The Duke of Somerset[25] came over and stayed at two different times. He would have liked to have made a longer visit, but his mother was arrived at Plymouth, and she is a jealous bigot. He possesses a plain understanding and a mind in a progressive state of improvement. He reads and reflects and judges for himself, mixed with great diffidence and caution. He has had no advantage from an intercourse with the world. He lives retired, and it is quite singular to observe the impression a common, sensible remark, which might be made by anybody, makes upon him; he looks at one, pauses, and exclaims ‘Very true!’ in a sincere way, that manifests that he is struck with the justness of the observation, and that he admires the sagacity of the person. I perceived this during the conversation I had with him, and the points that struck him were merely such as any person at all _au courant_ of common events would make, rather commonplace, tho’ true. His politics are just and temperate; his principles precisely those of a reflecting man, not actuated by any party motives, viewing things not men. He deprecates the inadvertencies of Opposition, as they have rendered themselves so obnoxious that they are dreaded in the country, and have been the means of throwing an unfounded popularity upon King and Ministers. He feels the necessity of abridging the power of the Crown, which he thinks has made rapid strides towards absolute, independent Monarchy. The first step to be taken, he thinks, is to obtain peace almost upon any terms, and the next to retrench the dangerous extension of prerogative this unfortunate war has given to the King. He has a taste for literature, rather free upon religious subjects, a great admirer of Gibbon--not his style, but his sentiments; many passages he knew by heart and repeated, tho’ from diffidence he could hardly finish a sentence, but that soon wore off. He seems well-read in polemics, knew the arguments urged on both sides in all the modern controversies, Parr, Travis, Curtis, Porson, Paley, Gisborne, etc. Upon the whole, I should be pleased to improve my knowledge of him. His brother[26] is a great mathematician and man of science. He would not come, but proposed solving an abstract problem with Mr. Playfair,[27] which had occupied him for some days. [Sidenote: MR. DUGALD STUART]