Saw Arbuthnot.  He came to the India Board to speak about his friend, Russell Ellice, whom he wishes to make a Director.  We afterwards talked of the House and the Government.  I think all will turn out well.  We have six months before us, but certainly at present we are weak in the House of Commons, though I believe gathering strength in the country, and already very strong there.  If we play the great game, striking at the mass, we must succeed.  It would never do to go picking up individuals.  We must do our best for the country, and we shall have it with us.  The worst of it is, the King is the most faithless of men, and Cumberland is at work.

The Duke asked Hardinge the other day what he thought of the Government.  He said he thought that by losing Canningites and Brunswickers it was fifty weaker than Lord Liverpool’s, and these fifty go the other way, making a difference of one hundred on a division.  Lord Camden thought if the Brunswickers would not come in we must get a few Whigs—­Abercromby, Sir James Graham, the Althorpe people.  Stanley would come for anything good, and Brougham too.

Arbuthnot asked me if I thought Lord Rosslyn would be cordial with us.  I said Yes.  His letter of acceptance was most cordial, and with the Lords he was on excellent terms.  The only danger would be if Peel and the Commoners were shy.

Lord Grey, I said, I did not think in very good humour, but he would differ on foreign politics rather than on questions of a domestic nature.  The Duke will not be coquetting with him, because he says very honestly he should be exciting expectations in Lord Grey which, while the King lives, he does not think he can gratify.

Saw Mr. Elphinstone by appointment.  I wished to have his opinion with regard to the new settlement of Indian Government, which may take place on the expiration of the present Charter.  He seemed to think that the Administration of the Government in the King’s name would be agreeable to the Civil and Military Services, and to people in England.  He doubted whether, as regarded the princes of India, it would signify much, as they now pretty well understood us.  He doubted whether the orders of Government here would be better obeyed.  He thought there might be an advantage in keeping the King’s authority in reserve, to be used only on grand occasions.  He confessed, however, that ’having been educated, and having lived under the existing system, he was not best qualified to propose to another.  He had his prejudices.’  He thought the best mode of arriving at the truth would be by taking the opinions of practical Indians as to reforms and alterations suggested by theoretical men.

I asked him to consider the expediency of dividing the territory as now into three unequal Presidencies, of giving to the Governor-General the labour of superintending the Administration in detail of the Bengal Presidency—­of having Members of Council.  I told him there were many minor points of detail discoverable only by those employed at home, which required and must receive amendment.  Such, for instance, is the interpretation given to the Act of Parliament, by which a regulation must be sanctioned or rejected in extenso, there being no power to alter a word, or to reject part and take the rest.