John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

13. VI: Heard the boys speak, again— Charles, whom I took great pains to teach in Russia, and who then really spoke uncommonly well has now run into several very bad habits, which if not corrected in time will totally disqualify him for all public Speaking.— I wrote to Mr Edward Wyer, Consul of the United States at Riga— It was the answer to a Letter from him, written in September last year, and received while I was confined with the inflammation in my eyes. Mrs Adams went into London with George— And brought me several Books. Two Catalogues of Prose and Poetry for sale by the Booksellers Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme—Bode’s Charts and the Description, bound in two Volumes—A Book upon the supposed discovery of America, by Prince Madog ab Owen Gwynedd, about the year 1176. by John Williams, a Welshman— Sent by a Mr John Griffiths, with a Letter, enquiring if I could give any information concerning the Welsh Indians, and mentioning that he has several other Books on the same Subject by able authors— He is recommended by a Letter from Mr Withy— A Letter from Mr J. A. Smith—with the Passports from two Spaniards, who apply for endorsements upon them to go to America. They are not from the Spanish Ambassador, these persons being one a Mexican of the insurgent party, and the other a Patriot—one has only a permission from the Alien Office, to go to Buenos Ayres, and the other a Passport from the British Consul in the Canary Islands— Mr Smith sends the Passports to me; being uncertain whether they ought to be endorsed— A Letter from Hugh-Henry Handy, an American to whom I gave a Passport last June. He writes from Bristol— Says he has lost my Passport, by being shipwrecked; and asks for another— A Card of invitation from the President and Council of the Royal Academy (of Arts) Somerset Place, to dinner, on the day of the opening of the exhibition the twenty-seventh of this Month— It was near half past seven O’Clock, when Mrs Adams got home— Mr G. Joy had been at the Office. He has agreed upon a party to go with the boys next Monday to Hampton-Court, Windsor, and Eton. Two of John’s schoolmates named Hayward 427dined with us; and John went with them after dinner to the School, to explain the cause of their returning later than the regular hour of eight O’Clock— I had walked only to Ealing.