Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 4
1832-01-09
Morning mild and the rain which had fallen heavily during the Night made the Streets very unpleasant to walk in. I went to the Office and despatched No. 4 of the Review.1 I was then busy the remainder of the morning in various ways quite sufficient to take up my time and yet not sufficient to justify myself for its use. Went to the Athenaeum to look up Papers for my next number but could not find them. So that I shall have to change my plan. Returned home again omitting to take a walk. How often this happens.
Afternoon. I read the Paradoxes of Cicero and began my fifth and last number. There is certainly one thing in writing. It consumes time very insensibly. My afternoons fly even faster than my Mornings.
Evening read to my Wife a part of the German’s Tale in the fourth volume of the Canterbury Tales. This is made the foundation of Byron’s Tragedy of Werner; in the preface of which that author very highly commends it.2 Afterwards, I went on writing and did nothing else besides, excepting the usual Spectators.
The fourth number in CFA’s series on Secretary McLane’s report was printed in the Advertiser & Patriot on 12 Jan. (p. 1–2). In this he took an outright protectionist position, opposing, as damaging to American manufactures, reduction in tariff duties despite the evidence adduced by the Secretary that the existing tariff was producing revenue in excess of government needs.
In 1821 Byron dramatized “Kruitzner” or the “German’s Tale” and pub-218lished it under the title of Werner, a Tragedy. The preface, in which Byron acknowledged his source, is at p. 384 of the edition CFA was reading (above, entry for 4 Dec. 1831, note).