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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Development of the European Nations,
+1870-1914 (5th ed.), by John Holland Rose
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1914 (5th ed.)
+
+Author: John Holland Rose
+
+Release Date: January 9, 2005 [EBook #14644]
+[Last updated: November 27, 2020]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EUROPEAN NATIONS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charlie Kirschner and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Campaigns 1859-71]
+
+THE DEVELOPMENT
+
+OF THE
+
+EUROPEAN NATIONS
+
+1870-1914
+
+BY
+
+J. HOLLAND ROSE LITT.D.
+
+FELLOW OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
+AUTHOR OF 'THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON,' 'THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PITT,'
+'THE ORIGINS OF THE WAR,' ETC.
+
+     'Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.'--VIRGIL.
+
+FIFTH EDITION, WITH A NEW PREFACE AND
+THREE SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTERS
+
+1915
+
+_First Edition . .  October 1905.
+   Second  "   . . November 1905.
+   Third   "   . . December 1911.
+   Fourth  "   . . November 1914.
+   Fifth   "   . .  October 1915._
+
+TO
+
+MY WIFE
+
+WITHOUT WHOSE HELP
+
+THIS WORK
+
+COULD NOT HAVE BEEN COMPLETED
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION
+
+
+In this Edition are included three new chapters (Nos. XXI.-XXIII.), in
+which I seek to describe the most important and best-ascertained facts
+of the period 1900-14. Necessarily, the narrative is tentative at many
+points; and it is impossible to attain impartiality; but I have sought
+to view events from the German as well as the British standpoint, and to
+sum up the evidence fairly. The addition of these chapters has
+necessitated the omission of the former Epilogue and Appendices. I
+regret the sacrifice of the Epilogue, for it emphasised two important
+considerations, (1) the tendency of British foreign policy towards undue
+complaisance, which by other Powers is often interpreted as weakness;
+(2) the danger arising from the keen competition in armaments. No one
+can review recent events without perceiving the significance of these
+considerations. Perhaps they may prove to be among the chief causes
+producing the terrible finale of July-August 1914. I desire to express
+my acknowledgments and thanks for valuable advice given by Mr. J.W.
+Headlam, M.A., Mr. A.B. Hinds, M.A., and Dr. R.W. Seton-Watson, D. Litt.
+
+J.H.R.
+
+CAMBRIDGE,
+
+_September_ 5, 1915.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION
+
+
+The outbreak of war in Europe is an event too momentous to be treated
+fully in this Preface. But I may point out that the catastrophe resulted
+from the two causes of unrest described in this volume, namely, the
+Alsace-Lorraine Question and the Eastern Question. Those disputes have
+dragged on without any attempt at settlement by the Great Powers. The
+Zabern incident inflamed public opinion in Alsace-Lorraine, and
+illustrated the overbearing demeanour of the German military caste;
+while the insidious attempts of Austria in 1913 to incite Bulgaria
+against Servia marked out the Hapsburg Empire as the chief enemy of the
+Slav peoples of the Balkan Peninsula after the collapse of Turkish power
+in 1912. The internal troubles of the United Kingdom, France, and Russia
+in July 1914 furnished the opportunity so long sought by the forward
+party at Berlin and Vienna; and the Austro-German Alliance, which, in
+its origin, was defensive (as I have shown in this volume), became
+offensive, Italy parting from her allies when she discovered their
+designs. Drawn into the Triple Alliance solely by pique against France
+after the Tunis affair, she now inclines towards the Anglo-French
+connection.
+
+Readers of my chapter on the Eastern Question will not fail to see how
+the neglect of the Balkan peoples by the Great Powers has left that
+wound festering in the weak side of Europe; and they will surmise that
+the Balkan troubles have, by a natural Nemesis, played their part in
+bringing about the European War. It is for students of modern Europe to
+seek to form a healthy public opinion so that the errors of the past may
+not be repeated, and that the new Europe shall be constituted in
+conformity with the aspirations of the peoples themselves.
+
+CAMBRIDGE,
+
+_September_ 25, 1914.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The line of Virgil quoted on the title-page represents in the present
+case a sigh of aspiration, not a paean of achievement. No historical
+student, surely, can ever feel the conviction that he has fathomed the
+depths of that well where Truth is said to lie hid. What, then, must be
+the feelings of one who ventures into the mazy domain of recent annals,
+and essays to pick his way through thickets all but untrodden? More than
+once I have been tempted to give up the quest and turn aside to paths
+where pioneers have cleared the way. There, at least, the whereabouts of
+that fabulous well is known and the plummet is ready to hand.
+Nevertheless, I resolved to struggle through with my task, in the
+consciousness that the work of a pioneer may be helpful, provided that
+he carefully notches the track and thereby enables those who come after
+him to know what to seek and what to avoid.
+
+After all, there is no lack of guides in the present age. The number of
+memoir-writers and newspaper correspondents is legion; and I have come
+to believe that they are fully as trustworthy as similar witnesses have
+been in any age. The very keenness of their rivalry is some guarantee
+for truth. Doubtless competition for good "copy" occasionally leads to
+artful embroidering on humdrum actuality; but, after spending much time
+in scanning similar embroidery in the literature of the Napoleonic Era,
+I unhesitatingly place the work of Archibald Forbes, and that of several
+knights of the pen still living, far above the delusive tinsel of
+Marbot, Thiébault, and Ségur. I will go further and say that, if we
+could find out what were the sources used by Thucydides, we should
+notice qualms of misgiving shoot through the circles of scientific
+historians as they contemplated his majestic work. In any case, I may
+appeal to the example of the great Athenian in support of the thesis
+that to undertake to write contemporary history is no vain thing.
+
+Above and beyond the accounts of memoir-writers and newspaper
+correspondents there are Blue Books. I am well aware that they do not
+always contain the whole truth. Sometimes the most important items are
+of necessity omitted. But the information which they contain is
+enormous; and, seeing that the rules of the public service keep the
+original records in Great Britain closed for well-nigh a century, only
+the most fastidious can object to the use of the wealth of materials
+given to the world in _Parliamentary Papers_.
+
+Besides these published sources there is the fund of information
+possessed by public men and the "well-informed" of various grades.
+Unfortunately this is rarely accessible, or only under conventional
+restrictions. Here and there I have been able to make use of it without
+any breach of trust; and to those who have enlightened my darkness I am
+very grateful. The illumination, I know, is only partial; but I hope
+that its effect, in respect to the twilight of diplomacy, may be
+compared to that of the Aurora Borealis lights.
+
+After working at my subject for some time, I found it desirable to limit
+it to events which had a distinctly formative influence on the
+development of European States. On questions of motive and policy I have
+generally refrained from expressing a decided verdict, seeing that these
+are always the most difficult to probe; and facile dogmatism on them is
+better fitted to omniscient leaderettes than to the pages of an
+historical work. At the same time, I have not hesitated to pronounce a
+judgment on these questions, and to differ from other writers, where the
+evidence has seemed to me decisive. To quote one instance, I reject the
+verdict of most authorities on the question of Bismarck's treatment of
+the Ems telegram, and of its effect in the negotiations with France in
+July 1870.
+
+For the most part, however, I have dealt only with external events,
+pointing out now and again the part which they have played in the great
+drama of human action still going on around us. This limitation of aim
+has enabled me to take only specific topics, and to treat them far more
+fully than is done in the brief chronicle of facts presented by MM.
+Lavisse and Rambaud in the concluding volume of their _Histoire
+Générale_. Where a series of events began in the year 1899 or 1900, and
+did not conclude before the time with which this narrative closes, I
+have left it on one side. Obviously the Boer War falls under this head.
+Owing to lack of space my references to the domestic concerns of the
+United Kingdom have been brief. I have regretfully omitted one imperial
+event of great importance, the formation of the Australian Commonwealth.
+After all, that concerned only the British race; and in my survey of the
+affairs of the Empire I have treated only those which directly affected
+other nations as well, namely the Afghan and Egyptian questions and the
+Partition of Africa. Here I have sought to show the connection with
+"world politics," and I trust that even specialists will find something
+new and suggestive in this method of treatment.
+
+In attempting to write a history of contemporary affairs, I regard it as
+essential to refer to the original authority, or authorities, in the
+case of every important statement. I have sought to carry out this rule
+(though at the cost of great additional toil) because it enables the
+reader to check the accuracy of the narrative and to gain hints for
+further reading. To compile bibliographies, where many new books are
+coming out every year, is a useless task; but exact references to the
+sources of information never lose their value.
+
+My thanks are due to many who have helped me in this undertaking. Among
+them I may name Sir Charles Dilke, M.P., Mr. James Bryce, M.P., and Mr.
+Chedo Mijatovich, who have given me valuable advice on special topics.
+My obligations are also due to a subject of the Czar, who has placed
+his knowledge at my service, but for obvious reasons does not wish his
+name to be known. Mr. Bernard Pares, M.A., of the University of
+Liverpool, has very kindly read over the proofs of the early chapters,
+and has offered most helpful suggestions. Messrs. G. Bell and Sons have
+granted me permission to make use of the plans of the chief battles of
+the Franco-German War from Mr. Hooper's work, _Sedan and the Downfall of
+the Second Empire_, published by them. To Mr. H.W. Wilson, author of
+_Ironclads in Action_, my thanks are also due for permission to make use
+of the plan illustrating the fighting at Alexandria in 1882.
+
+J.H.R.
+
+_July, 1905._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+CHAPTER I
+THE CAUSES OF THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR.
+
+CHAPTER II
+FROM WÖRTH TO GRAVELOTTE
+
+CHAPTER III
+SEDAN
+
+CHAPTER IV
+THE FOUNDING OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
+
+CHAPTER V
+THE FOUNDING OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC--_continued_
+
+CHAPTER VI
+THE GERMAN EMPIRE
+
+CHAPTER VII
+THE EASTERN QUESTION
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR
+
+CHAPTER IX
+THE BALKAN SETTLEMENT
+
+CHAPTER X
+THE MAKING OF BULGARIA
+
+CHAPTER XI
+NIHILISM AND ABSOLUTISM IN RUSSIA
+
+CHAPTER XII
+THE TRIPLE AND DUAL ALLIANCES
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+THE CENTRAL ASIAN QUESTION
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+THE AFGHAN AND TURKOMAN CAMPAIGNS
+
+CHAPTER XV
+BRITAIN IN EGYPT
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+GORDON AND THE SUDAN
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+THE CONQUEST OF THE SUDAN
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+THE PARTITION OF AFRICA
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+THE CONGO FREE STATE
+
+CHAPTER XX
+RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+THE NEW GROUPING OF THE GREAT POWERS (1900-1907)
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+TEUTON _versus_ SLAV (1908-13)
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+THE CRISIS OF 1914
+
+INDEX
+
+MAPS AND PLANS
+
+
+Campaigns of 1859-71
+
+Sketch Map of the District between Metz and the Rhine
+
+Plan of the Battle of Wörth
+
+Plan of the Battles of Rezonville and Gravelotte
+
+Plan of the Battle of Sedan
+
+Map of Bulgaria
+
+Plan of Plevna
+
+Map of the Treaties of Berlin and San Stefano
+
+Map of Thessaly
+
+Map of Afghanistan
+
+Battle of Maiwand
+
+Battle of Alexandria (Bombardment of, 1882)
+
+Map of the Nile
+
+The Battle of Omdurman
+
+Plan of Khartum
+
+Map of Africa (1902)
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+     "The movements in the masses of European peoples are divided
+     and slow, and their progress interrupted and impeded, because
+     they are such great and unequally formed masses; but the
+     preparation for the future is widely diffused, and . . . the
+     promises of the age are so great that even the most
+     faint-hearted rouse themselves to the belief that a time has
+     arrived in which it is a privilege to live."--GERVINUS, 1853.
+
+The Roman poet Lucretius in an oft-quoted passage describes the
+satisfaction that naturally fills the mind when from some safe
+vantage-ground one looks forth on travellers tossed about on the stormy
+deep. We may perhaps use the poet's not very altruistic words as
+symbolising many of the feelings with which, at the dawn of the
+twentieth century, we look back over the stormy waters of the century
+that has passed away. Some congratulation on this score is justifiable,
+especially as those wars and revolutions have served to build up States
+that are far stronger than their predecessors, in proportion as they
+correspond more nearly with the desires of the nations that
+compose them.
+
+As we gaze at the revolutions and wars that form the storm-centres of
+the past century, we can now see some of the causes that brought about
+those storms. If we survey them with discerning eye, we soon begin to
+see that, in the main, the cyclonic disturbances had their origins in
+two great natural impulses of the civilised races of mankind. The first
+of these forces is that great impulse towards individual liberty, which
+we name Democracy; the second is that impulse, scarcely less mighty and
+elemental, that prompts men to effect a close union with their kith and
+kin: this we may term Nationality.
+
+Now, it is true that these two forces have not led up to the last and
+crowning phase of human development, as their enthusiastic champions at
+one time asserted that they would; far from that, they are accountable,
+especially so the force of Nationality, for numerous defects in the life
+of the several peoples; and the national principle is at this very time
+producing great and needless friction in the dealings of nations. Yet,
+granting all this, it still remains true that Democracy and Nationality
+have been the two chief formative influences in the political
+development of Europe during the Nineteenth Century.
+
+In no age of the world's history have these two impulses worked with so
+triumphant an activity. They have not always been endowed with living
+force. Among many peoples they lay dormant for ages and were only called
+to life by some great event, such as the intolerable oppression of a
+despot or of a governing caste that crushed the liberties of the
+individual, or the domination of an alien people over one that
+obstinately refused to be assimilated. Sometimes the spark that kindled
+vital consciousness was the flash of a poet's genius, or the heroism of
+some sturdy son of the soil. The causes of awakening have been
+infinitely various, and have never wholly died away; but it is the
+special glory of the Nineteenth Century that races which had hitherto
+lain helpless and well-nigh dead, rose to manhood as if by magic, and
+shed their blood like water in the effort to secure a free and
+unfettered existence both for the individual and the nation. It is a
+true saying of the German historian, Gervinus, "The history of this age
+will no longer be only a relation of the lives of great men and of
+princes, but a biography of nations."
+
+At first sight, this illuminating statement seems to leave out of count
+the career of the mighty Napoleon. But it does not. The great Emperor
+unconsciously called into vigorous life the forces of Democracy and
+Nationality both in Germany and in Italy, where there had been naught
+but servility and disunion. His career, if viewed from our present
+standpoint, falls into two portions: first, that in which he figured as
+the champion of Revolutionary France and the liberator of Italy from
+foreign and domestic tyrants; and secondly, as imperial autocrat who
+conquered and held down a great part of Europe in his attempt to ruin
+British commerce. In the former of these enterprises he had the new
+forces of the age acting with him and endowing him with seemingly
+resistless might; in the latter part of his life he mistook his place in
+the economy of Nature, and by his violation of the principles of
+individual liberty and racial kinship in Spain and Central Europe,
+assured his own downfall.
+
+The greatest battle of the century was the tremendous strife that for
+three days surged to and fro around Leipzig in the month of October
+1813, when Russians, Prussians, Austrians, Swedes, together with a few
+Britons, Hanoverians, and finally his own Saxon allies, combined to
+shake the imperial yoke from the neck of the Germanic peoples. This
+_Völkerschlacht_ (Battle of the Peoples), as the Germans term it,
+decided that the future of Europe was not to be moulded by the imperial
+autocrat, but by the will of the princes and nations whom his obstinacy
+had embattled against him. Far from recognising the verdict, the great
+man struggled on until the pertinacity of the allies finally drove him
+from power and assigned to France practically the same boundaries that
+she had had in 1791, before the time of her mighty expansion. That is to
+say, the nation which in its purely democratic form had easily overrun
+and subdued the neighbouring States in the time of their old, inert,
+semi-feudal existence, was overthrown by them when their national
+consciousness had been trampled into being by the legions of the
+great Emperor.
+
+In 1814, and again after Waterloo, France was driven in on herself, and
+resumed something like her old position in Europe, save that the throne
+of the Bourbons never acquired any solidity--the older branch of that
+family being unseated by the Revolution of 1830. In the centre of the
+Continent, the old dynasties had made common cause with the peoples in
+the national struggles of 1813-14, and therefore enjoyed more
+consideration--a fact which enabled them for a time to repress popular
+aspirations for constitutional rule and national unity.
+
+Nevertheless, by the Treaties of Vienna (1814-15) the centre of Europe
+was more solidly organised than ever before. In place of the effete
+institution known as the Holy Roman Empire, which Napoleon swept away in
+1806, the Central States were reorganised in the German Confederation--a
+cumbrous and ineffective league in which Austria held the presidency.
+Austria also gained Venetia and Lombardy in Italy. The acquisition of
+the fertile Rhine Province by Prussia brought that vigorous State up to
+the bounds of Lorraine and made her the natural protectress of Germany
+against France. Russia acquired complete control over nearly the whole
+of the former Kingdom of Poland. Thus, the Powers that had been foremost
+in the struggle against Napoleon now gained most largely in the
+redistribution of lands in 1814-15, while the States that had been
+friendly to him now suffered for their devotion. Italy was split up into
+a mosaic of States; Saxony ceded nearly the half of her lands to
+Prussia; Denmark yielded up her ancient possession, Norway, to the
+Swedish Crown.
+
+In some respects the triumph of the national principle, which had
+brought victory to the old dynasties, strengthened the European fabric.
+The Treaties of Vienna brought the boundaries of States more nearly into
+accord with racial interests and sentiments than had been the case
+before; but in several instances those interests and feelings were
+chafed or violated by designing or short-sighted statesmen. The Germans,
+who had longed for an effective national union, saw with indignation
+that the constitution of the new Germanic Confederation left them under
+the control of the rulers of the component States and of the very real
+headship exercised by Austria, which was always used to repress popular
+movements. The Italians, who had also learned from Napoleon the secret
+that they were in all essentials a nation, deeply resented the
+domination of Austria in Lombardy-Venetia and the parcelling out of the
+rest of the Peninsula between reactionary kings somnolent dukes, and
+obscurantist clerics. The Belgians likewise protested against the
+enforced union with Holland in what was now called the Kingdom of the
+United Netherlands (1815-30). In the east of Europe the Poles struggled
+in vain against the fate which once more partitioned them between
+Russia, Austria, and Prussia. The Germans of Holstein, Schleswig, and
+Lauenburg submitted uneasily to the Danish rule; and only under the
+stress of demonstrations by the allies did the Norwegians accept the
+union with Sweden.
+
+It should be carefully noted that these were the very cases which caused
+most of the political troubles in the following period. In fact, most of
+the political occurrences on the Continent in the years 1815 to
+1870--the revolts, revolutions, and wars, that give a special character
+to the history of the century--resulted directly from the bad or
+imperfect arrangements of the Congress of Vienna and of the so-called
+Holy Alliance of the monarchs who sought to perpetuate them. The effect
+of this widespread discontent was not felt at once. The peoples were too
+exhausted by the terrific strain of the Napoleonic wars to do much for a
+generation or more, save in times of popular excitement. Except in the
+south-east of Europe, where Greece, with the aid of Russia, Britain, and
+France, wrested her political independence from the grasp of the Sultan
+(1827), the forty years that succeeded Waterloo were broken by no
+important war; but they were marked by oft-recurring unrest and
+sedition. Thus, when the French Revolution of 1830 overthrew the
+reactionary dynasty of the elder Bourbons, the universal excitement
+caused by this event endowed the Belgians with strength sufficient to
+shake off the heavy yoke of the Dutch; while in Italy, Germany, and
+Poland the democrats and nationalists (now working generally in accord)
+made valiant but unsuccessful efforts to achieve their ideals.
+
+The same was the case in 1848. The excitement, which this time
+originated in Italy, spread to France, overthrew the throne of Louis
+Philippe (of the younger branch of the French Bourbons), and bade fair
+to roll half of the crowns of Europe into the gutter. But these
+spasmodic efforts of the democrats speedily failed. Inexperience,
+disunion, and jealousy paralysed their actions and yielded the victory
+to the old Governments. Frenchmen, in dismay at the seeming approach of
+communism and anarchy, fell back upon the odd expedient of a Napoleonic
+Republic, which in 1852 was easily changed by Louis Napoleon into an
+Empire modelled on that of his far greater uncle. The democrats of
+Germany achieved some startling successes over their repressive
+Governments in the spring of the year 1848, only to find that they could
+not devise a working constitution for the Fatherland; and the deputies
+who met at the federal capital, Frankfurt, to unify Germany "by
+speechifying and majorities," saw power slip back little by little into
+the hands of the monarchs and princes. In the Austrian Empire
+nationalist claims and strivings led to a very Babel of discordant talk
+and action, amidst which the young Hapsburg ruler, Francis Joseph,
+thanks to Russian military aid, was able to triumph over the valour of
+the Hungarians and the devotion of their champion, Kossuth.
+
+In Italy the same sad tale was told. In the spring of that year of
+revolutions, 1848, the rulers in quick succession granted constitutions
+to their subjects. The reforming Pope, Pius IX., and the patriotic King
+of Sardinia, Charles Albert, also made common cause with their peoples
+in the effort to drive out the Austrians from Lombardy-Venetia; but the
+Pope and all the potentates except Charles Albert speedily deserted the
+popular cause; friction between the King and the republican leaders,
+Mazzini and Garibaldi, further weakened the nationalists, and the
+Austrians had little difficulty in crushing Charles Albert's forces,
+whereupon he abdicated in favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel II.
+(1849). The Republics set up at Rome and Venice struggled valiantly for
+a time against great odds--Mazzini, Garibaldi, and their volunteers
+being finally overborne at the Eternal City by the French troops whom
+Louis Napoleon sent to restore the Pope (June 1849); while, two months
+later, Venice surrendered to the Austrians whom she had long held at
+bay. The Queen of the Adriatic under the inspiring dictatorship of Manin
+had given a remarkable example of orderly constitutional government in
+time of siege.
+
+It seemed to be the lot of the nationalists and democrats to produce
+leaders who could thrill the imagination of men by lofty teachings and
+sublime heroism; who could, in a word, achieve everything but success. A
+poetess, who looked forth from Casa Guidi windows upon the tragi-comedy
+of Florentine failure in those years, wrote that what was needed was a
+firmer union, a more practical and intelligent activity, on the part
+both of the people and of the future leader:
+
+                   A land's brotherhood
+     Is most puissant: men, upon the whole,
+       Are what they can be,--nations, what they would.
+
+     Will therefore to be strong, thou Italy!
+       Will to be noble! Austrian Metternich
+     Can fix no yoke unless the neck agree.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+       Whatever hand shall grasp this oriflamme,
+     Whatever man (last peasant or first Pope
+       Seeking to free his country) shall appear,
+     Teach, lead, strike fire into the masses, fill
+       These empty bladders with fine air, insphere
+     These wills into a unity of will,
+       And make of Italy a nation--dear
+     And blessed be that man!
+
+When Elizabeth Barrett Browning penned those lines she cannot have
+surmised that two men were working their way up the rungs of the
+political ladder in Piedmont and Prussia, whose keen intellects and
+masterful wills were to weld their Fatherlands into indissoluble union
+within the space of one momentous decade. These men were Cavour
+and Bismarck.
+
+It would far exceed the limits of space of this brief Introduction to
+tell, except in the briefest outline, the story of the plodding
+preparation and far-seeing diplomacy by which these statesmen raised
+their respective countries from depths of humiliation to undreamt of
+heights of triumph. The first thing was to restore the prestige of their
+States. No people can be strong in action that has lost belief in its
+own powers and has allowed its neighbours openly to flout it. The
+history of the world has shown again and again that politicians who
+allow their country to be regarded as _une quantité négligeable_
+bequeath to some abler successor a heritage of struggle and
+war--struggle for the nation to recover its self-respect, and war to
+regain consideration and fair treatment from others. However much frothy
+talkers in their clubs may decry the claims of national prestige, no
+great statesman has ever underrated their importance. Certainly the
+first aim both of Cavour and Bismarck was to restore self-respect and
+confidence to their States after the humiliations and the dreary
+isolation of those dark years, 1848-51. We will glance, first, at the
+resurrection (_Risorgimento_) of the little Kingdom of Sardinia, which
+was destined to unify Italy.
+
+Charles Albert's abdication immediately after his defeat by the
+Austrians left no alternative to his son and successor, Victor Emmanuel
+II., but that of signing a disastrous peace with Austria. In a short
+time the stout-hearted young King called to his councils Count Cavour,
+the second son of a noble Piedmontese family, but of firmly Liberal
+principles, who resolved to make the little kingdom the centre of
+enlightenment and hope for despairing Italy. He strengthened the
+constitution (the only one out of many granted in 1848 that survived the
+time of reaction); he reformed the tariff in the direction of Free
+Trade; and during the course of the Crimean War he persuaded his
+sovereign to make an active alliance with France and England, so as to
+bind them by all the claims of honour to help Sardinia in the future
+against Austria. The occasion was most opportune; for Austria was then
+suspected and disliked both by Russia and the Western Powers owing to
+her policy of armed neutrality. Nevertheless the reward of Cavour's
+diplomacy came slowly and incompletely. By skilfully vague promises
+(never reduced to writing) Cavour induced Napoleon III. to take up arms
+against Austria; but, after the great victory of Solferino (June 24,
+1859), the French Emperor enraged the Italians by breaking off the
+struggle before the allies recovered the great province of Venetia,
+which he had pledged himself to do. Worse still, he required the cession
+of Savoy and Nice to France, if the Central Duchies and the northern
+part of the Papal States joined the Kingdom of Sardinia, as they now
+did. Thus, the net result of Napoleon's intervention in Italy was his
+acquisition of Savoy and Nice (at the price of Italian hatred), and the
+gain of Lombardy and the central districts for the national cause
+(1859-60).
+
+The agony of mind caused by this comparative failure undermined Cavour's
+health; but in the last months of his life he helped to impel and guide
+the revolutionary elements in Italy to an enterprise that ended in a
+startling and momentous triumph. This was nothing less than the
+overthrow of Bourbon rule in Sicily and Southern Italy by Garibaldi.
+Thanks to Cavour's connivance, this dashing republican organised an
+expedition of about 1000 volunteers near Genoa, set sail for Sicily, and
+by a few blows shivered the chains of tyranny in that island. It is
+noteworthy that British war-ships lent him covert but most important
+help at Palermo and again in his crossing to the mainland; this timely
+aid and the presence of a band of Britons in his ranks laid the
+foundation of that friendship which has ever since united the two
+nations. In Calabria the hero met with the feeblest resistance from the
+Bourbon troops and the wildest of welcomes from the populace. At Salerno
+he took tickets for Naples and entered the enemy's capital by railway
+train (September 7). Then he purposed, after routing the Bourbon force
+north of the city, to go on and attack the French at Rome and proclaim a
+united Italy.
+
+Cavour took care that he should do no such thing. The Piedmontese
+statesman knew when to march onwards and when to halt. As his
+compatriot, Manzoni, said of him, "Cavour has all the prudence and all
+the imprudence of the true statesman." He had dared and won in 1855-59,
+and again in secretly encouraging Garibaldi's venture. Now it was time
+to stop in order to consolidate the gains to the national cause.
+
+The leader of the red-shirts, having done what no king could do, was
+thenceforth to be controlled by the monarchy of the north. Victor
+Emmanuel came in as the _deus ex machina_; his troops pressed
+southwards, occupying the eastern part of the Papal States in their
+march, and joined hands with the Garibaldians to the north of Naples,
+thus preventing the collision with France which the irregulars would
+have brought about. Even as it was, Cavour had hard work to persuade
+Napoleon that this was the only way of curbing Garibaldi and preventing
+the erection of a South Italian Republic; but finally the French Emperor
+looked on uneasily while the Pope's eastern territories were violated,
+and while the cause of Italian Unity was assured at the expense of the
+Pontiff whom France was officially supporting in Rome. A _plébiscite_,
+or mass vote, of the people of Sicily, South Italy, and the eastern and
+central parts of the Papal States, was resorted to by Cavour in order to
+throw a cloak of legality over these irregular proceedings. The device
+pleased Napoleon, and it resulted in an overwhelming vote in favour of
+annexation to Victor Emmanuel's kingdom. Thus, in March 1861, the
+soldier-king was able amidst universal acclaim to take the title of King
+of Italy. Florence was declared to be the capital of the realm (1864),
+which embraced all parts of Italy except the Province of Venetia,
+pertaining to Austria, and the "Patrimonium Petri"--that is, Rome and
+its vicinity,--still held by the Pope and garrisoned by the French. The
+former of these was to be regained for _la patria_ in 1866, the latter
+in 1870, in consequence of the mighty triumphs then achieved by the
+principle of nationality in Prussia and Germany. To these triumphs we
+must now briefly advert.
+
+No one who looked at the state of European politics in 1861, could have
+imagined that in less than ten years Prussia would have waged three wars
+and humbled the might of Austria and France. At that time she showed no
+signs of exceptional vigour: she had as yet produced no leaders so
+inspiring as Mazzini and Garibaldi, no statesman so able as Cavour. Her
+new king, William, far from arousing the feelings of growing enthusiasm
+that centred in Victor Emmanuel, was more and more distrusted and
+disliked by Liberals for the policy of militarism on which he had just
+embarked. In fact, the Hohenzollern dynasty was passing into a "Conflict
+Time" with its Parliament which threatened to impair the influence of
+Prussia abroad and to retard her recovery from the period of
+humiliations through which she had recently passed.
+
+A brief recital of those humiliations is desirable as showing, firstly,
+the suddenness with which the affairs of a nation may go to ruin in
+slack and unskilful hands, and, secondly, the immense results that can
+be achieved in a few years by a small band of able men who throw their
+whole heart into the work of national regeneration.
+
+The previous ruler, Frederick William IV., was a gifted and learned man,
+but he lacked soundness of judgment and strength of will--qualities
+which are of more worth in governing than graces of the intellect. At
+the time of the revolutionary outbreaks of 1848 he capitulated to the
+Berlin mob and declared for a constitutional régime in which Prussia
+should merge herself in Germany; but when the excesses of the democrats
+had weakened their authority, he put them down by military force,
+refused the German Crown offered him by the popularly elected German
+Parliament assembled at Frankfurt-on-Main (April 1849); and thereupon
+attempted to form a smaller union of States, namely, Prussia, Saxony,
+and Hanover. This Three Kings' League, as it was called, soon came to
+an end; for it did not satisfy the nationalists who wished to see
+Germany united, the constitutionalists who aimed at the supremacy of
+Parliament, or the friends of the old order of things. The vacillations
+of Frederick William and the unpractical theorisings of the German
+Parliament at Frankfurt having aroused general disgust, Austria found
+little difficulty in restoring the power of the old Germanic
+Confederation in September, 1850. Strong in her alliance with Russia,
+she next compelled Frederick William to sign the Convention of Olmütz
+(Nov. 1850). By this humiliating compact he agreed to forbear helping
+the German nationalists in Schleswig-Holstein to shake off the
+oppressive rule of the Danes; to withdraw Prussian troops from
+Hesse-Cassel and Baden, where strifes had broken out; and to acknowledge
+the supremacy of the old Federal Diet under the headship of Austria.
+Thus, it seemed that the Prussian monarchy was a source of weakness and
+disunion for North Germany, and that Austria, backed up by the might of
+Russia, must long continue to lord it over the cumbrous Germanic
+Confederation.
+
+But a young country squire, named Bismarck, even then resolved that the
+Prussian monarchy should be the means of strengthening and binding
+together the Fatherland. The resolve bespoke the patriotism of a sturdy,
+hopeful nature; and the young Bismarck was nothing if not patriotic,
+sturdy, and hopeful. The son of an ancient family in the Mark of
+Brandenburg, he brought to his life-work powers inherited from a line of
+fighting ancestors; and his mind was no less robust than his body. Quick
+at mastering a mass of details, he soon saw into the heart of a problem,
+and his solution of it was marked both by unfailing skill and by sound
+common sense as to the choice of men and means. In some respects he
+resembles Napoleon the Great. Granted that he was his inferior in the
+width of vision and the versatility of gifts that mark a world-genius,
+yet he was his equal in diplomatic resourcefulness and in the power of
+dealing lightning strokes; while his possession of the priceless gift of
+moderation endowed his greatest political achievements with a soundness
+and solidity never possessed by those of the mighty conqueror who
+"sought to give the _mot d'ordre_ to the universe." If the figure of the
+Prussian does not loom so large on the canvas of universal history as
+that of the Corsican--if he did not tame a Revolution, remodel society,
+and reorganise a Continent--be it remembered that he made a United
+Germany, while Napoleon the Great left France smaller and weaker than he
+found her.
+
+Bismarck's first efforts, like those of Cavour for Sardinia, were
+directed to the task of restoring the prestige of his State. Early in
+his official career, the Prussian patriot urged the expediency of
+befriending Russia during the Crimean War, and he thus helped on that
+_rapprochement_ between Berlin and St. Petersburg which brought the
+mighty triumphs of 1866 and 1870 within the range of possibility. In
+1857 Frederick William became insane; and his brother William took the
+reins of Government as Regent, and early in 1861 as King. The new ruler
+was less gifted than his unfortunate brother; but his homely common
+sense and tenacious will strengthened Prussian policy where it had been
+weakest. He soon saw the worth of Bismarck, employed him in high
+diplomatic positions, and when the royal proposals for strengthening the
+army were decisively rejected by the Prussian House of Representatives,
+he speedily sent for Bismarck to act as Minister-President (Prime
+Minister) and "tame" the refractory Parliament. The constitutional
+crisis was becoming more and more acute when a great national question
+came into prominence owing to the action of the Danes in
+Schleswig-Holstein affairs.
+
+Without entering into the very tangled web of customs, treaties, and
+dynastic claims that made up the Schleswig-Holstein question, we may
+here state that those Duchies were by ancient law very closely connected
+together, that the King of Denmark was only Duke of Schleswig-Holstein,
+and that the latter duchy, wholly German in population, formed part of
+the Germanic Confederation. Latterly the fervent nationalists in
+Denmark, while leaving Holstein to its German connections, had resolved
+thoroughly to "Danify" Schleswig, the northern half of which was wholly
+Danish, and they pressed on this policy by harsh and intolerant
+measures, making it difficult or well-nigh impossible for the Germans to
+have public worship in their own tongue and to secure German teachers
+for their children in the schools. Matters were already in a very
+strained state, when shortly before the death of King Frederick VII. of
+Denmark (November, 1863) the Rigsraad at Copenhagen sanctioned a
+constitution for Schleswig, which would practically have made it a part
+of the Danish monarchy. The King gave his assent to it, an act which his
+successor, Christian IX., ratified.
+
+Now, this action violated the last treaty--that signed by the Powers at
+London in 1852, which settled the affairs of the Duchies; and Bismarck
+therefore had strong ground for appealing to the Powers concerned, as
+also to the German Confederation, against this breach of treaty
+obligations. The Powers, especially England and France, sought to set
+things straight, but the efforts of our Foreign Minister, Lord John
+Russell, had no effect. The German Confederation also refused to take
+any steps about Schleswig as being outside its jurisdiction. Bismarck
+next persuaded Austria to help Prussia in defeating Danish designs on
+that duchy. The Danes, on the other hand, counted on the unofficial
+expressions of sympathy which came from the people of Great Britain and
+France at sight of a small State menaced by two powerful monarchies. In
+fact, the whole situation was complicated by this explosion of feeling,
+which seemed to the Danes to portend the armed intervention of the
+Western States, especially England, on their behalf. As far as is known,
+no official assurance to that effect ever went forth from London. In
+fact, it is certain that Queen Victoria absolutely forbade any such
+step; but the mischief done by sentimental orators, heedless
+newspaper-editors, and factious busybodies, could not be undone. As Lord
+John Russell afterwards stated in a short "Essay on the Policy of
+England": "It pleased some English advisers of great influence to
+meddle in this affair; they were successful in thwarting the British
+Government, and in the end, with the professed view, and perhaps the
+real intention, of helping Denmark, their friendship tended to deprive
+her of Holstein and Schleswig altogether." This final judgment of a
+veteran statesman is worth quoting as showing his sense of the mischief
+done by well-meant but misguided sympathy, which pushed the Danes on to
+ruin and embittered our relations with Prussia for many years.
+
+Not that the conduct of the German Powers was flawless. On January 16,
+1864, they sent to Copenhagen a demand for the withdrawal of the
+constitution for Schleswig within two days. The Danish Foreign Minister
+pointed out that, as the Rigsraad was not in session, this could not
+possibly be done within two days. In this last step, then, the German
+Powers were undoubtedly the aggressors[1]. The Prussian troops were
+ready near the River Eider, and at once invaded Schleswig. The Danes
+were soon beaten on the mainland; then a pause occurred, during which a
+Conference of the Powers concerned was held at London. It has been
+proved by the German historian, von Sybel, that the first serious
+suggestion to Prussia that she should take both the Duchies came
+secretly from Napoleon III. It was in vain that Lord John Russell
+suggested a sensible compromise, namely, the partition of Schleswig
+between Denmark and Germany according to the language-frontier inside
+the Duchy. To this the belligerents demurred on points of detail, the
+Prussian representative asserting that he would not leave a single
+German under Danish rule. The war was therefore resumed, and ended in a
+complete defeat for the weaker State, which finally surrendered both
+Duchies to Austria and Prussia (1864)[2].
+
+[1] Lord Wodehouse (afterwards Earl of Kimberley) was at that time sent
+on a special mission to Copenhagen. When his official correspondence is
+published, it will probably throw light on many points.
+
+[2] Sybel, _Die Begründung des deutschen Reiches_, vol. iii. pp.
+299-344; Débidour, _Hist. diplomatique de l'Europe_, vol. ii. pp.
+261-273; Lowe, _Life of Bismarck_, vol. i. chap. vi.; Headlam,
+_Bismarck_, chap. viii.; Lord Malmesbury, _Memoirs of an ex-Minister_
+pp. 584-593 (small edition); Spencer Walpole, _Life of Lord J. Russell_,
+vol. ii. pp. 396-411.
+
+In several respects the cause of ruin to Denmark in 1863-64 bears a
+remarkable resemblance to that which produced war in South Africa in
+1899, viz. high-handed action of a minority towards men whom they
+treated as Outlanders, the stiff-necked obstinacy of the smaller State,
+and reliance on the vehement but (probably) unofficial offers of help or
+intervention by other nations.
+
+The question of the sharing of the Duchies now formed one of the causes
+of the far greater war between the victors; but, in truth, it was only
+part of the much larger question, which had agitated Germany for
+centuries, whether the balance of power should belong to the North or
+the South. Bismarck also saw that the time was nearly ripe for settling
+this matter once for all in favour of Prussia; but he had hard work even
+to persuade his own sovereign; while the Prussian Parliament, as well as
+public opinion throughout Germany, was violently hostile to his schemes
+and favoured the claims of the young Duke of Augustenburg to the
+Duchies--claims that had much show of right. Matters were patched up for
+a time between the two German States, by the Convention of Gastein
+(August 1865), while in reality each prepared for war and sought to
+gain allies.
+
+Here again Bismarck was successful. After vainly seeking to _buy_
+Venetia from the Austrian Court, Italy agreed to side with Prussia
+against that Power in order to wrest by force a province which she could
+not hope to gain peaceably. Russia, too, was friendly to the Court of
+Berlin, owing to the help which the latter had given her in crushing the
+formidable revolt of the Poles in 1863. It remained to keep France
+quiet. In this Bismarck thought he had succeeded by means of interviews
+which he held with Napoleon III. at Biarritz (Nov. 1865). What there
+occurred is not clearly known. That Bismarck played on the Emperor's
+foible for oppressed nationalities, in the case of Italy, is fairly
+certain; that he fed him with hopes of gaining Belgium, or a slice of
+German land, is highly probable, and none the less so because he later
+on indignantly denied in the Reichstag that he ever "held out the
+prospect to anybody of ceding a single German village, or even as much
+as a clover-field." In any case Napoleon seems to have promised to
+observe neutrality--not because he loved Prussia, but because he
+expected the German Powers to wear one another out and thus leave him
+master of the situation. In common with most of the wiseacres of those
+days he believed that Prussia and Italy would ultimately fall before the
+combined weight of Austria and of the German States, which closely
+followed her in the Confederation; whereupon he could step in and
+dictate his own terms[3].
+
+[3] Busch, _Our Chancellor_, vol. ii. p. 17 (Eng. edit.); Débidour,
+_Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe (1814-1878)_, vol ii. pp. 291-293.
+Lord Loftus in his _Diplomatic Reminiscences_ (vol. ii. p. 280) says:
+"So satisfied was Bismarck that he could count on the neutrality of
+France, that no defensive military measures were taken on the Rhine and
+western frontier. He had no fears of Russia on the eastern frontier, and
+was therefore able to concentrate the military might of Prussia against
+Austria and her South German Allies."
+
+Light has been thrown on the bargainings between Italy and Prussia by
+the _Memoirs of General Govone_, who found Bismarck a hard bargainer.
+
+Bismarck and the leaders of the Prussian army had few doubts as to the
+result. They were determined to force on the war, and early in June 1866
+brought forward proposals at the Frankfurt Diet for the "reform" of the
+German Confederation, the chief of them being the exclusion of Austria,
+the establishment of a German Parliament elected by manhood suffrage,
+and the formation of a North German army commanded by the King
+of Prussia.
+
+A great majority of the Federal Diet rejected these proposals, and war
+speedily broke out, Austria being supported by nearly all the German
+States except the two Mecklenburgs.
+
+The weight of numbers was against Prussia, even though she had the help
+of the Italians operating against Venetia. On that side Austria was
+completely successful, as also in a sea-fight near Lissa in the
+Adriatic; but in the north the Hapsburgs and their German allies soon
+found out that organisation, armament, and genius count for more than
+numbers. The great organiser, von Roon, had brought Prussia's citizen
+army to a degree of efficiency that surprised every one; and the
+quick-firing "needle-gun" dealt havoc and terror among the enemy. Using
+to the full the advantage of her central position against the German
+States, Prussia speedily worsted their isolated and badly-handled
+forces, while her chief armies overthrew those of Austria and Saxony in
+Bohemia. The Austrian plan of campaign had been to invade Prussia by two
+armies--a comparatively small force advancing from Cracow as a base into
+Silesia, while another, acting from Olmütz, advanced through Bohemia to
+join the Saxons and march on Berlin, some 50,000 Bavarians joining them
+in Bohemia for the same enterprise. This design speedily broke down
+owing to the short-sighted timidity of the Bavarian Government, which
+refused to let its forces leave their own territory; the lack of railway
+facilities in the Austrian Empire also hampered the moving of two large
+armies to the northern frontier. Above all, the swift and decisive
+movements of the Prussians speedily drove the allies to act on the
+defensive--itself a grave misfortune in war.
+
+Meanwhile the Prussian strategist, von Moltke, was carrying out a far
+more incisive plan of operations--that of sending three Prussian armies
+into the middle of Bohemia, and there forming a great mass which would
+sweep away all obstacles from the road to Vienna. This design received
+prompt and skilful execution. Saxony was quickly overrun, and the
+irruption of three great armies into Bohemia compelled the Austrians and
+their Saxon allies hurriedly to alter their plans. After suffering
+several reverses in the north of Bohemia, their chief array under
+Benedek barred the way of the two northern Prussian armies on the
+heights north of the town of Königgrätz. On the morning of July 3 the
+defenders long beat off all frontal attacks with heavy loss; but about 2
+P.M. the Army of Silesia, under the Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia,
+after a forced march of twelve miles, threw itself on their right flank,
+where Benedek expected no very serious onset. After desperate fighting
+the Army of Silesia carried the village of Chlum in the heart of the
+Austrian position, and compelled Austrians and Saxons to a hurried
+retreat over the Elbe. In this the Austrian infantry was saved from
+destruction by the heroic stand made by the artillery. Even so, the
+allies lost more than 13,000 killed and wounded, 22,000 prisoners, and
+187 guns[4].
+
+[4] Sybel, _Die Begründung des deutschen Reiches_, vol. v. pp. 174-205;
+_Journals of Field Marshal Count von Blumenthal for 1866 and 1871_ (Eng.
+edit.), pp. 37-44.
+
+Königgrätz (or Sadowa, as it is often called) decided the whole
+campaign. The invaders now advanced rapidly towards Vienna, and at the
+town of Nikolsburg concluded the Preliminaries of Peace with Austria
+(July 26), whereupon a mandate came from Paris, bidding them stop. In
+fact, the Emperor of the French offered his intervention in a manner
+most threatening to the victors. He sought to detach Italy from the
+Prussian alliance by the offer of Venetia as a left-handed present from
+himself--an offer which the Italian Government subsequently refused.
+
+To understand how Napoleon III. came to change front and belie his
+earlier promises, one must look behind the scenes. Enough is already
+known to show that the Emperor's hand was forced by his Ministers and by
+the Parisian Press, probably also by the Empress Eugénie. Though
+desirous, apparently, of befriending Prussia, he had already yielded to
+their persistent pleas urging him to stay the growth of the Protestant
+Power of North Germany. On June 10, at the outbreak of the war, he
+secretly concluded a treaty with Austria, holding out to her the
+prospect of recovering the great province of Silesia (torn from her by
+Frederick the Great in 1740) in return for a magnanimous cession of
+Venetia to Italy. The news of Königgrätz led to a violent outburst of
+anti-Prussian feeling; but Napoleon refused to take action at once, when
+it might have been very effective.
+
+The best plan for the French Government would have been to send to the
+Rhine all the seasoned troops left available by Napoleon III.'s
+ill-starred Mexican enterprise, so as to help the hard-pressed South
+German forces, offering also the armed mediation of France to the
+combatants. In that case Prussia must have drawn back, and Napoleon III.
+could have dictated his own terms to Central Europe. But his earlier
+leanings towards Prussia and Italy, the advice of Prince Napoleon
+("Plon-Plon") and Lavalette, and the wheedlings of the Prussian
+ambassador as to compensations which France might gain as a set-off to
+Prussia's aggrandisement, told on the French Emperor's nature, always
+somewhat sluggish and then prostrated by severe internal pain; with the
+result that he sent his proposals for a settlement of the points in
+dispute, but took no steps towards enforcing them. A fortnight thus
+slipped away, during which the Prussians reaped the full fruits of their
+triumph at Königgrätz; and it was not until July 29, three days after
+the Preliminaries of Peace were signed, that the French Foreign
+Minister, Drouyn de Lhuys, worried his master, then prostrate with pain
+at Vichy, into sanctioning the following demands from victorious
+Prussia: the cession to France of the Rhenish Palatinate (belonging to
+Bavaria), the south-western part of Hesse Darmstadt, and that part of
+Prussia's Rhine-Province lying in the valley of the Saar which she had
+acquired after Waterloo. This would have brought within the French
+frontier the great fortress of Mainz (Mayence); but the great mass of
+these gains, it will be observed, would have been at the expense of
+South German States, whose cause France proclaimed her earnest desire to
+uphold against the encroaching power of Prussia.
+
+Bismarck took care to have an official copy of these demands in writing,
+the use of which will shortly appear; and having procured this precious
+document, he defied the French envoy, telling him that King William,
+rather than agree to such a surrender of German land, would make peace
+with Austria and the German States on any terms, and invade France at
+the head of the forces of a united Germany. This reply caused another
+change of front at Napoleon's Court. The demands were disavowed and the
+Foreign Minister, Drouyn de Lhuys, resigned[5].
+
+[5] Sybel, _op. cit._ vol. v. pp. 365-374. Débidour, _op. cit._ vol. ii.
+pp. 315-318. See too volume viii. of Ollivier's work, _L'Empire
+libéral_, published in 1904; and M. de la Gorce's work, _Histoire du
+second Empire_, vol. vi. (Paris 1903).
+
+The completeness of Prussia's triumph over Austria and her German
+allies, together with the preparations of the Hungarians for revolt,
+decided the Court of Vienna to accept the Prussian terms which were
+embodied in the Treaty of Prague (Aug. 23); they were, the direct
+cession of Venetia to Italy; the exclusion of Austria from German
+affairs and her acceptance of the changes there pending; the cession to
+Prussia of Schleswig-Holstein; and the payment of 20,000,000 thalers
+(about £3,000,000) as war indemnity. The lenience of these conditions
+was to have a very noteworthy result, namely, the speedy reconciliation
+of the two Powers: within twenty years they were firmly united in the
+Triple Alliance with Italy (see Chapter X.).
+
+Some difficulties stood in the way of peace between Prussia and her late
+enemies in the German Confederation, especially Bavaria. These last were
+removed when Bismarck privately disclosed to the Bavarian Foreign
+Minister the secret demand made by France for the cession of the
+Bavarian Palatinate. In the month of August, the South German States,
+Bavaria, Würtemberg and Baden, accepted Prussia's terms; whereby they
+paid small war indemnities and recognised the new constitution of
+Germany. Outwardly they formed a South German Confederation; but this
+had a very shadowy existence; and the three States by secret treaties
+with Prussia agreed to place their armies and all military arrangements,
+in case of war, under the control of the King of Prussia. Thus within a
+month from the close of "the Seven Weeks' War," the whole of Germany was
+quietly but firmly bound to common action in military matters; and the
+actions of France left little doubt as to the need of these timely
+precautions.
+
+On those German States which stood in the way of Prussia's territorial
+development and had shown marked hostility, Bismarck bore hard. The
+Kingdom of Hanover, Electoral Hesse (Hesse-Cassel), the Duchy of Nassau,
+and the Free City of Frankfurt were annexed outright, Prussia thereby
+gaining direct contact with her Westphalian and Rhenish Provinces. The
+absorption of Frankfurt-on-the-Main, and the formation of a new league,
+the North German Confederation, swept away all the old federal
+machinery, and marked out Berlin, not Vienna or Frankfurt, as the future
+governing centre of the Fatherland. It was doubtless a perception of the
+vast gains to the national cause which prompted the Prussian Parliament
+to pass a Bill of Indemnity exonerating the King's Ministers for the
+illegal acts committed by them during the "Conflict Time"
+(1861-66)--acts which saved Prussia in spite of her Parliament.
+
+Constitutional freedom likewise benefited largely by the results of the
+war. The new North German Confederation was based avowedly on manhood
+suffrage, not because either King William or Bismarck loved democracy,
+but because after lately pledging themselves to it as the groundwork of
+reform of the old Confederation, they could not draw back in the hour of
+triumph. As Bismarck afterwards confessed to his Secretary, Dr. Busch,
+"I accepted universal suffrage, but with reluctance, as a Frankfurt
+tradition" (_i.e._ of the democratic Parliament of Frankfurt in
+1848)[6]. All the lands, therefore, between the Niemen and the Main were
+bound together in a Confederation based on constitutional principles,
+though the governing powers of the King and his Ministers continued to
+be far larger than is the case in Great Britain. To this matter we shall
+recur when we treat of the German Empire, formed by the union of the
+North and South German Confederations of 1866.
+
+[6] Busch, _Our Chancellor_, vol. ii. p. 196 (English edit.).
+
+Austria also was soon compelled to give way before the persistent
+demands of the Hungarian patriots for their ancient constitution, which
+happily blended monarchy and democracy. Accordingly, the centralised
+Hapsburg monarchy was remodelled by the _Ausgleich_ (compromise) of
+1867, and became the Dual-Monarchy of Austria-Hungary, the two parts of
+the realm being ruled quite separately for most purposes of government,
+and united only for those of army organisation, foreign policy, and
+finance. Parliamentary control became dominant in each part of the
+Empire; and the grievances resulting from autocratic or bureaucratic
+rule vanished from Hungary. They disappeared also from Hanover and
+Hesse-Cassel, where the Guelf sovereigns and Electors had generally
+repressed popular movements.
+
+Greatest of all the results of the war of 1866, however, was the gain to
+the national cause in Germany and Italy. Peoples that had long been
+divided were now in the brief space of three months brought within sight
+of the long-wished-for unity. The rush of these events blinded men to
+their enduring import and produced an impression that the Prussian
+triumph was like that of Napoleon I., too sudden and brilliant to last.
+Those who hazarded this verdict forgot that his political arrangements
+for Europe violated every instinct of national solidarity; while those
+of 1866 served to group the hitherto divided peoples of North Germany
+and Italy around the monarchies that had proved to be the only possible
+rallying points in their respective countries. It was this harmonising
+of the claims and aspirations of monarchy, nationality, and democracy
+that gave to the settlement of 1866 its abiding importance, and fitted
+the two peoples for the crowning triumph of 1870.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE CAUSES OF THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR
+
+     "After the fatal year 1866, the Empire was in a state of
+     decadence."--L. GREGOIRE, _Histoire de France_.
+
+
+The irony of history is nowhere more manifest than in the curious
+destiny which called a Napoleon III. to the place once occupied by
+Napoleon I., and at the very time when the national movements,
+unwittingly called to vigorous life by the great warrior, were attaining
+to the full strength of manhood. Napoleon III. was in many ways a
+well-meaning dreamer, who, unluckily for himself, allowed his dreams to
+encroach on his waking moments. In truth, his sluggish but very
+persistent mind never saw quite clearly where dreams must give way to
+realities; or, as M. de Falloux phrased it, "He does not know the
+difference between dreaming and thinking[7]." Thus his policy showed an
+odd mixture of generous haziness and belated practicality.
+
+[7] _Notes from a Diary, 1851-1872_, by Sir M.E. Grant Duff, vol. i. p.
+120.
+
+Long study of his uncle's policy showed him, rightly enough, that it
+erred in trampling down the feeling of nationality in Germany and
+elsewhere. The nephew resolved to avoid this mistake and to pose as the
+champion of the oppressed and divided peoples of Italy, Germany, Poland,
+and the Balkan Peninsula--a programme that promised to appeal to the
+ideal aspirations of the French, to embarrass the dynasties that had
+overthrown the first Napoleon, and to yield substantial gains for his
+nephew. Certainly it did so in the case of Italy; his championship of
+the Roumanians also helped on the making of that interesting
+Principality (1861) and gained the good-will of Russia; but he speedily
+forfeited this by his wholly ineffective efforts on behalf of the Poles
+in 1863. His great mistakes, however, were committed in and after the
+year 1863, when he plunged into Mexican politics with the chimerical aim
+of founding a Roman Catholic Empire in Central America, and favoured the
+rise of Prussia in connection with the Schleswig-Holstein question. By
+the former of these he locked up no small part of his army in Mexico
+when he greatly needed it on the Rhine; by the latter he helped on the
+rise of the vigorous North German Power.
+
+As we have seen, he secretly advised Prussia to take both Schleswig and
+Holstein, thereby announcing his wish for the effective union of Germans
+with the one great State composed almost solely of Germans. "I shall
+always be consistent in my conduct," he said. "If I have fought for the
+independence of Italy, if I have lifted up my voice for Polish
+nationality, I cannot have other sentiments in Germany, or obey other
+principles." This declaration bespoke the doctrinaire rather than the
+statesman. Untaught by the clamour which French Chauvinists and ardent
+Catholics had raised against his armed support of the Italian national
+cause in 1859, he now proposed to further the aggrandisement of the
+Protestant North German Power which had sought to partition France
+in 1815.
+
+The clamour aroused by his leanings towards Prussia in 1864-66 was
+naturally far more violent, in proportion as the interests of France
+were more closely at stake. Prussia held the Rhine Province; and French
+patriots, who clung to the doctrine of the "natural frontiers"--the
+Ocean, Pyrenees, Alps, and Rhine--looked on her as the natural enemy.
+They pointed out that millions of Frenchmen had shed their blood in the
+Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars to win and to keep the Rhine boundary;
+and their most eloquent spokesman, M. Thiers, who had devoted his
+historical gifts to glorifying those great days, passionately declaimed
+against the policy of helping on the growth of the hereditary foe.
+
+We have already seen the results of this strife between the pro-Prussian
+foibles of the Emperor and the eager prejudices of Frenchmen, whose love
+of oppressed and divided nations grew in proportion to their distance
+from France, and changed to suspicion or hatred in the case of her
+neighbours. In 1866, under the breath of ministerial arguments and
+oratorical onslaughts Napoleon III.'s policy weakly wavered, thereby
+giving to Bismarck's statecraft a decisive triumph all along the line.
+In vain did he in the latter part of that year remind the Prussian
+statesman of his earlier promises (always discreetly vague) of
+compensation for France, and throw out diplomatic feelers for Belgium,
+or at any rate Luxemburg[8]. In vain did M. Thiers declare in the
+Chamber of Deputies that France, while recognising accomplished facts in
+Germany, ought "firmly to declare that we will not allow them to go
+further" (March 14, 1867). Bismarck replied to this challenge of the
+French orator by publishing five days later the hitherto secret military
+alliances concluded with the South German States in August 1866.
+Thenceforth France knew that a war with Prussia would be war with a
+united Germany.
+
+[8] In 1867 Bismarck's promises went so far as the framing of a secret
+compact with France, one article of which stated that Prussia would not
+object to the annexation of Belgium by France. The agreement was first
+published by the _Times_ on July 25, 1870, Bismarck then divulging the
+secret so as to inflame public opinion against France.
+
+In the following year the Zollverein, or German Customs' Union (which
+had been gradually growing since 1833), took a definitely national form
+in a Customs' Parliament which assembled in April 1868, thus unifying
+Germany for purposes of trade as well as those of war. This sharp rebuff
+came at a time when Napoleon's throne was tottering from the utter
+collapse of his Mexican expedition; when, too, he more than ever needed
+popular support in France for the beginnings of a more constitutional
+rule. Early in 1867 he sought to buy Luxemburg from Holland. This action
+aroused a storm of wrath in Prussia, which had the right to garrison
+Luxemburg; but the question was patched up by a Conference of the Powers
+at London, the Duchy being declared neutral territory under the
+guarantee of Europe; the fortifications of its capital were also to be
+demolished, and the Prussian garrison withdrawn. This success for French
+diplomacy was repeated in Italy, where the French troops supporting the
+Pope crushed the efforts of Garibaldi and his irregulars to capture
+Rome, at the sanguinary fight of Mentana (November 3, 1867). The
+official despatch, stating that the new French rifle, the _chassepôt_,
+"had done wonders," spread jubilation through France and a sharp
+anti-Gallic sentiment throughout Italy.
+
+And while Italy heaved with longings for her natural capital, popular
+feelings in France and North Germany made steadily for war.
+
+Before entering upon the final stages of the dispute, it may be well to
+take a bird's-eye view of the condition of the chief Powers in so far as
+it explains their attitude towards the great struggle.
+
+The condition of French politics was strangely complex. The Emperor had
+always professed that he was the elect of France, and would ultimately
+crown his political edifice with the corner-stone of constitutional
+liberty. Had he done so in the successful years 1855-61, possibly his
+dynasty might have taken root. He deferred action, however, until the
+darker years that came after 1866. In 1868 greater freedom was allowed
+to the Press and in the case of public meetings. The General Election of
+the spring of 1869 showed large gains to the Opposition, and decided the
+Emperor to grant to the Corps Législatif the right of initiating laws
+concurrently with himself, and he declared that Ministers should be
+responsible to it (September 1869).
+
+These and a few other changes marked the transition from autocracy to
+the "Liberal Empire." One of the champions of constitutional principles,
+M. Emile Ollivier, formed a Cabinet to give effect to the new policy,
+and the Emperor, deeming the time ripe for consolidating his power on a
+democratic basis, consulted the country in a _plébiscite_, or mass vote,
+primarily as to their judgment on the recent changes, but implicitly as
+to their confidence in the imperial system as a whole. His skill in
+joining together two topics that were really distinct, gained him a
+tactical victory. More than 7,350,000 affirmative votes were given, as
+against 1,572,000 negatives; while 1,900,000 voters registered no vote.
+This success at the polls emboldened the supporters of the Empire; and
+very many of them, especially, it is thought, the Empress Eugénie,
+believed that only one thing remained in order to place the Napoleonic
+dynasty on a lasting basis--that was, a successful war.
+
+Champions of autocracy pointed out that the growth of Radicalism
+coincided with the period of military failures and diplomatic slights.
+Let Napoleon III., they said in effect, imitate the policy of his uncle,
+who, as long as he dazzled France by triumphs, could afford to laugh at
+the efforts of constitution-mongers. The big towns might prate of
+liberty; but what France wanted was glory and strong government. Such
+were their pleas: there was much in the past history of France to
+support them. The responsible advisers of the Emperor determined to take
+a stronger tone in foreign affairs, while the out-and-out Bonapartists
+jealously looked for any signs of official weakness so that they might
+undermine the Ollivier Ministry and hark back to absolutism. When two
+great parties in a State make national prestige a catchword of the
+political game, peace cannot be secure: that was the position of France
+in the early part of 1870[9].
+
+[9] See Ollivier's great work, _L'Empire libéral_, for full details of
+this time.
+
+The eve of the Franco-German War was a time of great importance for the
+United Kingdom. The Reform Bill of 1867 gave a great accession of power
+to the Liberal Party; and the General Election of November 1868 speedily
+led to the resignation of the Disraeli Cabinet and the accession of the
+Gladstone Ministry to power. This portended change in other directions
+than home affairs. The tradition of a spirited foreign policy died with
+Lord Palmerston in 1865. With the entry of John Bright to the new
+Cabinet peace at all costs became the dominant note of British
+statesmanship. There was much to be said in favour of this. England
+needed a time of rest in order to cope with the discontent of Ireland
+and the problems brought about by the growth of democracy and
+commercialism in the larger island. The disestablishment and partial
+disendowment of the Protestant Church in Ireland (July 1869), the Irish
+Land Act (August 1870), and the Education Act of 1870, showed the
+preoccupation of the Ministry for home affairs; while the readiness with
+which, a little later, they complied with all the wishes of the United
+States in the "Alabama" case, equally proclaimed their pacific
+intentions. England, which in 1860 had exercised so powerful an
+influence on the Italian national question, was for five years a factor
+of small account in European affairs. Far from pleasing the combatants,
+our neutrality annoyed both of them. The French accused England of
+"deserting" Napoleon III. in his time of need--a charge that has lately
+been revived by M. Hanotaux. To this it is only needful to reply that
+the French Emperor entered into alliance with us at the time of the
+Crimean War merely for his own objects, and allowed all friendly feeling
+to be ended by French threats of an invasion of England in 1858 and his
+shabby treatment of Italy in the matter of Savoy and Nice a year later.
+On his side, Bismarck also complained that our feeling for the German
+cause went no further than "theoretical sympathy," and that "during the
+war England never compromised herself so far in our favour as to
+endanger her friendship with France. On the contrary." These vague and
+enigmatic charges at bottom only express the annoyance of the combatants
+at their failure to draw neutrals into the strife[10].
