talents and energies were capable of extricating his country from an unparalleled crisis of difficulty and danger. Thus was this extraordi- nary man, by the unanimous voice of his sovereign and his country, summoned to take the helm of the state in the midst of a tempest, and in circumstances of the most im- minent peril; and had it been the will of Providence to have permitted him to carry into execution his magnificent designs, there can be little doubt that he would have steered his important charge into a safe and peaceful har- bour. But the felicity of being governed by his wise and energetic counsels was not reserved for Britain. The powers of animal nature sunk exhausted by the vigorous exertions of the mind; and the immense pressure of pub- lic business, and public care, broke down a constitution which already indicated symptoms of decay, and in a few months deprived his country of the most enlightened, li : bcral, and patriotic statesman, which this, or any other ( 144 ) age, or nation, could boast, before tbe mighty schemes re= volving in his breast could be matured and developed, and almost before any one of his wise and salutary measures could be carried into effect." Extract from a Sermon preached in the Parish Church of Richmond, in Surrey, October 12, 1806, by Charles Symmons, D. D. «' WITHIN the period of a few months, and at a crisis of fearful and portentous moment, Death has been peculiarly and awfully conversant with the illustrious of our land. In this short interval of time, we have seen the Minister, who for many successive years had presided over' our counsels, expire in the vigour of his age ; and we have seen also the hero, who had led our fleets in an uninter- rupted course of victory, fall in the great moment of tri- umph, and leave behind him only a name. The moon has circled only a few times round our earth since India shed the tear of bitter regret upon the ashes of our Cornwallis > and England and the world are now summoned to deplore their irretrievable loss in the genius and the beneficence of Fox. Yes, my Christian friends, not many* hours have elapsed since we heard the solemn words of the text pro- nounced over the mortal remains of, perhaps, the first states- man, if we respect the illumination of the head and the amplitude of the heart, to whom our island has yet given birth. Yes, my friends! the spectacle has only just passed from our eyes of the myriads of a great people standing in dumb sorrow to offer the last affecting testimony of their " * Not two entire days — Mr. F. being buried in the afternoon of the preceding Friday, October 10." ( H5 ) .gratitude and love to their friend and their benefactor. Yea, my friends ! the proud metropolis of Britain is scarcely yet recovered into activity, since the hearse of its patriot minister threw gloom over its streets, and we saw it with all its tumult and all its idleness, hushed and humbled by the imperious affliction. Grief sat upon the general coun- tenance; and, while the dust was committing to the dust, we beheld whatever was most exalted and dignified, in our country, by rank, by talents, or by virtues, weeping at the pathetic spectacle, which was presented to them of human instability, and weeping also for the miserable disappoint- ment of their own fondly cherished hopes of patriotism or of friendship. The scene was inexpressibly awful and im- pressive : the Genius of England appeared to hover over it in the majesty of sorrow, and the marble of the great Chat- ham, immediately overlooking the hallowed grave, seemed animated into speech; and, with the shades of the mighty dead, whose ashes crowded the venerable fane, in still and moying accents to say to his new associate, " Art, thou, also, become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us?" My Christian brethren! the influence of the scene still vi- brates in my nerves; and it is not easy for me to detach my thought from that friend of man, whose body I then saw delivered to the ground. Pardon me, therefore, if I indulge myself for a few minutes by pausing on a subject which adheres very closely to my heart. The consecrated place, in which I now stand, shall never be prostituted by me to the purposes of flattery: and who, my friends, would flatter the dead? The hand, which can no longer be ex- tended in benefit, will not be touched by the lip of the sycophant; and when we kindle incense upon the grave, the offering may be made to principle or to feeling, but never can it be intended as propitiatory of fortune. , Let me observe, then, that the statesman, whose loss we immediately deplore, and whose loss, under the present peculiar circumstances of the world, will be felt through an extent of space and of time not easily to be calculated, came early into public life; and, when the laws scarcely T ( 1« ) acknowledged him as man, discovered the ascendancy of his talents in the senate. If, in the first indiscretion of youth, he gave his support to a minister, who was subse- quently proved to be unworthy of it, he soon abandoned his error ; and, resigning himself, without any reserve, to his country, avowed by his conduct that he regarded the possession of power as an object of very subordinate consi- deration. From this moment, his life was one earnest strug- gle for the prosperity of Britain, and the best interests of his species, as they form the subjects of political institution. The views of his mind were elevated : its comprehension almost unlimited ; and, for the attainment of the great ends of his wisdom, the accuracy of his judgment always sug- gested the most effective means, and the virtuous pride of his heart uniformly the most honourable. His magnanimity rejected all the little arts, the lines3e, the subtilty, and the fraud of trivial statesmanship: he was too erect to stoop; too lofty to work in the low and dark mines of winding policy. His objects stood, at all times, confessed ; and he made his way to them under the broad eye of the day. His eloquence sprang immediately from his character. Disdainful of the cold artifice of the rhetorician, it aban- doned to other tongues the formal arrangement of sentences, and the laborious precision of declamation : it burst from its living source in rapid but clear argument, and bore away its audience in a stream of irresistible conviction. Adapted in every instance to the occasion, it was sometimes familiar, •sometimes pathetic, sometimes sublime; and, invariably addressing itself to the understanding, it frequently agitated the affection's, and frequently elevated the fancy. It culled no curious Mowers to amuse the idle eye : but it rushed forth, in the naked power of truth, to overthrow the strong and to confound the corrupt. *' During his short occupation of office, after the Ame- rican war, against which fatal measure his protest had been uniform and zealous, the grandeur of his benevolence threw itself across the ocean to the remote regions of the T^ast ; and there struggled with the oppression which crushed -*rTtrty millions of the human race. He attempted to wrest ( 147 ) the sceptre from the gripe of private avarice which had so long abused it, and by placing it in the immediate hand of Britain, to extend the renovating and fostering influence of her just and wise government to the desolated banks of the Ganges. The great minister was defeated, and fell with his object; and by one disastrous triumph of faction, ac- complished with the force of a deluded people, a large por- tion of mankind were remitted to their wretchedness, and England, during a series of disgraceful and unhappy years, was deprived of the services of the most able and affection- ate of her sons. " With all his plans, however, for the public good, disappointed ; deserted by the crowd of his political adher- ents; with his heart and his motives slandered, and even his darling popularity stolen from him by the successful enterprizes of fraud, his philanthropy and his love of his country remained undiminished. No opposition, no injuries- could excite him into acrimony, or infuse a drop of venom into his veins to taint the pure balminess of his blood. When a friend, on whom he hung with almost idolatrous regard, broke from him in the paroxysm of political mad- ness, and with curious cruelty explored, in his attack on him, every avenue to pain, far from repelling enmity with enmity, he discovered his sensibilities of wrong only with tears and with intreaties ; and he subsequently wept, with a pertinacity of affection almost without example, over the sepulchre of that very man, who had unrelentingly spurned all his offers of reconciliation, and who, with re- ference to him, had expired in the bitterness of resent- ment. " Of all the circumstances of his varied lite, this cir- cumstance alone, of violated and insulted friendship, could penetrate with anguish to his heart. He was, indeed, so affluent in self-resource that his long exclusion from power could be considered only as the misfortune of his country. With a bosom fortified with the consciousness of integrity ; with an exquisite taste and capacity for the intellectual luxuries of literature ; happy in the invincible attachment of the most valuable friends; and gratified with the Uoisa- ( H8 ) tiatin" indulgence of the benevolent and social affections, his felicity was completely independent of an ungrateful and misjudging world. Whatever was beyond the precincts of his retirement and the circle of his private intercourse, was too remote and weak to strike him with a deep wound, or to give any effectual shock to his enjoyment. " Truth compels us to acknowledge that he had faults ; but they were faults unallied to malignity or to meanness ; they were the genuine offspring of his warm and sanguine nature ; and they flowed from the same fertile region, from which many of his virtues drew their source: they were faults which have been discovered in some of the most elevated and the most amiable of our imperfect kind : they Vverc faults, in short, which, if we must deplore, we iind jt impossible to resent. " To the final act of his interesting life he maintained, vith unfaltering consistency, the dignified distinction of his character. When called at a late— a very late period, by his Sovereign, to a lead in the national counsels, he cheer- fully surrendered his decline, as he had formerly his vi- gorous maturity, to the paramount requisition of his country; and a solicitude for her happiness, with that of the whole human race, formed the last actuating passion of his heart. Sensible of the fatal decay of his constitution, he has been heard to declare that he should die happy if he could previously obtain peace, honourable peace for Britain, and for man the abolition of the slave-trade! Gracious God ! we bend in submission to thy will : we ac- knowledge thine infinite wisdom, and we adore thy right- eous though inscrutable dispensations: but, when the little passions of the present day are extinct and forgotten, remote generations shall lament that it was thy pleasure to take away from thy favoured land, in the very moment when he was most required, this efficient instrument of thy bene- volence ; and shall reverently ask of thee why thine oeco- nomy has only once, in a long succession of ages, imparted to an individual of our species so powerful a genius to design, and so ardent a desire to accomplish the purposes of good. ( 149 ) u But, disappointed as he was, by his hurried doom, of the last darling objects of his pursuit, this exalted mortal died happy : his latest breath indulged us with this consol- ing truth : he died with the blessed hope of the Christian, and he felt only for the wretchedness of those who were to survive him." Extract from the Morning Chronicle of September 18, 1806. ** CHARACTER OF MR. PITT AND MR. FOX, BY MR. EDGEWORTH ; Extracted from a Pamphlet published in 1797? entitled, 'A Letter to the Earl of Charlcmont, on the Telegraph, and on the Defence of Ireland.' " IT requires but little skill in prophecy to foresee that in these times of danger, when the minds of numbers are awake to the conduct of Government, no Minister will long maintain his power, who trusts to the left-handed wisdom of duplicity, who is prodigal in all that concerns the in- terests of his own party, and economic, not to say avari- cious, in all that concerns the happiness of a people and the safety of a kingdom. The character of the Minister, contrasted with that of his distinguished political Rival in a period original and unprecedented, makes the danger of this little, paltry and futile policy, the more evident and palpable — That such conduct may not be too fatally ex- tended to the rejection of other projects for the defence and safety of the kingdom, it may not be without its use im- partially to delineate -the characters of those who guide the Empire. ( 150 ) " Two rival Statesmen divide the opinion of the public opposite in temperament, education, system, and in what- ever constitutes character. — Shaded by the prophetic mantle of his father, there was, in the first appearance of the one, something of sublimity; splendid abilities, unusual sanctity of manners, bespoke and justified the confidence of his country.