d’esprit, insigne vaurien.’ He belied the prediction, as he was an
excellent man in private life. His early passion for poetry, especially
dramatic, disposed the judicious _procureur_, under whom he was
placed to study the law, to encourage his natural taste in cultivating
the Muses, instead of drudging through a mass of black-lettered folios.
His first piece was tolerably received, tho’ ‘le caustique Despréaux’
said it was the work of ‘Racine ivre.’ Sarcastic as he intended the
observation, it was flattering to a young author to have his name
in any way coupled with that of the harmonious Racine. Many years
afterwards he presented a tragedy to the theatre; it was objected to,
as being too harsh and not suited to the public taste, and they advised
him to adopt the style of Voltaire, which pleased everyone. He said,
‘Monsr. de Voltaire travaille en or moulu, et moi je jette en bronze.’
_Rhadamiste_ is one, if not quite the best of his tragedies, tho’
it is rugged in its versification, and turgid in expressions. The
famous lines,

    La Nature, marâtre en ces affreux climats,
    Ne produit, au lieu d’or, que du fer des soldats,

are very fine, and have been happily imitated by Goldsmith in his
_Traveller_ on Switzerland,

    No product here the barren hills afford
    But man and steel--the soldier and his sword.

On Sunday Marsh came. He intends staying a few days only. He is one of
the most excellent men I know, and one towards whom I feel the most
sincere friendship. The extreme simplicity of his character is very
delightful. With a very good understanding and great information he
is as unassuming as the most modest youth could be; but he has some
violent prejudices that are very diverting. They are chiefly owing to
the French Revolution. He has so great a dread of _French principles_
that he condemns everything that his ardent imagination can torture
into a tendency towards them. His fancy is so good-humoured that it is
more a scene of mirth than disputation when he gets upon the subject
of politics. Yesterday the Bessbro’s dined here, Ld. Boringdon, and G.
Leveson; Beauclerk came in ye evening and slept.

[Sidenote: MR. CANNING]

The Ministerialists praise Canning’s speech in reply to Tierney’s
motion[236] to the skies, but it is the fault of friends to overrate,
for as La Harpe says somewhere, ‘On affaiblit toujours tout ce qu’on
exagère.’ Canning is very lively, writes pretty verses, and has a good
deal of _local wit_, but I should suspect upon grave subjects
which require depth and argument he is a _très petit monsieur_.
The Opposition, who have not forgiven his desertion of them, exclaim at
the venality of his politics.[237] I think they are unjust in accusing
him of desertion, and he was wrong in point of judging the thing for
his own reputation to make a bargain so soon. It was hard upon him that
he was intimately connected with Sheridan, who chose to announce him to
the world as his _élève_ in politics, and as a confirmation of his
principles, repeated strong expressions and youthful sallies of his,
saying that he should be pledged to Opposition before he was well of an
age maturely to decide. Principle, I believe, did not sway him much.
He found the party in a desperate, languishing state, himself full
of ambition and life, and that in that party he must have contented
himself with a very subaltern post; whereas the reputation that
Sheridan, in his over-zeal, had anticipated for him made him an object
worth getting to the others. He is, in his heart, the veriest Jacobin
there is, and would, if he were not in power, manifest his principles
in a most dangerous, innovating Opposition. He abhors titles, and the
aristocracy of hereditary nobility; the lowness of his own extraction
first made him envy, then wish to destroy, those whom chance has raised
above him. The worst part of his character is his love of intrigue and
management. He has made a little detached party out of the great party,
that peculiarly belong to him. Over them he exerts an almost despotic
sway, not only in their votes, but their opinions and conduct in the
minutest concerns, such as who they must see and live with.

In this little set there is a want of wit, and as the topics are
generally allusions to old jokes and practical witticisms that have
occurred among themselves, they are quite unintelligible in mixed
societies, where, unless the catch-word is known, two-thirds of the
company must see them laugh without feeling the smallest tendency to
share in their mirth. The Ellis’, Frere, Mr. Legge, Sneyd, Mr. Sturges,
Ld. G. Leveson, and a few others, complete the select squad. Ld.
Morpeth is of it also, but he wisely chooses to conduct himself without
being interfered with, so he is not quite one of ye Elect.

Charles Ellis’[238] marriage was a blow upon his power; he ventured
not only to fall in love, but to make his proposals without a previous
consultation with the young Cato, the authority of whose little senate
was infringed upon by such an overt act. There were fifty little
ridiculous circumstances about that marriage that made one laugh at
the time. The ceremony was absurdly pompous; carriages full of her
relations accompanied them to the church. As soon as the ceremony was
finished, the bride, who had, according to etiquette, been crying all
the time, was kissed round by the family to be wished joy. Ld. ----
went up and consoled her, saying ‘Do not be frightened any longer,
for now _all_ is over,’ upon which the jokers say Ly. ---- burst
out into a flood of tears, recollecting but too well that _all_
finished there with her, for Ld. ---- has two projects, equally
impracticable, that of marching at the head of a victorious army to
Paris, and the other equally desperate, that of obtaining a son. It is
a bold undertaking in C. Ellis to marry a Hervey, for they still keep
up their strangeness of character that made a celebrated wit class
mankind under the generic appellation of _men_, _women_, and
_Herveys_.

[Sidenote: LORD BRISTOL]

That abominable, wicked old fellow, Lord Bristol, is still kept
prisoner at Milan.[239] I believe, even in his confinement, he has
contrived to make some miserable. He bribed his guards to let him
escape, and when the moment was ripe for flight, he was unable to
move, and several who were involved in his scheme were instantly shot
upon being detected. He is very clever and full of quickness and wit,
and his reply to Voltaire was not bad. He went to see him at Ferney.
Voltaire, who did not know his profligacy, and could not let the
opportunity go by of saying something distressing to an ecclesiastic,
stood upon his _perron_, and, pointing to a theatre on one side,
and to a temple dedicated to God on ye other side, said: ‘Où joue
t’on la plus grande farce?’ ‘C’est selon les auteurs,’ replied ye
Bishop. He called old, shrivelled Sr. Wm. Hamilton a piece of walking
_verd-antique_.

_31st Jan., ’99._--At half-past seven on Friday morning, ye 18th
January, I was safely delivered of a nice little boy, who is going
on perfectly well. Mr. Croft attended me. He had passed 4 nights and
days in the house previous to the crash. Mrs. W. stayed, too, but was
obliged to go to her eldest child, who was ill. I was sufficiently
recovered by Sunday to receive company, and have every day since seen
all who have called.

Ld. H. is this day gone down to attend the H. of Lds. If Ld. Grenville
brings on the discussion of ye Union, he will speak.[240] Probably the
last proceedings in ye Irish Parlt. will deter Pitt from pressing the
measure here, altho’ it is one he pledged himself to most irrevocably,
and one he is strongly attached to from motives of ambition and vanity.
I shall say but little on ye subject, as it has so frequently worn out
my patience lately.

The conquest of lovely Naples is added to the proud list of Republican
triumphs. The Court have fled to Sicily on board of Nelson’s fleet. The
happy States of Tuscany will soon fall, and all Italy pass under the
despotic thraldom of the Directory.

[Sidenote: SHERIDAN AND TIERNEY]

Sheridan was expected to have made a capital speech in the H. of
Commons on the Union last week, but it was reckoned very inferior to
his usual style of excellence. He offended the seceders by announcing
that the standard of Opposition would soon be unfurled.[241] He
introduced it at the conclusion of an attack upon Ld. L., who had, he
said, ‘cut a clumsy caper over the grave of party.’ (In his speech at
the beginning of the session, he said, ‘Thank God, party is dead and
buried.’) He pursued a strain of irony, apparently levelled at Ld.
L., but, in fact, intended for Tierney, who had, in a late speech,
declared that he considered himself as an individual belonging to no
set of men. Sheridan said, he did not wonder party was denied, for it
required strong intellect to command, and great virtues to attach for a
man to become the leader of party, and great humility and sense to fall
as a subaltern into the ranks of party. Sheridan hates Tierney. That
hatred was roused at T.’s making a most excellent speech on ye Income
Bill. It was so good that everybody praised it. S. was at Brooks’s,
and was so incensed at the applause that he went to Tierney’s house,
whom he found just getting into bed, insisted upon seeing him, and then
said he was quite shocked to hear that a part of his speech had given
great offence, that part where he hinted at the necessity of squeezing
the corporations, who were ‘wallowing in wealth.’ This was said to
worry Tierney, who is weakly alive to all unpopularity. T. told me this
himself.

Ld. Lansdown is just returned from Bath. He was full of what Miss Fox
calls _effusion_ to Ld. H., who had said that he regretted the
probability of their voting against each other upon the subject of the
Union. ‘Never mind,’ said Ld. L., ‘vote, speak against me, abuse me. Do
what you will. I should say, this is what I can’t hear, I can’t see;
I won’t see it. You are like my sons who can’t offend me, for I won’t
quarrel with them.’ In short, he was all tenderness and warmth.

Sheridan offended the Prince extremely in his last speech. I do not
know precisely what he said, but it was a quotation from Secretary
Cooke’s pamphlet. He certainly intended it as complimentary, but
it was not probably faithfully reported by P. Ernest to ye Prince,
and before S. could tell his own story, the Prince, with his usual
intemperance and violence, abused him, calling him ‘rogue, liar,’
etc. This _mal-entendu_ will vex S. beyond measure, for he has
ever since the Regency courted the P., and anticipated in imagination
much influence in a future reign; besides that he has wished to be
considered as being as much the organ of the P. in the H. of Commons
as Ld. Moira is in the House of Lords. I have malignity enough in my
disposition not to feel much sympathy for his afflictions. He has
afflicted so much real distress upon others, and one being dear to
me, that I have not a spark of compassion to bestow. His defenders
(and their number is but slender) say that all his bad conduct has
proceeded from his struggling against the meanness of his origin and
the littleness of his means. He attempted to efface the first by
distinguishing himself, not only in the career of wit and politics, but
also in that of gallantry and fashion; for such was his lust of praise
that:--

    Women and fools must like him or he dies;
    The wond’ring Senates hung on all he spoke,
    The Club must hail him Master of the Joke.

    Enough if all around him but admire.

I shall note down a few anecdotes about him by-and-bye.

[Sidenote: ‘PRODIGY’ POLLEN]

Ld. H. met at Sheridan’s, one day lately, Mr. Pollen, the man who
dreaded invasion for the sake of the chastity of the ladies: he
had never seen him before. Ld. H. was telling a story to prove the
openness of the Irish character, and how little suspicious they were
of trusting their lives to a person of tolerable character. The story
was told him by Ld. Wycombe as having happened to an acquaintance of
his--a Mr. Henry. A man arrested him in the streets, and, without much
prefatory discourse asked him if he would be of the _Executive_,
adding, he was a United Irishman, and was delegated by those sitting in
Dublin to ask him. Upon which Mr. Pollen immediately said: ‘The same
thing precisely occurred to me at Perth. A United Scotsman proposed
the same question, altho’ I was in my regimentals, and he knew I was
quartered with my regiment.’ The coincidence was remarkable, but tho’
Scotsmen are more wary than Irishmen, yet it was possible there might
be an indiscreet Scot. They then talked of poor Ld. Lauderdale, who
is dreadfully ill. His complaint is a horrid one, a local dropsy,
which he will not submit to have properly treated, upon which Mr.
P. said, ‘There are two modes of treating the disease: there is the
palliative and the radical. I first tried the palliative, but it
was troublesome, and ever since I used the radical I have felt no
inconvenience.’ Ld. H. said he began to stare at two such extraordinary
things having been mentioned, and that both should have happened to
him. He is not above 25 or 26, and that disorder is generally in old,
worn-out constitutions, and, if one may judge from Gibbon’s averseness
to mention the complaint, is not one that men are apt to boast of
having.... Ld. H. was all astonishment at these stories, but upon
inquiry he found Mr. Pollen’s nickname was ‘Prodigy’ Pollen.

_Wednesday, 13th. Feb._--On Sunday, ye 10th, Mr. Hare[242] came to
pass a few days. On Wednesday Bor. and Amherst dined. On last Sunday
Hare returned. Grey and Tierney dined. Miss Fox stayed from Saturday to
Monday.

Hare was full of wit and pleasantry. I was expressing surprise that a
man so universally extolled for his conversation and talents should
not, to my taste, be pleasant, for the fact is, I never received the
smallest entertainment from Sheridan’s convivial abilities. Hare said
what is true enough, that before women he is always playing a game.
His forte is at a club over wine, and in debate. Among many things he
told us of a reply of S., in debate, to Dundas, who had asserted a
falsehood for a fact, and supported it by some well-known trite joke.
S. complimented the honble. gentleman upon his abilities, especially
upon possessing to a remarkable degree a _retentive memory_ and
_fertile imagination_, but that those faculties unfortunately
were perverted, as his memory was directed to works of imagination,
and his imagination to facts. S. himself, however, is less tenacious
about facts than he ought to be. There is a story of his offering
some stories to Mr. Fox, to assist him in argument, but the latter,
who is very strict as to what he asserts, asked if they were well
authenticated, and, finding they depended upon report, declined using
them; upon which S. said, ‘He is so d----d _surly about facts_.’

S. was to have dined here on Sunday, but did not; probably to avoid
meeting Tierney and Grey, as he hates the former, and is displeased at
not being supported by the latter. His motion very nearly failed, as
nobody seconded it for full 10 minutes, and then an obscure man jumped
up and did it. All their squabbles are diverting, for as to any good
they can do, it is a farce to suppose any can be done. This Union,
they say, is to be carried at all risks. Ld. H. is gone this morning
to arrange with Ld. Fitzwilliam, but the subject is so tiresome, and
I have heard so much of it, that I cannot enter into the merits or
demerits of the case.

[Sidenote: LEWIS’ VERSES]

The ‘Monk’ Lewis consulted me whether he should dedicate his
translation of the 13th Satire of Juvenal to Mr. Fox. I said he would
take it as a compliment. It was published yesterday, but is not so good
as most of his other verses; 28 of the best lines are by Wm. Lamb,[243]
a rising genius, who is to dine here for the first time to-day. Those
imitations of Juvenal[244] by Ld. H. crept into the newspapers. I
was extremely frightened and got Mr. Hare, Tierney, etc., to exert
themselves to get the remainder suppressed, as I really feared Ld.
Minto’s being wrong-headed.

_24th Feb._--I have contented myself with skimming carelessly
enough over Lewis’ paraphrase. The undertaking seems above his means,
and was done, as I understand, at the request of his father, who
was anxious that he should give a classical turn to his literary
reputation, as he laments his ballad and green-room tastes. Several of
the lines are wofully bad:--

    From morn’s first languish to the death of day,--

but enough of what I have really found too dull to read through.