+
+[10] Hanotaux, _Contemporary France_, vol. i. p. 9 (Eng. ed.);
+_Bismarck: his Reflections and Reminiscences,_ vol. ii. p. 61. The
+popular Prussian view about England found expression in the comic paper
+_Kladderdatsch_:--
+
+Deutschland beziehe billige Sympathien Und Frankreich theures
+Kriegsmateriel.
+
+
+The traditions of the United States, of course, forbade their
+intervention in the Franco-Prussian dispute. By an article of their
+political creed termed the Monroe Doctrine, they asserted their resolve
+not to interfere in European affairs and to prevent the interference of
+any strictly European State in those of the New World. It was on this
+rather vague doctrine that they cried "hands off" from Mexico to the
+French Emperor; and the abandonment of his _protégé_, the so-called
+Emperor Maximilian, by French troops, brought about the death of that
+unhappy prince and a sensible decline in the prestige of his patron
+(June 1867).
+
+Russia likewise remembered Napoleon III.'s championship of the Poles in
+1863, which, however Platonic in its nature, caused the Czar some
+embarrassment. Moreover, King William of Prussia had soothed the Czar's
+feelings, ruffled by the dethroning of three German dynasties in 1866,
+by a skilful reply which alluded to his (King William's) desire to be of
+service to Russian interests elsewhere--a hint which the diplomatists of
+St. Petersburg remembered in 1870 to some effect.
+
+For the rest, the Czar Alexander II. (1855-81) and his Ministers were
+still absorbed in the internal policy of reform, which in the sixties
+freed the serfs and gave Russia new judicial and local institutions,
+doomed to be swept away in the reaction following the murder of that
+enlightened ruler. The Russian Government therefore pledged itself to
+neutrality, but in a sense favourable to Prussia. The Czar ascribed the
+Crimean War to the ambition of Napoleon III., and remembered the
+friendship of Prussia at that time, as also in the Polish Revolt of
+1863[11]. Bismarck's policy now brought its reward.
+
+[11] See Sir H. Rumbold's _Recollections of a Diplomatist_ (First
+Series), vol. ii. p. 292, for the Czar's hostility to France in 1870.
+
+The neutrality of Russia is always a matter of the utmost moment for the
+Central Powers in any war on their western frontiers. Their efforts
+against Revolutionary France in 1792-94 failed chiefly because of the
+ambiguous attitude of the Czarina Catherine II.; and the collapse of
+Frederick William IV.'s policy in 1848-51 was due to the hostility of
+his eastern neighbour. In fact, the removal of anxiety about her open
+frontier on the east was now worth a quarter of a million of men
+to Prussia.
+
+But the Czar's neutrality was in one matter distinctly friendly to his
+uncle, King William of Prussia. It is an open secret that unmistakable
+hints went from St. Petersburg to Vienna to the effect that, if Austria
+drew the sword for Napoleon III. she would have to reckon with an
+irruption of the Russians into her open Galician frontier. Probably this
+accounts for the conduct of the Hapsburg Power, which otherwise is
+inexplicable. A war of revenge against Prussia seemed to be the natural
+step to take. True, the Emperor Francis Joseph had small cause to like
+Napoleon III. The loss of Lombardy in 1859 still rankled in the breast
+of every patriotic Austrian; and the suspicions which that enigmatical
+ruler managed to arouse, prevented any definite agreement resulting from
+the meeting of the two sovereigns at Salzburg in 1867.
+
+The relations of France and Austria were still in the same uncertain
+state before the War of 1870. The foreign policy of Austria was in the
+hands of Count Beust, a bitter foe of Prussia; but after the concession
+of constitutional rule to Hungary by the compromise (_Ausgleich_) of
+1867, the Dual Monarchy urgently needed rest, especially as its army was
+undergoing many changes. The Chancellor's action was therefore clogged
+on all sides. Nevertheless, when the Luxemburg affair of 1867 brought
+France and Prussia near to war, Napoleon began to make advances to the
+Court of Vienna. How far they went is not known. Beust has asserted in
+his correspondence with the French Foreign Minister, the Duc de Gramont
+(formerly ambassador at Vienna), that they never were more than
+discussions, and that they ended in 1869 without any written agreement.
+The sole understanding was to the effect that the policy of both States
+should be friendly and pacific, Austria reserving the right to remain
+neutral if France were compelled to make war. The two Empires further
+promised not to make any engagement with a third Power without informing
+the other.
+
+This statement is not very convincing. States do not usually bind
+themselves in the way just described, unless they have some advantageous
+agreement with the Power which has the first claim on their alliance. It
+is noteworthy, however, that the Duc de Gramont, in the correspondence
+alluded to above, admits that, as Ambassador and as Foreign Minister of
+France, he never had to claim the support of Austria in the war with
+Prussia[12].
+
+[12] _Memoirs of Count Beust_, vol. ii. pp. 358-359 (Appendix D, Eng.
+edit.).
+
+How are we to reconcile these statements with the undoubted fact that
+the Emperor Napoleon certainly expected help from Austria and also from
+Italy? The solution of the riddle seems to be that Napoleon, as also
+Francis Joseph and Victor Emmanuel, kept their Foreign Ministers in the
+dark on many questions of high policy, which they transacted either by
+private letters among themselves, or through military men who had their
+confidence. The French and Italian sovereigns certainly employed these
+methods, the latter because he was far more French in sympathy than his
+Ministers.
+
+As far back as the year 1868, Victor Emmanuel made overtures to Napoleon
+with a view to alliance, the chief aim of which, from his standpoint,
+was to secure the evacuation of Rome by the French troops, and the gain
+of the Eternal City for the national cause. Prince Napoleon lent his
+support to this scheme, and from an article written by him we know that
+the two sovereigns discussed the matter almost entirely by means of
+confidential letters[13]. These discussions went on up to the month of
+June 1869. Francis Joseph, on hearing of them, urged the French Emperor
+to satisfy Italy, and thus pave the way for an alliance between the
+three Powers against Prussia. Nothing definite came of the affair, and
+chiefly, it would seem, owing to the influence of the Empress Eugénie
+and the French clerics. She is said to have remarked: "Better the
+Prussians in Paris than the Italian troops in Rome." The diplomatic
+situation therefore remained vague, though in the second week of July
+1870, the Emperor again took up the threads which, with greater firmness
+and foresight, he might have woven into a firm design.
+
+[13] _Revue des deux Mondes_ for April 1, 1878.
+
+The understanding between the three Powers advanced only in regard to
+military preparations. The Austrian Archduke Albrecht, the victor of
+Custoza, burned to avenge the defeat of Königgrätz, and with this aim in
+view visited Paris in February to March 1870. He then proposed to
+Napoleon an invasion of North Germany by the armies of France, Austria,
+and Italy. The French Emperor developed the plan by more specific
+overtures which he made in the month of June; but his Ministers were so
+far in the dark as to these military proposals that they were then
+suggesting the reduction of the French army by 10,000 men, while
+Ollivier, the Prime Minister, on June 30 declared to the French Chamber
+that peace had never been better assured[14].
+
+[14] Seignobos, _A Political History of Contemporary Europe_, vol. ii.
+pp. 806-807 (Eng. edit.). Oncken, _Zeitalter des Kaisers Wilhelm_ (vol.
+i. pp. 720-740), tries to prove that there was a deep conspiracy against
+Prussia. I am not convinced by his evidence.
+
+And yet on that same day General Lebrun, aide-de-camp to the Emperor,
+was drawing up at Paris a confidential report of the mission with which
+he had lately been entrusted to the Austrian military authorities. From
+that report we take the following particulars. On arriving at Vienna, he
+had three private interviews with the Archduke Albrecht, and set before
+him the desirability of a joint invasion of North Germany in the autumn
+of that year. To this the Archduke demurred, on the ground that such a
+campaign ought to begin in the spring if the full fruits of victory were
+to be gathered in before the short days came. Austria and Italy, he
+said, could not place adequate forces in the field in less than six
+weeks owing to lack of railways[15].
+
+[15] _Souvenirs militaires_, by General B.L.J. Lebrun (Paris 1895), pp.
+95-148.
+
+Developing his own views, the Archduke then suggested that it
+would be desirable for France to undertake the war against
+North Germany not later than the middle of March 1871, Austria
+and Italy at the same time beginning their mobilisations, though not
+declaring war until their armies were ready at the end of six weeks. Two
+French armies should in the meantime cross the Rhine in order to sever
+the South Germans from the Confederation of the North, one of them
+marching towards Nuremberg, where it would be joined by the western army
+of Austria and the Italian forces sent through Tyrol. The other Austrian
+army would then invade Saxony or Lusatia in order to strike at Berlin.
+He estimated the forces of the States hostile to Prussia as follows:--
+
+   +------------------------------------------------------------------+
+   |                               |Men.        |Horses.   |Cannon.   |
+   +-------------------------------+------------+----------+----------+
+   |France                         |309,000     |35,000    |972       |
+   |Austria (exclusive of reserve) |360,000     |27,000    |1128      |
+   |Italy                          |68,000      |5000      |180       |
+   |Denmark                        |260,000 (?) |2000      |72        |
+   +-------------------------------+------------+----------+----------+
+
+He thus reckoned the forces of the two German Confederations:--
+
+   +-------------------------------+------------+----------+----------+
+   |                               |Men.        |Horses.   |Cannon.   |
+   |North                          |377,000     |48,000    |1284      |
+   |South                          |97,000      |10,000    |288       |
+   +-------------------------------+------------+----------+----------+
+
+but the support of the latter might be hoped for. Lebrun again urged the
+desirability of a campaign in the autumn, but the Archduke repeated that
+it must begin in the spring. In that condition, as in his earlier
+statement that France must declare war first, while her allies prepared
+for war, we may discern a deep-rooted distrust of Napoleon III.
+
+On June 14 the Archduke introduced Lebrun to the Emperor Francis Joseph,
+who informed him that he wanted peace; but, he added, "if I make war, I
+must be forced to it." In case of war Prussia might exploit the national
+German sentiment existing in South Germany and Austria. He concluded
+with these words, "But if the Emperor Napoleon, compelled to accept or
+to declare war, came with his armies into South Germany, not as an enemy
+but as a liberator, I should be forced on my side to declare that I
+[would] make common cause with him. In the eyes of my people I could do
+no other than join my armies to those of France. That is what I pray you
+to say for me to the Emperor Napoleon; I hope that he will see, as I do,
+my situation both in home and foreign affairs." Such was the report
+which Lebrun drew up for Napoleon III. on June 30. It certainly led that
+sovereign to believe in the probability of Austrian help in the spring
+of 1871, but not before that time.
+
+The question now arises whether Bismarck was aware of these proposals.
+If warlike counsels prevailed at Vienna, it is probable that some
+preparations would be made, and the secret may have leaked out in this
+way, or possibly through the Hungarian administration. In any case,
+Bismarck knew that the Austrian chancellor, Count Beust, thirsted for
+revenge for the events of 1866[16]. If he heard any whispers of an
+approaching league against Prussia, he would naturally see the advantage
+of pressing on war at once, before Austria and Italy were ready to enter
+the lists. Probably in this fact will be found one explanation of the
+origin of the Franco-German War.
+
+[Footnote 16: _Bismarck: his Reflections and Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p.
+58.]
+
+Before adverting to the proximate cause of the rupture, we may note that
+Beust's despatch of July 11, 1870, to Prince Metternich, Austrian
+ambassador at Paris, displayed genuine fear lest France should rush
+blindly into war with Prussia; and he charged Metternich tactfully to
+warn the French Government against such a course of action, which would
+"be contrary to all that we have agreed upon. . . . Even if we wished, we
+could not suddenly equip a respectably large force. . . . Our services are
+gained to a certain extent [by France]; but we shall not go further
+unless events carry us on; and we do not dream of plunging into war
+because it might suit France to do so."
+
+Again, however, the military men seem to have pushed on the
+diplomatists. The Archduke Albrecht and Count Vitzthum went to Paris
+charged with some promises of support to France in case of war.
+Thereafter, Count Beust gave the assurance at Vienna that the Austrians
+would be "faithful to our engagements, as they have been recorded in the
+letters exchanged last year between the two sovereigns. We consider the
+cause of France as ours, and we will contribute to the success of her
+arms to the utmost of our power[17]."
+
+[Footnote 17: _Memoirs of Count Beust,_ vol. ii. p. 359. _The Present
+Position of European Politics_ p. 366 (1887). By the author of _Greater
+Britain._]
+
+In the midst of this maze of cross-purposes this much is clear: that
+both Emperors had gone to work behind the backs of their Ministers, and
+that the military chiefs of France and Austria brought their States to
+the brink of war while their Ministers and diplomatists were unaware of
+the nearness of danger.
+
+As we have seen, King Victor Emmanuel II. longed to draw the sword for
+Napoleon III., whose help to Italy in 1859-60 he so curiously overrated.
+Fortunately for Italy, his Ministers took a more practical view of the
+situation; but probably they too would have made common cause with
+France had they received a definite promise of the withdrawal of French
+troops from Rome and the satisfaction of Italian desires for the Eternal
+City as the national capital. This promise, even after the outbreak of
+war, the French Emperor declined to give, though his cousin, Prince
+Napoleon, urged him vehemently to give way on that point[18].
+
+[Footnote 18: See the _Rev. des deux Mondes_ for April 1, 1878, and
+"Chronique" of the _Revue d'Histoire diplomatique_ for 1905, p. 298;
+also W.H. Stillman, _The Union of Italy, 1815-1895_, p. 348.]
+
+In truth, the Emperor could not well give way. An Oecumenical Council
+sat at Rome from December 1869 to July 1870; its Ultramontane tendencies
+were throughout strongly marked, as against the "Old Catholic" views;
+and it was a foregone conclusion that the Council would vote the dogma
+of the infallibility of the Pope in matters of religion--as it did on
+the day before France declared war against Prussia. How, then, could the
+Emperor, the "eldest son of the Church," as French monarchs have proudly
+styled themselves, bargain away Rome to the Italian Government, already
+stained by sacrilege, when this crowning aureole of grace was about to
+encircle the visible Head of the Church? There was no escape from the
+dilemma. Either Napoleon must go into war with shouts of "Judas" hurled
+at him by all pious Roman Catholics; or he must try his fortunes without
+the much-coveted help of Austria and Italy. He chose the latter
+alternative, largely, it would seem, owing to the influence of his
+vehemently Catholic Empress[19]. After the first defeats he sought to
+open negotiations, but then it was too late. Prince Napoleon went to
+Florence and arrived there on August 20; but his utmost efforts failed
+to move the Italian Cabinet from neutrality.
+
+[Footnote 19: For the relations of France to the Vatican, see _Histoire
+du second Empire_, by M. De la Gorce, vol. vi. (Paris, 1903); also
+_Histoire Contemporaine_ (_i.e._ of France in 1869-1875), by M. Samuel
+Denis, 4 vols. The Empress Eugénie once said that she was "deux fois
+Catholique," as a Spaniard and as French Empress. (Sir M.K. Grant Duff,
+_Notes from a Diary, 1851-1872_, vol. i. p. 125.)]
+
+Even this brief survey of international relations shows that Napoleon
+III. was a source of weakness to France. Having seized on power by
+perfidious means, he throughout his whole reign strove to dazzle the
+French by a series of adventures, which indeed pleased the Parisians for
+the time, but at the cost of lasting distrust among the Powers. Generous
+in his aims, he at first befriended the German and Italian national
+movements, but forfeited all the fruits of those actions by his
+pettifogging conduct about Savoy and Nice, the Rhineland and Belgium;
+while his final efforts to please French clericals and Chauvinists[20]
+by supporting the Pope at Rome, lost him the support of States that
+might have retrieved the earlier blunders. In brief, by helping on the
+nationalists of North Germany and Italy he offended French public
+opinion; and his belated and spasmodic efforts to regain popularity at
+home aroused against him the distrust of all the Powers. Their feelings
+about him may be summarised in the _mot_ of a diplomatist, "Scratch the
+Emperor and you will find the political refugee."
+
+[Footnote 20: Chauvinist is a term corresponding to our "Jingo." It is
+derived from a man named Chauvin, who lauded Napoleon I. and French
+glory to the skies.]
+
+How different were the careers of Napoleon III. and of Bismarck! By
+resolutely keeping before him the national aim, and that only, the
+Prussian statesman had reduced the tangle of German affairs to
+simplicity and now made ready for the crowning work of all. In his
+_Reminiscences_ he avows his belief, as early as 1866, "that a war with
+France would succeed the war with Austria lay in the logic of history";
+and again, "I did not doubt that a Franco-German War must take place
+before the construction of a United Germany could take place[21]." War
+would doubtless have broken out in 1867 over the Luxemburg question, had
+he not seen the need of delay for strengthening the bonds of union with
+South Germany and assuring the increase of the armies of the Fatherland
+by the adoption of Prussian methods; or, as he phrased it, "each year's
+postponement of the war would add 100,000 trained soldiers to our
+army[22]." In 1870 little was to be gained by delay. In fact, the
+unionist movement in Germany then showed ominous signs of slackening. In
+the South the Parliaments opposed any further approach to union with the
+North; and the voting of the military budget in the North for that year
+was likely to lead to strong opposition in the interests of the
+overtaxed people. A war might solve the unionist problem which was
+insoluble in time of peace; and a _casus belli _was at hand.
+
+[Footnote 21: Bismarck, _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. pp. 41, 57 (Eng.
+edit.).]
+
+[Footnote 22: _Ib._ p. 58.]
+
+Early in July 1870, the news leaked out that Prince Leopold of
+Hohenzollern was the officially accepted candidate for the throne of
+Spain, left vacant since the revolution which drove Queen Isabella into
+exile in 1868[23]. At once a thrill of rage shot through France; and the
+Duc de Gramont, Foreign Minister of the new Ollivier Ministry, gave
+expression to the prevailing feeling in his answer to a question on the
+subject in the Chamber of Deputies (July 6):--
+
+[Footnote 23: The ex-queen Isabella died in Paris in April 1904.]
+
+     We do not think that respect for the rights of a neighbouring
+     people [Spain] obliges us to allow an alien Power [Prussia],
+     by placing one of its princes on the throne of Charles V., to
+     succeed in upsetting to our disadvantage the present
+     equilibrium of forces in Europe, and imperil the interests
+     and honour of France. We have the firm hope that this
+     eventuality will not be realised. To hinder it, we count both
+     on the wisdom of the German people and on the friendship of
+     the Spanish people. If that should not be so, strong in your
+     support and in that of the nation, we shall know how to
+     fulfil our duty without hesitation and without weakness[24].
+
+[Footnote 24: Sorel, _Hist. diplomatique de la Guerre Franco-Allemande_,
+vol. i. p. 77.]
+
+The opening phrases were inaccurate. The prince in question was Prince
+Leopold of the Swabian and Roman Catholic branch of the Hohenzollern
+family, who, as the Duc de Gramont knew, could by no possibility recall
+the days when Charles V. reigned as Emperor in Germany and monarch in
+Spain. This misstatement showed the intention of the French Ministry to
+throw down the glove to Prussia--as is also clear from this statement in
+Gramont's despatch of July 10 to Benedetti: "If the King will not advise
+the Prince of Hohenzollern to withdraw, well, it is war forthwith, and
+in a few days we are at the Rhine[25]."
+
+[Footnote 25: Benedetti, _Ma Mission en Prusse_, p.34. This work
+contains the French despatches on the whole affair.]
+
+Nevertheless, those who were behind the scenes had just cause for anger
+against Bismarck. The revelations of Benedetti, French ambassador at
+Berlin, as well as the Memoirs of the King of Roumania (brother to
+Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern) leave no doubt that the candidature of
+the latter was privately and unofficially mooted in 1868, and again in
+the spring of 1869 through a Prussian diplomatist, Werthern, and that it
+met with no encouragement whatever from the Prussian monarch or the
+prince himself. But early in 1870 it was renewed in an official manner
+by the provisional Government of Spain, and (as seems certain) at the
+instigation of Bismarck, who, in May-June, succeeded in overcoming the
+reluctance of the prince and of King William. Bismarck even sought to
+hurry the matter through the Spanish Cortes so as to commit Spain to the
+plan; but this failed owing to the misinterpretation of a ciphered
+telegram from Berlin at Madrid[26].
+
+[Footnote 26: In a recent work, _Kaiser Wilhelm und die Begründung des
+Reichs, 1866-1871_, Dr. Lorenz tries to absolve Bismarck from complicity
+in these intrigues, but without success. See _Reminiscences of the King
+of Roumania_ (edited by S. Whitman), pp. 70, 86-87, 92-95; also
+Headlam's _Bismarck_, p. 327.]
+
+Such was the state of the case when the affair became known to the
+Ollivier Ministry. Though not aware, seemingly, of all these details,
+Napoleon's advisers were justified in treating the matter, not as a
+private affair between the Hohenzollerns and Spain (as Germans then
+maintained it was) but as an attempt of the Prussian Government to place
+on the Spanish throne a prince who could not but be friendly to the
+North German Power. In fact, the French saw in it a challenge to war;
+and putting together all the facts as now known, we must pronounce that
+they were almost certainly right. Bismarck undoubtedly wanted war; and
+it is impossible to think that he did not intend to use this candidature
+as a means of exasperating the French. The man who afterwards declared
+that, at the beginning of the Danish disputes in 1863, he made up his
+mind to have Schleswig-Holstein for Prussia[27], certainly saw in the
+Hohenzollern candidature a step towards a Prusso-Spanish alliance or a
+war with France that might cement German unity.
+
+[Footnote 27: Busch, _Our Chancellor_, vol. i. p. 367.]
+
+In any case, that was the outcome of events. The French papers at once
+declaimed against the candidature in a way that aroused no less passion
+on the other side of the Rhine. For a brief space, however, matters
+seemed to be smoothed over by the calm good sense of the Prussian
+monarch and his nephew. The King was then at Ems, taking the waters,
+when Benedetti, the French ambassador, waited on him and pressed him
+most urgently to request Prince Leopold to withdraw from the candidature
+to the Spanish Crown. This the King declined to do in the way that was
+pointed out to him, rightly considering that such a course would play
+into the hands of the French by lowering his own dignity and the
+prestige of Prussia. Moreover, he, rather illogically, held the whole
+matter to be primarily one that affected the Hohenzollern family and
+Spain. The young prince, however, on hearing of the drift of events,
+solved the problem by declaring his intention not to accept the Crown of
+Spain (July 12). The action was spontaneous, emanating from Prince
+Leopold and his father Prince Antony, not from the Prussian monarch,
+though, on hearing of their decision, he informed Benedetti that he
+entirely approved it.
+
+If the French Government had really wished for peace, it would have let
+the matter end there. But it did not do so. The extreme
+Bonapartists--_plus royalistes que le roi_--all along wished to gain
+prestige for their sovereign by inflicting an open humiliation on King
+William and through him on Prussia. They were angry that he had evaded
+the snare, and now brought pressure to bear on the Ministry, especially
+the Duc de Gramont, so that at 7 P.M. of that same day (July 12) he sent
+a telegram to Benedetti at Ems directing him to see King William and
+press him to declare that he "would not again authorise this
+candidature." The Minister added: "The effervescence of spirits [at
+Paris] is such that we do not know whether we shall succeed in mastering
+it." This was true. Paris was almost beside herself. As M. Sorel says:
+"The warm July evening drove into the streets a populace greedy of shows
+and excitements, whose imagination was spoiled by the custom of
+political quackery, for whom war was but a drama and history a
+romance[28]." Such was the impulse which led to Gramont's new demand,
+and it was made in spite of the remonstrances of the British ambassador,
+Lord Lyons.
+
+[Footnote 28: Sorel, _Hist. diplomatique de la Guerre Franco-Allemande_,
+vol. i. chap. iv.; also for the tone of the French Press, Giraudeau, _La
+Vérité sur la Campagne de 1870_, pp. 46-60.
+
+Ollivier tried to persuade Sir M.E. Grant Duff (_Notes from a Diary,
+1873-1881_, vol. i. p. 45) that the French demand to King William was
+quite friendly and natural.]
+
+Viewing that demand in the clearer light of the present time, we must
+say that it was not unreasonable in itself; but it was presented in so
+insistent a way that King William declined to entertain it. Again
+Gramont pressed Benedetti to urge the matter; but the utmost that the
+King would do was to state: "He gives his approbation entirely and
+without reserve to the withdrawal of the Prince of Hohenzollern: he
+cannot do more." He refused to see the ambassador further on this
+subject; but on setting out to return to Berlin--a step necessitated by
+the growing excitement throughout Germany--he took leave of Benedetti
+with perfect cordiality (July 14). The ambassador thereupon returned
+to Paris.
+
+Meanwhile, however, Bismarck had given the last flick to the restive
+courses of the Press on both sides of the Rhine. In his _Reminiscences_
+he has described his depression of spirits on hearing the news of the
+withdrawal of Prince Leopold's candidature and of his nearly formed
+resolve to resign as a protest against so tame a retreat before French
+demands. But while Moltke, Roon, and he were dining together, a telegram
+reached him from the King at Ems, dated July 13, 3.50 P.M., which gave
+him leave to inform the ambassadors and the Press of the present state
+of affairs. Bismarck saw his chance. The telegram could be cut down so
+as to give a more resolute look to the whole affair. And, after gaining
+Moltke's assurance that everything was ready for war, he proceeded to
+condense it. The facts here can only be understood by a comparison of
+the two versions. We therefore give the original as sent to Bismarck by
+Abeken, Secretary to the Foreign Office, who was then at Ems:--
+
+     His Majesty writes to me: "Count Benedetti spoke to me on the
+     promenade, in order to demand from me, finally in a very
+     importunate manner, that I should authorise him to telegraph
+     at once that I bound myself for all future time never again
+     to give my consent if the Hohenzollerns should renew their
+     candidature. I refused at last somewhat sternly, as it is
+     neither right nor possible to undertake engagements of this
+     kind _à tout jamais_. Naturally I told him that I had as yet
+     received no news, and as he was earlier informed about Paris
+     and Madrid than myself, he could see clearly that my
+     Government once more had no hand in the matter." His Majesty
+     has since received a letter from the Prince. His Majesty
+     having told Count Benedetti that he was awaiting news from
+     the Prince, has decided, with reference to the above demand,
+     upon the representation of Count Eulenburg and myself, not to
+     receive Count Benedetti again, but only to let him be
+     informed through an aide-de-camp: "That his Majesty had now
+     received from the Prince confirmation of the news which
+     Benedetti had already received from Paris, and had nothing
+     further to say to the ambassador." His Majesty leaves it to
+     your Excellency whether Benedetti's fresh demand and its
+     rejection should not be at once communicated both to our
+     ambassadors and to the Press.
+
+Bismarck cut this down to the following:--
+
+     After the news of the renunciation of the hereditary Prince
+     of Hohenzollern had been officially communicated to the
+     Imperial Government of France by the Royal Government of
+     Spain, the French ambassador at Ems further demanded of his
+     Majesty, the King, that he would authorise him to telegraph
+     to Paris that his Majesty, the King, bound himself for all
+     future time never again to give his consent if the
+     Hohenzollerns should renew their candidature. His Majesty,
+     the King, thereupon decided not to receive the French
+     ambassador again, and sent to tell him through the
+     aide-de-camp on duty that his Majesty had nothing further to
+     communicate to the ambassador.
+
+Efforts have been made to represent Bismarck's "editing" of the Ems
+telegram as the decisive step leading to war; and in his closing years,
+when seized with the morbid desire of a partly discredited statesman to
+exaggerate his influence on events, he himself sought to perpetuate this
+version. He claims that the telegram, as it came from Ems, described the
+incident there "as a fragment of a negotiation still pending, and to be
+continued at Berlin." This claim is quite untenable. A careful perusal
+of the original despatch from Ems shows that the negotiation, far from
+being "still pending," was clearly described as having been closed on
+that matter. That Benedetti so regarded it is proved by his returning at
+once to Paris. If it could have been "continued at Berlin," he most
+certainly would have proceeded thither. Finally, the words in the
+original as to the King refusing Benedetti "somewhat sternly" were
+omitted, and very properly omitted, by Bismarck in his abbreviated
+version. Had he included those words, he might have claimed to be the
+final cause of the War of 1870. As it is, his claim must be set aside as
+the offspring of senile vanity. His version of the original Ems despatch
+did not contain a single offensive word, neither did it alter any
+statement. Abeken also admitted that his original telegram was far too
+long, and that Bismarck was quite justified in abbreviating it as
+he did[29].
+
+[Footnote 29: _Heinrich Abeken_, by Hedwig Abeken, p. 375. Bismarck's
+successor in the chancellory, Count Caprivi, set matters in their true
+light in a speech in the Reichstag shortly after the publication of
+Bismarck's _Reminiscences_.
+
+I dissent from the views expressed by the well-informed reviewer of
+Ollivier's _L'Empire libéral_ (vol. viii.) in the _Times_ of May 27,
+1904, who pins his faith to an interview of Bismarck with Lord Loftus on
+July 13, 1870. Bismarck, of course wanted war; but so did Gramont, and I
+hold that _the latter_ brought it about.]
+
+If we pay attention, not to the present more complete knowledge of the
+whole affair, but to the imperfect information then open to the German
+public, war was the natural result of the second and very urgent demand
+that came from Paris. The Duc de Gramont in dispatching it must have
+known that he was playing a desperate game. Either Prussia would give
+way and France would score a diplomatic triumph over a hated rival; or
+Prussia would fight. The friends of peace in France thought matters
+hopeless when that demand was sent in so insistent a manner. As soon as
+Gladstone heard of the second demand of the Ollivier Ministry, he wrote
+to Lord Granville, then Foreign Minister: "It is our duty to represent
+the immense responsibility which will rest upon France, if she does not
+at once accept as satisfactory and conclusive the withdrawal of the
+candidature of Prince Leopold[30]."
+
+[Footnote 30: J. Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. ii. p. 328.]
+
+On the other hand, we must note that the conduct of the German Press at
+this crisis was certainly provocative of war. The morning on which
+Bismarck's telegram appeared in the official _North German Gazette_, saw
+a host of violent articles against France, and gleeful accounts of
+imaginary insults inflicted by the King on Benedetti. All this was to be
+expected after the taunts of cowardice freely levelled by the Parisian
+papers against Prussia for the last two days; but whether Bismarck
+directly inspired the many sensational versions of the Ems affair that
+appeared in North German papers on July 14 is not yet proven.
+
+However that may be, the French Government looked on the refusal of its
+last demand, the publication of Bismarck's telegram, and the insults of
+the German Press as a _casus belli_. The details of the sitting of the
+Emperor's Council at 10 P.M. on July 14, at which it was decided to call
+out the French reserves, are not yet known. Ollivier was not present.
+There had been a few hours of wavering on this question; but the tone of
+the Parisian evening papers--it was the French national day--the loud
+cries of the rabble for war, and their smashing the windows of the
+Prussian embassy, seem to have convinced the Emperor and his advisers
+that to draw back now would involve the fall of the dynasty. Report has
+uniformly pointed to the Empress as pressing these ideas on her
+consort, and the account which the Duc de Gramont later on gave to Lord
+Malmesbury of her words at that momentous Council-meeting support
+popular rumour. It is as follows:--
+
+     Before the final resolve to declare war the Emperor, Empress,
+     and Ministers went to St. Cloud. After some discussion
+     Gramont told me that the Empress, a high-spirited and
+     impressionable woman, made a strong and most excited address,
+     declaring that "war was inevitable if the honour of France
+     was to be sustained." She was immediately followed by Marshal
+     Leboeuf, who, in the most violent tone, threw down his
+     portfolio and swore that if war was not declared he would
+     give it up and renounce his military rank. The Emperor gave
+     way, and Gramont went straight to the Chamber to announce the
+     fatal news[31].
+
+[Footnote 31: This version has, I believe, not been refuted. Still, I
+must look on it with suspicion. No Minister, who had done so much to
+stir up the war-feeling, ought to have made any such confession--least
+of all against a lady, who could not answer it. M. Seignobos in his
+_Political History of Contemporary Europe_, vol. i. chap. vi. p. 184
+(Eng edit.) says of Gramont: "He it was who embroiled France in the war
+with Prussia." In the course of the parliamentary inquiry of 1872
+Gramont convicted himself and his Cabinet of folly in 1870 by using
+these words: "Je crois pouvoir déclarer que si on avait eu un doute, un
+seule doute, sur notre aptitude à la guerre, on eût immédiatement arrêté
+la négociation" (_Enquête parlementaire_, I. vol. i. p. 108).]
+
+On the morrow (July 15) the Chamber of Deputies appointed a Commission,
+which hastily examined the diplomatic documents and reported in a sense
+favourable to the Ollivier Ministry. The subsequent debate made strongly
+for a rupture; and it is important to note that Ollivier and Gramont
+based the demand for warlike preparations on the fact that King William
+had refused to see the French ambassador, and held that that alone was a
+sufficient insult. In vain did Thiers protest against the war as
+inopportune, and demand to see all the necessary documents. The Chamber
+passed the war supplies by 246 votes to 10; and Thiers had his windows
+broken. Late on that night Gramont set aside a last attempt of Lord
+Granville to offer the mediation of England in the cause of peace, on
+the ground that this would be to the harm of France--"unless means were
+found to stop the rapid mobilisation of the Prussian armies which were
+approaching our frontier[32]." In this connection it is needful to state
+that the order for mobilising the North German troops was not given by
+the King of Prussia until late on July 15, when the war votes of the
+French Chambers were known at Berlin.
+
+[Footnote 32: Quoted by Sorel, _op. cit_. vol. i. p. 196.]
+
+Benedetti, in his review of the whole question, passes the following
+very noteworthy and sensible verdict: "It was public opinion which
+forced the [French] Government to draw the sword, and by an irresistible
+onset dictated its resolutions[33]." This is certainly true for the
+public opinion of Paris, though not of France as a whole. The rural
+districts which form the real strength of France nearly always cling to
+peace. It is significant that the Prefects of French Departments
+reported that only 16 declared in favour of war, while 37 were in doubt
+on the matter, and 34 accepted war with regret. This is what might be
+expected from a people which in the Provinces is marked by prudence
+and thrift.
+
+[Footnote 33: Benedetti, _Ma Mission en Prusse,_ p. 411.]
+
+In truth, the people of modern Europe have settled down to a life of
+peaceful industry, in which war is the most hateful of evils. On the
+other hand, the massing of mankind in great cities, where thought is
+superficial and feelings can quickly be stirred by a sensation-mongering
+Press, has undoubtedly helped to feed political passions and national
+hatred. A rural population is not deeply stirred by stories of slights
+to ambassadors. The peasant of Brittany had no active dislike for the
+peasant of Brandenburg. Each only asked to be left to till his fields in
+peace and safety. But the crowds on the Parisian boulevards and in
+_Unter den Linden_ took (and seemingly always will take) a very
+different view of life. To them the news of the humiliation of the rival
+beyond the Rhine was the greatest and therefore the most welcome of
+sensations; and, unfortunately, the papers which pandered to their
+habits set the tone of thought for no small part of France and Germany
+and exerted on national policy an influence out of all proportion to its
+real weight.
+
+The story of the Franco-German dispute is one of national jealousy
+carefully fanned for four years by newspaper editors and popular
+speakers until a spark sufficed to set Western Europe in a blaze. The
+spark was the Hohenzollern candidature, which would have fallen harmless
+had not the tinder been prepared since Königgratz by journalists at
+Paris and Berlin. The resulting conflagration may justly be described as
+due partly to national friction and partly to the supposed interests of
+the Napoleonic dynasty, but also to the heat engendered by a
+sensational Press.
+
+It is well that one of the chief dangers to the peace of the modern
+world should be clearly recognised. The centralisation of governments
+and of population may have its advantages; but over against them we must
+set grave drawbacks; among those of a political kind the worst are the
+growth of nervousness and excitability, and the craving for
+sensation--qualities which undoubtedly tend to embitter national
+jealousies at all times, and in the last case to drive weak dynasties or
+Cabinets on to war. Certainly Bismarck's clever shifts to bring about a
+rupture in 1870 would have failed had not the atmosphere both at Paris
+and Berlin been charged with electricity[34].
+
+[Footnote 34: Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern died at Berlin on June 8,
+1905. He was born in 1835, and in 1861 married the Infanta of Portugal.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+FROM WÖRTH TO GRAVELOTTE
+
+     "The Chief of the General Staff had his eye fixed from the
+     first upon the capture of the enemy's capital, the possession
+     of which is of more importance in France than in other
+     countries. . . . It is a delusion to believe that a plan of war
+     may be laid for a prolonged period and carried out in every
+     point."--VON MOLTKE, _The Franco-German War_.
+
+
+In olden times, before the invention of long-range arms of precision,
+warfare was decided mainly by individual bravery and strength. In the
+modern world victory has inclined more and more to that side which
+carefully prepares beforehand to throw a force, superior alike in
+armament and numbers, against the vitals of its enemy. Assuming that the
+combatants are fairly equal in physical qualities--and the spread of
+liberty has undoubtedly lessened the great differences that once were
+observable in this respect among European peoples--war becomes largely
+an affair of preliminary organisation. That is to say, it is now a
+matter of brain rather than muscle. Writers of the school of Carlyle may
+protest that all modern warfare is tame when compared with the
+splendidly rampant animalism of the Homeric fights. In the interests of
+Humanity it is to be hoped that the change will go on until war becomes
+wholly scientific and utterly unattractive. Meanwhile, the
+soldier-caste, the politician, and the tax-payer have to face the fact
+that the fortunes of war are very largely decided by humdrum costly
+preparations in time of peace.
+
+The last chapter set forth the causes that led to war in 1870. That
+event found Germany fully prepared. The lessons of the campaign of 1866
+had not been lost upon the Prussian General Staff. The artillery was
+improved alike in _matériel_ and in drill-tactics, Napoleon I.'s plan of
+bringing massed batteries to bear on decisive points being developed
+with Prussian thoroughness. The cavalry learnt to scout effectively and
+act as "the eyes and ears of an army," as well as to charge in brigades
+on a wavering foe. Universal military service had been compulsory in
+Prussia since 1813; but the organisation of territorial army corps now
+received fuller development, so that each part of Prussia, including,
+too, most of the North German Confederation, had its own small army
+complete in all arms, and reinforced from the Reserve, and, at need,
+from the Landwehr[35]. By virtue of the military conventions of 1866,
+the other German States adopted a similar system, save that while
+Prussians served for three years (with few exceptions in the case of
+successful examinees), the South Germans served with the colours for a
+shorter period. Those conventions also secured uniformity, or harmony,
+in the railway arrangements for the transport of troops.
+
+[Footnote 35: By the Prussian law of November 9, 1867, soldiers had to
+serve three years with the colours, four in the reserve, and five in the
+Landwehr. Three new army corps (9th, 10th, and 11th) were formed in the
+newly annexed or confederated lands, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Saxony, etc.
+(Maurice, _The Franco-German War_, 1900).]
+
+The General Staff of the North German Army had used these advantages to
+the utmost, by preparing a most complete plan of mobilisation--so
+complete, in fact, that the myriad orders had only to be drawn from
+their pigeon-holes and dated in the last hours of July 15. Forthwith the
+whole of the vast machinery started in swift but smooth working.
+Reservists speedily appeared at their regimental depôts, there found
+their equipment, and speedily brought their regiments up to the war
+footing; trains were ready, timed according to an elaborate plan, to
+carry them Rhinewards; provisions and stores were sent forward, _ohne
+Hast, ohne Rast_, as the Germans say; and so perfect were the plans on
+rail, river, and road, that none of those blocks occurred which
+frequently upset the plans of the French. Thus, by dint of plodding
+preparation, a group of federal States gained a decisive advantage over
+a centralised Empire which left too many things to be arranged in the
+last few hours.
+
+Herein lies the true significance of the War of 1870. All Governments
+that were not content to jog along in the old military ruts saw the need
+of careful organisation, including the eventual control of all needful
+means of transport; and all that were wise hastened to adapt their
+system to the new order of things, which aimed at assuring the swift
+orderly movement of great masses of men by all the resources of
+mechanical science. Most of the civilised States soon responded to the
+new needs of the age; but a few (among them Great Britain) were content
+to make one or two superficial changes and slightly increase the number
+of troops, while leaving the all-important matter of organisation almost
+untouched; and that, too, despite the vivid contrast which every one
+could see between the machine-like regularity of the German mobilisation
+and the chaos that reigned on the French side.
+
+Outwardly, the French army appeared to be beyond the reach of criticism.
+The troops had in large measure seen active service in the various wars
+whereby Napoleon III. fulfilled his promise of 1852--"The Empire is
+peace"; and their successes in the Crimea, Lombardy, Syria, and China,
+everywhere in fact but Mexico, filled them with warlike pride. Armed
+with the _chassepôt_, a newer and better rifle than the needle-gun,
+while their artillery (admittedly rather weak) was strengthened by the
+_mitrailleuse_, they claimed to be the best in the world, and burned to
+measure swords with the upstart forces of Prussia.
+
+[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF THE DISTRICT BETWEEN METZ AND THE RHINE.]
+
+But there was a sombre reverse to this bright side. All thinking
+Frenchmen, including the Emperor, were aware of grave defects--the lack
+of training of the officers[36], and the want of adaptability in the
+General Staff, which had little of that practical knowledge that the
+German Staff secured by periods of service with the troops. Add to this
+the leaven of republicanism working strongly in the army as in the
+State, and producing distrust between officers and men; above all, the
+lack of men and materials; and the outlook was not reassuring to those
+who knew the whole truth. Inclusive of the levies of the year 1869,
+which were not quite ready for active service, France would have by
+August 1, 1870, as many as 567,000 men in her regular army; but of these
+colonial, garrison, and other duties claimed as many as 230,000--a
+figure which seems designed to include the troops that existed only on
+paper. Not only the _personnel_ but the _matériel_ came far below what
+was expected. General Leboeuf, the War Minister, ventured to declare
+that all was ready even to the last button on the gaiters; but his boast
+at once rang false when at scores of military depôts neither gaiters,
+boots, nor uniforms were ready for the reservists who needed them.
+
+[Footnote 36: M. de la Gorce in his _Histoire du second Empire_, vol.
+vi., tells how the French officers scouted study of the art of war,
+while most of them looked on favouritism as the only means of promotion.
+The warnings of Colonel Stoffel, French Military Attaché at Berlin, were
+passed over, as those of "a Prussomane, whom Bismarck had fascinated."]
+
+Even where the organisation worked at its best, that best was slow and
+confused. There were no territorial army corps in time of peace; and the
+lack of this organisation led to a grievous waste of time and energy.
+Regiments were frequently far away from the depôts which contained the
+reservists' equipment; and when these had found their equipment, they
+often wandered widely before finding their regiments on the way to the
+frontier. One general officer hunted about on the frontier for a command
+which did not exist. As a result of this lack of organisation, and of
+that control over the railways which the Germans had methodically
+enforced, France lost the many advantages which her compact territory
+and excellent railway system ought to have ensured over her more
+straggling and poorer rival.
+
+The loss of time was as fatal as it was singular under the rule of a
+Napoleon whose uncle had so often shattered his foes by swift movements
+of troops. In 1870 Napoleonic France had nothing but speed and dash on
+which to count. Numbers were against her. In 1869 Marshal Leboeuf had
+done away with the Garde Mobile, a sort of militia which had involved
+only fifteen days' drill in the year; and the Garde Nationale of the
+towns was less fit for campaigning than the re-formed Mobiles proved to
+be later on in the war. Thus France had no reserves: everything rested
+on the 330,000 men struggling towards the frontiers. It is doubtful
+whether there were more than 220,000 men in the first line by August 6,
+with some 50,000 more in reserve at Metz, etc.
+
+Against them Germany could at once put into the field 460,000 infantry,
+56,000 cavalry, with 1584 cannon; and she could raise these forces to
+some 1,180,000 men by calling out all the reserves and Landwehr. These
+last were men who had served their time and had not, as a rule, lost
+their soldierly qualities in civil life. Nearly 400,000 highly trained
+troops were ready to invade France early in August.
+
+In view of these facts it seems incredible that Ollivier, the French
+Prime Minister, could have publicly stated that he entered on war with a
+light heart. Doubtless, Ministers counted on help from Austria or Italy,
+perhaps from both; but, as it proved, they judged too hastily. As was
+stated in Chapter I. of this work, Austria was not likely to move as
+long as Russia favoured the cause of Prussia; for any threatening
+pressure of the Muscovites on the open flank of the Hapsburg States,
+Galicia, has sufficed to keep them from embarking on a campaign in the
+West. In this case, the statesmen of Vienna are said to have known by
+July 20 that Russia would quietly help Prussia; she informed the
+Hapsburg Government that any increase in its armaments would be met by a
+corresponding increase in those of Russia. The meaning of such a hint
+was clear; and Austria decided not to seek revenge for Königgrätz unless
+the French triumph proved to be overwhelming. As for Italy, her alliance
+with France alone was very improbable for the reasons previously stated.
+
+Another will o' the wisp which flitted before the ardent Bonapartists
+who pushed on the Emperor to war, was that the South German States would
+forsake the North and range their troops under the French eagles, as
+they had done in the years 1805-12. The first plan of campaign drawn up
+at Paris aimed at driving a solid wedge of French troops between the two
+Confederations and inducing or compelling the South to join France; it
+was hoped that Saxony would follow. As a matter of fact, very many of
+the South Germans and Saxons disliked Prussian supremacy; Catholic
+Bavaria looked askance at the growing power of Protestant Prussia.
+Würtemberg was Protestant, but far too democratic to wish for the
+control of the cast-iron bureaucrats of Berlin. The same was even more
+true of Saxony, where hostility to Prussia was a deep-rooted tradition;
+some of the Saxon troops on leaving their towns even shouted _Napoleon
+soll leben_[37]. It is therefore quite possible that, had France struck
+quickly at the valleys of the Neckar and Main, she might have reduced
+the South German States to neutrality. Alliance perhaps was out of the
+question save under overwhelming compulsion; for France had alienated
+the Bavarian and Hessian Governments by her claims in 1866, and the
+South German people by her recent offensive treatment of the
+Hohenzollern candidature. It is, however, safe to assert that if
+Napoleon I. had ordered French affairs he would have swept the South
+Germans into his net a month after the outbreak of war, as he had done
+in 1805. But Nature had not bestowed warlike gifts on the nephew, who
+took command of the French army at Metz at the close of July 1870. His
+feeble health, alternating with periods of severe pain, took from him
+all that buoyancy which lends life to an army and vigour to the
+headquarters; and his Chief of Staff, Leboeuf, did not make good the
+lack of these qualities in the nominal chief.
+
+[Footnote 37: _I.e._ "Long live Napoleon." The author had this from an
+Englishman who was then living in Saxony.]
+
+All the initiative and vigour were on the east of the Rhine. The spread
+of the national principle to Central and South Germany had recently met
+with several checks; but the diplomatic blunders of the French
+Government, the threats of their Press that the Napoleonic troops would
+repeat the wonders of 1805; above all, admiration of the dignified
+conduct of King William under what were thought to be gratuitous insults
+from France, began to kindle the flame of German patriotism even in the
+particularists of the South. The news that the deservedly popular Crown
+Prince of Prussia, Frederick William, would command the army now
+mustering in the Palatinate, largely composed of South Germans, sent a
+thrill of joy through those States. Taught by the folly of her
+stay-at-home strategy in 1866, Bavaria readily sent her large contingent
+beyond the Rhine; and all danger of a French irruption into South
+Germany was ended by the speedy massing of the Third German Army, some
+200,000 strong in all, on the north of Alsace. For the French to cross
+the Rhine at Speyer, or even at Kehl, in front of a greatly superior
+army (though as yet they knew not its actual strength) was clearly
+impossible; and in the closing hours of July the French headquarters
+fell back on other plans, which, speaking generally, were to defend the
+French frontier from the Moselle to the Rhine by striking at the
+advanced German troops. At least, that seems to be the most natural
+explanation of the sudden and rather flurried changes then made.
+
+It was wise to hide this change to a strategic defensive by assuming a
+tactical offensive; and on August 2 two divisions of Frossard's corps
+attacked and drove back the advanced troops of the Second German Army
+from Saarbrücken. The affair was unimportant: it could lead to nothing,
+unless the French had the means of following up the success. This they
+had not; and the advance of the First and Second German Armies,
+commanded by General Steinmetz and Prince Frederick Charles, was soon to
+deprive them of this position.
+
+Meanwhile the Germans were making ready a weighty enterprise. The
+muster of the huge Third Army to the north of Alsace enabled their
+General Staff to fix August 4 for a general advance against that
+frontier. It fell to this army, under the Crown Prince of Prussia,
+Frederick William, to strike the first great blow. Early on August 4 a
+strong Bavarian division advanced against the small fortified town of
+Weissenburg, which lies deep down in the valley of the Lauter,
+surrounded by lofty hills. There it surprised a weak French division,
+the vanguard of MacMahon's army, commanded by General Abel Douay, whose
+scouts had found no trace of the advancing enemy. About 10 A.M. Douay
+fell, mortally wounded; another German division, working round the town
+to the east, carried the strong position of the Geisberg; and these
+combined efforts, frontal and on the flank, forced the French hastily to
+retreat westwards over the hills to Wörth, after losing more than
+2000 men.
+
+The news of this reverse and of the large German forces ready to pour
+into the north of Alsace led the Emperor to order the 7th French corps
+at Belfort, and the 5th in and around Bitsch, to send reinforcements to
+MacMahon, whose main force held the steep and wooded hills between the
+villages of Wörth, Fröschweiler, and Reichshofen. The line of railway
+between Strassburg and Bitsch touches Reichshofen; but, for some reason
+that has never been satisfactorily explained, MacMahon was able to draw
+up only one division from the side of Strassburg and Belfort, and not
+one from Bitsch, which was within an easy march. The fact seems to be
+that de Failly, in command at Bitsch, was a prey to conflicting orders
+from Metz, and therefore failed to bring up the 5th corps as he should
+have done. MacMahon's cavalry was also very defective in scouting, and
+he knew nothing as to the strength of the forces rapidly drawing near
+from Weissenburg and the east.
+
+Certainly his position at Wörth was very strong. The French lines were
+ranged along the steep wooded slope running north and south, with
+buttress-like projections, intersected by gullies, the whole leading up
+to a plateau on which stand the village of Fröschweiler and the hamlet
+of Elsasshausen. Behind is the wood called the Grosser Wald, while the
+hamlet is flanked on the south and in front by an outlying wood, the
+Niederwald. Behind the Grosser Wald the ground sinks away to the valley
+in which runs the Bitsch-Reichshofen railway. In front of MacMahon's
+position lay the village of Wörth, deep in the valley of the Sauerbach.
+The invader would therefore have to carry this village or cross the
+stream, and press up the long open slopes on which were ranged the
+French troops and batteries with all the advantages of cover and
+elevation on their side. A poor general, having forces smaller than
+those of his enemy, might hope to hold such a position. But there was
+one great defect. Owing to de Failly's absence MacMahon had not enough
+men to hold the whole of the position marked out by Nature for defence.
+
+Conscious of its strength, the Prussian Crown Prince ordered the leaders
+of his vanguard not to bring on a general engagement on August 6, when
+the invading army had not at hand its full striking strength[38]. But
+orders failed to hold in the ardour of the Germans under the attacks of
+the French. Affairs of outposts along the Sauerbach early on that
+morning brought on a serious fight, which up to noon went against the
+invaders. At that time the Crown Prince galloped to the front, and
+ordered an attack with all available forces. The fighting, hitherto
+fierce but spasmodic between division and division, was now fed by a
+steady stream of German reinforcements, until 87,000 of the invaders
+sought to wrest from MacMahon the heights, with their woods and
+villages, which he had but 54,000 to defend. The superiority of numbers
+soon made itself felt. Pursuant to the Crown Prince's orders, parts of
+two Bavarian corps began to work their way (but with one strangely long
+interval of inaction) through the wood to the north of the French left
+wing; on the Prussian 11th corps fell the severer task of winning their
+way up the slopes south of Wörth, and thence up to the Niederwald and
+Elsasshausen. When these woods were won, the 5th corps was to make its
+frontal attack from Wörth against Fröschweiler. Despite the desperate
+efforts of the French and their Turco regiments, and a splendid but
+hopeless charge of two regiments of Cuirassiers and one of Lancers
+against the German infantry, the Niederwald and Elsasshausen were won;
+and about four o'clock the sustained fire of fifteen German batteries
+against Fröschweiler enabled the 5th corps to struggle up that deadly
+glacis in spite of desperate charges by the defenders.
+
+[Footnote 38: See von Blumenthal's _Journals_, p. 87 (Eng. edit.): "The
+battle which I had expected to take place on the 7th, and for which I
+had prepared a good scheme for turning the enemy's right flank, came on
+of itself to-day."]
+
+Throughout the day the French showed their usual dash and devotion, some
+regiments being cut to pieces rather than retire. But by five o'clock
+the defence was outflanked on the two wings and crushed at the centre;
+human nature could stand no more after eight hours' fighting; and after
+a final despairing effort of the French Cuirassiers all their line gave
+way in a general rout down the slopes to Reichshofen and towards
+Saverne. Apart from the Würtembergers held in reserve, few of the
+Germans were in a condition to press the pursuit. Nevertheless the
+fruits of victory were very great: 10,000 Frenchmen lay dead or wounded;
+6000 unwounded prisoners were taken, with 28 cannon and 5 mitrailleuses.
+Above all, MacMahon's fine army was utterly broken, and made no attempt
+to defend any of the positions on the north of the Vosges. Not even a
+tunnel was there blown up to delay the advance of the Germans. Hastily
+gathering up the 5th corps from Bitsch--the corps which ought to have
+been at Wörth--that gallant but unfortunate general struck out to the
+south-west for the great camp at Châlons. The triumph, however, cost the
+Germans dear. As many as 10,600 men were killed or wounded, the 5th
+Prussian corps alone losing more than half that number. Their cavalry
+failed to keep touch with the retreating French.
+
+On that same day (August 6) a disaster scarcely less serious overtook
+the French 2nd corps, which had been holding Saarbrücken. Convinced that
+that post was too advanced and too weak in presence of the foremost
+divisions of the First and Second German Armies now advancing rapidly
+against it, General Frossard drew back his vanguard some mile and a half
+to the line of steep hills between Spicheren and Forbach, just within
+the French frontier. This retreat, as it seemed, tempted General Kameke
+to attack with a single division, as he was justified in doing in order
+to find the direction and strength of the retiring force. The attack,
+when pushed home, showed that the French were bent on making a stand on
+their commanding heights; and an onset on the Rothe Berg was stoutly
+beaten off about noon.
+
+But now the speedy advance and intelligent co-operation of other German
+columns was instrumental in turning an inconsiderable repulse into an
+important victory. General Göben was not far off, and marching towards
+the firing, sent to offer his help with the 8th corps. General von
+Alvensleben, also, with the 3rd corps had reached Neunkirchen when the
+sound of firing near Saarbrücken led him to push on for that place with
+the utmost speed. He entrained part of his corps and brought it up in
+time to strengthen the attack on the Rothe Berg and other heights nearer
+to Forbach. Each battalion as it arrived was hurled forward, and General
+von François, charging with his regiment, gained a lodgment half-way up
+the broken slope of the Rothe Berg, which was stoutly maintained even
+when he fell mortally wounded. Elsewhere the onsets were repelled by the
+French, who, despite their smaller numbers, kept up a sturdy resistance
+on the line of hills in the woods behind, and in the iron-works in front
+of Forbach. Even when the Germans carried the top of the Rothe Berg,
+their ranks were riddled by a cross fire; but by incredible exertions
+they managed to bring guns to the summit and retaliate with effect[39].
+
+[Footnote 39: For these details about the fighting at the Rothe Berg I
+am largely indebted to my friend, Mr. Bernard Pares, M.A., who has made
+a careful study of the ground there, as also at Wörth and Sedan.]
+
+This, together with the outflanking movement which their increasing
+numbers enabled them to carry out against the French left wing at
+Forbach, decided the day; and Frossard's corps fell back shattered
+towards the corps of Bazaine. It is noteworthy that this was but nine or
+ten miles to the rear. Bazaine had ordered three divisions to march
+towards the firing: one made for a wrong point and returned; the others
+made half-hearted efforts, and thus left Frossard to be overborne by
+numbers. The result of these disjointed movements was that both Frossard
+and Bazaine hurriedly retired towards Metz, while the First and Second
+German Armies now gathered up all their strength with the aim of
+shutting up the French in that fortress. To this end the First Army made
+for Colombey, east of Metz, while the leading part of the Second Army
+purposed to cross the Moselle south of Metz, and circle round that
+stronghold on the west.
+
+It is now time to turn to the French headquarters. These two crushing
+defeats on a single day utterly dashed Napoleon's plan of a spirited
+defence of the north-east frontier, until such time as the levies of
+1869 should be ready, or Austria and Italy should draw the sword. On
+July 26 the Austrian ambassador assured the French Ministry that Austria
+was pushing on her preparations. Victor Emmanuel was with difficulty
+restrained by his Ministers from openly taking the side of France. On
+the night of August 6 he received telegraphic news of the Battles of
+Wörth and Forbach, whereupon he exclaimed, "Poor Emperor! I pity him,
+but I have had a lucky escape." Austria also drew back, and thus left
+France face to face with the naked truth that she stood alone and
+unready before a united and triumphant Germany, able to pour treble her
+own forces through the open portals of Lorraine and northern Alsace.
+
+Napoleon III., to do him justice, had never cherished the wild dreams
+that haunted the minds of his consort and of the frothy "Mamelukes"
+lately in favour at Court; still less did the "silent man of destiny"
+indulge in the idle boasts that had helped to alienate the sympathy of
+Europe and to weld together Germany to withstand the blows of a second
+Napoleonic invasion. The nephew knew full well that he was not the Great
+Napoleon--he knew it before Victor Hugo in spiteful verse vainly sought
+to dub him the Little. True, his statesmanship proved to be mere dreamy
+philosophising about nationalities; his administrative powers, small at
+the best, were ever clogged by his too generous desire to reward his
+fellow-conspirators of the _coup d'état_ of 1851; and his gifts for war
+were scarcely greater than those of the other _Napoléonides_, Joseph and
+Jerome. Nevertheless the reverses of his early life had strengthened
+that fund of quiet stoicism, that energy to resist if not to dare, which
+formed the backbone of an otherwise somewhat weak, shadowy, and
+uninspiring character. And now, in the rapid fall of his fortunes, the
+greatest adventurer of the nineteenth century showed to the full those
+qualities of toughness and dignified reserve which for twenty years had
+puzzled and imposed on that lively emotional people. By the side of the
+downcast braggarts of the Court and the unstrung screamers of the
+Parisian Press, his mien had something of the heroic. _Tout peut se
+rétablir_--"All may yet be set right"--such was the vague but dignified
+phrase in which he summarised the results of August 6 to his people.
+
+The military situation now required a prompt retirement beyond the
+Moselle. The southerly line of retreat, which MacMahon and de Failly had
+been driven to take, forbade the hope of their junction with the main
+army at Metz in time to oppose a united front to the enemy. And it was
+soon known that their flight could not be stayed at Nancy or even at
+Toul. During the agony of suspense as to their movements and those of
+their German pursuers, the Emperor daily changed his plans. First, he
+and Leboeuf planned a retreat beyond the Moselle and Meuse; next,
+political considerations bade them stand firm on the banks of the Nied,
+some twelve miles east of Metz; and when this position seemed unsafe,
+they ended the marchings and counter-marchings of their troops by taking
+up a position at Colombey, nearer to Metz.
+
+Meanwhile at Paris the Chamber of Deputies had overthrown the Ollivier
+Ministry, and the Empress-Regent installed in office Count Palikao.
+There was a general outcry against Leboeuf, and on the 12th the Emperor
+resigned the command to Marshal Bazaine (Lebrun now acting as Chief of
+Staff), with the injunction to retreat westwards to Verdun. For the
+Emperor to order such a retreat in his own name was thought to be
+inopportune. Bazaine was a convenient scapegoat, and he himself knew it.
+Had he thrown an army corps into Metz and obeyed the Emperor's orders by
+retreating on Verdun, things would certainly have gone better than was
+now to be the case. In his printed defence Bazaine has urged that the
+army had not enough provisions for the march, and, further, that the
+outlying forts of Metz were not yet ready to withstand a siege--a
+circumstance which, if true, partly explains Bazaine's reluctance to
+leave the "virgin city[40]." Napoleon III. quitted it early on the 16th:
+he and his escort were the last Frenchmen to get free of that death-trap
+for many a week.
+
+[Footnote 40: Bazaine gave this excuse in his _Rapport sommaire sur les
+Opérations de l'Armée du Rhin_; but as a staff-officer pointed out in
+his incisive _Réponse_, this reason must have been equally cogent when
+Napoleon (August 12) ordered him to retreat; and he was still bound to
+obey the Emperor's orders.]
+
+While Metz exercised this fatal fascination over the protecting army,
+the First and Second German Armies were striding westwards to envelop
+both the city and its guardians. Moltke's aim was to hold as many of the
+French to the neighbourhood of the fortress, while his left wing swung
+round it on the south. The result was the battle of Colombey on the east
+of Metz (August 14). It was a stubborn fight, costing the Germans some
+5000 men, while the French with smaller losses finally withdrew under
+the eastern walls of Metz. But that heavy loss meant a great ultimate
+gain to Germany. The vacillations of Bazaine, whose strategy was far
+more faulty than that of Napoleon III. had been, together with the delay
+caused by the defiling of a great part of the army through the narrow
+streets of Metz, gave the Germans an opportunity such as had not
+occurred since the year 1805, when Napoleon I. shut up an Austrian
+army in Ulm.
+
+The man who now saw the splendid chance of which Fortune vouchsafed a
+glimpse, was Lieutenant-General von Alvensleben, Commander of the 3rd
+corps, whose activity and resource had so largely contributed
+to the victory of Spicheren-Forbach. Though the orders of his
+Commander-in-Chief, Prince Frederick Charles, forbade an advance until
+the situation in front was more fully known, the General heard enough to
+convince himself that a rapid advance southwards to and over the Moselle
+might enable him to intercept the French retreat on Verdun, which might
+now be looked on as certain. Reporting his conviction to his chief as
+also to the royal headquarters, he struck out with all speed on the
+15th, quietly threw a bridge over the river, and sent on his advanced
+guard as far as Pagny, near Gorze, while all his corps, about 33,000
+strong, crossed the river about midnight. Soon after dawn, he pushed on
+towards Gorze, knowing by this time that the other corps of the Second
+Army were following him, while the 7th and 8th corps of the First Army
+were about to cross the river nearly opposite that town.
