June 1.
The King had a quiet night. In other respects he is much the same.
June 2.
Employed all the morning on the Greek papers. Cabinet dinner at Peel's. The King rather better. They have opened punctures above the knees. 400 papers were stamped. Lord Farnborough was the stamper. The King was perfectly alive to all that was going on.
A steamboat has made the passage from Bombay to Suez in a month and two days, leaving Bombay on March 20 and reaching Suez on April 22. The letters arrived here on May 31. The steamboat was detained ten days for coals. There was no steam conveyance from Alexandria to Malta, so we may reckon upon gaining fourteen days at least upon this passage. Besides, the steam vessel was probably a bad one.
June 3.
House. Aberdeen, in reply to a question of Lord Londonderry's, promised all the protocols of Paris! A most voluminous mass of dull twaddle. The House postponed Miss Hickson's divorce case to Lord Salisbury and East Retford. We had only 18 to 69! The Duke seemed very angry, and I heard him speaking to Lord Bathurst of some peer who went out without voting, whose conduct seemed to make him very indignant.
June 4.
House. All seems quiet again. Nothing more said about Leopold. There was to be a meeting to-day at Lord Lansdowne's which the Duke of Newcastle was expected to attend. Palmerston was at the last. [Footnote: The conjunction of these names indicated an alliance of Whigs, Canningites, and Tories irritated by the Roman Catholic Bill.] Rosslyn does not know whether Lord Grey was.
The King not going on well by the bulletin; worse by the private account, which, however, I did not see. He has lost his appetite and grows weaker.