which rifle barrels produce their effects, our readers will be prepared to consider how far the straight rifling can be useful when employed for shot. These pieces are said to be very common in Germany, and are used by a few persons in this country; though we understand that the greater number even of these few are now less partial to them than they were at first. If the divergency of shot arises from the same cause as that of ball, viz. from acquiring a whirling motion to one side or other by rubbing against the sides of the piece, it is evident that rifling the barrel can have no tendency to prevent this. For let it be granted, that the channels or flutings within are semicircular, and that the shot is exactly adapted to these (two circumstances said to be necessary to the perfection of these pieces) it cannot be imagined that grains will acquire less of the rolling motion in passing along these flutings, than in passing along the sides of a plain barrel, on the contrary, it will necessarily be greater, as the points of contact are considerably more numerɔus. FOWLS, in husbandry, are well-known domestic birds, without the assistance of which the farmer's stock cannot be said to be complete; and the advantage of which must appear to every one who keeps them. And so equal is the distribution of their bounties, and so triAling the expense attending them, that the poorest villager may reap the same benefit from their products as the most substantial farmer. It is singular that there should be no specific name for the bird in the English language; fowl, cock, and hen, being general names applicable to the whole winged creation. For the best methods of breeding fowls see POULTRY, and HUSBANDRY. FowLs, in the sportsman's dialect, are generally classed under three distinct heads; domestic fowls, consisting of cocks, hens, geese, and ducks. Wild fowls, limited to birds of flight and passage, as sea-gulls and geese, wild ducks, widgeon, teal, curlews, plovers, woodcocks, and snipes. Game fowls, which, in the earliest acts of parliament, were extended to a very long list, including even the heron, mallard, duck, and teal. All these, however, are discarded from the game-list in modern practice, and the whole recognised under this head are the pheasant, partridge, grouse, or red game, and heath fowl, or black game. FOX, in mastiology. See CANIS. Fox (John), the martyrologist, was born at Boston in Lincolnshire, in the year 1517. At the age of 16 he was entered a student of Brazen-nose college, in Oxford; and in 1543. he became master of arts, and was chosen fellow of Magdalen college. He discovered an early genius for poetry, and wrote several Latin comedies, the subjects taken from scripture, which his son assures us were written in an elegant style. Forsaking the muses, he now applied himself with uncommon assiduity to the study of divinity, particularly churchhistory; and discovering a premature propensity to the doctrine of the reformation, he was expelled the college as an heretic. His distress on this occasion was very great; but it was not long before he found an asylum in the house of year Fox (George), the founder of the sect of quakers, was born at Drayton, in Leicestershire, in 1624. He was at first placed with a shepherd, and afterwards bound apprentice to a shoemaker; but it does not appear that he ever followed either of those professions. In 1643 he became a religious itinerant; and about 1647 commenced public preacher, inveighing, not only against the prevailing vices, but the stated ministers and religious services, affirming that the light of Christ in the heart is alone the means of salvation, and the true qualification for the gospel ministry. He suffered imprisonment in many places, and sometimes experienced very cruel usage. In 1669 he married the widow of a Welch judge; but still he continued his course of itinerant preaching, and visited most parts of the British islands, Holland, Germany, and North America, and even some of the West-India islands. He died in London in 1690. His Journal was printed at London in 1694, his Epistles in 1698, and his Tracts in 1706; all in folio. Fox (Charles James), an eminent statesman, the third son of Henry Fox, afterwards lord Holland, by Georgina, eldest daughter of the late duke of Richmond, was born on the 13th of January, O.S. in the year 1748. As he was intended for public life, so he received a public education, and was sent to Eton, when that school had attained a high degree of celebrity, under the auspices of Edward Barnard, M.A. who became head master in 1754. From Eton Mr. Fox removed to Hertford college, Oxford, where he also distinguished himself by his talents, and Dr. Newcome, his tutor, was afterwards rewarded with the primacy of Ireland for his services on this occasion. After remaining there some time, he was immediately sent on his travels, according to the absurd custom of that day, by which an Englishman was bound to be better acquainted with the manners, fashions, and productions of every other country in Europe than his own. Meanwhile, his father, still keeping the ori ginal object in view, determined to inspire him with a taste for public business, and according ly, in the beginning of 1768, he was returned for Midhurst, in the county of Sussex. Two things are remarkable on this occasion; the first is, that, like the celebrated Waller, he became a member of the house of commons before he attained the legal age: the second, that Midhurst