John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

8. VI: Began writing a Letter to my brother. Immediately after breakfast I went in to London. Wrote up at the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester’s, Mrs Adams’s name and my own. They returned from the Country yesterday. I paid visits and left Cards at the Portuguese, and Prussian Ministers, The Russian Ambassadors, and the Sardinian Chargé d’Affaires, Marquis Grimaldi— I found Mr Bourke the Danish Minister, and Mrs Bourke at home. Mrs Bourke was much engaged in making preparations to go to Cheltenham. They propose to go and spend four or five weeks there, and leave town next Tuesday, the day after the Prince Regent’s birth day.— I had much conversation with Mr Bourke, who shewed and lent me a copy of the verbal note delivered to Mr Harris at St Petersburg the 13th. of May, I suppose Old Style, by the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, relative to the arrest of Mr Kozloff the Russian Consul General at Philadelphia, the Offence taken at that Circumstance by the Emperor, and the interdiction to Mr Harris, to appear at his Court consequent upon it— Harris has never sent me a copy of this paper— On arriving at the Office in Craven Street, I found Letters—from L. Harris of 9. July. He proposes leaving Russia, as soon as he shall have established the New Consul in his place. He has received no answer to his explanations, relative to the affair of Mr Kozloff—from H. Visger, Consul at Bristol, making enquiries about his Commission, and concerning his advances for the relief of destitute American Seamen— From G. A. Thompson, author of the Dictionary of America and the West-Indies, for which I subscribed—requesting payment. Before I came from home I had received a Note from Mrs Wellesley-Pole, introducing Madame Fasil, a French Actress, Manager of the French Theatre at the Argyle Rooms, where they have been performing, last Winter and Spring— Madame Fasil and her Company have the project of going to America, and she is desirous of having an Audience of me. Mrs Pole certifies her respectability. The Note was left at the Office, but it did not appear that Madame Fasil had been there. I went to the Foreign Office, Mr Hamilton, is gone out of town— I saw Mr Bidwell, and enquired of him for the exequatur of Mr Visger’s Commission. It is before the Prince, and waiting for his signature— Mr Bidwell told me there was a Note coming to me, from Lord Castlereagh, with several Affidavits of Officers, respecting the carrying away of American Slaves—from which it will appear that the charges against the Officers were false. There had already been a Report from Admiral Cockburn; and now there were several others— Bidwell spoke also of Lord Exmouth’s present expedition against Algiers— He said that to be sure they were barbarous people; but he did not see why they should now be destroyed more than at any former time— It would be as well to go on enduring them as they had been endured so many years. The language of the subaltern discloses the intention of the principal— I returned to my Office where I found a Note from O. C. Kellermann, with a small Volume in the Danish language, upon the Nicobar Islands— I had also received this morning a Letter from Coll. T. Aspinwall, in reply to mine of yesterday to him. I answered Mr Visger’s Letter.— Dined at the Mansion House with the Lord Mayor.— It was a dinner to the Duke of Wellington, and for the purpose of presenting to him a Resolution of thanks from the Common Council of London voted shortly after the Battle of Waterloo, and upon that occasion. The party was small— A single table of about thirty-six persons. The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Leopold had been invited but sent excuses— The Duke of Sussex had engaged to attend, but the Queen sent for him to dine with her; a summons that he was of course obliged to obey. He came before the company left the table after dinner.— The Lord Mayor received an excuse from Prince Esterhazy the Austrian Ambassador just before going to table. He said he had not expected him— I had called upon Mr Bourke, partly to enquire if he had been invited to the dinner— He had not— I was the only foreign Minister present; a favour, for which I have more than once been indebted to the present Lord Mayor; without precisely knowing why— Probably because he is a whig; and friendly to liberal principles with regard to America— I had been doubtful whether to go in full Court 48Dress to this party, or in Frock-Dress— On consulting Mr Bourke, he advised me to go in Frock— I accordingly went so, but found the Lord Mayor, and most of the Company in Full-Dress— The Duke of Kent, however, the only person of the Royal family who attended, came in Frock—as did the Earl of Darnley and his Son Lord Clifton— The Duke of Wellington himself, and his Aids de Camp, Lord Arthur Hill, and Colonels Percy, Hervey and Freemantle, were in Military Uniform— Lord Erskine, and the Aldermen were in Court dresses— I apologized for being in Undress— Before dinner the Lord Mayor introduced me to the Duke of Wellington— I observed that I had already been introduced to him— Oh! Yes! said he—at Paris— No—at the Prince Regent’s last Levee, at Carlton-House, by your Grace’s brother, Mr Wellesley-Pole— Oh! Aye! Yes! said the Duke, who had obviously forgotten me and my introduction.