124 General Election of 1906 [1906 



*' Looking back on the past year I see it as physically une annee 

 terrible, but it has brought me many consolations. During the last 

 six weeks in London I have seen more friends, and more of them 

 than in the preceding six years. I have ceased to worry myself about 

 public affairs. I shall never, now the Mufti is dead, go again to Egypt, 

 nor even, I think, across the Channel. If I recover I mean to live 

 out my few remaining years as much as possible with my friends here 

 in England, and enjoy the little things of life at home. My friends, 

 and I have had very many of late to see me, now, I perceive, look on 

 me as wise. It is all old age can reasonably aspire to in the way of 

 happiness. 



" gth Jan., 1906. — Parliament was dissolved yesterday, and the new 

 one will be elected by the end of the month. 



" I have been reading Winston Churchill's life of his father. It 

 is wonderfully well done, and on the whole a very fair statement of 

 Lord Randolph's career. He under-estimates, however, Randolph's 

 Home Rule dairyings in 1885. To me, Randolph always talked at that 

 time as a Home Ruler, though not prepared to declare himself one as 

 yet. Lord Salisbury was his difficulty, but he hoped to convert him, but 

 all he could get Lord Salisbury to do was to declare against coercion, 

 and when he had been himself a few weeks in office he fell into the 

 way of thought held by his party. Randolph's annexation of Burmah 

 destroyed my confidence in him as an anti-aggressionist, and his Home 

 Rule talk did not survive the General Election of that year. 



" lyth Jan. — ' Astarte ' has been published, and I am surprised to find 

 what good literature it is. Since I saw it last, two or three years ago, 

 it has been almost entirely rewritten, and is now really admirable in 

 style. Indeed, Ralph has invented a new form of prose, or rather, 

 perhaps, re-invented it, for it reminds one of Hazlitt and his contempo- 

 raries. I have written to congratulate him, but I expect he will come 

 in for plentiful violence of counter-attack in answer to his own violence. 



" The excitement of the General Election is not yet over. Arthur 

 Balfour's defeat at Manchester has amused me greatly, and Gerald's 

 at Leeds, and Alfred Lyttelton's at Warwick. With these three front 

 Bench men gone, George Wyndham will remain leader of the Tory 

 opposition, for even Hugh Ceoil has been submerged in the general de- 

 luge. What a debacle! As to the future, people talk of violent demo- 

 cratic changes. I do not believe in them, the new Cabinet is a Whig 

 Cabinet. The Liberal Party will split up into two camps, Whig and 

 Socialist, and in their wrangles things will continue to drift on much 

 as they are. He who lives longest will see most. 



" 29^/1 Jan. — The elections are over, giving the Liberals a clear 

 majority over all other sections of some 89. This is immense. The 

 Tories keep no more than 156 seats. The Labour Party have got 51. 



