1908] Revolution at Constantinople 207 



lady occurred, Percy's father (he was then thirteen) had been told to 

 leave off writing to her, and having disobeyed was flogged by his father 

 — all this is interesting and most of it new to me. Some of the Iliffe 

 family spell their name Ayliffe. Percy is of opinion that his grand- 

 father's political wisdom and ability have been somewhat overrated 

 He, through life, avoided taking part in public affairs or joining a party, 

 and so his talents were never put to the proof. He was a very gen- 

 erous dealer with his wealth, maintaining a number of needy hangers- 

 on at Petworth who had almost permanent lodging and board in the 

 house, and painters and other artists innumerable. 



" 14//; July. — Terence Bourke came for the day, he has bought a 

 farm called Pekes, in East Sussex, and intends to settle there, though 

 without selling his property at Bizerta. Things in Tunis, he tells me, 

 are no longer so interesting as they were for him, the Anglo-French 

 Entente having smoothed down disputes between French and English, 

 and the project of making Bizerta a naval seaport and arsenal has been 

 abandoned. The country is making material progress, the agricultural 

 part, though in the towns the position of the Moslems has not improved. 

 There is a small philo-Arab section of French opinion, but the Moslems 

 are still without anything like a free press, or other means of protesting 

 against injustice. 



" 2$tJi July. — For a week past there has been talk in the papers of 

 a military revolt in Macedonia, and to-day the great news is published 

 of the Sultan's having dismissed his Grand Vizier, Farid Pasha, recall- 

 ing Kiamil Pasha and Said Pasha Kutshuk, and summoned a Parlia- 

 ment under Midhat's constitution. This is, indeed, good news, only I 

 hope the revolution will not leave Abdul Hamid on the throne, or he 

 will play them false again, as he did in 1879. 



" I have been asked to a dinner given by Ismail Pasha Abaza and 

 other members of the Egyptian Legislative Council who are in London. 

 Tilak, the head of the Indian revolutionary party in India has just been 

 sentenced to six months' deportation to the Andaman Islands for a 

 ' seditious ' article in his newspaper, the ' Kesari ' of Bombay. Morley 

 is playing the high old Russian game there, and there is not a man in 

 the House of Commons to ask a question about it. It is sickening. 



" Belloc has just published a new book, ' Clutterbuck's Election,' very 

 amusing. 



" 27th July. — Things are going splendidly at Constantinople. There 

 has been universal rejoicing all over Turkey, Moslem and Christian 

 and Tew embracing one another, just as I remember it at Cairo in 1881 

 when the Constitution was proclaimed there. The revolution has oc- 

 curred in the very nick of time, for it is pretty clear that the Anglo- 

 Russian agreement about Macedonia come to by the King at Reval 

 was intended as a first step towards the dismemberment of the Ottoman 



