Charles James Fox Quotes (1749-1806)

“My chief objection (I mean that to the character of Aeneas) is, of course, not so much felt in the three first books; but, afterwards, he is always either insipid or odious, sometimes excites interest against him, and never for him.”

“Impossible, impossible; one feels as if there was something missing in the world—a chasm, a blank that cannot be supplied.”

“[The] pathetic is Virgil's great excellence in the Æneid, and...in that way he surpasses all other poets of every age and nation, except, perhaps (and only perhaps), Shakspeare. It is on that account that I rank him so very high; for surely to excel in that style which speaks to the heart is the greatest of all excellence.”

“After the fall of Clarendon...the King entered into that career of government, which, that he was able to pursue it to its end, is a disgrace to the history of our country. If any thing can add to our disgust at the meanness with which he solicited a dependence upon Lewis the Fourteenth, it is the hypocritical pretence upon which he was continually pressing that monarch.”

“Though I wrote this letter merely with a view of acquainting you with the state of this bill, I cannot let this opportunity go by, of assuring you how very happy I feel to be of opinion on public affairs, with a person, with whom I have always wished to agree; and with whom I should act with more pleasure, in any possible situation, than with any one I have been acquainted with.”

“In regard to what you say about any intimate connexion between Lansdowne and me, I agree almost entirely with you, except perhaps that I do not give him the credit for sincerity in any system which you seem to do. I never can have a good opinion of him, and still less a great one. However, we are upon terms of the greatest civility, and it must be confessed that his conduct for these last three years has had an openness and consistency, which entitles him to every outward mark of respect, from those who think as we do.”

“I will only mention one other circumstance as tending to show the fallacy of Mr. Bright's opinion. He quotes Charles James Fox as a great authority for peace. I happen to know, from the only living authority from whom that information could be derived—I happen to know that Charles James Fox, the great Minister who resisted the revolutionary war so long, told his colleagues each and severally, on his deathbed, that the great war in which they were then engaged could not be brought to a conclusion; he enjoined them to prosecute it with vigour, and I, among others, look back with gratitude to the results of that great contest.”

“Charles James Fox, who, though through some of the perverse fortunes and accidents of political life, only held high office twice in his life, and in each case for a very brief time, was acknowledged by all good judges to be second to none among the Parliamentary speakers in what we are accustomed, and rightly, to describe as the Golden Age of British eloquence.”

“[On 11 June 1784] I asked him [Samuel Johnson] if it was true as reported, that he had said lately, ‘I am for the King against Fox; but I am for Fox against Pitt.’ JOHNSON: ‘Yes, Sir; the King is my master; but I do not know Pitt; and Fox is my friend.’ ‘Fox, (added he,) is a most extraordinary man; here is a man (describing him in strong terms of objection in some respects according as he apprehended, but which exalted his abilities the more) who has divided the Kingdom with Caesar; so that it was a doubt whether the nation should be ruled by the sceptre of George the Third, or the tongue of Fox.’”

“Come down 50 years nearer to our own time, and you find a statesman, not long in office, but still held in the affections of all persons of liberal principles in this country, and in his time representing fully the sentiments of the Liberal party—Charles James Fox (Cheers.) Mr. Fox, referring to the policy of the Government of his time, which was one of constant interference in the affairs of Europe, and by which the country was continually involved in the calamities of war, said that although he would not assert or maintain the principle, that under no circumstances could England have any cause of interference with the affairs of the continent of Europe, yet he would prefer the positive policy of non-interference and of perfect isolation rather than the constant intermeddling to which our recent policy had subjected us, and which brought so much trouble and suffering upon the country.”

“It was left...above all to Charles James Fox himself to defend the liberties of the subject, freedom of the press and of public meeting against the encroachments of a panicky Government. Fox was almost certainly wrong in his estimate of the danger from France, especially after Napoleon's coup d'état, and Whig opposition to the war had a tendency to degenerate into factiousness, but his defence of liberty was a vindication both of his own courage and of the liberal tradition.”

“Pitt's reputation would have been less decisive had not it contrasted so pointedly with the public image of his main rival. Indeed, it is not easy to explain why a man, so attractive in his private circle, should have been so distrusted by the public at large. It would be too simple to see Fox as the victim of unrelenting propaganda. Paragraph after paragraph, it is true, dwelt on his debts, his gambling, his love affairs, and reminded readers that his father had once been called "the public defaulter of unaccounted millions". The accusation of "Cromwell" was particularly effective. It was reported to be the "received notion among the inferiors" in Yorkshire that Fox was "attempting to dethrone the King and make himself an Oliver Cromwell". In Lancashire the name of Fox was said to be "most universally execrated", and in Gloucestershire "the Good Women and the Mob" exclaimed against him and the India bill "with an honest vehemence that will not permit them to discriminate between the Minister and the Man". But he was hounded in this way because he was peculiarly vulnerable, and because the public was prepared to believe the worst of him.”

“It is impossible to read the speeches of Fox, at this time, without feeling one's heart yearn with admiration and gratitude for the bold and resolute manner in which he opposed the war, never yielding and never repining, under the most discouraging defeats; and, although deserted by many of his friends in the house, taunted with having only a score of followers left, and obliged to admit that he could not walk the streets without being insulted, by hearing the charge made against him of carrying on an improper correspondence with the enemy in France, yet bearing it all with uncomplaining manliness and dignity. The annals of Parliament do not record a nobler struggle in a nobler cause.”

“Charles Fox...[had] the combination of gifts which made him the most attractive Englishman who ever gave his mind to parliamentary politics. Somehow the influence which persuaded Edward Gibbon to say, “Let him do what he will; I must love the dog,” has been transmitted down to us, and somehow, too, the cause of English liberty which he made peculiarly his own embodies the glow of his personality... Fox himself felt the democratic potency of those contests and gave emphasis to it in his own words: “It is the energy, the boldness of a man's mind, which prompts him to speak, not in private but in large and popular assemblies, that constitutes, that creates in a state, the spirit of freedom.” He drew strength and courage from the vast London crowds who swayed before him, and it was there he learned his hatred of censorship, repression, informers; his trust in the people.”

“In his tour of Switzerland (September 1788) Mr. Fox gave me two days of free and private society. He seemed to feel, and even to envy, the happiness of my situation; while I admired the powers of a superior man, as they are blended in his attractive character with the softness and simplicity of a child. Perhaps no human being was ever more perfectly exempt from the taint of malevolence, vanity, or falsehood.”

“I heard him [Robert Peel] express a low opinion of Fox. So far as Fox's private character is concerned, Peel may have been right; but, as a public man, Fox had certainly a remarkable power of grasping general principles.”

“Who was the best speaker you ever heard? Fox, during the American War—Fox in his best days; about the year 1779.”