British Public Characters of 1798

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1798. Excerpt: ... Upon his person; here then are wealth and honours not only within his grasp, but actually in his power. It is otherwise with the junior branches, for they have in general but little in possession, and every thing to look for; they inherit all the exquisite relish for pleasure that their seniors enjoy to satiety, and are only deficient in the means of gratification. Like the dove of Noah, they scarcely find a resting place for their feet on the earth; and they are exactly in the situation of an invading general who has burnt his (hips, for they must on, or perish! Charles James Fox, is the younger son of Henry, who was himself a younger son of Sir Stephen Fox, celebrated less for his own birth, than the circumstance of being a father at the age of eighty, an event not incredible however, and rendered in the present instance unsuspicious, by the decorous conduct, and acknowledged virtue of the partner of his bed. Henry entered early into public life, and such was his address in parliament, during the reign of George II. that he soon attained not only some of the most arduous and honourable, but also the most lucrative situations in the gift of the crown, for in the year 1754, he was appointed secretary at war; then secretary of state for the Southern department, and after being ouQcdhy the great Mr. Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham, we find him silling the immensely beneficial office of os pay-master general of the forces, accumulating great wealth, and incurring the animadverlions of the first city of the empire. Such indeed was his consequence, that at a time when patents of peerage were not very common, he was ennobled by his present Majesty, in 1763, by the title of Baron Holland of Foxley. His son, Charles James, was born January 13th, 1749, and if by ...