-luck. At
twenty-five he owed L140,000, which his father paid for him. He was a
keen sportsman, and he cared for higher things than sport. He was
accomplished, a lover of learning and art, and found unfailing pleasure
in the masterpieces of Greek, Latin, English, French, Italian, and, in
later days, Spanish literature. In parliament he had hitherto opposed
all popular measures, sometimes with insolent flippancy. He was
appointed a lord of the admiralty in 1770. He gradually came under
Burke's influence and showed signs of remarkable talents in debate. His
speeches were unprepared, his statement of a case was often made
confusedly, but he was splendid in reply. His career as a statesman was
marred, like his private character, by an utter lack of principle. His
opposition to the royal marriage bill seems to have been a matter of
private feeling. His father had united the plebeian family of Fox with a
house descended from a royal bastard by a runaway marriage with Lady
Caroline Lennox; and Charles was hot against a bill which annulled a
marriage made without legal consent, and must have derived special
satisfaction in opposing the wish to preserve the royal family from
derogatory marriages on the part of the faithless lover of his favourite
aunt, Lady Sarah. He resigned office, but re-entered the ministry the
following December.

[Sidenote: _NORTH'S REGULATING ACT._]

The strength of the ministry caused a stagnation in matters of domestic
policy, and parliament turned its attention towards a settlement of the
government of India. In 1772 the East India Company was on the verge of
bankruptcy, owing chiefly to expensive wars, large pensions to native
rulers, and the greed of the proprietors. The successes of Haidar in the
Karnatic and the famine in Bengal sent down the price of stock, as we
have seen, 60 per cent. The company applied to government for a loan of
at least L1,000,000. North, with statesmanlike decision, seized the
opportunity of asserting the right of the crown to the territorial
revenue and of placing the government under the control of its
ministers. The king upheld his policy. Select and secret committees were
appointed by the commons to inquire into the condition of the company
and of the British affairs in India. Acting on the recommendation of the
secret committee, North foiled an attempt of the company to keep its
affairs in its own hands by carrying a bill to restrain it from
appointing supervisors in