A very sultry day, ending in thunder showers. I do not know when I have suffered so much from short breath. Visits from several person Mr Berg the new Secretary of Legation to St Petersburgh, Mr Underwood the consul at Glasgow. At three I went with Mrs Adams to Mr Winslow, the photographer, at his request to be taken as persons attending the ceremony of the Prince of Wales’s wedding, for the great picture ordered of Mr Frith by the Queen. The awkward part of it was the putting on of uniform, and going in it to broil under the glass roof of the photographer. I subsequently took a walk, but was driven in by the rain. At the dinner the lightning was sharper than I have ever known it here. In the evening I went with Mary and Henry to a party at Mr Thomson Hawley’s. The entertainment consisted in the performances of M. Levassor, which an amusing, though after a time a little monotonous. All there, excepting the third C’est ma Fille, were different from those in which we saw him, though the style of humor and the musical form of expression were much the same. The two rooms were full, mostly of ladies. Mr Evarts was there and told me of the issue of the case of the Alexandra. The Judge charged so strongly that the jury returned a verdict for the vessel at once. It seems as if circumstances were always the jury returned a verdict for the vessel at once. It seems as if circumstances were always destined to press upon us in this fearful struggle from abroad as well as at home. Not many acquaintances, but I recognized Mr C. Howard, Lady Holland and her daughter, Mr and Mrs Cardwell, and others. We did not get home until near one o’clock.396