July 18. Cape Cottage.—Ever since we left New York, we have been looking for some calm and cool retreat in which to spend the remainder of the summer. We happened to take up a Portland newspaper which contained an advertisement of the accommodations and agrements presented by Cape Cottage, situated in the neighbourhood of this town, and they seemed to be so exactly what we wanted, that we have come hither to inspect them. To our great joy, they even exceed the description, and are in every respect to our mind. We have, therefore, engaged apartments here for several weeks.

John Quincy Adams and Negro Slavery.—Mr Adams has addressed a Letter to the Anti-Slavery Petitioners, which has been published. He says that “the Declaration of Independence derives all the just power of government from the consent of the governed;” and that as “it is certain that a great majority of the inhabitants of the District of Columbia are utterly averse to the abolition of slavery among them,” it follows that “the immediate abolition of slavery by Congress cannot possibly be effected with justice to the inhabitants of the district.” At first sight this argument appeared to me to be reasonable, but on a rigid scrutiny, it will be found to contain a fallacy. Mr Adams assumes the slaves to be mere chattels, and the white inhabitants of the district alone to be men.

Dec. 25. Ther. 26°. This is Christmas day, and in Boston all the world is abroad enjoying the fine bright weather. Public worship is performed in the Catholic and Episcopalian churches, but not in the others. The stores belonging to members of these sects are closed, but the rest of the community who observe the day at all, dedicate it to feasting.

Frauds.—A fraud to the extent of a million of dollars has lately been exposed, perpetrated by the cashier of the Schuylkill bank in Philadelphia. He sold shares to that amount in the bank of Kentucky, and appropriated the proceeds to his own purposes, or to those of the bank over which he presided, which also has failed. On the 23d December, Judge Bouvier, sitting in the court of criminal sessions at Philadelphia, delivered the following charge to the grand jury:—

Tothe Citizensof the United States:

I have visited various European countries, Prussia, Austria, Bavaria, Holland, France, and Switzerland, besides the British Isles, for the purpose of observing the condition of the people living under different forms of civil and ecclesiastical government, and one of the motives which led me to repair to your shores was to obtain the means of judging of the influence of democracy on the physical prosperity and mental condition of your nation. I am deeply sensible of the sources of error to which a stranger is exposed in observing and speculating on the institutions of a foreign country; but you will be able to detect and correct the errors regarding your own country into which I may inadvertently fall, and I may be permitted to hope that amidst these will be found some admixture of truth.

The people of the United States are justly proud of their political independence, won at the expense of many sacrifices; and also of the institutions which the distinguished founders of their government framed and bequeathed to them for their guidance; but if I were to ask different Americans in what the superiority of these institutions consists, I should receive a multifarious variety of answers. Does Phrenology enable us to attain to any precise views on the subject?

In my previous lectures, I have endeavoured to explain to you that happiness consists in the activity of our faculties, and that the greater the number of them called into action, the higher rises our enjoyment.

April 6. Ther. 53°. Phrenology.—I met Dr ——, and by pointing out to him how to trace the superior longitudinal commissure of the brain, described by Mr Solly, which lies above the corpus callosum, and brings the anterior lobe into communication with the upper portions of the middle and posterior lobes, he succeeded in unfolding it very satisfactorily. The brain was in excellent condition. We tried to trace the superficial fibres described by Mr Solly as passing from the motory track, below the corpora pyramidalia, to the cerebellum, but were not so successful.

In the evening I delivered the last lecture of my second course. The resolutions passed are printed in the Appendix, No. III.

I have received an invitation to deliver a second course of lectures in the Stuyvesant Institute, New York, and have agreed to do so.

The Banks.—The banks in the south-western States have suspended cash payments, and rumours are afloat that the banks in Philadelphia will follow their example. Stocks have fallen very much, and there is great commercial embarrassment. The cry for war about the Maine boundary has aggravated the evil, by creating distrust in the continuance of pacific relations with England. The next news from London are looked for with anxiety and alarm.

April 7. Ther. 53°. Spring.—This day is agreeably warm. The apricot trees are in full blossom; the weeping willows, which abound in the public squares, are in full leaf, and the buds of the other trees are rapidly swelling; the grass, from dark russet, has become green.