— Raised at once to a high station, pressed by bu- siness that must be instantly performed, he was obliged to accept of assistance from men hackneyed in the ways of office, and by degrees was compelled to relinquish the fa- vourite, honourable resolutions of his youth.— He did not consort with men who maiked his first deviations Courtiers are not always furnished with a moral plumb-rule to adjust the rectitude of a friend, though they sometimes apply it rather awkwardly to detect the obliquity of an enemy. The unbounded confidence of the public tempted the frailty of his nature, and he scrupled not to impose a little upon, the people, who had imposed so much upon themselves. " The other Statesman had a character to make. With the exuberant animation which usually accompanies ge- jdus, he ran the eccentric round of dissipation.— But this to him was a short and salutary experiment ; the same social nature at his first entrance upon his political career led him to tolerate, perhaps to imitate his companions : but his taste and judgment soon disdained the mean arts and sordid ob- jects of inferior ambition. His moral character has been gradually formed by the conviction of his understanding, and perhaps not a single year has been added to his life, which has not added to his virtue. " The philosophic eye will perceive the influence of character, not only in the conduct of affairs, but in the deliberation of the Senate. When the melodious voice of the Minister steals upon the ear, when he leads us ' through many a bout of lengthened sweetness,' far away from the object which we sought, we feel as if our understandings had been convinced, when our senses only have been grati- fied. When he assumes the tone of argument, we admire the lucid order, the beautiful connection, the high polish pf his orations. It is true the parts are put together with ( 151 ) dexterity ; the joinings and defects in the materials are exquisitely concealed by workmanship. The varnish is no delicate, that no rude hand ventures to deface it. But, when it yields to time, and reveals the wretched materials which it covered, we are amazed to see so much skill and ingenuity bestowed upon such a worthless fabric. " His opponent rises — we forget the orator, and sympa- thize with every feeling of the man. With the energy of a master-hand he strikes out at every blow a distinct idea. He never spins the sli»ht gossamir of sophistry, to catch the feeble and fluttering attention ; but, with Herculean nerve, we see him forge out, link by link, the chain of demonstra- tion. There is no pause, no respite, till the massive length is complete, and riveted round the mind- " In a commercial nation* it is natural to look more to the Financier than to the Statesman ; but these are not times when fiscal abilities can save an empire. Ministers who have furnished their memories with statistical tables, and all the detail of diplomatic learning, are well qualified, in times of tranquillity, to trim the balance of Europe, and to calculate its nice librations : but in the hour of tem- pest and danger, we abandon these refined speculations: we look for a Statesman, who, when he finds himself hur- ried on by the irresistible current of affairs, governs himself by a bolder prudence, and who, whilst the storm rages, dares to rely on the rapid suggestions of a vigorous and comprehensive mind." Extract from Mr. Sheridan s Speech, addressed to the Electors of Westminster on the ISth of Sep- tembcr, and inserted in the Morning Chronicle of September 19, 1806. " IN addressing you upon this occasion, I am afraid that before I proceed to the few observations which I feel ( 152 ) it my duty to submit to you, I shall be obliged to com- mence with a request which I am almost ashamed to make — for your indulgence, if in consequence of a short but sharp indisposition, from which I am just recovering, my voice should not be strong enough to be clearly audible to the full extent of this large assembly. Upon that subject which must fill all your minds — upon the merits of that il- lustrious man, whose death has occasioned the present meet- ing, I shall, I can say but little. There must be some in- terval between the heavy blow that has been struck, and the consideration of its effect, before any one (and how many are there of those) who have revered and loved Mr. Fox as I have done, can speak of his death with the feeling but manly composure which becomes the dignified regret it ought to inspire. To you, however, Gentlemen, it cannot be necessary to describe him — for you must have known him well. To say any thing to you at this moment, in the first hours of your unburthened sorrows, must be unneces- sary, and almost insulting. His image is still present be- fore you — his virtue is in your hearts — his loss is your despair. *■ , " I have seen in one of the Morning Papers, what are stated to have been the last words of this great man,— ' I die happy ;' then, turning to the dearest objects of his affection, ' I pity you.' But had another moment been al- lowed him, and had the modesty of his great mind per- mitted it, well might he have expressed his compassion, not for his private friends only, but for the world — well might he have said, ' I pity you, I pity England, I pity Europe, I pity the human race.' For to mankind at large his death must be a source, of regret, whose life was em- ployed to promote their benefit. He died in the spirit of peace, struggling to extend it to the world. Tranquil in his own mind, he cherished to the last, with a parental soli- citude, the consoling hope to give tranquillity to nations. Let us trust that that stroke of death which has borne him from us, may not have left peace, and the dignified cha- rities of human nature, as it were, orphans upon the world. From this afflicting consideration, I pass to one ( 153 ) comparatively insignificant, yet it is the question we are met this day to consider, namely, the pretensions of those who have the presumption to aspire to succeed him. An Honourable Friend has proposed me as a person worthy of that proud distinction. I cannot deny but that it is an ob- ject of ambition, unmixed, I think, with one unworthy motive, very near to my heart. I have received a friendly, though public, caution, that I may risk the confidence and attachment of my friends at Stafford by such a pursuit. I thank my monitor for his anxiety on that account, but he may rest assured that I know my constituents better. I have before declined an offer of support for this city upon a general election. My gratitude and devotion to my friends at Stafford bind me to seek no other. I have been six times chosen by them, which is a proof, at least, that when Once elected I am not quarrelsome with my constitu- ents. To attend to their wishes must of course be an object of my peculiar solicitude, and to continue to represent them, the favourite pursuit of my ambition, even more, per- haps, than that of the representation of Westminster. But it is not inconsistent with that sentiment, nor can it be of- fensive to the feelings of my constituents, that 1 should have offered myself to your notice upon this occasion. For my constituents must feel, that it is one thing to be the repre- sentative of Westminster, and another to be the successor of Mr. Fox. That, I own, I cannot but consider as an ob- ject of the highest importance, of which, if I were not am- bitious, I must be insensible. Upon the present awful oc- casion, with such feelings as I know are clinging to your minds, hoping at most to palliate a loss irreparable— yet, searching with affectionate diligence how best to do so, to have been the object of your deliberate selection, would, I feci, have been to me an inspiring motive, beyond all or- dinary encouragement, to have shewn myself not unworthy of the proud preference you had bestowed upon me. I fear hot but that my friends at Stafford would have fully entered into this feeling, and not have considered my deva*. tion by you as a desertion of them. U ( 154 ) " Having thus avowed my ambition, or my presump* tion, as some have been heard to call it, I have now to speak of my pretences. Egotism is always offensive, and I am happy that my Learned Friend has left me little or nothing to say on this head He has stated, and I avow and adopt his statement, that my claim to your favour rests on the fact that I have, step by step, followed Mr. Fox through the whole course of his political career, and to the best of my poor abilities, supported him in every one of those measures, and in the maintenance of every one of those principles which originally recommended him to, and so long continued him in your confidence and esteem. It is true there have been occasions upon which I have dif- fered with him — painful recollection of the most painful moments of my political life! Nor were there wanting those who endeavoured to represent those differences as a depar- ture from the homage which his superior mind, though un- claimed by him, were entitled to, and the allegiance of friendship which our hearts all swore to him ; but never was the genuine and confiding texture of his soul more manifest than on such occasions ; he knew that nothing on earth could separate or detach me from him; and he resented insinuations against the sincerity and integrity of a friend, which he would not have noticed had they been pointed against himself. With such a man to have battled in the cause of genuine liberty— with such a man to have struggled against the inroads of oppression and corruption — with such an example before me, to have to boast that I never in my life gave one vote in Parliament that was not on the side of freedom, is the congratulation that attends the retrospect of my public life. His friendship was the pride and honour of my days. I never, for one moment, regretted to share with him the difficulties, the calumnies, and sometimes even the danger^ that attended an honour- able course. And now, reviewing my past political life, were the option possible that I should retread the path, I solemnly and deliberately declare, that I would prefer to pursue the same course — to bear up under the same pressure — to abide by the same principles— and remain by ( 155 ) his side, an exile from power, distinction and emolument, rather than be, at this moment, a splendid example of suc- cessful servility, or prosperous apostacy — though, clothed with powers, honours, titles, and gorged with sinecures and wealth obtained from the plunder of the people." Extract from the London Chronicle of November 25, 1806. " CHARACTER OF MR. FOX. " CHARLES JAMES FOX was for thirty-two years a principal leader in the debates and discussions of the Eng- lish House of Commons. The eminent