On ye 16th, the chief persons of ye Opposition dined at Ld. Grenville’s; Whitbread was not originally invited, but was so, at the particular request of Ld. Grey. Stahremberg[312] sent the whole of the correspondence between him and the Governt. which ended in the present rupture between them and his Court. Mr. Canning seems to have rejected the mediation of Austria in very unbecoming terms, and in his usual flippant manner; the whole will be made public. S.’s instructions are peremptory as to his quitting England before the meeting of Parlt. Bonaparte offered passports for _two_ plenipos., hoped they would select men of ‘_formes simples_’ and of a ‘_caractère impassible_’; a glance against either Lds. Lauderdale or Malmesbury. S., in his private letters to Metternich, complained of Mr. Canning’s impetuosity, and misapprehension of several expressions. Whitbread, with malignity and in the most unprovoked manner, attacked Ld. Grey at dinner; all were disgusted at his rancorous spirit. It was unfortunate that such a wrangle should occur before Ld. Grenville upon the subject of peace, as he had only just been persuaded against seceding himself from the H. of Lords upon the precise subject of the question of peace, and the want of discipline and unanimity amongst the difft. parts of the Opposition. _18th._--Ld. H. dined at Ld. Stafford’s. We went to the Birthday. _19th._--The same party dined here as did at Ld. Grenville’s, with the addition of a few, and Ld. Erskine, _nommément_ to prevent a recurrence of the unpleasant conversation between Whitbread and Grey. I hear nothing but of Coleridge, which makes me regret not being acquainted with him. After having accepted, by way of recompense for three scurrilous letters against Mr. Fox which appeared in the _Morning Post_ upon his residence at Paris, a Commissaryship at Malta, he is returned to England, where he is supposed to employ himself in writing articles in the _Courier_.[313] His nature is radically bad; he hates and envies all that are good and celebrated, and to gratify that spleen he has given in to Methodism, not from conviction, but solely to enable him to give vent to his malignity in a garb which is a _passe partout_. He is fond of maintaining paradoxes; at a dinner lately he began by attacking Sir Isaac Newton’s philosophy, Bonaparte’s military talents, and Virgil as a poet. He is often obscure, a mystical species of platonic philosophy, which he dresses up according to his own metaphysical taste, and calls the _mind_. A new theory he descants upon at length, and in his exposition of it absorbs the whole conversation. I have heard of him from various persons; Campbell, the poet, furnished me with the latter particulars. [Sidenote: OPENING OF PARLIAMENT]