Aberdeen did when Dudley was in office, and I believe all Foreign
Secretaries had a shyness about showing their drafts till they were sent
off and unalterable.


_June 25._

At the office found a letter with enclosures from Colonel Macdonald, dated
Tabriz April 20. What he has been doing in Persia I do not know.

I have written to him to call upon me on Saturday.

Called on the Duke to tell him the substance--which is, that the Turks have
already 30,000 men and sixty pieces of cannon at Erzeroum. That a
dispossessed Pacha is in arms at Akiska. That the Russians have reinforced
the garrisons of Natshiran and Abbasabad, and have withdrawn all their
troops to the left bank of the Araxes, with the exception of those who
garrison Bayazid. The plague seems rife at Erivan. The Russians about Count
Paskewitz abuse the English very much.


_June 27._

The Chairs told me Lord W. Bentinck had extended to all persons the benefit
of the regulation as to coffee planters, _omitting, however_, all the
restrictive clauses. They think very seriously of this, and very justly.
The Calcutta newspapers consider the principle of colonisation to be
conceded.

We must abrogate this 'Regulation' without loss of time. I went to the Duke