toast which has just been announced by the chairman. It is a satisfaction to me to reflect that your favour is obtained, not by the accidental qualities of talents and power, but by a steady adherence to those principles which animated Mr. Fox through life, and, holding it by that tenure, I trust that it will never be forfeited.' RUSSELL. ALDWORTH: October 30, 1874. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. 1813-1842 RECOLLECTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. CHAPTER I. I WAS ELECTED a Member of Parliament for the borough of Tavistock in July 1813, just a month before I became of age. The state of public affairs at that moment was one, if not of anxiety, yet of the highest interest. The great Revolutionary War, which had continued with intervals from the invasion of France by the Duke of Brunswick in 1792, was evidently drawing to a close. That war may properly be divided into two very distinct periods. First, the vain, weak, and ineffectual struggle of the Powers of Europe against the insane strength of the French Revolution, terminated by the Treaty of Campo Formio, and the Treaty of Ratisbon, on the Continent of Europe, and by the Peace, or more properly, the Truce of Amiens, between England and France. Secondly, the struggle maintained on the one side by B Napoleon Bonaparte with infinite ability, infinite ambition, and an entire disregard of moral or religious scruples, with a view to make himself despotic master of every country in Europe; on the other side, by the resisting power of England, and by the spirit of national independence, first roused on the Continent in the breasts of the Spanish people, and extending from them, as opportunity arose, to the people of Russia, of Germany, of Holland, and of Northern Italy. For some years the conduct of the war on the part of the Allies forms a strange contrast to the skill with which William III., Marlborough, and Prince Eugene had conducted the Grand Alliance against France, and to the spirit and military talent which Frederick the Great and Lord Chatham had displayed in the Seven Years War against the forces of France, Austria, and Russia. In 1792, the Duke of Brunswick, in contradiction to his own views and opinions, had issued a proclamation inspired by the French Royalist emigration threatening with condign punishment the National Assembly of France, and all who held political, municipal, or other offices under the French Republic. This atrocious attempt to deprive France of the rights of an independent nation was soon defeated in the field, and, by the just resentment which it provoked, was the main cause of the repeated and splendid triumphs of the French Republic. The beginning of the war was a |