1911] Sir Charles Dilkc's Death 335 



repented of his Egyptian sin, and he did so and found him unre- 

 pentant. Dilke was possessed, as the papers say of him, of ' an almost 

 encyclopaedic knowledge ' on foreign affairs especially, but he had long 

 ceased to be a force in the House of Commons though made use of 

 now and then. The scandal of his connection with the Crawford 

 divorce suit stood always in the way of his regaining office, and he had 

 no wit or personal charm to attract to him a party below the gangway. 

 Politically and morally he seems to have formed himself on the model 

 of his friend Gambetta, a republican at home and an Imperial expan- 

 sionist abroad. It is not for me to cast a stone at him for anything 

 but his betrayal of Egypt to the Jews in 1882. Peace be with him . 



" 2jth Jan. — Cotton, Mackarness, Rutherford and Rothstein came 

 to tea with me, to arrange about our Egyptian Committee, of which I 

 am to be Chairman, and our monthly newspaper, ' Egypt.' We are to 

 publish a first number as soon as possible. 



" 2&th Jan. — Lunched in Eccleston Square with Winston and Clem- 

 entine ; Birrell also there, and we renewed acquaintance on the ground 

 of my former friendship with his father-in-law, Frederick Locker, and 

 my character as a poet. Birrell has a pleasant reputation in the House 

 of Commons as a gay trifler, covering his personal appearance of 

 pedagogue to the extent that his style of wit has been called ' Birrellism,' 

 and he made play on these lines in conversation during our meal, his 

 forehead still dotted with sticking-plaster, as sign manual of his ad- 

 venture with the suffragettes three months ago. I made him give a 

 narrative of this. He had been walking home alone, he said, and was 

 crossing the open space by the Duke of York's column when he sud- 

 denly found himself in the middle of a group of wild women who 

 thrust their ugly faces close to his and told him he was a bad, wicked 

 man for not giving them the vote, and hustled him so that he had to 

 defend himself with his umbrella, ineffectively, as they caught hold of 

 his arms and the struggle between them lasted six or seven minutes. 

 Then a weak knee which he had gave way and he fell down and was 

 helpless, until Lionel Earle, who happened to be passing in a motor, 

 stopped and rescued him. He was considerably mauled, and has been 

 more or less on the sick list ever since. The recollection of it excited 

 him and he talked of it with resentment, and now he had come to 

 Churchill for sympathy and to consult how to meet the assaults to be 

 expected at the opening of Parliament on Monday. I was sworn to 

 secrecy while they discussed their plans of action. [On account of 

 my oath I do not transcribe it here.] My contribution to the conversa- 

 tion was that I suggested that instead of being forcibly fed, which 

 savoured too much of the ways of the Spanish Inquisition, the im- 

 prisoned women should have their own meals and their own medical 

 attendants, and that the Ritz Hotel should be engaged for their accom- 



