#whig

Context: Napoleon and Fox met in person during the Peace of Amiens. Fox was a radical British politician at the time and a strong critic of Britain’s wars against France

The death of Fox, Napoleon ever deemed one of the greatest of calamities. At St. Helena he said, “Half a dozen such men as Fox and Cornwallis would be sufficient to establish the moral character of a nation. With such men I should always have agreed. We should soon have settled our differences, and not only France would have been at peace with a nation at bottom worthy of esteem, but we should have done great things together.” Again he said, “Fame had informed me of his talents. I found that he possessed a noble character, a good heart, liberal, generous, and enlightened views. I considered him an ornament to mankind, and was very much attached to him.” And again he remarked, “Certainly the death of Fox was one of the fatalities of my career. Had his life been prolonged, affairs would hare taken a totally different turn. The cause of the people would have triumphed, and we should have established a new order of things in Europe.”

I’ve always thought the English aristocracy so marvellous compared to other ruling classes. It seemed to me that we had got a ruling class of such extraordinary historical excellence, which is rooted in England almost since the Norman Conquest.

Just read the 18th-century speeches  - the great period  - they’re all Whig or Tory, but all come from that [the aristocracy]. If they didn’t come directly from the aristocracy, they turned themselves very quickly into people who talk in its language. Poetic. If you read Burke, who’s the best in my view, it’s difficult not to be tempted to think what he says has a lot of truth in it.

It survived when others – the French and Russians and so on – were having revolutions. It was absolutely crazy to set about destroying that. There was something magical . . . the parliamentary speeches made by Burke and so on – this is a miracle! No other country has it apart from America in the early days. And I thought to get rid of it, to undermine it, was a mistake.