+
+This bold movement, which would have drawn on him sharp censure in case
+of overthrow, was more than justifiable seeing the discouraged state of
+the French troops, the supreme need of finding their line of retreat,
+and the splendid results that must follow on the interception of that
+retreat. The operations of war must always be attended with risk, and
+the great commander is he whose knowledge of the principles of strategy
+enables him quickly to see when the final gain warrants the running of
+risks, and how they may be met with the least likelihood of disaster.
+
+Alvensleben's advance was in accordance with Moltke's general plan of
+operations; but that corps-leader, finding the French to be in force
+between him and Metz, determined to attack them in order to delay their
+retreat. The result was the battle of August 16, variously known as
+Vionville, Rezonville, or Mars-la-Tour--a battle that defies brief
+description, inasmuch as it represented the effort of the Third, or
+Brandenburg, corps, with little help at first from others, to hold its
+ground against the onsets of two French corps. Early in the fight
+Bazaine galloped up, but he did not bring forward the masses in his
+rear, probably because he feared to be cut off from Metz. Even so, all
+through the forenoon, it seemed that the gathering forces of the French
+must break through the thin lines audaciously thrust into that almost
+open plain on the flank of their line of march. But Alvensleben and his
+men held their ground with a dogged will that nothing could shatter. In
+one sense their audacity saved them. Bazaine for a long time could not
+believe that a single corps would throw itself against one of the two
+roads by which his great army was about to retreat. He believed that the
+northern road might also be in danger, and therefore did not launch at
+Alvensleben the solid masses that must have swept him back towards the
+Meuse. At noon four battalions of the German 10th corps struggled up
+from the south and took their share of the hitherto unequal fight.
+
+But the crisis of the fight came a little later. It was marked by one of
+the most daring and effective strokes ever dealt in modern warfare. At 2
+o'clock, when the advance of Canrobert's 6th corps towards Vionville
+threatened to sweep away the wearied Brandenburgers, six squadrons of
+the 7th regiment of Cuirassiers with a few Uhlans flung themselves on
+the new lines of foemen, not to overpower them--that was impossible--but
+to delay their advance and weaken their impact. Only half of the brave
+horsemen returned from that ride of death, but they gained their end.
+
+The mad charge drove deep into the French array about Rezonville, and
+gave their leaders pause in the belief that it was but the first of a
+series of systematic attacks on the French left. System rather than dash
+was supposed to characterise German tactics; and the daring of their
+enemies for once made the French too methodical. Bazaine scarcely
+brought the 3rd corps and the Guard into action at all, but kept them
+in reserve. As the afternoon sun waned, the whole weight of the German
+10th corps was thrown into the fight about Vionville, and the vanguards
+of the 8th and 9th came up from Gorze to threaten the French left.
+Fearing that he might be cut off from Metz on the south--a fear which
+had unaccountably haunted him all the day--Bazaine continued to feed
+that part of his lines; and thus Alvensleben was able to hold the
+positions near the southern road to Verdun, which he had seized in the
+morning. The day closed with a great cavalry combat on the German left
+wing in which the French had to give way. Darkness alone put an end to
+the deadly strife. Little more than two German corps had sufficed to
+stay the march of an army which potentially numbered in all more than
+170,000 men.
+
+On both sides the losses were enormous, namely, some 16,000 killed and
+wounded. No cannon, standards, or prisoners were taken; but on that day
+the army of Prince Frederick Charles practically captured the whole of
+Bazaine's army. The statement may seem overdrawn, but it is none the
+less true. The advance of other German troops on that night made
+Bazaine's escape from Metz far more difficult than before, and very
+early on the morrow he drew back his lines through Gravelotte to a
+strong position nearer Metz. Thus, a battle, which in a tactical sense
+seemed to be inconclusive, became, when viewed in the light of strategy,
+the most decisive of the war. Had Bazaine used even the forces which he
+had in the field ready to hand he must have overborne Alvensleben; and
+the arrival of 170,000 good troops at Verdun or Châlons would have
+changed the whole course of the war. The campaign would probably have
+followed the course of the many campaigns waged in the valleys of the
+Meuse and Marne; and Metz, held by a garrison of suitable size, might
+have defied the efforts of a large besieging army for fully six months.
+These conjectures are not fanciful. The duration of the food supply of a
+garrison cut off from the outside world varies inversely with the size
+of that garrison. The experiences of armies invading and defending the
+East of France also show with general accuracy what might have been
+expected if the rules of sound strategy had been observed. It was the
+actual course of events which transcended experience and set all
+probabilities at defiance.
+
+The battle of Gravelotte, or St. Privat, on the 18th completed the work
+so hardily begun by the 3rd German corps on the 16th. The need of
+driving back Bazaine's army upon Metz was pressing, and his inaction on
+the 17th gave time for nearly all the forces of the First and Second
+German Armies to be brought up to the German positions, some nine miles
+west of Metz, though one corps was left to the east of that fortress to
+hinder any attempt of the French to break out on that side. Bazaine,
+however, massed his great army on the west along a ridge stretching
+north and south, and presenting, especially in the southern half, steep
+slopes to the assailants. It also sloped away to the rear, thus enabling
+the defenders (as was the case with Wellington at Waterloo) secretly to
+reinforce any part of the line. On the French left wing, too, the slopes
+curved inward, thus giving the defenders ample advantage against any
+flanking movements on that side. On the north, between Amanvillers and
+Ste. Marie-aux-Chênes, the defence had fewer strong points except those
+villages, the Jaumont Wood, and the gradual slope of the ground away to
+the little River Orne, which formed an open glacis. Bazaine massed his
+reserves on the plateau of Plappeville and to the rear of his left wing;
+but this cardinal fault in his dispositions--due to his haunting fear of
+being cut off from Metz--was long hidden by the woods and slopes in the
+rear of his centre. The position here and on the French left was very
+strong, and at several parts so far concealed the troops that up to 11
+A.M. the advancing Germans were in doubt whether the French would not
+seek to break away towards the north-west. That so great an army would
+remain merely on the defensive, a course so repugnant to the ardour of
+the French nature and the traditions of their army, entered into the
+thoughts of few.
+
+Yet such was the case. The solution of the riddle is to be found in
+Bazaine's despatch of August 17 to the Minister of War: "We are going to
+put forth every effort to make good our supplies of all kinds in order
+to resume our march in two days if that is possible[41]." That the army
+was badly hampered by lack of stores is certain; but to postpone even
+for a single day the march to Verdun by the northern road--that by way
+of Briey--was fatal. Possibly, however, he hoped to deal the Germans so
+serious a blow, if they attacked him on the 18th, as to lighten the
+heavy task of cutting his way out on the 19th.
+
+[Footnote 41: Bazaine, _Rapport sommaire, etc._ The sentence quoted
+above is decisive. The defence which Bazaine and his few defenders later
+on put forward, as well as the attacks of his foes, are of course mixed
+up with theories evolved _after_ the event.]
+
+If so, he nearly succeeded. The Germans were quite taken aback by the
+extent and strength of his lines. Their intention was to outflank his
+right wing, which was believed to stretch no further north than
+Amanvillers; but the rather premature advance of Manstein's 9th corps
+soon drew a deadly fire from that village and the heights on either
+side, which crushed the artillery of that corps. Soon the Prussian
+Guards and the 12th corps began to suffer from the fire poured in from
+the trenches that crowned the hill. On the German right, General
+Steinmetz, instead of waiting for the hoped-for flank attack on the
+north to take effect, sent the columns of the First Army to almost
+certain death in the defile in front of Gravelotte, and he persisted in
+these costly efforts even when the strength of the French position on
+that side was patent to all. For this the tough old soldier met with
+severe censure and ultimate disgrace. In his defence, however, it may be
+urged that when a great battle is raging with doubtful fortunes, the
+duty of a commander on the attacking side is to busy the enemy at as
+many points as possible, so that the final blow may be dealt with
+telling effect on a vital point where he cannot be adequately
+reinforced; and the bull-dog tactics of Steinmetz in front of
+Gravelotte, which cost the assailants many thousands of men, at any rate
+served to keep the French reserves on that side, and thereby weaken the
+support available for a more important point at the crisis of the fight.
+It so happened, too, that the action of Steinmetz strengthened the
+strange misconception of Bazaine that the Germans were striving to cut
+him off from Metz on the south.
+
+The real aim of the Germans was exactly the contrary, namely, to pin his
+whole army to Metz by swinging round their right flank on the villages
+of St. Privat and Raucourt. Having some 40,000 men under Canrobert in
+and between these villages, whose solid buildings gave the defence the
+best of cover, Bazaine had latterly taken little thought for that part
+of his lines, though it was dangerously far removed from his reserves.
+These he kept on the south, under the misconception which clung to him
+here as at Rezonville.
+
+The mistake was to prove fatal. As we have said, the German plan was to
+turn the French right wing in the more open country on the north. To
+this end the Prussian Guards and the Saxons, after driving the French
+outposts from Ste. Marie-aux-Chênes, brought all their strength to the
+task of crushing the French at their chief stronghold on the right, St.
+Privat. The struggle of the Prussian Guards up the open slope between
+that village and Amanvillers left them a mere shadow of their splendid
+array; but the efforts of the German artillery cost the defenders dear:
+by seven o'clock St. Privat was in flames, and as the Saxons (the 12th
+corps), wheeling round from the north after a long flank-march, closed
+in on the outlying village of Raucourt, Canrobert saw that the day was
+lost unless he received prompt aid from the Imperial Guard. Bourbaki,
+however, brought up only some 3000 of these choice troops, and that too
+late to save St. Privat from the persistent fury of the German onset.
+
+As dusk fell over the scene of carnage the French right fell back in
+some disorder, even from part of Amanvillers. Farther south, they held
+their ground. On the whole they had dealt to their foes a loss of 20,159
+men, or nearly a tenth of their total. Of the French forces engaged,
+some 150,000 in number, 7853 were killed and wounded, and 4419 were
+taken prisoners. The disproportion in the losses shows the toughness of
+the French defence and the (in part) unskilful character of the German
+attack. On this latter point the recently published _Journals_ of
+Field-Marshal Count von Blumenthal supply some piquant details. He
+describes the indignation of King William at the wastefulness of the
+German tactics at Gravelotte: "He complained bitterly that the officers
+of the higher grades appeared to have forgotten all that had been so
+carefully taught them at manoeuvres, and had apparently all lost their
+heads." The same authority supplies what may be in part an explanation
+of this in his comment, written shortly before Gravelotte, that he
+believed there might not be another battle in the whole war--a remark
+which savours of presumption and folly. Gravelotte, therefore, cannot be
+considered as wholly creditable to the victors. Still, the result was
+that some 180,000 French troops were shut up within the outworks
+of Metz[42].
+
+[Footnote 42: For fuller details of these battles the student should
+consult the two great works on the subject--the Staff Histories of the
+war, issued by the French and German General Staffs; Bazaine, _L'Armée
+du Rhin_, and _Episodes de la Guerre_; General Blumenthal's _Journals_;
+_Aus drei Kriegen_, by Gen. von Lignitz; Maurice, _The Franco-German
+War_; Hooper, _The Campaign of Sedan_; the War Correspondence of the
+_Times_ and the _Daily News_, published in book form.]
+
+
+
+
+NOTE THE SECOND EDITION
+
+With reference to M. Ollivier's statement (quoted on p. 55) that he
+entered on war with a light heart, it should be added that he has since
+explained his meaning to have been that the cause of France was just, that
+of Prussia unjust.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+SEDAN
+
+     "Nothing is more rash and contrary to the principles of war
+     than to make a flank-march before an army in position,
+     especially when this army occupies heights before which it is
+     necessary to defile."--NAPOLEON I.
+
+
+The success of the German operations to the south and west of Metz
+virtually decided the whole of the campaign. The Germans could now draw
+on their vast reserves ever coming on from the Rhine, throw an iron ring
+around that fortress, and thereby deprive France of her only great force
+of regular troops. The throwing up of field-works and barricades went on
+with such speed that the blockading forces were able in a few days to
+detach a strong column towards Châlons-sur-Marne in order to help the
+army of the Crown Prince of Prussia. That army in the meantime was in
+pursuit of MacMahon by way of Nancy, and strained every nerve so as to
+be able to strike at the southern railway lines out of Paris. It was,
+however, diverted to the north-west by events soon to be described.
+
+The German force detached from the neighbourhood of Metz consisted of
+the Prussian Guards, the 4th and 12th corps, and two cavalry divisions.
+This army, known as the Army of the Meuse, was placed under the command
+of the Crown Prince of Saxony. Its aim was, in common with the Third
+German Army (that of the Crown Prince of Prussia), to strike at MacMahon
+before he received reinforcements. The screen of cavalry which preceded
+the Army of the Meuse passed that river on the 22nd, when the bulk of
+the forces of the Crown Prince of Prussia crossed not many miles farther
+to the south. The two armies swept on westwards within easy distance of
+one another; and on the 23rd their cavalry gleaned news of priceless
+value, namely, that MacMahon's army had left Châlons. On the next day
+the great camp was found deserted.
+
+In fact, MacMahon had undertaken a task of terrible difficulty. On
+taking over the command at Châlons, where Napoleon III. arrived from
+Metz on the 16th, he found hopeless disorder not only among his own
+beaten troops, but among many of the newcomers; the worst were the Garde
+Mobile, many regiments of whom greeted the Emperor with shouts of _À
+Paris_. To meet the Germans in the open plains of Champagne with forces
+so incoherent and dispirited was sheer madness; and a council of war on
+the 17th came to the conclusion to fall back on the capital and operate
+within its outer forts--a step which might enable the army to regain
+confidence, repress any rising in the capital, and perhaps inflict
+checks on the Germans, until the provinces rose _en masse_ against the
+invaders. But at this very time the Empress-Regent and the Palikao
+Ministry at Paris came to an exactly contrary decision, on the ground
+that the return of the Emperor with MacMahon's army would look like
+personal cowardice and a mean desertion of Bazaine at Metz. The Empress
+was for fighting _à outrance_, and her Government issued orders for a
+national rising and the enrolling of bodies of irregulars, or
+_francs-tireurs_, to harass the Germans[43].
+
+[Footnote 43: See General Lebrun's _Guerre de 1870: Bazailles-Sedan_,
+for an account of his corps of MacMahon's army.
+
+In view of the events of the late Boer War, it is worth noting that the
+Germans never acknowledged the _francs-tireurs_ as soldiers, and
+forthwith issued an order ending with the words, "They are amenable to
+martial law and liable to be sentenced to death" (Maurice,
+_Franco-German War_, p. 215).]
+
+Their decision was telegraphed to Napoleon III. at Châlons.
+Against his own better judgment the Emperor yielded to political
+considerations--that mill-stone around the neck of the French army in
+1870--and decided to strike out to the north with MacMahon's army, and
+by way of Montmédy stretch a hand to Bazaine, who, on his side, was
+expected to make for that rendezvous. On the 21st, therefore, they
+marched to Reims. There the Emperor received a despatch which Bazaine
+had been able to get through the enemies' lines on the 19th, stating
+that the Germans were making their way in on Metz, but that he (Bazaine)
+hoped to break away towards Montmédy and so join MacMahon's army. (This,
+it will be observed, was _after_ Gravelotte had been lost.) Napoleon
+III. thereupon replied: "Received yours of the 19th at Reims; am going
+towards Montmédy; shall be on the Aisne the day after to-morrow, and
+there will act according to circumstances to come to your aid." Bazaine
+did not receive this message until August 30, and then made only two
+weak efforts to break out on the north (August 31-September 1). The
+Marshal's action in sending that message must be pronounced one of the
+most fatal in the whole war. It led the Emperor and MacMahon to a false
+belief as to the position at Metz, and furnished a potent argument to
+the Empress and Palikao at Paris to urge a march towards Montmédy at
+all costs.
+
+Doubtfully MacMahon led his straggling array from Reims in a
+north-easterly direction towards Stenay on the Meuse. Rain checked his
+progress, and dispirited the troops; but on the 27th August, while about
+half-way between the Aisne and the Meuse, his outposts touched those of
+the enemy. They were, in fact, those of the Prussian Crown Prince, whose
+army was about to cross the northern roads over the Argonne, the line of
+hills that saw the French stem the Prussian invasion in 1792. Far
+different was the state of affairs now. National enthusiasm,
+organisation, enterprise--all were on the side of the invaders. As has
+been pointed out, their horsemen found out on the 23rd that the Châlons
+camp was deserted; on the next day their scouts found out from a
+Parisian newspaper that MacMahon was at Reims; and, on the day
+following, newspaper tidings that had come round by way of London
+revealed the secret that MacMahon was striving to reach Bazaine.
+
+How it came about that this news escaped the eye of the censor has not
+been explained. If it was the work of an English journalist, that does
+not absolve the official censorship from the charge of gross
+carelessness in leaving even a loophole for the transmission of
+important secrets. Newspaper correspondents, of course, are the natural
+enemies of Governments in time of war; and the experience of the year
+1870 shows that the fate of Empires may depend on the efficacy of the
+arrangements for controlling them. As a proof of the superiority of the
+German organisation, or of the higher patriotism of their newspapers, we
+may mention that no tidings of urgent importance leaked out through the
+German Press. This may have been due to a solemn declaration made by
+German newspaper editors and correspondents that they would never reveal
+such secrets; but, from what we know of the fierce competition of
+newspapers for priority of news, it is reasonable to suppose that the
+German Government took very good care that none came in their way.
+
+As a result of the excellent scouting of their cavalry and of the
+slipshod Press arrangements of the French Government, the German Army of
+the Meuse, on the 26th, took a general turn towards the north-west. This
+movement brought its outposts near to the southernmost divisions of
+MacMahon, and sent through that Marshal's staff the foreboding thrill
+felt by the commander of an unseaworthy craft at the oncoming of the
+first gust of a cyclone. He saw the madness of holding on his present
+course and issued orders for a retreat to Mézières, a fortress on the
+Meuse below Sedan. Once more, however, the Palikao Ministry intervened
+to forbid this salutary move--the only way out of imminent danger--and
+ordered him to march to the relief of Bazaine. At this crisis Napoleon
+III. showed the good sense which seemed to have deserted the French
+politicians: he advised the Marshal not to obey this order if he thought
+it dangerous. Nevertheless, MacMahon decided to yield to the supposed
+interests of the dynasty, which the Emperor was ready to sacrifice to
+the higher claims of the safety of France. Their rôles were thus
+curiously reversed. The Emperor reasoned as a sound patriot and a good
+strategist. MacMahon must have felt the same promptings, but obedience
+to the Empress and the Ministry, or chivalrous regard for Bazaine,
+overcame his scruples. He decided to plod on towards the Meuse.
+
+The Germans were now on the alert to entrap this army that exposed its
+flank in a long line of march near to the Belgian frontier. Their
+ubiquitous horsemen captured French despatches which showed them the
+intended moves in MacMahon's desperate game; Moltke hurried up every
+available division; and the elder of the two Alvenslebens had the honour
+of surprising de Failly's corps amidst the woods of the Ardennes near
+Beaumont, as they were in the midst of a meal. The French rallied and
+offered a brisk defence, but finally fell back in confusion northwards
+on Mouzon, with the loss of 2000 prisoners and 42 guns (August 30).
+
+This mishap, the lack of provisions, and the fatigue and demoralisation
+of his troops, caused MacMahon on the 31st to fall back on Sedan, a
+little town in the valley of the Meuse. It is surrounded by ramparts
+planned by the great Vauban, but, being commanded by wooded heights, it
+no longer has the importance that it possessed before the age of
+long-range guns of precision. The chief strength of the position for
+defence lay in the deep loop of the river below the town, the dense
+Garenne Wood to the north-east, and the hollow formed by the Givonne
+brook on the east, with the important village of Bazeilles. It is
+therefore not surprising that von Moltke, on seeing the French forces
+concentrating in this hollow, remarked to von Blumenthal, Chief of the
+Staff: "Now we have them in a trap; to-morrow we must cross over the
+Meuse early in the morning."
+
+The Emperor and MacMahon seem even then, on the afternoon of the 31st,
+to have hoped to give their weary troops a brief rest, supply them with
+provisions and stores from the fortress, and on the morrow, or the 2nd,
+make their escape by way of Mézières. Possibly they might have done so
+on that night, and certainly they could have reached the Belgian
+frontier, only some six miles distant, and there laid down their arms to
+the Belgian troops whom the resourceful Bismarck had set on the _qui
+vive._ To remain quiet even for a day in Sedan was to court disaster;
+yet passivity characterised the French headquarters and the whole army
+on that afternoon and evening. True, MacMahon gave orders for the bridge
+over the Meuse at Donchéry to be blown up, but the engine-driver who
+took the engineers charged with this important task, lost his nerve when
+German shells whizzed about his engine, and drove off before the powder
+and tools could be deposited. A second party, sent later on, found that
+bridge in the possession of the enemy. On the east side, above Sedan,
+the Bavarians seized the railway bridge south of Bazeilles, driving off
+the French who sought to blow it up[44].
+
+[Footnote 44: Moltke, _The Franco-German War_, vol. i. p. 114. Hooper,
+_The Campaign of Sedan_, p. 296.]
+
+Over the Donchéry bridge and two pontoon bridges constructed below that
+village the Germans poured their troops before dawn of September 1, and
+as the morning fog of that day slowly lifted, their columns were seen
+working round the north of the deep loop of the Meuse, thus cutting off
+escape on the west and north-west. Meanwhile, on the other side of the
+town, von der Tann's Bavarians had begun the fight. Pressing in on
+Bazeilles so as to hinder the retreat of the enemy (as had been so
+effectively done at Colombey, on the east of Metz), they at first
+surprised the sleeping French, but quickly drew on themselves a sharp
+and sustained counter-attack from the marines attached to the 12th
+French corps.
+
+In order to understand the persistent vigour of the French on this side,
+we must note the decisions formed by their headquarters on August 31 and
+early on September 1. At a council of war held on the afternoon of the
+31st no decision was reached, probably because the exhaustion of the
+5th and 7th corps and the attack of the Bavarians on the 12th corps at
+Bazeilles rendered any decided movement very difficult. The general
+conclusion was that the army must have some repose; and Germans
+afterwards found on the battlefield a French order--"Rest to-day for the
+whole army." But already on the 30th an officer had come from Paris
+determined to restore the morale of the army and break through towards
+Bazaine. This was General de Wimpffen, who had gained distinction in
+previous wars, and, coming lately from Algeria to Paris, was there
+appointed to supersede de Failly in command of the 5th corps. Nor was
+this all. The Palikao Ministry apparently had some doubts as to
+MacMahon's energy, and feared that the Emperor himself hampered the
+operations. De Wimpffen therefore received an unofficial mandate to
+infuse vigour into the counsels at headquarters, and was entrusted with
+a secret written order to take over the supreme command if anything were
+to happen to MacMahon. On taking command of the 5th corps on the 30th,
+de Wimpffen found it demoralised by the hurried retreat through Mouzon;
+but neither this fact nor the exhaustion of the whole army abated the
+determination of this stalwart soldier to break through towards Metz.
+
+Early on September 1 the positions held by the French formed, roughly
+speaking, a triangle resting on the right bank of the Meuse from, near
+Bazeilles to Sedan and Glaire. Damming operations and the heavy rains of
+previous days had spread the river over the low-lying meadows, thus
+rendering it difficult, if not impossible, for an enemy to cross under
+fire; but this same fact lessened the space by which the French could
+endeavour to break through. Accordingly they deployed their forces
+almost wholly along the inner slopes of the Givonne brook and of the
+smaller stream that flows from the high land about Illy down to the
+village of Floing and thence to the Meuse. The heights of Illy, crowned
+by the Calvaire, formed the apex of the French position, while Floing
+and Bazeilles formed the other corners of what was in many respects
+good fighting-ground. Their strength was about 120,000 men, though many
+of these were disabled or almost helpless from fatigue; that of the
+Germans was greater on the whole, but three of their corps could not
+reach the scene of action before 1 P.M. owing to the heaviness of the
+roads[45]. At first, then, the French had a superiority of force and a
+far more compact position, as will be seen by the accompanying plan.
+
+[Footnote 45: Maurice, _The Franco-German War_, p. 235.]
+
+We now resume the account of the battle. The fighting in and around
+Bazeilles speedily led to one very important result. At 6 A.M. a
+splinter of a shell fired by the assailants from the hills north-east of
+that village, severely wounded Marshal MacMahon as he watched the
+conflict from a point in front of the village of Balan. Thereupon he
+named General Ducrot as his successor, passing over the claims of two
+generals senior to him. Ducrot, realising the seriousness of the
+position, prepared to draw off the troops towards the Calvaire of Illy
+preparatory to a retreat on Mézières by way of St. Menges. The news of
+this impending retreat, which must be conducted under the hot fire of
+the Germans now threatening the line of the Givonne, cut de Wimpffen to
+the quick. He knew that the Crown Prince held a force to the south-west
+of Sedan, ready to fall on the flank of any force that sought to break
+away to Mézières; and a temporary success of his own 5th corps against
+the Saxons in la Moncelle strengthened his prepossession in favour of a
+combined move eastwards towards Carignan and Metz. Accordingly, about
+nine o'clock he produced the secret order empowering him to succeed
+MacMahon should the latter be incapacitated. Ducrot at once yielded to
+the ministerial ukase; the Emperor sought to intervene in favour of
+Ducrot, only to be waved aside by the confident de Wimpffen; and thus
+the long conflict between MacMahon and the Palikao Ministry ended in
+victory for the latter--and disaster for France[46].
+
+[Footnote 46: See Lebrun's _Guerre de 1870: Bazeilles-Sédan_, for these
+disputes.] In hazarding this last statement we do not mean to imply
+that a retreat on Mézières would then have saved the whole army. It
+might, however, have enabled part of it to break through either to
+Mézières or the Belgian boundary; and it is possible that Ducrot had the
+latter objective in view when he ordered the concentration at Illy. In
+any case, that move was now countermanded in favour of a desperate
+attack on the eastern assailants. It need hardly be said that the result
+of these vacillations was deplorable, unsteadying the defenders, and
+giving the assailants time to bring up troops and cannon, and thereby
+strengthen their grip on every important point. Especially valuable was
+the approach of the 2nd Bavarian corps; setting out from Raucourt at 4
+A.M. it reached the hills south of Sedan about 9, and its artillery
+posted near Frénois began a terrible fire on the town and the French
+troops near it.
+
+About the same time the Second Division of the Saxons reinforced their
+hard-pressed comrades to the north of la Moncelle, where, on de
+Wimpffen's orders, the French were making a strong forward move. The
+opportune arrival of these new German troops saved their artillery,
+which had been doing splendid service. The French were driven back
+across the Givonne with heavy loss, and the massed battery of 100 guns
+crushed all further efforts at advance on this side. Meanwhile at
+Bazeilles the marines had worthily upheld the honour of the French arms.
+Despite the terrible artillery fire now concentrated on the village,
+they pushed the German footmen back, but never quite drove them out.
+These, when reinforced, renewed the fight with equal obstinacy; the
+inhabitants themselves joined in with whatever weapons fury suggested to
+them and as that merciless strife swayed to and fro amidst the roar of
+artillery, the crash of walls, and the hiss of flame, war was seen in
+all its naked ferocity.
+
+Yet here again, as at all points, the defence was gradually overborne by
+the superiority of the German artillery. About eleven o'clock the
+French, despite their superhuman efforts, were outflanked by the
+Bavarians and Saxons on the north of the village. Even then, when the
+regulars fell back, some of the inhabitants went on with their mad
+resistance; a great part of the village was now in flames, but whether
+they were kindled by the Germans, or by the retiring French so as to
+delay the victors, has never been cleared up. In either case, several of
+the inhabitants perished in the flames; and it is admitted that the
+Bavarians burnt some of the villagers for firing on them from the
+windows[47].
+
+[Footnote 47: M. Busch, _Bismarck in the Franco-German War_, vol. i. p.
+114.]
+
+In the defence of Bazeilles the French infantry showed its usual courage
+and tenacity. Elsewhere the weary and dispirited columns were speedily
+becoming demoralised under the terrific artillery fire which the Germans
+poured in from many points of vantage. The Prussian Guards coming up
+from Villers Cernay about 10 A.M. planted their formidable batteries so
+as to sweep the Bois de Garenne and the ground about the Calvaire d'Illy
+from the eastward; and about that time the guns of the 5th and 11th
+German corps, that had early crossed the Meuse below Sedan, were brought
+to bear on the west front of that part of the French position. The apex
+of the defenders' triangle was thus severely searched by some 200 guns;
+and their discharges, soon supported by the fire of skirmishers and
+volleys from the troops, broke all forward movements of the French on
+that side. On the south and south-east as many cannon swept the French
+lines, but from a greater distance.
+
+Up to nearly noon there seemed some chance of the French bursting
+through on the north, and some of them did escape. Yet no well-sustained
+effort took place on that side, apparently because, even after the loss
+of Bazeilles at eleven o'clock, de Wimpffen clung to the belief that he
+could cut his way out towards Carignan, if not by Bazeilles, then
+perhaps by some other way, as Daigny or la Moncelle. The reasoning by
+which he convinced himself is hard to follow; for the only road to
+Carignan on that side runs through Bazeilles. Perhaps we ought to say
+that he did not reason, but was haunted by one fixed notion; and the
+history of war from the time of the Roman Varro down to the age of the
+Austrian Mack and the French de Wimpffen shows that men whose brains
+work in grooves and take no account of what is on the right hand and the
+left, are not fit to command armies; they only yield easy triumphs to
+the great masters of warfare--Hannibal, Napoleon the Great, and
+von Moltke.
+
+De Wimpffen, we say, paid little heed to the remonstrances of Generals
+Douay and Ducrot at leaving the northern apex and the north-western
+front of the defence to be crushed by weight of metal and of numbers. He
+rode off towards Balan, near which village the former defenders of
+Bazeilles were making a gallant and partly successful stand, and no
+reinforcements were sent to the hills on the north. The villages of Illy
+and Floing were lost; then the French columns gave ground even up the
+higher ground behind them, so great was the pressure of the German
+converging advance. Worst of all, skulkers began to hurry from the ranks
+and seek shelter in the woods, or even under the ramparts of Sedan far
+in the rear. The French gunners still plied their guns with steady
+devotion, though hopelessly outmatched at all points, but it was clear
+that only a great forward dash could save the day. Ducrot therefore
+ordered General Margueritte with three choice cavalry regiments
+(Chasseurs d'Afrique) and several squadrons of Lancers to charge the
+advancing lines. Moving forward from the northern edge of the Bois de
+Garenne to judge his ground, Margueritte fell mortally wounded. De
+Bauffremont took his place, and those brave horsemen swept forward on a
+task as hopeless as that of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, or that of
+the French Cuirassiers at Wörth[48]. Their conduct was as glorious; but
+the terrible power of the modern rifle was once more revealed. The
+pounding of distant batteries they could brave; disordered but defiant
+they swept on towards the German lines, but when the German infantry
+opened fire almost at pistol range, rank after rank of the horsemen
+went down as grass before the scythe. Here and there small bands of
+horsemen charged the footmen on the flank, even in a few cases on their
+rear, it is said; but the charge, though bravely renewed, did little
+except to delay the German triumph and retrieve the honour of France.
+
+[Footnote 48: Lebrun (_op. cit._ pp. 126-127; also Appendix D) maintains
+that de Bauffremont then led the charge, de Gallifet leading only the
+3rd Chasseurs d'Afrique.]
+
+By about two o'clock the French cavalry was practically disabled, and
+there now remained no Imperial Guard, as at Waterloo, to shed some rays
+of glory over the disaster. Meanwhile, however, de Wimpffen had resolved
+to make one more effort. Gathering about him a few of the best infantry
+battalions in and about Sedan, he besought the Emperor to join him in
+cutting a way out towards the east. The Emperor sent no answer to this
+appeal; he judged that too much blood had already been needlessly shed.
+Still, de Wimpffen persisted in his mad endeavour. Bursting upon the
+Bavarians in the village of Balan, he drove them back for a space until
+his men, disordered by the rush, fell before the stubborn rally of the
+Bavarians and Saxons. With the collapse of this effort and the cutting
+up of the French cavalry behind Floing, the last frail barriers to the
+enemy's advance gave way. The roads to Sedan were now thronged with
+masses of fugitives, whose struggles to pass the drawbridges into the
+little fortress resembled an African battue; for King William and his
+Staff, in order to hurry on the inevitable surrender, bade the 200 or
+more pieces on the southern heights play upon the town. Still de
+Wimpffen refused to surrender, and, despite the orders of his sovereign,
+continued the hopeless struggle. At length, to stay the frightful
+carnage, the Emperor himself ordered the white flag to be hoisted[49]. A
+German officer went down to arrange preliminaries, and to his
+astonishment was ushered into the presence of the Emperor. The German
+Staff had no knowledge of his whereabouts. On hearing the news, King
+William, who throughout the day sat on horseback at the top of the slope
+behind Frénois, said to his son, the Crown Prince: "This is indeed a
+great success; and I thank thee that thou hast contributed to it." He
+gave his hand to his son, who kissed it, and then, in turn, to Moltke
+and to Bismarck, who kissed it also. In a short time, the French General
+Reille brought to the King the following autograph letter:--
+
+     MONSIEUR MON FRÈRE--N'ayant pu mourir au milieu de mes
+     troupes, il ne me reste qu'à remettre mon épée entre les
+     mains de Votre Majesté.--Je suis de Votre Majesté le
+     bon Frère
+
+     NAPOLÉON.
+
+     SÉDAN, _le 1er Septembre, 1870_.
+
+[Footnote 49: Lebrun, _op. cit._ pp. 130 _et seq._ for the disputes
+about surrender.]
+
+The King named von Moltke to arrange the terms and then rode away to a
+village farther south, it being arranged, probably at Bismarck's
+suggestion, that he should not see the Emperor until all was settled.
+Meanwhile de Wimpffen and other French generals, in conference with von
+Moltke, Bismarck, and Blumenthal, at the village of Donchéry, sought to
+gain easy terms by appealing to their generosity and by arguing that
+this would end the war and earn the gratitude of France. To all appeals
+for permission to let the captive army go to Algeria, or to lay down its
+arms in Belgium, the Germans were deaf,--Bismarck at length plainly
+saying that the French were an envious and jealous people on whose
+gratitude it would be idle to count. De Wimpffen then threatened to
+renew the fight rather than surrender, to which von Moltke grimly
+assented, but Bismarck again interposed to bring about a prolongation of
+the truce. Early on the morrow, Napoleon himself drove out to Donchéry
+in the hope of seeing the King. The Bismarckian Boswell has given us a
+glimpse of him as he then appeared: "The look in his light grey eyes was
+somewhat soft and dreamy, like that of people who have lived too fast."
+[In his case, we may remark, this was induced by the painful disease
+which never left him all through the campaign, and carried him off three
+years later.] "He wore his cap a little on the right, to which side his
+head also inclined. His short legs were out of proportion to the long
+upper body. His whole appearance was a little unsoldier-like. The man
+looked too soft--I might say too spongy--for the uniform he wore."
+
+Bismarck, the stalwart Teuton who had wrecked his policy at all points,
+met him at Donchéry and foiled his wish to see the King, declaring this
+to be impossible until the terms of the capitulation were settled. The
+Emperor then had a conversation with the Chancellor in a little cottage
+belonging to a weaver. Seating themselves on two rush-bottomed chairs
+beside the one deal table, they conversed on the greatest affairs of
+State. The Emperor said he had not sought this war--"he had been driven
+into it by the pressure of public opinion. I replied" (wrote Bismarck)
+"that neither had any one with us wished for war--the King least of
+all[50]." Napoleon then pleaded for generous terms, but admitted that
+he, as a prisoner, could not fix them; they must be arranged with de
+Wimpffen. About ten o'clock the latter agreed to an unconditional
+surrender for the rank and file of the French army, but those officers
+who bound themselves by their word of honour (in writing) not to fight
+again during the present war were to be set free. Napoleon then had an
+interview with the King. What transpired is not known, but when the
+Emperor came out "his eyes" (wrote Bismarck) "were full of tears."
+
+[Footnote 50: Busch, _Bismarck on the Franco-German War_, vol. i. p.
+109. Contrast this statement with his later efforts (_Reminiscences_,
+vol. ii. pp. 95-100) to prove that he helped to bring on war.]
+
+The fallen monarch accepted the King's offer of the castle of
+Wilhelmshöhe near Cassel for his residence up to the end of the war; it
+was the abode on which Jerome Bonaparte had spent millions of thalers,
+wrung from Westphalian burghers, during his brief sovereignty in
+1807-1813. Thither his nephew set out two days after the catastrophe of
+Sedan. And this, as it seems, was the end of a dynasty whose rise to
+power dated from the thrilling events of the Bridge of Lodi, Arcola,
+Rivoli, and the Pyramids. The French losses on September 1 were about
+3000 killed, 14,000 wounded, and 21,000 prisoners. On the next day
+there surrendered 83,000 prisoners by virtue of the capitulation, along
+with 419 field-pieces and 139 cannon of the fortress. Some 3000 had
+escaped, through the gap in the German lines on the north-east, to the
+Belgian frontier, and there laid down their arms.
+
+The news of this unparalleled disaster began to leak out at Paris late
+on the 2nd; on the morrow, when details were known, crowds thronged into
+the streets shouting "Down with the Empire! Long live the Republic!"
+Power still remained with the Empress-Regent and the Palikao Ministry.
+All must admit that the Empress Eugénie did what was possible in this
+hopeless position. She appealed to that charming literary man, M.
+Prosper Mérimée, to go to his friend, M. Thiers (at whom we shall glance
+presently), and beg him to form a Ministry that would save the Empire
+for the young Prince Imperial. M. Thiers politely but firmly refused to
+give a helping hand to the dynasty which he looked on as the author of
+his country's ruin.
+
+On that day the Empress also summoned the Chambers--the Senate and the
+Corps Législatif--a vain expedient, for in times of crisis the French
+look to a man, not to Chambers. The Empire had no man at hand. General
+Trochu, Governor of Paris, was suspected of being a Republican--at any
+rate he let matters take their course. On the 4th, vast crowds filled
+the streets; a rush was made to the Chamber, where various compromises
+were being discussed; the doors were forced, and amid wild excitement a
+proposal to dethrone the Napoleonic dynasty was put. Two Republican
+deputies, Gambetta and Jules Favre, declared that the Hôtel de Ville was
+the fit place to declare the Republic. There, accordingly, it was
+proclaimed, the deputies for the city of Paris taking office as the
+Government of National Defence. They were just in time to prevent
+Socialists like Blanqui, Flourens, and Henri Rochefort from installing
+the "Commune" in power. The Empress and the Prince Imperial at once
+fled, and, apart from a protest by the Senate, no voice was raised in
+defence of the Empire. Jules Favre who took up the burden of Foreign
+Affairs in the new Government of National Defence was able to say in his
+circular note of September 6 that "the Revolution of September 4 took
+place without the shedding of a drop of blood or the loss of liberty to
+a single person[51]."
+
+[Footnote 51: Gabriel Hanotaux, _Contemporary France_, vol. i. p. 14
+(Eng. edit.)]
+
+That fact shows the unreality of Bonapartist rule in France. At bottom
+Napoleon III.'s ascendancy was due to several causes, that told against
+possible rivals rather than directly in his favour. Hatred of the
+socialists, whose rash political experiments had led to the bloody days
+of street fighting in Paris in June 1848, counted for much. Added to
+this was the unpopularity of the House of Orleans after the sordid and
+uninteresting rule of Louis Philippe (1830-48). The antiquated royalism
+of the Elder or Legitimist branch of that ill-starred dynasty made it
+equally an impossibility. Louis Napoleon promised to do what his
+predecessors, Monarchical and Republican, had signally failed to do,
+namely, to reconcile the claims of liberty and order at home and uphold
+the prestige of France abroad. For the first ten years the glamour of
+his name, the skill with which he promoted the material prosperity of
+France, and the successes of his early wars, promised to build up a
+lasting power. But then came the days of failing health and tottering
+prestige--of financial scandals, of the Mexican blunder, of the
+humiliation before the rising power of Prussia. To retrieve matters he
+toyed with democracy in France, and finally allowed his Ministers to
+throw down a challenge to Prussia; for, in the words of a French
+historian, the conditions on which he held power "condemned him to be
+brilliant[52]."
+
+[Footnote 52: Said in 1852 by an eminent Frenchman to our countryman,
+Nassau Senior (_Journals_, ii. _ad fin_).]
+
+Failing at Sedan, he lost all; and he knew it. His reign, in fact, was
+one long disaster for France. The canker of moral corruption began to
+weaken her public life when the creatures of whom he made use in the
+_coup d'état _of 1851 crept into place and power. The flashy
+sensationalism of his policy, setting the tone for Parisian society, was
+fatal to the honest unseen drudgery which builds up a solid edifice
+alike in public and in private life. Even the better qualities of his
+nature told against ultimate success. As has been shown, his vague but
+generous ideas on Nationality drew French policy away from the paths of
+obvious self-interest after the year 1864, and gave an easy victory to
+the keen and objective statecraft of Bismarck. That he loved France as
+sincerely as he believed in the power of the Bonapartist tradition to
+help her, can scarcely admit of doubt. His conduct during the war of
+1870 showed him to be disinterested, while his vision was clearer than
+that of the Generals about him. But in the field of high policy, as in
+the moral events that make or mar a nation's life, his influence told
+heavily against the welfare of France; and he must have carried into
+exile the consciousness that his complex nature and ill-matched
+strivings had but served to bring his dynasty and his country to an
+unexampled overthrow.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It may be well to notice here an event of world-wide importance, which
+came as a sequel to the military collapse of France. Italians had always
+looked to the day when Rome would be the national capital. The great
+Napoleon during his time of exile at St. Helena had uttered the
+prophetic words: "Italy isolated between her natural limits is destined
+to form a great and powerful nation. . . . Rome will without doubt be
+chosen by the Italians as their capital." The political and economic
+needs of the present, coinciding herein with the voice of tradition,
+always so strong in Italian hearts, pointed imperiously to Rome as the
+only possible centre of national life.
+
+As was pointed out in the Introduction, Pius IX. after the years of
+revolution, 1848-49, felt the need of French troops in his capital, and
+his harsh and reactionary policy (or rather, that of his masterful
+Secretary of State, Antonelli) before long completely alienated the
+feelings of his subjects.
+
+After the master-mind of Cavour was removed by death, (June 1861), the
+patriots struggled desperately, but in vain, to rid Rome of the presence
+of foreign troops and win her for the national cause. Garibaldi's raids
+of 1862 and 1867 were foiled, the one by Italian, the other by French
+troops; and the latter case, which led to the sharp fight of Mentana,
+effaced any feelings of gratitude to Napoleon III. for his earlier help,
+which survived after his appropriation of Savoy and Nice. Thus matters
+remained in 1867-70, the Pope relying on the support of French bayonets
+to coerce his own subjects. Clearly this was a state of things which
+could not continue. The first great shock must always bring down a
+political edifice which rests not on its own foundations, but on
+external buttresses. These were suddenly withdrawn by the war of 1870.
+Early in August, Napoleon ordered all his troops to leave the Papal
+States; and the downfall of his power a month later absolved Victor
+Emmanuel from the claims of gratitude which he still felt towards his
+ally of 1859.
+
+At once the forward wing of the Italian national party took action in a
+way that either forced, or more probably encouraged, Victor Emmanuel's
+Government to step in under the pretext of preventing the creation of a
+Roman Republic. The King invited Pius IX. to assent to the peaceful
+occupation of Rome by the royal troops, and on receiving the expected
+refusal, moved forward 35,000 soldiers. The resistance of the 11,000
+Papal troops proved to be mainly a matter of form. The wall near the
+Porta Pia soon crumbled before the Italian cannon, and after a brief
+struggle at the breach, the white flag was hoisted at the bidding of the
+Pope (Sept. 20).
+
+Thus fell the temporal power of the Papacy. The event aroused
+comparatively little notice in that year of marvels, but its results
+have been momentous. At the time there was a general sense of relief, if
+not of joy, in Italy, that the national movement had reached its goal,
+albeit in so tame and uninspiring a manner. Rome had long been a prey to
+political reaction, accompanied by police supervision of the most
+exasperating kind. The _plébiscite_ as to the future government gave
+133,681 votes for Victor Emmanuel's rule, and only 1507 negative
+votes[53].
+
+[Footnote 53: Countess Cesaresco, _The Liberation of Italy_, p. 411.]
+
+Now, for the first time since the days of Napoleon I. and of the
+short-lived Republic for which Mazzini and Garibaldi worked and fought
+so nobly in 1849, the Eternal City began to experience the benefits of
+progressive rule. The royal government soon proved to be very far from
+perfect. Favouritism, the multiplication of sinecures, municipal
+corruption, and the prosaic inroads of builders and speculators, soon
+helped to mar the work of political reconstruction, and began to arouse
+a certain amount of regret for the more picturesque times of the Papal
+rule. A sentimental reaction of this kind is certain to occur in all
+cases of political change, especially in a city where tradition and
+emotion so long held sway.
+
+The consciences of the faithful were also troubled when the _fiat_ of
+the Pope went forth excommunicating the robber-king and all his chief
+abettors in the work of sacrilege. Sons of the Church throughout Italy
+were bidden to hold no intercourse with the interlopers and to take no
+part in elections to the Italian Parliament which thenceforth met in
+Rome. The schism between the Vatican and the King's Court and Government
+was never to be bridged over; and even to-day it constitutes one of the
+most perplexing problems of Italy.
+
+Despite the fact that Rome and Italy gained little of that mental and
+moral stimulus which might have resulted from the completion of the
+national movement solely by the action of the people themselves, the
+fact nevertheless remains that Rome needed Italy and Italy needed Rome.
+The disappointment loudly expressed by idealists, sentimentalists, and
+reactionaries must not blind us to the fact that the Italians, and above
+all the Romans, have benefited by the advent of unity, political
+freedom, and civic responsibility. It may well be that, in acting as the
+leader of a constitutional people, the Eternal City will little by
+little develop higher gifts than those nurtured under Papal tutelage,
+and perhaps as beneficent to Humanity as those which, in the ancient
+world, bestowed laws on Europe.
+
+As Mazzini always insisted, political progress, to be sound, must be
+based ultimately on moral progress. It is of its very nature slow, and
+is therefore apt to escape the eyes of the moralist or cynic who dwells
+on the untoward signs of the present. But the Rome for which Mazzini and
+his compatriots yearned and struggled can hardly fail ultimately to rise
+to the height of her ancient traditions and of that noble prophecy of
+Dante: "_There_ is the seat of empire. There never was, and there never
+will be, a people endowed with such capacity to acquire command, with
+more vigour to maintain it, and more gentleness in its exercise, than
+the Italian nation, and especially the Holy Roman people." The lines
+with which Mr. Swinburne closed his "Dedication" of _Songs before
+Sunrise_ to Joseph Mazzini are worthy of finding a place side by side
+with the words of the mediaeval seer:--
+
+     Yea, even she as at first,
+     Yea, she alone and none other,
+     Shall cast down, shall build up, shall bring home,
+     Slake earth's hunger and thirst,
+     Lighten, and lead as a mother;
+     First name of the world's names, Rome.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE FOUNDING OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
+
+     "[Greek: egigneto te logo men daemokratia, ergo de hupo tou
+     protou andros archae]."
+
+     "Thus Athens, though still in name a democracy, was in fact
+     ruled by her greatest man."--THUCYDIDES, book ii. chap. 65.
+
+
+The aim of this work being to trace the outlines only of those
+outstanding events which made the chief States of the world what they
+are to-day, we can give only the briefest glance at the remaining events
+of the Franco-German War and the splendid though hopeless rally
+attempted by the newly-installed Government of National Defence. Few
+facts in recent history have a more thrilling interest than the details
+of the valiant efforts made by the young Republic against the invaders.
+The spirit in which they were made breathed through the words of M.
+Picard's proclamation on September 4: "The Republic saved us from the
+invasion of 1792. The Republic is proclaimed."
+
+Inspiring as was this reference to the great and successful effort of
+the First Republic against the troops of Central Europe in 1792, it was
+misleading. At that time Prussia had lapsed into a state of weakness
+through the double evils of favouritism and a facing-both-ways policy.
+Now she felt the strength born of sturdy championship of a great
+principle--that of Nationality--which had ranged nearly the whole of the
+German race on her side. France, on the other hand, owing to the
+shocking blunders of her politicians and generals during the war, had
+but one army corps free, that of General Vinoy, which hastily retreated
+from the neighbourhood of Mézières towards Paris on September 2 to 4.
+She therefore had to count almost entirely on the Garde Mobile, the
+Garde Nationale, and Francs-tireurs; but bitter experience was to show
+that this raw material could not be organised in a few weeks to
+withstand the trained and triumphant legions of Germany.
+
+Nevertheless there was no thought of making peace with the invaders. The
+last message of Count Palikao to the Chambers had been one of defiance
+to the enemy; and the Parisian deputies, nearly all of them Republicans,
+who formed the Government of National Defence, scouted all faint-hearted
+proposals. Their policy took form in the famous phrase of Jules Favre,
+Minister of Foreign Affairs: "We will give up neither an inch of our
+territory nor a stone of our fortresses." This being so, all hope of
+compromise with the Germans was vain. Favre had interviews with Bismarck
+at the Château de Ferrières (September 19); but his fine oratory, even
+his tears, made no impression on the Iron Chancellor, who declared that
+in no case would an armistice be granted, not even for the election of a
+National Assembly, unless France agreed to give up Alsace and a part of
+Lorraine, allowing the German troops also to hold, among other places,
+Strassburg and Toul.
+
+Obviously, a self-constituted body like the provisional Government at
+Paris could not accept these terms, which most deeply concerned the
+nation at large. In the existing temper of Paris and France, the mention
+of such terms meant war to the knife, as Bismarck must have known. On
+their side, Frenchmen could not believe that their great capital, with
+its bulwarks and ring of outer forts, could be taken; while the
+Germans--so it seems from the Diary of General von Blumenthal--looked
+forward to its speedy capitulation. One man there was who saw the
+pressing need of foreign aid. M. Thiers (whose personality will concern
+us a little later) undertook to go on a mission to the chief Powers of
+Europe in the hope of urging one or more of them to intervene on behalf
+of France.
+
+The details of that mission are, of course, not fully known. We can
+only state here that Russia now repaid Prussia's help in crushing the
+Polish rebellion of 1863 by neutrality, albeit tinged with a certain
+jealousy of German success. Bismarck had been careful to dull that
+feeling by suggesting that she (Russia) should take the present
+opportunity of annulling the provision, made after the Crimean War,
+which prevented her from sending war-ships on to the Black Sea; and this
+was subsequently done, under a thin diplomatic disguise, at the Congress
+of London (March 1871). Bismarck's astuteness in supporting Russia at
+this time therefore kept that Power quiet. As for Austria, she
+undoubtedly wished to intervene, but did not choose to risk a war with
+Russia, which would probably have brought another overthrow. Italy would
+not unsheathe her sword for France unless the latter recognised her
+right to Rome (which the Italian troops entered on September 20). To
+this the young French Republic demurred. Great Britain, of course,
+adhered to the policy of neutrality which she at first declared[54].
+
+[Footnote 54: See Débidour, _Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe_, vol.
+ii. pp. 412-415. For Bismarck's fears of intervention, especially that
+of Austria, see his _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p. 109 (English edit.);
+Count Beust's _Aus drei Viertel-Jahrhunderten_, pt. ii. pp. 361, 395;
+for Thiers' efforts see his _Notes_ on the years 1870-73 (Paris 1904).]
+
+Accordingly, France had to rely on her own efforts. They were
+surprisingly great. Before the complete investment of Paris (September
+20), a Delegation of the Government of National Defence had gone forth
+to Tours with the aim of stirring up the provinces to the succour of the
+besieged capital. Probably the whole of the Government ought to have
+gone there; for, shut up in the capital, it lost touch with the
+provinces, save when balloons and carrier-pigeons eluded the German
+sharpshooters and brought precious news[55]. The mistake was seen in
+time to enable a man of wondrous energy to leave Paris by balloon on
+October 7, to descend as a veritable _deus ex machina_ on the faltering
+Delegation at Tours, and to stir the blood of France by his invective.
+There was a touch of the melodramatic not only in his apparition but in
+his speeches. Frenchmen, however, follow a leader all the better if he
+is a good stage-manager and a clever actor. The new leader was both; but
+he was something more.
+
+[Footnote 55: M. Grégoire in his _Histoire de France_, vol. iv. p. 647,
+states that 64 balloons left Paris during the siege, 5 were captured and
+2 lost in the sea; 363 carrier-pigeons left the city and 57 came in. For
+details of the French efforts see _Les Responsabilités de la Défense
+rationale_, by H. Génevois; also _The People's War in France,
+1870-1871_, by Col. L. Hale (The Pall Mall Military Series, 1904),
+founded on Hönig's _Der Volkskrieg an der Loire_.]
+
+Léon Gambetta had leaped to the front rank at the Bar in the closing
+days of 1868 by a passionate outburst against the _coup d'état_,
+uttered, to the astonishment of all, in a small Court of Correctional
+Police, over a petty case of State prosecution of a small Parisian
+paper. Rejecting the ordinary methods of defence, the young barrister
+flung defiance at Napoleon III. as the author of the _coup d'état_ and
+of all the present degradation of France. The daring of the young
+barrister, who thus turned the tables on the authorities and impeached
+the head of the State, made a profound impression; it was redoubled by
+the Southern intensity of his thought and expression. Disdaining all
+forms of rhetoric, he poured forth a torrent of ideas, clothing them in
+the first words that came to his facile tongue, enforcing them by blows
+of the fist or the most violent gestures, and yet, again, modulating the
+roar of passion to the falsetto of satire or the whisper of emotion. His
+short, thick-set frame, vibrating with strength, doubled the force of
+all his utterances. Nor did they lack the glamour of poetry and romance
+that might be expected from his Italian ancestry. He came of a Genoese
+stock that had for some time settled in the South of France. Strange
+fate, that called him now to the front with the aim of repairing the
+ills wrought to France by another Italian House! In time of peace his
+power over men would have raised him to the highest positions had his
+Bohemian exuberance of thought and speech been tameable. It was not. He
+scorned prudence in moderation at all times, and his behaviour, when the
+wave of Revolution at last carried him to power, gave point to the taunt
+of Thiers--"c'est un fou furieux." Such was the man who now brought the
+quenchless ardour of his patriotism to the task of rousing France. As
+far as words and energy could call forth armies, he succeeded; but as he
+lacked all military knowledge, his blind self-confidence was to cost
+France dear.
+
+Possibly the new levies of the Republic might at some point have pierced
+the immense circle of the German lines around Paris (for at first the
+besieging forces were less numerous than the besieged), had not the
+assailants been strengthened by the fall of Metz (Oct. 27). This is not
+the place to discuss the culpability of Bazaine for the softness shown
+in the defence. The voluminous evidence taken at his trial shows that he
+was very slack in the critical days at the close of August; it is also
+certain that Bismarck duped him under the pretence that, on certain
+conditions to be arranged with the Empress Eugénie, his army might be
+kept intact for the sake of re-establishing the Empire[56]. The whole
+scheme was merely a device to gain time and keep Bazaine idle, and the
+German Chancellor succeeded here as at all points in his great game. On
+October 27, then, 6000 officers, 173,000 rank and file, were constrained
+by famine to surrender, along with 541 field-pieces and 800 siege guns.
+
+[Footnote 56: Bazaine gives the details from his point of view in his
+_Episodes de la Guerre de 1870 et le Blocus de Metz_ (Madrid, 1883). One
+of the go-betweens was a man Regnier, who pretended to come from the
+Empress Eugénie, then at Hastings; but Bismarck seems to have distrusted
+him and to have dismissed him curtly. The adventuress, Mme. Humbert,
+recently claimed that she had her "millions" from this Regnier. A sharp
+criticism on Bazaine's conduct at Metz is given in a pamphlet, _Réponse
+au Rapport sommaire sur les Opérations de l'Armée du Rhin_, by one of
+his Staff Officers. See, too, M. Samuel Denis in his recent work,
+_Histoire Contemporaine_ (de France).]
+
+This capitulation, the greatest recorded in the history of civilised
+nations, dealt a death-blow to the hopes of France. Strassburg had
+hoisted the white flag a month earlier; and the besiegers of these
+fortresses were free to march westwards and overwhelm the new levies.
+After gaining a success at Coulmiers, near Orleans (Nov. 9), the French
+were speedily driven down the valley of the Loire and thence as far west
+as Le Mans. In the North, at St. Quentin, the Germans were equally
+successful, as also in Burgundy against that once effective free-lance,
+Garibaldi, who came with his sons to fight for the Republic. The last
+effort was made by Bourbaki and a large but ill-compacted army against
+the enemy's communications in Alsace. By a speedy concentration the
+Germans at Héricourt, near Belfort, defeated this daring move (imposed
+by the Government of National Defence on Bourbaki against his better
+judgment), and compelled him and his hard-pressed followers to pass over
+into Switzerland (January 30, 1871).
+
+Meanwhile Paris had already surrendered. During 130 days, and that too
+in a winter of unusual severity, the great city had held out with a
+courage that neither defeats, schisms, dearth of food, nor the
+bombardment directed against its southern quarters could overcome.
+Towards the close of January famine stared the defenders in the face,
+and on the 28th an armistice was concluded, which put an end to the war
+except in the neighbourhood of Belfort. That exception was due to the
+determination of the Germans to press Bourbaki hard, while the French
+negotiators were not aware of his plight. The garrison of Paris, except
+12,000 men charged with the duty of keeping order, surrendered; the
+forts were placed in the besiegers' hands. When that was done the city
+was to be revictualled and thereafter pay a war contribution of
+200,000,000 francs (£8,000,000). A National Assembly was to be freely
+elected and meet at Bordeaux to discuss the question of peace. The
+National Guards retained their arms, Favre maintaining that it would be
+impossible to disarm them; for this mistaken weakness he afterwards
+expressed his profound sorrow[57].
+
+[Footnote 57: It of course led up to the Communist revolt. Bismarck's
+relations to the disorderly elements in Paris are not fully known; but
+he warned Favre on Jan. 26 to "provoke an _émeute_ while you have an
+army to suppress it with" (_Bismarck in Franco-German War_, vol. ii.
+p. 265).]
+
+Despite the very natural protests of Gambetta and many others against
+the virtual ending of the war at the dictation of the Parisian
+authorities, the voice of France ratified their action. An overwhelming
+majority declared for peace. The young Republic had done wonders in
+reviving the national spirit: Frenchmen could once more feel the
+self-confidence which had been damped by the surrenders of Sedan and
+Metz; but the instinct of self-preservation now called imperiously for
+the ending of the hopeless struggle. In the hurried preparations for the
+elections held on February 8, few questions were asked of the candidates
+except that of peace or war; and it soon appeared that a great majority
+was in favour of peace, even at the cost of part of the eastern
+provinces.
+
+Of the 630 deputies who met at Bordeaux on February 12, fully 400 were
+Monarchists, nearly evenly divided between the Legitimists and
+Orleanists; 200 were professed Republicans; but only 30 Bonapartists
+were returned. It is not surprising that the Assembly, which met in the
+middle of February, should soon have declared that the Napoleonic Empire
+had ceased to exist, as being "responsible for the ruin, invasion, and
+dismemberment of the country" (March 1). These rather exaggerated
+charges (against which Napoleon III. protested from his place of exile,
+Chislehurst) were natural in the then deplorable condition of France.
+What is surprising and needs a brief explanation here, is the fact that
+a monarchical Assembly should have allowed the Republic to be founded.
+
+This paradoxical result sprang from several causes, some of them of a
+general nature, others due to party considerations, while the personal
+influence of one man perhaps turned the balance at this crisis in the
+history of France. We will consider them in the order here named.
+
+Stating the matter broadly, we may say that the present Assembly was not
+competent to decide on the future constitution of France; and that vague
+but powerful instinct, which guides representative bodies in such cases,
+told against any avowedly partisan effort in that direction. The
+deputies were fully aware that they were elected to decide the urgent
+question of peace or war, either to rescue France from her long agony,
+or to pledge the last drops of her life-blood in an affair of honour.
+By an instinct of self-preservation, the electors, especially in the
+country districts, turned to the men of property and local influence as
+those who were most likely to save them from the frothy followers of
+Gambetta. Accordingly, local magnates were preferred to the barristers
+and pressmen, whose oratorical and literary gifts usually carry the day
+in France; and more than 200 noblemen were elected. They were chosen not
+on account of their nobility and royalism, but because they were certain
+to vote against the _fou furieux_.
+
+Then, too, the Royalists knew very well that time would be required to
+accustom France to the idea of a King, and to adjust the keen rivalries
+between the older and the younger branches of the Bourbon House.
+Furthermore, they were anxious that the odium of signing a disastrous
+peace should fall on the young Republic, not on the monarch of the
+future. Just as the great Napoleon in 1814 was undoubtedly glad that the
+giving up of Belgium and the Rhine boundary should devolve on his
+successor, Louis XVIII., and counted on that as one of the causes
+undermining the restored monarchy, so now the Royalists intended to
+leave the disagreeable duty of ceding the eastern districts of France to
+the Republicans who had so persistently prolonged the struggle. The
+clamour of no small section of the Republican party for war _à outrance_
+still played into the hands of the royalists and partly justified this
+narrow partisanship. Events, however, were to prove here, as in so many
+cases, that the party which undertook a pressing duty and discharged it
+manfully, gained more in the end than those who shirked responsibility
+and left the conduct of affairs to their opponents. Men admire those who
+dauntlessly pluck the flower, safety, out of the nettle, danger.
+
+Finally, the influence of one commanding personality was ultimately to
+be given to the cause of the Republic. That strange instinct which in
+times of crisis turns the gaze of a people towards the one necessary
+man, now singled out M. Thiers. The veteran statesman was elected in
+twenty-six Departments. Gambetta and General Trochu, Governor of Paris,
+were each elected nine times over. It was clear that the popular voice
+was for the policy of statesmanlike moderation which Thiers now summed
+up in his person; and Gambetta for a time retired to Spain.
