URKE once said of Charles James Fox, that he was born to be loved; and this was his great characteristic and his greatest praise. For the man who, in spite of many faults, inspires those around him with affection, who lights up with smiles the faces of all among whom he appears, must necessarily be the possessor of a warm heart and finely tempered mind. Most other statesmen, even when highly patriotic, infuse little warmth into their intercourse with the public; but Fox seems to have regarded parliament, and even the whole nation, as part of his own family, and to have thrown much of the warmth of friendship into his dealings with them. In consequence, all his contemporaries who were not severed from him by the violence of party

spirit, watched over his reputation with something like brotherly solicitude; and even to this hour, when members of parliament appeal to the authority of Mr Fox, they do so with feelings very different from those with which they refer to the opinions of other statesmen.

There must, accordingly, be more than ordinary interest in following the career of such a man, so as, if possible, to discover the secret of his popularity. Other leaders of party have possessed much greater external advantages, have commanded the influence of more powerful families, possessed greater fortunes, equal knowledge, and talents and genius and eloquence scarcely inferior to his, yet no one, perhaps, was ever regarded with so much love and attachment by the country, or so earnestly admired by his friends, or so respected and esteemed by parliament, as Charles James Fox. Wise and learned as he was, his eloquence seemed to proceed less from his head than from his heart: it was the spontaneous expression of great qualities and great affections. He loved the country sufficiently to induce him to give up all his faculties to the study of its interests, and his faculties were sufficiently great to enable him thoroughly to comprehend these interests in all their amplitude and complexity. Study was the easy and natural habit of his mind, which was so large, that it readily admitted whatever was great in the intellectual world, and so full of genial warmth, that it naturally matured and brought to perfection whatever it embraced. He has been compared to Demosthenes, and no man of modern times ever so much deserved to suggest such a comparison. It is, however, praise enough to say, that he might have equalled Demosthenes, had the circumstances of the times, and the habits of society, and the practice of parliament, been such as to induce him to submit to so severe a discipline as that which rendered the Athenian the prince of orators-the model which all succeeding times have acknowledged to be inimitable, the man in whom knowledge and fire, and judgment and discretion, and grandeur of sentiment and severity of logic were united to carry eloquence to its highest pitch; who for two thousand years has excited perpetual imitation, and yet been found to be unapproachable in his greatness.

II.

Fox was born on the 13th of January 1749. His father, Lord Holland, was a new man who had raised himself to distinction by industry and court patronage. Through his mother, a daughter of the Duke of Richmond, he was descended from the royal families of England and Navarre-a circumstance on which he himself seems never to have set any value, though it no doubt influenced the judgment and predilections of others. Enough is not known of his early life; it is certain, however, that he was the spoiled

child of his father, who, with unpardonable weakness, petted and flattered him, and laid the foundation of those defects of character which became so startlingly apparent in after-years. Numerous anecdotes have been related by contemporary retailers of gossip, for the purpose of illustrating the events of his boyhood; but they are most of them of no significance. The following may, perhaps, deserve to be repeated, because they shew by what criminal excess of paternal indulgence the mind of the young statesman and orator was from the first corrupted. His father having determined to lay open a view of Holland House to the public, promised his son Charles that he should be present when the intervening wall was exploded by gunpowder. It happened, however, by accident, that the workmen performed this part of their task without giving notice to the young favourite. An expression of regret would have satisfied most fathers on such an occasion; but with an eccentric display of affection, which many persons perhaps will consider ludicrous, Lord Holland had the wall built up again, in order that Black Charley, as he was called, might have the gratification of witnessing its second overthrow! Everybody remembers the equanimity with which Sir Isaac Newton bore the destruction of his papers by his dog Pompey Lord Holland seems almost to have rivalled him in patience and good-nature. One night, when Secretary of State during the war, having a number of important expresses to despatch, he took them home from his office, in order to examine their contents more attentively before he sent them away. Charles, then about eight years old, came into the study, to which he had free access, and taking up one of the packets which his father had examined and set apart for sealing, he perused it with much seeming attention for some time, then expressed his disapprobation, of the contents, and threw it into the fire. The secretary, far from being ruffled by this incident, or attempting to reprimand his son, turned immediately to look for the office-copy, and with the utmost composure and good-humour made out another.'

III.

One of the greatest blemishes in the character of Fox was his love of gambling, which accompanied him through the greater part of his life, and exposed him to some of the keenest vexations he ever endured. The seeds of this unhappy vice are supposed to have been sown by his father, whom, at the age of fourteen, he accompanied to Spa. All places which people frequent for the recovery of their health, are more or less detrimental to their morals. Fox, though a boy, seems immediately to have been absorbed into the vortex of play, which his father, instead of checking, encouraged by allowing him five guineas a night to be wasted on this destructive amusement. Can we wonder that the

love of excitement thus early fostered, should have produced at a later period such bitter fruit?"

