The Providence Journal, And Town And Country Advertiser

From the Centinel.

Mr. Russell,

At a time like the present, when every lover of his country wishes to pay respect to the memory of that great and good man, George Washington, the opinion of one of the ablest statesmen in Europe (the Hon. Charles J. Fox) respecting him, as delivered in the British House of Commons, in the year 1794, may be pleasing to some of your readers.

A. C.

"ILLUSTRIOUS MAN! deriving honour less from the splendour of his situation, than from the dignity of his mind—before whom all borrowed greatness sinks into insignificance!—I cannot, indeed (added Mr. Fox) help admiring the wisdom and the fortune of this Great Man;—not that by the phrase fortune I mean to derogate from his merit; but notwithstanding his extraordinary talents and exalted integrity, it must be considered as singularly fortunate, that he should have experienced a lot which so seldom falls to the portion of humanity; and have passed through such a variety of scenes, without stain, and without reproach. It must indeed create astonishment, that placed in circumstances so critical, and filling for a series of time a station so conspicuous, his character should never once have been called in question;—that he should in no one instance have been accused either of improper insolence, or of mean submission, in his transactions with foreign nations. It has been reserved for him to run the race of glory, without experiencing the smallest interruption to the brilliancy of his career. The breath of censure has not dared to impeach the purity of his conduct; nor the eye of envy to raise its malignant glance to the elevation of his virtues. Such has been the transcendent merit and the unparalleled fate of this Illustrious Man."