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hood. He must know that what he calls atrocious, and fligmatizes in a thousand ways, is good, useful, and perhaps necellary; probably what he would himfelf propofe, could he inftantly change places with the minifter. The mental degradation neceffary for acting so base a part, however gentlemen may palliate it to themfelves, is what the country at large will always regard with difguft and contempt; and fuch conduct muft ultimately be branded by the impartiality of History as a fhame and difgrace to the nation in which it could be tol rated. Yet of this conduct, through two long oppofitions, occupying together the chief part of his life, was Mr. Fox more guilty than any other man that ever lived.

He allo, in the American War, was one of the first and chief to go the daring length of becoming the advocate of his country's enemies, and the conftant calumniator of her friends. Grant, if you pleafe, tha he thought originally (which however we doubt) that the queflion of right was. on the fide of America: that Britain, who had nurfed her up with blood and treasure, had no right to call upon her for a proportion of taxes. Still, when it was put to the iffue of war, under the authority of all the legal government of his country; yet more, when the habitual, and inveterate (we will not fay natural) enemies of the British Nation had joined in the conteft, for the fake of plunging us, if poffible, into deftruction; who fhall dare to juftify the man who, under fuch e:rcumstances, thall continue the friend and ally of all who were moft hoftile to Britain. True, Mr. Fox was not alone in this unnatural league, but he was the chief, and the moft active leader of it: and when he dared to avow in the Senate many years after, to one of his affociates, that "they had rejoiced together at the triumphs of Washington, wept for the death of Montgomery," &c. we felt afhamed of a country (with all its merits) which had not vigour in its laws, or fpirit in its councils, to curb fuch open treachery.

From this fatal example, in which Mr. Fox appears more deeply guilty than any other individual, it has continued to be a conftant practice to take part with the enemies of the country. From this difgrace.ul period it has been fufficient to be the inveterate adverfary of Great Britain †,

* In his fpeech to Mr. Burke, at the time of their open rupture in the Houfe of Commons.

+ La Fayette, Dumourier, Pichegru, all had their turns; and when any of thefe became friends to England, they were equally abused.

to be fecure of being panegyrized by a party within her own dominions. Even at this moment, we are told, it operates, but with this we have no prefent concern. For the practice we may thank Mr. Fox, for till his courage ventured upon fuch measures, they had not certainly be

come common.

Whether Mr. F. did once go fo far as actually to nego. tiate against the lawful government of the country, we will not undertake to affert *. Mr. Burke, however, who seemed to poffefs the beft means of knowing, pofitively declared it †, It is now called in queftion. But as many perfons are living who must have known the truth, it is ftrange that it fhould be liable to controverfy. Still we feel it very difficult to believe, that Mr, Burke could write a long political tract on a fuppofed tranfaction of his own time, and among his own connections, which never had existence.

Be this as it may, for the fake of oppofing minifters Mr. Fox was, in our opinion, the decided eneiny of his country, on many memorable occafions, When from the alarming progrefs which the French revolutionary principles were making here, foon after the murder of Louis XVI, Mr. Burke, and feveral of the most eminent members of oppo fition, thought it neceffary to firengthen the government by uniting with it, Mr. Fox remained unmoved. So far was he from endeavouring to ftrengthen the government that he laboured even then to weaken it, by all means in his power, joining with what Mr. Burke termed the New Whigs in all the excelles of republicanifm ‡; and extolling the French Revolution to the fkies, at the very period when its dire example was chiefly to be dreaded': and when the country, almost as one man, united to refift the attempts of republicans and levellers, he was the chief of thofe who ridiculed the friends of the conftitution as alarmifts, and their union as abfurdity and folly. The country was preferved in spite of him,

It is controverted by Philopatris, in a long argument be ginning at page 239, Vol. I., but which does not bring conviction

to the reader.

In the Anti-Jacobin Newfpaper, No. 11, in the Verfes to the author of an Epistle, &c. it is taken for granted as a fact of

notoriety.

Yet Mr. Fox was not really a republican. See his fpeeches on the Quebec Bill, 1792.

"It remained to show ftill more completely, if poffible, that* he was incapable of feeling for his country, even in the most trying moments, fo long as the objects of his perfonal am-" bition feemed to fland in competition with her interefts. In' the dreadful fummer of 1797, when the fleet was in the moft alarming ftate of mutiny, he fuffered another friend to. leave him, and to demonftrate a patriotifm, of which he had no conception. Mr. Sheridan arofe in the Houfe of Commons, and in a fpeech, for which the country felt grateful to him from one end to the other, cruihed the hopes of the mutineers,' and expreffed the proper determination to refift and bring them to obedience. Mr. Fox remain unmoved. Such a step on his part might have ftrengthened the hands of his rival," and the fleet might go to deftruction, before he would endeavour to preferve it at fuch a hazard. The very next year, 1798, when the rebellion broke out in Ireland, Mr.' Fox did not hefitate publicly to drink "fuccefs to the caufe of liberty in Ireland;" a toaft no more equivocal than it was! patriotic, but perfectly confiftent with the general tenor of his conduct at that time.

