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vigorous defence; when he describes the opinions and manners of mankind; when he applies examples; when he alarms his adversaries with apprehensions of the future; when he denounces vengeance against crimes, or renders praise to virtue; when he passes the limits which restrain ordinary speakers; when he expresses the emotions of supplication, of hope, of detestation.

The complacent respect of an audience is principally excited by the dignity of the speaker, his actions, and his moral reputation. The great opponent of Mr. Fox, although in this respect he possesses no actual superiority, is yet so circumspect in the regulation of his conduct, as to appear an honest, upright, moral character. However this may be, Mr. Fox possesses all the perfection and wisdom of eloquence; he never wastes his time in idle disputations, but has wholly employed his abilities in the study of political business. When he has once satisfied his mind about the rectitude of an action, he directs with vigilance and strict propriety all the talents of his mind, all the powers of art, to the accomplishment of his purpose; for which reason he always appears to me to feel himself, with all imaginable force, the impression he endeavours to communicate.

Wisdom, as of all other arts, is the foundation of eloquence; but the man whose scientific attainments have received the maturity of experience, will not be retained where the obscure streamlet of eloquence meanders, but rushes forward to where the full torrent of the tide bursts forth. But Mr. Fox, and in a manner which exceedingly becomes him, frequently assumes the humbler

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part of minutest explanation. Whenever he condescends to this, he obtains all that he can wish; but he can in a moment resume his dignity, and ascend, through every gradation, to the height of all which claims admiration. His oratory is at times so very rapid, that it appears somewhat obscure, from its extreme acuteness and celerity; but it still would not be easy to adopt expressions more significant, or more full of meaning: yet, in all that he says, there is an obvious vigour and beauty peculiar to himself. He seems withal to exhibit that artificial shade, which makes such beauties more conspicuously observable: he possesses in common with Demosthenes the faculty of keeping his object constantly in view, and of impressing it, with the wished for effect, on the minds of his audience.

I would wish such to understand, who have been misled by erroneous representation, that the very circumstance which is urged in diminution of Mr. Fox's excellence, is equally a proof of his skill and of his genius. His sentences, if minutely examined, are so exquisite and so profound, that they seem rather the result of philosophical investigation, than borrowed from the schools of rhetoric. They are sometimes confined to disquisitions of a personal nature; at others, they involve the history of past, or the occurrences of modern times; occasionally they comprehend subjects of a universal nature. The better to excite and fix the attention, he disposes them in various points of view. With infinite skill he accommodates his speeches to the different tastes and prejudices of different hearers :

he introduces so much novelty, calls to his aid such strong and unexpected arguments, and applies them so admirably to the occasion, that he fascinates even those who are prejudiced against him, or hurries them unresisting along with him.

I have before remarked that the abilities of Mr. Fox are adequate to every possible occurrence. But whenever a subject presents itself, which claims the full exertion of his talents, he stands forth with a kind of luminous activity, and shows how vast are the powers of eloquence. He then seems like a torrent hurrying the mountain rocks before it, and disdaining all restraints of bridges or of banks. This force and celerity of speaking Eupolis formerly admired in Pericles, and the most violent opponents of Mr. Fox hear, confess, and are astonished.

When I contemplate the unworthy fortune which has attended this most exalted character, I am indignant from the memory of the past, and full of grief from the expectation of the future. He himself, however, may proudly claim the public gratitude; for, in the midst of calamity, which menaces the security of the most deserving citizens, he consoles himself with the consciousness of integrity, with the fair and undeluding hope that posterity will render justice to his fame. DR. PARR*.

In his dedication of one of the books of Bellandenus, Dr. Parr adds the following testimony to the worth and talents of Mr. Fox :-" With becoming sentiments of reverence, this book is inscribed to Charles James Fox, because he has not only cultivated the purest and most accomplished

THE RIGHT HON. W. PITT.

THE character of this illustrious statesman early passed its ordeal. Scarcely had he attained the age at which reflection commences, than Europe with astonishment beheld him filling the first place in the councils of his country, and manage the vast mass of its concerns with all the vigour and steadiness of the most matured wisdom. Dignity, strength, discretion, these were among the masterly qualities of his mind at its first dawn. He had been nurtured a statesman, and his knowledge was of that kind which always lies ready for practical application. Not dealing in the subtleties of abstract politics, but moving in the slow, steady procession of reason, his conceptions were reflective, and his views correct. Habitually attentive to the concerns of government, he spared no pains to acquaint himself with whatever was

eloquence, but applied it, in all its perfection, to the safety and dignity of his country; because, in contracting either friendships or enmities, he has always shown himself in the former immutable, placable in the latter; because, with a mind firm, consistent, invincible, he has continued steady to his principles, disdaining the resentments of wicked men ; because, in a business obviously claiming the public regard, he conducted himself, not as the insidious follower of popularity, but with perseverance and with fortitude; because, lastly, in that most dishonourable shipwreck of a most excellent and sagacious senate, he deemed that, and that only, to be afflicting, which he knew to be base. To be the noble guardian of the public weal, in conjunction with virtuous men, was to him far more estimable than a union with those who were unprincipled, pregnant with danger, perfidy, and

avarice."

connected, however minutely, with its prosperity. He was devoted to the state: its interests engrossed all his study and engaged all his care: it was the element alone in which he seemed to live and move. He allowed himself but little recreation from his labours; his mind was always on its station, and his activity was unremitted.

He did not hastily adopt a measure, nor hastily abandon it. The plan struck out by him for the preservation of Europe was the result of prophetic wisdom and profound policy. But though defeated in many respects by the selfish ambition and short-sighted imbecility of foreign powers, whose rulers were too venal or too weak to follow the flight of that mind which would have taught them to outwing the storm, the policy involved in it has still a secret operation on the conduct of surrounding states. His plans were full of energy, and the principles which inspired them looked beyond the consequences of the hour. In a period of change and convulsion, the most perilous in the history of Great Britain, when sedition stalked abroad, and when the emissaries of France and the abettors of her regicide factions formed a league powerful from their number, and formidable by their talent, in that awful crisis the promptitude of his measures saved his country.

He knew nothing of that timid and wavering cast of mind which dares not abide by its own decision. He never suffered popular prejudice or party clamour to turn him aside from any measure which his deliberate judgment had adopted; he had a proud reliance on himself, and it was

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