348 To Dillon on Irish Politics [1900 



just as in old times, the stress of the punishment falls on the innocent. 

 There are three and a half millions of people now on daily relief. Yet 

 I suppose not a single official of all that have fattened upon India will 

 forgo a third of his income — or a fourth or a tenth part of it to feed 

 the people — this although they are subscribing and making the natives 

 subscribe to the South African War. It is the ' divine mission ' we are 

 carrying out of making the world happy ! 



" Osman Digna has been captured at last and brought in chains to 

 Cairo. ' A large crowd pressed forward eager to see the dark, long 

 face, brilliant eyes, large mouth, and long grey beard, of a frightened 

 and dignified old man who sat with chains round his sore ankles and 

 swollen, bare feet.' I quote ' Our own correspondent.' This is how 

 the British Empire makes its 'Roman holiday'! But the hour of 

 vengeance is, I hope, now very near. 



" 8th Feb. — George Wyndham has made a very able speech in de- 

 fence of the War Office and his political fortune is made. I am glad of 

 this, though his principles in politics have been up to now abominable. 

 He is no Philistine at heart, and will be sobered both by the defeat of his 

 policy and his personal success, and may end as a great and large-minded 

 statesman. He was wise enough to confine his speech strictly to the 

 War Office, and did not attempt to explain the policy of the war : being 

 a subordinate of very short standing in the Government he will not be 

 held responsible, and people will only see in him what they most ap- 

 preciate, a very clever parliamentarian defending a bad party cause in 

 the best possible way. The only speech that was sound on the Op- 

 position side was Sir Robert Reed's, which stated the whole case against 

 the war fully and fairly. 



" 14th Feb. — I have written as follows to John Dillon in honour of 

 the reunion of the Irish Parliamentary Party : 



Sheykh Obeyd, Feb. 14, 1900. 

 " Dear Dillon, 



" I write to congratulate you and the rest of my old friends of 

 the Irish Parliamentary Party on the reunion of the Party, and your 

 resolution to be once more independent of English ones. You know 

 that for the last ten years I have held aloof from politics and have been 

 mute about Ireland. But I cannot help saying now how much I 

 sympathize with you all. The moment certainly has come for a new 

 departure — for Ireland's one chance lies in the check given to our 

 English plan of a world-wide Empire which has been accepted equally 

 by both parties and which leaves no room anywhere for Nationalism. 

 I think, too, that the iniquity of the war we are carrying on in South 

 Africa, and which both Parties almost equally approve, should make it 

 intolerable for an honest man to remain any longer allied with either. 



