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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
In 1783 Henry Grattan complimented Charles James Fox by describing his views as ‘liberal to Ireland and just to those lately concerned in her redemption’. He also claimed that ‘Fox wished sincerely for the liberty of Ireland without reserve.’ Sir James Mackintosh’s draft inscription for Westmacott’s statue of Fox in Westminster Abbey stated that he had ‘contended for the rights of the people of America and Ireland’. Whiggish historians subsequently built upon this notion of Fox and his followers as great friends of Ireland. For the most part, modern scholars have avoided passing judgement on Fox’s views on Ireland, but a few authors have challenged early assumptions, depicting Fox as unprincipled in his use of Irish politics as a stick to beat the North and Pitt ministries. Christopher Hobhouse, commenting on Fox’s commitment to Catholic relief, claims that he ‘gave himself away’ and that ‘the House could distinguish by this time between Fox the religious liberator and Fox the artful dodger’. John Derry asserts that Fox ‘ruthlessly and irresponsibly exploited anti-Irish prejudice in England’ during the controversy over Pitt’s trade proposals of 1785. L.G. Mitchell notes that ‘his sympathy for American patriots had had real limits, and so had his concern for Ireland’, and that ‘Irish patriots were never sure of Fox, and their doubt was entirely justified.’ There is a good deal of substance in these comments, and in this article I also intend to argue that Fox was first and foremost a British parliamentarian. However, his conduct towards Ireland was not solely ruled by this stance. Free from the shackles of government, Fox was disposed to be generous to Irish patriotism and his friends and relatives in the Irish opposition.
1 Grattan to Fitzpatrick, 5 Jan. 1783 (B.L., Fox papers, Add. MS 47582, f. 149); Grattan to Sir Jonah Barrington, 2 Mar. 1818 (Grattan, Henry, Memoirs of the life and times of the Rt Hon. Henry Grattan by his son Henry Grattan (5 vols, London, 1839-46), ii, 362)Google Scholar; Dinwiddy, J.R., ‘Charles James Fox and the people’ in History, lv (1970), p. 355.Google Scholar
2 Francis Hardy wrote that the Irish Whigs ‘rested with peculiar security on Mr Fox and the Rockingham Party, under whose power and with whose aid, Irish freedom was established in 1782’ (Hardy, Francis, Memoirs of the political and private life of James Caulfield, earl of Charlemont (2nd ed., 2 vols, 1812), ii, 202.Google Scholar
3 Hobhouse, Christopher, Fox (London, 1934), p. 301Google Scholar; Derry, John, Charles James Fox (London, 1972), p. 231Google Scholar; Mitchell, L. G., Charles James Fox (Oxford, 1992), p. 252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4 Grattan, , Grattan, i, 285.Google Scholar
5 He had made his first intervention in Irish affairs in the British Commons debate of 3 May 1769 on Lord Townshend’s decision to prorogue the Irish parliament after the rejection of a money bill (B.L., Eg. MS 222, p. 186).
6 [Forbes] to Adair, 6 July 1780 (B.L., Adair papers, Add. MS 53802, ff 1-6).
7 Cobbett, William, Parliamentary history of England from & 1066 to & 1803 (36 vols, London, 1806-20), xx, 1284 (13 Dec. 1779).Google Scholar
8 Fox to Leinster, 4 Jan. 1780 (H.M.C., Charlemont, i, 369-70).
9 McLaughlin, T. O., Contesting Ireland: Irish voices against England in the eighteenth century (Dublin, 1999), p. 176.Google Scholar
10 Cobbett, , Parl, hist., xx, 1197-1242 (6 Dec. 1779).Google Scholar
11 Ibid, xxi, 1292 (20 Feb. 1781).
12 Ibid., pp 1293-1305 (23 Feb. 1781).
13 Ibid., xxii, 1247-52 (8 Apr. 1782).
14 Fox to Fitzpatrick, 28 Apr. 1782 (B. L., Fox papers, Add. MS 47580, f. 93).
15 Ibid., ff93-8.
16 Fox to Charlemont, 4 Apr. 1782 (H.M.C., Charlemont, i, 57).
17 Spencer was a partner in Fox’s faro bank at Brooks’s.
18 Mitchell, L. G., Charles James Fox and the disintegration of the Whig Party, 1782-1794 (Oxford, 1971), p. 12.Google Scholar
19 ‘Report of the debate in the English House of Commons, sent by Lord Mornington to Mr Grattan’ (Grattan, Grattati, iii, 52).