+
+The name of Thiers had not always stood for moderation. From the time of
+his youth, when his journalistic criticisms on the politics, literature,
+art and drama of the Restoration period set all tongues wagging, to the
+day when his many-sided gifts bore him to power under Louis Philippe, he
+stood for all that is most beloved by the vivacious sons of France. His
+early work, _The History of the French Revolution_, had endeared him to
+the survivors of the old Jacobin and Girondin parties, and his eager
+hostility to England during his term of office flattered the Chauvinist
+feelings that steadily grew in volume during the otherwise dull reign of
+Louis Philippe. In the main, Thiers was an upholder of the Orleans
+dynasty, yet his devotion to constitutional principles, the ardour of
+his Southern temperament,--he was a Marseillais by birth,--and the
+vivacious egotism that never brooked contradiction, often caused sharp
+friction with the King and the King's friends. He seemed born for
+opposition and criticism. Thereafter, his conduct of affairs helped to
+undermine the fabric of the Second Republic (1848-51). Flung into prison
+by the minions of Louis Napoleon at the time of the _coup d'état_, he
+emerged buoyant as ever, and took up again the rôle that he loved
+so well.
+
+Nevertheless, amidst all the seeming vagaries of Thiers' conduct there
+emerge two governing principles--a passionate love of France, and a
+sincere attachment to reasoned liberty. The first was absolute and
+unchangeable; the second admitted of some variations if the ruler did
+not enhance the glory of France, and also (as some cynics said)
+recognise the greatness of M. Thiers. For the many gibes to which his
+lively talents and successful career exposed him, he had his revenge.
+His keen glance and incisive reasoning generally warned him of the
+probable fate of Dynasties and Ministries. Like Talleyrand, whom he
+somewhat resembled in versatility, opportunism, and undying love of
+France, he might have said that he never deserted a Government before it
+deserted itself. He foretold the fall of Louis Philippe under the
+reactionary Guizot Ministry as, later on, he foretold the fall of
+Napoleon III. He blamed the Emperor for not making war on Prussia in
+1866 with the same unanswerable logic that marked his opposition to the
+mad rush for war in 1870. And yet the war spirit had been in some sense
+strengthened by his own writings. His great work, _The History of the
+Consulate and Empire_, which appeared from 1845 to 1862--the last eight
+volumes came out during the Second Empire--was in the main a
+glorification of the First Napoleon. Men therefore asked with some
+impatience why the panegyrist of the uncle should oppose the supremacy
+of the nephew; and the action of the crowd in smashing the historian's
+windows after his great speech against the war of 1870 cannot be called
+wholly illogical, even if it erred on the side of Gallic vivacity.
+
+In the feverish drama of French politics Time sometimes brings an
+appropriate Nemesis. It was so now. The man who had divided the energies
+of his manhood between parliamentary opposition of a somewhat factious
+type and the literary cultivation of the Napoleonic legend, was now in
+the evening of his days called upon to bear a crushing load of
+responsibility in struggling to win the best possible terms of peace
+from the victorious Teuton, in mediating between contending factions at
+Bordeaux and Paris, and, finally, in founding a form of government which
+never enlisted his whole-hearted sympathy, save as the least
+objectionable expedient then open to France.
+
+For the present, the great thing was to gain peace with the minimum of
+sacrifice for France. Who could drive a better bargain than Thiers, the
+man who knew France so well, and had recently felt the pulse of the
+Governments of Europe? Accordingly, on the 17th of February, the
+Assembly named him Head of the Executive Power "until it is based upon
+the French Constitution." He declined to accept this post until the
+words "of the French Republic" were substituted for the latter clause.
+He had every reason for urging this demand. Unlike the Republic of 1848,
+the strength of which was chiefly, or almost solely, in Paris, the
+Republic was proclaimed at Lyons, Marseilles, and Bordeaux, before any
+news came of the overthrow of the Napoleonic dynasty at the capital[58].
+
+[Footnote 58: Seignobos, _A Political History of Contemporary Europe_,
+vol. i. p. 187 (Eng. edit.).]
+
+He now entrusted three important portfolios, those for Foreign Affairs,
+Home Affairs, and Public Instruction, to pronounced Republicans--Jules
+Favre, Picard, and Jules Simon. Having pacified the monarchical majority
+by appealing to them to defer all questions respecting the future
+constitution until affairs were more settled, he set out to meet
+Bismarck at Versailles.
+
+A disadvantage which almost necessarily besets parliamentary
+institutions had weakened the French case before the negotiations began.
+The composition of the Assembly implied a strong desire for peace--a
+fact which Thiers had needlessly emphasised before he left Bordeaux. On
+the other hand, Bismarck was anxious to end the war. He knew enough to
+be uneasy at the attitude of the neutral States; for public opinion was
+veering round in England, Austria, and Italy to a feeling of keen
+sympathy for France, and even Russia was restless at the sight of the
+great military Empire that had sprung into being on her flank. The
+recent proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles--an event that
+will be treated in a later chapter--opened up a vista of great
+developments for the Fatherland, not unmixed with difficulties and
+dangers. Above all, sharp differences had arisen between him and the
+military men at the German headquarters, who wished to "bleed France
+white" by taking a large portion of French Lorraine (including its
+capital Nancy), a few colonies, and part of her fleet. It is now known
+that Bismarck, with the same moderation that he displayed after
+Königgrätz, opposed these extreme claims, because he doubted the
+advisability of keeping Metz, with its large French population. The
+words in which he let fall these thoughts while at dinner with Busch on
+February 21 deserve to be quoted:--
+
+     If they (the French) gave us a milliard more (£40,000,000) we
+     might perhaps let them have Metz. We would then take
+     800,000,000 francs, and build ourselves a fortress a few
+     miles further back, somewhere about Falkenberg or
+     Saarbrück--there must be some suitable spot thereabouts. We
+     should thus make a clear profit of 200,000,000 francs.
+     [N.B.--A milliard = 1,000,000,000 francs.] I do not like so
+     many Frenchmen being in our house against their will. It is
+     just the same with Belfort. It is all French there too. The
+     military men, however, will not be willing to let Metz slip,
+     and perhaps they are right[59].
+
+[Footnote 59: Busch, _Bismarck in the Franco-German War_, vol. ii. p.
+341.]
+
+A sharp difference of opinion had arisen between Bismarck and Moltke on
+this question, and the Emperor Wilhelm intervened in favour of Moltke.
+That decided the question of Metz against Thiers despite his threat that
+this might lead to a renewal of war. For Belfort, however, the French
+statesman made a supreme effort. That fortress holds a most important
+position. Strong in itself, it stands as sentinel guarding the gap of
+nearly level ground between the spurs of the Vosges and those of the
+Jura. If that virgin stronghold were handed over to Germany, she would
+easily be able to pour her legions down the valley of the Doubs and
+dominate the rich districts of Burgundy and the Lyonnais. Besides,
+military honour required France to keep a fortress that had kept the
+tricolour flying. Metz the Germans held, and it was impossible to turn
+them out. Obviously the case of Belfort was on a different footing. In
+his conference of February 24, Thiers at last defied Bismarck in these
+words: "No; I will never yield Belfort and Metz in the same breath. You
+wish to ruin France in her finances, in her frontiers. Well! Take her.
+Conduct her administration, collect her revenues, and you will have to
+govern her in the face of Europe--if Europe permits[60]."
+
+[Footnote 60: G. Hanotaux, _Contemporary France_, vol i. p. 124 (Eng.
+edit.). This work is the most detailed and authoritative that has yet
+appeared on these topics. See, too, M. Samuel Denis' work, _Histoire
+Contemporaine_.]
+
+Probably this defiance had less weight with the Iron Chancellor than his
+conviction, noticed above, that to bring two entirely French towns
+within the German Empire would prove a source of weakness; beside which
+his own motto, _Beati possidentes_, told with effect in the case of
+Belfort. That stronghold was accordingly saved for France. Thiers also
+obtained a reduction of a milliard from the impossible sum of six
+milliards first named for the war indemnity due to Germany; in this
+matter Jules Favre states that British mediation had been of some avail.
+If so, it partly accounts for the hatred of England which Bismarck
+displayed in his later years. The Preliminaries of Peace were signed at
+Versailles on February 26.
+
+One other matter remained. The Germans insisted that, if Belfort
+remained to France, part of their army should enter Paris. In vain did
+Thiers and Jules Favre point out the irritation that this would cause
+and the possible ensuing danger. The German Emperor and his Staff made
+it a point of honour, and 30,000 of their troops accordingly marched in
+and occupied for a brief space the district of the Champs Élysées. The
+terms of peace were finally ratified in the Treaty of Frankfurt (May 10,
+1871), whereby France ceded Alsace and part of Lorraine, with a
+population of some 1,600,000 souls, and underwent the other losses noted
+above. Last but not least was the burden of supporting the German army
+of occupation that kept its grip on the north-east of France until, as
+the instalments came in, the foreign troops were proportionately drawn
+away eastwards. The magnitude of these losses and burdens had already
+aroused cries of anguish in France. The National Assembly at Bordeaux,
+on first hearing the terms, passionately confirmed the deposition of
+Napoleon III.; while the deputies from the ceded districts lodged a
+solemn protest against their expatriation (March 1). Some of the
+advanced Republican deputies, refusing to acknowledge the cession of
+territory, resigned their seats in the Assembly. Thus there began a
+schism between the Radicals, especially those of Paris, and the
+Assembly, which was destined to widen into an impassable gulf. Matters
+were made worse by the decision of the Assembly to sit, not at the
+capital, but at Versailles, where it would be free from the commotions
+of the great city. Thiers himself declared in favour of Versailles;
+there the Assembly met for the first time on March 20, 1871.
+
+A conflict between this monarchical Assembly and the eager Radicals of
+Paris perhaps lay in the nature of things. The majority of the deputies
+looked forward to the return of the King (whether the Comte de Chambord
+of the elder Bourbons, or the Comte de Paris of the House of Orleans) as
+soon as France should be freed from the German armies of occupation and
+the spectre of the Red Terror. Some of their more impatient members
+openly showed their hand, and while at Bordeaux began to upbraid Thiers
+for his obstinate neutrality on this question. For his part, the wise
+old man had early seen the need of keeping the parties in check. On
+February 17 he begged them to defer questions as to the future form of
+government, working meanwhile solely for the present needs of France,
+and allowing future victory to be the meed of that party which showed
+itself most worthy of trust. "Can there be any man" (he exclaimed) "who
+would dare learnedly to discuss the articles of the Constitution, while
+our prisoners are dying of misery far away, or while our people,
+perishing of hunger, are obliged to give their last crust to the foreign
+soldiers?" A similar appeal on March led to the informal truce on
+constitutional questions known as the Compact of Bordeaux. It was at
+best an uncertain truce, certain to be broken at the first sign of
+activity on the Republican side.
+
+That activity was now put forth by the "Reds" of Paris. It would take us
+far too long to describe the origins of the municipal socialism which
+took form in the Parisian Commune of 1871. The first seeds of that
+movement had been sown by its prototype of 1792-93, which summed up all
+the daring and vigour of the revolutionary socialism of that age. The
+idea had been kept alive by the "National Workshops" of 1848, whose
+institution and final suppression by the young Republic of that year had
+been its own undoing.
+
+History shows, then, that Paris, as the head of France, was accustomed
+to think and act vigorously for herself in time of revolution. But
+experience proved no less plainly that the limbs, that is, the country
+districts, generally refused to follow the head in these fantastic
+movements. Hence, after a short spell of St. Vitus' activity, there
+always came a time of strife, followed only too often by torpor, when
+the body reduced the head to a state of benumbed subjection. The triumph
+of rural notions accounts for the reactions of 1831-47, and 1851-70.
+Paris having once more regained freedom of movement by the fall of the
+Second Empire on September 4, at once sought to begin her
+politico-social experiments, and, as we pointed out, only the
+promptitude of the "moderates," when face to face with the advancing
+Germans, averted the catastrophe of a socialistic regime in Paris during
+the siege. Even so, the Communists made two determined efforts to gain
+power; the former of these, on October 31, nearly succeeded. Other towns
+in the centre and south, notably Lyons, were also on the brink of
+revolutionary socialism, and the success of the movement in Paris might
+conceivably have led to a widespread trial of the communal experiment.
+The war helped to keep matters in the old lines.
+
+But now, the feelings of rage at the surrender of Paris and the cession
+of the eastern districts of France, together with hatred of the
+monarchical assembly that flouted the capital by sitting at the abode of
+the old Kings of France, served to raise popular passion to fever heat.
+The Assembly undoubtedly made many mistakes: it authorised the payment
+of rents and all other obligations in the capital for the period of
+siege as if in ordinary times, and it appointed an unpopular man to
+command the National Guards of Paris. At the close of February the
+National Guards formed a Central Committee to look after their interests
+and those of the capital; and when the Executive of the State sent
+troops of the line to seize their guns parked on Montmartre, the
+Nationals and the rabble turned out in force. The troops refused to act
+against the National Guards, and these murdered two Generals, Lecomte
+and Thomas (March 18). Thiers and his Ministers thereupon rather tamely
+retired to Versailles, and the capital fell into the hands of the
+Communists. Greater firmness at the outset might have averted the
+horrors that followed.
+
+The Communists speedily consulted the voice of the people by elections
+conducted in the most democratic spirit. In many respects their
+programme of municipal reforms marked a great improvement on the type of
+town-government prevalent during the Empire. That was, practically,
+under the control of the imperial _préfets_. The Communists now asserted
+the right of each town to complete self-government, with the control of
+its officials, magistrates, National Guards, and police, as well as of
+taxation, education, and many other spheres of activity. The more
+ambitious minds looked forward to a time when France would form a
+federation of self-governing Communes, whose delegates, deciding matters
+of national concern, would reduce the executive power to complete
+subservience. At bottom this Communal Federalism was the ideal of
+Rousseau and of his ideal Cantonal State.
+
+By such means, they hoped, the brain of France would control the body,
+the rural population inevitably taking the position of hewers of wood
+and drawers of water, both in a political and material sense.
+Undoubtedly the Paris Commune made some intelligent changes which
+pointed the way to reforms of lasting benefit; but it is very
+questionable whether its aims could have achieved permanence in a land
+so very largely agricultural as France then was. Certainly it started
+its experiment in the worst possible way, namely, by defying the
+constituted authorities of the nation at large, and by adopting the old
+revolutionary calendar, and the red flag, the symbol of social
+revolution. Thenceforth it was an affair of war to the knife.
+
+The National Government, sitting at Versailles, could not at first act
+with much vigour. Many of the line regiments sympathised with the
+National Guards of Paris: these were 200,000 strong, and had command of
+the walls and some of the posts to the south-west of Paris. The Germans
+still held the forts to the north and east of the capital, and refused
+to allow any attack on that side. It has even been stated that Bismarck
+favoured the Communists; but this is said to have resulted from their
+misreading of his promise to maintain a _friedlich_ (peaceful) attitude,
+as if it were _freundlich_ (friendly)[61]. The full truth as to
+Bismarck's relations to the Commune is not known. The Germans, however,
+sent back a force of French prisoners, and these with other troops,
+after beating back the Communist sortie of April 3, began to threaten
+the defences of the city. The strife at once took on a savage character,
+as was inevitable after the murder of two Generals in Paris. The
+Versailles troops, treating the Communists as mere rebels, shot their
+chief officers. Thereupon the Commune retaliated by ordering the capture
+of hostages, and by seizing the Archbishop of Paris, and several other
+ecclesiastics (April 5). It also decreed the abolition of the budget for
+Public Worship and the confiscation of clerical and monastic property
+_throughout France_--a proposal which aroused ridicule and contempt.
+
+[Footnote 61: Débidour, _Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe_, vol. ii. p.
+438-440.]
+
+It would be tedious to dwell on the details of this terrible strife.
+Gradually the regular forces overpowered the National Guards of Paris,
+drove them from the southern forts, and finally (May 21) gained a
+lodgment within the walls of Paris at the Auteuil gate. Then followed a
+week of street-fighting and madness such as Europe had not seen since
+the Peninsular War. "Room for the people, for the bare-armed fighting
+men. The hour of the revolutionary war has struck." This was the placard
+posted throughout Paris on the 22nd, by order of the Communist chief,
+Delescluze. And again, "After the barricades, our houses; after our
+houses, our ruins." Preparations were made to burn down a part of
+Central Paris to delay the progress of the Versaillese. Rumour magnified
+this into a plan of wholesale incendiarism, and wild stories were told
+of _pétroleuses_ flinging oil over buildings, and of Communist firemen
+ready to pump petroleum. A squad of infuriated "Reds" rushed off and
+massacred the Archbishop of Paris and six other hostages, while
+elsewhere Dominican friars, captured regulars, and police agents fell
+victims to the rage of the worsted party.
+
+Madness seemed to have seized on the women of Paris. Even when the men
+were driven from barricades by weight of numbers or by the capture of
+houses on their flank, these creatures fought on with the fury of
+despair till they met the death which the enraged linesmen dealt out to
+all who fought, or seemed to have fought. Simpson, the British war
+correspondent, tells how he saw a brutal officer tear the red cross off
+the arm of a nurse who tended the Communist wounded, so that she might
+be done to death as a fighter[62]. Both sides, in truth, were maddened
+by the long and murderous struggle, which showed once again that no
+strife is so horrible as that of civil war. On Sunday, May 28, the last
+desperate band was cut down at the Cemetery Père-Lachaise, and fighting
+gave way to fusillades. Most of the chiefs perished without the pretence
+of trial, and the same fate befel thousands of National Guards, who were
+mown down in swathes and cast into trenches. In the last day of
+fighting, and the horrible time that followed, 17,000 Parisians are said
+to have perished[63]. Little by little, law reasserted her sway, but
+only to doom 9600 persons to heavy punishment. Not until 1879 did
+feelings of mercy prevail, and then, owing to Gambetta's powerful
+pleading, an amnesty was passed for the surviving Communist prisoners.
+
+[Footnote 62: _The Autobiography of William Simpson_ (London, 1903), p.
+261.]
+
+[Footnote 63: G. Hanotaux, _Contemporary France_, p. 225. For further
+details see Lissagaray's _History of the Commune_; also personal details
+in Washburne's _Recollections of a Minister to France_, 1869-1877, vol.
+ii. chaps, ii.-vii.]
+
+The Paris Commune affords the last important instance of a determined
+rising in Europe against a civilised Government. From this statement we
+of course except the fitful efforts of the Carlists in Spain; and it is
+needless to say that the risings of the Bulgarians and other Slavs
+against Turkish rule have been directed against an uncivilised
+Government. The absence of revolts in the present age marks it off from
+all that have preceded, and seems to call for a brief explanation.
+Obviously, there is no lack of discontent, as the sequel will show.
+Finland, portions of Caucasia, and all the parts of the once mighty
+realm of Poland which have fallen to Russia and Prussia, now and again
+heave with anger and resentment. But these feelings are suppressed. They
+do not flame forth, as was the case in Poland as late as the year 1863.
+What is the reason for this? Mainly, it would seem, the enormous powers
+given to the modern organised State by the discoveries of mechanical
+science and the triumphs of the engineer. Telegraphy now flashes to the
+capital the news of a threatening revolt in the hundredth part of the
+time formerly taken by couriers with their relays of horses. Fully as
+great is the saving of time in the transport of large bodies of troops
+to the disaffected districts. Thus, the all-important factors that make
+for success--force, skill, and time--are all on the side of the central
+Governments[64].
+
+[Footnote 64: See _Turkey in Europe_, by "Odysseus" (p. 130), for the
+parallel instance of the enhanced power of the Sultan Abdul Hamid owing
+to the same causes.]
+
+The spread of constitutional rule has also helped to dispel
+discontent--or, at least, has altered its character. Representative
+government has tended to withdraw disaffection from the market-place,
+the purlieus of the poor, and the fastnesses of the forest, and to focus
+it noisily but peacefully in the columns of the Press and the arena of
+Parliament. The appeal now is not so much to arms as to argument; and in
+this new sphere a minority, provided that it is well organised and
+persistent, may generally hope to attain its ends. Revolt, even if it
+take the form of a refusal to pay taxes, is therefore an anachronism
+under a democracy; unless, as in the case of the American Civil War, two
+great sections of the country are irreconcilably opposed.
+
+The fact, however, that there has been no widespread revolt in Russia
+since the year 1863, shows that democracy has not been the chief
+influence tending to dissolve or suppress discontent. As we shall see in
+a later chapter, Russia has defied constitutionalism and ground down
+alien races and creeds; yet (up to the year 1904) no great rising has
+shaken her autocratic system to its base. This seems to prove that the
+immunity of the present age in regard to insurrections is due rather to
+the triumphs of mechanical science than to the progress of democracy.
+The fact is not pleasing to contemplate; but it must be faced. So also
+must its natural corollary: that the minority, if rendered desperate,
+may be driven to arm itself with new and terrible engines of destruction
+in order to shatter that superiority of force with which science has
+endowed the centralised Governments of to-day.
+
+Certain it is that desperation, perhaps brought about by a sense of
+helplessness in face of an armed nation, was one of the characteristics
+of the Paris Commune, as it was also of Nihilism in Russia. In fact the
+Communist effort of 1871 may be termed a belated attempt on the part of
+a daring minority to dominate France by seizing the machinery of
+government at Paris. The success of the Extremists of 1793 and 1848 in
+similar experiments--not to speak of the Communistic rising of Babeuf in
+1797--was only temporary; but doubtless it encouraged the "Reds" of 1871
+to make their mad bid for power. Now, however, the case was very
+different. France was no longer a lethargic mass, dominated solely by
+the eager brain of Paris. The whole country thrilled with political
+life. For the time, the provinces held the directing power, which had
+been necessarily removed from the capital; and--most powerful motive of
+all--they looked on the Parisian experiment as gross treason to _la
+patrie_, while she lay at the feet of the Germans. Thus, the very
+motives which for a space lent such prestige and power to the
+Communistic Jacobins of 1793 told against their imitators in 1871.
+
+The inmost details of their attempt will perhaps never be fully known;
+for too many of the actors died under the ruins of the building they had
+so heedlessly reared. Nevertheless, it is clear that the Commune was far
+from being the causeless outburst that it has often been represented. In
+part it resulted from the determination of the capital to free herself
+from the control of the "rurals" who dominated the National Assembly;
+and in that respect it foreshadowed, however crudely, what will probably
+be the political future of all great States, wherein the urban
+population promises altogether to outweigh and control that of the
+country. Further, it should be remembered that the experimenters of 1871
+believed the Assembly to have betrayed the cause of France by ceding her
+eastern districts, and to be on the point of handing over the Republic
+to the Monarchists. A fit of hysteria, or hypochondria, brought on by
+the exhausting siege and by exasperation at the triumphal entry of the
+Germans, added the touch of fury which enabled the Radicals of Paris to
+challenge the national authorities and thereafter to persist in their
+defiance with French logicality and ardour.
+
+France, on the other hand, looked on the Communist movement at Paris and
+in the southern towns as treason to the cause of national unity, when
+there was the utmost need of concord. Thus on both sides there were
+deplorable misunderstandings. In ordinary times they might have been
+cleared away by frank explanations between the more moderate leaders;
+but the feverish state of the public mind forbade all thoughts of
+compromise, and the very weakness brought on by the war sharpened the
+fit of delirium which will render the spring months of the year 1871 for
+ever memorable even in the thrilling annals of Paris.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE FOUNDING OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC (_continued_)
+
+
+The seemingly suicidal energy shown in the civil strifes at Paris served
+still further to depress the fortunes of France. On the very day when
+the Versailles troops entered the walls of Paris, Thiers and Favre
+signed the treaty of peace at Frankfurt. The terms were substantially
+those agreed on in the preliminaries of February, but the terms of
+payment of the indemnity were harder than before. Resistance was
+hopeless. In truth, the Iron Chancellor had recently used very
+threatening language: he accused the French Government of bad faith in
+procuring the release of a large force of French prisoners, ostensibly
+for the overthrow of the Commune, but really in order to patch up
+matters with the "Reds" of Paris and renew the war with Germany.
+Misrepresentations and threats like these induced Thiers and Favre to
+agree to the German demands, which took form in the Treaty of Frankfurt
+(May 10, 1871).
+
+Peace having been duly ratified on the hard terms[65], it remained to
+build up France almost _de nova_. Nearly everything was wanting. The
+treasury was nearly empty, and that too in face of the enormous demands
+made by Germany. It is said that in February 1871, the unhappy man who
+took up the Ministry of Finance, carried away all the funds of the
+national exchequer in his hat. As Thiers confessed to the Assembly, he
+had, for very patriotism, to close his eyes to the future and grapple
+with the problems of every day as they arose. But he had faith in
+France, and France had faith in him. The French people can perform
+wonders when they thoroughly trust their rulers. The inexhaustible
+wealth inherent in their soil, the thrift of the peasantry, and the
+self-sacrificing ardour shown by the nation when nerved by a high ideal,
+constituted an asset of unsuspected strength in face of the staggering
+blows dealt to French wealth and credit. The losses caused by the war,
+the Commune, and the cession of the eastern districts, involved losses
+that have been reckoned at more than £614,000,000. Apart from the
+1,597,000 inhabitants transferred to German rule, the loss of population
+due to the war and the civil strifes has been put as high as 491,000
+souls[66].
+
+[Footnote 65: They included the right to hold four more Departments
+until the third half milliard (£20,000,000, that is, £60,000,000 in all)
+had been paid. A commercial treaty on favourable terms, those of the
+"most favoured nation," was arranged, as also an exchange of frontier
+strips near Luxemburg and Belfort. Germany acquired Elsass (Alsace) and
+part of Lorraine, free of all their debts.
+
+We may note here that the Anglo-French Treaty of Commerce arranged in
+1860 with Napoleon largely by the aid of Cobden, was not renewed by the
+French Republic, which thereafter began to exclude British goods.
+Bismarck forced France at Frankfurt to concede favourable terms to
+German products. England was helpless. For this subject, see _Protection
+in France_, by H.O. Meredith (1905).]
+
+[Footnote 66: Quoted by M. Hanotaux, _Contemporary France_, vol. i. pp.
+323-327.]
+
+Yet France flung herself with triumphant energy into the task of paying
+off the invaders. At the close of June 1871, a loan for two milliards
+and a quarter (£90,000,000) was opened for subscription, and proved to
+be an immense success. The required amount was more than doubled. By
+means of the help of international banks, the first half milliard of the
+debt was paid off in July 1871, and Normandy was freed from the burden
+of German occupation. We need not detail the dates of the successive
+payments. They revealed the unsuspected vitality of France and the
+energy of her Government and financiers. In March 1873, the arrangements
+for the payment of the last instalment were made, and in the autumn of
+that year the last German troops left Verdun and Belfort. For his great
+services in bending all the powers of France to this great financial
+feat, Thiers was universally acclaimed as the Liberator of the
+Territory.
+
+Yet that very same period saw him overthrown. To read this riddle
+aright, we must review the outlines of French internal politics. We have
+already referred to the causes that sent up a monarchical majority to
+the National Assembly, the schisms that weakened the action of that
+majority, and the peculiar position held by M. Thiers, an Orleanist in
+theory, but the chief magistrate of the French Republic. No more
+paradoxical situation has ever existed; and its oddity was enhanced by
+the usually clear-cut logicality of French political thought. Now, after
+the war and the Commune, the outlook was dim, even to the keenest sight.
+One thing alone was clear, the duty of all citizens to defer raising any
+burning question until law, order, and the national finances were
+re-established. It was the perception of this truth that led to the
+provisional truce between the parties known as the Compact of Bordeaux.
+Flagrantly broken by the "Reds" of Paris in the spring of 1871, that
+agreement seemed doomed. The Republic itself was in danger of perishing
+as it did after the socialistic extravagances of the Revolution of 1848.
+But Thiers at once disappointed the monarchists by stoutly declaring
+that he would not abet the overthrow of the Republic: "We found the
+Republic established, as a fact of which we are not the authors; but I
+will not destroy the form of government which I am now using to restore
+order. . . . When all is settled, the country will have the liberty to
+choose as it pleases in what concerns its future destinies[67]."
+Skilfully pointing the factions to the future as offering a final reward
+for their virtuous self-restraint, this masterly tactician gained time
+in which to heal the worst wounds dealt by the war.
+
+[Footnote 67: Speech of March 27, 1871.]
+
+But it was amidst unending difficulties. The Monarchists, eager to
+emphasise the political reaction set in motion by the extravagances of
+the Paris Commune, wished to rid themselves at the earliest possible
+time of this self-confident little bourgeois who seemed to stand alone
+between them and the realisation of their hopes. Their more unscrupulous
+members belittled his services and hinted that love of power alone led
+him to cling to the Republic, and thus belie his political past. Then,
+too, the Orleans princes, the Duc d'Aumale and the Prince de Joinville,
+the surviving sons of King Louis Philippe, took their seats as deputies
+for the Oise and Haute-Marne Departments, thus keeping the monarchical
+ideal steadily before the eye of France. True, the Duc d'Aumale had
+declared to the electorate that he was ready to bow before the will of
+France whether it decided for a Constitutional Monarchy or a Liberal
+Republic; and the loyalty with which he served his country was destined
+to set the seal of honesty on a singularly interesting career. But there
+was no guarantee that the Chamber would not take upon itself to
+interpret the will of France and call from his place of exile in London
+the Comte de Paris, son of the eldest descendant of Louis Philippe,
+around whom the hopes of the Orleanists centred.
+
+Had Thiers followed his earlier convictions and declared for such a
+Restoration, it might quite conceivably have come about without very
+much resistance. But early in the year 1871, or perhaps after the fall
+of the Empire, he became convinced that France could not heal her
+grievous wounds except under a government that had its roots deep in the
+people's life. Now, the cause of monarchy in France was hopelessly
+weakened by schisms. Legitimists and Orleanists were at feud ever since,
+in 1830, Louis Philippe, so the former said, cozened the rightful heir
+out of his inheritance; and the efforts now made to fuse the claims of
+the two rival branches remained without result, owing to the stiff and
+dogmatic attitude of the Comte de Chambord, heir to the traditions of
+the elder branch. A Bonapartist Restoration was out of the question. Yet
+all three sections began more and more to urge their claims. Thiers met
+them with consummate skill. Occasionally they had reason to resent his
+tactics as showing unworthy finesse; but oftener they quailed before the
+startling boldness of his reminders that, as they constituted the
+majority of the deputies of France, they might at once undertake to
+restore the monarchy--if they could. "You do not, and you cannot, do so.
+There is only one throne and it cannot have three occupants[68]." Or,
+again, he cowed them by the sheer force of his personality: "If I were a
+weak man, I would flatter you," he once exclaimed. In the last resort he
+replied to their hints of his ambition and self-seeking by offering his
+resignation. Here again the logic of facts was with him. For many months
+he was the necessary man, and he and they knew it.
+
+[Footnote 68: De Mazade, _Thiers_, p. 467. For a sharp criticism of
+Thiers, see Samuel Denis' _Histoire Contemperaine_ (written from the
+royalist standpoint).]
+
+But, as we have seen, there came a time when the last hard bargains with
+Bismarck as to the payment of the war debt neared their end; and the
+rapier-play between the Liberator of the Territory and the parties of
+the Assembly also drew to a close. In one matter he had given them just
+cause for complaint. As far back as November 13, 1872 (that is, before
+the financial problem was solved), he suddenly and without provocation
+declared from the tribune of the National Assembly that it was time to
+establish the Republic. The proposal was adjourned, but Thiers had
+damaged his influence. He had broken the "Compact of Bordeaux" and had
+shown his hand. The Assembly now knew that he was a Republican. Finally,
+he made a dignified speech to the Assembly, justifying his conduct in
+the past, appealing from the verdict of parties to the impartial
+tribunal of History, and prophesying that the welfare of France was
+bound up with the maintenance of the Conservative Republic. The Assembly
+by a majority of fourteen decided on a course of action that he
+disapproved, and he therefore resigned (May 24, 1873).
+
+It seems that History will justify his appeal to her tribunal. Looking,
+not at the occasional shifts that he used in order to disunite his
+opponents, but rather at the underlying motives that prompted his
+resolve to maintain that form of government which least divided his
+countrymen, posterity has praised his conduct as evincing keen insight
+into the situation, a glowing love for France before which all his
+earliest predilections vanished, and a masterly skill in guiding her
+from the abyss of anarchy, civil war, and bankruptcy that had but
+recently yawned at her feet. Having set her upon the path of safety, he
+now betook himself once more to those historical and artistic studies
+which he loved better than power and office. It is given to few men not
+only to write history but also to make history; yet in both spheres
+Thiers achieved signal success. Some one has dubbed him "the greatest
+little man known to history." Granting even that the paradox is tenable,
+we may still assert that his influence on the life of France exceeded
+that of many of her so-called heroes.
+
+In fact, it would be difficult to point out in any country during the
+Nineteenth Century, since the time of Bonaparte's Consulate, a work of
+political, economic, and social renovation greater than that which went
+on in the two years during which Thiers held the reins of power. Apart
+from the unparalleled feat of paying off the Germans, the Chief of the
+Executive breathed new vigour into the public service, revived national
+spirit in so noteworthy a way as to bring down threats of war from
+German military circles in 1872 (to be repeated more seriously in 1875),
+and placed on the Statute Book two measures of paramount importance.
+These were the reform of Local Government and the Army Bill.
+
+These measures claim a brief notice. The former of them naturally falls
+into two parts, dealing severally with the Commune and the Department.
+These are the two all-important areas in French life. In rural districts
+the Commune corresponds to the English parish; it is the oldest and
+best-defined of all local areas. In urban districts it corresponds with
+the municipality or township. The Revolutionists of 1790 and 1848 had
+sought to apply the principle of manhood suffrage to communal
+government; but their plans were swept away by the ensuing reactions,
+and the dawn of the Third Republic found the Communes, both rural and
+urban, under the control of the _préfets_ and their subordinates. We
+must note here that the office of _préfet_, instituted by Bonaparte in
+1800, was designed to link the local government of the Departments
+closely to the central power: this magistrate, appointed by the
+Executive at Paris, having almost unlimited control over local affairs
+throughout the several Departments. Indeed, it was against the excessive
+centralisation of the prefectorial system that the Parisian Communists
+made their heedless and unmeasured protest. The question having thus
+been thrust to the front, the Assembly brought forward (April 1871) a
+measure authorising the election of Communal Councils elected by every
+adult man who had resided for a year in the Commune. A majority of the
+Assembly wished that the right of choosing mayors should rest with the
+Communal Councils, but Thiers, browbeating the deputies by his favourite
+device of threatening to resign, carried an amendment limiting this
+right to towns of less than 20,000 inhabitants. In the larger towns, and
+in all capitals of Departments, the mayors were to be appointed by the
+central power. Thus the Napoleonic tradition in favour of keeping local
+government under the oversight of officials nominated from Paris was to
+some extent perpetuated even in an avowedly democratic measure.
+
+Paris was to have a Municipal Council composed of eighty members elected
+by manhood suffrage from each ward; but the mayors of the twenty
+_arrondissements_, into which Paris is divided, were, and still are,
+appointed by the State; and here again the control of the police and
+other extensive powers are vested in the _Préfet_ of the Department of
+the Seine, not in the mayors of the _arrondissements_ or the Municipal
+Council. The Municipal or Communal Act of 1871, then, is a
+compromise--on the whole a good working compromise--between the extreme
+demands for local self-government and the Napoleonic tradition, now
+become an instinct with most Frenchmen in favour of central control over
+matters affecting public order[69].
+
+[Footnote 69: On the strength of this instinct see Mr. Bodley's
+excellent work, _France_, vol. i. pp. 32-42. etc. For the Act, see
+Hanotaux _op. cit._ pp. 236-238.]
+
+The matter of Army Reform was equally pressing. Here, again, Thiers had
+the ground cleared before him by a great overturn, like that which
+enabled Bonaparte in his day to remodel France, and the builders of
+Modern Prussia--Stein, Scharnhorst, and Hardenberg--to build up their
+State from its ruins. In particular, the inefficiency of the National
+Guards and of the Garde Mobile made it easy to reconstruct the French
+Army on the system of universal conscription in a regular army, the
+efficiency of which Prussia had so startlingly displayed in the
+campaigns of Königgrätz (Sadowa) and Sedan. Thiers, however, had no
+belief in a short service system with its result of a huge force of
+imperfectly trained troops: he clung to the old professional army; and
+when that was shown to be inadequate to the needs of the new age, he
+pleaded that the period of compulsory service should be, not three, but
+five years. On the Assembly demurring to the expense and vital strain
+for the people which this implied, he declared with passionate emphasis
+that he would resign unless the five years were voted. They were voted
+(June 10, 1872). At the same time, the exemptions, so numerous during
+the Second Empire, were curtailed and the right of buying a substitute
+was swept away. After five years' service with the active army were to
+come four years with the reserve of the active army, followed by further
+terms in the territorial army. The favour of one year's service instead
+of five was to be accorded in certain well-defined cases, as, for
+instance, to those who had distinguished themselves at the _Lycées_, or
+highest grade public schools. Such was the law which was published on
+July 27, 1872[70].
+
+[Footnote 70: Hanotaux, _op. cit._ pp. 452-465.]
+
+The sight of a nation taking on itself this heavy blood-tax (heavier
+than that of Germany, where the time of service with the colours was
+only for three years) aroused universal surprise, which beyond the Rhine
+took the form of suspicion that France was planning a war of revenge.
+That feeling grew in intensity in military circles in Berlin three years
+later, as the sequel will show. Undaunted by the thinly-veiled threats
+that came from Germany, France proceeded with the tasks of paying off
+her conquerors and reorganising her own forces; so that Thiers on his
+retirement from office could proudly point to the recovery of French
+credit and prestige after an unexampled overthrow.
+
+In feverish haste, the monarchical majority of the National Assembly
+appointed Marshal MacMahon to the Presidency (May 24, 1873). They soon
+found out, however, the impossibility of founding a monarchy. The Comte
+de Paris, in whom the hopes of the Orleanists centred, went to the
+extreme of self-sacrifice, by visiting the Comte de Chambord, the
+Legitimist "King" of France, and recognising the validity of his claims
+to the throne. But this amiable pliability, while angering very many of
+the Orleanists, failed to move the monarch-designate by one
+hair's-breadth from those principles of divine right against which the
+more liberal monarchists always protested. "Henri V." soon declared that
+he would neither accept any condition nor grant a single guarantee as to
+the character of his future rule. Above all, he declared that he would
+never give up the white flag of the _ancien régime_. In his eyes the
+tricolour, which, shortly after the fall of the Bastille, Louis XVI. had
+recognised as the flag of France, represented the spirit of the Great
+Revolution, and for that great event he had the deepest loathing. As if
+still further to ruin his cause, the Count announced his intention of
+striving with all his might for the restoration of the Temporal Power of
+the Pope. It is said that the able Bishop of Orleans, Mgr. Dupanloup, on
+reading one of the letters by which the Comte de Chambord nailed the
+white flag to the mast, was driven to exclaim, "There! That makes the
+Republic! Poor France! All is lost."
+
+Thus the attempts at fusion of the two monarchical parties had only
+served to expose the weaknesses of their position and to warn France of
+the probable results of a monarchical restoration. That the country had
+well learnt the lesson appeared in the bye-elections, which in nearly
+every case went in favour of Republican candidates. Another event that
+happened early in 1873 further served to justify Thiers' contention that
+the Republic was the only possible form of government. On January 9,
+Napoleon III. died of the internal disease which for seven years past
+had been undermining his strength. His son, the Prince Imperial, was at
+present far too young to figure as a claimant to the throne.
+
+It is also an open secret that Bismarck worked hard to prevent all
+possibility of a royalist Restoration; and when the German ambassador at
+Paris, Count Arnim, opposed his wishes in this matter, he procured his
+recall and subjected him to a State prosecution. In fact, Bismarck
+believed that under a Republic France would be powerless in war, and,
+further, that she could never form that alliance with Russia which was
+the bugbear of his later days. A Russian diplomatist once told the Duc
+de Broglie that the kind of Republic which Bismarck wanted to see in
+France was "_une République dissolvante_."
+
+Everything therefore concurred to postpone the monarchical question, and
+to prolong the informal truce which Thiers had been the first to bring
+about. Accordingly, in the month of November, the Assembly extended the
+Presidency of Marshal MacMahon to seven years--a period therefore known
+as the Septennate.
+
+Having now briefly shown the causes of the helplessness of the
+monarchical majority in the matter that it had most nearly at heart, we
+must pass over subsequent events save as they refer to that crowning
+paradox--the establishment of a Republican Constitution. This was due to
+the despair felt by many of the Orleanists of seeing a restoration
+during the lifetime of the Comte de Chambord, and to the alarm felt by
+all sections of the monarchists at the activity and partial success of
+the Bonapartists, who in the latter part of 1874 captured a few seats.
+Seeking above all things to keep out a Bonaparte, they did little to
+hinder the formation of a Constitution which all of them looked on as
+provisional. In fact, they adopted the policy of marking time until the
+death of the Comte de Chambord--whose hold on life proved to be no less
+tenacious than on his creed--should clear up the situation. Accordingly,
+after many diplomatic delays, the Committee which in 1873 had been
+charged to draw up the Constitution, presented its plan, which took form
+in the organic laws of February 25, 1875. They may be thus summarised:--
+
+The Legislature consists of two Assemblies--the Chamber of Deputies and
+the Senate, the former being elected by "universal" (or, more properly,
+_manhood_) suffrage. The composition of the Senate, as determined by a
+later law, lies with electoral bodies in each of the Departments; these
+bodies consist of the national deputies for that Department, the members
+of their General Councils and District Councils, and delegates from the
+Municipal Councils. Senators are elected for nine years; deputies to the
+Chamber of Deputies for four years. The President of the Republic is
+chosen by the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies sitting together for
+that purpose. He is chosen for seven years and is eligible for
+re-election; he is responsible to the Chambers only in case of high
+treason; he enjoys, conjointly with the members of the two Chambers, the
+right of proposing laws; he promulgates them when passed and supervises
+their execution; he disposes of the armed forces of France and has the
+right of pardon formerly vested in the Kings of France. Conformably to
+the advice of the Senate he may dissolve the Chamber of Deputies. Each
+Chamber may initiate proposals for laws, save that financial measures
+rest solely with the Chamber of Deputies.
+
+The Chambers may decide that the Constitution shall be revised. In that
+case, they meet together, as a National Assembly, to carry out such
+revision, which is determined by the bare majority. Each
+_arrondissement_, or district of a Department, elects one deputy. From
+1885 to 1889 the elections were decided by each Department on a list,
+but since that time the earlier plan has been revived. We may also add
+that the seat of government was fixed at Versailles; four years later
+this was altered in favour of Paris, but certain of the most important
+functions, such as the election of a new President, take place at
+Versailles.
+
+Taken as a whole, this Constitution was a clever compromise between the
+democratic and autocratic principles of government. Having its roots in
+manhood suffrage, it delegated very extensive powers to the head of the
+State. These powers are especially noteworthy if we compare them with
+those of the Ministry. The President commissions such and such a senator
+or deputy to form a Ministry (not necessarily representing the opinions
+of the majority of the Chambers); and that Ministry is responsible to
+the Chambers for the execution of laws and the general policy of the
+Government; but the President is not responsible to the Chambers, save
+in the single and very exceptional case of high treason to the State.
+Obviously, the Assembly wished to keep up the autocratic traditions of
+the past as well as to leave open the door for a revision of the
+Constitution at any time favourable to the monarchical cause. That this
+Constitution did not pave the way for the monarchy was due to several
+causes. Some we have named above.
+
+Another and perhaps a final cause was the unwillingness or inability of
+Marshal MacMahon to bring matters to the test of force. Actuated,
+perhaps, by motives similar to those which kept the Duke of Wellington
+from pushing matters to an extreme in England in 1831, the Marshal
+refused to carry out a _coup d'état_ against the Republican majority
+sent up to the Chamber of Deputies by the General Election of January
+1876. Once or twice he seemed on the point of using force. Thus, in May
+1877, he ventured to dissolve the Chamber of Deputies; but the
+Republican party, led by the impetuous Gambetta, appealed to the country
+with decisive results. That orator's defiant challenge to the Marshal,
+either to submit or to resign (_se soumettre ou se démettre_) was taken
+up by France, with the result that nearly all the Republican deputies
+were re-elected. The President recognised the inevitable, and in
+December of that year charged M. Dufaure to form a Ministry that
+represented the Republican majority. In January 1879 even, some
+senatorial elections went against the President, and he accordingly
+resigned, January 30, 1879.
+
+In the year 1887 the Republic seemed for a time to be in danger owing
+to the intrigues of the Minister for War, General Boulanger. Making
+capital out of the difficulties of France, the financial scandals
+brought home to President Grévy, and his own popularity with the army,
+the General seemed to be preparing a _coup d'état_. The danger increased
+when the Ministry had to resign office (May 1887). A "National party"
+was formed, consisting of monarchists, Bonapartists, clericals, and even
+some crotchety socialists--in fact, of all who hoped to make capital out
+of the fell of the Parliamentary regime. The malcontents called for a
+plebiscite as to the form of government, hoping by these means to thrust
+in Boulanger as dictator to pave the way for the Comte de Paris up to
+the throne of France. After a prolonged crisis, the scheme ignominiously
+collapsed at the first show of vigour on the Republican side. When the
+new Floquet Ministry summoned Boulanger to appear before the High Court
+of Justice, he fled to Belgium, and shortly afterwards committed
+suicide.
+
+The chief feature of French political life, if one reviews it in its
+broad outlines, is the increase of stability. When we remember that that
+veteran opportunist, Talleyrand, on taking the oath of allegiance to the
+new Constitution of 1830, could say, "It is the thirteenth," and that no
+régime after that period lasted longer than eighteen years, we shall be
+chary of foretelling the speedy overthrow of the Third Republic at any
+and every period of Ministerial crisis or political ferment. Certainly
+the Republic has seen Ministries made and unmade in bewilderingly quick
+succession; but these are at most superficial changes--the real work of
+administration being done by the hierarchy of permanent officials first
+established by the great Napoleon. Even so terrible an event as the
+murder of President Sadi Carnot (June 1894) produced none of the fatal
+events that British alarmists confidently predicted. M. Casimir Périer
+was quietly elected and ruled firmly. The same may be said of his
+successors, MM. Faure and Loubet. Sensible, businesslike men of
+bourgeois origin, they typify the new France that has grown up since
+the age when military adventurers could keep their heels on her neck
+provided that they crowned her brow with laurels. That age would seem to
+have passed for ever away. A well-known adage says: "It is the
+unexpected that happens in French politics." To forecast their course is
+notoriously unsafe in that land of all lands. That careful and sagacious
+student of French life, Mr. Bodley, believes that the nation at heart
+dislikes the prudent tameness of Parliamentary rule, and that "the day
+will come when no power will prevent France from hailing a hero of her
+choice[71]."
+
+[Footnote 71: Mr. Bodley, _France_, vol. i. _ad fin_.]
+
+Doubtless the advent of a Napoleon the Great would severely test the
+qualities of prudence and patience that have gained strength under the
+shelter of democratic institutions. Yet it must always be remembered
+that Democracy has until now never had a fair chance in France. The
+bright hopes of 1789 faded away ten years later amidst the glamour of
+military glory. As for the Republic of 1848, it scarcely outlived the
+troubles of infancy. The Third Republic, on the other hand, has attained
+to manhood. It has met and overcome very many difficulties; at the
+outset parts of two valued provinces and a vast sum of treasure were
+torn away. In those early days of weakness it also crushed a serious
+revolt. The intrigues of Monarchists and Bonapartists were foiled.
+Hardest task of all, the natural irritation of Frenchmen at playing a
+far smaller part in the world was little by little allayed.
+
+In spite of these difficulties, the Third Republic has now lasted a
+quarter of a century. That is to say, it rests on the support of a
+generation which has gradually become accustomed to representative
+institutions--an advantage which its two predecessors did not enjoy. The
+success of institutions depends in the last resort on the character of
+those who work them; and the testimony of all observers is that the
+character of Frenchmen has slowly but surely changed in the direction
+which Thiers pointed out in the dark days of February 1871 as offering
+the only means of a sound national revival--"Yes: I believe in the
+future of France: I believe in it, but on condition that we have good
+sense; that we no longer use mere words as the current coin of our
+speech, but that under words we shall place realities; that we have not
+only good sense, but good sense endowed with courage."
+
+These are the qualities that have built up the France of to-day. The toil
+has been enormous, and it has been doubled by the worries and
+disappointments incident to Parliamentarism when grafted on to a
+semi-military bureaucracy; but the toil and the disappointments have
+played their part in purging the French nature of the frothy
+sensationalism and eager irresponsibility that naturally resulted from
+the Imperialism of the two Napoleons. France seems to be outgrowing the
+stage of hobble-de-hoyish ventures, military or communistic, and to have
+taken on the staid, sober, and self-respecting mien of manhood--a
+process helped on by the burdens of debt and conscription resulting from
+her juvenile escapades. In a word, she has attained to a full sense of
+responsibility. No longer are her constructive powers hopelessly
+outmatched by her critical powers. In the political sphere she has found
+a due balance between the brain and the hand. From analysis she has
+worked her way to synthesis.
+
+
+NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION
+
+The following are the Ministries of the Republic in 1870-1900:--1870,
+Favre; 1871, Dufaure (1); 1873, De Broglie (1); 1874, Cissey; 1875,
+Buffet; 1876, Dufaure (2); 1876, Simon; 1877, De Broglie (2); 1877, De
+Rochebouet; 1877, Dufaure (3); 1879, Waddington; 1879, Freycinet (1);
+1880, Ferry (1); 1881, Gambetta; 1882, Freycinet (2); 1882, Duclerc;
+1883, Fallières; 1883, Ferry (2); 1885, Brisson; 1886, Freycinet (3);
+1886, Goblet; 1887, Rouvier; 1887, Tirard (1); 1888, Floquet; 1889,
+Tirard (2); 1890, Freycinet (4); 1892, Loubet; 1892, Ribot (1); 1892,
+Dupuy (1); 1893, Casimir Périer; 1894, Dupuy (2); 1895, Ribot (2); 1895,
+Bourgeois; 1896, Méline; 1898, Brisson; 1898 Dupuy (3); 1899,
+Waldeck-Rousseau.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE GERMAN EMPIRE
+
+     "From the very beginning of my career my sole guiding-star
+     has been how to unify Germany, and, that being achieved, how
+     to strengthen, complete, and so constitute her unification
+     that it may be preserved enduringly and with the goodwill of
+     all concerned in it."--BISMARCK: Speech in the North German
+     Reichstag, July 9, 1869.
+
+
+On the 18th of January 1871, while the German cannon were still
+thundering against Paris, a ceremony of world-wide import occurred in
+the Palace of the Kings of France at Versailles. King William of Prussia
+was proclaimed German Emperor. The scene lacked no element that could
+appeal to the historic imagination. It took place in the Mirror Hall,
+where all that was brilliant in the life of the old French monarchy used
+to encircle the person of Louis XIV. And now, long after that dynasty
+had passed away, and when the crown of the last of the Corsican
+adventurers had but recently fallen beneath the feet of the Parisians,
+the descendant of the Prussian Hohenzollerns celebrated the advent to
+the German people of that unity for which their patriots had vainly
+struggled for centuries.
+
+The men who had won this long-deferred boon were of no common stamp.
+King William himself, as is now shown by the publication of many of his
+letters to Bismarck, had played a far larger share in the making of a
+united Germany than was formerly believed. His plain good sense and
+unswerving fortitude had many times marked out the path of safety and
+kept his country therein. The policy of the Army Bill of 1860, which
+brought salvation to Prussia in spite of her Parliament, was wholly his.
+Bismarck's masterful grip of the helm of State in and after 1862 helped
+to carry out that policy, just as von Roon's organising ability
+perfected the resulting military machine; but its prime author was the
+King, who now stood triumphant in the hall of his ancestral foes. Beside
+and behind him on the dais, in front of the colours of all the German
+States, were the chief princes of Germany--witnesses to the strength of
+the national sentiment which the wars against the First Napoleon had
+called forth, and the struggle with the nephew had now brought to
+maturity. Among their figures one might note the stalwart form of the
+Crown Prince, along with other members of the House of Prussia; the
+Grand Duke of Baden, son-in-law of the Prussian King; the Crown Prince
+of Saxony, and representatives of every reigning family of Germany.
+Still more remarkable were some of the men grouped before the King and
+princes. There was the thin war-worn face of Moltke; there, too, the
+sturdy figure of Bismarck: the latter, wrote Dr. Russell, "looking pale,
+but calm and self-possessed, elevated, as it were, by some internal
+force[72]."
+
+[Footnote 72: Quoted by C. Lowe, _Life of Bismarck_, vol. i. p. 615.]
+
+The King announced the re-establishment of the German Empire; and those
+around must have remembered that that venerable institution (which
+differed so widely from the present one that the word "re-establishment"
+was really misleading) had vanished but sixty-four years before at the
+behests of the First Napoleon. Next, Bismarck read the Kaiser's
+proclamation, stating his sense of duty to the German nation and his
+hope that, within new and stronger boundaries, which would guarantee
+them against attacks from France, they would enjoy peace and prosperity.
+The Grand Duke of Baden then called for three cheers for the Emperor,
+which were given with wild enthusiasm, and were taken up by the troops
+far round the iron ring that encircled Paris.
+
+Few events in history so much impress one, at first sight, with a sense
+of strength, spontaneity, and inevitableness. And yet, as more is known
+of the steps that led up to the closer union of the German States, that
+feeling is disagreeably warped. Even then it was known that Bavaria and
+Würtemberg strongly objected to the closer form of union desired by the
+northern patriots, which would have reduced the secondary States to
+complete dependence on the federal Government. Owing to the great
+reluctance of the Bavarian Government and people to give up the control
+of their railways, posts and telegraphs, these were left at their
+disposal, the two other Southern States keeping the direction of the
+postal and telegraphic services in time of peace. Bavaria and Würtemberg
+likewise reserved the control of their armed forces, though in case of
+war they were to be placed at the disposal of the Emperor--arrangements
+which also hold good for the Saxon forces. In certain legal and fiscal
+matters Bavaria also bargained for freedom of action.
+
+What was not known then, and has leaked out in more or less authentic
+ways, was the dislike, not only of most of the Bavarian people, but also
+of its Government, to the whole scheme of imperial union. It is certain
+that the letter which King Louis finally wrote to his brother princes to
+propose that union was originally drafted by Bismarck; and rumour
+asserts, on grounds not to be lightly dismissed, that the opposition of
+King Louis was not withdrawn until the Bavarian Court favourite, Count
+Holstein, came to Versailles and left it, not only with Bismarck's
+letter, but also with a considerable sum of money for his royal master
+and himself. Probably, however, the assent of the Bavarian monarch, who
+not many years after became insane, was helped by the knowledge that if
+he did not take the initiative, it would pass to the Grand Duke of
+Baden, an ardent champion of German unity.
+
+Whatever may be the truth as to this, there can be no doubt as to the
+annoyance felt by Roman Catholic Bavaria and Protestant democratic
+Würtemberg at accepting the supremacy of the Prussian bureaucracy. This
+doubtless explains why Bismarck was so anxious to hurry through the
+negotiations, first, for the imperial union, and thereafter for the
+conclusion of peace with France.
+
+Even in a seemingly small matter he had met with much opposition, this
+time from his master. The aged monarch clung to the title King of
+Prussia; but if the title of Emperor was a political necessity, he
+preferred the title "Emperor of Germany"; nevertheless, the Chancellor
+tactfully but firmly pointed out that this would imply a kind of feudal
+over-lordship of all German lands, and that the title "German Emperor",
+as that of chief of the nation, was far preferable. In the end the King
+yielded, but he retained a sore feeling against his trusted servant for
+some time on this matter. It seems that at one time he even thought of
+abdicating in favour of his son rather than "see the Prussian title
+supplanted[73]." However, he soon showed his gratitude for the immense
+services rendered by Bismarck to the Fatherland. On his next birthday
+(March 22) he raised the Chancellor to the rank of Prince and appointed
+him Chancellor of the Empire.
+
+[Footnote 73: E. Marcks, _Kaiser Wilhelm I._ (Leipzig, 1900), pp.
+337-343.]
+
+It will be well to give here an outline of the Imperial Constitution. In
+all essentials it was an extension, with few changes, of the North
+German federal compact of the year 1866. It applied to the twenty-five
+States of Germany--inclusive, that is, of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck,
+but exclusive, for the present, of Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine).
+In those areas imperial law takes precedence of local law (save in a few
+specially reserved cases for Bavaria and the Free Cities). The same laws
+of citizenship hold good in all parts of the Empire. The Empire controls
+these laws, the issuing of passports, surveillance of foreigners and of
+manufactures, likewise matters relating to emigration and colonisation.
+Commerce, customs dues, weights and measures, coinage, banking
+regulations, patents, the consular service abroad, and matters relating
+to navigation also fall under its control. Railways, posts and
+telegraphs (with the exceptions noted above) are subject to imperial
+supervision, the importance of which during the war had been so
+abundantly manifested.
+
+The King of Prussia is _ipso facto_ German Emperor. He represents the
+Empire among foreign nations; he has the right to declare war, conclude
+peace, and frame alliances; but the consent of the Federal Council
+(Bundesrath) is needed for the declaration of war in the name of the
+Empire. The Emperor convenes, adjourns, and closes the sessions of the
+Federal Council and the Imperial Diet (Reichstag). They are convened
+every year. The Chancellor of the Empire presides in the Federal Council
+and supervises the conduct of its business. Proposals of laws are laid
+before the Reichstag in accordance with the resolutions of the Federal
+Council, and are supported by members of that Council. To the Emperor
+belongs the right of preparing and publishing the laws of the Empire:
+they must be passed by the Bundesrath and Reichstag, and then receive
+the assent of the Kaiser. They are then countersigned by the Chancellor,
+who thereby becomes responsible for their due execution.
+
+The members of the Bundesrath are appointed by the Federal Governments:
+they are sixty-two in number, and now include those from the Reichstand
+of Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine)[74]
+
+[Footnote 74: Up to 1874 the government of Alsace-Lorraine was vested
+solely in the Emperor and Chancellor. In 1874 the conquered lands
+returned deputies to the Reichstag. In October 1879 they gained local
+representative institutions, but under the strict control of the
+Governor, Marshal von Manteuffel. This control has since been relaxed,
+the present administration being quasi-constitutional.]
+
+The Prussian Government nominates seventeen members; Bavaria six; Saxony
+and Würtemburg and Alsace-Lorraine four each; and so on. The Bundesrath
+is presided over by the Imperial Chancellor. At the beginning of each
+yearly session it appoints eleven standing committees to deal with the
+following matters: (1) Army and fortifications; (2) the Navy; (3)
+tariff, excise, and taxes; (4) commerce and trade; (5) railways, posts
+and telegraphs; (6) civil and criminal law; (7) financial accounts; (8)
+foreign affairs; (9) Alsace-Lorraine; (10) the Imperial Constitution;
+(11) Standing Orders. Each committee is presided over by a chairman. In
+each committee at least four States of the Empire must be represented,
+and each State is entitled only to one vote. To this rule there are two
+modifications in the case of the committees on the army and on foreign
+affairs. In the former of these Bavaria has a permanent seat, while the
+Emperor appoints the other three members from as many States: in the
+latter case, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Würtemberg only are
+represented. The Bundesrath takes action on the measures to be proposed
+to the Reichstag and the resolutions passed by that body; it also
+supervises the execution of laws, and may point out any defects in the
+laws or in their execution.
+
+The members of the Reichstag, or Diet, are elected by universal (more
+properly _manhood_) suffrage and by direct secret ballot, in proportion
+to the population of the several States[75]. On the average, each of the
+397 members represents rather more than 100,000 of the population. The
+proceedings of the Reichstag are public; it has the right (concurrently
+with those wielded by the Emperor and the Bundesrath) to propose laws
+for the Empire. It sits for three years, but may be dissolved by a
+resolution of the Bundesrath, with the consent of the Emperor. Deputies
+may not be bound by orders and instructions issued by their
+constituents. They are not paid.
+
+[Footnote 75: Bismarck said in a speech to the Reichstag, on September
+16, 1878: "I accepted universal suffrage, but with repugnance, as a
+Frankfurt tradition."]
+
+As has been noted above, important matters such as railway management,
+so far as it relates to the harmonious and effective working of the
+existing systems, and the construction of new lines needful for the
+welfare and the defence of Germany, are under the Control of the
+Empire--except in the case of Bavaria. The same holds good of posts and
+telegraphs except in the Southern States. Railway companies are bound to
+convey troops and warlike stores at uniform reduced rates. In fact, the
+Imperial Government controls the fares of all lines subject to its
+supervision, and has ordered the reduction of freightage for coal, coke,
+minerals, wood, stone, manure, etc., for long distances, "as demanded by
+the interests of agriculture and industry." In case of dearth, the
+railway companies can be compelled to forward food supplies at specially
+low rates.
+
+Further, with respect to military affairs, the central authority
+exercises a very large measure of control over the federated States. All
+German troops swear the oath of allegiance to the Emperor. He appoints
+all commanders of fortresses; the power of building fortresses within
+the Empire is also vested in him; he determines the strength of the
+contingents of the federated States, and in the last case may appoint
+their commanding officers; he may even proclaim martial law in any
+portion of the Empire, if public security demands it. The Prussian
+military code applies to all parts of the Empire (save to Bavaria,
+Würtemberg, and Saxony in time of peace); and the military organisation
+is everywhere of the same general description, especially as regards
+length of service, character of the drill, and organisation in corps and
+regiments. Every German, unless physically unfit, is subject to military
+duty and cannot shift the burden on a substitute. He must serve for
+seven years in the standing army: that is, three years in the field army
+and four in the reserve; thereafter he takes his place in the
+Landwehr[76].
+
+[Footnote 76: The three years are shortened to one year for those who
+have taken a high place in the Gymnasia (highest of the public schools);
+they feed and equip themselves and are termed "volunteers." Conscription
+is the rule on the coasts for service in the German Navy. For the text
+of the Imperial Constitution, see Lowe, _Life of Bismarck_, vol.
+ii. App. F.]
+
+The secondary States are protected in one important respect. The last
+proviso of the Imperial Constitution stipulates that any proposal to
+modify it shall fail if fourteen, or more, votes are cast against it in
+the Federal Council. This implies that Bavaria, Würtemberg, and Saxony,
+if they vote together, can prevent any change detrimental to their
+interests. On the whole, the new system is less centralised than that of
+the North German Confederation had been; and many of the Prussian
+Liberals, with whom the Crown Prince of Prussia very decidedly ranged
+himself on this question, complained that the government was more
+federal than ever, and that far too much had been granted to the
+particularist prejudices of the Southern States[77]. To all these
+objections Bismarck could unanswerably reply that it was far better to
+gain this great end without bitterness, even if the resulting compact
+were in some respects faulty, than to force on the Southern States a
+more logically perfect system that would perpetuate the sore feeling
+of the past.
