33° Kaiser Wilhelm and Young Turkey [i9 x o 



only for the pleasure of making a bonfire of them. Yet two or three 

 of our art critics have pronounced in their favour. Roger Fry, a critic 

 of taste, has written an introduction to the catalogue, and Desmond 

 MacCarthy acts as secretary to the show. I am old enough to remem- 

 ber the pre-Raphaelite pictures in the Royal Academy exhibitions of 

 1857 and 1858, and it is pretended now that the present Post-Impression 

 case is a parallel to it, but I find no parallel. The pre-Raphaelite pic- 

 tures were many of them extremely bad in colour, but all were care- 

 fully, laboriously drawn, and followed certain rules of art ; but these 

 are not works of art at all, unless throwing a handful of mud against a 

 wall may be called one. They are the works of idleness and impotent 

 stupidity, a pornographic show. 



" 16th Nov. — Two things of immense importance have happened, 

 though they excite little attention here. At a banquet given to Von 

 der Goltz at Constantinople, Bieberstein has publicly declared the 

 Kaiser Wilhelm's warm interest in Young Turkey and the strengthen- 

 ing of the Ottoman Empire as a military power. Also in Persia the 

 native Press has declared for an alliance with Turkey and Germany. 



" Frank Lascelles looked in on me. He admits that Grey has made 

 a terrible hash of his policy abroad, especially at Constantinople. He 

 disapproves of the partition of Persia, where he once was British 

 Minister, and says that the Russians will never leave it. The agreement 

 about the railways will leave everything in the hands of Germany. 

 Even about Egypt he agrees that the position is very bad for us. 



" John Dillon came to lunch and stayed till four talking. He says 

 there has never been so complicated a political position as just now. 

 Asquith is absolutely bound to the Irish party by his promise to resign 

 if the King will not give the pledge required, and the Irish party will 

 hold him to his promise. The future rests with the King, and nobody 

 knows which way he will decide. All that he (Dillon) knows is that 

 Knollys, who is acting as go-between for the King with Asquith, is 

 strong for Irish Home Rule and for the Veto ; but the King is subjected 

 to other influences, and it is a toss up which side he will take, and on 

 his decision will depend in large measure the fate of the elections. The 

 Irish position has never since Parnell's time been so strong as now. 

 Redmond has got the whole of the American, Canadian, and Aus- 

 tralian Irish, with insignificant exceptions, at his back. Their coffers 

 are full, and there is no chance of O'Brien winning more than his half 

 dozen seats at home against them. We also discussed Persia, Con- 

 stantinople, and Egypt, on which subject Dillon and I are at one. He 

 will help our Egyptian campaign in Parliament, though he will not join 

 the Committee. Dillon gave me a curious instance of the kind of 

 temptations put in the way of the Irish party by the capitalists. In 

 the Spring of the present year he had been approached by representa- 



