I have received your favor of the 25th ultimo, together with an agreeable little note from Mrs. Plitt, for which give her my thanks.
James Henry left us yesterday afternoon. He had drawn all his plans with mathematical precision, and I did not like to mar them. He was to go direct to Naples, and be at Rome during the carnival, so that he had but little time. He is a calculating, and I think a determined boy....... He has certainly made a favorable impression here on the persons with whom he has been in company, especially on Lady Holland. The dinner went off extremely well; some of them said _almost_ as well as if you had been present. As you would probably like to know the company, I will tell you:
Mr. and Madame Tricoupi, the Count and Countess de Lavradio, Count Bernstorff, the Brazilian Minister and Madame Moreiro, the Swedish Minister and Baroness Hochschild, the Danish Minister and Madame D’Oxholme, Mr. and Mrs. Comyn, Sir Henry and Lady Holland, Lady Talbot de Malahide, R. Monckton Milnes, and J. Buchanan Henry, Esq.
Count Colloredo had the commands of the queen, and could not attend. Countess Bernstorff was ill. Baron Bentinck had an engagement in the country, and so had Mr. and Mrs. Musurus. So you have the list of invitations as well as of those who attended. I expect to leave the house next week.
I very often think of poor Mary, and shall always cherish her memory with deep affection. I trust that ere this your grief has moderated, and that you begin to bear your loss with the philosophy of a Christian, and with humble resignation to the Divine will.
James desired me to send his love to you, and say that he would write to you from Rome.
Without a secretary of legation, I have so much business to transact and so many persons to see, that I must give great offence by necessarily failing to answer the letters of my friends on your side of the Atlantic. I have not yet heard of the appointment of my successor from Washington; but the last steamer brought out a report, on which some of the passengers thought reliance might be placed, that Governor Toucey either had been or would be appointed. It would be difficult to make a better selection. In all this matter, they have treated me discourteously and improperly. By every steamer since the return of Mr. Appleton to the United States, I had a right to expect news of a new appointment. I have written more than once _emphatically_ upon the subject, and they are now fully apprised that I shall leave the legation next month, and entrust its affairs to General Campbell, should neither minister nor secretary in the mean time appear.