[155]. [On April 3, 1797, an open-air meeting of the inhabitants of Westminster was held in Palace Yard, during very inclement weather (Westminster Hall having been shut against them by order of the keeper), to consider of an address to his Majesty to dismiss Pitt’s ministry. Fox and the Duke of Bedford took part in the proceedings. Meetings were held about the same time all over the country for the same object.—Ed.]
[156]. [After Lord Shelburne’s resignation of the office of Prime Minister, consequent on the coalition of Fox and Lord North, he was created Marquis of Lansdowne, and withdrew almost entirely from public life, passing his time principally at his magnificent seat, Bowood, near Calne, Wiltshire.—Ed.]
Notes to the “New Coalition”.
[The Secret History of Fox’s coalition with Lord North, his former adversary,—a proceeding which entailed on him much odium,—was first brought to light by the publication of the “Memorials and Correspondence of Charles James Fox,” begun by the late Lord Holland, and edited by Earl Russell. It was occasioned by his disgust at the conduct of the Earl of Shelburne, for while Fox as one of the Secretaries of State under the Rockingham Administration was treating with Dr. Franklin for peace with the United States through the agent of the Cabinet (Thomas Grenville) Lord Shelburne, the other Secretary of State, was, through his agent Oswald, privately thwarting his measures, and that with the concurrence of the King! The consequence of the Coalition was the fall of Lord Shelburne’s ministry, and Fox and Lord North’s “taking the Treasury by storm”.—Ed.]
[158]. [The India Bill brought in by Fox, shortly after his accession to office, was the signal for his downfall. The Bill passed the House of Commons by large majorities, but when it reached the Lords, the King, who hated Fox, empowered Earl Temple to declare that he would consider everyone who supported the measure as personally his enemy. The Bill was consequently lost on the second reading by a majority of eighty-seven against twenty-nine. The Coalition Ministry resigned, and Pitt, then in his 23rd year, became Prime Minister.]
[159]. [John Nicholls, M.P. for Tregony, was blind of one eye, and altogether remarkably ugly. His delivery was ungraceful, and his action generally much too vehement. He wrote Recollections and Reflections during the Reign of George III., 2 vols. 8vo., 1822. His hostile pamphlet on the Income Tax is marked by great ability.—Ed.]
[160]. [On the 14th April, 1794, Thelwall was in the chair at a supper of one of the Divisions of the Reformers, and blowing off the head of a pot of porter said, “This is the way I would have all kings served”.—Ed.]
[161]. [John Horne Tooke was educated for the Church, and in 1760 became vicar of New Brentford. Resigning this he studied the Law, but being a clergyman was refused admission to the Bar. At first he supported Pitt, then a promising Reformer, publishing in 1788 his “Two Pair of Portraits,” disadvantageously contrasting Fox and his father with Pitt and his father. But Pitt not fulfilling his hopes, he became his bitter opponent and softened his animosity towards Fox. In 1775 he was imprisoned for a libel on the king’s troops in America. In 1790 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Westminster; the other candidates being Fox and Admiral Sir Alan Gardner. In 1794 he was tried, in company with Thelwall and others, for high treason, when all were acquitted. In 1796 he again stood for Westminster, and failed; but in 1801 he obtained a seat in Parliament for Old Sarum, on the nomination of Lord Camelford. A remarkable memoir of him was contributed to the Quarterly Review, vol. 7, by Lord Dudley, Secretary for Foreign Affairs in Canning’s administration, 1827–8.—Ed.]
HOR. LIB. III., CARM. XXV.