where the excitement of gambling could be
enjoyed as they now flock to the race-course or telegraph to their
brokers in Throgmorton Street. The nobleman now enjoys his pleasure
side by side with the publican, and his example is followed by his
servants on the course. Gambling in Selwyn's time was more select--a
small society governed England and gambled in St. James's Street,
while in more democratic days peers, members, and constituents
pursue the same excitement together on the race-course or in the
City. Great as were the sums which were lost at commerce, hazard, or
faro, they were less than the training-stable, the betting-ring, and
the stock-jobber now consume; and the same influences which have
destroyed the Whig oligarchy and the King's friends have changed and
enlarged the manner and the habit of gambling in England.

Of Selwyn the humourist it would be easy to collect pages of
witticisms. Walpole's letters alone contain dozens of them, and
there is not a memoir of the eighteenth century in which is not to
be found one of "George's" jokes. Though often happy, as when seeing
Mr. Ponsonby, the Speaker of the Irish Parliament, parting freely
with bank-notes at Newmarket, he remarked, "How easily the Speaker
passes the money bills," or, as when Lord Foley crossed the Channel
to avoid his creditors, he drily observed that it was "a passover
not much relished by the Jews," yet their repetition now is
tiresome.

Manner and appearance assisted his wit, an impassive countenance hid
his humour so that his sallies surprised by their unexpectedness. He
knew how to appropriate opportunity, and saw the humour of a
situation. A reputation for wit is thus gained not only by what is
said, but by the mere indication of the ridiculous. This it is
impossible to reproduce, and the celebrity of Selwyn as a wit must
be allowed to rest on the opinion of his contemporaries.

"Je suis bien eloignee," wrote Madame du Deffand, in 1767, who, of
those who knew him, has left us the most finished portrait, "de
croire M. Selwyn stupide, mais il est souvent dans les espaces
imaginaires. Rien ne le frappe ni le reveille que le ridicule, mais
il l'attrape en volant; il a de la grace et de la finesse dans ce
qu'il dit mais il ne sais pas causer de suite; il est distrait,
indifferent; il s'ennuierait souvent sans une tres bonne recette
qu'il a contre l'ennui, c'est de s'endormir quand il veut. C'est un
talent que je lui envie bien; si je l'avais