 Section 16 of Charles James Fox by Henry Offlee Wakeman. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Pamela Nagami. CHAPTER VIII. THE WAR WITH FRANCE. PART I How much the greatest event it is that ever happened in the world, and how much the best. Such was the comment of Fox on the arrival of the news of the fall of the Bastille on July 14th, 1789. It expresses concisely his consistent opinion on the French Revolution. Nor indeed could it be otherwise. Fox could not remain Fox and not see the best side of the revolution. Any more than Burke could remain Burke and not see the worst. Fox had ever been an asserter of abstract rights. Just as Burke had been the apostle of practical expediency. Fox was always ready to attack and destroy the abuse which seemed to him to threaten the national well-being, Burke to improve it till it ceased to be an abuse. To Burke, institutions were sacred things, valuable in themselves for the history to which they witnessed, for the security which they guaranteed. To Fox, they were but the creation of the people. They existed but for the welfare of the governed, and they ought to exist not one moment longer than they ministered to that welfare. While Fox was urging the right of the American colonists to resist injustice and claim freedom, Burke was pointing out the impossibility of coercing a country 3,000 miles away. While Fox was vindicating the right of the natives of India to just government at our hands, Burke was declaiming against outrages inflicted upon a religion and a philosophy among the most venerable in the world. While Fox was demanding the formal disavowal by the legislature of the last vestiges of religious persecution, Burke's eyes were fixed upon the danger of disturbing the old relations between church and state. With his intense love of personal and political liberty, with his intense hatred of arbitrary power, with his strong vivid sympathy for suffering humanity, his simple faith in human nature, his belief in abstract right, his possession of keen sensibilities, his lack of deep political thinking, Fox could not fail to throw all his enthusiasm and all his strength into a movement which had for its object the emancipation of man from one of the most corrupt and abject tyrannies that have ever oppressed the human race. All that was best in Fox's nature rose in protest against the ancien régime. He had looked upon France hitherto as the chief mainstay of despotism in Europe. Now she was standing forth among nations as the pioneer of liberty. The very unexpectedness of the change disarmed criticism and awakened enthusiasm. That a movement in favor of liberty could come from such a quarter raised hopes indeed of a return to the golden age. Nor were these hopes as chimerical as such hopes usually are. The first acts of the revolution in France were conceived distinctly on constitutional lines. An influential party in the assembly deliberately adopted the English constitution as their model. It was the bourgeoisie, not the populace that reaped the fruits of the destruction of the Bastille. It was they who ascended the throne left vacant by the abdication of Louis. It was they who bargained with their king about the terms on which monarchy might be preserved. There was nothing to an English mind necessarily dangerous or revolutionary in all this. The party who were superseding Louis in France belonged to just the same class as those who made parliament supreme over the king in England in 1640. The abolition of feudal rights voted on the memorable 4th of August merely did it one blow what England had long ago done by gradual steps. Even the civil constitution of the clergy would seem a step in the right direction to a wake of the religious school of Holdley, and the declaration of the rights of man with its inflated and magniliquent language would seem a mere piece of French rhetoric inspired by the example of the American colonists and on that account more than pardonable. Fox was not alone in this view of affairs. All wigs and indeed most Tories agreed with him in the cordial sympathy which they extended to their neighbors in their struggle to be free. They were flattered by the evident respect with which England was looked upon as the pattern of free states. They considered that a constitution based upon popular election in which the king was head of the executive, chose his ministers, and had a suspensive veto on legislation was an eminently sensible and practical scheme well calculated to give to France the blessing of free institutions. But by the beginning of the session of 1791 a considerable change had passed over English opinion. The violence of the Paris mob, the occasional outbreaks of unreasoning and cruel fury, the brutal disrespect shown to the royal captives at the Tuileries made the tide of sympathy ebb. Revolutions, if they are to receive the applause of England, must be conducted on the English model and be decorous, restrained, and perhaps even dull. To the close observer far more serious symptoms were showing themselves. The doctrines of the rites of man taught by Rousseau and embodied in the Declaration of 1789 were seen to be no mere fanfaronade but a solemn and earnest political faith which the clubs of Paris were prepared not merely to hold but to enforce. The seizure of the property of the church, the application of the principle of election to all ecclesiastical offices, the imposition of the oath to the civil constitution upon all clergy appeared like deliberate attacks upon the oldest institution in France if not a declaration of war against religion itself. Men ask themselves anxiously, was the connection between the Revolution of 1789 and that of 1688 so close after all? With the king a prisoner, the church an enemy, the rites of property threatened, the old landmarks of the nation swept away, the doctrine of the natural equality of man proclaimed as the cardinal principle of the Revolution, France seemed to have cut herself off from her past history altogether and to be sliding down the inclined plane of revolution into the abyss of anarchy without hope of safety and without possibility of recovery. When doubts such as these were in men's minds the publication of Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution turned those doubts into certainties. Never did political pamphlet have so immediate and striking an effect. It was not mainly because the principles of government which Burke laid down were so convincing because the rich stores of illustration at his command were so comprehensive or because his prophecies of future evil seemed so probable that the pamphlet had such an extraordinary effect but because he put into words clear, telling and unanswerable what other people were trying to think out vaguely and clumsily for themselves Fox naturally enough was not impressed by his arguments. They were opposed to his whole method of political thought but he must have seen quite clearly from the moment of its publication that it could not fail to cost him the political support of its author and might not improbably endanger the allegiance of his friends. Yet so far from smoothing matters over he went out of his way to hasten the catastrophe. On the 15th of April in a debate upon the foreign policy of the government he praised the new government and constitution of France as the most glorious fabric ever raised by human integrity since the creation of man. On the 21st in a debate upon a bill introduced by Pitt for providing a new constitution for Canada known as the Quebec Bill he took occasion to throw down a challenge to the world on the subject of his opinions on the French Revolution and referring pointedly to Burke concluded his speech by saying sorry as he was to differ from some of his friends he would never be backward in delivering his opinion and he did not wish to recede from anything he had formally advanced. A challenge so offered could not be denied and Burke accordingly when the Quebec Bill reached its next stage began to deliver a very carefully reasoned exercise on the principles of the rights of man and their results as evidenced in France. The actual motion before the house was that the Quebec Bill be read clause by clause and it was certainly rather a stretch of parliamentary order to found upon so slender and distant a basis an arraignment of the French Revolution but Burke evidently conceived that he had been challenged and that he was an honour bound to reply at the earliest possible moment. He looked upon it as an intellectual disputation not as a party fight and seems to have chosen this means of defending his opinions in order to keep as far as he could from the regions of passion but directly he reached the subject which he had at heart interruptions began to be made he was called to order he tried to explain he was called to order again the interruptions came from his own party he thought they were instigated by Fox. Evidently there was a determination on the part of the wigs not to let him speak under such circumstances even the coldest temper will assert itself but not yet did he give free reign to the passion which was boiling within him turning round on the pack of snarling curse yapping at his heels with sublime dignity and bitter sarcasm he likened himself to Lear the little dogs and all Trey Blanche and Sweetheart see they bark at me and then sat down awaiting the decision of the house but even then Fox was not satisfied if malice was possible with Fox it was malice that continued to goad and spur him on speaking to the question of order he said tauntingly that on that day it was impossible for anyone to be out of order it was a day of privilege when any gentleman might get up select his mark and abuse any government he pleased then launching forth into the very subject which he and his friends had forbidden to Burke he complained that he had been unjustly traduced as a republican repeated again and justified his opinion that the revolution was one of the most glorious events in the history of mankind and then addressing himself to Burke he said when the proper period of discussion comes feeble as my powers comparatively are I will be ready to maintain the principle I have asserted even against my right honorable friends superior eloquence to maintain that the rights of man which he has ridiculed as chimerical and visionary are in fact the basis and foundation of every rational constitution even of the British constitution itself having been taught by him that no revolt of a nation was ever caused without provocation I cannot help feeling joy ever since the constitution of France became founded on the rights of man to deny this is neither more nor less than to libel the British constitution and no book that my honorable friend can cite no words he can deliver in debate can induce me to change or abandon that opinion I differ from him on that subject total coilo Burke rose slowly to reply with a great effort to keep control over himself he began in grave and quiet tones but as he proceeded to deal with the personal attack now made upon him by his friend as he repelled the misrepresentation of his opinions and words as he recalled the interruptions of a few hours ago and pictured Fox supported by a core of well disciplined troops expert in their maneuvers obedient to the