Foreigner of a different cast,—­Count Olonym (Olonyne—­that’s it), son of the President of the Royal Society and a captain in the Imperial Guards.  He is mean-looking and sickly, but has much sense, candour, and general information.  There was at Abbotsford, and is here, for education just now, a young Count Davidoff, with a tutor Mr. Collyer.  He is a nephew of the famous Orloffs.  It is quite surprising how much sense and sound thinking this youth has at the early age of sixteen, without the least self-conceit or forwardness.  On the contrary, he seems kind, modest, and ingenuous.[30] To questions which I asked about the state of Russia he answered with the precision and accuracy of twice his years.  I should be sorry the saying were verified in him—­

    “So wise so young, they say, do ne’er live long."[31]

Saw also at Abbotsford two Frenchmen whom I liked, friends of Miss Dumergue.  One, called Le Noir, is the author of a tragedy which he had the grace never to quote, and which I, though poked by some malicious persons, had not the grace even to hint at.  They were disposed at first to be complimentary, but I convinced them it was not the custom here, and they took it well, and were agreeable.

A little bilious this morning, for the first time these six months.  It cannot be the London matters which stick on my stomach, for that is mending, and may have good effects on myself and others.

Dined with Robert Cockburn.  Company, Lord Melville and family; Sir John and Lady Hope; Lord and Lady R. Kerr, and so forth.  Combination of colliers general, and coals up to double price; the men will not work, although, or rather because, they can make from thirty to forty shillings per week.  Lord R.K. told us that he had a letter from Lord Forbes (son of Earl Granard, Ireland), that he was asleep in his house at Castle Forbes, when awakened by a sense of suffocation which deprived him of the power of stirring a limb, yet left him the consciousness that the house was on fire.  At this moment, and while his apartment was in flames, his large dog jumped on the bed, seized his shirt, and dragged him to the staircase, where the fresh air restored his powers of exertion and of escape.  This is very different from most cases of preservation of life by the canine race, when the animal generally jumps into the water, in which [element] he has force and skill.  That of fire is as hostile to him as to mankind.

November 25.—­Read Jeffrey’s neat and well-intended address[32] to the mechanics upon their combinations.  Will it do good?  Umph.  It takes only the hand of a Lilliputian to light a fire, but would require the diuretic powers of Gulliver to extinguish it.  The Whigs will live and die in the heresy that the world is ruled by little pamphlets and speeches, and that if you can sufficiently demonstrate that a line of conduct is most consistent with men’s interest, you have therefore and