ry, which is referred to
by Mr. Greville under that date.]

February 14th, 1819 {p.017}

George Lamb has been proposed in opposition to Hobhouse.[30] The
latter drew this opposition upon himself by his speech, and still
more by the reports of his Committee, in which they abused the
Whigs in unmeasured terms. Lambton went to Hobhouse and asked him
if he would disavow the abuse of Lord Grey, which his Committee
had inserted in the document they printed; he refused, on which
the opposition was determined upon and begun. McDonald proposed
Lamb, but they would not hear him; Evans seconded him. G. Jones
made a very good speech in proposing Cartwright. Burdett and
Kinnaird both spoke with moderation in proposing Hobhouse. It is
generally supposed that Lamb will win.

[30] [The death of Sir Samuel Romilly in November 1818
caused a vacancy in the representation of Westminster,
and another election took place upon the meeting of
Parliament. The numbers were: Hon. George Lamb, 4,465;
John Cam Hobhouse, 3,861; Major Cartwright, 38.]

Rogers' poem is disliked; the cry is all against it; some of the
lines are pretty, but it is not perspicuous enough, and is
deficient in novelty and force.

[Page Head: WESTMINSTER ELECTION.]

February 18th, 1819 {p.017}

Yesterday Lamb was only seven behind Hobhouse on the poll;
everybody thinks he is sure to win, even if Burdett should come
forward with money. The day before there was great uproar and
much abuse on the hustings. Burdett made a shameful speech full
of blasphemy and Jacobinism, but he seems to have lost his
popularity in a great measure even with the blackguards of
Westminster. Hobhouse yesterday was long and dull; he did not
speak like a clever man, and if the people would have heard Lamb,
and he has any dexterity in reply, he must have crushed him--it
was so answerable a speech.

I went to the Berrys[31] in the evening, where the blues and the
wits were assembled; as Sidney Smith said, 'the conversation
raged,' but there was nothing remarkably entertaining.

[31] [Miss Berry's well-known _salon_, No. 8 Curzon Street,
which was for more than a half a century the resort of
the best company in London.]

[Page Head: PARTY SPIRIT.]

February 25th, 1819 {p.018}

The debate on the L10,000 to the Duke of York on Monday produced
four very good speeches--Peel and the Solicitor-General on one