belles lettres, history, and the ancient and modern languages of Europe, and he is not supposed to have given his time to the acquisition of the mathematical sciences, which, indeed, have little connection with the chief objects of a statesman's attention. In history, particularly that of his own country,-in the political constitution and particular interests of the different nations of Europe, he was eminently skilled. He had early shewn a taste for poetry, and was celebrated for a ready wit, which he displayed in occasional sallies of repartee, and that light species of composition, which the French call vers de société. With a warm heart, a generous spirit, a simple mind, a clear understanding, and a perspicuous, easy style of expression, Fox necessarily became the admiration of the British parliament, and one of the most animated and powerful amongst ancient or modern orators. His delivery was, however, not graceful, and his voice wanted power and harmony, but his manner was always pleasing, because it was always sensible and unaffected, and when he rose, as he always did, in the heat of debate, with the subject which he was discussing, he soared an eagle's flight, and fell upon his adversaries with a force and energy which was ir resistible. The great art of his eloquence seemed to be the absolute disregard of every thing that had the appearance of art. He had no set style, no monotony of round and studied periods, like his adversary, Pitt, or the prototype of that adversary, Cicero. His words and phrases were all the simple English of the reign of queen Anne, such as Swift or Addison would have used, but in a style more concentrated. His illustrations were drawn from history, or from common life, and not, like those of his friend Burke, scientific, poetical, or metaphysical. He always reasoned from facts and plain obvious principles, and made his hearers usually feel with him, because he appeared to speak and feel like a common man of uncommon energy. He possessed beyond all other men the grand secret of impres sive eloquence, the power of making every one present believe that he was capable of thinking rightly. that he was incapable of deceit, and that his sole desire was to convince his hearers of the truth which he felt himself strongly, and which he was only anxious to impress upon others with equal force of feeling. Yet in reality he was often a most skilful orator,and knew as well as any man how to draw the attention of his hearers from the strong parts of his opponents' arguments, by attacking their political characters rather than their measures. An instance of this may be found in his speeches on the celebrated East India bill, where we shall find, if we compare him with Burke, that although totally neglecting the local infor mation which the latter displayed upon the subject *, he produced a greater sensation upon his audience, by withdrawing their attention from the objects of the bill, as they af. fected the people in India, to their consequence, in adding weight to the influence of the ministers in this country. In this he was wise, he knew that his hearers felt but a remote interest for the distant inhabitants of Hindostan, whom they considered only as filling up a space in the map of Asia. To speak, In the excellent speech alluded to, Burke was nearly coughed down. like Burke, of their injuries, of As a leader of opposition he was the their countries desolated by mer- most powerful; but those who chant conquerors, as unfeeling as watch the proceedings of the Brithe ouran outang and the tyger, tish parliament, will observe that a would bid no accordant string to leader of opposition is often obliged vibrate in their breasts; but, direct to condemn, is rarely at liberty to them to Leadenhall-street and St. praise, and has many opportunities Stephen's chapel, and they were at of gaining popular favour, without home; they could understand him, much risk of reputation. Yet Fox and they could feel with him. There often praised the financial skill of needs no better example of his his opponent, and it is much to his knowledge of man, and his skill as credit for foresight, as a politi an orator. His real artifice lay in cian, that from the first he predicted the skilful choice of his topics, the evils of a coalition against and in discussing those which he France, that he always sighed for selected with the most natural and peace, and that our warfare has energetic simplicity. To affect failed of its desired object, and led the feelings of his audience, he to the subjugation of Europe, used every means which nature through the aggrandizement of supplies to art, he argued him- France. self into a fervour of passion; he declaimed with vehemence, he spoke in sententious apophthegms, in sudden exclamations, in broken sentences and in tears. He has been compared to Demosthenes, and the comparison is just. He will be remembered as the Demos. thenes of England. One point of si.. milarity has, perhaps, not yet been noticed. Demosthenes acquired his style by frequent copying of the historian Thucidydes. The English Demosthenes, it is true, had no Thucidydes of his own nation to copy; but by historical studies he formed his eloquence upon the rigorous and chaste model of an historical style; and hence, perhaps, may be found one source of his great resemblance to the Grecian orator in the characteristics of simplicity, natural dignity, and sententious energy. Of his political character as a minister, considering that he held the reins of government for a short time only, it is difficult to speak. In private life, we have already said, he was most amiable.