The newspapers gave us the last intelligence from America, but the mail bag did not reach me until dinner time. I sat down in advance and prepared a despatch which I had not the materials to complete last week. I walked down to Fenton’s to see if I could find Mr Ludlam, but he had gone. Went by invitation to dinner with the Belgian minister, Mr and Mrs Van de Weyer. She is the daughter of our friends the Bates’s, and Mrs Adams brought a letter from Mr Everett to her, which is now acknowledged by this dinner. M Van de Weyer rose from small things in Belgium, through a display of quickness and intelligence, which found a good field for exercise at this point, where it is important for King Leopold to have a good channel of influence upon the Court. His marriage with the Bates’s daughter seemed him the necessary wealth. And the family relation of Leopold with the deceased prime consort established his position— So that for twenty five year Mr Van de Weyer has been laying a deep foundation for the permanent establishment of a family here, if it should so happen that Leopold or his little kingdom should disappear from sight. The effect of this rise is quiet apparent in him, and it glares forth in her. The company consisted of Lord and Lady Lyveden, Sir Edward and Lady Kerrison, Count Stalitsky, Mr Salermoff, I think, and Mr Bates. After dinner I had some conversation with Lord Lyveden and the Count on the state of things here. Both agreed that the death of Prince Albert and the Trent affair had settled matters in Parliament for the present year. The opposition was moreover pretty badly disjointed by reason of the paucity of abilities and the jealousy of the heavy aristocracy of their leader D’Israeli. The pride is mortified at the superiority of the plebeian and the Jew. Lord Derby aspires to be the premiership, but fears to grasp at it. He prefers to wait at sixty three for Lord Palmerston to live out what may be left of his usefulness after seventy eight. Hence the expectation that this is to be a year of truce. Of course it follows that America will be left alone, which we most devoutly desire. Lord Lyveden is a very gentlemanly and intelligent man. Home at eleven.33