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C FOX

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 765 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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C See also:

FOX  . j . sympathy with the See also:American colonies, which were now beginning to resist the claims of the See also:mother See also:country to tax them, made him intolerable to the See also:king and he was dismissed in See also:February 1774 . The See also:death of his See also:father on the 1st of See also:July of that See also:year removed an See also:influence which tended to keep him subordinate to the See also:court, and his friendship for See also:Burke See also:drew him into See also:close See also:alliance with the See also:Rockingham Whigs . From the first his ability had won him admiration in the See also:House of See also:Commons . He had prepared to distinguish himself as an orator by the elaborate cultivation of his See also:voice, which was naturally harsh and shrill . His argumentative force was recognized at once, but the full See also:scope of his See also:powers was first shown on the and of February 1775, when he spoke on the disputes with the colonies . The speech is unfortunately lost, but See also:Gibbon, who heard it, told his friend See also:Holroyd (afterwards See also:Earl of See also:Sheffield) that See also:Fox, " taking the vast See also:compass of the question before us, discovered powers for See also:regular debate which neither his See also:friends hoped nor his enemies dreaded." His See also:great See also:political career See also:dates from that See also:day . It is unique among the careers of See also:British statesmen of the first See also:rank, for it was passed almost wholly in opposition . Except for a few months in 1782 and 1783, and again for a few months before his death in 1806, he was out of See also:office . If he was absolutely sincere in the statement he made to his friend Fitzpatrick, in a See also:letter of the 3rd of February 1778, his See also:life was all he could have wished . " I am," he wrote, " certainly ambitious by nature, but I really have, or think I have, totally subdued that See also:passion . I have still as much vanity as ever, which is a happier passion by far, because great reputation I think I may acquire and keep, great situation I never can acquire, nor if acquired keep, without making sacrifices that I never will make." His words show that he judged himself and read the future accurately .

Yet it was certainly a cause of See also:

bitter disappointment to him that he had to stand by while the country was in his See also:opinion not only misgoverned, but led to ruin . His reputation as an orator and a political critic, which was great from the first and See also:grew as he lived, most assuredly did not See also:console him for his See also:impotence as a statesman . Of the causes which rendered his brilliant capacity useless for the purpose of obtaining See also:practical success the most important, perhaps the only one of real importance, was his See also:personal See also:character . See also:Lord See also:John See also:Russell (afterwards Earl Russell), his friendly biographer, has to confess that Fox might have joined in the See also:confession of See also:Mirabeau: " The public cause suffers for the immoralities of my youth." His reputation as a See also:rake and gambler was so well established at the very beginning of his career that when he was dismissed from office in 1774 there was a See also:general belief among the vulgar that he had been detected in actual See also:theft . His perfect openness, the notoriety of his bankruptcies and of the seizure of his books and See also:furniture in See also:execution, kept him before the See also:world as a See also:model of dissipation . In 1776, when he was leading the resistance to Lord See also:North's colonial policy, he " neither abandoned gaming nor his rakish life . He was seldom in See also:bed before five in the See also:morning nor out of it before two at See also:noon." At the most important crisis of his life in 1783, he almost made an ostentation of disorder and of indifference not only to appearances, but even to decency . See also:Horace See also:Walpole has See also:drawn a picture of him at that See also:time which Lord See also:Holland, Fox's beloved and admiring See also:nephew, speaking from his See also:early recollections of his See also:uncle, confesses has " some See also:justification." Coming from such an authority the certificate may be held to confirm the substantial accuracy of Walpole . " Fox lodged in St See also:James's See also:Street, and as soon as he See also:rose, which was very See also:late, had a See also:levee of his followers and of the gaming See also:club at See also:Brooks's—all his disciples . His bristly See also:black See also:person, and shagged See also:breast quite open and rarely purified by any ablutions, was wrapped in a foul See also:linen nightgown and his bushy See also:hair dishevelled . In these cynic weeds and with Epicurean See also:good See also:humour did he dictate his politics, and in this school did the See also:heir of the See also:empire attend his lessons and imbibe them." That this cynic manner, and Epicurean speech, were only the outside of a manly and generous nature was well known to the personal friends of Fox, and is now universally allowed . But by the bulk of his contemporaries, of See also:Sir G .

