27th.—Clementi called, but Fanny was out. Mr M—— called. He attends the Old Bailey bar, from a desire to save the lives of the culprits. Talked a little metaphysics. I read Pope’s character of Atticus to him.
28th.—Called on ——, and conversed with Mr Buller on occult and final causes. Saw Tobin’s brother. Two girls of the town, walking in Newman Street, praised the goodness of God; and, as the weather had been very rainy for some days, they hoped his goodness would extend itself to render it fair all the next week, that they might walk the streets in comfort. A man being tried for a capital offence at the Old Bailey; the jury retired to consider of their verdict. The three principal witnesses had been ordered out of court, after having given their testimony, but stood in the passage at the door. The reward for convicting the man, as usual, was forty pounds. The jury returned, and pronounced the fatal sentence, Guilty. As soon as the sound reached these witnesses, they jumped up, clapped their hands, and exclaimed to each other, Guilty! Guilty! M—— was in court and witnessed the transaction.
29th.—F——, jun. came to ask me to petition the proprietors of Drury-Lane Theatre for a dresser’s place, for the wife of a door-keeper, who had died suddenly, in the exercise of his office. I could not comply, because of the very improper conduct of these proprietors in refusing to notice the letters I wrote to them, when they ceased, without any apparent cause, to play “Knave or Not?” But I agreed to write a letter for the woman to copy in her own name.
30th.—Wrote the letter; F—— having appointed to come for that purpose at nine, was with me at ten. Young S——, and B——’s nephew, came in their father’s name to ask for orders. Both families are rich, but I complied and procured them. B—— and N——, M.P. being at Brighton, where Major R—— was, N—— praised the Major as a man of great information, his friend, and one with whom B—— ought to be intimate. B—— said, they had met and spoken, and as there could be no great harm, he would accompany N—— to visit R——. They happened to meet him, and R—— presently took occasion to tell N——, that, from the principles he professed, and the speeches he had made in parliament, he could not but consider him as an enemy to his king and country, he therefore desired they might have no more intercourse. B—— laughed at N—— and his friend, but remarked the Major was an honest man, for most people would have said as much when he was absent, without the courage to declare such sentiments to his face. Hare, St. John, and others, at Debrett’s.
31st.—P—— and I had a dispute concerning Shakspeare. He asserted, quoting Gray and Warton as his supporters, that the thing in which Shakspeare excels all other writers, and in that only, is sudden bursts of passion. I allowed he did excel other writers in this, as in almost every other part of composition, but that he excelled them most in the full flow of passion. I doubt I was abrupt and dogmatical, for he appears to be a good-natured man; yet I could see he went away displeased.
November 1st.—Met Weld and H—— at Debrett’s. Pitt met H—— on horseback, the day on which it was determined to strike Fox’s name out of the list of privy-counsellors, and made such strange faces at him, that H—— went to Brookes’s and reported him mad; on which a person present said, “that accounts for a strange speech, as I thought, of Grenville, who affirmed, that while Pitt was in his present temper, he would not see him, but in the presence of a third person.” The —— said to be of the Orange party, and inimical to Cornwallis. Weld affirms, that since London was a city, it never had such immense exports as at this moment.
2nd.—Wrote yesterday an apology to P——, for my warmth in dispute; and received a very friendly and proper answer to-day.
4th.—Music at Mr Mackenzie’s. Haydn’s symphony quintetto and Mozart: both men of uncommon genius, but the latter impatient after novelty and superior excellence, often forgets the flow of passion in laboriously hunting after new thoughts which, when thus introduced, have the same effect in music, as the concetti of the Italians have in poetry; and for these Mozart is frequently extolled as superior to Haydn.
6th.—Went and settled with Mr Robinson, that is, I made over to him the copies and copyright of “School for Arrogance,” “Deserted Daughter,” “Man of Ten Thousand,” “Knave or Not,” “Hugh Trevor,” and “Anna St. Ives,” in consideration of an acquittal of sums due to him, to the amount of 340l., and a conditional promissory note on his part to pay me 150l. more, when the copies and copy-right shall have realized to him the sum of 504l. Procured a copy of the “School for Ingratitude,” advertised by Bell gratis, that is, at the author’s expense; he being angry, or rather, enraged at the plagiarism which he (falsely and ridiculously) accuses Messrs. Sheridan and Richardson of committing, by communicating his manuscript to Mr Reynolds to aid him in writing the comedy of “Cheap Living.”
7th.—Called on Carlisle. Conversed on the necessity of cultivating youthful sports and habits in mature and advanced age. Bought books at King’s. Met Harris, the manager, and soon after, Tierney, M.P.; both congratulated me on my recovery.