transactions of his life lay within those walls ; and so many of his Countrymen as were accustomed to hear his speeches there, or have habitually read the abstracts which have been published of them, are in possession of the principal materials by which this extraordinary man is to be judged. " Fox is the most illustrious model of a Parliamentary Leader on the side of liberty that this Country has pro- duced. This character is the appropriate glory of Eng- land, and Fox is the proper example of this character. " England has been called, ' The land of liberty and good sense.' We have preserved many of the advantages of a free people, which the Nations of the Continent have long since, lost. Some of them have made wild and intemperate? sallies for the recovery of all those things which are most valuable to man in society, but their efforts have not been attended with the happiest success. There is a sobriety in the English People, particularly in accord with the pos- session of freedom. We are somewhat slow, and somewhat silent ; but beneath this outside we have much of reflection, much of firmness, a consciousness of power and of worth. ( 136 ) a spirit of frank dealing and plain speaking, and a moder- ate and decent sturdiriess of temper not easily to be de- luded or subdued. " For thirty-two years Fox hardly ever opened his mouth in Parliament, but to assert, in some form or other, the cause of liberty and mankind, and to repel tyranny in its various shapes, and protest against the incroachments of power. Jn the American War, in the questions of reform at home which grew out of the American War, and in the successive scenes which were produced by the'French Re* volution, Fox was still found the perpetual advocate of freedom. He endeavoured to secure the privileges and the happiness of the people of Asia, and the people of Africa. In Church and State his principles were equally favourable to the cause of liberty. Englishmen can no where find the sentiments of freedom unfolded and amplified in more ani- mated language, or in a more consistent tenor, than in the recorded Parliamentary Debates of Fox. Many have called in question his prudence, and the praticability of his poli- tics in some of their branches : none have succeeded in fixing a stain upon the truly English temper of his heart. " The reason why Fox excelled in this reign Wil- liam Pulteney, and other eminent leaders of Opposition, in the reign of George the Second, was, that his heart beat in accord to sentiments of liberty. The character of the English Nation has improved since the year 1760. The two first Kings of the House of Hanover, did not as- pire to the praise of encouragers of English literature, and had no passion for the fine arts; and their Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, loved nothing, nor pretended to under- stand any thing but finance, commerce, and peace. His opponents caught their tone from his, $nd their debates rather resembled those of the directors of a great trading company, than of men who were concerned with the pas- sions, the morals, the ardent sentiments, and the religion of a generous and enlightened Nation. The English seemed fast degenerating into such a people as the Dutch ; but Burke and Fox, and other eminent characters not neces- sary to be mentioned here, redeemed us from the imminent ( 157 ) depravity, and lent their efforts to make us the worthy in- habitants of a soil which had produced a Shakespeare, a Bacon, and a Milton. " Fox, in addition to the generous feelings of his heart, possessed, in a supreme degree, the powers of an acute lo- gician. He seized with astonishing rapidity, the defects of his antagonist's arguments, and held them up in the most striking point of ridicule. He never misrepresented what his opponent had said, or attacked his accidental oversights, but fairly met and routed him when he thought himself strongest. Though he had at no time studied law as a profession, he never entered the lists in reasoning with a lawyer, that he did not shew himself superior to the gowned pleader at his own weapons. It was this singular junction of the best feelings of the. human heart, with the acutest powers of the human understanding, that made Fox the wonderful creature he was. " Let us compare William Pitt in office, and Charles James Fox out of it ; and endeavour to decide upon their respective claims to the gratitude of posterity. Pitt was surrounded with all that can dazzle the eye of a vulgar spectator; he possessed the plenitude of power; during a part of his reign, he was as nearly despotic as the Minister of a mixed Government can be: he dispensed the gifts of the Crown ; he commanded the purse of the Nation ; he wielded the political strength of England. Fox during al- most all his life had no part of these advantages. " It has been said, that Pitt preserved his Country from the anarchy and confusion which from a neighbouring Nation threatened to infect us. This is a very doubtful proposition. It is by no means clear that the English peo- ple could ever have engaged in so wild, indiscriminate, ferocious, and sanguinary a train of conduct as was exhi- bited by the people of France. It is by no means clear that the end which Pitt is said to have gained, could not have been accomplished without such bloody wars, such formidable innovations on the liberties of Englishmen, such duplicity, unhallowed dexterity and treachery, and so an- -!. desertion of all the principles with which the ( 158 ) Minister commenced his political life as Pitt employed. Meanwhile it was the simple, ingenuous and manly office of Fox to protest against the madness and the despotical proceedings of his rival in administration: and, if he could not successfully counteract the measures of Pitt; the hon- our at least is due to him, to have brought out the English character not fundamentally impaired, in the issue of the most arduous trial it was ever called to sustain. *? The eloquence of these two renowned Statesmen well corresponded with the different parts they assumed in pub- lic life. The eloquence of Pitt was cold and artificial. The complicated, yet harmonious, structure of his periods, bespoke the man of contrivance and study. No man knew so well as Pitt how to envelope his meaning in a cloud of words, whenever he thought obscurity best adapted to his purpose. No man was so skilful as Pitt to answer the questions of his adversary without communicating the smallest information. He was never taken off his guard. If Pitt ever appeared in some eyes to grow warm as he proceeded, it was with a measured warmth; there were not any starts, and sallies, and sudden emanations of the soul ; he seemed to be as much under the minutest regulation in the most vehement swellings and apostrophes of his speech, as in his coldest calculation. " Fox, as an orator, appeared to come immediately from the forming hand of nature. He spoke well, because he felt strongly and earnestly. His oratory was impetuous as the current of the River Rhone; nothing could arrest its course. His voice would insensibly rise to too high a key ; he would run himself out of breath. Every thing showed how little artifice there was in his eloquence* Though on all great occasions he was throughout energetic, yet it was by sudden flashes and emanations that he elec- trified the heart, and shot through the blood of his hearer. I have seen his countenance lighten up with more than mortal ardour and goodness ; I have been present when his voice has been suffocated with the sudden bursting forth of a torrent of tears. ** The love of freedom which marks the public proceed- ( 159 ) ings of Fox, is exactly analagous to the natural temper of his mind : he seemed born for the cause which his talents were employed to support. He was the most unassuming of mankind- He was so far from dictating to others, that it was often imputed to him, though perhaps erroneously, that he suffered others to dictate to him. No man ever ex- isted more simple, in his manners, more single-hearted, or less artificial in his carriage. The set phrases of what is called polished life, made no part of his ordinary speech ; he courted no man; he practised adulation to none. No- thing was in more diametrical opposition to the affected than the whole of his behaviour. His feelings in thenv- selves, and in the expression of them, were, in the most honourable sense of the word, childlike. Various anec- dotes might be related of his innocent and defenceless man- ners in private and familiar life, which would form the most striking contrast with the vulgar notions of the studied and designing demeanour of a Statesman. This was the man that was formed to defend the liberties of Englishmen : his public and his private life are beautiful parts of a con- sistent whole, and reflect mutual lustre on each other. " To conclude, Fox is the - always animated with the spirit of liberty, of virtue, and ol truth His mouth spoke out of the fullness of his heart Amplification is the privilege of orators; but Mr. F< x v as not ;. t t>-< swell common objects beyond their na- ture' dimensions. No speaker was ever less addicted to b< m >ast When the speeches of Mr. Pitt are stripped of then gorgeous apparel, but few ideas are left; and, those ( 173 ) poor emaciated forms without any blood in their veins or flesh upon their bones. But the speeches of Mr. I ox are remarkable for fullness ot thought. The ideas are not lost in a superfluity of words. There is not a swell of sound and an inanity of sense. The accurate knowledge of gene- ral nature, which Mr. Fox possessed, caused him to sprin- kle his speeches with those maxims of philosophic truth which, deduced from the constituti >n ot the world, and the complex relations of human lite, are fitted to come home to men's interests and bosoms. Even the abstractions of Mr. Fox teem with practical life; th t Vid. Leland's Life of Philip, book iii. section 2, and the marginal references to .ZEschines. ( 205 ) " up Philip's mouth with a dried bulrush,*'^ yet he was scared into confusion and silence by that grandeur' of mien which he for the first time wit- nessed in the man of Macedon, and bv the no- velty of his own situation, when speaking, not before a coarse and giddy populace, but a reso- lute, sagacious, and mighty monarch. Mr. Fox, on the contrary, had not learned his manners, as Demosthenes did, in the school of tumultuous assemblies, or from the lessons of noisy dema- gogues — He was himself a gentleman much above the common level, both by birth and con- nections — He, from his boyhood, had lived with ministers, and the adherents of ministers — In his youth he had visited the most polished courts in Europe, and as the society of princes and nobles was familiar to him, he had acquired the habits of politeness without servility, and freedom without impertinence — In the presence of young Amnion's son*, he, in all probabilit}-, would not have carried one shoulder too high, nor have imitated the soothsayer, who, for the purpose of adulation, violated the idiom of the Greek language f — In the palace of Augustus he would not have meanly cast down his head to gratify an emperor who prided himself on the piercing brightness of his eyes — In transacting business of state with Charles the Sixth, he * Vid. Preface to Pope's Satires, f Vid. Plutarch, in Vit. Alexand. ( 206 ) would not have gone away satisfied with the confused, inarticulate, unmeaning gibberish which that sovereign employed to disguise his own thoughts, and to put ambassadors under the necessity of standing aloof. Though free from the arrogant temper of Chrysippus*, he might have so far resembled that philosopher, as not to dedicate any of his writings to scep- tered patrons. But surely the man in whom the asperitas\ agrest/s et inconcinna was never seen in Ins intercouse with equals or inferiors, was the most unlikely person in the world to gratify his pride or his spleen, by presuming to tell a king not " to stand