The weather is fine and dry. Busy in details as usual. Answered a note from Professor Goldwin Smith, congratulating me, and at the same time reporting what had been said by a “high dignitary” concerning a conversation he had had with me, in which I had affirmed that the North would have assented to any concession on the Slave question, even the reenactment of the Fugitive Slave law, if the Slaveowners would have agreed to return to the Union. Who this “high dignitary” could have been I can hardly imagine. I should suspect the Bishop of Oxford had I seen him since our meeting at Ossington three years and a half ago. Whoever he may be either his memory or his veracity must be much dilapidated. Visit from several persons, and particularly Mr Forster, who brought a Mr Chern, a clergyman, who wants a letter to America. This disappeared my morning without my being able to accomplish any of my regular work. Drove out to pay visits to various person who have left cards at the house. This is very troublesome duty from which Mrs Adams always relieved me. Then a walk in the Regent’s Park, which looks charmingly. Solitary dinner and uninterrupted evening at home. Read some of Lord Russell’s book, and two or three articles in the Edinburgh Review.262