+
+[Footnote 77: J.W. Headlam, _Bismarck_, p. 367.]
+
+Such in its main outlines is the new Constitution of Germany. On the
+whole, it has worked well. That it has fulfilled all the expectations
+aroused in that year of triumph and jubilation will surprise no one who
+knows that absolute and lasting success is attained only in Utopias,
+never in practical politics. In truth, the suddenness with which German
+unity was finally achieved was in itself a danger.
+
+The English reader will perhaps find it hard to realise this until he
+remembers that the whole course of recorded history shows us the Germans
+politically disunited, or for the most part engaged in fratricidal
+strifes. When they first came within the ken of the historians of
+Ancient Rome, they were a set of warring tribes who banded together only
+under the pressure of overwhelming danger; and such was to be their fate
+for well-nigh two thousand years. Their union under the vigorous rule of
+the great Frankish chief whom the French call Charlemagne, was at best
+nominal and partial. The Holy Roman Empire, which he founded in the year
+800 by a mystically vague compact with the Pope, was never a close bond
+of union, even in his stern and able hands. Under his weak successors
+that imposing league rarely promoted peace among its peoples, while the
+splendour of its chief elective dignity not seldom conduced to war.
+Next, feudalism came in as a strong political solvent, and thus for
+centuries Germany crumbled and mouldered away, until disunion seemed to
+be the fate of her richest lands, and particularism became a rooted
+instinct of her princes, burghers, and peasants. Then again South was
+arrayed against North during and long after the time of the Reformation;
+when the strife of creeds was stayed, the rivalry of the Houses of
+Hapsburg and Hohenzollern added another cause of hatred.
+
+As a matter of fact, it was reserved for the two Napoleons, uncle and
+nephew, to force those divided peoples to comradeship in arms. The close
+of the campaign of 1813 and that of 1814 saw North and South, Prussians
+and Austrians, for the first time fighting heartily shoulder to shoulder
+in a great war--for that of 1792-94 had only served to show their rooted
+suspicion and inner hostility. Owing to reasons that cannot be stated
+here, the peace of 1814-15 led up to no effective union: it even
+perpetuated the old dualism of interests. But once more the hostility of
+France under a Napoleon strengthened the impulse to German
+consolidation, and on this occasion there was at hand a man who had
+carefully prepared the way for an abiding form of political union; his
+diplomatic campaign of the last seven years had secured Russia's
+friendship and consequently Austria's reluctant neutrality; as for the
+dislike of the Southern States to unite with the North, that feeling
+waned for a few weeks amidst the enthusiasm caused by the German
+triumphs. The opportunity was unexampled: it had not occurred even in
+1814; it might never occur again; and it was certain to pass away when
+the war fever passed by. How wise, then, to strike while the iron was
+hot! The smaller details of the welding process were infinitely less
+important than the welding itself.
+
+One last consideration remains. If the opportunity was unexampled, so
+also were the statesmanlike qualities of the man who seized it. The more
+that we know concerning the narrowly Prussian feelings of King William,
+the centralising pedantry of the Crown Prince of Prussia, and the petty
+particularism of the Governments of Bavaria and Würtemberg, the more
+does the figure of Bismarck stand out as that of the one great statesman
+of his country and era. However censurable much of his conduct may be,
+his action in working up to and finally consummating German unity at the
+right psychological moment stands out as one of the greatest feats of
+statesmanship which history records.
+
+But obviously a wedded life which had been preceded by no wooing, over
+whose nuptials Mars shed more influence than Venus, could not be
+expected to run a wholly smooth course. In fact, this latest instance in
+ethnical lore of marriage by capture has on the whole led to a more
+harmonious result than was to be expected. Possibly, if we could lift
+the veil of secrecy which is wisely kept drawn over the weightiest
+proceedings of the Bundesrath and its committees, the scene would appear
+somewhat different. As it is, we can refer here only to some questions
+of outstanding importance the details of which are fairly well known.
+
+The first of these which subjected the new Empire to any serious strain
+was a sharp religious struggle against the new claims of the Roman
+Catholic hierarchy. Without detailing the many causes of friction that
+sprang up between the new Empire and the Roman Catholic Church, we may
+state that most of them had their roots in the activity shown by that
+Church among the Poles of Prussian Poland (Posen), and also in the dogma
+of Papal infallibility. Decreed by the Oecumenical Council at Rome on
+the very eve of the outbreak of the Franco-German War, it seemed to be
+part and parcel of that forward Jesuit policy which was working for the
+overthrow of the chief Protestant States. Many persons--among them
+Bismarck[78]--claimed that the Empress Eugénie's hatred of Prussia and
+the warlike influence which she is said to have exerted on Napoleon III.
+on that critical day, July 14, 1870, were prompted by Jesuitical
+intrigues. However that may be (and it is a matter on which no
+fair-minded man will dogmatise until her confidential papers see the
+light) there is little doubt that the Pope at Rome and the Roman
+hierarchy among the Catholics of Central and Eastern Europe did their
+best to prevent German unity and to introduce elements of discord. The
+dogma of the infallibility of the Pope in matters of faith and doctrine
+was itself a cause of strife. Many of the more learned and moderate of
+the German Catholics had protested against the new dogma, and some of
+these "Old Catholics", as they were called, tried to avoid teaching it
+in the Universities and schools. Their bishops, however, insisted that
+it should be taught, placed some recalcitrants under the lesser ban, and
+deprived them of their posts.
+
+[Footnote 78: Busch, _Our Chancellor_, vol i. p. 139, where he quotes a
+conversation of Bismarck of Nov. 1883. On the Roman Catholic policy in
+Posen, see _ibid_. pp. 143-145.]
+
+When these high-handed proceedings were extended even to the schools,
+the Prussian Government intervened, and early in 1872 passed a law
+ordaining that all school inspectors should be appointed by the King's
+Government at Berlin. This greatly irritated the Roman Catholic
+hierarchy and led up to aggressive acts on both sides, the German
+Reichstag taking up the matter and decreeing the exclusion of the
+Jesuits from all priestly and scholastic duties of whatever kind within
+the Empire (July 1872). The strife waxed ever fiercer. When the Roman
+Catholic bishops of Germany persisted in depriving "Old Catholics" of
+professorial and other charges, the central Government retorted by the
+famous "May Laws" of 1873. The first of these forbade the Roman Catholic
+Church to intervene in civil affairs in any way, or to coerce officials
+and citizens of the Empire. The second required of all ministers of
+religion that they should have passed the final examination at a High
+School, and also should have studied theology for three years at a
+German University: it further subjected all seminaries to State
+inspection. The third accorded fuller legal protection to dissidents
+from the various creeds.
+
+This anti-clerical policy is known as the "Kultur-Kampf", a term that
+denotes a struggle for civilisation against the forces of reaction. For
+some years the strife was of the sharpest kind. The Roman Catholic
+bishops continued to ban the "Old Catholics", while the State refused to
+recognise any act of marriage or christening performed by clerics who
+disobeyed the new laws. The logical sequel to this was obvious, namely,
+that the State should insist on the religious ceremony of marriage
+being supplemented by a civil contract[79]. Acts to render this
+compulsory were first passed by the Prussian Landtag late in 1873 and by
+the German Reichstag in 1875.
+
+[Footnote 79: Lowe, _Life of Bismarck_, vol. ii. p. 336, note.]
+
+It would be alike needless and tedious to detail the further stages of
+this bitter controversy, especially as several of the later "May Laws"
+have been repealed. We may, however, note its significance in the
+development of parties. Many of the Prussian nobles and squires (Junkers
+the latter were called) joined issue with Bismarck on the Civil Marriage
+Act, and this schism weakened Bismarck's long alliance with the
+Conservative party. He enjoyed, however, the enthusiastic support of the
+powerful National Liberal party, as well as the Imperialist and
+Progressive groups. Differing on many points of detail, these parties
+aimed at strengthening the fabric of the central power, and it was with
+their aid in the Reichstag that the new institutions of Germany were
+planted and took root. The General Election of 1874 sent up as many as
+155 National Liberals, and they, with the other groups just named, gave
+the Government a force of 240 votes--a good working majority as long as
+Bismarck's aims were of a moderately Liberal character. This, however,
+was not always the case even in 1874-79, when he needed their alliance.
+His demand for a permanently large military establishment alienated his
+allies in 1874, and they found it hard to satisfy the requirements of
+his exacting and rigorous nature.
+
+The harshness of the "May Laws" also caused endless friction. Out of
+some 10,000 Roman Catholic priests in Prussia (to which kingdom alone
+the severest of these laws applied) only about thirty bowed the knee to
+the State. In 800 parishes the strife went so far that all religious
+services came to an end. In the year 1875, fines amounting to 28,000
+marks (£2800) were imposed, and 103 clerics or their supporters were
+expelled from the Empire[80]. Clearly this state of things could not
+continue without grave danger to the Empire; for the Church held on her
+way with her usual doggedness, strengthened by the "protesting" deputies
+from the Reichsland on the south-west, from Hanover (where the Guelph
+feeling was still uppermost), as well as those from Polish Posen and
+Danish Schleswig. Bismarck and the anti-clerical majority of the
+Reichstag scorned any thoughts of surrender. Yet, slowly but surely,
+events at the Vatican and in Germany alike made for compromise. In
+February 1878, Pope Pius IX. passed away. That unfortunate pontiff had
+never ceased to work against the interests of Prussia and Germany, while
+his encyclicals since 1873 mingled threats of defiance of the May Laws
+with insults against Prince Bismarck. His successor, Leo XIII.
+(1878-1903), showed rather more disposition to come to a compromise, and
+that, too, at a time when Bismarck's new commercial policy made the
+support of the Clerical Centre in the Reichstag peculiarly acceptable.
+
+[Footnote 80: Busch, _Our Chancellor_, vol. i. p. 122, quotes speeches
+of his hero to prove that Bismarck himself disliked this Civil Marriage
+Law. "From the political point of view I have convinced myself that the
+State . . . is constrained by the dictates of self-defence to enact this
+law in order to avert from a portion of His Majesty's subjects the evils
+with which they are menaced by the Bishops' rebellion against the laws
+and the State" (Speech of Jan. 17, 1873). In 1849 he had opposed civil
+marriage.]
+
+Bismarck's resolve to give up the system of Free Trade, or rather of
+light customs dues, adopted by Prussia and the German Zollverein in
+1865, is so momentous a fact in the economic history of the modern
+world, that we must here give a few facts which will enable the reader
+to understand the conditions attending German commerce up to the years
+1878-79, when the great change came. The old order of things in Prussia,
+as in all German States, was strongly protective--in fact, to such an
+extent as often to prevent the passing of the necessaries of life from
+one little State to its Lilliputian neighbours. The rise of the national
+idea in Germany during the wars against the great Napoleon led to a more
+enlightened system, especially for Prussia. The Prussian law of 1818
+asserted the principle of imposing customs dues for revenue purposes,
+but taxed foreign products to a moderate extent. On this basis she
+induced neighbouring small German States to join her in a Customs Union
+(Zollverein), which gradually extended, until by 1836 it included all
+the States of the present Empire except the two Mecklenburgs, the Elbe
+Duchies, and the three Free Cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lübeck. That
+is to say, the attractive force of the highly developed Prussian State
+practically unified Germany for purposes of trade and commerce, and
+that, too, thirty-eight years before political union was achieved.
+
+This, be it observed, was on condition of internal Free Trade, but of
+moderate duties being levied on foreign products. Up to 1840 these
+import duties were on the whole reduced; after that date a protectionist
+reaction set in; it was checked, however, by the strong wave of Free
+Trade feeling which swept over Europe after the victory of that
+principle in England in 1846-49. Of the new champions of Free Trade on
+the Continent, the foremost in point of time was Cavour, for that
+kingdom of Sardinia on which he built the foundations of a regenerated
+and united Italy. Far more important, however, was the victory which
+Cobden won in 1859-60 by inducing Napoleon III. to depart from the
+almost prohibitive system then in vogue in France. The Anglo-French
+Commercial Treaty of January 1860 seemed to betoken the speedy
+conversion of the world to the enlightened policy of unfettered exchange
+of all its products. In 1862 and 1865 the German Zollverein followed
+suit, relaxing duties on imported articles and manufactured goods--a
+process which was continued in its commercial treaties and tariff
+changes of the years 1868 and 1869.
+
+At this time Bismarck's opinions on fiscal matters were somewhat vague.
+He afterwards declared that he held Free Trade to be altogether false.
+But in this as in other matters he certainly let his convictions be
+shaped by expediency. Just before the conclusion of peace with France he
+so far approximated to Free Trade as to insist that the Franco-German
+Commercial Treaty of 1862, which the war had of course abrogated--- war
+puts an end to all treaties between the States directly engaged--should
+now be again regarded as in force and as holding good up to the year
+1887[81]. He even stated that he "would rather begin again the war of
+cannon-balls than expose himself to a war of tariffs." France and
+Germany, therefore, agreed to place one another permanently on "the most
+favoured nation" footing. Yet this same man, who so much desired to keep
+down the Franco-German tariff, was destined eight years later to
+initiate a protectionist policy which set back the cause of Free Trade
+for at least a generation.
+
+[Footnote 81: For that treaty, and Austria's desire in 1862 to enter the
+German Zollverein, see _The Diplomatic Reminiscences of Lord A. Loftus,
+_vol. ii. pp. 250-251.]
+
+What brought about this momentous change? To answer this fully would
+take up a long chapter. We can only glance at the chief forces then at
+work. Firstly, Germany, after the year 1873, passed through a severe and
+prolonged economic crisis. It was largely due to the fever of
+speculation induced by the incoming of the French milliards into a land
+where gold had been none too plentiful. Despite the efforts of the
+German Government to hold back a large part of the war indemnity for
+purposes of military defence and substantial enterprises, the people
+imagined themselves to be suddenly rich. Prices rapidly rose,
+extravagant habits spread in all directions, and in the years 1872-73
+company-promoting attained to the rank of a fine art, with the result
+that sober, hard-working Germany seemed to be almost another England at
+the time of the South Sea Bubble. Alluding to this time, Busch said to
+Bismarck early in 1887: "In the long-run the [French] milliards were no
+blessing, at least not for our manufacturers, as they led to
+over-production. It was merely the bankers who benefited, and of these
+only the big ones[82]."
+
+[Footnote 82: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History, _by M. Busch,
+vol. iii. p. 161 (English edition).]
+
+The result happened that always happens when a nation mistakes money,
+the means of commercial exchange, for the ultimate source of wealth.
+After a time of inflation came the inevitable collapse. The unsound
+companies went by the board; even sound ventures were in some cases
+overturned. How grievously public credit suffered may be seen by the
+later official admission, that liquidations and bankruptcies of public
+companies in the following ten years inflicted on shareholders a total
+loss of more than 345,000,000 marks (£17,250,000)[83].
+
+[Footnote 83: German State Paper of June 28, 1884, quoted by Dawson,
+_Bismarck and State Socialism_, App. B.]
+
+Now, it was in the years 1876-77, while the nation lay deep in the
+trough of economic depression, that the demand for "protection for home
+industries" grew loud and persistent. Whether it would not have been
+raised even if German finance and industry had held on its way in a
+straight course and on an even keel, cannot of course be determined, for
+the protectionist movement had been growing since the year 1872, owing
+to the propaganda of the "Verein für Sozialpolitik" (Union for Social
+Politics) founded in that year. But it is safe to say that the collapse
+of speculation due to inflowing of the French milliards greatly
+strengthened the forces of economic reaction.
+
+Bismarck himself put it in this way: that the introduction of Free Trade
+in 1865 soon produced a state of atrophy in Germany; this was checked
+for a time by the French war indemnity; but Germany needed a permanent
+cure, namely, Protection. It is true that his ideal of national life had
+always been strict and narrow--in fact, that of the average German
+official; but we may doubt whether he had in view solely the shelter of
+the presumedly tender flora of German industry from the supposed deadly
+blasts of British, Austrian, and Russian competition. He certainly hoped
+to strengthen the fabric of his Empire by extending the customs system
+and making its revenue depend more largely on that source and less on
+the contributions of the federated States. But there was probably a
+still wider consideration. He doubtless wished to bring prominently
+before the public gaze another great subject that would distract it
+from the religious feuds described above and bring about a
+rearrangement of political parties. The British people has good reason
+to know that the discussion of fiscal questions that vitally touch every
+trade and every consumer, does act like the turning of a kaleidoscope
+upon party groupings; and we may fairly well assume that so far-seeing a
+statesman as Bismarck must have forecast the course of events.
+
+Reasons of statecraft also warned him to build up the Empire four-square
+while yet there was time. The rapid recovery of France, whose milliards
+had proved somewhat of a "Greek gift" to Germany, had led to threats on
+the part of the war party at Berlin, which brought from Queen Victoria,
+as also from the Czar Alexander, private but pressing intimations to
+Kaiser Wilhelm that no war of extermination must take place. This affair
+and its results in Germany's foreign policy will occupy us in Chapter
+XII. Here we may note that Bismarck saw in it a reason for suspecting
+Russia, hating England, and jealously watching every movement in France.
+Germany's future, it seemed, would have to be safeguarded by all the
+peaceable means available. How natural, then, to tone down her internal
+religious strifes by bringing forward another topic of still more
+absorbing interest, and to aim at building up a self-contained
+commercial life in the midst of uncertain, or possibly hostile,
+neighbours. In truth, if we view the question in its broad issues in the
+life of nations, we must grant that Free Trade could scarcely be
+expected to thrive amidst the jealousies and fears entailed by the war
+of 1870. That principle presupposes trust and good-will between nations;
+whereas the wars of 1859, 1864, and 1870 left behind bitter memories and
+rankling ills. Viewed in this light, Germany's abandonment of Free Trade
+in 1878 was but the natural result of that forceful policy by which she
+had cut the Gordian knot of her national problem.
+
+The economic change was decided on in the year 1879, when the federated
+States returned to "the time-honoured ways of 1823-65." Bismarck
+appealed to the Reichstag to preserve at least the German market to
+German industry. The chances of having a large export trade were on
+every ground precarious; but Germany could, at the worst, support
+herself. All interests were mollified by having moderate duties imposed
+to check imports. Small customs dues were placed on corn and other food
+supplies so as to please the agrarian party; imports of manufactured
+goods were taxed for the benefit of German industries, and even raw
+materials underwent small imposts. The Reichstag approved the change and
+on July 7 passed the Government's proposals by 217 to 117: the majority
+comprised the Conservatives, Clericals, the Alsace-Lorrainers, and a few
+National Liberals; while the bulk of the last-named, hitherto Bismarck's
+supporters on most topics, along with Radicals and Social Democrats,
+opposed it. The new tariff came into force on January 1, 1880.
+
+On the whole, much may be said in favour of the immediate results of the
+new policy. By the year 1885 the number of men employed in iron and
+steel works had increased by 35 per cent over the numbers of 1879; wages
+also had increased, and the returns of shipping and of the export trade
+showed a considerable rise. Of course, it is impossible to say whether
+this would not have happened in any case owing to the natural tendency
+to recovery from the deep depression of the years 1875-79. The duties on
+corn did not raise its price, which appears strange until we know that
+the foreign imports of corn were less than 8 per cent of the whole
+amount consumed. In 1885, therefore, Bismarck gave way to the demands of
+the agrarians that the corn duties should be raised still further, in
+order to make agriculture lucrative and to prevent the streaming of
+rural population to the towns. Again the docile Reichstag followed his
+lead. But, two years later, it seemed that the new corn duties had
+failed to check the fall of prices and keep landlords and farmers from
+ruin; once more, then, the duties were raised, being even doubled on
+certain food products. This time they undoubtedly had one important
+result, that of making the urban population, especially that of the
+great industrial centres, more and more hostile to the agrarians and to
+the Government which seemed to be legislating in their interests. From
+this time forward the Social Democrats began to be a power in the land.
+
+And yet, if we except the very important item of rent, which in Berlin
+presses with cruel weight on the labouring classes, the general trend of
+the prices of the necessaries of life in Germany has been downwards, in
+spite of all the protectionist duties. The evidence compiled in the
+British official Blue-book on "British and Foreign Trade and Industry"
+(1903. Cd. 1761, p. 226) yields the following results. By comparing the
+necessary expenditure on food of a workman's family of the same size and
+living under the same conditions, it appears that if we take that
+expenditure for the period 1897-1901 to represent the number 100 we have
+these results:--
+
+     +-----------+-----------+-----------------+
+     |  Period.  |  Germany. | United Kingdom. |
+     +-----------+-----------+-----------------+
+     | 1877-1881 |    112    |       140       |
+     | 1882-1886 |    101    |       125       |
+     | 1887-1891 |    103    |       106       |
+     | 1892-1896 |     99    |        98       |
+     | 1897-1901 |    100    |       100       |
+     +-----------+-----------+-----------------+
+
+Thus the fall in the cost of living of a British working man's family
+has been 40 points, while that of the German working man shows a decline
+of only 12 points. It is, on the whole, surprising that there has not
+been more difference between the two countries[84].
+
+[Footnote 84: In a recent work, _England and the English_ (London,
+1904), Dr. Carl Peters says: "Considering that wages in England average
+20 per cent higher in England than in Germany, that the week has only 54
+working hours, and that all articles of food are cheaper, the
+fundamental conditions of prosperous home-life are all round more
+favourable in England than in Germany. And yet he [the British
+working-man] does not derive greater comfort from them, for the simple
+reason that a German labourer's wife is more economical and more
+industrious than the English wife."] Before dealing with the new
+social problems that resulted, at least in part, from the new duties on
+food, we may point out that Bismarck and his successors at the German
+Chancellory have used the new tariff as a means of extorting better
+terms from the surrounding countries. The Iron Chancellor has always
+acted on the diplomatic principle _do ut des_--"I give that you may
+give"--with its still more cynical corollary--"Those who have nothing
+to give will get nothing." The new German tariff on agricultural
+products was stiffly applied against Austria for many years, to compel
+her to grant more favourable terms to German manufactured goods. For
+eleven years Austria-Hungary maintained their protective barriers; but
+in 1891 German persistence was rewarded in the form of a treaty by which
+the Dual Monarchy let in German goods on easier terms provided that the
+corn duties of the northern Power were relaxed. The fiscal strife with
+Russia was keener and longer, but had the same result (1894). Of a
+friendlier kind were the negotiations with Italy, Belgium, and
+Switzerland, which led to treaties with those States in 1891. It is
+needless to say that in each of these cases the lowering of the corn
+duties was sharply resisted by the German agrarians. We may here add
+that the Anglo-German commercial treaty which expired in 1903 has been
+extended for two years; and that Germany's other commercial treaties
+were at the same time continued.
+
+It is hazardous at present to venture on any definite judgment as to the
+measure of success attained by the German protectionist policy.
+Protectionists always point to the prosperity of Germany as the crowning
+proof of its efficacy. In one respect they are, perhaps, fully justified
+in so doing. The persistent pressure which Germany brought to bear on
+the even more protectionist systems of Russia and Austria undoubtedly
+induced those Powers to grant easier terms to German goods than they
+would have done had Germany lost her bargaining power by persisting in
+her former Free Trade tendencies. Her success in this matter is the best
+instance in recent economic history of the desirability of holding back
+something in reserve so as to be able to bargain effectively with a
+Power that keeps up hostile tariffs. In this jealously competitive age
+the State that has nothing more to offer is as badly off in economic
+negotiations as one that, in affairs of general policy, has no armaments
+wherewith to face a well-equipped foe. This consideration is of course
+scouted as heretical by orthodox economists; but it counts for much in
+the workaday world, where tariff wars and commercial treaty bargainings
+unfortunately still distract the energies of mankind.
+
+On the other hand, it would be risky to point to the internal prosperity
+of Germany and the vast growth of her exports as proofs of the soundness
+of protectionist theories. The marvellous growth of that prosperity is
+very largely due to the natural richness of a great part of the country,
+to the intelligence, energy, and foresight of her people and their
+rulers, and to the comparatively backward state of German industry and
+commerce up to the year 1870. Far on into the Nineteenth Century,
+Germany was suffering from the havoc wrought by the Napoleonic wars and
+still earlier struggles. Even after the year 1850, the political
+uncertainties of the time prevented her enjoying the prosperity that
+then visited England and France. Therefore, only since 1870 (or rather
+since 1877-78, when the results of the mad speculation of 1873 began to
+wear away) has she entered on the normal development of a modern
+industrial State; and he would be an eager partisan who would put down
+her prosperity mainly to the credit of the protectionist régime. In
+truth, no one can correctly gauge the value of the complex
+causes--economic, political, educational, scientific and
+engineering--that make for the prosperity of a vast industrial
+community. So closely are they intertwined in the nature of things, that
+dogmatic arguments laying stress on one of them alone must speedily be
+seen to be the merest juggling with facts and figures.
+
+As regards the wider influences exerted by Germany's new protective
+policy, we can here allude only to one; and that will be treated more
+fully in the chapter dealing with the Partition of Africa. That policy
+gave a great stimulus to the colonial movement in Germany, and, through
+her, in all European States. As happened in the time of the old
+Mercantile System, Powers which limited their trade with their
+neighbours, felt an imperious need for absorbing new lands in the
+tropics to serve as close preserves for the mother-country. Other
+circumstances helped to impel Germany on the path of colonial expansion;
+but probably the most important, though the least obvious, was the
+recrudescence of that "Mercantilism" which Adam Smith had exploded.
+Thus, the triumph of the national principle in and after 1870 was
+consolidated by means which tended to segregate the human race in
+masses, regarding each other more or less as enemies or rivals, alike in
+the spheres of politics, commerce, and colonial expansion.
+
+We may conclude our brief survey of German constructive policy by
+glancing at the chief of the experiments which may be classed as akin to
+State Socialism.
+
+In 1882 the German Government introduced the Sickness Insurance Bill and
+the Accident Insurance Bill, but they were not passed till 1884, and did
+not take effect till 1885. For the relief of sickness the Government
+relied on existing institutions organised for that object. This was very
+wise, seeing that the great difficulty is how to find out whether a man
+really is ill or is merely shamming illness. Obviously a local club can
+find that out far better than a great imperial agency can. The local
+club has every reason for looking sharply after doubtful cases as a
+State Insurance Fund cannot do. As regards sickness, then, the Imperial
+Government merely compelled all the labouring classes, with few
+exceptions, to belong to some sick fund. They were obliged to pay in a
+sum of not less than about fourpence in the pound of their weekly wages;
+and this payment of the workman has to be supplemented by half as much,
+paid by his employer--or rather, the employer pays the whole of the
+premium and deducts the share payable by the workman from his wages.
+
+Closely linked with this is the Accident Insurance Law. Here the brunt
+of the payment falls wholly on the employer. He alone pays the premiums
+for all his work-people; the amount varies according to (1) the man's
+wage, (2) the risk incidental to the employment. The latter is
+determined by the actuaries of the Government. If a man is injured (even
+if it be by his own carelessness) he receives payments during the first
+thirteen weeks from the ordinary Sick Fund. If his accident keeps him a
+prisoner any longer, he is paid from the Accident Fund of the employers
+of that particular trade, or from the Imperial Accident Fund. Here of
+course the chance of shamming increases, particularly if the man knows
+that he is being supported out of a general fund made up entirely by the
+employers' payments. The burden on the employers is certainly very
+heavy, seeing that for all kinds of accidents relief may be claimed; the
+only exception is in cases where the injury can be shown to be wilfully
+committed[85]. A British Blue-book issued on March 31, 1905, shows that
+the enormous sum of £5,372,150 was paid in Germany in the year 1902 as
+compensation to workmen for injuries sustained while at work.
+
+[Footnote 85: For the account given above, as also that of the Old Age
+Insurance Law, I am indebted to Mr. Dawson's excellent little work,
+_Bismarck and State Socialism_ (Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1890). See also
+the Appendix to _The German Empire of To-day_, by "Veritas" (1902).]
+
+The burden of the employers does not end here. They have to bear their
+share of Old Age Insurance. This law was passed in 1889, at the close of
+the first year of the present Kaiser's reign. His father, the Emperor
+Frederick, during his brief reign had not favoured the principles of
+State Socialism; but the young Emperor William in November 1888
+announced that he would further the work begun by _his grandfather_, and
+though the difficulties of insurance for old age were very great, yet,
+with God's help, they would prove not to be insuperable.
+
+Certainly the effort was by far the greatest that had yet been made by
+any State. The young Emperor and his Chancellor sought to build up a
+fund whereby 12,000,000 of work-people might be guarded against the ills
+of a penniless old age. Their law provided for all workmen (even men in
+domestic service) whose yearly income did not exceed 2000 marks (£100).
+Like the preceding laws, it was compulsory. Every youth who is
+physically and mentally sound, and who earns more than a minimum wage,
+must begin to put by a fixed proportion of that wage as soon as he
+completes his sixteenth year. His employer is also compelled to
+contribute the same amount for him. Mr. Dawson, in the work already
+referred to, gives some figures showing what the joint payment of
+employer and employed amount to on this score. If the workman earns £15
+a year (_i.e._ about 6s. a week), the sum of 3s. 3-1/2d. is put by for
+him yearly into the State Fund. If he earns £36 a year, the joint annual
+payment will be 5s. 7-1/2d.; if he earns £78, it will be 7s. a year, and
+so on. These payments are reckoned up in various classes, according to
+the amounts; and according to the total amount is the final annuity
+payable to the worker in the evening of his days. That evening is very
+slow in coming for the German worker. For old age merely, he cannot
+begin to draw his full pension until he has attained the ripe age of
+seventy-one years. Then he will draw the full amount. He may anticipate
+that if he be incapacitated; but in that case the pension will be on a
+lower scale, proportioned to the amounts paid in and the length of time
+of the payments.
+
+The details of the measure are so complex as to cause a good deal of
+friction and discontent. The calculation of the various payments alone
+employs an army of clerks: the need of safeguarding against personation
+and other kinds of fraud makes a great number of precautions necessary;
+and thus the whole system becomes tied up with red tape in a way that
+even the more patient workman of the Continent cannot endure.
+
+In a large measure, then, the German Government has failed in its
+efforts to cure the industrial classes of their socialistic ideas. But
+its determination to attach them to the new German Empire, and to make
+that Empire the leading industrial State of the Continent, has had a
+complete triumph. So far as education, technical training, research, and
+enlightened laws can make a nation great, Germany is surely on the high
+road to national and industrial supremacy.
+
+It is a strange contrast that meets our eyes if we look back to the
+years before the advent of King William and Bismarck to power. In the
+dark days of the previous reign Germany was weak, divided, and helpless.
+In regard to political life and industry she was still almost in
+swaddling-clothes; and her struggles to escape from the irksome
+restraints of the old Confederation seemed likely to be as futile as
+they had been since the year 1815. But the advent of the King and his
+sturdy helper to power speedily changed the situation. The political
+problems were grappled with one by one, and were trenchantly solved.
+Union was won by Bismarck's diplomacy and Prussia's sword; and when the
+longed-for goal was reached in seven momentous years, the same qualities
+were brought to bear on the difficult task of consolidating that union.
+Those qualities were the courage and honesty of purpose that the House
+of Hohenzollern has always displayed since the days of the Great
+Elector; added to these were rarer gifts, namely, the width of view, the
+eagle foresight, the strength of will, the skill in the choice of means,
+that made up the imposing personality of Bismarck. It was with an eye to
+him, and to the astonishing triumphs wrought by his diplomacy over
+France, that a diplomatist thus summed up the results of the year 1870:
+"Europe has lost a mistress, but she has got a master."
+
+After the lapse of a generation that has been weighted with the cuirass
+of Militarism, we are able to appreciate the force of that remark.
+Equally true is it that the formation of the German Empire has not added
+to the culture and the inner happiness of the German people. The days
+of quiet culture and happiness are gone; and in their place has come a
+straining after ambitious aims which is a heavy drag even on the
+vitality of the Teutonic race. Still, whether for good or for evil, the
+unification of Germany must stand out as the greatest event in the
+history of the Nineteenth Century.
+
+
+
+NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION
+
+The statement on page 135 that service in the German army is compulsory
+for seven years, three in the field army and four in the reserve,
+applies to the cavalry and artillery only. In the infantry the time of
+service is two years with the colours and five years in the reserve.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE EASTERN QUESTION
+
+     "Perhaps one fact which lies at the root of all the actions
+     of the Turks, small and great, is that they are by nature
+     nomads. . . . Hence it is that when the Turk retires from a
+     country he leaves no more sign of himself than does a Tartar
+     camp on the upland pastures where it has passed the
+     summer."--_Turkey in Europe_, by "Odysseus."
+
+
+The remark was once made that the Eastern Question was destined to
+perplex mankind up to the Day of Judgment. Certainly that problem is
+extraordinarily complex in its details. For a century and a half it has
+distracted the statesmen and philanthropists of Europe; for it concerns
+not only the ownership of lands of great intrinsic and strategic
+importance, but also the welfare of many peoples. It is a question,
+therefore, which no intelligent man ought to overlook.
+
+For the benefit of the tiresome person who insists on having a
+definition of every term, the Eastern Question may be briefly described
+as the problem of finding a _modus vivendi_ between the Turks and their
+Christian subjects and the neighbouring States. This may serve as a
+general working statement. No one who is acquainted with the rules of
+Logic will accept it as a definition. Definitions can properly apply
+only to terms and facts that have a clear outline; and they can
+therefore very rarely apply to the facts of history, which are of
+necessity as many-sided as human life itself. The statement given above
+is incomplete, inasmuch as it neither hints at the great difficulty of
+reconciling the civic ideas of Christian and Turkish peoples, nor
+describes the political problems arising out of the decay of the Ottoman
+Power and the ambitions of its neighbours.
+
+It will be well briefly to see what are the difficulties that arise out
+of the presence of Christians under the rule of a great Moslem State.
+They are chiefly these. First, the Koran, though far from enjoining
+persecution of Christians, yet distinctly asserts the superiority of the
+true believer and the inferiority of "the people of the book"
+(Christians). The latter therefore are excluded from participation in
+public affairs, and in practice are refused a hearing in the law courts.
+Consequently they tend to sink to the position of hewers of wood and
+drawers of water to the Moslems, these on their side inevitably
+developing the defects of an exclusive dominant caste. This is so
+especially with the Turks. They are one of the least gifted of the
+Mongolian family of nations; brave in war and patient under suffering
+and reverses, they nevertheless are hopelessly narrow-minded and
+bigoted; and the Christians in their midst have fared perhaps worse than
+anywhere else among the Mohammedan peoples.
+
+M. de Lavelaye, who studied the condition of things in Turkey not long
+after the war of 1877-78, thus summed up the causes of the social and
+political decline of the Turks:--
+
+The true Mussulman loves neither progress, novelty, nor education; the
+Koran is enough for him. He is satisfied with his lot, therefore cares
+little for its improvement, somewhat like a Catholic monk; but at the
+same time he hates and despises the Christian _raya_, who is the
+labourer. He pitilessly despoils, fleeces, and ill-treats him to the
+extent of completely ruining and destroying those families, which are
+the only ones who cultivate the ground; it was a state of war continued
+in time of peace, and transformed into a regime of permanent spoliation
+and murder. The wife, even when she is the only one, is always an
+inferior being, a kind of slave, destitute of any intellectual culture;
+and as it is she who trains the children--boys and girls--the bad
+results are plainly seen.
+
+Matters were not always and in all parts of Turkey so bad as this; but
+they frequently became so under cruel or corrupt governors, or in times
+when Moslem fanaticism ran riot. In truth, the underlying cause of
+Turkey's troubles is the ignorance and fanaticism of her people. These
+evils result largely from the utter absorption of all devout Moslems in
+their creed and ritual. Texts from the Koran guide their conduct; and
+all else is decided by fatalism, which is very often a mere excuse for
+doing nothing[86]. Consequently all movements for reform are mere
+ripples on the surface of Turkish life; they never touch its dull
+depths; and the Sultan and officials, knowing this, cling to the old
+ways with full confidence. The protests of Christian nations on behalf
+of their co-religionists are therefore met with a polite compliance
+which means nothing. Time after time the Sublime Porte has most solemnly
+promised to grant religious liberty to its Christian subjects; but the
+promises were but empty air, and those who made them knew it. In fact,
+the firmans of reform now and again issued with so much ostentation have
+never been looked on by good Moslems as binding, because the chief
+spiritual functionary, the Sheikh-ul-Islam, whose assent is needed to
+give validity to laws, has withheld it from those very ordinances. As he
+has power to depose the Sultan for a lapse of orthodoxy, the result may
+be imagined. The many attempts of the Christian Powers to enforce their
+notions of religious toleration on the Porte have in the end merely led
+to further displays of Oriental politeness.
+
+[Footnote 86: "Islam continues to be, as it has been for twelve
+centuries, the most inflexible adversary to the Western spirit"
+_(History of Serbia and the Slav Provinces of Turkey,_ by L. von Ranke,
+Eng. edit. p. 296).]
+
+It may be asked: Why have not the Christians of Turkey united in order
+to gain civic rights? The answer is that they are profoundly divided in
+race and sentiment. In the north-east are the Roumanians, a
+Romano-Slavonic race long ago Latinised in speech and habit of mind by
+contact with Roman soldiers and settlers on the Lower Danube. South of
+that river there dwell the Bulgars, who, strictly speaking, are not
+Slavs but Mongolians. After long sojourn on the Volga they took to
+themselves the name of that river, lost their Tartar speech, and became
+Slav in sentiment and language. This change took place before the ninth
+century, when they migrated to the south and conquered the districts
+which they now inhabit. Their neighbours on the west, the Servians, are
+Slavs in every sense, and look back with pride to the time of the great
+Servian Kingdom, carved out by Stephen Dushan, which stretched
+southwards to the _Ægean_ and the Gulf of Corinth (about 1350).
+
+To the west of the present Kingdom of Servia dwell other Servians and
+Slavs, who have been partitioned and ground down by various conquerors
+and have kept fewer traditions than the Servians who won their freedom.
+But from this statement we must except the Montenegrins, who in their
+mountain fastnesses have ever defied the Turks. To the south of them is
+the large but little-known Province of Albania, inhabited by the
+descendants of the ancient Illyrians, with admixtures of Greeks in the
+south, Bulgarians in the east, and Servians in the north-east. Most of
+the Albanians forsook Christianity and are among the most fanatical and
+warlike upholders of Islam; but in their turbulent clan-life they often
+defy the authority of the Sultan, and uphold it only in order to keep
+their supremacy over the hated and despised Greeks and Bulgars on their
+outskirts. Last among the non-Turkish races of the Balkan Peninsula are
+a few Wallachs in Central Macedonia, and Greeks; these last inhabit
+Thessaly and the seaboard of Macedonia and of part of Roumelia. It is
+well said that Greek influence in the Balkans extends no further inland
+than that of the sea breezes.
+
+Such is the medley of races that complicates the Eastern Question. It
+may be said that Turkish rule in Europe survives owing to the racial
+divisions and jealousies of the Christians. The Sultan puts in force the
+old Roman motto, _Divide et impera_, and has hitherto done so, in the
+main, with success. That is the reason why Islam dominates Christianity
+in the south-east of Europe.
+
+This brief explanation will show what are the evils that affect Turkey
+as a whole and her Christian subjects in particular. They are due to the
+collision of two irreconcilable creeds and civilisations, the Christian
+and the Mohammedan. Both of them are gifted with vitality and
+propagandist power (witness the spread of the latter in Africa and
+Central Asia in our own day); and, while no comparison can be made
+between them on ideal grounds and in their ethical and civic results, it
+still remains true that Islam inspires its votaries with fanatical
+bravery in war. There is the weakness of the Christians of south-eastern
+Europe. Superior in all that makes for home life, civilisation, and
+civic excellence, they have in time past generally failed as soldiers
+when pitted against an equal number of Moslems. But the latter show no
+constructive powers in time of peace, and have very rarely assimilated
+the conquered races. Putting the matter baldly, we may say that it is a
+question of the survival of the fittest between beavers and bears. And
+in the Nineteenth Century the advantage has been increasingly with
+the former.
+
+These facts will appear if we take a brief glance at the salient
+features of the European history of Turkey. After capturing
+Constantinople, the capital of the old Eastern Empire, in the year 1453,
+the Turks for a time rapidly extended their power over the neighbouring
+Christian States, Bulgaria, Servia, and Hungary. In the year 1683 they
+laid siege to Vienna; but after being beaten back from that city by the
+valiant Sobieski, King of Poland, they gradually lost ground. Little by
+little Hungary, Transylvania, the Crimea, and parts of the Ukraine
+(South Russia) were wrenched from their grasp; and the close of the
+eighteenth century saw their frontiers limited to the River Dniester and
+the Carpathians[87]. Further losses were staved off only by the
+jealousies of the Great Powers. Joseph II. of Austria came near to
+effecting further conquests, but his schemes of partition fell through
+amidst the wholesale collapse of his too ambitious policy. Napoleon
+Bonaparte seized Egypt in 1798, but was forced by Great Britain to give
+it back to Turkey (1801-2). In 1807-12 Alexander I. of Russia resumed
+the conquering march of the Czars southward, captured Bessarabia, and
+forced the Sultan to grant certain privileges to the Principalities of
+Moldavia and Wallachia. In 1815 the Servians revolted against Turkish
+rule: they had always remembered the days of their early fame, and in
+1817 wrested from the Porte large rights of local self-government.
+
+[Footnote 87: The story that Peter the Great of Russia left a clause in
+his will, bidding Russia to go on with her southern conquests until she
+gained Constantinople, is an impudent fiction of French publicists in
+the year 1812, when Napoleon wished to keep Russia and Turkey at war. Of
+course, Peter the Great gave a mighty impulse to Russian movements
+towards Constantinople.]
+
+Ten years later the intervention of England and France in favour of the
+Greek patriots led to the battle of Navarino, which destroyed the
+Turco-Egyptian fleet and practically secured the independence of Greece.
+An even worse blow was dealt by the Czar Nicholas I. of Russia. In 1829,
+at the close of a war in which his troops drove the Turks over the
+Balkans and away from Adrianople, he compelled the Porte to sign a peace
+at that city, whereby they acknowledged the almost complete independence
+of Moldavia and Wallachia. These Danubian Principalities owned the
+suzerainty of the Sultan and paid him a yearly tribute, but in other
+respects were practically free from his control, while the Czar gained
+for the time the right of protecting the Christians of the Eastern, or
+Greek, Church in the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan also recognised the
+independence of Greece. Further troubles ensued which laid Turkey for a
+time at the feet of Russia. England and France, however, intervened to
+raise her up; and they also thwarted the efforts of Mehemet Ali, the
+rebellious Pacha of Egypt, to seize Syria from his nominal lord,
+the Sultan.
+
+Even this bare summary will serve to illustrate three important facts:
+first, that Turkey never consolidated her triumph over the neighbouring
+Christians, simply because she could not assimilate them, alien as they
+were, in race, and in the enjoyment of a higher creed and civilisation;
+second, that the Christians gained more and more support from kindred
+peoples (especially the Russians) as these last developed their
+energies; third, that the liberating process was generally (though not
+in 1827) delayed by the action of the Western Powers (England and
+France), which, on grounds of policy, sought to stop the aggrandisement
+of Austria, or Russia, by supporting the Sultan's authority.
+
+The policy of supporting the Sultan against the aggression of Russia
+reached its climax in the Crimean War (1854-55), which was due mainly to
+the efforts of the Czar Nicholas to extend his protection over the Greek
+Christians in Turkey. France, England, and later on the Kingdom of
+Sardinia made war on Russia--France, chiefly because her new ruler,
+Napoleon III., wished to play a great part in the world, and avenge the
+disasters of the Moscow campaign of 1812; England, because her
+Government and people resented the encroachments of Russia in the East,
+and sincerely believed that Turkey was about to become a civilised
+State; and Sardinia, because her statesman Cavour saw in this action a
+means of securing the alliance of the two western States in his
+projected campaign against Austria. The war closed with the Treaty of
+Paris, of 1856, whereby the signatory Powers formally admitted Turkey
+"to participate in the advantages of the public law and system
+of Europe."
+
+This, however, merely signified that the signatory Powers would resist
+encroachments on the territorial integrity of Turkey. It did not limit
+the rights of the Powers, as specified in various "Capitulations," to
+safeguard their own subjects residing in Turkey against Turkish misrule.
+The Sultan raised great hopes by issuing a firman granting religious
+liberty to his Christian subjects; this was inserted in the Treaty of
+Paris, and thereby became part of the public law of Europe. The Powers
+also became _collectively_ the guarantors of the local privileges of the
+Danubian Principalities. Another article of the Treaty provided for the
+exclusion of war-ships from the Black Sea. This of course applied
+specially to Russia and Turkey[88].
+
+[Footnote 88: For the treaty and the firman of 1856, see _The European
+Concert in the Eastern Question, _by T.E. Holland; also Débidour,
+_Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe _(1814-1878), vol. ii. pp. 150-152;
+_The Eastern Question, _by the late Duke of Argyll, vol. i. chap. i.]
+
+The chief diplomatic result of the Crimean War, then, was to substitute
+a European recognition of religious toleration in Turkey for the control
+over her subjects of the Greek Church which Russia had claimed. The
+Sublime Porte was now placed in a stronger position than it had held
+since the year 1770; and the due performance of its promises would
+probably have led to the building up of a strong State. But the promises
+proved to be mere waste-paper. The Sultan, believing that England and
+France would always take his part, let matters go on in the old bad way.
+The natural results came to pass. The Christians showed increasing
+restiveness under Turkish rule. In 1860 numbers of them were massacred
+in the Lebanon, and Napoleon III. occupied part of Syria with French
+troops. The vassal States in Europe also displayed increasing vitality,
+while that of Turkey waned. In 1861, largely owing to the diplomatic
+help of Napoleon III., Moldavia and Wallachia united and formed the
+Principality of Roumania. In 1862, after a short but terrible struggle,
+the Servians rid themselves of the Turkish garrisons and framed a
+constitution of the Western type. But the worst blow came in 1870.
+During the course of the Franco-German War the Czar's Government (with
+the good-will and perhaps the active connivance of the Court of Berlin)
+announced that it would no longer be bound by the article of the Treaty
+of Paris excluding Russian war-ships from the Black Sea. The Gladstone
+Ministry sent a protest against this act, but took no steps to enforce
+its protest. Our young diplomatist, Sir Horace Rumbold, then at St.
+Petersburg, believed that she would have drawn back at a threat of
+war[89]. Finally, the Russian declaration was agreed to by the Powers in
+a Treaty signed at London on March 31, 1871.
+
+[Footnote 89: Sir Horace Rumbold, _Recollections of a Diplomatist_
+(First Series), vol. ii. p. 295.]
+
+These warnings were all thrown away on the Porte. Its promises of
+toleration to Christians were ignored; the wheels of government clanked
+on in the traditional rusty way; governors of provinces and districts
+continued, as of yore, to pocket the grants that were made for local
+improvements; in defiance of the promises given in 1856, taxes continued
+to be "farmed" out to contractors; the evidence of Christians against
+Moslems was persistently refused a hearing in courts of justice[90]; and
+the collectors of taxes gave further turns of the financial screw in
+order to wring from the cultivators, especially from the Christians, the
+means of satisfying the needs of the State and the ever-increasing
+extravagance of the Sultan. Incidents which were observed in Bosnia by
+an Oxford scholar of high repute, in the summer of 1875, will be found
+quoted in an Appendix at the end of this volume.
+
+[Footnote 90: As to this, see Reports: _Condition of Christians in
+Turkey_ (1860). Presented to Parliament in 1861. Also Parliamentary
+Papers, Turkey, No. 16 (1877).]
+
+Matters came to a climax in the autumn of 1875 in Herzegovina, the
+southern part of Bosnia. There after a bad harvest the farmers of taxes
+and the Mohammedan landlords insisted on having their full quota; for
+many years the peasants had suffered under agrarian wrongs, which cannot
+be described here; and now this long-suffering peasantry, mostly
+Christians, fled to the mountains, or into Montenegro, whose sturdy
+mountaineers had never bent beneath the Turkish yoke[91]. Thence they
+made forays against their oppressors until the whole of that part of
+the Balkans was aflame with the old religious and racial feuds. The
+Slavs of Servia, Bulgaria, and of Austrian Dalmatia also gave secret aid
+to their kith and kin in the struggle against their Moslem overlords.
+These peoples had been aroused by the sight of the triumph of the
+national cause in Italy, and felt that the time had come to strike for
+freedom in the Balkans. Turkey therefore failed to stamp out the revolt
+in Herzegovina, fed as it was by the neighbouring Slav peoples; and it
+was clear to all the politicians of Europe that the Eastern Question was
+entering once more on an acute phase.
+
+[Footnote 91: Efforts were made by the British Consul, Holmes, and other
+pro-Turks, to assign this revolt to Panslavonic intrigues. That there
+were some Slavonic emissaries at work is undeniable; but it is equally
+certain that their efforts would have had no result but for the
+existence of unbearable ills. It is time, surely, to give up the notion
+that peoples rise in revolt merely owing to outside agitators. To revolt
+against the warlike Turks has never been child's play.]
+
+These events aroused varied feelings in the European States. The Russian
+people, being in the main of Slavonic descent, sympathised deeply with
+the struggles of their kith and kin, who were rendered doubly dear by
+their membership in the Greek Church. The Panslavonic Movement, for
+bringing the scattered branches of the Slav race into some form of
+political union, was already gaining ground in Russia; but it found
+little favour with the St. Petersburg Government owing to the
+revolutionary aims of its partisans. Sympathy with the revolt in the
+Balkans was therefore confined to nationalist enthusiasts in the towns
+of Russia. Austria was still more anxious to prevent the spread of the
+Balkan rising to the millions of her own Slavs. Accordingly, the
+Austrian Chancellor, Count Andrassy, in concert with Prince Bismarck and
+the Russian statesman, Prince Gortchakoff, began to prepare a scheme of
+reforms which was to be pressed on the Sultan as a means of conciliating
+the insurgents of Herzegovina. They comprised (1) the improvement of the
+lot of the peasantry; (2) complete religious liberty; (3) the abolition
+of the farming of taxes; (4) the application of the local taxation to
+local needs; (5) the appointment of a Commission, half of Moslems, half
+of Christians, to supervise the execution of these reforms and of others
+recently promised by the Porte[92].
+
+[Footnote 92: For the full text, see Hertslet, _The Map of Europe by
+Treaty_, iv. pp. 2418-2429.]
+
+These proposals would probably have been sent to the Porte before the
+close of 1875 but for the diplomatic intervention of the British
+Cabinet. Affairs at London were then in the hands of that skilful and
+determined statesman, Disraeli, soon to become Lord Beaconsfield. It is
+impossible to discuss fully the causes of that bias in his nature which
+prejudiced him against supporting the Christians of Turkey. Those causes
+were due in part to the Semitic instincts of his Jewish ancestry,--the
+Jews having consistently received better treatment from the Turks than
+from the Russians,--and in part to his staunch Imperialism, which saw in
+Muscovite expansion the chief danger to British communications with
+India. Mr. Bryce has recently pointed out in a suggestive survey of
+Disraeli's character that tradition had great weight with him[93]. It is
+known to have been a potent influence on the mind of Queen Victoria;
+and, as the traditional policy at Whitehall was to support Turkey
+against Russia, all the personal leanings, which count for so much, told
+in favour of a continuance in the old lines, even though the
+circumstances had utterly changed since the time of the Crimean War.
+
+[Footnote 93: Bryce, _Studies in Contemporary Biography_ (1904).]
+
+When, therefore, Disraeli became aware that pressure was about to be
+applied to the Porte by the three Powers above named, he warned them
+that he considered any such action to be inopportune, seeing that Turkey
+ought to be allowed time to carry out a programme of reforms of recent
+date. By an _iradé_ of October 2, 1875, the Sultan had promised to _all_
+his Christian subjects a remission of taxation and the right of choosing
+not only the controllers of taxes, but also delegates to supervise their
+rights at Constantinople.
+
+In taking these promises seriously, Disraeli stood almost alone. But his
+speech of November 9, 1875, at the Lord Mayor's banquet, showed that he
+viewed the Eastern Question solely from the standpoint of British
+interests. His acts spoke even more forcibly than his words. That was
+the time when the dawn of Imperialism flushed all the eastern sky.
+H.R.H. the Prince of Wales had just begun his Indian tour amidst
+splendid festivities at Bombay; and the repetition of these in the
+native States undoubtedly did much to awaken interest in our Eastern
+Empire and cement the loyalty of its Princes and peoples. Next, at the
+close of the month of November, came the news that the British
+Government had bought the shares in the Suez Canal, previously owned by
+the Khedive of Egypt, for the sum of £4,500,000[94]. The transaction is
+now acknowledged by every thinking man to have been a master-stroke of
+policy, justified on all grounds, financial and Imperial. In those days
+it met with sharp censure from Disraeli's opponents. In a sense this was
+natural; for it seemed to be part of a scheme for securing British
+influence in the Levant and riding roughshod over the susceptibilities
+of the French (the constructors of the canal) and the plans of Russia.
+Everything pointed to the beginning of a period of spirited foreign
+policy which would lead to war with Russia.
+
+[Footnote 94: For details of this affair, see Chapter XV. of this work.]
+
+Meanwhile the three Empires delayed the presentation of their scheme of
+reforms for Turkey, and, as it would seem, out of deference to British
+representations. The troubles in Herzegovina therefore went on unchecked
+through the winter, the insurgents refusing to pay any heed to the
+Sultan's promises, even though these were extended by the _iradé_ of
+December 12, offering religious liberty and the institution of electoral
+bodies throughout the whole of European Turkey. The statesmen of the
+Continent were equally sceptical as to the _bona fides_ of these offers,
+and on January 31, 1876, presented to the Porte their scheme of reforms
+already described. Disraeli and our Foreign Minister, Lord Derby, gave a
+cold and guarded assent to the "Andrassy Note," though they were known
+to regard it as "inopportune." To the surprise of the world, the Porte
+accepted the Note on February 11, with one reservation.
+
+This act of acceptance, however, failed to satisfy the insurgents. They
+decided to continue the struggle. Their irreconcilable attitude
+doubtless arose from their knowledge of the worthlessness of Turkish
+promises when not backed by pressure from the Powers; and it should be
+observed that the "Note" gave no hint of any such pressure[95]. But it
+was also prompted by the hope that Servia and Montenegro would soon draw
+the sword on their behalf--as indeed happened later on. Those warlike
+peoples longed to join in the struggle against their ancestral foes; and
+their rulers were nothing loth to do so. Servia was then ruled by Prince
+Milan (1868-89), of that House of Obrenovitch which has been
+extinguished by the cowardly murders of June 1903 at Belgrade. He had
+recently married Nathalie Kechko, a noble Russian lady, whose
+connections strengthened the hopes that he naturally entertained of
+armed Muscovite help in case of a war with Turkey. Prince Nikita of
+Montenegro had married his second daughter to a Russian Grand Duke,
+cousin of the Czar Alexander II., and therefore cherished the same
+hopes. It was clear that unless energetic steps were taken by the Powers
+to stop the spread of the conflagration it would soon wrap the whole of
+the Balkan Peninsula in flames. An outbreak of Moslem fanaticism at
+Salonica (May 6), which led to the murder of the French and German
+Consuls at that port, shed a lurid light on the whole situation and
+convinced the Continental Powers that sterner measures must be adopted
+towards the Porte.
+
+[Footnote 95: See Parliamentary Papers, Turkey, No. 5 (1877), for Consul
+Freeman's report of March 17, 1877, of the outrages by the Turks in
+Bosnia. The refugees declared they would "sooner drown themselves in the
+Unna than again subject themselves to Turkish oppression." The Porte
+denied all the outrages.]
+
+Such was the position, and such the considerations, that led the three
+Empires to adopt more drastic proposals. Having found, meanwhile, by
+informal conferences with the Herzegovinian leaders, what were the
+essentials to a lasting settlement, they prepared to embody them in a
+second Note, the Berlin Memorandum, issued on May 13. It was drawn up by
+the three Imperial Chancellors at Berlin, but Andrassy is known to have
+given a somewhat doubtful consent. T his "Berlin Memorandum" demanded
+the adoption of an armistice for two months; the repatriation of the
+Bosnian exiles and fugitives; the establishment of a mixed Commission
+for that purpose; the removal of Turkish troops from the rural districts
+of Bosnia; the right of the Consuls of the European Powers to see to the
+carrying out of all the promised reforms. Lastly, the Memorandum stated
+that if within two months the three Imperial Courts did not attain the
+end they had in view (viz. the carrying out of the needed reforms), it
+would become necessary to take "efficacious measures" for that
+purpose[96]. Bismarck is known to have favoured the policy of
+Gortchakoff in this affair.
+
+[Footnote 96: Hertslet, iv. pp. 2459-2463.]
+
+The proposals of the Memorandum were at once sent to the British,
+French, and Italian Governments for their assent. The two last
+immediately gave it. After a brief delay the Disraeli Ministry sent a
+decisive refusal and made no alternative proposal, though one of its
+members, Sir Stafford Northcote, is known to have formulated a
+scheme[97]. The Cabinet took a still more serious step: on May 24, it
+ordered the British fleet in the Mediterranean to steam to Besika Bay,
+near the entrance to the Dardanelles--the very position it had taken
+before the Crimean War[98]. It is needless to say that this act not only
+broke up the "European Concert," but ended all hopes of compelling
+Turkey at once to grant the much-needed reforms. That compulsion would
+have been irresistible had the British fleet joined the Powers in
+preventing the landing of troops from Asia Minor in the Balkan
+Peninsula. As it was, the Turks could draw those reinforcements without
+hindrance.
+
+[Footnote 97: _Sir Stafford Northcote, Earl of Iddesleigh_, by Andrew
+Lang, vol. ii. p. 181.]
+
+[Footnote 98: Our ambassador at Constantinople, Sir Henry Elliott, asked
+(May 9) that a squadron should be sent there to reassure the British
+subjects in Turkey; but as the fleet was not ordered to proceed thither
+until after a long interval, and was kept there in great strength and
+for many months, it is fair to assume that the aim of our Government was
+to encourage Turkey.] The Berlin Memorandum was, of course, not
+presented to Turkey, and partly owing to the rapid changes which then
+took place at Constantinople. To these we must now advert.
+
+The Sultan, Abdul Aziz, during his fifteen years of rule had
+increasingly shown himself to be apathetic, wasteful, and indifferent to
+the claims of duty. In the month of April, when the State repudiated its
+debts, and officials and soldiers were left unpaid, his life of
+luxurious retirement went on unchanged. It has been reckoned that of the
+total Turkish debt of £T200,000,000, as much as £T53,000,000 was due to
+his private extravagance[99]. Discontent therefore became rife,
+especially among the fanatical bands of theological students at
+Constantinople. These Softas, as they are termed, numbering some 20,000
+or more, determined to breathe new life into the Porte--an aim which the
+patriotic "Young Turkey" party already had in view. On May 11 large
+bands of Softas surrounded the buildings of the Grand Vizier and the
+Sheik-ul-Islam, and with wild cries compelled them to give up their
+powers in favour of more determined men. On the night of May 29-30 they
+struck at the Sultan himself. The new Ministers were on their side: the
+Sheik-ul-Islam, the chief of the Ulemas, who interpret Mohammedan
+theology and law, now gave sentence that the Sultan might be dethroned
+for mis-government; and this was done without the least show of
+resistance. His nephew, Murad Effendi, was at once proclaimed Sultan as
+Murad V.; a few days later the dethroned Sultan was secretly murdered,
+though possibly his death may have been due to suicide[100].
+
+[Footnote 99: Gallenga, _The Eastern Question_, vol. ii. p. 99.]
+
+[Footnote 100: For the aims of the Young Turkey party, see the _Life of
+Midhat Pasha_, by his son; also an article by Midhat in the _Nineteenth
+Century_ for June 1878.]
+
+We may add here that Murad soon showed himself to be a friend to reform;
+and this, rather than any incapacity for ruling, was probably the cause
+of the second palace revolution, which led to his deposition on August
+31. Thereupon his brother, the present ruler, Abdul Hamid, ascended the
+throne. His appearance was thus described by one who saw him at his
+first State progress through his capital: "A somewhat heavy and stern
+countenance . . . narrow at the temples, with a long gloomy cast of
+features, large ears, and dingy complexion. . . . It seemed to me the
+countenance of a ruler capable of good or evil, but knowing his own mind
+and determined to have his own way[101]." This forecast has been
+fulfilled in the most sinister manner.
+
+[Footnote 101: Gallenga, _The Eastern Question_, vol. ii. p. 126. Murad
+died in the year 1904.]
+
+If any persons believed in the official promise of June 1, that there
+should be "liberty for all" in the Turkish dominions, they might have
+been undeceived by the events that had just transpired to the south of
+the Balkan Mountains. The outbreak of Moslem fanaticism, which at
+Constantinople led to the dethronement of two Sultans in order to place
+on the throne a stern devotee, had already deluged with blood the
+Bulgarian districts near Philippopolis. In the first days of May, the
+Christians of those parts, angered by the increase of misrule and fired
+with hope by the example of the Herzegovinians, had been guilty of acts
+of insubordination; and at Tatar Bazardjik a few Turkish officials were
+killed. The movement was of no importance, as the Christians were nearly
+all unarmed. Nevertheless, the authorities poured into the disaffected
+districts some 18,000 regulars, along with hordes of irregulars, or
+Bashi-Bazouks; and these, especially the last, proceeded to glut their
+hatred and lust in a wild orgy which desolated the whole region with a
+thoroughness that the Huns of Attila could scarcely have excelled (May
+9-16). In the upper valley of the Maritza out of eighty villages, all
+but fifteen were practically wiped out. Batak, a flourishing town of
+some 7000 inhabitants, underwent a systematic massacre, culminating in
+the butchery of all who had taken refuge in the largest church; of the
+whole population only 2000 managed to escape[102].
+
+[Footnote 102: Mr. Baring, a secretary of the British Legation at
+Constantinople, after a careful examination of the evidence, gave the
+number of Bulgarians slain as "not fewer than 12,000"; he opined that
+163 Mussulmans were perhaps killed early in May. He admitted the Batak
+horrors. Achmet Agha, their chief perpetrator, was at first condemned to
+death by a Turkish commission of inquiry, but he was finally pardoned.
+Shefket Pasha, whose punishment was also promised, was afterwards
+promoted to a high command. Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 2 (1877), pp.
