--Electioneering again.

A distinguished man of letters of the present day has called Selwyn
the father confessor of the society of his time: it is a tribute to
his friendliness and good sense, as well as to his good nature and
patience. Without them he could never have been the trusted adviser
of Carlisle in those financial difficulties in which the young
peer's friendship for Charles Fox involved him. It was in 1773 that
the crash came in Fox's affairs. His gambling debts had been
accumulating. The birth of a son to his elder brother--closing, at
any rate for the time, Charles Fox's reversionary interests--caused
his creditors to press their claims. Lord Holland was obliged to
come to the assistance of his son. It is at this moment that the
correspondence which is gathered in the present chapter begins. Lord
Holland had raised a large sum with which to pay off his son's
debts. Selwyn was indignant because it seemed as if creditors less
indulgent than Carlisle would be the first to be paid. So in many
letters he presses upon Carlisle that he must not allow his
friendship for Charles Fox to outweigh the monetary claims which he
had upon him, and in no measured terms he condemns the carelessness
with which Fox regarded his financial obligations to his friend.

The correspondence contained in this chapter commences at the end of
the year 1773, after an apparent break of four years; there is no
doubt, however, that it continued and the letters from Selwyn have
not been preserved. The letters in 1773 begin by referring to the
financial matters to which brief allusion has just been made, and
which formed a subject so full of interest and anxiety for Selwyn.
He has time, however, to give his friend news of the political and
social events of London. The American question was becoming more and