n6 The Dunraven Programme [ x 9°5 



throne, was anxious to be able to go to Ireland and have a loyal recep- 

 tion. Also he has great regard for Continental opinion, which he knows 

 well, and he was ashamed of the disgrace of there being a part of 

 his United Kingdom where he was not welcome, otherwise I cannot 

 account for the sudden accession of official fervour in the matter. 

 George, however it began, certainly became converted to views not very 

 distinguishable from Home Rule, as I have often discussed them with 

 him, only he was not prepared for Dunraven's sudden announcement 

 of the programme. I believe, too, that he is quite justified in saying 

 that an elected general council was not in his plan. Where he made 

 the mistake was in his too hasty and not happily worded repudiation of 

 the manifesto by writing to the ' Times.' He would have done better 

 to have expressed his sympathy with it while saying that in its present 

 form it was not compatible with the Unionist policy. For his views 

 were so well known that his rather bald pronouncement read both to 

 friends and enemies like a sudden recantation, and it has prejudiced his 

 later explanations. I fear it will harm his political position, though 

 to me personally his retirement from the Government could only be 

 a gain. What will probably happen is that he will be shifted later to 

 some other office in the Cabinet. It is a thousand pities he did not 

 leave Ireland after passing his Land Bill and take the War Office when 

 it was offered him. It is impossible for any one to win in the long 

 run as Irish Chief Secretary. 



" 1st March. — I hobbled out this evening to the tomb for tea, the 

 garden looking lovely in the perfect light which I suppose I shall never 

 see again after this month. There is a gigantic scheme of building a 

 garden city over the whole desert round here, which will be the end 

 of Sheykh Obeyd's solitude, with its jackals and its foxes and its 

 doves and kites, and its long-eared owls and its night ravens, but I 

 am consoled by the thought that I shall not see it again. 



" 2nd March. — I see that George has made a second speech in Parlia- 

 ment about his Irish policy, far better than the first. This time a 

 quite frank statement, reading the letters which passed between him 

 and MacDonnell. It restores him to the position of an honest states- 

 man, though probably not politically. He can hardly any longer do 

 much good in Ireland amid the yelping of the Ulster pack, and the 

 counter yelping of Healy and Sexton ; even his optimism can scarcely 

 carry him through another year there. 



" gth Matfch. — I am laid up again with the malarious fever and 

 other troubles, and feel like a hare headed first by one greyhound and 

 then by another. I was to have left for England to-morrow but Milton, 

 the Cairo doctor, who was called in, declared it impossible, so my 

 journey is put off till the 18th. George has resigned. I was afraid they 

 were going to give him Milner's place at the Cape, which would have 



