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Charles James Fox and Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Martyn J. Powell
Martyn J. Powell*
Affiliation:
Department of History and Welsh History, University of Wales, Aberystwyth
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Extract

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.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 33 , Issue 130 , November 2002 , pp. 169 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2002

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References

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

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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).

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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.

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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

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36 Quoted in Kelly, Prelude to union, p. 121.

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41 Ibid., pp 689 (24 May 1785), 610 (12 May 1785).

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45 Mornington to W. W. Grenville, 2 Mar. 1785 (H.M.C., Fortescue, i, 247).

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47 Ibid., p. 622 (12 May l785).

48 Ibid., p. 694 (24 May 1785).

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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

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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

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70 Quoted in Elliott, Marianne, Partners in revolution: the United Irishmen and France (New Haven, 1982), p. 209.Google Scholar

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78 Cobbett, , Parl. hist., xxxiii, 1516 (22 June 1798).Google Scholar

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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).

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83 Fox to Charles Grey, 1800 (B.L., Fox papers, Add. MS 47565, f. 23).

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85 Ibid., xxv, 660 (19 May 1785).

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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.