Morning colder than usual. I went to the Office as upon every day. Mr. Beale came in with a petition or I should say a subscription for an Organ in the Meeting House at Quincy. I subscribed because I was obliged to follow suit with the rest. J. Quincy came in at the same time about a house for Mr. Lunt. He had written to my father and received an answer by which he refers the whole subject to me. I told him that the letter appeared to refer to a sale of land but his object appeared to 178be to procure it as a gift.1 He said that it did, for without being understood upon this point, he could not present to Mr. Lunt’s immediate friends any adequate motive for exertion. I told him I would take the responsibility of assuming that the land would be given. He then said he would write to Mr. Hedge and Mr. Parsons. I had a call from Mr. Walsh and then to see Mr. Brooks. Home, Livy. Afternoon, Burnet, rather heavy. Evening Lady Blessington after which I wrote until quite a late hour. The press now goes on faster than I do.

Morning cold. I went to the Office but was not very much occupied. Mr. Walsh came down and we talked about my papers. He said he agreed with them but intimated that if I wanted to produce any effect with them I must introduce more clap traps.1 My mind is a little too much in abstraction. But in writing upon such a matter as finance and currency it would seem as if the proper mode would be to introduce no figures. Took a walk and then home. It is now some time since I have heard from Washington. I do not know what the reason of this is. Livy.

Afternoon reading Burnet and studied a little of Plutarch. Nothing worthy of remark. Mr. Brooks came in to tea and passed part of the evening. The rumor is general in town that Mr. Webster is about to resign his situation in the Senate. This may have a very considerable operation upon events. It may accelerate the political revolution of this State, or it may bring round the event alluded to by Mr. Dutee J. Pearce in his letter to Mr. Everett.2 We shall see. I afterwards nearly completed another paper upon the Currency.

A cold, cloudy day with a slight sprinkling of snow. I spent an hour reading Lady Blessington’s Conversations with Byron. I think they bear their own stamp of genuineness. They portray his character most fully, a genius most fearfully gifted with evil passions. I am not one of those who condemn Lady Byron for at once leaving him. A woman with the sense of duty he admits her to have had must have had provocations amply sufficient to justify the step. And there is every thing in his 179character to confirm the presumption of such provocations. Her very genuine English domestic virtues would have made her appear humdrum and pall upon the vitiated palate of her husband. Thus his irregularities of temper would all have been vented upon her, and the very perfection with which she bore them would form an additional incitement to their excess.

Attended divine service and heard Mr. Frothingham. John 16. 7. “If I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” I gathered little from this discourse. Mr. Walsh dined with me and afterwards Proverbs 20. 1. “Wine is a mocker” This was upon the subject of temperance. It seems that the society had sent a circular to Clergymen requesting them to preach upon the subject last Sunday. Mr. F. had declined doing this on that day as he desired to maintain the independence of his pulpit, but he went to day into an examination of the doctrine of temperance as well in the pursuit of the object as in the object itself. I have heard him preach a strong Sermon from this text before, parts of which I thought I recognized in this.

Read a discourse of Dr. Barrow from Luke 24. 46. “And he said unto them, Thus it is written; and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day.” Upon the resurrection, it’s needfulness and expediency. Very full and satisfactory. Evening at home. Finished Lady Blessington with which I have been amused, and finished another paper.