When the division was coming on, Ld. Liverpool and Ld. Malmesbury and many others called out, ‘Pooh, pooh! you won’t divide! Why, you will have but three. Pooh, pooh! Don’t think of it!’ ‘Aye, but I will divide!’ cried Ld. H. ‘If I am single I will have a division’; when, to his great surprise and pleasure, the Duke of Somerset and Ld. Mansfield divided with him, besides King and Bessborough. Ld. Camelford did the same, but pique against Ld. Grenville explains his conduct.
From several conversations I had alone this summer with the D. of Somerset I collected that he was, tho’ not disposed towards Opposition, yet averse to Ministers. He is a sensible man, inclined to act upon his own judgment: his manner, from shyness, is against him. I suspect that he has a love of fun in him, for he told me that he was occupied in persuading Lewis to write a book on moral philosophy, as he was certain from the opinions he heard from Lewis that it would be at least entertaining. ‘For,’ says he, ‘he calls virtues what the world holds in abhorrence as great vices, and these paradoxes he maintains so strangely that I cannot illustrate them stronger than by telling you that he confesses himself surprised that Wilberforce should have published his book after The Monk. He thinks it great want of taste to give a system of morality in a dry, forbidding form, whereas “mine is given in a popular, pleasing manner, which diverts whilst it instructs, annner to upbraid him for his vote the night before, but hed is adapted to every capacity.”’ Yesterday when he came in to dinner Lds. Boringdon and Amherst lifted up their hands in a ma rather showed an unwillingness to be tutored. Again, during a dinner, Ld. B. leant across me to tell him he was a rival to Julian. I immediately said, ‘I see no apostasy in being guided by good sense and not biassed by interest.’ Ld. B. said no more, and the Duke looked thanks for the reproof. Again Ld. B. asked how he meant to vote upon a question which is coming on. The question is improper to ask, and the Duke replied very well, ‘I shall decide when I hear the arguments on both sides.’
We had a numerous party; Sir James St. Clair is lately returned from Minorca, of which place he gives but a sorry account. His wife is handsome; she did not love him when they first married, but his good nature has conquered her dislike, and she is almost in love with him. In most marriages a material change occurs in the course of ten years, but she has the merit of singularity in hers. Ld. Lorne is an old favourite of mine; his good humour, cheerfulness, and ease is quite charming. Lewis’ lines in an epilogue to Barbarossa, which they acted at Inverary, are very descriptive of him:—
And Lord Lorne’s easy air, when he got in a passion, Proved a tyrant must needs be a person of fashion. He seemed much at home through the whole of the play; He died in a style that was quite dégagé. And his orders for murder, disclosed by their tone, ’Twas the same if he gave them or let them alone.
14th Feb., 1800.—Bob Heathcote came for the first time. ‘A fool and his money are soon parted.’ Most of his is squandered at the gaming table, Newmarket, rare editions, sums lent to ——, splendid dinners, and, in short, in every way that it can go. He is, however, very good-natured, and not conceited—merits that cover a thousand blemishes, and in society make up for most deficiencies.
MR. KINNAIRD
A few days back Mr. Kinnaird,[60] eldest son of Ld. Kinnaird, dined here for the first time. Being a Scotchman and having studied in a Scotch University, report puffs him high, of course. Tho’ it overdoes his deserts, yet he merits some praise. He is clever and willing to please; one cannot pity him for shyness, as he labours under no embarrassment upon that score. Living in the world will set his head right and render him useful. He is an eager politician against Ministers.
Ld. H. is gone down to the H. of Lords, as a message from the King to subsidise the German Princes is before the House. It is conjectured that our magnanimous ally, the Imperial Paul, is deserting the cause he espoused so vehemently; whilst we are to continue fighting until ‘experience and the evidence of facts’ render a peace proper with Bonaparte. One of the finest passages in Mr. Fox’s speech was where he took up the expression of those who gave for reason the not negotiating immediately, that ‘we should pause.’ He described with energy the calamities of war, the villages sacked, cattle destroyed, the field of battle covered with agonised victims weltering in their blood, who, if questioned as to the cause they were fighting in, could not answer as in other wars, ‘ambition,’ ‘aggrandisement of territory,’ etc., etc. ‘No, we fight because the English Ministers are doubtful as to the moral qualities of Bonaparte.’
Lord Carlisle is mightily disposed to vote against the Ministers, a propensity which gives his son great alarm, as he is riveted to all the dogmas of the Ministerial creed, the necessity of the war, faith in the prowess of Suwarrow, the infallibility of Mr. Pitt, etc., etc.
General Fitzpatrick has published his letters to Lord Kenyon.[61] Previous to doing so he sent them to the King, accompanied by a letter calculated to delight him, appealing to him as the head of the school of honour and chief among gentlemen. The motto to the publication is very happy; it is taken from Kenyon’s own speech on the trial of Horne Tooke in 1792: ‘Mr. Horne Tooke, I cannot sit here to hear names calumniated and vilified, persons who are not in this case, persons who are absent, and cannot defend themselves. A Court of Justice is no place for calumny. You must see the impropriety of it, and it does not become the feelings of an honourable mind.’