to the idle curiosity of a House of Commons? I do not dread such a consequence, but, if I must be pushed to extremes, if nothing were left me but an option between opposite evils, I should have no hesitation in choosing. 'Better have no dealings with them at all,' I should answer, "if the right of inquiry into every part of a negotiation they think fit, and of knowing why they are to vote the money of their constituents, be denied the House of Commons.' But there is something like a reason why no foreign power will negotiate with us, and that a much better reason than a dread of disclosing their secrets, in the right honourable gentleman's example. I declare, therefore, for the genius of our Constitution, against the practice of his Majesty's ministers. I declare that the duties of this House are, vigilance in preference to secrecy, deliberation in preference to dispatch." The vote of censure was rejected by 244 to 116.

Fox and his Party.-Fox (says Earl Russell) was a great speaker, and, in the words of Burke, the greatest debater the world ever saw. Not place or power, but reputation as an orator, was the object of his ambition, as he declares in one of his earliest letters to an intimate friend and relation. He inspired affection rather than admiration. In his worst days an observer said of his party, "There are only forty of them, but every one of them is ready to be hanged for Fox."-Sir James Mackintosh records the words of Burke, six years after intercourse between himself and Fox had ceased: To be sure, he is a man made to be loved."

The Sovereign People.-In the beginning of May, 1798, the Duke of Norfolk presided at a great dinner of the Whig Club. At the close of the evening he gave as a toast, "Our Sovereign-the People;" or, as Lord Holland relates it, "The People-our Sovereign." Upon the report of these doings he was dismissed by the Crown from the Lord Lieutenancy of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Fox, glad to defend what he considered the true doctrine, went afterwards to the Whig Club, and gave the same toast which had caused so much offence in the mouth of the Duke of Norfolk. For this Pitt struck his name out of the Privy Council.

"All the Talents."-On the death of Pitt (January 23rd, 1806), the King, in spite of his antipathy to Fox, was compelled to apply to Lord Granville to form a Ministry in which he knew that statesman must be included. Its leading members were Lord Granville as First Lord of the Treasury; Fox, Windham, and Spencer, Secretaries of State; Erskine, Lord Chancellor; Addington, Privy Seal; Grey, First Lord of the Admiralty; Lord Henry Petty, Chancellor of the Exchequer; Sheridan, Paymaster General. To this combination the name of "All the Talents” was first applied by its friends, and afterwards as a term of ridicule by its opponents, especially Mr. Canning.

The Commons not a Place of Much Importance.-When Sir Charles Grey was made a peer, his son was thus written to by Fox: "I am very much concerned to hear of your father's peerage, more especially as I understand it vexes you very much. It is undoubtedly a provoking event; but, according to my notions, the constitution of the country is

declining so rapidly, that the House of Commons has in a great measure ceased, and will shortly entirely cease, to be a place of much importance."

Foxiana.—The following facts respecting Fox are given in S. Rogers' "Recollections":-Lord Grenville said, "his speeches were full of repetitions. He used to say that it was necessary to hammer it into them; but I rather think he could not do otherwise.-Lord Holland related that when Fox first entered office, being dissatisfied with his handwriting, he took lessons.-George III. (said the Duke of Wellington) was no listener. When Fox came out of the closet once, somebody said, "You have had a long audience.” "Given one, you mean," was his answer.

Grattan's Character of Fox.-His name excites tenderness and wonder. To do justice to that immortal person, you must not limit your view to his country. His genius was not confined to England; it was seen three thousand miles off, in communicating freedom to the Americans; it was visible I know not how far off, in ameliorating the condition of the Indian; it was discernible on the coast of Africa, in accomplishing the abolition of the slave trade. You are to measure the magnitude of his

mind by parallels of latitude.

His heart was as soft as that of a woman; his intellect was adamant.-Curran and his Contemporaries.

