at Cambridge University. He also made allusions to me, and I suppose it
would have been no more than civil in me to have answered with a speech
in acknowledgment, but I did not choose to make another venture, so
merely thanked him across the corner of the table, for he sat near me.
He is a venerable-looking, white-haired gentleman, tall and slender, with
a pale, intelligent, kindly face.

Other speeches were made; but from beginning to end there was not one
breath of eloquence, nor even one neat sentence; and I rather think that
Englishmen would purposely avoid eloquence or neatness in after-dinner
speeches. It seems to be no part of their object. Yet any Englishman
almost, much more generally than Americans, will stand up and talk on in
a plain way, uttering one rough, ragged, and shapeless sentence after
another, and will have expressed himself sensibly, though in a very rude
manner, before he sits down. And this is quite satisfactory to his
audience, who, indeed, are rather prejudiced against the man who speaks
too glibly.

The guests began to depart shortly after three o'clock. This morning I
have seen two reports of my little speech,--one exceedingly incorrect;
another pretty exact, but not much to my taste, for I seem to have left
out everything that would have been fittest to say.


October 6th.--The people, for several days, have been in the utmost
anxiety, and latterly in the highest exultation about Sebastopol,--and
all England, and Europe to boot, have been fooled by the belief that it
had fallen. This, however, now turns out to be incorrect; and the public
visage is somewhat grim, in consequence. I am glad of it. In spite of
his actual sympathies, it is impossible for a true American to be