1904] Sir William Har court's Death 107 



Home Rule to be in accordance with his views, but he gets out of the 

 difficulty by declaring, that it is absolutely contrary to those of the 

 Unionist Party, a distinction which has so far escaped the criticism of 

 opponents." This was the first mistake made by George Wyndham 

 in his management of his Irish policy and the beginning of great 

 trouble for him, though he did not at the moment foresee it. His short 

 run to Frankfort was the first real holiday he had taken during his 

 three years at the Irish office, and he had given orders not to be dis- 

 turbed during his absence by having letters forwarded to him. He was 

 consequently unaware until his return that Lord Dunraven, with whom 

 he had been acting in concert, had launched their scheme of ' Devolu- 

 tion ' on the world and without due reflection he had written his letter 

 to the ' Times,' an unfortunate blunder which cost him his political 

 career. 



" 1st Oct. — Sir William Harcourt is dead, the last of the great 1880 

 Liberals. I am sorry he did not live to see the return of his party to 

 power and the revival of the Harcourt earldom in his own person. 

 He lived just long enough to inherit Newnham. The last I saw of 

 him was some three months ago when I found him in his carriage in 

 Green Park and exchanged a few words with him. He was always 

 pleasant and kind to me and allowed me full liberty of laughter and 

 plain speech, though he never, I think, quite forgave me my gibes at 

 'Paradise Lost.' (I had called Milton once 'a bombastic windbag.') 

 This was touching a sacred subject to him, but perhaps I exaggerate 

 the incident. Politically he was straighter than most of his fellow 

 politicians, and when he condoned the Jameson Raid at the inquiry, I 

 believe it to have been out of loyalty as a Privy Councillor to the 

 Queen. His domestic life was very beautiful, and at home he was 

 adored. 



" 10th Oct. — Alexandre de Wagram is here for a day or two's 

 shooting. To-day our last beat was the Sprinks Plantation, where 

 we got seventy-two pheasants, all driven high overhead. The light 

 happened to be favourable and the shooting very good. For myself 

 I got twenty-five birds down at one stand with only thirty cartridges, 

 the best I ever did in my best days. 



" i$th Oct. — Oliver Howard and his wife arrived here last night 

 having gone to a wrong station and wandered in flies for several 

 hours. She is a very pretty but rather captious little person, which 

 perhaps accounts for Oliver's going to South Africa. 



" I am working out a scheme of small holdings here with a bungalow 

 cottage and ten acres each at moderate rents, in pursuance of an article 

 I published on the by-law tyranny in the last ' Nineteenth Century 

 Review.' 



" 24th Oct. — An extraordinary incident has occurred. The Russian 



