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MEMORIALS

AND

CORRESPONDENCE

OF

CHARLES JAMES FOX.

EDITED

BY LORD JOHN RUSSELL.

VOLUME III.

LONDON:

RICHARD BENTLEY,

Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.

MDCCCLIV.

LONDON:

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

PREFACE

TO THE THIRD VOLUME.

THIS Volume contains the Correspondence of Mr. Fox from the end of 1792, when the French Revolution began to produce the most serious effects on the domestic and foreign policy of this country, to the spring of 1804, when Mr. Fox, in junction with the Grenvilles, entered into systematic opposition to Mr. Addington's administration.

The letters are almost entirely those of Mr. Fox, and are little interrupted by other matter.

Lord Holland's work, as an editor, does not reach to this period. Mr. Allen had selected the letters of Mr. Fox to Lord Holland, which he thought worthy of publication, but had done nothing further. In order to elucidate the quotations and allusions I have had recourse to the assistance of a learned friend, who has furnished the greater portion of the notes. The reader will feel with me the high value of the aid I have thus received.

16

Mr. Fox, it will be seen, during this period, devoted himself with ardour to his classical studies. Mrs. Fox, in a postscript to one of her husband's letters, tells Lord Holland that his uncle is as much absorbed in Greek as Dr. Parr, and reads two or three books of Homer in a morning.

His political opinions are expressed with great warmth of feeling against the policy of the war, and an excess of apprehension for the constitution. of his country. I have made some remarks on this subject in the course of the Volume.

I have received a remonstrance from General Ewart on the mention made of his father, Mr. Ewart, in a passage of one of Mr. Fox's letters in a former Volume. Mr. Fox asserts that Mr. Ewart died mad. This, it appears, was not the case; the mistake arose from the circumstance that in the last illness of Mr. Ewart, he suffered severely from gout, and was at times delirious.

LONDON,

November, 1854.

CORRESPONDENCE OF

CHARLES JAMES FOX.

BOOK THE SIXTH.

We have now arrived at a period of the history of this country and of Europe, of the highest interest. The French Revolution, in its origin, in its career, in the wars which attended its course, and in the consequences which it produced, forms the most important epoch in modern history. It is far from my intention to attempt in this place even a slight outline of that great change in the state of Europe; but with respect to its effects on the policy of England, on the Whig party, and on the personal position of Mr. Fox, the nature of the present work renders it incumbent upon me to make some remarks.

At the beginning of December, 1790, Louis XVI., alarmed at the progress of the democratic factions in France, wrote a letter addressed to the Emperor of Germany, the Empress of Russia, the Kings of Prussia, Spain, and Sweden, suggesting a congress of the principal sovereigns of Europe, supported by

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