Morning colder. Office. Time as much taken up in business affairs as ever. I brought up my private Accounts. From some cause or other, I feel this year unaccountably hurried. I would read my Article in the North American Review however.1 It disappoints me on publication. I must strive to do better.

Walk. Nothing of great interest excepting that the National Republicans have carried all the Senate. This was not quite expected. A paragraph appeared in the Daily Advocate, stating the fact of the existence of a letter similar in purport to my father’s, from Mr. Davis.2 I called to find Mr. Hallett and tell him I should retain the Address a day longer in my hands in order to wait for alterations in the Address contingent upon such a course—One or two passages in it being likely to become inappropriate by means of it.

Afternoon after despatching my letter and waiting for the Mail which as my man said brought me nothing, concluding from the present state of things that if Mr. Davis had written such a letter, it would be suppressed, I sent the Address.

Evening, a visit from Mr. T. W. Cross about my brother’s Note. 241At such an unseasonable hour, it put me very much out of temper. This I record for my future amendment. I paid him however. Quiet evening. Finished Harrington.

Morning tolerably clear. I was occupied an hour in my weekly visit to Market, after which I passed my time at the Office very quietly. Did not think of calling for my Letters until noon, when I found one from my father inclosing another to Mr. Hallet.1 I called upon him to deliver it, and found him in no amiable mood. He seemed disposed to make alterations in the Address. I felt somewhat provoked with him for this, and it was with some effort I kept my temper. He had been the means of bringing my father out by a very unusual series of resolutions, and once out, he seemed to imagine he was tied forever. I told him at once, that his resolutions and not my father were to blame for this state of things, and that if as he threatened, he became Jacksonian, the only result would be that the penetration of my father would be justified. I imagine these views had some effect. We parted goodnaturedly, but neither of us pleased.

I took a short walk. Mr. Brooks and Edward dined with me—But little or no interesting conversation. Short afternoon, Lord Bacon. Evening, Miss Edgeworth’s Ormond.

At eight o’clock, Mr. Hallett was announced, and he sat with me in my study until nearly eleven. His tone was entirely changed. Instead of Jacksonism, he professed to consider my father’s suspicion as very unjust and more than hinted that as I had raised it, I ought to put it down. He read me my father’s letter to him and then opened his business. He had read the Address to Messrs. Bailey and Whitmarsh, who had liked it much better. Their remarks however had been directed to certain passages, and he would proceed to submit them for my consideration. They were disposed to say nothing against the main points. I thought but did not say, that he had usurped authority in showing it to them, and that it was not a little imprudent in him to come to me for alterations under the cover of their names which 242he had already been refused under his own. However it would not do to slight them. I listened to them all, assented to some, doubted of others, and refused the rest. The condition was to be the restoration of harmony, and as the changes were not material, I thought them worth the object.