Messrs. Grey, Tierney, and Erskine dined here last week. Grey was placid in temper and pleasing in his manner, a contrast to the general state of both, as he is usually irritable and supercilious. His heart is warm and excellent, and those few who do not detest him love him with great affection, but he is universally unpopular from the offensiveness of his behaviour. He says he is dissatisfied with his political conduct, and regrets having continued so long in Parliament after seceding. He began his political career under the auspices of Ld. Lansdown; the beauty and attraction of the Dss. of Devonshire drew him to the party of which she was a most active partisan. His abilities and connections secured him the flattery of the Whigs, and more seduced by his heart than convinced by his reason, he became an adherent of Mr. Fox’s. For many years he was discontented, for his ambition and vanity have been checked and mortified, the first from the desperate, unavailing opposition, and his vanity at being compared with Sheridan and obliged to act in concert with him. His eloquence is more pleasing and agreeable than forcible and deep; in private life he is very respectable. He has married the Duchess of Devonshire’s relation, Miss Ponsonby, a mild, insipid, pretty girl.[183] They are very happy, and if he is satisfied it is no person’s business to express astonishment at it. Tierney[184] is a man of whom everybody believes something against, but I could never discover upon what fact such a belief was founded, as he has never committed any overt act. His birth is obscure, not to say mean. He married a woman who brought him a fortune, which his extreme parsimony will prevent him from squandering. He is shrewd and lively, and has apparently a very bad opinion of mankind. A person who was sent about two years ago to explore the interior parts of Africa is just returned. He is a Scotchman of the name of M. Park,[185] very much protected by Sir Joseph Banks, and esteemed a man of veracity. He has neither fancy or genius, and if he does fib it is dully. He has traced the Niger to its source about a 1000 miles from the _embouchure_ of the Senegal. He describes it as falling into a vast mediterranean lake, from whence it probably issues, but that he could not ascertain. He met with great difficulties, and was frequently in danger of losing his life. In a Negro district he was once imprisoned and condemned to death. The Queen saved his life by proposing to preserve him as a curiosity for his complexion, but at the expense of his sight. He escaped, however, that sacrifice. A Major Houghton, who preceded him in the expedition, went laden with beads and toys, hoping to engage the friendship of the inhabitants by his paltry gifts. He succeeded for some time, but falling in with an intrepid, rapacious people, to obtain all his riches they massacred him. This man lived with the Negroes everywhere, shunning the Moors, whom he represents as cruel and perfidious.