HIS METHOD AND MANNER.

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them to melting pity, or excite them to sympathetic laughter, at his will. To his voice he was much indebted, for its lower tones were wonderfully sweet and musical, and when raised to its highest pitch, it was resonant with power. Its compass, however, was limited, and it was apt to run into an unpleasant shrillness. His gestures were without grace, and he had not the commanding person or expressive countenance of his eminent rival. His accent and pronunciation were classically correct; and a fine taste regulated his choice of language. His speeches will be found a well of English undefiled; for he eschewed foreign words and idioms, relying on the ample resources of that mother-tongue which he had mastered so completely.

Sir Robert Grant * affirms that Mr. Fox's oratory was distinguished by the inimitable appearance, which it always wore, of perfect genuineness and sincerity. While the quality that gave character to Mr. Pitt's oratorical displays was greatness of soul, that which informed the speaking of his rival, says Grant, was depth of heart. This is probably a correct estimate; for Fox was a man of the liveliest sympathies and of great impressibility of disposition. Through the ordeal of a youth of dissipation and of a father's foolish indulgence, his generous nature passed unscathed; nor were his sensibilities deadened by a life of political action and party intrigue. He was always on the side of the weak and oppressed, and his parliamentary conduct was greatly influenced by his feelings. Thus he became naturally the defender of the Colonies when struggling for their constitutional privileges, and

* Quarterly Review, August, 1810.

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HIS PUBLIC SERVICES.

of France when labouring to throw off the cruel fetters of an arbitrary government. He began life as a Tory, but we can now see that a man of his character would necessarily be attracted to the opposite party, with its traditions of civil and religious freedom. The great failure of his life, his coalition with Lord North, was in no small measure attributable to the strength of his affections, which made him willing to venture everything for the sake of his followers. To the depth of kindliness in his nature was due his incessant effort for the abolition of the Slave Trade, a cause in which he laboured as assiduously and as disinterestedly as Wilberforce himself.

For this, as well as for his support of Lord Erskine in his amendment of the injurious Law of Libel, his country owes him its lasting gratitude; and Tories may join with Whigs in paying a tribute of respect to the services of so great an orator and so amiable a statesman. But the noblest portion of his life was those years of struggle, from 1793 to 1804, when, at the head of a small but gallant band, he maintained the cause of freedom, imperilled by the follies and excesses of its own partisans. "If," says Brougham, "to the genius and the courage of Erskine we may justly be said to owe escape from proscription and from arbitrary power, Fox stands next to him as the preserver of that sacred fire of liberty which they saved to blaze forth in happier times. Nor could even Erskine have triumphed as he did, had not the party which Fox so nobly led persevered in maintaining the holy warfare, and in rallying round them whatever was left of the old English spirit to resist oppression."

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JUVENILIA.

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Charles James Fox was the third son of that Henry Fox, first Lord Holland, to whom we have had frequent occasion to refer in the foregoing pages. His mother was Lady Georgina Caroline, eldest daughter of Charles, second Duke of Richmond; * and he was born in Conduit Street, London, on the 24th of January, 1749. In his childhood attention was drawn to the precocity of his intelligence and the amiability of his disposition. When his son was seven years old, the always fond and indulgent father writes:-" He is all life, spirits, and good-humour stage-mad, but it makes him read a good deal." Naturally he was of a passionate temper; but he was induced to bring it under control by overhearing a conversation between his parents. "Charles is dreadfully passionate," said Lady Caroline, "what shall we do with him?" "Oh, never mind," replied his father; "he is a very sensible little fellow, and will learn to cure himself." "I will not deny," remarked Fox, in after life, "that I was a very sensible little boy, a very clever little boy, and what I heard made an impression on me, and was of use to me afterwards."

Having acquired the first rudiments of education at a preparatory school at Wandsworth, he was sent to Eton in 1758. There he had the advantage of studying under the Rev. Mr. Francis, the father of the reputed "Junius," and the translator of Horace. In May, 1763, his father, who strove his utmost to spoil him, carried him off from school to the gaieties of Paris and

* This marriage of a Duke's daughter to a mere Commoner created a great sensation in the Court and fashionable circles of the time.

Spa, and initiated him into the mysteries of play. It was then he acquired that fatal passion for gambling which, in after life, proved so disastrous. Returning to Eton, he remained there until the summer of 1764, when he was entered at Hertford College, Oxford, which enjoyed a temporary celebrity from the scholarship of Dr. Newcome, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh. Some extracts from his letters to his friend Sir George, afterwards Lord Macartney, will enable us to form an idea of his character, taste, and habits at this time:

"It is said that Charles Yorke [son of Lord Hardwicke] refused the Attorney-Generalship, because Lord Sandwich would not comply with some of his demands relative to Cambridge... Churchill [the satirist] is dead. His friend Wilkes has publishedaletter to his constituents at Aylesbury; it contains nothing but a justification of his conduct as to the 'North Briton.' He says it was respectful to the King. The 'Essay on Woman' he calls an idle poem, in which he had ridiculed nothing but a creed which the great Tillotson wished the Church of England fairly rid of. It contains violent abuse of Lord Mansfield I like Oxford well enough. I read there a great deal, and am very fond of mathematics."

Again he writes:-"I read here much, and like vastly (what I know you think useless) mathematics. I believe they are useful, and I am sure they are entertaining; which is alone enough to recommend them to me. I did not expect my life here could be so pleasant as I find it; but I really think, to a man who reads a great deal,

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I cannot

there cannot be a more pleasant place . . suspect you again of being so devoid of taste as to fall in love with a woman under forty,* though as you have once begun to give way, you may perhaps be reduced in time to be in love with a tripping milliner girl of fifteen. I hear there is very deep play at Petersburgh. I hope that will not tempt you to break your resolution against gaming If there were any way of sending you pamphlets, I would send you a new poem, called 'The Traveller,' which appears to me to have a great deal of merit."

On the whole, the impression derived from these letters is that their writer is a young man of parts, with no great steadiness of principle, but no special inclination for vice. His friends and kinsmen, however, predicted at this early period his future eminence; and in some verses by Lord Carlisle on his companions at Eton, Charles Fox is selected to play the most conspicuous part in the British Senate. It is more singular that his long rivalry with William Pitt, his junior by ten years, should also have been anticipated. It is said that, on one occasion, his mother, Lady Caroline, remonstrating with her husband on his excessive indulgence of his brilliant son, added: "I have been this morning with Lady Hester Pitt [Lady Chatham], and there is little William Pitt, not eight years old, and really the cleverest child I ever saw, and brought up so strictly and so proper in his behaviour, that, mark my words, that little boy will be a thorn in Charles's side as long as he lives."

Lord Macartney was accustomed to say that a woman was never beautiful until she had passed forty.

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