I thought young Lamb pleasant, though supercilious, as he shut himself
up in his own thoughts as soon as he saw Ld. G., Morpeth, Boringdon. He
affects to hold them cheap for being Anti-Jacobins, an affectation he
has caught from ye D. of Bedford. On the following Sunday we had many
of the same party, with ye addition of the Bessboroughs, Canning, and
Frere. Wycombe, being present, annoyed Canning, and put him out of his
natural bias of ease and pleasantry. In the course of this week we had
several numerous parties of the Bessboroughs, Fish Crawfurd,[245] etc.,
etc., Hare, Fitzpatrick.

_Sunday, 3rd March._--Jekyll, Hare, Tierney, and Fitzpatrick are
now in the house. They dined here. The latter has lost such a great
portion of his ill-gotten pelf in the same way as he acquired it, viz.,
at the gaming-table. There is no one poison in the human breast that
operates so powerfully to the exclusion of every good feeling, as that
of gambling. It produces misanthropy, meanness, and avarice, and I do
not know a real amateur and practitioner of the vice in favour of whom
an exception can be made. Hare has genuine, quick feelings, and his
sensibility has not been totally blunted; but I can hardly admit as an
apology for his inveterate pursuit of fortune at the Hazard table his
necessities. But I am perhaps illiberally intolerant; the example in
Ld. H.’s family, and the scandalous expedients a certain Duchess has,
to my knowledge, been able to bring herself to resort to, have inspired
me with horror and contempt for the class.

The news arrived to-day of Mr. Grenville’s safety.[246] The frigate
is lost, and 15 persons, but he and his suite got over the ice. As no
mails are come (14 now are due), the particulars are not known. It
will be highly gratifying when he hears how universal and sincere the
sorrow has been.

[Sidenote: LORD LAUDERDALE]

_5th March,’99._--Mr. Fox is come here to-day to dine at the Whig
Club; he returns to sleep. Ld. Lauderdale is so much better that he
walks about. He told the D. of Bedford that, being kept awake one night
from pain, he diverted himself by composing a speech and a _reply_
for him upon the Union. ‘I can understand,’ said the Duke, ‘that you
may write a man’s speech for him, but how you can make a reply which
must notice points in the debate I cannot guess.’ ‘Why, the speech I
intend you shall make is calculated to put old Grenville into a rage;
he will get up and abuse you, and lug in France, French principles,
localities, and all the old story. Then you must answer him, and begin
by an apology to the House for the long speech you have been the
occasion of their hearing, as you know it must be very disagreeable
to the House; but that, for yourself, it is of no consequence, as you
are used to _noise_, for in your agricultural pursuits you are
accustomed to the _bellowing of beasts_.’ This is what Ld. L.
calls excellent raillery, and I only note it down as a specimen of
his talents in that line; no one so excellent as he is at a coarse
joke, but polished wit he not only cannot furnish, but is incapable of
relishing. Sheridan said, ‘Don’t tell Lauderdale, for a _joke_ in
his mouth is no _laughing matter_.’

_10th._--Mr. Fox dined at the Whig Club; in the speech he made
he did not supply materials for fresh attacks. We sat up very late
with him; his conversation is always instructive and entertaining. He
shuns politics as much as I could wish. Criticism, literature, and
observations upon character are ye chief topics. It is astonishing
what a storehouse of knowledge his mind is of every sort, from a fairy
tale up to a system of philosophy. A novel was mentioned, upon which
he launched forth upon a discussion on the different merits of the
novelists, in which he displayed as great a range of reading as a miss
who reads from a circulating library could do. He knows, in short,
every production of the sort that has appeared. He professed liking
fairy tales, romances, novels, etc. The only sort he admitted were
dull are the old French ones of Mlle. Scudéri--_Le Grand Cyrus_,
etc.--tho’ he made a few exceptions, especially for ye _Princesse de
Cleves_,[247] as well he might, for that is very pretty. He set off
early the next morning. Mrs. Armstead disapproves of his absence being
extended beyond the time she fixes.

On the 6th we dined at Lansdown House. Ld. L. received me with
cordiality. _I_ hope his terrors of my _machinations_ are
dissipated. Ld. Wycombe is gone to Ireland. Thursday.--Dined with
Mrs. Wyndham. Friday.--Lds. Bor. and Digby, Mr. Adderley and General
Fitzpatrick dined. Saturday.--Mrs. W.

Ld. and Ly. Macartney called this morn. It is the first time I have
seen him since his return from the Cape. He looks well, tho’ he
says he is _confiscated_. The climate of the Cape, he says, is
unfavourable to a gouty habit. He told me the people at the Cape
look upon Vaillant[248] as a vagrant, lying sort of a gentleman, who
undertook to describe places he never saw, and boast of friends he
never had: his secretary is going to publish his travels, and has
annexed an accurate map he made himself to the work.

[Sidenote: LORD MACARTNEY]

Ld. M. is remarkable for a retentive memory. He remembers the minutest
circumstance, tho’ I half-suspect he plays tricks, and frequently makes
his recollection dwell upon strange objects, that as you find he
remembers them, you may give him credit for knowing the commonest. When
he went Minister to Russia, Mr. Grenville, in giving him instructions
upon commercial arrangements, advised him to take the Navigation Act,
as it might be of service to him. ‘To avoid encumbering myself, as I
knew its use, _I have learnt it by heart_,’ and true it was he
could say every tittle. Louis XVIII. is remarkable for a strong memory;
when Ld. M. went to Verona, somebody said, ‘Ah! quels assauts de
mémoire il y aura entre eux.’

_14th March._--Sunday. Dumont[249] came and slept. He has all the
good, and none of the bad qualities of a _Génevois_. A sarcastic
person might ask, ‘What are the good qualities of a _Génevois_?’
To be candid, I protest I know of none but their enthusiastic
admiration of Rousseau, and when I made that _éloge_ of Dumont by
giving them to him, I meant in truth to say he was a Frenchman; for
all the _agréments_ I bestow on him are the due of an amiable,
enlightened, polished _homme de lettres_ of Paris.

Tuesday, we dined with Mrs. W. and went to the play: I found Lewis in
my box. Mrs. W. in her quaint manner asked him, ‘How he could have
such a horrid imagination with such a comical face?’ Thursday, Dr.
Ash and Mr. Moore dined here. To-day, the weather has been horrible,
and we have not seen a soul, but have stayed snugly alone at home. I
read two acts of Buonarotti’s _Tancia_. It is very difficult,
and to a foreigner has no merit but simplicity and poetry. Its wit
and truth are lost where the language and allusions are unknown, and
the names ideal; for the _vera lingua Fiorentina_, as spoken
by the peasants, is a distinct idiom from the common Italian, and
the proverbs are local, nor is it possible for a foreigner resident
in the country to obtain so exact a notion of the rustic manners of
the _contadini_, as to be able to judge of the justness of the
picture. I have been reading several of Hurd’s[250] _Dialogues_;
his style is frigid, and, though correct, insipid. It was of him and
Warburton that Dr. Parr said, ‘_He_ has blundered into sublimity;
_you_ have refined into littleness.’

_22nd March._--On Friday, 15th, we had an uncommonly pleasant
party--Mrs. W., Lds. Mor., Bor., Thanet, General Fitz., Lord Robert,
Mr. Hare, and (by chance) little Lewis.

_25th March,’99._--On Sunday, 17th, Ld. H. dined with Mr. Francis.
Mr. Marsh and Hamilton[251] dined here with me. At Francis’s they drank
a good deal of wine. The joke was to exhaust his cellar. It succeeded,
much to the mirth of Ld. Thanet, who is the promoter of all fun and
mischief. On Monday Ld. Bor., Misses Fox and Vernon came to sleep, and
some others.

[Sidenote: DEBATE ON THE UNION]

On Tuesday the House of Lds.; Miss Fox and I dined at home with Hodges
only. Ld. H. and Marsh went to the H. of Lds. The debate was upon the
Union. It was conducted, as Ld. Carlisle said, in a very gentlemanlike
manner, which in plainer language means dully. Ld. L. spoke. The tenor
of his speech was ambiguous, and none could judge how he would have
voted had the question come to a division. He deprecated the principle
of confiscation, and urged strongly the injustice of the Fitzgerald
Attainder Bill. He illustrated his argument by several political
cases, one of which the world say he intended for his own situation;
but he certainly did not. He said any of their Lordships might be
cursed with a Republican son, and by this system of confiscation their
grandchildren would be beggars. Ld. H. spoke, but out of good nature he
let the others speak before him, so that he was obliged to curtail his
arguments on account of the lateness of the hour. We did not get to bed
until 6 o’clock.

The next day we dined at Mr. Crawfurd’s. He had all our own friends
to meet us, Ld. and Ly. B., Mr. Canning, Ld. Mor., Bor., Amherst,
Ossory, and M. de Calonne.[252] The dinner was pleasant and cheerful;
the Fish said something slighting of Ld. Fitzwilliam,[253] which made
Ld. Bessborough redden, and Canning in his flippant way took it up,
but _à force_ of winks, shrugs, and nods, we made them shift the
subject. ’ Canning had on that day left the Foreign Department for
a sinecure under Dundas in the Board of Control. I called on Ld. L.
for five minutes, then went to ye Dss. of Leinster, and afterwards
supped at Ld. Bessborough’s. On Thursday we dined alone. On Friday
Ld. Robert,[254] Ld. Granville, Sir Lionel Copley,[255] and Sir
Gilbert[256] dined. Sr. Lionel was, as usual, Jacobinical and tiresome.
His only merit in conversation (for in conduct he has many) is that he
surprises his audience by the extreme accuracy of his knowledge of all
the epochs in the Revolution, the stations of the armies, and the names
of the members of the different councils.

On Saturday (23rd) we had a very numerous party, and one person who
never came before, who diverted us all by his manner. I invited him, as
I knew him to be good-natured, and, therefore, likely to be of service
about my seeing my children. I knew him at the period of my solitary
confinement in Sussex: his name is Fuller. His vulgar bluntness excited
much mirth; he thought the laugh was raised by his waggery, so was
delighted. The others were Boringdon, G. Leveson, Lorne, Amherst,
Digby, Mr. Cornewall Lewis, Hamilton, Adderley, Marsh, and little
Lewis. The day went off extremely well. On Sunday we had Ld. Mor.,
Bor., G. Leveson, and some strange people, Don Roberto Gordon, Baron
de Baje, Mr. Hodges, American Smith,[257] etc., etc. Dr. Drew came to
stay; in the evening Ly. B. came. On Monday I was 28 years old!!! Alas!
Alas!

[Sidenote: LORD LORNE]

The Dss. of Leinster and family came yesterday to stay some days. She
is in very tolerable spirits and health. Mimi[258] is ill, but is to
come to-day. I was vexed at her not being here yesterday, because
Beauclerk is come on purpose to see her. I abhor the character of a
meddler, but I should be delighted at succeeding in bringing two such
delightful persons together. Ld. Lorne is a very old acquaintance
of mine. He is very handsome, well-made, and like a gentleman; his
manner is remarkably simple and unaffected, and tho’ his abilities are
not of the most brilliant order, yet he does not appear in the least
deficient. He has in his disposition an uncommon share of indifference,
almost to apathy, and tho’ in the possession of every requisite for
happiness, it does not appear that he enjoys anything.

_26th March,’99._--Ld. Thanet[259] is in great alarm at the approaching
trial. He is indicted with Mr. Denis O’Brien, Fergusson,[260] and
Brown,[261] for attempting to rescue Arthur O’Connor in the court at
Maidstone. He is apprehensive of imprisonment, and, indeed, it is
generally thought he will be condemned to it. I really do not believe
he was at all riotous. The only strong fact against him is his having
said, when Judge Buller expressed surprise at such an idle attempt
being made, ‘Oh, he may as well have a run for it!’

Poor Ld. Edward’s little boy is here.[262] He is a remarkable child;
I cannot look at him without feeling strongly. His pretty manner and
liveliness saved the poor Dss.’s life; her whole mind is occupied with
him. When he was two years old, after eating heartily, he asked for
more. His maid told him he had had enough. ‘No, no, Eddy does not like
enough; Eddy likes too much,’ a sentiment he inherited from his poor
father, I fancy.

Mr. Dumont told us of a trick his friend Chauvet played a German Baron
at Geneva. The German came from the heart of Germany, ‘To adore,’ he
said, ‘le grand homme,’ and had brought letters of recommendation. It
struck Chauvet that it would be a good joke to make the Baron go away
without seeing Voltaire. Chauvet told him that the philosopher was so
pestered with visitors that, unless they were introduced by some of
his own friends, he did not receive them cordially. To make the story
short, he personated Voltaire, and put many ridiculous questions to the
Baron. One was, ‘M. le Baron, avez-vous lu mon histoire par Rollin?’
‘Avec le plus grand plaisir, Monsr.’

_10th April,’99._--The good Dss., Mr. Ogilvie, and Eddy stayed
exactly a fortnight, Mimi and Ly. Lucy[263] till to-day. Mimi, indeed,
is still here till to-morrow. My wishes have succeeded. Mimi’s beauty
and charming character have captivated Beau. He has obtained consent.
The settlements are drawing, and their union will soon take place.
Their dispositions suit exactly, and I never saw a fairer prospect of
happiness than they have before them. She is uncommonly sensible, her
temper is mild, and her manner serene; altho’ cheerful, her turn is
rather serious. Her person is lovely, her complexion a clear brown,
black eyes, white teeth, and a very small head, a fine-shaped throat
and neck, pretty hands and feet, and, altogether, she is as beautiful
and fascinating as a woman can be. A very favourable proof of the
goodness of her understanding and temper is her being so beloved by
a numerous family, the interests of which must oftentimes jar. The
first week they were here we had a great deal of company, but as soon
as the love began, we confined our society to those in the house, and
then it was pretty large--Hamilton, Beau., Drew, Marsh, Miss Fox, Mr.
Adderley.[264]

[Sidenote: A CHRISTENING PARTY]

On Saturday, 30th March, we had the baby christened; an immense party
to dinner, Ld. and Ly. B., Ld. Duncannon, Ld. Ossory, G. Leveson, Sr.
Gilbert and my mother, ye Duke of Bedford, Miss Vernon, and all those
in the house. My mother, D. of B., and Lord Ossory stood for him. To
comply with the Dss. of L.’s wish he was called Stephen, so we have
now a Ste. Fox in the family. Marsh performed the ceremony; it was his
first clerical function. He is to come up for Beau.’s marriage. Ly.
Lucy is very clever, naturally very lively, but the loss of her brother
has affected her spirits; she is enthusiastic, and her affection for
him was worked up to a most romantic pitch. She was in his confidence,
and knew how deeply he was involved in that fatal business in Ireland;
any reference to the affair agitates her violently. At the time of
O’Connor’s trial at Maidstone (a few months after Ld. E.’s death) she
was at Goodwood; he being but too intimately connected with Ld. E.,
made her, of course, anxious about his fate: in short, she was ill.
Ye Duke of Richmond[265] worked up his imagination, and fancied her
grief arose from fear for O’Connor’s safety, she being in love with
him. He went to her in the most affectionate manner, and proposed,
if she would confide in him, to obtain O’Connor’s release, and assist
their marriage. She assured him she only felt the regard due to him as
a friend of her own and her brother’s. He is a strange, odd man. His
conduct to Ly. E. Foster is very unaccountable. He is always talking
and writing as if he intended to marry her, and yet the marriage is
not more advanced than it was two years ago. She came here the other
morning. As soon as ye Dss. of L. heard she was here, she immediately
begged to see her in her room, a thing that very much flattered Ly. E.,
and added to her hopes.

