Busy clearing up arrears until noon, when I got ready to attend the Prince of Wales’s levee. Mr Moran accompanied me. It was not very full. The Corps Diplomatique pretty full. Much whispering among the representatives at the conference who were evidently hard at work patching the rents in advance of Monday. Mr Bille intimated to me that the affair would be long drawn out. I infer that Great Britain will manage a complete sacrifice of its protégé. I got home before three. The weather very fine, so I went out. First to see Mr Dayton, but did not find him. Secondly, to the private view of Thomas’s picture of the Prince’s wedding. In composition it approximates the reality. The only material change I noted, was the transfer to the left of the brides’ maids in order to get them out of the line of the chief figures. Many of the portraits are good likenesses. The royal family and the high ladies with a due share of flattery. The execution good so far as it had been carried, but several heads are not finished. After all the subject has little of latitude for a painter, especially on a reduced scale. Firth’s will be larger, but perhaps it may not be the better for that. From here I went down to return the visits of Messr Bowditch and Pancoast, at the Grosvenor Hotel, and thence home. I dined with Mrs Adams at Mr Frederick Peel’s. This is the second son of Sir Robert Peel, and is married to the daughter of John Shelley, who was the brother of Shelley, the poet. He is now in office under Mr Gladstone, as Financial agent of the Treasury. The company so far as I knew it consisted of Lord and Lady Wensleydale, Sir Roundell and Lady Laura Palmer, Sir David Dundas, Mr T. Baring, Lord Henley, Sir Richard and Lady Airy, Kinglake’s hero of the battle of Alma. There were many more. It was rather lively. From thence we went to Lady Palmerston’s. The customary reception, but with not quite crowd. Lord Palmerston not yet well enough to appear. Her Ladyship however avers that he is perfectly well.