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1776 It could be called a year of unprecedented change. These are some of the significant events for society. The thirteen United Colonies of America adopted the Declaration of Independence and threw off their British allegiance. This brought the war to a new phase. Many British who had hesitated to enforce the right to levy taxes by arms had no hesitation in supporting the right of the crown to insist on obedience by the same means. The Whigs were vehemently against the war though, Charles Fox saw the American resistance as a rightful cry for liberty. "I hope," he wrote, "that it will be a point of honour among us all to support the American pretensions in adversity as much as we did in their prosperity, and that we shall never desert those who have acted unsuccessfully on Whig principles." Lady Sarah Napier, Fox's aunt, had, in her youth, been jilted by the King. She expressed herself forcibly " I am sure I can thank God very sincerely I am not Queen, for in the first place I should have quarrelled with His Majesty long before this, and my head would have been off, probably. But if I had loved and liked him, and not had interest enough to prevent this war, I should certainly go mad, to think a person I loved was the cause of such a shameful war." Much sympathy was felt for the British troops who were involved in the war, for they were believed to detest it as much as did most of the civilian population. Yet, under Lord Howe, they won the battle of Brooklyn and captured New York; and even amongst the Whigs the news was received with a secret satisfaction. They held the war to be a bad war, which should be put a stop to as soon as possible by negotiation; but so long as it continued, well, it was to be hoped that the British troops would be victorious. Drury Lane was filled to overflowing war or no war - troubles and anxieties just seemed to drive more people each month to find distraction at the play. However David Garrick who owned the theatre was getting old and wanted to retire. He sold out to the new and aspiring playwright - author of successful recent plays which included "The Rivals" - Richard Brinsley Sheridan.It was a costly and complicated procedure - costly in that it was some £60,000 - and complicated because there were three partners. But in the end the theatre was purchased On the 10th of June Garrick acted for the last time to a packed house. He took the role of Don Felix in " The Wonder," and the receipts went to a stage charity. The audience were much moved, and Garrick himself was in tears. From the pit rose a voice : " In you, sir, we have lost the Atlas of the stage."-" Well, sir, but I have left you a young Hercules to supply my place," came the reply. The end of the year Charles Fox, to the King's great relief and delight, spent the winter in France, where his enemies trusted that he might drink himself to death or gamble his way into prison. But his friends knew better. Fox was feeling the pulse of politics very carefully, and it was not long before Georgiana, the young Duchess of Devonshire and Lady Melbourne were to be observed shaking their heads and whispering into astonished ears that the French would soon make cause with the Colonists, "and serve us right for abusing them." One night they added a point to their story by telling "how the Marquis de La Fayette had been seen" in the pit at the opera, here in London, "having stopped to see what sort of people we were, and to get what intelligence he could to use against us when he reached America. Few people listened to Georgiana's political speculations. After all, what did women know of politics ? And anyway this constant association with politicians was getting her talked about worse still, written about. Her older friends were indignant. " The scribblers weekly let fly their pop-guns at the Duchess of Devonshire's feathers. Her Grace is innocent, good-humoured and beautiful but these adders are blind and deaf and cannot be charmed." Nor were her feathers the only source of criticism, for she was roundly upbraided for the custom of wearing " figaries" in her dress and even for the hours she kept and customs of her life. " She dines at 7, summer as well as winter, goes to bed at 3 and lies in bed till 4 she has hysteric fits in a morning and dances in the evening she bathes, rides, dances for ten days, and lies in bed the next ten indeed I can't forgive her, or rather her husband, the fault of ruining her health." Lady Melbourne might have been thought to come in for an equal share of opprobrium, but she was older and far more discreet, and her activities met with nothing but praise in the letters of the period. "I hear much of Lady Melbourne I find she is liked by everybody, high and low, and of all denominations, which I don't wonder at, for she is pleasing, sensible and desirous of pleasing, which must secure admiration." It did, and from Lord Egremont it was said to have obtained more than admiration. It is very likely that William Lamb, later the Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, was a result of this admiration.