_25th._—Called on Stoddart, not at home. Received a letter from him complaining of marked disrespect from me. Answered by truly denying any such intentional behaviour. Godwin, Carlisle, and the two Tobins to dinner, Stoddart came in the evening. Carlisle spoke of a woman who had been five-and-twenty years in bed, from a cancerous disease, and who is still living.
_26th._—Saw J. Robinson, Sir Francis Burdett, and Este, at Debrett’s. It is said, in a newspaper, that Kotzebue is imprisoned by the Imperial Government, for his democratic principles. Mr Aspin, who printed Fenwick’s pamphlet on Coigley, called.
_27th._—T. North, Lord Thanet, &c. at Debrett’s. The ravages of the yellow fever at Philadelphia and New York, detailed in to-day’s Chronicle. Courtney says, he lately read in one of Dr. Franklin’s letters, a passage where the doctor foretold epidemical diseases, if draining and cleanliness were not more carefully practised.
_28th._—Called to settle with S——, reminded him that the preface I wrote, and the proofs I read for him, while a prisoner with him in Newgate, had I charged them, if charged at twelve guineas, would not have been more than a third of the value of my time, yet I had charged nothing, nor should, unless he contested a fair account. This induced him immediately to allow the balance due on the sale of my books. Papers at Debrett’s. On Thursday the 22nd, Fanny met the Miss Harts, drinking tea with Miss Banks; they are the daughters of Horne Tooke. Horne Tooke takes some pleasure in praising his daughters, which he sometimes does by those equivocatory falsehoods, which are one of his principal pleasures. Of the eldest, he says, “all the beer brewed in this house is of that young lady’s brewing.” It would be equally true were he to say, all the hogs killed in this house are of that young lady’s killing, for they brew no beer. When a member of the Constitutional Society, I have frequently heard him utter sentences, the first part of which would have subjected him to death, by the law, but for the salvo that followed; and the more violent they were, thus contrasted and equivocatory, the greater was his delight.
_30th._—P—— to dinner. Manuscript letters of James I., Prince Henry, &c. in the Museum. P—— had been reading them, says the character in which they are written, is uncommonly beautiful; and that many of them addressed to Prince Henry, were from projectors and improvers with which that time abounded. Henry delighted in patronizing and encouraging them. P—— of opinion that the high character given of Henry, was well deserved.