facts being incontestable, you may take the whole story for a
true one, no one part being more improbable than another. Will you
have it sent? It is dear, half-a-guinea; un recit trop graveleux
pour etre recommande aux dames. My most affectionate compliments,
and so adieu. My eyes grow too dim to write, but are infinitely
mended.

I dine to-morrow at the Ambassador's, and after dinner we go to make
our visits at Richmond to Lady Fawkener, and to Petersham. I thank
you for your idea of Emily(124): j'en profiterai; I can depend upon
no other's.

(124) Edward Emly, Dean of Derry. Selwyn always writes of him as
"Emily": in a letter of March 24, 1781, he calls him "Mr. Dean
Emily."

In the midst of the news of the gaieties of the town, of the begging
of political placemen for a higher rank in the peerage, we now come
upon the question of America. The English people had not yet
appreciated the momentous struggle into which the King and his
ministers had drawn their country. The flippancy with which Selwyn
alludes to the rebellion is indicative of the general state of
opinion even among those who were constantly at the centre of
political affairs. The battle of Bunker's Hill had been fought on
the 17th of the preceding June, and yet to Selwyn the struggle
beyond the Atlantic was merely a "little dispute."

(1775,) Oct. 11, Wednesday m(orning).--I went last night after I had
sent my letters to the post, which by the way was not till past ten,
to Lady Betty's. There were with her Lady Julia, Gregg, and a Mr.
Owen at whist. There were Hare, Delme,(125) and his odd-looking
parson, who came to town to christen the child. I went from thence
and supped at Lady Hertford's, with Lord Fr(ederick) Cavendish, Mrs.
Howe, and the Beau Richard, who is returned from Jamaica. His friend
Colonel Kane has got the start of him since he went dans la carriere
politique, mais le bon Colonel est un peu plus intriguant que son
camarade; celui-ci est certainement un charactere bien sauvage, un
melange d'irlandois et de Creol, et avec tout cela, un fort honnete
garcon. . . .

You pant after news from America; there are none pour le moment.
But you may depend upon it, if that little dispute interests you, I
will let you know, quand le monde sera rassemble, tout ce que
j'apprens, et de bon lieu.

Charles assures us that nothing is so easy as to put an end to all
this, but then there must be a change of Ministry, quelconque, no
matter what,