to-morrow.

Lady Jersey was very loud in her dispraise of the Duke of Richmond. Every
one who knows him says he is very cunning. There is a mixture of good and
bad taste about him. He is popular, and he would make a good man of
business.


_April 13, 1829, Monday._

Chairs at 11. Informed them of Sir Sidney Beckwith's appointment to the
command at Bombay.

Told them my general idea was that it was necessary to fix a Lieutenant-
Governor at Agra. I showed them it could be done without expense. Sir
Charles Metcalfe should be the person appointed, with precise instructions
obliging him to a system of non-interference in the internal concerns of
the Malwa and Rajpoot States. Sir J. Malcolm would have interposed.

The treaties with the Rajpoot States generally secure their internal
independence. Those with the States of Malwa give us the right, and impose
upon us the duty of supervision. It requires, therefore, a most delicate
hand to bring the whole into one system animated by one spirit.

I said incidentally to-day, 'I will not sit here to sacrifice India to
England,' a sentiment which escaped me, but which I feel to be correct, not
only socially but politically.

Ashley came and bored me about a petition of some Hindoos and Mahometans in
Calcutta, who wish to be grand jurors. I told him I could not proceed