New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-02-05

King Is my master" said Johnson "hn, u
Is my friend" Such words never fell uy,,,'
from the lips Of Ursus Major. and one n,,s
rally. no doubt justly. ascrbes them 10 ~.
same vein OF high moral appreciation which i,
Gibbon to indte his pregnant lines OF trih,,.
to Fox: Il admired the powers u a suns-.
man blended with the softness and sirno,,r,.,
Of a child Perhaps no human being was sv,,
more perfectly exempt from the faint OF malsvo
lence vanity or fasehood." But Fox did ,o
appeal alone to the rugged noralist and IN.
austere Eplcurean; he the friend Of selyv,
and Fitzpatrick, gamesters and rattles both =.
well as Of Johnson and GibbOn and one os N.
signal merits Of this volume Is its frank Dor.
trayal Of the statesman exactly as he wa, A.,
great man and good fellow" Fox had begu,
life under the fond tuition Of A father with mon
tenderness Of heart than parental discretion
When Lord Holland was nearing his ED and
paid his sons debts he could give himself n.
cold comfort Of rejecting that he had doo.
nearly everything al the outset TO make thai
sons career Of wild extrayagance inevitable and
easy II remember" wrote Horace Walpole thai
when Mr. Charles Fdx and one or two more youth,
Of brilliant genius first came 10 light and into
vast debts at play. they impaired 70 the word
an important secret which they had discovered
II was that nobody needed 70 want money
they would pay enough for it, His father had
no doubt unintentiOnally, put Fox In he way 0.
making this great discovery. Fox knew It, bit
he was too much Of a gentleman eyer 10 blame
any one but himself for his shortcomings and
losing both parents and his elder brother within
the same year-the year that witnessed his re-
entrance into political life-he sought 70 make
I'D for the grief he had caused his family BY
living and working with a new seriousness and
strength. Enthusiastically his repentance
though sincere. was very human. it involved
sclf-control but not self-immolatiOn. and thgs
as we have indicated above he pleased the mos,
diverse friends. the lax cronies Of Almsck's and
Brooks's. and those other men Of cooler blood
like the historian Of Rome. who could be
serious if they chose. We may illustrate fra
his manner of retaining the regard Of his earlier
boon companions, letting them down easy" By
continuing, TO some extent, in his old ways:
He still lived on credit which he could not
very well help doing II he was 10 i've at all he
still entered in the book at Brookss Club bis
10 guinea bets that war with France would not
break out for two years; that Lord North would
have ceased to be Prime Minister within The
twelvemOnth. and that he himself would oe
called 10 the bar before four given peers we're al
either dead or married. He still played high
and long and often. He sin attended race
meetings with sort Of religious regularity, and
gradually built up for himself reputation o.
being the best Handicapped in England. He.
liked going to I'D as little as eyer, though ne
cOnforned far to the received theories re-
garding the necessity Of sleep that when once
there he left il later than had been MS Sont
He continued 10 spend his waking hours WITH
those who enjoyed existence; but he dd not
distinguish rigidly as might nave been de-
sired between the forms Of enjoyment favored
r,.f.1 ..lxF for A
he was ever and equally welcome.
In the light Of a passage like this reader OF
Fox's biography might be parioned for think
ing that the repentance Of the ptodigal vas not
very obvious. To his contemporaries. however
it was clear enough. They only owed him me
more for cinging affectionately 10 some Of n'
earlier habits. recognizing that ne now con-
trolled them. where formerly they had controlei
him. and percevng that in Parliament ne WIS
playing a splendidly honorable part. In turning
from his personal traits-and 81 George Ire
velyan makes them so interesting that BREEZY
10 dismiss them requires come -eso.utIoh-"
the consideration OF his political adventures
to plunge into the turbid waters IN whiea
George III was making fierce enfeavors
drown the colonists At home and IN America
the Kings efforts were being deyotedly second
ed. 1t is the bare truth says our au'hOI
that his own Governors and Leutrnant-Do''
ernors wrote King George out ~ America
Their reports were tinged not only by the nance
of petty natures smarting under wounds 0rousn'
down upon themselves By their own DEEDS a"
misgovernment, but by the sycophancy Of place
men deriving their sustenance from the hhss
bounty. Their royal master. inhamed with rAss
against subjects whose just complaints on'
seemed to him manifestations OF intoiefaDie "'
science swallowed without winking the crosses
calumnies forwarded under the guise of hohe''
State papers by his stupid or mercenary repre-
sentatives. In Parliament there were plenty u
x,,o, ~o,1y 80 laonan tba siDisfpr hups IN when