64 Cardinal Sarto Elected Pope [ l 9°Z 



" 20th July. — George goes to-night to Ireland with the King, leav- 

 ing Arthur Balfour to pilot his Land Bill through its Third Reading 

 to-morrow. I asked his mother whether the King had had anything 

 to do, as the Irish believe, with the bringing in of the Land Bill, 

 and she said, ' Nobody at all, I believe, except George.' 



" It is probably an exaggeration that the King bears the National- 

 ists any great goodwill, though he is less bitter than was the late 

 Queen. 



"30^ July. — A note from George; he is just back from Ireland, 

 where he has been with the King, and says that all has gone off 

 excellently well so far. There is no chance now of the Lords amend- 

 ing the Bill, and it is certain to become law. 



" Afterwards for a walk with Percy in the Park. We found Philip 

 Currie there in a bath chair, unable to use his legs, and so being 

 wheeled about. Later I lunched with him and Angelina in Princes 

 Gate. [This was the last time to my sorrow I saw either of them.] 



" At my club to-day I found myself faced at a little distance by 

 an old fogey whose features I seemed to know, and by degrees made 

 out that he was Victor Drummond, my fellow attache once at Athens. 

 I had not seen him since we said good-bye at the Pirseus in i860, 

 yet I recognized him and he me. Another ancient, too, there, was 

 Horace Rumbold. All these I remember young and gay, and all are 

 tottering to their graves. 



" 4th Aug. — It has been announced that a new Pope has been 

 elected, Cardinal Sarto, from Venice, who has taken the name of 

 Pius X. Pope Leo died a fortnight ago after a prolonged agony, 

 which was made more horrible for us by the daily accounts of the 

 surgical experiments used to prolong his life, so that at last the 

 poor old man became like a nightmare on the public mind, and all 

 rejoiced that he was dead. 



" Of Pope Leo my recollection is a very intimate one, and still 

 extremely vivid. It was in the Spring of 1886 when, after my failure 

 at the Camberwell election, I was sick alike of the affairs of the 

 world and of the vain pursuit of happiness. I went to Rome as on 

 a pilgrimage, with the vague hope that perhaps I might there recover 

 my lost faith in supernatural things and end my days in piety. I had 

 many friends among the resident clergy, including Monsignor Stonor 

 and Cardinal Howard, among the Pope's household, and Father Lock- 

 hart, head of the Rosminians, to whom I had been introduced by 

 Cardinal Manning, Prior Glyn, and other of the Irish hierarchy; and 

 a little programme of holy pleasures had been sketched out for me, 

 and I was determined to open my mind wide to the influences of the 

 place, that my soul might have its full chance. It was thus predis- 

 posed that I arrived at Rome. I made a general confession of my 



