Mr. Elphinstone seems to dread a long peace in India.  We hold everything together by the Native Army, and we cannot retain that unless we retain the affections of the European officers.  In the present state of our finances this is difficult.

July 1.

At half-past five received a letter from the Chairman, and the draft relative to the removal of the Governor from Calcutta.  The Court wished to have it back to-day.  That was impossible; but they have omitted words I inserted in the precis, and must restore, declaring that had the removal been legal, still the Members of Council would have been ordered back.  I have now been obliged to give reasons for this addition, and the reasons will be so much worse, as matters of record, that I have suggested to the Chairman he had better substitute a draft containing the words.

I think we must detain the Pallas that it may take out both letters—­this and the one relating to the leases which is not yet prepared, or we must have an overland dispatch.

Delay is one of the inconveniences attending the present system of Indian Government.  I told the Chairman in my private note that if we allowed Lord W. Bentinck to emancipate himself in this manner we should really be abandoning all real control over the Government of India.  I see clearly there is a Bentinck party in the Court.

July 2.

Saw Hardinge.  We had some conversation upon the subject of the Government.  He seems more alarmed than I am.  I trust to the King’s fears and the Duke’s fortune; besides, we have the country.

Hardinge told me the King was very much out of humour.  The admission of Lord Rosslyn had not answered.  None followed.  Lord Durham, Calthorpe, and others left Lord Lansdowne to coalesce with Lord Grey.  Hardinge wished me to try Herries again, with the view of opening the Mint by making him Chancellor of the Exchequer in India; but I told him Herries said his domestic circumstances made it impossible, and the Duke did not seem to like it at all.

Herries thinks Lord Durham would be glad to be Minister at Naples; for my part I am sure nothing will win Lord Grey but a place for Lord Grey himself, and that, in the present state of the King’s mind, the Duke is not in a condition to offer.

July 4.

Cabinet at half-past three.

The Duke read a list of the several points to be considered before the next Session.  I cannot recollect half of them.  East India Charter; Bank Charter; Usury Laws; East Retford; Duties on Sugar; Duties on Tobacco; Canada; West Indies; Education in Ireland; Irish and English Churches; Poor in Ireland; Public Works; Commission on Ecclesiastical Courts; Reform of English Courts; Reform of Welsh Judicature; Reform of Courts of Equity; Scotch Law of Entail; Salaries of Scotch Judges—­increase; Salaries of English Judges—­reduction; Grand Juries, Ireland; Militia Laws; Stamp Duties, &c., &c.