he exposes himself dreadfully, and entirely lost all
the advantages he had gained by the excellent speeches he had
previously made on other and more confined questions. He was very
angry with the Duke of Richmond, whose opposition to him is
considered by the Duke's adherents as a sort of political
parricide. Old Eldon spoke very well, and Radnor; the rest but
moderate.

February 27th, 1830 {p.280}

Dined at Lord Lansdowne's; Moore, Rogers, J. Russell, Spring
Rice, Charles Kemble, Auckland, and Doherty; very agreeable, but
Rogers was overpowered by numbers and loud voices. Doherty told
some good professional stories, and they all agreed that Irish
courts of justice afforded the finest materials for novels and
romances. The 'Mertons' and 'Collegians' are both founded on
facts; the stories are in the 'New Monthly Magazine;' they said
the author had not made the most of the 'Collegians' story. Very
odd nervousness of Moore; he could not tell that story (of
Crampton's), which I begged him to do, and which would not have
been lugged in neck and shoulders, because everybody was telling
just such stories; he is delighted with my note of it. Charles
Kemble talked of his daughter and her success--said she was
twenty, and that she had once seen Mrs. Siddons in 'Lady
Randolph' when she was seven years old. She was so affected in
'Mrs. Beverley' that he was obliged to carry her into her
dressing-room, where she screamed for five minutes; the last
scream (when she throws herself on his body) was involuntary, not
in the part, and she had not intended it, but could not resist
the impulse. She likes Juliet the best of her parts.

February 28th, 1830 {p.280}

Dined yesterday with Lord Stanhope; Murray the bookseller (who
published 'Belisarius'), Wilkie the painter, and Lord Strangford;
nobody else of note. Wilkie appears stern, and might pass for
mad; he said very little. Murray chattered incessantly; talked to
me a great deal about Moore, who would have been mightily
provoked if he had heard him. An odd dinner, not agreeable,
though Lord Stanhope is amusing, so strange in his appearance, so
ultra-Tory and anti-Liberal in his politics, full of information
and a good deal of drollery. Murray told me that Moore is going
to write a 'Life of Petrarch.' Croker would have written
Lawrence's Life if Campbell [the poet] had not seized the task
before anybody else thought of laying hold of it. He has
circulated a command that all pers