The Sun.
London, England, 1824-01-31 00:00:00

EDINBUR.GR FOX DINNER.

`FROM THE GLASGOW FREE Plt EMI
iest,rday (Monday) a numerous and highly
respectable Meeting of the,,Friends and Admirers of the Right
WM. Charles James Foxe assembled in the Waterloo Tavern,
tq eelebrate the Aniversary -Of that Illustrious Patriot and
half-past five o'clock Lord Archibald flamile
ten took the Chair, amidst immense .cheering. His Lordship
was supported on his rift by his noble brother, the Duke of
-Hamilton, and on his-left by Lord Loithborough. Mr. Fer-
gueson, of Reich, offictated as Croupier:
After the cloth was removed, the usual toasts of " The
" Tne Duke of York," and the rest of the Royal
Firmly; were given in succession, and drank with all the
ho pours.
Lord A. flame LT ON observed, in rising to Notion the toast
appropriated to the occasion, in. celebration of which they had
met, not one could be more sensible than he wits of the exalted
Isentsur of being invited to preside over so respectable a meeting ;
at the same time, no one could be more sensible of his slender
Outtlifications for the office. Ile strongly, felt that it was the
u ifce that did honour to him, and not he who did honour to the
eh-cc. Coming after Lord Erskine, whose resplendent talents
stied a lustre over his country, and. Sir Jas. Mackintosh, whose
talents eould scarcely be considered inferior (both which illus..
tricis men had cccapied this Chair), he felt himself humbled -I
oy the attempt to undertake the task which the ,partiality
of his friends had imposed upon him. Gentlemen, we
can add nothing to the honour of Charles James Fox ; and
were that alone the purpose of our assembling, better would it
be for me to ss,y nothing. But we are assembled. here, not for
that vague purpose only, but for the more effectual purpose of
giving currency to his principles. Gentlemen, it is my pecu-
jier pride to have known the man ; but I feel that it is
only in proportion as I can testify my admiration of him by an
humble imitation of his public virtue, that I must be con-
!littered as capable of doing justice to his virtues: These
have ever been the guide of my conduct; and, on the
!rround of steady adherence to the . principles' of Charles
Fox,. I will yield to no man. 'When I say the principles
t 4 Mr. Fox, I wish not to be understood. to say, that such
principles were never broached in the 'world before his
time. No ! It was the excellence of the man, and the
energy and steady perseverance with which he asserted and
defended those -principles that have stamped them -with his
name. They were only the principles of right reason and corn-
mon sense.—(lmmense cheering )—Why does it happen that
what I have said obtains so ready an assent, but that the prin-
ciples of 31r. Fox were also bottomed upon public honesty ?
( Continued cheers.)—lf we look to the points upon which
those principles were variously brought forward, we shall find
that it was where the interests of large bodies were immediately
concerned. It would be an unreasonable encroachment upon
the indulgence of the meeting to enumerate all the • services
which lir. Fox has rendered to his country and the human
race ; but let a few of them be treasured up in 'our memories.
We all know the unwearied endeavours of Mr. Fox to procure
to the people a full, fair, and free representation in Parlia-
ment ; without which the country has, at the best, hut an illu-
sory and fleeting security for its liberties. Nor will the splen-
did exertions be forgotten which he made in defence of the
Trial by Jury—not. to give effect to it merely in a general way,
but to 'give it, in particular cases, a truly Constitutional direc-
tion—and these exertions, Gentlemen, were so tar successful,.:
that, in cases of libel, they gave to Juries, if they choose .to
exercise their right, the independence of the Judge. - (Cheering.)
IV these exertions were the principles of Mr. Fox employed.
But, to his other services rendered to his country and the
human race, let me add, the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
Other great men made eloquent speeches and splendid 'ha-
rangues in support of the measure; but it was 31r. Fox's
warm heart and intrepid virtue that gave effect to them._
Go to foreign politics, and let me ask, if it be possible to
ilinstrate more forcibly the sterling value of Mr. Foa's prin-
ciples than by what is now going on upon the Continent of
Europe ? The opposite principles have led to more mis-
chief and more disgrace to the country, than could have
been wrought by any -set ofprineiples whatever—(Cheers.)—ls
it possible to look at the conduct pursued by the Continental
Sovereigns, and trace their policy through all its windings, and
not be satisfied that the abject state of misery into which Spain
and Italy are now reduced, must be ascribed to the absence, in.
the British Parliament, of Mr. Fox's principles?. .But it was.
not only in his public, but in his private cepacity that the me-
mory of Mr. Fox ought to be dear to them. It was his lot to'
know-him ; and, whether as a friend, as the leader of a party,
or as a Statesman, he did not know a man who had equal .
claims upon the esteem of his contemporaries and 'posterity,
He might well apply to him the lines of the Poet—
. " A patriot's even course he steer'd,
By all who knew his worth rever'd."
