I had today visits from several persons who came to make enquiries of the effect of the news. Previously to this however I walked all the way to the Palace Hotel to attend a meeting of the Peabody Trustees, and discovered where I got there that I had read my notice for a week too early. It made no difference however as I omitted my customary exercise before dinner. Busy with my accounts. Made up my trial balance for fourteen months, and went through my books so as to clear up all the heads. I have now got them into a much simpler and more satisfactory shape. The events of the past year have warned me of the necessity of taking precautions against my liabilities, and I have succeed so far that on my own books not a debt remains. Outside of them and in my trust I still have some, but they have been reduced and simplified, and assets placed against them sufficient to offset any particular risk. All these measures seem necessary to guard against the fluctuations incident to an inconvertible currency. After dinner I walked with Mary to Thomas’s Hotel to see Mr and Mrs Sidney Brooks and the Misses Dehon.154