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noticed his spirited conduct with respect to the King of Prussia, and his commencement of a fruitless negociation with Talleyrand. Although he had, in unqualified terms, reprobated the tax upon income imposed by Mr. Pitt, he zealously supported Lord Henry Petty in his proposition for doubling that tax.

His friends now began to perceive a visible decline in Mr. Fox's health. Habits of free living had greatly impaired his constitution; and he was also afflicted with a dropsical complaint. While the negociations were going on in France, Mr. Fox was laid on the bed of sickness; and towards the close of the summer of 1806, his disorder assumed an appearance of a most alarming nature; Dr. Benjamin Moseley,† Dr. Vaughan, and Mr. Cline, were called in, and Mr. Fox was twice tapped; but the dropsy with which he was afflicted increasing, the utmost efforts of medical skill proved abortive, and Mr. Fox died in September, 1806.§

Mr. Fox was always attached to the reading of novels, and" Clarissa Harlowe" was his favorite book. During his last illness, Lord Holland, his nephew, entertained him by reading to him several works of the most eminent novelists.

A public funeral was decreed in honor of Mr. Fox, which was attended by a number of the nobility, the members of the Whig club, and the mayor and corporation of Nottingham. His remains were deposited in

Westminster-abbey.

In attempting to delineate the character of Mr. Fox, we shall consider him as a Man, contemplating him in private life; as a Statesman, as an Orator, and as an Author.

No man could possess more of the milk of human kindness than Mr. Fox; he was the very essence of benevolence and liberality: at St. Ann's-hill, near Chertsey,

+ The Physician to Chelsea College; and a medical writer of the first celebrity, eminent for his science and genius; but still more for the amiable virtues of his heart.

Now SIR HENRY HALFORD.

Mr. TROTTER, Mr. Fox's private Secretary, who published his Life, passed a censure upon his physicians, for having prescribed the medicinal qualities of the "Fox Glove." The charge was ably answered by Dr.Vaughan.

in Surrey, where his country residence was, he dispersed abroad his alms in a manner which justly endeared him to the poor of the neighbourhood. He was endowed with a soul of superior intellectual faculties, and it is only to be lamented, that the transcendent talents of Mr. Fox were sullied by some glaring inconsistencies. His habits of indolence, and his invincible attachment to the gaming table, while they ever proved sources of occasional bitterness to himself, tended greatly to derogate from the generally acknowledged excellence of his character. And here also we are obliged to lament that Mr. Fox, apparently, indicated too little regard for religion: that David Hume, a professed atheistical metaphysician, who viewed the existence of a man as of no more importance than that of an oyster, should spend the last hours of his life in perusing "Lucian's Dialogues," is no matter of surprise; but that such a man as Mr. Fox, who could so ably argue in the senate on topics connected with the truths of Christianity, should profess so little attachment to it, is a subject of just regret.

As a Statesman, Mr. Fox evidenced that he possessed a most comprehensive mind. It cannot be denied, that he frequently prostituted his brilliant talents to the purposes of party faction; and, in some instances, when the exigencies of the state imperiously called upon him to give his sanction, for the purpose of general unanimity, he withheld it; we should have admired this stern inflexibility in Mr. Fox, could we have forgotten his obsequious coalition with Lord North. Although Mr. Fox was branded with imbibing Jacobinical principles, we are of opinion, that his opinions were soundly constitutional; although, through the natural violence of his temper, he was frequently led into language, both in the senate, and at public meetings, of an intemperate

nature.

As an Orator, Mr. Fox was far inferior to his great political rival, Mr. Pitt: his reasoning was overwhelming argumentative, but his voice was not melodious, nor his action pleasing; and long before he had exhausted his subject, he appeared to his auditors to have exhausted himself. Yet, with many defects, he was a man destined

"The applause of list ning senates to command."

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Finally, if we view him as an Author, if he had exercised his talents he might have attained to great eminence; but he was loth to bring the great powers of his mind into action. As a Poet, his merits were of no common kind; the few poetical effusions of his elegant and classical pen, make us lament, that he who could write so well, did write so sparingly. His monody on the death of Lord Nelson; his verses to Mrs. Crewe; and the "Invocation to Poverty," are truly excellent. His poems were chiefly addressed to the taste and feelings. As a prose writer he was not so happy in excelling; one or two political pamphlets he published, were of a declamatory nature. His posthumous work, published by Lord Holland, was assuredly not answerable to the high expectations which had been raised of an historical work from so illustrious an author, and which had been so long the subject of conversation in the republic of letters.

