1895] Italian Defeat in Abyssinia 207 



letter, but warned him not to trust too much to English magnanimity. 

 If we once got our foot into Nejd, it would be difficult to get us out 

 again. Perhaps the Turks might be worse, but we were dangerous too. 

 For that matter the Ottoman Empire was too near its dissolution to 

 think just now of any forward movement. Neither was it in the least 

 probable that England would undertake a protectorate or do anything. 

 His seeing Cromer cannot do much harm. So I gave him the letter. 



" There is news of a great defeat of the Italians by the Abyssinians. 

 I am much pleased at this, as their aggression has been one of the 

 most abominable of our abominable age. Perhaps now the Dervishes 

 may drive them out of Kassala." This was the least excusable of the 

 many lawless raids made by the Italians in Africa, prompted in part 

 by the vanity of the parvenu kingdom of Italy to show itself as aggres- 

 sive as its older neighbours, France and England, partly by mining 

 speculation. Unlike most of these raids undertaken by the Christian 

 nations in our time, it had not even the excuse of calling itself a cru- 

 sade, seeing that the Abyssinians were themselves Christians, of a 

 wild, old-fashioned kind, but still just as much Christians as the inhabi- 

 tants of Calabria, while, compared with the Abyssinian Emperor who 

 is lineally descended from the Queen of Sheba by King Solomon, the 

 House of Savoy enthroned at the Quirinal is but a stem of yesterday, 

 yet not a shadow of reproof was uttered by our statesmen in Downing 

 Street, and the general remark about the Italian expedition in the 

 London Press was that the ending of the Abyssinian monarchy would 

 not be ' felt upon the Stock Exchange.' 



" 16th Dec. — Went in to Cairo to see the Khedive. He was very 

 cordial as usual, and made me a number of confidences, some very in- 

 teresting. He told me the full story of his visit to Constantinople 

 this summer. His object, he says, was not a political one, but to get 

 permission from the Sultan to build a house on the island of Thasos 

 where, and at Kavala, he has the direction of the Awkaf. He wanted 

 a place to spend the summer in with his wife and child, instead of 

 going to Europe. He went to Stamboul in his yacht, and found it so 

 pleasant there that he stayed two months. The Sultan was polite to 

 him, and asked him constantly to dinner, and to hear music, but would 

 not talk business. At last he got tired of waiting, and sent word that 

 he wanted permission to go to Thasos, and also to lay certain papers 

 before the Sultan connected with the Halim succession and the claim 

 of the Azhar University to a part of it. But he got a number of 

 evasive answers. At one time he was told ' yes ' — at another that 

 the Sultan had a cold and could not see him — at another that he had 

 bad eyes and could not read the papers — and other foolish excuses. 

 In the meantime he had been dogged by spies, and on one occasion 

 when he had made an arrangement privately to see Sheykh Jemal ed 



