(2.) FOWEY, FAWEY, FOUTH, or Foy, a river of Cornwall, which rifes 4 miles SE. of Camelford, paffes by Leftwithiel, and runs into the British Channel, a little below FOWEY, (N 1.) where it is very broad and deep. It was formerly navigable up to Leftwithiel.

(1.) * FOWL. n. j. [fugel, fubl, Eaxon; vegel, Dutch.] A winged animal; a bird. It is collo. quially used of edible birds, but in books of all the feathered tribes. Foul is fed collectively: as, we dined upon fish and fowl.

The beafts, the fishes, and the winged ful, Are their males fubjects, and at their controul. Shak. (2.) Fowl, among zoologifts, denotes the larger forts of birds, whether domeftic or wild: fuch as geefe, pheasants, partridges, turkey, ducks, &c. Tame fowl make a neceifary part of the stock of a country farm. See PoULTRY. Fowls are again diftinguished into two kinds, viz. land and quater fowis, these laft being fo called from their living much in and about water: alfo into those which are accounted game, and thofe which are not. See GAME.

*To Fowl. vn. [from the noun.] To kill birds for food or game.

* FOWLER. n. f. [from fowl.] A fportfman who purfues birds.

With flaught'ring guns th' unweary'd fowler

roves,

(1.) FOX,† Charles James, an illuftrious statel man, who took a large and important fhare in all the public bufinefs of the British empin from 1768 to 1806. The period of Mr F's poli tical life was filed with meafures of fuch intere and magnitude, as would have conferred celebrity on a meaner agent; while his talents were fo pro digious, as to exalt and dignify even the ordinary courfe of affairs. His æra and character, therefore, mutually aid each other's immortality; and, when taken together, command a double portion that hiftorical intereft which either of them woul have feparately poffeffed. Another accessory cir cumftance, which ferves to augment his natural and intrinfic claims to fame, was the diftinguished eminence of his political opponent. The mind, like the body, is generally difpofed to exert more of its power than the occafion requires; and from the want of a fufficient ftimulus, many have allowed their intellectual vigour to degenerate by inaction, and its extent to remain unknown, both to others and themfelves. But the coexistence and competition of Fox and Pitt talked the faculties of each to their full ftrength, and revealed to the world the ultimate refources of two of the moft diftinguished men, who were ever deftined to itruggle for fuperiority, by eloquence and wisdom. The nearness of their deaths too fecures the com

plete coincidence of their hiftories; so that, in all future periods, the name of the one must naturally fuggeft that of the other, and each communicate to his rival a portion of his own renown. It is fair however to obferve that, if their compara tive merit is to be weighed by their celebrity alone, the balance will perhaps rather turn in favour of Mr F.; who, without place or power, and acting more as a commentator on great national measures, than as their author, created for himself a splen

(1.) FOWLING, n. f. the art of catching birds by means of bird-lime, decoys, and other devices; or the killing of them by the gun. See BIRDCATCHING, BIRD LIME, DECOY, 2, SHOOTING, and the names of the different birds in their order. (2.) FOWLING is also used for the purfuing and taking birds with hawks, more properly called FALCONRY or HAWKING. See thefe articles. (1.) * FOWLINGPIECE...[ fowl and piecedor of reputation, equal to that of an opponent, A gun for birds.-'Tis neceflary that the countryman be provided with a good fowlingpiece. Mort. (2.) FOWLING PIECES are reckoned beft, when they have a long barrel, from 5 to 6 feet, with a moderate bore. But every fowler fhould have them of different fizes, fuitable to the game he deligus to kill. The barrel fhould be well polishea and fmooth within, and the bore of an equal bignefs from one end to the other; which may be proved, L♥ putting in a piece of pafteboard, cut of the exact roundness of the top: for if this goes down without ftops or flipping, you may conclude the bore good. The bridge pan muft be fomewhat above the touch hole, and ought to have a notch to let down a little powder: this will prevent the piece from recoiling, which it would otherwife be apt to do. As to the locks, choofe fuch as are w filled with true work, whofe fprings must be neither too ftrong nor too weak. The hammer ought to be well hardened, and pliable to go down to the pan with a quick motion. (1.) FOWLNESS, a village in Norfolk fire. (2.) FOWLNESS ISLAND. See FOULNESS, N° 2.

who enjoyed nearly through life the moft eminent and efficient ftation. No antagonift of Godolphin or Harley, of Walpole or Pelham fills fo large a space in the eye of the hiftorian, as thefe long established difpenfers of profit and preferment: and even of the great Chatham it is the glorions adminiftration, not the animated oppofition, that is moft frequently in the mouths of his admirers. If Fox, therefore, contrary to all former example, contrived during a life of political adverfity, and in fpite of many political errors, to acquire an equal name with his more fortunate competitor, it is natu ral to afcribe to him at least an equality in that bril liancy of genius, which captivates popular attention.

