Heavy rain. At home all day and evening. Hoarseness and cold.

I found myself somewhat incommoded by my cold, how I caught 309which is far beyond my comprehension, but as the weather was very bad with a decided prospect of a North Easterly storm of some continuance I felt content to remain in the house and devote myself to my usual train of occupations.

Read a part of an article on the Bank of England in McCulloch’s Dictionary,1 and continued my work on the letters. After dinner I took up Menzel seriously and made great progress in his second volume. He writes well at times but evidently under strong prejudices and has all the national characteristics. Moreover his book makes me estimate the German mind rather below what I had done before. It wants practical basis, the thing which makes the English literature so useful as well as attractive.

Evening with my Wife at home. Read over several numbers in the last North American Review, very sensible. My father made a call to see how we did. We hear today by the Newspapers of the suspension of specie payments by the Baltimore Banks. This was no more than I expected.