1908 King of Portugal Assassinated 193 



Dublin knows it. As to who actually took the jewels George does 

 not know. Lord Aberdeen had made himself a laughing stock at 

 Dublin in connection with it. Vicars had gone to him and had bullied 

 him, and had chivied Aberdeen round the room when he had said 

 that he could not give an answer without consulting Birrell, but George 

 does not profess to know the whole facts of the case. 



" 2nd Feb. (Sunday). — Lunched at the French Embassy. On my 

 way there I saw placards in the streets announcing the assassination 

 of the King of Portugal and his heir apparent. Cambon was of course 

 full of this sinister event. He told us that he had only yesterday re- 

 ceived a letter from Lisbon dated the 29th, warning him of the exis- 

 tence of a conspiracy against the King. It had been written to him 

 by a leader of the constitutional opposition, and Cambon considered the 

 assassination to be the work, not of anarchists, but of political opponents 

 of the King's unconstitutional rule. For some time past Portugal has 

 been governed, not by Parliamentary ministers, but despotically by de- 

 cree, Franco, the King's minister, having made himself with the King's 

 support Dictator. ' One must not,' Cambon said, ' take a Parliamentary 

 regime in Portugal seriously, any more than in Persia or Turkey. 

 The mass of the peasants care nothing for politics, and questions 

 of Constitution only concern a few people. He would not hear of 

 its being the work of anarchists. It was rather the way in which 

 political party strife manifested itself in Portugal, the struggle of one 

 party against another for the loaves of office; there had been great 

 corruption there. 



" Mrs. Earle was at the luncheon, and Mrs. Arkwright, and Mrs. 

 Crawshay ; the last told me that she had lunched yesterday with Margot, 

 and had learned from her that it was definitely settled that Asquith 

 should have Campbell Bannerman's succession, whenever he retires 

 from the premiership. The only competitor had been Grey, but Grey 

 had said that he was overworked already at the Foreign Office and 

 could not undertake it. Asquith intends as soon as the event happens 

 to dissolve parliament, and go to the country for a new mandate. 



" $th Feb. — John Dillon came to see me and we had a long and 

 most interesting talk. He told me first about Irish politics, how all 

 the Parliamentary party had come together again, and were working 

 together pleasantly, ' even Healy, though he and I have not spoken 

 for fifteen years.' They have come to terms, too, with the Govern- 

 ment, the Government having engaged themselves to pass a resolution 

 in favour of Home Rule this Session. All will vote for it, even As- 

 quith, and Grey, and Haldane. This will bind the Liberal Party once 

 more to a Home Rule policy, and they will ask a mandate for it at the 

 next General Election. He spoke well of Birrell. ' Birrell,' he said, 

 ' has refused to use coercion in Ireland, in spite of tremendous pres- 



