Charles James Fox.—Anecdote.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1842, 26 April 1884, Page 6 (Supplement)

Charles James Fox.—Anecdote.

Fox's love of gaming was excessive ; and he came honestly by it. His biographers relate that his father, Lord Holland, who had amassed a large fortune while serving as paymaster of the English forces — the most lucra? tlve office in the kingdom — the father, while at Spa, when Charles was fourteen years of

age, used to allow the boy five guineas a day , for play; and the money was given to him in the evening, at the time for the opening of the night session of the gamesters. Who can wonder that, with 3uch an organization as he possessed, the lova of play should have giown wif.h his years ? The storie3 ol Fox's framing exploits are numerous and startling. We will givo but one of them; and frnm that the characters of others can be judged. Walpolo sets it down that in tha dobale on the Thirty-jiiue Articles, Feb. 6, 1772, Fox did not nhine; nor could it be wondered at. He had sat up playing at hazard, at Almack's, from Tuesday evening, the 4th, till fiva in the afternoon of Wednesday, the sth. At one time he had gained JC12,000, and lost it iv an hour; and at five o'clock, the dinner hour, he had lost £11,000 more. On Thursday he spoke in the above debate, went to dinner after eleven o'clock at night; from there to White's, where he drank from seven the next morning ; thence to Almack's, where he won £6,000; and between three and four in the afternoon he set out for Newmarket. Hia brother Stephen lost £11,000 two nights after; and Charles £10,000 more on the thirteenth ; so that, in three nights, the two brothers —the eldest not twenty-five—lost £32,000. And yet, with all this eagerness for play, and hia indulgence in it, Fox never ceased to cultivate his mind, and to indulge in his keen taste for letters and the fine arts. What a compound ?

A new patent law has recently been enacted by the British Parliament. It is severely criticised, because it provides for the publi- j cation of the full particulars of the invention two months before the patent is finally \ granted. Feara are expressed that unscrupu-. lous rivals in trade will oppose the issue of valuable patents on technical and untenable grounds, in the hope of worrying poor inventors to Buoh an extent that they will abandon their applications altogether. " One effect of the clause relating to the publication of the specification," saya the English Mechanic, will be to keep many processes secret; for inventors will prefer to run the risk of having them discovered rather than allow them to be made public by the Patent office before the seal is granted." The term of a British patent is fourteen years, with a possibility of renewal for fourteen years longer upon application to the Privy Council, but only in exceptional cases.