HISTORY OF EUROPE. [135]

what might otherwise have effected
the downfall of our justly-boasted
constitution—supported by such re-
flections, he was not deprived of
consolation, although excluded from
his party; a gloomy solitude might
reign around him, but all was un-
clouded sunshine within.

Mr. Fox again rose, and declared,
that he thought the constitution was
more liable to be ruined by an in-
crease of the power of the crown,
than by an increase of the power of
the people. As to Mr. Burke's ob-
servation of his being excluded from
the party, Mr. Fox asserted, that,
if that gentleman was so excluded, it
was his own choice; for that if he
would repent of his conduct, he
might be assured, that his friends
would ever be ready to receive him,
to respect and love him. He ne-
verthelefs at the same time infu-
ated that Mr. Burke had misused
the functions and privileges of the
house, by holding long discourses,
personal to himself, and thus pre-
venting a committee from doing its
duty in examining the clauses of an
important bill. He hinted likewise
that the right honourable gentle-
man's vanity misled him, when he
supposed that the discussion of per-
sonal topics in that house would
have the least influence on public
opinion.

Mr. Burke, in reply, took no notice
of these fresh attacks upon him, of
being represented as a vain man,
and a troublesome member of the
house; but simply remarked, that
having passed his youth without en-
countering any party disgrace, he
had been so unfortunate indeed as
to incur it in his age; nevertheless
he wished it to be understood, that
he solicited not the friendship of any
man, or of any party in that house.

Thus ended a friendship which
had lasted for more than the fourth
part of a century, between two men,
of whom posterity will only doubt
which to place highest among the
most splendid examples of human
talents. The elder of the two, who
was considered by himself, and re-
presented by his enemies, as dismi-
fied from his party, was charged
with political inconsistency. He
has now bid farewell to the public
stage for ever: indeed in this very
debate he declared his fixed purpose
of going, and only lingered against
his will to finish the important pro-
ceeding in which he was engaged.
It seems, therefore, in itself no im-
proper place (and it is highly neces-
sary for the elucidation of the
charge brought against him) to take
a short review of his literary and
political life. It will reflect some
light on the history of a great and
popular party, the separation of
which in the place, where he first
made a crack, we shall in a future
year have occasion to relate.

Mr. Burke received his education
altogether in his native country.
From a respectable school of protef-
tant sectaries in the north of Ire-
land, he was removed to the uni-
versity of Dublin, where he went
through the usual course of academ-
ical studies. He then came to
the Temple, to qualify himself for
the bar. Here he was very early
distinguished. He attracted public
admiration by thespirited elegance
of some well-known compositions :
he delighted and astonished all who
approached him, with the rich ex-
uberance of his conversation. The
charms of his language, both in
writing and speaking, were univer-
sally acknowledged. Yet his brillian-
liancy of expression is his least praise.

[1] 4

Per-

1791 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1791.

Perhaps no man can be united in a greater degree a solid understanding with a playful fancy. His mind, comprehensive, vigorous, active, grasps every subject, draws ideas and images from all to instruct, illustrate, or adorn, pierces through all, analyzes all, and again combining the detail of particulars into one just result of the whole, retains with accuracy, and applies with facility, the knowledge which he has thus made his own. "You cannot take a shelter with him," said Dr. Johnson, "for five minutes under a shed, "without being convinced, that he "is one of the greatest men in the "world."—"From him," said Mr. Fox, "I have learned more than "from all my acquaintance with "books, and all my intercourse with "mankind."

His first production was an ironical exposure of lord Bolingbroke's false philosophy. His cause of quarrel was, the miserable tendency of the principlesinquited by that lively but disingenuous writer, who, in his opinion, "sapped the foundation of every "virtue, and all government, while "he attacked every mode of religion." And it was the political branch of the question, which Mr. Burke selected. In this little work he assumed the character of Lord Bolingbroke himself, then lately deceased; and the design of it was "to "flaw that without the exertion of "any considerable force," the "same "engines, which were employed for the destruction of religion, "might be employed with equal success for the subversion of government." Accordingly, "The "Vindication of Natural Society,"

as it is called, confutes wholly, in touching and divinest equity on a number of common-place topics from the abuses incident to the several forms of political society, with an intuition that our own mixed constitution can no more stand this test than the simple forms. He urged these philosophies then as too futile to be taken for any thing but ridicule; but they have since been gravely produced as wonderful discoveries. He thought them sufficient to startle the disciples of lord Bolingbroke in that day; but the successors of the same school in France have gone the whole length of the principle in a desperate experiment on a great kingdom; and Mr. Burke, in his last labours, has only been waging with more serious vigour the same war in which he made the first effort of his juvenile strength, with lighter weapons, when Mr. Fox had hardly quitted the nursery.

