Chapter VII: Excitement About Gordon in London

MY Indian journey over I left Bombay for England on the 1st March 1884, and arrived at Suez on the 12th, and going on by Naples to Paris reached London on the 27th, altogether too late to be of any avail in the matter of Gordon. He was already at Khartoum.

The only noticeable incident on this homeward journey was that passing through the Suez Canal we found that vessels arriving from Bombay were subject to quarantine, and so that any intention I might have had of going ashore was necessarily abandoned. Nevertheless, while I was standing with other passengers on deck, a Government boat drew alongside our ship, remaining just outside the prescribed quarantine limit, and I heard my name called with inquiry whether I was on board, and going to the gangway was accosted from the boat by an Englishman in the Khedivial uniform, who informed me that he was Lieutenant-Colonel Gibbons in the Egyptian service, and that he had been instructed on behalf of the Government to notify to me that if I attempted to land I should be subjected to arrest. The announcement mattered little to me under the circumstances, though it proved afterwards to be the first step in a course of prohibition and exile which shut me out from Egypt for the next three years, and which, as will be seen, was maintained against me as long as Lord Granville continued at the Foreign Office.

At Paris we spent a few hours in the society of our refugee friends, Sheykh Mohammed Abdu, Seyyid Jemal-ed-Din and James Sanua. The first I had not seen since the war, for he had spent the first year of his exile at Damascus, where the sons of Abd-el-Kader had befriended him, and where he had lived poorly but in security with a number more of the Egyptian Nationalist exiles. We found him somewhat Europeanized already by a two months’ stay in Paris. He had left off shaving his head, and wore a fez instead of a turban, which rather detracted from his dignity as Sheykh, though he was still dressed in a respectable fur pelisse. “He talks now openly against the Sultan and the Turks, complains of the tyranny in Syria, and argues of the Sherif Own as the coming Caliph. The Mahdi, he says, is the forerunner of the Arabian Caliph who will soon be.” To him and to Jemal-ed-Din I related all that I had done in India, and my thought of going to Constantinople, but they warned me this would be of no use; I might try, but they expected no good to come of it. All the power there was in the hands of Osman Pasha of Plevna, who cared only to fill his own purse. Syria was becoming indoctrinated with ideas of liberty in spite of the tyranny of spies and police. At Constantinople nothing could be done. We talked of the Mahdi, who was now the chief subject of interest with Moslems, and of Gordon, who was at Khartoum. Jemal-ed-Din entirely approved of the letter I had written to Gordon, and agreed that he would perish now that he had taken the wrong side. The following occurs in my diary of

“_27th March._—We found Jemal-ed-Din in a little room eight feet square at the top of a house in the Rue de Seize, where he and Abdu edit a newspaper called the ‘Indissoluble Link.’ Almost at the same time came in a very curious party of strangers who quite filled the room—a Russian lady, an American philanthropist, and two young Bengalis who announced themselves as Theosophists, come, they said, to consult the great Sheykh. They talked an extraordinary jargon about humanity, but seemed kind-hearted people, and so full of their cause as to take no notice whatever of our presence. The main object of their visit was to inquire about the Mahdi, whom they were all most anxious to believe in as a humanitarian, but their minds were perplexed about the slave trade, and they cross-questioned the Sheykh as to the Mahdi’s principles on that head. The Sheykh had great difficulty in satisfying them, but explained how much slaves gained among Mohammedans in exchange for their freedom. This sent them away happy, but the poor Sheykh was put to his last shifts to hide his amusement. When they were gone we had a good talk about India, and all that we had done, which pleased him much.”

I called also at the Embassy, and had an hour with Sheffield, who told me Gordon’s idea had been to go straight to the Mahdi and make peace with him, but he had been prevented at Cairo. Now he considered his case hopeless. Lord Lyons, whom I also saw, acknowledged that we had got into an inextricable mess in Egypt. The same night we went on to England, arriving in London. Here I found myself once more in the thick of a political crisis, of which the main feature was the interminable Egyptian imbroglio, made more than ever acute by Gordon’s peril at Khartoum. My journal deals principally with this, and indeed it occupied for ten months to come almost the whole public thought of Englishmen.

My first visits on arrival were to Button and Knowles, my threatened arrest in Egypt being upper-most in my mind. “Button still maintains his connection with the ‘Times,’ though poor Chenery is dead and his place as Editor has been taken by a young man, Buckle. He gave me a pathetic account of Chenery’s death. He had suffered great pain for years from a cancer, of which he told no one of the ‘Times’ staff, though sometimes it would make him groan aloud. He was very forlorn, being without intimate friends while knowing every one. But he had an affection for Button. Then he had suddenly gone away alone and died. Button’s political report was that the life of Gladstone’s Cabinet was very precarious—hardly likely to last through the Session. I stood well now, he thought, with the public, as every one saw I had been right about Egypt.

To Knowles I told what had happened to me in Egypt in consequence of the encouragement given me. “Mr. Gladstone?” he said, “I should not be surprised to see him any day order our troops back and clear bodily out of Egypt; I have known him for years, and as long as he can twist his conduct into an apparent consistency of words, he will change his opinions without scruple. But he will not endure being brought face to face with a flat contradiction. It has always been the same, about art and literature and everything else. As yet, he has maintained a certain verbal consistency, but he cannot do it much longer.”

A third visit was to my sister-in-law, Lady Wentworth, from whom I learnt that my exclusion from Egypt had been ordered by the Foreign Office. She knew of this from George Leveson Gower, Granville’s nephew and Gladstone’s private secretary. Lastly, I saw Randolph Churchill.

“_30th March._—I found Randolph in bed in a little room at the top of his house in Connaught Place. We had a long talk about Arabi and my visit to India. He was curious to know what I had been doing with the Mohammedans there, for Gorst had given him the idea that I had started the university at Hyderabad for revolutionary purposes. I told him I considered a revolution in India certain if changes in the system of government were not introduced. He said, ‘It is hopeless to try and get the Conservatives to take up the idea of any sort of change.’ He seemed taken, however, with the notion I suggested to him of playing the part of champion of the Mohammedans. I proposed that we should go together to Constantinople in the recess, but he said he was canvassing Birmingham and could not possibly find time. About my having been prevented from landing in Egypt he was especially interested, and thinks it could be made a capital point of attack on the Government. I told him the history of Knowles’s message to me from Gladstone, without however mentioning Knowles’s name. But he said at once: ‘Oh, I know, that’s Knowles, because he has told lots of people the same thing.’ He advises the whole of my correspondence about it being lumped at once into the ‘Times,’ and that Drummond Wolff should be set at the Foreign Office to make the most of it in Parliament.