— This is one of the many incidents from which I can perceive how very small a space my person or my station occupy in the notice of these persons, and at these places— The Lord Mayor intimated to me that I was to take my place at table after Lord Darnley and Lord Erskine, and before Lord Clifton, who he observed was not a Peer.— But as in handing the Ladies down, I took the Lord Mayor’s eldest daughter, Miss Wood, it happened that I found myself at table next above Lord Darnley, with Miss Wood between us— There were no Cards as on former occasions in the Plates— Before we were seated, the Lord Mayor repeatedly told Lord Darnley that he was not high enough; but there was no higher place that he could have taken except mine, and I did not take the hint of offering it to him. We kept our seats therefore as we had taken them— The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress sat as usual at the head of the Table side by side. The Duke of Kent at the right of the Lord Mayor, and the Duke of Wellington at the left of the Lady Mayoress— The Dinner was of Turtle and Venison, and otherwise luxurious as usual. At the dessert the loving Cups of Champagne Punch, and the Basons of Rose water went round— The Steward at the passing of the Cups, and at the first toast The king—went through the nomenclature of the company, according to custom; naming the American Minister immediately after Lord Erskine.— The Lord Mayor gave us the toast immediately after the King—the Queen and female branches of the Royal Family—forgetting the Prince Regent; of which he was immediately reminded by the Duke of Kent— He corrected his mistake; but this forgetfulness led me to inferences similar in principle to those I had drawn from the Duke of Wellington’s oblivious faculties, at the introduction to him by his brother of an American Minister— The routine of standing toasts followed. The Duke of York and the Army— The Wooden Walls of Old England, and better health to the Duke of Clarence— He was it seems yesterday suddenly seized with an illness so violent that he was last Night in the most imminent danger— But had been relieved, and the danger entirely removed— Next came the personal attacks— The Lord Mayor gave every toast with a Speech. First the Duke of Kent, who only bowed, without returning thanks— Just as the Lord Mayor was about proposing the Duke of Wellington, the Duke of Sussex came in— He would not permit the Lord Mayor to postpone on his account the toast proposed; and accordingly the Duke of Wellington was given— He also answered only by a bow— The Duke of Sussex was toasted next, and his brother said to him laughing—“now you must make a speech— I made a speech of about a quarter of an hour”— But Sussex saw he was joking and only bowed— The Lord Mayor introduced the Earl of Darnley’s health, with a high Eulogium upon his hospitality last week to the whole City party, who went with the Lord Mayor on the septennial tour to claim the City Jurisdiction upon the rivers Thames and Medway— Lord Darnley returned thanks with a short Speech, expressing his pleasure at having had the opportunity of shewing attentions to the City-Party, and his wish that a similar opportunity could occur annually instead of once in seven years— Then Lord Erskine was given, with Trial by Jury— He said that if that addition had not been made, he should have remained silent though thankful; but when trial by Jury was given, he could not suppress his feelings.— He then made a short Speech, in which he said that he had not changed his principles; made a very flattering compliment to the Duke of Wellington, and declared himself inexpressibly happy to have entered Paris with him last Summer. All which was owing to Trial by Jury— Now came the turn of the American Minister, whose health the Lord Mayor introduced with thanks for having had several times the pleasure of his Company on these Occasions— I returned my thanks in a few words; with a reference to the conciliatory and popular conduct of the British Minister in the United States, and expressing my pleasure in remarking that he was a near relative to the illustrious Commander, whom Britain claimed as her own; but who in a more enlarged point of view, belonged to the whole human race as every individual whose virtues and atchievements does honour to our common Nature, is the pride and glory