beyond my strength," said he, "I bad almost said, my duty. If I have not acted much, you will allow I have spoken much; and I have felt more than I have either acted or spoken. My constitution has sunk under it. I find myself unequal to the business on which you have written; it must be left to younger men.”

Once he employed this remarkable expression. Pitt has died in Ja nuary-perhaps I may go off before June." A gentleman who was in company with him, having made some observation in reply-"Nay," said Mr. Fox, "I begin to think my complaint not unlike Pitt's; my stomach has been long discom, posed; I feel my constitution dissolving."

This state of health continued through the month of March, when his friends were convinced he was breaking fast. Still he insisted that his disease was only a temporary babit, and as he happened in May to recover an interval of strength, that circumstance tended to confirm him in his error. The symptoms, however, soon returned with redou, bled violence, and he was pronounced, at the latter end of June, to have decided symptoms of dropsy.

It was the beginning of July before his disease was completely ascertained. The symptoms were no longer doubtful, and the swelling daily increased. All efforts to discharge the water by diuretic me. dicine failing, the operation of tapping was performed on the 7th of August; the quantity taken from him was about five gallons. The weakness which succeeded, was such as to excite a general alarm that he would not

survive it; he was long speechless, and that at the moment when the public prints represented him all gaiety and spirits. His state continued very doubtful, till the night of the 10th, when he again began to recover strength. He now dined with one or two of his most inti. mate friends, and conversed with them as long as his physicians per. mitted.

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Mr. Fox had occasionally fa vourable symptoms after his first operation, and his medical attend, ants entertained hopes almost to the last, of his recovery. But, in the mean time, the accumulation of water returned, and as another operation was obviously soon to be necessary, he was removed, in the first instance, to Chiswick, that he might enjoy there the benefits of air and residence in the country. This change of residence took place on the 28th of August, and on the 1st of September following the operation of tapping was again per formed. He suffered less than he had done the first time, from the immediate effects of the operation; and the symptoms of his case were, in the opinion of his physicians, more favourable than they had been at any time during his illness, when he suddenly fell into a state of great lowness and exhaustion, on Monday, the 8th of September, from which he never completely recovered, He continued to languish till the 13th instant, when he expired, having retained his senses and recollection to the last. His body being examined after death, it was found that the cause of his illness was a schirrus, or induration of the liver.

Thus died the right honourable Charles James Fox, on the 13th day of September, 1806, in the 58th

year

year of his age, a period the most satisfactory of any in the whole course of his life-a period at which be, accustomed to adversity, had at length arrived at the attainment of every wish, and at that age of a life, when death is attended with fewer terrors than in one more advanced. If the peace of his country, for which he had always struggled, were not indeed attained, he had the happiness to see it in fair prospect; and he was spared the pain of seeing the intricate policy of modern times triumph over his favourite object. The partner of his heart was easy. His private friends, and the old associates of his public carcer, were in the employment of the state, and receiving the honours that reward persevering virtue. He had, through his short administrations, been an enlightened and benevolent minister, and nothing had detracted from his fame. Let those who wish he had lived longer, and attained higher honours, rejoice that he lived so long, and died regretted by the British people.

The day fixed for the funeral was the tenth of October, the anniversary of Mr. Fox's first election for Westminster.*

Thus far we have endeavoured to abridge, from the narratives at prescnt published, the facts generally known concerning the political and private life of Mr. Fox, we shall add a summary of the character of that great man, chiefly from our own observation.

Mr. Fox was of the middle stature, and for many years had been much encumbered with corpulence and obesity. His complexion was very dark, his nose well formed, and VOL. XLVIII.

his mouth, according to Lavater's system, expressive of good nature and a love of pleasure. His eyebrows were not only remarkably thick and black, but were peculiarly shaped; not being arched but rising upward at a considerable angle from the temples towards the middle of the forehead. The whole expression of his face and person has been said, by one of his panegyrists, to have formed a perfect specimen of the English character; but his dark beard and sallow complexion were by others thought to give him much the appearance of a native of a more southern climate. His countenance was manly, bold, and open: and the bust of him by Nollekins is grand, and impressive. His temper was kind, and in private equable; his manners were the most affable and engaging; no man had more personal friends, and there never was a man whose friendships were more lasting, or whose enmities were less rooted.

