Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Charles James Fox was a leader of the Whig Party in the British parliament. Spending 37 years in parliament and achieving high office on two occasions, he gained a reputation as a champion of religious and civil liberty after pushing for the Libel Act of 1792 (known as Fox's Act) and the abolition of the slave trade in 1806. His family background augured well for a political career. He was the son of Henry Fox (1705–74), a well-known political manager, and Lady Caroline Fox (1723–74), daughter of the second Duke of Richmond and a great-granddaughter of Charles II. He enjoyed all the privileges of aristocratic life – Eton, Oxford, and a Grand Tour – and early on he developed, under the eye of his indulgent father, the crowded and lively private life that would so persistently shape the perceptions of the public man. It was through his impeccable connections that Fox was able to enter parliament in 1768, at the age of 19. In his early career he acted with his father's friends and against his father's enemies, who included those Rockingham Whigs with whom he would later be associated. In spite of his later reputation as a friend of America, he initially supported Lord North's colonial policies, twice holding minor office in his ministry and twice resigning precipitately for family reasons. After the death of his father in 1774, Fox gravitated slowly toward the Whig opposition to North's ... log in or subscribe to read full text