between himself and the sun." He had been accustomed to pay honour to persons of all ranks, wheresoever ho- nour was due, nor could he upon any occasion forget that in this country, where the kingly office is the jn-eat fountain of external distinc- tion, Usage and Laws have wisely appointed every mark of external homage, which gesture or language can express. He had not, I must acknowledge, the same pretensions to urbanity with that smooth courtier J, the humble servant to " all human kind, who when his tongue could H scarce stir, brought out this, * If where I'm "going, I could serve you, Sir?' He is said - Virl. Diogcn. Laert. lib. vii. segn. 185. t Vid. Horace, Epistle 18. lib. i. \ See Pope's Moral Essays, Epistle 1. ( 207 ) to have dealt not very profusely, " in the holi- (t day* and lady terms" which warble in a chaw- ing room — Perhaps in the hearing of majesty it- self, he sometimes delivered, and enforced his own opinions, with that earnestness which became a great man, discharging great duties, and with that plainness of air, and tone, and diction, which is not very usually found among those who crouch that they may be noticed or rewarded, and flatter, though they would not hesitate to betray — This, I am confident, was the very head and " front of his offending f," and no more ; for no more did I ever hear from persons, whose high situation gave them easy and frequent ac- cess to their sovereign, and some of whom were not much prejudiced in favour of Mr. Fox. You and I, dear Sir, have more than once been annoyed with the story, and were it true, we should blush for our friend — But I have never been able to trace it beyond the prattle of those gaudy triflers, whose busy hum, and mischievous whispers ought not to be tolerated for one mo- ment, in quarters where the temptations to lying are so strong, the opportunities so numerous, and the consequences so pernicious. Let us then dismiss the silly tale, as unworthy not only of the smallest credit, but the smallest attention, from men of sense and honour— Let us leave it in full * Vid. Act I, Parti, of Henry IV, f Vid, OthdJ*. ( 208 ) possession of one privilege to which it really is entitled — the privilege of being reported only by the malevolent, and believed only by the foolish. Mr. Fox knew well that, not only among ourselves, but in ages less enlightened, and in countries less free, than our own, some men might acquire a strong partiality towards theo- ries in favour of republicanism, from the peculiar structure of their minds, or the peculiar course of their studies. But he also knew, that upon questions of such magnitude, virtuous men pause before they press forward from theory to practice, and that rash men would be most effectually ap- peased or restrained, if statesmen, neither flatter- ing the prince, nor deceiving the people, would adhere to the genuine principles of the constitu- tion, lie knew yet farther, that a government administered according to those principles, must have little to fear from visionary projectors, or turbulent demagogues — that by the evidence of " o-ood works" it could soon " put to silence <4 the ignorance of foolish men;" that confiding in its own rectitude, and its own strength, it would be slow to infer wicked intention from erroneous opinion, slow to employ severity ra- ther than lenity, even as the instrument of pre- vention, slow to accuse unless it were able to convict, and slow to punish, unless it were un- able to reclaim. If these be wrongs, the blame seems to lie with Nature for disposing Mr. Fox ( 209 ) to commit them, and with the constitution for supplying him with so many reasons to think himself right. Mr. Fox, though not an adept in the use of political wiles, was very unlikely to be the dupe of them. — He was conversant in the ways of man, as well as in the contents of books. — He was acquainted with the peculiar language of states, their peculiar forms, and the grounds and effects of their peculiar usages. — From his ear- liest youth, he had investigated the science of politics in the greater and the smaller scale — He had studied it in the records of history, both popular and rare, in the conferences of ambas- sadors, in the archives of royal cabinets, in the minuter detail of memoirs, and in collected or straggling anecdotes of the wrangles, intrigues, and cabals, which springing up in the secret recesses of courts, shed their baneful influence on the determinations of sovereigns, the fortune of favorites, and the tranquillity of kingdoms. — But that statesmen of all ages, like priests of all religions, are in all respects alike, is a doctrine the propagation of which he left, as an inglori. ous privilege, to the misanthrope, to the recluse, to the factious incendiary, and to the unlettered multitude. For himself, he thought it no very extraordinary stretch of penetration or charity, to admit that human nature is every where ( 210 ) nearly as capable of emulation in good, as iii evil. — He boasted of no verv exalted heroism, in opposing the calmness and firmness of con- scious integrity, to the shuffling and slippery movements, the feints in retreat, and feints in advance, the dread of being over-reached, or detected in attempts to over-reach, and all the other humiliating and mortifying anxieties of the most accomplished proficients in the art of diplomacy. — He reproached himself for no guilt, when he endeavoured to obtain that respect and confidence, which the human heart unavoidably feels in its intercourse with persons, who nei- ther wound our pride, nor take aim at our happiness, in a war of hollow and ambiguous words. — He was sensible of no weakness in be- lieving that politicians, who, after all, " know " only as they are known," may, like other hu- man beings, be at first the involuntary crea- tures of circumstances, and seem incorrigible from the want of opportunities or incitements to correct themselves; that bereft of the pleas usually urged in vindication of deceit, by men who are fearful of being deceived, they, in their official dealings with him, would not wan- tonly lavish the stores they had laid up for huckstering in a traffic, which ceasing to be profitable, would begin to be infamous; and that possibly, here and there, if encouraged by ex- ample, they might leanv to prefer the shorter ( 211 ) process, and surer results of plain dealing, to the delays, the vexations, and the uncertain or tran- sient success, both of old-fashioned and new- fangled chicanery. In these sentiments, which evinced at once his penetration and his liberality, Mr. Fox had the concurrence of a friend, who had reached, I believe, his sixtieth year, without having had recourse to deceit in his own personal or profes- sional intercourse with society, and without en- vying the exploits of the most skilful and for- tunate deceivers. Many, he would say, are the errors, and many the faults, which leave room for a man to rally after detection, and to regain the good opinion of others, or to bear up against their censures. But forlorn indeed is the condi- tion of cunning, when left defenceless by the failure of its own spells, it has been dragged into open day. In a moment the sorceress shrinks into a crippled, ugly, dwarfish hag, excites con- tempt without appeasing suspicion, and is hunted down with derision, by the brave for its deform- ity, and by the timorous for its impotency. For political investigation, in which princi- ples and the practical decisions resting on them, often hinge upon a single phrase, Mr. Fox was qualified, not merely by his prompt recollection of parallel cases recorded in history, or preserved in state papers, but by his just and distinct conceptions of those abstract terms, whicl), ( 212 ) though employed very frequently, are sometimes understood very imperfectly. Power, he was well aware, though it does not enter as an in- tegral part, into our notion of right, is an inse- parable adjunct to it, and in scholastic language may be denominated the conditional cause; for who would seriously insist upon a right, without having any present, or expecting any future power to use that which he now possesses, or that which he would hereafter obtain ? Would not right, if under such circumstances it deserved the name, be at once barren to individuals and injurious to society? While it produced no ma- terials for additional advantage to the claimant, would it not lessen the general stock of happi- ness, by excluding other occupiers, whose ta- lents or labours employed upon the object, would contribute to the increase of that stock? In practice, then, mischief arises, not from the mere act of uniting the idea of power with the idea of right, but from the untoward propensity of mankind to make their own rights co-exten- sive with their ozvn powers — from their propen* sity to envy and undermine the superior pre- tensions of others, when they can be enforced by superior might — from their propensity to des- pise, and to tread under foot such pretensions, while they lean for support upon reason alone. The propensities here enumerated, and other causes which more or less co-operate with them, ( 213 ) the absence of an intelligent, patient, and up- right mediator, dissembled ambition in the stronger party, ill-timed sturdiness in the weaker, habits of inveterate jealousy in both, caprice roving after experiments, obstinacy clinging to precedents, stern commands from sovereigns, and wry instructions from ministers — these are the obstacles, which, for the most part, clog political negociations, and which occasion aston- ishment and chagrin to superficial observers, at their tardy progression, sudden interruptions, and unexpected or unwelcome issues. Whatsoever subtlety some men may affect, and whatsoever distinctions other men may confound in their words; yet, in their actions they rarely contend for rights, without looking directly or indirectly to expediency, to good to be now enjoyed and protected, or good to be hereafter attained and secured. In public, no doubt, as in private affairs, the general fact is that utility, upon the whole, is the measure of duty ; and the general rule is, that duty itself is to be preferred to some immediate gratifica- tion supposed to be within our reach, upon the ground of its tendency to procure some distant gratification of higher value. But the difficulty lies in seeing the ultimate connection between utility and duty, in marking the intermediate relations of their several parts, in forming a right judgment upon the objects which successively ( 214 ) present themselves to our minds before we chuse finally, in keeping oar attention steadily fixed upon those judgments, and in guarding against the undue influence of circumstances fortuitously or slightly conjoined in our apprehensions, with means, during the process of deliberation, or with ends, at the moment of election. Now, dear Sir, if Mr. Fox, in his discus- sions upon state affairs opened to each party a safe and honourable path, by which the expect- ations of each might be gratified, without the ignominy of compulsory flight, or the hazards of protracted contest — if, in asserting rights, he not only looked to their origin and past effects, but was disposed to modify them in prudent and honest accommodation to the present in- terests and the present condition of the parties — if he heard without impatience, the proposals, or objections, or pretensions of men grown hoary in watching and working the complex machinery of politics — If he answered them without haughtiness, or indecision, or duplicity — if he set before them the clearest and largest views of expediency itself— let us not judge so harshly of our common nature, as to imagine that he was indebted for his success, solely and exclusively to the operation of principles un- mixedly selfish. By enabling men to under- stand more than they understood before, he got the power of persuading them to act better i 215 ) than they would otherwise have acted. By meeting