GIBBON AND FOX.
Gibbon, the historian, was at one time a zealous partizan of Charles Fox. No man denounced Mr. Pitt with a keener sarcasm, or more bitter malignity. But he had his price. A lucrative office won him over to the ministry. A week before his appointment he had said in Mr. Fox's presence, "that public indignation should not be appeased, until the heads of at least six of the ministers were laid on the table of the House of Commons."
This fact is found stated in the hand writing of Mr. Fox, on a blank leaf of a copy of Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which was purchased after Mr. F's death, at a sale of his effects. The anecdote is followed by these lines, also in Mr. F's hand writing.
| King George, in a fright, Lest Gibbon should write The story of Britain's disgrace, Thought no means so sure His pen to secure, As to give the Historian a place. But the caution was vain— 'Tis the curse of his reign, That his projects should never succeed. Though he write not a line, Yet a cause of decline In the Author's example we read. His book well describes How corruption and bribes Overthrew the great Empire of Rome; And his writings declare A degeneracy there Which his conduct exhibits at home. |