+248-249; _ibid_. No. 15 (1877), No. 77, p. 58. Mr. Layard, successor to
+Sir Henry Elliott at Constantinople, afterwards sought to reduce the
+numbers slain to 3500. Turkey, No. 26 (1877), p. 54.]
+
+It is painful to have to add that the British Government was indirectly
+responsible for these events. Not only had it let the Turks know that it
+deprecated the intervention of the European Powers in Turkey (which was
+equivalent to giving the Turks _carte blanche_ in dealing with their
+Christian subjects), but on hearing of the Herzegovina revolt, it
+pressed on the Porte the need of taking speedy measures to suppress
+them. The despatches of Sir Henry Elliott, our ambassador at
+Constantinople, also show that he had favoured the use of active
+measures towards the disaffected districts north of Philippopolis[103].
+
+[Footnote 103: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 3 (1876), pp. 144, 173,
+198-199.]
+
+Of course, neither the British Government nor its ambassador foresaw the
+awful results of this advice; but their knowledge of Turkish methods
+should have warned them against giving it without adding the cautions so
+obviously needed. Sir Henry Elliott speedily protested against the
+measures adopted by the Turks, but then it was too late[104].
+Furthermore, the contemptuous way in which Disraeli dismissed the first
+reports of the Bulgarian massacres as "coffee-house babble" revealed his
+whole attitude of mind on Turkish affairs; and the painful impression
+aroused by this utterance was increased by his declaration of July 30
+that the British fleet then at Besika Bay was kept there solely in
+defence of British interests. He made a similar but more general
+statement in the House of Commons on August 11. On the next morning the
+world heard that Queen Victoria had been pleased to confer on him the
+title of Earl of Beaconsfield. It is well known, on his own admission,
+that he could no longer endure the strain of the late sittings in the
+House of Commons and had besought Her Majesty for leave to retire. She,
+however, suggested the gracious alternative that he should continue in
+office with a seat in the House of Lords. None the less, the conferring
+of this honour was felt by very many to be singularly inopportune.
+
+[Footnote 104: See, _inter alia_, his letter of May 26, 1876, quoted in
+_Life and Correspondence of William White_ (1902), pp. 99-100.]
+
+For at this time tidings of the massacres at Batak and elsewhere began
+to be fully known. Despite the efforts of Ministers to discredit them,
+they aroused growing excitement; and when the whole truth was known, a
+storm of indignation swept over the country as over the whole of Europe.
+Efforts were made by the Turcophil Press to represent the new trend of
+popular feeling as a mere party move and an insidious attempt of the
+Liberal Opposition to exploit humanitarian sentiment; but this charge
+will not bear examination. Mr. Gladstone had retired from the Liberal
+Leadership early in 1875 and was deeply occupied in literary work; and
+Lords Granville and Hartington, on whom devolved the duty of leading the
+Opposition, had been very sparing of criticisms on the foreign policy of
+the Cabinet. They, as well as Mr. Gladstone, had merely stated that the
+Government, on refusing to join in the Berlin Memorandum, ought to have
+formulated an alternative policy. We now know that Mr. Gladstone left
+his literary work doubtfully and reluctantly[105].
+
+[Footnote 105: J. Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. ii. pp. 548-549.]
+
+Now, however, the events in Bulgaria shed a ghastly light on the whole
+situation, and showed the consequences of giving the "moral support" of
+Britain to the Turks. The whole question ceased to rest on the high and
+dry levels of diplomacy, and became one of life or death for many
+thousands of men and women. The conscience of the country was touched to
+the quick by the thought that the presence of the British Mediterranean
+fleet at Besika Bay was giving the same encouragement to the Turks as it
+had done before the Crimean War, and that, too, when they had belied the
+promises so solemnly given in 1856, and were now proved to be guilty of
+unspeakable barbarities. In such a case, the British nation would have
+been disgraced had it not demanded that no further alliance should be
+formed. It was equally the duty of the leaders of the Opposition to
+voice what was undoubtedly the national sentiment. To have kept silence
+would have been to stultify our Parliamentary institutions. The parrot
+cry that British interests were endangered by Russia's supposed designs
+on Turkey, was met by the unanswerable reply that, if those designs
+existed, the best way to check them was to maintain the European
+Concert, and especially to keep in close touch with Austria, seeing that
+that Power had as much cause as England to dread any southward extension
+of the Czar's power. Russia might conceivably fight Turkey and Great
+Britain; but she would not wage war against Austria as well. Therefore,
+the dictates of humanity as well as those of common sense alike
+condemned the British policy, which from the outset had encouraged the
+Turks to resist European intervention, had made us in some measure
+responsible for the Bulgarian massacres, and, finally, had broken up the
+Concert of the Powers, from which alone a peaceful solution of the
+Eastern Question could be expected.
+
+The union of the Powers having been dissolved by British action, it was
+but natural that Russia and Austria should come to a private
+understanding. This came about at Reichstadt in Bohemia on July 8. No
+definitive treaty was signed, but the two Emperors and their Chancellors
+framed an agreement defining their spheres of influence in the Balkans
+in case war should break out between Russia and Turkey. Francis Joseph
+of Austria covenanted to observe a neutrality friendly to the Czar under
+certain conditions that will be noticed later on. Some of those
+conditions were distasteful to the Russian Government, which sounded
+Bismarck as to his attitude in case war broke out between the Czar and
+the Hapsburg ruler. Apparently the reply of the German Chancellor was
+unfavourable to Russia[106], for it thereafter renewed the negotiations
+with the Court of Vienna. On the whole, the ensuing agreement was a
+great diplomatic triumph; for the Czar thereby secured the neutrality of
+Austria--a Power that might readily have remained in close touch with
+Great Britain had British diplomacy displayed more foresight.
+
+[Footnote 106: Bismarck, _Reflections and Reminiscences_ vol. ii. chap,
+xxviii.]
+
+The prospects of a great war, meanwhile, had increased owing to the
+action of Servia and Montenegro. The rulers of those States, unable any
+longer to hold in their peoples, and hoping for support from their
+Muscovite kinsfolk, declared war on Turkey at the end of June. Russian
+volunteers thronged to the Servian forces by thousands; but, despite the
+leadership of the Russian General, Tchernayeff, they were soon overborne
+by the numbers and fanatical valour of the Turks. Early in September,
+Servia appealed to the Powers for their mediation; and, owing chiefly to
+the efforts of Great Britain, terms for an armistice were proposed by
+the new Sultan, Abdul Hamid, but of so hard a nature that the Servians
+rejected them.
+
+On the fortune of war still inclining against the Slavonic cause, the
+Russian people became intensely excited; and it was clear that they
+would speedily join in the war unless the Turks moderated their claims.
+There is reason to believe that the Czar Alexander II. dreaded the
+outbreak of hostilities with Turkey in which he might become embroiled
+with Great Britain. The Panslavonic party in Russia was then permeated
+by revolutionary elements that might threaten the stability of the
+dynasty at the end of a long and exhausting struggle. But, feeling
+himself in honour bound to rescue Servia and Montenegro from the results
+of their ill-judged enterprise, he assembled large forces in South
+Russia and sent General Ignatieff to Constantinople with the demand,
+urged in the most imperious manner (Oct. 30), that the Porte should
+immediately grant an armistice to those States. At once Abdul Hamid
+gave way.
+
+Even so, Alexander II. showed every desire of averting the horrors of
+war. Speaking to the British ambassador at St. Petersburg on November
+2, he said that the present state of affairs in Turkey "was intolerable,
+and unless Europe was prepared to act with firmness and energy, he
+should be obliged to act alone." But he pledged his word that he desired
+no aggrandisement, and that "he had not the smallest wish or intention
+to be possessed of Constantinople[107]." At this time proposals for a
+Conference of the Powers at Constantinople were being mooted: they had
+been put forth by the British Government on October 5. There seemed,
+therefore, to be some hope of a compromise if the Powers reunited so as
+to bring pressure to bear on Turkey; for, a week later, the Sultan
+announced his intention of granting a constitution, with an elected
+Assembly to supervise the administration. But hopes of peace as well as
+of effective reform in Turkey were damped by the warlike speech of Lord
+Beaconsfield at the Lord Mayor's banquet on November 9. He then used
+these words. If Britain draws the sword "in a righteous cause; if the
+contest is one which concerns her liberty, her independence, or her
+Empire, her resources, I feel, are inexhaustible. She is not a country
+that, when she enters into a campaign, has to ask herself whether she
+can support a second or a third campaign." On the next day the Czar
+replied in a speech at Moscow to the effect that if the forthcoming
+Conference at Constantinople did not lead to practical results, Russia
+would be forced to take up arms; and he counted on the support of his
+people. A week later 160,000 Russian troops were mobilised.
+
+[Footnote 107: Hertslet, iv. p. 2508.]
+
+The issue was thus clear as far as concerned Russia. It was not so clear
+for Great Britain. Even now, we are in ignorance as to the real intent
+of Lord Beaconsfield's speech at the Guildhall. It seems probable that,
+as there were divisions in his Cabinet, he may have wished to bring
+about such a demonstration of public feeling as would strengthen his
+hands in proposing naval and military preparations. The duties of a
+Prime Minister are so complex that his words may be viewed either in an
+international sense, or as prompted by administrative needs, or by his
+relations to his colleagues, or, again, they may be due merely to
+electioneering considerations. Whatever their real intent on this
+occasion, they were interpreted by Russia as a defiance and by Turkey as
+a promise of armed help.
+
+On the other hand, if Lord Beaconsfield hoped to strengthen the
+pro-Turkish feeling in the Cabinet and the country, he failed. The
+resentment aroused by Turkish methods of rule and repression was too
+deep to be eradicated even by his skilful appeals to Imperialist
+sentiment. The Bulgarian atrocities had at least brought this much of
+good: they rendered a Turco-British alliance absolutely impossible.
+
+Lord Derby had written to this effect on August 29 to Sir Henry Elliott:
+"The impression produced here by events in Bulgaria has completely
+destroyed sympathy with Turkey. The feeling is universal and so strong
+that even if Russia were to declare war against the Porte, Her Majesty's
+Government would find it practically impossible to interfere[108]."
+
+[Footnote 108: Parliamentary Papers, Turkey, No. 6 (1877).]
+
+The assembly of a Conference of the envoys of the Powers at
+Constantinople was claimed to be a decisive triumph for British
+diplomacy. There were indeed some grounds for hoping that Turkey would
+give way before a reunited Europe. The pressure brought to bear on the
+British Cabinet by public opinion resulted in instructions being given
+to Lord Salisbury (our representative, along with Sir H. Elliott, at the
+Conference) which did not differ much from the avowed aims of Russia and
+of the other Powers. Those instructions stated that the Powers could not
+accept mere promises of reform, for "the whole history of the Ottoman
+Empire, since it was admitted into the European Concert under the
+engagements of the Treaty of Paris [1856], has proved that the Porte is
+unable to guarantee the execution of reforms in the provinces by Turkish
+officials, who accept them with reluctance and neglect them with
+impunity." The Cabinet, therefore, insisted that there must be "external
+guarantees," but stipulated that no foreign armies must be introduced
+into Turkey[109]. Here alone British Ministers were at variance with the
+other Powers; and when, in the preliminary meetings of the Conference, a
+proposal was made to bring Belgian troops in order to guarantee the
+thorough execution of the proposed reforms, Lord Salisbury did not
+oppose it. In pursuance of instructions from London, he even warned the
+Porte that Britain would not give any help in case war resulted from its
+refusal of the European proposals.
+
+[Footnote 109: Parliamentary Papers, Turkey, ii. (1877), No. 1; also, in
+part, in Hertslet, iv. p. 2517.]
+
+It is well known that Lord Salisbury was far less pro-Turkish than the
+Prime Minister or the members of the British embassy at Constantinople.
+During a diplomatic tour that he had made to the chief capitals he
+convinced himself "that no Power was disposed to shield Turkey--not even
+Austria--if blood had to be shed for the _status quo_." (The words are
+those used by his assistant, Mr., afterwards Sir, William White.) He had
+had little or no difficulty in coming to an understanding with the
+Russian plenipotentiary, General Ignatieff, despite the intrigues of Sir
+Henry Elliott and his Staff to hinder it[110]. Indeed, the situation
+shows what might have been effected in May 1876, had not the Turks then
+received the support of the British Government.
+
+[Footnote 110: _Sir William White: Life and Correspondence_, p. 117.]
+
+Now, however, there were signs that the Turks declined to take the good
+advice of the Powers seriously; and on December 23, when the "full"
+meetings of the Conference began, the Sultan and his Ministers treated
+the plenipotentiaries to a display of injured virtue and reforming zeal
+that raised the situation to the level of the choicest comedy. In the
+midst of the proceedings, after the Turkish Foreign Minister, Safvet
+Pacha, had explained away the Bulgarian massacres as a myth woven by the
+Western imagination, salvoes of cannon were heard, that proclaimed the
+birth of a new and most democratic constitution for the whole of the
+Turkish Empire. Safvet did justice to the solemnity of the occasion; the
+envoys of the Powers suppressed their laughter; and before long, Lord
+Salisbury showed his resentment at this display of oriental irony and
+stubbornness by ordering the British Fleet to withdraw from
+Besika Bay[111].
+
+[Footnote 111: See Gallenga (_The Eastern Question_, vol. ii. pp.
+255-258) as to the scepticism regarding the new constitution, felt alike
+by foreigners and natives at Constantinople.]
+
+But deeds and words were alike wasted on the Sultan and his Ministers.
+To all the proposals and warnings of the Powers they replied by pointing
+to the superior benefits about to be conferred by the new constitution.
+The Conference therefore speedily came to an end (Jan. 20). It had
+served its purpose. It had fooled Europe[112].
+
+[Footnote 112: See Parl. Papers (1878), Turkey, No. 2, p. 114, for the
+constitution; and p. 302 for Lord Salisbury's criticisms on it; also
+_ibid_, pp. 344-345, for Turkey's final rejection of the proposals of
+the Powers.]
+
+The responsibility for this act of cynical defiance must be assigned to
+one man. The Sultan had never before manifested a desire for any reform
+whatsoever; and it was not until December 19, 1876, that he named as
+Grand Vizier Midhat Pasha, who was known to have long been weaving
+constitutional schemes. This Turkish Siéyès was thrust to the front in
+time to promulgate that fundamental reform. His tenure of power, like
+that of the French constitution-monger in 1799, ended when the scheme
+had served the purpose of the real controller of events. Midhat
+obviously did not see whither things were tending. On January 24, 1877,
+he wrote to Saïd Pasha, stating that, according to the Turkish
+ambassador at London (Musurus Pasha), Lord Derby congratulated the
+Sublime Porte on the dissolution of the Conference, "which he considers
+a success for Turkey[113]."
+
+[Footnote 113: _Life of Midhat Pasha_, by Midhat Ali (1903), p. 142.
+Musurus must have deliberately misrepresented Lord Derby.]
+
+It therefore only remained to set the constitution in motion. After six
+days, when no sign of action was forthcoming, Midhat wrote to the Sultan
+in urgent terms, reminding him that their object in promulgating the
+constitution "was certainly not merely to find a solution of the
+so-called Eastern Question, nor to seek thereby to make a demonstration
+that should conciliate the sympathies of Europe, which had been
+estranged from us." This Note seems to have irritated the Sultan. Abdul
+Hamid, with his small, nervous, exacting nature, has always valued
+Ministers in proportion to their obedience, not to their power of giving
+timely advice. In every independent suggestion he sees the germ of
+opposition, and perhaps of a palace plot. He did so now. By way of
+reply, he bade Midhat come to the Palace. Midhat, fearing a trap,
+deferred his visit, until he received the assurance that the order for
+the reforms had been issued. Then he obeyed the summons; at once he was
+apprehended, and was hurried to the Sultan's yacht, which forthwith
+steamed away for the Aegean (Feb. 5). The fact that he remained above
+its waters, and was allowed to proceed to Italy, may be taken as proof
+that his zeal for reform had been not without its uses in the game which
+the Sultan had played against the Powers. The Turkish Parliament, which
+assembled on March 1, acted with the subservience that might have been
+expected after this lesson. The Sultan dissolved it on the outbreak of
+war, and thereafter gave up all pretence of constitutional forms. As for
+Midhat, he was finally lured back to Turkey and done to death. Such was
+the end of the Turkish constitution, of the Turkish Parliament, and of
+their contriver[114].
+
+[Footnote 114: _Life of Midhat Pasha_, chaps. v.-vii. For the Sultan's
+character and habits, see an article in the _Contemporary Review_ for
+December 1896, by D. Kelekian.]
+
+Even the dissolution of the Conference of the Powers did not bring about
+war at once. It seems probable that the Czar hoped much from the
+statesmanlike conduct of Lord Salisbury at Constantinople, or perhaps he
+expected to secure the carrying out of the needed reforms by means of
+pressure from the Three Emperors' League (see Chapter XII.). But, unless
+the Russians gave up all interest in the fate of her kinsmen and
+co-religionists in Turkey, war was now the more probable outcome of
+events. Alexander had already applied to Germany for help, either
+diplomatic or military; but these overtures, of whatever kind, were
+declined by Bismarck--so he declared in his great speech of February 6,
+1888. Accordingly, the Czar drew closer to Austria, with the result that
+the Reichstadt agreement of July 8, 1876, now assumed the form of a
+definitive treaty signed at Vienna between the two Powers on January
+15, 1877.
+
+The full truth on this subject is not known. M. Élie de Cyon, who claims
+to have seen the document, states that Austria undertook to remain
+neutral during the Russo-Turkish War, that she stipulated for a large
+addition of territory if the Turks were forced to quit Europe; also that
+a great Bulgaria should be formed, and that Servia and Montenegro should
+be extended so as to become conterminous. To the present writer this
+account appears suspect. It is inconceivable that Austria should have
+assented to an expansion of these principalities which would bar her
+road southward to Salonica[115].
+
+[Footnote 115: Élie de Cyon, _Histoire de l'Entente franco-russe_, chap,
+i.; and in _Nouvelle Revue_ for June 1, 1887. His account bears obvious
+signs of malice against Germany and Austria.]
+
+Another and more probable version was given by the Hungarian Minister,
+M. Tisza, during the course of debates in the Hungarian Delegations in
+the spring of 1887, to this effect:--(1) No Power should claim an
+exclusive right of protecting the Christians of Turkey, and the Great
+Powers should pronounce on the results of the war; (2) Russia would
+annex no land on the right (south) bank of the Danube, would respect the
+integrity of Roumania, and refrain from touching Constantinople; (3) if
+Russia formed a new Slavonic State in the Balkans, it should not be at
+the expense of non-Slavonic peoples; and she would not claim special
+rights over Bulgaria, which was to be governed by a prince who was
+neither Russian nor Austrian; (4) Russia would not extend her military
+operations to the districts west of Bulgaria. These were the terms on
+which Austria agreed to remain neutral; and in certain cases she claimed
+to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina[116].
+
+[Footnote 116: Débidour, _Hist. diplomatique de l'Europe_ (1814-1878),
+vol. ii. p. 502.] Doubtless these, or indeed any, concessions to
+Austria were repugnant to Alexander II. and Prince Gortchakoff; but her
+neutrality was essential to Russia's success in case war broke out; and
+the Czar's Government certainly acted with much skill in securing the
+friendly neutrality of the Power which in 1854 had exerted so paralysing
+a pressure on the Russian operations on the Lower Danube.
+
+Nevertheless, Alexander II. still sought to maintain the European
+Concert with a view to the exerting of pacific pressure upon Turkey.
+Early in March he despatched General Ignatieff on a mission to the
+capitals of the Great Powers; except at Westminster, that envoy found
+opinion favourable to the adoption of some form of coercion against
+Turkey, in case the Sultan still hardened his heart against good advice.
+Even the Beaconsfield Ministry finally agreed to sign a Protocol, that
+of March 31, 1877, which recounted the efforts of the six Great Powers
+for the improvement of the lot of the Christians in Turkey, and
+expressed their approval of the promises of reform made by that State on
+February 13, 1876. Passing over without notice the new Turkish
+Constitution, the Powers declared that they would carefully watch the
+carrying out of the promised reforms, and that, if no improvement in the
+lot of the Christians should take place, "they [the Powers] reserve to
+themselves to consider in common as to the means which they may deem
+best fitted to secure the wellbeing of the Christian populations, and
+the interests of the general peace[117]." This final clause contained a
+suggestion scarcely less threatening than that with which the Berlin
+Memorandum had closed; and it is difficult to see why the British
+Cabinet, which now signed the London Protocol, should have wrecked that
+earlier effort of the Powers. In this as in other matters it is clear
+that the Cabinet was swayed by a "dual control."
+
+[Footnote 117: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 9 (1877), p. 2.]
+
+But now it was all one whether the British Government signed the
+Protocol or not. Turkey would have none of it. Despite Lord Derby's
+warning that "the Sultan would be very unwise if he would not endeavour
+to avail himself of the opportunity afforded him to arrange a mutual
+disarmament," that potentate refused to move a hair's-breadth from his
+former position. On the 12th of April the Turkish ambassador announced
+to Lord Derby the final decision of his Government: "Turkey, as an
+independent State, cannot submit to be placed under any surveillance,
+whether collective or not. . . . No consideration can arrest the Imperial
+Government in their determination to protest against the Protocol of the
+31st March, and to consider it, as regards Turkey, as devoid of all
+equity, and consequently of all binding character." Lord Derby thereupon
+expressed his deep regret at this decision, and declared that he "did
+not see what further steps Her Majesty's Government could take to avert
+a war which appeared to have become inevitable[118]."
+
+[Footnote 118: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 15 (1877), pp. 354-355.]
+
+The Russian Government took the same view of the case, and on April
+7-19, 1877, stated in a despatch that, as a pacific solution of the
+Eastern Question was now impossible, the Czar had ordered his armies to
+cross the frontiers of Turkey. The official declaration of war followed
+on April 12-24. From the point of view of Lord Derby this seemed
+"inevitable." Nevertheless, on May 1 he put his name to an official
+document which reveals the curious dualism which then prevailed in the
+Beaconsfield Cabinet. This reply to the Russian despatch contained the
+assertion that the last answer of the Porte did not remove all hope of
+deference on its part to the wishes and advice of Europe, and "that the
+decision of the Russian Government is not one which can have their
+concurrence or approval." We shall not be far wrong in assuming that,
+while the hand that signed this document was the hand of Derby, the
+spirit behind it was that of Beaconsfield.
+
+In many quarters the action of Russia was stigmatised as the outcome of
+ambition and greed, rendered all the more odious by the cloak of
+philanthropy which she had hitherto worn. The time has not come when an
+exhaustive and decisive verdict can be given on this charge. Few
+movements have been free from all taint of meanness; but it is clearly
+unjust to rail against a great Power, because, at the end of a war which
+entailed frightful losses and a serious though temporary loss of
+prestige, it determined to exact from the enemy the only form of
+indemnity which was forthcoming, namely, a territorial indemnity.
+Russia's final claims, as will be seen, were open to criticism at
+several points; but the censure just referred to is puerile. It accords,
+however, with most of the criticisms passed in London "club-land," which
+were remarkable for their purblind cynicism.
+
+No one who has studied the mass of correspondence contained in the
+Blue-books relating to Turkey in 1875-77 can doubt that the Emperor
+Alexander II. displayed marvellous patience in face of a series of
+brutal provocations by Moslem fanatics and the clamour of his own people
+for a liberating crusade. Bismarck, who did not like the Czar, stated
+that he did not want war, but waged it "under stress of Panslavist
+influence[119]." That some of his Ministers and Generals had less lofty
+aims is doubtless true; but practically all authorities are now agreed
+that the maintenance of the European Concert would have been the best
+means of curbing those aims. Yet, despite the irritating conduct of the
+Beaconsfield Cabinet, the Emperor Alexander sought to re-unite Europe
+with a view to the execution of the needed reforms in Turkey. Even after
+the successive rebuffs of the rejection of the Berlin Memorandum by
+Great Britain and of the suggestions of the Powers at Constantinople by
+Turkey, he succeeded in restoring the semblance of accord between the
+Powers, and of leaving to Turkey the responsibility of finally and
+insolently defying their recommendations. A more complete diplomatic
+triumph has rarely been won. It was the reward of consistency and
+patience, qualities in which the Beaconsfield Cabinet was
+signally lacking.
+
+[Footnote 119: _Bismarck: his Reflections and Reminiscences_, vol. ii.
+p. 259 (Eng. ed.).] We may notice one other criticism: that Russia's
+agreement with Austria implied the pre-existence of aggressive designs.
+This is by no means conclusive. That the Czar should have taken the
+precaution of coming to the arrangement of January 1877 with Austria
+does not prove that he was desirous of war. The attitude of Turkey
+during the Conference at Constantinople left but the slightest hope of
+peace. To prepare for war in such a case is not a proof of a desire for
+war, but only of common prudence.
+
+Certain writers in France and Germany have declared that Bismarck was
+the real author of the Russo-Turkish War. The dogmatism of their
+assertions is in signal contrast with the thinness of their
+evidence[120]. It rests mainly on the statement that the Three Emperors'
+League (see Chapter XII.) was still in force; that Bismarck had come to
+some arrangement for securing gains to Austria in the south-east as a
+set-off to her losses in 1859 and 1866; that Austrian agents in Dalmatia
+had stirred up the Herzegovina revolt of 1875; and that Bismarck and
+Andrassy did nothing to avert the war of 1877. Possibly he had a hand in
+these events--he had in most events of the time; and there is a
+suspicious passage in his Memoirs as to the overtures made to Berlin in
+the autumn of 1876. The Czar's Ministers wished to know whether, in the
+event of a war with Austria, they would have the support of Germany. To
+this the Chancellor replied, that Germany could not allow the present
+equilibrium of the monarchical Powers to be disturbed: "The result . . .
+was that the Russian storm passed from Eastern Galicia to the
+Balkans[121]." Thereafter Russia came to terms with Austria as
+described above.
+
+[Footnote 120: Élie de Cyon, _op. cit._ chap. i.; also in _Nouvelle
+Revue_ for 1880.]
+
+[Footnote 121: Bismarck, _Recollections and Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p.
+231 (Eng. ed.).]
+
+But the passage just cited only proves that Russia might have gone to
+war with Austria over the Eastern Question. In point of fact, she went
+to war with Turkey, after coming to a friendly arrangement with Austria.
+Bismarck therefore acted as "honest-broker" between his two allies; and
+it has yet to be proved that Bismarck did not sincerely work with the
+two other Empires to make the coercion of Turkey by the civilised Powers
+irresistibly strong. In his speech of December 6, 1876, to the
+Reichstag, the Chancellor made a plain and straightforward declaration
+of his policy, namely, that of neutrality, but inclining towards
+friendship with Austria. That, surely, did not drive Russia into war
+with Turkey, still less entice her into it. As for the statement that
+Austrian intrigues were the sole cause of the Bosnian revolt, it must
+appear childish to all who bear in mind the exceptional hardships and
+grievances of the peasants of that province. Finally, the assertion of a
+newspaper, the _Czas_, that Queen Victoria wrote to Bismarck in April
+1877 urging him to protest against an attack by Russia on Turkey, may be
+dismissed as an impudent fabrication[122]. It was altogether opposed to
+the habits of her late Majesty to write letters of that kind to the
+Foreign Ministers of other Powers.
+
+[Footnote 122: Busch, _Our Chancellor_, vol. ii. p. 126.]
+
+Until documents of a contrary tenor come to light, we may say with some
+approach to certainty that the responsibility for the war of 1877-78
+rests with the Sultan of Turkey and with those who indirectly encouraged
+him to set at naught the counsels of the Powers. Lord Derby and Lord
+Salisbury had of late plainly warned him of the consequences of his
+stubbornness; but the influence of the British embassy at Constantinople
+and of the Turkish ambassador in London seems greatly to have weakened
+the force of those warnings.
+
+It must always be remembered that the Turk will concede religious
+freedom and civic equality to the "Giaours" only under overwhelming
+pressure. In such a case he mutters "Kismet" ("It is fate"), and gives
+way; but the least sign of weakness or wavering on the part of the
+Powers awakens his fanatical scruples. Then his devotion to the Koran
+forbids any surrender. History has afforded several proofs of this, from
+the time of the Battle of Navarino (1827) to that of the intervention
+of the Western Powers on behalf of the slaughtered and harried
+Christians of the Lebanon (1860). Unfortunately Abdul Hamid had now come
+to regard the Concert of the Powers as a "loud-sounding nothing." With
+the usual bent of a mean and narrow nature he detected nothing but
+hypocrisy in its lofty professions, and self-seeking in its
+philanthropic aims, together with a treacherous desire among influential
+persons to make the whole scheme miscarry. Accordingly he fell back on
+the boundless fund of inertia, with which a devout Moslem ruler blocks
+the way to western reforms. A competent observer has finely remarked
+that the Turk never changes; his neighbours, his frontiers, his
+statute-books may change, but his ideas and his practice remain always
+the same. He will not be interfered with; he will not improve[123]. To
+this statement we must add that only under dire necessity will he allow
+his Christian subjects to improve. The history of the Eastern Question
+may be summed up in these assertions.
+
+[Footnote 123: _Turkey in Europe_, by Odysseus, p. 139.]
+
+Abdul Hamid II. is the incarnation of the reactionary forces which have
+brought ruin to Turkey and misery to her Christian subjects. He owed his
+crown to a recrudescence of Moslem fanaticism; and his reign has
+illustrated the unsuspected strength and ferocity of his race and creed
+in face of the uncertain tones in which Christendom has spoken since the
+spring of the year 1876. The reasons which prompted his defiance a year
+later were revealed by his former Grand Vizier, Midhat Pasha, in an
+article in the _Nineteenth Century_ for June 1877. The following passage
+is especially illuminating:--
+
+     Turkey was not unaware of the attitude of the English
+     Government towards her; the British Cabinet had declared in
+     clear terms that it would not interfere in our dispute. This
+     decision of the English Cabinet was perfectly well known to
+     us, but we knew still better that the general interests of
+     Europe and the particular interests of England were so bound
+     up in our dispute with Russia that, in spite of all the
+     Declarations of the English Cabinet, it appeared to us to be
+     absolutely impossible for her to avoid interfering sooner or
+     later in this Eastern dispute. This profound belief, added to
+     the reasons we have mentioned, was one of the principal
+     factors of our contest with Russia[124].
+
+[Footnote 124: See, too, the official report of our pro-Turkish
+Ambassador at Constantinople, Mr. Layard (May 30, 1877), as to the
+difficulty of our keeping out of the war in its final stages (Parl.
+Papers, Turkey, No. 26 (1877), p. 52).]
+
+It appears, then, that the action of the British Government in the
+spring and summer of 1876, and the well-known desire of the Prime
+Minister to intervene in favour of Turkey, must have contributed to the
+Sultan's decision to court the risks of war rather than allow any
+intervention of the Powers on behalf of his Christian subjects.
+
+The information that has come to light from various quarters serves to
+strengthen the case against Lord Beaconsfield's policy in the years
+1875-77. The letter written by Mr. White to Sir Robert Morier on January
+16, 1877, and referred to above, shows that his diplomatic experience
+had convinced him of the futility of supporting Turkey against the
+Powers. In that letter he made use of these significant words:--"You
+know me well enough. I did not come here (Constantinople) to deceive
+Lord Salisbury or to defend an untenable Russophobe or pro-Turkish
+policy. There will probably be a difference of opinion in the Cabinet as
+to our future line of policy, and I shall not wonder if Lord Salisbury
+should upset Dizzy and take his place or leave the Government on this
+question. If he does the latter, the coach is indeed upset." Mr. White
+also referred to the _personnel_ of the British Embassy at
+Constantinople in terms which show how mischievous must have been its
+influence on the counsels of the Porte.
+
+A letter from Sir Robert Morier of about the same date proves that that
+experienced diplomatist also saw the evil results certain to accrue
+from the Beaconsfield policy:--"I have not ceased to din that into the
+ears of the F.O. (Foreign Office), to make ourselves the _point d'appui_
+of the Christians in the Turkish Empire, and thus take all the wind out
+of the sails of Russia; and after the population had seen the difference
+between an English and a Russian occupation [of the disturbed parts of
+Turkey] it would jump to the eyes even of the blind, and we should
+_débuter_ into a new policy at Constantinople with an immense
+advantage[125]." This advice was surely statesmanlike. To support the
+young and growing nationalities in Turkey would serve, not only to
+checkmate the supposed aggressive designs of Russia, but also to array
+on the side of Britain the progressive forces of the East. To rely on
+the Turk was to rely on a moribund creature. It was even worse. It
+implied an indirect encouragement to the "sick man" to enter on a strife
+for which he was manifestly unequal, and in which we did not mean to
+help him. But these considerations failed to move Lord Beaconsfield and
+the Foreign Office from the paths of tradition and routine[126].
+
+[Footnote 125: _Sir William White: Life and Correspondence_, pp.
+115-117.]
+
+[Footnote 126: For the power of tradition in the Foreign Office, see
+_Sir William White: Life and Correspondence_, p. 119.]
+
+Finally, in looking at the events of 1875-76 in their broad outlines, we
+may note the verdict of a veteran diplomatist, whose conduct before the
+Crimean War proved him to be as friendly to the interests of Turkey as
+he was hostile to those of Russia, but who now saw that the situation
+differed utterly from that which was brought about by the aggressive
+action of Czar Nicholas I. in 1854. In a series of letters to the
+_Times_ he pointed out the supreme need of joint action by all the
+Powers who signed the Treaty of Paris; that that treaty by no means
+prohibited their intervention in the affairs of Turkey; that wise and
+timely intervention would be to the advantage of that State; that the
+Turks had always yielded to coercion if it were of overwhelming
+strength, but only on those terms; and that therefore the severance of
+England from the European Concert was greatly to be deplored[127]. In
+private this former champion of Turkey went even farther, and declared
+on Sept. 10, 1876, that the crisis in the East would not have become
+acute had Great Britain acted conjointly with the Powers[128]. There is
+every reason to believe that posterity will endorse this judgment of
+Lord Stratford de Redcliffe.
+
+[Footnote 127: Letters of Dec. 31, 1875, May 16, 1876, and Sept. 9,
+1876, republished with others in _The Eastern Question_, by Lord
+Stratford de Redcliffe (1881).]
+
+[Footnote 128: J. Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. ii. p. 555.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR
+
+     "Knowledge of the great operations of war can be acquired
+     only by experience and by the applied study of the campaigns
+     of all the great captains. Gustavus, Turenne, and Frederick,
+     as well as Alexander, Hannibal, and Cæsar, have all acted on
+     the same principles. To keep one's forces together, to bear
+     speedily on any point, to be nowhere vulnerable,--such are
+     the principles that assure victory."--NAPOLEON.
+
+
+Despite the menace to Russia contained in the British Note of May 1,
+1877, there was at present little risk of a collision between the two
+Powers for the causes already stated. The Government of the Czar showed
+that it desired to keep on friendly terms with the Cabinet of St. James,
+for, in reply to a statement of Lord Derby that the security of
+Constantinople, Egypt, and the Suez Canal was a matter of vital concern
+for Great Britain, the Russian Chancellor, Prince Gortchakoff, on May 30
+sent the satisfactory assurance that the two latter would remain outside
+the sphere of military operations; that the acquisition of the Turkish
+capital was "excluded from the views of His Majesty the Emperor," and
+that its future was a question of common interest which could be settled
+only by a general understanding among the Powers[129]. As long as Russia
+adhered to these promises there could scarcely be any question of Great
+Britain intervening on behalf of Turkey.
+
+[Footnote 129: Hertslet, vol. iv. p. 2625.]
+
+Thus the general situation in the spring of 1877 scarcely seemed to
+warrant the hopes with which the Turks entered on the war. They stood
+alone confronting a Power which had vastly greater resources in men and
+treasure. Seeing that the Sultan had recently repudiated a large part of
+the State debt, and could borrow only at exorbitant rates of interest,
+it is even now mysterious how his Ministers managed to equip very
+considerable forces, and to arm them with quick-firing rifles and
+excellent cannon. The Turk is a born soldier, and will fight for nothing
+and live on next to nothing when his creed is in question; but that does
+not solve the problem how the Porte could buy huge stores of arms and
+ammunition. It had procured 300,000 American rifles, and bought 200,000
+more early in the war. On this topic we must take refuge in the domain
+of legend, and say that the life of Turkey is the life of a phoenix: it
+now and again rises up fresh and defiant among the flames.
+
+As regards the Ottoman army, an English officer in its service,
+Lieutenant W.V. Herbert, states that the artillery was very good,
+despite the poor supply of horses; that the infantry was very good; the
+regular cavalry mediocre, the irregular cavalry useless. He estimates
+the total forces in Europe and Asia at 700,000; but, as he admits that
+the battalions of 800 men rarely averaged more than 600, that total is
+clearly fallacious. An American authority believes that Turkey had not
+more than 250,000 men ready in Europe and that of these not more than
+165,000 were north of the Balkans when the Russians advanced towards the
+Danube[130]. Von Lignitz credits the Turks with only 215,000 regular
+troops and 100,000 irregulars (Bashi Bazouks and Circassians) in the
+whole Empire; of these he assigns two-thirds to European Turkey[131].
+
+[Footnote 130: _The Campaign in Bulgaria_, by F.V. Greene, pt. ii. ch.
+i.; W.V. Herbert, _The Defence of Plevna_, chaps, i.-ii.]
+
+[Footnote 131: _Aus drei Kriegen_, by Gen. von Lignitz, p. 99.]
+
+It seemed, then, that Russia had no very formidable task before her.
+Early in May seven army corps began to move towards that great river.
+They included 180 battalions of infantry, 200 squadrons of cavalry, and
+800 guns--in all about 200,000 men. Their cannon were inferior to those
+of the Turks, but this seemed a small matter in view of the superior
+numbers which Russia seemed about to place in the field. The
+mobilisation of her huge army, however, went on slowly, and produced by
+no means the numbers that were officially reported. Our military attaché
+at the Russian headquarters, Colonel Wellesley, reported this fact to
+the British Government; and, on this being found out, incurred
+disagreeable slights from the Russian authorities[132].
+
+[Footnote 132: _With the Russians in War and Peace_, by Colonel F.A.
+Wellesley (1905), ch. xvii.]
+
+Meanwhile Russia had secured the co-operation of Roumania by a
+convention signed on April 16, whereby the latter State granted a free
+passage through that Principality, and promised friendly treatment to
+the Muscovite troops. The Czar in return pledged himself to "maintain
+and defend the actual integrity of Roumania[133]." The sequel will show
+how this promise was fulfilled. For the present it seemed that the
+interests of the Principality were fully secured. Accordingly Prince
+Charles (elder brother of the Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern, whose
+candidature for the Crown of Spain made so much stir in 1870) took the
+further step of abrogating the suzerainty of the Sultan over
+Roumania (June 3).
+
+[Footnote 133: Hertslet, vol. iv. p. 2577.]
+
+Even before the declaration of independence Roumania had ventured on a
+few acts of war against Turkey; but the co-operation of her army,
+comprising 50,000 regulars and 70,000 National Guards, with that of
+Russia proved to be a knotty question. The Emperor Alexander II., on
+reaching the Russian headquarters at Plojeschti, to the north of
+Bukharest, expressed his wish to help the Roumanian army, but insisted
+that it must be placed under the commander-in-chief of the Russian
+forces, the Grand Duke Nicholas. To this Prince Charles demurred, and
+the Roumanian troops at first took no active part in the campaign.
+Undoubtedly their non-arrival served to mar the plans of the Russian
+Staff[134].
+
+[Footnote 134: _Reminiscences of the King of Roumania_, edited by S.
+Whitman (1899), pp. 269, 274.] Delays multiplied from the outset. The
+Russians, not having naval superiority in the Black Sea which helped to
+gain them their speedy triumph in the campaign of 1828, could only
+strike through Roumania and across the Danube and the difficult passes
+of the middle Balkans. Further, as the Roumanian railways had but single
+lines, the movement of men and stores to the Danube was very slow.
+Numbers of the troops, after camping on its marshy banks (for the river
+was then in flood), fell ill of malarial fever; above all, the
+carelessness of the Russian Staff and the unblushing peculation of its
+subordinates and contractors clogged the wheels of the military machine.
+One result of it was seen in the bad bread supplied to the troops. A
+Roumanian officer, when dining with the Grand Duke Nicholas, ventured to
+compare the ration bread of the Russians with the far better bread
+supplied to his own men at cheaper rates. The Grand Duke looked at the
+two specimens and then--talked of something else[135]. Nothing could be
+done until the flood subsided and large bodies of troops were ready to
+threaten the Turkish line of defence at several points[136]. The Ottoman
+position by no means lacked elements of strength. The first of these was
+the Danube itself. The task of crossing a great river in front of an
+active foe is one of the most dangerous of all military operations. Any
+serious miscalculation of the strength, the position, or the mobility of
+the enemy's forces may lead to an irreparable disaster; and until the
+bridges used for the crossing are defended by _têtes de pont_ the
+position of the column that has passed over is precarious.
+
+[Footnote 135: Farcy, _La Guerre sur le Danube_, p. 73. For other
+malpractices see Colonel F.A. Wellesley's _With the Russians in Peace
+and War_, chs. xi. xii.]
+
+[Footnote 136: _Punch_ hit off the situation by thus parodying the
+well-known line of Horace: "Russicus expectat dum defluat amnis."]
+
+The Danube is especially hard to cross, because its northern bank is for
+the most part marshy, and is dominated by the southern bank. The German
+strategist, von Moltke, who knew Turkey well, and had written the best
+history of the Russo-Turkish War of 1828, maintained that the passage of
+the Danube must cost the invaders upwards of 50,000 men. Thereafter,
+they would be threatened by the Quadrilateral of fortresses--Rustchuk,
+Shumla, Varna, and Silistria. Three of these were connected by railway,
+which enabled the Turks to send troops quickly from the port of Varna to
+any position between the mountain stronghold of Shumla and the riverine
+fortress, Rustchuk.
+
+Even the non-military reader will see by a glance at the map that this
+Quadrilateral, if strongly held, practically barred the roads leading to
+the Balkans on their eastern side. It also endangered the march of an
+invading army through the middle of Bulgaria to the central passes of
+that chain. Moreover, there are in that part only two or three passes
+that can be attempted by an army with artillery. The fortress of Widdin,
+where Osman Pasha was known to have an army of about 40,000 seasoned
+troops, dominated the west of Bulgaria and the roads leading to the
+easier passes of the Balkans near Sofia.
+
+These being the difficulties that confronted the invaders in Europe, it
+is not surprising that the first important battles took place in Asia.
+On the Armenian frontier the Russians, under Loris Melikoff, soon gained
+decided advantages, driving back the Turks with considerable losses on
+Kars and Erzeroum. The tide of war soon turned in that quarter, but, for
+the present, the Muscovite triumphs sent a thrill of fear through
+Turkey, and probably strengthened the determination of Abdul-Kerim, the
+Turkish commander-in-chief in Europe, to maintain a cautious defensive.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF BULGARIA.]
+
+Much could be said in favour of a "Fabian" policy of delay. Large
+Turkish forces were in the western provinces warring against Montenegro,
+or watching Austria, Servia, and Greece. It is even said that
+Abdul-Kerim had not at first more than about 120,000 men in the whole of
+Bulgaria, inclusive of the army at Widdin. But obviously, if the
+invaders so far counted on his weakness as to thrust their columns
+across the Danube in front of forces that could be secretly and swiftly
+strengthened by drafts from the south and west, they would expose
+themselves to the gravest risks. The apologists of Abdul-Kerim claim
+that such was his design, and that the signs of sluggishness which he at
+first displayed formed a necessary part of a deep-laid scheme for luring
+the Russians to their doom. Let the invaders enter Central Bulgaria in
+force, and expose their flanks to Abdul-Kerim in the Quadrilateral, and
+to Osman Pasha at Widdin; then the Turks, by well-concerted moves
+against those flanks, would drive the enemy back on the Danube, and
+perhaps compel a large part of his forces to lay down their arms. Such
+is their explanation of the conduct of Abdul-Kerim.
+
+As the Turkish Government is wholly indifferent to the advance of
+historical knowledge, it is impossible even now to say whether this idea
+was definitely agreed on as the basis of the plan of campaign. There are
+signs that Abdul-Kerim and Osman Pasha adopted it, but whether it was
+ever approved by the War Council at Constantinople is a different
+question. Such a plan obviously implied the possession of great powers
+of self-control by the Sultan and his advisers, in face of the initial
+success of the Russians; and unless that self-control was proof against
+panic, the design could not but break down at the crucial point. Signs
+are not wanting that in the suggestions here tentatively offered, we
+find a key that unlocks the riddle of the Danubian campaign of 1877.
+
+At first Abdul-Kerim in the Quadrilateral, and Osman at Widdin,
+maintained a strict defensive. The former posted small bodies of troops,
+probably not more than 20,000 in all, at Sistova, Nicopolis, and other
+neighbouring points. But, apart from a heavy bombardment of Russian and
+Roumanian posts on the northern bank, neither commander did much to mar
+the hostile preparations. This want of initiative, which contrasted with
+the enterprise displayed by the Turks in 1854, enabled the invaders to
+mature their designs with little or no interruption.
+
+The Russian plan of campaign was to destroy or cripple the four small
+Turkish ironclads that patrolled the lower reaches of the river, to
+make feints at several points, and to force a passage at two
+places--first near Ibrail into the Dobrudscha, and thereafter, under
+cover of that diversion, from Simnitza to Sistova. The latter place of
+crossing combined all the possible advantages. It was far enough away
+from the Turkish Quadrilateral to afford the first essentials of safety;
+it was known to be but weakly held; its position on the shortest line of
+road between the Danube and a practicable pass of the Balkans--the
+Shipka Pass--formed a strong recommendation; while the presence of an
+island helped on the first preparations.
+
+The flood of the Danube having at last subsided, all was ready by
+midsummer. Russian batteries and torpedo-boats had destroyed two Turkish
+armoured gunboats in the lower reaches of the river, and on June 22 a
+Russian force crossed in boats from a point near Galatz to Matchin, and
+made good their hold on the Dobrudscha.
+
+Preparations were also ripe at Simnitza. In the narrow northern arm of
+the river the boats and pontoons collected by the Russians were launched
+with no difficulty, the island was occupied, and on the night of June
+26-27, a Volhynian regiment, along with Cossacks, crossed in boats over
+the broad arm of the river, there some 1000 yards wide, and gained a
+foothold on the bank. Already their numbers were thinned by a dropping
+fire from a Turkish detachment; but the Turks made the mistake of
+trusting to the bullet instead of plying the bayonet. Before dawn broke,
+the first-comers had been able to ensconce themselves under a bank until
+other boats came up. Then with rousing cheers they charged the Turks and
+pressed them back.
+
+This was the scene which greeted the eyes of General Dragomiroff as his
+boat drew near to the shore at 5 A.M. Half hidden by the morning mist,
+the issue seemed doubtful. But at his side stood a general, fresh from
+triumphs in Turkestan, who had begged to be allowed to come as volunteer
+or aide-de-camp. When Dragomiroff, in an agony of suspense, lowered his
+glass, the other continued to gaze, and at last exclaimed: "I
+congratulate you on your victory." "Where do you see that?" asked
+Dragomiroff "Where? on the faces of the soldiers. Look at them. Watch
+them as they charge the enemy. It is a pleasure to see them." The
+verdict was true. It was the verdict of Skobeleff[137].
+
+[Footnote 137: Quoted from a report by an eye-witness, by "O.K." (Madame
+Novikoff), _Skobeleff and the Slavonic Cause_, p. 38. The crossing was
+planned by the Grand Duke Nicholas; see von Lignitz, _Aus drei
+Kriegen_, p. 149.]
+
+Such was the first appearance in European warfare of the greatest leader
+of men that Russia has produced since the days of Suvoroff. The younger
+man resembled that sturdy veteran in his passion for war, his ambition,
+and that frank, bluff bearing which always wins the hearts of the
+soldiery. The grandson of a peasant, whose bravery had won him promotion
+in the great year, 1812; the son of a general whose prowess was
+renowned--Skobeleff was at once a commander and a soldier. "Ah! he knew
+the soul of a soldier as if he were himself a private." These were the
+words often uttered by the Russians about Skobeleff; similar things had
+been said of Suvoroff in his day. For champions such as these the
+emotional Slavs will always pour out their blood like water. But, like
+the captor of Warsaw, Skobeleff knew when to put aside the bayonet and
+win the day by skill. Both were hard hitters, but they had a hold on the
+principles of the art of war. The combination of these qualities was
+formidable; and many Russians believe that, had the younger man, with
+his magnificent physique and magnetic personality, enjoyed the length of
+days vouchsafed to the diminutive Suvoroff, he would have changed the
+face of two continents.
+
+The United States attaché to the Russian army in the Russo-Turkish War
+afterwards spoke of his military genius as "stupendous," and prophesied
+that, should he live twenty years longer, and lead the Russian armies in
+the next Turkish war, he would win a place side by side with "Napoleon,
+Wellington, Grant, and Moltke." To equate these four names is a mark of
+transatlantic enthusiasm rather than of balanced judgment; but the
+estimate, so far as it concerns Skobeleff, reflects the opinion of
+nearly all who knew him[138].
+
+[Footnote 138: F.V. Green, _Sketches of Army Life in Russia_, p. 142.]
+
+Encouraged by the advent of Skobeleff and Dragomiroff, the Russians
+assumed the offensive with full effect, and by the afternoon of that
+eventful day, had mastered the rising ground behind Sistova. Here again
+the Turkish defence was tame. The town was unfortified, but its
+outskirts presented facilities for defence. Nevertheless, under the
+pressure of the Russian attack and of artillery fire from the north
+bank, the small Turkish garrison gave up the town and retreated towards
+Rustchuk. At many points on that day the Russians treated their foes to
+a heavy bombardment or feints of crossing, especially at Nicopolis and
+Rustchuk; and this accounts for the failure of the defenders to help the
+weak garrison on which fell the brunt of the attack. All things
+considered, the crossing of the Danube must rank as a highly creditable
+achievement, skilfully planned and stoutly carried out; it cost the
+invaders scarcely 700 men[139].
+
+[Footnote 139: Farcy, _La Guerre sur le Danube_, ch. viii.; _Daily News
+Correspondence of the War of 1877-78_, ch. viii.]
+
+They now threw a pontoon-bridge across the Danube between Simnitza and
+Sistova; and by July 2 had 65,000 men and 244 cannon in and near the
+latter town. Meanwhile, their 14th corps held the central position of
+Babadagh in the Dobrudscha, thereby preventing any attack from the
+north-east side of the Quadrilateral against their communications with
+the south of Russia.
+
+It may be questioned, however, whether the invaders did well to keep so
+large a force in the Dobrudscha, seeing that a smaller body of light
+troops patrolling the left bank of the lower Danube or at the _tête de
+pont_ at Matchin would have answered the same purpose. The chief use of
+the crossing at Matchin was to distract the attention of the enemy, an
+advance through the unhealthy district of the Dobrudscha against the
+Turkish Quadrilateral being in every way risky; above all, the retention
+of a whole corps on that side weakened the main line of advance, that
+from Sistova; and here it was soon clear that the Russians had too few
+men for the enterprise in hand. The pontoon-bridge over the Danube was
+completed by July 2--a fact which enabled those troops which were in
+Roumania to be hurried forward to the front.
+
+Obviously it was unsafe to march towards the Balkans until both flanks
+were secured against onsets from the Quadrilateral on the east, and from
+Nicopolis and Widdin on the west. At Nicopolis, twenty-five miles away,
+there were about 10,000 Turks; and around Widdin, about 100 miles
+farther up the stream, Osman mustered 40,000 more. To him Abdul-Kerim
+now sent an order to march against the flank of the invaders.
+
+Nor were the Balkan passes open to the Russians; for, after the crossing
+of the Danube, Reuf Pasha had orders to collect all available troops for
+their defence, from the Shipka Pass to the Slievno Pass farther east;
+7000 men now held the Shipka; about 10,000 acted as a general reserve at
+Slievno; 3000 were thrown forward to Tirnova, where the mountainous
+country begins, and detachments held the more difficult tracks over the
+mountains. An urgent message was also sent to Suleiman Pasha to
+disengage the largest possible force from the Montenegrin war; and, had
+he received this message in time, or had he acted with the needful speed
+and skill, events might have gone very differently.
+
+For some time the Turks seemed to be paralysed at all points by the
+vigour of the Muscovite movements. Two corps, the 13th and 14th, marched
+south-east from Sistova to the torrent of the Jantra, or Yantra, and
+seized Biela, an important centre of roads in that district. This
+secured them against any immediate attack from the Quadrilateral. The
+Grand Duke Nicholas also ordered the 9th corps, under the command of
+General Krüdener, to advance from Sistova and attack the weakly
+fortified town of Nicopolis. Aided by the Roumanian guns on the north
+bank of the Danube, this corps succeeded in overpowering the defence
+and capturing the town, along with 7000 troops and 110 guns (July 16).
+
+Thus the invaders seemed to have gained a secure base on the Danube,
+from Sistova to Nicopolis, whence they could safely push forward their
+vanguard to the Balkans. In point of fact their light troops had already
+seized one of its more difficult passes--an exploit that will always
+recall the name of that dashing leader, General Gurko. The plan now to
+be described was his conception; it was approved by the Grand Duke
+Nicholas. Setting out from Sistova and drawing part of his column from
+the forces at Biela, Gurko first occupied the important town of Tirnova,
+the small Turkish garrison making a very poor attempt to defend the old
+Bulgarian capital (July 7). The liberators there received an
+overwhelming ovation, and gained many recruits for the "Bulgarian
+Legion." Pushing ahead, the Cossacks and Dragoons seized large supplies
+of provisions stored by the Turks, and gained valuable news respecting
+the defences of the passes.
+
+The Shipka Pass, due south of Tirnova, was now strongly held, and
+Turkish troops were hurrying towards the two passes north of Slievno,
+some fifty miles farther east. Even so they had not enough men at hand
+to defend all the passes of the mountain chain that formed their chief
+line of defence. They left one of them practically undefended; this was
+the Khainkoi Pass, having an elevation of 3700 feet above the sea.
+
+A Russian diplomatist, Prince Tserteleff, who was charged to collect
+information about the passes, found that the Khainkoi enjoyed an evil
+reputation. "Ill luck awaits him who crosses the Khainkoi Pass," so ran
+the local proverb. He therefore determined to try it; by dint of
+questioning the friendly Bulgarian peasantry he found one man who had
+been through it once, and that was two years before with an ox-cart.
+Where an ox-cart could go, a light mountain gun could go. Accordingly,
+the Prince and General Rauch went with 200 Cossacks to explore the pass,
+set the men to work at the worst places, and, thanks to the secrecy
+observed by the peasantry, soon made the path to the summit practicable
+for cavalry and light guns. The Prince disguised himself as a Bulgarian
+shepherd to examine the southern outlet; and, on his bringing a
+favourable report, 11,000 men of Gurko's command began to thread the
+intricacies of the defile.
+
+Thanks to good food, stout hearts, jokes, and songs, they managed to get
+the guns up the worst places. Then began the perils of the descent. But
+the Turks knew nothing of their effort, else it might have ended far
+otherwise. At the southern end 300 Turkish regulars were peacefully
+smoking their pipes and cooking their food when the Cossack and Rifles
+in the vanguard burst upon them, drove them headlong, and seized the
+village of Khainkoi. A pass over the Balkans had been secured at the
+cost of two men killed and three wounded. Gurko was almost justified in
+sending to the Grand Duke Nicholas the proud vaunt that none but Russian
+soldiers could have brought field artillery over such a pass, and in the
+short space of three days (July 11-14)[140].
+
+[Footnote 140: _General Gurko's Advance Guard In 1877_, by Colonel
+Epauchin, translated by H. Havelock (The Wolseley Series, 1900), ch.
+ii.; _The Daily News War Correspondence_ (1877), pp. 263-270.]
+
+After bringing his column of 11,000 men through the pass, Gurko drove
+off four Turkish battalions sent against him from the Shipka Pass and
+Kazanlik. Next he sent out bands of Cossacks to spread terror
+southwards, and delude the Turks into the belief that he meant to strike
+at the important towns, Jeni Zagra and Eski Zagra, on the road to
+Adrianople. Having thus caused them to loosen their grip on Kazanlik and
+the Shipka, he wheeled his main force to the westward (leaving 3500 men
+to hold the exit of the Khainkoi), and drove the Turks successively from
+positions in front of the town, from the town itself, and then from the
+village of Shipka. Above that place towered the mighty wall of the
+Balkans, lessened somewhat at the pass itself, but presenting even there
+a seemingly impregnable position.
+
+Gurko, however, relied on the discouragement of the Turkish garrison
+after the defeats of their comrades, and at seeing their positions
+turned on the south while they were also threatened on the north. For
+another Russian column had advanced from Tirnova up the more gradual
+northern slopes of the Balkans, and now began to hammer at the defences
+of the pass on that side. The garrison consisted of six and a half
+battalions under Khulussi Pasha, and the wreckage of five battalions
+already badly beaten by Gurko's column. These, with one battery of
+artillery, held the pass and the neighbouring peaks, which they had in
+part fortified.
+
+In pursuance of a pre-arranged plan for a joint attack on July 17 of
+both Russian forces, the northern body advanced up the slopes; but, as
+Gurko's men were unable to make their diversion in time, the attack
+failed. An isolated attempt by Gurko's force on the next day also
+failed, the defenders disgracing themselves by tricking the Russians
+with the white flag and firing upon them. But the Turks were now in
+difficulties for want of food and water; or possibly they were seized
+with panic. At any rate, while amusing the Russians with proposals of
+surrender, they stole off in small bodies, early on July 19. The truth
+was, ere long, found out by outposts of the north Russian forces;
+Skobeleff and his men were soon at the summit, and there Gurko's
+vanguard speedily joined them with shouts of joy.
+
+Thus, within twenty-three days from the crossing of the Danube Gurko
+seized two passes of the Balkans, besides capturing 800 prisoners and 13
+guns. It is not surprising that a Turkish official despatch of July 21
+to Suleiman summed up the position: "The existence of the Empire hangs
+on a hair." And when Gurko's light troops proceeded to raid the valley
+of the Maritsa, it seemed that the Turkish defence would collapse as
+helplessly as in the memorable campaign of 1828. We must add here that
+the Bulgarians now began to revenge themselves for the outrages of May
+1876; and the struggle was sullied by horrible acts on both sides.
+
+The impression produced by these dramatic strokes was profound and
+widespread. The British fleet was sent to Besika Bay, a step
+preparatory, as it seemed, to steaming up the Dardanelles to the Sea of
+Marmora. At Adrianople crowds of Moslems fled away in wild confusion
+towards Constantinople. There the frequent meetings of ministers at the
+Sultan's palace testified to the extent of the alarm; and that nervous
+despot wavered between the design of transferring the seat of government
+to Brussa in Asia Minor, and that of unfurling the standard of the
+Prophet and summoning all the faithful to rally to its defence against
+the infidels. Finally he took courage from despair, and adopted the more
+manly course. But first he disgraced his ministers. The War Minister and
+Abdul-Kerim were summarily deposed, the latter being sent off as
+prisoner to the island of Lemnos.
+
+All witnesses agree that the War Minister, Redif Pasha, was incapable
+and corrupt. The age and weakness of Abdul-Kerim might have excused his
+comparative inaction in the Quadrilateral in the first half of July. It
+is probable that his plan of campaign, described above, was sound; but
+he lacked the vigour, and the authorities at Constantinople lacked the
+courage, to carry it out thoroughly and consistently.
+
+Mehemet Ali Pasha, a renegade German, who had been warring with some
+success in Montenegro, assumed the supreme command on July 22; and
+Suleiman Pasha, who, with most of his forces had been brought by sea
+from Antivari to the mouth of the River Maritsa, now gathered together
+all the available troops for the defence of Roumelia.
+
+The Czar, on his side, cherished hopes of ending the war while Fortune
+smiled on his standards. There are good grounds for thinking that he had
+entered on it with great reluctance. In its early stages he let the
+British Government know of his desire to come to terms with Turkey; and
+now his War Minister, General Milutin, hinted to Colonel F.A. Wellesley,
+British attaché at headquarters, that the mediation of Great Britain
+would be welcomed by Russia. That officer on July 30 had an interview
+with the Emperor, who set forth the conditions on which he would be
+prepared to accept peace with Turkey. They were--the recovery of the
+strip of Bessarabia lost in 1856, and the acquisition of Batoum in Asia
+Minor. Alexander II. also stated that he would not occupy Constantinople
+unless that step were necessitated by the course of events; that the
+Powers would be invited to a conference for the settlement of Turkish
+affairs; and that he had no wish to interfere with the British spheres
+of interest already referred to. Colonel Wellesley at once left
+headquarters for London, but on the following day the aspect of the
+campaign underwent a complete change, which, in the opinion of the
+British Government, rendered futile all hope of a settlement on the
+conditions laid down by the Czar.[141]
+
+[Footnote 141: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 9 (1878), Nos. 2, 3. _With the
+Russians in Peace and War_, by Colonel the Hon. F.A. Wellesley, ch. xx.]
+
+For now, when the Turkish cause seemed irrevocably lost, the work of a
+single brave man to the north of the Balkans dried up, as if by magic,
+the flood of invasion, brought back victory to the standards of Islam,
+and bade fair to overwhelm the presumptuous Muscovites in the waters of
+the Danube. Moltke in his account of the war of 1828, had noted a
+peculiarity of the Ottomans in warfare (a characteristic which they
+share with the glorious defenders of Saragossa in 1808) of beginning the
+real defence when others would abandon it as hopeless. This remark, if
+not true of the Turkish army as a whole, certainly applies to that part
+of it which was thrilled to deeds of daring by Osman Pasha.
+
+More fighting had fallen to him perhaps than to any Turk of his time. He
+was now forty years of age; his frame, slight and of middle height, gave
+no promise of strength or capacity; neither did his face, until the
+observer noted the power of his eyes to take in the whole situation
+"with one slow comprehensive look[142]." This gave him a magnetic
+faculty, the effect of which was not wholly marred by his disdainful
+manners, curt speech, and contemptuous treatment of foreigners. Clearly
+here was a cold, sternly objective nature like that of Bonaparte. He
+was a good representative of the stolid Turk of the provinces, who, far
+from the debasing influence of the Court, retains the fanaticism and
+love of war on behalf of his creed that make his people terrible even in
+the days of decline[143].
+
+[Footnote 142: W.W. Herbert, _The Defence of Plevna_, p. 81.]