See also:

Macartney, to whom he was See also:writing, and who was known to maintain that it was useless . His own See also:account of his school and See also:college training, given in a letter to the same correspondent (6th See also:August 1767), is: " I employed almost my whole time at See also:Oxford in the mathematical and classical know-ledge, but more particularly in the latter, so that I understand Latin and See also:Greek tolerably well . I am totally ignorant in every See also:part of useful knowledge . I am more convinced every day how little See also:advantage there is in being what at school and the university is called a good See also:scholar: one receives a good See also:deal of amusement from it, but that is all . At See also:present I read nothing but See also:Italian, which I am immoderately fond of, particularly of the See also:poetry . . . . As for See also:French, I am far from being so thorough a See also:master of it as I could wish, but I know so much of it that I could perfect myself in it at any time with very little trouble, especially if I pass three or four months in See also:France." The passage is characteristic . It shows at once his love of good literature and his thoroughness . Fox's youth was disorderly, but it was never indolent . He was incapable of See also:half doing anything which he did at all . He did perfect himself in French, and he showed no less determination to master See also:mere See also:sports . At a later See also:period when he had grown See also:fat he accounted for his skill in taking " cut balls " at See also:tennis by saying that he was a very " painstaking See also:man." He wag all his life a great and steady See also:walker .

The disorders of his early years were notorious, and were a See also:

common subject of See also:gossip . In the See also:spring of 1767 he See also:left Oxford and joined his father on the See also:continent during a tour in France and See also:Italy . In 1768 Lord Holland bought the See also:pocket See also:borough of See also:Midhurst for him, and he entered on his See also:parliamentary career, and on See also:London society, in 1769 . Within the next few years Lord Holland reaped to the full the See also:reward for all that was good, and whatever was evil, in the training he had given his son . The See also:affection of See also:Charles Fox for his father was unbounded, but the passion for gambling which had been instilled in him as a boy proved the ruin of the See also:family See also:fortune . He kept racehorses, and See also:bet on them largely . On the racecourse he was successful, and it is another See also:proof of his native thoroughness that he gained a reputation as a handicapper . It is said that he won more than he lost on the course . At the gambling table he was unfortunate, and there can be little question that he was fleeced both in London and in See also:Paris by unscrupulous players of his own social rank, who took advantage of his generosity and whose worthlessness he knew . In the ardour of his passion Fox took his losses and their consequences with an attractive gaiety . He called the See also:room in which he did business with the See also:Jew See also:money-lenders his " See also:Jerusalem chamber." When his See also:elder See also:brother had a son, and his prospects were injured, he said that the boy was a second See also:Messiah, who had appeared for the destruction of the See also:Jews . " He had his jest, and they had his See also:estate." In 1774 Lord Holland had to find £140,000 to pay the gambling debts of his sons .

For years Charles lived in pecuniary embarrassment, and during his later years, when he had given up gambling, he was supported by the contributions of wealthy friends, who in 1793 formed a fund of £70,000 for his benefit . His public career did not See also:

supply him with a check on habits of dissipation in the shape of the responsibilities of office . He began, as was to be expected in his father's son, by supporting the court; and in 1770, when only twenty-one, he was appointed a junior lord of the See also:admiralty with Lord North . During the violent conflict over the See also:Middlesex See also:election (see WILKES, JOHN) he took the unpopular See also:side, and vehemently asserted the right of the House of Commons to exclude Wilkes . In 1772 during the proceedings against See also:Crosby and See also:Oliver—a part of the " Wilkes and See also:liberty " agitation—he and Lord North were attacked by a See also:mob and rolled in the mud . But Fox's character was incompatible with ministerial service under King See also:George III . The king, himself a man of orderly life, detested him as a gambler and a rake . And Fox was too See also:independent to please a master who expected obedience . In February 1772 he threw up his See also:place to be See also:free to oppose the Royal See also:Marriage See also:Act, on which the king's See also:heart was set . He returned to office as junior lord of the See also:treasury in See also:December . But he was insubordinate; his who could not fail to see the weaknesses he ostentatiously displayed, Fox was, not unnaturally, suspected as being immoral and untrustworthy . Therefore when he came into collision with the will of the king he failed to secure the confidence of the nation which was his only support .

