d instructive. He was very
passionate, and Adair said that the first time he ever saw him he
unluckily asked him some question about the wild parts of
Ireland, when Burke broke out, 'You are a fool and a blockhead;
there are no wild parts in Ireland.' He was extremely terrified,
but afterwards Burke was very civil to him, and he knew him very
well.

[7] [Right Hon. Sir Robert Adair, the friend of Fox,
formerly ambassador at Constantinople and Vienna. It
was he whom Canning once called 'Bobadare-a-dool-fowla.']

He told me a great deal about the quarrel between Fox and Burke.
Fox never ceased to entertain a regard for Burke, and at no time
would suffer him to be abused in his presence. There was an
attempt made to bring about a reconciliation, and a meeting for
that purpose took place of all the leading men at Burlington
House. Burke was on the point of yielding when his son suddenly
made his appearance unbidden, and on being told what was going on
said, 'My father shall be no party to such a compromise,' took
Burke aside and persuaded him to reject the overtures. That
son Adair described as the most disagreeable, violent, and
wrong-headed of men, but the idol of his father, who used to say
that he united all his own talents and acquirements with those of
Fox and everybody else. After the death of Richard Burke, Fox and
Burke met behind the throne of the House of Lords one day, when
Fox went up to Burke and put out both his hands to him. Burke was
almost surprised into meeting this cordiality in the same spirit,
but the momentary impulse passed away, and he doggedly dropped
his hands and left the House.

Adair told me that Lord Holland has written very copious memoirs
of his own time, and particularly characters of all the eminent
men who have died, in the delineation of which he excels. Soon
after Pitt's resignation in 1801 there was an attempt made to
effect a junction between Pitt and Fox, to which they were
neither of them averse. The negotiation was, however, entrusted
to subordinate agents, and Adair said that he had always
regretted that they had not met, for if they had he thought the
matter would have been arranged. As it was the design was
thwarted by the King through the intervention (I think he said)
of Lord Loughborough.

There was another Council about a week ago. On these occasions
the King always whispers to me something or other about his
racehorses or something about my