Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/113

 ried in the commons four days before. Two days later the king was pronounced convalescent.

After hearing of the taking of the Bastille, Fox wrote to Fitzpatrick on 30 July 1789: ‘How much the greatest event it is that ever happened in the world! and how much the best!’ and bade him tell the Duke of Orleans that, if the revolution had the consequences he expected, his dislike of French connections for this country would be at an end (ib. ii. 361). During the succeeding period he advocated the revolutionary cause in the same spirit of vehement partisanship that he had exhibited during the American war; indeed ‘there was no end to his indiscretions’ (Auckland Correspondence, ii. 387). When opposing the army estimates on 5 Feb. following, he praised the French army for taking part against the crown, and for showing that ‘in becoming soldiers they did not cease to be citizens.’ In replying to Burke on the 9th he protested that he was no friend to democracy; he upheld a mixed form of government, but he applauded the French soldiers for disobeying their leaders and joining the people in a struggle for liberty, and, while he deplored bloodshed, considered that the severe tyranny of the old régime should cause the excesses of the revolutionists to be regarded with compassion [see under ]. He opposed the foreign policy of Pitt during the war between Russia and the Porte, arguing in March 1791 that the Turks were in fault, and were, he suspected, set on by Great Britain, that Catherine's terms were moderate, and that it was mistaken to strive to compel her to restore Oczakoff and accept conditions of the status quo ante; for the advance of Russia in the south could never be prejudicial to English interests. The czarina affected a romantic attachment for Fox, and sent to England for his bust, in order to place it between the busts of Demosthenes and Cicero (Malmesbury Correspondence, i. 325 n.;, Diary, i. 18). His conduct as regards the visit of Sir Robert Adair [q. v.] to Russia was declared by Burke to have ‘frustrated the king's minister’ (, Works, vii. 227). While Burke's accusation was untrue, Fox certainly appears to have treated foreign politics at this period mainly as an instrument of party. When Oczakoff was yielded to Russia by the treaty of Jassy (January 1792), he taunted Pitt in a sarcastic and witty speech for having lowered his tone. He opposed the Quebec Government Bill, objecting to the provisions for the duration of the Canadian parliaments, the reserves for the clergy, and the institution of an hereditary nobility to sit in the council. The references he made to French politics in the course of the debates on this subject widened the breach between him and Burke, and on 6 May their old friendship and their political alliance was finally broken by public declaration in the commons [see under ]. On the 20th Fox brought forward his Libel Bill, which was carried in the commons without opposition, and became law the next year. This act, which is declaratory, maintained the rights of juries, and secured to the subject a fair trial by his peers (, Const. Hist. ii. 263). During the summer of 1792 some of the followers of Fox who disapproved of his sympathy with the revolution, and feared the total break-up of their party, engaged in a scheme with the Duke of Portland for a coalition with Pitt. Fox declared himself ‘a friend to coalition,’ and Pitt professed to be favourable to the idea. As, however, Fox objected to serve under Pitt, though it is possible that he might have been brought to do so, and as Pitt held that after Fox's declarations relative to the revolution it would be impossible for him to go ‘at once’ into the foreign department, the negotiations, which lasted about seven weeks, virtually ended by 30 July (, ii. 453–72; Life of Sir G. Elliot, ii. 43, 53). Fox found some excuse for the revolutionary outbreak of 10 Aug., but not a shadow for the massacre of September (Memorials, ii. 368, 371); he was indignant at the Duke of Brunswick's proclamation and the invasion of France, and declared that no ‘public event, not excepting Saratoga and Yorktown,’ had so pleased him as the retreat of the Germans (ib. p. 372). He was now rapidly losing the confidence of a large section of his party, who took the Duke of Portland as their head. In the course of the winter Portland, Lord Fitzwilliam, Windham, Sir G. Elliot, T. Grenville, and many others separated themselves from him and gave their support to Pitt. He felt their secession deeply. Nor was he in full sympathy with Grey and others who joined the Association of the Friends of the People, for he considered it an inopportune time for pressing parliamentary reform, and was indeed never especially eager in the cause (, ii. 482 sq.; Life of Elliot, ii. 82; Memorials, iii. 20, iv. 292). On 13 Dec. he moved an amendment to the address, mocking at the reason given in the king's speech for embodying the militia, which was declared to be rendered necessary by the spirit of disorder shown in acts of insurrection; instead of trying to suppress opinion it would, he said, be better to redress grievances. He was in a minority of 50 against 290; the larger number of his party had left him, and he was