1898] Alsace-Lorraine 305 



edge Egypt's right to the whole of the Nile provinces, but not the right 

 of England. I believe that this would practically save them from their 

 dilemma without loss of honour, and would leave the Nile question for 

 a more favourable moment for raising it in conjunction with the whole 

 Egyptian question. The question of Alsace-Lorraine was also de- 

 bated, and it was generally admitted that there must be sooner or later 

 prescription, a limit of time beyond which resentment could not be con- 

 tinued, though that time had not yet come. But for this the German 

 alliance was what would be most advantageous to France and a coalition 

 against England. I asked them whether they thought it true that the 

 Emperor William had proposed such a coalition two years ago, and 

 they said it was most probable, but not certain. Such a coalition was 

 impossible at present on account of the sentiment about the lost prov- 

 inces, and nations live by sentiment, it was the mainstay of their 

 patriotism. I had it on the tip of my tongue to say patriotism is the 

 virtue of nations in decay, but I felt that that would be hardly civil, 

 though the aphorism would be a good one. [A better one would be, 

 'patriotism is the virtue of weak nations, it is the vice of the strong.'] 



" M. de la Siseranne was also of our party, an excellent talker like 

 the rest, but with more pose, as one would expect from his position as 

 confcrcncicr and dogmatic art critic, a shock-headed man taille en 

 brossc, less attractive than the others. He was strong on the point of 

 the time being nearly come when the animosity about Alsace-Lorraine 

 could be decently buried. ' There is,' he said, ' prescription for all 

 things, one does not now refuse one's hand to the descendant of him 

 who guillotined one's ancestors in 1793,' meaning, no doubt, Carnot. 



" 2§tli Oct. — To Paris on my way home. Called on Abu Naddara, 

 who gave me some details of the Marchand mission. Marchand had 

 come to him three years ago to ask his advice about penetrating to the 

 Upper Nile, and how to make friends with the Khalifa, and he (Sanua) 

 had given him papers inscribed with texts from the Koran, and as I 

 understood him, introductions from one or two persons at Omdurman. 

 Marchand's idea was to go and make friends with the Mahdists and 

 help them against England. He was certainly sent by the French 

 Government. Sanua is severe on the stupidity of French diplomacy, 

 and considers France very low down in the scale of European nations. 

 He told me a good deal about his visit to the Sultan Abdul Hamid, 

 who had received him with all honour, and allowed him to speak frankly 

 and openly about affairs. He says the Sultan is acquiring an immense 

 prestige from the Emperor Wilhelm's visit, which is everywhere in the 

 East regarded as an act of homage. It was Abdul Hamid who first 

 suggested to the Emperor to get rid of Bismarck. On his first visit to 

 Constantinople they were talking about Bismarck's great power in 

 Europe, and the Sultan said, ' I should not like to have so powerful a 



