H(oward). I should be glad to contrive it, so as to return with you.
You will be here for the Trial,(137) I take for granted. It will be
altogether the most extraordinary one that ever happened in this or
I believe any other country. It is a cursed, foul pool, which they
are going to stir up, and-how many rats, cats, and dogs, with other
nuisances, will be seen floating at the top, nobody can tell. It
will be as much a trial of the E(arl) of B(ristol) as of her, and in
point of infamy, the issue of it will be the same, and the poor
defunct Duke stand upon record as the completest Coglione of his
time. The Attorney and Solicitor General have appointed Friday, as I
hear, for a hearing of what her Bar can say in favour of a Noli
prosequi, which is surely nothing.

(136) Gainsborough was at this time living at Schomberg House, Pall
Mall, and therefore was a near neighbour of Selwyn. This portrait is
not to be found among Gainsborough's existing works.

(137) See note (109)


Selwyn, as we see by the preceding letter, represented the
optimistic spirit of the English people in regard to the American
War. His friend Storer, though one of the Court party and a place
seeker, shows a much truer appreciation of the actual condition of
affairs. With a keener interest than Selwyn in political matters he
sometimes, as already mentioned, took his friend's place as Lord
Carlisle's correspondent when political interest was aroused. In the
letter which follows he perceives clearly the future course of the
struggle.