44 Arabi's Return to Egypt . [1903 



more especially of his relations with Khedive Tewfik in 1881, the Cir- 

 cassian conspiracy of the following year, the riot of Alexandria, and the 

 battle of Tel el Kebir, a very plain-spoken narrative as to which I 

 cross-questioned him closely. It impressed both Anne and me, and 

 confirmed our high opinion of him morally and intellectually. His 

 present circumstances, poor man, are to be pitied. He has returned to 

 Egypt after twenty years' exile and finds a cold shoulder from every 

 one in authority, from the Khedive, who has not forgiven him his 

 rebellion, from Cromer, who considers him a nuisance, and from his 

 fellow countrymen at Cairo, who, misled by the fanciful tales invented 

 by the French Press of his having sold his country to the English, 

 regard him with unmerited suspicion. We are sorry for him, but I fear 

 it is too late to set things right. 



" 2$rd March. — On Saturday John Dillon and his wife, who are 

 in Egypt, came to spend the day. He gave us much Irish news and 

 spoke of the danger George's land bill is running through the growing 

 weakness of the Government. He fears they will never get it through 

 the House. He expressed a high opinion of Winston Churchill's 

 ability, but says he is even more unscrupulous than his father was. He 

 thinks also that the abstention of the Irish party this session from its 

 long opposition will have done harm by making people suspect a secret 

 understanding between Wyndham and Redmond. Nevertheless, he 

 says, Irish prospects were never higher than now, and Home Rule in 

 some form must come soon. We talked, too, about Egyptian affairs, 

 which he knows pretty well, having always taken an interest in them, 

 and I have given him letters to Hafiz Effendi Awwad and Carton de 

 Wiart to help him in my absence to a right understanding of the situa- 

 tion, for we leave for England to-day." 



We left Egypt for England on 24th March and arrived there on 

 the 28th. 



The next two months, which I spent principally in London, were 

 mainly occupied by me in using what influence I possessed with the 

 Irish Party to carry through George W r yndham's Land Bill, as to which 

 he had appealed to me for help. The negotiations, of which I have a 

 complete record in my diary, are extremely interesting, and though 

 they have no direct concern with the main subject of this volume, 

 namely, Egypt and our foreign policy, I give them in their entirety 

 here. 



" 28^/1 March. — Arrived in London and glad to be back. On issuing 

 from the Mont Cenis tunnel yesterday I found an English newspaper 

 with a report of the introduction of George's Land Bill in Parliament. 

 I had hoped to be in time for it, for it is the biggest piece of legislation 

 that has been attempted for Ireland since Catholic Emancipation. 



