72 Chamberlain Resigns Office ^^Z 



ignoble end, and of this there is no sign, for his ambition was pure 

 of all money calculations. Only you cannot persuade me that he ever 

 for an instant took himself seriously as a British statesman, or ex- 

 pected any but the stolid among his contemporaries to accept him so. 

 His Semitic politics of course were genuine enough. For his fearless- 

 ness in avowing these I hold him in esteem — for a Jew ought to be a 

 Jew — and I enjoy as a tour de force, his smashing of those solemn 

 rogues the Whigs, and his bamboozling of the Tories. Our dull English 

 nation deserved what it got, and there is nothing funnier in history 

 than the way in which he cajoled our square-toed aristocratic Party 

 to put off its respectable broad-cloth, and robe itself in his suit of 

 Imperial spangles, and our fine ladies after his death to worship their 

 old world-weary Hebrew beguiler under the innocent form of a prim- 

 rose. All this was excellent fooling, but the joke has been rather 

 a poor one for the world at large, and has saddled us at home with 

 what we see, a bragging pirate democracy. 



" ' So don't call me a worshipper. I will laugh as much as you like, 

 and I will even love the brother of Sara — but I will not take the 

 member for Maidstone seriously, or the Creator of the British Empire, 

 even on his way home to his Queen-Empress from Berlin. 



" ' P.S. I am not sure I ought not to ask you to add this letter 

 to the dedication in your next Edition.' 



" $th Oct. — I hear on extremely good authority that an arrangement 

 has been come to between Cromer and Gorst to the effect that Gorst 

 is to have Cromer's place at Cairo on condition that later he is to 

 give way to Cromer's son, Cromer having the ambition to found a sort 

 of dynasty in Egypt. This is to take place next year, I mean the 

 first step of it, Cromer's retirement. His new wife has just presented 

 him with another son. 



" 6th Oct. — The great political excitement of the last three weeks, 

 consequent on Chamberlain's resignation of the Colonial Office ended 

 yesterday, with the resignation of the Duke of Devonshire and the 

 publication of the names of the new ministers. Chamberlain's resigna- 

 tion was at first taken as indicating a collapse of his plans, but it 

 almost at once transpired that it was only an intrigue between Arthur 

 Balfour and himself for the better execution of their programme, and 

 to rid themselves of certain colleagues who were declared free traders, 

 while keeping the Duke whose influence in the country, as a safe if slow 

 man typical of the old Whigs, is great. In my opinion however, the 

 whole fiscal agitation has been got up by Chamberlain in order to 

 divert public attention from his own blundering in South Africa, which 

 it was almost incredible the British public could condone if it had had 

 time to examine it fairly. Chamberlain is not a man of sufficient 

 intellect to get any real grasp of large questions even of trade. All 