20 Mornington to Grattan, 24 Jan. 1783 (ibid., pp 54-5).
21 Debrett, John, The parliamentary register…1780 to … 1796 (45 vols, 1781-96), ix, 128 (19 Dec. 1782).Google Scholar
22 Cobbett, , Pari, hist, xxiii, 339 (22 Jan. 1783).Google Scholar
23 Fox to Northington, 1 Nov. 1783 (B.L., Fox papers, Add. MS 47567, ff 21-3).
24 Ibid., ff 24-5.
25 Fox to Burgoyne, 7 Nov. 1783 (Grattan, Grattan, iii, 112).
26 Ibid., p.ll4.
27 Fox to Northington, 1 Nov. 1783 (B.L., Fox papers, Add. MS 47567, f. 27).
28 Quoted in Hobhouse, Fox, p. 237.
29 Quoted in Malcomson, A. P. W., John Foster: the politics of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy (Oxford, 1978), p. 245.Google Scholar
30 Sheridan, R. B. to Sheridan, C. F., [Feb. 1784] (The letters of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, ed. Price, Cecil (3 vols, Oxford, 1966), i, 158).Google Scholar
31 Newenham to Miles, 3 July 1784 (H.M.C., Rutland, iii, 117-18).
32 O’Brien, Gerard, Anglo-Irish politics in the age of Grattan and Pitt (Dublin, 1987), p. 118.Google Scholar
33 Fox to Northington, 1 Nov. 1783 (B.L., Fox papers, Add. MS 47567, f. 27).
34 Kelly, James, Prelude to union: Anglo-Irish politics in the 1780s (Cork, 1992), p. 74.Google Scholar
35 Mornington to duke [of Rutland], 31 May 1784 (H.M.C., Rutland, iii, 99).
36 Quoted in Kelly, Prelude to union, p. 121.
37 Fox to Northington, 1 Nov. 1783 (LordRussell, John (ed.), Memorials and correspondence of Charles James Fox (4 vols, London, 1853-7) ii, 169).Google Scholar
38 Derry, Fox, p.230.
39 Cobbett, , Pari hist, xxv, 333 (22 Feb. 1785).Google Scholar
40 Ibid., pp 593, 599 (12 May 1785).
41 Ibid., pp 689 (24 May 1785), 610 (12 May 1785).
42 Daniel Pulteney to duke [of Rutland], 24 May [1785] (H.M.C., Rutland, iii, 208).
43 Cobbett, , Parl. hist., xxv, 778 (30 May 1785).Google Scholar
44 Ibid., pp 966 (25 July 1785).
45 Mornington to W. W. Grenville, 2 Mar. 1785 (H.M.C., Fortescue, i, 247).
46 Cobbett, , Parl. hist., xxv, 111 (30 May 1785).Google Scholar
47 Ibid., p. 622 (12 May l785).
48 Ibid., p. 694 (24 May 1785).
49 Fox to [Portland], 12 Feb. 1789 (B.L., Fox papers, Add. MS 47561, f. 108).
50 Fox to Fitzpatrick, 17 Feb. 1789 (ibid., Add. MS 47580, f. 137).
51 Malone to Charlemont, 3 Dec. 1792 (H.M.C., Charlemont, ii, 204).
52 Malone to Charlemont, 14 Dec. 1792 (ibid., p. 207).
53 Westmorland to Lord Grenville, 14 Mar. 1791 (H.M.C., Fortescue, ii, 40).
54 Quoted in Moore, Thomas, The life and death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald (2 vols, London, 1832), i, 183-4.Google Scholar
55 [Burke?, Edmund], ‘Observations on the Conduct of the Minority, particularly in the last Session of Parliament, 1793’ (Nottingham University Library, MS 2100, ff 4–5).Google Scholar
56 Cobbett, , Parl. hist., xxxiii, 144 (23 Mar. 1797).Google Scholar
57 Quoted in Smith, E. A., Whig principles and party politics: Earl Fitzwilliam and the Whig Party, 1748-1833 (Manchester, 1975), p. 263.Google Scholar
