Part 25 (1/2)

There is no harm in the poem as a whole but somehow it has not quite the reat satisfaction and not a little to my amusereat age had been before Dibdin In that enchanting dialogue, ”The Syenes is asked by one of the persons of the dialogue: ”On what do you pluhly?” ”_On the virtue and the power ofwhat they are, they care for me_” I feel now that when the time comes, my complimentary self-detere, and if the words, ”His friends were many and true-hearted” are added in the vernacular they will pass with men of hellenic culture as an allowable example of a free translation

It will also have a certain support froue, the tablet that commemorates the first Sir Henry Strachey, the Secretary of Clive and a man as for forty years and more a Member of the House of Commons This epitaph has not the usual flowery pomposity that one would expect to find in the case of a e and occupation and position It is reticent, if conventional One phrase, however, stands out Henry Strachey is described as ”_an active friend_” That is reat praise for athat I should like better than to be able to think when I boasted that enes, were many and cared for me, that I had helped to make them so because in a world so full of passive friends I had at any rate tried to be active

I ard for hi advice, which touches the point of veneration He was seldo reat matters, and we either met and talked or else wrote to each other aler man than he, and I had not, as he had, come into personal contact with the problems of practical administration at first hand, but had been accustomed to see them and deal with them rather as abstractions It is true that the questions on which my opinion had to be expressed in _The Spectator_ were often of vital importance and that I had to advise my readers thereon Still, I was never myself an executant I was, indeed, rather like the type of laboratory doctor who has of late co He does not hih he is asked to investigate special points His opinion ht and influence, but he does not carry out the physical cure of the patient

Many of Lord Cromer's oldest and most intimate friends may perhaps be surprised to hear that Lord Cromer consulted me so often and on so many points If so, I shall not be astonished at their astonishment It would be most natural in the case of a s for his, as Lord Cromer Yet, it is true The reason was, I think, that Lord Cromer found with me, as I found with him, that in response to, or in reaction from any particular series of events we alood causes to win, and anted to frustrate the sareed not only as to as injurious and as to as sound, but, which is far reed as to as _possible_

In economic matters, both in theory and practice, we moved on exactly the saht that I was differing froht sees frole,--I found that an exactly sione on in his mind

As so often happens with a friendshi+p of this kind, I foretold in my own mind almost fro to unite us I had not spent half an hour in his co with great affairs in a great way,--not only a man who satisfied me absolutely in theory, but a man hom I could act unreservedly because his mind was tuned to the same pitch as mine

I well re Always deeply interested in Iyptian probleypt Likemen of my day, I admired Lord Cromer and his work, but I had no special cult for him Naturally, however, I took out letters of introduction, for until the end of his occupation of the post of Consul General, he was ”Egypt” One of these was from my chief, Mr Hutton, one from htly, from another uncle, Sir John Strachey; the two uncles had been colleagues of Lord Cromer's on the Indian Council Directly I arrived in Cairo, I left my card and my letters of introduction in the usual way, and expected, after a decent delay, to be asked to pay a seency Instead, Lord Cromer acted with his characteristic pro of the day after I had left my letters of introduction and my own and my wife's cards, there caency with an invitation to lunch with the Croht found theet _en rapport_ with my friend that was to be I had not finished luncheon before we had plunged into the whole Egyptian question and had got to my own cherished point, one connected with the French occupation of Tunis, their promises of evacuation, and so forth This, my first experience of I do not kno many hundred talks with Lord Cro his mind and his subject he was a master I questioned and he answered, and I re that I had never before put myself so easily _en rapport_ with any rumpy, and quite without any of the arts of the diplomatist, and that I should find him very different from the statesmen and politicians to whohtforward, but as kind as he was quick

After luncheon, we had a very long talk which was at last interrupted by Lord Cro or to see soood-bye he suddenly said: ”I suppose you can keep a secret?”

I made a suitable reply, and added I had a lock to my portmanteau With his quick step he was at the side of his bureau in aa drawer, he thrust into my hand a white paper ”That,” he said, ”is a iving a character of the Khedive and of all the chief Egyptian statesents of the Khedive who ht possibly look out for papers in your roosensational orhe was He added however: ”I think it would be better when you are not reading it if you kept it in your portmanteau Don't trouble to return it till you have read it thoroughly I think it will aot back to my hotel and saw the nature of the docuine that Lord Cro to betray his secrets, but considering the place, the Agent General's position, and the fact that he was then at the height of his quarrel with the Khedive and on the most delicate terms with half the men mentioned in the document, I felt that he had reposed a confidence in ht only justified in the case of a man they had known for years, a man who, they were sure, would not cackle about a subject of which he was naturally, as I was, quite ignorant No doubt he knew there was no peril of , but if I had left these perfectly plain-spoken _dossiers_ of all the big ht have been catastrophic This exhibition of confidence was characteristic of Croh he indulged in no nonsense about being able to tell in a moment whether a man was trustworthy or not, and did not often act upon i so on occasion

