The New Student's Reference Work/Fox, Charles James

Fox, Charles James, the son of the first Lord Holland, was a British statesman, born on Jan. 24, 1749. He was educated at Eton and Oxford and at nineteen was elected to Parliament. He became an active supporter of the administration of Lord North, and was made an admiralty-lord. This office he resigned in 1772, and was next year appointed a commissioner of the treasury, from which he was dismissed when he went over to the ranks of the Opposition. During the American Revolutionary War, he was an opponent of the coercive measures toward the colonies adopted by the government, and was a strenuous advocate of the claims of the colonists. After occupying various other high offices of state, he died on Sept. 13, 1806, and his remains were interred in Westminster Abbey near those of Pitt. Burke called him "the greatest debater the world ever saw." See Early History of C. J. Fox by Sir George Trevelyan.