350 Sir Eldon Gorst Dying [ l 9 11 



new home there, a most beautiful site. He has just secured between 

 Parham Park and the Amberly Marshes eighty acres of waste land, 

 where he intends to found a family colony, wild heath, overgrown with 

 fern, for which he has paid no more than £20 an acre. We found 

 him in high delight at his sudden good fortune as a landed proprietor, 

 a good fortune he deserves, and made our picnic under a clump of 

 hollies, discussing the sites of cottages he intends to build. 



' Belloc's paper is published under the title ' The Eye Witness,' with 

 my ' Coronation Ode ' occupying the most prominent position. 



"21st Jane. — Old Riaz Pasha is dead, the last of the old Pasha 

 gang in Egypt. He began life as a dancing boy of Jewish origin at 

 the Court of Abbas I, and has ended in high consideration and re- 

 spect, though his subservience to English policy had lost him latterly 

 the popularity he enjoyed twenty years ago, a patriot according to 

 his lights, but these were never clear. I liked him personally much. 

 Allah kcrim. 



" 22nd June. — Coronation Day. We drank the King's health and 

 the Queen's and all the Royal Family's, not, I fear, very devoutly. 



" 28th June. — Hassan Bey Sabri, an old disciple of Abdu's, came 

 to see me. He belongs, if anybody in Egypt does, to the English 

 party, expecting to be one of the nominated members of the Legisla- 

 tive Council, and is a follower of Saad Zaghloul. He thinks there 

 is some new Liberal policy being planned for Egypt. Gorst, poor 

 fellow, is dying, and his successor is to be Arthur Hardinge, and if 

 the Nationalists will only be quiet, and not oppose English policy, 

 something in the way of a Constitution will be given them. Personally 

 I always liked Gorst, and used to find him more amenable to my ideas 

 than Cromer, but he has proved a bad friend to Egypt, because, know- 

 ing her better than Cromer, he was better able to betray. Arthur 

 Hardinge is a man of the same school, both having been Cromer's 

 pupils, Hardinge probably the cleverer of the two. The Legislative 

 Council will be allowed to pass laws, and even to control finance, as 

 far as these relate to internal affairs. I asked him what his ultimate 

 plan was, and he said he wanted evacuation, but not yet. I found him 

 an honest man but timid, and as such in favour of half measures. 

 Talking about Mohammed Abdu's death and in answer to my question 

 whether he thought the Mufti had been poisoned, he said he was 

 sure of it. He had been with Abdu at Alexandria on the 13th of 

 June (Abdu died on nth July) and he had suspicions then which have 

 since been confirmed. He believed the same plan had been pursued 

 with Abdu as with Seyyid Jemal ed Din, cancer had been communi- 

 cated by means of a poisoned toothpick. 



" 2nd July (Sunday). — There is a sensational announcement in the 

 ' Observer ' of the landing of German troops in Morocco. Belloc, who 



