dicted him, and possibly too was sensible of the justness of the verdict, patiently wrote another. Lord Holland was esteemed a sagacious character; but, of what advantage was parental sagacity, if it never controuled the excentricities of those to whom its admonitions were due? Tutors and governors indeed were called into attendance, but self-government was an accomplishment which young Fox never learned. Whatever could be purchased from hirelings was purchased: but how small a proportion of the complete gentleman can hireling instruction communicate? The temper of Charles was forward, predominant, vehement; at the same time it was open, candid, and manly. He was thought qualified to take the lead, and the lead he readily took. His opinion was expected, and he frankly gave his opinion. All were supposed to notice him, and he dashed into notice, ex animo. He was educated at Wesminister and at Eton, where he obtained distinction: his studies were not severe: his happy genius, and retentive memory, enabled him to acquire advantages for which others are beholden to labour. From Eton he went to Oxford, where his stay was not long from whence, his father, impatient to behold him a man of consequence, sent him over Europe, to make what was called the Grand Tour. There can be no doubt, but many advantages attended that rational intercourse with continental courts, and foreign statesmen, which was offered by the Grand Tour. It afforded many opportunities of observation, it admitted those who were capable of profiting by the privilege to an insight into the characters of men, and they were usually men of ability, whose manner of discharging the duties of their important employments, was well calculated to impress and improve the youthful mind. But it also afforded opportunities of the most flagrant licentiousness, and being performed at that period of life, when the blood boils in the veins of youth: it became the means by which many thoughtless English heirs were ruined in body, mind, and outward estate. Among this number was Charles Fox, who had disencumbered himself of his patrimony before he had attained the age of manhood. cocious in every thing, a fribble to excess in dress, and appearance, an adventurer without reserve, at dice and cards; always a leader, and usually a loser too. The last bill drawn on Lord Holland, by his sons, was from Naples, for a debt of honour, value £36,000. Nor could they stir till this was paid. Pre Returned to England, Mr. Fox was, when under twenty one years of age, admitted into the House of Commons, as representative for the borough of Midhurst. The expectations formed from his talents caused this irregularity to be overlooked; and thus he placed in the very post of honour, in the very pathway of ambition. At a time of life, when others are supposed to have acquired barely wisdom enough to govern themselves, he was understood to possess sufficient to govern the nation. And he meant that his governing spirit should be known: unused to meet rebuffs, he thundered at those who opposed him, stood forward as the champion of Ministry, vindicated the famous election of Col. Luttrell for Middlesex, and derided Johnny Wilkes and his partizans, with all the powers of lungs, laughter, and eloquence. Never will the excess in which he indulged himself, never will the appellation scum of the earth," which he liberally bestowed on the Freeholders of Middlesex, be forgotten. In return, he was told, that the scum would ever be uppermost, that the "Young Cub," was not yet Old Reynard, and that French Taylors never made English Statesmen. His family interest, and his personal talents, procured him a seat at the board of Admiralty; he was here a junior, but being denied the influence of a senior, he resigned in disgust: he was a second time appointed, but was now removed to the Treasury, where he differed in opinion with the Premier, and was dismissed. could not preside, and he would not submit, but being restive his name was omitted, in Lord North's phrase, from a new commission for managing that department of state. was now about 25 years of age: extremely corpulent in person: notorious for his amours, addicted to the extremes of what was called fashion; and he even disgraced the honest plainness of the English character by the coxcombry of wearing red heels to his shoes, with every other mark of the petit maître: He He Bien poudré, bien frisé, tout à fait un Marquis! His time was devoted to the gaming-table; he played at the clubs, till credit was banished, and ready money was enacted to be indispensible. His connections were extensive among the money-lending jews; and when the old arts of obtaining were exhausted, his ingenuity in devising new, was the admiration of his associates. Ever forward, the leader, the head, the precursor of his companions, he was distinguished no less by the intrepidity of his career, than by the superiority of his intellect. But the superiority of his intellect did not always secure Mr. Fox from being a dupe to the arts of others; report attached to him the incident of having designed to repair his ruined fortunes, by marriage with a West-Indian lady of immense value! pointed out to him by a kind lady-guardian, but, unluckily, not visible to day! His benevolent introductress hoped for better fortune