While waiting the turn of fortune’s wheel in Spain, Aaron fills in his leisure with society. Everywhere he is the lion. “The celebrated Colonel Burr!” is the phrase by which he is presented. Entertained as well as instructed by what he sees and hears, he begins to keep a journal. It shall one day be read with interest by the lustrous Theo, he thinks. Jeremy Bentham--honest, fussy, sprightly, full of dreams for bettering governments--finds out Aaron. The honest, fussy Bentham loves admiration and the folk who furnish it. He has heard from letter-writing friends in America that “the celebrated Colonel Burr” reads his works with satisfaction. That is enough for honest, fussy, praise-loving Bentham, and he drags Aaron off to live with him at Barrow Green. “You,” cries the delighted Bentham, when he has the “celebrated Colonel Burr” as a member of his family--“you and Albert Gallatin are the only two in the United States who appreciate my ideas. For the common mind--which is as dull and crawling as a tortoise--my theories travel too fast.” Aaron lives with Bentham--fussy, kindly, pragmatical Bentham--now at Barrow Green, now at the philosopher’s London house in Queen Square Place. From this latter high vantage he sallies forth and meets William Godwin; and Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft, carry him off to tea with Charles and Mary Lamb. He writes in his journal: “Go with the Godwins to Mr. Lamb’s. He is a writer, and lives with a maiden sister, also literary, up four pairs of stairs.” At the Lambs he encounters Faseli the painter; and thereupon Aaron, the Godwins, Faseli, and the Lambs brew a bowl of punch, and thresh out questions social, artistic, literary, and political until the hours grow small. Cobbett talks with Aaron; and straight off runs to Bentham with the suggestion that they send him to Parliament. Aaron laughs. “I’m afraid,” says he, “that whatever may be my genius for law-giving, it would fit but badly with English prejudice and English inclination. You would find me in the British Commons but a sorry case of a square peg in a round hole.” That Aaron is the fashion at Holland House, which is the gathering point of opposition to Government, does not help him at the Home Office. Also, the Spanish allies of England, through their minister, complain. “He is fomenting his Mexican design,” cries the Spaniard. “It shows but poorly for England’s friendship that she harbors him, and that he is feted and feasted by her nobility.” Lord Hawkesbury leans to the Spanish view. He will assert his powers under the “Alien Act.” It will please the Spaniards. Likewise, it will offend Holland House. Two birds; one stone. Hawkesbury sends a request that Aaron call upon him at his office; and Aaron calls.