Editing Charles James Fox (section)

===French Revolution ===
[[File:Prise de la Bastille.jpg|thumb|The [[Storming of the Bastille]] on 14 July 1789]]

Fox welcomed the [[French Revolution]] of 1789, interpreting it as a late [[Continental Europe|Continental]] imitation of Britain's [[Glorious Revolution]] of 1688. In response to the [[Storming of the Bastille]] on 14 July, he famously declared, "How much the greatest event it is that ever happened in the world! and how much the best!"<ref name="MI"/> In April 1791, Fox told the Commons that he "admired the new constitution of France, considered altogether, as the most stupendous and glorious edifice of liberty, which had been erected on the foundation of human integrity in any time or country."<ref>{{harvnb|Reid|1969|p=266}}</ref> He was thus somewhat bemused by the reaction of his old Whig friend, [[Edmund Burke]], to the dramatic events across the [[English Channel|Channel]]. In his ''[[Reflections on the Revolution in France]]'', Burke warned that the revolution was a violent rebellion against tradition and proper authority, motivated by [[Utopia]]n, abstract ideas disconnected from reality, which would lead to anarchy and eventual dictatorship. Fox read the book and found it "in very bad taste" and "favouring Tory principles",<ref>{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|p=113}}</ref> but avoided pressing the matter for a while to preserve his relationship with Burke. The more radical Whigs, like [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan|Sheridan]], broke with Burke more readily at this point.

Fox instead turned his attention – despite the politically volatile situation – to repealing the [[Test Act|Test]] and [[Corporation Act|Corporation]] Acts, which restricted the liberties of [[English Dissenters|Dissenters]] and Catholics. On 2 March 1790, Fox gave a long and eloquent speech to a packed House of Commons.
[[File:A Birmingham toast, as given on the 14th of July, by the - Revolution Society (BM 1851,0901.538).jpg|thumb|''A Birmingham toast, as given on the&nbsp;14&nbsp;July'': Fox is caricatured by [[James Gillray|Gillray]] as toasting the anniversary of the [[Storming of the Bastille]] with [[Joseph Priestley]] and other Dissenters (23 July 1791)]]

{{blockquote|Persecution always says, 'I know the consequences of your opinion better than you know them yourselves.' But the language of toleration was always amicable, liberal, and just: it confessed its doubts, and acknowledged its ignorance ... Persecution had always reasoned from cause to effect, from opinion to action, [that such an opinion would invariably lead to but one action], which proved generally erroneous; while toleration led us invariably to form just conclusions, by judging from actions and not from opinions.<ref name="Reid 1969, p. 261">{{harvnb|Reid|1969|p=261}}</ref>}}
Pitt, in turn, came to the defence of the Acts as adopted
{{blockquote| by the wisdom of our ancestors to serve as a bulwark to the Church, whose constituency was so intimately connected with that of the state, that the safety of the one was always liable to be affected by any danger which might threaten the other.<ref name="Reid 1969, p. 261"/>}}

Burke, with fear of the radical upheaval in France foremost in his mind, took Pitt's side in the debate, dismissing [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|Nonconformists]] as "men of factious and dangerous principles", to which Fox replied that Burke's "strange dereliction from his former principles ... filled him with grief and shame". Fox's motion was defeated in the Commons by 294 votes to 105.<ref>{{harvnb|Reid|1969|p=262}}</ref>

Later, Fox successfully supported the [[Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791]], extending the rights of British Catholics. He explained his stance to his Roman Catholic friend, [[Charles Butler (lawyer)|Charles Butler]], declaring:{{blockquote|the best ground, and the only ground to be defended in all points is, that ''action'', not ''principle'' is the object of law and legislation; with a person's principles no government has any right to interfere.<ref>{{harvnb|Reid|1969|p=260}}</ref>}}

On the world stage of 1791, war with Great Britain was threatened more with Spain and [[Russian Empire|Russia]] than [[revolutionary France]]. Fox opposed the bellicose stances of Pitt's ministry in the [[Nootka Sound]] crisis and over the Russian occupation of the [[Ottoman Empire|Turkish]] port of [[Ochakiv]] on the [[Black Sea]]. Fox contributed to the peaceful resolution of these entanglements and gained a new admirer in [[Catherine the Great]], who bought a bust of Fox and placed it between [[Cicero]] and [[Demosthenes]] in her collection.<ref name="MI"/> On 18 April, Fox spoke in the Commons – together with [[William Wilberforce]], Pitt and Burke – in favour of a measure to [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolish the slave trade]], but – despite their combined rhetorical talents – the vote went against them by a majority of 75.<ref>{{harvnb|Reid|1969|p=267}}</ref>

[[File:The-Hopes-of-the-Party-Gillray.jpeg|thumb|In ''The Hopes of the Party'' (1791), [[James Gillray|Gillray]] caricatured Fox with an axe about to strike off the head of George III, in imitation of the French Revolution.]]
On 6 May 1791, a tearful confrontation on the floor of the Commons finally shattered the quarter-century friendship of Fox and Burke, as the latter dramatically crossed the floor of the House to sit down next to Pitt, taking the support of a good deal of the more conservative Whigs with him. Officially, and rather irrelevantly, this happened during a debate on the particulars of a bill for the government of Canada.<ref>{{harvnb|Reid|1969|p=269}}</ref> Later, on his deathbed in 1797, Burke would have his wife turn Fox away rather than allow a final reconciliation.