This work was followed by the philosophical enquiry from which he for some time had the familiar appellation of "The Sublime and Beautiful." As he had before shewn the deformity of a false philosophy, he here endeavours to display the graces of the true; and the principles of his treatise are in direct opposition to those of lord Bolingbroke, and the new normal schools of France. For while they derive all the duties of man to his kind from the single motive of self-interest, he considers sympathy as a primary passion, and the principal link in the great chain of society. Nor is it possible to omit a noble strain, which breathes the genuine spirit of Plato, in the conclusion of the first section, where, from contemplating the use of the passions, he ascends to the counsels of the Al-

* See the preface to the second edition.

mighty,

138] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1791.

quence of the Senate. From what sources he drew his general notions of government we are expressly told in a passage * of his "Reflexions," where he quotes from memory the politics of Arifstotle; and under what masters he studied the English constitution, we learn from his "Appeal," where he unfolds the doctrines of the revolution from the records of the high court of parliament. That he might not be misunderstood, when he devoted himself to a long opposition (in truth an opposition of all, or nearly all his days) he took an early opportunity, and upon an important occasion, to declare †, "that being warned by the ill effects of a contrary procedure in "great examples, he had taken his "ideas of liberty very low, in order that they should stick to him, "and that he might stick to them "to the end of his life." And he afterwards made still more specific declarations at Bristol to the same effect, amidst the courtship and triumph of a popular election.

When he joined the Whig party, he found the individuals who formed the party to be men of sentiments pure and just. Yet what they felt rightly, they had not deduced systematically. They were new to the situation of a methodized opposition. It was necessary, however, in erecting their standard to publish their declaration to their country. The task of preparing it was undertaken by Mr. Burke, and in 1770 executed by him in a pamphlet called, "Thoughts on theCauses of the present Discontents." The materials of it were collected from various conversations, with all the leading members of that party; and

before it was sent abroad into the world, the particular and distinct approbation of each was obtained. From this he should be judged, if he is to be fairly tried for inconsistency. But the charge against him has been supported only by detached sentences, a few pieces ofatenences from others of his many productions, or phrases dropped in debate, and preserved in a more mutilated condition. The pamphlet of 1770 has been least quoted, if at all. It certainly does not contain any tenets of democracy. The clear object of the whole is to recommend, as the best actual government for this country, an open aristocracy of rank, property, virtue, and talents, acting all together on a known system, acquiring by their principles and conduct the public confidence of the people, and in all those titles claiming the public confidence of the sovereign.

Mr. Fox, who having chosen into parliament before he was of age, had gone to travel, now returned and took his seat. He bore office under lord North, and defended all his measures till the year 1774, when he opposed the American war. Yet in the mean time the acquaintance with Mr. Burke, which he had begun as a boy, he continued as a man, and cultivated it so well, that it was soon matured into an intimate friendship. While he was the most formidable antagonist of his friend in parliament, he was not infrequently domesticated with him in the country. It was here that he received those political lessons, to which he professed himself to owe all his principles, and all his know-

* Third edition, p. 185 and 186.

† Appeal, p. 34.

ledge

ANNUAL REGISTER, 1791

nient and distribution of his subject with exact skill, but the incidental allusions and digressions in explanation or illustration of the several heads occasionally divert the attention from the connexion and scope of the whole: the speeches of Mr. Fox are in general left regularly divided; they confest of detached points, but which all go straight and full to the question; and by recapitulating again and again in different parts, he keeps the bearing of each and all for ever present to his audience. Mr. Burke sometimes discusses, sometimes defers; he paints in description; he enlivens with every kind of pleasure; he declaims; and, above all, the philosophies: Mr. Fox always debates. The manner of Mr. Burke cannot be traced to any known model, it is whatever a genius the most luxuriant and various throws forth at the moment: Mr. Fox seems to have derived much by nature or early imitation from his father, and not a little from a judicious study of the late Mr. Dunning; but the lofty tone, in which they were both dicient, and with which he animates argument and defences invective, he has added, perhaps in some degree by a selection most suited to his own taste from the manifold excellencies of his late friend, yet in a great degree also from the native flores of his own transcendent mind. On the whole the eloquence of Mr. Burke is an ocean fed by innumerable springs; on the surface percutually play the beams of a bright imagination, and in the depths of thought below lie treasures of genuine wisdom: the oratory of Mr. Fox is a river of lava that rolls along a stream of rich minerals

melted into one fiery mass by the strong furnace of a volcano; it glows; but never glitters, and consumes whatever it tweeps over in its course.

When Mr. Fox joined the friends of lord Rockingham, though the divisions of the minority showed no susceptible increase, yet he did not come alone. His growing fame, as a public character, and his many positive qualities, which conciliate the effeminate and affection of all who come into contact with him, in fo- ciery, had attached to him and his fortunes many persons of no mean parliamentary figure, especially as among the younger members, with whom he commonly lived. He had now still ampler means of attaching more. Not a few must be supposed to have owed their seats to the recommendation of his friendship, and all were taught to look up to him as the first object of their re- gard and admiration. It was there- fore an entreaty and probably not an uncommon condusion to make an adherence to his person for an af- sent to the principles of his party. Neither was the knowledge of those principles, nor their authority, the fame which they had been. The declaration of them, drawn up by Mr. Burke, began now to be confi- dered rather as an able pamphlet calculated for the day, than as a standing test of political faith. The opposition to the American war grew to be the principal, if not the only hand, of general union.

