"Fox already shines as greatly in place as he did in opposition, though infinitely more difficult a task," Walpole wrote to Sir Horace Mann on May 5. "He is now as indefatigable as he was idle. He has perfect temper, and not only good humour, but good nature, and, which is the first quality in a Prime Minister of a free country, has more common sense than any man, with amazing parts that are neither ostentatious nor affected." Not all Fox's tact, however, could avert ill-feeling between Shelburne and himself, and this was aggravated by the clashing of the duties of their offices in the matter of the treaty with America, for while the negotiations with the revolted colonies belonged to the department of Home Affairs over which the Earl presided, the arrangement of a peace with the foreign countries with which England was at war came within the province of the Foreign Office! "In addition to the difficulties naturally arising from this division of responsibility, the two Secretaries differed on policy. Fox desired an immediate recognition of American Independence, in the hope of detaching the Americans from the French alliance, and so putting England in a better position for dealing with her enemies; Shelburne agreed with the King that the acknowledgment should be a condition of a joint treaty with France and America, for England would then have a claim to receive some return for it."[215] [215] Hunt: _Political History of England (1760-1801)_. [Illustration: _Photo by Emery Walker._ _From a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds_ WILLIAM PETTY, EARL OF SHELBURNE (AFTERWARDS MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE) _To face p. 189, Vol. II_]