Mr F. was born on the 13th of January 1749: a circumftance that can hardly be miftated, that day having fo often been folemnized as a feftival by bi admirers. He was the 2d fon of Henry Lord Hol land, who by a public career in an oppofite di rection to that of his fon, at once ennobled and enriched his family. The former was as zealous in maintaining, as the latter in refifting, the prin ciples of the court; yet, notwi.ħftanding this contrariety † Some mistakes refpecting the following memoir, having been introduced into an Advertisement, from inadu.rtency on the part of the Publisher, and from want of due communication with the auriter of the Article; the latter takes the prefent opportunity of flating, that he never enjoyed any personal or exclufrot advantages, for obtaining information on the subject of it, and that it is compiled from no author mies, but juch as are in the hands of the public, and equally accefiùle to all.

like the northern year, in which fummer com mences without any fpring, feemed to leap at once from infancy to manhood, without any intervening period of adolefcence. Nature had, no doubt, laid the foundation of this difference; but what nature began, was confummated by education.

Though, in the traditionary hiftory of Eton, Mr F. is better remembered for his extravagances, than for his literary induftry, yet he by no means neglected the proper bufinefs of the place. His active and elaftic mind found no enjoyment in idlenefs., Difiipation requires frequent intervals; and every paufe in its purfuit was occupied by the acquifition of knowledge. He was not the first fcholar of his day, but certainly, parvo intervallo proximus, As a fpecimen of his boy.fh talents, we fhall quote from his fchool exercises the concluding lines of his addrefs to the dove.

Quis cæli tibi claudet iter? dum luming fallens
Vana virùm, fcindis tuta fub aftra fugam.
Sævit unda maris, moveant infana tumultus

quora, et everfas concitet Eurus aquas,
Tu fugis incolumis, volucri pernicior Euro,
Carpis et aërias inviolata vias.
Garrulitas noftræ quondam temeraria linguæ
Indicio prodit multa tacenda levi:

At tibi vox nulla eft; nec, fi loquereris, amoris
Furta Cytheriacæ lingua loquatur avis.
Hoc Venus ipfa vetat, te fæpe experta fidelem,
Ufa minifteriis in fua furta tuis:

Nempe alis invecta tuis, tibi femper amores
Fidit in amplexus Martis itura Venus.
Nunc quoque (dilectam docet hoc Cytherea vo-
lucrem)

trariety of conduct, fome features of a family likenefs may be traced between the father and the fon. We find in both a certain mafculine vigour of character, united with a kind, indulgent and affectionate temper; political activity with domestic indolence; and an equal ardour in public enmities and private friendships. The more pleafing qualities in Lord Holland's character were remarkably difplayed towards his favourite boy, whofe genius he had fufficient penetration very early to difcern. To its growth he is reported to have given the fullett fcope, by freeing him from every fpecies of reftraint, indulging all the wantonnefs of his humour, converting with him on ftate affairs, and at times even profiting by his fuggeftions. If this was actually the cafe, it fhews the ftrength of Fox's natural tendency to what is great and fplendid. In ordinary characters, unbridled licence generally leads to difhonourable idleness, or to still more difgraceful activity: but the more "wild and free" the mind of Fox was fuffered to fhoot, the more vigorously it feems to have afpired to intellectual excellence. His mother was Lady Georgina Caroline Lennox, fifter to the late Duke of Richmond, through whom he inherited the blood, and even the features, of the royal Houfe of Stewart; but in character, as has been obferved by Mr Burke, he bore a much clofer resemblance to [enry IV. of France, another of his royal progenitors. He enjoyed the full advantage of a public education, having been fent to Eton, during the mafterfhip of Dr Barnard, and under the private tuition of Dr Newcombe, the late Primate of Ireland. Pitt fpent his boyhood at home, and it is amusing to remark how complete a contraft, in every par ticular, thefe illuftrious men have been deftined to exhibit to the world; fince they even affift us to appreciate, in minds nearly of equal force, the comparative benefits of public and private education. Fox, by mingling with fociety, and acting in that little world, where all the principles and paffions, which are afterwards to operate in the great one, are exercised and disciplined on a narrower fcale, acquired, together with literary accomplishments, a wider knowledge of human nature and human conduct, than his rival ever at. tained. There, he was formed to that companionable cordiality; that open and friend-making benignity; and that kill to manage, to attach, and to act with others, which diftinguithed him through life; and probably alfo to that love of dulipation and profufeness, which can be indul ged only in fociety. In Pitt, on the contrary, were feen that fobriety and caution, that backwardness and reserve, that deficiency in intereftingness, attraction, and power of popular captivation, and perhaps that high fenfe of his own fufficiency, which are too often the effect of privacy and feclufion, and of the want of an early ne, ceffity to conciliate and compare ourselves with ohers. His attachments, we have reafon to believe, ad more steadiness, than enthufiafm; his manner as more unexceptionable, than engaging; and his conduct more guarded by difcretion, than the trength of his paffions appeared to require. Fox affed through all the gradations of boyhood, outh, and maturity, with that change of characET, which is naturally created by each; but Pitt,

