Greece seems to be settled,
and while everybody has been wondering what could induce him to
accept it, it turns out that he has been most anxious for it, and
has moved heaven and earth to obtain it; that the greatest
obstacle he has met with has been from the King, who hates him,
and cannot bear that he should become a crowned head. He may
think it 'better to reign in hell than serve in heaven,' but I
should have thought he had a better prospect here, with L50,000 a
year and as uncle to the heiress apparent, than to go to a ruined
country without cities or inhabitants, and where everything is to
be created, and to sit on such a wretched throne as the nominee
of the Allied Powers, by whom he will be held responsible for his
acts; however, 'il ne faut pas disputer des gouts.'

George Bentinck told me that Lady Canning is not satisfied with
Stapleton's book, particularly with that part of it in which he
attempts to answer Lord Grey's speech, which she thinks poor and
spiritless; he is not disposed to be very severe on Lord Grey,
being in a manner connected with him. She is persuaded that that
speech contributed to kill Canning; his feelings were deeply
wounded that not one of his friends said a word in reply to it,
although some of them knew that the facts in Lord Grey's speech
were incorrect. He vehemently desired to be raised to the
peerage, that he might have an opportunity of answering it, and
he had actually composed and spoken to Mrs. Canning the speech
which he intended to make in the House of Lords. A great part of
this she remembers. It seems, too, that to the day of his death
this was the ruling desire of his mind, and he had declared that
the following year, when he should have carried the Corn Bill
through the House of Commons, he would go to the House of Lords
and fight the battle there.

January 17th, 1830 {p.266}

Charles Mills told me the other day that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer has been making enquiries as to the fact of Rothschild
having sold his India stock at the time he did. The two Grants
(Charles and Robert) are always together, and both very forgetful
and unpunctual. Somebody said that if you asked Charles to dine
with you at six on Monday, you were very likely to have Robert at
seven on Tuesday.

Edward Villiers (who has been living with Malcolm on board his
ship in the Mediterranean) writes word that Malcolm told him that
he had orders, in the event of Diebitsch's marching upon
Co