A Political Diary, 1828-1830 Part 20

Read for an hour at the Cabinet room. There is a curious account of a conversation between De Rigny and an Austrian friend at Smyrna. De Rigny thinks very ill of the Government, and of the state of France. He too wants the Rhine! He judges truly enough of the results of the treaty. 'England, Austria, and France will talk, but nothing will be done.' He says Russia was very foolish not to go on. She might have dared anything. However, the army seems to have suffered severely. They acknowledge the loss of 130,000 men in the two campaigns.

Dieb.i.t.c.h has partly evacuated Adrianople, leaving there, however, 6,000 sick and a battalion. The plague spreads in the Princ.i.p.alities, and they do not know how to get the troops out of Turkey.

Zuylen de Neyvelt and others give a very bad account of the state of Constantinople. They say the Turkish Empire _cannot_ hold together.

I do not like Lord Stuart's account of the state of the French Ministry.

They will bring in Villele, who is an able man, and he may save them; but theirs is a desperate game.

The French seem to be disposed to go along with us in negotiating with the Emperor of Brazil [Footnote: _i.e._ with the Emperor Don Pedro, father of the ultimately successful candidate for the Portuguese throne, Donna Maria de Gloria.] for the recognition of Miguel. There would be a stipulation for amnesty, &c.

_December 3._

The Chairs talked of Lord William Bentinck. They are very much out of humour with him and heartily wish he was at home. He has neither written privately nor publicly, except upon trifling matters, for five months. He has declared his opinion in favour of colonisation. He is very unpopular.

On the subject of Sir W. Rumbold he and Sir Ch. Metcalfe are very hostile, taking extreme views on the different sides. This hostility upon one subject will lead to difference upon others. The Government is not respected--and certainly there has been no moment when it was of more importance that the head of the Government should be respected than when it is necessary to effect a great economical reform. They describe the feeling at Madras as being still worse. There they did not think the governor an _honest man_.

The Chairs expect a letter from Macdonald to the Secret Committee with copies of his last despatches which I have already received through Petersburg, so they are unwilling to accept a communication of them from me. The letter, permitting Abbas Murza to purchase 12,000 stand of arms and to pay for them by instalments, will therefore go without any reference to the last despatches received.

Saw Aberdeen. He agrees with me in feeling much apprehension on the state of France as well as of Turkey. He seems, however, to think more of the state of parties here, and does not like the looks of the Duke of c.u.mberland (who was nearly dying last week) and of the King. It seems the King, although very well satisfied with measures of a public nature, is annoyed at not carrying some small jobs.

There was a great party at Woburn lately, and the world of course say there is an approximation to the Grey party. Aberdeen thinks the Woburn party showed good wishes, and Lord Grey, it is said, does not mean to come up to town. However, he is said to think he has been slighted, whereas the Duke of Wellington _cannot_ do anything for him in the hostile state of the King's mind.

I told Aberdeen confidentially of Bankes's going out, which is an indication, no doubt, of continued hostility on the part of the Duke of c.u.mberland.

Saw Hardinge. Talked on various public subjects, and then told him of the probability that in three months Lord W. Bentinck would be recalled. I asked him whether he could be induced to go as Governor-General. He rejected the idea at first as unsuited to his rank in the army. I said we could make him Captain-General. He seemed to think it was a great field for a man who wished to obtain great fame, and if he was unmarried he would not be disinclined to go, but I should think domestic considerations would prevent him. I wish we had him as secretary in Ireland, but he is wanted _everywhere_. He is so useful. He would be _most useful_ in Ireland.

Saw the Duke. I told him what the Chairs had said. He said he always thought Lord William would not succeed. Who could we get to replace him? He had always thought it did not signify as long as we had _one_ man in India; but we must have _one_. I told him that, seeing the difficulty of selection, I had thought it right to tell him what was likely to happen. I should not be much surprised if he thought of Lord Tweddale, whom he thought of for Ireland. I do not know him at all.

_December 6._

Read Sir W. Rumbold's letters, and the minutes in Council on the Hyderabad case. Sir W. is a cunning, clever man. Sir Ch. Metcalfe shows too much prejudice against Sir W. Rumbold; but he was at Hyderabad at the time, and he may be right. I suspect it was a disgraceful business.

_December 9._

Loch has got a cadets.h.i.+p for me. Colonel Baillie lends it. He postpones a nomination till next year in order to oblige me. I have thanked Loch, and begged him to thank Colonel Baillie.

Wrote to Lady Belfast to tell her Mr. Verner had his cadets.h.i.+p. Begged her to make his family and friends understand thoroughly that this was a private favour I had led her to expect long before the discussion of the Catholic question.

Wrote to Lord Hertford and enclosed an extract from my letter to Lady Belfast.

Read a letter from Sir J. Malcolm, who is again troubled by Sir J. P.

Grant. He enclosed a letter of his upon the subject to Lord W. Bentinck.

The concluding paragraph of this letter refers to a letter from Lord William of June 18, at which time the spirit of the Bengal army continued bad.

