A few days evinced the necessity of the two first in so clear a point of view, that had I not adopted it, I should have been unable to have attended to any sort of business, unless I had applied the hours allotted to rest and refreshment to this purpose; for by the time I had done breakfast, and thence until dinner--and afterwards until bed-time, I could not get relieved from the ceremony of one visit before I had to attend to another.

In a word, I had no leisure to read or to answer the despatches that were pouring in upon me from all quarters." In a subsequent letter written to the same gentleman, after his levees had been openly-censured by the enemies of his administration, he thus expressed himself: "Before the custom was established, which now accommodates foreign characters, strangers, and others who from motives of curiosity, respect to the chief magistrate, or any other cause, are induced to call upon me, I was unable to attend to any business whatsoever.

For gentlemen, consulting their own convenience rather than mine, were calling from the time I rose from breakfast--often before--until I sat down to dinner.

This, as I resolved not to neglect my public duties, reduced me to the choice of one of these alternatives; either to refuse them _altogether_, or to appropriate a time for the reception of them.

The first would, I well knew, be disgusting to many;--the latter I expected, would undergo animadversion from those who would find fault with or without cause.