Bute's view about the application of the term "British" to his countrymen is expressed in a note referring to an article written for the number of January, 1887, by Amin Nassif, a Syrian _protégé_ of his, translated from the Arabic by Professor Robertson, and prefaced by a rather mysterious foreword, apparently from Bute's pen. I would not call Nassif's article "Egypt under the British," but "Egypt under the English invasion."[12] I dislike the word "British," which really only means Cymro-Celtic. It has a tendency to confound us with {134} the English, and to obscure to the popular mind the extent to which our forefathers in 1706 tried to make us a mere English province.[13] To every one their due: to the Westminster Parliament that of the bombardment of Alexandria and the rest of it. The appearance of the first number of the _Review_ published subsequent to Bute assuming control of the periodical is referred to with some complacency, in a letter written from Mountstuart on April 16, 1887: It seems to me the best number of the _S.R._ that I have ever seen. But as I have had more to do with it than with any other, I probably see it with prejudiced eyes. The first newspaper notice or two will display it in its true light, in the same way that the impressions of Molière's housekeeper on his literary efforts were a precursor of those of his public audiences. The "first newspaper notice" which came to hand, that in the _Ayr Observer_, evoked a comment which seemed to show that Bute was not then so hardened as he afterwards became to the depreciatory remarks of "irresponsible reviewers." _May_ 9, 1887. The _Ayr Observer_ man had clearly not even glanced at any of the articles except the first and one other (to which he was attracted by my name as of local interest). He seems to believe the word "Byzantine," now seen by him for the first time, to be a synonym for "German" or "Russian." As none of the sentences parse, I conceive that the notice was {135} written in the small hours (from a dogged determination not to go to bed without getting it done), after separating from some scene freely enlivened by alcoholic stimulants. [Sidenote: 1887, A London garden party] A long letter to the editor written on June 18, 1887, contains, _inter alia_, lamentations on the writer's "hard fate" at having to return to London in mid-summer, and attend, incidentally, a crowded garden party there. Fancy leaving this place [Mountstuart] at its very best, in order to be jammed in a stuffy back garden in London, in a hollow surrounded by houses, for hours on a midsummer's afternoon. [Illustration: THE GREAT HALL, MOUNTSTUART] I see astrologically that Mars has a good deal to say with regard to the *******;[14] it may possibly mean sunstroke or apoplexy as well as dynamite. Really one would think they ought to provide not only an ambulance tent and nurses, but also a dead-house and a competent staff of undertakers.[15]