1899] Kitchener Digs Up the Mahdi's Body 313 



baldness of the answer. The Queen, she said, would have liked some- 

 thing gushing, but, of course, Lord Cromer treated it merely in an 

 official way and would go to no expense. Both telegrams were signed 

 ' V.R.I.,' which, Edith says, is always Her Majesty's signature now. 

 I thought the ' I ' had been reserved for communications east of Suez, 

 but the Queen is pleased with her title of Empress and uses it always. 

 She has shown great interest in the marriage all through. 



" yth Feb. — The ' Times ' publishes my Soudan letter in a prominent 

 place, and as to-day is the opening of Parliament it may perhaps do 

 good. Nubar Pasha is dead, and they are giving him a public funeral 

 at Alexandria, while all the English papers are full of his praises, yet 

 this wily Armenian arrived penniless in Egypt fifty years ago and has 

 made four millions out of his various tenures of office. For this he is 

 applauded by the London Press as an Egyptian patriot and statesman. 

 He was unable, I believe, so much as to talk Arabic. 



" 12th Feb. — Lord Salisbury has given certain explanations in the 

 House of Lords about the Soudan which are better than nothing, but 

 the Opposition is too flabby to push him farther than he condescends 

 to go. 



" 16th Feb. — Called at 44, Belgrave Square, where Mary, Pamela 

 and Madeline are sitting for their portraits in a group to Sargent. It 

 is being painted in the drawing-room. In the background there will 

 be their mother's portrait by Watts. 



" 19^/1 Feb. (Sunday). — Faure, the French President, is dead, and 

 there is a good deal of excitement over the event, but I do not anticipate 

 anything final at present. The chiefs of the Army would like to over- 

 throw the Republic, but in the absence of any popular candidate for the 

 -throne, they are afraid to move. The rank-and-file, especially the con- 

 scripts, would not follow them. 



" 22nd Feb. — I have been helping to get up an agitation against the 

 Parliamentary grant of £30,000 to Kitchener, and questions have been 

 asked in the Commons. Brodrick admits the digging up of the Mahdi's 

 body and the throwing it into the Nile, and they are bringing further 

 questions about the mutilation, that is to say, about young Bill Gordon's 

 having cut the head off to keep as a ' curio.' The whole thing is revolt- 

 ing — a piece of military revenge for the death of Gordon and the 

 defeat of Wolseley and excused now on the absurd plea of its having 

 been ' a necessity in view of the possibility of a fanatical revival.' 

 What makes the desecration worse .is that Sir Herbert Stewart's grave 

 had remained all these years untouched in the desert where he fell, but 

 the Liberal front bench is ready to condone every horror, being more 

 Jingo than the Jingoes. 



" 2<\th Feb. — To the House of Commons for the Soudan debate 

 which was led by Morley, ably and courageously. I heard Grey speak 