“He told me also that overtures had been made him from the Khedive for a withdrawal of the charges he had brought forward implicating him in the massacres of Alexandria, notably through the Prince of Wales, who had had a quarrel with him, nine years before, and had not spoken to him since. Now, however, the Prince had dined with him at a select dinner of people interested in Egypt, and had talked highly of the Khedive to him. ‘The thing, however,’ he said, ‘has served its purpose, and we must go on to something fresh. I look upon the charge as proved, and I know it smashed up the Khedive and the Government policy at the time.’ Wentworth has made a really good speech on the Soudan battles, and may, I think, help us much in our new campaign.

“_31st March._—Gordon has been defeated outside Khartoum, his army of 2,500 flying from sixty of the Mahdi’s men. What a hideous comedy it all is. He is now calling for English troops, he who went out to give freedom to the Soudan, peace on earth and goodwill towards men. [This is how I regarded his mission at the time.] Called on Sir Wilfrid Lawson, the only honest man in Parliament. He urges that we should make some move for the restoration of Arabi, but I doubt whether the time has come. At the present time the Mahdi is the one popular man in Egypt. Saw Lyulph Stanley.[28] He is now for a Protectorate in Egypt, and I can find nobody in favour of a Nationalist restoration. They all say now that I was right and Arabi was an honest man, but they treat it as a matter of history, and rather old history too. Button advises my getting a legal opinion on the case of my exclusion from Egypt before going any further. Lawson sends me some doggerel verse about the war, not so good as the last he wrote, but to the point.

“_3rd April._—Lunched with Button at the Carlton, who tells me the Jews were never in such a fright about Egypt as they were two days ago. The Rothschilds have still four millions invested there and are working the press all they can. Lady Rosebery is nearly the only person who is allowed to see Gladstone. But they are in a terrible fright of his doing something violent, _e.g._, withdrawing the troops from Egypt. He, Button, sees the Rothschilds nearly daily, for the ‘Times’ is in their hands. To-day, however, they are more confident, and people are buying Egyptian stock. While we were talking, Burnaby[29] came in with Churchill and Gorst, and I had some talk with them. Burnaby looks weak and wears his arm in a sling. [He was just back from Souakin, where he had taken part in Graham’s expedition and the battle of Tamanieb as a volunteer.] And I felt some disgust at shaking hands with a man who has been murdering the Arabs with his shot gun as he seems to have done. I have never liked him, for he has the most evil countenance one can imagine. I like Churchill far the best of the three. He has a light cheery manner like a boy at school.

“In the Park, where I sat for a few minutes and saw the two Lytton girls looking like roses. Their father starts for Sorrento to-night.

“_4th April._—To Auberon Herbert at the Langham Hotel. He highly approves of the idea of letting the Egyptians choose their own ruler, and waiting for a spontaneous movement to bring back Arabi. If the British Government recalled Arabi now and proposed him, he would be looked upon with suspicion by the people. Thence to Lawson’s, whom I found in high delight at having got a declaration out of the Government that they do not intend to send troops to Khartoum.

“Lunched with Labouchere. He is more practical, and we have discussed every detail of the policy to be suggested to Gladstone. He will feel the ground through Herbert Gladstone, which is his way of consulting the oracle. He told me the history of Gordon’s mission. Gordon’s idea had been to go out and make friends with the Mahdi, and to have absolutely nothing to do with Baring or the Khedive, or with anybody in Egypt. He was going to Souakin straight, where he counted upon one of the neighbouring Sheykhs, whose sons’ lives he had saved or spared, and his mission was to be one entirely of peace. But the Foreign Office and Baring caught hold of him as he passed through Egypt, and made him stop to see the Khedive, and so he was befooled into going to Khartoum as the Khedive’s Lieutenant. Now he had failed altogether in his mission of peace, and the Government had recalled him more than once in the last few days, but he had refused to come back. Gladstone had decided absolutely to recall all the troops from Egypt when Hicks’s defeat was heard of, and was in a great rage. The expedition to Souakin had been forced on him by the Cabinet, and Hartington had taken care to give Graham no special instructions, so that he might fight without orders. This Graham of course had done, and Gladstone more angry still had gone down to sulk at Coombe. [Bertram Currie’s villa in Coombe Wood.] Now he would stand it no longer, and he had let Hartington in by coming up and making the speech he did last night. Nobody expected it. Labouchere thought the moment most favourable for a new move.

“_7th April._—Button tells me the Rothschilds are still in a great state of anxiety about their money, and Button is for the Government guaranteeing a loan of £8,000,000. It appears that the French are quite ready to put in their oar and themselves guarantee if allowed to protect. There is a split between Nubar and Clifford Lloyd. Nubar has threatened to resign. This will bring things to a crisis.

“_8th April._—At Crabbet, dawdling about among the horses, and going to see the Vardon property, which is for sale, and which I must buy if I can. This property has for the best part of a century been a thorn in our flesh, running like a wedge into Crabbet. There is an entry in the shooting diary of 1824 in which complaint is made of ‘old Vardon’s poaching.’ Now is the time to rectify our frontier. An estate is a kingdom, with its wars and intrigues and ambitions and thirst for new territory, and, though I have no personal wish to increase mine, I consider this purchase a duty of my reign.

“I have written to Abdu a statement of my views about India, and to Selim Faris asking him what chance I should have of being able to influence people at Constantinople, if I went there, in favour of an effort at Mohammedan regeneration.

“_9th April._—Called on Mrs. Howard. We had a tremendous argument, I defending the Mahdi, she attacking him as a fanatic, and begging me not to talk in that way in England. She said: ‘It is so stupid of you, because you have so much sense, and if you would be moderate you might have great influence.’ I said: ‘My influence will never be great in England, because English people care nothing for principle and everything for party, and I am not a party man. My influence lies in the East, where all understand and accept me.’ We talked about Baring, and their refusal to let me land in Egypt, and she declared the Foreign Office had had nothing to do with it. But George said it was the only sensible thing they had done yet. We went on to Gladstone, and she described how he had become a political gambler. He had gambled with me by sending me to Egypt, just as he had since gambled with Gordon. If we succeeded he won; if we failed he did not intend to pay. This, I doubt not, is the position exactly.

