Editing Charles James Fox (section)

== Early career: 1768–1774==
=== Member of Parliament ===
For the 1768 general election, Henry Fox bought his son a seat in Parliament for the [[West Sussex]] constituency of [[Midhurst (UK Parliament constituency)|Midhurst]], though Charles was still nineteen and technically ineligible for Parliament. Fox was to address the [[House of Commons of Great Britain|House of Commons]] some 254 times between 1768 and 1774<ref name="MI"/> and rapidly gathered a reputation as a superb orator, but he had not yet developed the radical opinions for which he would become famous. Thus, he spent much of his early years unwittingly manufacturing ammunition for his later critics and their accusations of hypocrisy. A supporter of the [[Augustus Henry Fitzroy|Grafton]] and [[Lord North|North]] ministries, Fox was prominent in the campaign to punish the radical [[John Wilkes]] for challenging the Commons. "He thus opened his career by speaking in behalf of the Commons against the people and their elected representative."<ref>{{harvnb|Reid|1969|p=26}}</ref> Consequently, both Fox and his brother Stephen were insulted and pelted with mud in the street by the pro-Wilkes London crowds.<ref>{{harvnb|Rudé|1962|p=162}}</ref>

Between 1770 and 1774, Fox's seemingly promising career in the political establishment was spoiled. He was appointed to the [[Board of Admiralty]] by Lord North in February 1770, but on the 15th of the same month, he resigned due to his enthusiastic opposition to the government's [[Royal Marriages Act]], the provisions of which – incidentally – cast doubt on the legitimacy of his parents' marriage.<ref name="MI"/> On 28 December 1772, North appointed him to the board of the [[HM Treasury|Treasury]]; in February 1774, Fox again surrendered his post, this time over the Government's allegedly feeble response to the contemptuous printing and public distribution of copies of parliamentary debates. Behind these incidents lay his family's resentment towards Lord North for refusing to elevate the [[Baron Holland|Holland barony]] to an [[earldom]].<ref name="MI"/> But the fact that such a young man could seemingly treat ministerial office so lightly was noted at [[Noble court|court]].<ref name="MI"/> In 1773 he was taken advantage of by the swindler [[Elizabeth Harriet Grieve]]. She had lent him £300 for which she got his name to use as a customer of her advice. Fox was promised that Grieve could arrange a marriage for him to a West Indian heiress named Miss Phipps. Fox was so taken in that he started to powder his eyebrows in order that he might appeal to her. Grieve was eventually sent to trial but the resulting scandal resulted in news stories, rhymes and a play at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket.<ref name=fleecum>{{Cite ODNB |title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=23 September 2004 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/65504 |pages=ref:odnb/65504 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |access-date=6 March 2023 |place=Oxford |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/65504 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.}}</ref> George III, also observing Fox's licentious private behaviour, took it to be presumption and judged that Fox could not be trusted to take anything seriously.<ref name="MI"/>

After 1774, Fox began to reconsider his political position under the influence of [[Edmund Burke]] – who had sought out the promising young Whig and would become his mentor – and the unfolding [[American Revolution|events in America]]. He drifted from his rather non-ideological family-oriented politics into the orbit of the [[Rockingham Whig]] party.

During this period, Fox became possibly the most prominent and vituperative parliamentary critic of Lord North and the conduct of the [[American Revolutionary War|American War]]. In 1775, he denounced North in the Commons as
{{blockquote|the blundering pilot who had brought the nation into its present difficulties ... [[Pitt the Elder|Lord Chatham]], the [[Frederick the Great|King of Prussia]], nay, [[Alexander the Great]], never gained more in one campaign than the noble lord has lost – he has lost a whole continent.<ref name="MI"/>}}

=== American Revolution ===
Fox, who occasionally corresponded with [[Thomas Jefferson]] and had met [[Benjamin Franklin]] in Paris,<ref name="MI"/> correctly predicted that Britain had little practical hope of subduing the colonies and interpreted the American cause approvingly as a struggle for liberty against the oppressive policies of a despotic and unaccountable executive.<ref name="MI"/> It was at this time that Fox and his supporters took up the habit of dressing in buff and blue, the colours of the uniforms in [[George Washington|Washington's]] army. Fox's friend, the [[Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle|Earl of Carlisle]], observed that any setback for the British Government in America was "a great cause of amusement to Charles."<ref>{{harvnb|Mitchell|1992|p=27}}</ref> Even after the [[Battle of Long Island]] in 1776, Fox stated that
{{blockquote|I hope that it will be a point of honour among us all to support the American pretensions in adversity as much as we did in their prosperity, and that we shall never desert those who have acted ''unsuccessfully'' upon Whig principles.<ref>{{harvnb|Reid|1969|p=62}}</ref>}}
On 31 October the same year, Fox responded to the King's address to Parliament with "one of his finest and most animated orations, and with severity to the answered person", so much so that, when he sat down, no member of the Government would attempt to reply.<ref>{{harvnb|Reid|1969|p=63}}</ref>

Fox shared a mutual antipathy with [[George III]] that profoundly shaped Fox's political career. George III was among the most enthusiastic prosecutors of the [[American Revolutionary War]]. Fox became convinced, that George III was determined to challenge the authority of parliament and the balance of the constitution established in the [[Glorious Revolution]] of 1688 to achieve a continental-style tyranny. George III in return thought that Fox had "cast off every principle of common honour and honesty ... [a man who is] as contemptible as he is odious ... [and has an] aversion to all restraints."{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}  On 6 April 1780 [[John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton]] introduced a motion, asking that "The influence of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished". It was passed by the Commons in a vote of 233 to 215.<ref>{{harvnb|Reid|1969|p=108}}</ref> Fox thought that the motion is "glorious", saying on 24 April that:
{{blockquote| the question now was ... whether that beautiful fabric [i.e. the constitution] ... was to be maintained in that freedom ... for which blood had been spilt; or whether we were to submit to that system of despotism, which had so many advocates in this country.<ref name="MI"/>}}

Fox, however, had not been present in the House of parliament for the beginning of the Dunning debate, as he had been occupied in the adjoining eleventh-century [[Westminster Hall]], serving as chairman of a mass public meeting before a large banner that read "Annual Parliaments and Equal Representation".<ref>{{harvnb|Reid|1969|p=109}}</ref> This was the period when Fox, hardening against the influence of the British Crown, was embraced by the radical movement of the late eighteenth century. When the shocking [[Gordon riots]] exploded in London in June 1780, Fox, though deploring the violence of the crowd, declared that he would "much rather be governed by a mob than a standing army."<ref>{{harvnb|Thompson|1963|p=78}}</ref> Later, in July, Fox was returned for the populous and prestigious parliamentary constituency of [[Westminster (UK Parliament constituency)|Westminster]], with around 12,000 electors, and acquired the title "Man of the People".<ref name="MI"/>