We had a long discussion as to the name of the new State.  At last it seemed to be thought ‘Sovereign Prince of Greece’ was the best.  Aberdeen thinks he shall have little difficulty about the Prince.  The Russians agree to the description given; but I dare say they imagine we mean to describe a different man.  I suspect they think we want to give them Leopold.

Aberdeen read a letter he proposed sending to Lord Stuart, the purport of which was that we wanted to know what he meant to do towards redeeming France from the responsibility she had incurred and made us incur by giving instructions to Count Guilleminot, stating the terms of peace and the moderation of the Emperor—­instructions which misled our Ambassador, and induced the two Ambassadors to give assurances to the Porte which events proved to be unfounded.

The letter, I think, likewise desired him to enquire in what form our joint representations as to the amount of the indemnity were to be made.  To these the Ambassadors have pledged the two Cabinets.

There was a great deal more in the letter which is to be left out.  It went into the details of the treaty, or rather of its effects.

The offer is to be made to the Turks of an independent Greece, from the Gulf of Volo to Missolonghi, or of a Greece under Suzerainete, with Negropont, and the line from Volo to the Gulf of Arta.

I think we are all agreed that at the commencement of the war it was our interest to take as little as possible from Turkey—­that now it is our interest to make Greece a substantive State, which may hereafter receive the debris of the Ottoman Empire. [Footnote:  This may explain the apparently illiberal views of many of the Cabinet as to the Greek boundaries.  They saw the difficulty of any halting place outside the Isthmus of Corinth, short of a wider boundary even than that ultimately adopted.]

As to the really important matter, the remonstrance to Russia, nothing was done.  Nothing is, I conclude, written, and Aberdeen does not like Cabinet criticism, nor do I think the Cabinet at all agreed as to what should be said.  Dudley’s letters used to occupy us for days, and certainly they were the better for it—­although we lost a good deal of time occasionally.

Aberdeen said he would send it to me.  I think I shall write an esquisse myself.  We are to have no more Cabinets for some time.  The Chancellor wishes to have the remaining fortnight of his holidays uninterrupted.

October 12.

Went to town at quarter-past one.  To the Foreign Office.  The treaty arrived last night.  Lord Aberdeen took it with him to Windsor.  It differs materially from the projet.  The Articles respecting indemnity are relegues to a separate transaction.  The payment of 100,000 ducats is to lead to the evacuation of Adrianople; 400,000 form the next payment, then 500,000, and 500,000, making the sum originally demanded for individual losses;