FOX, CHARLES JAMES, a celebrated whig statesman, was the second son of Btairy Fox, first lord Holland, by lady Georgiana Carolina, eldest daughter of the duke of Richmond. He was born, according to lord John Russell's memoir, on the 24th Jan., 1749 (N.S.), and was educated at Eton and Oxford, spending his vacations on the continent in the gayest and wittiest circles• of the French capital, and visiting Switzerland and Italy. Notwithstanding the irregular life which he led even as a school-boy, he was very distinguished for ability both at school and college; and so Moth was his father's opinion of his talents, that at the age of nineteen he had him brought into parliament as member for the borough of Midburst,. a step to which he is said to have been further incited by the fact, that, even at this early age, F.'s energies had found an outlet in gambling and various other 'forms of dissipation. His precocity in vice, as well as in intellectual development, is said to have been the result of the injudicious fondness of his very unprincipled but very giftec4 father. Till he attained his F. prudently kept silent in the house, but immedi ately thereafter he appearea as a supporter of the administration of lord North, and was rewarded with the office of one of the lords of the admiralty. In 1772, he resigned that office, and the following year was named a commissioner of the treas From that post he was dismissed, in consequence of a quarrel with lord North. and passed over to ranks of the opposition. During the whole course of the American war, was the most formidable opponent of the coercive measures which were adopted by the government, and the most powerful advocate of the claims of the colonists; acting, to this extent at least, in accordance with the views which for many years before had been urged upon the country by tire great lord Chatham, the father of Iris future rival Mr. Pitt. The difference between them was, that whereas lord Chat ham urged conciliation, in order to preserve'the connection between the two countries, F. foresaw and foretold the necessity and the advantages of complete separation. In 1784, on the downfall of lord North, F. was appointed 'one of the secretaries of state, which office he held till the death of the marquis of Rockingham, when he was suc ceeded by the earl of Shelburne, afterwards marquis of Lansdowne. On the dissolution
of the Shelburne administration, the North and F. coalition was formed, and F. resumed his former office.; but the rejection of his India bill by the house of lords soon after led to the resignation of his government. It was now that Mr. Pitt came into power, and that the long and famous contest between him and F., who occupied the position of leader of the opposition, commenced. In 1788, lie enjoyed a short respite from his public labors. Accompanied by Iris wife, he visited the continent, and having spent a few days at. Lausanne, in the company of Gibbon, who was there engaged in writing his famous history, he set out for Italy. The sudden illness.of the king, hoWever, and the necessity of constituting a regency, rendered if undesirable that lie should be longer absent from England, and he hastened back to his post. The regency, the trial of Warren Hastings, the French revolution, and the events which followed it, gave ample scope to the talents and energies of F., and on all occasions he employed his influence to modify, if not to counteract, the policy of his great rival. He was a strenuous.oppo nent of the war with France, and an advocate of those non-intervention views which find greater favor in our day than they did in his. After the death of Pitt, F. was recalled to office, and endeavored to realize his. doctrines by setting on foot negotiations for a peace with France, the results of which he did not live to witness. He died on the 13th Sept., 1806, in his 59th year. In private life, Mr. F. was a genial companion, kindly and sincere in the closer relations of friendship, whilst his conduct to those to whom he was opposed in public was generous, and free from every trace of malignity or enmity. Lord John Russell, in the preface to his Memorials and Correspondence, speaks of the singular candor, boldness, simplicity, and kindness of his character; and of his oratorical powers it is enough to record, that Burke called him "the greatest debater the world ever saw," and sir James Mackintosh, "the most Deinosthenian speaker since Demosthenes." His remains were interred in Westminster abbey, so near to those of Pitt, as to suggest to sir Walter Scott the well-known couplet— Shed upon Fox's grave the tear, 'Twill trickle to his rival's bier.