word of their commander banded against him he could no longer restrain his emotions every word he spoke made him realize with more intense vividness the irreparable character of the breach now opening between the friends of 25 years of close political life every moment as it passed strung his nerves up to the height of the sacrifice he knew must come till he could bear it no longer bursting into a tempest of passion he declared that if the choice had now come to him between his personal friendship and his love for the Constitution with his last breath he would cry fly from the French Constitution there is no loss of friendship whispered Fox yes there is said Burke I know the price of my conduct I have done my duty at the price of my friend our friendship is at an end Fox when it was now too late was overwhelmed with grief he could hardly speak for some time through the intensity of his emotion he realized at last the thoughtlessness with which he had pushed matters to a crisis he must have foreseen that Burke would not belong alone in his isolation but there was no possibility of undoing the past the difference between them had far greater issues than those of a personal quarrel it marks the watershed between the old wigs and the new radicals Burke on the one side attached to institutions eager for administrative reform suspicious of general principles with an unquestioning faith and gradual development as the truest political wisdom reaches back into a glorious past and forms one of the noble lines of constitutional statesmen who have developed by steady growth the British oak of liberty under the fostering care of the crown the educated classes and the church Fox on the other side with a clear faith in abstract rights strong and humanitarian sympathy with a hearty hatred of class interests and a real belief in the essential goodness and wisdom of human nature looked forward to the golden age when personal liberty should be secured and class oppression vanished and religious intolerance be crushed under the beneficent rule of the sovereign people who knowing their own best interests will insist upon maintaining them this difference of view had existed in the wig party ever since the American war but as long as liberty equality and fraternity were confined to the declaration of independence and were entrusted to the guardianship of a highly business like people nobody paid very much attention to them when in the hands of one of the first of European nations as impulsive in action as it is logical in mind these principles took the form of the confiscation of church property the suppression of the monarchy and a clean sweep of all pre-existing institutions men had to make up their minds on the subject whether they wished it or not and to regulate their political conduct accordingly even at the cost of personal friendship and party ties the immediate result of the quarrel between Fox and Burke was merely to deprive the wig party of Burke's services for some time he remained isolated and alone belonging to neither party though respected by both the old wigs were not yet prepared to renounce their allegiance they remained in doubt, unable wholly to believe in the prophecies of Burke or to acquiesce in the panigerics of Fox but by the close of the year 1792 a good many of the doubts then felt had been solved the change was attributable chiefly to two things the French had made a great step forward from constitutional monarchy to militant republicanism and the monarchies of Europe had altered their attitude to France from one of suspicious neutrality to that of organized repression while the quarrel between Burke and Fox was absorbing the attention of all Englishmen, Mirabeau had died and with Mirabeau died the last chance of preserving for Louis XVI any of his political authority the failure of the yield managed flight to Varen which occurred a few months afterwards deprived him even of personal influence for the ten months that the monarchy was still permitted to exist in name he was but a phantom king who enjoyed his dignity so long and so long only as he exercised no independent judgment in September 1791 the constituent assembly came to an end and the new constitution that work of genius which had so excited the enthusiasm of Fox came into being with the meeting of the legislative assembly on the 1st of October this stupendous monument of human integrity lasted not quite a year the lead in the assembly was taken by the parties of the Girondistes and the Jacobins who much as they hated each other hated still more the old constitutionalists they were one and all the apostles of the rights of man the children of the sovereign people and they were perfectly prepared to enforce their principle upon a reluctant Europe by the sword let us tell Europe, cried the Girondistes now that if cabinets engage kings in war against peoples we will engage peoples in war against kings the growth of military enthusiasm among all sections of republicans in France is the distinguishing mark of the year 1792 and on the other hand while the military spirit was thus developing in France a corresponding spirit of fear was spreading among the courts of Europe which led them to think of uniting to support the common interests of monarchy against the revolutionary doctrines but as yet not one single power except perhaps Spain really wished for war the emperor, the brother of Marie Antoinette clung to peace so stubbornly as to make men doubt his affection the king of Prussia and Catherine II of Russia were intent only upon dividing the last morsel of Poland Pitt absolutely refused to interfere in any way yet all of them were at war in less than two years just as in France it was the fear of internal traitors and of foreign intimidation which led to the horrors of the reign of terror and the determination to spread the doctrines of the revolution throughout Europe so among the great powers of Europe it was the fear of the revolutionary proselytism which led them unwillingly into war at the conference of Pilnitz in August 1791 the emperor and the king of Prussia agreed to undertake an armed intervention in France if the rest of Europe would join them the Giron d'Este ministry, irritated at the threat issued a sentence of death against all emigrants demanded the withdrawal of the declaration of Pilnitz and finally declared war against the emperor in January 1792 a joint invasion of France by Austria and Prussia was the natural result of the French foolhardiness but as if on purpose to put the worst possible light on the intervention the Duke of Brunswick who commanded the allies issued a proclamation in which he demanded unconditional surrender to Louis and threatened to treat all who resisted as rebels it was impossible to put more clearly the fact that it was a royal army common the interests of monarchy to suppress in another country political opinions which it did not like one crusade naturally produced another the invasion led directly to the victory of the Jacobins the overthrow of the monarchy and the death of the king the repulse of the invasion led no less directly to the occupation of Savoy in Belgium to the opening of the Shelt to the threat of an invasion of Holland to the order by the French generals to establish a republic wherever they could and to the declaration of the war against England in February 1793 end of section 16 section 17 of Charles James Fox by Henry Offly Wakeman this Librovox recording is in the public domain recording by Pamela Nagami chapter 8 the war with France part 2 in this way acts of aggression on both sides plunged Europe into the most terrible of all modern wars strongly against the wishes of all except the rulers of France but in England matters could never have reached the crisis which they did in 1793 had not the sentiments and opinions of the English people as well as of the English government undergone a great change at the beginning of 1791 Englishmen had begun to retract somewhat of the delight in which they hailed the overthrow of the Ancien Régime in 1789 they had begun to reflect more upon the dangers which Burke had found lurking in the plausible phrases of the declaration of rights they had begun to distrust a movement which seemed to be so much at the mercy of the Parisian mob the complexion of the legislative assembly, the war fever and the administrative incapacity which characterised the Girondistes frightened the Tories into sympathy though not yet into alliance with the policy of armed intervention they followed the movements of the Duke of Brunswick with anxiety hoping that he would put an end to what threatened to become a nuisance to Europe the Duke of Brunswick's progress writes Lord Grenville, then Foreign Minister to his brother on September 20th does not keep pace with the impatience of our wishes and on the 11th of October when the news of his retreat had arrived he adds we are all much disappointed with the results of the great expectations that had been formed from the Duke of Brunswick's campaign whatever be the true cause of his retreat the effect is equally to be regretted when the Foreign Minister of a ministry pledged to neutrality wrote thus it may be taken for granted that the opinion of most of his party were not less strong in favour of the allies at the same time the growth of revolutionary sympathies in England and the ill-advised language in which they were expressed made Tories begin to fear lest the revolutionary propaganda instituted by the Republic might not after all disturb the peace of society at home the publication of Payne's rights of man the formation of the corresponding societies all over England consisting of men who openly avowed Republican principles and delighted in using the catch words of French politics increased suspicions far out of proportion to the intrinsic importance of these movements they were accepted in France as the voice of the English people and in England as representing the real opinions of the Whig leaders in the caricatures of the time Fox and Sheridan almost universally appear in the guise of conspirators and Republicans whether discovered by Burke in the act of blowing up the constitution with French powder or joining with Payne and Priestley and riotous and seditious orgies in reality the Whigs were by no means so confident about the revolution as they had been Fox himself never faltered in his splendid if unreasoning faith in the ultimate goodness of the movement but he was sickened and horrified at the mob violence of the 20th of June and the massacres of September 2 on the 3rd of September 1792 he writes to his nephew Lord Holland I do not think near so ill of the business of the 10th of August that is the overthrow of the monarchy as I did upon first hearing it however it is impossible not to look with disgust at the bloody means which have been taken even supposing the end to be good and I cannot help fearing that we are not yet near the end of these trials and executions a few days later he writes I had just made up my mind to the events of the 10th of August when the horrid accounts of the 2nd of this month arrived and I really consider the horrors of that day and night as the most heartbreaking event that ever happened to those who like me are fundamentally and unalterably attached to the true cause