but the mind of the sovereign was decidedly 
Git Lled Geet cancinned in oppovii 
0 , continued in ition. 
Pitt, however, cd ar oan diffieult 
country at that time, his Maj 
ve testified any reluctance to Mr 
tment as forei of state; who, 
now advanced in years, and ining i 
was made the 
liament; and 
such a measure, i 
right of 
FOX. 
535 
hopes of accomplishing much as a public leader; andit Fox. 
is probable, that the prospect of being able to conclude “"y"" 
an honourable peace with France was one of his prin- 
cipal inducements to accept the anxious and arduous 
station of a British premier. The negociation for this 
great object, the last act of his politi life, commenced 
in 1806, and originated in his indignant rejection of a 
proposal to assassinate the Emperor of the French. As 
a basis for negociation, he recommended “ a 
honourable for both parties and their allies, and 
calculated to secure the tranquillity of Europe ; and, as 
a more specific ground of the intended treaty, the 
French government verbally agreed to the principle of 
uti possidetis, But new objects of ambition arising to 
the French, and the health of Mr Fox rapidly declining, 
they departed from their verbal essions, and, with 
many compliments to the British Secretary of 
State, and a little rudeness to the British plenipotentiary 
at Paris, terminated the negotiation. 
We have been unwilling to interrupt the preceding 
sketch of Mr Fox’s public career, by adverting to the 
history of his private life; and there is little space left 
for more than a few slight notices on the subject. The 
i habits of his earlier years were not forsaken 
in bustle of political contests; and, at one period, 
involved him in the greatest ig gn Ma 80g from 
which he was saree by Dea? iptions of - 
friends, upon the iti wi wing hi 
attendance from the gaming table, His better judg- 
ment seems to have condemned the immoral courses in 
which he engaged 
recurred to literary pursuits and epistolary composi- 
tions. Even in his youth, when the marriage act was 
under the consideration of parliament, he gave a public 
testimony to the miseries of a dissolute life; and, on 
the lax mod ss: the French philserph: 
e rench p) : 
deficient, therefore, in ice, in a:.dugees 
not to be justified, and particularly to be lamented in a 
character so distinguished in other respects; he ought 
not to be regarded as having been, upon principle, a 
mere dissipated man of pleasure. His marriage, which 
was first announced in 1802, though said to have taken 
place in 1780, may be considered, it has been justly 
observed, as ‘* a homage which he paid to virtue;” and 
his later years were hs spe with little interruption in the 
simple enjoyments of domestic life, or in an assiduous 
attendance on public duty. When residing in his favou. 
rite sat oa St Anne’s bil, ap ney a“ 
biographers, he usually rose before eight o’clock in the 
morning ; breakfasted, and read the newspapers ;_per- 
‘used some Italian author with Mrs Fox ; t an hour 
or two in study ; sat down to a frugal but plentiful din- 
ner at three or ; drank a few glasses of wine, follow- 
ed by coffee ; relia eclodiyeete tll tontivne: employ- 
ed ore in reading, or listening to the i 
of history, till near ten ; and concluded the day with a 
gag of fruit, or of something equally trifling. 
residing in town, he generally went to his office 
at elevyeno’clock, where he remained until three ; and, 
as long as his peak Ses continued to bestow 
the most punctual and active attention upon his du- 
ties, frequently even directing in person the more mi- 