Having visited the courts of Europe early, he wanted nothing of the polished address which distinguishes the man of high breeding; and having been drawn into the vortex of pleasure which led to many embarrassments, in his youth; having approached the lowest classes of his fellow citizens with familiarity, in the tumult of many a popular election, he had, like our fifth Harry, "sounded the very base string of humility;" he had seen mankind in all the gradations of rank, and varieties of character, and knew human nature thoroughly. Of his scholastic acquirements we have spoken already, and have only to add, that they were chiefly confined to the 3 N

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belles lettres, history, and the ancient and modern languages of Eu. rope, and he is not supposed to have given his time to the acquisition of the mathematical sciences, which, indeed, have little connection with the chief objects of a statesman's attention. In history, particularly that of his own country,—in the political constitution and particular interests of the different nations of Europe, he was eminently skilled.

He had early shewn a taste for poetry, and was celebrated for a ready wit, which he displayed in occasional sallies of repartee, and that light species of composition, which the French call vers de société. With a warm heart, a generous spirit, a simple mind, a clear understanding, and a perspicuous, casy style of expression, Fox necessarily became the admiration of the British parliament, and one of the most animated and powerful amongst ancient or modern orators. His delivery was, however, not graceful, and his voice wanted power and harmony, but his manner was always pleasing, because it was always sensible and unaffected, and when he rose, as he always did, in the heat of debate, with the subject which he was discussing, he soared an eagle's flight, and fell upon his adversaries with a force and energy which was ir resistible. The great art of his eloquence seemed to be the absolute disregard of every thing that had the appearance of art. He had no set style, no monotony of round and studied periods, like his adversary, Pitt, or the prototype of that adversary, Cicero. His words and phrases were all the simple English of the reign of queen Anne, such as Swift or Addison would have used,

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but in a style more concentrated. His illustrations were drawn from history, or from common life, and 'not, like those of his friend Burke, scientific, poetical, or metaphysical. He always reasoned from facts and plain obvious principles, and made his hearers usually feel with him, because he appeared to speak and feel like a common man of uncommon energy. He possessed beyond all other men the grand secret of impressive eloquence, the power of making every one present believe that he was capable of thinking rightly, that he was incapable of deceit, and that his sole desire was to convince his hearers of the truth which he felt himself strongly, and which he was only anxious to impress upon others with equal force of feeling.

Yet in reality he was often a most skilful orator,and knew as well as any man how to draw the attention of his hearers from the strong parts of his opponents' arguments, by attacking their political characters rather than their measures. An instance of this may be found in his speeches on the celebrated East India bill, where we shall find, if we compare him with Burke, that although totally neglecting the local information which the latter displayed upon the subject *, he produced a greater sensation upon his audience, by withdrawing their attention from the objects of the bill, as they af. fected the people in India, to their consequence, in adding weight to the influence of the ministers in this country. In this he was wise, he knew that his hearers felt but a remote interest for the distant inhabitants of Hindostan, whom they considered only as filling up a space in the map of Asia. To speak,

like Burke, of their injuries, of their countries desolated by merchant conquerors, as unfeeling as the ouran outang and the tyger, would bid no accordant string to vibrate in their breasts; but, direct them to Leadenhall-street and St. Stephen's chapel, and they were at home; they could understand him, and they could feel with him. There needs no better example of his knowledge of man, and his skill as an orator. His real artifice lay in the skilful choice of his topics, and in discussing those which he selected with the most natural and energetic simplicity. To affect the feelings of his audience, he used every means which nature supplies to art, he argued himself into a fervour of passion; he declaimed with vehemence, he spoke in sententious apophthegms, in sudden exclamations, in broken sentences and in tears.

