THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, JULY 1808. No. XXIV. ART. 1. A History of the early Part of the Reign of James the Second; with an Introductory Chapter. By the Right Honour able Charles James Fox. To which is added an Appendix. 4to. pp. 340. Miller, London, 1808. F it be true that high expectation is almost always followed by disappointment, it is scarcely possible that the readers of MR Fox's history should not be disappointed. So great a statesman certainly has not appeared as an author since the time of Lord Clarendon; and, independent of the great space which he fills in the recent history of this country, and the admitted splendour of his general talents,—his known zeal for liberty, the fame of his eloquence, and his habitual study of every thing relating to the constitution, concurred to direct an extraordinary degree of attention to the work upon which he was known to be engaged, and to fix a standard of unattainable excellence for the trial of his first acknowledged production. The very circumstance of his not having published any considerable work during his life, and of his having died before bringing this to a conclusion, served to increase the general curiosity, and to accumulate upon this single fragment the interest of his whole literary ex istence. No human production, we suppose, could bear to be tried by such a test and those who sit down to the perusal of the work before us, under the influence of such impressions, are very likely to rise disappointed. With those, however, who are at all on their guard against the delusive effect of these natural emotions, the result, we venture to predict, will be different; and for ourselves, we are happy to say, that we have not been disappointed at all; but, on the contrary, very greatly moved and delighted with the greater part of this singular volume. We VOL. 12. No. 24. S We do not think it has any great value as a history; nor is it very admirable as a piece of composition. It comprehends too short a period, and includes too few events to add much to our knowledge of facts; and abounds too little with splendid passages to lay much hold on the imagination. The reflections which it contains, too, are generally more remarkable for their truth and simplicity, than for any great fineness or profundity of thinking; and many opportunities are neglected, or rather purposely declined, of entering into large and general speculations. Notwithstanding all this, the work, we think, is invaluable, not only as a memorial of the high principles and gentle dispositions of its illustrious author, but as a record of those sentiments of true English constitutional independence, which seem to have been nearly forgotten in the bitterness and hazards of our more recent contentions. It is delightful as the picture of a character; and most instructive and opportune as a remembrancer of public duties. We must be permitted to say a word or two more upon each of these subjects. To those who know Mr Fox only by the great outlines of his public history,-who know merely that he paffed from the difipations of too gay a youth into the tumults and cabals of a political life; and that his days were spent in contending about public measures, and in guiding or averting the tempefts of faction, the spirit of indulgent and tender feeling which pervades all this book must appear very unaccountable. Those who live much in the world, even in a private station, commonly have their hearts a little hardened, and their moral fenfibility a little impaired. But statesmen and practical politicians, are, with juftice, fufpected of a ftill greater forgetfulness of mild impreffions and honourable fcruples. Coming neceffarily into contact with great vices and great fufferings, they muft gradually lofe fome of their horror for the firft, and much of their compaffion for the laft. Conftantly engaged in contention, they ceafe pretty generally to regard any human beings as objects of sympathy or difinterested attachment; and mixing much with the moft corrupt part of mankind, naturally come to regard the fpecies itself with indifference, if not with contempt. All the fofter feelings are apt to be worn off in the rough conflicts of factious hoftility, and all the finer moralities to be effaced, by the conftant contemplation of expediency, and the neceffities of occafional compliance. . Such is the common conception which we form of men who have lived the life of Mr Fox; and fuch, in spite of the testimony of partial friends, is the impreffion which moft private persons would have retained of him, if this volume had not come to convey a truer and a more engaging picture to the world at large, and to pofterity. By By far the most remarkable thing in this book, is the tone of indulgence and unfeigned philanthropy which prevails in every part of it ;-a moft amiable fenfibility to all the kind and domestic affections, and a fort of foftheartedness towards the fufferings of individuals, which seems hitherto to have been thought incompatible with the ftern dignity of hiftory. It cannot but strike us with fomething still more pleafing than surprise, to meet with traits of almoft feminine tenderness in the fentiments of this veteran ftatesman, and a general character of charity towards all men, not only remote from the rancour of vulgar hoftility, but purified in a great degree from the afperities of party contention. He expreffes indeed, throughout, a high-minded contempt for what is bafe, and a deteftation for what is cruel; but yet is conftantly led, by a fort of generous prejudice in favour of human nature, to admit all poffible palliations for the conduct of the individual delinquent, and never attempts to fhut him out from the benefit of those natural fympathies of which the bad as well as the good are occafionally the objects, from their fortune or fituation. He has given a new character, we think, to hiftory, by this foft and condefcending concern for the feelings of individuals; and not only left a fplendid record of the gentleness and affectionate fimplicity of his own difpofitions, but fet an example by which we hope that men of genius may be taught hereafter to render their instructions more engaging and impreffive. Nothing, we are perfuaded, can be more gratifying to his friends, than the impreffion of his character which this work will carry down to pofterity; nor is it a matter of indifference to the country, that its most illuftrious statesman should be yet more distinguished for the amiableness of his private affections. This softness of feeling is the first remarkable thing in the work before us. The second