was one of those very boroughs which he himself seems afterwards to have considered a nuisance in a free country. As lord Holland possessed the favour of lord Bute, and enjoyed the confidence of his present majesty, the career of public employments lay open to his son. Accordingly, he had been only two years in parliament when, on the 13th of February, 1770, he became a member of the Admiralty board, at the time when the celebrated admiral sir Edward, afterwards lord Hawke, presided there. On May 6, 1772, he resigned that situation, and on the 9th of January, 1773, was nominated a commissioner of the treasury. At this period his political principles appear to have been strictly in unison with those of his father, and he was often afterwards reminded by his adversaries that the doctrines advanced by him in the case of the printers who had been imprisoned, were rather unfavourable to the principles of liberty, while his assertion, "that the voice of the people was only to be heard in the house of commons," was controverted by the whole tenor of the latter part of his life. At length all the predictions of Mr. Fox and his associates, relative to the American struggle, were fully and fatally verified; for Burgoyne was captured, Cornwallis was oblig ed to capitulate, and France and Holland hav ing become parties in the struggle, the contest itself became unpopular in the extreme. Lord North, confounded, overwhelmed, and almost driven to despair, was now obliged to resign; but he did not, like former ministers, take refuge in the house of peers; on the contrary, he remained in the midst of his partisans, who still formed a numerous band, braved all the clamours of his adversaries, defied their threats, and declared himself ready to meet any inquiry they might wish to institute. Mr. Fox obtained the office of secretary for foreign affairs, in the spring of 1782, while the marquis of Rockingham, the most uniform honest and upright statesman whom we have possessed since the revolution, was nominated first lord of the treasury. Much was expected from, and much, it must be owned, was performed by a ministry, the most respectable of any that has been seen in England during the present reign. But the sudden death of the nobleman just mentioned at once afflicted the nation and divided the friends of liberty, while the ex-minister and his adherents knew how to derive advantage from the storm, and reap benefit from the dismay that unhappily ensued A dispute, as had been foreseen, immediately took place about who should succeed as first lord of the treasury. The candidates were, lord Shelburne, afterwards marquis of Lansdowne, and the present duke of Portland; the favour of the king made the interest of the former preponderate, and a schism having ensued, Mr. Fox retired in disgust. As the earl of Chatham was accustomed to observe, "that he would never be responsible for actions which he did not direct," so the secretary of state, when he withdrew, remarked, “that he had determined never to connive at plans in private, which he could not publicly avow." What those plans may have been, we are left to guess. We have reason to believe, that the only ostensible dispute in the cabinet was rela tive to the independence of America, which Mr. Fox wished to grant as a boon, while lord Shelburne desired to confer it in the manner of a bargain: the secret, and perhaps leading cause, on the present occasion, originated in friendship to the duke of Portland, then a very popular nobleman, whose exclusion had produced the most fatal jealousies among the best friends of liberty. Mr. Fox now resumed his old seat, facing the Treasury bench, while his former colleague, the earl of Shelburne, was busied in concluding a peace with France, Spain, Holland, and the United States of America, This nobleman, although possessed of great talents, forgot to adopt the most obvious means for ensuring his own safety. In the first place, he did not call a new parliament, and in the next, he omitted to secure the immense advantages resulting from the press, which, in a free conntry, will always influence, if not, govern, the nation. But even as it was, he would have triumphed, but for a most odious as well a impolitic coalition, supposed to be bottom e on ambition alone, and destitute of any common principle of union. The political success of Mr. Fox and lord North was, however, ephemeral. While they agreed in no one great measure for the common good, the nation seemed to unite as one man against them; and the king having become jealous of his prerogative, on the introduction of the East India Bill, they were obliged to retire, but not until means had been resorted to, which no friend of the constitution could either advise or practise. A phenomenon in the political world now took place; for a stripling, just of age, upborne on the wings of royal and populár favour, succeeded to the post of premier, and kept it for upwards of twenty years. William Pitt, the younger son of that William Pitt, earl of Chatham, who had been the rival of Henry Fox, lord Holland, to a greater portion of eloquence than his father, added all his ambition. Such was the opponent with whom the subject of this memoir had now to contend for the government of the empire; such the man who could only be prevailed upon to relinquish it with his life! Meanwhile the tide of popularity had set in so strongly against Mr. Fox, that at the general election, in 1784, many of his friends lost