Notice was promptly given of a renewal of the struggle on March 20th, but when that day arrived Lord North came down to the House of Commons and announced the resignation of the Government.  It was one of the momentous declarations in English history.  It virtually proclaimed the independence of the American colonies and the beginning of a new epoch of ministerial responsibility to the House of Commons.  Among the frequenters of St. James’s Street the first thought was how would their own political fortunes be affected.  Fox’s declaration that an end had come to a political system was received with incredulity.  To Selwyn it was a time at once of annoyance and interest.  He feared for his sinecure offices; he had, as has been already pointed out, grown accustomed, like many others, to the Administration of the King and Lord North.  He had no personal liking for the fallen Minister, and he had watched the career of Fox from boyhood with mingled admiration and disgust.  He could not realise him as a Minister.

(1782,) March 6, Wednesday morning.—­I told you, in my letter of Monday, that I should Write to you yesterday, and so I should have done, if there had anything come to my knowledge more than what you see in all the public papers, and which must be of equal date with my letter.

What conversation I have with the people at Brooks’s or White’s upon these matters is really not worth putting down.  Those who are out, and wanting the places of those who are in, either for themselves or for their friends, talk a language which has much more of phrensy in it than common sense, which, in the most rational and the best tempered, seems as much out of sight, as the spirit of the Constitution itself.

You will laugh at my mentioning that, because you will not conceive that I understand it; perhaps I do not, but I perfectly remember how (I) have heard and read it described to be, and it is as different from what our present Patriots or Whigs represent it, as the Government of the Grand Senior (Signer).

Poor Fitz(willia)m, whom I really love on many accounts, held me in conversation last night, his brother only being present.  I do not know if he was in earnest, but I suppose that he was.  He had worked himself up to commiserate the state of this country, nay, that of the King himself, [so] that I expected every instant that his heart would have burst; but to speak more to my passions, he lamented, in the terms the most attendrissants, your situation, and how much your pride, and feelings of every kind, must be hurt, and that for no estate upon earth he would be in your perilous state.

I begged for a little light, and to know if there was a possibility of salvation in any position in which our affairs could be placed.  He asked me then with the utmost impetuosity, what objection I had to Lord Rockfingham(210) being sent for.  You may be pretty sure that if I had any, I should not have made it.  I contented myself with asking how he intended to begin his operations, to which I was answered in two Latin words, de nova.