Fox, Charles James

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

Charles James (1749-1806), an English statesman and orator. He was born in London and died at Chiswick, near the city. He was the third son of Henry Fox, afterward Lord Holland. On his mother's side he was a great grandson of Charles II. Of morals it is sufficient to say he was quite of a piece with his royal ancestor. Charles Fox was educated at Eton and at Oxford. He entered Parliament in 1768 as a Tory. Fox was in public life during the stirring times of the American Revolution, the French Revolution , and during the first part of the Napoleonic wars. He was the supporter, the opponent, and again an ally of North. He sat in the British cabinet with North and the younger Pitt. He was a close friend of Edmund Burke. He was a prominent figure for nearly forty years. Two years after he entered Parliament Fox became a member of Lord North's ministry. Later he was dismissed by North, at the instance of George III, who was annoyed by his dissolute manners and by his independent attitude. He then joined the Whigs and became a leader of the popular party opposed to the policies of the king. He was a member of the Rockingham ministry and again joined Lord North in forming a coalition ministry. Fox foresaw that it would not do to leave India in the hands of private owners. He proposed to transfer the control from the East India Company to a commission. Though defeated he lived to see his policy carried out. Fox stood for the prerogative of Parliament. With other young men he forced King George to give over the notion of a cabinet responsible to himself instead of the House of Commons. Like Burke, Fox stood out for a fair treatment of the American colonists. He wanted fair treatment for Englishmen everywhere. He saw the king and his war party humiliated by Saratoga and by Yorktown, and the king forced to withdraw from active control of the government. Driving home the lesson taught by the American Revolution, Fox joined Pitt in inducing Parliament to grant Canada a constitution. Fox and Burke supported Pitt in measures designed to restore the authority of the Parliament of Ireland and to remove restrictions against Irish trade. He was clearly in favor of a measure of home rule. In the matter of the French Revolution Fox sided with the popular leaders. Though himself a descendant of aristocracy, he was one of the Englishmen whom the excesses of the Paris mob did not blind to the real significance of the Revolution and its importance to democracy. Fox was a spendthrift and a gambler, a wild and reckless young fellow who wasted his father's fortune and brought his friends to the verge of despair. At the same time he was affectionate, lovable, eloquent, clear of thought, and, as the outcome showed, sound on questions of public policy. As a statesman he was less subservient than North; more impulsive, less calculating, and withal clearer in his thinking than Pitt. He lacked Edmund Burke's learning but, all in all, few English statesmen have shown greater foresight or have been more uniformly on the right side of important public questions than he. Fox deserves mention as one of the constructive English statesmen of the eighteenth century. Fox, or Foxe, John (1516-1587), an English Protestant. During the persecutions in the reign of Queen Mary he fled to the continent. He wrote a vivid account of the pathetic sufferings of the Protestants, especially of the burning of Latimer and Ridley. His Book of Martyrs was long a standard volume in Puritan homes, but is now recognized as one-sided and not overly particular as to the facts of a most distressing period of English history.