Thirteen years intervened between the first and the last Bryant entry.

In February, 1844, Nicholas Biddle, the great financier, died.

Something that Bryant wrote roused Hone's wrath.
Here is his comment of February 28: "Bryant, the editor of the _Evening Post_, in an article of his day, virulent and malignant as are usually the streams which flow from that polluted source, says that Mr.Biddle 'died at his country-seat, where he passed the last of his days in elegant retirement, which, if justice had taken place, would have been spent in the penitentiary.' This is the first instance I have known of the vampire of party-spirit seizing the lifeless body of its victim before its interment, and exhibiting its bloody claws to the view of mourning relatives and sympathizing friends.

How such a black-hearted misanthrope as Bryant should possess an imagination teeming with beautiful poetical images astonishes me; one would as soon expect to extract drops of honey from the fangs of the rattlesnake." But this was kindly tolerance compared to his attitude towards the elder Bennett.

The latter apparently came under Hone's notice in January, 1836, and the first mention in the Diary reads: "There is an ill-looking, squinting man called Bennett, formerly connected with Webb in the publication of his paper, who is now editor of the _Herald_, one of the penny papers which are hawked about the streets by a gang of troublesome, ragged boys, and in which scandal is retailed to all who delight in it, at that moderate price.