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THE BEE,

OR

LITERARY WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER,

FOR

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9. 1791.

Characteristical Sketches of the Rt. Honourable Charles Fames Fox, Efq.

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Nothing extenuate, nor fet down aught in malice.

SHAK SPEAR.

INTREPIDITY is the most striking feature in the cha racter of this gentleman; eandour and frankness are confpicuous traits. His propenfities are warm, his affections fincere, his antipathies ftrongly marked. Endowed by nature with great talents, his perceptive faculties are ftrong; and, impelled by the ardour of his temper, he choofes with promptitude the conduct he is to adopt, and pursues it without wavering. The caution which timidity infpires, his mind is in no degree fufceptible of; and he defpifes, as little and mean, thofe arts which the bulk of mankind, under the name of prudence, confider as virtues of the first magnitude. To this worldly idol he has never bent the knee; and to this circumftance must be afcribed the many rebuffs he has met with in his political career.

VOL. II.

A

Thefe his natural propenfities have been greatly heightened by the circumftances in which he has been accidentally placed. Being the favourite son of an indulgent parent, who beheld with a fond partiality the firft marks of genius, which in him were discoverable at a very early period, he was invited to gratify, without referve, thofe youthful impulfes, which often require to be repreffed even among the most dull and phlegmatic part of mankind. Affluence opened to him, at his first outfet in life, her abundant ftóres, which, as was natural to fuppofe, he diffipated with the most lavish profufion. His manners were of courfe irregular. Having tafted fo early of the cup of pleasure, was it to be fuppofed that one of his natural warmth of mind could voluntarily abandon its purfuits? He experienced in this fituation, perhaps, a higher degree of intoxication, than most other men would have done. Unlike to most other men, however, though deeply immerfed in the purfuit of pleasure, his heart, if we are to believe the teftimony of his acquaintance, remained uncorrupted, and his perceptive faculties unclouded. Amid the giddy whirl of unceafing amusements, he has contrived to pick up fuch a diverfity of knowledge, as has often confounded his opponents, and astonished his friends. Though environed with difficulties at times, that might have induced one of great natural steadiness to waver, his political friends have never accused him of the fmallest tendency of that fort. His acquaintance, therefore, have ever entertained for him the moft cordial good will, and fincereft attachment: and his opponents, though from political motives they find it their intereft to deprecate him in the eyes of the 'public, profefs for him in private the fincereft respect.

Mr. Fox's talents might have qualified him for a ftatefman of the firft rank; but his natural propenfities are fo ill calculated for acquiring an extenfive popularity among a free people, that his efforts to obtain a firm authority in the nation have proved hitherto

abortive. Like Cæfar's wife, the minifter of a free people, if not immaculate, fhould at least be accounted. fo. Prudence, in one who afpires to this station therefore, is the cardinal virtue; and our hero, if he aims at power, has certainly been guilty of a very great mistake, when he refolved to disregard its fuggeftions. Inferior talents, difpofitions of the bafeft fort, and the moft obvious improprieties of conduct, if covered with a veil of diffimulation, fupported by strong pretenfions to virtue and integrity, though contradicted by obvious facts, will be infinitely an overmatch for any perfon who shall have the imprudence to affume the oppofite line of conduct. The people at large are incapable of nice investigations, and may therefore be deceived; but they esteem virtue fo much, that where it is apparently difregarded, it will be difficult to conciliate their favour. In vain fhall we be told of his candour: Candour, when it opposes the dictates of common fense, can only be accounted weaknefs. Indeed, every thing in the conduct of this gentleman, whether in adminiftration or in opposition, plainly discovers, that brilliancy of talents, and acutenefs of perception, rather than great application and folidity of judgement, form the bafis of his character. Difliking the labour of deep investigation, he too often adopts the opinions of men of talents inferior to his own, and only difcovers, when too late, in the courfe of his rapid public difcuffions, that he has thus done wrong. As a political champion therefore, aiming at power, Mr. Fox has been guilty of the most extravagant errors in conduct; and his efforts in the fenate, however violent, and his reafoning however juft, it requires no extraordinary talents to predict, muft ever prove unfuccessful, while this line of conduct fhall be perfevered in.

His oratorial powers are eminent. They take a tinge however, from the natural bias of his mind, and the habits in which he has indulged. Violent and

impetuous, his words rush forth like a torrent, bursting from fources that had been long pent up, with rapid and impetuous fury. But his orations tend rather to astonish than to convince; to overpower and overawe, than to perfuade and conciliate acquiefcence in his deductions. The speaker rather than the thing spoken of attracts the attention; its effects therefore are temporary and unimportant. In attacking an opponent, the violence of his manner excites a strong sensation, that the arguments arife from paffion and prejudice, rather than from a calm conviction in the mind of the speaker; and the hearers are inclined to fufpect a fallacy, even where they cannot detect it, and to range themselves, if unprejudiced, on the fide of his opponents. This is an unhappy defect in an orator, though a natural confequence of that bent of mind which Mr. Fox has taken pleasure to cherish. His talents therefore are in every cafe counteracted by his prejudices, and his own exertions have tended more effectually to fruftrate the objects he aimed at, than any efforts of his opponents ever could have done.

As a literary character, Mr. Fox is not well known. He has figured chiefly in the walk of politics; but if we are to judge from fome eafy pieces that have incidentally dropped from his pen, there is much reafon to apprehend, that if his attention had been directed to that line, he would have made a still more confpicuous figure than as a fenator. Delighted with the pleafures of focial life, he would have indulged his native propensities without constraint, in following the feftive paths of Anacreon,

Mr. Fox, though yet a young man, has been long engaged in an active political career. Whether he now really begins to be weary of that inceffant bustle in which he has been fo long engaged, and feriously wishes to indulge in private life thofe focial propenfities that feem to be congeuial to his mind, as has been

confidently afferted; or whether he begins to fee the inefficacy of that mode of public conduct he has purfued, and the imprudence of indulging in it, and thinks of preparing himself in good earnest, for attaining the highest object of his ambition, by paying respect to the prejudices of others, in preference to his own propenfities, it is not for us to fay: but certain it is, that on a late trying occafion †, he acted, unless in one inftance, (where it is afferted he was misled by a high law authority) with a moderation and propriety very unlike to what was ufual in him on fimilar occafions; and fince that time, his conduct in parliament has been much more temperate than before;-a change that the public in general, as well as his particular friends, cannot help remarking with fatisfaction; as it is the general opi nion, that the dignity of the British fenate has been degraded by that indecent warmth of difpute, which has been too long pursued within the walls of Stephen's chapel.

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IN thefe flight fketches we attempt not to delineate a character; we offer merely a few rude touches, and fhall be highly flattered if they shall be found to bear any resemblance to the original. Our aim fhall be, neither to warp through prejudice, nor bias from partiality happy if in these degenerate times, we shall be able to attain a fmall portion of that firmness of mind which can contemplate the highest dignities without being fafcinated with the temporary glare that furrounds them, or that can view the deepest political degradation without feeling a propenfity to join in the popular cry of temporary abufe; and thus to mark the living characters as they rife, by a ray of truth however faint, that may ferve to give to future enquirers fome flight idea at least of the fpirit of the times.

The Kings illness.

Dr Anderson

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