them fairly and dispassionately, on the grounds upon which they had heen accustomed to reason, he induced them to follow him the more readily, when he went on to other and stronger ""rounds. He drew their assent to his opinions in a current of thinking so smooth, or with transitions so easy, as to make their very conversion appear to themselves the legi- timate effect of their own knowledge, and their own reflection. He gradually, and almost im- perceptibly loosened the bonds which held them in captivity to prejudice, to habit, or even to confused and narrow perceptions of their real good. He thus prepared them for being di- rectly and voluntarily actuated by that sense of justice, which is suspended, not destroyed, by the first tumultuous suggestions of self interest, which engages pride, not vanity, as an auxiliary to sound discretion, and which infuses even into political measures, a kind of conscious security, and conscious dignity, not very often derived from calculations of loss and gain — from a spi- rit, which, let it resist systematically or irregu- larly, may itself be resisted indefinitely — from rampant eagerness to grasp, and from churlish reluctance to concede. Looking upon force as the first expedient usually adopted by coarser minds, but the last upon which men truly enlightened will fix ( 216 ) their choice, and sensible of the illusions and reciprocal injuries which arise from the want of a common umpire in enforcing the laws of nations, Mr. Fox always found a faithful arbiter within his own bosom. To the decisions of that arbiter he appealed, in some perplexing ne- gociations between his own and foreign coun- tries. In conducting them, he entered into the feelings and views of other men, without dissem- bling his own. He compared that which under all circumstances each might demand, with that which each might concede. He rescued con- cession itself from every debasing appearance of submission. He strengthened his own title to the ultimate attainment, or the undisturbed use of great and lasting advantages, by the sacrifice of such as are subordinate, fleeting, or dubious ; and he averted the odium which attends superior power, by subjecting the exercise of it to the sacred supremacy of reason. He anticipated, and sometimes experienced the loss of popula- rity and of station, for venturing to sustain the part which alone would make him deserving of either ; and he sought for repose in the ap- probation of his own mind. But if patriotism upon other occasions, and by other men, were thus tempered by justice, would governments be less stable, ministers less praiseworthy, sub- jects less prosperous, or princes less venerable? All profess to admire the same plain rule which ( 217 ) he followed, and misguided by ambition or self* ishness, they hastily condemned him for follow- ing it openly and constantly. Mr. Fox des- pised, as I do, the quaint devices of that philan- thropy, which cast into deep shade the virtue of loving our country, and tricked out ill garish confusion, the social relations of one people to another. But he cherished that love most sin- cerely, and he applied it to the best uses, by his profound knowledge, and resolute observance of the duties which those relations prescribe. Our friend, as I have often remarked to you, had deeply explored the essential and character- istic properties of mixed governments, and upon balancing their comparative conveniencies and inconveniencies, he avowedly preferred them* to the more simple forms. He saw in them more correctives for occasional abuses, and more in- herent powers for general co-operation in the maintenance of social order. Yet he was aware, that sometimes from the slow, and sometimes from the sudden, operation of external circum- stances, liberty may degenerate into licentious- ness, and loyalty into servility, and from tem- perament, as well as reflection, he avoided, and exhorted others to avoid, both extremes. * In the wayward passions, and jarring interests of mankind, he saw all the latent sources from which " offences must come," and without hav- e e ( 218 irig recourse to the judicial interpositions of Heaven, be believed that from the fearful and wonderful efficacy of those unalterable and irre- sistible laws which govern the affairs of king- doms, evil, sooner or later, would overtake the real aggressor. Upon controverted questions of war, he said with more consistency than John- son, and with more sincerity, perhaps, than some of his contemporaries, " cuncta prius tentanda;" and separating necessity from convenience, he acted up to his professions upon several trying occasions. But as to peace, he loved it, he sought it, he " ensued" it, he was largely gifted .with the " sweetest phrase*" of it, because to himself, as well as to some unknown personage in a work which he read with fondness, Peace seemed to include all the constituents of that good, which philosophers have vainly sought in other quarters, and speciously represented under other names. Gifted with a faculty of presage not often equalled, in marking the signs of the times, and the bearings of general causes upon particular situations, he wished reform every where set up as a barrier against swift and sweeping destruction ; and in order to facilitate tbf attainment of it at home, he enlisted himself, not in a ruffian band of Democrats, but in f the " noble army" of Patriots. * Vid. Oihello. ( 219 ) Hence, at a juncture to which my thoughts will often be turned, because it forms a memor- able aera in his life, he took the station pointed out to him by his judgment and his feelings. Favoured by little assistance from partizans, and having no other guidance than his own sense of imperious duty, he was reviled by all bad men ; and even by some good men he was blamed for unseasonable and unbecoming per- tinacity. Yet his candour prevented him from scoffing at the mistakes and prepossessions of other men with rude contempt — His good sense and his good nature did not permit him to slight the censure of those whom he had been accus- tomed to esteem — He was pierced with sorrow — not paralysed by fear — and he journeyed on- ward, though wild beasts from the forest yelled around him, and though Ss,v to 3('««jov, padiov to aXYiQss-figaxug b eXeyxos*, If for prudential, or any other reasons, they did not chuse to make the offenders amenable to law, would they have been tardy to assist in lowering the parliamentary, and the popular importance of a man, who had not only disap- pointed them in Russia, but, with a charge of treason hanging over his head, had ventured to oppose them about the affairs of France? If their own proceedings had been perfectly right, was it not their interest, as well as their duty, some- how or other to convince the public, that Mr. Fox's conduct was entirely and un pardonably wrong? Was their delicacy to Mr. Fox so very- great, or their confidence in Mr. Burke so very little, that they would have refused to furnish the latter with information, when he was la- bouring in their cause, and when the odium of employing it, if odium was to be expected ra- ther than praise, would have fallen upon Mr. * Vid. Orat. I>3 r curg. contra Leocrat. p. 162. Reiske edit. ( 247 ) Burke, not upon themselves? In point of fact, then, ministers, who were acquainted with the whole truth, and who possessed the very amplest powers of proclaiming it with authority, and supporting it by evidence, attempted nothing decisive for the purpose of punishment, and even alledged nothing distinct for the purpose of cri- mination. But what are we to think of Mr. Burke, who knew probably much less than min. isters knew, and yet has said much more than persons better informed upon the subject, and more interested in it, were pleased to say ? The accusation is produced by Mr. Burke in 1796. The crime must have been committed several years before — when, I ask, and how, did Mr. Burke discover that crime? Why did he keep back so important a discovery upon our negociations with Russia, till Mr. Fox had dis- pleased him by his politics on the affairs of France? Did Mr. Burke, or did he not, continue to act in parliament with Mr Fox after the dis- covery had been made ? Would he have been justified in keeping up any party connexion with a man whom he had strong reason only to sus- pect of such guilt, as is laid to his charge in the following words — " This proceeding of Mr. Fox, ** says he, does not (as I conceive) amount to •* absolute high treason. Russia, though on bad " terms, not having been then declaredly at war ( 248 ) " with this kingdom. But such a proceeding " is, in law, not very remote from that offence, " and is undoubtedly a most unconstitutional « act, and an high treasonable misdemeanor." It will he long, before, upon the mere strength of Mr. Burke's representation, I shall suffer myself to consider Mr. Adair as a spy, or Mr. Fox as a traitor. But such imputations were well calculated to prepare the minds of Mr. Burke's readers for believing other charges, which are afterwards brought forward. In page 30 he accuses Mr. Fox of moving resolutions " tending to confirm the horrible f ' tyranny and robbery of the French, and hav- " ins; for their drift the sacrifice of our own do- " mestic dignity and safety, and the indepen- « dancy of Europe, to the support of the strange l < mixture of anarchy and tyranny prevailing in «' France, and called by Mr. Fox and his party, ". a government." In page 53, he says, that '! under a specious " appearance, not unfrequently put on by men «' of unscrupulous ambition, that of tenderness «' and compassion to the poor, Mr. Fox did his " best to appeal to the meanest and mast igno- " rant of the people, on the merits of the war." In page 59, he says, that " it would he " shameful for any man above the vulgar, to {t shew so blind a partiality even to his own cl country, as Mr. Fox appeared on all occasions ( 249 ) " in the system of that year, to have shewn to " France, and that if lie had been minister, and " proceeded on the principles laid down by him* " self, in Mr. Burke's belief there is little doubt " that he would have been considered as the t( most criminal statesman that ever lived in this '" country." In page 61 Mr. Fox is likened to Petion and Brissot, because he iC studiously confined his " horror and reprobation to the massacres of the " second of September, but passed over those of " the tenth of August; and like the Brissotine faction condemned, not the deposition, or the i( proposed exile, or the proposed perpetual im- " prisonment, but only the murder of the king." I disdain to enter into any formal refuta- tion of these cbarges. But I am at a loss to conceive how any man who, according to Mr. Burke's statement, countenanced the horrible tyranny and robbery of the French — who was more partial to a foreign country, than any en- lightened man oui^ht to be to his own — who acted under the specious pretences put on by men of unscrupulous ambition; — who was indif- ferent to the massacre of the tenth of August, and the barbarous indignities offered to the French monarch before his murder, could, in Mr. Burkes estimation, " be a man born to be 11 loved." Had so many years elapsed before Mr. i i c( it { 250 ) Burke could discover that he liad been the par- tisan and the friend of a Catiline r For of Ca- tiline we read " Quis clarioribus viris quodam tempore jucundior? quis civis meliorum par- tium aliquando? quis tetrior hostis huic civi- "tati?