288 Thoughts on the Empire [1898 



was bitter cold on the upper plateaux, and the hard life nearly finished 

 me, and hastened my return to England. 



'i$th February.— The papers report the Queen's speech on the 

 opening of Parliament. It contains, perhaps, more than the usual 

 number of insincerities. Politics in England are in a hopeless condi- 

 tion, and will remain so until the Empire begins to break up, when it 

 will be too late to say or do anything. I shall not be sorry if I live 

 to see it. The British Empire has done so much harm to so many 

 nations and peoples that it deserves to perish, and we English will be 

 better off as a Nation shorn of our dependencies than now. It will hurt 

 our pride, but injure no true interest. 



' Prince Osman is dead. He was riding to the Pyramids on his 

 camel, and fell off suddenly; they say apoplexy. He was the cleverest 

 and most amusing of the Khedivial family, if not the most reputable; 

 a brother of Princess Nazli, and first cousin, once removed, of the 

 Khedive. He had been brought up at Paris, and was always a bit of 

 a boulevardier, very pleasant and good-natured, and with an extraor- 

 dinary knowledge of the events, political and social, of his time, a fat 

 Falstaff in appearance, but like the others of the Khedivial family, 

 with a certain bodily hardihood and endurance on camel back ; my old- 

 est friend among them, and I am sorry to lose him. 



" 2$th February. — Anne and Judith lunched a few days ago with 

 Bill Gordon, who told them that the real reason for his uncle's re- 

 signing his post as private secretary to Lord Ripon in India was as fol- 

 lows. When Ripon was appointed to India it was resolved by the 

 Cabinet that he should break up the gang of permanent officials who 

 form the Simla ring, and it was on this understanding that Gordon 

 accepted the post. A special point to be attacked was the treatment of 

 Ayub Khan (the Emir of Afghanistan) as to which Government had 

 evidence showing our English officials to have acted unjustly and 

 tyrannically. Gordon had drawn up a special memoir on the subject 

 which was to be acted on immediately upon Ripon's landing at Bom- 

 bay, but Ripon was no sooner on shore than the officials got hold of 

 him and persuaded him to let the matter rest. Gordon, upon this, 

 threw up the appointment, for he saw his chief was too weak to carry 

 the policy through. A Viceroy of India needs to be a man of iron 

 to hold his own and Ripon was every good thing except that. 



" There is talk of Cromer's going to the Foreign Office. What 

 the Tories want now is a strong man to carry out their policy of vio- 

 lence, and Cromer will suit them. I care little how things go, for the 

 time of reasoning is past. There will be no change till the Empire 

 breaks up and Cromer may as well sit on the Imperial safety valve 

 as another. I had a long talk to-day with Mohammed Abdu about 

 this and other matters. 



