my apologies, to which I shall beg leave to add how very

sincerely I have the honour to be, my dear sir,
`Your most obedienthumble servant,

`DEBBY.
This is the very model of a dun, and proves how handsomely

such ugly things can be done when one has to deal with a noble
instead of a plebeian creditor.

But Selwyn had not only to endure such indignities, but also to
inflict them, as appears by the following letter to him from the

Honourable General Fitzpatrick, in answer to a dun, which, we are
assured, was `gentle and moderate.'

`I am very sorry to hear the night ended so ill; but to give you
some idea of the utter impossibility of my being useful on the

occasion, I will inform you of the state of my affairs. I won
L400 last night, which was immediately appropriated by Mr

_Martindale_, to whom I still owe L300, and I am in Brookes'
book for thrice that sum. Add to all this, that at Christmas I

expect an inundation of clamorous creditors, who, unless I
somehow or other scrape together some money to satisfy them, will

overwhelm me entirely. What can be done? If I could coin my
heart, or drop my blood into drachms, I would do it, though by

this time I should probably have neither heart nor blood left. I
am afraid. you will find Stephen in the same state of

insolvency. Adieu! I am obliged to you for the gentleness and
moderation of your dun, considering how long I have been your

debtor.
`Yours most sincerely,

`R. F.'[119]
[119] Apud _Selwyn and his Contemporaries_ by Jesse.

Selwyn is said to have been a loser on the whole, and often
pillaged. Latterly he appears to have got the better of his

propensity for play, if we may judge from the following wise
sentiment:--`It was too great a consumer,' he said, `of four

things--time, health, fortune, and thinking.' But a writer in
the _Edinburgh Review_ seems to doubt Selwyn's reformation; for

his initiation of Wilberforce occurred in 1782, when he was 63;
and previously" target="_blank" title="ad.预先；以前">previously, in 1776, he underwent the process of dunning from

Lord Derby, before-mentioned, and in 1779 from Mr Crawford (`Fish
Crawford,' as he was called), each of whom, like Mr Shafto, `had

a sum to make up'--in the infernal style so horridly provoking,
even when we are able and willing to pay. However, as Selwyn

died comparatively" target="_blank" title="ad.比较地；比较上">comparatively rich, it may be presumed that his fortune
suffered to no great extent by his indulgence in the vice of

gaming.
The following are some of George Selwyn's jokes relating to

gambling:--
One night, at White's, observing the Postmaster-General, Sir

Everard Fawkener, losing a large sum of money at Piquet, Selwyn,
pointing to the successful player, remarked--`See now, he is

robbing the _MAIL!_'
On another occasion, in 1756, observing Mr Ponsonby, the Speaker

of the Irish House of Commons, tossing about bank-bills at a
Hazard table at Newmarket--`Look,' he said, `how easily the

Speaker passes the money-bills!'
A few months afterwards (when the public journals were daily

containing an account of some fresh town which had conferred the
freedom of its corporation in a gold box on Mr Pitt, afterwards

Earl of Chatham, and the Right Honourable Henry Bilson Legge, his
fellow-patriot and colleague), Selwyn, who neither admired their

politics nor respected their principles, proposed to the old and
new club at Arthur's, that he should be deputed to present to

them the freedom of each club in a _dice-box_.
On one of the waiters at Arthur's club having been committed

to prison for a felony--`What a horrid idea,' said Selwyn, `he
will give of us to the people in Newgate!'

When the affairs of Charles Fox were in a more than usually
embarrassed state, chiefly through his gambling, his friends

raised a subscription among themselves for his relief. One of
them remarking that it would require some delicacy in breaking

the matter to him, and adding that `he wondered how Fox would
take it.' `Take it?' interrupted Selwyn, `why, _QUARTERLY_, to

be sure.'[120]
[120] Jesse, _George Selwyn and his Contemporaries._

LORD CARLISLE.
This eminentstatesman was regarded by his contemporaries as an

able, an influential, and occasionally a powerful speaker.
Though married to a lady for whom in his letters he ever

expresses the warmest feelings of admiration and esteem; and
surrounded by a young and increasing family, who were evidently

the objects of his deepest affection, Lord Carlisle,
nevertheless, at times appears to have been unable to extricate

himself from the dangerous enticements to play to which he
was exposed. His fatal passion for play--the source of

adventitious excitement at night, and of deep distress in the
morning--seems to have led to frequent and inconvenient losses,

and eventually to have plunged him into comparativedistress.
`In recording these failings of a man of otherwise strong sense,

of a high sense of honour, and of kindly affections, we have said
the worst that can be adduced to his disadvantage. Attached,

indeed, as Lord Carlisle may have been to the pleasures of
society, and unfortunate as may have been his passion for the

gaming table, it is difficult to peruse those passages in his
letters in which he deeply reproaches himself for yielding to the

fatal fascination of play, and accuses himself of having
diminished the inheritance of his children, without a feeling of

commiseration for the sensations of a man of strong sense and
deep feeling, while reflecting on his moral degradation. It is

sufficient, however, to observe of Lord Carlisle, that the deep
sense which he entertained of his own folly; the almost maddening

moments to which he refers in his letters of self-condemnation
and bitter regret; and subsequently his noble victory over the

siren enticements of pleasure, and his thorough emancipation
from the trammels of a domineering passion, make adequate amends

for his previousunhappy career.'[121]
[121] Jesse, _George Selwyn and his Contemporaries_, ii.

Brave conquerors, for so ye are,
Who war against your own affections,

And the huge army of the world's desires.
Lady Sarah Bunbury, writing to George Selwyn, in 1767, says:--`If

you are now at Paris with poor C. [evidently Carlisle], who I
dare say is now swearing at the French people, give my

compliments to him. I call him poor C. because I hope he is
only miserable at having been such a _PIGEON_ to Colonel Scott.

I never can pity him for losing at play, and I think of it as
little as I can, because I cannot bear to be obliged to abate the

least of the good opinion I have always had of him.'
Oddly enough the writer had no better account to give of her own

husband; she says, in the letter:--`Sir Charles games from
morning till night, but he has never yet lost L100 in one

day.'[122]
[122] This Lady Sarah Bunbury was the wife of Sir Charles

Bunbury, after having had a chance of being Queen of England, as
the wife of George III., who was passionately in love with her,

and would have married her had it not been for the constitutional
opposition of his privy council. This charming and beautiful

woman died in 1826, at the age of 82. She was probably the last
surviving great-granddaughter of Charles II.--Jesse, _Ubi supra_.

About the year 1776 Lord Carlisle wrote the following letter
to George Selwyn:--

`MY DEAR GEORGE,
`I have undone myself, and it is to no purpose to conceal

from you my abominablemadness and folly, though perhaps the
particulars may not be known to the rest of the world. I never

lost so much in five times as I have done to-night, and am in