being made a duke. Such a condition of affairs was naturally tempting to those who sat in the cold shade of Opposition.[1]
In the latter part of the month of December mutual overtures had been made by the friends of North and Fox, to bring these two leaders together, for the purpose of overthrowing the Government and dividing the spoils of office. The intermediaries of the negotiation were Eden and George North for Lord North, and Colonel Richard Fitzpatrick, Lady Shelburne's brother, for Charles Fox. "I own," says George Selwyn, "that to see Charles closeted every instant at Brooks by one or the other, so that he can neither punt nor deal for a quarter of an hour, but is obliged to give an audience while Hare is whispering and standing beside him, like Jack Robinson, with a pencil and paper for mems., is to me a scene 'la plus parfaitement comique que l'on puisse imaginer,' and to nobody it seems [more] risible than to Charles himself."[2]
Considering the extraordinary violence of the language habitually indulged in by Fox during the past seven years against North, it might have been thought that any endeavours to form a coalition between them would have been but labour lost. But Fox approached the high game of politics in the same spirit in which he approached the faro table at Brooks.[3] Not a year was gone by since he had apostrophized the Administration of his rival in the following terms: "From the moment," he said, "when I shall make any terms with one of them, I will rest satisfied to be called the most infamous of mankind. I would not for an instant think of a coalition with men who in every public and private transaction as ministers,
- ↑ Autobiography of Grafton, 353, 374. The King to Shelburne, January 4th, 7th, 1783. Walpole, Journals, ii. 582.
- ↑ George Selwyn, Letters and Life, March 2nd, 1783, 196.
- ↑ Madame du Deffand in 1777 had described Fox and Fitzpatrick as follows: "Fox n'a pas un mauvais cœur: mais il a nulle espèce de principes; et il regarde en pitié tous ceux qui en ont. … La plus extrème pauvreté, l'impossibilite de payer ses dettes, tout cela ne lui fait rien. Le Fitzpatrick paraîtrait plus raisonnable, mais le Fox assure qu'il est encore plus indifferent que lui sur ces deux articles. Cette étrange'sécurité les élève à ce qu'ils se croient au-dessus de tous les hommes. … Ce sont des têtes absolument dérangées, et sans espérance de retour. Je n'aurais jamais cru, si je ne l'avais connu par moi-même, qu'il pût y avoir des tetes comme les leurs." Lettres à Horace Walpole, ed. 1812, iii. 371-372. 14 janvier 1777.
