Editing Charles James Fox (section)

== Political wilderness: 1797–1806==
=== Later life ===
[[File:Stealing-Off-Gillray.jpeg|thumb|In ''Stealing off'' (1798), Gillray caricatured Fox's secession from Parliament.]]
By May 1797, an overwhelming majority – both in and outside of Parliament – had formed in support of Pitt's war against France.

Fox's following in Parliament had shrivelled to about 25, compared with around 55 in 1794 and at least 90 during the 1780s. Many of the Foxites purposefully seceded from Parliament in 1797; Fox himself retired for lengthy periods to his wife's house in [[Surrey]].<ref name="Mitchell 1992, p. 141"/> The distance from the stress and noise of Westminster was an enormous psychological and spiritual relief to Fox,<ref>{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|p=146}}</ref> but still he defended his earlier principles: "It is a great comfort to me to reflect how steadily I have opposed this war, for the miseries it seems likely to produce are without end."{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}
On 1 May 1798, Fox proposed a toast to "Our Sovereign, the Majesty of the People". The [[Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk|Duke of Norfolk]] had made the same toast in January at Fox's birthday dinner and had been dismissed as [[Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire]] as a result. Pitt thought of sending Fox to the [[Tower of London]] for the duration of the parliamentary session but instead removed him from the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]].<ref>{{harvnb|Emsley|1979|p=67}}</ref> Fox believed that it was "impossible to support the [[Glorious Revolution|Revolution]] [of 1688] and the [[Act of Settlement 1701|Brunswick Succession]] upon any other principle" than the sovereignty of the people.<ref>{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|p=152}}</ref>

After Pitt's resignation in February 1801, Fox had undertaken a partial return to politics. Having opposed the [[Henry Addington|Addington]] ministry (though he approved of its negotiation of the [[Treaty of Amiens]]) as a Pitt-style tool of the King, Fox gravitated towards the [[William Grenville|Grenvillite]] faction, which shared his support for [[Catholic emancipation]] and composed the only parliamentary alternative to a coalition with the Pittites.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}}

During the French Revolutionary Wars, Fox supported the French Republic against the monarchies that comprised the [[Second Coalition]].<ref>{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|p=165}}</ref> Fox thought the ''coup d'état'' of 1799 that brought [[Napoleon]] to power "a very bad beginning ... the manner of the thing [was] quite odious",<ref>{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|p=166}}</ref> but he was convinced that the French leader sincerely desired peace in order to consolidate his rule and rebuild his shattered country.

By July 1800, Fox had "forgiven" the means by which he had come into power and claimed Napoleon had "surpassed...[[Alexander the Great|Alexander]] & [[Caesar]], not to mention the great advantage he has over them in the Cause he fights in".<ref>{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|p=167}}</ref> In October 1801, a preliminary peace agreement between Britain and France was published and Fox was delighted. In a speech to his constituents on 10 October Fox said, "We have not, I acknowledge, obtained the objects for which the War was undertaken{{snd}}so much the better{{snd}}I rejoice that we have not. I like the Peace the more on this very account".<ref>''The Times'' (12 October 1801), p. 2.</ref> Many of his friends were shocked at such open language, but as Fox said in his reply to a remonstrance from Grey: "...the truth is, I am gone something further in hate to the English Government than perhaps you and the rest of my friends are, and certainly further than can with prudence be avowed. The triumph of the French Government over the English does in fact afford me a degree of pleasure which it is very difficult to disguise".<ref>[[E. A. Smith (historian)|E. A. Smith]], ''Lord Grey. 1764–1845'' (Alan Sutton, 1996), p. 86.</ref>

After the subsequent Treaty of Amiens was signed in March 1802, Fox joined the thousands of English tourists flocking across the Channel to see the sights of the revolution. Fox and his retinue were kept under surveillance by officials from the British embassy during their trip of 20 July to 17 November.<ref name="MI"/> In Paris, he presented his wife for the first time in seven years of marriage, creating yet another stir back at court in London, and had three interviews with Napoleon, who – though he tried to flatter his most prominent British sympathiser – had to spend most of the time arguing about the freedom of the press and the perniciousness of a standing army.<ref name="MI"/>

