The morning was passed mainly in preparing a private despatch to Mr Seward, and a public one. In order to accomplish this I am obliged to retire into the Dining room, as my part of the front room is too much open to the visits of people at the legation. I have communicated to the Secretary Lord Palmerston’s opinions, in order to correct if possible a little of his brusquerie. I afterwards went out with Mrs Adams. The weather is cold and cheerless as possible, and I suffered in the open carriage. On my return I found Mr Theodore Dehon just arrived, and full of talk which made me suspect his mind a little disordered. He has been over­158tasked in his business relations for some time, and I strongly suspect that he has now come abroad under advice, to relieve him. He discussed political affairs in a tantalizing fashion, having seen all the leading men at Washington and talked with them, but he could give no connected report of their views. We dined at home, and in the evening went to a ball at the Marquis Camden’s. Quite a crowd of the nobility, but not a soul that I have ever met with. No effort is made here to extend acquaintance. So far as I can see a person might go into society ten years and at the end of it know no more people than at the beginning. In all other respects but this coldness the manners seem exactly like those of our society at home. And even in the execution, we in the Eastern States are complained of just the same by the more free and easy people West and South. It is always irksome to me who have the same cold manners to attempt to make acquaintances, so that I hardly know how I shall get on. We left shortly after twelve.