enting him
with so congenial a servant. The king, "with such a secretary in his
closet, felt himself in the very Elysium of Heren-hausen."

Then follows a singular conversation between the king and Fox. The Duke
of Newcastle saw his power tottering, and had begun to look out for new
allies. His first thought was to dismiss Pitt, the next and more
natural, was to "try to sweeten Fox." Accordingly, on the morning of the
29th, the king sent for Fox, reproached him for concurring to wrong Sir
Thomas Robinson, and asked him if he had united with Pitt to oppose his
measures. Fox assured him he had not, and that he had given his honour
that he would resign first. Then, said the king, will you stand up and
carry on my measures in the House of Commons, as you can do with spirit.
Fox replied, I must know, sir, what means I shall have. "It would be
better for you," said the king, "you shall have favour, advantage, and
confidence," but would not explain particulars, only asking if he would
go to the Duke of Newcastle.

"I must, if you command me," said Fox, "go and say I have forgot every
thing."

"No," replied the king, "I have a good opinion of you. You have
abilities and honesty, but you are too warm. I will send a common
friend, Lord Waldegrave. I have obligations to you that I never
mentioned. The prince tried you, and you would not join him, and yet you
made no merit of it to me."

Mingled with these memoirs are appendices of anecdote, and those
anecdotes generally of remarkable characters. Among the rest is a sketch
of the famous Count Bruhl, one of those men who figured in Europe as the
grand burlesque of ministerial life, or rather of that life, which in
the East raises a slave into the highest appointments of the state, and
after showing him as a slipper-bearer, places him beside the throne. The
extravagances of the court of Saxony at that period were proverbial, the
elector being King of Poland, and lavishing the revenues of his
electorate alike on his kingdom and person. While the court was
borrowing at an interest of ten per cent. the elector was lavishing
money as if it rained from the skies. He had just wasted L200,000
sterling on two royal marriages, given L100,000 sterling for the Duke of
Modena's gallery of pictures, given pensions in Poland amounting to
L50,000 sterling above what he received, and enabled Count Bruhl
personally to spend L60,000 a-year.

This favourite of fortune, originally of a good family