—He had follies, indeed, or if the love of pleasure and of gaming be vices in youth, he had vices too, which it would be weakness to conceal. But, with an ardent passion for these destructive habits, he quitted them entirely for a modest retirement, when he could no longer enjoy them without risking the independence which his friends had given him, from public spirit, in order to preserve him for the service of his country; and, though he had been profuse of his own fortune, he was neither greedy nor envious of another's; non alieni appetens, sui profusus. His virtues too were not less admirable because they shone through, and in the end purified and corrected the transient defects of his character. He had both a natural and acquired urbanity, a gentlemanly feeling, which thought and acted with the greatest kind. ness towards every fellow man, however humble. Even in the ar3 N 2 dour dour of debate he insulted no one, and scarcely ever used an expression which a gentleman would wish to disavow. He sneered at no man's weakness, but chose always for his competitor the strongest of his opponents. He scorned to fight with dwarfs, but always ventured alone into combat with the Goliath of his times; and his weapons, though strong and well-directed, were fair and simple, as the sling and the stone of the son of Jesse. In all things he was great, he lived and died with many friends, and amongst a nation of admirers, and he will ever be remembered amongst the great leaders of the British senate, and the glories of British eloquence. Parallel between Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox. Having thus attempted to describe the eloquence, and delineate the characters of these two great men, we may pronounce of them, that as rivals for power and for fame, their equals have not been known in this country, and perhaps in none were there two such statesmen, in so regular and equal a contention for pre-eminence. In the advantages of birth and fortune they were equal; in eloquence, dissimilar in their manner, but superior to all their contemporaries; in influence upon the minds of their hearers equal; in talents and reputation, dividing the nation into two parties of nearly equal strength; in probity above all suspicion; in patriotism rivals, as in all things else. Whatever the spirit of party may have suggested in the ardour of contention, the writer of this cannot now be persuaded, that their opposition was more than a constitutional struggle for power, to which each had pretensions that must have borne the palm from any other man of his time. At the commencement of Mr. Pitt's long administration, to which he succeeded by one of those court manœuvres which have obtained in all countries, Mr. Fox could rarely object anything to his measures, except that the proposer of them first obtained his power against the majority of the house of commons. In the nice and difficult affair of the prepos ed regency, we see the Whig leader of opposition, the man of the people, endeavouring to check the limita tions which the court minister, through the two popular branches, of the legislature, would have fixed upon the hereditary successor to the executive government, on a temporary demise of the crown. In opposition, each declaimed against the corruption of the commons, and proposed plans of reform. This was the engine by which the one raised himself in early youth to a great degree of popular favour, and gained the citadel of ministerial power. This too was the engine which the other employed to be siege him in his state, when he found it necessary to lead, and not destroy parliamentary influence. How Fox, as minister and the avowed patron of reform, would have encountered the difficulties of a similar situation is doubtful; he died before the hour of trial arrived. On the subject of the catholic claims, each, at a late period, avowedly favoured them; but when in power, subse. quently, neither was capable of carrying his views immediately into effect, and the attempt was fatal to the power of those to whom Mr. Fox bequeathed his plans and his influence. Upon Upon the French revolution, and the coalition of the European powers against France, it is but just to believe, that the difference between these great men, was one of real political opinion. As far as it was a measure of mere foreign policy, the one was tempted to it by the flattering hope of increasing the military power of Britain, and extending her influence upon the continent. At the same time it afforded the best counteraction of the turbulent spirit of reform, which then so much embarrassed him at home, and which, had he not sup. pressed it, by occupying the public attention with foreign war, and by strong and unusual measures of do. mestic coercion, would certainly have effected a reform in parliament, by means which must have endangered the due equipoise of the well ad. justed powers which that constitution combines in a mixed government. The other was led to observe more thoroughly the consequence of an attack upon the infant republic of France, and knowing that the