208 Egypt to Have a Constitution [1908 



Empire. This will now be prevented indefinitely; it would also im- 

 mensely strengthen the demand for a restoration of the Constitution 

 in^Egypt. 



" 30M July. — Hyndman writes asking me to help financially in a 

 campaign he proposed to make in favour of Tilak and other imprisoned 

 Indian patriots. This in answer to a letter of mine. Ismail Abaza's 

 deputation of Egyptian Legislative Councillors is, I think, a good move, 

 though repudiated by Farid Bey. Abaza succeeded in getting an inter- 

 view with Grey, though what passed at it has not been published. 

 The revolution at Constantinople will have greatly strengthened his 

 hands. 



" 1st Aug. — The young swallows in the bathroom have flown, but 

 they still come back to their nest at night. It has been a great pleasure 

 watching them, the old swallows having come in and out of the room 

 by the window while I was in the bath quite undisturbed though the 

 nest was just above it, built on a curtain rod. There were four young 

 ones hatched and all have flown. 



" 4th Aug. — Belloc who was here to-day tells me that it has been 

 communicated to him in confidence that Grey has said that Egypt shall 

 have a Constitution granted to her in two years' time. If true, and I 

 think it likely in view of events in Turkey, it is most important. 



" 5th Aug. — A girl of seventeen, a daughter of Merrick Burrell's 

 wood-reeve, was run over and killed by a motor at Buck Barn cross 

 roads, and to-day I went to the inquest, the first one I have ever at- 

 tended. It took place on the spot where the thing happened, a danger- 

 ous place, but not for a careful driver. At the cross roads I found a 

 score of local people, neighbouring farmers and the like, collected, with 

 the parish policeman, who was showing the exact spot where the col- 

 lision took place with the marks of the girl's blood still visible on the 

 road. The traces showed that the girl had been dragged thirty-two 

 feet by the motor, which had only been brought to a stand after eighty- 

 two feet. While we were examining the coroner drove up, and then in 

 a smart motor the three young men who had caused the death, and we 

 all went into the barn close by, where the inquest was held. 



" The scene inside when the court assembled was a curious one. 

 It was a good old threshing floor with oak timbers, and on each side 

 of the wide floor sat the twelve jurymen on forms, the coroner and 

 one or two others at the far end of the table. The jurors were all 

 local people, farmers and labourers, with the Shipley parson, Sir Mer- 

 rick's coachman, and Captain Turner, a close neighbour. There was 

 something mediaeval about the thing, a fine survival from the days of 

 the Heptarchy, which seemed very real when the coroner explained that 

 we were assembled under authority of the King to inquire into the 

 cause of the death of one of his Majesty's lieges, to wit, Mabel Mary 



