I had but a single person to see me, a Captain Backs from Belgium, who wanted a note to Mr Seward, as he is about returning to resume service in the army. I have myriads of applications for service and for patronage of inventions, which only indicate the superfluity of human industry in Europe. My letters were completed somewhat sooner than usual,206 so that I went out for a long walk. Stopped to see a picture by Firth representing the peculiar occasion in England, the Derby day. it is a multitudinous affair which I seldom like, but there is much mechanical talent in some of the details. Looking through a tube at portions of I experienced what I ever before perceived in a picture, I mean the effect of perspective which is now so common in the stereoscope. The groups in some places actually stood free from the canvass. One figure in front of a youth evidently in a maze after the loss of all his money in gaming, and another behind him gesticulating in an old red coat were particularly striking. Yet there is neither unity nor general interest in a mere crowd. Mr Hooker dined with us. The missing link int eh telegram turned up tonight. It was of the 15th and contained General McClellan’s report of an action on the 14th which was decisive. But he also states that he has ordered a pursuit, and there is a confirmation from another source of Mr McHenry’s news that gold had fallen three per cent in New York on the 17th two days afterwards. So we may hope that all of good is not yet told. At all events the northern invasion has come to an untimely end. God be thanked for all his mercies.