52 Labouchere on Gladstone [1891 



main raide ; c'est ce qu'il f audrait a nos colonies.' He asked me whether 

 I was not of his opinion. I said, ' Perhaps not quite.' " 



On my arrival a few days later in London I had a momentary hope 

 about Egypt, seeing it announced in the "Times" (13th May) that 

 the Riaz Ministry had resigned. I had heard the news the night before 

 from Rivers Wilson, and was full of hope that the new men who, the 

 ' Times " said, were to take their place would be of the Fellah Party, 

 but the hope was speedily dispelled, as it proved to be merely a shifting 

 of places, no single member of the new Ministry being of the National 

 Party or of the native fellah class. Also Lord Salisbury, 21st May, 

 made a speech about Egypt, which seemed to exclude all thought of 

 preparing for evacuation. It put an end for a while to my pleading 

 for the Egyptian cause, except with my few political friends, Evelyn, 

 Labouchere, Auberon Herbert, and Sir Wilfrid Lawson. Soon after 

 this : 



" 2nd June. — I saw Sir William Gregory in London, who was in- 

 teresting himself in the hoped-for return to Egypt of the Ceylon exiles. 

 We agreed that Lord Salisbury was hopeless, and that we had better 

 put Labouchere on our Egyptian business, so to Labouchere I went. 

 He has moved into a delightful house in Old Palace Yard exactly op- 

 posite the Houses of Parliament. I met him on the doorstep just 

 coming in from the House, in an old skull-cap which he wears instead 

 of hat, and he took me in to luncheon. We talked about Egypt, as 

 to which he has always been sounder than any other politician except 

 Randolph. I was glad to find that he was not prepared to evacuate 

 unconditionally, but intended, when the Liberals came into power, to 

 get Egypt neutralised, and I think he will serve us better than anyone 

 else can. ' If you have any influence with the French,' he said, ' get 

 them to propose terms of neutralization.' I explained to him what the 

 position in Egypt was. He was very amusing about the actual state 

 of the Liberal party, ' Gladstone in his dotage pulled this way by one 

 and that way by another. They don't expect a dissolution until next 

 year, but hope to keep the old man alive like the Tycoon of Japan, even 

 after he is dead.' All agree that there will be a general break up in 

 the party when Gladstone dies. • Labouchere is looking old, he tells 

 me he is fifty-eight, but I trust he may last long enough some day to 

 lead his party." 



With Lawson I had a long talk, June the 4th, and " found him nearly 

 as much a pessimist about the human race as I have become. In Eng- 

 land he looks to the advent of a really democratic parliament as a last 

 chance, beyond which, if it fails, there is nothing to hope." With 

 Morris, too, whom I again saw much of, I found the same political 

 despondency. He had just published his " News from Nowhere." 

 " The picture he draws in it of social communism is pretty, but he, too, 