+
+[Footnote 143: For these qualities, see _Turkey in Europe_, by
+"Odysseus," p. 97.]
+
+In accordance with the original design of Abdul-Kerim, Osman had for
+some time remained passive at Widdin. On receiving orders from the
+commander-in-chief, he moved eastwards on July 13, with 40,000 men, to
+save Nicopolis. Finding himself too late to save that place he then laid
+his plans for the seizure of Plevna. The importance of that town, as a
+great centre of roads, and as possessing many advantages for defence on
+the hills around, had been previously pointed out to the Russian Staff
+by Prince Charles of Roumania, as indeed, earlier still, by Moltke.
+Accordingly, the Grand Duke Nicholas had directed a small force of
+cavalry towards that town. General Krüdener made the mistake of
+recalling it in order to assist in the attack on Nicopolis on July
+14-16, an unlucky move, which enabled Osman to occupy Plevna without
+resistance on July 19[144]. On the 18th the Grand Duke Nicholas ordered
+General Krüdener to occupy Plevna. Knowing nothing of Osman's
+whereabouts, his vanguard advanced heedlessly on the town, only to meet
+with a very decided repulse, which cost the Russians 3000 men (July 20).
+
+[Footnote 144: Herbert, _The Defence of Plevna_, p. 129.]
+
+Osman now entrenched himself on the open downs that stretch eastwards
+from Plevna. As will be seen by reference to the map on page 213, his
+position, roughly speaking, formed an ellipse pointing towards the
+village of Grivitza. Above that village his engineers threw up two great
+redoubts which dominated the neighbourhood. Other redoubts and trenches
+screened Plevna on the north-east and south. Finally, the crowns of
+three main slopes lying to the east of Plevna bristled with defensive
+works. West of the town lay the deep vale of the little River Wid,
+itself the chief defence on that side. We may state here that during the
+long operations against Plevna the Russians had to content themselves
+with watching this western road to Orkanye and Sofia by means of
+cavalry; but the reinforcements from Sofia generally made their way in.
+From that same quarter the Turks were also able to despatch forces to
+occupy the town of Lovtcha, between Plevna and the Shipka Pass.
+
+The Russian Staff, realising its error in not securing this important
+centre of roads, and dimly surmising the strength of the entrenchments
+which Osman was throwing up near to the base of their operations,
+determined to attack Plevna at once. Their task proved to be one of
+unexpected magnitude. Already the long curve of the outer Turkish lines
+spread along slopes which formed natural glacis, while the ground
+farther afield was so cut up by hollows as to render one combined
+assault very difficult. The strength, and even the existence, of some of
+Osman's works were unknown. Finally, the Russians are said to have had
+only 32,000 infantry men at hand with two brigades of cavalry.
+
+Nevertheless, Generals Krüdener and Schahofski received orders to attack
+forthwith. They did so on July 31. The latter, with 12,000 men took two
+of the outer redoubts on the south side, but had to fall back before the
+deadly fire that poured on him from the inner works. Krüdener operated
+against the still stronger positions on the north; but, owing to
+difficulties that beset his advance, he was too late to make any
+diversion in favour of his colleague. In a word, the attack was ill
+planned and still worse combined. Five hours of desperate fighting
+yielded the assailants not a single substantial gain; their losses were
+stated officially to be 7336 killed and wounded; but this is certainly
+below the truth. Turkish irregulars followed the retreating columns at
+nightfall, and butchered the wounded, including all whom they found in a
+field-hospital.
+
+This second reverse at Plevna was a disaster of the first magnitude. The
+prolongation of the Russian line beyond the Balkans had left their base
+and flanks too weak to stand against the terrible blows that Osman
+seemed about to deal from his point of vantage. Plevna was to their
+right flank what Biela was to their left. Troops could not be withdrawn
+from the latter point lest the Turks from Shumla and Rustchuk should
+break through and cut their way to the bridge at Sistova; and now
+Osman's force threatened that spinal cord of the Russian communications.
+If he struck how could the blow be warded off? For bad news poured in
+from all quarters. From Armenia came the tidings that Mukhtar Pasha,
+after a skilful retreat and concentration of force, had turned on the
+Russians and driven them back in utter confusion.
+
+From beyond the Balkans Gurko sent news that Suleiman's army was working
+round by way of Adrianople, and threatened to pin him to the mountain
+chain. In fact, part of Gurko's corps sustained a serious reverse at
+Eski Zagra, and had to retreat in haste through the Khainkoi Pass; while
+its other sections made their way back to the Shipka Pass, leaving a
+rearguard to hold that important position (July 30-August 8). Thus, on
+all sides, proofs accumulated that the invaders had attempted far too
+much for their strength, and that their whole plan of campaign was more
+brilliant than sound. Possibly, had not the 14th corps been thrown away
+on the unhealthy Dobrudscha, enough men would have been at hand to save
+the situation. But now everything was at stake.
+
+The whole of the month of August was a time of grave crisis for the
+Russians, and it is the opinion of the best military critics that the
+Turks, with a little more initiative and power of combination, might
+have thrown the Russians back on the Danube in utter disarray. From this
+extremity the invaders were saved by the lack among the Turks of the
+above-named gifts, on which, rather than on mere bravery, the issue of
+campaigns and the fate of nations now ultimately depend. True to their
+old renown, the Turks showed signal prowess on the field of battle, but
+they lacked the higher intellectual qualities that garner the full
+harvest of results.
+
+Osman, either because he knew not that the Russians had used up their
+last reserves at Plevna, or because he mistrusted the manoeuvring
+powers of his men, allowed Krüdener quietly to draw off his shattered
+forces towards Sistova, and made only one rather half-hearted move
+against that all-important point. The new Turkish commander-in-chief,
+Mehemet Ali, gathered a formidable array in front of Shumla and drove
+the Russian army now led by the Cesarewich back on Biela, but failed to
+pierce their lines. Finally, Suleiman Pasha, in his pride at driving
+Gurko through the Khainkoi Pass, wasted time on the southern side, first
+by harrying the wretched Bulgarians, and then by hurling his brave
+troops repeatedly against the now almost impregnable position on the
+Shipka Pass.
+
+It is believed that jealousy of the neighbouring Turkish generals kept
+Suleiman from adopting less wasteful and more effective tactics. If he
+had made merely a feint of attacking that post, and had hurried with his
+main body through the Slievno Pass on the east to the aid of Mehemet, or
+through the western defiles of the Balkans to the help of the brave
+Osman in his Plevna-Lovtcha positions, probably the gain of force to one
+or other of them might have led to really great results. As it was,
+these generals dealt heavy losses to the invaders, but failed to drive
+them back on the Danube.
+
+Moreover, Russian reinforcements began to arrive by the middle of
+August, the Emperor having already, on July 22, called out the first ban
+of the militia and three divisions of the reserve of the line, in all
+some 224,000 men[145].
+
+[Footnote 145: F.V. Greene, _The Campaign in Bulgaria_, p. 225.]
+
+The bulk of these men did not arrive until September; and meanwhile the
+strain was terrible. The war correspondence of Mr. Archibald Forbes
+reveals the state of nervous anxiety in which Alexander II. was plunged
+at this time. Forbes had been a witness of the savage tenacity of the
+Turkish attack and the Russian defence on the hills commanding the
+Shipka Pass. Finally, he had shared in the joy of the hard-pressed
+defenders at the timely advent of a rifle battalion hastily sent up on
+Cossack ponies, and the decisive charge of General Radetzky at the head
+of two companies of reserves at a Turkish breastwork in the very crisis
+of the fight (Aug. 24). Then, after riding post-haste northwards to the
+Russian headquarters at Gornisstuden, he was at once taken to the Czar's
+tent, and noted the look of eager suspense on his face until he heard
+the reassuring news that Radetzky kept his seat firm on the pass.
+
+The worst was now over. The Russian Guards, 50,000 strong, were near at
+hand, along with the other reinforcements above named. The urgency of
+the crisis also led the Grand Duke Nicholas to waive his claim that the
+Roumanian troops should be placed under his immediate command.
+Accordingly, early in August, Prince Charles led some 35,000 Roumanians
+across the Danube, and was charged with the command of all the troops
+around Plevna[146]. The hopes of the invaders were raised by Skobeleff's
+capture, on September 3, of Lovtcha, a place half-way between Plevna and
+the Balkans, which had ensured Osman's communications with Suleiman
+Pasha. The Turkish losses at Lovtcha are estimated at nearly
+15,000 men[147].
+
+[Footnote 146: _Reminiscences of the King of Roumania_, p. 275.]
+
+[Footnote 147: F.V. Greene, _op. cit._ p. 232.]
+
+This success having facilitated the attack on Plevna from the south, a
+general assault was ordered for September 11. In the meantime Osman also
+had received large reinforcements from Sofia, and had greatly
+strengthened his defences. So skilfully had outworks been thrown up on
+the north-east of Plevna that what looked like an unimportant trench was
+found to be a new and formidable redoubt, which foiled the utmost
+efforts of the 3rd Roumanian division to struggle up the steep slopes on
+that side. To their 4th division and to a Russian brigade fell an
+equally hard task, that of advancing from the east against the two
+Grivitza redoubts which had defied all assaults. The Turks showed their
+usual constancy, despite the heavy and prolonged bombardment which
+preluded the attack here and all along the lines. But the weight and
+vigour of the onset told by degrees; and the Russian and Roumanian
+supports finally carried by storm the more southerly of the two
+redoubts. The Turks made desperate efforts to retrieve this loss. From
+the northern redoubt and the rear entrenchments somewhat to the south
+there came a galling fire which decimated the victors; for a time the
+Turks succeeded in recovering the work, but at nightfall the advance of
+other Russian and Roumanian troops ousted the Moslems. Thenceforth the
+redoubt was held by the allies.
+
+Meanwhile, to the south of the village of Grivitza the 4th and 9th
+Russian Corps had advanced in dense masses against the cluster of
+redoubts that crowned the heights south-east of Plevna; but their utmost
+efforts were futile; under the fearful fire of the Turks the most solid
+lines melted away, and the corps fell back at nightfall, with the loss
+of 110 officers and 5200 men.
+
+Only on the south and south-west did the assailants seriously imperil
+Osman's defence at a vital point; and here again Fortune bestowed her
+favours on a man who knew how to wrest the utmost from her, Michael
+Dimitrievitch Skobeleff. Few men or women could look on his stalwart
+figure, frank, bold features, and keen, kindling eyes without a thrill
+of admiration. Tales were told by the camp-fires of the daring of his
+early exploits in Central Asia; how, after the capture of Khiva in 1874,
+he dressed himself in Turkoman garb, and alone explored the route from
+that city to Igdy, as well as the old bed of the River Oxus; or again
+how, at the capture of Khokand in the following year, his skill and
+daring led to the overthrow of a superior force and the seizure of
+fifty-eight guns. Thus, at thirty-two years of age he was the darling of
+the troops; for his prowess in the field was not more marked than his
+care and foresight in the camp. While other generals took little heed of
+their men, he saw to their comforts and cheered them by his jokes. They
+felt that he was the embodiment of the patriotism, love of romantic
+exploit, and soaring ambition of the Great Russians.
+
+They were right. Already, as will appear in a later chapter, he was
+dreaming of the conquest of India; and, like Napoleon, he could not only
+see visions but also master details, from the principles of strategy to
+the routine of camp life, which made those visions realisable. If
+ambition spurred him on towards Delhi, hatred of things Teutonic pointed
+him to Berlin. Ill would it have fared with the peace of the world had
+this champion of the Slavonic race lived out his life. But his fiery
+nature wore out its tenement, the baser passions, so it is said,
+contributing to hasten the end of one who lived his true life only
+amidst the smoke of battle. In war he was sublime. Having recently came
+from Central Asia, he was at first unattached to any corps, and roved
+about in search of the fiercest fighting. His insight and skill had
+warded off a deadly flank attack on Schahofski's shattered corps at
+Plevna on July 30, and his prowess had contributed largely to the
+capture of Lovtcha on September 3. War correspondents, who knew their
+craft, turned to follow Skobeleff, wherever official reports might
+otherwise direct them; and the lust of fighting laid hold of the grey
+columns when they saw the "white general" approach.
+
+On September 11 Prince Imeritinski and Skobeleff (the order should be
+inverted) commanded the extreme left of the Russian line, attacking
+Plevna from the south. Having four regiments of the line and four
+battalions of sharpshooters--about 12,000 men in all--he ranged them at
+the foot of the hill, whose summit was crowned by an all-important
+redoubt-the "Kavanlik." There were four others that flanked the
+approach. When the Russian guns had thoroughly cleared the way for an
+assault, he ordered the bands to play and the two leading regiments to
+charge up the slope. Keeping his hand firmly on the pulse of the battle,
+he saw them begin to waver under the deadly fire of the Turks; at once
+he sent up a rival regiment; the new mass carried on the charge until it
+too threatened to die away. The fourth regiment struggled up into that
+wreath of death, and with the like result.
+
+[Illustration: Plan of Plevna.]
+
+Then Skobeleff called on his sharpshooters to drive home the onset.
+Riding on horseback before the invigorating lines, he swept on the
+stragglers and waverers until all of them came under the full blast of
+the Turkish flames vomited from the redoubt. There his sword fell,
+shivered in his hand, and his horse rolled over at the very verge of the
+fosse. Fierce as ever, the leader sprang to his feet, waved the stump in
+air, and uttered a shout which put fresh heart into his men. With him
+they swarmed into the fosse, up the bank, and fell on the defenders. The
+bayonet did the rest, taking deadly revenge for the murderous volleys.
+
+But Osman's engineers had provided against such an event. The redoubt
+was dominated from the left and could be swept by cross fire from the
+rear and right. On the morrow the Turks drew in large forces from the
+north side and pressed the victors hard. In vain did Skobeleff send
+urgent messages for reinforcements to make good the gaps in his ranks.
+None were sent, or indeed could be sent. Five times his men beat off the
+foe. The sixth charge hurled them first from the Kavanlik redoubt, and
+thereafter from the flanking works and trenches out on to that fatal
+slope. A war correspondent saw Skobeleff after this heart-breaking loss,
+"his face black with powder and smoke, his eyes haggard and bloodshot,
+and his voice quite gone. I never before saw such a picture of
+battle[148]."
+
+[Footnote 148: _War Correspondence of the "Daily News,"_ pp. 479-483.
+For another character-sketch of Skobeleff see the _Fortnightly Review_
+of Oct. 1882, by W.K. Rose.]
+
+Thus all the efforts of the Russians and Roumanians had failed to wrest
+more than a single redoubt from the Moslems; and at that point they were
+unable to make any advance against the inner works. The fighting of
+September 11-12 is believed to have cost the allies 18,000 men killed
+and wounded out of the 75,000 infantrymen engaged. The mistakes of July
+31 had been again repeated. The number of assailants was too small for
+an attack on so great an extent of fortified positions defended with
+quick-firing rifles. Had the Russians, while making feints at other
+points to hold the Turks there, concentrated their efforts either on the
+two Grivitza redoubts, or on those about the Kavanlik work, they would
+almost certainly have succeeded. As it was, they hurled troops in close
+order against lines, the strength of which was not well known; and none
+of their commanders but Skobeleff employed tactics that made the most of
+their forces[149]. The depression at the Russian headquarters was now
+extreme[150]. On September 13 the Emperor held a council of war at which
+the Prince of Roumania, the Grand Duke Nicholas, General Milutin
+(Minister of War), and three other generals were present. The Grand Duke
+declared that the only prudent course was to retire to the Danube,
+construct a _tête de pont_ guarding the southern end of their bridge
+and, after receiving reinforcements, again begin the conquest of
+Bulgaria. General Milutin, however, demurred to this, seeing that
+Osman's army was not mobile enough to press them hard; he therefore
+proposed to await the reinforcements in the positions around Plevna. The
+Grand Duke thereupon testily exclaimed that Milutin had better be placed
+in command, to which the Emperor replied: "No; you shall retain the
+command; but the plan suggested by the Minister of War shall be carried
+out[151]."
+
+[Footnote 149: For an account of the battle, see Greene, _op. cit._ pt.
+ii. chap. v.]
+
+[Footnote 150: Gen. von. Lignitz, _Aus drei Kriegen_, p. 167.]
+
+[Footnote 151: Col. F.A. Wellesley, _op. cit._ p. 281.]
+
+The Emperor's decision saved the situation. The Turks made no combined
+effort to advance towards Plevna in force; and Osman felt too little
+trust in the new levies that reached him from Sofia to move into the
+open and attack Sistova. Indeed, Turkish strategy over the whole field
+of war is open to grave censure. On their side there was a manifest lack
+of combination. Mehemet Ali pounded away for a month at the army of the
+Czarewitch on the River Lom, and then drew back his forces (September
+24). He allowed Suleiman Pasha to fling his troops in vain against the
+natural stronghold of the Russians at the Shipka Pass, and had made no
+dispositions for succouring Lovtcha. Obviously he should have
+concentrated the Turkish forces so as to deal a timely and decisive blow
+either on the Lom or on the Sofia-Plevna road. When he proved his
+incapacity both as commander-in-chief and as commander of his own force,
+Turkish jealousy against the _quondam_ German flared forth; and early in
+October he was replaced by Suleiman. The change was greatly for the
+worse. Suleiman's pride and obstinacy closed the door against larger
+ideas, and it has been confidently stated that at the end of the
+campaign he was bribed by the Russians to betray his cause. However that
+may be, it is certain that the Turkish generals continued to fight, each
+for his own hand, and thus lost the campaign.
+
+It was now clear that Osman must be starved out from the position which
+the skill of his engineers and the steadiness of his riflemen had so
+speedily transformed into an impregnable stronghold. Todleben, the
+Russian engineer, who had strengthened the outworks of Sevastopol, had
+been called up to oppose trench to trench, redoubt to redoubt. Yet so
+extensive were the Turkish works, and so active was Shevket Pasha's
+force at Sofia in sending help and provisions, that not until October 24
+was the line of investment completed, and by an army which now numbered
+fully 120,000 men. By December 10 Osman came to the end of his resources
+and strove to break out on the west over the River Wid towards Sofia.
+Masking the movement with great skill, he inflicted heavy losses on the
+besiegers. Slowly, however, they closed around him, and a last scene of
+slaughter ended in the surrender of the 43,000 half-starved survivors,
+with the 77 guns that had wrought such havoc among the invaders. Osman's
+defence is open to criticism at some points, but it had cost Russia more
+than 50,000 lives, and paralysed her efforts in Europe during
+five months.
+
+The operations around Plevna are among the most instructive in modern
+warfare, as illustrating the immense power that quick-firing rifles
+confer upon the defence. Given a nucleus of well-trained troops, with
+skilled engineers, any position of ordinary strength can quickly be
+turned into a stronghold that will foil the efforts of a far greater
+number of assailants. Experience at Plevna showed that four or five
+times as many men were needed to attack redoubts and trenches as in the
+days of muzzle-loading muskets. It also proved that infantry fire is far
+more deadly in such cases than the best served artillery. And yet a
+large part of Osman's troops--perhaps the majority after August--were
+not regulars. Doubtless that explains why (with the exception of an
+obstinate but unskilful effort to break out on August 31) he did not
+attack the Russians in the open after his great victories of July 31 and
+September 11-12. On both occasions the Russians were so badly shaken
+that, in the opinion of competent judges, they could easily have been
+driven in on Nicopolis or Sistova, in which case the bridges at those
+places might have been seized. But Osman did not do so, doubtless
+because he knew that his force, weak in cavalry and unused to
+manoeuvring, would be at a disadvantage in the open. Todleben, however,
+was informed on good authority that, when the Turkish commander heard of
+the likelihood of the investment of Plevna, he begged the Porte to allow
+him to retire; but the assurance of Shevket Pasha, the commander of the
+Turkish force at Sofia, that he could keep open communications between
+that place and Plevna, decided the authorities at Constantinople to
+order the continuance of defensive tactics[152].
+
+[Footnote 152: A. Forbes, _Czar and Sultan_, p. 291. On the other hand,
+W.V. Herbert (_op. cit._ p. 456) states that it was Osman's wish to
+retire to Orkanye, on the road to Sofia, and that this was forbidden.
+For remarks on this see Greene, _op. cit._ chap. viii.]
+
+Whatever may have been the cause of this decision it ruined the Turkish
+campaign. Adherence to the defensive spells defeat now, as it has always
+done. Defeat comes more slowly now that quick-firing rifles quadruple
+the power of the defence; but all the same it must come if the assailant
+has enough men to throw on that point and then at other points. Or, to
+use technical terms, while modern inventions alter tactics, that is, the
+dispositions of troops on the field of battle--a fact which the Russians
+seemed to ignore at Plevna--they do not change the fundamental
+principles of strategy. These are practically immutable, and they doom
+to failure the side that, at the critical points, persists in standing
+on the defensive. A study of the events around Plevna shows clearly what
+a brave but ill-trained army can do and what it cannot do under modern
+conditions.
+
+From the point of view of strategy--that is, the conduct of the great
+operations of a campaign--Osman's defence of Plevna yields lessons of
+equal interest. It affords the most brilliant example in modern warfare
+of the power of a force strongly intrenched in a favourable position to
+"contain," that is, to hold or hold back, a greater force of the enemy.
+Other examples are the Austrian defence of Mantua in 1796-97, which
+hindered the young Bonaparte's invasion of the Hapsburg States;
+Bazaine's defence of Metz in 1870; and Sir George White's defence of
+Ladysmith against the Boers. We have no space in which to compare these
+cases, in which the conditions varied so greatly. Suffice it to say that
+Mantua and Plevna were the most effective instances, largely because
+those strongholds lay near the most natural and easy line of advance for
+the invaders. Metz and Ladysmith possessed fewer advantages in this
+respect; and, considering the strength of the fortress and the size and
+quality of his army, Bazaine's conduct at Metz must rank as the weakest
+on record; for his 180,000 troops "contained" scarcely more than their
+own numbers of Germans.
+
+On the other hand, Osman's force brought three times its number of
+Russians to a halt for five months before hastily constructed lines. In
+the opinion of many authorities the Russians did wrong in making the
+whole campaign depend on Plevna. When it was clear that Osman would
+cling to the defensive, they might with safety have secretly detached
+part of the besieging force to help the army of the Czarewitch to drive
+back the Turks on Shumla. This would have involved no great risk; for
+the Russians occupied the inner lines of what was, roughly speaking, a
+triangle, resting on the Shipka Pass, the River Lom, and Plevna as its
+extreme points. Having the advantage of the inner position, they could
+quickly have moved part of their force at Plevna, battered in the
+Turkish defence on the Lom, and probably captured the Slievno passes. In
+that case they would have cleared a new line of advance to
+Constantinople farther to the east, and made the possession of Plevna of
+little worth. Its value always lay in its nearness to their main line of
+advance, but they were not tied to that line. It is safe to say that, if
+Moltke had directed their operations, he would have devised some better
+plan than that of hammering away at the redoubts of Plevna.
+
+In fact, the Russians made three great blunders: first, in neglecting to
+occupy Plevna betimes; second, in underrating Osman's powers of defence;
+third, in concentrating all their might on what was a very strong, but
+not an essential, point of the campaign.
+
+The closing scenes of the war are of little interest except in the
+domain of diplomacy. Servia having declared war against Turkey
+immediately after the fall of Plevna, the Turks were now hopelessly
+outnumbered. Gurko forced his way over one of the western passes of the
+Balkans, seized Sofia (January 4, 1878), and advancing quickly towards
+Philippopolis, utterly routed Suleiman's main force near that town
+(January 17). The Turkish commander-in-chief thus paid for his mistake
+in seeking to defend a mountain chain with several passes by
+distributing his army among those passes. Experience has proved that
+this invites disaster at the hands of an enterprising foe, and that the
+true policy is to keep light troops or scouts at all points, and the
+main forces at a chief central pass and at a convenient place in the
+rear, whence the invaders may be readily assailed before they complete
+the crossing. As it was, Suleiman saw his main force, still nearly
+50,000 strong, scatter over the Rhodope mountains; many of them reached
+the Aegean Sea at Enos, whence they were conveyed by ship to the
+Dardanelles. He himself was tried by court-martial and imprisoned for
+fifteen years[153].
+
+[Footnote 153: Sir N. Layard attributed to him the overthrow of Turkey.
+See his letter of February 1, 1878, in _Sir W. White: Life and
+Correspondence_, p. 127.] A still worse fate befell those of his
+troops which hung about Radetzky's front below the Shipka Pass. The
+Russians devised skilful moves for capturing this force. On January 5-8
+Prince Mirsky threaded his way with a strong column through the deep
+snows of the Travna Pass, about twenty-five miles east of the Shipka,
+which he then approached; while Skobeleff struggled through a still more
+difficult defile west of the central position. The total strength of the
+Russians was 56,000 men. On the 8th, when their cannon were heard
+thundering in the rear of the Turkish earthworks at the foot of the
+Shipka Pass, Radetzky charged down on the Turkish positions in front,
+while Mirsky assailed them from the east. Skobeleff meanwhile had been
+detained by the difficulties of the path and the opposition of the Turks
+on the west. But on the morrow his onset on the main Turkish positions
+carried all before it. On all sides the Turks were worsted and laid down
+their arms; 36,000 prisoners and 93 guns (so the Russians claim) were
+the prize of this brilliant feat (January 9, 1878)[154].
+
+[Footnote 154: Greene, _op. cit._ chap. xi. I have been assured by an
+Englishman serving with the Turks that these numbers were greatly
+exaggerated.]
+
+In Roumelia, as in Armenia, there now remained comparatively few Turkish
+troops to withstand the Russian advance, and the capture of
+Constantinople seemed to be a matter of a few weeks. There are grounds
+for thinking that the British Ministry, or certainly its chief, longed
+to send troops from Malta to help in its defence. Colonel Wellesley,
+British attaché at the Russian headquarters, returned to London at the
+time when the news of the crossing of the Balkans reached the Foreign
+Office. At once he was summoned to see the Prime Minister, who inquired
+eagerly as to the length of time which would elapse before the Russians
+occupied Adrianople. The officer thought that that event might occur
+within a month--an estimate which proved to be above the mark. Lord
+Beaconsfield was deeply concerned to hear this and added, "If you can
+only guarantee me six weeks, I see my way." He did not further explain
+his meaning; but Colonel Wellesley felt sure that he wished to move
+British troops from Malta to Constantinople[155]. Fortunately the
+Russian advance to Adrianople was so speedy--their vanguard entered that
+city on January 20--as to dispose of any such project. But it would seem
+that only the utter collapse of the Turkish defence put an end to the
+plans of part at least of the British Cabinet for an armed intervention
+on behalf of Turkey.
+
+[Footnote 155: _With the Russians in Peace and War_, by Colonel F.A.
+Wellesley, p. 272.]
+
+Here, then, as at so many points of their history, the Turks lost their
+opportunity, and that, too, through the incapacity and corruption of
+their governing class. The war of 1877 ended as so many of their wars
+had ended. Thanks to the bravery of their rank and file and the mistakes
+of the invaders, they gained tactical successes at some points; but they
+failed to win the campaign owing to the inability of their Government to
+organise soundly on a great scale, and the intellectual mediocrity of
+their commanders in the sphere of strategy. Mr. Layard, who succeeded
+Sir Henry Elliot at Constantinople early in 1878, had good reason for
+writing, "The utter rottenness of the present system has been fully
+revealed by the present war[156]." Whether Suleiman was guilty of
+perverse obstinacy, or, as has often been asserted, of taking bribes
+from the Russians, cannot be decided. What is certain is that he was
+largely responsible for the final _débacle_.
+
+[Footnote 156: _Sir William White: Life and Correspondence_, p. 128.]
+
+But in a wider and deeper sense the Turks owed their misfortunes to
+themselves--to their customs and their creed. Success in war depends
+ultimately on the brain-power of the chief leaders and organisers; and
+that source of strength has long ago been dried up in Turkey by adhesion
+to a sterilising creed and cramping traditions. The wars of the latter
+half of the nineteenth century are of unique interest, not only because
+they have built up the great national fabrics of to-day, but also
+because they illustrate the truth of that suggestive remark of the great
+Napoleon, "The general who does great things is he who also possesses
+qualities adapted for civil life."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE BALKAN SETTLEMENT
+
+     New hopes should animate the world; new light
+     Should dawn from new revealings to a race
+     Weighed down so long, forgotten so long.
+
+     ROBERT BROWNING, _Paracelsus_.
+
+
+The collapse of the Turkish defence in Roumelia inaugurated a time of
+great strain and stress in Anglo-Russian relations. On December 13,
+1877, that is, three days after the fall of Plevna, Lord Derby reminded
+the Russian Government of its promise of May 30, 1876, that the
+acquisition of Constantinople was excluded from the wishes and
+intentions of the Emperor Alexander II., and expressed the earnest hope
+that the Turkish capital would not be occupied, even for military
+purposes. The reply of the Russian Chancellor (December 16) was
+reserved. It claimed that Russia must have full right of action, which
+is the right of every belligerent, and closed with a request for a
+clearer definition of the British interests which would be endangered by
+such a step. In his answer of January 13, 1878, the British Foreign
+Minister specified the occupation of the Dardanelles as an event that
+would endanger the good relations between England and Russia; whereupon
+Prince Gortchakoff, on January 16, 1878, gave the assurance that this
+step would not be taken unless British forces were landed at Gallipoli,
+or Turkish troops were concentrated there.
+
+So far this was satisfactory; but other signs seemed to betoken a
+resolve on the part of Russia to gain time while her troops pressed on
+towards Constantinople. The return of the Czar to St. Petersburg after
+the fall of Plevna had left more power in the hands of the Grand Duke
+Nicholas and of the many generals who longed to revenge themselves for
+the disasters in Bulgaria by seizing Constantinople.
+
+In face of the probability of this event, public opinion in England
+underwent a complete change. Russia appeared no longer as the champion
+of oppressed Christians, but as an ambitious and grasping Power. Mr.
+Gladstone's impassioned appeals for non-intervention lost their effect,
+and a warlike feeling began to prevail. The change of feeling was
+perfectly natural. Even those who claimed that the war might have been
+averted by the adoption of a different policy by the Beaconsfield
+Cabinet, had to face the facts of the situation; and these were
+extremely grave.
+
+The alarm increased when it was known that Turkey, on January 3, 1878,
+had appealed to the Powers for their mediation, and that Germany had
+ostentatiously refused. It seemed probable that Russia, relying on the
+support of Germany, would endeavour to force her own terms on the Porte.
+Lord Loftus, British Ambassador at St. Petersburg, was therefore charged
+to warn the Ministers of the Czar (January 16) that any treaty made
+separately between Russia and Turkey, which affected the international
+treaties of 1856 and 1871, would not be valid without the consent of all
+the signatory Powers. Four days later the Muscovite vanguard entered
+Adrianople, and it appeared likely that peace would soon be dictated at
+Constantinople without regard to the interests of Great Britain
+and Austria.
+
+Such was the general position when Parliament met at Westminster on
+January 17. The Queen's Speech contained the significant phrase that,
+should hostilities be unfortunately prolonged, some unexpected
+occurrence might render it incumbent to adopt measures of precaution.
+Five days later it transpired that the Sultan had sent an appeal to
+Queen Victoria for her mediation with a view to arranging an armistice
+and the discussion of the preliminaries of peace. In accordance with
+this appeal, the Queen telegraphed to the Emperor of Russia in
+these terms:--
+
+     I have received a direct appeal from the Sultan which I
+     cannot leave without an answer. Knowing that you are
+     sincerely desirous of peace, I do not hesitate to communicate
+     this fact to you, in hope that you may accelerate the
+     negotiations for the conclusion of an armistice which may
+     lead to an honourable peace.
+
+This communication was sent with the approval of the Cabinet. The nature
+of the reply is not known. Probably it was not encouraging; for on the
+next day (January 23) the British Admiralty ordered Admiral Hornby with
+the Mediterranean fleet to steam up the Dardanelles to Constantinople.
+On the following day this was annulled, and the Admiral was directed not
+to proceed beyond Besika Bay[157]. The original order was the cause of
+the resignation of Lord Carnarvon. The retirement of Lord Derby was also
+announced, but he afterwards withdrew it, probably on condition that the
+fleet did not enter the Sea of Marmora.
+
+[Footnote 157: For the odd mistake in a telegram, which caused the
+original order, see _Sir Stafford Northcote, Earl of Iddesleigh_, by
+Andrew Lang, vol. ii. pp. 111-112.]
+
+Light was thus thrown on the dissensions in the Cabinet, and the
+vacillations in British policy. Disraeli once said in his whimsical way
+that there were six parties in the Ministry. The first party wanted
+immediate war with Russia; the second was for war in order to save
+Constantinople; the third was for peace at any price; the fourth would
+let the Russians take Constantinople and _then_ turn them out; the fifth
+wanted to plant the cross on the dome of St. Sofia; "and then there are
+the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who desire to
+see something done, but don't know exactly what[158]." The coupling of
+himself with the amiable Sir Stafford Northcote is a good instance of
+Disraelian irony. It is fairly certain that he was for war with Russia;
+that Lord Carnarvon constituted the third party, and Lord Derby
+the fourth.
+
+[Footnote 158: _Ibid_. pp. 105-106. For the telegrams between the First
+Lord of the Admiralty, W.H. Smith, and Admiral Hornby, see _Life and
+Times of W.H. Smith_, by Sir H. Maxwell, vol. i. chap. xi.]
+
+On the day after the resignation of Lord Carnarvon, the British Cabinet
+heard for the first time what were the demands of Russia. They included
+the formation of a Greater Bulgaria, "within the limits of the Bulgarian
+nationality," practically independent of the Sultan's direct control;
+the entire independence of Roumania, Servia, and Montenegro; a
+territorial and pecuniary indemnity to Russia for the expenses of the
+war; and "an ulterior understanding for safeguarding the rights and
+interests of Russia in the Straits."
+
+The extension of Bulgaria to the shores of the Aegean seemed at that
+time a mighty triumph for Russian influence; but it was the last item,
+vaguely foreshadowing the extension of Russian influence to the
+Dardanelles, that most aroused the alarm of the British Cabinet. Russian
+control of those straits would certainly have endangered Britain's
+connections with India by way of the Suez Canal, seeing that we then had
+no foothold in Egypt. Accordingly, on January 28, the Ministry proposed
+to Parliament the voting of an additional sum of £6,000,000 towards
+increasing the armaments of the country. At once there arose strong
+protests against this proposal, especially from the districts then
+suffering from the prolonged depression of trade. The outcry was very
+natural; but none the less it can scarcely be justified in view of the
+magnitude of the British interests then at stake. Granted that the views
+of the Czar were pacific, those of his generals at the seat of war were
+very much open to question[159]. The long coveted prize of
+Constantinople, or the Dardanelles, was likely to tempt them to
+disregard official orders from St. Petersburg, unless they knew that
+any imprudent step would bring on a European war. In any case, the vote
+of £6,000,000 was a precautionary measure; and it probably had the
+effect of giving pause to the enthusiasts at the Russian headquarters.
+
+[Footnote 159: See the compromising revelations made by an anonymous
+Russian writer in the _Revue de Paris_ for July 15, 1897. The authoress,
+"O.K.," in her book, _The Friends and Foes of Russia_ (pp. 240-241),
+states that only the autocracy could have stayed the Russian advance on
+Constantinople. General U.S. Grant told her that if he had had such an
+order, he would have put it in his pocket and produced it again when in
+Constantinople.]
+
+The preliminary bases of peace between Russia and Turkey were signed at
+Adrianople (Jan. 31) on the terms summarised above, except that the
+Czar's Ministers now withdrew the obnoxious clause about the Straits. A
+line of demarcation was also agreed on between the hostile forces; it
+passed from Derkos, a lake near the Black Sea, to the north of
+Constantinople, in a southerly direction by the banks of the Karasou
+stream as far as the Sea of Marmora. This gave to the Russians the lines
+of Tchekmedje, the chief natural defence of Constantinople, and they
+occupied this position on February 6. This fact was reported by Mr.
+Layard, Sir Henry Elliot's successor at Constantinople, in alarmist
+terms, and it had the effect of stilling the opposition at Westminster
+to the vote of credit. Though official assurances of a reassuring kind
+came from Prince Gortchakoff at St. Petersburg, the British Ministry on
+February 7 ordered a part of the Mediterranean fleet to enter the Sea of
+Marmora for the defence of British interests and the protection of
+British subjects at Constantinople. The Czar's Government thereupon
+declared that if the British fleet steamed up the Bosporus, Russian
+troops would enter Constantinople for the protection of the Christian
+population.
+
+This rivalry in philanthropic zeal was not pushed to its logical issue,
+war. The British fleet stopped short of the Bosporus, but within sight
+of the Russian lines. True, these were pushed eastwards slightly beyond
+the limits agreed on with the Turks; but an arrangement was arrived at
+between Lord Derby and Prince Gortchakoff (Feb. 19) that the Russians
+would not occupy the lines of Bulair close to Constantinople, or the
+Peninsula of Gallipoli commanding the Dardanelles, provided that British
+forces were not landed in that important strait[160]. So matters rested,
+both sides regarding each other with the sullenness of impotent wrath.
+As Bismarck said, a war would have been a fight between an elephant
+and a whale.
+
+[Footnote 160: Hertslet, iv. p. 2670.]
+
+The situation was further complicated by an invasion of Thessaly by the
+Greeks (Feb. 3); but they were withdrawn at once on the urgent
+remonstrance of the Powers, coupled with a promise that the claims of
+Greece would be favourably considered at the general peace[161].
+
+[Footnote 161: L. Sergeant, _Greece in the Nineteenth Century_ (1897),
+ch. xi.]
+
+In truth, all the racial hatreds, aspirations, and ambitions that had so
+long been pent up in the south-east of Europe now seemed on the point of
+bursting forth and overwhelming civilisation in a common ruin. Just as
+the earth's volcanic forces now and again threaten to tear their way
+through the crust, so now the immemorial feuds of Moslems and
+Christians, of Greeks, Servians, Bulgars, Wallachs, and Turks, promised
+to desolate the slopes of the Balkans, of Rhodope and the Pindus, and to
+spread the lava tide of war over the half of the Continent. The Russians
+and Bulgars, swarming over Roumelia, glutted their revenge for past
+defeats and massacres by outrages well-nigh as horrible as that of
+Batak. At once the fierce Moslems of the Rhodope Mountains rose in
+self-defence or for vengeance. And while the Russian eagles perforce
+checked their flight within sight of Stamboul, the Greeks and Armenians
+of that capital--nay, the very occupants of the foreign
+embassies--trembled at sight of the lust of blood that seized on the
+vengeful Ottomans.
+
+Nor was this all. Far away beyond the northern horizon the war cloud
+hung heavily over the Carpathians. The statesmen of Vienna, fearing that
+the terms of their bargain with Russia were now forgotten in the
+intoxication of her triumph, determined to compel the victors to lay
+their spoils before the Great Powers. In haste the Austrian and
+Hungarian troops took station on the great bastion of the Carpathians,
+and began to exert on the military situation the pressure which had been
+so fatal to Russia in her Turkish campaign of 1854.
+
+But though everything betokened war, there were forces that worked
+slowly but surely for a pacific settlement. However threatening was the
+attitude of Russia, her rulers really desired peace. The war had shown
+once again the weakness of that Power for offence. Her strength lies in
+her boundless plains, in the devotion of her millions of peasants to the
+Czar, and in the patient, stubborn strength which is the outcome of long
+centuries of struggle with the yearly tyrant, winter. Her weakness lies
+in the selfishness, frivolity, corruption, and narrowness of outlook of
+her governing class--in short, in their incapacity for organisation.
+Against the steady resisting power of her peasants the great Napoleon
+had hurled his legions in vain. That campaign of 1812 exhibited the
+strength of Russia for defence. But when, in fallacious trust in that
+precedent, she has undertaken great wars far from her base, failure has
+nearly always been the result. The pathetic devotion of her peasantry
+has not made up for the mental and moral defects of her governing
+classes. This fact had fixed itself on every competent observer in 1877.
+The Emperor Alexander knew it only too well. Now, early in 1878, it was
+fairly certain that his army would succumb under the frontal attacks of
+Turks and British, and the onset of the Austrians on their rear.
+
+Therefore when, on Feb. 4, the Hapsburg State proposed to refer the
+terms of peace to a Conference of the Powers at Vienna, the consent of
+Russia was almost certain, provided that the prestige of the Czar
+remained unimpaired. Three days later the place of meeting was changed
+to Berlin, the Conference also becoming a Congress, that is, a meeting
+where the chief Ministers of the Powers, not merely their Ambassadors,
+would take part. The United Kingdom, France, and Italy at once signified
+their assent to this proposal. As for Bismarck, he promised in a speech
+to the Reichstag (Feb. 19) that he would act as an "honest broker"
+between the parties most nearly concerned. There is little doubt that
+Russia took this in a sense favourable to her claims, and she, too,
+consented.
+
+Nevertheless, she sought to tie the hands of the Congress by binding
+Turkey to a preliminary treaty signed on March 3 at San Stefano, a
+village near to Constantinople. The terms comprised those stated above
+(p. 225), but they also stipulated the cession of frontier districts to
+Servia and Montenegro, while Russia was to acquire the Roumanian
+districts east of the River Pruth, Roumania receiving the Dobrudscha as
+an equivalent. Most serious of all was the erection of Bulgaria into an
+almost independent Principality, extending nearly as far south as Midia
+(on the Black Sea), Adrianople, Salonica, and beyond Ochrida in Albania.
+As will be seen by reference to the map (p. 239), this Principality
+would then have comprised more than half of the Balkan Peninsula,
+besides including districts on the Ægean Sea and around the town of
+Monastir, for which the Greeks have never ceased to cherish hopes. A
+Russian Commissioner was to supervise the formation of the government
+for two years; all the fortresses on the Danube were to be razed, and
+none others constructed; Turkish forces were required entirely to
+evacuate the Principality, which was to be occupied by Russian troops
+for a space of time not exceeding two years.
+
+On her side, Turkey undertook to grant reforms to the Armenians, and
+protect them from Kurds and Circassians, Russia further claimed
+1,410,000,000 roubles as war indemnity, but consented to take the
+Dobrudscha district (offered to Roumania, as stated above), and in Asia
+the territories of Batoum, Kars, Ardahan, and Bayazid, in lieu of
+1,100,000,000 roubles. The Porte afterwards declared that it signed this
+treaty under persistent pressure from the Grand Duke Nicholas and
+General Ignatieff, who again and again declared that otherwise the
+Russians would advance on the capital[162].
+
+[Footnote 162: For the text of the treaty see Parl. Papers, Turkey, No.
+22 (1878); also _The European Concert in the Eastern Question_ by T.E.
+Holland, pp. 335-348.]
+
+At once, from all parts of the Balkan Peninsula, there arose a chorus of
+protests against the Treaty of San Stefano. The Mohammedans of the
+proposed State of Bulgaria protested against subjection to their former
+helots. The Greeks saw in the treaty the death-blow to their hopes of
+gaining the northern coasts of the Aegean and a large part of Central
+Macedonia. They fulminated against the Bulgarians as ignorant peasants,
+whose cause had been taken up recently by Russia for her own
+aggrandisement[163]. The Servians were equally indignant. They claimed,
+and with justice, that their efforts against the Turks should be
+rewarded by an increase of territory which would unite to them their
+kinsfolk in Macedonia and part of Bosnia, and place them on an equality
+with the upstart State of Bulgaria. Whereas the treaty assigned to these
+protégés of Russia districts inhabited solely by Servians, thereby
+barring the way to any extension of that Principality.
+
+[Footnote 163: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 31 (1878), Nos. 6-17, and
+enclosures; _L'Hellénisme et la Macédonie_, by N. Kasasis (Paris, 1904);
+L. Sergeant, _op. cit._ ch. xii.]
+
+Still more urgent was the protest of the Roumanian Government. In return
+for the priceless services rendered by his troops at Plevna, Prince
+Charles and his Ministers were kept in the dark as to the terms arranged
+between Russia and Turkey. The Czar sent General Ignatieff to prepare
+the Prince for the news, and sought to mollify him by the hint that he
+might become also Prince of Bulgaria--a suggestion which was scornfully
+waved aside. The Government at Bukharest first learnt the full truth as
+to the Bessarabia-Dobrudscha exchange from the columns of the _Journal
+du St. Pétersbourg_, which proved that the much-prized Bessarabian
+territory was to be bargained away by the Power which had solemnly
+undertaken to uphold the integrity of the Principality. The Prince, the
+Cabinet, and the people unanimously inveighed against this proposal. On
+Feb. 4 the Roumanian Chamber of Deputies declared that Roumania would
+defend its territory to the last, by armed force if necessary; but it
+soon appeared that none of the Powers took any interest in the matter,
+and, thanks to the prudence of Prince Charles, the proud little nation
+gradually schooled itself to accept the inevitable[164].
+
+[Footnote 164: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 30 (1878); also _Reminiscences
+of the King of Roumania_, chs. x. xi.]
+
+The peace of Europe now turned on the question whether the Treaty of
+San Stefano would be submitted as a whole to the Congress of the Powers
+at Berlin; England claimed that it must be so submitted. This
+contention, in its extreme form, found no support from any of the
+Powers, not even from Austria, and it met with firm opposition from
+Russia. She, however, assured the Viennese Court that the Congress would
+decide which of the San Stefano terms affected the interests of Europe
+and would pronounce on them. The Beaconsfield Cabinet later on affirmed
+that "every article in the treaty between Russia and Turkey will be
+placed before the Congress--not necessarily for acceptance, but in order
+that it may be considered what articles require acceptance or
+concurrence by the several Powers and what do not[165]."
+
+[Footnote 165: Lord Derby to Sir H. Elliot, March 13, 1878. Turkey, No.
+xxiv. (1878), No 9, p. 5.]
+
+When this much was conceded, there remained no irreconcilable
+difference, unless the treaty contained secret articles which Russia
+claimed to keep back from the Congress. As far as we know, there were
+none. But the fact is that the dispute, small as it now appears to us,
+was intensified by the suspicions and resentment prevalent on both
+sides. The final decision of the St. Petersburg Government was couched
+in somewhat curt and threatening terms: "It leaves to the other Powers
+the liberty of raising such questions at the Congress as they may think
+it fit to discuss, and reserves to itself the liberty of accepting, or
+not accepting, the discussion of these questions[166]."
+
+[Footnote 166: _Ibid_. No. 15, p. 7.]
+
+This haughty reply, received at Downing Street on March 27, again
+brought the two States to the verge of war. Lord Beaconsfield, and all
+his colleagues but one, determined to make immediate preparations for
+the outbreak of hostilities; while Lord Derby, clinging to the belief
+that peace would best be preserved by ordinary negotiations, resigned
+the portfolio for foreign affairs (March 28); two days later he was
+succeeded by the Marquis of Salisbury[167]. On April 1 the Prime
+Minister gave notice of motion that the reserves of the army and militia
+should be called out; and on the morrow Lord Salisbury published a note
+for despatch to foreign courts summarising the grounds of British
+opposition to the Treaty of San Stefano, and to Russia's contentions
+respecting the Congress.
+
+[Footnote 167: See p. 243 for Lord Derby's further reason for
+resigning.]
+
+Events took a still more threatening turn fifteen days later, when the
+Government ordered eight Indian regiments, along with two batteries of
+artillery, to proceed at once to Malta. The measure aroused strong
+differences of opinion, some seeing in it a masterly stroke which
+revealed the greatness of Britain's resources, while the more nervous of
+the Liberal watch-dogs bayed forth their fears that it was the beginning
+of a Strafford-like plot for undermining the liberties of England.
+
+So sharp were the differences of opinion in England, that Russia would
+perhaps have disregarded the threats of the Beaconsfield Ministry had
+she not been face to face with a hostile Austria. The great aim of the
+Czar's government was to win over the Dual Monarchy by offering a share
+of the spoils of Turkey. Accordingly, General Ignatieff went on a
+mission to the continental courts, especially to that of Vienna, and
+there is little doubt that he offered Bosnia to the Hapsburg Power. That
+was the least which Francis Joseph and Count Andrassy had the right to
+expect, for the secret compact made before the war promised them as
+much. In view of the enormous strides contemplated by Russia, they now
+asked for certain rights in connection with Servia and Montenegro, and
+commercial privileges that would open a way to Salonica[168]. But
+Russia's aims, as expressed at San Stefano, clearly were to dominate the
+Greater Bulgaria there foreshadowed, which would probably shut out
+Austria from political and commercial influence over the regions north
+of Salonica. Ignatieff's effort to gain over Austria therefore failed;
+and it was doubtless Lord Beaconsfield's confidence in the certainty of
+Hapsburg support in case of war that prompted his defiance alike of
+Russia and of the Liberal party at home.
+
+[Footnote 168: Débidour, _Hist. diplomatique de l'Europe_, vol. ii. p.
+515.]
+
+The Czar's Government also was well aware of the peril of arousing a
+European war. Nihilism lifted its head threateningly at home; and the
+Russian troops before Constantinople were dying like flies in autumn.
+The outrages committed by them and the Bulgarians on the Moslems of
+Roumelia had, as we have seen, led to a revolt in the district of Mount
+Rhodope; and there was talk in some quarters of making a desperate
+effort to cut off the invaders from the Danube[169]. The discontent of
+the Roumanians might have been worked upon so as still further to
+endanger the Russian communications. Probably the knowledge of these
+plans and of the warlike preparations of Great Britain induced the
+Russian Government to moderate its tone. On April 9 it expressed a wish
+that Lord Salisbury would formulate a definite policy.
+
+[Footnote 169: For these outrages, see Parl. Papers, Turkey (1878), Nos.
+42 and 45, with numerous enclosures. The larger plans of the Rhodope
+insurgents and their abettors at Constantinople are not fully known. An
+Englishman, Sinclair, and some other free-lances were concerned in the
+affair. The Rhodope district long retained a kind of independence, see
+_Les Événements politiques en Bulgarie_, by A.G. Drandar, Appendix.]
+
+The new Foreign Minister speedily availed himself of this offer; and the
+cause of peace was greatly furthered by secret negotiations which he
+carried on with Count Shuvaloff. The Russian ambassador in London had
+throughout bent his great abilities to a pacific solution of the
+dispute, and, on finding out the real nature of the British objections
+to the San Stefano Treaty, he proceeded to St. Petersburg to persuade
+the Emperor to accept certain changes. In this he succeeded, and on his
+return to London was able to come to an agreement with Lord Salisbury
+(May 30), the chief terms of which clearly foreshadowed those finally
+adopted at Berlin.
+
+In effect they were as follows: The Beaconsfield Cabinet strongly
+objected to the proposed wide extension of Bulgaria at the expense of
+other nationalities, and suggested that the districts south of the
+Balkans, which were peopled almost wholly by Bulgarians, should not be
+wholly withdrawn from Turkish control, but "should receive a large
+measure of administrative self-government . . . with a Christian
+governor." To these proposals the Russian Government gave a conditional
+assent. Lord Salisbury further claimed that the Sultan should have the
+right "to canton troops on the frontiers of southern Bulgaria"; and that
+the militia of that province should be commanded by officers appointed
+by the Sultan with the consent of Europe. England also undertook to see
+that the cause of the Greeks in Thessaly and Epirus received the
+attention of all the Powers, in place of the intervention of Russia
+alone on their behalf, as specified in the San Stefano Treaty.
+
+Respecting the cession of Roumanian Bessarabia to Russia, on which the
+Emperor Alexander had throughout insisted (see page 205), England
+expressed "profound regret" at that demand, but undertook not to dispute
+it at the Congress. On his side the Emperor Alexander consented to
+restore Bayazid in Asia Minor to the Turks, but insisted on the
+retention of Batoum, Kars, and Ardahan. Great Britain acceded to this,
+but hinted that the defence of Turkey in Asia would thenceforth rest
+especially upon her--a hint to prepare Russia for the Cyprus Convention.
+
+For at this same time the Beaconsfield Cabinet had been treating
+secretly with the Sublime Porte. When Lord Salisbury found out that
+Russia would not abate her demands for Batoum, Ardahan, and Kars, he
+sought to safeguard British interests in the Levant by acquiring
+complete control over the island of Cyprus. His final instructions to
+Mr. Layard to that effect were telegraphed on May 30, that is, on the
+very day on which peace with Russia was practically assured[170]. The
+Porte, unaware of the fact that there was little fear of the renewal of
+hostilities, agreed to the secret Cyprus Convention on June 4; while
+Russia, knowing little or nothing as to Britain's arrangement with the
+Porte, acceded to the final arrangements for the discussion of Turkish
+affairs at Berlin. It is not surprising that this manner of doing
+business aroused great irritation both at St. Petersburg and
+Constantinople. Count Shuvaloff's behaviour at the Berlin Congress when
+the news came out proclaimed to the world that he considered himself
+tricked by Lord Beaconsfield; while that statesman disdainfully sipped
+nectar of delight that rarely comes to the lips even of the gods of
+diplomacy.
+
+[Footnote 170: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 36 (1878). See, too, _ibid_.
+No. 43.]
+
+The terms of the Cyprus Convention were to the effect that, if Russia
+retained the three districts in Asia Minor named above, or any of them
+(as it was perfectly certain that she would); or if she sought to take
+possession of any further Turkish territory in Asia Minor, Great Britain
+would help the Sultan by force of arms. He, on his side assigned to
+Great Britain the island of Cyprus, to be occupied and administered by
+her. He further promised "to introduce necessary reforms, to be agreed
+upon later between the two Powers, into the government, and for the
+protection of the Christian and other subjects of the Porte in these
+territories." On July I Britain also covenanted to pay to the Porte the
+surplus of revenue over expenditure in Cyprus, calculated upon the
+average of the last five years, and to restore Cyprus to Turkey if
+Russia gave up Kars and her other acquisitions[171].
+
+[Footnote 171: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 36 (1878); Hertslet, vol. iv.
+pp. 2722-2725; Holland, _op. cit._, pp. 354-356.]
+
+Fortified by the secret understanding with Russia, and by the equally
+secret compact with Turkey, the British Government could enter the
+Congress of the Powers at Berlin with complete equanimity. It is true
+that news as to the agreement with Russia came out in a London newspaper
+which at once published a general description of the Anglo-Russian
+agreement of May 30; and when the correctness of the news was stoutly
+denied by Ministers, the original deed was given to the world by the
+same newspaper on June 14; but again vigorous disclaimers and denials
+were given from the ministerial bench in Parliament[172]. Thus, when
+Lords Beaconsfield and Salisbury proceeded to Berlin for the opening of
+the Congress (June 13), they were believed to hold the destinies of the
+British Empire in their hands, and the world waited with bated breath
+for the scraps of news that came from that centre of diplomacy.
+
+[Footnote 172: Mr. Charles Marvin, a clerk in the Foreign Office, was
+charged with this offence, but the prosecution failed (July 16) owing to
+lack of sufficient evidence.]
+
+On various details there arose sharp differences which the tactful
+humour of the German Chancellor could scarcely set at rest. The fate of
+nations seemed to waver in the balance when Prince Gortchakoff gathered
+up his maps and threatened to hurry from the room, or when Lord
+Beaconsfield gave pressing orders for a special train to take him back
+to Calais; but there seemed good grounds for regarding these incidents
+rather as illustrative of character, or of the electioneering needs of a
+sensational age, than as throes in the birth of nationalities. The
+"Peace with honour," which the Prime Minister on his return announced at
+Charing Cross to an admiring crowd, had virtually been secured at
+Downing Street before the end of May respecting all the great points in
+dispute between England and Russia.
+
+We know little about the inner history of the Congress of Berlin, which
+is very different from the official Protocols that half reveal and half
+conceal its debates. One fact and one incident claim attention as
+serving to throw curious sidelights on policy and character
+respectively. The Emperor William had been shot at and severely wounded
+by a socialist fanatic, Dr. Nobiling, on June 2, 1878, and during the
+whole time of the Congress the Crown Prince Frederick acted as regent of
+the Empire. Limited as his powers were by law, etiquette, and Bismarck,
+he is said to have used them on behalf of Austria and England. The old
+Emperor thought so; for in a moment of confiding indiscretion he hinted
+to the Princess Radziwill (a Russian by birth) that Russian interests
+would have fared better at Berlin had he then been steering the ship of
+State[173]. Possibly this explains why Bismarck always maintained that
+he had done what he could for his Eastern neighbour, and that he really
+deserved a Russian decoration for his services during the Congress.
+
+[Footnote 173: Princess Radziwill, _My Recollections_ (Eng. ed. 1900),
+p. 91.]
+
+The incident, which flashes a search-light into character and discloses
+the _recherché_ joys of statecraft, is also described in the sprightly
+Memoirs of Princess Radziwill. She was present at a brilliant reception
+held on the evening of the day when the Cyprus Convention had come to
+light. Diplomatists and generals were buzzing eagerly and angrily when
+the Earl of Beaconsfield appeared. A slight hush came over the wasp-like
+clusters as he made his way among them, noting everything with his
+restless, inscrutable eyes. At last he came near the Princess, once a
+bitter enemy, but now captivated and captured by his powers of polite
+irony. "What are you thinking of," she asked. "I am not thinking at
+all," he replied, "I am enjoying myself[174]." After that one can
+understand why Jew-baiting became a favourite sport in Russia throughout
+the next two decades.
+
+[Footnote 174: _Ibid_. p. 149.]
+
+We turn now to note the terms of the Treaty of Berlin (July 13,
+1878)[175]. The importance of this compact will be seen if its
+provisions are compared with those of the Treaty of San Stefano, which
+it replaced. Instead of the greater Bulgaria subjected for two years to
+Russian control, the Congress ordained that Bulgaria proper should not
+extend beyond the main chain of the Balkans, thus reducing its extent
+from 163,000 square kilometres to 64,000, and its population from four
+millions to a million and a half. The period of military occupation and
+supervision of the new administration by Russia was reduced to nine
+months. At the end of that time, and on the completion of the "organic
+law," a Prince was to be elected "freely" by the population of the
+Principality. The new State remained under the suzerainty of Turkey, the
+Sultan confirming the election of the new Prince of Bulgaria, "with the
+assent of the Powers."
+
+[Footnote 175: For the Protocols, see Parl. Papers, Turkey (1878), No.
+39. For the Treaty see _ibid_. No. 44; also _The European Concert in the
+Eastern Question_, by T.E. Holland, pp. 277-307.]
+
+Another important departure from the San Stefano terms was the creation
+of the Province of Eastern Roumelia, with boundaries shown in the
+accompanying map. While having a Christian governor, and enjoying the
+rights of local self-government, it was to remain under "the direct
+political and military authority of the Sultan, under conditions of
+administrative autonomy." The Sultan retained the right of keeping
+garrisons there, though a local militia was to preserve internal order.
+As will be shown in the next chapter, this anomalous state of things
+passed away in 1885, when the province threw off Turkish control and
+joined Bulgaria.
+
+The other Christian States of the Balkans underwent changes of the
+highest importance. Montenegro lost half of her expected gains, but
+secured access to the sea at Antivari. The acquisitions of Servia were
+now effected at the expense of Bulgaria. These decisions were greatly in
+favour of Austria. To that Power the occupation of Bosnia and
+Herzegovina was now entrusted for an indefinite period in the interest
+of the peace of Europe, and she proceeded forthwith to drive a wedge
+between the Serbs of Servia and Montenegro. It is needless to say that,
+in spite of the armed opposition of the Mohammedan people of those
+provinces--which led to severe fighting in July to September of that
+year--Austria's occupation has been permanent, though nominally they
+still form part of the Turkish Empire.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THE TREATIES OF BERLIN AND SAN STEFANO.]
+
+Roumania and Servia gained complete independence and ceased to pay
+tribute to the Sultan, but both States complained of the lack of support
+accorded to them by Russia, considering the magnitude of their efforts
+for the Slavonic cause. Roumania certainly fared very badly at the hands
+of the Power for which it had done yeoman service in the war. The
+pride of the Roumanian people brooked no thought of accepting the
+Dobrudscha, a district in great part marshy and thinly populated, as an
+exchange for a fertile district peopled by their kith and kin. They let
+the world know that Russia appropriated their Bessarabian district by
+force, and that they accepted the Dobrudscha as a war indemnity. By dint
+of pressure exerted at the Congress their envoys secured a southern
+extension of its borders at the expense of Bulgaria, a proceeding which
+aroused the resentment of Russia.
+
+The conduct of the Czar's Government in this whole matter was most
+impolitic. It embittered the relations between the two States and drove
+the Government of Prince Charles to rely on Austria and the Triple
+Alliance. That is to say, Russia herself closed the door which had been
+so readily opened for her into the heart of the Sultan's dominions in
+1828, 1854, and 1877[176]. We may here remark that, on the motion of the
+French plenipotentiaries at the Congress, that body insisted that Jews
+must be admitted to the franchise in Roumania. This behest of the Powers
+aroused violent opposition in that State, but was finally, though by no
+means fully, carried out.
+
+[Footnote 176: Frederick, Crown Prince of Germany, expressed the general
+opinion in a letter written to Prince Charles after the Berlin Congress:
+"Russia's conduct, after the manful service you did for that colossal
+Empire, meets with censure on all sides." (_Reminiscences of the King of
+Roumania_, p. 325).]
+
+Another Christian State of the Peninsula received scant consideration at
+the Congress. Greece, as we have seen, had recalled her troops from
+Thessaly on the understanding that her claims should be duly considered
+at the general peace. She now pressed those claims; but, apart from
+initial encouragement given by Lord Salisbury, she received little or no
+support. On the motion of the French plenipotentiary, M. Waddington, her
+desire to control the northern shores of the Aegean and the island of
+Crete was speedily set aside; but he sought to win for her practically
+the whole of Thessaly and Epirus. This, however, was firmly opposed by
+Lord Beaconsfield, who objected to the cession to her of the southern
+and purely Greek districts of Thessaly and Epirus. He protested against
+the notion that the plenipotentiaries had come to Berlin in order to
+partition "a worn-out State" (Turkey). They were there to "strengthen an
+ancient Empire--essential to the maintenance of peace."
+
+"As for Greece," he said, "States, like individuals, which have a future
+are in a position to be able to wait." True, he ended by expressing "the
+hope and even the conviction" that the Sultan would accept an equitable
+solution of the question of the Thessalian frontier; but the Congress
+acted on the other sage dictum and proceeded to subject the Hellenes to
+the educative influences of hope deferred. Protocol 13 had recorded the
+opinion of the Powers that the northern frontier of Greece should follow
+the courses of the Rivers Salammaria and Kalamas; but they finally
+decided to offer their mediation to the disputants only in case no
+agreement could be framed. The Sublime Porte, as we shall see, improved
+on the procrastinating methods of the Nestors of European
+diplomacy[177].
