19° Eversley's Important Letter [1907 



terest taken by the public in him as a great poet, one fully deserved, 

 for he was our greatest religious poet since Herbert. He died in a 

 private hospital to which Meynell had taken him a fortnight ago. 

 He saw him there on Tuesday and he died on Wednesday the 13th 

 at dawn. 



" lyth Nov. (Sunday). — Terence Bourke is here. He tells me that 

 in Tunis things are going prosperously now, that the French have 

 adopted a more conciliatory policy towards the Moslem inhabitants 

 and that these are accepting the French regime. The French are dis- 

 continuing their fortification of Bizerta now that the Anglo-French 

 Entente is signed. 



" 24th Dec. — The release of the Denshawai prisoners is announced 

 in the papers, so that episode is over, but it has done more towards 

 shaking the British Empire in the East than anything that has hap- 

 pened for years. It smashed Cromer and it has half smashed Grey. 

 Its sound has gone out into all lands, into India, Persia, and through- 

 out Asia. Egypt it has saved from her long apathy and it will con- 

 tinue to inspire the new Nationalism. 



" 1st Jan., 1908. — Eversley has written me a very important letter 

 confirming my acount of the Egyptian doings in 1882. As he was a 

 member of the Government at the time it is of great value, in it he 

 says : 



" ' Many thanks for your letter and still more for the copy of 

 the second edition of your book. I have read it carefully with the 

 greatest interest. It is the most complete vindication of your own 

 conduct throughout the whole of the Egyptian business. 



" ' I think you have been fully justified in quoting from conversa- 

 tions and letters as you have done. There must come a time when 

 such things may be made public and when the convention as to 

 privacy no longer will hold good. It seems to me that after more 

 than 20 years, during which the British policy has prevailed in Egypt 

 almost without question, and when at length a new phase is arising 

 in that country it is quite legitimate to tell the whole story without 

 reserve. 



" ' The objection, however, in any case can only come from those 

 who are entitled (if at all) to complain — such as Malet, Colvin, E. 

 Hamilton, etc., but I do not understand that they have made any 

 complaint. Why then Frederic Harrison should do so on their be- 

 half I do not quite understand. I think you hardly do justice to Mr. 

 Gladstone or appreciate the difficulties of his position — how he was 

 fed with lies from the Foreign Office and other quarters. Would he 

 have been justified in breaking up his Government or in resigning him- 

 self sooner than give his consent to sending Wolseley to Egypt? What 