Nor ought any See also:

critical admirer of Fox to deny that George III. was not wholly wrong when he said that the great orator " was totally destitute of discretion and See also:sound See also:judgment." Fox made many mistakes, due in some cases to vehemence of temperament, and in others only to be ascribed to want of sagacity . That he fought unpopular causes is a very insufficient explanation of his failure as a practical statesman . He could have profited by the reaction which followed popular excitement but for his See also:bad reputation and his want of discretion . During the eight years between his See also:expulsion from office in 1794 and the fall of Lord North's See also:ministry in See also:March 1782 he may indeed be said to have done one very great thing in politics . He planted the See also:seed of the See also:modern Liberal party as opposed to the pure Whigs . In political See also:allegiance he became a member of the Rockingham party and worked in alliance with the See also:marquis and with Burke, whose influence on him was great . In opposing the See also:attempt to coerce the American colonists, and in assailing the See also:waste and corruption of Lord North's See also:administration, as well as the undue influence of the See also:crown, he was at one with the Rockingham Whigs . During the agitation against corruption, and in favour of honest management of the public money, which was very strong between 1779 and 1782, he and they worked heartily together . It had a considerable effect, and prepared the way for the reforms begun by Burke and continued by See also:Pitt . But if Fox learnt much from Burke he learnt with originality . He declined to accept the revolution See also:settlement as final, or to think with Burke that the constitution of the House of Commons could not be bettered . Fox acquired the conviction that, if the House was to be made an efficient See also:instrument for restraining the interference of the king and for securing good See also:government, it must cease to be filled to a very large extent by the nominees of boroughmongers and the treasury .

He be-came a strong See also:

advocate for parliamentary reform . In all ways he was the ardent advocate of what have in later times been known as " Liberal causes," the removal of all religious disabilities and tests, the suppression of private interests which hampered the public good, the abolition of the slave See also:trade, and the emancipation of all classes and races of men from the strict See also:control of authority . A detailed account of his activity from 1774 to 1782 would See also:entail the mention of every crisis of the American See also:War of In-dependence and of every serious debate in See also:parliament . Through-out the struggle Fox was uniformly opposed to the See also:coercion of the colonies and was the untiring critic of Lord North . While the result must be held to prove that he was right, he prepared future difficulties for himself by the fury of his See also:language . He was the last man in the world to act on the worldly-See also:wise See also:maxim that an enemy should always be treated as if he may one day be a friend, and a friend as if he might become an enemy . On the 29th of See also:November 1779 Fox was wounded in a See also:duel with Mr See also:William See also:Adam, a supporter of Lord North's whom he had savagely denounced . He assailed Lord North with unmeasured invective, directed not only at his policy but at his personal character, though he well knew that the See also:prime See also:minister was an amiable though pliable man, who remained in office against his own wish, in deference to the king who appealed to his See also:loyalty . When the disasters of the American war had at last made a See also:change of ministry necessary, and the king applied to the Whigs, through the intermediary of Lord Shelburne, Fox made a very serious See also:mistake in persuading the See also:marquess of Rockingham not to insist on dealing directly with the See also:sovereign . The result was the formation of a See also:cabinet belonging, in Fox's own words, partly to the king and partly to the country—that is to say, partly of Whigs who wished to restrain the king, and partly of the king's friends, represented by Lord Shelburne, whose real See also:function was to baffle the Whigs . Dissensions began from the first, and were peculiarly acute between Shelburneand Fox, the two secretaries of See also:state . The old See also:division of duties by 'which the See also:southern secretary had the See also:correspondence with the colonies and the western powers of See also:Europe, and the See also:northern secretary with the others, had been abolished on the formation of the Rockingham cabinet .