on the morrow; on the morrow he was again at his post, 66 morrow and to-morrow, and to-morrow," 66 tc but, an unwelcome inflammation in the eyes! rendered an interview impossible. This delusion was at length dissipated by the officers of justice recognizing an old acquaintance in the lady who was visible, and who, it afterwards appeared, under the sanction of intinacy among the nobility, "witness a cer"tain chariot which might be seen in at"tendance, day after day, for hours toge"ther, at her residence," had advertised "Places at Court, to be disposed of." A scene in a comedy of Foote's commemorates this incident. Being dismissed from the treasury, Mr. Fox entered the lists of opposition; and here he soon was leader. His talents were of the first order in debate; he excelled every speaker in discovering the weaknesses of his antagonist's arguments. He could set the minister's propositions in so many different lights, gradually deprive them of what reasonings they might justly claim: supply them with supposititious arguments, confute these, and so thoroughly embarrass the whole, that the minister could scarcely recognize his own offspring, swaddled as it was in the envelopes with which Mr. Fox had disguised it. It was now that among the opponents of the American war, Mr. Fox acquired popularity; and he deserved it, if unwearied efforts, unlimited vehemence of debate, and a manly soundness of judgment, could deserve it: but he passed many years in attack before the fortress of government submitted to the besiegers. Lord North was, certainly, not the minister required by the times in which it was his lot to conduct the state: yet the violence of Mr. Fox rendered it unsafe for Lord North to resign, and he held his situation, not so much to despite his antagonist as to secure himself. But the defences of ministry were gradually weakened, till at length the opposition became the stronger party, and the leaders of the outs burst into the Cabinet. Mr. Fox was now appointed Secretary of State, and found the advantage of an early acquaintance with business he conducted the affairs of his office with dignity and dispatch. The death of the Marquis of Rockingham was a mean of dissolving this ministry, and the reins of government were committed to Lord Shelburne, afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne. Mr. Fox went out; but quickly forming the famous coalition with Lord North, whose principles he had formerly reprobated without modesty or reservation, and whose head he had repeatedly threatened in the most opprobrious terms, he again rose to power. But the spirit of the British nation was offended; this union of parties, formerly so embittered against each other, was thought to be unnatural; and the opinion, or rather, the feeling of the people abhorred the connection. Sensible that he was not now the man of the peo ple, neither was he truly the man of the King, he meditated a continuation in power independent of both people and king, and such, it is probable, would have been the issue had his famous India bill become a law: the additional patronage which that included, would have been the impregnable bulwark of his permanence. We pretend not to know in what light he described this bill to his Majesty; but it is certain that other of his Majes ty's friends described it very differently, and the bill was stifled in the House of Lords in a manner entirely unusual. In the event, the King threw himself on his people, his people supported their king; and the parliament, then governed by Mr. Fox, was almost wholly renovated. Mr. Fox and his fellow ministers having resigned of course, he resumed his station at the head of the opposition. Here he did many essential services to his country; some propositions he caused to be new modified: some few he happily set aside, and many a hint which induced caution, if nothing more, did Mr. Pitt receive from his acute discrimination. On the question of the regency, the opinion of the public was with Mr. Pitt: and the doctrines of Mr. Fox were not popular in the nation. Mr. Fox varied them once or twice, by which he lost time; and never was any man more completely a dupe to his own artifice, than he was in proposing a re-examination of the Royal Patient by the consulting physicians. The loss of this opportunity was the loss of the whole object; time was gained; the Royal Patient recovered, to the infinite joy of his subjects, whose steady conduct during the painful interval ought never to be mentioned without applause, and to the disappointment, so far as their admission to power was in question, of Mr. Fox and his friends who had indulged expectations. Mr. Fox displayed his good opinion of the French revolution without reserve, in its earliest stages: he even ventured to predict glorious events as arising from it: but events discredited his predictions, and there can be no doubt that he felt much regret at the character which that sanguinary convulsion_afterwards assumed. His quarrel with Mr. Burke, in consequence of his separation from that political father, must, unquestionably, have been painful; for Mr. Fox, though ambi tious, had not suffered ambition to destroy the sentiments of friendship. Mr. B. maintained a hauteur which affected a superiority over his friend, and effectually precluded their