A heavy shower with thunder and lightning introduced a lovely spring day. My new room is not yet in order, but I felt the influence of the bright sun upon it, which I never saw in that of Mansfield Street. I was busy in drawing very weekly despatches and in writing to my sons. I had besides, several visits. One from Mr Schleiden whom I met in Washington during the two winters I spent there—and one from Mr Anderson who brought a Mr Hope with him to suggest a plan of addressing the public. I have no faith in all this. There is no heart in the disposition of the leading classes towards America. Mr Gladstone has expressed the real animus in a speech just made at Manchester. It is a wish for the separation into two States. Nothing can resist this secret longing, and it will manifest itself exactly in the proportion to our failure or success. I think I notice within a few days a new swing in the pendulum caused apparently by the impression that the resistance is effective. I had little time for exercise. In the evening I went by invitation to Mr Arthur Kinnairds where I found the rooms quite filled with persons seated, listening to an account given by Mr Parkes, Consul in China, of the state of the civil war in that country. He was long and I though dull. There was a Mr Gough ready to speak too, but Mr Parkes crowded him off. Home at eleven.84