IX. 1792. CHAP. The tranquillity of that fortunate period was not disturbed by any of those calamitous or even extraordinary events which excite the imagination and inflame the passions." The administration of Chatham, and the victories of Frederick, alone cast a fleeting lustre over the general monotony of the period; but even their glories were the result of the ambition of kings or the rivalry of cabinets, and partook not of the profound interest of the theological contests which had preceded, or the political struggles which followed them. The strife of religion had ceased, that of equality had not commenced; between the two there intervened a long repose of a hundred years, illustrated by few glories, stained by still fewer crimes, during which the fervour springing from the former great convulsion insensibly expired, and the seeds destined to produce a still fiercer collision were gradually ripening to maturity. 29. It was a generally received opinion among the philosoErroneous phers and statesmen of this period, that society had at losophers on length assumed a settled and permanent form, that all the tendency the great causes of discord had been extinguished, and viewsof phi of human affairs. that history would never again have to commemorate the vehement contentions and tragic incidents which had arisen in an early period of human existence. Adam Smith observed, that while the population of America was doubling every five-and-twenty years, that of Europe was slumbering on with an increase which would hardly arrive at the same result in five hundred; while Gibbon lamented that the period of interesting incident was past, and that the modern historian would never again have to record the moving events and dismal catastrophes of ancient story. Such were the anticipations of the greatest men of the age, on the verge of a period destined to present the tyranny of Robespierre, the constancy of Pitt, and the triumphs of Nelson; when the human race, mowed down by the merciless sword of Napoleon, was * Mackintosh's Works, ii. 512. to spring up again with an elasticity almost equalling the CHAP. far-famed rapidity of Transatlantic increase.* IX. 1792. 30. Whigs on tion. The opinions of the country, as might have been expected on so great an event, were divided on the French Views of the Revolution. The young, the ardent, the philosophical, the Revoluwere sanguine in their expectations of its success; a new era seemed to have dawned upon the world; from the rise of freedom in that great empire, the fetters of slavery, and the bonds of superstition, appeared to be dropping from the hands of the human race. It was not merely the factious, the restless, and the ambitious, who entertained these opinions; they were shared by many of the best and wisest of men; and in England it might with truth be said, as an eloquent historian has observed of Europe in general, 1 that the friends of the French Revo- 1 Bot. i. 70. lution comprised at that period the most enlightened and generous of the community. It was not then that its tendency was, or could be, generally perceived. But though the highly educated classes generally inclined to these opinions, those entertaining extreme views were comparatively few in number. The vast majority of the population was decidedly loyal; in the country it was almost invariably so. The confirmed democrats in Great Britain at that period were by no means numerous. They were estimated by Mr Burke, who was noways inclined 2 Burke, viii. to diminish the dangers of the time, at eighty thou- 140, 141. sand.2 Tories. But if the changes in France were regarded with 31. favour by one, they were looked on with utter horror by And of the another class of the community. The majority of the aristocratic body, all the adherents of the church, all the holders of office under the monarchy, in general the great bulk of the opulent ranks of society, beheld them with apprehension or aversion. Many of those who had life * The population of Prussia is now doubling in 26; that of Britain in 52; that of Austria in 69; that of France in 105; that of Russia in 66 years.DUPIN, Forces Com. de France, i. 36. IX. 1792. CHAP. before them, rejoiced in the changes which society seemed about to undergo; those who had passed through it, trembled at their approach: those who had nothing to lose, had no fears of the consequences of innovation ; those who had acquired, or inherited much, were justly apprehensive that they would be the first objects of spoliation. Such were the general divisions of opinion prevalent in Britain; but of course these opinions were modified by the temper or habits of thought in different individuals, and the partisans of innovation numbered among their ranks many of the most ancient and illustrious noble families. There will always be found a certain portion, generally a small minority, of the aristocracy, who from the various motives of ambition, jealousy, envy, delusion, discontent, or insolvency, will break off from the order to which they belong, and put themselves at the head of any popular movement. In them the most dangerous, because the most influential, and least suspected, leaders of it are to be found. 