there is not in my opinion a shadow of excuse for this horrid massacre not even the possibility of extenuating it in the smallest degree thus deprived by the action of the French themselves of any possible sympathy for their internal administration and alienated and disgusted more and more as time went on by the wickedness and cruelty of the terror Fox turned his attention mainly to the external relations of France and strove with all his power to avert the threatening danger of a war with England he took as his great principal the absolute wickedness of any attempt to force upon the people of France a government of which they disapproved the invasion of the allies in 1792 was in his eyes an act of pure tyranny the Duke of Brunswick's proclamation he described as revolting to the feelings of mankind of his retreat after Valmy he writes no public event not accepting Saratoga and Yorktown ever happened that gave me so much delight the defeats of great armies of invaders always gave me the greatest satisfaction from Xerxes time downwards and what has happened in America and France will I hope make what Cicero says of armed force be the opinion of all mankind in Udiossum de Testabile in Belichium Caducum in this spirit he applied all his energies to the prevention of war I shall think the ministry mad he writes if they suffer anything to draw them into a war with France though I really do think Pitt in these businesses is a great bungler that England should go to war an alliance with the tyrants of 1792 was in his eyes not merely unjustifiable but an abdication of reposition as the chief of the free states of Europe he agreed that the violation of the shelt by France formed a cossus voiderous and that if Holland claimed our help and France refused redress war could not be avoided but he maintained that a direct and friendly negotiation with the French government and an evident separation of the interests of England from those of the allies could easily prevent a rupture and afford the only chance of preserving the life of Louis XVI with these objects at the beginning of the session of 1792-93 he moved an amendment to the address and proposed that a minister should be sent to Paris to negotiate the numbers in the division showed that the rupture in the Whig party was now complete the events of 1792 had convinced the older section of the Whigs that the principles of the revolution were incompatible with monarchical institutions and dangerous to the welfare of Europe only fifty members followed Fox into the lobby and they comprised entirely the left wing of the party the rest either remained away or voted against him Wyndham, once the staunchest of his supporters, spoke strenuously on the ministerial side directly the measures of defense spoken of in the king's beach were introduced into the house the breach was made still more evident Fox throughout the session spoke with great vigor and more than ordinary earnestness in eloquent condemnation of a war, as he phrased it, against opinion but the whole of the older Whigs were now against him the Duke of Portland, Lord Fitzwilliam, Sir Gilbert Elliott, Mr. Thomas Grenville each one of whose names recalled the trusted ally of a great conflict in the past could no longer follow him into the regions of abstract principle but took their places with Burke within the round part of time-honored institutions the old Whig party of 1688 had ceased to be one revolution had destroyed the child of the other it was inevitable that it should be so for the principles of the old Whig party had worked themselves out and its aristocratic framework had fallen to pieces with the French Revolution new men and new principles had come into being the youthful democracy recently born was still in the nursery and infant Hercules, terrible in its strength ungoverned in its passion, attractive and repellent by turns a prodigy too ill-regulated as yet to be obeyed by men of sober judgment against it were arrayed the forces of society enlisted under the banner of existing institutions the throne, the church, the constitution formed the natural watchwords of defense and gathered round the mall whether Tory or Whig who were opposed to democracy Fox strictly speaking belonged to neither side in his love for the revolution he was a Democrat in his love for the constitution he was almost a Tory the principles of democracy were to him always much more of an ideal than they were a political program still as events worked themselves out he became enough of a Democrat to form the rock on which the wave of English parties was irretrievably to split and with his diminished band of 50 followers to lay the foundation of modern radicalism in 12 long weary years of opposition fortunately for England the French would not wait for the slowly increasing pressure of public opinion to have its due effect on February 1st 1793 they declared war against England on their own account the establishment of the terror the execution of the queen the repudiation of Christianity following quick upon the declaration of war removed any lingering doubts which may still have existed in the minds of law abiding and God fearing Englishmen all that Burke had prophesied was in the act of accomplishment the aristocracy, the church, the monarchy, political and personal liberty and even Christianity itself had been thrown overboard one after another in the mad frenzy of revolution Jacobinism stood out clearly to the eyes of all who prized the blessings of civilization as the enemy and the scourge of the human race not less destructive and in its nature more immoral than the barbarism of Attila or the religion of Islam Pitt therefore had the nation at his back when he took up the glove of battle thrown down by France in February 1793 war had been quite inevitable ever since France had determined to carry the principles of the revolution into other countries Pitt and Grenville if left to themselves would have put off the evil day as long as possible but their hands were forced by public opinion in England and Republican enthusiasm in France there was no similarity to English minds between the action of the allies in 1792 and the action of England in 1793 the former was a war undertaken to compel France to accept a form of government which was distasteful to her the latter was a war undertaken to prevent France from imposing Jacobin opinions and Democratic government upon other nations the system of revolutionary proselytism adopted in the autumn of 1792 exactly reversed the whole condition of affairs it was to England what the declaration of pillnates was to France and it was not until that system was carried into effect in Savoy and was on the point of being carried into effect in Belgium that Pitt began unwillingly to arm this was the weak point of Fox's position it was all very well eloquently to denounce the war as one waged against opinion it was a fair party charge to make that Pitt had surrendered his principle of neutrality and had made common cause with despotism against freedom of opinion it was reasonable enough to maintain that there was no logical halting place between complete disregard of jagabanism and the forcible restoration of the Ancien regime but every educated man could see perfectly clearly that there was all the difference in the world between the right of a nation to adopt whatever form of government it pleased and profess whatever opinions it preferred without let or hindrance and the right of a nation to try and establish that form of government and preach those doctrines in the territories of neighboring states this was a distinction which Fox wholly ignored but it is one which Englishman at once comprehended which Pitt acted upon and which forms the justification of England in the war of 1793 the history of the years which elapsed between the outbreak of the war in 1793 and the Whig's secession in 1797 form Fox's best title to fame as an opposition leader he was in a hopeless minority he had lost the support of many of his closest and dearest friends hardly more than 50 or 60 members still owed his leadership and of those some like Gray were in his eyes injudicious others like Sheridan of no moral weight almost alone he had to bear the burden of directing a steady and vigorous opposition to a policy which from the bottom of his heart he believed to be both suicidal and wicked with no reward before him except the possible gratitude of after times there can be nothing more dispiriting to a politician than the obligation of spending session after session in hopeless warfare against organized stupidity that this was Fox's position no one could dispute whatever opinions may be held as to the necessity and the justice of the war there is an universal agreement as to the folly and incapacity which signalized its conduct what can be said for a finance minister who continued to borrow year after year one million pounds at high interest to put it away in a sinking fund in order to pay itself off who obtained loans by issuing bonds of 100 pounds for 50 to 60 pounds which were certain to rise in value when the strain of war was over who in four years added 80 millions to the national debt what can be said for a war minister who twice placed the English army under the imbecile leadership of the Duke of York who wasted the resources of the country upon small expeditions over all parts of the world and who in seven years of warfare never discovered a capable general or won a great victory what can be said of a home minister who in abject terror of a few blatant and self-important democratic orators took away one after another most of the safeguards of personal liberty against these measures Fox directed an unremitting attack he divided the house again and again on the conduct of a war and the subsidizing of the German powers he sought to enlist on his side the growing feeling of distrust which naturally attended continued failure in the field he made energetic appeals in favor of peace whenever opportunity offered he threw all his strength into the denunciation of the habeas corpus suspension act and the seditious meetings act and the rest of Pitt's code of executive terror we have had warm and good debates in parliament he writes in 1794 in which if my partiality does not deceive me our advantage in speaking has been as great as that of the enemy in voting especially upon the suspension of the habeas corpus and on my motion for peace I believe the country is heartily tired of the war but men dare not show themselves I think of all the measures of the government this last nonsense about conspiracy is the most mischievous and at the same time the most foolish again in 1795 he says I think there is something more truly diabolical in the part we are acting now than in the conduct of any nation in history peace is the wish of the French, of Italy, Spain, Germany and all the world and Great Britain is alone the cause of preventing its accomplishment and this not for any point of honor or even of interest but lest there should be an example in the modern world of a great and powerful republic everybody says the country is nearly unanimous for peace the ministers as warlike as ever again a few weeks later he writes of the seditious meetings bill there appears to me to be no choice at present but between an absolute