“Lunched at the Carlton with Button. He intends to stand for Dorchester at the General Election, which may be anywhen now. But it will depend on events in Egypt. Gordon’s death would precipitate matters, but anyhow Egypt must go bankrupt in a month or two. He asked me why I did not look out for a constituency, but I said there was none in England would elect me. I could only conscientiously stand as a Home Ruler, and the Irish would not have me because I am an Englishman. Besides, I could not belong to a Party. He agreed that I was not meant for Parliament and had a stronger position outside. I had some talk with Miltown, who believes in the Sultan’s Caliphal prestige. I fancy the Tories, when they find they cannot annex Egypt, will hand it over to the Sultan. Anything would be better than the present state of things. I care little now who goes to Egypt so long as the English leave and no other European Power takes their place. But things are in the most extraordinary muddle; I find people here more cordial and respectful of my opinion than they were last year.

“_10th April._—My letter proposing a new settlement for Egypt is in the ‘Times,’ with a leading article in disparagement. It is all very well to bluster, but I cannot see how they are to carry on their game of brag with no soldiers to send to Egypt and the French getting angry, and bankruptcy staring them in the face.

“_11th April._—Dined with Eddy Hamilton at the St. James’s Club. He has been wanting to see me, and has written four times since I came home. In spite of his declaration that we were not to talk politics, nothing else was talked of. He began by saying that he had read my letter to the ‘Times,’ and agreed with most of it, but he thought it a pity that I had mentioned the Khedive’s abdication as a possible thing. I must know that the English Government was committed to his support. It was committed before Mr. Gladstone came into office, and such pledges could not be withdrawn from. He himself had always regretted this, and had considered the Joint Note of January, 1882, a great mistake. But the thing was done now and there was no help for it. He was sick of the whole thing and wished Egypt at the bottom of the sea. But they could not get out of it till there was a prospect of peace. I said: ‘You will never have peace as long as you insist on keeping Tewfik, and you are only at the beginning of your troubles. We will plague you in turn with all the plagues of Egypt until you let the people go. This year you will have the Mahdi, next year you will have a flood, and the next a famine.’ He said: ‘It is impossible to do anything for the Egyptians. They will not help themselves, they are such miserable cowards, and there is not an honest man among them.’ I said: ‘As for their cowardice, you have taken peasants from the fields and have sent them to fight for a man they hate against a man they love. As for their dishonesty, you have driven the honest men out of Egypt or frightened them into holes and corners. There are plenty of honest Egyptians, and I could guarantee an honest government if you would let me, only not with Tewfik, and not with the class of men you now employ.’ He said: ‘The rest are too stupid.’ I said: ‘Egypt is the easiest of all lands to govern, and it does not require cleverness to do it. It requires honesty and the consent of the people. In all Arab societies the character of the Ruler is reflected in the Ministers, and, with a ruler whom they respected, and who had the qualities they respected, you could reform the whole mass. But Tewfik they never can respect, and the Circassians are opposed to all reform.’ We talked about Gordon and the Mahdi. Gordon it appears has written to say that the Mahdi has no power in the Soudan, and Eddy thinks the whole thing a myth. He does not want to send an army to Khartoum, but trusts to the desert frontier as Egypt’s best defence. In this he is right, but I told him he must expect raids such as the Wahhabis used to make in the last century on Bagdad and Syria; they used to make desert marches of a thousand miles. I warned him against employing Indian troops, and told him my view of the danger of mixing India up with the troubles of Egypt. He said: ‘I hope there may be no occasion.’ But from his tone I should judge they have the possibility of employing Indian troops in their eye, in spite of their public declarations. He said they had no reason to believe these otherwise than loyal.

“We then talked about my exclusion from Egypt, and he was glad I had not attempted to force a landing on my way home, which he had feared. He assured me the Foreign Office had nothing whatever to do with the matter (which is not true), and trusted I would let the matter rest. I told him that was out of the question, and as a public duty, if for no other reason, I must bring it before the Foreign Office. He seemed much taken aback by this, and I am sure it was to find out my intentions, amongst other things, that he proposed this dinner. We then talked about India. . . . While we were talking the Duke of Marlborough came up and talked also about India, and my success there with the Mohammedans. He knows India well, and is a cleverer man than people give him credit for, cleverer than his brother Randolph. [I ought rather to have said more intellectual, for he could not compare with Randolph in readiness of wit or those qualities which made his brother a leader of men. But his mind was a broad one, and if he had lived for anything else but pleasure he might have gained a high public position in the world.]

“I am satisfied with the conversation with Eddy. It is clear they are at their wits’ end for a policy. They are waiting at present upon Providence, but Providence will not help them.

“_12th April._—An important move is noticed in to-day’s telegrams. Germany and Austria have presented identical notes pressing the claims of their subjects on the Egyptian Government. This will force a financial crisis and bring all Europe into the matter.

“_13th April, Easter Sunday._—An anxious letter from Sir Wilfrid Lawson. He is as angry as I am about Egypt. He would clear out of it bag and baggage. I would stay long enough to do justice and make reparation, no matter at what cost to England.

“_15th April._—Abdu and Sanua have both written, delighted with my letter in the ‘Times.’ The French papers have taken it up and reprinted it, and I expect it will cause some trouble to Baring.

“_16th April._—Met Button at the Carlton and talked over plans. Drummond Wolff, whom I met the other day, asked me whether it was true that Button meant to break with the Fourth Party, and I mentioned this to Button, and he said that it was so; Randolph was becoming more unscrupulous than ever, and Gorst was still worse. Not long ago they had tried to play a trick upon the ‘Times,’ and had all but succeeded. Gorst had written to Buckle, who is young and new to his work, to say that Sir Stafford Northcote had decided to retire after the Easter recess from the leadership of the Opposition, and Buckle had actually got the article in print, when at twelve o’clock at night the article writer had suggested that he (Button) should be consulted. Button was in bed, but he got up and succeeded in finding his uncle, Robert Bourke, who told him the whole thing was a plant, he having been with Northcote that very afternoon devising plans for the coming Session. So the article was stopped just in time. Wolff, Button thinks, is the only honest one of the lot. I expect Robert Bourke has advised him to have nothing more to do with them. Young Hamid Ullah is here.

“_18th April._—Lunched with Colonel Osborn[30] to talk over plans connected with India. He thinks I have done a great work there, and agrees with nearly every point of my programme. But he says it is useless bringing it forward this year, as Parliament is entirely occupied with the prospect of a dissolution, and it would be impossible to get members to commit themselves to vigorous action. He is probably right.

“At three Mr. Stead, the new ‘Pall Mall’ Editor, called, and I had a long conversation with him about the prospects in Egypt. He tried to make me commit myself to some approval of annexation as better than the present state of things, but I would not do this, and I think he went away with the impression that I was impracticable. He is by way of knowing a great deal of the opinions of the various European Cabinets, and assured me that Germany would not interfere with anything that might be done or proposed to be done in Egypt, that Bismarck did not care what happened to the Suez Canal, and that the question would have to be settled between France and England. He did not believe in the Mahdi having any real power in the Soudan, and Gordon ought to be reinforced. Mr. Stead is a smart intelligent pressman, very different indeed from his predecessor Morley. I do not think we are likely to agree or that he will make any use of my opinions. We are too wide apart. At any rate he promised to publish nothing as mine without letting me see what he had written.

“As he was going, Jack and Mark Napier rushed in to ask if I would help them to save Gordon.[31] They had an idea, which was to get together a thousand sportsmen, men they explained who would be ready ‘to go a thousand miles to shoot a lion,’ and try to force a passage from Suakin to Berber and carry off Gordon on the true principles of a rescue. They thought I might like to join them and show them the way. But I told them the scheme was nonsense, and even if it wasn’t I would have nothing to do with armed operations against the Arabs. Much as I liked Gordon personally, I considered him to be in the wrong and the others in the right, and I would rather see him perish than cause the death of one of his opponents. If it came to sending an Embassy to the Mahdi, I might be able to help them, and I advised them to put this idea forward, rather than the other. I have written to Jemal-ed-Din to ask him what he thinks of it.

“_19th April._—At Crabbet. Count Alfred Potocki came down with his son Roman, and Mr. Marcowski, manager of Count Branicki’s stud, all Poles and breeders of Arab horses, to see our horses. They have come over to England on purpose to see them, and are in raptures. Count Potocki is a very distinguished man. Forty years ago he was attaché to the Austrian Embassy in London and knew everybody worth knowing, and he still keeps up a marvellous acquaintance with English politics. We talked over the whole situation with regard to Egypt. He ridicules the idea of the French being able to fight over the matter, and he considers Gladstone the most dangerous man England has ever had as minister. He tells me the new Russian Ambassador in London who has just been appointed is the same Staal[32] who was my friend twenty-five years ago at Athens. It is singular how many men whom I was with there, and knew intimately as colleagues, have since distinguished themselves. Haymerlé, whom I remember lamenting that he never on account of his birth could rise higher than the rank of Secretary, died Prime Minister of Austria; Nelidoff is Ambassador to the Porte; Staal is Ambassador in London; Malzen Grand Chamberlain at Munich, and Dufferin, who however was only a visitor at Athens in 1859, holds first European rank as a Diplomatist after Bismarck. We talked about Lytton, who Potocki declares will be the next Tory Foreign Secretary, and we talked about India.

“Button telegraphs that a Conference has been called!

“_20th April._—The ‘Observer’ announces that the Conference will be held in London, but will confine itself to financial matters. Baring has been summoned to England. My only fear now is the re-establishment of the Dual Control, which is evidently on the cards.

“_21st April._—Twiss has given his opinion on the case of my being prevented landing in Egypt. It is wholly adverse to my legal position as having a right to land. I must now treat the case diplomatically.

“_22nd April._—Parliament met yesterday, and Gladstone has at last admitted that Gordon is ‘hemmed in,’ though he denies that he is ‘surrounded.’ The Governor of Berber[33] telegraphs that he must make friends with the Mahdi, and the French are writing violent articles. The ‘Pall Mall’ this evening predicts a war with France.

“_23rd April._—To London. Things worse than ever in Egypt. Baring is on his way home to be hauled over the coals, and about time; Nubar talking again of resigning if Berber is not relieved; and Topsy Egerton,[34] who is in charge at Cairo, recommending a mixed English and Egyptian expedition of relief.

“Jack and Mark Napier came again, and I read them the draft of a letter I have written to Gladstone, proposing to act as mediator for the relief of Gordon.[35] This was suggested by one I received this morning from Jemal-ed-Din to the effect that for my sake he would do what he could with the Mahdi to save Gordon’s life. Button advised me to take it myself to Downing Street and ask to see Gladstone. But the Prime Minister was busy with a Cabinet Council, and I was obliged to entrust it to Eddy Hamilton in the hope of getting an answer. Button says it is too late, and that they decided yesterday to send a relief expedition to Berber. But as yet they have announced no such intention. Lord De la Warr,[36] too, approves of the letter, and I think at least it will be an advantage to put it on record that the offer was made. I told Eddy briefly the nature of my proposal, and he said he was entirely for peace, but he could not promise me Mr. Gladstone would see me, because I was looked upon as an opponent of their Egyptian policy.[37]

“My idea of a solution would be either to go myself or get some one else to go, Jemal-ed-Din or Abdu or young Abd-el-Aal, first to Dongola, and thence to Obeyd. There ought not to be much difficulty about this. The condition, I fancy, which might be accepted would be the evacuation of the fortified places by Gordon and such Europeans, Turks, Copts, and others as might wish to go back to Egypt; a treaty of peace, or rather an engagement on the part of the Mahdi that he would fix his frontier at Berber and Dongola, and the Egyptian Government theirs at Assouan; a guarantee of the Red Sea from Foreign European attack; an indemnity to the Hadendowas as blood money for those slain at Teb, Tamasi, and elsewhere. For myself I should stipulate that no military operation was to be begun during my mission, that no revenge should be taken for my death, or expedition be sent for my release in case of capture, and that it should be recorded in writing that the terms of the agreement should be kept. I should also mention that I should expect Arabi to be restored in Lower Egypt should my mission prove successful. But it is extremely unlikely they will let me go.

“At the Carlton Club I met Seymour FitzGerald,[38] with whom I talked about India. He wonders I do not stand at Horsham for the next elections, or as a Tory Home Ruler in Ireland. Major Napier,[39] too, was there, and old Ranalagh with whom I have always had a sympathy as having been once a rebel. He fought with the Carlists in Spain. De la Warr is expecting the ex-Khedive at Buckhurst.

“Later to Button’s, where I met Brocklehurst, Gordon’s chief friend and correspondent, and had a long talk with him about Gordon. It appears that Gordon asked repeatedly for me when he was starting for Egypt, and it is a thousand pities I did not see him (being away in India), as I could have prevented his making the mistake of going to Tewfik and neglecting to go to the Mahdi. Brocklehurst declares that Gordon, from first to last, has refused to believe in the Mahdi’s influence, and does not believe in it now. He says that if he had done so he would certainly have made friends with him. But he is very angry with Baring. He does not trust much to the relief expedition, though he is in favour of trying it, and I think he is inclined to support my plan of negotiation instead. The only thing is, is it not too late?

“Dined at Pembridge Crescent to meet Arthur Godley, who has always been sympathetic with my ideas. He is now at the India Office, and can afford to talk more openly than formerly when he was Gladstone’s Private Secretary. He is all for peace in Egypt, and thinks Gordon mad, which I, too, begin to think may be the real explanation of it. About India he was very ready apparently to take my views. But he considered the ill- feeling between Englishmen and natives was confined to Bengal. I am to go to him again in a day or two at the India Office to talk over Indian affairs. He agreed with me when I said that the end of it all would be that we should leave Egypt and only keep possession of her debt.

