ound,
but I did doubt that they would be selected, for that the European servants
had disappointed me. The natives were better than I expected, &c., &c.

Saw the Duke. Suggested to him Sir J. Malcolm's being made provisional
successor to Lord W. Bentinck for the reasons I have mentioned. He thought
well of the suggestion; but said we must consider it, and mention it in
Cabinet, as Lord William was a great card, and we must not do anything to
offend unnecessarily him and his connection. The objection occurred to him
that had occurred to me, that Sir J. Malcolm would die if he went to
Calcutta. I hope he would not go there, that he would remain in the upper
provinces. But I look to the effect of the nomination upon the conduct of
people in India, and that of Lord William himself, more than to his actual
succession.

The Duke then said we must look not to India only, but to all Asia, and
asked me if I had read Evans's book. I told him I had; that in forty-eight
hours after I read it I had sent a copy to Macdonald and another to
Malcolm. I told him all the views I had with regard to the navigation of
the Indus and the opening of a trade with Cabul and Bokhara. He said our
minds appeared to have been travelling the same way. We must have good
information of what the Russians might be doing there. I reminded him I had
desired the Government a year ago to obtain information as to all the
countries between the Caspian and the Indus, and I intended now to give a
more particular direction. He said Macdonald should have his eye upon the
Caspian, and information as to those countries would be best obtained
through natives. I reminded him that that had been the suggestion in my
letter of last year. The Duke's opinion is that it is a question of
_expense only_. That if the Russians got 20,000 or 30,000 men into Cabul we
could beat them; but that by hanging upon us there they could put us to an
enormous expense in military preparation, and in quelling insurrections.
They could not move in that direction without views hostile to us, and by
threatening us there they would think to embarrass us in Europe. I proposed
that in the event of the Russians moving in that direction we should permit
the Government of India to act as an Asiatic Power. By money at least, he
allowed, without further orders, not to move in advance without
instructions. But the Duke is ready to take up the question here in Europe,
if the Russians move towards India wi