_25th._—I have of late been uneasy lest Dodsley, the bookseller, should have lost much money by my ‘Experimental Agriculture,’ and called on Becket to know what became of him, and who he left. There I found that Nicoll was one of his executors, and now the only one left. I went to him and desired some information. On examining the list of his books he found there was but one single copy, and that consequently to suppose he lost by the work would be idle. ‘I can tell you what he gave you for the copy, for here is one of the greatest of curiosities.’ This was Dodsley’s book for authors’ receipts; in that he showed me William Burke’s receipt for 6_l._ 6_s._ on account of Edmund Burke, for the copy of the ‘Vindication of Natural Society.’ That book, said Nicoll, was so much admired in France by d’Alembert, Diderot, &c. &c., that it made them mad, and really produced the Revolution. ‘And now’ (he added) ‘I have shown you what Burke had for kindling the Revolution, let me also show you what he had for putting it out,’ and then he pointed out his (Burke’s) own receipt for 1,000_l._ for the profits of his famous volume. The [other] writings, &c., one other of his later pamphlets, were sold together for 300_l._ He seems, however, to have left it to Dodsley, and when the things were sold, to have taken what D. said was fair. Melmoth had a great deal of money of him, for his translations, &c. At night letters to us all. Three came from Jane and Arthur. A sad account of the interpreter provided for him, who is an ignorant puppy of a nobleman who is too lazy to do anything. Of all the Governments I have heard of, it seems to be the most stupid, the most ignorant, and the most profligate: the fact, I dare say, is that the army alone is attended [to]. They had the news of the battle of Austerlitz, with a loss as they supposed of 40,000 Russians. Not a family at Moscow but must have lost a relation, yet a grand ball that night, and nothing but gaiety and festivity. They have no feeling. The governor took Jane into a window and told her that he was informed she disapproved of all her husband’s farming ideas as much as anyone could do, and ridiculed all his schemes. Upon explanation it came from Marshall Romanzoff, who had it from a German baron that had been at Bradfield, who, admiring the number of experiments, Mrs. Y. told him that she detested them all, and that I had ruined myself by them. A true report I will answer for, for this was her conduct through life. Lamentable it was that no enemy ever did me the mischief that I received from the wife of my bosom by the grossest falsehoods and the blackest malignity; of just such anecdotes of her conversation I have had instances from every part of the world. But do such things rise from the dust? Oh! no, they come from God, and were far less than what I merited at His hands. I had such as I deserved, or much better.