All See also:

foreign affairs were entrusted to Fox . Lord Shelburne meddled in the negotiations for the See also:peace at Paris . He also persuaded his colleagues to See also:grant some rather scandalous See also:pensions, and Fox's acquiescence in this abuse after his See also:recent agitation against Lord North's waste did him injury . When the marquess of Rockingham died on the 1st of July 1782, and the king offered the premiership to Shelburne, Fox resigned, and was followed by a part of the Rockingham Whigs . In refusing to serve under Shelburne he was undoubtedly consistent, but his next step was ruinous to himself and his party . On the 14th of February 1783 he formed a See also:coalition with Lord North, based as they declared on " mutual See also:goodwill and confidence." Plausible excuses were made for the alliance, but to the country at large this See also:union, formed with a man whom he had denounced for years, had the See also:appearance of an unscrupulous See also:conspiracy to obtain office on any terms . In the House of Commons the coalition was strong enough to drive Shelburne from office on the 24th of February . The king made a prolonged resistance to the pressure put on him to accept Fox and North as his ministers (see PITT, WILLIAM) . On the 2nd of See also:April he was constrained to submit to the formation of a new ministry, in which the See also:duke of See also:Portland was prime minister and Fox and North were secretaries of state . The new administration was See also:ill liked by some of the followers of both . Fox increased its unpopularity both in the House and in the country by consenting against the wish of most of his colleagues to ask for the grant of a sum of £1oo,000 a year to the See also:prince of See also:Wales . The act had the appearance of a deliberate offence to the king, who was on bad terms with his son .

The magnitude of the sum, and his acquiescence in the grant of pensions by the Shelburne ministry, convinced the country that his zeal for See also:

economy was hypocritical . The introduction of the See also:India See also:Bill in November 1783 alarmed many vested interests, and offended the king by the See also:provision which gave the patronage of India to a See also:commission to be named by the ministry and removable only by parliament . The coalition, and Fox in particular, were assailed in a torrent of most telling invective and See also:caricature . Encouraged by the growing unpopularity of his ministers, George III. gave it to be understood that he would not look upon any member of the House of Lords who voted for the India Bill as his friend . The bill was thrown out in the upper House on the 17th of December, and next day the king dismissed his ministers . Fox now went into opposition again . The See also:remainder of his life may be divided into four portions—his opposition to Pitt during the session of 1784; his parliamentary activity till his See also:secession in 1797; his retirement till 1800; his return to activity and his See also:short See also:tenure of office before his death in 182,6 . During the first of these periods he deepened his unpopularity by assailing the undoubted prerogatives of the crown, by claiming for the House of Commons the right to override not only the king and the Lords but the opinion of the country, and by resisting a See also:dissolution . This last pretension came very ill from a statesman who in 1780 had advocated yearly elections . He lost ground daily before the steady good judgment and unblemished character of Pitt . When parliament was dissolved at the end of the session of 1784, the country showed its sentiments by unseating 18o of the followers of Fox and North . Immense harm was done to both by the publication of a See also:book called The Beauties of Fox, North and Burke, a compilation of their abuse of one another in recent years .

Phoenix-squares

' Fox himself was elected for See also:

