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, and the day was very hot.  He inspected the troops on foot.

The Duke of Wellington passed the King at the head of his regiment, and Lord Rosslyn at the head of his.  Lord Rosslyn is delighted with the opportunities of wearing his uniform, and playing the general officer again.

July 24.

Council at 11.  Parliament dissolved.  The seals were delivered to the
Secretaries and to Goulburn.  Herries kissed hands.

Sir G. Clark becomes Under-Secretary to the Home Department.  W. Peel goes to the Treasury.  Charles Ross comes into Clark’s place.  Macnaughten goes out.

July 26.

Dined at St. James’s.  The King of Wurtemburg, the Ministers, Foreign Ministers, Household, and Knights of the Garter there, in all 80.  After dinner the King made a speech which made his Ministers’ hearts fail within them.  However, we were quitte pour la peur.  He only spoke of his love of peace.  The only thing painful was that he should speak at all, and before his servants, like a chairman of a public meeting.