Saturday used to be my holiday, but now it has got to be merely a period in which to bring up the arrears of my general correspondence. I devoted some of this day to my private accounts. Thus far I find that I have exceeded my salary about a quarter part. This would be immaterial but for the great decline of my income at home, and the increase of the charges there. I know not how it will be if the war goes on. This makes me more careful of the scale I live on here. Mr Weed and Mr Davis came in, the latter to show me a note he had received from Lord Russell requesting an interview. He seemed puzzled to know the object. I told him that I presumed it was to get information. His Lordship was on the whole well disposed but not always fully informed. Bishop McIlvaine called to give me some account of the assemblage last evening at M'r Kinnaird’s. He described it as mixed in its tempter and rather disposed to interrogation. If I may judge by his own account, he must have had a good deal the best of it. At a later time I had leisure to read a little of one of Mr Senior’s Diaries about Ireland. More interesting to me than I expected. The children all dined out, so that I dined tete à tete with Madame. Evening, Malmesbury at Lille.20