He has been compared to Demosthenes, and the comparison is just. He will be remembered as the Demosthenes of England. One point of si.. milarity has, perhaps, not yet been noticed. Demosthenes acquired his style by frequent copying of the historian Thucidydes. The English Demosthenes, it is true, had no Thucidydes of his own nation to copy; but by historical studies he formed his eloquence upon the rigorous and chaste model of an historical style; and hence, perhaps, may be found one source of his great resemblance to the Grecian orator in the characteristics of simplicity, natural dignity, and sententious energy.

Of his political character as a minister, considering that he held the reins of government for a short ime only, it is difficult to speak.

As a leader of opposition he was the most powerful; but those who watch the proceedings of the British parliament, will observe that a leader of opposition is often obliged to condemn, is rarely at liberty to praise, and has many opportunities of gaining popular favour, without much risk of reputation. Yet Fox often praised the financial skill of his opponent, and it is much to his credit for foresight, as a politician, that from the first he predicted the evils of a coalition against France, that he always sighed for peace, and that our warfare has failed of its desired object, and led to the subjugation of Europe, through the aggrandizement of France.

In private life, we have already said, he was most amiable.—He had follies, indeed, or if the love of pleasure and of gaming be vices in youth, he had vices too, which it would be weakness to conceal. But, with an ardent passion for these destructive habits, he quitted them entirely for a modest retirement, when he could no longer enjoy them without risking the independence which his friends had given him, from public spirit, in order to preserve him for the service of his country; and, though he had been profuse of his own fortune, he was neither greedy nor envious of another's; non alieni ap. petens, sui profusus. His virtues too were not less admirable because they shone through, and in the end pu rified and corrected the transient defects of his character. He had both a natural and acquired urbanity, a gentlemanly feeling, which thought and acted with the greatest kind. mess towards every fellow man, however humble. Even in the ar3 N 2

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dour of debate he insulted no one, and scarcely ever used an expression which a gentleman would wish to disavow. He sneered at no man's weakness, but chose always for his competitor the strongest. of his opponents. He scorned to fight with dwarfs, but always ventured alone into combat with the Goliath of his times; and his weapons, though strong and well-directed, were fair and simple, as the sling and the stone of the son of Jesse. In all things he was great, he lived and died with many friends, and amongst a nation of admirers, and he will ever be remembered amongst the great leaders of the British senate, and the glories of British eloquence.

Parallel between Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox.

Having thus attempted to describe the eloquence, and delineate the characters of these two great men, we may pronounce of them, that as rivals for power and for fame, their equals have not been known in this country, and perhaps in none were there two such statesmen, in so regular and equal a contention for pre-eminence. In the advantages of birth and fortune they were equal; 'in eloquence, dissimilar in their manner, but superior to all their contemporaries; in influence upon the minds of their hearers equal; in talents and reputation, dividing the nation into two parties of nearly equal strength; in probity above all suspicion; in patriotism rivals, as in a'l things else. Whatever the spirit of party may have suggested in the ardour of contention, the writer of this cannot now be persuaded, that their opposition was more than a constitutional struggle for power, to which

cach had pretensions that must have borne the palm from any other man of his time.

At the commencement of Mr. Pitt's tong administration, to which he succeeded by one of those court manoeuvres which have obtained in all countries, Mr. Fox could rarely object anything to his measures, except that the proposer of them first obtained his power against the majority of the house of commons. In the nice and difficult affair of the proposed regency, we see the Whig leader of opposition, the man of the people, endeavouring to check the limitations which the court minister, through the two popular branches of the legislature, would have fixed upon the hereditary successor to the executive government, on a temporary demise of the crown. In opposition, each declaimed against the corruption of the commons, and proposed plans of reform. This was the engine by which the one raised himself in early youth to a great degree of popular favour, and gained the citadel of ministerial power. This too was the engine which the other employed to besiege him in his state, when he found it necessary to lead, and not destroy parliamentary influence. How Fox, as minister and the avowed patron of reform, would have encountered the difficulties of a similar situation is doubtful; he died before the hour of trial arrived. On the subject of the catholic claims, each, at a late period, avowedly favoured them; but when in power, subsequently, neither was capable of carrying his views immediately into effect, and the attempt was fatal to the power of those to whom Mr. Fox bequeathed his plans and his influence.

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