Mr Field was here again to speak of his answer from Lord Russell. It decides him to go home on Saturday where he thinks he can do good. Mr Weed also called in company with Mr Palmer, member of the last Congress from New York. I likewise had a call from Mr S L Gouverneur Jr, going home from China, where he has been Consul since 1859. He complains bitterly of the arrogance of the English in the Steamers on the way here. My leisure intervals consumed in preparing a letter to the Consul at Glasgow. Nothing exercises me so much as this duty. Mr Smith came to see me about houses now as if Mr Sturgis’s was to be my only resource. Went out to see other houses but they prove unsatisfactory. At noon I went to a meeting of the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society to attend a lecture delivered by Professor Volchers upon milk. There were not more than thirty persons present among whom I recognized nobody but Mr Hall-Dane, the Secretary and Sir Edward Kerrison. The lecture was a good one. It gave information as to the analysis of milk of various animals and the effect upon it of different kinds of food. The proportion of oil and of curd and of sugar. The difference of supply night and morning, and the relative richness in cream. One point he touched which confirms my old impressions—and that is that thorough bred cows are not more to be depended upon for quantity of milk than the cross or common dairy stock. Neither does high feeding increase it. The effect of that is to go fat. After he finished there was some very intelligent discussion by the members of several points. Went by invitation to dine with Mr and Mrs Darby Griffith. We know none of the company; and had never seen the host, though we had been at a concert here in the season. The only names I could make out were Sir Frederick and Lady Smith. A young man who intimated that he was in Parliament as well as a fellow at Oxford talked with me some time after dinner. Several persons came in, which appears to be a common way of receiving here. We took leave soon after eleven.49