Charles James Fox

Charles James Fox (1749-1806), British statesman, one of the principal leaders of the Whig Party in the period of the American and French revolutions. The son of Henry Fox, 1st baron Holland, a Whig politician of the previous generation, Fox was born in Westminster on January 24, 1749, and was educated at Eton and the University of Oxford. He entered Parliament at the age of 19, obtaining a seat through his father's influence, and was initially a supporter of the Crown. He held minor posts in the ministry of Lord North between 1770 and 1774, until King George III had him dismissed because of his open sympathy for the American colonists. He then joined the Whig opposition and quickly became one of its leaders, showing great skill as an orator.

When the North ministry fell in March 1782, Fox was named foreign secretary in the cabinet of Lord Rockingham, but resigned later the same year when the king forced the cabinet to accept the earl of Shelburne as Rockingham's successor. In 1783 Fox and North were secretaries of state under William Bentinck, duke of Portland; their ministry fell after less than a year when the king intervened against a Fox-North bill to reform the government of British India. Because of George III's hostility to him, Fox did not hold office again for more than two decades. In 1806 the king agreed to Fox's appointment as foreign secretary in Lord Grenville's “Ministry of All Talents.” He tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a peace with Napoleon before his death at Chiswick, on September 13. One of his last acts was to ensure passage of a law abolishing the slave trade.

Fox's reputation as a statesman is based less on his administrative ability than on his role in the liberalization of the British political system. His view that the prime minister should be chosen by the leaders of the majority party in Parliament rather than by the sovereign became the rule in the 19th century, and his hostility to laws discriminating against religious minorities helped secure their eventual repeal. In his unrelenting opposition to tyranny and his championship of free speech, Fox exemplified the most enduring aspects of the 18th-century Whig tradition.