is perhaps of more general importance. It is, that it contains the only appeal to the old principles of English constitutional freedom, and the only expression of those firm and temperate sentiments of independence, which are the peculiar produce, and natural protection of our mixed government, which we recollect to have met with for very many years. The tone of the work, in this respect, recals us to feelings which seem of late to have slumbered in the country which they used to inspire. In our indolent reliance upon the imperishable virtue of our constitution, and in our busy pursuit of wealth, we appear to have forgotten our higher vocation of free citizens; and, in our dread of revolution or foreign invasion, to have lost sight of those intestine dangers to which our liberties are always more immediately obnoxious. The history of the Revolution 1688, and of the times immediately preceding, was eminently calculated to reS2 vive vive those feelings, and restore those impressions, which so many causes have in our days conspired to obliterate; and, in the hands of Mr Fox, could scarcely have failed to produce a very powerful effect. On this account, it must be matter of the deepest regret that he was not permitted to finish, or indeed to do more than begin, that inspiring narrative. Even in the little which he has done, however, we discover the spirit of the master. Even in this broken prelude which he has sounded, the true notes are struck with such force and distinctness, and are in themselves so much in unison with the natural chords of every British heart, that we think no slight vibration will be excited throughout the country; and would willingly lend our assistance to propagate it into every part of the empire. In order to explain more fully the reasons for which we set so high a value upon the work before us on this particular account, we must be allowed to enlarge a little upon the evil which we think it calculated to correct. We do not think the present generation of our countrymen substantially degenerated from their ancestors in the days of the Revolution. In the same circumstances, we are persuaded, they would have acted with the same spirit;-nay, in consequence of the more general diffusion of education and intelligence, we believe they would have been still more zealous and more unanimous in the cause of liberty. But we have of late been exposed to the operation of various causes, which have tended to lull our vigilance, and corrupt our enthusiasm; and which threaten, unless powerfully counteracted, to bring on, gradually, such a ge neral indifference and forgetfulness of the interests of freedom, as to prepare the people for any tolerably mild form of servitude which their future rulers may be tempted to impose upon them. The first, and the principal of these causes, however paradoxical it may seem, is the actual excellence of our laws, and the supposed inviolability of the constitution. The second is, the great increase of luxury, and the tremendous patronage of the government. The last is, the impression made and maintained by the events of the French Revolution. We shall say but a word upon each of these prolific themes of speculation. Because our ancestors ftipulated wifely for the public at the Revolution, it seems to have become a common opinion, that nothing is left to their posterity but to pursue their private intereft. The machine of Government was then completed and fet agoing-and it will go on without their interference. Nobody talks now of the divine right, or the difpenfing power of kings, or ventures to propofe to govern without Parliaments, or to levy taxes without their authority;-therefore, our liberties are fecure;-and it is only fa&tious or ambitious people that affect any jealoufy of the exe cutive. cutive. Things go on very smoothly as they are; and it can never be the intereft of any party in power, to attempt any thing very oppreffive or injurious to the public. By fuch reasonings, men excuse their abandonment of all concern for the community, and find, in the very excellence of the conftitution, an apology for expofing it to corruption. It is obvious, however, that liberty, like love, is as hard to keep as to win; and that the exertions by which it was originally gained will be worfe than fruitless, if they be not followed up by the affiduities by which alone it can be preferved. Wherever there is power, there is a difpofition to increase it; and if there be not a conftant fpirit of jealousy and of refiftance on the part of the people, every monarchy will gradually harden into a despotifm. It will not, indeed, wantonly provoke or alarm, by feeking again to occupy thofe very pofitions from which it had once been degraded; but it will extend itself in other quarters, and march on filently under the colours of a venal popularity. This indolent reliance on the fufficiency of the conftitution for its own prefervation, affords great facilities, no doubt, to those who may be tempted to project its deftruction; but the efficient means are to be found chiefly in the prevailing manners of the people, and the monftrous patronage of the government. It can admit of no doubt, we fuppofe, that trade, which has made us rich, has made us ftill more luxurious; and that the increased neceffity of expenfe, has in general outgone the means of fupplying it. Almost every individual now finds it more difficult to live on a level with his equals, than he did when all were poorer; almost every man, therefore, is needy; and he who is both needy and luxurious, holds his independence on a very precarious tenure. Government, on the other hand, has the difpofal of nearly fifteen millions per annum, and the power of nominating to two or three hundred thousand pofts or places of emolument ;-the whole population of the country amounting to lefs than five millions of grown men. The confequence is, that, beyond the rank of mere labourers, there is fcarcely one man out of three who does not hold or hope for fome appointment or promotion from Government, and is not confequently difpofed to go all honeft lengths in recommending himself to its favour. This, it must be admitted, is a fituation which juftifies fome alarm for the liberties of the people; and when taken together with that general indifference to the public which has been already noticed, accounts fufficiently for that habit of prefuming in favour of all exertions of authority, and against all popular difcontent or commotion which is fo remarkably the characteristic of the prefent generation. From this five defertion of the people, it is but one ftep to abet and de S 3 fend |