Mr. Fox, or of estranging his suspicious temper more from such a measure. He had many conversations with Mr. Grey, with whose father he was much connected, and with me, then a boy of nineteen, on the subject.[1]
"What passed with Grey I know not. I told him that their common disapprobation of the war, and of the system, both domestic and foreign, adopted by Ministers, would insensibly draw them more cordially together than any understanding or treaty at so early a period. I added that Mr. Fox had been so long politically connected, and was so personally attached to many of those leading men with whom he now differed, that public duty, appearance to the world, and, above all, his own affectionate feelings, would indispose him to seek any new connections, or to break through his old engagements, till those with whom he had formed them acknowledged that it was impracticable to preserve them with mutual honour. But as the objects of Lord Lansdowne and Mr. Fox were peace and reform to a greater or less extent, I thought that in the pursuit of those objects they must ultimately meet and assist each other.
"I perceived there was not much reliance on either side on the other's professions or intentions, and I let both see that I thought so. I was diverted at observing that Lord Lansdowne throughout attributed the backwardness of the Whigs to Mr. Fox's jealousy of him, whereas Mr. Fox was, of the whole party (with the exception of Mr. Grey), the least disinclined to him, and the others had not only a distrust, but an unwarrantable hatred, of his very name."[2] Early in 1794 it was intimated to Lord Lansdowne that a more definite explanation was wished for by Fox.
"Is the explanation proposed," he replied to Lady Ossory, who with his sister-in-law Lady Holland and his niece Miss Fox, who was also Lord Lansdowne's niece, had for some time past been trying to effect a reconciliation
- ↑ "Mr. Grey," says Elizabeth, Lady Holland, "began his political career under the auspices of Lord Lansdowne; the beauty and attraction of the Duchess of Devonshire drew him to the party of which she was a most active partizan."—Journal, i. 171.
- ↑ Memoirs of the Whig Party, by Lord Holland, i. 44, 45.