surrender of the liberties of the people and a vigorous assertion attended I admit with considerable hazard at a time like the present my view of things is I own very gloomy and I am convinced that in a very few years this government will become absolute or that confusion will arise of a nature almost as much to be depreciated as despotism itself that the ministers mean to bring on the first of these evils appears to me so clear that I cannot help considering any man who denies it as a fool or hypocrite and I cannot disguise for myself that there are but too many who wish for the second in this criticism Fox does but scant justice to Pitt the inroads upon personal liberty made by Pitt during the progress of the French Revolution arose from too great a dread of the influence of the democratic propaganda not from a desire to found a despotism they were like the war itself defensive not aggressive in their character and they passed away easily with the terror which gave them birth Pitt's obstinate continuance of the war in spite of failure and in spite of desertion sprang also from the same belief but in this case its results were more disastrous England had gone to war to prevent Europe being revolutionized by the sword but all danger of the success of democratic proselytism passed away with the fall of the Jacobins in 1794 by that time the spirit which ruled France had quite altered the victories of the French armies had revived the old love for military glory and before that the star of abstract democracy paled Frenchmen were no longer mainly anxious to emancipate the world they were much more anxious to win battles and to extend the frontiers of France it was the ghost of Louis XIV which Europe had to deal with in 1795 not the red specter of Jacobinism the other nations of Europe perceived this they had long ago given up the idea of forcing the Bourbon upon a reluctant nation they would be quite content to retire from the position of champions of monarchical orthodoxy and take up once more the old familiar task of rearranging the map of Europe so that everyone should have a bit of what he wanted enough to stimulate the appetite but not enough to satisfy the craving Prussia made a separate peace in April 1795 Spain followed her example in June the emperor was only prevented from doing the same by the bribes of Pitt just at this moment in the interval between the fall of the Jacobins and the rise of Napoleon peace was possible on honorable and satisfactory terms Fox saw this at once and redoubled his efforts Pitt could not see it the red specter still dazzled him to plod steadily on doggedly and determinately undeterred by failure, unelated by success along the path of resistance until France was crushed and Jacobinism was killed seemed to him the plain duty which patriotism dictated and so the opportunity was lost Jacobinism as a danger to Europe had indeed committed suicide in the terror but France had a greater curse still in her womb Pitt insisted on the continuance of the war and the war gave birth to Napoleon military despotism, brutal, selfish and unscrupulous soon ousted Jacobinism as the bugbear of Europe and England which had cheerfully if blindly obeyed Pitt in refusing peace in 1795 had to fight on almost single-handed against the tyrant until she received her reward as the champion of the freedom of Europe in the triumph of 1815 End of Section 17 Section 18 of Charles James Fox by Henry Offly Wakeman this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Pamela Nagami Chapter 9 St. Anne's Hill Part 1 Among the many disappointments of Fox's life there was none which touched him more poignantly than the difference which sprung up between himself and the older wigs on the subject of the French Revolution Wonderful as were his spirits he was too warm-hearted not to feel deeply his separation from old friends such as Elliot and Thomas Grenville too sensitive not to understand the grave rebuke conveyed by the withdrawal of the Duke of Portland and Lord Fitzwilliam a wig party which no longer numbered in its ranks the cavendishes and the bent inks and the Wentworths seemed indeed in the eyes of a politician of the 18th century to be but a maimed and mutilated trunk On the 9th of March 1794 Fox writes sorrowfully to his nephew on the subject you will easily imagine how much I felt the separation from persons with whom I had so long been in the habit of agreeing it seemed some way as if I had the world to begin anew and if I could have done it with honor what I should best have liked would have been to retire from politics altogether but this could not be done and there remains nothing but to get together the remains of our party and begin like Sisyphus to roll the stone up again which long before it reaches the summit may probably roll down again in the August of the same year he breaks out with still greater pathos I have nothing to say for my old friends nor indeed as politicians have they any right to any tenderness for me but I cannot forget how long I have lived in friendship with them nor can I avoid feeling the most severe mortification when I recollect the certainty I used to entertain that they never would disgrace themselves as I think they have done I cannot forget that ever since I was a child Fitzwilliam has been in all situations my warmest and most affectionate friend and the person in the world of whom decidedly I have the best opinion and so in most respects I have still but as a politician I cannot reconcile his conduct with what I who have known him for more than five and thirty years have always thought to be his character there is a sentiment of Lord Rochester that I have always much admired and which I feel the truth of very forcibly upon this occasion it is this to be ill used by those on whom we have bestowed favors is so much in the course of things and in gratitude is so common that a wise man can feel neither much surprise nor pain when he experiences it but to be ill used by those to whom we owe obligations which we never can forget and towards whom we must continue to feel affection and gratitude is indeed a most painful sensation I think they have all behaved very ill to me and for most of them who certainly owe much more to me than I do to them I feel nothing but contempt and I do not trouble myself about them but Fitzwilliam is an exception indeed and to my feelings for him everything Lord Rochester says applies very strongly indeed I hope you will come home soon it will make amends to me for everything and make me feel alive again about politics which I am now quite sick of and only attend to because I think it is a duty to do so and feel that it would be unbecoming my character to quit them at this moment it is clear from the letters which contain his most private thoughts that Fox was utterly dispirited by the schism of 1793 and only persevered in the uphill fight because he believed it was his duty to his country to do so but the struggle though manfully maintained grew year by year more distasteful his heart was ever at St Ann's Hill when his bodily presence was at Westminster here we are in this cursed place he begins one letter from the manager's box in Westminster Hall very different from St Ann's place or from Tivoli where perhaps you now are throughout the years 1793 to 94 his mind evidently recurred again and again to the discarded plan of 1784 and he positively longed to find an argument which would justify to his conscience a withdrawal from the regular attendance in politics and Parliament in 1795 he discusses the question in a letter to Lord Holland but most reluctantly decides that to quit public office would be too open to the misconception that having lost all hope of place we left the country to take care of itself I am so sure that secession is the measure a shabby fellow would take in our circumstances that I think it can hardly be right for us but as for wishes no man ever wished anything more as the years passed on and the policy of the ministry seemed to become more and more obstructive and tyrannical in their position more and more assured the cry for a secession from Parliament began to make itself heard amongst most of the opposition leaders Gray, impulsive and irritable was anxious for it Erskine and the Duke of Bedford were willing to try it and Fox on personal grounds longed for it but could not disabuse his mind of the idea that it was ill-advised He acquiesced in it says Lord Holland more from indolence than from judgment Eventually a meeting was held in 1797 at which all the chiefs of the opposition were present and it was agreed by all except Sheridan and Tierney to leave Parliament if Gray's motion for reform was thrown out Fox was anxious that too much importance should not be attributed to the step In the House he only spoke of devoting a larger portion of his time to his literary pursuits and in a letter to Lord Holland he wrote Pray if you have an opportunity of talking about the secession say what is the truth that there was not agreement of opinion enough upon the subject to make it possible to take what one might call a measure upon the subject but that most of us thought that after the proposition for reform we might fairly enough stay away considering the preceding events of the session and the behavior of Parliament upon them Fox had warned his friends that if he once left Parliament it would be very difficult to get him back again and so it proved From May 26th 1797 the day of Gray's motion to March 3rd 1806 the day on which he received office in the ministry of all the talents he only addressed the House 19 times while before the secession he had usually spoken more than that number of times in one year There were indeed many reasons why he should prefer the quiet seclusion and lettered ease of St. Anne's to the turmoil of St. Stephens He was now getting well into middle age, had outgrown the passions and the excitement of youth and was beginning too long for the full enjoyment of domestic peace congenial to his time of life His marriage with Mrs. Armistead in 1795 had hallowed a love in which for many years he had found his chief delight His letters are full of the most natural and tender allusion to her which could only spring from the realization through her of unalloyed domestic happiness If there ever was a place which might be called the seat of true happiness he writes in 1794 St. Anne's is that place and again in 1795 I am perfectly happy in the country I have quite resources enough to employ my mind and the great resource of all literature I am fond of every day and then the lady of the hill is one continual source of happiness to me I believe few men indeed ever were so happy in that respect as I and in another letter I declare I think my affection for her increases every day she is a comfort to me and every misfortune and makes me to enjoy doubly every circumstance of life there is to me a charm and a delight in her society which time does not in the least wear off and for real goodness of heart if she ever had her equal she certainly never had a superior besides his delight in his domestic life his private affairs made Fox anxious if possible to avoid the expense of a house in London owing to the recklessness of his youth and his natural indolence about money matters he had always been in embarrassed