poor family, and understand, through sympathy, more of them than I can
tell. I am getting to possess some of the English indifference as to
beggars and poor people; but still, whenever I come face to face with
them, and have any intercourse, it seems as if they ought to be the
better for me. I wish, instead of sixpence, I had given the poor family
ten shillings, and denied it to a begging subscriptionist, who has just
fleeced me to that amount. How silly a man feels in this latter
predicament!

I have had a good many visitors at the Consulate from the United States
within a short time,--among others, Mr. D. D. Barnard, our late minister
to Berlin, returning homeward to-day by the Arctic; and Mr. Sickles,
Secretary of Legation to London, a fine-looking, intelligent, gentlemanly
young man. . . . . With him came Judge Douglas, the chosen man of Young
America. He is very short, extremely short, but has an uncommonly good
head, and uncommon dignity without seeming to aim at it, being free and
simple in manners. I judge him to be a very able man, with the Western
sociability and free-fellowship. Generally I see no reason to be ashamed
of my countrymen who come out here in public position, or otherwise
assuming the rank of gentlemen.


October 20th.--One sees incidents in the streets here, occasionally,
which could not be seen in an American city. For instance, a week or two
since, I was passing a quiet-looking, elderly gentleman, when, all of a
sudden, without any apparent provocation, he uplifted his stick, and
struck a black-gowned boy a smart blow on the shoulders. The boy looked
at him wofully and resentfully, but said nothing, nor can I imagine why
the thing was done. In Tythebarne Street to-day I saw a woman suddenly
assault a man, clutch at his hair, and cuff him about the ears. The man,