able, and most unprincipled, of the bodyguard of the King.

It is impossible to credit Fox at this period of his career with any settled political convictions. Though he was a man in education and in knowledge of society, he was still a boy in judgment and in the enjoyment of life. He had not as yet thought or felt deeply on any question. Life was exceedingly pleasant to him, and in the gayness of his epicurean nature he threw himself with zest into every pleasure it afforded. Among those pleasures politics was by no means the least. It gave unique opportunities for cutting a figure in the world, and for paying off old scores. It enabled him to indulge in the malicious pleasure, so dear to the heart of the clever young politician, of shocking dull respectability by the vigour of his denunciation and the extravagance of his views. It provided him with a pleasant relief to the more absorbing business of Newmarket or Almack's. Careless of everything except the excitement of the moment, Fox plunged into politics and hit hard all round him with the same delightful sense of irresponsibility with which a modern undergraduate overthrows the Church and the Constitution at a debating society, and dances round a bonfire on the 5th of November.

His conduct with regard to the Marriage Laws is the typical exception which proves the rule. Among the many subjects which came before Parliament in the years 1769–1774, it was the only one about which he really cared, and the only one about which he showed independence. Lord Holland, when approaching middle age, had convulsed society in the days of the Pelhams by his runaway match with Lady Caroline Lennox, the daughter of the Duke of Richmond and great granddaughter of Charles II.; and the scandal occasioned by the marriage

had been among the reasons which led to the passing of Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act in 1753. Naturally enough, Lord Holland had been the bitterest opponent of the measure in the House of Commons, and its passing was always regarded in the family as a condemnation of the marriage. Thus from childhood Charles Fox had been conversant with this particular subject, and had approached it from a private and family, rather than from a party, point of view, and, when he had acquired a sufficient experience in the House, he determined to press for its repeal.

But in 1772 the question of the Marriage Laws came before Parliament in an unexpected form. The marriage of the profligate Duke of Cumberland with Mrs. Horton, following as it did hard upon the secret marriage of the Duke of Gloucester with Lady Waldegrave, had filled the mind of the King with fears for the succession, and irritation at the insubordination shown by the royal family. He took the matter up with more than his usual alacrity, insisted upon the immediate preparation of a bill to deal with it, rejected a moderate scheme drafted by Thurlow and Wedderburn, and finally forced on the Cabinet a measure drawn by Lord Mansfield, by which all descendants of George II. were rendered incapable of contracting a valid marriage except with the consent of the Crown. Rumours of the proposal soon got wind and created general dissatisfaction, even among the stoutest henchmen of the Court. Fox at once declared his intention of opposing it. Wedderburn swore he would not support it. Hardly a man on the Ministerial side of the House could bring himself openly to defend it. Startled at this appearance of mutiny amongst his followers, and probably genuinely distrustful of the effect of opposition upon Fox, Lord North prevailed upon the

King and Mansfield to modify their bill in one important particular, and, as finally submitted to Parliament, the restriction of marriage only applied to members of the royal family under the age of twenty-six. The modification was useful to the wits. That a prince of the blood might take upon himself the cares of state at the age of eighteen, but those of matrimony not till he was twentysix, was too good an opportunity to be lost, and the following epigram, said to be the work of Dowdeswell, was soon making the circuit of the coffee-houses :

The change might produce an epigram, and keep together the Ministerial majority, but it could not prevent the secession of Fox. The fact was that he had begun already to realize his own importance, and to see that if he wanted to satisfy his ambition he must make others realize it as well as himself. The opportunity now presented itself of assuming a more independent position on a subject on which he was known to have strong personal convictions, and he hastened to seize it. On the 6th of January, 1772, he gave notice of a bill to repeal Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act. On the 20th of February he sent in his resignation as Junior Lord of the Admiralty, and wrote in explanation to Lord Ossory, his friend and connexion by marriage:

"I should not have resigned at this moment merely on account of my complaint against Lord North, if I had not determined to vote against this Royal Family Bill, which in place I should be ashamed of doing."

When the bill reached the House of Commons, he spoke with studious courtesy of Lord North, but turned upon the lawyers-Sir Fletcher Norton, Thurlow, and Wedderburn-with great vigour, evidently relishing the task of pursuing his father's old enemies from subterfuge to subterfuge, till at last he fairly drove them into flat contradiction.

“Burke's wit, allusions, 'and enthusiasm," says Horace Walpole of the debate, " were striking, but not imposing; Wedderburn was a sharp, clever arguer though unequal; Charles Fox, much younger than either, was universally allowed to have seized the just point of an argument throughout with most amazing rapidity and clearness, and to have excelled even Charles Townshend as a parliament man, though inferior in wit and variety of talents."

The House of Commons readily understood, and the Ministerial majority readily forgave, Fox's independent attitude on the Royal Marriage Act. Unfortunately

there was one who looked at the whole matter from a no less personal point of view than Fox, and who did not understand and never forgave. Writing to Lord North on the 26th of February, just after the bill had been introduced into the Commons, George III. had said: "It is not a question that immediately relates to administration, but personally to myself; therefore I have a right to expect a hearty support from every one in my service, and shall remember defaulters." Three days before he had put on record his opinion of Fox's recklessness. "I think Mr. C. Fox would have acted more becomingly towards you and himself if he had absented himself from the House, for his conduct cannot be attributed to con

science, but to his aversion from all restraints." The extravagances of Fox's private life and the fopperies of his dress and manners were certain to be distasteful to the staid and business-like King, and to render him little disposed to make allowances for any political misconduct. The two had now become opposed to each other on a question in which the personal feelings of each were strongly stirred. The "registered edict," as Chatham finely called the Royal Marriage Act, had, it is true, been passed into law, and the King had triumphed; but Fox had been nevertheless in his eyes amongst the worst of the defaulters, and George had said that he would remember defaulters. Thus began the little rift which was soon to grow into so wide and impassable a gulf of separation between Fox and the King.

On the 7th of April Fox's bill for the repeal of Lord Hardwicke's Act came on for discussion. The day before Fox had been at Newmarket, losing heavily as usual on the turf. On his way back to town to introduce his first important measure into Parliament-a bill which was to alter the social arrangements of the country, and remove a stigma from his family-he fell in with some friends at Hocherel. Characteristically enough, he spent the night drinking with them instead of preparing for the struggle of the morrow, and arrived on the next day at the House without having been to bed at all, without having prepared his speech, and without even having drafted his bill. Nothing but the most consummate talent could have saved him. Unprepared with arguments of his own, he introduced his bill modestly and gracefully, and reserved his strength for his reply, when Lord North and Burke, who opposed him, should have given him the necessary materials. Horace Walpole thus describes the

Scene: