a. It is hardly credible, yet it
is true, that till within these few years the Medical Board indented upon
England for drugs which were produced in India! From Madras as late at 1827
they indented for file handles and blacksmiths' tongs! From Bombay in 1826
for wooden canteens and triangles! It is evident the local Governments have
never displayed any energy.

_September 16._

Received from the Duke his ideas on the subject of a campaign against Ava.
He would hold the great Dagon Temple at Rangoon, but only for the purpose
of having vessels in the river to co-operate with the army.

_September 17._

To-day has been an idle day. I have done nothing; but I have taken
exercise, and so acquired _health_, without which I cannot do business.

_September 20._

Met Mr. Conyngham of the Foreign Office. He told me the Turks were ready to
make the required concessions. Of the disposition of the Russians nothing
seems known. R. Gordon has of his own authority ordered up Sir Pulteney
Malcolm from Vourla to the Dardanelles. I suppose to carry away Englishmen
and their property in the event of an insurrection or of some terrible
catastrophe at Constantinople.

Lord Stuart, as I suspected, gives no opinion as to the probable result of
the political contest in France.

I had a letter from the Duke respecting half-Batta.

_September 24._

Cabinet room. Read all the letters from Petersburg, Paris, Berlin, and
Constantinople during the last fortnight, and the despatches sent during
the last month.

R. Gordon seems to have done very well. He and Guilleminot have acted
cordially together, and when they had induced the Porte to consent to make
peace on the terms prescribed by the Russians, Gordon managed very
prudently to get General Muffling to send his secretary to the Russian
head-quarters with the Turkish Plenipotentiaries. Muffling would have gone
with them to the Reis Effendi had he been well enough; as it was, he sent
his secretary, who afterwards went to the Russian head-quarters and was
thus enabled to state distinctly what had passed in the conference held
with the Effendi. I think it very possible that without the intervention of
the Prussian Minister, who was known to be acquainted with the feelings of
the Emperor, General Diebitch would not have agreed to an armistice. The
armistice seems to have been made on August 29. We know of it from Seymour
at Berlin.

Polignac seems excellently well disposed. He woul