278 Victory of the Turks in Greece l l &97 



a new lease of absolute power; possibly the victorious general might 

 become the leader of a constitutional change in Turkey, but we shall 



see." 



' 1st May. — Back in England, where we arrived at the end of the 

 month. The Greeks have been smashed badly by Edhem Pasha in 

 Thessaly ; they seem to have run away rather than fought, which would 

 be more creditable to them if they had not been the aggressors in the 

 quarrel. I am sorry, on the whole, as the Turkish victory is strength- 

 ening the Sultan's hand at Constantinople, and will put back the clock 

 of reform. There is little chance, I fear, of Edhem's coming forward 

 as a revolutionist, but I am nearly dead to politics as, indeed, to all 

 else but the horses and the sunshine. 



" 8th May. — The Greeks are again beaten and in retreat, and the 

 Turkish army will now advance on Athens and dictate its terms of 

 peace. The Sultan is entirely rehabilitated in public opinion, for the 

 world adores military success, and he will probably now go on in 

 triumph till he dies. 



' iSth May. — Newbuildings. On the 13th George Wyndham came 

 to spend the day with me and stopped the night. He was full of his 

 journey to South Africa and of his South African Commission, where 

 he has played the part of advocate for Rhodes and his gang, and is 

 still playing it. With this I am of course in little sympathy, but 

 George and I know how to differ without quarrelling. He told me 

 much of the inner working of the great intrigue and promised more 

 some day. We also talked about the Henley edition of my poems, and 

 about his own ' New Review.' 



" 3rd June. — George was here yesterday. The South African Com- 

 mittee is virtually, not virtuously, over, and no one in his senses can 

 doubt that Chamberlain was privy to the raid, not indeed at the last 

 moment but in its initial stages. I asked George whether it was not 

 so. ' Chamberlain has denied it,' he answered diplomatically. 



"15^/1 June. — Drove to Bramber and dined with Button in his 

 newly purchased old house there, St. Mary's, which he has furnished 

 with bric-a-brac, and had the little meadow behind it laid out in minia- 

 ture avenues. We talked of old political times. He tells me that at 

 the time Wolseley started for Egypt in 1882, the Rothschilds had the 

 whole of their working capital in Egyptian securities, and were in such 

 a fright about the Domains lest Arabi should flood the country and 

 destroy the property pledged to them, that they got Wolseley to hurry 

 on the campaign at all costs to prevent his cutting the canals. But- 

 ton had this from Wolseley himself at the time, and it agrees with 

 what he (Button) told me then. 



" iyth June. — Hyndman came to breakfast with me in Mount Street, 

 and we discussed the state of Europe, Africa and Asia. He knows 



