Waited on the Commissioner at five o’clock, and had the pleasure to remain till eight, when the debate in the Assembly was over.  The question which employed their eloquence was whether the celebrated Mr. Irving could sit there as a ruling elder.[319] It was settled, I think justly, that a divine, being of a different order of officers in the Kirk, cannot assume the character of a ruling elder, seeing he cannot discharge its duties.

Mr. Irving dined with us.  I could hardly keep my eyes off him while we were at table.  He put me in mind of the devil disguised as an angel of light, so ill did that horrible obliquity of vision harmonise with the dark tranquil features of his face, resembling that of our Saviour in Italian pictures, with the hair carefully arranged in the same manner.  There was much real or affected simplicity in the manner in which he spoke.  He rather made play, and spoke much across the table to the Solicitor, and seemed to be good-humoured.  But he spoke with that kind of unction which is nearly [allied] to cajolerie.  He boasted much of the tens of thousands that attended his ministry at the town of Annan, his native place, till he wellnigh provoked me to say he was a distinguished exception to the rule that a prophet was not esteemed in his own country.  But time and place were not fitting.

May 24.—­I wrote or wrought all the morning, yea, even to dinner-time.  Miss Kerr, and Mrs. Skene, and Will Clerk dined.  Skene came from the Commissioner’s at seven o’clock.  We had a merry evening.  Clerk exults in the miscarriage of the Bill for the augmentation of the judges’ salaries.  He and the other clerks in the Jury Court had hoped to have had a share in the proposed measure, but the Court had considered it as being nos poma natamus.  I kept our friends quiet by declining to move in a matter which was to expose us to the insult of a certain refusal.  Clerk, with his usual felicity of quotation, said they should have remembered the Clown’s exhortation to Lear, “Good nuncle, tarry and take the fool with you."[320]

May 25.—­Wrote in the morning.  Dr. Macintosh Mackay came to breakfast, and brought with him, to show me, the Young Chevalier’s target, purse, and snuff-box, the property of Cluny MacPherson.  The pistols are for holsters, and no way remarkable; a good serviceable pair of weapons silver mounted.  The targe is very handsome indeed, studded with ornaments of silver, chiefly emblematic, chosen with much taste of device and happily executed.  There is a contrast betwixt the shield and purse, the targe being large and heavy, the purse, though very handsome, unusually small and light.  After one o’clock I saw the Duke and Duchess of Gordon; then went to Mr. Smith’s to finish a painting for the last time.  The Duchess called with a Swiss lady, to introduce me to her friend, while I was doing penance.  I was heartily glad to see her Grace once more.  Called in at Cadell’s.  His orders continue so thick that he must postpone the delivery for several days, to get new engravings thrown off, etc. Vogue la galere! From all that now appears, I shall be much better off in two or three years than if my misfortunes had never taken place. Periissem ni periissem.