Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/531

FOX the special suggestion of Pitt. The duke of Norfolk had previously been subjected to the like indignity for having proposed on Fox s birthday the toast : " Our sovereign s health; the majesty of the people." Finding it hopeless to struggle against the ministerial majority, which had been swelled by defections from the ranks of his own party and friends, he discontinued attending parliament in 1707, and spent his time at St Anne s Hill in literary study and in writing a history of England from the reign of James II. The debts which had long embarrassed him were discharged by private friends in 1793, who settled an annuity of .3000 upon him. From that date he never touched a card. In 1795 he married Mrs Armitstead, a lady with whom he had lived for some time. During this period he watched over the training of his nephew, the third Lord Holland, and prepared him for playing a useful part on the political stage. Immediately after the peace of Amiens he visited Paris, chiefly in order to examine the archives in the French foreign office for historical purposes. He visited Lafayette, and was cordially welcomed by the republican patriot, planting, in remembrance of his visit, the ivy which now mantles the turrets of the gateway at Lagrange. In common with other distinguished visitors to Paris, he was presented to Bonaparte. The war recom mencing soon after his return home, he resumed his advocacy of peace ; indeed, as the poet has truly said of this stage in his career, "peace, when he spoke, was ever on iiis tongue. Another feature of it was a complete under standing with the marquis of Lansdowne, formerly earl of Shelburne, on questions of foreign policy, the two acting in concert when any such matter was under debate in either House of Parliament. Pitt died in January 1806. The ministry of "All the Talents" was then formed, with Lord Grenville as first lord of the Treasury and Fox as secretary of state, despite the aversion and resistance of George III. Though loving peace as much as ever, he was yet ready to resist the inor dinate pretensions of Bonaparte, and he declared war against Prussia when that power, acting as the vassal of the French conqueror and at his suggestion, annexed Hanover. Fox s last appearance in the House of Commons was on the 10th of June 1806. Feeble in health, he appeared there at the risk of his life ; but he could not forbear making a special effort in order to move resolutions preparatory to introducing a bill for the suppression of the slave trade. The resolutions were carried by large majorities in both Houses. The bill giving effect to them became law the following year. In this, his farewell speech, he said, " So fully am I impressed with the vast importance and necessity of attaining what will be the object of my motion this night, that if, during the almost forty years that I have had the honour of a seat in parliament, I had been so fortunate as to accomplish that, and that only, I should think I had done enough, and could retire from public life with comfort, and the conscious satisfaction that I had done my duty." On the 13th of the following September, he died, at the age of fifty-eight, of a schirrous affection of the liver. The room in which he drew his last breath is in the duke of Devonshire s villa at Chiswick, and is the one wherein, at a later day, Canning died also. By Fox s death the country lost a statesman who, despite his fail ings, is one of the finest and most fascinating figures in modern history, a man who", in the phrase which Burke uttered six years after the friendship between them had ended, was " a man made to be loved," and of whom even George III., his single open and bitter enemy, said to Lord Siclmouth, " little did I think that I should ever live to regret Mr Fox s death," and to his daughter Princess Mary, " I never thought I should have regretted the death of Mr Fox as much as I do." Lamented by an unapprecia- tive sovereign and by all discerning men, the mortal re mains of the incomparable Whig statesman were curried in public funeral to Westminster Abbey, and laid alongside those of his brilliant and triumphant rival William Pitt. It is not easy to determine the exact place which Fox would have held among English statesmen, if he had been allowed a suitable opportunity for the exercise and display of his talents. His name is associated with one great measure of practical legislation, the Act for amending the law of libel. Peace with the United States, the better government of India, the abolition of the slave trade, were some grand results of his untiring efforts and com manding advocacy. Scarcely any of the measures of reform carried into effect after his death had not been sanctioned and supported by him. Yet he performed but a small part of what he desired to accomplish. His fate had a close similarity to that of the earl of Shelburne, for whom, till a late period in his career, he felt a repugnance which was none the less unfortunate because it was reci procated. Lord Shelburne, in common with Fox, was far in advance of his age. He neither dreaded the people nor overestimated their capacity. But he never had the chance of giving full effect to his convictions, and his best traits remained in obscurity till a descendant, with ample knowledge and admirable taste, has made them clear to the public of our day. Like Shelburne, the Whig com moner has been the victim of popular misunderstanding. His addiction to pleasure was considered by many contem poraries to be a fatal blot on his character. They argued in his case as Junius did in that of the duke of Graf ton, who was denounced as an incompetent statesman because he appeared in public with Nancy Parsons, and was sup posed to prefer the attractions of Newmarket to the sober business of cabinet councils. That the duke of Graf ton was a man of exceptional capacity is now indisputable. Notwithstanding his liking for gaming and horse-racing, Fox was a thorough man of business, ard a statesman for whom no work was too severe and no problem too difficult. The obstacles which Fox could not overcome, and which proved equal stumbling-blocks in Shelburne s path, were the dislike and distrust of George III. Yet, intensely as the king detested what he considered the Jesuitism of Shelburne, his feeling of antipathy to Fox was still more extreme and indefensible. This was due to aver sion to his father, to the independence displayed by Fox when a member of Lord North s administration, and to the supposition that the undutiful behaviour of his worth less eldest son was the result of Fox s direct influence and prompting. Charles Butler notes in his interesting miscellanies " Cardinal de Pietz said to a person who taunted him with the superiority of Cardinal Mazarin, Give me the king but for one day, and you ll see who has the real superiority. Mr Fox never had the king with him, even for one hour." When he was secretary of state in the coalition ministry, the king in his demeanour to him was " civil, but no more." The reason of this is obvious to all those persons who have studied George III. s character. Not deficient in shrewdness, and abound ing in the cunning which is the characteristic of men conscious and ashamed of their weakness of intellect, that monarch liked to have advisers who were not too strongly in contrast to himself, or else who would veil their capacity in their intercourse with him. A mere simpleton was as distasteful to him as a towering genius. Pitt, who liked to surround himself with dummies, had chosen Lord Hawkesbury to conduct foreign affairs. His incompetency being too conspicuous, the king told George Rose with gusto that, though the foreign ministers differed on many points, they were unanimous in their contempt and dislike for Lord Hawkesbury, and that " his lordship always up-