214 Swagger and Poltroonery [1896 



" 15th Jan. — I see in the papers that negotiations are likely to come 

 on between our Government and the French about Egypt. I have 

 therefore put my ideas about a possible agreement for evacuation on 

 paper, and shall probably send it to Lord Salisbury through Pom Mc- 

 Donnell. It ought to be a quite easy thing to arrange if only Lord 

 Salisbury was willing. His great necessities just now should be our 



occasion 



16th Jan. — Mohammed Abdu and M. Arminjan to luncheon. I 

 talked the ma'tter of evacuation over thoroughly with Abdu. He tells 

 me that, much as he is attached to the Khedive, it would not do to trust 

 him with power — the Ministry should be independent of him as far 

 as possible, and supported by some sort of Consti'tution. He thinks 

 this essential. There are good men to be found who would hold their 

 own as ministers against Khedivial encroachment, but not the men now 

 in office, who are mere dummies. The ministers ought to be irremova- 

 ble as long as they have the support of the Chamber of Depu'ties. If 

 we could get the French to agree to this, evacuation would be quite 

 simple. It really looks as if it might come. Lord Salisbury has quar- 

 relled with everybody, and it is about time he should patch up matters 

 with some of them — and France is the most dangerous. I should 

 prefer, myself, to see the British Empire break up. It has become a 

 curse to the world, but, for Egypt's sake, an arrangement with France 

 would be be'tter at the present moment. 



" 23rd Jan. — The English papers are sickening about the Transvaal, 

 a mixture of swagger and poltroonery. One would have thought the 

 less said about Jameson's ignominious defeat by the Boers the better, 

 but our blessed public must needs make a hero of him, a man who 

 fought for thirty-six hours, and had only fifteen men killed and then 

 surrendered, not a pretence of its being in any better cause than money- 

 making and land-grabbing. The ' Times ' prints a poem in praise of 

 him by the new Poet Laureate. Austin has managed to turn off some 

 spirited doggerel, and to get it recited at a music hall, so low are we 

 sunk. I have been busy writing my letter to McDonnell, and also finish- 

 ing my article about the evacuation of Egypt for the ' Nineteenth Cen- 

 tury.' 



" We have had several visitors here. Madame d'Hautpoul and her 

 cousin, Miss Pereira, Lady Decies and a pretty daughter, and Mr. 

 Douglas Murray. The latter told me one or two new things about 

 Egyptian history. Lesseps had told him that i't was he who dissuaded 

 the French Government from joining in the bombardment of Alex- 

 andria or occupying the Suez Canal, thinking that the English would 

 get into military difficulties ; also that when our fleet entered the Canal, 

 Admiral Hoskins threatened Victor Lesseps to hang him from the yard- 



