John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

3. V:30. The day was employed upon the Journal, and sufficed only to bring it up to the close of the preceding Month— The Postman who delivers and takes the Letters, came to request a certificate of his having been always regular in his duty with regard to my Letters— He has been suspended in his office, as he says, upon a complaint that a single Letter which should have been delivered in the Evening, was not delivered until the next Morning; but he says the delay was not by him. He wanted the Certificate, and those of other persons residing in the neighbourhood whom he serves as Postman, to be restored to his place. I gave him the certificate— We took an early dinner, and went into Town, taking our three Sons with us— We first called at the Office in Craven-Street. Mr Smith was gone out— I left the Packets of desptaches and Letters for America, and took several Letters, which I found there upon the table for me— We went to the Sans Pareil Theatre in the Strand; and saw Love in a Vintage, a sort of Ballet— The Inscription, a Melo-drame in Rhyme, and The Witch and the Owl a Pantomime with a Harlequin, better than that which we saw on Monday, at Covent-Garden— The Theatre is small but handsome— The performances indifferent. The house was very thin. In the intervals between the performances I read my Letters— From Mr J. A. Smith, enclosing the card of Mr Chad, the appointed Secretary to the British Legation in the United States; and a Letter of Introduction of Mr Chad, from Mr Everett at the Hague— Mr Chad has been attached to the British Legation there, and also at Paris— He left the Letter, and his Card, at the Office— From Mr Beasley, enclosing a Letter to him from a Mr Guestier, his wife’s uncle, at Baltimore. Mr Guestier had fitted out two ships for Europe and thence to the British Possessions in the East-Indies, on the expectation that the indirect trade in American Vessels, with India was stipulated for in the Commercial Convention of 3. July 1815. But on the publication of the Convention, he had doubts, as there was a regulation of the British Government in India, in the year 1811. excluding all American Vessels, unless direct, from the United States— He therefore requests Mr Beasley to apply to Lord Bathurst’s Office, for information, whether the two Vessels will be admitted, and to write to the Supercargoes at Cowes and at Leghorn, according to the answer he may receive. But Mr Beasley, knowing the difficulty of obtaining the information from the British Government, applies for it to me— From Mr Maury at Liverpool acknowledging the receipt of my order in his favour, upon Messrs: Baring Brothers and Co.— And From W and J. Willink of Amsterdam in answer to my last Letter to them.— It was near eleven O’Clock when the Play finished— The most remarkable part of it was the performance of several airs upon the flute, by a boy named Stebbing, only four years old— We got home about half past twelve.— Visits from Mr: & the Miss Vaughan’s.