A clear, pleasant morning. Attended Divine service at the Chapel in Portland Street. Mr Martineau preached as it seemed to me rather on the tendencies of the late arguments of Sir Charles Lyell and others of the modern school of geology. The material tendency of those writers is certainly no proper guide to faith. After luncheon I went out and called on Mr Billings, a return visit. Then to Mr Moreira, the minister of Brazil. My object was to talk with him about this difficulty with the British government on account of some collision which has taken place in Brazil. He had sent me the papers and I had read them with a strong feeling of indignation at the arrogance of the British pretensions. I found him a good deal excited on the subject, and perhaps more from the necessity he was under of putting up with it. He told me what course was marked out for him, and how he should follow it. His government would pay the money under protest, and positively declining to acknowledge the precedent. He lamented our condition just now in America, as exposing all the nations of that continent to the risk of such indignities. He said his advice home had always been to look to an alliance not here but to the United States. I presume this was when the common bond of slaveholding sympathy prevailed. But he now took care to say that in Brazil slavery was not longer a question. I expressed my sympathy with him in his situation, reminded him of mine during the Trent affair, and joined with him in the hope of some better time in future. He told me that Mr Webb and Rio Janeiro in consequence of his quarrel with Mr Christie, the British Minister who made the quarrel, was quite a hero at that place. From thence I went to see Lord Lyndhurst. He was alone, and second bright and cheerful. He expressed pleasure in seeing me and a wish that I would come often. Talked much about America and then of matters here. Spoke of Lord Palmerston as likely to continue in place, and of Lord Russell as not much Fond of talking, and of writing without much force in either. His Lordship is nearly ninety one and is yet vigorous in his mind. I stayed nearly an hour, and then went over to see Mr Morey, who is getting better. Today, he talked incessantly. I reorganized all his customary299 earnestness and volubility. But the action of his mind was a little less true. This visitation left me time only for a short walk. Mr Sanford dined with us, and talked very much in his customary manner. He is full of the intrigues of France which he thinks bode no good to us. The instigation comes from England. Doubtless this is partly true. But I do not find Sanford’s services of information very much to be relied on. He catches at intelligence thrown out to deceive him. The intrigues of Slidell are without stint or number. The men of the rebellion are gamblers in politics as well as in money. They aim no higher than to make a trick now matter how. He did not go until late.