o be equally an object of admiration and love. In
addition to powerful eloquence, he was distinguished by the refinement
of his taste in all matters connected with literature and art; he was
deeply read in history; had some claims to be regarded as a poet; and
possessed a thorough knowledge of the classical authors of antiquity,
a knowledge of which he so often and so happily availed himself in his
seat in the House of Commons. To these qualities was added a good-humour
which was seldom ruffled,--a peculiar fascination of manner and
address,--the most delightful powers of conversation,--a heart perfectly
free from vindictiveness, ostentation, and deceit,--a strong sense of
justice,--a thorough detestation of tyranny and oppression,--and an
almost feminine tenderness of feeling for the sufferings of others.
Unfortunately, however, his great talents and delightful qualities
in private life rendered his defects the more glaring and lamentable;
indeed, it is difficult to think or speak with common patience of those
injurious practices and habits--that abandonment to self-gratification,
and that criminal waste of the most transcendent abilities which
exhausted in social conviviality and the gaming table what were formed
to confer blessings on mankind.

So much for the character of Fox, as I have gathered from Mr Jesse;(123)
and I continue the extremely interesting subject by quoting from that
delightful book, 'The Queens of Society.'(124) 'With a father who
had made an enormous fortune, with little principle, out of a public
office--for Lord Holland owed the bulk of his wealth to his appointment
of paymaster to the forces,--and who spoiled him, in his boyhood,
Charles James Fox had begun life _AS A FOP OF THE FIRST WATER_, and
squandered L50,000 in debt before he became of age. Afterwards he
indulged recklessly and extravagantly in every course of licentiousness
which the profligate society of the day opened to him. At Brookes' and
the Thatched House Fox ate and drank to excess, threw thousands upon the
Faro table, mingled with blacklegs, and made himself notorious for his
shameless vices. Newmarket supplied another excitement. His back room
was so incessantly filled with Jew money-lenders that he called it his
Jerusalem Chamber. It was impossible that such a life should not destroy
every principle of honour; and there is nothing improbable in the story
that he appropriated to himself money which belonged to his dear friend