When the
writer next visited his friend, he found him very much altered; his
opinions were by no means so exalted as they had been--he was not
disposed even to be rancorous against the Duke of Wellington,
saying that there were worse men than he, and giving him some
credit as a general; a hankering after gentility seeming to pervade
the whole family, father and sons, wife and daughters, all of whom
talked about genteel diversions--gentility novels, and even seemed
to look with favour on High Churchism, having in former years, to
all appearance, been bigoted Dissenters. In a little time the
writer went abroad; as, indeed, did his friend; not, however, like
the writer, at his own expense, but at that of the country--the
Whigs having given him a travelling appointment, which he held for
some years, during which he received upwards of twelve thousand
pounds of the money of the country, for services which will,
perhaps, be found inscribed on certain tablets, when another
Astolfo shall visit the moon. This appointment, however, he lost
on the Tories resuming power--when the writer found him almost as
Radical and patriotic as ever, just engaged in trying to get into
Parliament, into which he got by the assistance of his Radical
friends, who, in conjunction with the Whigs, were just getting up a
crusade against the Tories, which they intended should be a
conclusive one.
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