“_24th April._—No answer from Downing Street, but Button says that at the Cabinet Council yesterday afternoon they changed their minds in favour of peace. Wolseley was there, and there was to be no expedition after all. He thinks perhaps my letter may have had something to do with it. Lunched at the Carlton and met Jem Lowther,[40] who talked about Egypt, and Robert Bourke, who is asking the question about the dispatch of troops to Berber and Khartoum. It is the opinion of both these Right Honourable Gentlemen that the Government would give its ears to learn that Gordon was dead.

“To the House of Commons and heard Gladstone make his explanation about Gordon. It is certainly most audacious. But I am convinced it means no troops, though nearly everybody seemed to understand the contrary. What he said was that ‘All human means would be taken.’ Button, who was in the gallery with me, whispered ‘Human means means you.’ Rivers Wilson[41] was also in the gallery, and proposes to come and see me to- morrow, a thing he has not done for the last two years. Gladstone is looking thin and old. To my mind he does not show to advantage in the House of Commons. He is argumentative, short tempered, and insincere; the reverse in fact of what he is at home. And to-day he looked like a fraudulent bankrupt trying to make his creditors believe he was paying them twenty shillings in the pound. One wonders how he can inspire confidence in his supporters, but I have never heard him on a really great occasion.

“I have written to Jemal-ed-Din, sending extracts from the ‘Pall Mall,’ which has my letter to Gordon, the one written from India, in it, and a leading article recommending that I should be sent to Obeyd to treat with the Mahdi.” [It says: “If everything—Khartoum, arsenals, steamers, and munitions of war—if all these are to be handed over to the Mahdi and the garrisons are to trust their lives to his tender mercies, our proper agent in the Soudan is not General Gordon, but Mr. Wilfrid Blunt. General Gordon was prepared to go a great length in order to conciliate the Mahdi. Mr. Blunt is prepared to go all lengths. General Gordon, as a last resort, and being a man of war from his youth up, has always avowed his readiness to fight rather than see his men cut to pieces. Mr. Wilfrid Blunt would not injure the hair of an Arab to save the lives of General Gordon and all his men. Mr. Blunt, then, is obviously the man to whom the Government should turn in this the hour of their need. He represents their policy to a nicety. If they will not relieve Berber, and if they can do nothing to assist Gordon to hold Khartoum, let them at least send Mr. Blunt in hot haste to El Obeid to arrange with the Mahdi for the escape of the abandoned garrisons. Mr. Blunt is not less brave than General Gordon, and he could be sacrificed at least as safely.”]

“At Button’s, where I looked in again to ask his advice about an answer which has come from Downing Street. Reginald Brett, Hartington’s Secretary, called, and Button saw him in the other room. He states positively that the Government has decided not only not to send troops to Berber, but to forbid the Egyptian Government sending any. They mean to do nothing at all, and have telegraphed to Egypt to say so. He thinks they will certainly come to me. Eddy Hamilton’s note is to the effect that Mr. Gladstone will answer later, but is now laying my proposal before the Cabinet. He writes, however, another private note suggesting that I should talk it over with Brand.[42] This, however, Button recommends me not to do, so I have written to say I can only talk to Mr. Gladstone, and will wait his convenience. What they want is, evidently, that I should take all the responsibility of the negotiation on myself, and offer terms which they might afterwards repudiate. But they won’t catch me again doing this, and, if I go to Obeyd, I go as British envoy. Otherwise I should only be waylaid by the Khedive on my road. Button is in high delight at the upshot of it all. He tells me it was Wolseley himself who told him what had been decided in the Cabinet.

“Dined at Pembridge Crescent to meet Captain Abney, a friend of Gordon’s.

“_25th April._—To Button’s early, to talk matters over again. But there is nothing new, except that the Bisharin Arabs have joined the Mahdi, and the desert of Korusko is blocked. The telegrams in the papers don’t say this. But Button had it from Wolseley, and I have written again to Jemal-ed-Din, asking him about the terms which we might ask. The Government won’t say anything to me till Baring arrives; that is to say on Monday.

“Wrote a number of letters, to Jemal-ed-Din especially, and to Arabi, asking the latter whether it would be possible for him to work with Ismaïl in case such a solution should be proposed. He is to answer by telegram, the words ‘Content,’ or ‘Refuse.’ This because I think the time is come when a new settlement _must_ be made; and this is not the most unlikely of the many proposals that will be brought forward.

“_26th April._—Called on Button. He tells me the Cabinet are again wavering about sending troops to Berber, or rather Khartoum, for they would probably start from Massowa if at all. The reason of this is that the Liberal M.P.s understood Mr. Gladstone’s declaration yesterday in a sense exactly opposite to his real meaning, that is to say as a promise of sending troops, and half a dozen of their leaders went to him and explained how much they approved of it, and Mr. Gladstone had been unable to satisfy them by saying that all he had meant was that Gordon should be ordered home. So, to please these people, there is to be more slaughter. But we shall know when I get the answer to my letter. Button tells me that several members of the Cabinet would be glad to go out of office, notably Harcourt,[43] who is afraid of dynamite and is tired of being watched by the police. Three or four days ago, talking of the Conference with Natty Rothschild, Harcourt said: ‘Our hope is that the Powers will refuse our proposals, which will give us an excuse for coming straight out of Egypt.’ Button advises me not to send in my papers about my being refused entrance to Egypt until I get my answer about the Soudan. My own idea was to do so at once, as it is a rule of strategy to fight stronger than ever when you are negotiating for peace.

“Then to Rivers Wilson whom I found in bed with a cold and a fox terrier. He is of opinion that the Conference will meet and that it will be impossible to exclude politics. ‘Ferry,’[44] he said, ‘is beginning to feel his legs, and he means to restore the Dual Control, and will insist on dragging in everything if he is asked to make a concession of French financial rights. You talk about altering the Law of Liquidation, but that is out of the question, and whatever happens, Egypt must pay the interest on the debt. If this was not so I should be very happy to see you set up Arabi or anybody you liked at Cairo. But what there must be is a strong Government, which can collect the taxes and pay the interest.’ He believes Egypt still able to raise £9,000,000 of revenue and pay away half of it. But he spoke less positively than in former days. We talked about Ismaïl. He would never have anything to do with his coming back. Ismaïl was no longer any good, as he had lost all his prestige, and though clever could not maintain himself. Tewfik was good as an instrument. He himself had chosen him in preference to Halim as being the more absolutely servile of the two—but of course he could not rule. Arabi had lost all sympathy in England by his personal cowardice. Rivers in fact is all for annexation if annexation is allowed by the other Powers, which he doubts. I then told him my views for Egypt. He has a good deal of influence with the Rothschilds, and if we could get them at all on our side we should win the game.

