268 Memoirs of the late Right Hon. Charles James Fox. [Oct. 1 , 



Having tlius attached to his own perfon 

 tlie fole rcCponlibility, the war was im- 

 mediately oxtendrd to Spain, which had 

 hitherto been permitted to enjoy all the 

 benefits of neutrality. Th.is meafure, 

 Tihicii was tcnncd energetic by his ad- 

 mirers, was loudly cenfured by Mr. Fox, 

 as fraught with " a chara6terillic dupli- 

 city ;" and he maintained, at the fame 

 time, that " Miuillers had adted both 

 ■ j-alLly and uujuftly in their conduct.'' 



Meanwhile an union had been effected 

 by the Foxitc and Grcnville parties, and 

 . from that moment the return of both to 

 power was conlidered as certain. This 

 was in part evinced by the conduct of 

 the rioufc of Commons, in refpeft to the 

 profccution of Lord ]\Iclvi'lc ; and al- 

 though the petition of the Irilh Catholics 

 \v«s t'lrown out by a great msijority, yet 

 a large portion of the empire was, in 

 fomc mcat'ure, conciliated on this occa- 

 fion, by the conhderation that it was not 

 .defiitute of powerful protection. 



In the midfl of thefe difculTions, Mr. 

 Pitt, wiio had been for fomc time totter- 

 ing, fickeiied and died. A vole of Par- 

 liament, a public funeral, and the paj-- 

 meiit of his debts at the ex pence of the 

 nation, added to his fudden fate and 

 acknowledged talents, all tended to ren- 

 der liis mciiiory lefpected ; but what con- 

 tributed more than any ti.ini: elfo to 

 lliield it from reproach, was th*junction 

 of his friends and relations with his ene- 

 rnies and ojiponcnts ; fo that the latter 

 could not have alTailed his character with- 

 out violating all the decencies of life 

 ivith rel'pe^t to the former. 



After an oppofuion of twentv-two 

 years — a period unexampled, in point of 

 duration, in the annals of this o^untry — 

 IMr Fox, in 1806, refumed his fituation 

 as Secretary of State for the Foreign De- 

 partment, which he had furrendercd in 

 1?83— 4. Soon after this event, the con- 

 dui^t of the King of Prullia excited gene- 

 ral imlignation. Not content with feiz- 

 jng on Hanover, he excluded the Englilh 

 commerce not only from his own domi- 

 nions, but alfo from every port which he 

 could either terrify or influence. On this 

 the new Minifter publilhed a fpirited de- 

 claration, and, at the fame time, adopt- 

 ed meafures for blockading all the ports, 

 niid intercepting all the trade of the 

 houfe of Brandenburg 



But his mind was never for a fingle in- 

 ilant diverted from what may be confi- 

 dorcd as the grand objeft of his life. He 

 ^ad conceived an idea, from the very be- 

 ginning, that the '.V.U- waeiMantd, and 



no fooner had he obtained the feals, than 

 he determined, if poffible, to put an ho- 

 nourable termination to it. As ha had 

 never made ui'e of any intemperate lan- 

 guage, or difplayed any perfonal anti- 

 pathies, the ejieiny of coiirfe could have 

 no objcttion to fuch a mediator; but juft 

 at the critical period, when it was fup- 

 poied the moll of that ditficulties had been 

 removed, the man on whofe fate the 

 peace of the world, in no finall degree, 

 depended, was fnatched away from his 

 friends and the world by a contirmed 

 dropfy. 



As the i)olitical life and opinions of 

 Mr. Fox have been already detailed, it 

 now remains to fay fomething of him as 

 a man of letters. His tiiagivim opus, 

 which had engaged his attention for 

 years, was a Hiftory of the period which 

 immediately preceded and followed the 

 Revolution ; a fubjctt alike congenial to 

 liis feelings and his habits. We underfiand 

 that he was offered a very large fum of 

 money for it, by a fpirited bookfcller, about 

 three years liiice ; but it was then, and is 

 Hill, we fear, in an unfiniflied ftate. 



His " Letter to the Electors of Weft- 

 minfter," publilhed in 1793, and which 

 palled through no lefs than thirteen edi- 

 tions within a few months, may be in 

 fome meafure confidered as a legacy to 

 pofterity, as it contams a full and ample 

 apology for his conduct during the fonner 

 war with France. 



Of his compofitions while at Eton, 

 the vthole have been enumerated in chro- 

 noilogical order; and in reipect to his fu- 

 gitive poetry, we fliall here affix a lift of 

 fuch articles as have been feen by us. 



1. His\'erfes to Mrs., now Lady, Crewe, 

 beginning with 



»« Where the lovelicft expreflion to feature 

 is joineJ," &c. 



a. An Invocation to Poverty: 

 " O Poverty I of pale confumptive hue," &c, 



3. Lines addrelTed to a lady who de- 

 clared " that Ihe did not care three Ikips 

 of a 1 — fe for me." We do not recollect 

 the firft line, but the point is, that " the 

 lady of courfe had in her mouth what 

 was always running in her head." 



4. Verfes adriieiled fo Mrs. Fox, on 

 his attaining the age of fifty : thefe are 

 highly complimentary to that lady. 



And, 6. \'erfcs infcribed to^his ne-. 

 pjiew. Lord Holland. 



Of his fingle fpeeches, pnblilhed we ra- 

 ther fuppofe without his cognizance or 

 revifion, the following is the beft lift we 

 have been able to procure : 



1. Speech 



