The America newspapers to the 30th Ulto came this morning. I read them very patiently but found less than usual to interest me. Perhaps the most amusing incident was the reported difference of opinion between Mr Wendell Phillips and Mr Garrison, at a public meeting in Boston on the merits of the President. Phillips is a great speaker and a keen satirist, but he is not and never will be a practical statesman. Wrote up my answers to arrears of notes, and then went to attend a meeting of the Trustees of the Peabody fund at Sir Emerson Tennent’s at the Board of Trade. We were there more than two hours. We elected Mr Souciby, Clerk. It now turns out that we have engaged for five lots of land one in Spitalfields upon which an edifice has been erected. One in Chelsea, one in Shadwell one in Bermondsey, and one in Islington. This with the buildings is now ready to be let, and will probably yield a moderate rent. We shall soon proceed to another at Chelsea, and so on. But I am not clear how far the whole plan may be founded in error. To let a thing for less than it is worth may be a benefit to the few who obtain the bargains, but it will not affect the condition of the poor who remain outside the charmed circle. After we adjourned Lord Stanley briefly remarked to me that he hoped I would not mistake the isolated sentiments of country gentlemen for the matured judgment of the conservative party. This was apropos to the wild remarks made by some of that class in the Commons. On my side I said a word or two in reference to his fathers speech so far as it related to the supposed Despatch. I explained precisely how it was in the hope that he might correct the impression if he chose There is a prevailing idea of an impending change in the Ministry, which makes this possibly material. I took quite a long walk afterwards, to find out the situation of Essex Street in order to judge of the distance from home to church. Thence to the Tavistock Hotel to call upon Mr Pell. He left yesterday for Paris. In the evening went with my Wife and daughter to the regular weekly reception at Lady Palmerston’s It was much larger than the last, but not by any means so easy and lively.573