Fox's stay in France enabled him, through his connections with [[Talleyrand]] and [[Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette|Lafayette]], to search the French archives for his planned history of the reign of [[James II of Great Britain|James II]], the [[Glorious Revolution]] and the reign of [[William III of Great Britain|William III]]. Fox left the work unfinished at his death, however, and only covered the first year of James' reign (1685). It was posthumously published in 1808 as ''[[A History of the Early Part of the Reign of James II]]''.<ref name="MI"/>

Fox confessed in December 1802 that he was "obstinate" in his belief that Napoleon's "wish is Peace, nay that he is afraid of war to the last degree".<ref name="Mitchell 1992 201">{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|p=201}}</ref> In March 1803 he believed that Napoleon's belligerence towards [[Piedmont]], Malta and Switzerland was regrettable but did not constitute a ''[[casus belli]]'', writing to the Duchess of Devonshire "if I am to shew a feeling for the wounded honour of the country you or somebody must shew me the wound, for the life of me I cannot find as single instance since the definitive treaty where the Govt. of France has behaved ill to ''us''".<ref name="Mitchell 1992 201"/>

When [[Napoleonic Wars|war]] broke out again in May 1803, Fox blamed the Prime Minister Henry Addington for not standing up to the King. The British government had not left Napoleon "any alternative but War or the most abject humiliation" and that the war "is entirely the fault of our Ministers and not of Bonaparte".<ref>{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|p=202}}</ref> Upon hearing of the spectacular French [[Battle of Ulm|victories at Ulm]] and [[Battle of Austerlitz|Austerlitz]] later in 1805, Fox commented: "These are wonders indeed but they are not ''much'' more than I expected".<ref name="Mitchell 1992 218">{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|p=218}}</ref> When Pitt (who had taken over from Addington as premier in 1804) tried to persuade Prussia into an anti-French alliance, Prussia refused, to Fox's delight.<ref name="Mitchell 1992 218"/>
He was a close friend and colleague of [[Samuel Whitbread (1764–1815)|Samuel Whitbread]] and supported by Fox, Whitbread in 1805, led the campaign to have [[Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville|Viscount Melville]] removed from office; Melville resigned. However, The House of Lords found Melville not guilty and he was acquitted of all charges.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tbpjAAAAcAAJ|title=The Trial of Henry Lord Viscount Melville|year=1806|publisher=Longman}}</ref>

=== Final year ===
[[File:Visiting the sick.jpg|thumb|In ''Visiting the Sick'' (1806), [[James Gillray]] caricatured Fox's last months.]]

When Pitt died on 23 January 1806, Fox was the last remaining great political figure of the era and could no longer be denied a place in government.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}} When Grenville formed a "[[Ministry of All the Talents]]" out of his supporters, the followers of Addington and the Foxites, Fox was once again offered the post of Foreign Secretary, which he accepted in February. Fox was convinced (as he had been since Napoleon's accession) that France desired a lasting peace and that he was "sure that two civil sentences from the Ministers would ensure Peace".<ref>{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|p=227}}</ref> Therefore, peace talks were speedily entered into by Fox and his old friend Talleyrand, now French foreign minister. The mood had completely changed by July, however, and Fox was forced to acknowledge that his assessment of Napoleon's pacific intentions was wrong.<ref>{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|pp=229–230}}</ref> Negotiations over Hanover, Naples, Sicily, and Malta faltered and Talleyrand vetoed Russian participation in the negotiations. King George believed this was a ploy to divide Britain and Russia as French interests would suffer if she had to deal with an Anglo-Russian alliance. Fox was forced to agree that the King's belief was "but too well founded".<ref name="Mitchell 1992 232"/>

