Snow, clouds and wet weather. I passed my morning hour in reading the Annual Register for 1832, being the account of the Reform bill. The Author is evidently a decided tory and slides in his impressions in favor of that side throughout the debates.

Attended divine service. Mr. Frothingham preached. Exodus 20. 17. “Thou shalt not covet.” A disquisition upon the tenth commandment as the foundation of the moral law, regulating society. In the After-272noon John 13. 12–14. “So after he had washed their feet and had taken his garments and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well for so I am. If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet: ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.” The general subject may be gathered from the text to have been the idea of humility conveyed as a charge to Christians. But I was absent and unable to fix my attention enough to follow the train of reasoning in the discourse.

Home. Read a Sermon in Latin by Atterbury. A concio ad clerum from the Text Romans. 13. 1. “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.” An argument in favour of passive submission to Kings and the divine right of these to rule. It considered, 1. who were meant as higher powers, 2. how far the subjection was to go, 3. the reasons for the injunction, 4. to whom it was addressed. I have not often come across the well known doctrine of the English Church nor do I admire it when I do. It is not a little singular that the Bishop was soon after banished for intriguing against the reigning family. Evening very quietly at home. German.