Dumont one evening read to us Rousseau’s description, in his _Promenades solitaires_, of the Isle de St. Pierre, in which he describes the felicity he enjoyed and his regrets at having quitted his delicious retirement. Ld. H., who is no admirer of Rousseau in any way, grew tired, and wrote this:-- Rousseau was so charmed in his island St. Pierre With walking and rowing about; I agree with him heartily when he was there ’Twas a pity he ever came out. Ld. H. told me this morning a piece of slyness of the Jacobinical party towards him. About two years ago a man of the name of Gurney, a solicitor, on behalf of the manufacturers entreated Ld. H. to speak against a Bill, which involved their interests, then brought before Parliament. It was entitled, a Bill to prevent unlawful combination among the workmen. He spoke, and distinguished himself; his speech was printed at Manchester and Liverpool, and distributed among the manufacturers. It seems Burdett and Ld. Stanhope[124] grew jealous of his popularity among _their_ friends, and have now contrived to get the petitions given to them, and have, now that resistance to it is become a little popular, espoused the cause. Ld. Stanhope told Ld. H. that he had made himself ‘many friends among the most valuable part of the community.’ Ld. H. of course does not care a straw upon the occasion one way or the other; it only makes him laugh. Ld. Thanet quitted his captivity on Monday last; he is delighted at regaining his freedom, but a little annoyed at walking the streets where he is shown as a sight, ‘There he goes: aye, that is him.’ He says all rooms appear immense, his eye having been so long accustomed to the straitened little apartment he occupied. Madame Bonawitz latterly shared his confinement: she is reckoned clever, she writes _English_ verses. Our planet must have got out of its orbit and flown off further from the sun, as the cold is very remarkable. Fires are indispensable, and I, who have within these four years said the only place where a fire was useful was the kitchen, am perishing. This is the 11th June, and the servants continue fires, which is the more singular, as they in general lay more stress upon the calendar than upon their feelings. Bread is 17½_d._ the quartern loaf, butcher’s meat from one shilling to 14_d._ pr. lb.; poultry, enormously dear; and every other article of consumption in proportion. How the labouring poor subsist and suffer their hardships patiently, are both problems. [Sidenote: 1800 LORD ELLENBOROUGH] Burke observed upon Mrs. Hastings’s[125] reception at Court, that the Queen had but one vice, avarice, and but one virtue, decorum; but when accident had brought them to contend, the vice had proved the stronger.