His parents and friends urged him to keep out of politics and to be discreet, and he seems, at any rate, to have followed their advice in the latter respect, for he was not in any way molested by the authorities.
At the same time he was making steady progress in his studies and making friends, both among the Americans who were his fellow students or artists of established reputation, and among distinguished Englishmen who were friends of his father.
Among the former was Charles R.Leslie, his room-mate and devoted friend, who afterwards became one of the best of the American painters of those days.

In his autobiography Leslie says:-- "My new acquaintances Allston, King, and Morse were very kind, but still they were _new_ acquaintances.

I thought of the happy circle round my mother's fireside, and there were moments in which, but for my obligations to Mr.Bradford and my other kind patrons, I could have been content to forfeit all the advantages I expected from my visit to England and return immediately to America.

The two years I was to remain in London seemed, in prospect, an age.
"Mr.Morse, who was but a year or two older than myself, and who had been in London but six months when I arrived, felt very much as I did and we agreed to take apartments together.

For some time we painted in one room, he at one window and I at the other.