education, to
which has been superadded the flattery of University parsons, led
captains, and Treasury dependants. Without this, he would have been
a pleasant companion. He has parts, information, and a good share of
real wit, and (is), I believe, not an ill-tempered man by any means.
But with all this, he has un commerce qui me rebute. As to what he
says, or promises, it is sur la foi de Ministre and credat Judeus,
but I never will." (May 15, 1781.)

But like many others Selwyn had grown accustomed to the existing
method of carrying on the government and obtaining majorities in the
House of Commons. He had seen much of political corruption and
official influence, and having no high political standard he had
come to regard the system of George III. and North as normal and
constitutional. He had, too, a fear of a ministry in which Fox and
his friends should take a leading part. In Selwyn's mind Fox was
connected with the wildest gambling and with a carelessness in
regard to monetary obligations which he considered to be almost
criminal. There were many others who shared this opinion: it was one
thing for a gambler to hurry from the card-table in St. James's
Street to the floor of the House of Commons and delight alike
Ministerialists and Opposition by a brilliant attack on the
Government: it was quite another for him to be responsible for the
affairs of the nation. George III. and Lord North were men of
business. Fox was a man of pleasure, and those who were most
intimate with him at the clubs were the last--very often--to desire
to see him a Minister. "From a Pharo table to the headship of the
Exchequer is a transition which appears to me de tenir trop au
Roman, and those who will oppose it the most are those whom he has
been voting with and assisting to ruin this country for the last ten
years at least." Selwyn underrated the need for Fox's great
abilities in office; so powerful a debater could not be used by a
party in opposition only. But he certainly expressed a feeling which
existed in the minds of many.

Selwyn's letters which were written at this crisis give a lively
description of the dismay which the change of Ministry produced
among those who had begun to consider Lord North's Government as a
part of the established order of things. The Court party had hardly
taken the Opposition seriously; there were many who had grown to
suppose that nothing could overturn the individual authority of the
King, and they w