Nunc quoque amatori, fida columba, fave. I, pete per cælos nostram festina Susannam,

Sic mihi, fic Veneri grata futura tuæ. Thefe lines are a fair example of the claffical common-places of fchool compofitions; but they give no promife of that ardour of feeling, and o riginality of thought which their author afterwards difplayed. It has indeed rarely happened that any modern writer has been able to exhibit the full vi gour of his powers, or to produce any thing deeply and permanently interefting, in the trammels of Latin verfification.

From Eton he was removed to Oxford, where his affociates and mode of life continued nearly the fame. At both places he was fo lavishly supplied with money, that fimilar fupplies became neceifary to the companions who wifhed to keep pace with him in his amufements; and larger fums were about that period rifqued at the gaming-table, than was ever previously known to be the cafe, either at fchool or College. It is reported that one member of this diffipated circle lately demanded of another a debt of L10,000, which had been contracted while they were fellow ftudents. And though the latter declared that he never believed this fum to have been seriously flaked, yet the rate of the frolic ma ferve, in fome measure, as a standard, by which we may estimate the rate of their play.

From Oxford Mr Fox, according to the fashionable plan of education, fet out on a tour to the continent, during which a mind, endowed with fuch acute and indefatigable powers of observation must have made great additions to its knowlegge of human character, and of the political condition

