Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1918 — FOX, STATESMAN AND ORATOR [ARTICLE]

FOX, STATESMAN AND ORATOR

Brilliant Englishman Will Be Remembered as Firm Friend of American Independence. Charles James Fox, great English statesman, who did so much for American independence, entered parliament as a tory at nineteen, and was made lord of the admiralty at twenty-one. He Incurred the lifelong enmity of George IH by opposing a royal marriage bill, favored by the king, and at the king’s instance he was dismissed from office. Thereupon he left the tories and joined the whig party, whose chief he soon became, leading them in' their splendid opposition to Lord North and the war which ended in American independence. Fox was kept out of office, by the enmity of the king during 22 of the best years of his life (Lord Grenville finally refused to form a cabinet without him), but. managed in spite, of this to fight valiantly for many good measures, including Indian government reform, a better libel law and the abolition of the slave trade. He risked his life rising from a sick bed to speak for the latter. Gambling, which his father taught him as a child, was Fox’s besetting sin. He lost thousands by it, but when in 1793 his friends paid his debts and settled an annuity upon him, he never touched a card again. • Fox was one of the greatest orators who ever spoke in the British parliament. He is said to have possessed “above all moderns that union of reason, simplicity and vehemence which formed the prince of orators.”