I have had very little time for reading: I have, however, contrived to
read something, half Bernier’s _Travels into Hindostan_, and about
as much of Pennant’s _Hindostan_, a part of a great work called
_Outlines of the Globe_.

[Sidenote: LORD HOBART]

_12th April._--Mimi left us yesterday. Dumont dined with me, a
remarkable lively pleasant dinner. I reproached myself for being so
cheerful without Ld. H., for I never am completely so if he is away.
He went to the House of Lords; intended speaking, but was unwell. He
entered a protest, which stands a good chance of being erased, as Ld.
Auckland has found out that a sentence in it reflects upon the H. of
Lords.[266] I went in the evening to Dss. of L., and Ly. Bess. To-day
I had fifty visitors, among them Ld. Hobart.[267] He is pleasing,
sensible, and well-looking, the finest teeth possible. He exhibited
his high sense of a _point d’honneur_ in marrying Mrs. Adderley.
When her husband died Ld. H. fulfilled the promise made in the warmth
of his heart, tho’ she was old, ugly, and vulgar. The heats of Madras
released him of his burdensome duty. About a year since she died. He is
very kind to her son, Mr. Adderley.

Ly. Bess., Morpeth, and Bor., dined here, very cheerful and
comfortable. The Hambro [_sic_] mail confirms the report of
Jourdan’s being beaten by the Austrians.[268] The Austrian troops are
very much attached to the Arch-Duke. Their cry is ‘Live Charles and
Francis!’ I had the happiness of seeing Webby three times, but by
stealth, at my mother’s; she insisted upon my hazarding an interview.
He was very affectionate. He seems clever, but is not handsome. He is
cold in his disposition, and taught by his father to be a boaster. He
is at Harrow. From my window I see the church; often do I sigh to be
nearer to him.

_16th April, ’99._--On Saturday, ye 15th, I dined with Mrs. W.,
and in the evening went to the Opera with Mde. de Coigny.[269] On
Sunday Ld. H. dined with Ld. Thanet. Ld. Granville and Mr. Hamilton
dined with _me_, a pleasant_ish_ day. Monday, dined with
my mother, went to the play; Canning, etc.; very pleasant. To-day
Ld. and Ly. Bess. dined, Ld. John Townshend,[270] Ld. Morpeth, Mr.
Adderley. Hare was ill, and could not come. The General said it was
_impossible_--his constant reply when he refuses. Ld. John married
Mrs. Fawkener. He is one of the wittiest men there is; his verses are
excellent. Like the rest of his family he is mad; never enough to be
confined, but often very flighty. He is admirable at mimicking, not
only of a person’s manner, but invents a subject, and talks upon it as
they would. He did not shine particularly to-day. This morning I had a
prodigious levée; among the many were two new ones, Ld. Brooke[271] and
Sr. Watkin. The first is rather handsome, talkative, like his father,
but less tiresome, tho’ he promises a fair rivality. A few years of
baronial retirement at Warwick Castle, with the _benefit_ of
his father’s loquacious society, will secure his inheritance of the
taste. Sr. Watkin[272] is a Grenville in person and manner all over
him; his tongue is immensely too big for his mouth, and his utterance
is so impeded by it that what he attempts to articulate is generally
unintelligible.

[Sidenote: LORD MORPETH]

Ld. Morpeth is perfect in person and manner; he has the _air
noble_ without haughtiness, and his mirth is cheerful, not
boisterous. What Ld. Wycombe said of him is very descriptive, ‘He is
an excellent specimen of aristocracy.’ He has inherited a considerable
portion of his father’s love of fashion, but as it does not run away
with him, I see no fault in it, tho’ he sometimes allows his judgment
to be guided by it. His understanding is excellent; he is fond of
literature, and is reckoned a good scholar. He has rather too much
diffidence of his own abilities, and will frequently be silent, tho’
he has a strong opinion upon the subject discussed, unless he has
some established authority to support him. What he says is always well
expressed, with great neatness and precision. He seldom enters into
an argument at length, but his observations are invariably correct
and judicious. He is a chaste poet, and has written many very pretty
things. His passions are not strong; he can never enjoy the extreme of
delight, or suffer excess of sorrow. Not that he is deficient of right
feelings; he can be angry, but not vindictive. Lately he has given in
to a love of play, by which his temper is at times irritated. He is
exemplary as a son, and has such strong principles of honour that he
will excel in every station. He is very much attached to Ld. H.

Canning was very entertaining, he can be extremely so. I made him
repeat his parody upon Lewis’s _Alonzo and Imogene_. It is
comical, and goes very well with the music:--[273]

    A Parson so grave and a Baron so bold
    Conversed as the coach drove along;
    Many stories they heard, many stories they told,
    Parson Legge[274] was the parson, his stories were old,
    And ye Baron was Lord Boringdon.

There is more, but I forget it.

Ld. Lansdown came to see me yesterday. He looked very well, and
appeared more cordial to me than he has done since Ld. W.’s affairs
have worried him. There is certainly something very whimsical in my
situation with respect to him and Ld. W.; each suspect I prefer the
other, and both have taken an aversion to me on that account, for Ld.
W. is really so displeased with me that in his letters he never names
me, or does he write, as he used to do, frequently to me. Arduous would
be the attempt to decipher Ld. W.’s character. The most predominant
feature is the love of singularity. His success in that aim is most
favourably aided by his possessing innately a large portion of it. He
endeavours more to surprise than to please. His sarcastic humour is
excellent, the gravity of his manner sets off his wit. It is difficult
to ascertain whether he is in joke or earnest, and he frequently begins
seriously a conversation which his love of persiflage makes him end
ironically.

[Sidenote: LORD MACARTNEY]

_21st April._--Wednesday, 17th, dined with the Dss. of Leinster;
went to the play. Returned here. Thursday, Lds. Digby, Kirkwall,[275]
and Mr. Adderley dined. Friday we dined alone, went to the play with
Mrs. Smith. Saturday we dined alone; went to the Opera. Smith dined
to-day. Lord Macartney came to see me; he has been very ill, seriously
so with gout, etc., etc. I asked him his opinion of Hastings, whether,
tho’ a tyrant, he administered the Government of India with ability. He
said his testimony would be that of an enemy, as they had quarrelled in
India upon the subject of the Nabob of Arcot; but his opinion of him
was that he was a man of violent passions, who would stop at nothing
where his avarice, ambition, and revenge could be satisfied; that, as
to his public conduct, had he not been recalled the English settlements
would have been ruined. He deprecated politics, and lamented Ld. H.’s
decided opposition, and quoted a maxim of Ld. H.’s grandfather’s
that no man ought to be in Opposition above six months, just to show
what his abilities could do, that he might be justly estimated. This
conversation reminded me of Hare’s story of Ld. Macartney’s reason for
not adhering to Mr. Fox. Hare asked him how it happened that, connected
as he had always been with the Fox family, he never was politically
united with them. He said he loved consistency, for if he had once
gone into Opposition, he must always have continued so. ‘Why, no,’
replied Hare; ‘if the Opposition got into power, maintaining their
principles, you would then not always be in Opposition.’ ‘No, no. Once
in Opposition, always in Opposition. I love uniformity.’ This was all
the answer he could extract from him.

Gilbert Wakefield pleaded again in person at the King’s Bench in
behalf of his pamphlet. He first compared himself to Paul pleading
before Festus, and throughout manifested a firm conviction that he was
a martyr to his principles, and endeavoured to show the heroism with
which he submitted to the persecution. In the course of his speech he
named Nero, Tiberius, and Polypheme. Ld. Kenyon, in the summing up,
said an English jury would not be browbeaten, notwithstanding all he
said about the _Three Roman Emperors_.

Tierney said he was expected at dinner where he dined, and that the
effect was comical when his apology came, giving for excuse his
imprisonment. Ld. Thanet is very apprehensive as the day approaches for
his trial.

The Dss. of Gordon[276] was laughing at _Borino_,[277] saying he
had sat by her for an hour talking of such strange things--morale and
physique, upon which Ld. H. said well enough that he certainly could
only comprehend _half_ his discourse. C. Ellis came to see me, the
first time since his marriage. I thought there must have been something
extraordinary to keep him so long away, and Ly. B. let me into the
secret, the origin of which is Ly. Hawkesbury’s extreme prudery. She
is shocked at the thoughts of my knowing Mrs. Ellis, and I suppose C.
felt an awkward shyness at coming without naming her; but he need not
have been under any alarm on my account. It is difficult to affront or
mortify me. The first I hope my sense and temper will always avert,
and the second I am insensible to, as I know the singularity of my
position too well not to be blunted to all occurrences that otherwise
might humiliate. Prudery comes with an odd and questionable aspect from
a Hervey. Lord Bristol is full of wit and pleasantry. He is a great
admirer of Lady Hamilton,[278] and conjured Sr. W. to allow him to call
her _Emma_. That he should admire her beauty and her wonderful
attitudes is not singular, but that he should like her society
certainly is, as it is impossible to go beyond her in vulgarity and
coarseness.[279] So much so, that the Austrian Ambassador’s sarcasm is
excellent. After showing her attitudes, which she does by representing
the finest statues and pictures, he asked, ‘Et quand est-ce qu’elle
fera Miladi?’ Her vulgarity destroyed the illusion when I saw her
once. She had worked one’s imagination up to a pitch of enthusiasm
in her successive imitations of Niobe, Magdalen, and Cleopatra. Just
as she was lying down, with her head reclined upon an Etruscan vase
to represent a water-nymph, she exclaimed in her provincial dialect:
‘Doun’t be afeard, Sr. Willum, I’ll not crack your _joug_.’ I
turned away disgusted, and I believe all present shared the sentiment.

[Sidenote: LADY HAMILTON]

Her extreme beauty attracted the notice of Romney, the painter, in
London, who had her to sit as a model. Mr. Greville[280] took her into
keeping, and, finding she was tiresome, got rid of her by sending her
to Sr. Wm. to put her upon the Opera. Sr. Wm. was old and loving, and,
after living a short time with him, she persuaded him into marrying
her, which he did; and by so doing cut Mr. Greville out of the
inheritance he had long expected.

_Sunday, 28th April._--Wednesday 24th, dined with Ly. B.; only Ld.
H. and myself; went to the play afterwards. On Thursday, 25th, we had
all the _Anti-Jacobin_ wits to dinner, Ld. Hobart for the first
time; he is facetious and convivial. I liked him very much. Canning
made a good joke upon Borino’s comparing Mr. Adderley to an ostrich,
and enumerating the characteristics of that very _foolish_ bird,
which did very well at first, but grew tiresome. It is the fault of
that set to wear a joke threadbare. We had Frere, the first time since
his appointment to Canning’s place.[281] Since favorit_ism_ is
_à l’ordre du jour_, I am rather glad he is a sharer, tho’ I
think he cannot make a good man of business. He is _distrait_ and
poetical, and in lieu of writing a dispatch may be tempted to pen a
sonnet. Saturday, Marsh came. Ld. H. dined at the Royal Academy, and I
dined at L. House, Ld. L. being very kind and cordial. In ye evening
went to ye Dss. of L. On Sunday we had a large party here, Lds. B., M.,
L. G., Amherst, Adderley, etc., etc., and Bannister,[282] who was very
comical and burlesque. It being the eve of Mimi’s marriage, I slept at
Ly. Bessborough’s, that I might be ready in time for the wedding. I
invited my party to supper; the four gallants, the Dss. of Devonshire
came, and the Duke of Bedford. The change in former is painful to see;
scarcely has she a vestige of those charms that once attracted all
hearts. Her figure is corpulent, her complexion coarse, one eye gone,
and her neck immense. How frail is the tenure of beauty! Alas! too
true, too trite a saying. The next morning I went to the wedding; all
parties behaved with propriety. Ly. Pembroke[283] deemed it incumbent
on her to hatch up a whimper during the ceremony, but as it was
evidently a homage to her idol--decorum--it was received as such, and
affected none. The excellent Dss. felt the awful moment of separation.
The event took place in Harley Street, and afterwards the married pair
set off to Moneyhill. The whole of the Dss.’s family came here, dined,
and slept. Ld. Henry was one of their party; they all went to-day.

_30th April._--Marsh made a proposal to Ly. Lucy, which she
accepted, but the Dss. rejected, on the score of there not being a
competency. In refusing him they know not the excellence they lose.
He is in himself a treasure, and his popularity will ensure him high
preferment; he is at the moment wretched, and goes to-morrow in
consequence of the unpleasantness of the circumstance.

[Sidenote: MADAME DE COIGNY]

Adderley came and sat with me some time; Ld. G. L. has a nonsensical
joke of his being smitten, _mais je n’en crois rien_. The old
_compère_[284] is quite reconciled to me; he has called twice to
see me. Nobody dined here but Mr. Morris, Mrs. Wyndham; and Mde. de
Coigny came in the evening.

Mde. de Coigny is remarkably witty; there are many of her _bons
mots_ on record. This evening talking of Ly. Pembroke’s having
still beauty, she denied it by saying, ‘Apparemment Milord aime les
traditions.’ When young she was the rage in Paris; her voice is
horrible, worse even than Ly. Malmesbury’s. She said, ‘_Je n’ai
qu’une voix contre moi, et c’est la mienne_,’ an assertion not quite
true, as a wit seldom has a friend; at least, they sacrifice any for a
repartee. She lost a very intimate friend’s love by a sarcastic joke.
The Duchesse de Richelieu was a young, pretty woman, with red hair, and
her friend. At a _petit souper_ it was remarked that ye Duchesse
was almost the only woman in Paris who had not been accused at least of
a _galanterie_, ‘_C’est vrai, mais comme Samson elle trouve ses
forces dans ses cheveux_.’