circumstances and usually owed a good deal of money to his friends in 1787 he was as much as 5,000 pounds in debt to Coots the banker but in 1793 by the exertions of his political friends a sum was raised sufficient to clear him from debt and to purchase an annuity for him naturally therefore he was anxious not to get into embarrassments again and exercised for the rest of his life the strictest economy in order to live within his means attracted by the pleasures of home and urged by the dictates of economy Fox found another inducement to leave public life in the virulence of the attacks made upon him by the Tory press no man however even spirited can be wholly unaffected by continuous abuse and Fox must have been all the more sensitive to the attacks made upon him because unscrupulous as they were in their misrepresentation many of them had some color of excuse in his own folly after the outbreak of the war Fox was one of the best abused men in England he was looked upon by a large section of the community as unpatriotic and untrustworthy little better than a traitor in Gilray's caricatures he figures as the leading member of the party who were conspiring with the French to overthrow the Constitution of England and establish in its place a republic on the French model with the honoring instinct on such matters which is the life blood of the caricaturist Fox is always the central figure the head and front of the offending Sheridan is the faithful henchman when anything more than usually extravagant is to be done but he always plays a subordinate often a mean part Stanhope Erskine Gray fill up the picture but it is upon Fox that attention is concentrated it is he that is held up to the scorn and the hatred of Patriots it is he who is depicted as the arch enemy of his country to be caricatured by Gilray was a very different matter to an appearance in the pages of Mr. Punch there is nothing of wit of banter of good temper seldom even anything of the ludicrous in the accurate work of Gilray the blows he directs were straight from the shoulder deliberately brutal in conception intended to inspire hatred and to destroy reputation we are so accustomed to the delicate handling of political caricature by Mr. Punch to look under his guidance at the ludicrous side of serious politics and to enjoy a laugh at the expense of both our friends and foes that we are apt to forget what a terrible engine of misrepresentation and column the political caricatures may become if meant to hurt and not to amuse Gilray is not the predecessor of Lee Centennial he is the successor of Hogarth a satirist of the school of Churchill whose satires were all the more powerful because they were conveyed in pictures and required no intellectual effort to be understood the popular idea of foxes to this day largely formed upon a vague remembrance of Gilray's caricatures we know him so well as Guy Fox just about to apply the torch of the rights of man to the gunpowder which was to blow up the king in House of Lords when arrested by the searching gleam of Burke's lantern or acting his headsman with a mask on his face at the execution of George III while Sheridan holds the king's head steady for the stroke of the axe or presenting the head of pit as the choice dish to be set before the demon of revolution after the war broke out the satire grew more virulent than ever Fox was depicted at the night signal set up to draw the French fleet to the sack of London as the agent of the French smuggling provisions over to France and so causing a famine in England as the devotee before the images of Robespierre and Bonaparte at the Shrine of St. Anne's Hill as the French brigand soldier giving the deathstroke to the King Lords and Commons he was as all his speeches show exceedingly sensitive about the charge of holding Republican sentiments it was that more than anything else which goaded him on to the quarrel with Burke after the quarrel he took great pains to explain the importance he attached to an aristocracy and to announce his belief that no government could be a fit one for British subjects to live under which did not contain its due weight of aristocracy as the proper poise of the Constitution he had in fact an immense almost superstitious love for the British Constitution with its system of checks and balances with its due proportion of monarchical aristocratical and popular elements it was of course not to be a fixed and stereotyped Constitution the relations between the different elements required continual adjustment it was always most necessary to take care that the popular element was not unduly suppressed and the monarchical unduly prominent it was to represent the whole nation and not only certain sections of the nation but advocacy of a republic as even the ideally best form of government was wholly foreign to his mind he had no sympathy whatever with the doctrines that the uneducated masses were collectively wiser than the educated few or that universal suffrage flowed necessarily from the rights of man the fact was that he was so delighted at the overthrow of the ancien régime that he did not scan narrowly the principle upon which that overthrow proceeded when enunciated in the vague form of abstract principles such as liberty equality fraternity the rights of man the sovereignty of the people he always found himself perfectly able to put an interpretation upon them absolutely consistent with his political creed when different interpretations were put upon them in France he lamented them as momentary aberrations or justified them on the general ground of the liberty which must always be accorded to a nation to be allowed to know what is best for itself he never grappled with the question whether there was not really a fundamental difference between the English and the French theory of liberty and whether a democratic republic was not the only political organization which fully expressed the French theory in answer to Burke's strictures upon the rights of man and the sovereignty of the people he said that to attack them was to attack the British constitution or since the Hanoverian succession the British constitution had depended upon the rights of men and the sovereignty of the people an answer like that was possible in 1791 if the new constitution in France might be taken as an honest attempt to secure parliamentary government with a constitutional king and a constitutional church it was not possible as a justification of the formula in 1798 after Jacobinism had in its name and under its authority swept away the crown and the church and established universal suffrage yet after the Duke of Norfolk had been dismissed from his lord left tenancy for giving the toast of the people our sovereign at a complimentary dinner fox did not hesitate to go down to the wig club a few nights later and propose the same toast justifying it on the ground that George III owed his crown to the will of the people to claim that a constitutional meaning might be placed on the formula at a moment when in the minds of everyone in Europe it had become associated with the Jacobin principle of democracy was either elaborately trifling or criminally folly it was inevitable that men should take Fox at his word judge of his opinions by the ordinary meaning of the words he used and put him down as a Republican since he chose to use and go out of his way to justify Republican sentiments it was not to be wondered at if political opponents hurled at him the charge of unpatriotic conduct and pictured him in league with England's enemies there was truth in the charge as the war went on ruinous and criminal as it was in his opinion he wrote and he acted as no true patriot in a crisis of his country's fate should write or act the Duke of Bedford a staunch opponent of the war subscribed 100,000 pounds to the patriotic loan in 1796 Fox on the other hand took advantage of the mutiny at the North to embarrass the ministers as in the American war he had rejoiced over Saratoga and Yorktown so now he rejoiced over French victories in 1801 he writes to Gray who had remonstrated with him the truth is I am gone something further in hate to the English government than perhaps you and the rest of my friends are and certainly further than can with prudence be avowed the triumph of the French government over the English does in fact afford me a degree of pleasure which is very difficult to disguise when Fox was a young man it happened that a criminal bearing exactly the same name was hanged George Selwyn who was a great friend of his and had a passion for attending executions was asked if he had been to the hanging of Fox no said Selwyn I make a point of never attending rehearsals the prophecy of the joke did not remain wholly unfulfilled for more than ten years Fox was looked upon by the majority of Englishmen as a criminal and a traitor at heart Gilray drew a sketch to show that there was no hope for England until his head was treated French fashion as the ornament for the top of a pike his own indiscretion in conversation and letters deepened the general conviction it was not to be wondered at therefore that he fled from Parliament and politics when the opportunity came with the zest of a schoolboy flying from school end of section 18 section 19 of Charles James Fox by Henry awfully Wakeman this liberal box recording is in the public domain recording by Pamela Nagami chapter 9 St. Anne's Hill part 2 at St. Anne's Hill Fox found the perfect rest which his tired nature most required the loving tenderness which his warm affections so strongly demanded the inner society of intimate friends which is the real solace amid the anxieties of life to all generous natures and above all things time that inestimable boon to the bookish man time that may be wasted in busy idleness when I am here he says in a phrase which goes straight to the heart of every man who knows what a holiday ought to be every hour and minute of idleness grows to have a double value and as one knows one is so soon to have so little of it one likes to enjoy it while it lasts pure and unmixed what his idea of idleness was we can easily see from a subsequent letter where he says Mrs. A tells me it is a long time since I wrote to you I thought not but yet I recollect that when I wrote last I was in the ninth book of the Odyssey which I have since finished and read 18 books of Iliad so that it must be a good while since the date of the letter shows that just over a month that elapsed 33 books of Homer in a month is no bad record for a man who thought of writing up over the door of his house how various his employments whom the world calls idle St. Anne's was indeed a perfect place of retirement for the statesman who freed at last from the turmoil of politics was eagerly longing to devote the remainder of his life to literature the house was small but comfortable standing on the side of a hill which overlooked the Thames about 30 acres of ground went with it part of which was carefully planted and formed the garden and shrubbery and part reaching up to the top of the hill was left to grow wild with Heather and Gorse the garden was Fox's chief delight he loved flowers and shrubs with an intensity which came only second to his love of Homer he was his own gardener and thoroughly understood the science of old-fashioned