3

of mankind. Being actuated, almost in equal de- mediately to perceive, and juftly to eftimate the grees, by love of pleasure and thift for informa- vaft intellectual fuperiority of that accomplished tion, he visited every fcene, and tried every variety fenator. Under his tuition he, in a manner, remany-coloured life. The verfatility of his tafte commenced and new modeled his political studies; was unlimited; and, as he was formed to en- and has fince declared that," if all he had learned gage in no purfuit with apathy, or even with mo- from other fources were put in one feale, and what deration, he thewed the fame energy and ardour he had been taught by Borke in the other, the lat in the walks of gallantry and diffipation, as in thofe ter would preponderate." The brilliancy of his of intellectual improvement. Even in after life, parliamentary appearances, during the American whatever was his occupation, he was, for the mo- war, excited more public curiofity than public fament, totes in illo: and the abther of this article vour. We are old enough to remember that le las, not without aftonifliment, een him one day, was then lefs taiked of as a statesman, who could in the fenate, counselling the counfellors, on whom occafionally be a diffolute wit, than as diffolute wit the fite of empires depended, and the next, out who could occafionally be a statesman. Bulinefs apbawling the harpers on a race ground. With peared to be a fubordinate object of his attention:ard fuch a character, "he extra Sted fomething from e he was reprefented as one of thofe intellectual prodivery feene; nor could be retire from the tavern or gies, in whom fingular extremes were united; whole the gaming table, without carrying along with him powers a life of irregularity could neither cloud nor new views of life, of the operation of the paflions, enfeeble; and who, ifuing from the orgies of and of the principles of action During this tour, Brookes's, or the fquabbles of Newmarket, could his expenfes were fupplied by his father, with an drop, as if accidentally into the fenate, and aftonith Injudicious indulgence, which fed his appetite for the world by unpremeditated inveЯtives, far surpasplay, and betrayed him into habits of unbounded fing the eloquence of thofe, who had devoted their Extravagance. The prefent writer is enabled to days and nights to laborious study. We recollect give fome idea of the prodigious fans which be our firtt impreffion of him, gathered from the talk Carelessly fquandered, having been perfonally in- and the journals of the day, was that he refembled formed by an eminent Banker, that in the houfe, those popular though licentious men of bufinefs, (which he was a partner, Lroc,coo had been fome of whom often figured in inferior circles; men paid, by Lord HP's order, to difcharge the debts, daring and clever, ready in device, and carelefs of contracted by his fon before he was of e. Ha- ¿ccorum; whefe talents are admired; whofe locfewing visited all the countries and capitals of lafhio- nefs of principle is filed at ; and in whom we fuppofe pable refort, he returned to England; and, at the ambition or cupidity to be the caufe of exertions, age of 19, was elected into Parliament for Mid- which natural ability renders eafy. This improfurft. It is probable that, in his eager unreflect- fion we afterwards found to be, in many refpects, ing purfuit of youthful pleatures, he had emitted unjuft; but we believe it was pretty general. It to form any fettled political principles, or to take procured him univerfally the familiar and compa his parliamentary conduct under bis own direc. niorable appellation of Charles Fox, and to this tion; fince he implicitly embraced the views of his idol of the sprightly and unfcrupulous, every epi father, and fet out with the fupport of meafures, grammatic fally, every gambling anecdote, and ewhich in maturer years, he would have condemn very hamorous fubterfuge to difarm importuning ed as unconflitutional. He was the advocate, firft creditors were at that time afcribed. Towards under the Duke of Grafton, and afterwards under the end of the war, however, whether from the Lord North, of the unpopular proceedings against effect of time, of difgutt at diffipation, or of con Wilkes, and against the liberty of the prefs; and neeling himself with a female companion, which drew upon himself the public diftinction of a far rendered his habits more domeftic, he feemed to cafm from Junius. As his talents gave him early apply his mind more affiduoufly to pub'ic affairs, importance, he was placed, in 1770, at the Board and his parliamentary exertions increased, both in of Admiralty; and, in 1772, promoted to the frequency and force. Their vehemence indeed Treafury. But on the death of his father, in 1774, was fo great as, on one occafion, to produce an finding himself poffeffed not only of a patrimonial effect, which had nearly been fatal. In a debate independence, but perhaps too of more freedom on the address, in November 1779, having ufed of action, than be had before enjoyed, he foon af- fome expreffions, which were interpreted by Mr ter attached Limfelf to the oppofition. Whether Adam into a perfonal infult, he was challenged by the minifter, as has been affirmed, had difappoint- that gentleman; and, on the 27th, received a ed his ambitious folicitations, or was himself difap. wound, by which he was for fome time confired. pointed of Mi. F's fupport in fome favourite defign, On his recovery, however, he renewed his attacks it is now almoft impoflible to difcover; but on the with unabated vigour. The miniftry, at laft, be12th of March, a new Commiflion of Treafury ginning to give way, his ardour increased with the was aflued; in which, as Lord North laconically profpect of fuccefs; and he prefed them fo powinformed him, his name was not obfervable. It erfully and unceasingly by his logical mvectives, was fortunate for his future confiflency that this that, in March, 1782, they were driven from their happened, before he had been called upon to de- ftations. In the course of these invectives, he fell liver any decided opinion on the controverfy with inte an error, with which he was frequently charAmerica; as he was thus left tree to reprobate, grable, by indulging too far the impetuofity of with all his natural vehemence; the conduct of his prefent feling, anticipating no per binty of a form er colleagues, through the whole of that un- change of fentiment, and forgetting, in his mode happy contek. When Kagace in the fame capfe of expreffion, to make ary refove for future co with Mr Burke, Lis penetration enabled Lim im; tingelcies. His furong and unqualified charges of

Criminality

tuous conteft, and tedious fcrutiny, he finally prevailed. During the time when the iffue of the election was undecided, he fat for the boroughs of Orkney and Caithness.

