sion was used, being made acquainted with the circumstance, returned and insisted on the insertion being contradicted by the author, or that their virtue should be put to the trial. This manly conduct had such an effect on Mr. Fox, that he immediately thought proper to retract his words.

Mr. Fox voted in 1772 against the act for restraining the marriages of the various branches of the royal family; and soon afterwards moved for leave to bring in a bill for its repeal. This it was observed came with singular grace and propriety from Mr. Fox, whose Father was married at the Fleet. He was the same year a member of the secret committee for enquiring into the malversations in the British dominions in the East.

In Feb. 1772, Mr. Fox quarrelled with the minister, and resigned his seat at the Admiralty Board.

The following is the copy of the latter sent by him to Lord North previous to his resignation; MY LORD,

"You have grossly insulted me, and I will resent it. I am just now going to set out for St. James's to resign my seat in the Admiralty Board to the King,

I am, my Lord,

"Your lordship's humble servant, C. J. Fox." The cause of this rupture is ascribed to the minister's having hinted to Mr. Fox that his orations were in some cases too figurative. It was

even asserted, that enamoured of himself, he had repeatedly declared, he considered advice an insult offered to his understanding.

Nay, so great an opinion did he entertain of his own abilities and their importance in parliament, that immediately after his resignation, he betted one thousand pounds with Lord Weymouth that that he should have a place of great profit before the determination of the cession.

The breach between the minister and Mr. Fox was, however, soon healed and in December following he accepted the office of one of the Lords of the Treasury. On this occasion he was stigmatized by the opposition as a placeman, but these reproaches he parried by steadily denying the acceptance of his appointment, as the price of his services. He in some measure silenced the clamours of his antagonists, by declaring that he should support the measures of the government no longer than while he believed from his conscience they were calculated to promote the welfare of the British empire.

He had here a difficult task to perform, for the blunders of the minister required the greatest abilities to cover or excuse them. It is no trifling instance of the mutability of human affairs, that the first colleague of Mr. Fox should be Lord North, and the first oratorical adversary, Mr Edmund Burke! It ought however, to be remembered, that though these two great men exercised the keenest wit and raillery against each other, nothing in the least personal or invidious entered into their attacks, replies or rejoinders. Mr. Fox was ready on all occasions to treat the brilliant

talents of his opponent with that eminent and respectful distinction, to which they were justly entitled.

While he continued an advocate for the minister, he had a great deal of invective to withstand and suspicion to rebut: the political opinions he asserted and defended were not calculated to acquire him popularity. For one of his opinions he was severely attacked by the then Lord Advocate of Scotland. He defended himself, however, ve ry ably, and supposing the sentiment he had been charged with had fallen from his lips in the warmth of debate, some allowance ought to be made for the inadvertence of youth. The sen

tence in dispute was, whether he had said, the voice of the public was to be collected in that house, or ONLY in that house. He denied that a just interpretation had been put on his words, and appealed to every one who had heard him, whether in the opinion he had given concerning the Middlesex election, he did not rest his argument on the power of the people. Whichever party was wrong in the dispute the time was now approaching when this promising statesman would have an opportunity of manifesting those opinions, which could not fail to appear congenial to his nature. The minister was not insensible to the Consequence of such a loss. Mr. Fox was tired of his tutelage; and Lord North would relinquish no share of his influence to him. All men are fond of power, and few are disposed to grant a partial surrender of it, even to their confidential friends. Lord North and Mr. Fox separated, the latter insisting upon an opinion of his own, and

the former resolving to admit of no coadjutor. It is supposed that some "secret" power watched the minutia of government, and prevented the minister of that day from admitting him to a participation in the fame and emoluments of government,for itis impossible, that a man of Lord North's discernment would not have made a sacrifice in some degree of that which he loved, to purchase that aid which he could not keep without honor, nor lose without danger. He had experienced how serviceable Mr. Fox was as a friend, and must therefore know, he could be formidable as an enemy. Mr. Fox was sensible, that he could not take the step he was meditating, without incuring certain imputations for inconsistency. He had supported the measures of government for near six years, and knew that no abilities, nor even virtues, can wholly excuse the wast of stability. It is generally a mark of intellectual weakness, and sometimes of depravity; but he determined to admit of no compromise between conscience and convenience. Whether Mr. Fox had, or had not uttered the unconstitutional sen. timent imputed to him, there is no doubt but he had done some injury by his talents, in supporting the measures of men who were strongly tinctured with arbitrary principles.

It has been asserted that the ostensible cause of the rapture between Lord North and Mr. Fox was a difference of opinion on the subject of the Rev. Mr. Horne, now Mr. Horne Tooke, being summoned to the bar of the House of Commons, as the supposed author of the South Briton, a pa

n

per which treated the speaker with great freedom, From the proceedings of parliament on that occasion this does not appear to be correct, as Mr. Fox was in this instance the advocate of rigid measures in order to restrain publications of a libellous tendency.

The motives for his persecution of the press at this particular period, were threefold; arising in the first place, from his natural wish to trample upon the rights of the people, which rendered him a determined foe to this literary bulwark of their enemies; secondly because Lord North was its avowed protector, so long as it was confined within any desent bounds: and thirdly because he was the puppet of the Bedford faction, which wanted to bring in either the Duke of Grafton or Lord Gower. In case this plan should succeed, Charles expected to be the Chancellor of the Exchequer; and it was not doubted from the remarkable prudence he had manifested in the management of his own affairs, that the nation al revenue would be highly improved under his administration. It was likewise whispered that Lord North's having declared that "the defaulter of unaccounted millions," should come to a settlement with the people, was another cause of Mr. Fox's opposition; and indeed from his language in the house, it might have been imagined that he had already realized his ambitious project, as he never failed to talk largely "of his measures" and what "he meant to do," whenever he took part in an argument.