“Then on to Labouchere, who has just written a capital letter about Egypt in the ‘Times.’ He wants me to get Arabi to write him a letter from Ceylon, giving his view about a possible restoration of the National Party. He considers Gordon to be a stark lunatic, and is for leaving him to his own devices.

“_28th April._—Berber is being abandoned, the garrison having gone over to the Mahdi. Khartoum will follow.

“_29th April._—The ‘Standard’ has a telegram, saying that certain troops and tribes from Khartoum have joined the Mahdi. If so, Gordon’s end has come. The ‘Daily News’ has a letter from O’Kelly[45] at Dongola, describing the Mahdi and his system in almost the same language that these were described to me at Cairo seven months ago. I wonder whether Eddy Hamilton would still maintain that the Mahdi was nobody.

“To London and found a letter from Jemal-ed-Din, giving me in detail his idea of the Mission of Peace that might be sent to the Mahdi.[46] Button tells me that the Government have decided _pour tout potage_ to send Curly Knox to Khartoum! The idea is that he, knowing the country as a sportsman, and something of the language, could smuggle himself into the town, where he could deliver to Gordon the Government’s order that he should return. The Government think that this will absolve them from all further responsibility, and that, if Gordon—as he probably would—should refuse to come back, his blood would be on his own head. I remember Curly Knox ever since the days of the Crimean war. Now he is a somewhat decayed blood, a rabid damned-nigger guardsman. And I would not be in his shoes when the Mahdi has got hold of him—only he will never go. Baring has been to the ‘Times’ people, which is always a sign with officials that they feel their position shaky; and Button is sure he won’t go back to Egypt. He has made too absurd a hash of it there. Colvin, he said, was a clever fellow to get out of it when he did.

“Called on Hill, the Editor of the ‘Daily News,’ who has been asking me to write for him. He agreed as to re-establishing a National Government in Egypt, but it was necessary to find some formula for Mr. Gladstone which could reconcile him to it; Mr. Gladstone changed his principles constantly—but every time he needed a fresh formula, by which he could satisfy his mind that he was consistent; he had nailed his colours to Tewfik, and it would require management to get him to abandon him. As for Gordon, they were going to do nothing now except perhaps get ready for moving a small column of relief in July.

“Luncheon at the Carlton with Burnaby, whom I especially dislike. He said he did not care a rap what happened to Gordon or Khartoum, and why should he? So long as he has something to tell his electors, it will be enough. He is a dull heavy fellow in my opinion, with a dash of cunning and more than a dash of brutality. Afterwards to the House of Commons, where I had a long talk with Lawson and John Morley,[47] whom Mrs. Howard has written advising me to take into my councils. We three discussed the whole thing. First, about Gordon, who we agreed was past praying for. Morley said the Government were willing to bite their tongues out now for having sent him; they were very angry with him, for he had done everything he said he wouldn’t do, and done nothing that they told him to do. He thought if his death had happened two months ago, it would have turned out the Ministry. Now people were tired of Gordon, and, though there would be a row, it would blow over. He thought the Government would rather do anything than accept my help, it would be very unpopular, and, with the failure of Gordon before their eyes, they would be doubly disinclined. Still the necessity might be so great as to force them.

“About Egypt I explained my views at length, Morley insisting that I should put aside all moral arguments, and treat the case only as it might appear to regard English interests. I said, therefore, that I recognized two undoubted interests—(1) the Suez Canal, and (2) the friendship of the Mohammedan world. Both these he admitted, and said you may add a third. If things go on as they are now, we shall be at war with France in less than five years. I then explained that as regards the Suez Canal, we must either make an arrangement with Europe or with France, and secure our interest in it by sharing it with them. The friendship of the Mohammedan world could be best secured by establishing a Mohammedan Government in Egypt and withdrawing our troops. But France would only be satisfied with the establishment of a strong Government, which could keep order. This could be done by allowing the people to choose their own ruler—a ruler who would be supported by the troops. Egypt was the easiest country in the world to govern, but you must have the troops on your side. This seemed to please Morley as practical and businesslike. He asked me, however, to explain how it was that last August Sherif Pasha had declared to the Government that he was satisfied with the loyalty of the troops and begged them to withdraw; it was then decided that all the English troops should leave Egypt in the spring, except a Corporal’s guard to be stationed at Alexandria, not to protect the Khedive, but to prevent interference from the French. I told him the reason was this, that the Egyptians then had no leader, and were hopeless in the hands of the Circassians. But now the Mahdi had appeared as a champion, and the army would serve him rather than Tewfik. It was necessary therefore now to consider the Mahdi, and find a ruler who could act on friendly terms with him. He asked about Arabi, saying he was out of the question now. But I told him I still considered Arabi a valuable man, as a good Mohammedan and one who would take advice. But he must not be recalled as our nominee, which would spoil his influence. ‘Yes,’ Morley said, ‘the Egyptians must choose, and we must leave the country—but we must not make it over to France.’

“_1st May._—Mr. Gladstone’s answer has come. Her Majesty’s Government cannot make use of my offer to act as mediator in the Soudan, ‘in as much as it must already be known throughout that region that they in common with the Government of Egypt have no other desire than to promote the evacuation of the country—and the restoration of its liberties.’ This is as pure a specimen of Gladstonese as can be found in Hansard. And the ‘promotion of an evacuation’ is as funny as anything since the French were reported to have ‘evacuated Spiders and Worms’ [an old Napoleonic joke].

“To a Peace Conference, where I arrived just in time to prevent two annexationists, Villiers Stuart and McCoan from carrying a resolution calling on England to ‘take a determined course with regard to reform in Egypt,’ specifying the reforms suggested by Arabi. I exposed this manœuvre as meaning the dispatch to Egypt of fifty more Clifford Lloyds and twenty more Evelyn Barings, and got an amendment passed that ‘reform in Egypt should be entrusted to the only hands capable of effecting it, those of the Egyptians themselves.’ McCoan went away in a huff, and Stuart talked of resigning the chair.

“To the House of Commons, where I had a talk in the tea room with old Donald Currie.[48] He told me that Gladstone had it all his own way still in the Cabinet, and was at last anxious about Gordon. ‘His one idea now,’ he said, ‘is to avoid more bloodshed.’ Both he and Sir George Campbell,[49] who joined our conversation, talked of Gordon as having gone off his head. I showed him that terms must be come to at once with the Mahdi if we were not to have another bloody war. He promised to speak to Gladstone in this sense.