Read a letter from Jones, who will set himself to work about the navigation of the Indus. He says a Mr. Walter Hamilton speaks of the river being navigable for vessels of 200 tons to Lah.o.r.e, and that from Lah.o.r.e to the mouth of the river, 700 miles, is only a voyage of twelve days. And no British flag has ever floated upon the waters of this river! Please G.o.d it shall, and in triumph, to the source of all its tributary streams.

_December 11._

Read a letter from Lord Bathurst respecting the recall of Sir J. P. Grant.

He had imagined I had said he had resigned. He seems surprised I should have supposed it possible a judge should be recalled without a formal meeting of the Privy Council. I reminded him of Sir T. Claridge's case, not half so strong as that of Sir J. P. Grant.

_December 12._

Read Fraser's travels.

_December 13._

A letter from Sir J. Malcolm, by which it seems that my letter to him of February 21 has been copied and become public: much to his annoyance.

[Footnote: This was the letter with the expression about a wild elephant between two tame ones which afterwards attracted so much criticism. It was intended as a private letter to Sir J. Malcolm, but by a mistake of one of his secretaries was copied as an official communication.]

He sends me his letter to Lord W. Bentinck upon the subject. It seems by this letter, which adverts to other topics, that the spirit in Bengal is very bad--that Lord W. has. .h.i.therto done nothing to check it, and that with the press in his power he has allowed it to be more licentious than it ever was before.

_December 14._

Found at Roehampton a letter from the Duke enclosing one addressed by Mrs.

Hastings to the King, applying for a pension. The King recommends it to the consideration of the Court of Directors. I doubt the Court venturing to propose any pension to the Court of Proprietors.

I had another letter from the Duke enclosing a letter to him from Sir J.

Malcolm and a copy of Sir J. Malcolm's letter to Lord W. Bentinck, respecting the unauthorised publication of my private letter--the same I received yesterday. Sir J. Malcolm speaks of an intended deputation from the Bengal army to England, which Lord William was determined not to allow; but Sir J. Malcolm seems to think that Lord William by his conduct at first brought on much of what has taken place. He has relaxed the reins of Government too much. I am satisfied that, without a change of form and name, it will be very difficult to regain the strength the Government has lost in India.

I shall see the Duke if I can to-morrow and suggest the appointment of Sir J. Malcolm as provisional successor to Lord William. Sir J. Malcolm's sentiments are known, and his nomination would show the feeling of the Government here. It would be a hint to Lord William that we could replace him at once and make him do his duty. It would, in the event of anything happening to Lord William, guard against the mischiefs of an interregnum, which is always a time of weakness and of job.

_December 15._

The Duke gone to the Deepdene. Wrote to him to say I would not fail to bring the question of Mrs. Hastings's pension before the Chairs; but I enclosed a memorandum showing all that had been done for old Hastings, and reminded the Duke that the Court could not grant above 200 a year without the sanction of two Courts of Proprietors.

Cabinet room. Lord Heytesbury seems to have shown Nesselrode the protocol about November 25. The Count was greatly agitated, and put himself into a furious pa.s.sion. Asked the use of it? Perhaps it would be difficult to say.

Supposed it was intended for Parliament--which is very true. Said it would lead to a reply we should not like--create a paper war, prevent the two Courts from remaining upon the friendly terms he had hoped were re-established. The more angry he is, the more right I think we must feel we were to send it.

There is a good paper of Aberdeen's to Sir R. Gordon, in which he considers the Turkish Empire as falling, and our interest as being to raise Greece, that that State may be the heir of the Ottoman Power. With this view he considers it to be of primary importance that the Government of new Greece should not be revolutionary, and the Prince a good one.

There is another good paper defending England against an accusation of Metternich that we should have spoken in a firmer tone to Russia at an earlier period. The King seems much taken with these papers, and writes great encomiums upon them.

By Lord Stuart's account it appears probable that Villele will come in. The Government mean to avoid all questions upon which it is possible to have a difference of opinion, and to bring forward only measures of clear and undeniable utility. They think that, if their opponents should endeavour to throw out these measures, the Chambers will support Government.

France coincides with us entirely as to the Portuguese question; but wishes, and she is right, that questions more specific had been put to the Emperor Pedro. The intention seems to be to acknowledge Miguel on conditions, when Pedro admits he can do nothing.

_December 16._

Read Lord Ashley's memorandum on the judicial administration of India. I wrote a note on returning it in which I said he seemed to have taken great pains to collect the opinions which had been given by different persons upon the subject. Mine had been expressed by me in a letter to Sir J.

Malcolm on August 7, in which I declared my general concurrence in the views entertained by him and intimated by him in his minute, giving an account of his tour in the southern Mahratta country. I had added that I was satisfied the more we could avail ourselves of the services of the natives in the fiscal and judicial administration the better, and that all good government must rest upon the village system. I told Sir J. Malcolm I had come to my office without any preconceived opinions, that I had kept out of the way of prejudiced men, and had allowed opinions to form themselves gradually in my own mind as I acquired more knowledge from pure sources. I could not, if I had written this pa.s.sage on purpose, have had one more suited to my purpose. It showed Ashley I was not _prejudiced_, that my opinions were formed before I read his memorandum, and that I had formed them by abstaining from the course he has pursued--for he allows all sorts of persons to come and talk to him, and to inoculate him with their notions.