*" In page 59 Mr. Burke " thinks it possible tc that Mr. Fox would act and think quite in a " different way, if he were in office. To be ** sure (says he) some persons might try to ex- " cuse Mr. Fox, by pleading in his favour a total " indifference to principle, but this (says Mr. <{ Burke) I will not suppose: one may think u better of Mr. Fox, and that from better, or aapaxf>Jif*cc ii cucxeiU." A. xy. 55. The mantle of Mr. Burke was of celestial texture, and it may serve to deck out some future claimant not unworthy of inheriting the precious insigne, and trained to the sacred office in the schools of the prophets — But where shall we find the favoured mortal, upon whom a double portion of Mr. Burke's spirit may be expected to descend? If I had been told, that Mr. Burke had des- cribed Mr. Fox as a most accomplished and brilliant debater, in conversation only, and had used no other terms of praise, I should have thought of his words as I now think, and for the sake of the speaker, I should not have pro- duced them before the public, without the most urgent and palpable necessity. Yet in writing to you, dear Sir, I should not have disturbed the manes of Mr. Burke, if they had not been in- voked to descend from that glorified state*, to which some. Platonists supposed that the souls * Vid. Maxihl. Tyr, Dissertation 2f, and the Notes. ( 275 ) of illustrious men were exalted immediately after death, and had been employed in performing the part of a tutelary genius to the reputation of Mr. Fox. But, Amicus Foxius, Veritas etiam magis Arnica, and for the strictures which have fallen from my pen, the responsibility, in the first in- stance, lies with that person, who depending upon the merits of a good cause, or on his own gigantic strength and magic skill to support a bad one, has challenged the severities of investi- gation. It were useless, and perhaps unbecoming, to indulge any conjectures upon the motives which led the writer of the sketch in question, to look for any sanction to his own present opinions of Mr. Fox, in the qualified, or unqualified concur- rence of Mr. Burke — Great, indeed, are the ta- lents of both Mr. Burke and his encomiast, and to both should I have listened most atten-r tively and most respectfully, in any honest appli- cation of those talents to great subjects. Upon any other occasion, I might have been pleased with that encomiast on his making those ac- knowledgments, which were once made by Mr. Fox, for the instruction and delight, which in common with every scholar of every party, he may have himself derived from the speeches and the writings of Mr. Burke. Reasons he may have for professing to make a common cause ( 276 ) with that extraordinary man upon the demerits of French politics — But surely upon the merits of English eloquence, there is no visible tempta- tion to seduce him from rigorous and uniform impartiality, even into seeming or momentary compliance with the lurking prejud.ces of such a favourite as Mr. Burke now appears to be in his estimation. I condemn not Mr. Burke, nor any other man, who has undergone a real " change in the " general complexion of his mind*," or a change " in the opinions" which he professes to hold, and endeavours to disseir inate — even a change so great as to raise suspicion in common observers, that il he is ashamed of his former exertions for the " people." I shall endeavour to vindicate Mr. Burke from a part of that charge against the re- viewer^ and I should be very reluctant indeed to alledge a similar charge against other men. The reasons for their change may be very solid — the motives to it may be honourable — the effects of it may be useful at once to the individuals and to the community. It is unjust to say that inconsistency is, in all cases, the infallible criterion of insincerity — It is unjust to tie down manhood to those te- nets which have been ingenuously avowed, but Vid. The Monthly Review, to be quoted hereafter in the Notes. ( 277 ) perhaps hastily adopted, in youth — It is unjust to shackle men of genius with any other res- traints, than those which are necessary for the observance or* decorum, honour, and the strictest fidelity — It is unjust to debar any human beings from the moral or intellectual benefits which may arise from greater accuracy of information, or greater maturity of judgment — It is fla- grantly unjust to blame them for discharging those new duties which are really imposed upon their consciences, by new and disinterested views of controverted and important questions. But conversion would not be disgraced by its circumstantial accompaniments, if converts were to pause a little, before they pronounce the whole truth to lie upon one side only — if, re- fleeting upon their own situation, and commun- ing with their own hearts, they should be im- pressed with an humble and fearful sense of that fallibility which is inseparable from our common nature — if they would vouchsafe sometimes to separate the proofs and the consequences of opinions, from the moral characters of the per- sons who hold them — if they would extend to other men the same credit which they claim to themselves, for sincerity of conviction, and up- rightness of intention — if they would avoid every unseemly appearance of that versatility which for the sake of popularity, is content to exchange sweet for bitter and bitter for sweet, and ( 278 ) of that shrewdness, which for the sake of con- venience, is prepared occasionally to halt between right and wrong — and above all, if they were to be very wary in suspecting, and very tender in cen- suring, any unfortunate followers, who may have been swayed by their arguments, to adopt their opinions, and to imitate their example. Such candour would atone for many of their former errors, and such prudence might serve to res- train their present and their future zeal. The sketch of Mr. Fox's character which I mentioned to you, if considered as a literary composition, is indisputably worthy of the wri- ter to whom it has been assigned by common fame. The general excellence of it consists in the judicious selection of topics, in the luminous arrangement of the matter, and in diction most agreeably diversified, and most exquisitely po- lished. It is calm without languor, flowing without redundance, and elegant without gau- diness. But the particular passages to which I have adverted, were evidently introduced with great deliberation — They have produced, and were intended to produce great effect ; and as the judgment which Mr. Burke passed upon Mr. Fox as a debater, is not accompanied by any mark of dissent or disapprobation, the well- wishers of Mr. Fox may be excused for dis- cussing the real import of the compliment paid to him upon this occasion by Mr. Burke. To ( 279 ) me, indeed, it appears probable tbat the more judicious admirers even of Mr, Burke himself, will not be very highly pleased by the republi- cation of a remark which reflects very little credit upon the magnanimity of him who made, or the discretion of him who would disseminate it — The writer to whom I allude, has himself shewn Mr. Fox to have been more than (t a " brilliant and accomplished debater," and his manner of shewing it entitles him to my praise, for the clearness of his discrimination, and the beauty of his language — I would therefore che- rish the hope that he remembered what he does not entirely approve, and that he has recorded what he would not deign to imitate. But I cannot suffer the charms of his style, or the celebrity of his name, to give undue weight to the words he has selected from the writings of another man, or eventually to injure that cha- racter which, according to his own words, tc he "has delineated with accuracy and fidelity." Li' he meant to exalt Mr. Burke, as I suspect he did, his attempt was not wise ; if he meant to lower Mr. Fox, as I earnestly hope he did not, it was not good. If his sensibility should not for once quite overpower his sagacity, I think that upon reviewing the whole of his statement, he can hardlv fail to discover some traces of dissi- militude between the sentiments of Mr. Burke, and his own. Was Mr. Fox a most brilliant ( 280 ) and accomplished debater only ? Or, was he in other respects a great speaker? If Mr. Burke be ri«ht, the author of the sketch has ascribed to Mr. Fox too many excellencies — if that author be not wrong, Mr. Burke has ascribed to him too few. Why then did the learned author of the sketch run the hazard of counteracting the stronger praise which was bestowed by himself, by the introduction of the weaker praise which was bestowed by Mr. Burke? Thus, dear Sir, I have endeavoured to dis- charge a necessary, but most painful duty. Painful indeed it has been for me to assume the language of controversy, especially as in assuming it, I have been compelled to lay open the imperfections of the dead, and to censure, but I hope without asperity, the imprudence of one who is alive. But it was necessary for me to develope very fully, all the latent properties of an expression, which having been used by one celebrated man, and selected for republica- tion by another, might ensnare common readers into imperfect or erroneous conceptions of the uncommon talents by which Mr. Fox was dis- tinguished as a public speaker. The context itself, as I have alreadv observed to vou, contains sufficient matter to refute the insinuation, if they be diligently compared. But ordinary readers are not always upon the alert to make such comparisons, and the insinuation, protected ( 281 ) hy the high authority of the speaker, and the seeming assent of the Sketch- writer, is quite as likely to sink into the memory, and vibrate upon the ear, as the context. If these strictures should ever be read by the distinguished person whom I believe to be the author of the sketch, let him not impute them to the prejudices of a partizan, or the a- crimony of an enemy. His present partiality in Favour of Mr. Burke's politics is much greater than my own. His habitual admiration of Mr. Burke's talents is not. The commendation he has lately bestowed upon Mr. Fox, and upon one who inherits all his virtues, and no inconsiderable share of his abilities, is, I am convinced, sincere. He is himself a scholar of no ordinary class, and a philosopher of the highest. In the courts of justice he has already shewn himself to be a most accomplished debater, and were he in Par- liament, he would rise by rapid degrees to the most honourable situation among the orators who have survived Mr. Pitt, Mr. Burke, and Mr. Fox. The frequent and indeed unavoidable men- tion of Mr. Burke's behaviour to Mr. Fox, makes it very necessary for me to communi- cate the opinion I entertain of his political con- duct at the time of a separation, which you, dear Sir, and I, shall ever deplore as an event n n ( 282 ) most afflictive to the feelings of our departed friend. In the controversy which arose about a late revolution, Mr. Burke is entitled to my grati- tude and my respect, for spreading before the world many adamantine and imperishable truths, which are quite worthy of protection from his zeal, and embellishment from his eloquence- many, which unfold the secret springs of human action, and their effects upon human happiness many, in which he unites the ready discern- ment of a statesman, with the profound views of a philosopher — many, which at all times, and in all countries, must deserve the serious consi- deration of all governors and all subjects— many, which at a most important crisis, might have averted the outrages and the calamities we have to lament in a neighbouring kingdom— many, which the principles of our own constitution amply justified, and in which the good morals and the good order of society were interested, deeply and permanently. But I contend, that in a cause to which judicious and temperate management would have ensured success, he was impatient of contradiction, dogmatical in assertion, and intolerant in spirit—that his judg- ment and his imagination were under the ty- ranny of his undisciplined and angry passions — that he infused into his writings, the same un* examoled and unrelenting violence which burst ( 283 ) forth in his speeches — that his raillery was some- times tainted with the venom of vulgar malig- nity, his statements encumbered with hideous exaggeration, and his metaphors bloated and disfigured by the introduction of the most loath- some images — that in describing the primary agents in the French revolution, he uniformly