All the men of genius and of letters, in particular, gathered round Mr. Fox as their proper center. Indeed, in his character, he was more congenial, and in his habits of life more accessible to them than was lord Rockingham. They found

HISTORY OF EUROPE. [141

found too in him a greater facility of dispoſition, and in consequence they soon gained an ascendency over him. The bent of this class of men, whose qualifications for them are generally considered, is naturally to popular courses. It is their utility, in a mixed constitution like ours, to have that bias as long as there exiſts in combination with them a regulating power sufficiently strong: but they are too apt, when they once rife above dependence, to confider every other aritocracy as an usurpation on the rights of their own. All the eſtorts of these men, and their influence over Mr. Fox, would of course be applied in the direction of their inclinations.

They would find the leſs refiſtance, because every party, long excluded from power, and proſcribed, will always have more or leſs of the fame general tendency. Power is, and ever must be, the aim of all ſtateſmen. The bad deſire it, as an end for its own fake; the good, as the means of happiness to others: and the good, no leſs than the bad, must draw nearer and nearer to that branch of the constitution, on the fair ſupport of which they depend for ſucceſs. Where they ſee k to obtain ſavour, they must pay their court; where they have obtained it, they owe gratitude; and where they think that the weight already poſſed is thrown into the scale of justice, they will honestl y with to give the means of a more ready preponderance.

The election of Mr. Fox for the city of Wiltminſter, in 1780, had no inconsiderable operation in this way. He prevailed, as "the Man

"the People," againſt an influence irrefuſible for very many years. The triumph was brilliant for himſelf and his party. But it may be reasonably doubted whether, in order to secure and improve the victory, both one and the other did nor acquiesce in ſome things, which their ſober judgments would not have adopted from choice."

In this number may be reſonned the question now generally and exclusively underſood under the name of parliamentary reform. So much had lately turned on this question, that it may be uſeful to be a little more particular than the purposes of this review might otherwife have demanded. Notions of the kind had occasionally been thrown forth by theorifts, and had been floating on the ſurface of men's minds at different Intervals, when ever the conduct of the house of commons had in any reſpect given diſſatisfaction: but they had not been purſued with perſeverance, and upon any ſyftem, till the opening of the year 1780.

The ſentiments of Mr. Burke had been avowed twelve years before, and at the time he had (as he intimated) all the graver perſons of his own party with him. They believed the practical good of any change in the repreſentation to be at beſt doubtful, and the miſchief of agitating the ſubject at all to be evident and great. An idea circulated among the people, that our constitution is not ſo perfect as it ought to be before you are ſure of mending it, appeared to them to be a certain method of leſſening the authority of the legiſlature, which depends

* These are in ſubſtance Mr. Burke's words, in his Observations on a late State of the Nation, a pamphlet in 1768, attributed to Mr. G. Grenville, p. 97, 8vo edit.

on

HISTORY OF EUROPE. [143

two positions were sanctioned by the committee, and to the latter it was added, that the existing representation is a departure from the first principles of the constitution. Another sub-committee, under Mr. Brand Hollis, afterwards made a report, going to universal suffrage, and submitting a plan for carrying it into effect; and this second report, too, was so far adopted, as to be printed and circulated by order of the committee. Mr. Fox was the chairman on all these occasions; and yet his genuine opinions on parliamentary reform * are known to be far short of the resolutions which he signed. The fame, too, seems lately to have been † shewn with respect to Mr. Sheridan, and other members of that committee.

From all these and other similar causes, the principles of the majority of the party seem to have been gradually and insensibly warped, even during the life of lord Rockingham; and when, upon his death, the duke of Portland was chosen to be their head, his authority was necessarily weaker.

The events which followed contributed to push the party still farther from their original ground. The chief strength of their coalition

with lord North was in the house of commons; and there the greater part of those who joined them naturally attached themselves more immediately to Mr. Fox. Their second dismisseal within a year and a half from the service of the crown, fixed their conviction of a determined proscription, and threw them still more upon the people. The struggle which ensued played the good effects of the late economical reform on the freedom of parliament; but the issue of that struggle, when the crown set up the people at large against their representatives, taught them, from the violence with which they were attacked in all public meetings, that an aristocratic independency in the house of commons was more obnoxious to the people than a dependency on the crown itself. They thought, that the people were now only to be regained by the profession of other principles than those on the credit of which the late marquis of Rockingham had originally erected the pretensions of his opposition. Indeed, the most distinguished members of that connexion seemed to be the most marked objects of popular rage.

* See, among other things, his letter to the Wiltshire Meeting, compared with that of lord Shelburne, ibid. p. 272 and 270.

† See the correspondence of the Friends of the People with the Constitutional Society, Appendix D to Second Report of the Secret Committee, 1794. There is one passage in the letter of Lord J. Ruffel very near the words above quoted from Mr. Burke in 1768.