00 about 10,000 are fit for duty. Blank orders are ready at
the Castle, directing the march of these men upon five central points,
where they would be incorporated with the regiments, so that in a few days
the army could be reinforced by 10,000 men. There are others who are not
very capable of doing anything but mischief if against us. These would be
ordered to the garrisons.

I wish Hardinge was in Ireland instead of Lord Francis.

_August 6._

Chairs at 11.

Astell does not seem to like my letters relative to the delay in answering
despatches from India and in communicating events in India; and respecting
the amount of military stores sent to India, and the expediency of
enquiring whether their amount could not be diminished. Loch did not say
anything. It was an attempt at bullying on Astell's part, which I resisted,
and successfully.

_August 10._

The Russians appear to have passed the defiles on the northern side of the
Balkans, and almost without loss. There is, I conclude, a force near
Bourgas, but all that is to be hoped is that the Turks will be wise enough
not to fight. It was an unlucky appointment, that of the Grand Vizier. Old
Hussein never would have committed his fault.

R. Gordon has been magnificently received at Constantinople.

Polignac has been made Prime Minister of France. De Rigny is made Minister
of Marine. The Government is Tory, and I should think very favourable to
English alliance, not Greek, and certainly not Russian. If it should be
able to stand, it must be good for us. Received letters from Colonel
Macdonald from Tabriz. He says the Russians at Tiflis talk as if they were
going to war with us.

_August 11._

Received Persian despatches. The Persians will pay no more. They wanted to
go to war. No one would go as Envoy to Petersburg but an _attache_. They
all thought they should be beheaded. Macdonald seems to have kept them
quiet.

Cabinet room. Met Lord Melville. Read Gordon's letters from Constantinople.
The Turks have not above 20,000 men there. They are not disposed to yield
at all. Gordon thinks if we declared we would fix in any manner the limits
of Greece, and maintain them, the Porte would not quarrel with us, and
would rather do anything than yield the point of honour by acknowledging
the independence of the Greeks.

The Russians mean to pass the Balkans with 60,000 men and march on
Adrianople. They send a large force by sea to Sizeboli to turn Bourgas.

Lor