Mr. G., from whom I have no wish that it should now be concealed.

"In the mean time, I had no reason to complain of the manner in which I was treated by all those, for whose opinion I had any value. The character of openness and disinterestedness, which I thought had been acknowledged by all who thought me important enough to be the subject of any opinion, did, at that time, seem to protect me from harsh imputations. A slight rumour or two, soon dispelled—a buzz among some very obscure partisans; the attacks of the more extravagant republicans, and of the small sect of Godwinians, were all the petty inconveniences which I experienced. I was in this manner lulled into a more entire confidence, and flattered into a notion that I needed no policy to guard me against the suspicion of dispositions, which I was perfectly conscious had no place in my breast. Being without malice, I thought myself without enemies. I never supposed my conduct to be either important or ambiguous enough to require dexterity in its management; and I did not think that the arts of this sort of equivocal prudence would have been a good proof of probity. I was not then so simple as not to be perfectly aware, that with a little adroitness it is very easy to give a superficial colour of consistency to the grossest inconsistencies; but I really thought myself so perfectly safe, that I might abandon myself, without scruple, to the unthinking and incautious frankness which had been my usual habit. And, indeed, if I had thought otherwise, I am not sure whether I should have succeeded in a scheme for which my nature was not adapted. I did not then foresee that this very frankness might raise up as many enemies as malice itself, especially if an opportunity of attack were well chosen by a dexterous enemy, or, what was worse, a credulous, capricious, or

wrongheaded friend. And I certainly did not think that my little reputation, and still more trifling preferment, could have excited jealousy enough to be an auxiliary worth naming in such an attack.

"After having disburdened my mind in my lectures, two or three years passed in which literature, professional pursuits, and political questions, then first arising, unconnected with the revolutionary controversies, began to divert my attention from these painful subjects of reflection."

CHAPTER IV.

MARRIAGE VISITS

CRESSELLY-LETTER TO MR.

MOORE - PROFESSIONAL

AVOCATIONS LETTER FROM MR. MONTAGU TO THE EDITOR-LITERARY OCCUPATIONS-VISIT TO SCOTLAND-EXTRACT FROM MR. MOORE'S JOURNAL -VISIT TO PARIS-LETTER TO MR. DUGALD STEWART-TRIAL OF PELTIER -APPOINTMENT AS RECORDER OF BOMBAY FAREWELL LETTERS TO M. GENTZ-MR. SHARP-MR. PHILIPS-FROM MR. HORNER-MR. HALL-EMBARKS AT RYDE.

MR. MACKINTOSH had now been, for the second time, married (April 10th, 1798). The object of his present choice was Catherine, the second daughter of John Allen, Esq., of Cresselly, in the county of Pembroke, who, like his own father, had, in early life, served in Germany during some campaigns of the "seven years' war." To her warm affection, displayed first in the care of his three orphan daughters, and afterwards as the companion of a long life, and the mother of a rising family, he owed, for many years, that "happiness, for which," in his own words, "nothing beyond the threshold can offer any equivalent." During the few years which immediately followed, his life passed on-happily, as would appear from an observation which once fell from him," that they were perhaps the most agreeable of his life"-in the uniform exercise of his profession, and in the enjoyment of the refined and intellectual society in which he so much delighted. As an agreeable rallying point, in addition to the ordinary meetings of a social circle, a dinner-club (christened "The King of Clubs" by Mr. Robert Smith) was founded by a party at his

house, consisting of himself and the five following gentlemen, and all of whom still survive :-Mr. Rogers, Mr. Sharp, Mr. Robert Smith, Mr. Scarlett, and Mr. John Allen. To these original members were afterwards added, the names of many of the most distinguished men of the time; and it was with parental pride and satisfaction that he received intelligence, some time after, of their "being compelled to exclude strangers, and to limit their numbers; so that in what way The King of Clubs' eats, by what secret rites and institutions it is conducted, must be matter of conjecture to the ingenious antiquary, but can never be regularly transmitted to posterity by the faithful historian †.”

"In the spring of 1800," writes one of the new relatives his marriage had given him, "I was a good deal at M.'s, in Serle Street. Dr. Parr was also very much there at that time, making commonly one of our family party every evening. I wish my memory had retained any thing of the conversations that then passed, but the strongest impression that remains with me of this time is the accustomed goodnature and unceasing desire of M. to oblige and to give to others the most prominent place in society. I recollect one day, which, if it had happened when I was better able to judge of the loss we suffered, would have vexed me much. This was when Robert Hall and the Abbé Delille both dined in Serle Street. The Abbé repeated his verses all the

*

Amongst others, Lords Lansdowne, Holland, Brougham, Cowper, King, and Selkirk; Messrs. Porson, Romilly, Payne Knight, Horner, Bryan Edwards, Sydney Smith, Dumont, Jeffrey, Smithson Tennant, Whishaw, Alexander Baring, Luttrell, Blake, Hallam, Ricardo, Hopp

ner.

Mr. Windham was to be ballotted for on the Saturday succeeding his lamented death.

It passed, by a sudden dissolution, into the province of one or other of these functionaries, in the year 1824.

time was present, and I did not hear Mr. Hall even speak. M. put in a few words of approbation, now and then, and our day was marred; but the Abbé was gratified, and M. was pleased for that reason.

"I heard M. at this time deliver one of his lectures at Lincoln's Inn. I did not find the subject dry, for he had a great talent for presenting truths of universal interest, and I felt sorry when the lecture closed. What makes me notice this, is the difference that strikes me in the superior ease and fluency of his delivery then, to what it was when I heard him afterwards in Parliament. This might partly have been owing to the nature of a lecture being different from a speech, as well as the disposition of the minds of the hearers; but with allowance for these two causes, I think the great change was, that the hope and the confidence of M.'s nature had been, by the latter period, roughly checked.

"He passed the autumn of the same year with us at Cresselly. I shall never forget that time; he delighted every one who saw him, by the readiness and pleasantness of his conversation. His good spirits prevented the constraint and awe that superior understandings so often excite. His mornings were occupied in reading with us (E and myself) French, being our companion in our rides and walks; and I can now feel over again the solitude that he left with us, and the desolate look of the house the morning he departed to return to town."

On his way to pay the visit here alluded to, he enjoyed, during a couple of days, the society of his friend Mr. Moore.

[" August 24th.-Mackintosh came to me yesterday, at Clifton, where I then was. We set out together for