A very old acquaintance called here yesterday: I regretted not seeing him--Bob Markham,[297] a great friend of poor Ld. Henry’s[298] and as much a lover as his friendship for his friend could allow. He is married, and settled in Yorkshire. His chief merits are good-nature and a willingness to oblige; his talents are moderate, for to say the truth he is rather dull, but the strongest symptom I feel of age is a strong partiality for those I have known in earlier days. A long acquaintance is with me a passport to affection. This does not operate to exclusion of new acquaintances, as I seek them with avidity; not so much, however, for my own gratification, as from a notion that mixing with a variety of people is an advantage to Ld. H., because as he, thank God, lives constantly at home, unless I were active in collecting fresh materials for society, he might be too apt to fall into a click [_sic_], a calamity no abilities can fight against. Ideas get confined, prejudices strong, and the whole mind narrowed to the standard of your own set. Canning is an instance of the badness of that plan; his jokes are local, and unless he ‘gives his little senate laws’ he is silent. Mankind are formed to live together; the more they mix with each other the better able a man is to judge them and conduct himself; otherwise it becomes what a priest once said of the universal truth, ‘Orthodoxy is my doxy.’ The Prince has given up Lady Jersey, and is now trying to renew with Mrs. Fitzherbert. He ought to try and make his peace with heaven if he has any account to settle, as he does not look long for this mortal life. Gilbert Wakefield was this day condemned to two years’ imprisonment in Dorset jail. The sentence is severe; one cannot but regret severities should fall upon a man of learning. The Editor of _The Courier_ was also sentenced to 6 months’ confinement and 200_l._ fine, for calling ye Emperor of Russia a _tyrant_. He seems to have been a fool to have been at the trouble of saying such a platitude; ’tis like knowing that _B_ follows _A_ in the alphabet. _1st June,’99._--Lord Belgrave,[299] in consequence, as Lord King says, of morality and the whole duty of man being the _haut ton_, has taken up the Sunday newspapers, and on the score of their diverting people from their duty on the Sabbath wants them suppressed. Sheridan, who never lets an opportunity escape where an allusion can be made to Ld. B.’s Greek, finding Lord B. wanted time before the division on the motion, observed that the noble Viscount wanted it put off to the _Greek Calends_. And of the war, when there came up petitions from the country, Ld. Belgrave said that the signatures were not to be depended upon, as he knew many places where boys at school were made to sign--a scandalous proceeding. ‘Infamous,’ said Sheridan, ‘to take them from _their Greek_.’