rain and fog. My time absorbed in preparing despatches, especially a rejoinder to the last note of Lord Russell about Mr Bunch. He has again done in this case what he attempted ton the other side of the water with Lord Lyons, entered into discussion with us about our Constitution and laws of which he knows nothing. I doubt whether he gets much by his motion. These papers and a letter to my son Charles occupied me until quite six o’clock in the evening. I had a visit from Mr Thurlow Weed and talked with him confidentially about the effort made to destroy Mr Seward’s public and private character. He said he had been perfectly aware of it, and had taken great pains to trace them to their sources. No responsible person could be found. Mr Seward’s friends had warmed him of their existence, and had cleared up the truth as it respected himself. He intimated rather than affirmed that they had fixed the calumny upon Charles Sumner. Judging from his talk when I left America, this does not surprise me. Alas that I should have been so deceived in the disinterested of a man. Mr Dupont came in to take leave, as he returns to America tomorrow. His saltpetre is rising on his hands, and as he cannot expert it I advised him to sell. He said he has sold some at a profit, but he held the rest for a rise. I told him that I hoped he would not subject the mass to seizure as government property in case of the breaking out of war. He said that the had held it personally, and had pledged it to parties here so as to cover it. I am afraid he is too sanguine, but as I had advised the purchase, so now I released myself from the consequences by advising the sale. I took a walk in the evening, in spite of the wet. News came from America, encouraging so far as this that the government down to the 27th had not assumed Captain Wilkes’s act, and that the uneasiness respecting the position of England was universal, This gave me a shadow of hope. Evening read Lord Malmesbury’s Diaries.