their seats in the House of Commons, and he himself was obliged to enter into a long and expensive contest for Westmin ster. The next public affair in which we find him engaged, was the prosecution of Mr. Hastings; and it must be allowed, while the charges against the governor general of India, on one hand, required, nay demanded investigation, that, on the other, the period of time to which the trial was protracted appears to have been equally impolitic and unjust. grounds, that the opposition rather lost than gained popularity by this measure. We now approach an awful and memorable epoch, that which gave birth to the Freuch Revolution! On this occasion Mr. Fox declared himself strongly, uniformly, and decisively on the side of liberty. The two great. rival chiefs, who agreed in nothing else, at first cordially united in this cause, and while the one presaged a long peace, the extinction of our national debt, and the prosperity of the. empire, the other gloried in beholding a whole people rescued from the most oppressive servitude, and, at the same time, augured the most auspicious results in favour of the human race. It were greatly to be wished that the grand political experiment attempted in France had been left to its own fate. The intervention of the neighbouring states only served to arouse the warlike genius of a mighty people, to call forth the numerous resources of a rich and extensive empire, and finally to establish a military despotism, that, after overturning every land-mark of civil liberty, has nearly extin guished the independence of Europe. Mr. Pitt is supposed to have been at first dragged into the contest with reluctance. No sooner had he entered on it, however, than, as usual, he did not hesitate at the means by which he was to secure the end in view. In corruptible himself, he opened the public purse without scruple to others. The heroic age of profusion seemed to have arrived, and he distributed money, and titles, and offices, with so liberal a hand, that the opposition benches were thinned of their members, and his ancient enemy was left to contend with a handful of adherents against a host of foes. Conscious that he could not oppose the On two great occasions the talents of Mr. golden torrent that issued from the Treasury Fox proved eminently serviceable to the nation: bench, Mr. Fox withdrew from Parliament one, when Mr. Pitt, at the instigation of the for a while, and evinced a wish to retire altogecourt of Berlin, wished to wage an unprofitable ther from public business. It has even been war with Russia, relative to the possession of said, that his Address to the Electors of WestOczakow; the other, when, in the wanton-minster was actually penned, and that he had ness of power, he urged a contest with Spain. formed the determined resolution of abjuring Experience has since proved that these objects politics for ever. were contemptible, and the finger of posterity will point with scorn to that page of our history, when a minister who derived all his credit from his management of the finances, la boured to impoverish the nation by two ridiculous, but bloody conflicts, one of which had for is object the preservation of the Turkish frontier, and the other, a participation in the irade of cat-skins and sea-otters! In 1788, Mr. Fox, worn out, and perhaps disgusted with public business, repaired to the continent, in company with the lady who has since been acknowledged as his wife, and after spending a few days with Gibbon the historian, at Lausanne, entered the classic regions of Italy. But he was suddenly recalled, in consequence of the alarming illness of the king, and the business of the Regency Bill was so ably managed by his rival, who now perceived it to be for his interest to stand on constitutional But the entreaties of his friends, and the occurrence of new and singular events, happily prevented this measure. We accordingly find him once more at the head of an opposition, feeble in point of numbers, but truly formidable in respect of talents and abilities. Mr. Pitt, then in the zenith of his power, at this period afforded a fair opportunity of animadversion as well as censure, and it was eagerly seized upon by his eloquent rival. The minister, confident in his majority, took upon him, during the vacation of Parliament, to advance a sum of money, by way of subsidy, to the emperor and the French princes, without either the consent or knowledge of the House of Commons. In 1796 this became the subject of a special charge; and although Mr. Fox's motion was not carried, yet it made an impression on the nation at large, and added not a little to the odium then prevalent against the premier At length, after enjoying, and, in some measure, revelling in power, during eighteen long years, Mr. Pitt voluntarily retired from office, and Mr. Addington, since created viscount Sidmouth, concluded the treaty of Amiens, on which occasion he received the support of Mr. Fox and all his friends. The latter may be said to have now experienced that species of triumph which arises out of political anticipation, for as the terms were not so good as might have been obtained in 1796, it was obvious that all the miseries, calamities, blood, and treasure, wasted to no manner of purpose during the preceding six years, would have been avoided, had his warning voice been but listened to. When a renewal of the contest was meditated, Mr. Fox expressed himself avowedly hostile to that measure: "I do contend," said