[209] _George Selwyn: His Life and His Letters._ [210] _Ibid._ Fox's attitude was certainly not conciliatory, if reliance may be placed on George Selwyn, who was certain to exaggerate unamiable traits in the conduct of the statesman. "He (Fox) spoke of all coming to a final issue now within a very short space of time," Selwyn wrote on March 19, 1782; "he talked of the King under the description of Satan, a comparison which he seems fond of, and has used to others; so he is _sans ménagement de paroles_. It is the _bon vainqueur et despotique_; he has adopted all the supremacy he pretended to dread in his Majesty." And Fox apparently was not the only member of the party excited by the prospect of power. "I stayed at Brookes's this morning till between two and three," wrote the same correspondent two days later, "and then Charles was giving audiences in every corner of the room, and that idiot Lord Derby[211] telling aloud whom he should turn out, how civil he intended to be to the Prince and how rude to the King."[212] [211] Edward, twelfth Earl of Derby (1752-1834). [212] _George Selwyn: His Life and His Letters._ [Illustration: _Keppel The King Richmond Shelburne Fox_ _From a caricature published in 1782_ THE CAPTIVE PRINCE, OR, LIBERTY GONE MAD _To face p. 186, Vol II_] The King, faithful to the underhand methods that he had so often employed with success, at once attempted to sow the seeds of dissension in the cabinet; but in truth this was unnecessary, for, with five Rockinghamites, five Shelburnites and Thurlow, the King's nominee, comprising that body, "every man saw that such a cabinet was formed for contention, and that it could not long hold together."[213] George deliberately showed his aversion to the Prime Minister, by withholding from him his confidence; and, indeed, he could not forgive him for passing a measure for "an effectual plan of economy throughout the branches of public expenditure," the avowed object of which was to "circumscribe the unconstitutional power of the Crown"; that is to say, the number of sinecures at the sovereign's disposal was effectively diminished, the amount of secret service money was reduced, and only those could hold patent places in the colonies who would live there. Burke was responsible for this Bill, which deprived King and ministers of many sources of patronage and compelled them to fall back on peerages as rewards for services. "I fear," said Burke, referring to the subsequent lavish bestowal of peerages, "that I am partly accountable for so disproportionate an increase of honours, by having deprived the Crown and the minister of so many other sources of recompense or reward, which were extinguished by my Bill of Reform."[214] [213] Prior: _Life of Burke_. [214] Prior: _Life of Burke_. [Illustration: _From a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds_ EDMUND BURKE _To face p. 187, Vol. II_]