The preparation of my Despatches was not a work of much labour this week. Indeed at present there is quiet between the two governments. It is long since I have been compelled to be argumentative. There came a singular rumor from the island of Jersey, of an action between the Steamers Kearsarge and the Florida, fought yesterday, in which the former was disabled. Of course there was subdued exultation in certain circles here. I happened to receive from Captain Winslow a letter written from Dow yesterday, which found at last that the story could not be true of that vessel. After the experience of the Alabama, it is scarcely likely that the Florida would venture on such a selume. Received a note from Mr Wilson, the Secretary of Legation, apprising me of his determination to resign his post. This opens a cause of some anxiety. Immediately I wrote to Mr Seward expressing my opinion as to the sort of selection to be made. I printed out Mr Moran as fit for promotion in one sense. But this would make the vacancy a still more73 serious question. My sons would not be benefited by any such situation. But if they do not desire it, where will be an eligible selection? I fear the taste of the President or of the Secretary. Happily we are approaching the close of our term, so that to me the matter may account to less than to my successor. Walk, stopping on my way to see two of Mr Story’s Statues on exhibition in Oxford Street. The Sappho and the Judith. The more I see of sculpture the less I rely upon my own taste. The first of these is an easy, rather flaring and graceful figure with a face not remarkable for beauty or power. The second has more or less of physical strain in the position, which will not in the long run gratify the spectator’s eye. The manipulation is good in both. There were bust of Sir Lancelot and Guinever which I rather liked. Quiet evening— a visit from Mr Taylor.