Mrs Crewe, as before related.

(123) George Selwyn and his Contemporaries, ii.

(124) By Grace and Philip Wharton.

'Of his talents, which were certainly great, he made an affected
display. Of his learning he was proud--but rather as adding lustre
to his celebrity for universal tastes. He was not at all ashamed, but
rather gloried in being able to describe himself as a fool, as he does
in his verses to Mrs Crewe:--

"Is't reason? No; that my whole life will belie; For, who so at variance
as reason and I? Is't ambition that fills up each chink in my heart, Nor
allows any softer sensation a part? Oh! no; for in this all the world
must agree, _ONE FOLLY WAS NEVER SUFFICIENT FOR ME_."

'Sensual and self-indulgent--with a grossness that is even patent on his
very portrait (and bust), Fox had nevertheless a manner which enchanted
the sex, and he was the only politician of the day who thoroughly
enlisted the personal sympathies of women of mind and character, as well
as of those who might be captivated by his profusion. When he visited
Paris in later days, even Madame Recamier, noted for her refinement, and
of whom he himself said, with his usual coarse ideas of the sphere
of woman, that "she was the only woman who united the attractions of
pleasure to those of modesty," delighted to be seen with him! At the
time of which we are speaking the most celebrated beauties of England
were his most ardent supporters.

'The election of 1784, in which he stood and was returned for
Westminster, was one of the most famous of the old riotous political
demonstrations..... Loving _hazard_ of all kinds for its own sake,
Fox had made party hostility a new sphere of gambling, had adopted the
character of a demagogue, and at a time when the whole of Europe was
undergoing, a great revolution in principles, was welcomed gladly as
"The Man of the People." In the beginning, of the year he had been
convicted of bribery, but in spite of this his popularity increased....
The election for Westminster, in which Fox was opposed by Sir Cecil
Wray, was the most tempestuous of all. There were 20,000 votes to be
polled, and the opposing parties resorted to any means of intimidation,
or violence, or persuasion which political enthusiasm could suggest. On
the eighth day the poll was against the popular member, and he called
upon his friends to make a great effort on his behalf. It was then that
the "ladies' canvass" began. Lady Duncannon, the Duches