Very busy in writing home, but a good deal of time was consumed upon the files of papers from America which bring accounts of the close of the Session of Congress and of the Inauguration of the President and his Address. Though not polished as rhetorician would have made it, this production is the first of his official declarations which in loftiness of tone approaches to the grandeur of his situation. No one not excepting Washington himself, has occupied one more sublime. The question now is will he maintain it? Looking back at my first impression in February 1861, I am so surprised at the result thus far, that I am not prepared to disbelieve that he will. A visit from Mr Hooper, the writer of the military articles in the Globe, which have been throughout temperate, impartial, and just. Walk around Hyde Park. Dined with Sir Charles and Lady Lyell. Mr and Mrs Malet, Mr and Mrs Edward Romilly, Revd Dr Taylor, and others whom I did not know. Much talk about232 the late scandal created by the disclosure of Lord Westbury’s appointment of a son in the place of a man who vacated a place by resignation to make way for him, and who got a pension for services because his Lordship failed to report that he was a heavy defaulter. This has led to an examination of Edmunds’s early history, which in its turn very seriously implicates Lord Brougham who made the first appointment. A committee of investigation has been raised in the House of Lords and is now sitting. The fate of the whole ministry may be involved in the report. From Lady Lyell’s went to a small party at Mr Wodehouse Curry’s. Music by a choir of ladies and gentlemen. So hot I stayed only a short time.