Slept three nights at Dunbar House, and went from thence to Howick, staying several days. Through York to Castle Howard; stayed three nights. Marsh remained there; and by the way of Newark to Nottingham, where Ld. H. received the Freedom of ye City, and we went by Leicester to meet, at Hinckley, Henry E.,[308] whom Miss Fox brought us from St. Anne’s. We there consulted with Chesher, a famous mechanician for instruments; he measured the limb, and gave us hopes that he could contrive an instrument to assist his walking. From Hinckley we went through Litchfield to Trentham Hall, where we stayed a few days; returned through Hinckley to Woburn Abbey. We there spent upwards of a week most agreeably. Returned home, Nov. 24th, 1807. [Sidenote: HENRY EDWARD FOX] _Dec. 12th._--Mr. Allen accompanied Henry E. to Hinckley, where he was to reside with Ld. Robt. Fitzgerald, and under his protection. On 31st Dec. went without Mr. Allen, who was employed busily at home, for a few days to Brocket. We there heard of the measles having appeared in Ld. Robt.’s family, and set off to Hinckley to remove Henry E., if possible, in time. We slept at Woburn one night on our way in going, two at Ampthill, and one more at Woburn on our return. Henry E. did not escape the measles, but is now recovering. _January 1808, H. House._--Sr. Arthur Paget returned last month from his unsuccessful Embassy. For seven months he only slept one night on land. He never approached nearer the Porte than the small Island of Imbros. B. Frere returned with him. He sent Mr. Morier to Egypt. The choice of G. Ponsonby for a Leader to the Opposition has been more approved, or, rather, to speak more correctly, less objected to than might have been expected.[309] The public laugh at the having sent to Ireland for a leader; Fox’s friends are indifferent since his death. Petty is reasonable as usual, and Whitbread, goaded by a scribbling gazetteer of the name of Belsham,[310] submits with a thousand reservations each more hostile than the other. Tom Grenville absolutely declined, on the score of health alone; he is in fact far from a robust subject, and quite unfit to undergo the fatigues of a long debate. Sheridan’s talents would entitle him to the first rank, but his profligacy of character, both as to veracity and honesty, besides his habitual debauchery, place him entirely _hors de combat_. Ld. Granville Leveson is just returned from Petersburg; another fruitless Mission! He describes the Emperor as being totally subjugated by Bonaparte, and even trembling before his representative, General Savary, who assumes the air of a master in Russia.[311] From the little I have heard, he seems to me to be entirely belonging to the present Governt. On Monday, the 17th, we took Charles to Eton. He is now launched into the sea of human affairs; the _world_ of a public school he will find very different from that of the world seen from under the paternal roof. [Sidenote: WAR BY COMPULSION]