Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox has been presented as the prototype of the nineteenth-century Liberal. Certainly his gifts were extraordinary. But did he put them to a worthy use? Ian R. Christie critically re-examines his record of public service.
Charles James Fox entered the House of Commons in 1768, while still under age. He made his mark at once as a debater; by his early thirties he was one of the leading personalities in the House, and he remained a member of it for over thirty-seven years, till his death in 1806. Yet his ministerial career is counted in months only, rather than in years: setting aside his early apprenticeship in junior posts, he held high Cabinet office for three months in 1782, eight months in 1783, and seven months in 1806—a year and a half in all.
It seems at first sight extraordinary that a man of so much vitality, who commanded so much admiration from almost all who knew him, even from his opponents, possessed of dazzling Parliamentary talents, and with other abilities of no mean order, should have failed to achieve positions of place and power and, through them, to leave a greater mark upon his country’s history.
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