1892] Gladstone Returns to Office 65 



" I have written to Sir William Harcourt to tell him of Tewflk's 

 death and my impressions of Abbas, and to urge him to push forward 

 Constitutional Government in Egypt." 



We left Egypt soon after this and were back in England by the 

 middle of April. 



The summer that followed, like the last, I devoted more to literature 

 and society than to politics. My daughter Judith was now being 

 brought out in society, and though I did not attend many of her balls 

 and parties, it was a distraction for me from serious work. There is 

 very little of my diary connected with politics until the middle of 

 August, when the general elections took place, winch resulted in a 

 moderate triumph for the Liberal party, and Lord Salisbury's retire- 

 ment from office in favour once more of Gladstone. In the meanwhile 

 there are a few entries in my journal worth transcribing: 



" gth May. — Called on Lady Gregory, and found her sad in her 

 widow's weeds. Sir William died during the winter. 



" I have finished ' Griselda,' and the Arabic ballads, and ' The Steal- 

 ing of the Mare,' and am publishing an article on Lytton as a Poet in 

 the ' Nineteenth Century.' 



" 18th May. — Riding in the park I was joined by Frederic Harrison, 

 who told me he had been converted to Islam as a living religion, and 

 offered to support my candidature if I would come forward as a 

 Mohammedan at the elections. 



" igth May. — To lunch with Sir William Harcourt. The old man 

 was very communicative both about Egypt and about Ireland. As to 

 the former he is for evacuation, but is sound about not giving the 

 country up to France. He asked me about the Soudan danger, about 

 which I reassured him ; then as to whether it would not be possible to 

 occupy the Suez Canal only. I said I thought it would be quite pos- 

 sible. He would not hear of allowing the Sultan to intervene. I told 

 him that it would be easy to constitute a Liberal native Government 

 and retire. He seemed surprised to hear that the land tax had not 

 been reduced. ' As to justice,' he said, ' justice is only a question of 

 personalities in any country.' Next we discussed Ireland. He said, 

 ' I am afraid there is no doubt we shall be in office after the elections, 

 and then our troubles will begin. The Irish are impossible ; they are 

 split up into four sections, and there is no leader among them to treat 

 with.' We went through the various prominent men in the Irish party, 

 and he asked me about Dr. Walsh and Dr. Crook, also about Persico's 

 mission, and the politics of the Vatican. I gather from him that the 

 Home Rule Bill will be no simple matter, and that he is not personally 

 much interested in it. He spoke severely of the individual Irish lead- 

 ers. 



" 20th May. — To the Frederic Harrisons. We had a long talk 