“Spent the evening with Button looking through the Gordon Blue Book. It is most damaging for the Government. Donald Currie and Campbell talked of Gordon as having gone off his head. But this Blue Book shows the Government went off theirs too.

“_2nd May._—Went to see Lady C. who talked about the Prince of Wales and his political ideas. She says he is coming round a bit to Arabi.

“_3rd May._—There has been a great split between Randolph Churchill and Lord Salisbury; and Churchill has resigned the Chairmanship of the Conservative Union. This will probably save the Government, who were threatened with a dissolution, nominally on the Reform Bill, but really on their Egyptian policy.

“_5th May._—Sent in my case of exclusion from Egypt to Lord Granville. It is certainly a strong one, and I think it must harass them if it does no other good.

“_6th May._—An extraordinary set of Parliamentary Papers published relating to Gordon. Reading these and the others carefully through, I have come to the conclusion that Gordon is a very self-willed man, without fixed rule of action. In any case he has clearly lost his head, and, having failed to exercise the influence he expected over the Soudanese, has turned against them, and is now the bitterest enemy of everything he supported as good last year. He is fighting for his own hand as simply and solely as any adventurer of them all. It will lead to a new war, if he has not his head cut off and sent to Obeyd before the summer is over.

“_7th May._—Called on Percy Wyndham,[50] who is much exercised against the Government, as is natural, but at the same time is reasonable about Gordon. I find most people inclined in private to think him out of his mind. Percy has acted very straight in all this Egyptian business. He was one of the minority of nine, and the only Tory who voted against the war in 1882, and he has never made a mistake on any essential point. I told him about my being refused a landing in Egypt, and he has promised, when the time comes, to take the matter up in Parliament. As my nearest relation, he is the right man to do it.

“Lunched with Dr. Leitner.[51] He shows great sympathy with the Mohammedans, but is one of the Conservative school, loving the Turks, and desiring no change. He wants me to make it up with the Sultan, and urges me to go to Constantinople, and thinks I might gain influence there.

“_8th May._—Button also thinks I had better go to Constantinople and that Dufferin would be glad to see me. He, Button, has seen Wolseley, who assures him no preparations are yet made for a Soudan expedition. But he thinks, all the same, they will send a small force when the Nile rises and will have a large force in Egypt. He wants me to call on him, but I don’t think I will do this, as anything I could tell him would only make him more anxious to send troops. I wrote yesterday to Jemal- ed-Din, telling him I washed my hands of Gordon, that he had proved himself a friend neither to liberty, nor to the Arabs, nor yet to Islam.

“A long talk with Mrs. Howard. She says people will never forgive me for having given Arabi information before the war, especially about his being attacked from the Suez Canal. Lord Granville is very angry still and F. Leveson,[52] but she thinks not Mr. Gladstone. She says the Government could never recognize the Mahdi as a religious personage.

“_9th May._—Mrs. Howard, talking yesterday of my article in the ‘Nineteenth Century’ on the proposed Arab race at Newmarket, said that Freddy Leveson had asked Rosebery the other day why he continued on the turf, and he had answered because it was the easiest way in England to be accepted as a statesman, and he had appealed to Gladstone, who quite agreed with him. She tells me that her husband, who represents the ideas of the rank and file of the Liberal Party, is infinitely disgusted with the Egyptian Policy, and says that half the party would vote against the Government but for Home Questions.

“Called on Hugh Wyndham[53] in Dover Street, he having asked to see me. He is Secretary of the Constantinople Embassy. We talked the Eastern Question thoroughly through, and he seemed disposed to think my policy might be adopted eventually as far as allowing the Arabs to set up a Caliphate was concerned. Constantinople, he says, is crumbling to pieces, the Turks of Europe emigrating in a continuous stream to Asia Minor. The Germans are still supporting the Sultan. The Government of the Porte is defunct, and the Sultan rules everything through a changing set of Ministers who are all opposed to each other. The Sultan himself is a mono-maniac, fancying himself in constant danger of assassination. Hugh had seen him when Dufferin was on leave, and the Sultan had talked to him for three-quarters of an hour about a certain Armenian doctor who had been found dead in the Bosphorus, and he could be got to think of nothing else. He thought Dufferin would wish to see me if I went to Constantinople.

“_10th May._—To Button’s. He tells me the Government scheme was to offer a remission of the English interest on the Suez Canal shares, for a reduction of interest on the bonds. This had been proposed to France, and at first was well received, but later Alphonse Rothschild had put pressure on the French Government, and now they would do nothing unless there was an international control.

“_11th May._—The ‘Observer’ announces that a relief expedition under Wolseley will be dispatched to Khartoum in October. Jemal-ed-Din writes expressing his great confidence in me, which is satisfactory,[54] for it is of course difficult they should understand how I can remain on confidential terms with our officials here and yet be true to Islam. It is a strange position, but its strangeness is its strength.

“_12th May._—Met Churchill at the Carlton. He said: ‘Well, we shall have Arabi back very soon now.’ I said: ‘I am afraid they will hand over Egypt to the Conference—and the Conference will hand it over to Italy, and Italy will hand it over to Ismaïl.’ He said they would like to do it perhaps, but they would be prevented. I asked him about his own affairs, saying: ‘You have been in the wars since I saw you.’ ‘Yes, as usual,’ he said, ‘and I am not out of it yet.’ Thence to the India Office, where I had it out with Godley about the Patna case.[55] I told him there had been a compact that if I did not publish the case it would be inquired into and redressed; and nothing had been done. I did not wish to annoy Lord Ripon, but I should have to bring it before Parliament before the end of the Session. He promised to write to Primrose and represent this to him, which he admitted was fair. We talked about Hyderabad affairs. Cordery, he told me, was in London, and I explained, for his private information, the whole history of the intrigue against Salar Jung and the Nizam.[56] He did not seem at all surprised and said everything was going on right now. And I presume Cordery is not to return there. He approved very heartily of the University scheme. Godley is a good fellow, and I hear he always speaks of me in high terms. I have always believed he left Gladstone partly because of the Egyptian war.

