I was busy much of the morning in writing my dispatch for the week. It has been made longer than usual by the necessity of enlarging upon the case of two vessels which have come here from New Orleans under papers issued by the insurgents, the owner of which now wishes to cover them with the Authority of the United States, so as to send them a northern port. Something of this kind is occurring about every day, I also made up my mind to send a formal letter to Lord John Russell proposing a negotiation on the subject, which renders it impossible to trust the thing longer to conversation. The whole conduct of the Administration here is inexplicable to me. I do not suspect them of absolute doubledealing, but their practice works pretty much to the same effect. I took another walk with Mary. In the evening, by invitation I went with my family and Mrs Motley’s to witness the performance of Christy’s Minstrels. They had been anxious to show some respect to the flag and to its representation here, and had therefore asked me to fix a night to visit their place. A box had been prepared with flags of the United States, bouquets were placed in it with the flowers arranged in colors to represented the stripes and stars and the bills were varigated after the same fashion. The house was full, and they sang with great spirit. The compliment was very pretty and we expressed our acknowledgments.187