1896] Cromer's Wrong-Headed Policy 213 



in weak nations is endangering our own. I should be glad to see the 

 end. 



:< My old woodreeve, Bates, at Crabbe't has hanged himself in his 

 cart shed — a man of genius in his way of life, who, beginning as a 

 day labourer, rose to be the best judge of timber in Sussex, as well 

 as a successful farmer and churchwarden of the parish. Having 

 completed eighty-four years of life and fifty of honest service in the 

 Crabbet Estate, and having entertained his friends the night before, 

 he wen't out in the early morning to his shed and was found there dead 

 hanging from a beam. I can imagine the old man carefully tying the 

 noose, as his manner was, without mistake. It was noticed by those 

 who had been with him at dinner the night before that during the 

 meal he had a hank of rope on his knees with which he was playing. 

 In the morning he had got up by candlelight, asked his old wife ' How 

 are you, old girl ? ' and had gone out to the cart shed, where he was 

 found hanging. 



" nth Jan. — Took Anne and Judith to Koubbah to see the Khedive. 

 He received us with great empressement, talked a good deal about the 

 petty vexations and the affronts put upon him by the English officials, 

 and showed us his stud. He has got 'together some nice mares, but 

 nothing quite first class, except two of Ali Pasha Sherif's, one of which 

 is our horse Mesaoud's dam, a very splendid mare, with the finest 

 head in the world. He has bred some promising colts and altogether 

 the thing is well done. He invited us to go out with him some day on 

 a desert expedition, and sent us to the station in his barouche. 



" There seems a good chance now of the Egyptian question being 

 re-opened as a European one, for the feeling against us in Germany 

 is very strong over the Transvaal affair, and Egypt is the point where 

 they can best put on the screw. I am sorry it should come in this way, 

 though i't is what I have always foreseen, for Egypt internationalized 

 to the profit of Europe is not a pleasant prospect. It comes of 

 Cromer's wrong-headed adminstra'tion, where the one object has been 

 to Anglicize, not to establish a National Government. Egypt, too, has 

 been scandalously used for the creation of highly paid posts for not 

 very capable Englishmen. I foresaw all this and protested years ago, 

 but it was of no use. Now we shall evacuate the country not for the 

 benefit of the Egyptians, but for tha't of the scoundrel European Colo- 

 nies. 



" Yesterday Dawkins and his wife were here — he a new man sent 

 in Milner's place, and a friend of Milner's. I talked to him a good 

 deal about Cromer's policy, in which I think he partially agreed with 

 me, as they all do when it is plainly put before them that we cannot 

 stay on for ever in Egypt. But, when things are quiet, and they see a 

 chance of holding on, then they harden their hearts. 



