894 
who had before disapproved of the 
mingled measures of the ministry, 
now naturally attacked them with 
full vigour. He urged the policy 
of forbearing from war, aud fore. 
boded the event of it. He shewed 
what ought to have been done, what 
ministers had promised to do, and 
what had been done; and admit- 
ting, for argument, the coercion of 
America to be necessary, demanded 
to know the means! On. the first 
hostilities he declared that lord 
Chatham, the king of Prussia, nay, 
Alexander the Great never gained 
so much in one campaign as lord 
North had lost.—‘* He has lost,” 
said he, ‘¢ a whole continent!” 
In 1770, he again visited his fa- 
vourite Paris, at that time certainly 
‘the seat of the Graces. While ar- 
dently engaged in the diversions of 
the Plaine de Sablons, he was pos- 
sessing himself with intelligence re. 
specting the affairs of Europe, which 
could perhaps have been gained in 
no other way, and availing himself 
profitably of an intimacy with the 
French nobility, in which his ad- 
dress always obtained him a. prefer- 
ence, 
Open and easy in his manner, 
Mr. Fox had much of that point 
which distinguishes a ready wit and 
general intelligence. Of his repar- 
tees and bun mots volumes have been 
furnished, but itis to be feared that 
they who solemuly record these 
momentary effusions are those who 
do little else, and from such indis- 
criminate judges the best are_not to 
be expected. 
On his return to the heuse of 
eommons in 1777, Mr. Fox had so 
well acquainted himself, -by the 
means already described, with the 
intentions of the house of Bourbon, 
that while the minister declared his 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1806. 
confidence, that neither France nor 
Spain would interfere in the coloniat | 
cenflict, he was enabled to state 
directly the reverse ; and that both 
governments waited only for a fa- 
vourable opportunity on some diss 
tinguished success of the Americans. 
This prediction’ was but too well 
confirmed. 
The sessions of 1777 commenced 
under peculiar disadvantages, for in 
the preceding recess general Burs 
goyne had been surrounded by the 
American troops under Gates, and 
his whole army taken prisoners. 
Mr. Fox joined with Burke in the 
defence of Burgoyne and of Howe, 
who complained of the ministry, 
and formed an auxiliary to the pur- 
poses of opposition. 
In the succeeding autumn, Mr. 
Fox made the tour of Ireland, and, 
so completely had he gained posses- 
sion of the public mind, that, asa 
diplomatic commission had been be- 
fore attributed to his journey to 
Paris, so this was said to be under- 
taken on account of Irish politics, 
The affair of Burgoyne has been 
already mentioned, as a part of the 
minor politics which occupied the 
day, It was considered as a mark 
of promptness, that, on the minister 
denying his assertion, that twenty 
thousand men had fallen in the con- 
test; he instantly moved for an ac- 
couat of all that had been sent, and 
those which remained, that the dif- 
ference might produce the truth 
they wished to conceal. The next 
prominent object of minor politics, 
was the dispute respecting admiral 
Keppel and vice-admiral Palliser, 
which turned upon the first lord of 
the admiralty (Sandwich) not hav- 
ing sent him a sufficient force. Mr. 
Fox naturally exerted ‘himself for 
his relation, for such was lord Kep- 
pel; = 