To close this sketch of Mr. Fox's character: his intellectual powers were pre-eminently great; and, to adopt the words of an anonymous writer:

"Had Mr. Fox sprung from the dregs of society, he would have emerged with credit from his depression. Had he been a ploughman, or a shepherd, he would have turned the best furrow, or have reared the finest flock in the hamlet. He, probably, might have intrigued with the milk-maid; loitered in the skittle-ground, and have had a long score at the alehouse; yet, whatever had been his pursuit, in that he must have excelled.

"Such heaven-born genius; such the gifts from thee."

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CHAP. XIV.

Louis Bonaparte appointed King of Holland. Decrees of Napoleon. Convocation of the Jews. State of Portugal.

GUSTAVUS the Fourth of Sweden, who had so decidedly exhibited a spirit of enterprising indignation against France, began, at the close of the year 1806, to put his military force in action. The Swedish troops were stationed in Lauenburg; but were afterwards captured by a superior French force; and Marshal Mortier, with a large army, advanced to the very frontiers of Swedish Pomerania.†

Napoleon would have wished to have cajoled Sweden, as he had done other powers, and had actually opened a preliminary negociation with the Swedish Envoy, at Hamburgh; but no sooner was Gustavus apprised of it, than he reprimanded the Envoy for his improper conduct, and refused to listen to any overtures whatever. The conduct of the King of Denmark was far different, that neutral vassal of France, took occasion, in consequence of the dissolution of the Germanic empire, formally to annex Holstein to his dominions, declaring it for ever separated from Germany.

The distressed situation of the republic of Holland, paved the way for a total change of its political constitution. Bonaparte had long cherished the idea of forming Holland into a monarchy, and he had very artfully, by means of his emissaries, prepared the minds of the Dutch for this revolution of government. After considerable deliberation on the subject, a deputation was sent from the Hague, announcing that the Batavian republic was no more, and that Louis Bonaparte, brother of the Emperor of France, had been chosen King. Louis had particularly ingratiated himself with the Dutch: he had carefully studied their manners, and the

✦ Pomerania is a province of Germany, in the Circle of Upper Saxony; the river Pene divides the Prussian territories from those of Sweden.

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characteristic bias of their dispositions; and he dexterously availed himself by those resources, to acquire a vast hold upon their affections, and to acquire so great a degree of popularity as to occasion those once stern republicans to look up to him as their Sovereign. Had not the Batavians been demoralised; had they not sunk to the lowest pitch of national depravity, they would never have consented to the elevation of Louis.

The new King of Holland wished to impress his subjects with an exalted idea of his military talents. If we may be allowed the expression, he wished to Napoleonise himself. While his brother was engaged with the King of Prussia, Louis invaded Westphalia, and penetrated into Hanover; and his commander in chief, Daendels, reduced East Frieseland to his obedience. Louis returned in triumph to the Hague, in November, 1806; and having assembled the States of the kingdom, he addressed them in a long and fulsome harangue: after eulogising the States for their establishment of monarchy, and their happy selection of a monarch from the family of the Great Napoleon, he proceeded to notice the exhausted state of the national finances: but he held out many lures to comfort and console those wretched and deluded men, as to the future prosperity and glory which the kingdom must infallibly acquire under his government; winding up the whole with information, that in return for the loyal attention which had marked the character of the people of Holland since his residence amongst them, he should institute two orders of knighthood; the one to be called, "The Order of Merit," the other to be denominated, "The Order of Union."

Napoleon had, on November 21, communicated to the senate of France, a decree which he had made at Berlin, for the total exclusion of English commerce, throughout all the dominions appertaining to, incorporated with, or in a state of alliance with France. This decree was immediately applied by the King of Holland to his own dominions; and by virtue of his royal authority, Louis issued a decree, in which the provisions of the Berlin decree were to be enforced throughout the kingdom of Holland.

The legislative body of France opened their sittings at the latter end of February, when a speech was delivered by the Emperor, in which he made a pompous

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