Morning fine. I went to the Office as usual. Time taken up a good deal in drawing Accounts. Call from I. P. Davis to inquire if I could be ready to give my Lecture next Tuesday to which I assented and glad to get it out of the way.

He talked much of the condition of the Banks and the general alarm which exists with respect to the soundness of several of them whose circulation is the most extended. We are getting into so bad a state that it is unsafe to keep a bill about one. Such is the result to which the Association has brought us. But nobody reads my Pamphlet. Hayford the Mason brought me a bill with a piteous story about drawing his former check in bills of the Commonwealth Bank. Such is the force of the experiment.

Home. Herodotus. Afternoon, I sat down in earnest to finish my Lecture which has been dragging. This took much of my time. Evening at home. Read Lockhart to my Wife whose book grows more interesting as he goes on.

Cloudy today but not bad weather. Went to the Office as usual and finished the abstract of my father’s Quarterly Account. I also paid the remainder of the heavy bills against me this year. I have been anxious to do this in order to avoid being incumbered with heavy balances on deposite. It has been my endeavour to keep myself even with the world, and this may be the formation of good habits. The general distrust of the Bank note circulation is such that it cannot go much farther.

Home at noon. Read some of Herodotus. Afternoon, occupied in continuing my Lecture of which I made a new copy and this imposes the necessity of much merely mechanical labour. Evening at home. Mr. and Mrs. Frothingham came in and we sat very pleasantly during the hour or two they gave us talking of all things. After which I continued my Lecture.

Wet, rainy day. I went to the Office as usual where I got together my papers to send to Washington. Occupied in Accounts as usual. The Middlesex Bank, a sort of “pendant” to the Commonwealth Bank has failed. The alarm has spread respecting the Hancock, the Commercial 383and the Fulton so that it has become absolutely necessary to adopt some course and I wait to see what it will be.

Home after a call at the Athenaeum to look up one or two historical points. Herodotus which I have not thought it worth while to remit. Afternoon and evening I continued my Lecture and finished it. May the result be prosperous, of which I do not always feel entirely confident. Read some of Lockhart to my Wife.