Turks. In a phrase which became famous he declared that the
only remedy for the European provinces of the Porte was to
turn out the Ottoman government “bag and baggage.” All
England was at once arrayed into two camps. One party was
led by Disraeli, who was supposed to represent the traditional
policy of England of maintaining the rule of the Turk at all
hazards; the other, inspired by the example of Gladstone, was
resolved at all costs to terminate oppression, but was at the same
time distrusted as indirectly assisting the ambitious views by
which the Eastern policy of Russia had always been animated.
The crisis soon became intense. In June 1876 Servia and
Montenegro declared war against Turkey. In a few months
Servia was hopelessly beaten. Through the insistence of Russia
an armistice was agreed upon; and Lord Beaconsfield—for
Disraeli had now been raised to the peerage—endeavoured to
utilize the breathing space by organizing a conference of the
great powers at Constantinople, which was attended on behalf
of Great Britain by Lord Salisbury. The Constantinople conference
proved abortive, and in the beginning of 1877 Russia
declared war. For some time, however, her success was hardly
equal to her expectations. The Turks, entrenched at Plevna,
delayed the Russian advance; and it was only towards the
close of 1877 that Plevna at last fell and Turkish resistance
collapsed. With its downfall the war party in England, which
was led by the prime minister, increased in violence. From the
refrain of a song, sung night after night at a London music hall,
its members became known as Jingoes. The government ordered
the British fleet to pass the Dardanelles and go up to Constantinople;
and though the order was subsequently withdrawn, it
asked for and obtained a grant of £6,000,000 for naval and military
purposes. When news came that the Russian armies had
reached Adrianople, that they had concluded some arrangement
with the Turks, and that they were pressing forward towards Constantinople,
the fleet was again directed to pass the Dardanelles.
Soon afterwards the government decided to call out the reserves
and to bring a contingent of Indian troops to the Mediterranean.
Lord Derby,[1] who was at the foreign office, thereupon retired
from the ministry, and was succeeded by Lord Salisbury. Lord
Derby’s resignation was everywhere regarded as a proof that
Great Britain was on the verge of war. Happily this did not
occur. At Prince Bismarck’s suggestion Russia consented to
refer the treaty which she had concluded at San Stefano to a
congress of the great powers; and the congress, at which Great
Britain was represented by Lord Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury,
Berlin
treaty.
succeeded in substituting for the treaty of San Stefano
the treaty of Berlin. The one great advantage derived
from it was the tacit acknowledgment by Russia
that Europe could alone alter arrangements which Europe had
made. In every other sense it is doubtful whether the provisions
of the treaty of Berlin were more favourable than those of the
treaty of San Stefano. On Lord Beaconsfield’s return, however,
he claimed for Lord Salisbury and himself that they had brought
back “peace with honour,” and the country accepted with wild
delight the phrase, without taking much trouble to analyse
its justice.
If Lord Beaconsfield had dissolved parliament immediately after his return from Berlin, it is possible that the wave of popularity which had been raised by his success would have borne him forward to a fresh victory in the constituencies. His omission to do so gave the country time to meditate on the consequences of his policy. One result soon became perceptible. Differences with Russia produced their inevitable consequences in fresh complications on the Indian frontier. The Russian government, confronted with a quarrel with Great Britain in Afghan wars. eastern Europe, endeavoured to create difficulties in Afghanistan. A Russian envoy was sent to Kabul, where Shere Ali, who had succeeded his father Dost Mahommed in 1863, was amir; and the British government, alarmed at this new embarrassment, decided on sending a mission to the Afghan capital. The mission was stopped on the frontier by an agent of Shere Ali, who declined to allow it to proceed. The British government refused to put up with an affront of this kind, and their envoy, supported by an army, continued his advance. Afghanistan was again invaded. Kabul and Kandahar were occupied; and Shere Ali was forced to fly, and soon afterwards died. His successor, Yakub Khan, came to the British camp and signed, in May 1879, the treaty of Gandamak. Under the terms of this treaty the Indian government undertook to pay the new amir a subsidy of £60,000 a year; and Yakub Khan consented to receive a British mission at Kabul, and to cede some territory in the Himalayas which the military advisers of Lord Beaconsfield considered necessary to make the frontier more “scientific.” This apparent success was soon followed by disastrous news. The deplorable events of 1841 were re-enacted in 1879. The new envoy reached Kabul, but was soon afterwards murdered. A British army was again sent into Afghanistan, and Kabul was again occupied. Yakub Khan, who had been made amir in 1879, was deposed, and Abdur Rahman Khan was selected as his successor. The British did not assert their superiority without much fighting and some serious reverses. Their victory was at last assured by the excellent strategy of Sir Donald Stewart and Sir Frederick (afterwards Lord) Roberts. But before the final victory was gained Lord Beaconsfield had fallen. His policy had brought Great Britain to the verge of disaster in Afghanistan: the credit of reasserting the superiority of British arms was deferred till his successors had taken office.
It was not only in Afghanistan that the new imperial policy which Lord Beaconsfield had done so much to encourage was straining the resources of the empire. In South Africa a still more serious difficulty was already commencing. At the time at which Lord Beaconsfield’s administration began, British territory in South Africa was practically confined to Cape Colony and Natal. Years before, in 1852 and 1854 respectively, the British government, at that time a little weary of the responsibilities of colonial rule, had recognized the independence of the two Dutch republics, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Powerful native tribes occupied the territory to the north of Natal and the east of the Transvaal. War broke out between the Transvaal Republic and one of the most powerful of these native chieftains, Sikukuni; and the Transvaal was worsted in the struggle. Weary of the condition of anarchy which existed in the republic, many inhabitants of the Transvaal were ready to welcome its annexation to Great Britain—a proposal favoured by the colonial secretary, Lord Carnarvon, who wished to federate the South African states, after the manner in which the North American colonies had become by confederation the Dominion of Canada. Sir Theophilus Shepstone, who was sent to inquire into the proposal, mistook the opinion of a party for the verdict of the republic, and declared (April 1877) the Transvaal a part of the British Empire. His policy entailed far more serious consequences than the mission to Afghanistan. The first Zulu War. was a war with the Zulus, the most powerful and warlike of the South African natives, who under their ruler, Cetewayo, had organized a formidable army. A dispute had been going on for some time about the possession of a strip of territory which some British arbitrators had awarded to the Zulu king. Sir Bartle Frere, who had won distinction in India, and was sent out by Lord Beaconsfield’s government to the Cape, kept back the award; and, though he ultimately communicated it to Cetewayo, thought it desirable to demand the disbandment of the Zulu army. In the war which ensued, the British troops who invaded Zulu territory met with a severe reverse; and, though the disaster was ultimately retrieved by Lord Chelmsford, the war involved heavy expenditure and brought little credit to the British army, while one unfortunate incident, the death of Prince Napoleon, who had obtained leave to serve with the British troops, and was surprised by the Zulus while reconnoitering, created a deep and unfortunate impression. Imperialism, which had been excited by Lord Beaconsfield’s policy in 1878, and by the prospect of a war with a great European power, fell into discredit when it degenerated into a fresh expedition into
- ↑ Edward Henry Stanley, 15th earl of Derby, son of the 14th earl and former prime minister.
