THE LATE RIGHT HONOURABLE

CHARLES JAMES FOX.

THE figure which this extraordinary character made in the political world, is so well known that any prefatory introduction to his Memoirs would be superfluous. He was born on the 13th of January, 1749, 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 he, therefore, descended from the royal house of Stuart; and was consequently related to many of the great families of the ancient nobility. From his paternal descent, however, as far as regards the dignity of birth, he derives no consequence. His father reared his honours on the foundation of his own merit, in his great application and talent in business. A master of figures, no calculation was too intricate for him, and his address in parliament excited the attention of George II. whose patronage soon followed: for, in the year 1754, he raised him to the important office of secretary at war, and in the following year, to the still higher one of secretary of state for the foreign department. In 1763 he was, by his present majesty, created a peer, by the title of Baron Holland of Foxley. In the year 1756, the Seven years' war, as it has since been termed, broke out. A series of evils rendered the people dissatisfied with the ministry, and they zealously cried out for a change; to which his majesty acceded; and changed Mr. Fox for Mr. Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham. Mr. Fox was, however, soon recalled to office, by means of a coalition between the two parties, and was nominated to the lucrative post of paymaster general of the forces. It was here that he accumulated that vast wealth which he transmitted to his heirs, and which, in the decline of his life, drew upon him the most bitter sarcasm and opprobrious epithets. He was stig. matized with the appellation of "The public defaulter of unac counted millions."

This nobleman pursued a career diametrically opposite to that of his son; for he continued to the end of his life, a firm aud steady sapporter of government. Thus he always maintained a host of friends, who, however they might disapprove his faults, suffered them to pass unnoticed.

But to return to the subject of the present memoir. The bright. ness of his genius was seen with gladness by his delighted father, whose attention was unremitting to the care of his education, while his tenderness for him was so great, that he sought not to excite

his fear; and never did Charles know what it was to approach his father with awe.

He was placed at Eton school, under the direction of Dr. Barnard; but had for his private tutor, Dr. Newcombe, the late Bishop of Waterford. His rapid progress in classical learning while at school, gained him a decided superiority in every class he entered.

Having accomplished his studies at Eton, he was sent to the university of Oxford. Here he is said to have read nine or ten hours a day, during the whole term, without any inconvenience arising from a series of nocturnal rambles, to which he displayed equal devotion. Tired, however, at length, with the restraint of college discipline, and with a spirit ill adapted for the apathy of merely contemplative life, he obtained leave of his father to make the usual tour.

Never was a mind better formed to reap the solid advantages of travelling. The etiquette of courts, the politics of nations, and the manners of men, attracted his penetrating mind; he enquired into their merits, and made himself master of their economy; he remembered that he was the son of a nobleman, forgot not his own dignity, and had an eye to the service of his country. Notwithstanding these, he frequently overstepped the bounds of propriety: the fascinating vivacity of French manners, and the seduction of Italian luxury, at times enslaved him; he was often at the gaming table, till his excesses exceeding even the indulgence of his father, whose ears they had reached, he was summoned home; and it was not without repeated commands that he obeyed.

On his return from those scenes of levity and disssipation, his. father, in order to abstract him from the too great indulgence in pleasure, proposed his taking a seat in parliament, and thus to detach him from a course which threatened the destruction of his health and fortune. At the general election, therefore, in 1768, Lord Holland procured him the return for Midhurst, in Sussex. Notwithstanding his nonage, for he was not yet twenty, he was suffered to keep his seat; and whether this arose from accident or design in the committee of privileges, remains unknown. His powers surpassed the hopes of his most sanguine friends, and he was the favourite subject of conversation in all classes of society. There was such originality in his thinking, and so much of nature in his manner, that he excited universal admiration. His first speech was upon Mr. Wilkes's petition from the King's Bench prison, to be permitted to take his seat, and thereby satisfy the desire of his constituents. Mr. Fox, on this question, did not take

the popular side, and that on which the ablest and most consti tutional lawyers declared the justice to lie.

Thus he commenced his parliamentary career, in supporting the measures of government; and so highly did the minister of that day value his support, that, in a short time, he was advanced to a seat at the admiralty board. No sooner, however, did he become acquainted with the machinations of government, than he retired, as his friends say, in disgust; his mind revolting at the measures which were preparing for the disastrous scene of the American war. These measures, however, were said to have been softened down, and he was persuaded to resume his seat. In December, 1772, he was raised to a seat at the treasury board. For this he received the taunts of opposition as a placeman, which he repelled in an open ingenuous manner, denying the acceptance of his place to be the price of his services; and declaring, that he should no longer support the measures of government than he found them to be calculated to proinote the welfare of the state. He had now a most arduous task to perform; for the incapacity of the ministry was such, as required the greatest talents to cover or excuse them. It is a singular proof of the mutability of human affairs to observe, that Mr. Fox had Lord North for his first colleague, and for his first oratorical adversary, Mr. Burke.

