“Dazzled with hope, he could not see the cheat Of aiming with impatience to be great. With wild ambition in his heart, we find, Farewell content and quiet of his mind; For glittering clouds he left the solid shore, And wonted happiness returns no more.” The most active and successful of Fox’s canvassers was undoubtedly the Duchess of Devonshire, who, by the influence of her personal charms and her winning affability, succeeded in procuring for the Whig chief votes which would never have otherwise been polled in his favour. It was of the beautiful and winsome Georgiana Spencer, that Hannay said the Spencers had laid the world under further obligations by sending forth a second “Fairy Queen,” and it was the Westminster Election of 1784 which first brought into celebrity this gay and graceful leader of fashion, who, by universal suffrage, was the Queen of the Foxites. In the earlier stages Fox was behind both his opponents, and although Cecil Wray had only a small majority, Fox was at his last gasp. The story is told in Wraxall’s “Posthumous Memoirs” by an eye-witness of the incidents:-- [Illustration: THE DEVONSHIRE, OR MOST APPROVED MANNER OF SECURING VOTES. 1784. BY T. ROWLANDSON. “However courtiers take offence, And cits and prudes may join, Sir, Beauty will ever influence The free and generous mind, Sir. “Fair DEVON, like the rising sun, Proceeds in her full glory, Whilst Madam’s duller orb must own The Duchess moves before her.”] “The party were driven to new resources, and the Duchess of Devonshire restored the fates of the Whig champion. The progress of the canvass thenceforward is amusing. The entire of the voters for Westminster having been exhausted, the only hope was in exciting the suburbs. The Duchess instantly ordered out her equipage, and with her sister, the Countess of Duncannon, drove, polling list in hand, to the houses of the voters. Entreaties, ridicule, civilities, influence of all kinds were lavished on these rough legislators; and the novelty of being solicited by two women of rank and remarkable fashion, took the popular taste universally. The immediate result was, that they gallantly came to the poll, and Fox, who had been a hundred behind Sir Cecil, speedily left him a hundred behind in return. An imperfect attempt was made on the hostile side to oppose this new species of warfare by similar captivation, and Lady Salisbury was moved to awake the dying fortunes of the Government candidate. But the effort failed; it was imitation, it was too late; and the Duchess was six-and-twenty, and Lady Salisbury thirty-four! These are reasons enough, and more than enough for the rejection of any man from the hustings.” “A certain lady I won’t name Must take an active part, sir, To show that DEVON’S beauteous dame Should not engage each heart, sir.