THE

BRITISH CRITIC,

For MARCH, 1810.

"Studiis officiifque Scientiæ præponenda funt officia Juftitiæ, quæ pertinent ad hominum utilitatem; qua nihil homini debet effe antiquius." CICERO.

The caufe of Literature itfelf is inferior to that of Juftice and Public Utility, above which nothing fhould be held in eftima tion.

ART. I. Characters of the late Charles James Fox felected, and in part written, by Philopatris Varvicenfis. 2 Vols. 8vo. Price 11. Mawman. 1809.

WE E have paused a little upon this book. Nor is it won❤ derful that we fhould. It is reported, and we believe truly, to have been produced not only by a respected friend of ours, but by one who has in public avowed himself AN OCCASIONAL WRITER in the British Critic; and who, we earnestly hope, may write there again. Yet we differ from him most widely as to the fubject of the present book. The public character which he extols we reprobate. The conduct which he regards as the fummit of political wisdom, we deteft, as the very bafe ftring of political depravity. Between fentiments fo diametrically oppofite, there cannot

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BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXV. MARCH, 1810.

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be a compromife. Our opinions alfo on thefe fubjects are known. We could not, if we were so inclined, which certainly we are not, either diffemble or deny them. How then that we declare our fentiments, and retain our friend? evidently, by the fair and manly method of afferting for our felves the fame right to publifh our opinions, that he has exercifed in his own writings. This claim, from his known liberality, we confidently expect him to allow, in its fullest extent while we avoid, as by inclination we shall avoid, all perfonal reflection upon him, or attempt to deduce from his opinions any confequences which he would not acknowledge. We cenfure him not for differing from us, as we have always known him to differ, in thefe matters; and to fome readers it may appear perhaps a curious fpeculation, to obferve in how oppofite lights the very fame acts may be regarded by different perfons.

Thefe preliminaries being fettled, we proceed to flate our general fentiments on the character of Mr. Fox, from which it will be fufficiently gathered how totally we diffent from many things afferted or collefted by our friend in this book.

We declare then, without hefitation or palliation, that, through the chief part of Mr. Fox's political career, we have uniformly regarded him as one of the moft mifchievous flatefmen, whom this country has ever produced. This opinion, long ago drawn from facts, has been continually ilrengthened by new facts throughout his public life; and left us, at his death, fully fettled in the conviction, that we had never, for a moment, misjudged him. We say not this to offend any man, nor ought it to give offence; the actions of public men are liable to be judged by their countrymen, according to their fixed notions of rectitude. If the notions are wrong let them be refuted, but let it not be deemed offenfive to tate them, efpecially when they can no longer injure the individual to whom they are applied. A few of the facts on which we ground our opinion thall here be flated, as they occur to recollection, to convince our readers that we liave not judged capricioufly: and we are much mistaken, if, however we may differ from our refpected friend, we fhall not at the fame time ftate the opinion of a large part of Mr Fox's countrymen.

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At the fame time, left we fhould be thought entirely prejudiced, let us begin by allowing, with the fulleft affent, every thing that can be claimed for this perfonage in point talents. If we were to make any abatement from the fum of Mr. F.'s mental powers, it would be by denying the entire foundnels of his judgment; becaufe, in feveral inftances,

his actions tended directly, in our apprehenfion, to defeat his own purposes. We fear, however, that this was, in a great meafure occafioned by a total want of fixed principle, by which his judgment ought to have been directed. It has been attributed by fome to an eafinefs of temper, inclining him to yield too readily to the opinions of his friends; which might, in part be the cafe; and certainly the lefs he had to fix him in one confiftent line of his own, the more readily, under that acknowledged facility of temper, would he adopt whatever might be flrongly urged upon him, as expedient.