Like most other persons of distinction, Lord Holland desired to give his son a public education, and sent him first to Westminster School, and afterwards to Eton. His progress in those seats of learning is described in terms of general eulogium. He is said to have astonished his masters as much by the levity of his conduct as by the quickness and brilliancy of his abilities; while he already exerted over his school-fellows that fascination which in after-years he exerted over men. The elements of the character are, in fact, always the same-the discrepancies supposed to be observable in many cases between the boy and the man, being attributable to the want of discernment in those who undertake to judge, and not to any real change in the object. With the instincts of true generosity, Fox always espoused the cause of the weak against the strong. He had an innate love of justice in his disposition, was full of tenderness and compassion, and desired, above all things, to diffuse happiness around him. Fortune also, in his case, favoured the development of his amiable virtues, so that nearly all his companions became his friends. It was among them that he laid the first foundation of that empire which he afterwards exercised over the minds of his contemporaries. To shew in what light he was viewed at Eton, we introduce a copy of verses written by his school-fellow, the Earl of Carlisle, who had the sagacity to foresee his future eminence :

'How will my Fox, alone, by strength of parts,
Shake the loud senate, animate the hearts
Of fearful statesmen! while around you stand
Both peers and commons listening your command.
While Tully's sense its weight to you affords,
His nervous sweetness shall adorn your words;
What praise to Pitt, to Townsend, e'er was due,
In future times, my Fox, shall wait on you.'

Much the same language may be applied to the progress of Fox at Oxford. He devoted himself attentively to study and to pleasure, and surpassed most of his companions in both. The excesses of youth have been not unaptly described as bills drawn at a long date, which have to be taken up with fearful interest in after-life. Fox's dissipation at Eton and Oxford sapped the foundations of his health, though evidence of the mischief did not immediately appear even in his studies, there was a large share of intemperance. He returned from the Eleusis of the university, to devote himself fiercely to his books, and after having wasted the night in blameable indulgences, is reported to have read at least nine or ten hours a day. Of this assiduous application to learning, the fruits were afterwards manifest throughout his life. He always retained his admiration of classical literature; and inspiration derived from Homer and Euripides, often directed those thunders of eloquence with which he shook the House of Commons. Fox found in

manifestations of a kindred intellect, with all that originality and love of independence which characterise the great and noble of all generations. He was worthy to have lived and spoken at Athens, and to have associated with that 'old man eloquent' who

• Wielded at will the fierce democracy,

Shook th' Arsenal, and fulmined over Greece

To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne.'

IV.

When he was supposed to have finished his studies at the university, he obtained his father's permission to travel on the continent. Over this portion of his life a thick veil, not, however, unadorned with gorgeous figures of embroidery, has been thrown by his biographers. He had agreed, it appears, to correspond with his friend, Richard Kirkpatrick, in verse; but if he adhered to his engagement, all these poetical effusions, save one, must have perished. The only remaining specimen is dated from Dover, and runs as follows:

'From the time that I left you, dear Richard, at Almack's
(For which I have no rhyme but the old one of Calmuks),
I slept while I came a confounded slow pace,

Till at last I arrived about eight at the place.
From hence we are now just about to embark,
And hope to reach Calais before it is dark.

I begin, I can tell you, already to curse

The engagements I made to write always in verse;

For the muses are coy, and the more that I woo 'em,

The more difficult 'tis, as I find, to get to 'em;

They are whimsical women, but in spite of their malice,
I will send you a letter to-morrow from Calais.'

The stagyrite, the master in learning and statesmanship of Alexander the Great, who explored the whole world of philosophy, and explained with equal clearness the laws which regulate poetry and eloquence, and the institutions of society and the movements of the universe-this man, we say, was a coxcomb in dress, loved to strut about the streets in purple, and to adorn his person with all the elegances of a fop. Charles James Fox had, in youth, the same weakness, and in most of the capitals of Europe astonished the politer circles by the extravagance of his attention to dress. This, however, was the most harmless of his propensities. He seems at the same time to have indulged in all the most reckless vices of youth, and to have contracted wherever he went a load of debt, which it required the utmost stretch of parental indulgence to discharge. Lord Holland now paid the penalty of his unwise fondness. Instead of properly checking, he had fostered the strongest passion of his son; and when, in a state of unaffected alarm, he sought to exercise his authority as a father, he found it scarcely equal to the task of reclaiming him from his irregularities. Letter after letter was despatched insisting on his immediate return, but it was not until he had utterly exhausted