confounded their better and their worse qualities in one dark and wild chaos of invective — that astounded with a spectacle of 4 ' confusion heaped * upon confusion, to which war seemed a civil " game," with the wreck of all the materials which hold together the fabric of government, and the extinction of all the charities which sweeten private life, he descried very dimly the intenseness, direction, and numbers of those powers, which enable states, like Antaeus, to recover from their fall, and which if a Hercules had been at hand to struggle with them, should have been combated by other stratagems of skill, and other feats of prowess, than those which we have witnessed — that in his general reasonings, he frequently lost sight of those intricate causes in the moral world, by which great and rapid evil is sometimes made the precursor of great and progressive good — that in treating of French politics he foresaw, indeed, much, but predicted far too much — that in adverting to English po- litics, he often applied very ill, what he ex- pressed very well, and inflamed, where he should ( 284 ) have been content to instruct and to warn — that some of the principles he then endeavoured to disseminate, were notoriously at variance with I h )se upon which he had long and avowedly- given his, support to many of his wise and vir- tuous countrymen — that the unexpected, and almost unparalleled change in public circum- stances, was not sufficient to warrant the un- distinguishing and total change, which marked his public harangues, and his public conduct — that in his pamphleteering attack upon the late Duke of Bedford, he trampled on the ashes of the dead, in order to wreak his spleen against the living — that he. played off the most formi- dable artillery of argument and ridicule that ever was pointed against the interests of that aristocracy which he had undertaken to defend ; and that loosely, but insidiously appealing to history for the proof of facts, which historians have no where recorded, he for once was guilty of calumnies which an acute and elegant critic suspected upon the first glance, and traced through all the ramifications of rhetorical mis- statement to their root, in the want, " not of " veracity, but of other qualities, the opposite " of which are as adverse to truth as falsehood itself, in that levity and rashness of assertion, which may be as uniform as fraud, and there- " fore as constantly repugnant to truth" — that he was insolent and vindictive against several Ki !.( ( 285 ) of the old whigs, such as you and I are, antf severe even to savage scurrility against all the new— that he insulted and exasperated, instead of endeavouring to enlighten and conciliate, the lower ranks of the community — that he threw an artificial, sombrous, sullen air of mystery, over those rules of goverpment, which every man is authorised to explore coolly and respectfully, while he is required to observe them, and which, if pourtrayed by the mighty genius of Mr. Burke in his calmer hours, would have appeared reasonable, equitable, and amiable, to every reader of every class — that he laboured to ex- tort obedience by compulsion, where it might have been won from conviction — that he laid rather too great a stress upon those privileges which uphold, I grant, and endear, as well as adorn society, and too little, upon those popular rights, which are essential, not merely to the improvement or to the preservation, but to the very existence of all that is intelligible, or attain- able, or desirable, in genuine freedom — Other duties, I grant, were to be done by Mr. Burke, and many of them were done with great ability, when the times loudly called for them — But the duty of explaining and vindicating those rights, ought not to have been left undone, and the spur, as it is called, of the occasion, was not only a very unsatisfactory, but in my view of certain ( 286 ) concomitant circumstances, a very suspicious excuse for neglecting it. New connexions, new panegyrists, and new rewards, will now and then enable us to account for the reiterated profession of new opinions, or new, elaborate, and fallacious modifications of old ones. Proselytes, dear Sir, after a few mis- givings, soon glow with the real or pretended fervour of zealots — Zealots, expecting opposition, cool into determined bigots, and bigots, meeting with it, rankle into persecutors — In order to obtain protection against the indignation of the persons whom they have deserted, they adopt every prejudice, inflame every passion, and min- ister indiscriminately to every good and every bad purpose of the party, to whom they have delivered over their interests and their honour — » , But if they happen to be gifted with keen sen- sibility, most salutary is the warning which they furnish to men who are yet hesitating on the threshold of guilt: for, in sudden wealth, or fleeting popularity, they receive a very precari- ous recompence for the want of those gratifica- tions which honest ambition had formerly sup- plied — Impatient of that dreary vacuity, which in active minds follows the loss of their wonted employments, they prowl for some prey to their growing appetite for mischief, and discerning it in the associates whose regard they suppose to be alienated, they spring with equal fury upon ( 287 ) their defects and their accomplishments, their failings and their virtues — They are too stiff- necked to propose any reasonable terms of ac* commodation, and too high-crested to accept forgiveness, even when they are required to for- give — They brood in silence over the wrongs they have committed, and the retaliations they have provoked — They find themselves alike in- sensible to the comforts of solitude, and the joys of society — They vainly call to their aid the visions of self-delusion, and the blandishments of flattery, when they would bar the avenues of their hearts against the intrusions of remorse — They hate where they are conscious of not being loved, and try without success to love, where they are doubtful how long they may be them- selves esteemed — Worn out, at last, with un- ceasing inquietude, they are numbered among the dead, with scarcely one sigh from those whom they have abandoned, or one blessing from those whom they have courted. Such are the effects of a wounded spirit, and happy it is for us to remember, that Mr. Fox neither felt, nor deserved to feel them. It is not for such men as Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt, to spend their last breath in dying speeches and confessions — They had weightier duties to perform, and I trust that with a deep and com- posed sense of their imperfections and their ac- countableness, they performed those duties well. ( 288 ) But if either of them had chanced to be on the brink of dissolution in the presence of the other, I hope, and I believe, too, that his lips in unison with his heart would have pronounced an affectionate farewell. In regard to the behaviour of Mr. Burke to Mr. Fox, for some time before his death, take, clear Sir, if you please, the full benefit of such pleas as are ordinarily admitted for difference of temper, opinion, and voluntary, or involuntary situation— Grant the largest indulgence which without fatuity or hypocrisy can be granted, to the eccentricities of genius, the blindness of party, the ardour of recent conversion, and the impetuosity of enthusiasm. But mark, I beseech you, the behaviour of the two men — Mr. Burke not only ceased to act with Mr. Fox, but had be- gun, aye, and continued to vilify him — Mr. Fox on the other hand, continued to speak with tender- ness of Mr. Burke's former friendship in public, and in private; he deplored, but rarely censured the political change of Mr. Burke ; he praised Mr. Burke's intellectual endowments, mourned for his domestic loss, and left, as long as was pos- sible, an opening for personal reconciliation. Closed it was not, till the charge of a ' c high " treasonable misdemeanor in Russia," demon- strated the bitterness of Mr. Burke's resentment, and the restlessness of his hostility — That charity which had endured many other things, could not ( 289 ) patiently endure this one most deliberate wrong. You, dear Sir, and I, and other consistent friends of Mr. Fox, have not memories so be- dimmed, or feelings so benumbed, as never to bestow a thought upon the impressions which such ungracious treatment made on his sensibi- lity — We do not, indeed, take any common in- terest in the triumphs of that ingenuity, which spreads a many-coloured varnish of conjectures and distinctions, and qualifications, over the backslidings of bad men — Of trimmers, I mean, who in all changes of opinion, leer most vigi- lantly upon all chances of preferment — or, of sophists both in theory and in practice, who whether they stir up the rude storm, or partake the soft gale, are never at a loss for reasons to justify themselves to themselves, and to a shame- less crew of apologists, lying Upon the watch for opportunities to be imitators — or, of hirelings* who with equal obsequiousness, and with equal im- portunity, tender their services to " two masters" — or of seers, who without a blush, "can prophecy " things smooth." or things rough, at the nod of their employers, and without a pang, bow the knee to " God and Mammon" — But we do feel a common indignation, against rudeness leagued with implacability. To our judgments, the sprinklings of praise which drop from caprice o o ( 290 ) in a fit of indolence, or envy in a state of con- firmed ill-will, must now and then betray une- quivocal marks of the taint contracted at their source. You, dear Sir, may be inclined to ask, as other persons have often asked from other mo- tives, Was not Mr. Fox ambitious ? Yes, I shall answer without hesitation, and he may be said to have been so almost from the cradle to the grave. But ambition in him was not that head- strong passion which tosses away all considera- tions of duty and decorum — which hails a friend only in a partizan — which crouches to the mighty, only that it may trample upon the feeble — which truckles for office bv the barter of principle, and varies, with the varying opin- ions and humours of unfeeling rulers, and an unthinking populace. He was led to look up to high employments in the state, by those early and strong associations, which distinguish, and perhaps produce, the characters of individuals — by the example of a revered father, by the in- fluence of education, by splendid connexions upon his first entrance into the bustle of politics, and by the inward consciousness of talents adapted to exigencies the most trying, and situations the most elevated. He aspired to power, because power would open to him, a wider range for the exercise of wisdom and benevolence. He valued fame, because fame is the legitimate reward of ( 291 ) extraordinary merit. But neither power nor fame carried with them irresistible charms to his mind, when they were to be purchased by the surrender of private honour* or by the dissimula- tion of his real thoughts upon the tendency of public measures to the public good. When he was engaged in opposition, how meekly did he bear that ascendancy, which it was impossible for him not to gain by the su- periority of his abilities, and the dignity of his character ? But the most decisive proof of his moderation is, that when employed as a servant of the crown, he was content to bear the chief responsibility for measures, without vaulting into the chief official situation. He humbled, but did not debase himself, and for the loss of exalt- ation to the highest ministerial power he was abundantly repaid by the esteem of his col- leagues, and the confidence of his party. Whatsoever difficulties may formerly have perplexed us while our judgment was oppressed by our fears, we now can be at no loss to ac- count for the singularity of his conduct amidst those tempestuous scenes in which the follies and the crimes of which human nature is capable, burst