Mrs. Fitzherbert has never forgiven the opinion Mde. de C. entertains
of a conspicuous part of her person--an opinion she declared in her
reply to a person who observed that Mrs. F.’s neck was uncovered ‘et
qu’elle avait besoin d’un fichu.’ ‘D’un fichu! Point du tout, c’est une
_culotte_ qu’il faudra.’

[Sidenote: LORD THANET’S TRIAL]

_2nd May._--Yesterday little Marsh left us, with a heavy, aching
heart. Many visitors in the morning; my mother, Ly. Lucy, etc. to
dinner. Adderley, Ly. L. slept. The D. of Bedford and Ld. Thanet
called in their way back from St. Anne’s, where they had been to
consult with Mr. Fox upon the propriety of the measure suggested by
Erskine. The measure was that Ld. Thanet should write a letter to the
Attorney-General, declaring upon his honour that he was innocent of the
charge against him, etc., etc. Mr. Fox disapproved of that scheme, as
it seemed like begging mercy. The evidence was so contradictory that
even Kenyon, who is bitter against them, acknowledged in his summing
the difficulty of ascertaining exactly the truth. There is no doubt
whatever that Ld. T.’s activity was merely defensive, nor is there any
more that Sheridan’s evidence got him found guilty. When questioned
by Law,[285] S., instead of answering immediately, paused, and then
replied satisfactorily to the interrogation, but this silence of
several minutes previous to replying sufficed in the minds of the jury,
and it is allowed on all hands that their verdict proceeded from their
conviction that Sheridan was wavering between falsehood and truth,
and that the first triumphed. This was confirmed by Law, in a solemn,
impressive manner, repeating, ‘You will recollect, Mr. Sheridan, that
you are upon _your oath_.’ The sentence is to be given to-morrow,
and fine and imprisonment is expected, but to what amount and extent
depends upon their notion of punishing a peer for example sake. Ld.
H. and ye D. of Bedford are to be in court at eight, to give bail, in
case the sentence is deferred till next term. Fergusson they talk of
dis-barring. Those who were really the stimulators of the enterprise
were Sheridan himself and Dennis O’Brien. It is even a doubt whether
Fergusson was apprised of the scheme. S. was adroit enough to persuade
him to suppress in his defence the truth of a circumstance, that, as
it appeared in the charge, made against him. Just before the scuffle
F. leaned across the table to whisper to O’Connor; the truth of the
whisper was an endeavour to deliver unseen a note from S. to O’Connor,
the words of which were as follows: ‘As soon as sentence is passed,
leap over the bar, run to the right, and we will manage the rest.’ Had
this been stated F. might have escaped, but he was persuaded it would
have been unhandsome to invoke an unsuspected person; for so little was
S. supposed to have assisted, that _in court_ he received thanks
from the Judges for having exerted himself to quell the disturbance.
S., since he gained such credit as a witness in the State trials (Horne
Tooke’s) by his wit and repartee, can never give a direct answer, and
is always more occupied how to gain applause by his reply than how to
serve those in favour of whom he is called.

The Brest fleet is out, and the alarm is great.[286]

Mlle. Clairon’s[287] _Memoirs_ are published by herself. She
gives a few anecdotes of her own life, suppressing the unfavourable
truths of her very _private_ history. Her remarks upon the
different parts she has acted are good, and show a great knowledge of
the art she professed. Her enthusiasm that it should be perfectioned is
entertaining.

_8th May._--The Court would not accept any bail for Ld. Thanet.
Kenyon implied a reproach upon the Attorney-General for having worded
the indictment too favourably. He aggravated the heinousness of the
offence, and gave some hints about the specific punishment, which is
imprisonment for life, confiscation, and the loss of the right arm. It
is said the court have no discretionary power, and that the specific
punishment must be given, or one very slight. The first most probably
will be given for the disgrace of it, but there is no danger of its
being enforced; the King will remit the whole.

Ld. T. is now resident in the King’s Bench Prison. Mme. Bonawitz is
with him; his friends all visit him, so his time passes cheerfully.
If he has society and _bonne chère_ he does not care much about
anything else. Mme. Bonawitz is a woman of whom I heard much when I was
at Vienna; she was of the second order of _noblesse_, and reckoned
rather pretty, and very gallant. She eloped with Ld. T. and came to
England with him. Gilbert Wakefield is also in ye K. B. till sentence
is given. His speech, nominally in mitigation of punishment, but, in
fact, as Bobus says, in _aggravation_ of it, will probably have
secured him imprisonment for life. He is a singular being, of the most
primitive manners and uncouth conversation imaginable.

[Sidenote: LORD THANET’S TRIAL]

Ld. H. made a very good speech upon the case of a man[288] called up
and punished by the H. of Lords for a libel against the Bishop of
Llandaff. As soon as he had done speaking, Lord Kenyon came up to him
and said, ‘You must give me leave, my Lord, to shake hands with you;
I wish I could make a convert of you.’ ‘You would find that rather a
tough job,’ replied Ld. H. ‘Aye, I am afraid so, but I should like to
launch you from another slip.’

I dined on Saturday at Lansdown H.; Ld. H. dined with Mackintosh. I
took Tierney with me. Ld. L. was not offended, but on the contrary
seemed very much pleased. I saw Sheridan in the morning, and told him
all that was said about his evidence; he was in a great rage. Someone
at the theatre ran after him, to ask if algebra was not a language. ’
To be sure, an old language, spoken by an ancient people called the
Classics.’

_May 18th._--We had a good deal of company in the course of last
week; the Bessbro’s dined, Ly. Anne,[289] etc. Lady Lucy came and
stayed several days. Mr. Adderley frequently dined and slept. I once
went to L. H.; very dull. Nothing very interesting occurred. Been ill
myself for 15 days with cold. Inoculated Ste., who has the smallpox
very badly, not dangerously, but suffers extremely; still at its
height. Misses Fox and Vernon came yesterday. Ld. G. Leveson and Ly. B.
came unawares; all parties annoyed at meeting. The French are beaten in
Italy; the French deputies to Rastadt murdered either by their escort
or the peasants,--a sad violation of good faith in either case.

_22nd May, ’99._--Many of Ld. Thanet’s friends have recommended
that he should write a letter to the King to beg a pardon. Ld. H. is
averse to the measure, as is Tierney. I have persuaded the former
to keep out of the way, as he will with difficulty restrain himself
from delivering his opinion, and should it weigh in Ld. T.’s mind
sufficiently to make him regret the proposed scheme and circumstances
afterwards turn out harshly, the reflection of having been instrumental
in the making him adopt a line of conduct that might be unsuccessful
would be distressing. Ld. H. thinks it will be better to allow the
business to take its course, as the Attorney-General is almost pledged
to drop the prosecution if there is any chance that the specific
punishment will be given; as he has already declared his intention in
the drawing up of the indictment was to avoid the possibility of that
obsolete law being revived. Fergusson is determined against applying
for a pardon. He rather seems to enjoy the alarm of Ld. T., as he
thinks his Jacobinical associates in the Corresponding Society[290]
will admire his heroism and contrast it with Ld. T.’s anxiety; perhaps,
in truth, it may be a sort of triumph.

The horrible murder of the French Deputies returning from the Congress
of Rastadt to France has made a great sensation in the Republic.[291]
Their energy has gone, and nothing could have revived it, but some
outrage similar to the one committed. I do not think people here are
as much shocked as might have been supposed, which is singular, as
such a violation of the faith of nations ought to make a common cause.
The French have written an excellent address to all countries. I think
it is clear the Austrians sanctioned the robbery for the sake of the
papers, and the fury of the soldiers did the murder.

[Sidenote: LORD THANET’S TRIAL]

_23rd May._--A letter from Ld. Thanet just come to say that
he has written to His Majesty to interpose against the specific
punishment. It has been graciously received, and it will be complied
with. He says he had so many intimations that such a step was expected
of him, that he thought it impossible not to do it. I sincerely rejoice
at his safety. Fergusson, I believe, has not applied; he is left to
stand the brunt of all the popular vengeance. I cannot but feel for
him. It has lately been told me confidentially that Sr. F. Burdett
would have been in the indictment, if Coutts had not availed himself of
his secret influence with the King.[292] He certainly was begged off.

On Saturday, 18th May, dined at L. House; afterwards went to the Opera.
On Sunday a large party here. Miss Fox and Ly. Lucy in the house. Went
to the play with Miss Vernon, Tierney, and Adderley. Tuesday, a dinner
at Ld. Robert Spencer’s for the Beaus. Wednesday, dined at the Smiths
to meet Mackintosh; afterwards, Ld. B.’s. Thursday, a great dinner
here, the Beauclerks, Bessbro’s, _young Lords_, etc. Went to a
masquerade at Mrs. Walker’s after. Friday, yesterday, dined at Ly. B.’s
early, to be in time for Sheridan’s play of _Pizarro_.

_26th May._--Mackintosh[293] is the man who wrote a vindication
of the French Revolution in the beginning of it. He was then exclaimed
against as a furious Jacobin. Nay, two years ago he wished to come
here, and I refused seeing him on account of his principles, as I have
always dreaded this house becoming a _foyer_ of Jacobinism, and
have invariably set my face against receiving all who are suspected
of being revolutionists, etc., etc. However, since M. has regained his
character, and is become a friend of Canning’s, etc., I admit him; and
he yesterday dined here with a numerous party--Ly. B. and Ly. Lucy, ye
young Lords, Sturges,[294] Newbolt, Adderley, etc. The conversation
was entertaining without great brilliancy. Mackintosh is delivering
public lectures at Lincoln’s Inn, upon the law of nature and the law of
nations. The objects are, first, to get money, and, nextly, to usher
himself into public notice as a man convinced of the fallacy of those
doctrines he lately laboured to establish. He manœuvres with dexterity
and _tacte_ not too suddenly renouncing them. The lectures are
rather Scotch professorships; in his first he attacked with wit and
sarcasm Godwin’s metaphysics and all the new system of benevolence and
universal philanthropy.

[Sidenote: HUSBAND AND WIFE]

Jealous people always defeat their object; this was oddly exemplified
at the masquerade. The jealousy of a person’s wife suggested a sort
of half love, half confidence, that I am almost sure could never have
arisen but from that stimulus. I hope the fancy will subside, as I
shall lose, if it continues, a cheerful and frequent associate. Another
adventure, for which I warmly condemn myself for having allowed to
go on, has occupied me lately; half curiosity and half shame have
impelled me to continue what I ought to have checked. However, absence
will chill more than prudery, and _that_ will take place in a few
days. Even that _goût_, I suspect, originated from the remark of
a third person--Ld. G. L. Gratified and blessed as I am in the full
possession of my dear husband’s love, these idle affairs afford little
or no gratification, and the very little they do proceeds from a sort
of vanity to find that his liking is not merely the effect of blind
partiality. The mystery I abhor, and my conscience frequently smites
me for having a thought, much more an action, unknown to Ld. H. But,
every circumstance well considered, I am satisfied by reason that I
ought not to disclose _goûts passagers_ that are in themselves of
no importance, but become so as soon as communicated; and I have reason
to believe that many a woman has smarted from the mistaken _point
d’honneur_ of revealing every occurrence without discrimination. The
principle is excellent, but ought to be modified with discretion, else
the effects may be pernicious to both parties.

I do not think the propriety of restraint is applicable to the husband
towards the wife. If I were to say so openly it would excite a smile,
and might be construed into licence for myself, tyranny to others;
but it is not for that reason. A woman may be so confiding in the
affection of her husband, that were he to impart an advance made to
him by another, mirth and contempt would be the only passion excited,
and if the woman happened to be her nominal friend, why, it would only
break the fragile link of female friendship; whereas, so delicate
are the feelings of men upon those occasions, that none could listen
with composure to the tale of love, his wife the heroine. Hatred and
estrangement would ensue, and a friend of some years’ standing would be
given up for the fancy of desire and the babbling of a woman.

_30th May._--I prevailed upon Ld. H. to go to Court. Ld. Wycombe
crossed the street to Mr. Adderley, and said, ‘So Holland has been at
Court; _that_ is owing to her Ladyship’s activity.’ Ld. L. went
into the country for a few days, and among some other clumsy jokes with
Mr. Tierney, such as the disappointment _he_ would feel at my not
dining there, his own accommodating spirit in inviting us together,
etc., etc., ‘It’s quite strange, one cannot retire for a short time
without hearing such strange events. “Lord Holland has gone to Court,”
and “Sheridan has written a most loyal speech.”’ If there is anything
with regard to the Court remarkable, it is, as General Fitzpatrick
says, that Ld. H. had not been before. Miss Fox is, I believe,
displeased; it does not accord with her metaphysical, philosophical,
pure, philanthropic, etc., system of politics to reverence a Monarch.
The abstaining from going, as a measure, is perfectly contemptible. If
a man is in Opposition, he opposes the Ministers and Government, not
the King personally, and a peer diminishes his own consequence if he
does not support the dignity of the throne.

On Sunday we dined at Ld. Boringdon’s, a dinner made for me. The
Bessboroughs, ‘the Three,’ Adderley, etc. Jekyll was an interloper, and
offended me by his manner of talking of Fergusson’s being disbarred.
God knows, I have no liking to F. On the contrary, he is one I never
will allow to pass the threshold; but it is disgusting to hear a man
in calamity trampled upon, and shows a considerable want of delicacy
in Jekyll, one of the profession, discussing before F.’s enemies the
utility of expelling him the profession. After dinner I went for a
short time to the Duchess of Leinster’s; afterwards supped at Lady
B.’s; the Dss. of Devon., Ly. Elizabeth, and her own set.

[Sidenote: MR. SHERIDAN]

It has happened comically enough that Lady Lucy, who, by-the-bye, is
amorously disposed, has fallen in love with Mr. Adderley. The event of
the amour does not promise successfully for her, as he is in no ways
inclined to give a favourable ear to her passion, though probably,
like all persons beloved, his vanity would so far conquer his natural
good nature, that he would not object to her making a fool of herself
on his account. He wishes to stay longer than originally intended, but
he had better go, and probably will. T. perfectly ridiculous, quite
my shadow. Went on Monday to _Pizarro_, Sheridan and Tierney,
Adderley, etc. The first came into my box perpetually to explain
whenever there was a failure in the representation. I was surprised
at his eagerness, and glad to find that drinking has not so totally
absorbed his faculties, and that he is still sensible to fame. About
him my reason and impulse always are at variance; reflection convinces
me he ought to be despised for his private life and doubted for his
political, but whenever I see him, if but for five minutes, a sort
of cheerful frankness and pleasant wittiness puts to flight all ye
reasonable prejudices that I entertain against him.