English gardening nothing gave him more unalloyed pleasure than an afternoon spent in training the honeysuckle in the roses and deciding with the help of Mrs. Fox where to plant the new shrubs from the nursery so fond was he of his garden that he made a catalog in his own handwriting of all the flowers which grew in it his life at this chosen home was equally characteristic in its simplicity and forms a welcome contrast to the town life of earlier days an early breakfast in the newspaper began the day after breakfast an hour spent with Mrs. Fox and reading some Italian poet led to the more serious studies of the day which lasted till dinner at three o'clock these varied of course according to the work upon which he was engaged but they usually took the form of the critical study of some great poet after dinner the care of the garden occupied him till tea and when that was over he generally worked at his projected history of the reign of James II until bedtime came at half past ten such was the ordinary routine of life at St. Anne's simplicity was its characteristic love its inspiration literature its occupation happiness reigned everywhere in the statesman's paradise until politics like sin entered into tempt and to destroy literature was the serious work of Fox in his retirement from his earliest youth he had acquired a love of poetry and an admiration for the classics his knowledge of the classical authors had often stood him in good stead among the vagaries of his youth and amid his triumphs in parliament they had been both a solace and an amusement but until now he had never had the opportunity of applying himself to the critical study of literature and of comparing the authors of one age with those of another that opportunity now presented itself and he fastened on it with avidity fortunately he numbered among his friends the three men who could best help him in his undertaking in Dr. Parr a Warwickshire clergyman he found the width of reading and extent of knowledge in classical subjects which could illustrate and explain any point which might arise in Gilbert Wakefield the nonconformist and the Jacobin lay hid an instinct for scholarship and an enthusiasm for classical literature which could make even questions of grammar interesting from these Fox was content to learn but in Lord Holland his nephew he found a pupil apt thoughtful and receptive in whose independence of judgment he could rely and to whom he was not afraid to pour out his crudest thoughts yet with his intense love for literature Fox was extraordinarily limited in his grasp of it he had no knowledge of philosophy of law or of political economy and no great command of history poetry was the chief almost the only object of his worship and his knowledge of all the greater poets of the world except of Germany was intimate and profound poems of action pleased him more than poems of thought and his affections however widely they strayed were sure to come back before long to the great epics of Homer and Virgil his criticisms on poetry were always distinguished by taste he had an instinctive sense of what was proper and fitting an instinctive loathing for what was unreal or overdone and he never fell into the trap so fatal to many a writer of the 18th century of mistaking perfection of form for correctness of taste in all that he writes there is a healthy manly vigor of mind which comes like a sea breeze before which falsity and affectation cannot live among English poets following his usual rule Fox preferred the earlier to the later Chaucer was his special favorite what a genius the man has he exclaims Spencer gave him more pleasure than Milton partly he confesses because of his close relations with Italian poetry but chiefly because the paradise lost seemed to him in spite of grand and stupendous passages to have a want of flow of ease of what the painters call a free pencil Shakespeare strange to say he never criticizes but in his occasional references to him assumes his superiority as unquestioned of more modern poets Dryden is certainly the one whom he admired most especially in his imitative work he had caught more he thought of the spirit of juvenile in his satires while Gifford who had distinctly aimed at it was unreadable Pope was too artificial to please Fox's robust taste nor were the subjects he treated such as to rouse any interest in one who it must be confessed delighted in something exciting and imaginative of words worth he had no great opinion which was a poor return for the poets faithful admiration but oddly enough he admired Cooper his sympathy with the oppressed and his ardent love of peace made amends for his methodism and Fox frequently instance the opening lines of the task as among the finest poetry of the English language among foreign authors he gave the palm to Rossine and Ariosto the classical imitations of the former and the romantic grace of the latter especially charmed him I observe he writes to Lord Holland that Goodwin shows his stupidity and not admiring Rossine it puts me quite in a passion je veux contre eux faire un jour un gros livre as Voltaire says even Dryden who speaks with proper respect of Cornet and Molière, Villapen's Rossine if ever I publish my edition of his works I will give it to him for it you may depend what can you mean by saying there is little good of the new poetry of Cooper what not the triplets to marry not the verses about his early love in the first part not one of the sonnets not the shipwreck or outcast pray read them over again and repeat your former judgment if you dare but after all Fox's heart was in the classics and his judgment upon modern poetry in spite of his excellent taste was somewhat warped by his great predilection for the classical models that he did not appreciate religious and thoughtful poetry and seems only to have seen in Dante and Milton a collection of brilliant and striking passages in a cumbersome and heavy setting probably sprang largely from the sense that they were moving in a totally different sphere from the great classical poets want of connection and interest certainly seems to us a strange charge to bring against the Divina Commedia probably the most philosophically arranged poem in literature of the ancient writers the Greeks were to his mind far superior to the Romans among the many Latin poets whom he admits having read he only singles out for special praise Ovid and Virgil the Odes of Horus pleased him for their grace and sweetness of versification but he does not mention the satires or the epistles in Greek dramatic poetry he had read only two plays of Aeschylus and nothing of Aristophanes but Euripides he greatly admired and more than once recommended a study of him as the best training for a public speaker he appears to me he says to Colonel Trotter to have much more of facility and nature in his way of writing than Sophocles of all Sophocles plays I like Elektra clearly the best in the Antigone there is a passage in her answer to Creon that is perhaps the sublimest in the world I suppose you selected Hippolytus and Iphigenia and Aulus on account of Rossine and I hope you have observed with what extreme judgment he had imitated them in the character of Hippolytus only I think has he fallen short of his original the scene of Phaedra's discovery of her love to her nurse he has imitated pretty closely and if he has not surpassed it it is only because that was impossible Homer and Virgil were the subjects of his minutest and most constant study he once read through the Odyssey for the purpose of noting any peculiarities and prosody with the triumphant result that there was only one line and I do not know what that is which I could not reconcile to the common rules his correspondence with Mr. Wakefield mainly turns upon points of Homeric prosody and philology it is worth notice that the parts which attracted him most were those which appealed to his affections and to family relations in the Iliad nothing pleased him more than the brotherly feeling between Agamemnon and Menelaus and the amiable character of Menelaus whom Holmer by the way he says seems to be particularly fond of the interview between Priam and Achilles where the old man unattended seeks the Greshan ships and with his arms embraced those knees and kissed those fearful hands bloodstained which many of his sons hath slain in treating Achilles to grant him Hector's body that it might receive due funeral rites for thy father's sake look pityingly down on me more needing pity since I bear such grief as never man on earth hath borne who stooped to kiss the hands that slew my son he pronounces to be the finest passage of the whole poem he constantly refers to the description of the anxious family council among the Greek leaders at the beginning of the tenth book as being particularly fine if you will not read the Iliad through he writes the Lord Holland in 1797 pray read the tenth book or rather the first half of it it is the part I never heard particularly celebrated but I think the beginning of it more true in the description of the uneasiness in the Greek army and the solicitude of the different chiefs than anything almost in the poem it is one of those things which one cannot give an idea of by any particular quotation but which is excellent beyond measure in placing the scene exactly before one's eyes and the characters too are remarkably well distinguished and preserved I think Homer is always happy in his accounts of Menelaus remarkably so you know in the Odyssey but I think he is so always and in this place too particularly you see I am never done with Homer and indeed if there was nothing else except Virgil and Ariosto one should never want reading if Homer was the poet Fox admired most Virgil was the poet whom he loved he loved him all the more because he was so distinctly on a lower level than Homer and yet so consummate an artist read him he says in one place until you get to love him for his very faults Fox too had one point in common with Virgil which he could not have with Homer he was a great defender of imitation on principle and in Virgil's works he found plenty of argument for his favorite thesis once he read the fourth book of the Aeneid through marking carefully all the passages which were borrowed and was delighted to find that they were nearly all greatly improved by their transplantation in Wakefield he found a supporter of his theory and he writes to him in great delight your notion with respect to poets borrowing from one another seems almost to come up to mine who have often been laughed at by my friends as a systematic defender of plagiarism indeed I got Lord Holland when a schoolboy to write some verses in praise of it and in truth it appears to me that the greatest poets have been the most guilty if guilt there be in such matters his favorite passages in Virgil as in Homer were in the episodes rather than in the main texture of the work the story of Nicis and Urielis the address of Evander to Pallas the episode of Daito were the parts which he loved best of Aeneas himself he had a very just contempt and wonders if Virgil really intended anything else in a letter to Wakefield written in 1801 he thus sums up his opinion upon Virgil the verses you refer to are indeed delightful indeed I think that sort of pathetic is Virgil's great excellence in the