Duel between Fox and Mr. Adam.-Earl Russell gives the following account of this affair :-Mr. Fox had made a vehement attack on Mr. Adam, who, having changed from the Opposition to the Ministerial side, gave as a reason for his change that, although the ministers were not very competent, no persons more competent were to be found among their opponents. Mr. Fox, confounding mental power with moral rectitude, described the minister as turning round on his new defender, and saying to him, "Begone, begone, wretch! who delightest in libelling mankind, confounding virtue and vice, and insulting the man whom thou pretendest to defend, by saying to his face that he certainly is infamous, but that there are others still more so." Mr Adam having in vain endeavoured to obtain an explanation of this speech from Mr. Fox, to be inserted in the newspapers, sent Major Humberston to arrange the particulars of a hostile meeting. The meeting accordingly took place in Hyde Park, at eight in the morning of the 29th of November, 1799. After the ground had been measured, Mr. Adam desired Mr. Fox to fire; to which Mr. Fox replied, "Sir, I have no quarrel with you, do you fire." Mr. Adam fired; Mr. Fox then fired without effect. Upon this the seconds, Colonel Fitzpatrick and Major Humberston, interfered, asking Mr. Adam if he was satisfied. Mr. Adam replied, "Will Mr. Fox declare he meant no personal attack upon my character?" Upon which Mr. Fox said, "That was no place for apologies," and desired Mr. Adam to go on. Mr. Adam fired his second pistol without effect. Mr. Fox fired his remaining pistol in the air, and said that, as the affair was ended, he had no difficulty in declaring he meant no more personal affront to Mr. Adam than he did to either of the other gentlemen present. Mr. Adam replied, "Sir, you have behaved like a man of honour." Mr. Fox then mentioned that he believed himself wounded. On opening his waistcoat, it was found that Mr. Adam's first ball had taken effect, but that the wound was

very slight. The wits of the Opposition said that Mr. Adam had used Government powder, notorious for being deficient in strength. No men were greater friends in after life than Mr. Fox and Mr. Adam.

The Rivals at Peace.-Pitt and Fox both died in the same year (1806), the former in January and the latter in September. Their graves, in Westminster Abbey, are situated within a few inches of each other. Sir Walter Scott thus moralises on the fact, in the introduction to the first canto of "Marmion":

"Where-taming thought to human pride!

The mighty chiefs sleep side by side.
Drop upon Fox's grave the tear,

"Twill trickle to his rival's bier;

O'er Pitt's the mournful requiem sound,
And Fox's shall the notes rebound
The solemn echo seems to cry-
'Here let their discord with them die.
Speak not for those a separate doom,
Whom fate made brothers in the tomb ;
But, search the land of living men,
Where wilt thou find their like agen ?'"

EDMUND BURKE.

(1729-1797.)

Burke in the Strangers' Gallery.-One giant attraction would draw the youthful genius from his desk, his journeys, and even from the intellectual tables of his friends. It was Burke's frequent and favourite custom to go alone to the House of Commons; to there ensconce himself in the gallery, and to sit for hours, his attention absorbed, and his mind enrapt in the scene beneath him. "Some of these men," he remarked to a friend, "talk like Demosthenes or Cicero ; and I feel when I am listening to them as if I were in Athens or Rome." Soon these nightly visits became his passion; a strange fascination drew him again and again to the same place. No doubt the magic of his own master spirit was upon him, and the spell was working. He might be compared to the young eagle accustoming its eye to the sun before it soared aloft.-Burke's "Life of Burke."

His Acquisition of Estate.-Burke obtained initiation into political life when he was about thirty years of age, by taking the post of secretary to Gerard Hamilton (of the "single speech ") at a salary of 300l. a year. Prior to this he had been earning a small and precarious living by editing Dodsley's "Register," and similar occupations. In 1765 he left Hamilton's service, and shortly after became secretary to the Marquis of Rockingham, acting in that capacity until the fall of the Rockingham Ministry in 1766. Two years later he startled his friends by purchasing for more than 20,000l. an estate called "The Gregories," near Beaconsfield. The Marquis advanced 10,000l. of this sum on a bond which it was understood would never be reclaimed; and during fourteen years prior to his death, he is said to have assisted Burke in a similar

manner with sums amounting to about 30,000l. (Macknight's "Life and Times of Burke.") On visiting Burke for the first time in his mansion, Johnson exclaimed in a reverie, "Non equidem invideo;" and on taking leave of him remarked, "I wish you all the success which ought to be wished you; which can possibly be wished you, indeed, by an honest man."

