Charles James Fox: A Political Study - John Lawrence Hammond - Google Книги

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CONTENTS

Fox's youthful escapades in pleasure and politics. His education. His

love of letters. His views about women. His friendships. His

oratory. Disadvantages as a leader, (1) his private reputation, (2) his

friendship with the Prince of Wales, (3) his recklessness, (4) his mis-

takes in tactics, e.g. the Coalition. His advocacy of unpopular causes

not fatal to his influence. His characteristics, (1) courage, (2) high

sense of honour and duty, (3) constancy. His relation to domestic

problems. His attitude to Free Trade. The great champion of

national justice and respect for freedom

PAGE

FOX AND THE KING

The real nature of the struggle between the King and the Whigs. The

King's system. His successes. His treatment of the first Rocking-

ham Ministry. Chatham's behaviour. His Government. His

breakdown. His resignation. North's Ministry. The difficulties

of the Opposition. The differences between Chatham and the

Rockinghams. Fox's attachment to the Rockinghams. Their pro-

gramme laid down by Burke (1) an attack on corruption, (2) the

control of the King. The history of the Economy Agitation, 1779

to 1782. The years of public embarrassment and catastrophe. The

victory of the Rockinghams in 1782. The great achievements of

their brief Ministry

FOX AND THE KING

The internal weakness of the Government due to Shelburne's position.

Rockingham's death. Resignation of Burke and Fox as a protest

against the King's influence in the Cabinet. The Coalition. The

motives that prompted it. The real issue the King's authority.

The King's control of Pitt in vital issues throughout his career.

Fox right in his aims but wrong in his tactics. The public be-

wildered and suspicious. The Coalition Government and the India

Bill. The great débacle of March 1784. Fox's account of his

motives in 1796. Demoralising effect of the struggle alike on Pitt

and on the Rockinghams

PARLIAMENTARY REFORM

Pitt drops Reform after one effort in Parliament in 1785. Difference

between Pitt's view and Fox's view of Reform. Fox on the strength

of Democracy. The Reform Agitation suspended. Public opinion

listless. The Opposition disqualified by its heterogeneous char-

With the Revolution public interest revives and a compact

Opposition emerges from the quarrel between Fox and Burke.

Grey's two Motions in 1793 and 1797. The difference between Fox

and the Democrats. Fox against universal suffrage because it would

enfranchise men who were not independent. His conception of

citizenship. Was Reform urgent? The decay of the Yeoman class

in England at the end of the eighteenth century

THE REIGN OF TERROR

Comparison of the Agitation of 1793-94 with that of 1780. A different

social class, but methods the same. The Government case destroyed

by the great trials of 1794. Lord Rosebery's justification. The

Prosecutions in England and Scotland. The Coercion Bills of 1795.

The Suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. The hard lot of the

Reformers. Coleridge's letter on Thelwall. The efforts of the

Opposition in Parliament. Attempts to promote agitation in the

country. Fox retires in 1797. His speech at the Whig Club on the

Sovereignty of the People. His name removed from the Privy

Council. Characteristics of his speeches against the Coercion

PAGE

FOX AND IRELAND

The rise of the national spirit in the seventies. Grattan's work.

Volunteer movement. The great triumph of 1782. Fox's attitude.

His argument that no country was entitled to hold the sovereignty

of another against its will. Proposal for commercial treaty declined

by Grattan. The unfortunate agitation of 1782-83 over the reality

of the concession of independence. Its results. The question settled

by explicit Act of the British Parliament. The armed Convention of

Volunteers. Fox firm against concession to men in arms. The Con-

vention disperses

FOX AND IRELAND

The importance of the Election of 1784 to Ireland. The delicate situation

created by the arrangements of 1782 illustrated in the Regency crisis.

Pitt's great commercial scheme. Fox's acrimonious opposition.

scheme drops. The keynote to Pitt's Irish policy his dread of an

independent Ireland. Hence his resistance to reform and his flagrant

increase of corruption. Concessions to Catholics in 1792 and 1793

designed to avert more formidable danger of Parliamentary Reform.

Pitt's treatment of the Catholic question before and after the Union

shows that he subordinated everything to the necessity of arresting the

moral independence of Ireland. Fox's policy the exact opposite.

His ideal an Ireland governed by Irish opinion and liberated from the

Protestant ascendancy. His attitude to the Fitzwilliam incident and

the Union. Justified in his view that English opinion and not Irish

opinion was the real bar to Catholic emancipation. Fox unlike many

Whigs who were Whigs everywhere except in Ireland

COLONIES AND DEPENDENCIES

The quarrel with America. Its causes. The trade difficulty. Disputes

come to a head in 1774, the year of Fox's dismissal from office. Fox

not a Free Trader, but he argued like Adam Smith that America

would be agricultural. His strong opinion that a conquered America

would be worse than separation. Close connection between that

struggle and domestic struggle. Fox's view of the Quebec Bill in

1791. His criticism justified. The problem in India. Fox's Bill.

Pitt's Bill. The impeachment of Warren Hastings. The slave trade.

The development of public opinion. The apologies for the trade, the

feelings of the colonies. Pitt's early enthusiasm and later vacillation.

Fox's decisive Resolution in 1806

FOX AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

The Revolution different from contemporary revolutions. Burke's pas-

sionate interest. He came to glorify the ancient régime. Fox saw

more clearly the collapse of government. Fox's great distinction

that he kept his faith in the Revolution long after its excesses had

alienated those who had begun by admiring it. His correct judgment

of the extenuating circumstances of the Terror and of the strength of

the Revolutionary sentiment

FOX'S POLICY IN 1792

Fox's earlier view of France. His anti-Bourbon sentiment. How far

justified? The Revolution transforms the diplomatic arrangements of

Europe. Fox's view of the Coalition. The questions at issue between

France and England in 1792-93. Pitt's relations with Chauvelin and

Maret. Fox's relations with Chauvelin and Talleyrand. Danton's

policy. Fox's opposition to the war. Pitt's illusions about its

FOX AND NATIONALISM

Burke's fear of Revolutionary principles. Fox's fear of the spirit of con-

quest and despotic repression. Fox anticipated the Congress of Aix-

la-Chapelle. The rise of the principle of nationality, a principle

strange to eighteenth century diplomacy. Fox one of the few to under-

stand the power of nationalism. The great issue between Fox and

Burke. The same issue involved in the controversies of the nineteenth

century. Fox saw that the conflict of ideas was not to be determined

by the sword. Contrast with Burke and Windham. The conse-

quences of Pitt's policy to England's place in Europe.

FOX AND THE FRENCH WAR

Pitt's policy outwardly contradictory, but essentially consistent.

thought restoration of monarchy meant the reduction of French power.

Fox opposes this policy as, (1) unjust interference, (2) aggrandising

France. Peace of Amiens. Difference between Fox and Pitt in

second war. Pitt looks to the East and Fox to Europe. The great

Coalition and Austerlitz. Fox and Windham on military system. Last

effort to make peace with France. Charges against Fox's patriotism. 282

RELIGIOUS TOLERATION

The disabilities of Dissenters, Protestant and Catholic, in George the

Third's Reign. (1) Test and Corporation Acts.

Fox's great efforts to secure religious freedom.

(1) Burke and Pitt and (2) Burke and Fox

(2) Penal Laws.

Contrast between

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