Mild and fine, but there was a hard spring shower towards dark. Finished up arrears which were not great, and rather dawdled away the morning. No news from the other side yet. I await it with some anxiety. Towards dark I went out and paid visits to Mr and Mrs John Bigelow who are here from Paris. He gave me some account of the state of things there which is encouraging to us. The present threatening aspect of things in Europe is soothing the temper towards us surprisingly. I have never felt so serene before. But after all, it is the war that makes or mars the harmony. A moderate share of success just now would make us very safe, for a year. Thence to see Col Ritchie for a short time. Dined at the Blue posts, an establishment of no great antiquity, but which gives a cleaner and a nicer dinner than any of the older ones I have visited. Thence to the Haymarket to see Mr Matthews in some of his comic parts. The first play was entitled Silken Fetters, a piece with little merit either in tone or in plot. Matthews played Mr Codicil, the lawyer in a manner which would forfeit a profession all man all his eminence. He made him a simpleton. These came a burlesque of the ancient Greek Tragedy and the Story of Medea, which was only not flat by being too absurd. I wondered at the patience that endured it to the end. Then came, cool as a cucumber. Equally poor. I am clear that Matthews has no true comic humor at all.505