228 Letters of the Portuguese Nun [ x 909 



ever seen the original Portuguese. They were first printed in French 

 in 1769, and their authenticity seems to rest solely on what St. Simon 

 says about them, namely, that they were addressed to the Comte de 

 Chamilly. I should like to believe in them. (Traduttore tradittore.) 



"8th Jan. — There is an article in to-day's 'Daily Graphic' which 

 amuses me. It is a protest against Russian designs in Persia which 

 have reached the stage of threatening intervention there to put down 

 anarchy and re-establish the deposed Shah, with a Constitutional regime 

 at Teheran. What amuses me is the moral indignation of the ' Daily 

 Graphic,' an extreme jingo journal, at Russian insincerity, entirely 

 forgetful of the history of our own intervention in Egypt which was 

 undertaken on exactly the same excuse. The ' Daily Graphic ' says : 

 ' That Great Britain should abet so scandalous a conspiracy against 

 the liberties of the Persian people is incredible. The condition of 

 Persia is not one of aimless anarchy but of revolution, and in such a 

 state of things no foreign Government has a right to interfere. That 

 the movement against the Shah is a national one is proved by the 

 revolt of Ispahan. The pretence that the people are not ripe for a 

 Constitution will be most convincingly answered by the Persians them- 

 selves, possession is the best title to popular liberties ... in any case 

 Great Britain cannot be a party to an intervention aimed at a people 

 struggling for freedom, more especially as this freedom is already 

 theirs by Constitutional right.' Every word of this might have been 

 written against our intervention in Egypt in the Spring of 1882, but 

 our Tories are incredible in their self -blindness. 



" 10th Jan. (Sunday). — Malony writes an interesting .account of 

 affairs at Constantinople and the probability of there being a line of 

 cleavage between the Turkish-speaking and the Arabic-speaking ele- 

 ments in the Ottoman parliament. This was sure to be, but the im- 

 mediate danger is of a Balkan war pressed on by Austria which will 

 break out in the Spring. Haymerle, I remember, used as long ago 

 as i860, when we were attaches together at Athens, to explain to 

 me that it was a settled part of Austrian policy to shift the centre 

 of the Empire eastwards, and make good the imperial title of Em- 

 peror of the Oesterreich. They will never allow the Turks to reform 

 themselves in earnest, and all the more now that Russia, beaten by 

 Japan, is no longer so great a military rival. I am writing to Malony 

 to warn him of this and not to trust too much to English help. 

 If given at all it will be restricted to the defence of Constantinople. 



" T2th Jan. — There is a telegram to-day confirming my fear of Aus- 

 trian intervention in the Spring and of a secret understanding between 

 Austria and Bulgaria for intervention in Macedonia, it can hardly be 

 otherwise. [Compare Dr. Dillon's ' Eclipse of Russia.'] 



" 14th Jan. — An arrangement is said to have been come to between 



