Morning cloudy but it did not rain. I was busy in Commissions during the larger portion of the morning. So that at the Office I had only time to read a mere trifle of the Debates in the New York Convention. Mr. Hamilton seems to have sustained the whole weight of the Constitution and in doing so he certainly deserves great praise. This Constitution, it is now the work of many to destroy, though as yet, it has brought us nothing but good. Went to the Athenaeum where I took up Mackintosh’s History of England,1 and carried it home to read.

Afternoon, read the letters to Quintus 2 and 3 in the first book. I find little to except and a great deal to admire in these. Cicero in the tone of his morality was unquestionably far beyond the age he lived in. And in his recommendations to his brother he excels his usual style.

My wife was still in trouble about her household which does not get settled. I read part of Mackintosh’s History in the Evening and part of Miss Edgeworth on Education. The first I found dry. The second entertaining and instructive as usual. Spectator as usual.