in
the first society of the country. It is a charming picture--the old
man without a wife or children of his own finding in the friendship
of young and old all that his kindly and affectionate nature
required. It heightens our ideas of the breadth and the depth of
friendship when we see how it can compensate for the lack of those
natural relationships which are supposed to be the solace of
advancing years. Of political events in England during the period
covered by this last correspondence the most important was the mental
illness of the King. It began early in November, 1788; it ended in
the spring of the following year. On the 23rd of April, 1789, the
King, the Royal Family, and the two Houses of Parliament attended a
thanksgiving service at St. Paul's. But in the interval important
constitutional debates had occurred in Parliament on the question of
the Regency. That the Prince of Wales should be Regent both
Government and Opposition were agreed; but whilst Pitt and the
Cabinet desired to place certain limits to his power, Fox and the
Whigs regarded his assumption of the office as a matter of right,
and held therefore that he should have the powers of the Sovereign.
The constitutional question was complicated by personal feeling, so
that all London society was ranged on one side or the other. Selwyn
was a ministerialist, though he seems to have kept a cooler head
than many of his friends. But the rapid recovery of the King
rendered these discussions abortive and put an end to the political
hopes and fears which were aroused by his illness. Pitt remained in
office, the Whigs in opposition.

Presently, however, the French Revolution became all-important.
Events in France were watched with the keenest interest by Selwyn,
to whom many of those who figured in the tragic scenes in Paris were
personally known. But he regarded the state of affairs in France
with greater calmness than many, though he was shocked at
revolutionary violence. It is, however, the picture in these letters
of the society of the French emigres in and about London that gives
so much interest to the last group of correspondence. Of this,
however, it will be more fitting to speak when the letters which
touch on it are reached.

(228) 22 Geo. III. c. 82, 1782. An Act for enabling his Majesty to
discharge the debt contracted upon his Civil List Revenues, and for
preventing the same from being in arrear for the future, by
regulating the mode of payment