proof of genuine spirit, and to give grace to his mode of enjoying them, was a mark of superior genius; that dignity was a grave and solemn quality which suited ill with youth; that it was one of the formal accompaniments of advanced life, and should be laid aside till the possession of sovereign power required the solemn exercise of it: in short, that as the only period of enjoyment allotted to the heir of an empire was the uncertain space of time between the trammels of education and the cares of a crown, he was certainly more than justified in crowding into it all the pleasure it is capable of containing.

Such doctrines might at this time have been propagated to encourage the glowing dispositions of his age, while the crafty philosophers who taught them knew how to apply their principles to every object of luxurious and sensual gratification. It must also be premised, that with the dispositions which the Prince of Wales possessed, and the partialities which he had formed, it could not be expected that a rigid prudence was to be found amongst the most conspicuous of his virtues, or that he would submit to the plague of economical attention; and such was in reality the case: he indulged himself in a profuse liberality, a splendour of appearance, and a variety of pleasures beyond the power of his revenue to support.

The people whom his Royal Highness chose for his social friends, soon contrived, also, to involve him in their political principles. It was the natural consequence of the society he had adopted. He was even persuaded to attend the debates of the House of Commons, as the great school of political instruction, and he appeared to reserve his approving looks for the orators of opposition. Still, however, he preserved the decorum of respectful intercourse with his royal parent, and Mr. Fox, in a parliamentary eulogium of him, represented it, with his usual ability, as a very promising feature in his character, that he knew how to reconcile an opposition to his father's ministers with filial duty.

It is, however, a notorious fact, that the men who at this time styled themselves the opposition were the original cause of the pecuniary embarrassments of his Royal Highness. Their example, their suggestions, their prodigalities, progressively seduced him from the moral standard before he had acquired

any knowledge of human artifice, and, in the moment of that seduction, they meanly and ruinously fattened upon his exceeding bounty; yet no sooner were those means of improvident support withheld, than they blotted all recollection of his munificence from their memories, and had the audacity to affect a pity for his diminished splendour, and publicly blamed him for having suffered himself to be their dupe and sacrifice. They rudely cast him upon an indiscriminating society, encumbered in a great degree with a weight of responsibility for their own irregularities; they shaded his perception, but could not suppress the arguments of his heart.

Amongst the earliest friends of the Prince of Wales, Fox, Sheridan, and Burke may be considered as the most distinguished, a triumvirate of talent and genius, which we can scarcely expect ever to behold again. In the formation of his establishment, the Prince consulted Mr. Fox, and it is undoubted, that he entertained for him the most sincere regard. With Mr. Fox, therefore, he thenceforth formed a permanent friendship. Influenced by his eloquence and impressed by his arguments and persuasion, he regarded that illustrious statesman as a pattern for his imitation, and esteemed and reverenced him as the friend of man. Into the amusements and follies of the lighter hours of Mr. Fox, the Prince entered with a zest which his previous restrictions tended to increase, and these follies and extravagancies not unfrequently involved him in private broils, which exposed him to public animadversion.

Mr. Fox, then in the prime of life, though not of his glory, stood on a commanding eminence, and the eyes not only of his own nation, but of all the courts of Europe, were turned upon him, as the man above all others in the British dominions best qualified to be at the head of the government. But his bold independent spirit; the firmness with which he resisted the encroachments of the crown, and above all, his sincere and unalterable attachment to the privileges of the people, were insurmountable objections to his reception at court. The King, educated in high Tory maxims, was averse to his principles and dreaded his spirit; the favourites of the court were naturally disgusted with his integrity, and shrunk beneath his superior talents. In his parliamentary conduct

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there was nothing to censure, and as a minister he had shewn himself incapable of being influenced by the seductions of office, or tempted by the love of power, to continue in place when the dictates of honour and conscience told him that he ought to resign.

In the public life, therefore, of this illustrious man, there was nothing that the most implacable of his enemies could fix upon that rendered him unfit to occupy the first place in the confidence of the heir-apparent to the crown; and, therefore, in order to justify the obloquy which was cast upon the Prince of Wales for this attachment, it was necessary that the private character of Mr. Fox should undergo an examination, and the amusements and follies of his lighter hours were made to pass in a severe and malignant review before the public judgment. And here it must be confessed that his enemies had some tangible grounds to proceed upon, for it is indisputable that he was guilty of many of the levities and indiscretions which young men of fashion and fortune commit; and that, like them, he experienced those pecuniary vicissitudes which generally indicate extravagance and imprudence. Into these follies and indiscretions the Prince of Wales unfortunately entered, and not possessing at that period that hold on the public opinion which the parliamentary exertions of Mr. Fox had ensured to him, he participated in all the disgrace incidental to such conduct, without enjoying the counteracting influence of public

esteem.

A finer compliment to the genius of this celebrated man was never paid than by the late erudite philosopher, Dr. Parr. Speaking of the friends and companions of that glorious time, which boasted so many wits and geniuses now no more, he said that he never feared Dr. Johnson in argument, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, nor even Edmund Burke. The only man I feared,' he added, was Charles James Fox! When he argued, I felt my inferiority.'

It is our wish, from the sincere reverence which we feel for the extraordinary talents of this great man, that we could wholly acquit him of some acts which partake strongly of dishonour, and a wanton neglect of those upright principles on which the genuine moral character is founded. We are aware