32. tory of Mr Fox. At the head of the first party was Mr Fox, the eloquent Early his- and illustrious champion of freedom in every part of the world. Descended of a noble family, which combined political distinction with literary talent, he seemed born to wield both the mighty levers which move mankind. He was the third son of Henry Fox, the first Lord Holland, whose great talents raised him to the situation of Secretary of State for the War Department during the Seven Years' War; and who was long the antagonist of Mr Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham. His father, who was a man of refined and cultivated taste, as well as forensic ability, took infinite pains with the education of young Fox, whose great talents were soon conspicuous. Unfortunately his excessive indulgence to his son gave too early a development to his dissipated propensities, which were as precocious as his power of acquiring languages; and when he set out on his travels at the age of twenty, he was already a deep gamester, an experienced IX. 1792. rake, and excessively expensive in his dress and habits. CHAP. Distinction was his constant passion in youth he sought it by elegance in attire or extravagance in expenditure; in maturer years by oratorical power and the lead of a party. He returned from the Continent in 1767 deeply in debt, a thorough libertine, but without any diminution of his elegant tastes or natural powers. * In 1768 he entered parliament as member for Medhurst in Sussex, and made his first speech on a petition of the celebrated democrat Wilkes. His great powers of speaking soon made themselves conspicuous, and early attracted the notice of the author of Junius, who, in his celebrated Letters, warmly praised the rising orator. Down to 1772, he voted in general with ministers, though his independent disposition was on many occasions conspicuous; but in that year he united himself to the Opposition, of which he soon became the acknowledged leader. This was confirmed by the death of his father in 1774, which set him free from all ministerial ties; and by his ardent admiration of Mr Burke, whom he justly denominated Trotter's the finest genius of the eighteenth century, and with i. 84. Biog. whom he combated Lord North and the Tory ministry 403 (Fox.) through the whole course of the American War. 1 1 Life of Fox, Univ. xv. ter as a statesman and orator. He inherited the love of liberty which had long been 33. hereditary in his race, and, by the impetuous torrent of His charachis eloquence, long maintained his place as leader of the Opposition of the British empire. His talents for debate were of the very highest order; and in the impassioned energy with which he delivered his opinions, he never was exceeded by any orator in the British parliament. Though he was a refined classical scholar, and well acquainted with the poets of antiquity, as well as those of modern times, yet he was too indolent to have acquired extensive erudition, and was often indebted, like Mira His debts amounted to the enormous sum of £140,000; and he had travelled with a mistress whose presence scandalised even Gibbon, at Lausanne, not the most fastidious of men in such particulars. IX. 1792. CHAP. beau, for the facts connected with the subjects of discussion rather to the industry of his friends than to his own research. Yet no one could make a more skilful use of the information with which he was furnished, or which he gathered in the course of debate; or descant with more originality on a subject apparently exhausted by the efforts of others. Profuse, dissipated, and irregular in private life, he had none of the weight, ever so powerful in England, which arises from the purity of personal character; but, amidst all his frailties, the warmth of his heart and generosity of his disposition secured him the ardent attachment of a numerous body of private friends, embracing a large proportion of the ablest men and oldest families in the state; while his vehement and impassioned oratory readily commanded the admiration of that numerous class who longed after more popular government, or the general license of a revolution. But his intellect was not equal to his eloquence; his judgment was inferior to his debating powers. Mr Gibbon observed, that "his inmost soul was tinged with democracy;" and such in truth was his character. He saw no danger to liberty but in the power of the Crown: the violence of the people never occurred to him as likely to put it in peril. Sincere in his attachment to freedom, he advocated, during the best part of his life, a political system which was entailing upon the country where it arose the most degrading bondage; passionately devoted to the cause of liberty, he continued constant in his admiration of those frantic innovations which, more than the coalition of kings, against which the thunders of his eloquence were directed, rendered impossible its duration in the first of European monarchies. 1 Miscellaneous Works, i. 386. 34. Mr Pitt. Mr Pitt was the leader of the second party, which, at the commencement of the French Revolution, was in the biography. full possession of government, and supported by a decided majority in both Houses of Parliament. He was born at Hayes in Kent, on the 28th May 1759, the second son |