The first seven on the list formed the Cabinet.
The Duke of Dorset replaced the Duke of Manchester as Ambassador at Paris, and Daniel Hailes succeeded Anthony Storer as Secretary to the Legation.
Lord Temple, the "stormy petrel" of politics, accepted office as Secretary for the Foreign Department on December 19, but resigned on December 22.
[78] The Hon. George Augustus North (afterwards Lord Guilford) and Lord Lewisham were two of the seven commissioners named in Fox's India Bill.
[79] This letter, as printed here, was written by Edward Gibbon to his stepmother; a similar letter, in which some of the same phrases are repeated, is printed in Lord Sheffield's edition of Gibbon's Miscellaneous Writings (vol. ii. pp. 340-344), addressed to his aunt, Miss Catherine Porten.
[80] His aunt, Miss Porten, and his stepmother.
[81] His aunt, Miss Hester Gibbon.
[82] William Woodfall, formerly assistant editor of the Public Advertiser, was at this time editor of the Morning Chronicle. He was called "Memory Woodfall" from his accuracy in remembering the speeches in Parliament, of which no notes were then allowed to be taken. He was, it is said (Auckland Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 165), for many years paid £400 a year, "for giving the speeches of Mr. Fox and Mr. Sheridan much more at length and better than he did those of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas." He was afterwards editor of a paper called The Diary, which failed. He died in 1803. His brother, Henry Woodfall, published the Letters of Junius.
[83] The fall of the Coalition. See note to Letter 487.
[84] The long delay in accepting the Coalition Cabinet. See note to Letter 487.