For a wonder my American mail arrived before breakfast. That meal was however delayed an hour by the fact of my expecting company. Messrs Cobden and Forster came to meet Messrs Weed and Field. I had also invited Messrs Bright and Munchton Milnes but they had left town. The conversation turned upon the prospects of the telegraph and upon the blockade. On the last topic Mr Cobden enlarged much as usual. Much of what he said is wise and practical, but he is yet far in advance of the sentiment of this country. I think his is the most comprehensive mind now in England on all the secondary class of questions which touch the material interests of the world. But he makes little account of human passion or of sentiment which controls the movement of life much more frequently than interest. After they left me I was busy reading the newspapers from America, which are full of interesting details. The war is obviously changing its character, under the sterner dictation of the new Secretary. And I feel my hopes of a termination of it rising. Went out with Mrs Adams to pay visits. One to Mr Arthur Kinnaird and one to Mr J. L Graham Jr besides cards at Lady Palmerston’s and Lady Kerrison’s. I took a walk afterwards in the chilly easterly air. In the evening at home very quietly reading the Memoirs d’une Contemporaine. That a woman should ever consent to make the public cognizant of such a record of herself.38