PREFACE

TO THE SECOND VOLUME.

THE present volume contains further materials for Mr. Fox's Life, and in elucidation of the history of his times, till the end of the year 1792. I have with some difficulty altered the order adopted by Lord Holland and Mr. Allen, making it more chronological; and I have added some remarks from time to time upon the great questions which, sixty years ago, divided the opinions of the country.

In these papers, as in those contained in the former volume, the frank, sincere, simple, and affectionate nature of Mr. Fox pierces through all the superincumbent clay of a period of low morals, and factious politics. The historical records of the time are very imperfect, and I had no longer the help of Lord Mahon's calm and steady light to aid, if not to direct me. Differing from him, as I often do, it is impossible not to recognise in Lord Mahon an author anxious to ascertain and avow the truth.

Lately, however, a publication of the Duke of Buckingham has given to the world singular and authentic information regarding the influence by which Mr. Fox was defeated, and the men by whom he was deserted. Too easily was the victory gained over a statesman who never would condescend to an intrigue, and never would betray a principle.

The end of this volume brings us to the brink of the war of the French Revolution. Attention has been lately called to this period in a pamphlet of singular clearness and force; and the calumniated wisdom of Mr. Fox has been contrasted with the popular folly of his rival.

It will be my business, if I should be able to continue this work, to point out the utter want of foresight by which the conduct of Mr. Pitt was marked when he led the people of England into a crusade against the people of France.

* "1793 and 1853."

CHESHAM PLACE, April 13, 1853.

CORRESPONDENCE OF

CHARLES JAMES FOX.

BOOK THE FOURTH.

PART THE SECOND.

*WE are about to enter on a most important part of Mr. Fox's political life. In fact, the course he took in 1782, 1783, and 1784, gave a direction to his whole career, and deprived him of that power to sway the destiny of the State, which would have been happy for his own fame, and conducive to the welfare of his country.

The death of Lord Rockingham enabled Lord Shelburne to succeed to the post of First Lord of the Treasury; but it also left a vacancy in the leadership of the Whig party, which Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke were alone competent to supply.

It has been said that the birth and connexions of Mr. Fox determined in his favour the question of the leadership; but the fact is, that while Mr. Burke was the greater philosopher, and the more profound reasoner on general principles of government, Mr. Fox

VOL. II.

B

had far more readiness in debate, a more popular style of eloquence, and more judgment in the practical conduct of affairs. I have been told by Mr. Dudley North, that when the managers, during the impeachment of Mr. Hastings, retired to consult together, it was usual for Mr. Burke to close all debate by saying, "Let us defer to the superior judgment of Mr. Fox.'

But while the pre-eminent qualities of Mr. Fox pointed him out as the successor of Lord Rockingham, it seems strange to us that Mr. Burke, with his genius and his standing in the Whig party, should not have been a member of the Cabinet, either of Lord Rockingham or of the Duke of Portland. exclusion of such a man seems to us unwise and unjust at the time it does not appear that it was resented by Mr. Burke, or by any of his friends.

The

While Mr. Fox derived from the death of Lord Rockingham increased importance, there arose at the same time a new luminary whose bright rays spread over the hemisphere.

William Pitt, the second son of Lord Chatham, was born in 1759, ten years after Mr. Fox. His education was very different from that of his great rival. He was not sent to a public school like Mr. Fox, nor was he taken by his parents to a foreign gamblingtable, and initiated early in the vices of a profligate age. He was educated at home, and with such regard to economy, that when he was sent to Cambridge, we find that one of his earliest calculations referred to the comparative cost of keeping his horse at grass, or in the stable. His private tutor had

taught him Greek and Latin. Lord Chatham himself recommended to his Cambridge teachers to give much time to the study of Thucydides. As an instance how well this precept was obeyed, the late Lord Harrowby, as he himself told me, being with Mr. Pitt at his country-house, when he and Lord Grenville, waiting for Mr. Pitt in his library, had taken down a Thucydides, and had arrived at a passage they could not make out, Mr. Pitt coming in, took the volume and construed the passage with the greatest facility. No less successful was his study of mathematics; so that, having entered Cambridge at the age of fourteen, he remained there till he became well qualified in the science and learning of that celebrated university. Elected to a seat in Parliament at the age of twentyone, his first efforts caused wonder and admiration. Logical in his argument, clear in his arrangement, he possessed from the very beginning the command of a diction flowing, majestic, regular,

"Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full."

Not less remarkable was the confidence and presence of mind which he displayed from the beginning. Mr. Adam told me of an instance of these qualities which struck him and others with surprise not unmixed with anger at the presumption of the boy-statesman. Mr. Pitt was accusing the Minister of grave neglects, when he perceived a conversation going on between Lord North and (I think) Lord George Germaine, in which Mr. Welbore Ellis interposed. Mr. Pitt paused: "I wait," he said, "till the Nestor of the Treasury

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