Francis[295] diverted me excessively the other morning. I got up
unusually late, and, whilst at my toilet, I was told he had been in
the library some time. Ld. H. was still in bed, and as he is at times
amusing, I sent to say I would receive him as I dressed. He came to
my door, and there paused, saying, ‘Are you sure the person you sent
for was _me_? Can such a favour be intended _me_? What? Will
you really admit _me_ into your private room?’ When I repeated
the invitation, he was delighted. He is very vain, and any distinction
quite turns his head, especially from people he rather calls great
folks. Ld. Ossory came soon, and asked what had happened to put Francis
into such spirits, as his eyes glistened with delight.

We yesterday dined with the General in his new house, early, that
we might be in time to see _Pizarro_; he is a very severe
critic. He censured much, and admired some parts; indeed, the most
phlegmatic censor must praise a good deal, however German rhapsody may
occasionally burst out. My box was full, Grey, Tierney, Whitbread,
Lds. Lorne, Bor., etc., and several who could not gain admittance.
There is a report, not very improbable as to truth, about, viz., that
Lord Lansdown is to marry Miss Coutts. There is very little doubt
that, as far as she and her connections are concerned, the alliance
will be anxiously sought for, but whether he will incur the risk and
ridicule is more doubtful. As far as my wishes go, I hope neither this
nor any other marriage will take place; his marrying will destroy his
system of living. The _ladies_, who now accommodate all their
arrangements for his convenience, will become more independent and
have more leisure. Love for Ld. H. and curiosity for our society will
throw them more constantly with us, and, tho’ I do not approve Ld.
Wycombe’s principle to the extent he urges it, that to maintain a good
understanding with his father he never will see him, yet I am convinced
that to keep well with friends you should not live too much with them;
for which reasons I deprecate the probability of long and frequent
visits, especially as one half of my male and female intimates are
placed at the top of Miss Fox’s black list, such as Ld. G. Leveson,
Tierney, Mrs. W., Ly. Bess., Ly. Plymouth, Canning, Frere, etc., etc.,
without end.

The Beaus. returned to Moneyhill. The only possible chance I foresee in
that _ménage_ for disquietude, will be his indolent, shy habits,
which will rivet him more strongly to the country. The inclination for
retirement will be aided by a half jealousy, a propensity he is too
prone to; but children, qualms, and fright will soon diminish her power
and inclination to charm. Sr. Lionel[296] came and passed the day
here. His brother has married the _ci-devant_ Ly. Abercorn. Ld. A.
behaved very shabbily; he chicaned about stocks and pounds sterling.
Sr. L. has been kind and friendly; tho’ he is rough and selfish, he is
capable of doing good-hearted actions. Ld. Hobart, Mr. Adderley came to
tell me, is to be married on Saturday; Miss Eden is the bride. She is
handsome and sensible.

[Sidenote: AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE]

A very old acquaintance called here yesterday: I regretted not seeing
him--Bob Markham,[297] a great friend of poor Ld. Henry’s[298] and
as much a lover as his friendship for his friend could allow. He is
married, and settled in Yorkshire. His chief merits are good-nature
and a willingness to oblige; his talents are moderate, for to say the
truth he is rather dull, but the strongest symptom I feel of age is
a strong partiality for those I have known in earlier days. A long
acquaintance is with me a passport to affection. This does not operate
to exclusion of new acquaintances, as I seek them with avidity; not
so much, however, for my own gratification, as from a notion that
mixing with a variety of people is an advantage to Ld. H., because
as he, thank God, lives constantly at home, unless I were active in
collecting fresh materials for society, he might be too apt to fall
into a click [_sic_], a calamity no abilities can fight against.
Ideas get confined, prejudices strong, and the whole mind narrowed to
the standard of your own set. Canning is an instance of the badness of
that plan; his jokes are local, and unless he ‘gives his little senate
laws’ he is silent. Mankind are formed to live together; the more they
mix with each other the better able a man is to judge them and conduct
himself; otherwise it becomes what a priest once said of the universal
truth, ‘Orthodoxy is my doxy.’

The Prince has given up Lady Jersey, and is now trying to renew with
Mrs. Fitzherbert. He ought to try and make his peace with heaven if he
has any account to settle, as he does not look long for this mortal
life.

Gilbert Wakefield was this day condemned to two years’ imprisonment in
Dorset jail. The sentence is severe; one cannot but regret severities
should fall upon a man of learning. The Editor of _The Courier_
was also sentenced to 6 months’ confinement and 200_l._ fine, for
calling ye Emperor of Russia a _tyrant_. He seems to have been a
fool to have been at the trouble of saying such a platitude; ’tis like
knowing that _B_ follows _A_ in the alphabet.

_1st June,’99._--Lord Belgrave,[299] in consequence, as Lord King
says, of morality and the whole duty of man being the _haut ton_,
has taken up the Sunday newspapers, and on the score of their diverting
people from their duty on the Sabbath wants them suppressed. Sheridan,
who never lets an opportunity escape where an allusion can be made to
Ld. B.’s Greek, finding Lord B. wanted time before the division on
the motion, observed that the noble Viscount wanted it put off to the
_Greek Calends_. And of the war, when there came up petitions
from the country, Ld. Belgrave said that the signatures were not to be
depended upon, as he knew many places where boys at school were made to
sign--a scandalous proceeding. ‘Infamous,’ said Sheridan, ‘to take them
from _their Greek_.’

Hare, Fitzpatrick, Francis, Tom Sheridan,[300] Tierney, and, by chance,
my mother and Sr. Gilbert, dined here yesterday. Sheridan was to have
come, but was detained in the H. of Commons by Palmer’s business.
The wits and humourists were in high spirits; nothing could be
pleasanter. We were persuaded to go to Ly. Heathcote’s masquerade. Some
observations about me, jokes about Tierney and I conspiring together.
Ly. Cholmondeley, Dss. of Gordon, very cordial; stayed most of the time
by the Dss. Devon., Ly. Bessborough, Ly. Melbourne. Prince there, knew
me directly; looking dreadfully ill.

_7th June._--On Saturday, 1st June, Canning, Bessbro’s, Ld.
Morpeth, Bor., G. Leveson, Adderley, Sturges, G. Ellis, etc.,
dined; rather pleasant. In the library I had, after dinner, a long
conversation with Canning. He expressed great satisfaction at acting
in concert with Ld. H. about the Slave Trade, and said, from the
pleasure that it gave him, he could judge how great it would be if they
always agreed. He talked a good deal of the folly of Whig principles
and the great families, etc. I thought I perceived, and that probably
arose from some circumstance that I knew of, from his inquiry as
to my politics, influence over Ld. H., etc., that he wanted rather
a confidential opening from me, but however I may wish, I did not
encourage it, as Ld. H. is too firmly attached to the obsolete doctrine
of Whiggism to be yet open to persuasion. On Sunday I had persuaded
Mr. Fox to come, but as the object was to make him meet Porson,[301]
and he was prevented coming, I sent an express to stop his leaving St.
Anne’s till Wednesday.

On Sunday Ly. Lucy came, Adderley, the Smiths, Hamilton, and
Mackintosh. After dinner they had a very metaphysical argument upon
infinity, etc., etc. On Monday Ld. H. went to the H. of Lords. Lady
Lucy returned home to be with the Duchess, as it was the melancholy
anniversary of poor Ld. E.’s death; only Miss Fox, Buonaiuti,[302]
Drew, and self at dinner. Tuesday, King’s birthday, a review by him of
the London Volunteer corps in the park. Tierney came, sat the whole
morn, reading to me. He selected nonsensical passages from old poets
_applicable_ he declared to his own situation. I am afraid he will
annoy Mrs. T., if he continues his _devoirs_ so obsequiously.
Instead of going home to prepare himself for the Budget, which was to
come on next day, he returned to dinner here. We had a lively party,
Ly. Lucy, Miss Fox, Capt. Murray, Lewis, Mr. Robinson, Drew, etc.,
Adderley. I had a violent headache. Wednesday, Mr. Fox came, Ld.
Robert, and the General came to meet him; the Smiths, etc., stayed. I
was obliged to go to the play, as I had promised to meet mother. The
King, etc., were there. Tierney, Adderley, Lewis, and Sheridan in my
box; came home and found Fox in delightful spirits. He went away the
next day early. I dined at two with Drew, and set off to see sights;
my _shadow_ came with us. I sent him off to dine with his wife,
and went to Covent Garden. To-day, 7th June, Borino dined. I passed
great part of the evening and night in the garden; the weather is
delicious, and the nightingales in full vigour of song. I have not see
_any_ of my own appendages to-day.

[Sidenote: HARVEY ASTON]

Harvey Aston[303] was killed in duel at Madras; it was the only one out
of the number he has fought in which he was in the right. He fought
successively with two of his officers, I believe, on the same day. A
man to try O’Byrne’s Irishisms asked gravely in which of the duels
was he killed, the first or second. ‘Aye, by my faith, I don’t know,’
replied O’Byrne. No man was ever more favoured by the ladies than H.
Aston. His figure was fine and manly, but to like him was a sensual
taste. Naturally good-humoured, he unfortunately was incessantly
fighting; he never was angry, but always provoked others. From what I
knew of him I should have described him as a vain, empty fellow; but
Mr. Adderley says he knew him at Madras, and occupation brought out his
understanding, and he was becoming an able and useful officer and man
of business.

The loan has been raised very favourably. Stocks have risen and are
expected to get to 60. Wickham’s[304] journey to Switzerland encourages
the hope of peace; falsely, I fear, as I collect from my Ministerial
friends that the hope of placing a King upon the throne in France is
revived with ardour. The Directory are tottering, but their fall will
only produce another revolutionary government, perhaps as bloody and
horrible as Robespierre’s.

The spring is very tardy, vegetation is now as it was in the first week
of May,’98; our garden is delicious. Drew and I have begun our lounging
drives in the Green Lane in the garden chair; I have spent many a
harmless, cheerful, instructive hour so. I have been out of spirits
at the approach of a crisis very painful to my feelings, but my duty
and justice compel me to it; I shall soon be obliged to dwell on the
particulars. Heaven knows the anguish I undergo; but the less I think,
the better armed with resolution shall I be for the event, let it take
place as it may.

Ld. Berkeley[305] has entered his pedigree to prove his marriage 14
years ago. He has had a public marriage subsequent to that period, 7
years since. The clergyman who married him is dead; the witness is
the lady’s brother, the register torn; in short, the story is dark
and, I suspect, fabricated by himself, but I cannot but wish he may
substantiate his pretence and prove his marriage.

_H. H. 11th June,’99._--Yesterday sentence was given upon Ld.
Thanet and Fergusson. Considering the King’s answer to his letter, it
appears extraordinary that so harsh a judgment should be pronounced--a
year in the Tower, and a fine of 1000_l._

On Saturday, 8th June, passed the morning very pleasantly in the
garden; many visitors. Dined at Lansdown House, went with my mother
to the Opera. Walked most part of the way home; the nightingales
delightful, weather serene. On Sunday our usual party of the Smiths;
besides them some odd people, such as Sir John Riddell, Mr. Gordon, Mr.
Douglas, the Bishop of Salisbury’s son. Also we had Adderley, Ly. Lucy,
Cornewall, Hamilton: stayed in the garden past midnight. The harper
played under the trees. Monday, my mother and Sr. Gilbert came to stay
some days with us. Misses Vernon and Fox came and stayed all night. Ld.
H. just gone down to the H. of Lords; the Russian subsidy. A note from
Ld. Thanet to say Bob Adair is to come in for Appleby.[306]

[Sidenote: HER DAUGHTER HARRIET]

_19th June, 1799._--On this day my mother left me. During her stay
I disclosed an event that has incessantly occupied my mind for now 3
years. I restored to her father my little daughter Harriet,[307] who I
had concealed, pretending her dead.

When I left Florence in ’96 my situation was such that a final
separation with Sir G. W. was inevitable as soon as I returned to
England. The certainty of losing all my children was agonising, and I
resolved to keep one in my possession, and I chose that one who, from
her age and sex, required the tenderness of a mother. Besides, I was
undetermined whether I could bring myself to incur the _éclat_
and anxiety that would arise from my publicly avowing my situation,
and among the visionary schemes that passed in my mind there was one
I dwelt upon during my dejection with a sort of pleasure. It was to
retire and bury myself in some remote corner; what, then, would have
been the comfort of possessing such a little partner in my solitude?
In short, _necessity_ has compelled me to give her up. Here I
will not disguise a feeling, whatever _tournure_ for worldly
effect I may give the proceeding--nothing but the dread of discovery
and involving Ld. H. in a difficulty on her and my account could have
induced me voluntarily to relinquish all the schemes of happiness I had
promised myself in educating and possessing her. In short, my mother
avowed the whole transaction to Sir G. W., who immediately recollected
and acknowledged her; he behaved extremely well. I have dwelt so long
upon the subject since I have determined upon the avowal that my mind
is wearied, and I shall reserve further details. She was here with my
mother for two days, is now gone with her and Henry, and is without
exception by far the _most_ lovely I ever beheld. She has all
the beauties I had when I was very pretty, and fewer blemishes. Her
complexion is fine; she has dimples, fine hair, and thick eyelashes,
open chest, flat back.

_20th June._--The last week we had company. On Friday the Ladies
Fitzpatrick[308] dined here, Lds. Morpeth, Boringdon, Adderley,
Tierney, Amherst, and some others. Ld. Plymouth died: a great release
to his wife, who will be rewarded by marrying Amherst within the year.
_His_ constancy is unparalleled. On Saturday alone; went quietly
to the Opera. Sunday, the event took place, and there was a sort of
scene at dinner: Smith, Miss Fox, Sydney Smith, Add., Wm. Lamb, Lewis.

[Sidenote: LORD HOLLAND’S SPEECH]

Ld. Holland’s speech upon the Russian subsidy was reckoned
excellent.[309] Ld. Grenville said it was the best he ever made, and
one or two traced a resemblance to his uncle’s manner. There is no
doubt that if he were to apply himself to a regular attendance in the
H. of Lords, he would distinguish himself as a first-rate speaker.
His power of mind is fully equal to excellence, but he is indolent,
and wants method in his arrangement; arguments crowd upon him whilst
speaking, and an overstock of matter makes him confused. On the 19th,
Sr. Lionel, Mr. Add., Murray, and Mr. Dumont dined with me. Ld. H.
dined with Mr. Wm. Smith. Yesterday (21st), Drew and I alone; Lord
H., House of Lords. About 8 Tierney came from the H. of Commons (with
Mr. Add.) after having made an excellent speech upon the state of the
finances of the country; it was so good that Pitt deferred replying
till Friday next, and ordered his statements to be printed. Canning
is desirous of bringing Add. into Parliament as a Treasury member,
and is now urging him to accept a seat for 1200_l._, to which he
will be recommended as a Ministerial man; the price is rather lower
than the common market traffic, but Add. judges the thing well, and
is disinclined to come in with a pledge of always voting their way.
He is not decided yet. A good post in India has not corrupted him;
he is young enough in politics to think he may long continue open
to conviction. The feeling is honest, but not durable. Canning will
be glad to attach him to himself, for tho’ he is the great decrier
of party, yet imperceptibly he is forming one of his own, Ellis’,
Freres,[310] Sturges, _Microcosm_ Smith,[311] Leveson, and one or
two more, most of whom he has brought in himself.