coalition was composed, as all coalitions are, of powers jealous of each other, and that England neither possessed a great military establishment, nor a Marlborough to give to a small one an ascendancy over its allies, and a superiority over its more numerous enemies, wisely predicted that the conflict must end in rendering France a nation of soldiers, who would become the masters of all the continent. Whether the minister, having quenched the flames of popular contention at home, might have chosen a happy moment for the cessation of the war abroad, is a question which puts the political sagacity of Mr. Pitt to a test the most difficult for his reputation. But, it must be considered, when perhaps he desired peace most it was unattainable; for he had exasperated and aggrandized the enemy, and had raised up a war party, and created an unusual military establishment at home. If this could have been avoided, it would have been well: since, in the end, great military establishments have gene rally led nations to external conquest at the expence of domestic liberty. On this ground and be cause even successful war must have this tendency, Mr. Fox opposed it with firmness, and, as we ought to believe, with sincerity; for in support of his opinions he employed his pen in the only composition which he ever avowed, and sacrificed even the friendship of Burke to his conviction of their truth. To conclude our parallel, they were men of such transcendent talents and towering ambition, that had they lived in a republic, one or the other would probably have been dictator; in an absolute monarchy, either might have founded a new dynasty; while in a mixed go. vernment they were rival statesmen, alternately ministers, and during life the leaders of the house of commons, whose names may be fairly placed in competition with any of the ministers of modern empires, or the popular leaders of ancient republics. Let those who think less of them, consider how much more men are to be governed by their prejudices and their passions, than by their reason, and then endeavour to take the lead in opposing or in directing the affairs of a mixed government, like ours, in times of difficulty, with greater talents, more virtue, and less 3 N 3 faction faction; for ourselves, we shall still continue to think, that under the guidance of such men, Britain must ever remain great, prosperous, and invincible. Some Account of Lieut. Col. M'Leod, of the 78th Regiment, with a Nar. rative of the Battle of Maida. Lieut. colonel Patrick M'Leod, was third son of Donald M'Leod, of Geanies, esquire; sheriff depute of the shires of Ross and Cromarty, in Scotland; and was born at Geanies in Rossshire on the 18th April, 1776. Being destined for the army, an ensign's commission in the 42nd regiment was procured for him immediately after his leaving college, and Great Britain being then at peace, he obtained leave of absence from his regiment, to repair to a military academy at Brunswick, to study there the principles of his profession. After two years' residence at Brunswick, he returned home on the breaking out of the war with France, in 1793, and soon after accompanied his regiment, with the rank of lieutenant, to the continent, where he served his first campaign. Having afterwards obtained a captain's commission in the 2d battalion of the 78th, he embarked with it in the expedition against the Cape of Good Hope, assisted at the capture of that im. portant settlement, and, though still a very young man, such was the opinion entertained of him by sir Alured Clarke and sir James Craig, that he was appointed by them fort major of Cape Town. This situation he retained, till the 2d battalion of the 78th was ordered to India, to be incorporated with the first. Captain M'Leod accompanied the battalion to India, and remained there till 1802, when bad health compelled him to return to Europe. Soon after his arrival in England, be became major of the 78th by purchase, and was then appointed to the command of a battalion of recruits, for different regiments, in India, collected in the Isle of Wight, with whom he was dispatched soon afterwards to the isle of Guernsey, then threatened with invasion from the coast of France. While stationed in Guernsey, major M'Leod prepared a plan of defence for the island, in case it should be invaded, which was highly approved of by the general officer, commanding in the island, to whom it was submitted. Major general Fraser having, in the mean time, obtained an order from government for raising again a 2nd battalion of the 78th, major M'Leod was recalled from Guernsey and sent to Scotland to assist in superintending the levy, and when the battalion was completed, he was appointed to the immediate com. mand of it, with the rank of lieut. colonel. The care and attention he bestowed in forming and disciplining this young corps were unremitted, and the steadiness they displayed at the battle of Maida, is a proof that his labour was not thrown away upon them. We have subjoined the orders which he issued to his bat talion, before their disembarking, and the letter which he wrote to general Fraser, giving an account of the battle. No one can read without a mixed sensation of pleasure and regret, the natural and animated description of his feelings, as he looked along the line, and observed the coolness and steadiness of the young |