However rhea. the rale:teal enemies may cendenin his princi-
ples, no one will deny that he was reverenced by all in whom
he placed confidence, and revered by all who knew hien. . But
it is rot on this ground only, but because also he was a great
prar.;ical Statesman, one who pleaded for the rights •of •man,
astd opposed power, when hostile to those tights—one who
would throw himself the first into the breach when the liberties
of mankirel were endangered—that he would propose to drink
hi:' mernorYt--e(llere the Noble Lord was much
"Snot possible Mt him to do iustice to the memory of so great
a man ; but so far as his public conduct bes gone, and so far
351 it will go, he has testified, and-will continue to testify, his
Vner:ltion for—" The memory of Mr. Fox."-s(The toast was
crank in solemn silence.)--Air—" Charlie is my darling."
The Chavez-lAN then gave " The People, and their Rights
as eztahlished ht the Revolution.'' Air—" A man's a man for
s' than,' The Chairman said, in rising to propose-a" The
Nuke of Sussex, and the Principles that seated his Family on
the Throne,". he could not refrain
.from bearin, testimony to
the firm attachment which his Royal Highness liar shewn to
Whig- principles ; s.nd he • must add, that lie has heard his
Royal. Highness expressing his unalterable devotion to those
principles. Knowing this, he was sure that he would meet the
approbation of the company, in proposing to drink the toast '
with three times three. Air--" Ap Shenkim".
Mr. MoNnytrEw rose amidst immense cheering. There is a
name, he observed, during the many years which he had at-
toads d these Meetings, had always been pronounced •with ap-
plause and exultation. If, at the request of the Stewards, I
thus early to pronounce his name, it is because we have
nothing but the name. The spirit is fled. When I mention
Lord Rrskine—(Great cheering)—l name a man, who, in the
services which he has rendered to liberty, has left the impress
of hie name upon unbOrn generations.- I propose, Gentlemen,
to drink—" Lord Erskine, the Friend to Fox, the undaunted
Supparter of his Principles, and who was connected to him by
ties scarcely lees sacred than those of relationship." It is not
far Inc to do justice to the character of Lord Erskine ; but I
tape the company will indulge me in a brief sketch of it.—
'Thomas Erskine was, beyond all question, • the most ex
tai sordinary Man of our age, abounding in men of extraor-
dintry talent. Betwixt Fox and Pitt, and Burke, Sheridan,
and Windham, he placed himself in the centre of that sphere
to wlkicii he had destirted,himself. It was not by his command-
ieig. eloquence and the brilliancy of his imagination, that lie
raised himself from comparative obscurity ; but it was the
foundation that he acted upon, to which he owed his future
eminence and fame. Front the first time that he addressed
the Court of lk:Mg's Bench,- from the back rows, in -defence
of it man whose imputed crime was, that lie had exposed abuse
aid corruption, he, even at that time, in the opinion of the
obleht practitioners, placed himself at the summit of that reptt-
tatien which never deserted him. It. was not his intention to go
through the particulars of his laborious life. But -all would
remember his unwearied endeavours. for the liberty of Juries,
and the defence of the Dean of St. A.,aptl,s. It not far
hie.n to contend for a new law ; but for a fair interpretation of
the law, as it wag; and his exertions were ultimately crowned
with succesa, by the Bill which his friend, Mr. Fox, success-
ful:y cirried through Parliament. Lord Erskine alSo was
distiNpishc,tl friend of the'Liberty. of the Press—the great, if
not the very greittest engine that can be employed in defence
of Cl 3 rights of the subject; and for which reason men who •
are
,fenel of despotie principles abhor it the ruore.-L-( Loud cheer-
Lordshi:)'s hatred of constructive treason prevailed
is the trial of Lord George. Gordon; but a more arduous task
remained for hire: in !794.___(Itaihense cheering.)—When welook
at him, almost alone, opposed to the whole weight of the
Crown—the weight of Parliament—which had prepared, and,
an a manner, preferred the charges against the prisoners—to the
prejudices of many of the class of thinking people, wrought
upon by false alarms, and trieLs which arc kept alive in our
recollections by their own odiousness—(cheers)—to the preju-
dices of his own profession ; what must have been his feelings,
when be came out of Court with the grand convicti,,n that he
bad once more !-..aflied the monster Conitritetiv T,-eusoni For
his part, he could not have believed that man coup; do so much.
For the honour of himself and his country, his Lor,isto had
been withdrawn from the station which be had occupi with
so tn,ch advantage to the country; bat his principles re-
mained unsemacen to the last, and he lost ro opportunity of
coming forward to 'defendthe principles of liberty and juetice.
'Melte are his greet merits ; but it would not be justice to hitt;
not to Inc;ition, that, resolute, determined, and even vio!ent as
he was, when occasion called for it, no one gave less offence
than his Lordship. By the sincerity of his opinions, the ur-
banity of his manners, and hie manly simplicity, he coin..
mandol the good opinioh of all who knew him. This was
a part if his character which entitled him to their . gratitude,
independently of
.his politics. Recollecting all thia-, that lie
was a Constitutional Whig of the glorious Itevoiution..._
that he was not a demagogue who would cue down one
branch Of the LeOlature to exalt another—and recollect.