_22nd March._--On Friday, 15th, we had an uncommonly pleasant party--Mrs. W., Lds. Mor., Bor., Thanet, General Fitz., Lord Robert, Mr. Hare, and (by chance) little Lewis. _25th March,’99._--On Sunday, 17th, Ld. H. dined with Mr. Francis. Mr. Marsh and Hamilton[251] dined here with me. At Francis’s they drank a good deal of wine. The joke was to exhaust his cellar. It succeeded, much to the mirth of Ld. Thanet, who is the promoter of all fun and mischief. On Monday Ld. Bor., Misses Fox and Vernon came to sleep, and some others. [Sidenote: DEBATE ON THE UNION] On Tuesday the House of Lds.; Miss Fox and I dined at home with Hodges only. Ld. H. and Marsh went to the H. of Lds. The debate was upon the Union. It was conducted, as Ld. Carlisle said, in a very gentlemanlike manner, which in plainer language means dully. Ld. L. spoke. The tenor of his speech was ambiguous, and none could judge how he would have voted had the question come to a division. He deprecated the principle of confiscation, and urged strongly the injustice of the Fitzgerald Attainder Bill. He illustrated his argument by several political cases, one of which the world say he intended for his own situation; but he certainly did not. He said any of their Lordships might be cursed with a Republican son, and by this system of confiscation their grandchildren would be beggars. Ld. H. spoke, but out of good nature he let the others speak before him, so that he was obliged to curtail his arguments on account of the lateness of the hour. We did not get to bed until 6 o’clock. The next day we dined at Mr. Crawfurd’s. He had all our own friends to meet us, Ld. and Ly. B., Mr. Canning, Ld. Mor., Bor., Amherst, Ossory, and M. de Calonne.[252] The dinner was pleasant and cheerful; the Fish said something slighting of Ld. Fitzwilliam,[253] which made Ld. Bessborough redden, and Canning in his flippant way took it up, but _à force_ of winks, shrugs, and nods, we made them shift the subject. ’ Canning had on that day left the Foreign Department for a sinecure under Dundas in the Board of Control. I called on Ld. L. for five minutes, then went to ye Dss. of Leinster, and afterwards supped at Ld. Bessborough’s. On Thursday we dined alone. On Friday Ld. Robert,[254] Ld. Granville, Sir Lionel Copley,[255] and Sir Gilbert[256] dined. Sr. Lionel was, as usual, Jacobinical and tiresome. His only merit in conversation (for in conduct he has many) is that he surprises his audience by the extreme accuracy of his knowledge of all the epochs in the Revolution, the stations of the armies, and the names of the members of the different councils.