We allow indeed, in the fulleft degree the mildnefs of his temper, and the fafcination of his private manners. It is clear to us, by abundant teftimony of thofe who intimately knew him, that nothing could refift the engaging fuavity of his addrefs, or the captivating variety of his converfation; rich in natural and acquired accomplishments, and flowing from him with unaffected eafe and readinefs. Long have we known this, and often alfo have we regretted it, conceiving that thefe extraordinary talents were employed for very dangerous purpofes. Affifted by thefe powers, oppofed to the unaccommodating greatnefs of his chief opponent, the fociety of Mr. Fox had an attraction, by which all the promifing youth of his time was conftantly collected round him. It was an inftrument by which his opinions, if pernicious, as we frequently esteemed them, were propagated with irrefiftible effect. Mr. Pitt, to the very few, the five or fix, who intimately knew him, was alfo amiable and delightful in fociety, but to the rest of mankind repulfive and unbending. Mr. Fox, to all who approached him, whether for relaxation or bufinefs, was irrefiftibly pleafing; and the effect of thefe oppofite qualities was more than can easily be calculated. It was, in our eflimation, calamitous; fince it generally made the opinions of Mr. Fox prevalent and popular, among the young men who were just entering upon the exercife of political functions, in either houfe of Par liament; who inftead of finding any difficulty in approach. ing to his fociety, were rather invited to enjoy it.

Having conceded the belt qualities we could recollect in Mr. Fox, meaning to include, under the fame conceflion, all poffible commendation of his claffical attainments, original genius, and other fhining talents; we have nothing more of importance that we can allow to him. The remainder of our preface to this article muft contain a fketch of the facts and reafons on which we ground our fixed difapprobation of him, to use no stronger word, as a ftatefman and poli

tician.

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First

Firft then he was, not perhaps the inventor, but certainly the conflant abettor and moll invariable example of that abominable maxim in Britifh politics, which has brought more odium upon our Legiflative Affemblies than any other circumftance connected with their proceedings. We mean the maxim, that, to render an oppofition effectual, it is necef fa y and JUSTIFIABLE to make it violent and indifcriminate. By means of this maxim, long acted upon with flrange pertinacity, the public has ufually had the melancholy certainty, that the best and wifeft meafures of the ableft and moft upright minifters, if of any political importance, would eagerly and unblufhingly be reprefented, by a party, as atrocious attacks upon the conflitution, and liberties of the fubject; or as meafures of intrinfic wickednefs or folly; and that the fuccefs of laws, moft neceffary for the welfare of the nation, would depend upon the ability of minifters to refift interefied milreprefentation, and repel the most virulent torrents of abuse. This fhameful yet fhameless warfare did Mr. Fox carry on, through the whole of the American war; in the courfe of which many of his fallies against the minifter were fo outrageous and extravagant, as to cover him with merited ridicule and difgrace, when, for his own interefled purpofes, he dared to form a ftrict union with the man whom he had thus traduced *. It is falfe and fallacious to reprefent an oppofition as ftanding in the fituation of a counsel, whofe office it is to advocate one fide of a caufe. In that cafe the counfellor takes the brief and the reprefentations of his clients, and is bound to make the beft of their caufe, as they have laid it before him, which is neceffary, that both fides. may be fully heard. Further, he is not expected to enquire or to know. But the duty of a Senator is to feek and know the truth. He is to think and judge, even for those who can do neither for themfelves, and who will be mifled in thousands by his errors or deception: and a leader of opposition, refifting a measure of utility, muft generally know that he is fo doing; must be refifting his own conviction and his confcience, and acting as the determined advocate of false

The public indignation on this occafion was demonstrated, in various ways; and thousands of copies of the "beauties of Fox, North, and Burke," a tract, in which it was happily dif played, were eagerly bought up by an infulted nation. The cen. fure did not adhere to Lord North, for he had never made any timilar declarations. To Mr. Burke it did, equally with Mr. Fox.

hood.

hood. He must know that what he calls atrocious, and ftigmatizes in a thoufand ways, is good, ufeful, and perhaps neceffary; probably what he would himself propofe, could he inftantly change places with the minifter. The mental degradation neceffary for acting fo bafe 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 togetrer the chief part of his life, was Mr. Fox, more guilty than any other man that ever lived.

He alfo, in the American War, was one of the firft 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, the he thought originally (which however we doubt) that the question of right was on the fide of America: that Britain, who had nurfed her up with blood and treafure, 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 pollible, into deftruction; who fhall dare to juftify the man who, under fuch circumftances, hall 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 difgraceful 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,