g there but me--I went in, and first asked him to allow
Clare to wear the uniform the late King gave him. This led to a long talk
about uniforms for Indian Governors, and I had some little difficulty to
carry my coat without having a general consideration of the whole question
of Governor's uniforms. I then told the King of the approaching death of
Sir J. Macdonald. He asked whom we proposed sending in his place? I told
him it did not entirely depend upon the King's Ministers, but that I
thought, if we recommended a very fit man, we should get the Chairs to name
him.

The King said, 'You heard what I said to the East India Company yesterday?'
I had not, but I bowed, and he added, 'I told them they should not be
unfairly dealt with. There is a run on them, and the notions of people are
very much exaggerated with regard to the question.'

I said the question would require and receive the most mature consideration
from his Ministers before they ventured to offer any advice to his Majesty
upon the course to be pursued.

The King said in about ten or twelve days he should be able to give me a
day or two for Indian matters.

I thought I had given time to the others to arrive, and rose. I should
mention that he spoke of Algiers, and said he suspected there was an
understanding about it between the Russians and the French.

I said I did not entertain much fear of the French having Algiers. With a
little money we could raise Morocco on one side and Tunis on the other, and
harass them from the interior, and while we took care they had not Tunis,
Algiers was comparatively unimportant. With Tunis, Malta, and Corfu we
should hold our hands across the Mediterranean.

I went out and found them come. The Duke went in. The King gives up dining
with Leopold. He gave it up the moment the objections to it were mentioned
to him.

The speech was, I found, much improved after I went away. The King said he
thought nothing could be better, and indeed it is a very good speech. He
said he thought the reference to the Catholic question was unavoidable, as
it was the great measure of the Parliament; and it was particularly proper
that he should refer to it as he had voted for it, really thinking that the
Church would be more secure by means of Catholic admission than by their
exclusion.

I thought the King seemed a little tired. Well he might be. He had been at
an inspection of troops, the Grenadier Guards and the Lancers, from ten to
one,