1894] Ri as Pasha Resigns 135 



" 14th April. — To Cairo with Anne and Judith, and had luncheon 

 with Riaz -Pasha and his son Mahmud. The old man was gay at 

 luncheon, and talked history and poetry apparently without a care on 

 his mind, but when the ladies were gone to pay a visit to his Harem and 

 we were left alone, he suddenly told me that he had just that morning, 

 that very morning, sent in his resignation and that of his fellow min- 

 isters to the Khedive. I asked him, ' And did the Khedive accept it ? ' 

 He answered, 'A pen presf Then he told me that ever since the affair 

 of the frontier there had been a lack of confidence on the Khedive's 

 part, that he and the Ministers had not been supported, and that the 

 palace paper, the ' Journal Egyptien,' had entered on a campaign against 

 them. It did not suit his dignity, and it injured the public service to 

 remain under those conditions. He had given many years of loyal 

 service to his country, and he was an old man, and he should retire 

 now once and for ever. A tear stood in the poor old Minister's eye, 

 and I grieved with him over his fall with all sincerity. He then talked 

 bitterly of the change that had come over the face of the world since he 

 began his official life. How the English used to be trusted and believed 

 in as the one honest nation the whole East over. But he talked more 

 bitterly still of the French, and yet more of his rival, Nubar, who he 

 thinks is to succeed him. It is doubtless to the French that he owes his 

 present reverse, though Cromer will profit by it to the extent of making 

 a split between Abbas and the National party. Riaz said it was a little 

 of all their doing. He talked kindly of Rivers Wilson. Of Rosebery, 

 he said he had seen him twice at Cairo, once with Cromer, once alone. 

 When alone Rosebery had asked him whether it would not be better to 

 have an English Under Secretary in every department, but that, said 

 he, ' I told him would be putting two captains to a ship, it would go 

 down.' I told him Rosebery was a dangerous man in power as far as 

 Egypt and the East were concerned, that I should not wonder if he 

 solved all difficulties by a partition of the Ottoman Empire, a gloomy 

 view in which the old man shared. * Poor Egypt,' he said, ' poor 

 Egypt ! ' It is a strange chance that has made me, in spite of 1882, 

 the confidant of his political griefs, but in truth our views on most 

 things are identical. He hates Western civilization almost as bit- 

 terly as I do myself. He sent us away with benedictions and loaded 

 with roses from his door. 



" l$th April (Sunday). — Mohammed Abdu spent the day with us. 

 He says the National party is in despair at Riaz' resignation, and still 

 more at Nubar's return to power, for Nubar means a reign of money 

 makers and speculators, and the government of Egypt by Europeans 

 and Syrians, strangers from every land. 



." 17^/1 April. — To Koubbah Palace (Abbas' country residence, three 

 miles from Sheykh Obeyd). I was taken to the garden and found 