upon our notice in their full- est magnitude, and most shocking deformity. While many of his well-wishers and opponents were scared by one common panic — while his illustrious rival seemed in some instances to ( 292 ) temporise for the sake of power — and while for the sake of popularity which soon passed away, he, who had once been the friend of his bosom, stooped to many of the meannesses, and plunged into many of the extravagancies, by which re- cent conversion would make its zeal the mea- sure of its sincerity, Mr. Fox continued to rea- son from the treasures of his own profound knowledge, and to act from the dictates of his own unbiassed judgment. At a most gloomy and portentous crisis, and with the prospect of political odium, and even personal danger, he addressed himself to his misguided constituents, to an incensed parliament, and to a terrified people. He argued, he supplicated, he warned, he ventured almost to predict. But he never confounded the use of liberty with the abuse- never seized upon sudden and fleeting prejudices, in order to undermine ancient and solid princi- ples — -never provoked outrages, for the purpose of condemning and retaliating them, nor at- tempted to extenuate those overt-acts of in- justice and cruelty, which disgraced a cause not palpably bad at its commencement — overt-acts, you will observe, which themselves owed their rise in too many instances, to unwise and in- temperate opposition, and which eventually baf- fled the expectation of many wise and virtu- ous men, who had for a time supported that Cause, but who ceased to support it, when it ( 293 ) had furnished a pretext for those crimes. If, indeed, the destiny of Europe (and for once let me use this phrase) had permitted his counsels to be adopted in the spirit which really sug? gested them to his mind, and for the ends to which alone he was anxious to direct them, the licentious uproar of popular phrenzy might have been hushed nearly at the beginning of the contest — the savage triumphs of profligate and sanguinary upstarts might have been prevented r— the constitution of France might at once have been reformed and preserved, and the life of its amiable sovereign might have been rescued from most unmerited destruction. That most deplorable event may have surprized other men. less than it surprised such observers as Mr. Fox. But no Christian, however pious, no loy- alist, however ardent, no human being, however compassionate, viewed it with more indignation, and horror than our virtuous friend. Opinions may now be tried by the test of facts, and the merits of measures may be de- cided without undue partiality to statesmen who are no more. I ask only, what intelligent and honest men will always be ready to grant, that moderation in principles is very compatible with ardour in language. The moderation of Mr. Fox, then, at the commencement, and I add, during the progress of the French revolution, was the result of intense and serious meditation ( 294 ) upon the experience of past ages. But the errors of his more ardent opposers have heen detected in the recent and melancholy experience of our own times. " Quis est," says Cicero, speaking of his own mistakes, and his own unhappy times, li tarn Lynceus, qui tantis Tenebris nihil of- il fendat? nunquam incurrat*?" Upon a subject so complex, and in many respects so novel, as the revolution in. France, where the interposi- tion of foreign powers was marked at once with indecision and rashness, where great and general views were suddenly crossed by local consider- ations or selfish motives, and where the immediate agents at home, were numerous, restless, discords ant in their purposes, and infuriate in their passi- ons, no observer could, at the outset, be purely and entirely right. At this distance of time, therefore, the proper enquiry is, who among our country- men was least wrong? Upon some questions in theory, and many contingencies in practice, all disputants, I think, lie open to the imputation of error. They thought too well, or too ill, of the contending parties. They acted too little in some respects, and too much in others, and to a long and frightful catalogue which history sup- plies, they have added one striking instance, that the wisest of men may plume themselves Epis. ad Famil. lib. ix. Epis. 2. ( 295 ) too highly upon their foresight, and . that man is doomed to call much- of his real knowledge by the just, though humble name of EmfAvfrlet. But we are led, surely, by the venial, I had almost said, the amiable instincts of our nature, to feel a bias in favour of those persons who from general principles wish well to the liberties of mankind, who recommend peace to govern- ments, and who are solicitous rather to per- suade, than compel, and to conciliate, rather than inflame. The measures which Mr. Pitt proposed, have been tried — Those which Mr. Fox pointed out, have not. But no candid man will refuse to Mr. Pitt the praise of right intention. Yet upon* a dispassionate and serious review of the comparative merit to be ascribed to Mr. Fox, few intelligent men would now venture upon direct and unqualified contradiction, if that statesman with some alteration of Cicero's words, had been induced to say, ' c Se et plus u vidisse, et speravisse meliora *." He that in the intercourse of private life, could " be angry and sin not," may be readily supposed to separate every malignant feeling from measures of political hostility, and to make al- lowances for the unsuspected and complicated motives of those actions which disguise the de- * Yid. Phil. ii. parag. 7- ( 296 ) formity of ambition from its votaries, and which under the most specious pretences, too frequently disturb the tranquillity of the world. But knowing every unnecessary war to be pregnant with inconveniences and mischiefs which baffle calculation, he was disposed by reflection and by- habit to check rather than to rouse, and to as- suage rather than to provoke, the fiercer passions of mankind— He rested national glory upon the broad and strong foundation of national security — He laboured to appease, and by appeasing to protect, his irritated, and perhaps injured coun- trymen, at the hazard of offending their pride, and forfeiting their favour — He preferred dis- passionate negociation to precipitate violence^ in his conduct towards foreign powers — In. the pursuit of redress, he steadily kept in his view the possibility of reconciliation — He weighed in the balance of impartial justice every complaint of the accuser, and every plea of the accused — i He dismissed what was trifling — He explained what was doubtful — He asserted what was clear and equitable— He employed moderation as the harbinger of vigour, and if compelled to un- slieath the sword, he would have discerned, welcomed, and improved, every opportunity which the course of events might have afforded him for holding out the olive branch. In order to secure the usual relations of amity and peace, he would have endeavoured to preserve or res- ( 297 ) tore tlie usual relations of men to men, and of states to states, in the struggles of war. tl Ip- " sam quoque Pacem judieasset, non in armis " positis, sed in abjecto Armorum (et Injuria- " rum) Metu*." Like a wise man of whom we read, he, in times of apparent tranquillity, would not have been wholly unprepared for war. But he would have made peace, and tried to keep it, in the spirit of peace. For the attain- ment of this difficult, but honourable purpose, he in his negotiations with foreign courts would have employed gentlemen, not upstarts ; expert enced men, not striplings and sciolists; men of observation upon political characters, measures, and causes, rather than novices who understand not what they see, and spies who often report What they see not* The western world lias, therefore, to lament that this accomplished statesman was not sooner called into office, where his sound and generous policy might have prevented the mistakes of his illustrious competitor, and where, by carrying into effect his favourite measure, peace, he might have restrained that military power, which generated by the enthusiasm of revolution, has transferred the desperate courage of self- preservation to the hardy enterprises of am- bition ; which has gathered increase of strength * Vid. Cicero, Lett. 6, to Plancus, lib. x. P P ( 298 ) from increasing resistance ; which has formed fresh projects after every instance of fresh suc- cess* and which now threatens speedy and total subjugation to the convulsed, dismayed, and infatuated continent of Europe. Thdugh every passing day gives us occasion to regret that the serious and reiterated warn- ings of Mr. Fox were not more favourably received* and more diligently followed; yet must it afford you some consolation, that jus- tice will be done ultimately and amply to the rectitude of his intentions, and the wisdom of his counsels. The pacific spirit which he re- commended, the sage observations which he enforced, the immutable principles upon which he reasoned, the unfeigned and affectionate ear- nestness with which he pointed out to England the true, and indeed the sole path to safety and to glory, amidst the disasters of the American, the last, and the present war, will not be lost in oblivion. Even to the latest posterity, they will continue to- be subjects of useful and in- teresting investigation to politicians and patriots, who are animated by the same honest desire to consolidate the interests of governors and the governed — to substitute plain-dealing for impos- ture, and protection for oppression — to soften some of the harsher effects arising from the mul- tiplied inequalities of condition — to correct in- veterate abuses, and gradually to improve and ( 299 ) secure social order, by extending and perpetuat- ing the precious blessings of social life. Surely, then, dear Sir, we shall not be accused of very unreasonable partiality in transferring* to our friend the dignified and comprehensive praise, which was once bestowed upon Collatinus, " uno ore cui plurimse Consentiunt Gentes, Po- " puli Primarium fuisse Virum *." History, doubtless, will unite the name of Mr. Fox with the names of Demosthenes and Cicero, who, in distant climes, and to distant ages, shed a lustre over the annals of their country — each of them transcendently superior to the most eminent characters of their own times, and of the generations succeeding them — each alike reviled by the venal, and defeated by the crafty, in their endeavours to preserve public liberty— each the most eloquent speaker, and the most skilful statesman that ever adorned the most enlightened and civilized na- tions of antiquity. It is pleasing, and I think instructive, to trace points of resemblance, and points of dif- ference, between those personages who have filled a broad space in the public eye, Quique sui memores alios fecere merendof. From popular governments we may without * Vid Cicero de finib. lib. ii. parag. 33, and de Senectate, parag, 17. t -$neid 6. ( 300 ) impropriety derive illustrations of that character, which among ourselves owed the greater part of its splendor to the defence of popular principles; and in speaking of a man to whom the writ- ings of Greece and Rome were familiar, I shall not descend to the childish affectation of apo- logizing to you, when I employ from them such passages as occur to my memory. If, then, the most virtuous man living had risen up in parlia- ment to oppose Mr. Fox, he would not have been subject, as Demosthenes was in the presence of Phocion, to the mortification of whispering in the ear of his friend H t£v fju&jv hoyvv wan; avirarcti*. There have been times when, should certain antagonists have said to him tauntingly, M the " people will kill you, if they are enraged up to " madness ;" he might have replied with Phocion, T/«as <3"e sari ,31 ai ^ £■/ V# **^' >-0< >6r< HM >o< \ ' i^iyHB k \ \ \ ^ ;rQ< \ \ S \ "- ■T4 tt cA^I^B S \ \ \ N . >^,\\ ■• S v \ ' ffiinn o^ • 1 \ \ ft& Vo< >o-<