not merely of one Nation but of all human kind— The City members of Parliament, were toasted next—for whom Alderman Atkins, the only one of them present, returned thanks in a Speech— Then the Aldermen, for whom Mr Scholey answered— Then the Duke of Wellington’s Aides de Camp, whose thanks were laconically returned by Lord Arthur Hill— General Witherell, was succeeded by the Sheriffs Sir Thomas Bell and Mr Thorpe, both 49of whom answered. The Lord Mayor then proposed giving the Sheriff elect, Mr Kirby, but the Duke of Sussex insisted upon giving the long pull, the strong pull and the pull altogether— This was meant as a compliment to the Duke of Wellington; pledging and asking for harmonious co-operation, though Sussex is in high opposition to the Ministry; and at personal variance with the Regent— Wellington received the compliment as it was meant— His countenance lightened up, and he made a speech of thanks to the Lord Mayor, and the City of London for their Resolutions and the dinner— He was not fluent; but he expressed his earnest hope for a long and general Peace; and most especially with America; upon which occasion he spoke in terms of great civility of the American Minister— The company had already risen from table; but the Lord Mayor renewed the proposition for drinking the Sheriff elect, and Mr Kirby returned thanks and promised to devote himself, and all his efforts to the service of the City— The gentlemen then returned to join the Ladies in the drawing-Room above Stairs— The Ladies had withdrawn soon after the Duke of Sussex came in, and the Duke of Kent immediately afterwards went away— The Lord Mayor and the City of London, was then given by the Duke of Wellington, after which the Duke of Sussex gave the Lady Mayoress, for whom the Lord Mayor returned thanks.— Every toast, excepting the first (the King) was drank standing; with what they call three times three—hip-hip-hip—and nine huzza’s.—for the Lord Mayor observed that it was impossible to do any thing in the City without noise— With all this, the dinner was inexpressibly dull— The company was obviously not well assorted— The Duke of Wellington yawned like L’Eveillé in the Barbier de Séville, and his aids occasionally laughed in the Sardonic manner, as if it was at themselves for being in company with the City— Wellington has no lively flow of Conversation; but he bore the daubing of flattery spread over him at every toast with moderate composure. The general aspect of his countenance is grave and stern, but sometimes it opens to a very pleasing smile— The City Resolutions elegantly written and illuminated upon parchment were read by a City Officer, and delivered to him in the Drawing Room before dinner. After dinner a drawing of the Silver Column, with a shield covering its base, which is to be presented to the Duke, by a subscription raised in the City, was exhibited, and freely criticised by the Duke’s Aids— I had conversation with Lord Erskine before, and with the Earl of Darnley after dinner— Lord Erskine said it was very well for us to come and dine there upon Turtle and Venison, but the Country was ruined. He told me again of his determination to go and travel in the United States.— Lord Darnley seemed to be under apprehensions of a new War with the United States which he deprecated. He thought also that the British Government ought to furnish assistance to the South-Americans, to accomplish their emancipation— One of the Aldermen disclosed to me his consternation that the Stocks had fallen this morning full one per Cent, which he attributed to the manoeuvering of certain Jew Stock-brokers, and to Lord Cochrane’s assertion at the late meeting in the City to relieve the poor, that the interest upon the national debt must be reduced. Mr Sheriff Thorpe, made enquiries of the health of Mrs Adams.— I told him she had been long intending to go and pay his father a visit— The Duke of Sussex told me that he intended in the course of three or four weeks to make me a visit at Ealing, and to ask me for a joint of Mutton— He said he would give me notice beforehand, and I asked him to bring his Son Captain D’Esté with him, which he promised. I spoke to the Captain himself about his expedition to New-Orleans, where he was Aid de Camp to General Pakenham; but he said it was a shocking affair and did not incline to talk much about it. He said it was a foolish thing ever to attempt an invasion in America. It was half past eleven when I left the Mansion House, and there was still such a crowd of People at the door, that it was with difficulty the Carriage could come up— When I went there had been a similar crowd— The Lord Mayor said they had been there from nine O’Clock in the morning— They shouted on the arrival of the Royal Dukes, and of the Duke of Wellington— I stopped a moment at Craven-Street, and got home, at half past one in the Morning.