Sunday, 17th.—Sick with headache. Hare to dinner, Duke of Bedford, Robinson, Major Hare, Hare’s son. Laughed so immoderately at Hare’s liveliness that my head was much worse, and I went to bed seriously ill. The Duke of Bedford looks infinitely better. I am in great hopes he will recover. He is in better spirits.
12th January, 1800.—A variety of little circumstances and frequent illnesses have prevented me from continuing regularly my notes. I went in the course of the month of December to Dalham.[52] I saw my dear child. Mrs. Smith went with us. Our visit did not exceed four days; we returned by the way of Cambridge, Ld. H. Petty and Mr. Debarry dined with us there. I was curious to ascertain whether the Gothic architecture of Henry VII. [sic] chapel would please me now, as it did many years ago, long before I saw the wonders of Italy: I found time and comparison had not in the least diminished my admiration of it.
NAPOLEON’S LETTER
Bonaparte returned suddenly from Egypt to France. He has overthrown the Directory, and the then form of Governt., and established a constitution at the head of which he is placed as Grand Consul. Should it be a permanent usurpation I will learn with accuracy the outlines, but the revolutions have been as variable as chemical nomenclature or systems of metaphysics. He opened a negotiation for peace lately by writing a letter directly to the King: his offer was rejected upon frivolous and peevish pretexts. The reply was made in the most barbarous language, crabbed, ungrammatical, and incomprehensible.[53] The joke of the day was that each of the Ministers who were present contributed their phrase: Mr. Pitt, ‘ye limited possibilities’; to Mr. Windham, ‘the line of hereditary Princes’; Ld. Grenville, ‘rapine, anarchy, and plunder’; nor were Lds. Westmoreland and Camden forgotten by giving ‘their explicit acquiescence’ to all that was done.
I went to a Harlequin farce on ye 28th December after dining in Cavendish Square; a gun was fired off, which frightened me, and on the morrow I was taken ill. I was very weak and confined to my bed many days; this day is ye 13th, and I am still indisposed.
During my confinement I have been reading among other things multitudes of novels, most of them sad trash, abounding with the general taste for spectres, hobgoblins, castles, etc., etc. Godwin has added to his publications; critics say, not to his reputation. In his preface he announces that he has not abided by the principles contained in his Political Justice, as he throughout the work shows that the greatest calamity is to loosen the ties of social confidence and domestic love.[54] Poor Mr. Weld, who dined here occasionally, dropped dead at the Tower, playing at whist with Ld. Thanet. He died under great pecuniary embarrassments. Marsh came to us the first day of the vacation; Ly. Lucy and the Dss.[55] were in the house, but it so happened by Ly. L.’s illness and sure management on our part that they never met.
13th Jan.—Monsieur de Bouillé se plaignant de la Révolution dit, ‘Ce sont nos gens d’esprit qui nous ont perdu.’ ‘Ah, Monsieur, que ne nous sauviez-vous’ [sic], said Mde. de Coigny.
Quand le mariage de Lord Paget fut remis à cause de l’accident qu’il eut en se tirant la botte, elle dit, ‘C’était un mariage remis àpropos de bottes.’
Une personne, attaquée de paralisie à mi-corps, étant depuis grosse, elle dit, ‘Elle accouchera donc d’un profil.’
Lorsque Monsr. d’Épremesnil perdit sa popularité, il demanda à Mde. de Coigny pourquoi le même peuple qui l’avait couronné de laurier l’accablait d’injures et le brûlait en effigie. ‘C’est,’ dit-elle, ‘que rien ne brûle plus vite que le laurier dépêché.’