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CHAP. impending calamities, suffered himself to be the VIIL instrument of the system which in his heart he at time condemned as fraught with mischief to the king and to the country. Fox directed attention to the two principal grievances which needed revision: the assumption of power to raise taxes, and of power to modify or annihilate charters at pleasure. "It is impossible," replied Wedderburn, "to enter upon the question of taxation and charters as a means of reconciliation; the one preliminary point which must be settled is independence; till the spirit of independency is subdued, revisions are idle; the Americans have no terms to demand from your justice, whatever they may hope from your grace and mercy." Lord John Cavendish, on the division, obtained less than fifty votes.

From this time, Burke and the friends of Rockingham made an ostentatious display of their secession from parliament: they attended in the morning on private business, but so soon as public business was introduced, they made a bow to the speaker and withdrew; leaving the ministers to carry their measures without opposition or debate. But this policy did not suit the ardent genius of Fox, whose sagacity and fearlessness had now made him, at twenty-seven, the most important member of the house of commons.

The character of this unique man was not a chapter of contradictions; each part of his nature was in harmony with all the rest. With talents, good-nature, and truthfulness, he had no restraining principles, and looked down with contempt on those who had. Priding himself on ignorance of

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every self-denying virtue, an adept in debauch CHAP. and vain of his excesses, he feared nothing. Unlucky at the gaming-table beyond all calculation 1776. of chances, draining the cup of pleasure to the dregs, fond of loose women and beloved by them, the delight of profligates, the sport of usurers, impoverished by his vices, he braved scandal, and gloried in a lordly recklessness of his inability to pay his debts, as if superb ostentation in misfortune raised him above all his fellow-men. He had a strong will; but he never used it to bridle his passions, even though their indulgence wronged his own father, or corrupted his young admirers. Born to wealth and rank and easy access to the service of the king, at heart an aristocrat, he could scoff at monarchy and hold the language of a leveller and a demagogue. He loved poetry and elegant letters, the songs of Homer above all; but science was too dull for him, and even the style and lucidity and novelty of Adam Smith could not charm the licentious, rollicking statesman to the study of political economy. His uncurbed licentiousness seemed rather to excite than to exhaust his lofty powers; his perceptions were quick and instinctively true; and in his wildest dissipation he retained an unextinguishable passion for activity of intellect. Living as though men and women were instruments of pleasure, he yet felt himself destined for great things, and called forth to the service of mankind. To be talked about, he would stake all he had and more on a wager; but the all-conquering instinct of his ambition drove him to the house of commons. There his genius

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CHAP. was at home; and that body cherished him with VIII. the indulgent pride which it always manifests to 1776. those who keep up its high reputation with the world. A knotty brow, a dark brown complexion, thick, shaggy eyebrows, and a a compact frame marked a rugged audacity and a commanding energy, which made him rude and terrible as an adversary; but with all this he had a loveliness of temper which so endeared him to his friends that the survivors among them never ceased the praise of the sweetness and gentleness of his familiar intercourse. It was natural to him to venerate greatness like Edmund Burke's; and a wound in his affections easily moved him to tears. His life was dissolute; his speech was austere. His words were all pure English; he took no pains to hunt after them; the aptest came at his call, and seemed to belong to him. Every part of his discourse lived and moved. He never gave up strength of statement for beauty of expression; and never stopped to fill up gaps with fine phrases. His healthy diction was unaffectedly simple and nervous, always effective, sometimes majestic and resounding, rarely ornate, and then only when he impressed a saying of poet or philosopher to tip his argument with fire. He never dazzled with brilliant colors, but could startle by boldness in the contrast of light and shade. He forced his hearers to be attentive and docile; for he spoke only when he had something to say that needed to be said, and compelled admiration because he made himself understood. What was entangled he could unfold quickly and lucidly; now speaking

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with copious fluency, and now discussing point by CHAP. point; at one time confining debate within the narrowest limits, and again speaking as if inspired to Nov. plead the welfare of all mankind. He had a wonderful gift at finding and bringing together what he wanted, though lying far off and apart. It was his wont to march straight forward to his end; but he knew how to turn aside from an attack, to retreat with his eye ever on his enemy, and then, by an unexpected reversion, to strike him suddenly as with talons. When involved in dispute, he dashed at the central idea, which was of power to decide the question; grasped it firmly and held it fast; turned it over and over on every side; presented it in the most various aspects; came back to dwell upon it with fresh force; renewed blow after blow till it became annealed like steel. He hit the nail again and again, and always on the head, till he drove it home into the minds of his hearers; and when he was beaten by the majority, he still bore away the palm as a wrestler. His merits, as summed up by Mackintosh, were reason, simplicity, and vehemence."

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Yet Fox was great only as a speaker; nay, his sphere was still narrower: he was great only as a speaker in the house of commons, and there great only as a speaker in opposition. He was too skilful in controversy to be able to present the connections and relations of events with the comprehensive fairness of an historian; and his strength went out from him when he undertook only to tell what had been done. He failed as a statesman, not from defect of heart, but from the uncer

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CHAP. tainty which attends the want of fixed principles, VIII. and which left him exposed to the allurements of Nov. any promising coalition; but he was the very man to storm a citadel. In running down a ministry, his voice hallooed on the pack, and he was sure to be the first in at the death. And now, in the house of commons, this master of debate had declared for the independence of the United States.