FOX, CHAHLES JAMES. 



FOX, GEORQF. 



exclaimed Burke, " I know the price of my conduct ; I have don* my 

 duty at to* price of my friend : our friendship it at an end." At the 

 y^li^^p of Mr. Burke'* ipeeoh, Fox ro*e, but it wat some minute* 

 before hi* tear* allowed him to proceed. So *oon a* he could (peak, 

 he praned upon Mr. Burke the claim* of a friendship of five-and- 

 twenty yean' duration, but to no purpose, and the breach wa* never 

 made whole. 



Fox distinguished himself during the tame session of 1791 by hi* 

 opposition to the ministerial pix>ject of an armament ftgainit Russia, 

 by hi* anpport of Mr. Wilberforce's motion for the abolition of the 

 slavf-traJe, and by the introduction of a bill for the amendment ol 

 the law of libel From the latter part of 1792 to 1797 hi* cffarta 

 were unerasing, fint to prevent a war with France, and afterward*, 

 wheu hi* warniug* had been of no avail, and it had been entered into, 

 to bring it to a cloee. During thi* period many of hi* friends, filled 

 with alarm at the progress of event* in France, and their probable 

 influence on their own countrymen, left him to swell the majorities ol 

 the minuter; and pitiable indeed were the minorities by which Fox's 

 motions, one after the other, were supported ; but thia in no way 

 daunted him. We must mention also the lupport which, in 1793, 

 he gave to Mr. (afterward* Earl) Grey's famous motion for parliament- 

 ary reform, hi* eloquent advocacy in 1794 of the cause of Muir and 

 Palmer, the Scottish political martyr*, hi* indefatigable opposition to the 

 treason and sedition bill* of 1795, and his attempt to procure attention 

 to the state of Inland and to the grievances of Irish Catholics, by a 

 motion made in 1797, a* additional important incident* during that 

 period of hi* career, the principal object of which was opposition to 

 the first French revolutionary war. 



On the 26th of May 1797 Mr. Grey made a second motion on the 

 subject of parliamentary reform. Fox took 'thi* opportunity of 

 announcing a resolution which he had formed to discontinue hia 

 attendance at the house, seeing that he and his friends were destitute 

 of power to carry out their view*. It is perhaps a question whether 

 such a step as this can be taken by a member of the legislature without 

 dereliction of duty, even though it may be a means of influencing the 

 public mind, and through it the legislature ; and though the consent 

 of the member'* tpecial constituents may have been procured thereto. 

 But at the same time it would be unjust to apply to the conduct of 

 individual* acting under a very defective system of representation 

 tost* which spring from, and form part* of, a perfect theory. The five 

 yean then, from 1797 to 1802, were parsed by Fox principally at 

 8t Ann'* Hill, in retirement, and in the pursuit* of literature. It was 

 during this period of retirement that he formed the project of his 

 ' History of the Reign of James II.' A dissolution of parliament took 

 place in June 1802, and Fox, whose popularity with his constituent* 

 had not been a whit diminished by hi* absenting himself from the 

 house, was (gain returned for Westminster. Almost immediately 

 after hi* re-election he paid a visit to Paris, principally for the purpose 

 of collecting document* for his projected historical work. During hi* 

 Ktay in Pan* it i* laid that he wa* treated with marked attention by 

 Napoleon I. 



Mr. Pitt had retired from office in March 1S01, on finding himself 

 unable to procure the king'* assent to the measure of Catholic emanci- 

 pation ; and he had been then succeeded by Mr. Addington. The 

 new minister* had almost immediately set nbout negotiations for 

 peace with France; and when the preliminary articles, signed at 

 London on the 1-t of October 1801, had come under discussion in the 

 Houie of Common*, Fox had emerged from his retirement to express 

 hi* joy at the prospect now opened of a conclusion of the war, aud to 

 give hi* best support to the ministry. lie appeared again in Ms place 

 on the meeting of the new parliament, in the autumn of 1802, Htill 

 hoping to contribute to the bringing about of peace, but beginning by 

 thi* time to doubt the sincerity of the ministers. A meoaagB from 

 the crown, in May 1803, announced that the negociation* were broken 

 off. The following year Mr. Addington resigned office, unable to stand 

 against an opposition which included both Fax and Pitt It wa* now 

 hoped that Pitt, to whom wa* intrusted the making of the ministerial 

 arrangements, would be able to avail himself of the service* of Fox, 

 by whose side, though not in recognised conjunction, he had been now 

 itting for some time in opposition. But the king would not hear of 

 Fox being admitted to office. Lord Grenville, Lord Spencer, Mr. 

 Windnam, and other*, who, like Pitt, had been latterly co-operating 

 with Fox, refused to take any part in an administration from which 

 Fox wa* excluded ; and Pitt wa* thu* compiled to throw himself 

 upon the scattered subordinate* of the Addington ministry. Peace 

 cam* not from this ministry. On the 23rd of January 1808, Tilt's 

 d- ath dissolved it ; and in the new ministry which was formed under 

 Lord Orrnville, Fox was appointed secretary of state for foreign 

 affairs. His life was spared but for seven month* longer; but during 

 this short period be did much towards the abolition of the slave-trade, 

 which had ever bran one of the object* that he most cared for, and he 

 catered icalounly into negotiations for peace with France, which it was 

 a heavy misfurtune to his country that hi* death did not allow him to 

 complrU. He died on the 13th of September 180G, in the fifty-eighth 

 year of hi* age. The ooujplaiut which caused his death was wster on 

 the cheat. 



