practice of all the charities of life, and a perception of the beautiful in nature, in literature, and in art, which was a source of constant enjoyment. With a simplicity of manners rare in great statesmen, he united views the most profound, and a feeling heart which calumny could not embitter, nor years make cold, nor the world harden.

We have seen in the former volumes the dissolute life in which Mr. Fox became involved. Amid the indulgences of a wandering fancy and violent passions he formed a lasting attachment. Mrs. Armitstead, who lived with him as his mistress, became his wife in the year 1795. Fortunately she was endowed with strong affection, good sense, and an unbounded devotion to Mr. Fox.

The reader of the following letters will find in them the intimate, careless, familiar communications of Mr. Fox to his nephew. Many will blame the sympathy which he shows not for the principles but for the independence of France, and condemn the harshness with which he speaks of Mr. Pitt; but none can fail to recognise a zealous love of liberty, a great and master mind, a penetrating sagacity, and a willingness to forego all objects of ambition rather than desert or surrender that which he believed to be the cause of mankind.

Even with regard to Mr. Pitt blame as strong is to be found in the writings of men who were not engaged in political strife. The celebrated Robert Hall, who had censured him most severely, wrote thus as late as 1821:

"For the severity with which he has treated the political character of Mr. Pitt he is not disposed to apologise, because he feels the fullest conviction that the policy, foreign and domestic, of that celebrated statesman, has inflicted a more incurable wound on the Constitution, and entailed more permanent and irreparable calamities on the nation, than that of any other minister in the annals of British history. A single reflection will be sufficient to evince the unparalleled magnitude of his apostasy; which is, that the memory of the son of Lord Chatham, the vehement opposer of the American War, the champion of Reform, and the idol of the people, has become the rallying point of Toryism, the type and symbol of whatever is most illiberal in principle, and intolerant in practice." *

I add his praise of Mr. Fox :

"To the honour of Mr. Fox, and the band of illustrious patriots of which he is the leader, it will however be remembered, that they stood firm against a host of opponents, when, assailed by every species of calumny and invective, they had nothing to expect but the reproaches of the present, and the admiration of all future times. If anything can rekindle the sparks of freedom it will be the flame of their eloquence; if anything can reanimate her faded form, it will be the vigour of such minds." †

I now proceed to give the letters of Mr. Fox to Lord Holland separately. They will be followed by letters of the same period to his friends :

*Hall's Works.

+Ibid.

MR. FOX TO LORD HOLLAND.*

"June 14th, 1793.

"I SHOULD have written to you long ago, my dearest Henry, if I had known how to direct and send my letter; but your first letter from Corunna (the only one I had received till this week) mentioned no place where you gave any direction. I have now received your letter from Bilbao; and I am afraid you are right in your conjecture, that those you wrote from Oviedo, or any other place since your landing, are lost. I had always heard that Biscay was something' like Devonshire; but my notion was, that the great natural beauties were in the Asturias; and possibly this may be so, and you may have spoken of them in your last letters as having seen them in your way to Oviedo. Your account of Biscay makes it still more free than I had imagined; and I should hope, bad as these times are in some respects, that there is not much chance of its privileges being invaded. Dumouriez's defection is here so old a story that, at first, I hardly knew what you meant by the surprising news you speak of. The first impression here was, that it was likely to put an end to the whole contest; but we were soon undeceived; and the Allies, after having at first cried him up in the most excessive manner, when they found the mischief he had done to be so small, neglected him to the last degree. I do not believe his conduct was owing to any bargain;

* For the previous letters of this series see above, vol. ii.

P. 363.

but only to levity and to an indignation natural enough at the way of proceeding of the Convention.* Your speculation, that affairs at Paris were likely to mend, though not an unnatural one, has turned out to be a very mistaken one; and there is reason to believe that Marat and Danton have forced the Convention to pass a decree of arrét against Brissot and all his friends, to the number of twenty-Pethion, Vergniaux, Barbaroux, and, in short, every man of note in that party (except Condorcet) are of the number: I shall not be surprised to hear they are all either murdered or guillotined by a sham trial.† In short, things at Paris have been going regularly from bad to worse; and yet the armies fight like heroes, and the Allies have hitherto made no impression of consequence. It is a strange state of things. People here begin to be heartily tired of the war, in some degree owing to the disgust pretty generally felt at the scandalous conduct of the Empress and Prussia in respect to Poland; but chiefly to the extreme distress which is felt at home. I do not know whether there is not some comfort in seeing that, while the French are doing all in their power to make the name of liberty odious to the world, the despots

Dumouriez, Commander-in-Chief of the French army in Flanders, went over to the Austrians in April, 1793. The circumstances which induced him to take this step are explained in a carefully-written article on Dumouriez in the Supplement to the “Biographie Universelle." He passed the latter part of his life in England, and received a pension from the English Government. He died in 1823, and was buried in Henley

Church.

The arrest of the Girondist leaders was decreed on the 2nd of June, 1793. Their execution took place on the 30th of October following.

are conducting themselves so as to show that tyranny is worse. I believe the love of political liberty is not an error; but, if it is one, I am sure I never shall be converted from it-and I hope you never will. If it be an illusion, it is one that has brought forth more of the best qualities and exertions of the human mind than all other causes put together; and it serves to give an interest in the affairs of the world which, without it, would be insipid; but it is unnecessary to preach to you upon this subject. So now to myself. You will hear by others of what has been done, and is doing, for me. I may perhaps flatter myself, but I think that it is the most honourable thing that ever happened to any man. The sum which has been raised is such as will all pay debts that are in any degree burthensome, and give me an income upon which I can live comfortably without contracting any more. I need not tell you that Mrs. A. is as happy as I am, and she says she only wants to see the young one to make her completely so. God bless you,

*

my

my dearest Henry! Pray write very often. I shall direct this to Barcelona, though I think you will be gone before it arrives. Of course you will not miss seeing Grenada. Hubiera escrito a V. M. en lengua Castellana si fuera acertado que V. M. me entendiera. He leydo in aquella lengua la Gramatica de la Academia y la mitad de Don Quixote. Yo querria que V. M. que es hoy en el pays de los refranes me dixese si sabe algun refran Castellano que responda a

This alludes to the subscription which was raised by Mr. Fox's friends, in order to pay his debts.