he," that the continuance of peace is infinite ly desirable. I feel its importance in the strongest manner, and I am not ashamed to avow an opinion for which I have not unfre quently been exposed to ridicule. I now again explicitly declare, that I consider the preservation of national honour to be the only legitimate cause of war. "This docrine I hold," continues he, "on the plain principle that honour is inseparably connected with self-defence. If it can be proved to me that the national honour has been insulted, or the national dignity disgraced, I will, without hesitation, declare my opinion, which is, that it would be a fair legitimate cause for recommencing hostilities. I must, however, hear a very strong case made out before I can give my vote for replunging the country into those disasters, which a calamitous contest had produced, and from which we have been so recently delivered.” It was in strict consistency with this notion, that, when the royal message was brought down, declaratory of hostilities, Mr. Fox expressed his opinion at large, both against the war as unnecessary, and against the crisis at which it took place, as eminently impolitic. This problematic measure soon proved fatal to Mr. Addington's administration, and the reins of government having dropped from his hands, were immmediately seized by Mr. Pitt. Meanwhile a union had been effected by the Foxite and Grenville parties, and from that moment the return of both to power was considered as certain. This was in part evinced by the conduct of the House of Commons, in respect to the prosecution of lord Melville; and although the petition of the Irish Catholics was thrown out by a great majority, yet a large portion of the empire was, in some measure, conciliated on this occasion, by the consideration that it was not destitute of powerful pro tributed more than any thing else to shield it from reproach, was the junction of his friends and relations with his enemies and opponents; so that the latter could not have assailed his character without violating all the decencies of life with respect to the former. After an opposition of twenty-two years-a period unexampled, in point of duration, in the annals of this country-Mr. Fox in 1806 resumed his situation as Secretary of State for the Foreign Department, which he had surrendered in 1783-4. Soon after this event, the conduct of the king of Prussia excited general indignation. Not content with seizing on Han, over, he excluded the English commerce not only from his own dominions, but also from every port which he could either terrify or influence. On this the new minister published a very spirited declaration, and, at the same time, adopted measures for blockading all the ports and intercepting all the trade of the house of Brandenburg. But his mind was never for a single instant diverted from what may be considered as the grand object of his life. He had conceived an idea, from the very beginning, that the war was ill-timed, and no sooner had he obtained the seals, than he determined, if possible, to put an honourable termination to it. As he had never made use of any intemperate language, or displayed any personal antipathies, the enemy of course could have no objection to such a mediator; but just at the critical period, when it was supposed that most of the difficulties had been removed, the man on whose fate the peace of the world in no small degree depended was snatched away from his friends and the world, by a confirmed dropsy. He died Sept. 13, 1806. To depict the character of such a man as Mr. Fox, is a most difficult and delicate task : we shall present our readers with a sketch drawn by the able hand of Sir James Macintosh. "Mr. Fox united, in a most remarkable degree, the seemingly-repugnant characters of the mildest of men and the most vehement of orators. In private life he was gentle, modest, placable, kind, of simple manners, and so averse from parade and dogmatisin, as to be not only unostentatious, but even somewhat inactive, in conversation. His superiority was never felt but in the instruction which he imparted, or in the attention which his generous preference usually directed to the more obscure members of the company. The simplicity of his manners was far from excluding that perfect urbanity and amenity which flowed still more from the mildness of his nature than from familiar intercourse with the most polished society of Europe. His conversation, when it was not repressed by modesty or indolence, was delightful. The pleasantry, perhaps, of no man of wit had so unlaboured an appearance; it seemed rather to escape from his mind, than to be produced by it. He had lived on the most intimate terms with all his contemporaries, distinguished by wit, politeness, or philosophy, or learning, or the talents vate. of public life. In the course of thirty years, he had known almost every man in Europe whose intercourse could strengthen, or enrich, or polish the mind. His own literature was various and elegant. In classical erudition, which, by the custom of England, is more peculiarly called learning, he was inferior to few professed scholars. Like all men of genius, he delighted to take refuge in poetry from the vulgarity and irritation of business. His own verses were easy and pleasing, and might have claimed no low place among those which the French call vers de société. The poetical character of his mind was displayed in his extraordinary partiality for the poetry of