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240 heard it all from D. (Lord Sunderlin.) His simple object is the payment of his debts; and as Pitt will not do that he has thrown himself upon Fox. Yet the latter and his party are not very willing to have anything to do with him. He retailed all the common cant about the grievances of the Irish Catholics with sufficient dexterity and address. But I did not let them pass, and fairly told him that they were merely imaginary, and that their people were worked up into discontent and clamour about grievances by wicked and artful men for factious purposes. I shall be, therefore, certainly no favourite at Carlton House.

“I was two or three times at the rooms, but I can scarcely see anything in large lighted apartments. It is surprising how little beauty or attraction there is in the world, at least to a prepossessed mind. I dined with three or four private families, friends of Metcalfe, where there were ladies—at Lord Lucan’s, &c. &c. (Several parties of female acquaintance are here mentioned.) And yet among all these various groups I did not see a single woman, gentle or simple, but Lady Worcester, that appeared to me to have the smallest attraction. How therefore should I ever get a wife? Or what ground have I to expect after all that has happened that any but a mere dowdy will accept my hand? Yet I still keep on hoping that something may happen—and unless it does, the new peerage will be quite thrown away.”