desmen do not stand hat in hand as the
gentleman passes: authors do not wait for hours in gentlemen's ante-rooms
with a fulsome dedication, for which they hope to get five guineas from
his lordship. In the days when there were fine gentlemen, Mr. Secretary
Pitt's under-secretaries did not dare to sit down before him; but Mr.
Pitt, in his turn, went down on his gouty knees to George II; and when
George III spoke a few kind words to him, Lord Chatham burst into tears of
reverential joy and gratitude; so awful was the idea of the monarch, and
so great the distinctions of rank. Fancy Lord John Russell or Lord
Palmerston on their knees whilst the sovereign was reading a dispatch, or
beginning to cry because Prince Albert said something civil!

At the accession of George III, the patricians were yet at the height of
their good fortune. Society recognized their superiority, which they
themselves pretty calmly took for granted. They inherited not only titles
and estates, and seats in the House of Peers, but seats in the House of
Commons. There were a multitude of Government places, and not merely
these, but bribes of actual 500_l._ notes, which Members of the House took
not much shame in assuming. Fox went into Parliament at 20: Pitt was just
of age: his father not much older. It was the good time for Patricians.
Small blame to them if they took and enjoyed, and over-enjoyed, the prizes
of politics, the pleasures of social life.

In these letters to Selwyn, we are made acquainted with a whole society of
these defunct fine gentlemen: and can watch with a curious interest a
life, which the novel-writers of that time, I think, have scarce touched
upon. To Smollett, to Fielding even, a lord was a lord: a gorgeous being
with a blue ribbon, a coroneted chair, and an immense star on his bosom,
to whom commoners paid reverence. Richardson, a man of humbler birth than
either of the above two, owned that he was ignorant regarding the manners
of the aristocracy, and besought Mrs. Donnellan, a lady who had lived in
the great world, to examine a volume of _Sir Charles Grandison_, and point
out any errors which she might see in this particular. Mrs. Donnellan
found so many faults, that Richardson changed colour; shut up the book;
and muttered that it were best to throw it in the fire. Here, in Selwyn,
we have the real original men and women of fashion of the early time of
George III. We can follow them to the new club at Almack's: we can trav