Aeneid and in that way he surpasses all other poets of every age and nation except perhaps and only perhaps Shakespeare it is on that account that I rank him so very high for surely to excel in that style which speaks to the heart is the greatest of all excellence I am glad you mentioned the eighth book as one of those which you most admire it has always been a peculiar favorite with me Evander's speech upon parting with his son is I think the most beautiful thing in the whole and is as far as I know wholly unborrowed what is more remarkable is that it has not I believe been often attempted to be imitated the passage sin aliquamin fondem casum is nature itself and then the tenderness and turning toward Pallas Dumté, Carré Pouerre, and etc. in short it has always appeared to me divine on the other hand I am surprised and sorry that among the capital books you should omit the fourth all that part of Daito's speech that follows Numphleitou in Gemouet Nostro is surely in the highest style of excellence as well as the description of her last impotent efforts to retain Aeneas and of the dreariness of her situation after his departure in a letter to Mr. Trotter he gives the other side of the picture though the detached parts of the Aeneid appear to me to be equal to anything the story and the characters appear more faulty every time I read it my chief objection I mean to the character of Aeneas is of course not so much felt in the first three books but afterwards he is always either insipid or odious sometimes excites interest against him and never for him one thing which delights me in the Iliad and Odyssey of which there is nothing in Virgil is the picture of manners which seem to be so truly delineated the times at which Homer lived undoubtedly gave him a great advantage in this respect since from his nearness to the times of which he writes what we always see to be invention in Virgil appears like the plain truth in Homer but exclusive of this advantage Homer certainly attends to character more than his imitator then he adds in his post script even in the first book Aeneas says Sombios Aeneios Fama Super Aeteranotus can you bear this criticism of this sort might be multiplied from Fox's correspondence almost without limit his range of reading in his special department of poetry was exceedingly wide and he brought to the study of classical poetry a taste trained in the best school of scholarship which but rarely failed him when dealing with the literature of later times his strong vigorous and clear intellect gives a turn of sound common sense to all his opinions he has the faculty so rare and so precious in a literary critic of self restraint enthusiastic he always is but he never permits himself to gush yet in spite of the sound judgment the powerful mind the clear statement the trained taste the self-restrained method the subdued enthusiasm which appear in every line of his letters or literary subjects it is impossible not to feel that there is something wanting his judgment on poets does not it is true deal only with the outside with the form and the expression yet it does not pierce into the inside he fastens upon passages, episodes, scenes and criticizes them he never deals with the great work as a whole or attempts to penetrate into the motives which produced it and the circumstance which molded it he is always interesting never profound always tasteful never intellectual he criticizes each author as he studies him from the standpoint of his own personality he judges him by his own likes and dislikes he looks for the passages which by their tender sentiment their true sympathy their artistic management fall in with his own feelings and appeal to his own nature he never tries to put himself into his author's place he tries to realize how his work appeared to him and what it was meant to be perhaps the conditions under which he wrote his criticisms did not admit of this it is too much to expect that a statesman who was able to devote but the fag end of a busy life to the claims of literature and from circumstances throws most of his literary criticism into letter form should do more than bring the force of a vigorous understanding and a trained taste to bear upon the artwork of his favorite authors that the complete failure of his own literary effort the history of James II gives rise to the suspicion that his defects lay deeper than in the outward circumstances of his life he lived it is true at a peculiarly unfortunate time for a literary critic who had not the opportunity of being original at the time when his literary tastes were forming there was no school of English poetry worth the name the old artificial school of Pope had become so thin and attenuated as to be scarcely visible the romantic and imaginative school inspired by the French Revolution was hardly born before Fox's death the intellectual school of modern days was yet to be for a literary prophet it was perhaps an opportunity but prophets are rare in literature as elsewhere and certainly there was not in Fox enough of moral stamina or of intellectual depth to make one End of Section 19 Section 20 of Charles James Fox by Henry Offley-Wakeman this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Pamela Nagami Chapter 10 The Ministry of All the Talents Part 1 The unexpected resignation of Pitt at the beginning of 1801 put an end to the idol of St. Anne's at once of course there was a ferment among the opposition and rumors of all sorts began to fly about gradually however the truth came out and everyone began to feel disappointed Fox at first could not understand it he thought there must be something behind some dark intrigue or as he expressed it a notorious juggle the substitution of Addington for Pitt could only be believed on the principle quia incredibile in reality it was only one of the king's party triumphs carried a little further than he or his minister intended Pitt had begun at last to realize the necessity of peace but he had not yet schooled himself into the determination to propose it he had promised to the Roman Catholics of Ireland complete freedom from religious disability in return for their support of the union but he had not yet nerve himself to the effort of obtaining the king's consent to introduce the measure when he did begin to lay siege to that fortress he found it well manned and armed at all points thanks to the diligent care of lords Loughborough and Auckland George III had got firm hold in his narrow but singularly honest mind of the conviction that to grant Catholic emancipation was contrary to his coronation oath and the Ahida fellow was not born who by argument or by guile could move him from that position Pitt's pledges to the Irish were too distinct and stubborn to be got rid of wholesale and so there was nothing for it but a resignation which was equally distasteful to the king and to the minister the fruits of victory however lay with the king he found in Addington and Eldon ministers after his own heart honest, stupid and accommodating a slight return of his old complaint occasioned by the anxiety of changing his ministers redoubled his popularity and brought Pitt to his knees he consented to withdraw the question of Catholic emancipation during the king's lifetime and so George III found himself in the hands of a minister whom he regarded with more perfect confidence than any minister since north and able if necessary to recall the most popular entrusted statesmen in England to his councils on his own terms whenever he chose to do so to Fox the change was of little practical importance Pitt supported Addington looked upon him merely as a stopgap until such time as it might be convenient for him to resume the cares of office and the majority followed Pitt it was thought worthwhile on the part of the opposition to muster their forces and challenge the new ministry on their formation but they were beaten by nearly three to one and though Fox appeared at Westminster on this occasion and craved in his speech the usual privilege given to a new member he did not yet consider the secession as over the first work of the new ministry was the negotiation of the peace with France that was a measure upon which there were not two opinions in the whole of England and while that was in progress all party warfare was hushed in the autumn the treaty was concluded and accepted by Parliament and the nation with enthusiastic joy and so the curtain fell on the first act of the great war drama Fox immediately determined to seize the opportunity to pay a visit to Paris partly to collect materials for his history and partly to see for himself the victorious general who had as Fox expressed it like most military men reformed the country by taking the power into his own hands on his return he found the ministers in a most anomalous condition one section of Pitt's old majority led by the Grenvils had declared strongly against the peace and directed a furious onslaught upon Addington on the terms of the treaty the wigs on the other hand were overjoyed by the peace and supported the government staunchly when that was in danger on all other matters of course they could have nothing in common with an administration formed on a purely reactionary basis Pitt who still held the strings in his own hands and might have forced himself upon the king whenever he pleased withdrew altogether from Parliament though it was understood that he gave a qualified support to the ministry a state of affairs like this clearly could not last long it was necessary for the wigs to keep a sharp eye upon what was going on and Fox could no longer resist the importunities of his friends to put a formal end to the ill-advised secession on June 27th 1802 in a letter to Lauderdale he reluctantly gave it its coup de grace I have at last made up my mind to come in not convinced by reason but finding the wish among my friends so general I am sure I am wrong but I cannot go against the tide the crisis was indeed one which demanded that the country should have the benefit of the council of all true patriots she was on the verge of a war with the greatest military genius whom the world has ever seen while her affairs were directed by a crazy king and an incapable minister and the two ablest men in England were sulking in their respective tents Bonaparte had never intended the piece of amion to be anything else than a breathing space as he frankly confessed to Monsieur Galois a few months later his power in France was not sufficiently consolidated nor was his ambition sufficiently satisfied to permit him to allow such a splendid weapon as the army of France to rust in disuse he used the piece of amion just as Louis XIV had used the piece of Ex-La Chapelle and the piece of Neyméhin simply as a period of quiet in which he could prepare for the next move in the game of ambition during the latter part of the year 1802 a dispatch after dispatch each treading on the heels of its predecessor came pouring in upon the British government bringing news of fresh French aggressions in August Bonaparte seized upon Elba in October upon Parma and Piacenza a few weeks later he occupied Switzerland he demanded from the English government the expulsion of the immigrants the banishment of the Bourbon princes and the banishment of newspapers hostile to himself finally in