916 
dour of debate he insulted no one, 
and scarcely ever used an expression 
whicha gentleman would wish to 
disavow. He sneered at no man's 
weakness, but chose always for his 
competitor the strongest of his op- 
ponents. He scorned to fight with 
dwarts, but always ventured alone 
into combat with the Goliath of his 
times; and his weapons, though 
strong and well-directed, were fair 
and simple, as the sling and the 
stone of the son of Jesse. - In all 
things he was great, he lived and 
died with many friends, and amongst 
a nation of admirers, and he will 
ever be remembered amongst the 
great leaders of the British senate, 
and the glories of British eloquence, 
Parallel between Mr. Pitt and Mr. 
t Fox. 
Ilaving thus attempted to de- 
scribe the eloquence, and delineate 
the characters of these two great 
men, we may pronounce of them, 
that as rivals for power and for 
fame, their equals have not been 
known in this country, and perhaps 
in none were there two such states. 
men, in so regular and equal a 
contention for pre-eminence. In 
the advantages of birth and fortune 
they were equal; in cloquence, 
dissimilar in their manner, but su- 
perior to all their contemporaries ; 
in influence upon the minds of 
their hearers equal; in talents and 
reputation, dividing the nation into 
two parties of nearly equal strength; 
_in probity above all suspicion; in 
patriotism rivals, asin all things else. 
Whatever the spirit of party may 
have suggested in the ardour of 
contention, the writer of this 
cannot now be persuaded, that their 
opposition was more than aconstitu- 
tional struggle for power, to which 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
-each had pretensions that must hare 
1806. 
borne the palm from any other man 
of his time. 
At the commencement of Mr. 
Pitt’s long administration, to which 
he succeeded by one of those court 
manceuvres which have obtained in 
all countries, Mr. Fox could rarely 
object anything to his measures, ex- 
cept that the proposer of them first 
obtained his power against the majo- 
rity of the house of commons. In the 
nice and difficult affair of the prepos- 
ed regency, we see the Whig leader of 
opposition, the man of the people, 
endeavouring to check the limita- 
tions which the court minister, 
through the two popular branches 
of the legislature, would have fixed 
upon the hereditary successor to the 
executive government, on a tempo- 
rary demise of the crown. In op. 
position, each declaimed against the 
corruption of the commons, and 
proposed plans of reform. This 
was the engine by which the one 
raised himself in early youth to a 
great degree of popular favour, and 
gained the citadel of ministerial 
power. ‘This too was the engine 
which the other employed to be- 
siége him in his state, when he found 
it necessary to lead, and not destroy 
parliamentary influence. How Fox, 
as minister and the avowed patron 
of reform, would have encountered 
the difficulties of a similar situation 
is doubtful; he died before the 
hour of trial arrived. On the sub- 
ject of the catholic claims, each, at 
a late period, avowedly favoured 
them; but when in power, subse. 
quently, neither was capable of car. 
rying his views immediately into 
effect, and the attempt was fatal to 
the power of those to whom Mr. 
Fox bequeathed his 2s and his 
influence, 
Upon 