Yet to prove how perfectly he was without principle, at the' lamented period of our Sovereign's illnefs in 1788, for what purpose did Mr. Fox haften back from the continent, and refume his attendance in parliament? Only to oppofe the neceffary interference of that parliament; and to advances and maintain the moft violent Tory doctrine, perhaps, that was ever fupported within thofe walls. Mr. Pitt, guided by principle and patriotifm, took at once the ground, which regard to the Sovereign and the conflitution equally pointed out; and his opponent had the deferved mortification of having returned to England, only to experience the most fignal and entire defeat. Thus alfo, though in oppofition he always formed against influence, yet in power he showed by his famous India Bill, in 1784, how little averle he was to the molt extenfive and unprecedented influence, when he could hope to wield it,

It is evident that what we have here ftated can only be as fketch. We might have gone much further, and have noticed inconfifiencies, and offences, as we deem them, without number. But this may fuffice, to show the nature and extent of our deviation from the opinions collected in thefe vo lumes. There are doubtlefs thousands of our countrymon whofe recollection could fill up the omiflions in our flatement, and who would fupply them with the fame feelings as ourfelves. The popular cry, we grant, has often been

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against

against us; but the very offence of inflaming and leading on the people, when they were of themselves inclined to ruh onwards to their own deftruction, is one of the worst of which we complain. The Man of the People is at many periods the very man whom the people would, if they could poffibly have wildom, fpurn from them as the most dangerous flatterer. Yet we cenfure not thofe who differ from us. The effect of popular eloquence is prodigious: and different opinions in politics (though of courfe we confider our own as the right) may be held with perfect integrity. We afk only for fince ity and consistency, and in thefe, we think, Mr. Fox was deficient. Our friend Philopatris has always been confiftent, and is, we doubt not, what the interpretation of that name implies. But we could not honeftly pretend to give him our affent, when he raised a monument to a man whom we confider as most unworthy of it; or deferving of it only from those, from whom his warmeft praises have often been derived, the enemies of his country*.

We shall now proceed to the work of Philopatris Varvicenfis; in which the introduction we have here given will excufe us from the neceffity of all difcuffion or controverfy as to particular parts. It will be fufficient for us to flate of what nature the publication is, and to give fuch specimens from it as will, in our opinion, be moft honourable to the good friend by whom it was compiled.

The first volume confifts of the following materials: a dedication to Mr. Coke, of Norfolk; a fhort but fatisfactory preface, in which the author accounts for his defign, and the mode of its execution, and grievously laments his own early, and now irremediable inattention to the art of penmanship; ftrenuously recommending a different conduct to others, on his own authority, and that of Quintilian. Then follows the character of Mr. Fox, in Latin, taken from the preface to Bellendenus, with the permiffion of the author," which no one certainly could have a better chance to obtain than Philopatris. Then follows a collection, in general but little worthy to ftand in fuch company, of cha

* As from Napoleon, and fome others, whom the reader will recollect. We purposely abstain from all mention of the morality and religion of Mr. Fox; not as fatisfied with them, and still lefs as thinking them matters of indifference in a great statesman, but because we would confine ourfelves to his political character."

racters

racters of Mr. Fox, taken from newspapers, metropolitan and provincial, with a few from other fources. The lift of authorities is the following. 1. Morning Poft, Sept. 15, 1806. 2. Courier, fame date. 5. Times, Do. 4. Hcrald, Do. 5. Morning Chronicle, Do. 6. York Herald, Sept. 20. 7. Shrew (bury Chronicle, Sept. 25. 8. Liverpool Chronicle, Sept. 24. 9. Tyne Mercury, Sept. 30, and Ο. 7. 10. Bury Poft, O&. 19. 11. An anonymous epitaph. 12. Oxford Review, August, 1807. 13. Univerfal Magazine, March and April, 1805. 14. Monthly Magazine, Sept. 1805. 15. Epics of the Ton. 16. Rofcoe's Confiderations, &c. 17. Stewart's Refurrection. 18.* Sermon at Hackney, Sept. 21, 1806, by Rob. Aspland. 19. Do. in Effex Street, by Thomas Beliham. 20. Do. at Richmond, by Dr. Charles Symmons. 21. Mr. Edgworth, in a pamphlet. 22. Mr. Sheridan's Speech at Westminster, Sept. 19, 1806. 23. London Chronicle, Nov. 25, 1806, by Godwin. 24. Verfes by the Dutchefs of Devonshire. 25. Bath Chronicle, Sept. 25, 1806. 26. Character of Mr. Fox by Sir James Mackintosh. 27. Critical Review, March, 1808, by Mr. Fellowes. 28. Maurice's Richmond Hill.

To this mifcellaneous collection, in which the character by Sir James Mackintosh has by far the moft difcrimination and elegance, fucceeds an original character, by Philopatris himfelf, in the form of a letter, greatly outweighing in merit all the reft united. It is well and vigoroufly written, and as far as perfonal knowledge could give infight into private character, much to be depended upon. The fecond volume, which is confiderably the larger, and printed in a fmaller type, confifts entirely of notes upon the Epiftle, which are fometimes, it must be confeffed, not a little excurfive. Of fuch ingre dients are compofed two volumes, in which a great writer has, with unexampled modefty, placed himself in the rear of his inferiors, and has poured into notes matter that well deferved to form the fubject of a feparate work.

It must be unneceffary for us to characterize the ftyle of our learned friend. Its vigour is known, and its variety; the delight with which he infufes the copioufnefs of his learn. ing into his writings, and gives in many languages what few perfons could better exprefs in any. The opening of his letter, however, is original, and is worthy of the writer.

"I have long been anxious to convey to you my condolence on the death of our ineftimable friend Mr. Fox. But I have been hitherto reftrained by the dread of appearing to you obtru

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