Place

This must be Francis Place as he was a close friend of  Paul Lemaitre, a comrade from the London Corresponding Society, along with John Richter, who Godwin also mentions in his diary.  Place was also an admirer of Thomas Holcroft.  

Godwin's diary records over 300 meetings with Francis Place, although onl 4 occasions when they dined, 'supped' or had tea.  This suggests that they were mostly about business rather than social occasions.  By 1818 their relationship had broken down, as recorded in a letter of 6 Janury 1818 when Godwin complained about Place referring to him as 'a bad man, whom ypu formerly overwhelmed with your encomium, merely because he once failed to perform what it was out of his power to effect.' [MS Abinger c.19, Fol 59]

This letter refers to Godwin's failure to repay money he had borrowed from Place.  What made it worse for Place was that he had persuaded others to lend Godwin money and he became exasperated at his (and his wife's) extravagance.

Place remained an admirer of Godwin's wrtings, especially Political justice, which he was still recommending in the 1830s.  Godwin's On Population (1820) prompted Place to publish his only book, Illustrations and Proofs of the Principles of Population in 1822, in which he disagreed with Godwin's challenge to Malthus's arithmetic but challenged Maltus's recommended solution in his second edition: 'moral restraint' by proposing the use of contraception..

Place's enthusiasm for Godwin's optimistic philosophy informed his political activism and, according to his manuscript autobiography, gave him the confidence to be successful in business.  It must also have contributed to his participation as a member of Jeremy Bentham's inner circle from 1817.