Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/99

 1807.] Front Irish Union to Dismissal of Grenville. 85 war to which he had always been opposed, and which was working so much misery to England and to the whole of Europe. Here he was again doomed to bitter disappoint- ment. On this point he met with no serious opposition at home, for there were few English politicians who were not anxious to end a contest which was pressing so heavily on the resources of their country. But the struggle which the Radical policy might have prevented no effort could arrest. Napoleon, in the pride of his victory, the greatness of his ambition, and the intensity of his hatred of England, would consent to no terms which the most peace-loving minister could recommend to this country as consistent with either her honour or her safety. So the war, which had become one for national existence, had to be carried on. In whatever the Government for the time being proposed by way of warlike preparation, they met with a ready support in Parliament. When Windham brought forward his military proposals Canning opposed them, but, by a majority of 271 to 1 19, they were carried in the House of Commons. But Fox was not destined to carry on the painful and hopeless work much longer. Parliament was prorogued on the 23rd of July, but for two months before the great Liberal had been unable to attend. He was never more to visit the scenes of his labours, of his triumphs as an orator, of his reverses as a statesman. On the 1 3th of September he died, and England lost the service of one of her noblest and truest sons, the cause of liberty one of its most faithful and most brilliant advocates. The character and the work of Fox must be tried by a peculiar standard. He was a Radical when Radicalism was neither appreciated nor understood. Passionate in his denun- ciation of wrong, fearless in his proposals for reform, a sublime agitator and leader of forlorn hopes, he was yet born into the ranks of the governing class, and it was as much part of the necessities of his position and of his inherited nature as it must have been the desire of his active spirit, to aim at taking part in the practical government of the country. Yet he knew, and did not hesitate to declare, that under the social