Read some of Colonel Tod’s ‘Rajastan.’  I had rather see Rajastan or Rajpootana than any part of India.  It would really be interesting.  Colonel Tod seems to be an enthusiast about the country and the people.  He was there apparently at least sixteen years.  The story of the beautiful Princess of Oudeypore [Footnote:  Krishna Komari.  She was poisoned by her father to avoid the hostilities of the rival princes who demanded her hand.  The father was still living when Colonel Tod wrote.  The House of Oudeypore was the only native reigning family who disdained to intermarry even with the Emperors of Delhi.  See Tod’s Rajasthan, i. 066.] in Tod’s book and Sir J. Malcolm’s is the most romantic and the most interesting I know.  That family of Oudeypore or Mewar seems to be the most ancient in the world.  It far surpasses the Bourbons and the House of Hapsburg.

July 23.

Chairs at eleven.  Told them of the danger in which they were, from the feeling of the mercantile districts and of the country; that we could not look Parliament in the face without having done all in our power to effect reductions in a deficit of 800,000L a year; that without a commanding case no Government, however strong, could venture to propose a renewal of the monopoly.

They were obliged to me for my information.  I advised them to turn their attention immediately to all the great points.

On the subject of the six regiments the Court differ from the view I took.  Loch gave me a long statement of facts, which I must read attentively, and then communicate with the Duke.

They are so enamoured of old habits that they hesitate about desiring their Indian Governments and the subordinate correspondents of these Governments to place upon the back of their voluminous letters a precis of their substance!

After the Chairs were gone I saw Bankes and Leach, and while they were with me Sir Archibald Campbell called.  I saw him immediately.  He is a fat, rather intelligent-looking man, well mannered, and sensible.  I talked to him of the idea of exchanging Tenasserim. [Footnote:  The furthest province of the British territory towards Siam, extending along the coast south of Pegu, and lately conquered from the Burmese Empire.] He did not like giving up his conquest.  I gave him one secret letter, and he will make his observations upon it.

He left Lord William at the mouth of the Hooghly.  They had found out the removal of the Government was contrary to law.  They had intended to be itinerant for a year or two.

It is only in the Bengal army that the officers are old.  There they rise by seniority.  In the Madras army they are made from fitness.

The Madras army, though most gallant, was quite unequal, from deficiency of physical strength, to face the Burmese.  The Burmese soldiers brought fourteen days’ provisions.  All men are liable to be called upon.  They never had more than 120,000 in the field.