O14 
belles Icttres, history, and the an- 
cient and modern languages of Eu- 
rope, and heis not supposed to have 
given his time to the acquisition of 
the mathematical sciences, which, 
indeed, have little connection with 
the chief objects of a statesman’s 
‘attention. In history, particularly 
that of his own country,—in the po- 
litical constitution and particular 
interests of the different nations of 
Europe, he was eminently skilled. 
He had early shewn a taste for 
poetry, and was celebrated for a 
ready wit, which he displayed in oc- 
casional sallies of repartee, and that 
light species of composition, which 
the French call vers de société. With 
a warm heart, a generous spirit, a 
simple mind, a clear understanding, 
and a perspicuous, easy style of ex. 
pression, Fox necessarily became the 
admiration of the British parliament, 
and one of the most animated and 
powerful. amongst ancient or mo- 
dern orators. His delivery was, 
however, not graceful, and his 
voice wanted power and harmony, 
but his manner was always pleasing, 
because it was always sensible and 
unaffected, and when he rose, as he 
always did, in the heat of debate, 
with the subject which he. was dis- 
cussing, he soared an eagle’s flight, 
and fell upen his adversaries with 
a force and energy which was ir- 
resistible. The great art of his 
eloquence seemed to be the abso- 
lute disregard of every thing that 
had the appearance of art. He had 
no set style, no. monotony of round: 
and studied periods, like his adver- 
sary, Pitt, or the prototype of that 
adversary, Cicero. His words and 
phrases were all the simple English 
of the reign of queen Anne, such as 
Swift or Addison would have used, 
* In the excellent speech alluded to, Burke was nearly coughed down. 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1806. 
but in a style more concentrated. 
His illustrations were drawn from 
history, or from common life, and 
not, like those of his friend Burke, 
scientific, poetical, or metaphysical. 
He always reasoned from facts and 
plain obvious principles, and made 
his hearers usually feel with him, 
because he appeared to speak and 
feel like acommon man of uncommon 
energy. He possessed beyond all 
other men the grandsecret of impres- 
sive eloquence, the power of making 
every one present believe that he 
was capable of thinking rightly, 
that he was incapable of deceit, and 
that his sole desire was to convince 
his hearers of the. truth which he 
felt himself strongly, and which he 
was only anxious to impress upon 
others with equal force of feeling. 
Yet in reality he was often a most 
skilful orator,and knew as wellasany 
man how to draw the attention of 
his hearers from the strong parts of 
his opponents’ arguments, by attack- 
ing their political characters rather 
than their measures. An instance 
of this may be found in his speeches 
on the celebrated East India bill, 
where we shall find, if we compare 
him with Burke, that although 
totally neglecting the local infor. 
mation which the latter displayed 
upon the subject *, he produced a 
greater sensation upon his audience, 
by withdrawing their attention from 
the objects of the bill, as_ they af. 
fected the people in India, to their 
consequence, in adding weight toe 
the influence of the ministers in this 
country. In this he was wise, he 
knew that his hearers felt but a 
remote interest for the distant inha- 
bitants of Hindostan, whom they 
considered only as filling up a space 
in the map of Asia. To speak, 
like 
