the
Bourbon section in France and the old autocracy in his own and other
kingly countries were opposed to the new ruler the masses in France
had chosen. He ridiculed the folly of our mental nonentities for
"making such a fuss about acknowledging the new Emperor. May not the
people give their own Magistrate the name they choose?" he asks. "On
what logical grounds did we claim the right to revoke by the force of
arms the selection by the French people of a ruler on whom they wished
to bestow the title of Emperor?" Fox poured lavishly his withering
contempt on those miscreants who arrogantly claimed the right to be
consulted (for that is practically what their war policy amounted to)
as to who the French should put on the throne and what his title
should be. They had acknowledged Napoleon in the capacity of First
Consul, but they shuddered at the consequences to the human race of
having an Emperor sprung upon them whose glory was putting kingship
into obscurity. Besides, an Emperor who combined humble origin with
democratic genius and ambition created by the Revolution was a
challenge to the legitimacy of the Divine Right of Kings and a
reversal of the order of ages. George III raged at Pitt for including
Fox in his Ministry when he was asked to form a Government. "Does Mr.
Pitt," said he, "not know that Mr. Fox was of all persons most
offensive to him?" "Had not Fox always cheered the popular Government
of France, and had he not always advocated peace with bloodstained
rebels? And be it remembered the indecorous language he had frequently
used against his sovereign, and consider his influence over the Prince
of Wales. Bring whom you like, Mr. Pitt, but Fox never."

George III, King by the Grace of God, relented somewhat in his dislike
of Fox before the latter died, and his wayward son, the Prince of
Wales, said "that his father was well pleased with Mr. Fox in all
their dealings after he came into office." It is an amazing form of
intelligence that commits a nation to join in a war against another
for having brought about a revolution and for creating their first
soldier-statesman an "Emperor," and ranks him and his compatriots as
"bloodstained rebels." To class Napoleon as a bloodstained rebel and
to put him on a level with the Robespierres and the Dantons is an
historic outrage of the truth. He had nothing whatever to do with
bringing about the Revolution, though his services saved it, and out
of the terrible tumult an