Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/50

28 language, or copious declamation. In politics he pursued his game with the eagerness of a fox-chase and the wantonness of a schoolboy, and to the last could receive no entertainment at Stowe, but from a pamphlet, newspaper, or a plan upon the table. He was never remarkable for the tender passion, though his youth had not been averse to gallantry and his old age delighted in playing with young women, but he always considered it as an amusement, not a serious occupation. His Countess, who had many amiable qualities (not the least of which in his opinion was the great fortune she brought him), had not the advantage of person when young, and had been long an object of disgust. He always treated her opinions with more impatience and contempt than she deserved, and did not seem to find the least resource in her conversation. Yet when she died he was inconsolable. His health manifestly declined daily, and all his gaiety forsook him. Was it a tender recollection of the constant devotion she had always shewn him, or the feeling himself abandoned by the last old friend that remained to him, or the presentiment of his approaching end which so many recent warnings could not but bring forward to his own feelings, or was it perhaps to all these complicated sentiments together that we are to attribute the effect?"

The death of Chatham for the time secured North in power, and the tendencies of the Ministry were clearly indicated by the appointment of Jenkinson,once the Secretary of Bute and since the leader of the party known as the "King's Friends" in the House of Commons, to the post of Secretary at War in succession to Lord Barrington on December the 16th, 1778. The followers of Shelburne were not strong enough to form a government by themselves, and refused to coalesce with the Ministers. The followers of Rockingham were committed to the independence of America, and were unwilling to join the other section of the Whig party. "I am ready and desirous to