Ld. Wycombe asked Tierney, ‘If he had heard the romance of _our_
friend at H. House.’ The story is very much talked of, but as it is
sure to be misrepresented, I had rather hear nothing of the fables
engrafted on it. I only feel I have renounced a darling child, and
my heart aches afresh when I think of the separation. She is so
captivating. With her I feel amused, with my others I feel gratified at
seeing them healthy and intelligent, but her winning manners convert
the duty of maternal attention into a positive enjoyment. I delight
in being with her, and think her society sufficient. Would to God I
were allowed to bring her up! To-day Ld. Digby and Ly. Bessbro’ dined.
We went into the garden after; stayed late. Adderley came to pass the
evening and sleep. He ought for his own comfort to go to Ireland--at
least, away, as he looks ill and is unhappy. I have been to blame. I
delay from awkwardness, and not knowing how to check the inclination.
I myself was _checked_ from the dread of appearing to consider
the matter in serious light, and it has become more so to him than I
could have suspected. When not here he shuts himself up alone at home,
and reflects upon the foolishness of his own feelings, for foolish and
hopeless must any love to me be, circumstanced as I am, loving and
being beloved by the most delightful of men. I fear in my conduct I may
be accused of trifling with his feelings, but I solemnly protest I had
no such wish.

[Sidenote: GENERAL FITZPATRICK]

_23rd June._--On Saturday Mr. Adderley took leave of us, previous
to his departure for Ireland. I was really touched at saying adieu. We
came afterwards to this place--Sunning Hill, a charming little spot in
Windsor Forest, which belongs to General Fitzpatrick; we remain till
to-morrow. Yesterday (Sunday) Ld. H. and ye General went to St. Anne’s;
Drew and myself stayed here reading and talking. Little Charles[312] is
come. This is the first excursion he ever made out of his nursery; he
is very tractable and happy.

To the tranquillity of this pretty retreat we owe many of those correct
and beautiful verses which the General has written. It is much to be
lamented that there is no collection made, as in point of wit and real
taste they are unequalled. His epigrams are excellent; the one upon Ld.
Carlisle’s subscribing 4000_l._ to the voluntary subscription[313]
just after he had distributed a political pamphlet for sixpence is
truly witty:--

    My Lord subscribes four thousand pounds
    Produced from rich domains,
    While he for sixpence deals around
    The produce of his brains.
    Thus we the just proportion hit
    Between his fortune and his wit.

On Pitt saying what he did not intend in the H. of Commons, being
drunk:--

    The lying tongue, which t’other day
    Proved Billy Pitt’s disaster,
    Was so accustomed to betray,
    That it betrayed its master.

On Hayley’s _Triumphs of Temper_[314]:--

    Your nymph her temper keeps six cantos thro’,
    By G--d that’s more than half your readers do.

[Sidenote: SIR PHILIP FRANCIS]

_26th._--Yesterday, 25th, we left Sunning Hill; Ld. H. went round
by St. Anne’s. Mr. Secretary Windham invited him to dinner, where he
went, and met Charles Sheridan.[315] Mr. Francis dined with me. He was
pleased at being confidentially treated, as he called it. He is soured
against Mr. Fox for various reasons. Notwithstanding he boasts that
the violence of his temper prevents his being vindictive, because he
‘expectorates’ his bile at the moment; he yet retains a very settled
resentment against him. One of his griefs is that he was not summoned
to the meeting previous to the measure of secession. ‘_Secession_,
did I say, Madam? _Dispersion_ I mean.’ Of Fox’s disposition, he
says he is a man of great ‘facility,’ but no ‘cordiality.’ Perhaps
the remark is not without point and justice. It is impossible to deny
Francis’s great cleverness. His vivacity and fine sense survived the
rolling over of many years and tens of years. His temper is irritable
to madness; indeed, he is more or less always in a passion, for if he
begins temperately the ardour of his imagination works him to rage
before his sentence closes. He has a remarkable facility in writing
all State Papers, Protests, Petitions, etc., etc. It was the desire
of displaying that talent that made him advise Ld. Thanet to write to
the King; at least, so those say who disapproved of the proceeding.
His great intimacy with Burke enabled him to judge of the motives that
actuated him to quarrel with Fox; he assured me the arrow was sped
long before the French principles became the test of morality and
virtue. They were a popular ground for attack, and upon them that venom
burst, which had been rankling in his breast since the Regency; for
at that period, in the partition of offices, etc., it appears Burke
asked something, either for himself or son, which Fox denied him. From
thence the enmity sprung, and was constantly fomented by a jealousy of
Sheridan and various other trivial occurrences that would have passed
unnoticed between sound friends, but were treasured up: ‘All his faults
observed, set in a note book, learn’d and conn’d by rote, to cast into
_his_ (my) teeth.’

_27th._--Instead of going to Cork, I found Add. still remaining;
he came Tuesday eve., and yesterday to dinner, and very imprudently did
not go to Eden Farm fête. This morning I went to the Tower; Ld. H. made
a visit to Ld. Thanet, whilst Drew and I saw the sights. Of the latter
none are worthy of notice, except the beasts, and those are very fine.
Ld. Thanet came down to the court to see me. He looks very well; the
confinement will be of service to his health, as he is perforce obliged
to live regularly with regard to hours and drinking, for the gates
shut at eleven. He is allowed to see whom he pleases and do precisely
as he likes, but not quit the precincts of the Tower. He has always
some company with him. It is very amiable in the D. of Bedford being so
attentive to him. He scarcely stays a week out of town on purpose that
he may visit him; there cannot be a better natured man.

_27th._--To-day D. of Bedford and Ld. Boringdon dined here; stayed
late in the garden. Ld. B. stayed cozing with me very late. The Duke
has half a mind to attend the H. of Lords, but _secession_ hangs
round his neck like a dead weight. He and Grey are the _two_ who
repent the most; but as they were the two who urged Mr. Fox to it, a
dereliction from it in them would come with a bad grace. Indeed, in
Grey it would be suspicious, as it might be inferred he had got Fox out
of the way to make room for himself as leader. That D. of B. should be
unpopular is not marvellous. His manner to _all_ is rude, and to
acquaintances must be intolerable; but exterior polish is immaterial
when the foundation is good, and with him it is respectable: no man
so just, so generous, so true.[316] The first may at times amount to
harshness, but the second never to ostentation, for with the slur of
penuriousness it may be asserted that his donations to friends and
family are unequalled by those reputed highly liberal. His veracity is
quite remarkable; to the most minute occurrence he applies a degree of
accuracy that is prolix: one would take upon trust what he convinces
you by proof is true. His understanding is good, and so is his
judgment, but he has given the latter into Ld. Lauderdale’s keeping too
much. It is notorious that the _secession_ never would have been
dreamt of unless Ld. L. had not lost his election as one of the sixteen
Scotch peers, and he, being out of Parliament, determined to make those
who _were in_ as null as himself.

[Sidenote: NATURE OF THE SOUL]

_30th June._--On Friday, 28th, Ld. H. went to the Slave business.[317]
I dined at home with Drew and Mr. Adderley. When Ld. H. returned
they fell into a long metaphysical disquisition upon the nature
of the soul. Add. has applied himself to the examination of that
inquiry, and can reason fluently and technically upon those abstract,
incomprehensible points. He has adopted the Platonician doctrine of
spirit and matter, and conceives that spirit is a quality endued with
faculties indefinable, that it is a particle of celestial origin, and
secures to us immortality. The other two supported the old Epicurean
tenet (for after all those old fellows were the first who started the
systems which our modern philosophers appropriate to themselves) of
materialism, that life and intelligence were carried on by material
objects only, matter acting upon matter; in short, that to a fortuitous
concourse of atoms we owed _being_ as we are. I have not the capacity
to follow thro’ a labyrinth of metaphysical sophisms; the very little
I could ever understand I had no sooner been convinced was right than
a new system proved to me it was fallacious, and this having happened
above once, I have determined not to trouble myself with endless
speculations that neither make one wiser nor happier.

Ld. Wycombe has neglected an eruption. He is under the care of Adair
and Hawkins, and is quite a cripple. This disease gives him an
opportunity of moralising upon the want of moral justice among mankind.
A pampered debauchee writhing under the gout, a malady brought on
by his own excesses, is an object of general pity; all hearts are in
union with his pangs and sympathetic with every twinge, whereas he says
a temperate, unoffending person who acquires accidentally a disease
conveyed by harmless, innocent contact, is shunned and treated with
disgust and contumely.

The D. of Bedford told a story of Ld. Lauderdale’s delight at reading
a passage in Arthur Young, who says the cattle, especially the sheep,
in Lincolnshire, are affected with a cutaneous disease upon their nose.
This, he says, is owing to their rubbing their snouts upon thistles.
‘Aye, to be sure,’ cried Ld. L., ‘we pull the thistles in Scotland
between our fingers, so we catch the itch.’

On Saturday I went to town and did many duties in the visiting way.
T. has made his wife low-spirited and unhappy by his foolish whimsies
about me. Ld. G. Leveson came to dinner accidentally on his way from
Winchester races; Mr. Adderley dined also. In the evening the Smiths
came. She looked, as usual, cold and starch. Nothing very interesting
in the conversation.

_4th July._--Sunday, 30th June, Lds. Ossory and Macartney came;
the latter stayed 3 hours and 3 quarters. We drove up and down the
Green Lane in the whisky all the time; he declares that he has closed
his peregrinations, that he always said he would at 60. Mr. Richard
Penn[318] called to see me upon the score of an old acquaintance.

[Sidenote: A FOOLISH SECRET]

We had to dinner General Fitzpatrick, Mr. Charles Sheridan, Tierney,
Lord Ossulston,[319] Amherst, Mr. Weld, the Smiths, Hamilton. Adderley
came in the eve. for a little time. On Monday alone; went for a short
time to the play, sat with Mrs. Wyndham. On Tuesday Marsh arrived;
dined at Lord Digby’s, went in the evening to see Ld. Morpeth. On
Wednesday went to Boyle Farm to stay the day for the christening of
Lord Henry’s[320] youngest son. Lord Holland is his godfather; he is
christened Edward. Returned at night. To-day, July 4th, Adderley called
for a few minutes in ye morning. Marsh and I drove in the whisky after
dining alone with Ingenhousz.[321] Ld. H. at the House of Lords, from
which he is just returned, and is now at dinner with Lds. Bessbro’ and
Digby.

So many unpleasant observations have been made upon the frequency of
a person’s visits to this house, and the self-reproach I have felt
at having anything mysterious or hidden from Ld. H. was so great,
that I resolved to unburthen the foolish secret I had participated in
concealing (by allowing it to go on) by telling the whole affair to Ld.
H. A confidence in him is never misplaced; his head is so right, and
his heart, where I am concerned, so peculiarly indulgent that, delicate
as the nature of the subject is, I felt very little apprehension in
disclosing the whole. He considered the affair in a proper light,
by feeling more compassion than resentment. The circumstance that
brought the noticing it among Adderley’s friends to a crisis was the
following. Canning proposed to bring A. in for a Treasury Borough, and
he told me of the proposal that was made. I inadvertently deprecated
the patronage of Canning, alleging (by way of conversation, not for
_influence_) all the mortifying objections I conceived to subsist
against such dependence. Thus, what I said became a rule of conduct; he
rejected the offer. Canning, who is full of intrigue, was surprised,
and immediately conjectured that the refusal was from counter-movement,
and went so far as to hint something about Holland House politics, and
even particularising the quarter. Hence I, without caring five straws
for the business, was involved into the thick of it. Unluckily enough,
Tierney proposed a seat to him at Coventry, which he may be secure of
provided the Treasury won’t oppose, to ascertain which Canning was
consulted. Thus this last measure will confirm _his_ opinion
of my interference. I also told Ld. H. of Tierney’s persecution; we
jointly laughed at his vain presumption, and imputed it to his opinion
of the depravity and corruption he believes exists among women of
fashion. I confess I feel sorry that Add. should allow a romantic love
to interfere with his happiness, for I sincerely credit it has done
so, tho’ I hope and believe it is rapidly abating. Be it as it may,
my mind is easier since I have shaken off all reserve about it with
Ld. H., for I have a superstitious dread of keeping a secret from
him. Mystery between those who love is dangerous; it may begin upon a
trifle, another trifle that may depend upon that may grow to involve
so much that one can never too soon prevent the possibilities of such
difficulties.

[Sidenote: CHARLES SHERIDAN]

Charles Sheridan is Sheridan’s elder brother; he was Secretary in
Sweden at the time of the revolution made by the late King in favour of
the people against the nobles. His history of that period is reckoned
very good and correct. The General told me that in coming here he
spoke strongly and freely with regard to the Union between Ireland
and this country, adding that he rejoiced at having an opportunity
of telling him his sentiments, as he did not like speaking openly in
mixed companies. This sounded cautious; but before dinner was over he
got into a long argument with Bobus, in which he not only displayed his
own opinion, but told that of all whom he had consulted with. He told
Bobus he would make an excellent lawyer, as he was _disputatious_.
He appears animated, and inclined to embellish his narrative by
imagination where dry facts would not bear him out.

Lord Ossulston is insignificant and diminutive in his appearance, and
aims at thinking and judging for himself. How far his understanding
warrants the attempt I cannot yet judge; I am rather disposed to think
favourably of him for the effort, as it is without arrogance.

I got into correspondence with Maurice,[322] the author of _Indian
Antiquities_, from reading his preface. I thought him poor and
neglected, and was willing by way of subscription to do something
for him; I did, and obtained him a few subscribers. His language
is diffuse, and his style unconnected, but the book is curious, as
it assembles curious facts from prolix, voluminous writers, which
otherwise I should never have got at.

