Transcribed from the 1888 Cassell & Company edition byDavid Price,
cassell’snational library.
by
CHARLES JAMES FOX.
CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited:
london, paris, newyork & melbourne.
1888.
Fox’s “History of the Reign of James II.,”which begins with his view of the reign of Charles II. and breaksoff at the execution of Monmouth, was the beginning of a Historyof England from the Revolution, upon which he worked in the lastyears of his life, for which he collected materials in Parisafter the Peace of Amiens, in 1802—he died in September,1806—and which was first published in 1808.
The grandfather of Charles James Fox was Stephen, son ofWilliam Fox, of Farley, in Wiltshire. Stephen Fox was ayoung royalist under Charles I. He was twenty-two at thetime of the king’s execution, went into exile during theCommonwealth, came back at the Restoration, was appointedpaymaster of the first two regiments of guards that were raised,and afterwards Paymaster of all the Forces. In that officehe made much money, but rebuilt the church at Farley, and earnedlasting honour as the actual founder of Chelsea Hospital, whichwas opened in 1682 for wounded and superannuated soldiers. The ground and buildings had been appointed by James I., in 1609,as Chelsea College, for the training of disputants against theRoman Catholics. Sir Stephen Fox himself contributedthirteen thousand pounds to the carrying out of thisdesign. Fox’s History dealt, therefore, with times inwhich his grandfather had played a part.
In 1703, when his age was seventy-six, Stephen Fox took asecond wife, by whom he had two sons, who became founders of twofamilies; Stephen, the elder, became first Earl of Ilchester;Henry, the younger, who married Georgina, daughter of the Duke ofRichmond, and was himself created, in 1763, Baron Holland ofFarley. Of the children of that marriage Charles James Foxwas the third son, born on the 24th of January, 1749. Thesecond son had died in infancy.
Henry Fox inherited Tory opinions. He was regarded byGeorge II. as a good man of business, and was made Secretary ofWar in 1754, when Charles James, whose cleverness made him afavoured child, was five years old. In the next year HenryFox was Secretary of State for the Southern Department. Theoutbreak of the Seven Years’ War bred discontent and changeof Ministry. The elder Fox had then to give place to theelder Pitt. But Henry Fox was compensated by the office ofPaymaster of the Forces, from which he knew even better than hisfather had known how to extract profit. He rapidly acquiredthe wealth which he joined to his title as Lord Holland ofFarley, and for which he was attacked vigorously, until twohundred thousand pounds—some part of the money that stayedby him—had been refunded.
Henry Fox, Lord Holland, found his boy, Charles James,brilliant and lively, made him a companion, and indulged him tothe utmost. Once he expressed a strong desire to break awatch that his father was winding up: his father gave it him todash upon the floor. Once his father had promised that whenan old garden wall at Holland House was blown down with gunpowderbefore replacing it with iron railings, he should see theexplosion. The workmen blew it down in the boy’sabsence: his father had the wall rebuilt in its old form that itmig