Such i* a brief sketch of the public- life of Fox. With the exception 

 of the fint u yean of it, in which he was either a supporter or a 



member of a court administration, it was in substance consistent. 

 From the beginning to the end it was honest There are part* of his 

 public life certainly which have led others to coll his honesty into 

 question, and to deny to him the quality of consistency ; and of these 

 part*, or at any rate of some of them, there are those among his friends 

 and admirers who have expressed disapprobation. Such parts are his 

 early connection with the court, bis coalition with l.or.l North, and, 

 shortly before hi* death, hi* coalition with Lord Qrenville. The 

 charge that he was actuated by private pique wh.-n, in 1 774, be became 

 an opponent of Lord North'* ministry, has been already met so far a* 

 it is possible to meet a charge which it is so very easy to make. But 

 in a case where no unworthy motives have operated to produce a 

 change of course, and it proceeds from change of opinion, it is for a 

 vulgar mind alone to make this a ground of attack and abuse. And 

 equally vulgar is that view of a statesman's duty which would prevent 

 him from ever entering into alliance with one to whom nt a previous 

 period he may have been opposed, even though the question or ques- 

 tion* on which they differed may now have been settled, and there 

 may only remain questions upon which they are agreed. Fox was 

 assuredly not, in the full and strict sense of the term, a philosophic 

 statesman, yet he came nearer to it perhaps than most other English 

 statesmen of his time. His speeches always display in a pre-eminent 

 degree a sense of the importance of principle. Sir James Mackintosh 

 has said of him, as an orator, that " he possessed above all modern* 

 that union of reason, simplicity, and vehemence which formed the 

 prince of orators. He was the most Demosthenean speaker since the 

 days of Demosthenes." Fox's speeches were collected, aud published 

 in six volumes with a short biographical and critical introduction by 

 Lord Erskine, in 1825. The fragment which he left of his projected 

 ' History of the reign of James II.,' a feeble and valueless production, 

 was published in 1808, with a preface by Lord Holland. Of the long- 

 talked-of ' Memorials of Charles James Fox,' begun by Lord Holland, 

 Lord John Russell has published three volumes, and announced a 

 fourth to complete the work ; but the work, though essential for the 

 history of the period, has been prepared in a very disjointed and 

 unsatisfactory manner. 



FOX, UEOUUE, founder of the sect of Quakers, an enthusiast 

 honest, zealous, illiterate, yet of no mean capacity and influence, was 

 born at Drayton, in Leicestershire, in July 1624. His origin and the 

 beginning of his preaching are thus shortly told by Noal (' History of 

 Puritans,' iv. 1) : " His father, being a poor weaver, put him appren- 

 tice to a country shoemaker : but having a peculiar turn of mind for 

 religion, he went away from his master, and wondered up and down 

 the countries like an hermit, in a leathern doublet; at length his 

 friends, hearing he was at London, persuaded him to return home, and 

 settle in some regular course of employment ; but after ha had been 

 some months in the country, he went from his friends a second time 

 in the year 1646, and threw off all further attendance on the public 

 service in the churches. The reasons he gave for hia conduct were, 

 because it was revealed to him tnat a learned education at the uni- 

 versity was no qualification for a minister, but that all depende 1 on 

 the anointing of the Spirit ; and that Uod who made the world did not 

 dwell in temples made with hands. In 1647 he travelled into Derby- 

 shire and Nottinghamshire, walking through divers towns and villages, 

 which way soever his mind turned, in a solitary manner. He fasted 

 much, and walked often abroad in retired places, with no other com- 

 panion but his Bible. He would sometimes sit in a hollow tree all 

 day, and frequently walk about the fields in the night like a man pos- 

 sessed with deep melancholy. Towar.is the latter end of this year he 

 jvgan first to set up ns a teacher of others, the principal argument of 

 lis discourse being, that people should receive the inward divine 

 tvachicgs of the Lord, and take that for their rule," 



From the beginning of hia teaching ho discontinued the use of out- 

 ward mark* of respect He says, in his journal for 1648 " When the 

 Liord sent me forth into the world, he forbid me to put off my hat to 

 any, high or low, and I was required to ' thee ' aud ' thou ' all men and 

 women, without any respect to rich or poor, great or small ; and aa I 

 ravelled up and down, I wan not to bid people ' good-morrow ' or 

 good-evening,' neither might I bow or scrape with my leg to any one : 

 aud this made the sects and profession* to rage." Nothing probably 

 conduced so much to the virulent persecution of the Quakers as their 

 refusal of such token* of respect, which persons in office interpreted 

 nto wilful contempt, except their conscientious refuHol to take any 

 oath, which involved them in the heavy penalties attached to the 

 refusal of the oath* of allegiance and supremacy. 



We shall not enter on a detail of hi* rrliijiou* tenets, labour*, or 

 sufferings : the latter are fully recorded in hi* 'Journal,' and noticed 

 n most histories. It is necessary however to infer to hia doctrine 

 'Journal,' 1649, p. 26), that " it i* not the Scriptures, but the Holy 

 Spirit, by which opinions and religious are to be tried." By this lent, 

 each convert might believe himself pocsessed of a peculiar infallible 

 nternal guide ; and, in fact it proved a warrant for any wild fancies 

 which entered the mind* of hi* followers, and led some into extrava- 

 gance* which gave a colour for the cruel treatment which all expe- 

 rienced. (Neal, iv., c. 3.) Into such extravagances Fox himself doe* 

 lot appear to have !> n "fteii betrayed. From 1648 till within a few 

 ears of hi* death, bis life was made up of travel, deputation, aud 

 mprisonmeut He visited the continent of Europe several times, and 