_6th July._--Ld. H. is said to have made a most excellent speech
on Thursday night on the Forfeiture Bill.[323] Last night he spoke on
the Slave business, but the Limitation Bill was rejected. Add. came and
dined. I bathed in ye evening; when I returned to the library after ye
bath he made me some compliments upon my person, freshness, etc. Being
previously resolved to say something upon the continuance of his love,
I thought the opportunity these observations offered as good as any.
I represented to him the impropriety of allowing himself to indulge
an inclination that could only end in vexation and annoyance; that to
him it had already been productive of unhappiness, by unsettling his
plans and inducing him to shun his friends; that to me, in a worldly
point of view, it was materially injurious, but _that_ was a
secondary consideration compared to the effect that might be produced
upon Ld. H.’s mind, were any officious person to suggest to him that
_his_ visits did not proceed from friendship to him, but from love
to me. I coloured as highly as I could the statement of the deplorable
consequences that might ensue if Ld. H. should become suspicious of
me--of _me_, I who owed him everything, more than a long life of
tenderness and acquiescence can repay. I diminished the possibility of
Ld. H.’s supposing it possible I could ever feel an abatement of love
for him, but noted the uneasiness he would suffer, first, at finding
his friend was acting ungenerously, and, 2ndly, at the possibility of
the world’s supposing I could encourage it; for, idolising me as he
does, he would think me incapable of deceiving him. He was agitated,
and absented himself sulkily till yesterday.

On Saturday Ld. Morpeth dined. Tierney came in ye eve.; he asked to
have a run for his horses, as the soil seemed likely to suit their
feet. Drew looked comical, and whispered me that it would suit him for
an excuse to come and see after them. On Sunday Ld. Digby dined and
stayed till ¼ past 12. He is a man who has not yet been fairly judged
by the world; he passes for a fool, but, if I have any discernment,
_bien s’en faut_. He has sound good sense, great shrewdness in his
understanding, tho’ downright in his manner, and I would as soon abide
by his opinion of a character or event as by that of a more refined
person. On Monday, yesterday, Add. dined; he is less annoyed, and
begins to see the advice I gave him as just and reasonable; he goes
the end of the week.

[Sidenote: LORD DARNLEY]

_10th July._--Tuesday, 9th, Ld. Morpeth, G. Leveson, Digby,
Canning dined. Ld. H. brought Ld. Darnley[324] from the H. of Lords.
He had never been here before, tho’ I have known him for many years.
His father fancied himself made of glass, and imagined a particular
part of his person essential to sitting the most brittle; besides,
he had various other fancies. Ld. D. has one great merit for a great
man, excessive generosity; he has assisted with large sums, and even
annuities, young men of promising abilities in mean circumstances,
by which means they have got on in life, tho’ as yet he is too young
to see the entire advantage of his benevolence. The Dean of Christ
Church[325] has hurt him in his _own_ judgment, and in that of the
world, by most disproportionate praise; he is himself intoxicated with
vanity, and the world, expecting much and finding but a modicum, have
fallen into the common extreme, and deny him any ability whatever.

Canning asked me whether his suspicions had fallen rightly when he
accused me of advising Add. to accept of the offer for Coventry. I
declared the truth, that I had nothing to do with it, and had only
heard him converse on the subject, but as it was one I felt little
interest about I did not even know the result. Ld. D. told with some
humour a remark of a Mr. W. Bootle or Boodle, who has written several
pamphlets and poems, and said with great naïveté that whatever people
might say of the profits of books, he knew better, as they did not
clear the expense they incurred. His brother used to come a good deal
last year; he had travelled into Arabia, Persia, etc. He looks like a
wild Arab.

On Wednesday, Tierney, Sr. Lionel, Mr. Adderley, and those who are
in the house. The news came on that day of Suwarrow’s victory over
the French.[326] The citadel of Turin seems evidently to have been
surrendered by treachery, as it was besieged but 3 days. If the skill
of Vauban can do no more, a clay fence _à l’abri d’un coup de
main_ would be sufficient. One of the terms of the capitulation is a
tacit acknowledgment of bribery; the Governor who surrenders requires
a safeguard from the Austrians beyond the French posts, and he is to
remain as a hostage--both circumstances that denote fear.

I had a long walk upon the terrace with Tierney. I was in an eloquent
_veine_, and happily conveyed all I intended to express without
the rigorous exterior of forbidding prudery. I think I convinced him
his attentions offended and his hopes insulted me, that I was firmly
attached at home, and tho’ I felt at present no resentment towards
him, yet I should if his pretensions continued. On Thursday Ld. H.
dined at the Tower; Ld. T. is confined by a fit of the gout. Sheridan
was of their party; he is just come from ‘Peruvianising,’ that is from
the country. He is so delighted with _Pizarro_ that his allusions
are taken from it in everything he says. He said ye 10th of July was
so delicious, something in the temperature so bewitching and tempting
to go astray and follow ye dictates of nature, that if he were to sit
in judgment upon a cause of gallantry, if the indictment stated it
as committed on ye 10th of July, he would go into the evidence, but
instantly bring in _Guilty, by the visitation of God_.

[Sidenote: COUNT RUMFORD]

In ye eve. I, Drew, and Marsh went to Astley’s, Ld. B., Ly. E. Foster,
and some of the girls; we had a very comfortable chat. Friday, Add.
and Cornewall and ourselves in ye house. Saturday we were alone;
reading Mr. Browne’s book, _Travels into Africa_. On Sunday Ct.
Rumford, Ld. G. Leveson, Adderley, and ourselves in the house. The
first was entertaining; he gave an account of some experiments going
on in France upon ye tanning matter, by which it is ascertained that
a larger quantity of it is contained in willow and some other aquatic
plants than in oak bark, and that it is even better, as there is less
of ye gallic acid, which consumes ye leather. His manner is soft and
plausible; it rather excites distrust, and perhaps more than his
intentions merit, but there is something suspicious in a kept-down
manner. Ld. G. is going to his regiment at Winchester. He praised me
for my behaviour to Add., approves of keeping friends, but checking the
progress of an attachment. He laughs at women’s dexterity in letting a
man in love down gently. He, Add., goes to Ireland immediately.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] Abbé Maury (1746–1817), one of the most violent members of the
_États Généraux_. He obtained a Cardinal’s hat in 1794.

[2] Hon. William Frederick Wyndham (1763–1828), fourth son of Charles,
second Earl of Egremont. He married, in 1784, Francis Mary Harford,
natural daughter of Frederick, Lord Baltimore. Their son succeeded as
the fourth and last Earl of Egremont.

[3] Hon. Thomas Pelham, afterwards Lord Pelham and second Earl of
Chichester (1756–1826), son of Thomas, Lord Pelham, of Stanmer (who was
created Earl of Chichester in 1801). He married, in 1801, Lady Mary
Osborne, daughter of Francis, fifth Duke of Leeds; and was Secretary
to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1783–4 and 1795–8, and Secretary of
State for the Home Department, 1801–1803.

[4] _Zaïre_ was written in Paris, not in Switzerland.

[5] John Baker Holroyd (1735–1821), created Baron Sheffield in 1781,
and advanced to an earldom in 1816. He married, in 1767, Abigail, only
daughter of Lewis Way. She died in 1793, and Lord Sheffield married,
the following year, Lady Lucy Pelham, daughter of Thomas, first Earl of
Chichester. He married, thirdly, in 1798, Lady Anne North, daughter of
Frederick, second Earl of Guilford.

[6] Comte Bonnières de Souastres, Duc de Guines (1735–1806), Ambassador
in London from 1770 to 1776. On the outbreak of the French Revolution
he left France, and did not return until Napoleon became Consul.

[7] Simon Tissot (1728–1797), a celebrated Swiss doctor. He died at
Lausanne.

[8] Miss Holroyd’s description of Lady Webster on this expedition is
amusing: ‘If anybody ever offends you so grievously that you do not
recollect any punishment bad enough for them, only wish them on a party
of pleasure with Lady Webster! The ceremony began with irresolution
in the extreme whether they should or should not go! How and which
way they should go? And everything that was proposed she decidedly
determined on a contrary scheme, and as regularly altered her mind in a
few hours’ (_Girlhood of Maria Josepha Holroyd_, p. 65).

[9] Sir Godfrey Webster had returned to England late in 1791.

[10] Frederick, Viscount Duncannon (1758–1844), who succeeded his
father as third Earl of Bessborough in 1793. He married, in 1780,
Henrietta, daughter of John, first Earl Spencer, and Margaret
Georgiana, daughter of the Right Hon. Stephen Poyntz. Her sister, Lady
Georgiana, married, in 1774, William, fifth Duke of Devonshire.

[11] Charles Rose Ellis (1771–1845), son of John Ellis, a large landed
proprietor in Jamaica. He was created Lord Seaford in 1826.

[12] John Hampden Trevor (1749–1824), who succeeded his elder brother
as third Baron Hampden in 1824, a month before his own death. He was
Minister at Turin from 1783 until 1798. He married, in 1773, Harriot,
only child of the Rev. Daniel Burton, Canon of Christ Church.

[13] The Prince of Piedmont (1751–1819) succeeded his father as King of
Sardinia in 1796 under the name of Charles Emmanuel IV., but abdicated
in 1802 in favour of his brother. He married, in 1775, Marie-Therèse de
Bourbon, sister of Louis XVI.

[14] Josephine-Louise, Comtesse de Balbi (1763–1836), a favourite of
the Comte de Provence (Louis XVIII.) and lady-in-waiting to his wife
for some years.

[15] Harriet Mary, daughter of Sir George Amyand, Bart. She married
James, first Earl of Malmesbury in 1777, and died in 1830.

[16] George Ellis (1753–1815), miscellaneous writer. A joint founder
with Canning of the _Anti-Jacobin_. He was the only son of George
Ellis, member of the House of Assembly in Grenada.

[17] Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773–1843), sixth son of
George III. He married at Rome, in 1793, Lady Augusta Murray, daughter
of John, fourth Earl of Dunmore. The marriage was annulled the
following year, as it violated the Royal Marriage Act.

[18] Lazaro Spallanzani (1729–1799). Director of the museum at Pavia.

[19] Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count von Rumford (1753–1814), was born at
North Woburn, Massachusetts. After suffering imprisonment in 1774, for
lukewarmness in the cause of liberty, he sailed for England. He became
Under-Secretary for the Colonies in 1780, and also served in America
against his fellow-countrymen. On his return he entered the service
of the Elector of Bavaria, and received the honour of knighthood from
George III. He came back to England in 1795, and devoted the remainder
of his life to scientific research. His experiments for the improvement
of fireplaces and chimneys have proved of lasting benefit to mankind.

[20] Lord Henry Spencer (1770–1795), second son of George, third
Duke of Marlborough. He died at Berlin, to which court he had
been accredited as Envoy-Extraordinary. Lord Holland, in his
_Miscellaneous Reminiscences_, says of him: ‘Notwithstanding his
constitutional shyness and reserve, he would have distinguished himself
by his wit and ingenuity, but died at the early age of twenty-four,
when employed on a mission to Berlin.’

[21] Hugh Elliot (1752–1830), brother of Gilbert, first Earl of Minto.
Minister at the Court of Saxony from 1791 until 1803.

[22] An Eton publication, which first appeared about 1786. Canning,
Frere, and ‘Bobus’ Smith were among the chief contributors.

[23] The Duke of Brunswick’s Manifesto, issued on July 25 in the joint
names of the Emperor and King of Prussia, was very unlikely, under the
circumstances of the case, to assist the French Royal Family. Paris was
ordered to submit to the King, under penalty of instant attack, and all
popular leaders were to suffer for their misdeeds with their lives.

[24] The Association was formed largely to promote Parliamentary
Reform, a subject which was brought forward by Grey in that session
of Parliament. It was originated at a dinner at the house of Lord
Porchester, who refused to join as it was not sufficiently Republican.
A few months later he termed it a seditious movement, and was raised
to an earldom. Lord Holland relates that Mr. Fox said upon this that
Lord Porchester was right in saying that the Association was not
as Republican as he wished, otherwise he would probably have got a
marquisate.

[25] Mr. Thomas Pelham, in a letter to Lady Webster, dated June 15,
1792 (_Holland House MSS._), recounts a conversation he had with
Mr. Fox about the Association:--‘He told me (what I knew to be the
truth, notwithstanding what is _now_ said) that he had never been
consulted about it, and that, on the contrary, the Associators seemed
determined _not to have any advice_, and particularly not to
_have his_. This I know to be true, for Lauderdale told me that
they were determined not to consult Fox until they saw the probability
of success, in order that he might not be involved if they failed.’

[26] Henry, second Viscount Palmerston (1739–1802), who succeeded his
grandfather in 1757. He was twice married, his second wife, whom he
married in 1783, being Mary, daughter of Benjamin Mee, Esq. She died
1805. The celebrated statesman was her son.

[27] Under La Touche Tréville. Their unwelcome presence was due to
the recent dismissal of the French Minister, Mackau. The Court were
ignominiously compelled to allow him to return.

[28] Russian Secretary of Legation at Naples, and afterwards Minister
there. He was Minister at Constantinople for some years.

[29] Roger Joseph Boscovitch (1711–1787), mathematician and astronomer.

[30] Sarah, daughter of Andrew, Lord Archer. She married Other Hickman,
fifth Earl of Plymouth, in 1778, and after his death in 1799, William
Pitt, first Earl Amherst. She died in 1838.

[31] Marie Caroline (1753–1814), daughter of Empress Marie Thérèse of
Austria, and sister of Queen Marie Antoinette. She married Ferdinand
IV., King of Naples, in 1768. One of her sixteen children was married
to her nephew, Francis, who had succeeded his father, Leopold, as
Emperor during the preceding year. He proclaimed himself Emperor of
Austria in 1804 under the title of Francis I., and resigned the Empire
of Germany altogether, two years later.

[32] One of the patron saints of Naples, more especially of the
Lazzaroni. The yearly liquefaction of the Saint’s blood was said to
propitiate Vesuvius. Mr. Sichel, in his _Emma, Lady Hamilton_,
states that the Saint was accused of Jacobinism at the outbreak of the
French Revolution, and that his statue was condemned in court.

[33] The King’s hunting box, near Caserta.

[34] Alexandre Sauveur, who in a letter to Wilhelmine, Comtesse de
Lichtenau (1796), says that he retired from the world owing to his
unspoken love for Princess F----. (He was engaged in Berlin to instruct
the latter in the Italian language.)

[35] Probably Jacob Philipp Hackert (1737–1807), a Prussian landscape
painter, who with his brother entered the service of the King of Naples
in 1782.

[36] Among Marie Caroline’s favourite schemes for the social and
mental improvement of her people was the foundation of an ideal colony
of San Leucio, near Caserta. The inhabitants were subjected to a
most rigid code of laws and regulations for religious and domestic
observance. A copy of these ordinances, given to Lady Hamilton on this
very occasion by the King, with the names of the party present in her
own handwriting, is now in the British Museum (Sichel’s _Emma, Lady
Hamilton_).