“After this to the House of Commons, where there was a tremendous crush to hear the debate on the Vote of Censure, the Duke of Cambridge and many another bigwig being left out in the cold. I got in through Harry Brand, who entrusted me to Ponsonby, who squeezed me into the Ambassadors’ Gallery, where I had a capital place. Hicks Beach’s[57] speech was an excellent one, very well prepared and arranged, and rising at certain points to eloquence. His best hits were when he asked if ever a British Government received such a telegram as one of General Gordon’s, and when he pointed to Mr. Gladstone and repeated, ‘You will incur indelible disgrace.’ It was a dignified speech, almost in the old- fashioned style, with a Latin quotation, and without the modern Parliamentary violence, and will increase Beach’s reputation. Mr. Gladstone was to my mind not so happy. While Beach was speaking he had been taking notes in pen and ink, and rose to answer him more as a man might in a debating club, than as a statesman arraigned on a dishonourable charge. He was argumentative, sarcastic, petulant, but in the course of speaking he became angry, and then he spoke with effect. I was immensely pleased of course at the line he took of declining to make war on the Mahdi’s followers who were ‘men fighting for their country’s freedom’ [‘rightly struggling to be free’], and Scott Holland,[58] who was near me in the Gallery, was equally excited. But he did not state his case quite frankly, and constantly spoilt it by drawing fine distinctions and quibbling as is his wont with words. In a speech of this sort, it was surely a mistake of oratory ever to suggest a laugh. His argument, however, was a strong one, that the Opposition had never during all the Egyptian troubles formulated an alternative policy, and he was powerful when he challenged Hicks Beach to say that he would send an army to Khartoum. Having said this he waited a moment, and then pointing to Beach, turned to the House and screamed ‘Look! Dumb!’ This was a great oratorical success. But as I have said before, oratory under the circumstances was rather out of place. I have been unfortunate in never hearing Gladstone quite at his best, though Lawson called this one of his best.

“_13th May._—Talked things over with Button. He advises me certainly to go to Constantinople, but to tell nobody about it. It seems there is some chance of the Vote of Censure being carried, and all now depends on the Irish members. If they can turn the Government out, they will do so, for the sake of a dissolution. But if they doubt their power they will vote for Government. They will only make up their minds at the last moment. If the Government is not beaten on the division, the Conservatives will bring forward an address to the Crown to restrain the Ministers from sacrificing British interests in Egypt. Button says this is a quite Constitutional course.

“Called on Harry Brand, who thinks the Government will be beaten on the division. He would vote against them himself if he was not in the Government. ‘There is one man.’ he said, ‘who will be happy if it goes against us, and that is Hartington. He is sick of office, and wants to be away amusing himself. As things go worse for the Government, his spirits rise.’ We walked together in the Park. I then went on to Stanley of Alderley.[59]

“Stanley is quite reconciled to me now, and talks to me as Mohammedan to Mohammedan, though he warns me still not to speak evil of the Turks. ‘There is a maxim,’ he says, ‘among Catholics, that whoever speaks ill of the Jesuits, speaks ill of the Church, and so it is with the Turks. They are the race which has carried out the teaching of the prophet in its purity more than any other.’ I told him I had no quarrel with the Turks except in their relations with the Arabs, whom they always managed to corrupt, and I was come to ask his advice about going to Constantinople. I had been through India, and was charged by the Indian Mohammedans to see the Sultan and lay before him the need of a social and moral reform for Islam, and to urge him to take the matter up, as Emir el Mumenin, and to warn him that, if he neglected this duty, the Indian Mohammedans would fall off from him. He thought the idea a good one, and that I would be listened to, and he has promised to come to James Street on Monday at noon, with letters he will write to Vefyk and Khair-ed-Din Pashas on the subject. I intend, if the Government is not turned out on the Vote of Censure, to leave for Paris and Constantinople on Monday evening. Stanley is a good fellow, and I have known him now for twenty-five years. He knows a great deal about Islam, but his ideas are all confused, and he has no knowledge of the Arabs. He tells me he was never in India—only in Ceylon and Siam, and knows so little of modern ideas in India, that he had not heard of Seyd Ahmed being charged with rationalism nor of the rivalry between Abd-el-Latif and Amir Ali at Calcutta.

“Lunched at the Gregorys. Later to the House of Commons. Lymington, whom I met there, said: ‘I am coming to think after all we should have done better to stick to Arabi.’ Lymington was one of Gladstone’s strongest supporters at the time of the war.[60]

“_14th May._—The Government are not turned out. The Irish waited, as Button said they would, till the last minute, and then voted against the Government, but nevertheless there remained a majority of twenty-eight. I don’t know whether to be glad or sorry, but I think on the whole I am glad. The measure of their iniquity is not yet full. Called on Button. Natty Rothschild is selling Egyptian stock. He sold £150,000 Preference Stock yesterday. Button thinks it will end by a partial repudiation when the Conference meets.

“Met Lascelles[61] in the evening at St. James’s Club. Talking about Gordon, he said he had always been a man of violent temper, and what he had done lately at Khartoum was nothing more than what he had always done. Nubar said of him long ago: ‘He reads the Bible all the morning—and then gets up and orders a man to be hanged.’ Gordon’s idea on leaving England had been to convert the Soudanese to Christianity. His (Lascelles’) brother-in-law, the Bishop of Exeter (Dr. Temple), had told him that Gordon had called on him to ask whether he considered that the Soudanese converts might be allowed to keep three wives. The Bishop had thought this would be uncanonical.[62] Lascelles has been in Bulgaria several years superintending the growth of liberty there, and we might do worse than have him Consul General at Cairo. He says he has been much disappointed in Nubar. Sherif, he says, is a good companion, but without ideas. Riaz, when he first came into office, was under the influence of Gabriel Charmes, who when he wanted him to do anything used to tell him M. Thiers would have done it in his place. But they quarrelled at last, Charmes wanting something which Riaz would not give, and Riaz answering that M. Thiers would have said no.

“_17th May._—Went down to Crabbet with Tommy Bowles, the Editor of ‘Vanity Fair.’[63] He is thinking of starting a new political newspaper to be called ‘The Statesman,’ or, ‘The Précis Writer,’ and wants me to assist him, but I would not promise. He told a good story about Disraeli, who, having ventured some more than usually daring lie in Parliament, was walking home afterwards with Monty Corry.[64] Monty congratulated him on nobody having found him out, and called it a special interposition of Providence. ‘Yes,’ said Dizzy, ‘God is great, and He seems to me to get greater and greater every day.’

[N.B.—With regard to my offer of mediation, through Jemal-ed-Din, with the Mahdi—an offer which I still believe might at that date, May, have saved the disaster of Gordon’s death—it is worth noting that the decision of the Government refusing it was delayed until after Lord Cromer’s arrival from Egypt in London, which seems to fix on Lord Cromer the departmental responsibility of the refusal, and with it of the loss of whatever chance there was of a peaceful solution. It was then already too late in the season to send an English army up the Nile before the rising of the river.]