My morning was continuously busy in preparing the papers proper to be sent to Lord Russell. They were all completed on fair copies of three o’ clock and Mr Moran took and delivered them with the famous bag to Mr Leyard, the under secretary of State in the absence of the Secretary himself. It seems to me that all these things are tending to some grave result before long. It can hardly be imagined that both the French and British consuls can have initiated a process of negotiation on such a question as the Declaration of Paris without more or less of connivance on the part of the respective governments. Now that the removal226 of the British is demanded we shall see what the answer will be. I afterwards took a long walk, and when passing the shop of a gold refiner in Wardour Street I saw in his Window, an aureus of the Emperor Claudius which I rescued from the melting pot. I was a little troubled with head ache all day, quite an unusual thing with me. Quiet evening. The house is quite lonely without the children. I read a good deal of Lord Stanhope’s Life of Pitt. This is the anniversary of my Wedding day. Thirty two years have gone by, the best of my life. I have cause for gratitude that so many blessings have been showered upon me. If the prospect be now a little dark for my country, let me hope and pray that the lesson of humiliation may inure to our good.