Crabbe felt these successive repulses very keenly, but it is not necessary to tax North, Shelburne, and Thurlow with exceptional hardness of heart.

London was as full of needy literary adventurers as it had been in the days of _The Dunciad_, and men holding the position of these ministers and ex-ministers were probably receiving similar applications every week of their lives.
During three days in June, Crabbe's attention is diverted from his own distresses by the Lord George Gordon Riots, of which his journal from June 8th contains some interesting particulars.

He was himself an eye-witness of some of the most disgraceful excesses of the mob, the burning of the governor of Newgate's house, and the setting at liberty of the prisoners.

He also saw Lord George himself, "a lively-looking young man in appearance," drawn in his coach by the mob towards the residence of Alderman Bull, "bowing as he passed along." At this point the diary ends, or in any case the concluding portion was never seen by the poet's son.

And yet at the date when it closed, Crabbe was nearer to at least the semblance of a success than he had yet approached.