86 Russo-Japanese War Begun [1904 



be sorry to see entire harmony between Ireland and England, for 

 then we should have the Irish as Imperialist as the worst of us. 



"14th Feb. (Sunday). — The Mufti lunched with us and talked 

 about Egyptian history. He said that the Circassian Mameluke sys- 

 tem in its later development had an immoral foundation, but such 

 had not been the case with the earlier Mamelukes, who were prin- 

 cipally those slaves brought into Egypt by Salah ed Din (Saladin). 

 Nothing had ever exceeded the crimes of the later Mamelukes, Otto- 

 man and French alike. It was common with these to try the sharp- 

 ness of their swords at the armourers' shops on the passers by, by 

 cutting off their heads or cutting them in two at the waist. Good 

 Mohammed Abdu sitting here on my sofa in his turban telling these 

 tales looked for a moment like a very terrible Turk making passes 

 as he spoke with an imaginary sword. He also cited a good saying 

 of Seyyid Jemal ed Din, ' Justice is found where equal forces meet, T 

 meaning thereby that unless the strength of the ruler is opposed 

 by the resisting strength of the ruled, there will always be tyranny. 

 This in allusion to the passivity of the Egyptians under wrong. 



" There has been a new scandal at Cairo, the Khedive having 

 invited his Hungarian mistress to a Court Ball. The wives of the 

 Consuls were offended at this, and would have made a public matter 

 of it, but Cromer appeased them. 



" 24th Feb. — Cockerell has arrived from England to spend some 

 weeks with us. 



" 26th Feb. — Everything is going splendidly in Manchuria, and 

 there really seems to be a chance of the Russians being driven finally 

 back into Siberia. Their sea power seems broken, and there is a good 

 chance of the Japanese being able to cut their railway line, and so 

 starve them out at Port Arthur. It is not likely there will be much 

 sympathy with the Russian Government, though they are trying to 

 get up a cry of ' Christian civilization in danger.' Apart from all 

 special knowledge of the rights and wrongs of an international quarrel 

 between nations, I think it a wise rule to give one's good wishes 

 to the power which is fighting nearest home, that is to say, nearest 

 its own capital and seat of Government. It is preposterous that a 

 Government should claim rights of any kind a thousand miles away 

 from home. 



" 2gth Feb. — Took Cockerell to call on the Mufti, whom we found 

 in bed with influenza, but he conversed with his usual wisdom. Talk- 

 ing about a proposal made by Ali Yusuf at the General Assembly 

 to create Parliamentary Government in Egypt, I objected to the word 

 creation, seeing that parliamentary Government had been won in Egypt 

 twenty-two years ago, but Abdu says its revival now is only an in- 

 trigue, and that he had opposed it, though ineffectually, for it was put 



