Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/529

FOX 41)7 which is the first quality of a prime minister in a free country, has more common sense than any man, with amaz ing parts that are neither ostentatious nor affected." His experience of high office was very short. Lord llockingham became premier on the 27th of March 1782; he died on the first of the following July, and Fox resigned immedi ately afterwards. He had finally resolved to do so before the death of his chief, having been outvoted in the cabinet on the question of unconditionally acknowledging the in dependence of the United Colonies. His brother secretary of state, the earl of Shelburne, and other colleagues thought that the concession of independence should be made one of the conditions of peace. Fox regarded Shelburne with un disguised aversion. When the administration was formed, lie fancied that Shelburne was disposed to imitate Lord North and to pay undue deference to George III., and he told him that it appeared "the administration was to consist of two parts, one belonging to the king, the other to the public." Four weeks after being in office Fox wrote to his friend Fitzpatrick : " Shelburne shows himself more and more every day, is ridiculously jealous of my encroaching on his department, and wishes very much to encroach upon mine." Shelburne, in turn, suspected Fox of designs to monopolize power, and to have his own way in all things. This unfortunate antagonism between two men of remarkable ability caused a split in the Whig party, and enabled the king to succeed in his policy of entrust ing power only to ministers who were subservient to his will. Succeeding Lord Rockiughain as premier, Shelburne held office till the 24th February 1783. The coalition ministry, in which the duke of Portland was premier, and Lord North and Fox were secretaries of state, took the place of that over which Shelburne. ,had presided. It was with extreme and undisguised reluctance that the king per mitted this administration to be formed. When he found it hopeless to struggle against the inevitable result, he communicated his real feelings on the subject to those politicians who prided themselves upon being his friends. In conversation with Mr Wyndham Grenville, he poured out his indignation "upon Fox, whom he loaded with every expression of abhorrence ; upon the duke of Portland, against whom he was little less violent ; upon Lord North, to whose conduct he imputed all the disasters of the country; upon American independence, which seemed to have been a most bitter pill indeed." His early detestation of Fox had now been intensified, owing to the unnatural behaviour of his eldest son, which he erroneously attributed to the teaching of the great Whig statesman. The king even consulted Lord Chancellor Thurlow and Lord Ashburton as to " what redress he could have against a man who alienated from him the affections of his son," and it is said that Thurlow told him " he would have no peace till his son and Fox were secured in the Tower." One of the first acts of the coalition was to arrange about the establish ment and income of the Prince of Wales. The king was shocked at the proposition which the ministry laid before him, considering the sum which had been agreed upon as a fitting one for the prince to receive utterly extravagant ; and he alleged that his advisers were ready to sacrifice the public interests to gratify au " ill-advised young man." In consequence of the king s disapproval of the scheme, his eldest son had to content himself with an allowance w r hich was wholly inadequate ; hence he had to make repeated applications to parliament to pay his debts. While the coalition ministry held office the definitive treaties of peace were signed between Great Britain and France, Spain, and the United States of America, and thus the war which a ministry after George III. s own heart had provoked and carried on with amazing incompetence ceased to impo verish and humiliate the nation. But the chief act of the administration and the cause of its downfall vns the in troduction of a bill for the just and efficient government of British India, Though Burke had the principal share in planning the measure, yet Fox, having made himself thoroughly master of the questions at issue, expounded the scheme in the House of Commons with great lucidity and impressiveuess. The opposition to it was vehement and disingenuous; the measure was falsely described as having been solely designed in order to confiscate the property of the East India Company and establish the supremacy of the Whig party. William Pitt, who was then unsparing and unfair in his criticism, afterwards did practical justice to the wisdom of Fox and his colleagues by bringing a measure into parliament resembling that of the coalition ministry in many essential particulars. Fox s prediction was thus verified, for the day arrived when his statesmanlike and much maligned bill was " regarded in its true light as a strong, but as a necessary and a just measure." But the king had determined that the bill which Fox had safely piloted through the House of Commons should never pass into law ; several persons calling themselves his friends aided him in accomplishing his object, and the ministry, after being defeated by a small majority in the House of Lords, was summarily and contemptuously dismissed. Twenty-two years elapsed before Fox returned to office. During three months after his dismissal, Fox endeavoured to counteract the power of the sovereign to dissolve parlia ment ; but he was baffled by the boldness and patience of William Pitt, the young prime minister. Then followed a more trying discomfiture when the country pronounced in favour of his rival at the general election of 1784. Even the Nonconformists, who had no warmer advocate than Fox, and whose only hope for the redress of intolerable grievances consisted in the Whig party being in office, turned against their true friends, rallying to the shout of " Pitt and the constitution," instead of aiding by voice and vote the cause of " Fox and free government." They deserted him at a critical juncture. Nevertheless he con tinued to plead for them with his whole heart and soul, and merely remarked, " on recollection of what had been their conduct upon that occasion [the coalition], the House vrould at least do him the justice to say that, in sup porting them that day, he was not influenced by any very obvious motives of private partiality or attachment. Yet he was determined to let them know that, though they could upon some occasions lose sight of their principles of liberty, he would not upon any occasion lose sight of his principles of toleration." It was not enough for the king and the young and haughty premier that the Whig party should be defeated in the country ; they were resolved to exclude Fox from parliament, and in any case to prevent his re-election for Westminster. Admiral Lord Hood, Sir Cecil Wray, and Fox were the candidates for the two seats. The court and the ministry were bent upon the first two being chosen. W T hat the king styled " gold pills " were lavished on the occasion. Moreover, 280 of the Guards were sent to vote as householders, a thing which Horace Walpole said his father " in the most quiet season would not have dared to do." The character of the struggle recalled an envenomed contest 89 years previously, when the Jacobites strove with all their might to hinder the re-election of Sir Stephen Fox, a declared supporter of the Revolution settlement. In 1784, as in 1695, the party of freedom and constitutional government carried the day in Westminster, and Fox was returned by a majority of 236. But the partisans of divine right in 1695 never dreamed of retrieving their defeat in the manner which found favour in the eyes of George III. and his advisers in 1784. A scrutiny was demanded, in order that Fox might not take his seat. Happily, this pettifogging manoauvre was IX. 63