Westminster with fewer votes than See also:Admiral Lord See also:Hood, but with a See also:majority over the ministerial See also:candidate, Sir See also:Cecil Wray . The election was marked by an amazing outflow of caricatures and squibs, by See also:weeks of rioting in which Lord Hood's sailors fought pitched battles in St James's Street with Fox's See also:hackney coachmen, and by the intrepid canvassing of Whig ladies . The beautiful duchess of See also:Devonshire (Georgiana See also:Spencer) is said to have won at least one See also:vote for Fox by kissing a shoemaker who had a romantic See also:idea of what constituted a desirable bribe . The high See also:bailiff refused to make a return, and the See also:confirmation of Fox's election was delayed by the somewhat mean See also:action of the ministry . He had, however, been chosen for See also:Kirkwall, and could fight his cause in the House . In the end he recovered See also:damages from the high bailiff . In his place in parliament he sometimes supported Pitt and sometimes opposed him with effect . His See also:criticism on the ministers' bill for the government of India was sound in principle, though the evils he foresaw did not arise . Little excuse can be made for his opposition to Pitt's commercial policy towards See also:Ireland . But as Fox on this occasion aided the vested interests of some See also:English manufacturers he secured a certain revival of popularity . His support of Pitt's Reform Bill was qualified by a just dislike of the ministers' proposal to treat the See also:possession of the See also:franchise by a See also:constituency as a See also:property and not as a See also:trust . His unsuccessful opposition to the commercial treaty with France in 1787 was unwise and most injurious to himself .

He committed himself to the proposition that France was the natural enemy of Great See also:

Britain, a saying often quoted against him in coming years . It has been excused on the ground that when he said France he meant the aggressive house of See also:Bourbon . A statesman whose words have to be interpreted by an See also:esoteric meaning cannot fairly complain if he is often misunderstood . In 1788 he travelled in Italy, but returned in haste on See also:hearing of the illness of the king . Fox supported the claim of the prince of Wales to the regency as a right, a See also:doctrine which provoked Pitt into declaring that he would " unwhig the See also:gentleman for the See also:rest of his life." The friendship between him and the prince of Wales (see GEORGE IV.) was always injurious to Fox . In 1787 he was misled by the prince's ambiguous assurances into denying the marriage with Mrs See also:Fitzherbert . On discovering that he had been deceived he See also:broke off all relations with the prince for a year, but their alliance was renewed . During these years he was always in favour of whatever See also:measures could be described as favourable to emancipation and to humanity . He actively promoted the See also:impeachment of See also:Warren See also:Hastings, which had the support of Pitt . He was always in favour of the abolition of the slave trade (which he actually effected during his short tenure of office in 18o6), of the See also:repeal of the Test Acts, and of concessions to the See also:Roman Catholics, both in Great Britain and in Ireland . The French Revolution affected Fox profoundly . Together with almost all his countrymen he welcomed the See also:meeting of the states-general in 1789 as the downfall of a despotism hostile to Great Britain .

But when the development of the Revolution caused a general reaction, he adhered stoutly to his opinion that the Revolution was essentially just a.nd ought not to be condemned for its errors or even for its crimes . As a natural consequence he was the steady opponent of Pitt's foreign policy, which he condemned as a See also:

species of crusade against freedom in the See also:interest of despotism . Between 1790 and 1800 his unpopularity reached its height . He was left almost alone in parliament, and was denounced as the enemy of his country . On the 6th of May 1791 occurred the painful See also:scene in the House of Commons, in which Burke renounced his friendship . In 1792 there was some vague talk of a coalition between him and Pitt, which came to nothing . It should be noted that the scene with Burke took place in the course of the debate on the See also:Quebec Bill, in which Fox displayed real statesmanship by criticizing the division of Upper from See also:Lower See also:Canada, and other provisions of the bill, which in the end proved so injurious as to be unworkable . In this year he carried the See also:Libel Bill . In 1792 his ally, the duke of Portland, and most of his party left him . In 1797 he withdrew from parliament, and only came forward in 1798 to reaffirm the doctrine of the See also:sovereignty of the See also:people at a great Whig See also:dinner . On the 9th of May he was dismissed from the privy See also:council . The See also:interval of secession was perhaps the happiest in his life .

In 1783 he formed a connexion with See also:

Elizabeth See also:Bridget See also:Cane, commonly known as Mrs See also:Armstead or Armistead, an amiableand well-mannered woman to whom he was passionately attached . In See also:company with her he established himself at St See also:Anne's See also: