Colonel Lenox is much better:  the Duchess of Leinster had a letter from Goodwood to-day which says he rides out.  I am glad you do.  I said nothing on “the Charming-man’s” poem.  I fear I said too much to him myself.  He said, others liked it:  and showed me a note from Mr. Burke, that was hyperbole itself.  I wish him so well, that I am sorry he should be so flattered, when, in truth, he has no genius.(754) There is no novelty, no plan, and no suite in his poetry:  though many of the lines are pretty.  Dr. Darwin alone can exceed his predecessors.

Let me repeat to both, that distance of place and time can make no alteration in my friendship.  It grew from esteem for your characters, and understandings, and tempers; and became affection from your good-natured attentions ’to me, where there is so vast a disproportion in our ages.  Indeed, that complaisance spoiled me; but I have weaned myself of my own self-love, and you shall hear no more of its dictates.

(745) The last mistress of Louis; the Fifteenth.  The Count du Barry who had disgraced his name by marrying her, claimed to be of the same family with the Earls of Barrymore in Ireland.-E.

(746) See ante, p. 452, letter 354.

(747) Mrs. Hastings was supposed, by the party violence of the day, to have received immense bribes in diamonds.

(748) A vagabond so called, from his going about attempting to stab at women with a knife.  His first aim had probably been at their Pockets, which having in several instances missed and wounded his intended victims, fear and a love of the marvellous dubbed him with the name of the Monster.  The wretch, whose name was Renwick Williams, was tried for the offence at the Old Bailey, in July 1790, and found guilty of a misdemeanour.-E.

(749) After numerous interruptions, the King’s aunts were permitted by the National Assembly to proceed to Italy.-E.

(750) “I have passed,” says Gibbon, in a letter to Lord Sheffield, “four days at the castle of Copet with Necker; and could have wished to have shown him as a warning to any aspiring youth possessed with the demon of ambition.  With all the means of private happiness in his power, he is the most miserable of human beings; the past, the present, and the future, are equally odious to him.  When I suggested some domestic amusement of books, building, etc. he answered, with a deep tone Of despair, ’Dans l’`etat o`u je suis, je ne puis sentir que le coup de vent qui m’a abbatu.’  How different from the conscious cheerfulness with which our friend Lord North supported his fall!  Madame Necker maintains more external composure, mais le diable n’y perd rien.  It is true that Necker wished to be carried into the closet, like old Pitt, on the shoulders of the people, and that he has been ruined by the democracy which he had raised.  I believe him to be an able financier and know him to be an honest man."-E.

(751) The following are Gibbon’s expressions:—­“Burke’s book is a most admirable medicine against the French disease; which has made too much progress even in this happy country.  I admire his eloquence, I approve his politics, I adore his Chivalry, and I can forgive even his superstition."-E.