reconciliation. Mr. Fox, took occasion after a long contest with Mr. Pitt, as he said, fruitlessly, to secede from his place in the House this step has been loudly blamed: certainly it shewed that he thought little of the importance attached to a member of the Wittenagemote of the country, wherein no individual can tell what importance may arise out of his advice and opinion. But this secession was precisely in character for a man who affected the power of a Dictator, and because he could not dictate would not condescend to advise. Whether Mr. Fox might have come into office when Mr. Pitt went out, and the present Lord Sidmouth became minister, or at any time since, we cannot aflirm. Perhaps the terms that were offered were unfit for his acceptance: perhaps he could not consistently with his veracity and honour accept them; be that as it might, his way to power was not clear till death had deprived the country of Mr. Pitt's services: when the Prince of Wales in recommending a ministerial arrangement, included Mr. Fox. He held the place of Secretary of State for a few months, and was barely settled in office when he died. In estimating the character of a minister, the good he has done must guide our opinion, but the character of an oppositionist must be estimated by the evil he has revented: always provided that the measures pursued to effect that prevention be legal and commendable. How far this proviso applies to the mission of Mr. Adair into Russia for the purpose of counteracting Mr. Pitt's negociations there, we cannot tell. The whole of the facts in that case are not before the public. We have already stated that the advantages which the nation in a domestic point of view derived from the opposition of Mr. Fox, were considerable; and the liberal principles which he professed in religion, in trade, &c. procured him many adherents. Nor was he destitute of friends; and when his circumstances were reduced beyond recovery, a number of these effected an unsaleable annuity on his life, which rendered his latter days comfortable. Mr. Fox was allied by birth, or by connection, with many of our noblest families: but his character was formed by himself, and by circumstances. His father had been an opponent of William Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham, and this opposition descended to their sons. Each of the fathers, too, had trained up his son with unlimited attention and expense, had infused the principles of ambition in their strongest forms into his youthful mind, had prepared him for the high station he was expected to occupy, and thus neither could bear a rival. Aut Cæsar aut nullus was the motto which each might have adopted;— but Mr. Fox was not destined to be Cæsar. Had Lord Holland been a popular character instead of being branded and petitioned against as a public defaulter;" had his son been introduced much later into public life, had he tempered his vivacity by sober reflection, instead of heating his blood by liquors, and his mind by the chances of the dice; had he taken his due station at first, instead of insist ing on guiding affairs before he was well acquainted with them, and had he waited till experience had qualified him in the eyes of others as well as in his own, Mr. Fox MUST have been the first man in the state, and probably would have shone in the pages of our history, with a steady illumination of glory, not unequal to that of our most honoured statesmen. : Those talents would have been developed in the man, which could only be budding in the youth and who was bound to submit to embrio-abilities? If ever there was a charac ter thrown away in early life, by being prematurely urged into publicity, Charles Fox was that character: if ever the most valuable gifts of nature were rendered unavailing by notorious dissipation, and want of morals, they were those bestowed on Charles Fox: if ever any ambition was constantly deluded by hope, but hope, evanescent and Alceting, it was the anibition of this eminent statesman: he was permitted to touch authority, but not to grasp it: he wore it for an instant, but could not call it his own; and when, apparently, he might have continued to enjoy it, he was seated in office, not to give importance to his life, but dignity to his death his friends were called to lament. his loss, while his country, looking wistfully around for the services he had performed, rested her hopes on those which she gave him credit for the ability of performing. 1 As I view in repentance shame's feverish glow, And mis'ry, despairing, its last hope resign; This ne'er will go by; no, this ne'er will decay; This feeling God gave when he first gave me breath: And when time shall make other sensations its prey, This shall cheer, though it hasten, my passage to death. RECOLLECTION. TO LUCY. Dear Lucy, unthinking improvident maid, Whither tends this delirium that leads us astray? Is thus fond indulgence on thy part repaid? And on mine-am I pleasing thee, but to betray? Not thee do I blame; trifling, idle, and vain, My experience I placed 'gainst thine innocent youth; To Passion's wild wish gave an unbridled rein, And stole on the treasure allotted to truth. The rose of thy morn blooms now fragrant and fair; Shall I tear and scatter its leaves to the gale, Or tenderly watch o'er the flow'ret