[37] Thomas Noel, second Lord Berwick, of Attingham (1770–1832). He
married, in 1812, Sophia, daughter of John James Dubochet.

[38] Margaret, daughter of Sir John Stuart, Bart., of Allonbank,
Berwickshire, and first wife of John Coxe Hippisley, whom she married
in Rome in 1780. She died in 1799. Mr. Hippisley resided in Italy from
1792 to 1796, and was engaged in negotiations between the Vatican and
the English Government. He was made a Baronet in 1796, for his services
in connection with the marriage of the Duke of Würtemberg with the
Princess Royal of England. He died in 1825.

[39] Thomas Jenkins, the principal English banker in Rome at this time.
He died in 1798.

[40] William George Browne (1768–1813), who published his description
of these journeys in 1800. He was murdered, in 1813, in Persia while on
his way to Teheran. Whishaw was approached in 1817 on the question of
editing his papers, but the publication did not take place.

[41] The Princess Santa Croce was one of the most celebrated of the
Roman ladies of her day. Her intrigue with Cardinal Bernis does not
seem to have attracted any attention, though well known to all.

[42] There is certainly a decided likeness in both these cases to Lady
Webster’s picture, painted by Fagan in 1793.

[43] Clement XIII.

[44] François Joachim de Pierre de Bernis (1715–94), poet and
statesman. Taken up by Madame de Pompadour in Paris, he was made
Foreign Secretary by her influence. He only held the post for one
year (1757–8), and on his retirement became a Cardinal. He was French
Ambassador in Rome for many years, and was deprived of that post
for his refusal to take the oath of allegiance to the Revolutionary
Government. He spent the remainder of his days there.

[45] Daughter of Louis XV. She was born in 1733, and leaving France
early in 1791, remained abroad until her death at Trieste in 1799.

[46] The Duke of Sussex and Lady Augusta Murray were married in Rome by
a Protestant Minister in April 1793; and again at St. George’s, Hanover
Square, in December.

[47] Phillipina Deane, wife of Admiral Sir Joseph Knight, and mother of
Miss Cornelia Knight, Princess Charlotte’s companion. A volume of her
letters from Italy, 1776–95, was published in 1905.

[48] Now called Ponte Molle, a contraction of the original name.

[49] Compare Byron’s _Childe Harold_, Canto iv. lxix.--lxxii.

    The roar of waters! From the headlong height
    Velino cleaves the wave-worn precipice; etc.

[50] Curius Dentatus, the Conqueror of the Sabines.

[51] The Prince of Wales’s friend.

[52] Trasimene.

[53] _Gil Blas’_ uncle, ‘three and a half feet high, with his head
sunk well between his shoulders.’

[54] The celebrated Italian tenor (1750–1830).

[55] Gustavus Maurice, Baron d’Armfeldt (1757–1814). After Gustavus IV.
reached his majority he was appointed Ambassador at Vienna. He retired
to Finland in 1810, and held office under the Russians.

[56] Gustavus III. (1748–1792). He was assassinated at the instigation
of certain nobles, who considered that he was interfering with the
rights of their order. Gustavus IV., his son, was only fourteen years
old at the time, and until 1796 the government was carried on by his
uncle, the Duke of Sudermania.

[57] John Augustus, Lord Hervey (1757–1796), son of Frederick Augustus,
fourth Earl of Bristol. He served in the navy, and was Ambassador at
Florence from 1787 to 1794. He married, in 1776, Elizabeth, daughter
of Colin Drummond, of Megginch Castle, Perthshire. Lord Holland in his
_Memoirs of the Whig Party_ (i. 56) states that he was recalled
for violently and indecorously insisting on the dismissal of La Flotte,
the French Minister, and thereby causing the Grand Duke to commit a
breach of neutrality. Lord Holland mentions that common report in
Florence suggested that Lord Hervey’s enmity to his colleague was not
entirely based on public grounds.

[58] Thomas Pelham, afterwards second Earl of Chichester.

[59] The Princess Royal of Sweden, who was travelling incognito as the
Princess of Wasa.

[60] Louise de Stolberg-Goedern (1753–1824). She married Prince Charles
Edward in 1772, but after eight years of unhappiness left him, and went
to Florence. There she became the mistress of Alfieri, and remained
with him until his death in 1803. She subsequently formed an attachment
for Fabre, a young French painter, and possibly married him.

[61] One of the insurrectionist leaders in La Vendée, formerly a
hairdresser. He was killed at Saint-Gervois towards the latter end of
1793.

[62] Prime Minister of Tuscany. Originally tutor to the sons of Grand
Duke Leopold, he accompanied the latter to Vienna on his elevation to
the Imperial throne. He returned as Minister to Archduke Ferdinand, and
continued in the same position in the Duchy of Würtzburg, which the
Archduke received from Napoleon as compensation for the loss of Tuscany.

[63] Ferdinand III. (1769–1824) became Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1790
when his father succeeded as Emperor. He was ejected in 1801, receiving
the Grand Duchy of Würtzburg in 1805, but finally returned to Florence
after the battle of Waterloo. His wife was Luigia Amalia, daughter of
the King and Queen of Naples.

[64] Felix Fontana (1730–1805), originally Professor at the University
of Pisa. He was appointed director of the museum at Florence by the
Grand Duke Leopold.

[65] The war between Austria and France broke out on the Netherlands
frontier in April 1792, and success in turn favoured each of the
combatants. Dumouriez’s treachery in March 1793 allowed the Austrians
to pass the French frontier, and the scene of action was removed to
that country. England declared war against France in February, and
despatched a force under the Duke of York to assist the Austrians.

[66] The Opera House of Florence.

[67] Lady Ann Hatton. Daughter of Arthur, second Earl of Arran,
she married first, in 1783, Henry Hatton, of Clonard, co. Wexford;
secondly, in 1800, John, first Marquess of Abercorn. She died in 1827.

[68] King Sebastian (1554–1578), who succeeded to the throne of
Portugal at the age of three, and was killed fighting the Moors in
Morocco.

[69] Count Rumford.

[70] Lord Henry Spencer.

[71] An old French measure. A toise is just over six feet.

[72] He took part in the trial and condemnation of Charles I.

[73] Armand-Louis de Gontaut Biron (1747–1793). He was guillotined in
December.

[74] Francis, afterwards second Marquess of Hertford; at this time
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Berlin and Vienna.

[75] George, Lord Morpeth (1773–1848), eldest son of Frederick, fifth
Earl of Carlisle, and Margaret, daughter of Granville, first Marquess
of Stafford. He married, in 1801, Georgina, eldest daughter of William,
fifth Duke of Devonshire, and succeeded to the titles on his father’s
death in 1825.

[76] George James, fourth Earl of Cholmondeley (1749–1827), who was
created Marquess of Cholmondeley in 1815. He married, in 1791, Georgina
Charlotte (1764–1838), daughter of Peregrine, third Duke of Ancaster.

[77] Valenciennes was invested by the allied troops under the Duke of
York, and capitulated after a siege lasting forty-three days.

[78] La Fayette had broken his connection with the Jacobins after the
execution of Louis XVI., and was forced to take refuge in neutral
territories at Liège. He was there taken prisoner by the Austrians, and
was kept in confinement at various places for five years.

[79] Charles François Dumouriez (1739–1823). At the outbreak of the
Revolution he was closely connected with the Girondist faction, and
held for short periods the offices of Foreign Minister and Minister for
War. He was appointed to the army of the north as Lieut.-General, and
inflicted a severe rebuff to the allies at Valmy in 1792. After the
execution of Louis XVI., however, he became lukewarm in the cause, and
when defeated by the Austrians at Neerwinden he seized the opportunity
of joining the Austrians, with a small portion of his army. He lived at
Hamburg for some years, but finally settled in England in 1804, and was
granted a pension of 1200_l._ by Government.

[80] Spencer, eighth Earl of Northampton (1738–1796). He was twice
married, and died at Berne. The _Gentleman’s Magazine_ records
that he originally retired to Switzerland to recover from the expenses
of a Parliamentary contest at Northampton, for which he sat 1762–63. He
succeeded to the peerage in the latter year.

[81] It was sold in 1830 for 20,000_l._ to the Emperor of Russia,
and is now in England.

[82] Lenzburg.

[83] Custine was placed in charge of the northern army after
Dumouriez’s defection, but found it in such a state of disorganisation
that he was unable to cope with the enemy. Condé and Valenciennes fell
without him being able to give them any assistance. His ill success
cost him his life.

[84] Charles Eugène (1728–1793) who succeeded his father as Duke
of Würtemberg in 1737. He was twice married, his second wife being
Franziscka de Bernardin, Comtesse de Hohenheim.

[85] Ludwigsburg.

[86] Lionel Robert Tollemache, grandson of Lionel, fourth Earl of
Dysart, and son of the Hon. John Tollemache and Bridget, daughter of
Robert, first Earl of Northington. He was in his nineteenth year.

[87] They were not to serve against the allies for a year. This
condition, however, left them free to serve against the insurgents in
La Vendée, and there they were sent.

[88] Dormagen (?).

[89] The collection was removed for safety in 1805 to Munich by
Maxmilian Joseph, King of Bavaria, and was never returned.

[90] Lord H. Spencer.

[91] Thomas, seventh Earl of Elgin and eleventh of Kincardine
(1766–1841), the collector of the ‘Elgin Marbles.’ He was at Brussels
from 1792 till 1795.

[92] Three of these were fired from covered mines, and the assault was
delivered at the same moment, during the confusion caused by them.

[93] Lady Webster’s spaniel.

[94] The English army was engaged at Dunkirk, while the Imperial force
besieged Quesnoy. A very large force was also required to preserve the
communications between them.

[95] Charles, third Duke of Richmond (1735–1806), Master-General of
the Ordnance 1783–1795. ‘The Duke of Richmond quitted the Ordnance,
ascribing the failure to the Duke of York, and the Duke of York, or at
least his friends, insinuated that it had arisen from the neglect or
the malicious delay of the Ordnance’ (Lord Holland’s _Memoirs of the
Whig Party_, i. 68).

[96] It is interesting to compare a letter of Mr. Elliot, of Wells,
quoted in Lady Minto’s _Life of Sir Gilbert Elliot_, and written
on Nov. 2, from Tournay, after a visit to the Duke’s headquarters.
‘Almost all the persons immediately about the Duke are very young men,
and as they live at headquarters, they fill his table and prevent
him from inviting the general officers and colonels of regiments as
frequently as it is usual for a Commander-in-Chief to do. This is
one source of disgust. The youth of the circle which surrounds him
occasions also a levity of manners at headquarters, hence arises a
lamentable deficiency of discipline among the officers. The Duke feels
this, and sometimes _expresses_ himself hardily, when he ought to
_act_ with severity.’

[97] Mrs. Wyndham’s house.

[98] Better known as Lady Hertford. Isabella Anne, second wife of
Francis, Lord Yarmouth, who succeeded his father as second Marquess of
Hertford in 1794. The first Marquess, whose stepmother was a daughter
of Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, was created Viscount Beauchamp and
Earl of Hertford in 1750, and was raised to a Marquisate in 1793. Lady
Beauchamp was daughter of Charles Ingram, Viscount Irvine, and married
in 1776. She died in 1834, at the age of seventy-four.

[99] Madame de Walmoden, George II.’s mistress, was created Countess of
Yarmouth.

[100] Lord Sheffield married Miss Pelham, Thomas Pelham’s sister, in
December 1794. She died early in 1797.

[101] Elizabeth, only daughter of Sir Ralph Milbanke. She married
Peniston, first Viscount Melbourne, in 1769, and died in 1818. Her
second son, William, succeeded to the titles, and became Prime Minister.

[102] Afterwards first Earl of Minto. As a follower of the Duke of
Portland he had ceased to co-operate with the Opposition when his
leader joined the Ministry.

[103] Toulon was handed over by its inhabitants to Lord Hood on the
condition that it should be held in trust for Louis XVII., and given
back to the Royalists on the restoration of the monarchy. It was soon
afterwards besieged by the Republicans under General Cartaux, who
appeared before the walls on August 30. Large reinforcements swelled
his force to over 30,000 men, while the numbers of the allies never
exceeded 12,000. After several sorties, in one of which General O’Hara,
the commander of the land forces, was taken prisoner, it was decided to
evacuate the town, and the design was successfully carried out after
burning the majority of the stores and ships in the harbour.

[104] Sir Charles Grey, a distinguished general officer and K.B.
(1783), was created Baron Grey of Howick in 1801. He was raised
to an earldom in 1806, but died the following year at the age of
seventy-eight. His elder brother, Sir Henry Grey, died unmarried in
1808, and the baronetcy devolved on Charles, second Earl Grey, the
commencement of whose political career Lady Webster here relates.

[105] Pitt brought forward his plan for reform in 1785.

[106] Lord Hervey’s brother, who survived him, and became fifth Earl of
Bristol upon his father’s death in 1803.

[107] Duchess of Ancaster.

[108] James Harris (1746–1820), created Baron Malmesbury in 1788, and
raised to an earldom in 1800. He was originally a friend of Fox and the
Whigs, but severed his connection with that party in 1792. He was at
this time on a special mission to King Frederick William at Berlin.

[109] John, fourth Earl of Darnley (1767–1831). He married, in 1791,
Elizabeth, daughter of the Right Hon. William Brownlow, of Lurgan.

[110] He was appointed to command the expeditionary force sent to
assist the Royalist insurgents in La Vendée. The undertaking was a
failure, and the troops returned without effecting anything decisive.

[111] Ambassador at St. Petersburg and afterwards Louis XVI.’s Minister
for the Home Department. He emigrated at the time of the Revolution,
but returned under the Empire.

[112] George Augustus, afterwards eleventh Earl of Pembroke
(1759–1827). He was at this time in command of the 2nd Dragoon Guards,
but returned home on the death of his father in 1794.

[113] Ehrenbreitstein.

[114] Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford. See _ante_, p. 12.

[115] General O’Hara was wounded and taken prisoner in the attack on
Fort Mulgrave. He was taken to Paris, and imprisoned in the Luxembourg
until his exchange for General Rochambeau in August 1795.

[116] Louis Eugène, brother of the preceding Duke. He only lived until
1796, when he was succeeded by a third brother, Frederick Eugène.

[117] Lord Henry Fitzgerald (1761–1829), fourth son of James, first
Duke of Leinster. He married, in 1791, Charlotte, Baroness de Ros in
her own right.

[118] See _ante_, pp. 47, 55.

[119] As soon as the news of the outbreak of war between England and
France was received in India, the English took possession of all the
small French factories. Lord Cornwallis, the Governor-General, also
made preparations to besiege Pondicherry, but the fortress capitulated
to the troops under Colonel Braithwaite before he arrived upon the