It is believed that the open rupture which afterwards occurred between him and the minister took place upon the subject of the Rev. Mr. Horne, now Mr. Horne Tooke, being summoned to the bar of the House of Commons, as the supposed author of a paper, which treated the speaker of that house (Sir Fletcher Norton) with great freedom. Mr. Fox was anticipated in his intention of resigning by a very laconic epistle in the following words: "His majesty has thought proper to order a new commission of the treasury to be made out, in which I do not perceive your name." The manner in which this was conveyed, exceeded the insolence of the composition, it being by the hands of one of the doorkeepers. Resentment and contempt now filled the breast of Mr. Fox instead of friendship and esteem; nevertheless, he, for a short time, continued to vote in favour of administration, though he scarcely ever spoke on that side. As soon, however, as Lord North's treatment of him was made known, he quitted the treasury bench, and seated himself on the opposite side. Many attributed this conduct to sinister motives, and perhaps it was not owing to the pure views of conscientious rectitude; but who can shew, by any instance, where he has made emolument a rule of action?

Now in his proper sphere, the talents of Mr. Fox blazed forth in all their splendour. He joined a band of self called patriots,

whose efforts will be remembered to the latest posterity, as they had nearly overthrown our glorious constitution.

In the year 1772, Mr. Fox was involved in a duel with Mr. Adams, in consequence of that gentleman's having conceived himself to be the particular object of Mr. Fox's censure one evening at the house. A letter was sent to Mr. Fox the following day from Mr. Adams, requesting his authorizing the insertion of a paragraph in the public prints, declaring that the language of Mr. Fox was not personally intended for him. Mr. Fox, however, refusing to authorize its insertion by his name, contented himself by declaring that he had addressed himself to the whole of his party, and that Mr. Adams could not apply it individually, unless he felt himself in the predicament upon which he had animad. verted. The consequence was a duel, in which Mr. Fox was wounded at the second shot of his antagonist. Mr. Adams acknowledged Mr. Fox's conduct to be completely that of a man of honour, and it was extolled in all companies.

At the death of the Marquis of Rockingham, Mr. Fox quitted the administration of which he had been a member only as long as that nobleman had taken the lead. He said what is honourable to his memory: "In resigning my situation as secretary of state, I am not insensible to the inconvenience, I might almost say, to the necessity of its emoluments: but in a case where honour or profit must be sacrificed, I could not be long in resolving what to do.I dictate to no gentleman how he is to act; but as there are several in the same predicament as myself, if they feel as I do, they will act as I do." On this occasion, his example was followed by several of his friends.

As we have before observed, nearly the whole of Mr. Fox's political career was in opposition. At the conclusion of the American war, it must be remembered, that a coalition of two great parties took place, which brought him again, for a short time, into power. This step of our patriot was productive of much unpopularity to him, and it must be confessed, that in joining Lord North, against whom he had uttered the bitterest invectives, and whose measures he had so strenuously reprobated, there ap peared a striking inconsistency.

The British dominions in the East Indies being at this time in a most alarming state, some prompt and decided measure was deemed necessary to stop the evil. On this, Mr. Fox brought in his famous India bill, the object of which was to invest commissioners, appointed by parliament, with the direction of the company's affairs, for a duration of four years. This bill, notwithstanding the strong opposition of Mr. Pitt and his party, was carried by a

great majority in the House of Commons. The country, however, did not seem to approve of it; petitions poured in from various quarters against it, and, on the motion for its commitment in the House of Peers, it was finally thrown out. The consequence was, that the coalition was dissolved, and Mr. Fox was again in opposition. Mr. Pitt afterwards brought in his India bill, which leaving the company the perfect freedom of its charter, was found to be more congenial to the minds of the public, and it was carried in both houses of parliament; but subsequent experience has divided the opinions of the public upon the merits of the rival bills.

One of the most singular and unjustifiable traits of Mr. Fox's po litical conduct, was his receding entirely from the business of par liament during the powerful sway of the late premier. He pretended that nothing was to be gained by his presence in the house, but that something might be for ever lost to himself, by continuing in a situation where he was liable, by provocation, to utter expressions which might be misconstrued by three-fourths of his hearers.

Mr. Fox was constantly a distinguished member of the Whig-club, among whom his sentiments were uniformly uttered with the freedom and confidence of a brother. His enemies have exclaimed londly against his acceptance of a gratuitous subscription from his friends; but, surely, of all pensions, none can be more honourable than such a one as this, where every subscriber acts from his own judgment and affections; and he, whose conduct arose from principle, and who could despise the personal advantages which genius, like his, may always command, honoured both them and himself by his acceptance of it. An exalted mind will both oblige and be obliged, and he who withholds from the one, or contemns the other, is equally actuated by selfish principles.

The attractions of fashion, and the force of custom, may, in the early part of his life, have drawn him into embarrassments which wisdom must condemn, and the expedients to which he had recourse, in order to extricate himself from those embarrassments, were not less deserving of censure; but we have never heard of one studied act of dishonour on his part.

His vivacity often exposed him to severe and partial animadversion. Such, for instance, as that when his brother's house was in flames, his offering to bet the noble owner, which beam, which partition, or which chimney, would next give way. That man ners the most contrasted, and conduct the most opposite, have been seen in him, cannot be denied. Thus in the early part of his career, he was at once, the most consummate statesman and the

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