For fome years after, the history of his political life muft chiefly be traced by the measures which he refifted. The firft of thefe was the New India Bill, by which the property and concerns of the company were left in their own hands, but their appointments to office, fuhjected to the controul and correction of a Board, to be named by the crown. This plan differed little, in fome points, from that of Mr Fox; but, in form, was more palateable both to the company and the public; and was certainly exempted from the charge of a tendency to give undue preponderance to any particular party. Mr F. alfo during 1785 and 1786, oppofed the propofitions for regulating trade with Ireland, and the treaty of commerce concluded with France: but expreffed, with a candour which does him the highest honour, his approbation of the measures pursued by miniftry in 1787, for reeftablishing the Stadtholder, and deftroying the French afcendancy in Holland. But the attention of Mr F. and his colleagues in oppofition, was now, and for fome fucceeding years, principally directed to the impeachment of Mr Haftings; a meafure, which was acquiefced in by adminiftration, but of which the execution fell upon the propofers. Mr F. difplayed his ufual ability, and an unexpected extent of legal erudition, during the courfe of this trial, which lafted feven years. Whether the managers or judges are to be blamed for fuch a protraction, or whether it neceffarily arofe from the nature of the cafe, is difficult to afcertain; but whatever was its caufe, it conftituted of itself a fevere and ferious punishment, fo that an exclamation of Martial may not inaptly be transferred to Hastings :

Ah! mifer, et demens! viginti litigat annis

Quifquam, cui vinci, Gargiliane, licet? Mr F. began now to acquire a graver character, and to be regarded more as a public man, and lefs as a man of the turf or the town. He appears to have divided his time between political bufinefs and domeftic retirement. For this change he was probably, in part, indebted to the embarrafiment of his affairs, and partly to the connection for merly alluded to, with a lady, who, though reI arkable neither for youth nor beauty, poffeffed fuch attractions as rendered their union permanent, and terminated at laft in the declaration of a marriage, which is fuppofed to have privately taken place in 1780. He likewife had a fon (though not by this lady) on whom he bestowed an affectionate attention. This youth, as if nature, by an extraordinary effort that required repofe, had conferred the eloquence of two generations on one, laboured under the misfortune of being dumb, but feemed to inherit, together with the appearance, much of the capacity of his father. We had once the gratification to hear the contents of a letter, addreffed by Mr Fox to this young man, containing many admirable precepts, of which the writer had learned the value by the violation. He cautioned him particularly to be inflexible in the ftudy of œconomy, without which he could never enjoy either peace or independence.

There was fomething inexpreffibly affecting, fomething that touched a tender chord of fenfibility, in obferving the acknowledgment of his own errors, tacitly implied in this emphatic and affectionate admonition from a man at once fo great, fo imprudent, and fo amiable.

In the fummer of 1788 Mr F. and his female companion, made an excursion to the continent, and were enjoying the charms of Switzerland, when he was recalled by notice of the king's indifpofition, and travelled with a rapidity which evinced the ardour of his expectations on this occafion.

On his arrival, a few days previous to the meeting of parliament, he found a doctrine prepared by his party for his promulgation and support, which we think would fcarcely have fuggetted itfelf to his own mind; but which he adopted with that indolent facility, and at the fame time with that zeal which, from conftitutional temperament, were equally natural to him. This was, that there belonged to the Prince of Wales a right, on the incapacity of the king being declared, to affume the exercife of the royal authority, in the fame way, as if his majefty had undergone an actual demife. On the ftatement of this propofition, Mr Pitt having whispered to a friend that he would now unwhig his opponent for ever, inftantly feized the more conftitutional ground of afferting that, in a cafe fo unprecedented and unprovided for, it belonged folely to parliament to decide upon the means, by which the deficient part of the legisla ture fhould be fupplied. Mr F. immediately perceived, from the general opinion, both within and without the houfe, that he had advanced with too much impetuofity, and was obliged, next day, to declare that, though the exiflence of this right was not retracted, its affertion at prefent fhould be waved. But Pitt would not fuffer him to escape, without taking farther advantage of his error; and, on the 16th December, brought the queftion to a debate, at which the narrator had the felicity of being prefent, and of thus feeing the powers of the two greateft men of his age fairly matched and fully exerted. Seldom indeed has fuch a conteft been presented to the world; whether we confider the fplendid theatre, in which it was exhibited: the importance of its confequences; the greatness and novelty of the fubject; the eminence and equality of the combatants; or the numbers whose eyes were anxioufly fixed on its refult.

In Pitt, who opened the difcuffion, and whofe mind was elevated by the popularity of his caufe, were to be admired the clearness and precifion with which he stated the principles of the conftitution; the extent and exactness of his hiftorical knowledge; the luminous arrangement, the confecutive relation, and the increafing force of his arguments; the aptnefs and beauty of his illuftrations; the claffical purity of his expreffion; the ftately richness and magnificent fwell of his periods; the distinct and fyllabic emphafis of his articulation; the mellow and majestic fublimity of his tones; the dignified energy, and commanding animation of his manner; and the difciplined cooperation of all these concentrated powers, to overwhelm the mind with complete and perma nent conviction.