ble for him not to gain by the superiority of his abilities, and the dignity of his character! But the most decisive proof of his moderation is, that when employed as a servant of the crown, he was content to bear the chief responsibility for measures without vaulting into the chief official situation. He humbled, but did not abase himself, and for the loss of exaltation to the highest ministerial power, he was abundantly repaid by the esteem of his colleagues, and the confidence of his party.

Whatsoever difficulties may formerly have perplexed us while our judgment was oppressed by our fears, we can now be at no loss to account for the singularity of his conduct amidst those tempestuous scenes, in which the follies and the crimes of which human nature is capable burst upon our notice in their fullest magnitude and most shocking deformity. While many of his well-wishers and opponents were scared by one common panic-while his illustrious rival seemed in some instances to temporise for the sake of power-and while for the sake of popularity, which soon passed away, he who had once been the friend of his bosom stooped to many of the meannesses, and plunged into many of the extravagancies by which recent conversion would make its zeal the measure of its sincerity, Mr. Fox continued to reason from the treasures of his own profound knowledge, and to act from the dictates of his own unbiassed judgment. At a most gloomy and portentous crisis, and with the prospect of political odium, and even personal danger, he addressed himself to his misguided constituents, to an incensed

parliament, and to a terrified people. He argued, he supplicated, he warned, he ventured almost to predict.60 But he never confounded the use of liberty with the abuse; never seized upon sudden and fleeting prejudices in order to undermine ancient and solid principles; never provoked outrages for the purpose of condemning and retaliating them, nor attempted to extenuate those overt-acts, of injustice and cruelty which disgraced a cause not palpably bad at its commencement-overt-acts you will observe, which themselves owed their rise in too many instances to unwise and intemperate opposition, and which eventually baffled the expectation of many wise and virtuous men 61 who had for a time supported that cause, but who ceased to support it when it had furnished a pretext for those crimes. If indeed the destiny of Europe (and for once let me use this phrase) had permitted his counsels to be adopted in the spirit which really suggested them to his mind, and for the ends to which alone he was anxious to direct them, the licentious uproar of popular phrenzy might have been hushed nearly at the beginning of the contest -the savage triumphs of profligate and sanguinary upstarts might have been prevented-the constitution of France might at once have been reformed and preserved, and the life of its amiable sovereign might have been rescued from most unmerited destruction. That most deplorable event may have surprised other men more than it surprised such observers as Mr. Fox. But no Christian, however pious, no loyalist, however ardent, no human being,

however compassionate, viewed it with more indignation and horror than our virtuous friend.

Opinions may now be tried by the test of facts, and the merits of measures may be decided without undue partiality to statesmen who are no more. I ask only what intelligent and honest men will always be ready to grant, that moderation in principles is very compatible with ardour in language. The moderation of Mr. Fox then at the commencement, and I add during the progress of the French revolution, was the result of intense and serious meditation upon the experience of past ages. But the er

rors of his more ardent opposers have been detected in the recent and melancholy experience 62 of our own times.

Quis est," says Cicero, speaking of his own mistakes and his own unhappy times, "tam Lynceus, qui tantis Tenebris nihil offendat? nusquam incurrat?" Upon a subject so complex, and in many respects so novel as the revolution in France, where the interposition of foreign powers was marked at once with indecision and rashness, where great and general views were suddenly crossed by local considerations or selfish motives, and where the immediate agents at home, were numerous, restless, discordant in their purposes, and infuriate in their passions, no observer could, at the outset, be purely and entirely right. At this distance of time, therefore, the proper enquiry is, who among our countrymen was least wrong? Upon some

Epis. ad Famil, lib. ix. Epis. 2.

questions in theory, and many contingencies in practice, all disputants I think lie open to the imputation of error. They thought too well or too ill of the contending parties. They acted too little in some respects, and too much in others, and to a long and frightful catalogue which history supplies, they have added one striking instance, that the wisest of men may plume themselves too highly upon their foresight, and that man is doomed to call much of his real knowledge by the just, though humble name of Επιμηθία.

But we are led, surely, by the venial, I had almost said, the amiable instincts of our nature, to feel a bias in favour of those persons who from general principles wish well to the liberties of mankind, who recommend peace to governments, and who are solicitous rather to persuade than compel, and to conciliate rather than inflame.

The measures which Mr. Pitt proposed have been tried-those which Mr. Fox pointed out have not, But no candid man will refuse to Mr. Pitt the praise of right intention. Yet upon a dispassionate and serious review of the comparative merit to be ascribed to Mr. Fox, few intelligent men would now venture upon direct and unqualified contradiction, if that statesman, with some alteration of Cicero's words, had been induced to say, "Se et plus vidisse, et speravisse meliora."*

He that in the intercourse of private life could "be angry and sin not," may be readily supposed to

* Vid. Phil. ii. par. 7.

separate every malignant feeling from measures of political hostility, and to make allowances for the unsuspected and complicated motives of those actions which, disguise the deformity of ambition from its votaries, and which, under the most specious pretences, too frequently disturb the tranquillity of the world. But knowing every unnecessary war 63 to be pregnant with inconveniences and mischiefs which baffle calculation,64 he was disposed by reflection and by habit to check rather than to rouse, and to assuage rather than to provoke, the fiercer passions of mankind-he rested national glory upon the broad and strong foundation of national security -he laboured to appease, and by appeasing to protect, his irritated, and perhaps injured countrymen, at the hazard of offending their pride,65 and forfeiting their favour-he preferred dispassionate negotiation to precipitate violence, in his conduct towards foreign powers; in the pursuit of redress, he steadily kept in his view the possibility of reconciliation— he weighed in the balance of impartial justice every complaint of the accuser, and every plea of the accused-he dismissed what was trifling-he explained what was doubtful-he asserted what was clear and equitable-he employed moderation as the harbinger of vigour, and if compelled to unsheath the sword, he would have discerned, welcomed, and improved, every opportunity which the course of events might have afforded him for holding out the olive branch. In order to secure the usual relations of amity and peace, he would have endeavoured to preserve or restore the usual rela