January 1803 he published a report of Colonel Sebastiani upon Egypt the object of which was to show how easily it could be reconquered in fact by the time the campaigning season of 1803 had begun he had made all his preparations and was ready for action all that remained was to bring about a declaration of war upon a point which should put England technically in the wrong the feeble government under its pompous and stupid head did all it could to second his efforts without ever laying before Europe a remonstrance against the obvious aggressions of France Addington called out the militia in March 1803 and thus enabled Bonaparte at the celebrated interview with Lord Whitworth which followed to represent England as showing a desire for war by refusing to restore Malta to the Knights of St John he allowed the quarrel nominally to arise out of an infraction of the Treaty of Amiens by the English government Well might Fox say Addington by his folly has contrived to lay bare the injustice of our cause directly it became clear that the country was drifting again into war a determined effort was made to put the helm of state into more secure hands Lord Grenville who perhaps among English statesmen fully realized the character and genius of Bonaparte was anxious to form a ministry on a broad bottom which should include both Pitt and Fox Canning and the younger followers of Pitt with whom were the bulk of the nation looked upon Pitt as the only man capable of steering the country safely through the perils which encompassed her the wits turned their batteries upon Addington and tried fairly to laugh him out of office never was minister more unmercifully ridiculed endless were the jests pointed at his father's profession the Medici administration they called it the pills for himself and the pelts for his son they sang when the valuable sinecure of the clerk of the pelts was kept in the family as London is to Paddington so is Pitt to Addington was the less good-humored comparison of Canning but the minister wrapped up in sublime self-conceit was impervious to argument or witticism he was quite acute enough to know that the royal favor was his and his alone and trusting to that he could afford to treat even Pitt with some degree of independence when war became unavoidable he actually had the impertinence to think that he could make his own terms with Pitt through the instrumentality of Dundas now Lord Melville he proposed that Lord Chatham should become the nominal leader of a coalition between Pitt and himself but stipulated as an essential condition for the exclusion of the Grenvils he was speedily undeceived Pitt put a summary stop to the negotiation I really had not the curiosity to inquire what I was to be he said afterwards to a friend Addington nothing disconcerted declared war on the 16th of May and to mark the occasion came down to parliament dressed in full Windsor uniform unfortunately for his dignity the business before the house at that very moment was the medicine bill the house of course at once saw the joke an auror of laughter greeted the marshal appearance of the doctor which broke out again irrepressibly as Sheridan in his best manner alluded to him as the right honorable gentleman who has appeared this evening in the character of a sheep in wolf's clothing the debate of the 23rd of May on the policy of the war showed the strange divisions of parties at the time Pitt, Fox and Grenville were all personally opposed to Addington on the ground of his incapacity Pitt nevertheless supported the minister in his war policy and made one of his most brilliant speeches in his favor Grenville too was eager for war but far too virulent against Addington to support his conduct of it Fox though he thought war inevitable yet clung fondly to the hope that Bonaparte was not really so ambitious and unscrupulous as he was thought to be and steadily maintained that if the negotiations had been better conducted peace might have been preserved in this however some of his followers notably Gray seemed to have disagreed with him when once war had been declared all parties agreed that it must be carried on vigorously and Lord Grenville approached Fox to see if they could not find a ground for common action if not for coalition in their common opposition to the minister after some negotiation which mainly passed through the hands of Thomas Grenville Fox's old friend and agent in 1782 an agreement for common opposition was arrived at efforts were made to get Pitt to join but he though reserving himself full liberty to question and criticize any measures of the ministers which seemed to him to be bad or wanting and vigor would not definitely range himself on the side of the opposition he saw clearly enough that he had the game in his own hands if he waited and did not want to be encumbered by ties which might prove inconvenient the event proved that he was right the relations between Grenville and Fox grew closer the opposition grew stronger and more consolidated as the months crept on when Pitt chose to oppose the ministry their majority was doubtful when he supported it it was assured slowly however it dwindled away eventually by April 1804 it was reduced to 36 Addington resigned and Pitt resumed office with the acquiescence of the king and the support of the vast majority of the country wholly unfettered by any promises to Grenville or to Fox at last there seemed a chance that the nation as she was entering on the crisis of her fortunes in the death struggle with France might be able to gather to her assistance all the talent in her service the war of 1803 was a very different one from that of 1793 no one could pretend that it was a war against opinion or a war of sheer unmanly terror least of all a war to restore the ancien regime whatever had been the case in 1793 no one doubted now that the cause of Bonaparte was the cause of absolutism and tyranny and the cause of England was the cause of liberty military despotism was no new danger to Europe no new factor in English politics among the noblest of England's claim to the gratitude of Europe was the remembrance of the part which she had played in breaking the European tyranny of Louis XIV but Louis at any rate was the representative of a great tradition had a definite national policy and was in his own way a champion of civilization as well as of despotism the ambition of Bonaparte on the contrary was personal not national his tyranny represented nothing but his own sword it rested purely and nakedly on force what enemy of the human race could be imagined more deadly than a military adventurer cruel, faithless and unscrupulous gifted with extraordinary talents restrained by no law human or divine who looked upon human beings simply as the playthings of his ambition upon nations as ministers to his glory Fox perhaps was the only statesman in England who was still inclined to hope who still believed that the ogre might be tamed by dexterous treatment but neither he nor anyone else denied for a moment the absolute duty of England who spent her last man and her last shilling in the cause of the liberation of Europe should Bonaparte prove the tyrant which his enemies believed him to be once more the best hopes of England were doomed to be wrecked by the narrow-minded honesty of the king to George III atington was still the best minister he had ever had Fox was still the unprincipled roue who had taught his son to hate him George III had enough steward blood in his veins to learn nothing and to forget nothing directly Pitt proposed to him a coalition ministry a ministry in fact of the national defense wholly apart from a party which was to include Fox, Grenville, Fitzwilliam, Gray and Canning the king resolutely refused to agree to Fox on hearing this Fox with characteristic good temper at once asked not to have his own claims pressed but insisted on the inclusion of some of his followers if it wasn't any sense to be a coalition ministry his followers with equally characteristic loyalty refused to serve if their chief was not to lead them and the Grenvils, true to their policy of cooperation with the Whigs, refused to join unless the Whigs came in too the result was that the king was victorious all along the line never in any conversation that I have had with him has he so baffled me, said Pitt the old ministry of incapables was reconstituted but with the addition of Pitt and Dundas the old policy of organizing coalitions against France with English gold was taken up and Sisyphus began once more to roll the stone up the hill all that Zeal could do was done the record of Pitt's second ministry is a noble story of energy and vigor, unsuccessful though it was the threat of invasion roused the patriotism of every Englishman and defenses not formidable in themselves but useful in quieting apprehension sprung up on the coast of Kent Lord Melville worked so hard at the reorganization of the fleet that it is said he added no less than 166 vessels to the navy in a year the principle of the conscription for national defense was introduced by the additional forces bill abroad the murder of the Duke d'Anguillon the assumption of the title of emperor by Napoleon his virtual annexation of Italy, Holland and Switzerland were powerful arguments in Pitt's favor and by April 1805 he had the satisfaction of seeing Austrian pressure again allied against the tyrant in August 1805 the superiority of Nelson and Calder over Villeneuve at sea effectually relieved England of any fear of invasion the victory of Trafalgar in October annihilated the French navy for the rest of the war but in all other respects the story is one of continued disaster Pitt's own health was breaking down under the strain he spoke at times with his old fire but the effort became visibly greater the attack upon Lord Melville for malversation carried in the House of Commons by the speakers casting vote simply broke his heart the news of the capitulation of Ulm and the total failure of the coalition at Austerlitz brought him to his grave on January 23 1806 he died murmuring it is said with his last breath a prayer for his country the death of Pitt left literally no one in England to take his place except Fox and Grenville Pitt and Melville had been the only able men in the cabinet Addington had been tried and found wanting and it was impossible even for the king to explore the depths of the kingdom of dullness which stretched below the feet of Addington he fully understood the state of affairs sent for Lord Grenville and entrusted the government to him Grenville at once replied that the first person he should consult would be Fox I understood it to be so said the king and I meant it to be so not two years before George III had taken care to let it be known that Fox had been excluded from the ministry by the king's personal action but a few months previous he had written that he would run the risk of civil war rather than admit Fox no one knew better than George III when opposition was hopeless he struggled to the very end but always gave way when it was absolutely necessary and so it was in this case after an interval of 23 years Fox again kissed his hands on his appointment as foreign secretary and in no period of his life in which he had been minister did he find the king more cordial and accommodating End of section 20