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1ST BARON See also: English statesman, second son of See also: Sir See also: Stephen See also: Fox, was See also: born on the 28th of See also: September 1705
.
Inheriting a large share of the riches which his See also: father had accumulated, he squandered it soon after attaining his majority, and went to the Continent to escape from his creditors
.
There he made the acquaintance of a country-woman of See also: fortune, who became his patroness and was so lavish with her purse that, after several years' See also: absence, he was in a position to return home and, in 17J5, to enter parliament as member for Hindon in See also: Wiltshire
.
He became the favourite pupil and devoted supporter of Sir Robert Walpole, achieving unequalled and unenviable proficiency in the worst See also: political arts of his master and See also: model
.
As a See also: speaker he was fluent and self-possessed, imperturbable under attack, audacious in exposition or retort, and able to hold his own against Pitt himself
.
Thus he made himself a power in the See also: House of See also: Commons and an indispensable member of several administrations
.
He was surveyor-general of See also: works from 1737 to 1742, was member for Windsor from 1741 to 1761; See also: lord of the See also: treasury in 1743, secretary at war and member of the privy council in 1746, and in 1755 became See also: leader of the House of Commons, secretary of See also: state and a member of the See also: cabinet under the duke of New-See also: castle
.
In 1757, in the rearrangements of the See also: government, Fox was ultimately excluded from the cabinet, and given the See also: post of paymaster of the forces
.
During the war, which Pitt conducted with extraordinary vigour, and in which the nation was intoxicated with See also: glory, Fox devoted himself mainly to accumulating a vast fortune
.
In 1762 he again accepted the leadership of the House, with a seat in the cabinet, under the See also: earl of Bute, and exercised his skill in cajolery and corruption to induce the House of Commons to approve of the treaty of See also: Paris of 1763; as a recompense, he was raised to the House of Lords with the title of Baron See also: Holland of Foxley, Wiltshire, on the 16th of
See also: April 1763
.
In 1765 he was forced to resign the paymaster generalship, and four years later a petition of the See also: livery of the city of See also: London against the ministers referred to him as " the public defaulter of unaccounted millions." The proceedings brought against him in the See also: court of See also: exchequer were stayed by a royal warrant; and in a statement published by him he proved that in the delays in making up the accounts of his office he had transgressed neither the See also: law nor the See also: custom of the See also: time
.
From the See also: interest on the outstanding balances he had, none the less, amassed a princely fortune
.
He strove, but in vain, to obtain promotion to the dignity of an earl, a dignity upon which he had set his See also: heart, and he died at Holland House, See also: Kensington, on the 1st of See also: July 1774, a sorely disappointed See also: man, with a reputation for cunning and unscrupulousness which cannot easily be matched, and with an unpopularity which justifies the conclusion that he was the most thoroughly hated statesman of his See also: day
.
Lord Holland married in 1744
Lady Georgina See also: Caroline Lennox, daughter of the duke of See also: Richmond, who was created Baroness Holland, of Holland, See also: Lincolnshire, in 1762
.
There were four sons of the See also: marriage: Stephen, 2nd Lord Holland (d
.
1774); See also: Henry (d. an infant);
See also: Charles
See also: James (the celebrated statesman); and Henry
See also: Edward (1755-1811), soldier and diplomatist
.
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