In June, [[Lord Yarmouth]] was sent on a peace mission to Paris. Fox wrote to him: "I feel my own Glory highly interested in such an event, but to make peace by acceding to worse terms than those first suggested...wd. be as repugnant to my own feelings as it wd. be to the Duty I owe to K. & Country".<ref name="Mitchell 1992 234">{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|p=234}}</ref> Yarmouth confirmed that Russia was negotiating separately with France. Fox was appalled at what he called this "extraordinary step".<ref name="Mitchell 1992 234"/> When Yarmouth reported successive new French demands, Fox replied that the British government "continues ardently to wish for the Conclusion of Peace". In August, [[James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale|Lord Lauderdale]] was sent to join Yarmouth (with full negotiating powers), and he reported back to Fox of "the complete system of Terror which prevails here". Fox's French friends were too frightened to call on him.<ref name="Mitchell 1992 235">{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|p=235}}</ref>

[[File:Charles James Fox (1749-1806).jpg|thumb|left|Engraving of [[Joseph Nollekens]]' "last bust" of Charles James Fox (1808)]] Fox's biographer notes that these failed negotiations were "a stunning experience" for Fox, who had always insisted that France desired peace and that the war was the responsibility of King George and his fellow monarchs: "All of this was being proved false...It was a tragic end to Fox's career".<ref name="Mitchell 1992 235"/> To observers such as [[John Rickman (parliamentary official)|John Rickman]], "Charley Fox eats his former opinions daily and even ostentatiously showing himself the worse man, but the better minister of a corrupt government", and who further claimed that "He should have died, for his fame, a little sooner; before Pitt".<ref>Mrs. Henry Sandford, ''Thomas Poole and His Friends. Volume II'' (London: Macmillan,  1888), p. 160.</ref>

Though the administration failed to achieve either Catholic emancipation or peace with France, Fox's last great achievement would be the [[Slave Trade Act 1807|abolition of the slave trade]] in 1807. Though Fox was to die before abolition was enacted, he oversaw a Foreign Slave Trade Bill in spring 1806 that prohibited [[British subject]]s from contributing to the trading of slaves with the colonies of Britain's wartime enemies, thus eliminating two-thirds of the slave trade passing through British ports.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

On 10 June 1806, Fox offered a resolution for total abolition to Parliament: "this House, conceiving the African slave trade to be contrary to the principles of justice, humanity, and sound policy, will, with all practicable expedition, proceed to take effectual measures for abolishing the said trade..." The House of Commons voted 114 to 15 in favour and the Lords approved the motion on 24 June.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}<ref>{{Cite web|title=Abolition of the Slave Trade. (Hansard, 24 June 1806)|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1806/jun/24/abolition-of-the-slave-trade|access-date=17 August 2020|website=api.parliament.uk}}</ref> Fox said that:
{{blockquote|So fully am I impressed with the vast importance and necessity of attaining what will be the object of my motion this night, that if, during the almost forty years that I have had the honour of a seat in parliament, I had been so fortunate as to accomplish that, and that only, I should think I had done enough, and could retire from public life with comfort, and the conscious satisfaction, that I had done my duty.<ref name="MI"/>}}

=== Death ===
[[File:Comforts-of-a-Bed-of-Roses-Gillray.jpeg|thumb|In ''Comforts of a Bed of Roses'' (1806), Gillray depicts [[Personifications of death|Death]] crawling out from under Fox's covers, entwined with a scroll inscribed "Intemperance, Dropsy, Dissolution".]]

Fox died – still in office – at [[Chiswick House]], west of London, on 13 September 1806, not eight months after the younger Pitt. An autopsy revealed a hardened liver, thirty-five [[gallstones]] and around seven pints of transparent fluid in his abdomen.<ref name="MI"/>  Fox left £10,000-worth of debts, though this was only a quarter of the £40,000 that the charitable public had to raise to pay off Pitt's arrears.<ref name="MI"/><ref>{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|p=106}}</ref> Although Fox had wanted to be buried near his home in [[Chertsey]], his funeral took place in [[Westminster Abbey]] on 10 October 1806, the anniversary of his initial election for Westminster in 1780. Unlike Pitt's, Fox's funeral was a private affair, but the multitude that turned out to pay their respects were at least as large as those at his rival's service.<ref name="MI"/>