66 Frederic Harrison on Comte [1892 



about Egypt, and agreed that the best chance of getting an honest policy 

 of evacuation would be to prevent Rosebery's returning to the Foreign 

 Office. Harrison thinks that Rosebery will either not join Gladstone's 

 Ministry, or make it a condition that the status quo in Egypt should 

 be continued. On Ireland he is quite pessimistic, considers Home Rule 

 for the present a lost cause, and the G.O.M. destined to retire from 

 public life discredited. Morley would follow him, and there would 

 then be a reconstruction of the Liberal party under Rosebery, Chamber- 

 lain, Harcourt, and Randolph. He thinks, nevertheless, that Ireland 

 would some day or other get its independence, while I maintained 

 that the tendency of progress was towards the amalgamation of 

 natjions, not their separation. To this he said, ' You know we, the 

 Positivists, believe that in the next century there will be one hundred 

 and fifty separate States in Europe,' but Mrs. Harrison dissented, 

 and I should fancy that his faith in the Comtist prediction is not very 

 solid. , 



" 23rd May. — I am staying at Babraham with the Adeanes, and 

 went to-day, with Adeane, to Gogmagog to see the pictures of the God- 

 olphin, and other Arabians, and the former's grave. The original por- 

 trait of the Godolphin, which is there, is of a second-rate Arab, with a 

 heavy head, lop ears, and a drooping quarter. It is difficult to under- 

 stand that race-horses should have sprung from his loins. The view 

 from Gogmagog over the plain is grand, but the house is mean, though 

 beloved of its ducal owner. In the afternoon to Audley End, a stately 

 place, but unfortunately cleaned up, plate glassed, and adorned in recent 

 years. 



" 24th May. — Dined with Philip Currie in Connaught Place, Mrs. 

 Singleton doing the honours. I sat between Mrs. Algy Grosvenor and 

 Oscar Wilde. Beyond Oscar Mrs. Singleton, then Godfrey Webb. 

 There were also Lady Ducane and a daughter, Lady Sykes, Lady Bar- 

 ing, just made a peeress, O'Connor x and Trench, diplomats, and three 

 or four more. Oscar was in good form, and he and I, Philip and 

 O'Connor sat up till half-past twelve talking when the rest were 

 gone. 



" 2$th May. — To a meeting at Lord Cowper's, respecting a memorial 

 for Lytton. Lord Salisbury was present, and made an inappropriate 

 proposal (as I thought) that the monument should be placed in the 

 India Office. Alfred Austin opposed this on literary grounds, and I 

 seconded him, asking that the Committee should first try for a place, 

 however small, in the Abbey. I am quite sure this would have been 

 Lytton's own wish, for he cared far more for his position as a poet 

 than for all the rest. 



" 4th June. — Took Judith to lunch at Hammersmith. Morris in 



1 Afterwards Ambassador at Constantinople. 