In itself the doculy brilliant and just the piece of hich a busy Prireatly value It put him _au fait_ with the exact position of the various players in the great ga on, and with the plots and counter plots made in the Khedive's Palace or in the houses of the various Pashas They spent ency

Lord Cromer not only exposed the ave the just apologies for theseunduly literary or rhetorical he gave lively characters of the men described What fascinated me about these analyses of character, however, was that though they were like the best literature, you felt that Crorahten the literary effect The document was a real State Paper, and not a piece of ireatly ad and even touched with envy I wondered whether, in similar circumstances, I should have been able to resist the temptation to be Tacitean One felt instinctively that Lord Salisburywith a situation so delicate and so intricate and placing so great a responsibility on themy stay in Cairo, my intimacy with Lord Cromer deepened froained not only knowledge of the East, but knowledge on a thousand points of practical and also theoretical politics Cromer, like so ly well-read man, in modern and ancient history, in Economics, and in political theory Above all, he was a devotee of Meument with ”Don't you rereat delight to ht of confirmation

Inexperienced as I then was in public affairs, it was a matter of no small pleasure and of no small amount of pride to find my own special opinions, views, and theories as to political action plainly endorsed

In not a single case was I disappointed or disillusioned either hat had been my own views or ere Lord Cromer's I soon saw, as I am sure did he, that ere capable of a real intellectual alliance; and so our friendshi+p wasthe reputation that Lord Croard of other people's feelings when he thought the; for the irritability of extreain for a fierce impatience with anyone who opposed his views, my experience surprised s in my intercourse with hi what to expect in this way, I was keenly on the lookout Moreover I ith all a young man's prickliness, quite determined that I would not be treated as I was told Cromer was apt to treat people But I seldoreement with him on the merits and never as to manner of action No doubt ere as a rule concerned with matters where I did not know the facts and he did

Neither of us could, of course, differ as to conclusions when once the facts were agreed on Each had his little inch ic and both measures were scaled alike Still, in intercourse so constant as that between us in letters and in talk, it is, I must confess, extraordinary that he and I never really differed and that this was certainly not due to either of us being prepared to give way upon essentials

If anyone thinks that I occupied what the XVIIIth century people ont to call the spaniel position to Lord Cromer, they are mistaken He never attempted to bully me out of an opinion or even out of a prejudice If, indeed, I had been a self-conscious ht have been a little worried by the fact that when I told hi to take in _The Spectator_, he would aler self-confidence: ”You are perfectly right: of course, that's the line to take”; and so forth

It was indeed, someti with us at Newlands that he would begin ten or twelve sentences in the course of a Saturday to Monday visit with: ”Strachey, you and I have been absolutely right froh it e that I should have the hardihood to record it ”between boards”

In view of Cro ”contraindication” During the year and a half or nearly two years in which he wrote a review every week in _The Spectator_ on some important book, I never had any difficulties with him whatever He ith the possible exception of my cousin, Lytton Strachey, the best reviewer I ever had He not only took an immense amount of trouble with his reviews from his own point of view, but he also took immense trouble to realise and understand _The Spectator_ view and to coht dislike It happened, however, that on one occasion I did have to use the editorial blue pencil and alter soet him to alter it At first he seemed a little fussy about my objection, but when I was firreed, and in the end, with that attractive frankness that alent side by side with any testiness, he said that on reflection he thought I was perfectly right

In this context I ought also to record that so clever a revieas he and so reasonable were all his views, that it was not only difficult but almost impossible to catch him out, I will not say in a mistake in facts, for in these he was always accurate, but in an over-statement of Lord Cromer and his work for the country and the Eain, I am not the man to frame it, for I admit that I loved the man too much to make a judicial esti of his character and his achieveood in our national activities, and his example and inspiration are of such value, that I desire al else in politics to make people understand his point of view; and specially in what pertains to the Government of the Eastern races In such questions the British people will, I auides

I realise that Lord Cromer is now in the blind spot of politics Sooner or later, however, there will be a revival in interest in this great in to ask what it was that reat To such questions I shall venture to anticipate the answer

The British people may be stupid, but they know a man when they see him

That is why they honoured Lord Cromer, yet I doubt if even one per cent