Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/115

 peared in parliament. During this period he led a quiet and regular life, spending much of his time in reading. He carried on a correspondence (1796–1801) with the famous Greek scholar, Gilbert Wakefield, and his letters show that he not only loved classical literature, but took a deep interest in the niceties of scholarship. The masterpieces of the greatest Latin, Greek, French, Italian, and Spanish authors were his constant companions. The four finest compositions of the century were, he said, the ‘Isacco’ of Metastasio, Pope's ‘Eloisa,’ Voltaire's ‘Zaire,’ and Gray's ‘Elegy.’ Burnet he held to be a master of historical style; he delighted in Dryden's works, and thought of editing them; Milton's prose he could not endure, and he did not admire Wordsworth. He read Homer through every year, enjoying the ‘Odyssey’ more than the ‘Iliad,’ though admitting that it was not so fine a work. Euripides he preferred to Sophocles. ‘I should never finish,’ he wrote, ‘if I let myself go upon Euripides.’ The ‘Æneid’ he read over and over again, dwelling with special pleasure on the pathetic passages (Memorials, iii. passim; Table-talk of S. Rogers, pp. 89–93). He began his ‘History of the Revolution of 1688’ in 1797; he made very slow progress with it, writing, Sydney Smith said, ‘drop by drop.’ A dinner of the Whig Club was held at the Crown and Anchor tavern on 24 Jan. 1798 to celebrate his birthday. At this dinner the Duke of Norfolk gave as a toast ‘Our sovereign, the people,’ and was in consequence dismissed from his lord-lieutenancy. Fox repeated the toast at a dinner held early in May, and on the 9th his name was erased from the privy council (Life of Pitt, iii. 128;, iv. 303). He disliked the proposed Irish union, and thought that a scheme of federation would be preferable (19 Jan. 1799, Memorials, iii. 150, 295;, Diary, ii. 39); the ministerial proposal was, he declared, ‘an attempt to establish the principles as well as the practice of despotism’ (Life of Grattan, iv. 435), but ‘nothing would induce him to attend the union debates.’ In September 1799 he was severely injured in the hand by the bursting of a gun while he was out shooting. He was indignant at Lord Grenville's reply to the overtures in the First Consul's letter of 25 Dec., and in deference to the wishes of his friends attended the debate on it on 3 Feb. 1800. His speech, except at the end, is rather an indictment of the ministers for entering on the war than a condemnation of Grenville's letter (Speeches, vi. 420). He was indignant at the sentences passed on Lord Thanet and Wakefield; wrote bitterly of the ministers, declaring that, with them in office, invasion would mean slavery; condemned their Irish policy, disapproved of their proposal to compensate Irish borough-holders, and held that they were wrong in their pretensions as regards the right of searching neutral ships (Memorials, iii. 284, 292, 306, 326).

When Addington succeeded Pitt, in February 1801, Fox determined to test the feeling of the house by joining in the debate on Grey's motion on the state of the nation on 25 March. He spoke with much ability on the dispute with the northern powers, the ill-success of the war, and the rights of catholics, warmly vindicated the character of the Irish people, and made a sarcastic reference to the new chancellor of the exchequer (Speeches, vi. 423). The motion was rejected, and he declared that he should not attend again that session except to uphold Tooke's claim. The House of Commons, he thought, ‘had ceased, and would cease, to be a place of much importance.’ He approved of the peace of Amiens, and on 10 Oct., at a dinner at the Shakespeare tavern, exulted in the thought that the peace was glorious to France. ‘Ought not glory,’ he said, ‘to be the reward of such a glorious struggle?’ (Life of Pitt, iii. 357). On 3 Nov. he criticised the terms of the peace in parliament. He was re-elected for Westminster after a contest in July 1802, and on the 29th set out for a tour in the Netherlands, Holland, and France. While at Paris he had several interviews with Bonaparte. They did not raise his opinion of the First Consul, whom he pronounced to be a ‘young man considerably intoxicated with success’ (, Memoirs, p. 36;, Journal de l'Empereur, iv. 171). Much of his time was spent in working at the archives, getting materials for his history. He paid a short visit to Lafayette, and returned to England on 17 Nov. On his return he expressed his conviction that Bonaparte wished for peace, and would do everything in his power to maintain it (Memorials, iii. 381, 384). Nevertheless, on 8 March 1803, he found himself forced to support a warlike address. On 24 May, after the declaration of war, he made a speech of three hours' duration in favour of an attempt to restore peace. This speech is universally praised. ‘It was calm, subtle, argumentative pleasantry’ (Memoirs of Horner, i. 221;, iv. 257; Life of Sidmouth, ii. 182). He condemned the retention of Malta, but blamed the conduct of France with respect to Switzerland and Holland. Piedmont, he declared, was a part of France; we had no right to complain of France there. In the matter of insults, as distinguished from injuries, he scorned the idea of checking the freedom of