58 Cobbett, , Parl. hist., xxxi, 1543 (19 May 1795).Google Scholar
59 Ibid., p. 1544.
60 Ibid., xxxiii, 155, 170 (23 Mar. 1797).
61 Ibid., pp 141-2.
62 Ibid., pp l53-4.
63 Ibid., pp 146-51.
64 Grattan, Grattan, iv, 277.
65 Ibid., pp 315-16.
66 Dinwiddy, ‘Fox and the people’, p. 358.
67 Quoted in Mitchell, Fox, p. 155.
68 Quoted in Ayling, Stanley, Fox: the life of Charles James Fox (London, 1991), p. 199.Google Scholar
69 Mitchell, Fox, p. 156.
70 Quoted in Elliott, Marianne, Partners in revolution: the United Irishmen and France (New Haven, 1982), p. 209.Google Scholar
71 Burke, to Fitzwilliam, , 20 Nov. 1796 (The correspondence of Edmund Burke, ed. Copeland, T. W. et al. (10 vols, Cambridge, 1958-78), ix, 123).Google Scholar
72 Ayling, Fox, p. 197.
73 Quoted in McDowell, R. B., Irish public opinion, 1750-1800 (London, 1944), p. 139.Google Scholar
74 Elliott, Partners in revolution, p. 211.
75 Quoted ibid., p. 212.
76 McMahon, Colonel to the duke of Northumberland, 1 Jan. 1803 (The correspondence of George, prince of Wales, 1770-1812, ed. Aspinall, Arthur (8 vols, London, 1963-71), iv, 354Google Scholar). Fox was also said to have dined with O’Connor in Paris (ibid).
77 Quoted in Smith, Whig principles, p. 263.
78 Cobbett, , Parl. hist., xxxiii, 1516 (22 June 1798).Google Scholar
79 Fox to Denis O’Bryen, 2 Sept. 1798 (B.L., Fox papers, Add. MS 47566, f. 21); Fox to O’Bryen, Sept. 1798 (ibid., f. 22).
80 The speeches of the Right Honourable Charles James Fox in the House of Commons (London, 1848), p. 634 (23 Mar. 1797).
81 Cooke to Pelham, 9 Aug. 1798 (B.L., Pelham papers, Add. MS 33106, f. 48).
82 Grattan, Grattan, iv, 428.
83 Fox to Charles Grey, 1800 (B.L., Fox papers, Add. MS 47565, f. 23).
84 Cobbett, , Parl. hist., xxxiii, 152 (23 Mar. 1797).Google Scholar
85 Ibid., xxv, 660 (19 May 1785).
86 Fox to Fitzpatrick, ‘1798’ (Fox corn., iii, 281).
87 Grattan, Grattan, v, 196.
88 Fox to Lord Holland, 18 Feb. 1799 (Fox con., iii, 154); Fox to Holland, 19 Jan. 1799 (ibid., p. 150); Fox to Grattan, 4 Feb. 1799 (Grattan, Grattan, iv, 435).
89 Wilkinson, David, ‘“How did they pass the union?” Secret service expenditure in Ireland, 1799-1804’ in History, lxxxii (1997), 223-51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
90 Fox to Grey, [1 Feb. 1800] (B.L., Fox papers, Add. MS 47565, f. 3).
91 Quoted in Smith, Whig principles, p. 264.
92 Elliott, Partners in revolution, pp 348-9.
93 Fox to Grey, 8 Aug. 1803 (B.L., Fox papers, Add. MS 47565, f. 90).
94 Fox to Grey, 6 Jan. 1804 (ibid., f. 108).
95 Fox to the prince of Wales, 18 Aug. 1803 (Prince of Wales corr., iv, 405).
96 Ibid.
97 Fox to Grey, 19 Oct. 1803 (B.L., Fox papers, Add. MS 47565, f. 97).
98 Grattan, , Grattan, v, 252.Google Scholar
99 Fox to Grey, 27 Nov. 1803 (B.L., Fox papers, Add. MS 47565, f. 102).
100 Ibid.
101 On 18 February 1806 Fox had to deny in the Commons that it was his intention to undo the union. The suspicions of M.P.s had been raised by comments he had made during a debate on honours to be given to the late Lord Cornwallis. See Hansard 1, vi, 173-4.
102 Mitchell, Fox, p. 242.
103 Ibid., p.250.
104 Quoted in Kelly, Prelude to union, p. 162.