with care, And bid it still bloom, and embellish the vale? Thou canst never be mine ;-shall I blemish thy name, And snatch fleeting rapture unsanction'd and base, Unfeeling consign thee to sorrow and shame, shalt lie, Pain and sickness embittering life's final close; Shall I through remembrance give birth to the sigh, Which will rob of repentance its look'd-for repose? No, never still pure, still reproachless, remain ; Be thy youth and thine age from remorse ever free: Be thy blush of sweet innocence still without stain; And be still priz'd by others, as well as by me. THE MAMMOTH. Soon as the deluge ceas'd to pour The flood of death from shore to shore, Hatch'd amidst elemental strife, On India's shores my dwelling lay; All nature took to flight! Drew backward with affnight. Creation felt a general shock. And own'd my lordly reign. Thus many moons my course I ran, The Lion led the bestial train, With lightning's speed the rumour spread, In earth's deep caverns long immur'd, In London late my form was shown, In wonder lost my form they ey'd, "Thank Heav'n, the monster's dead!" He seeks, on fortune's billows born, A prey to civil hate; Batavian freedom floats in air, The tyrant's dread command. All Europe o'er the giant stalks ;. And pounces on her prey. A native of Liege, called Beaumont, endowed with a particular inventive genius, died lately in the gaol of Copenhagen, where he had been confined for having abused his abilities, by counterfeiting bank notes. While in prison, with the assistance of government and money supplied by a Dane, a man of wealth, he had succeeded in making strawpaper, which is equal in polish and solidity to any paper known. He had also imagined for the paper currency a water- mark, which could not be imitated. His inventions are sure of surviving their author. His partner will continue manufacturing the straw-paper according to his new process; and his widow has been invited to Vienna, where she will receive a liberal premium for the secret of the water-mark. She has likewise inherited three or four other secrets which she intends selling in various parts of Europe. The pile of Volta has been considered in another light, and experienced modifications in its construction. Mr. Marechaux has formed a new pile with new plates of tin and brass, separated by little dry scraps of blotting paper. Silk twist is placed instead of the glass tubes of the common apparatus, by which the pile is suspended on a hook. This pile, thus constructed, gives very sensible effect to the electro micrometer of the same author. Mr. Marechaux thinks that with the aid of this apparatus he has been able to observe that the electric tension of the pile increases and decrcases in ratio of the electric state of the air, and that the force of its action increases in proportion as the atmosphere is surcharged with vapour. A new apparatus, designed under the name of the galvanic chain, has been constructed by Mr. Struve. This chain is composed of several double cones, one being of brass, the other of zinc, sodered together at their basis. At the point of each of these cones is annexed a ring which serves to combine a less or greater quantity of those double cones. Between the latter are placed cotton and pieces of linen, in such a manner that the extremities are in contact with the brass and the zinc. This chain thus disposed and moistened with muriat of soda, produces an immediate effect. According to the author it is less oxidable than the common apparatus, and the activity of it is treble. Portraits of learned men at Grenoble. The Society of Sciences at Grenoble, have resolved to procure pictures of all the distinguished characters in the department of Isère, and to place these portraits in their assembly room. Hurricanes, how caused. A phænomenon has occurred this year which conduces to the explanation of hurricanes. On the 4th of July was experienced at Bellfort, one of those extraordinary huiricanes so rare in Europe, which overthrow trees, and sweep away the roofs of houses. Hitherto, I had thought it impossible to discover the cause, but in my journey to Lyons an idea came across my mind, which may be confirmed. The notes of Mr. Molet, a learned professor of natural history, recorded a thunder storm, at Lyons, on the same day. As I passed through Sens, I saw Mr. Soulas, who told me that the wind had shifted from north to south. The newspapers informed us, that on the same day there was a violent storm in London. It strikes me, then, that a mass of electric clouds of 100 miles or more in extent, the detonation of which caused an immense vacuity, may have forced the air to fill up the chasm so occasioned, with extraordinary violence. I was confirmed in this conjecture, Jan. 11, 1806. Extraordinary thunder storms at Brest, Rouen, Chartres, and Ypres, occasioned storms and hurricanes that have blown down chimneys; also at Nancy, Besançon, Bourdeaux, and Dijon. Peals of thunder are very uncommon in that season of the but the south wind had made the year; temperature warm; the air was extremely humid, the clouds were low enough to dr. w sparks from the earth on a space of 50 or 10 miles. There have even been earthquakes. The hurricanes of the Isle de France anl of the West Indies, being much more violent, must suggest the idea of storiny masses |