Morning cloudy but it afterwards cleared a little. I accompanied Mr. Brooks to town. Nothing of material importance. Read some of Jefferson, conversed with Mr. Walsh, wrote my Diary. At Washington they have chosen a new Speaker in the place of Mr. Stevenson who has resigned.1 The result betokens some shaking in the Councils of Washington. The Caucus system does not go down quite so easily as in the smaller limits of the State of New York. On the whole the political horizon shows some few spots of light.

Home to dinner. Afternoon, Mandeville whose book I finished. His second volume somewhat softens the intention of the Author, although it does not appear to me to deduct from its deformity. Ovid’s Elegies. 324He seems to have been pretty full of his desires. He reminds me of Byron, in a very different style however. Evening. Maritime Discovery. A very interesting Account of the Northern expeditions, in which so many men have lost their lives in the most fearful manner.