the two most poetical nations, or, at least, languages, of the West, those of the Greeks and of the Italians. He disliked political conversation, and never willingly took any part in it. To speak of him justly as an orator would require a long essay. Every where natural, he carried into public something of that simple and negligent exterior which belonged to him in priWhen he began to speak, a common observer might have thought him awkward, and even a consummate judge could only have been struck with the exquisite justness of his ideas, and the transparent simplicity of his manners. But no sooner had he spoken for some time, than he was changed into another being. He forgot himself and every thing around him. He thought only of his subject. His genius warmed and kindled as he went on. He darted fire into the audience. Torrents of impetuous and irresistible eloquence swept along their feelings and conviction. He certainly possessed, above all moderns, that union of reason, simplicity, and vehemence, which formed the prince of orators. He was the most Demosthenean speaker since Demosthenes. " I knew him,' says Mr. Burke, in a pamphlet written after their unhappy difference, when he was nineteen; since which time he has risen, by slow degrees, to be the most brilliant and accomplished debater that the world ever saw.' The quiet dignity of a mind roused only by great objects, the absence of petty bustle, the contempt of show, the abhorrence of intrigue, the plainness and downrightness, and the thorough good-nature which distinguished Mr. Fox, seemed to render him no very unfit representative of that old English national character, which, if it ever changed, we should be sanguine indeed to expect to sec succeeded by a better. The simplicity of his character inspired confidence, the ardour of his eloquence roused enthusiasm, and the gentleness of his manners invited friendship. I admired,' says Mr. Gibbon, the powers of a superior man, as they are blended, in his attractive character, with all the softness and simplicity of a child; no human being was ever more free from any taint of malignity, vanity, or falsehood. From these qualities of his public and private character, it probably arose, that no English statesman ever preserved, during so long a period of adverse fortune, so many affectionate friends and so many zealus adherents. The union of ardour in public sentiment with mildness in social manners was in Mr. Fox an hereditary quality. The same fascinating power, over the attachment of all who came within his sphere, is said to have belonged to his father; and those who know the survivors of another generation will feel that this delightful quality is not yet extinct in the race. "Perhaps nothing can more strongly prove the deep impression made by this part of Mr. Fox's character than the words of Mr. Burke, who, in 1797, six years after all intercourse between them had ceased, speaking to a person honoured with some degree of Mr. Fox's friendship, said: To be sure, he is a man made to be loved!' and these emphatical words were uttered with a fervour of manner which left no doubt of their heartfelt sincerity. "These few hasty and honest sentences are sketched in a temper too sober and serious for intentional exaggeration, and with too pious an affection for the memory of Mr. Fox to profane it by intermixture with the factious brawls and wrangles of the day. His political conduct belongs to his history. The measures which he supported or opposed may divide the opinion of posterity, as they divided those of the present age. But he will most certainly command the unanimous reverence of future generations, by his pure sentiments towards the commonwealth; by his zeal for the civil and religious rights of men; by his liberal principles, favourable to mild government, to the unfettered exercise of the human faculties, and the progressive civilization of mankind; by his ardent love for a country, of which the wellbeing and greatness were, indeed, inseparable from his own glory; and by his profound reverence for that free constitution, which he was universally admitted to understand better than any other man of his age, both in an exactly-legal and in a comprehensively-philosophical sense." Since the death of this distinguished statesman, his nephew lord Holland has published a work which employed much of the latter part of Mr. Fox's life, entitled "A History of the early Part of the Reign of James the Second, with an introductory Chapter;" a work which is more especially celebrated for its freedom from party bias, and for the perspicuity and simplicity of the style. FOX-HUNTING. The hunting of foxes with hounds trained to the sport. This, by sportsmen, is regarded as the zenith of enjoyment. The chace should be short, sharp, decisive ;—not less than one hour to be perfect, but never more than two. If it exceed the last period, there must be a fault somewhere: in the day, the huntsmen, or the hounds. Of course, all is bustle and expedition. Yet the hounds should not be suffered to try their full strength, at the commencement of the chace: for they have then a great chance of out-stripping the scent, which they should be introduced to coolly, till they are perfectly acquainted with it. After this they cannot make too much speed. The scent, however, varies in keenness and punctuality from a variety of causes: a moist air holds and communicates it better than a dry air, and some soils destroy it more than others, |