His First Speech.-In January, 1766 (writes Prior), Mr. Burke seized the first opportunity of taking an active part in the discussion concerning America. Mr. Pitt (the elder) immediately followed Mr. Burke in the debate, and complimented him by observing that "the young member had proved himself a very able advocate. He had himself intended to enter at length into the details, but he had been anticipated with so much ingenuity and eloquence that there was little left for him to say. He congratulated him on his success, and his friends on the value of the acquisition they had made." On his quitting the House, all his friends crowded round him, expressing the greatest pleasure at the result, the praise of Mr. Pitt being of itself, in the general opinion, a passport to fame.

Representative and Constituents.-When Burke was elected for Bristol in 1774, in returning thanks from the hustings he thus explained his views of the relations which should subsist between a member of Parliament and his constituents: "Certainly, gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinion, high respect; their business, unremitted attention. But his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure; no, nor from the law and the constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion. Authoritative instructions; mandates issued, which the member is bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue for, though contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment and conscience—these are things utterly unknown to the laws of this land, and which arise from a fundamental mistake of the whole order and tenor of our constitution. Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests, which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but Parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices, ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not a member of Bristol, but he is a member of Parliament."

A Bull.-In the course of his speech during the debate on the budget of 1772, Burke said: "The minister comes down in state, attended by his

creatures of all denominations-beasts clean and unclean. With such, however, as they are, he comes down, opens his budget, and edifies us all with his speech. What is the consequence? One half of the House goes away. A gentleman on the other side gets up, and harangues upon the state of the nation; and, in order to keep matters even, another half retires at the close of his speech. A third gentleman follows their example, and rids the House of another half (a loud laugh through the House). Sir (said he, turning the laugh with some address), I take the blunder to myself, and confess my satisfaction at having said anything that can put the House in good humour."

A False Quantity.-Mr. Burke (relates Harford), in the course of some very severe animadversions which he made on Lord North, for want of due economy in his management of the public purse, introduced the well-known aphorism, Magnum vectigal est parsimonia, but was guilty of a false quantity by saying vectigal. Lord North, while this philippic went on, had been half asleep, and sat heaving backwards and forwards like a great turtle; but the sound of a false quantity instantly aroused him, and opening his eyes he exclaimed, in a very marked and distinct manner, "Vectigal." "I thank the noble lord," said Burke, with happy adroitness, "for the correction, the more particularly as it affords me the opportunity of repeating a maxim which he greatly needs to have reiterated upon him." He then thundered out, " Magnum vectigal est parsimonia."

"Order" in the Veins.-An attempt to prevent the publication of proceedings of the House was warmly opposed by Burke, and supported by a member named Onslow, who endeavoured to add weight to his opinions by claiming descent from three Speakers of the Commons. To this Burke scornfully replied: "I have not the advantage of a parliamentary genealogy. I was not born, like the honourable gentleman, with 'Order' running through my veins. But as that gentleman boasts of his father (Speaker Onslow), his son will never boast of him. The parliamentary line is cut off."

A Patchwork Cabinet.-In a debate on the taxation of the American colonies, April 19, 1774, Mr. Burke thus spoke of the ministry formed by the Earl of Chatham in 1766: "He made an administration so checkered and speckled; he put together a piece of joinery so crossly indented and whimsically dovetailed; a cabinet so variously inlaid; such a piece of diversified mosaic; such a tesselated pavement without cement; here a bit of black stone, and there a bit of white; patriots and courtiers, king's friends and republicans, Whigs and Tories, treacherous friends and open enemies; that it was indeed a very curious show, but utterly unsafe to touch, and unsure to stand on. The colleagues whom he had assorted at the same boards stared at each other, and were obliged to ask, 'Sir, your name? Sir, you have the advantage of me-Mr. Such-a-oneI beg a thousand pardons.' I venture to say it did so happen that persons had a single office divided between them, who had never spoken to each other in their lives, until they found themselves, they knew not how, pigging together, heads and points, in the same truckle-bed."