+
+[Footnote 177: See Mr. L. Sergeant's _Greece in the Nineteenth Century_
+(1897), ch. xii., for the speeches of the Greek envoys at the Congress;
+also that of Sir Charles Dilke in the House of Commons in the debate of
+July 29-August 2, 1878, as to England's desertion of the Greek cause
+after the ninth session (June 29) of the Berlin Congress.]
+
+As regards matters that directly concerned Turkey and Russia, we may
+note that the latter finally agreed to forego the acquisition of the
+Bayazid district and the lands adjoining the caravan route from the
+Shah's dominions to Erzeroum. The Czar's Government also promised that
+Batoum should be a free port, and left unchanged the regulations
+respecting the navigation of the Dardanelles and Bosporus. By a
+subsequent treaty with Turkey of February 1879 the Porte agreed to pay
+to Russia a war indemnity of about £32,000,000.
+
+More important from our standpoint are the clauses relating to the good
+government of the Christians of Turkey. By article 61 of the Treaty of
+Berlin the Porte bound itself to carry out "the improvements and
+reforms demanded by local requirements in the provinces inhabited by the
+Armenians, and to guarantee their security against the Circassians and
+Kurds." It even added the promise "periodically" to "make known the
+steps taken to this effect to the Powers who will superintend their
+application." In the next article Turkey promised to "maintain" the
+principle of religious liberty and to give it the widest application.
+Differences of religion were to be no bar to employment in any public
+capacity, and all persons were to "be admitted, without distinction of
+religion, to give evidence before the tribunals."
+
+Such was the Treaty of Berlin (July 13, 1878). Viewed in its broad
+outlines, it aimed at piecing together again the Turkish districts which
+had been severed at San Stefano; the Bulgars and Serbs who there gained
+the hope of effecting a real union of those races were now sundered once
+more, the former in three divisions; while the Serbs of Servia, Bosnia,
+and Montenegro were wedged apart by the intrusion of the Hapsburg Power.
+Yet, imperfect though it was in several points, that treaty promised
+substantial gains for the Christians of Turkey. The collapse of the
+Sultan's power had been so complete, so notorious, that few persons
+believed he would ever dare to disregard the mandate of the Great Powers
+and his own solemn promises stated above. But no one could then foresee
+the exhibition of weakness and cynicism in the policy of those Powers
+towards Turkey, which disgraced the polity of Europe in the last decades
+of the century. The causes that brought about that state of mental
+torpor in the face of hideous massacres, and of moral weakness displayed
+by sovereigns and statesmen in the midst of their millions of armed men,
+will be to some extent set forth in the following chapters.
+
+As regards the welfare of the Christians in Asia Minor, the Treaty of
+Berlin assigned equal responsibilities to all the signatory Powers. But
+the British Government had already laid itself under a special charge on
+their behalf by the terms of the Cyprus Convention quoted above. Five
+days before that treaty was signed the world heard with a gasp of
+surprise that England had become practically mistress of Cyprus and
+assumed some measure of responsibility for the good government of the
+Christians of Asiatic Turkey. No limit of time was assigned for the
+duration of the Convention, and apparently it still holds good so far as
+relates to the material advantages accruing from the possession of
+that island.
+
+It is needless to say that the Cypriotes have benefited greatly by the
+British administration; the value of the imports and exports nearly
+doubled between 1878 and 1888. But this fact does not and cannot dispose
+of the larger questions opened up as to the methods of acquisition and
+of the moral responsibilities which it entailed. These at once aroused
+sharp differences of opinion. Admiration at the skill and daring which
+had gained for Britain a point of vantage in the Levant and set back
+Russia's prestige in that quarter was chequered by protests against the
+methods of secrecy, sensationalism, and self-seeking that latterly had
+characterised British diplomacy.
+
+One more surprise was still forthcoming. Lord Derby, speaking in the
+House of Lords on July 18, gave point to these protests by divulging a
+State secret of no small importance, namely, that one of the causes of
+his retirement at the end of March was a secret proposal of the Ministry
+to send an expedition from India to seize Cyprus and one of the Syrian
+ports with a view to operations against Russia, and that, too, with _or
+without_ the consent of the Sultan. Whether the Cabinet arrived at
+anything like a decision in this question is very doubtful. Lord
+Salisbury stoutly denied the correctness of his predecessor's statement.
+The papers of Sir Stafford Northcote also show that the scheme at that
+time came up for discussion, but was "laid aside[178]." Lord Derby,
+however, stated that he had kept private notes of the discussion; and it
+is improbable that he would have resigned on a question that was merely
+mooted and entirely dismissed. The mystery in which the deliberations
+of the Cabinet are involved, and very rightly involved, broods over this
+as over so many topics in which Lord Beaconsfield was concerned.
+
+[Footnote 178: _Sir Stafford Northcote_, vol. ii. p. 108.]
+
+On another and far weightier point no difference of opinion is possible.
+Viewed by the light of the Cyprus Convention, Britain's responsibility
+for assuring a minimum of good government for the Christians of Asiatic
+Turkey is undeniable. Unfortunately it admits of no denial that the
+duties which that responsibility involves have not been discharged. The
+story of the misgovernment and massacre of the Armenian Christians is
+one that will ever redound to the disgrace of all the signatories of the
+Treaty of Berlin; it is doubly disgraceful to the Power which framed the
+Cyprus Convention.
+
+A praiseworthy effort was made by the Beaconsfield Government to
+strengthen British influence and the cause of reform by sending a
+considerable number of well-educated men as Consuls to Asia Minor, under
+the supervision of the Consul-General, Sir Charles Wilson. In the first
+two years they effected much good, securing the dismissal of several of
+the worst Turkish officials, and implanting hope in the oppressed Greeks
+and Armenians. Had they been well supported from London, they might have
+wrought a permanent change. Such, at least, is the belief of Professor
+Ramsay after several years' experience in Asia Minor.
+
+Unfortunately, the Gladstone Government, which came into power in the
+spring of 1880, desired to limit its responsibilities on all sides,
+especially in the Levant. The British Consuls ceased to be supported,
+and after the arrival of Mr. (now Lord) Goschen at Constantinople in May
+1880, as Ambassador Extraordinary, British influence began to suffer a
+decline everywhere through Turkey, partly owing to the events soon to be
+described. The outbreak of war in Egypt in 1882 was made a pretext by
+the British Government for the transference of the Consuls to Egypt; and
+thereafter matters in Asia Minor slid back into the old ruts. The
+progress of the Greeks and Armenians, the traders of that land, suffered
+a check; and the remarkable Moslem revival which the Sultan inaugurated
+in that year (the year 1300 of the Mohammedan calendar) gradually led up
+to the troubles and massacres which culminated in the years 1896 and
+1897. We may finally note that when the Gladstone Ministry left the
+field open in Asia Minor, the German Government promptly took
+possession; and since 1883 the influence of Berlin has more and more
+penetrated into the Sultan's lands in Europe and Asia[179].
+
+[Footnote 179: See _Impressions of Turkey_, by Professor W.M. Ramsay
+(1897), chap. vi.]
+
+The collapse of British influence at Constantinople was hastened on by
+the efforts made by the Cabinet of London, after Mr. Gladstone's
+accession to office, on behalf of Greece. It soon appeared that Abdul
+Hamid and his Ministers would pay no heed to the recommendations of the
+Great Powers on this head, for on July 20, 1878, they informed Sir Henry
+Layard of their "final" decision that no Thessalian districts would be
+given up to Greece. Owing to pressure exerted by the Dufaure-Waddington
+Ministry in France, the Powers decided that a European Commission should
+be appointed to consider the whole question. To this the Beaconsfield
+Government gave a not very willing assent.
+
+The Porte bettered the example. It took care to name as the first place
+of meeting of the Commissioners a village to the north of the Gulf of
+Arta which was not discoverable on any map. When at last this mistake
+was rectified, and the Greek envoys on two occasions sought to steam
+into the gulf, they were fired on from the Turkish forts. After these
+amenities, the Commission finally met at Prevesa, only to have its
+report shelved by the Porte (January-March 1879). Next, in answer to a
+French demand for European intervention, the Turks opposed various
+devices taken from the inexhaustible stock of oriental subterfuges. So
+the time wore on until, in the spring of 1880, the fall of the
+Beaconsfield Ministry brought about a new political situation.
+
+The new Prime Minister, Mr. Gladstone, was known as the statesman who
+had given the Ionian Isles to Greece, and who advocated the expulsion
+of the Turks, "bag and baggage," from Europe. At once the despatches
+from Downing Street took on a different complexion, and the substitution
+of Mr. Goschen for Sir Henry Layard at Constantinople enabled the Porte
+to hear the voice of the British people, undimmed by official checks. A
+Conference of the Powers met at Berlin to discuss the carrying out of
+their recommendations on the Greek Question, and of the terms of the
+late treaty respecting Montenegro.
+
+On this latter affair the Powers finally found it needful to make a
+joint naval demonstration against the troops of the Albanian League who
+sought to prevent the handing over of the seaport of Dulcigno to
+Montenegro, as prescribed by the Treaty of Berlin. But, as happened
+during the Concert of the Powers in the spring of 1876, a single
+discordant note sufficed to impair the effect of the collective voice.
+Then it was England which refused to employ any coercive measures; now
+it was Austria and Germany, and finally (after the resignation of the
+Waddington Ministry) France. When the Sultan heard of this discord in
+the European Concert, his Moslem scruples resumed their wonted sway, and
+the Albanians persisted in defying Europe.
+
+The warships of the Powers might have continued to threaten the Albanian
+coast with unshotted cannon to this day, had not the Gladstone Cabinet
+proposed drastic means for bringing the Sultan to reason. The plan was
+that the united fleet should steam straightway to Smyrna and land
+marines for the sequestration of the customs' dues of that important
+trading centre. Here again the Powers were not of one mind. The three
+dissentients again hung back; but they so far concealed their refusal,
+or reluctance, as to leave on Abdul Hamid's mind the impression that a
+united Christendom was about to seize Smyrna[180]. This was enough. He
+could now (October 10, 1880) bow his head resignedly before superior
+force without sinning against the Moslem's unwritten but inviolable
+creed of never giving way before Christians save under absolute
+necessity. At once he ordered his troops to carry out the behests of the
+Powers; and after some fighting, Dervish Pasha drove the Albanians out
+of Dulcigno, and surrendered it to the Montenegrins (Nov.-Dec. 1880).
+Such is the official account; but, seeing that the Porte knows how to
+turn to account the fanaticism and turbulence of the Albanians[181], it
+may be that their resistance all along was but a device of that
+resourceful Government to thwart the will of Europe.
+
+[Footnote 180: _Life of Gladstone_, by J. Morley, vol. iii. p. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 181: See _Turkey in Europe_, by "Odysseus," p. 434.]
+
+The same threat as to the seizure of the Turkish customs-house at Smyrna
+sufficed to help on the solution of the Greek Question. The delays and
+insults of the Turks had driven the Greeks to desperation, and only the
+urgent remonstrances of the Powers availed to hold back the Cabinet of
+Athens from a declaration of war. This danger by degrees passed away;
+but, as usually happens where passions are excited on both sides, every
+compromise pressed on the litigants by the arbiters presented great
+difficulty. The Congress of Berlin had recommended the extension of
+Greek rule over the purely Hellenic districts of Thessaly, assigning as
+the new boundaries the course of the Rivers Salammaria and Kalamas, the
+latter of which flows into the sea opposite the Island of Corfu.
+
+Another Conference of the Powers (it was the third) met to decide the
+details of that proposal; but owing to the change of Government in
+France, along with other causes, the whole question proved to be very
+intricate. In the end, the Powers induced the Sultan to sign the
+Convention of May 24, 1881, whereby the course of the River Arta was
+substituted for that of the Kalamas.
+
+As a set-off to this proposal, which involved the loss of Jannina and
+Prevesa for Greece, they awarded to the Hellenes some districts north of
+the Salammaria which helped partially to screen the town of Larissa from
+the danger of Turkish inroads[182]. To this arrangement Moslems and
+Christians sullenly assented. On the whole the Greeks gained 13,200
+square kilometres in territory and about 150,000 inhabitants, but their
+failure to gain several Hellenic districts of Epirus rankled deep in the
+popular consciousness and prepared the way for the events of 1885
+and 1897.
+
+[Footnote 182: _The European Concert in the Eastern Question_, by T.E.
+Holland, pp. 60-69.]
+
+These later developments can receive here only the briefest reference.
+In the former year, when the two Bulgarias framed their union, the
+Greeks threatened Turkey with war, but were speedily brought to another
+frame of mind by a "pacific" blockade by the Powers. Embittered by this
+treatment, the Hellenes sought to push on their cause in Macedonia and
+Crete through a powerful Society, the "Ethnike Hetairia." The chronic
+discontent of the Cretans at Turkish misrule and the outrages of the
+Moslem troops led to grave complications in 1897. At the beginning of
+that year the Powers intervened with a proposal for the appointment of a
+foreign gendarmerie (January 1897). In order to defeat this plan the
+Sultan stirred up Moslem fanaticism in the island, until the resulting
+atrocities brought Greece into the field both in Thessaly and Crete.
+During the ensuing strifes in Crete the Powers demeaned themselves by
+siding against the Christian insurgents, and some Greek troops sent from
+Athens to their aid. Few events in our age have caused a more painful
+sensation than the bombardment of Cretan villages by British and French
+warships. The Powers also proclaimed a "pacific" blockade of Crete
+(March-May 1897). The inner reasons that prompted these actions are not
+fully known. It may safely be said that they will need far fuller
+justification than that which was given in the explanations of Ministers
+at Westminster.
+
+Meanwhile the passionate resentment felt by the Greeks had dragged the
+Government of King George into war with Turkey (April 18, 1897). The
+little kingdom was speedily overpowered by Turks and Albanians; and
+despite the recall of their troops from Crete, the Hellenes were unable
+to hold Phersala and other positions in the middle of Thessaly. The
+Powers, however, intervened on May 12, and proceeded to pare down the
+exorbitant terms of the Porte, allowing it to gain only small strips in
+the north of Thessaly, as a "strategic rectification" of the frontier.
+The Turkish demand of £T10,000,000 was reduced to T4,000,000
+(September 18).
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THESSALY.]
+
+This successful war against Greece raised the prestige of Turkey and
+added fuel to the flames of Mohammedan bigotry. These, as we have seen,
+had been assiduously fanned by Abdul Hamid II. ever since the year 1882,
+when a Pan-Islam movement began. The results of this revival were
+far-reaching, being felt even among the hill tribes on the Afghan-Punjab
+border (see Chapter XIV.). Throughout the Ottoman Empire the Mohammedans
+began to assert their superiority over Christians; and, as Professor
+Ramsay has observed, "the means whereby Turkish power is restored is
+always the same--massacre[183]."
+
+[Footnote 183: _Impressions of Turkey_, by W.M. Ramsay, p. 139.]
+
+It would be premature to inquire which of the European Powers must be
+held chiefly responsible for the toleration of the hideous massacres of
+the Armenians in 1896-97, and the atrocious misgovernment of Macedonia,
+by the Turks. All the Great Powers who signed the Berlin Treaty are
+guilty; and, as has been stated above, the State which framed the Cyprus
+Convention is doubly guilty, so far as concerns the events in Armenia. A
+grave share of responsibility also rests with those who succeeded in
+handing back a large part of Macedonia to the Turks. But the writer who
+in the future undertakes to tell the story of the decline of European
+morality at the close of the nineteenth century, and the growth of
+cynicism and selfishness, will probably pass still severer censures on
+the Emperors of Germany and Russia, who, with the unequalled influence
+which they wielded over the Porte, might have intervened with effect to
+screen their co-religionists from unutterable wrongs, and yet, as far as
+is known, raised not a finger on their behalf. The Treaty of Berlin,
+which might have inaugurated an era of good government throughout the
+whole of Turkey if the Powers had been true to their trust, will be
+cited as damning evidence in the account of the greatest betrayal of a
+trust which Modern History records.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTE.--For the efforts made by the British Government on behalf of the
+Armenians, the reader should consult the last chapter of Mr. James
+Bryce's book, _Transcaucasia and Mount Ararat_ (new edition, 1896).
+Further information may be expected in the _Life of Earl Granville_,
+soon to appear, from the pen of Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE MAKING OF BULGARIA
+
+     "If you can help to build up these peoples into a bulwark of
+     independent States and thus screen the 'sick man' from the
+     fury of the northern blast, for God's sake do it."--SIR R.
+     MORIER to SIR W. WHITE, _December 27, 1885_.
+
+
+The failure which attended the forward Hellenic movement during the
+years 1896-97 stands in sharp relief with the fortunes of the
+Bulgarians. To the rise of this youngest, and not the least promising,
+of European States, we must devote a whole chapter; for during a decade
+the future of the Balkan Peninsula and the policy of the Great Powers
+turned very largely on the emancipation of this interesting race from
+the effective control of the Sultan and the Czar.
+
+The rise of this enigmatical people affords a striking example of the
+power of national feeling to uplift the downtrodden. Until the year
+1876, the very name Bulgarian was scarcely known except as a
+geographical term. Kinglake, in his charming work, _Eothen_, does not
+mention the Bulgarians, though he travelled on horseback from Belgrade
+to Sofia and thence to Adrianople. And yet in 1828, the conquering march
+of the Russians to Adrianople had awakened that people to a passing
+thrill of national consciousness. Other travellers,--for instance,
+Cyprien Robert in the "thirties,"--noted their sturdy patience in toil,
+their slowness to act, but their great perseverance and will-power, when
+the resolve was formed.
+
+These qualities may perhaps be ascribed to their Tatar (Tartar) origin.
+Ethnically, they are closely akin to the Magyars and Turks, but, having
+been long settled on the banks of the Volga (hence their name, Bulgarian
+= Volgarian), they adopted the speech and religion of the Slavs. They
+have lived this new life for about a thousand years[184]; and in this
+time have been completely changed. Though their flat lips and noses
+bespeak an Asiatic origin, they are practically Slavs, save that their
+temperament is less nervous, and their persistence greater than that of
+their co-religionists[185]. Their determined adhesion to Slav ideals and
+rejection of Turkish ways should serve as a reminder to anthropologists
+that peoples are not mainly to be judged and divided off by
+craniological peculiarities. Measurement of skulls may tell us something
+concerning the basal characteristics of tribes: it leaves untouched the
+boundless fund of beliefs, thoughts, aspirations, and customs which
+mould the lives of nations. The peoples of to-day are what their creeds,
+customs, and hopes have made them; as regards their political life, they
+have little more likeness to their tribal forefathers than the average
+man has to the chimpanzee.
+
+[Footnote 184: _The Peasant State: Bulgaria in 1894_, by E. Dicey, C.B.
+(1904), p. 11.]
+
+[Footnote 185: _Turkey in Europe_, by "Odysseus," pp. 28, 356, 367.]
+
+The first outstanding event in the recent rise of the Bulgarian race was
+the acquisition of spiritual independence in 1869-70. Hitherto they, in
+common with nearly all the Slavs, had belonged to the Greek Church, and
+had recognised the supremacy of its Patriarch at Constantinople, but, as
+the national idea progressed, the Bulgarians sought to have their own
+Church. It was in vain that the Greeks protested against this schismatic
+attempt. The Western Powers and Russia favoured it; the Porte also was
+not loth to see the Christians further divided. Early in the year 1870,
+the Bulgarian Church came into existence, with an Exarch of its own at
+Constantinople who has survived the numerous attempts of the Greeks to
+ban him as a schismatic from the "Universal Church." The Bulgarians
+therefore took rank with the other peoples of the Peninsula as a
+religious entity., the Roumanian and Servian Churches having been
+constituted early in the century. In fact, the Porte recognises the
+Bulgarians, even in Macedonia, as an independent religious community, a
+right which it does not accord to the Servians; the latter, in
+Macedonia, are counted only as "Greeks[186]."
+
+[Footnote 186: _Turkey in Europe_, by "Odysseus," pp. 280-283, 297; _The
+Peasant State_, by E. Dicey, pp. 75-77.]
+
+The Treaty of San Stefano promised to make the Bulgarians the
+predominant race of the Balkan Peninsula for the benefit of Russia; but,
+as we have seen, the efforts of Great Britain and Austria, backed by the
+jealousies of Greeks and Servians, led to a radical change in those
+arrangements. The Treaty of Berlin divided that people into three
+unequal parts. The larger mass, dwelling in Bulgaria Proper, gained
+entire independence of the Sultan, save in the matter of suzerainty; the
+Bulgarians on the southern slopes of the Balkans acquired autonomy only
+in local affairs, and remained under the control of the Porte in
+military affairs and in matters of high policy; while the Bulgarians who
+dwelt in Macedonia, about 1,120,000 in number, were led to hope
+something from articles 61 and 62 of the Treaty of Berlin, but remained
+otherwise at the mercy of the Sultan[187].
+
+[Footnote 187: Récius, Kiepert, Ritter, and other geographers and
+ethnologists, admit that the majority in Macedonia is Bulgarian.]
+
+This unsatisfactory state of things promised to range the Principality
+of Bulgaria entirely on the side of Russia, and at the outset the hope
+of all Bulgarians was for a close friendship with the great Power that
+had effected their liberation. These sentiments, however, speedily
+cooled. The officers appointed by the Czar to organise the Principality
+carried out their task in a high-handed way that soon irritated the
+newly enfranchised people. Gratitude is a feeling that soon vanishes,
+especially in political life. There, far more than in private life, it
+is a great mistake for the party that has conferred a boon to remind
+the recipient of what he owes, especially if that recipient be young and
+aspiring. Yet that was the mistake committed everywhere throughout
+Bulgaria. The army, the public service--everything--was modelled on
+Russian lines during the time of the occupation, until the overbearing
+ways of the officials succeeded in dulling the memory of the services
+rendered in the war. The fact of the liberation was forgotten amidst the
+irritation aroused by the constant reminders of it.
+
+The Russians succeeded in alienating even the young German prince who
+came, with the full favour of the Czar Alexander II., to take up the
+reins of Government. A scion of the House of Hesse Darmstadt by a
+morganatic marriage, Prince Alexander of Battenberg had been sounded by
+the Russian authorities, with a view to his acceptance of the Bulgarian
+crown. By the vote of the Bulgarian Chamber, it was offered to him on
+April 29, 1879. He accepted it, knowing full well that it would be a
+thorny honour for a youth of twenty-two years of age. His tall
+commanding frame, handsome features, ability and prowess as a soldier,
+and, above all, his winsome address, seemed to mark him out as a natural
+leader of men; and he received a warm welcome from the Bulgarians in the
+month of July.
+
+His difficulties began at once. The chief Russian administrator,
+Dondukoff Korsakoff, had thrust his countrymen into all the important
+and lucrative posts, thereby leaving out in the cold the many
+Bulgarians, who, after working hard for the liberation of their land,
+now saw it transferred from the slovenly overlordship of the Turk to the
+masterful grip of the Muscovite. The Principality heaved with
+discontent, and these feelings finally communicated themselves to the
+sympathetic nature of the Prince. But duty and policy alike forbade him
+casting off the Russian influence. No position could be more trying for
+a young man of chivalrous and ambitious nature, endowed with a strain of
+sensitiveness which he probably derived from his Polish mother. He early
+set forth his feelings in a private letter to Prince Charles of
+Roumania:--
+
+Devoted with my whole heart to the Czar Alexander, I am anxious to do
+nothing that can be called anti-Russian. Unfortunately the Russian
+officials have acted with the utmost want of tact; confusion prevails in
+every office, and peculation, thanks to Dondukoff's decrees, is all but
+sanctioned. I am daily confronted with the painful alternative of having
+to decide either to assent to the Russian demands or to be accused in
+Russia of ingratitude and of "injuring the most sacred feelings of the
+Bulgarians." My position is truly terrible.
+
+The friction with Russia increased with time. Early in the year 1880,
+Prince Alexander determined to go to St. Petersburg to appeal to the
+Czar in the hope of allaying the violence of the Panslavonic intriguers.
+Matters improved for a time, but only because the Prince accepted the
+guidance of the Czar. Thereafter he retained most of his pro-Russian
+Ministers, even though the second Legislative Assembly, elected in the
+spring of that year, was strongly Liberal and anti-Russian. In April
+1881 he acted on the advice of one of his Ministers, a Russian general
+named Ehrenroth, and carried matters with a high hand: he dissolved the
+Assembly, suspended the constitution, encouraged his officials to
+browbeat the voters, and thereby gained a docile Chamber, which carried
+out his behests by decreeing a Septennate, or autocratic rule for seven
+years. In order to prop up his miniature czardom, he now asked the new
+Emperor, Alexander III., to send him two Russian Generals. His request
+was granted in the persons of Generals Soboleff and Kaulbars, who became
+Ministers of the Interior and for War; a third, General Tioharoff, being
+also added as Minister of Justice.
+
+The triumph of Muscovite influence now seemed to be complete, until the
+trio just named usurped the functions of the Bulgarian Ministers and
+informed the Prince that they took their orders from the Czar, not from
+him. Chafing at these self-imposed Russian bonds, the Prince now leant
+more on the moderate Liberals, headed by Karaveloff; and on the
+Muscovites intriguing in the same quarter, and with the troops, with a
+view to his deposition, they met with a complete repulse. An able and
+vigorous young Bulgarian, Stambuloff, was now fast rising in importance
+among the more resolute nationalists. The son of an innkeeper of
+Tirnova, he was sent away to be educated at Odessa; there he early
+became imbued with Nihilist ideas, and on returning to the Danubian
+lands, framed many plots for the expulsion of the Turks from Bulgaria.
+His thick-set frame, his force of will, his eloquent, passionate speech,
+and, above all, his burning patriotism, soon brought him to the front as
+the leader of the national party; and he now strove with all his might
+to prevent his land falling to the position of a mere satrapy of the
+liberators. Better the puny autocracy of Prince Alexander than the very
+real despotism of the nominees of the Emperor Alexander III.
+
+The character of the new Czar will engage our attention in the following
+chapter; here we need only say that the more his narrow, hard, and
+overbearing nature asserted itself, the greater appeared the danger to
+the liberties of the Principality. At last, when the situation became
+unbearable, the Prince resolved to restore the Bulgarian constitution;
+and he took this momentous step, on September 18, 1883, without
+consulting the three Russian Ministers, who thereupon resigned[188].
+
+[Footnote 188: For the scenes which then occurred, see _Le Prince
+Alexandre de Battenberg en Bulgarie_, by A.G. Drandar, pp. 169 _et
+seq_.; also A. Koch, _Fürst Alexander von Bulgarien_, pp. 144-147.
+
+For the secret aims of Russia, see _Documents secrets de la Politique
+russe en Orient_, by R. Leonoff (Berlin, 1893), pp. 49-65. General
+Soboleff, _Der erste Fürst von Bulgarian_ (Leipzig, 1896), has given a
+highly coloured Russian account of all these incidents.]
+
+At once the Prince summoned Karaveloff, and said to him: "My dear
+Karaveloff--For the second time I swear to thee that I will be entirely
+submissive to the will of the people, and that I will govern in full
+accordance with the constitution of Tirnova. Let us forget what passed
+during the _coup d'état_ [of 1881], and work together for the
+prosperity of the country." He embraced him; and that embrace was the
+pledge of a close union of hearts between him and his people[189].
+
+[Footnote 189: See Laveleye's _The Balkan Peninsula_, pp. 259-262, for
+an account of Karaveloff.]
+
+The Czar forthwith showed his anger at this act of independence, and,
+counting it a sign of defiance, allowed or encouraged his agents in
+Bulgaria to undermine the power of the Prince, and procure his
+deposition. For two years they struggled in vain. An attempt by the
+Russian Generals Soboleff and Kaulbars to kidnap the Prince by night
+failed, owing to the loyalty of Lieutenant Martinoff, then on duty at
+his palace; the two ministerial plotters forthwith left Bulgaria[190].
+
+[Footnote 190: J.G.C. Minchin, _The Growth of Freedom in the Balkan
+Peninsula_ (1886) p. 237. The author, Consul-General for Servia in
+London, had earlier contributed many articles to the _Times_ and
+_Morning Advertiser_ on Balkan affairs.]
+
+Even now the scales did not fall from the eyes of the Emperor Alexander
+III. Bismarck was once questioned by the faithful Busch as to the
+character of that potentate. The German Boswell remarked that he had
+heard Alexander III. described as "stupid, exceedingly stupid";
+whereupon the Chancellor replied: "In a general way that is saying too
+much[191]." Leaving to posterity the task of deciding that question, we
+may here point out that Muscovite policy in the years 1878-85 achieved a
+truly remarkable feat in uniting all the liberated races of the Balkan
+Peninsula against their liberators. By the terms of the Treaty of San
+Stefano, Russia had alienated the Roumanians, Servians, and Greeks; so
+that when the Princes of those two Slav Principalities decided to take
+the kingly title (as they did in the spring of 1881 and 1882
+respectively), it was after visits to Berlin and Vienna, whereby they
+tacitly signified their friendliness to the Central Powers.
+
+[Footnote 191: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, by Dr. M.
+Busch (Note of January 5, 1886), vol. iii. p. 150 (English edition).]
+
+In the case of Servia this went to the length of alliance. On June 25,
+1881, the Foreign Minister, M. Mijatovich, concluded with
+Austria-Hungary a secret convention, whereby Servia agreed to
+discourage any movement among the Slavs of Bosnia, while the Dual
+Monarchy promised to refrain from any action detrimental to Servian
+hopes for what is known as old Servia. The agreement was for eight
+years; but it was not renewed in 1889[192]. The fact, however, that such
+a compact could be framed within three years of the Berlin Congress,
+shows how keen was the resentment of the Servian Government at the
+neglect of its interests by Russia, both there and at San Stefano.
+
+[Footnote 192: The treaty has not been published; for this general
+description of it I am indebted to the kindness of M. Mijatovich
+himself.]
+
+The gulf between Bulgaria and Russia widened more slowly, but with the
+striking sequel that will be seen. The Dondukoffs, Soboleffs, and
+Kaulbars first awakened and then estranged the formerly passive and
+docile race for whose aggrandisement Russia had incurred the resentment
+of the neighbouring peoples. Under Muscovite tutelage the "ignorant
+Bulgarian peasants" were developing a strong civic and political
+instinct. Further, the Czar's attacks, now on the Prince, and then on
+the popular party, served to bind these formerly discordant elements
+into an alliance. Stambuloff, the very embodiment of young Bulgaria in
+tenacity of purpose and love of freedom, was now the President of the
+Sobranje, or National Assembly, and he warmly supported Prince Alexander
+so long as he withstood Russian pretensions. At the outset the strifes
+at Sofia had resembled a triangular duel, and the Russian agents could
+readily have disposed of the third combatant had they sided either with
+the Prince or with the Liberals. By browbeating both they simplified the
+situation to the benefit both of the Prince and of the nascent liberties
+of Bulgaria.
+
+Alexander III. and his Chancellor, de Giers, had also tied their hands
+in Balkan affairs by a treaty which they framed with Austria and
+Germany, and signed and ratified at the meeting of the three Emperors at
+Skiernewice (September 1884--see Chapter XII.). The most important of
+its provisions from our present standpoint was that by which, in the
+event of two of the three Empires disagreeing on Balkan questions, the
+casting vote rested with the third Power. This gave to Bismarck the same
+role of arbiter which he had played at the Berlin Congress.
+
+But in the years 1885 and 1886, the Czar and his agents committed a
+series of blunders, by the side of which their earlier actions seemed
+statesmanlike. The welfare of the Bulgarian people demanded an early
+reversal of the policy decided on at the Congress of Berlin (1878),
+whereby the southern Bulgarians were divided from their northern
+brethren in order that the Sultan might have the right to hold the
+Balkan passes in time of war. That is to say, the Powers, especially
+Great Britain and Austria, set aside the claims of a strong racial
+instinct for purely military reasons. The breakdown of this artificial
+arrangement was confidently predicted at the time; and Russian agents at
+first took the lead in preparing for the future union. Skobeleff,
+Katkoff, and the Panslavonic societies of Russia encouraged the
+formation of "gymnastic societies" in Eastern Roumelia, and the youth of
+that province enrolled themselves with such ardour that by the year 1885
+more than 40,000 were trained to the use of arms. As for the protests of
+the Sultan and those of his delegates at Philippopolis, they were
+stilled by hints from St. Petersburg, or by demands for the prompt
+payment of Turkey's war debt to Russia. All the world knew that, thanks
+to Russian patronage, Eastern Roumelia had slipped entirely from the
+control of Abdul Hamid.
+
+By the summer of 1885, the unionist movement had acquired great
+strength. But now, at the critical time, when Russia should have led
+that movement, she let it drift, or even, we may say, cast off the
+tow-rope. Probably the Czar and his Ministers looked on the Bulgarians
+as too weak or too stupid to act for themselves. It was a complete
+miscalculation; for now Stambuloff and Karaveloff had made that aim
+their own, and brought to its accomplishment all the skill and zeal
+which they had learned in a long career of resistance to Turkish and
+Russian masters. There is reason to think that they and their
+coadjutors at Philippopolis pressed on events in the month of September
+1885, because the Czar was then known to disapprove any
+immediate action.
+
+In order to understand the reason for this strange reversal of Russia's
+policy, we must scrutinise events more closely. The secret workings of
+that policy have been laid bare in a series of State documents, the
+genuineness of which is not altogether established. They are said to
+have been betrayed to the Bulgarian patriots by a Russian agent, and
+they certainly bear signs of authenticity. If we accept them (and up to
+the present they have been accepted by well-informed men) the truth is
+as follows:--
+
+Russia would have worked hard for the union of Eastern Roumelia to
+Bulgaria, provided that the Prince abdicated and his people submitted
+completely to Russian control. Quite early in his reign Alexander III.
+discovered in them an independence which his masterful nature ill
+brooked. He therefore postponed that scheme until the Prince should
+abdicate or be driven out. As one of the Muscovite agents phrased it in
+the spring of 1881, the union must not be brought about until a Russian
+protectorate should be founded in the Principality; for if they made
+Bulgaria too strong, it would become "a second Roumania," that is, as
+"ungrateful" to Russia as Roumania had shown herself after the seizure
+of her Bessarabian lands. In fact, the Bulgarians could gain the wish of
+their hearts only on one condition--that of proclaiming the Emperor
+Alexander Grand Duke of the greater State of the future[193].
+
+[Footnote 193: _Documents secrets de la Politique russe en Orient,_ ed.
+by R. Leonoff (Berlin, 1893), pp. 8, 48. This work is named by M. Malet
+in his _Bibliographie_ on the Eastern Question on p. 448, vol. ix., of
+the _Histoire Générale of _MM. Lavisse and Rambaud. I have been assured
+of its genuineness by a gentleman well versed in the politics of the
+Balkan States.]
+
+The chief obstacles in the way of Russia's aggrandisement were the
+susceptibilities of "the Battenberger," as her agents impertinently
+named him, and the will of Stambuloff. When the Czar, by his malevolent
+obstinacy, finally brought these two men to accord, it was deemed
+needful to adopt various devices in order to shatter the forces which
+Russian diplomacy had succeeded in piling up in its own path. But here
+again we are reminded of the Horatian precept--
+
+     Vis consili expers mole ruit sua.
+
+To the hectorings of Russian agents the "peasant State" offered an ever
+firmer resistance, and by the summer of 1885 it was clear that bribery
+and bullying were equally futile.
+
+Of course the Emperor of all the Russias had it in his power to harry
+the Prince in many ways. Thus in the summer of 1885, when a marriage was
+being arranged between him and the Princess Victoria, daughter of the
+Crown Princess of Germany, the Czar's influence at Berlin availed to
+veto an engagement which is believed to have been the heartfelt wish of
+both the persons most nearly concerned. In this matter Bismarck, true to
+his policy of softening the Czar's annoyance at the Austro-German
+alliance by complaisance in all other matters, made himself Russia's
+henchman, and urged his press-trumpet, Busch, to write newspaper
+articles abusing Queen Victoria as having instigated this match solely
+with a view to the substitution of British for Russian influence in
+Bulgaria[194]. The more servile part of the German Press improved on
+these suggestions, and stigmatised the Bulgarian Revolution of the
+ensuing autumn as an affair trumped up at London. So far is it possible
+for minds of a certain type to read their own pettiness into events.
+
+[Footnote 194: For Bismarck's action and that of the Emperor William I.
+in 1885, see _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, by M. Busch,
+vol. iii. pp. 171, 180, 292, also p. 335. Russian agents came to
+Stambuloff in the summer of 1885 to say that "Prince Alexander must be
+got rid of before he can ally himself with the German family regnant."
+Stambuloff informed the Prince of this. See _Stambuloff_, by A.H.
+Beaman, p. 52.]
+
+Meanwhile, if we may credit the despatches above referred to, the
+Russian Government was seeking to drag Bulgaria into fratricidal strife
+with Roumania over some trifling disputes about the new border near
+Silistria. That quarrel, if well managed, promised to be materially
+advantageous to Russia and mentally soothing to her ruler. It would
+weaken the Danubian States and help to bring them back to the heel of
+their former protector. Further, seeing that the behaviour of King
+Charles to his Russian benefactors was no less "ungrateful" than that of
+Prince Alexander, it would be a fit Nemesis for these _ingrats_ to be
+set by the ears. Accordingly, in the month of August 1885, orders were
+issued to Russian agents to fan the border dispute; and on August 12/30
+the Director of the Asiatic Department at St. Petersburg wrote the
+following instructions to the Russian Consul-General at Rustchuk:--
+
+     You remember that the union [of the two Bulgarias] must not
+     take place until after the abdication of Prince Alexander.
+     However, the ill-advised and hostile attitude of King Charles
+     of Roumania [to Russia] obliges the imperial government to
+     postpone for some time the projected union of Eastern
+     Roumelia to the Principality, as well as the abdication and
+     expulsion of the Prince of Bulgaria. In the session of the
+     Council of [Russian] Ministers held yesterday it was decided
+     to beg the Emperor to call Prince Alexander to Copenhagen or
+     to St. Petersburg in order to inform him that, according to
+     the will of His Majesty, Bulgaria must defend by armed force
+     her rights over the points hereinbefore mentioned[195].
+
+[Footnote 195: R. Leonoff, _op. cit._ pp. 81-84.]
+
+The despatch then states that Russia will keep Turkey quiet and will
+eventually make war on Roumania; also, that if Bulgaria triumphs over
+Roumania, the latter will pay her in territory or money, or in both.
+Possibly, however, the whole scheme may have been devised to serve as a
+decoy to bring Prince Alexander within the power of his imperial
+patrons, who, in that case, would probably have detained and
+dethroned him.
+
+Further light was thrown on the tortuous course of Russian diplomacy by
+a speech of Count Eugen Zichy to the Hungarian Delegations about a year
+later. He made the startling declaration that in the summer of 1885
+Russia concluded a treaty with Montenegro with the aim of dethroning
+King Milan and Prince Alexander, and the division of the Balkan States
+between Prince Nicholas of Montenegro and the Karageorgevich Pretender
+who has since made his way to the throne at Belgrade. The details of
+these schemes are not known, but the searchlight thrown upon them from
+Buda-Pesth revealed the shifts of the policy of those "friends of
+peace," the Czar Alexander III. and his Chancellor, de Giers.
+
+Prince Alexander may not have been aware of these schemes in their full
+extent, but he and his friends certainly felt the meshes closing around
+them. There were only two courses open, either completely to submit to
+the Czar (which, for the Prince, implied abdication) or to rely on the
+Bulgarian people. The Prince took the course which would have been taken
+by every man worthy of the name. It is, however, almost certain that he
+did not foresee the events at Philippopolis. He gave his word to a
+German officer, Major von Huhn, that he had not in the least degree
+expected the unionist movement to take so speedy and decisive a step
+forward as it did in the middle of September. The Prince, in fact, had
+been on a tour throughout Europe, and expressed the same opinion to the
+Russian Chancellor, de Giers, at Franzensbad.
+
+But by this time everything was ready at Philippopolis. As the men of
+Eastern Roumelia were all of one mind in this matter, it was the easiest
+of tasks to surprise the Sultan's representative, Gavril Pasha, to
+surround his office with soldiers, and to request him to leave the
+province (September 18). A carriage was ready to conduct him towards
+Sofia. In it sat a gaily dressed peasant girl holding a drawn sword.
+Gavril turned red with rage at this insult, but he mounted the vehicle,
+and was driven through the town and thence towards the Balkans.
+
+Such was the departure of the last official of the Sultan from the land
+which the Turks had often drenched with blood; such was the revenge of
+the southern Bulgarians for the atrocities of 1876. Not a drop of blood
+was shed; and Major von Huhn, who soon arrived at Philippopolis, found
+Greeks and Turks living contentedly under the new government. The word
+"revolution" is in such cases a misnomer. South Bulgaria merely returned
+to its natural state[196]. But nothing will convince diplomatists that
+events can happen without the pulling of wires by themselves or their
+rivals. In this instance they found that Prince Alexander had made the
+revolution.
+
+[Footnote 196: _The Struggle of the Bulgarians for National
+Independence_, by Major A. von Huhn, chap. ii. See, too, Parl. Papers,
+Turkey, No. 1 (1886), p. 83.]
+
+At first, however, the Prince doubted whether he should accept the crown
+of a Greater Bulgaria which the men of Philippopolis now
+enthusiastically offered to him. Stambuloff strongly urged him to
+accept, even if he thereby still further enraged the Czar: "Sire," he
+said, "two roads lie before you: the one to Philippopolis and as far
+beyond as God may lead; the other to Sistova and Darmstadt. I counsel
+you to take the crown the nation offers you." On the 20th the Prince
+announced his acceptance of the crown of a united Bulgaria. As he said
+to the British Consul at Philippopolis, he would have been a "sharper"
+(_filou_) not to side with his people[197].
+
+[Footnote 197: _Stambuloff_, by A.H. Beaman, chap. iii.; Parl. Papers,
+_ibid_. p. 81.]
+
+Few persons were prepared for the outburst of wrath of the Czar at
+hearing this news. Early in his reign he had concentrated into a single
+phrase--"silly Pole"--the spleen of an essentially narrow nature at
+seeing a kinsman and a dependant dare to think and act for himself[198].
+But on this occasion, as we can now see, the Prince had marred Russia's
+plans in the most serious way. Stambuloff and he had deprived her of her
+unionist trump card. The Czar found his project of becoming Grand Duke
+of a Greater Bulgaria blocked by the action of this same hated kinsman.
+Is it surprising that his usual stolidity gave way to one of those fits
+of bull-like fury which aroused the fear of all who beheld them?
+Thenceforth between the Emperor Alexander and Prince Alexander the
+relations might be characterised by the curt phrase which Palafox hurled
+at the French from the weak walls of Saragossa--"War to the knife." Like
+Palafox, the Prince now had no hope but in the bravery of his people.
+
+[Footnote 198: _Bismarck: Reflections and Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p.
+116 (Eng. ed.).]
+
+In the ciphered telegrams of September 19 and 20, which the Director of
+the Asiatic Department at St. Petersburg sent to the Russian
+Consul-General at Rustchuk, the note of resentment and revenge was
+clearly sounded. The events in Eastern Roumelia had changed "all our
+intentions." The agent was therefore directed to summon the chief
+Russian officers in Bulgaria and ask them whether the "young" Bulgarian
+officers could really command brigades and regiments, and organise the
+artillery; also whether that army could alone meet the army of "a
+neighbouring State." The replies of the officers being decidedly in the
+negative, they were ordered to leave Bulgaria[199]. Nelidoff, the
+Russian ambassador at Constantinople, also worked furiously to spur on
+the Sultan to revenge the insult inflicted on him by Prince Alexander.
+
+[Footnote 199: R. Leonoff, _op. cit._ Nos. 75, 77.]
+
+Sir William White believed that the _volte face_ in Russian policy was
+due solely to Nelidoff's desire to thwart the peaceful policy of the
+Russian Chancellor, de Giers, who at that time chanced to be absent in
+Tyrol, while the Czar also was away at Copenhagen[200]. But it now
+appears that the Russian Foreign Office took Nelidoff's view, and bade
+him press Turkey to restore the "legal order" of things in Eastern
+Roumelia. Further, the Ministers of the Czar found that Servia, Greece,
+and perhaps also Roumania, intended to oppose the aggrandisement of
+Bulgaria; and it therefore seemed easy to chastise "the Battenberger"
+for his wanton disturbance of the peace of Europe.
+
+[Footnote 200: _Sir William White: Memoirs and Correspondence_, by H.
+Sutherland Edwards, pp. 231-232.]
+
+Possibly Russia would herself have struck at Bulgaria but for the
+difficulties of the general situation. How great these were will be
+realised by a perusal of the following chapters, which deal with the
+spread of Nihilism in Russia, the formation of the Austro-German
+alliance, and the favour soon shown to it by Italy, the estrangement of
+England and the Porte owing to the action taken by the former in Egypt,
+and the sharp collision of interests between Russia and England at
+Panjdeh on the Afghan frontier. When it is further remembered that
+France fretted at the untoward results of M. Ferry's forward policy in
+Tonquin; that Germany was deeply engaged in colonial efforts; and that
+the United Kingdom was distracted by those efforts, by the failure of
+the expedition to Khartum, and by the Parnellite agitation in
+Ireland--the complexity of the European situation will be sufficiently
+evident. Assuredly the events of the year 1885 were among the most
+distracting ever recorded in the history of Europe.
+
+This clash of interests among nations wearied by war, and alarmed at the
+apparition of the red spectre of revolution in their midst, told by no
+means unfavourably on the fortunes of the Balkan States. The dominant
+facts of the situation were, firstly, that Russia no longer had a free
+hand in the Balkan Peninsula in face of the compact between the three
+Emperors ratified at Skiernewice in the previous autumn (see Chapter
+XII.); and, secondly, that the traditional friendship between England
+and the Porte had been replaced by something like hostility. Seeing that
+the Sultan had estranged the British Government by his very suspicious
+action during the revolts of Arabi Pasha and of the Mahdi, even those
+who had loudly proclaimed the need of propping up his authority as
+essential to the stability of our Eastern Empire now began to revise
+their prejudices.
+
+Thus, when Lord Salisbury came to office, if not precisely to power, in
+June 1885, he found affairs in the East rapidly ripening for a change of
+British policy--a change which is known to have corresponded with his
+own convictions. Finally, the marriage of Princess Beatrice to Prince
+Henry of Battenberg, on July 23, 1885, added that touch of personal
+interest which enabled Court circles to break with the traditions of the
+past and to face the new situation with equanimity. Accordingly the
+power of Britain, which in 1876-78 had been used to thwart the growth of
+freedom in the Balkan Peninsula, was now put forth to safeguard the
+union of Bulgaria. During these critical months Sir William White acted
+as ambassador at Constantinople, and used his great knowledge of the
+Balkan peoples with telling effect for this salutary purpose.
+
+Lord Salisbury advised the Sultan not to send troops into Southern
+Bulgaria; and the warning chimed in with the note of timorous cunning
+which formed the undertone of that monarch's thought and policy.
+Distracted by the news of the warlike preparations of Servia and Greece,
+Abdul Hamid looked on Russia's advice in a contrary sense as a piece of
+Muscovite treachery. About the same time, too, there were rumours of
+palace plots at Constantinople; and the capricious recluse of Yildiz
+finally decided to keep his best troops near at hand. It appears, then,
+that Nihilism in Russia and the spectre of conspiracy always haunting
+the brain of Abdul Hamid played their part in assuring the liberties
+of Bulgaria.
+
+Meanwhile the Powers directed their ambassadors at Constantinople to
+hold a preliminary Conference at which Turkey would be represented. The
+result was a declaration expressing formal disapproval of the violation
+of the Treaty of Berlin, and a hope that all parties concerned would
+keep the peace. This mild protest very inadequately reflected the
+character of the discussions which had been going on between the several
+Courts. Russia, it is known, wished to fasten the blame for the
+revolution on Prince Alexander; but all public censure was vetoed
+by England.
+
+Probably her action was as effective in still weightier matters. A
+formal Conference of the ambassadors of the Powers met at Constantinople
+on November 5; and there again Sir William White, acting on instructions
+from Lord Salisbury, defended the Bulgarian cause, and sought to bring
+about a friendly understanding between the Porte and "a people occupying
+so important a position in the Sultan's dominions." Lord Salisbury also
+warned the Turkish ambassador in London that if Turkey sought to expel
+Prince Alexander from Eastern Roumelia, she would "be making herself the
+instrument of those who desired the fall of the Ottoman Empire[201]."
+
+[Footnote 201: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 1 (1886), pp. 214-215. See,
+too, _ibid_. pp. 197 _et seq_. for Lord Salisbury's instructions to Sir
+William White for the Conference. In view of them it is needless to
+waste space in refuting the arguments of the Russophil A.G. Drandar,
+_op. cit._ p. 147, that England sought to make war between the
+Balkan States.]
+
+This reference to the insidious means used by Russia for bringing the
+Turks to a state of tutelage, as a preliminary to partition, was an
+effective reminder of the humiliations which they had undergone at the
+hands of Russia by the Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi (1833). France also
+showed no disposition to join the Russian and Austrian demand that the
+Sultan should at once re-establish the _status quo_; and by degrees the
+more intelligent Turks came to see that a strong Bulgaria, independent
+of Russian control, might be an additional safeguard against the
+Colossus of the North. Russia's insistence on the exact fulfilment of
+the Treaty of Berlin helped to open their eyes, and lent force to Sir
+William White's arguments as to the need of strengthening that treaty by
+"introducing into it a timely improvement[202]."
+
+[Footnote 202: _Ibid_. pp. 273-274, 288, for Russia's policy; p. 284 for
+Sir W. White's argument.]
+
+Owing to the opposition offered by Great Britain, and to some extent by
+France, to the proposed restoration of the old order of things in
+Eastern Roumelia, the Conference came to an end at the close of
+November, the three Imperial Powers blaming Sir William White for his
+obstructive tactics. The charges will not bear examination, but they
+show the irritation of those Governments at England's championship of
+the Bulgarian cause[203]. The Bulgarians always remember the names of
+Lord Salisbury and Sir William White as those of friends in need.
+
+[Footnote 203: _Ibid_. pp. 370-372.]
+
+In the main, however, the consolidation of Bulgaria was achieved by her
+own stalwart sons. While the Imperial Powers were proposing to put back
+the hands of the clock, an alarum sounded forth, proclaiming the advent
+of a new era in the history of the Balkan peoples. The action which
+brought about this change was startling alike in its inception, in the
+accompanying incidents, and still more in its results.
+
+Where Abdul Hamid forebore to enter, even as the mandatory of the
+Continental Courts, there Milan of Servia rushed in. As an excuse for
+his aggression, the Kinglet of Belgrade alleged the harm done to Servian
+trade by a recent revision of the Bulgarian tariff. But the Powers
+assessed this complaint and others at their due value, and saw in his
+action merely the desire to seize a part of Western Bulgaria as a
+set-off to the recent growth of that Principality. On all sides his
+action in declaring war against Prince Alexander (November 14) met with
+reprobation, even on the part of his guide and friend, Austria. A recent
+report of the Hungarian Committee on Foreign Affairs contained a
+recommendation which implied that he ought to receive compensation; and
+this seemed to show the wish of the more active part of the Dual
+Monarchy peacefully but effectively to champion his cause[204].
+
+[Footnote 204: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 1 (1886), p. 250.]
+
+Nevertheless, the King decided to carve out his fortunes by his own
+sword. He had some grounds for confidence. If a Bulgarian _fait
+accompli_ could win tacit recognition from the Powers, why should not a
+Servian triumph over Bulgaria force their hands once more? Prince
+Alexander was unsafe on his throne; thanks to the action of Russia his
+troops had very few experienced officers; and in view of the Sultan's
+resentment his southern border could not be denuded of troops. Never did
+a case seem more desperate than that of the "Peasant State," deserted
+and flouted by Russia, disliked by the Sultan, on bad terms with
+Roumania, and publicly lectured by the Continental Powers for her
+irregular conduct. Servia's triumph seemed assured.
+
+But now there came forth one more proof of the vitalising force of the
+national principle. In seven years the downtrodden peasants of Bulgaria
+had become men, and now astonished the world by their prowess. The
+withdrawal of the Russian officers left half of the captaincies vacant;
+but they were promptly filled up by enthusiastic young lieutenants.
+Owing to the blowing up of the line from Philippopolis to Adrianople,
+only five locomotives were available for carrying back northwards the
+troops which had hitherto been massed on the southern border; and these
+five were already overstrained. Yet the engineers now worked them still
+harder and they did not break down[205]. The hardy peasants tramped
+impossibly long distances in their longing to meet the Servians. The
+arrangements were carried through with a success which seems miraculous
+in an inexperienced race. The explanation was afterwards rightly
+discerned by an English visitor to Bulgaria. "This is the secret of
+Bulgarian independence--everybody is in grim earnest. The Bulgarians do
+not care about amusements[206]." In that remark there is food for
+thought. Inefficiency has no place among a people that looks to the
+welfare of the State as all in all. Breakdowns occur when men think more
+about "sport" and pleasure than about doing their utmost for
+their country.
+
+[Footnote 205: A. von Huhn, _op. cit._ p. 105.]
+
+[Footnote 206: E.A.B. Hodgetts, _Round about Armenia_, p. 7.]
+
+The results of this grim earnestness were to astonish the world. The
+Servians at first gained some successes in front of Widdin and
+Slivnitza; but the defenders of the latter place (an all-important
+position north-west of Sofia) hurried up all possible forces. Two
+Bulgarian regiments are said to have marched 123 kilometres in thirty
+hours in order to defend that military outwork of their capital; while
+others, worn out with marching, rode forward on horseback, two men to
+each horse, and then threw themselves into the fight. The Bulgarian
+artillery was well served, and proved to be very superior to that of
+the Servians.
+
+Thus, on the first two days of conflict at Slivnitza, the defenders beat
+back the Servians with some loss. On the third day (November 19), after
+receiving reinforcements, they took the offensive, with surprising
+vigour. A talented young officer, Bendereff, led their right wing, with
+bands playing and colours flying, to storm the hillsides that dominated
+the Servian position. The hardy peasants scaled the hills and delivered
+the final bayonet charge so furiously that there and on all sides the
+invaders fled in wild panic, and scarcely halted until they reached
+their own frontier.
+
+Thenceforth King Milan had hard work to keep his men together. Many of
+them were raw troops; their ammunition was nearly exhausted; and their
+_morale_ had vanished utterly. Prince Alexander had little difficulty in
+thrusting them forth from Pirot, and seemed to have before him a clear
+road to Belgrade, when suddenly he was brought to a halt by a menace
+from the north[207].
+
+[Footnote 207: Drandar, _Événements politiques en Bulgarie_, pp. 89-116;
+von Huhn, _op. cit._ chaps. x. xi.]
+
+A special envoy sent by the Hapsburgs, Count Khevenhüller, came in haste
+to the headquarters of the Prince on November 28, and in imperious terms
+bade him grant an armistice to Servia, otherwise Austrian troops would
+forthwith cross the frontier to her assistance. Before this threat
+Alexander gave way, and was blamed by some of his people for this act of
+complaisance. But assuredly he could not well have acted otherwise. The
+three Emperors, of late acting in accord in Balkan questions, had it in
+their power to crush him by launching the Turks against Philippopolis,
+or their own troops against Sofia. He had satisfied the claims of
+honour; he had punished Servia for her peevish and unsisterly jealousy.
+Under his lead the Bulgarians had covered themselves with glory, and had
+leaped at a bound from political youth to manhood. Why should he risk
+their new-found unity merely in order to abase Servia? The Prince never
+acted more prudently than when he decided not to bring into the field
+the Power which, as he believed, had pushed on Servia to war[208].
+
+[Footnote 208: Drandar, _op. cit._ chap. iii.; Kuhn, _op. cit._ chap.
+xviii.]
+
+Had he known that the Russian Chancellor, de Giers, on hearing of
+Austria's threat to Bulgaria, informed the Court of Vienna of the Czar's
+condign displeasure if that threat were carried into effect, perhaps he
+would have played a grand game, advancing on Belgrade, dethroning the
+already unpopular King Milan, and offering to the Czar the headship of a
+united Servo-Bulgarian State. He might thus have appeased that
+sovereign, but at the cost of a European war. Whether from lack of
+information, or from a sense of prudence and humanity, the Prince held
+back and decided for peace with Servia. Despite many difficulties thrown
+in the way by King Milan, this was the upshot of the ensuing
+negotiations. The two States finally came to terms by the Treaty of
+Bukharest, where, thanks to the good sense of the negotiators and the
+efforts of Turkey to compose these strifes, peace was assured on the
+basis of the _status quo ante bellum_ (March 3, 1886).
+
+Already the Porte had manifested its good-will towards Bulgaria in the
+most signal manner. This complete reversal of policy may be assigned to
+several causes. Firstly, Prince Alexander, on marching against the
+Servians, had very tactfully proclaimed that he did so on behalf of the
+existing order of things, which they were bent on overthrowing. His
+actions having corresponded to his words, the Porte gradually came to
+see in him a potent defender against Russia. This change in the attitude
+of the Sultan was undoubtedly helped on by the arguments of Lord
+Salisbury to the Turkish ambassador at London. He summarised the whole
+case for a recognition of the union of the two Bulgarias in the
+following remarks (December 23, 1885):--
+
+     Every week's experience showed that the Porte had little to
+     dread from the subserviency of Bulgaria to foreign influence,
+     if only Bulgaria were allowed enjoyment of her unanimous
+     desires, and the Porte did not gratuitously place itself in
+     opposition to the general feeling of the people. A Bulgaria,
+     friendly to the Porte, and jealous of foreign influence,
+     would be a far surer bulwark against foreign aggression than
+     two Bulgarias, severed in administration, but united in
+     considering the Porte as the only obstacle to their national
+     development[209].
+
+[Footnote 209: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 1 (1886), p. 424.]
+
+Events served to reveal the soundness of this statesmanlike
+pronouncement. At the close of the year Prince Alexander returned from
+the front to Sofia and received an overwhelming ovation as the champion
+of Bulgarian liberties. Further, he now found no difficulty in coming to
+an understanding with the Turkish Commissioners sent to investigate the
+state of opinion in Southern Bulgaria. Most significant of all was the
+wrath of the Czar at the sight of his popularity, and the utter collapse
+of the Russian party at Sofia.
+
+Meanwhile the Powers found themselves obliged little by little to
+abandon their pedantic resolve to restore the Treaty of Berlin. Sir
+Robert Morier, British ambassador at St. Petersburg, in a letter of
+December 27, 1885, to Sir William White, thus commented on the causes
+that assured success to the Bulgarian cause:
+
+     The very great prudence shown by Lord Salisbury, and the
+     consummate ability with which you played your part, have made
+     it a successful game; but the one crowning good fortune,
+     which we mainly owe to the incalculable folly of the Servian
+     attack, has been that Prince Alexander's generalship and the
+     fighting capacities of his soldiers have placed our rival
+     action [his own and that of Sir W. White] in perfect harmony
+     with the crushing logic of fact. The rivalry is thus
+     completely swamped in the bit of cosmic work so successfully
+     accomplished. A State has been evolved out of the protoplasm
+     of Balkan chaos.
+
+Sir Robert Morier finally stated that if Sir William White succeeded in
+building up an independent Bulgaria friendly to Roumania, he would have
+achieved the greatest feat of diplomacy since Sir James Hudson's
+statesmanlike moves at Turin in the critical months of 1859-60 gained
+for England a more influential position in Italy than France had secured
+by her aid in the campaign of Solferino. The praise is overstrained,
+inasmuch as it leaves out of count the statecraft of Bismarck in the
+years 1863-64 and 1869-70; but certainly among the _peaceful_ triumphs
+of recent years that of Sir William White must rank very high.
+
+If, however, we examine the inner cause of the success of the diplomacy
+of Hudson and White we must assign it in part to the mistakes of the
+liberating Powers, France and Russia. Napoleon III., by requiring the
+cession of Savoy and Nice, and by revealing his design to Gallicise the
+Italian Peninsula, speedily succeeded in alienating the Italians. The
+action of Russia, in compelling Bulgaria to give up the Dobrudscha as an
+equivalent to the part of Bessarabia which she took from Roumania, also
+strained the sense of gratitude of those peoples; and the conduct of
+Muscovite agents in Bulgaria provoked in that Principality feelings
+bitterer than those which the Italians felt at the loss of Savoy and
+Nice. So true is it that in public as in private life the manner in
+which a wrong is inflicted counts for more than the wrong itself. It was
+on this sense of resentment (misnamed "ingratitude" by the "liberators")
+that British diplomacy worked with telling effect in both cases. It
+conferred on the "liberated" substantial benefits; but their worth was
+doubled by the contrast which they offered to the losses or the
+irritation consequent on the actions of Napoleon III. and of
+Alexander III.
+
+To the present writer it seems that the great achievements of Sir
+William White were, first, that he kept the Sultan quiet (a course, be
+it remarked, from which that nervous recluse was never averse) when
+Nelidoff sought to hound him on against Bulgaria; and, still more, that
+he helped to bring about a good understanding between Constantinople and
+Sofia. In view of the hatred which Abdul Hamid bore to England after
+her intervention in Egypt in 1882, this was certainly a great diplomatic
+achievement; but possibly Abdul Hamid hoped to reap advantages on the
+Nile from his complaisance to British policy in the Balkans.
+
+The outcome of it all was the framing of a Turco-Bulgarian Convention
+(February 1, 1886) whereby the Porte recognised Prince Alexander as
+Governor of Eastern Roumelia for a term of five years; a few border
+districts in Rhodope, inhabited by Moslems, were ceded to the Sultan,
+and (wonder of wonders!) Turkey and Bulgaria concluded an offensive and
+defensive alliance. In case of foreign aggression on Bulgaria, Turkish
+troops would be sent thither to be commanded by the Prince; if Turkey
+were invaded, Bulgarian troops would form part of the Sultan's army
+repelling the invader. In other respects the provisions of the Treaty of
+Berlin remained in force for Southern Bulgaria[210].
+
+[Footnote 210: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 2 (1886).]
+
+On that same day, as it chanced, the Salisbury Cabinet resigned office,
+and Mr. Gladstone became Prime Minister, Lord Rosebery taking the
+portfolio for Foreign Affairs. This event produced little variation in
+Britain's Eastern policy, and that statement will serve to emphasise the
+importance of the change of attitude of the Conservative party towards
+those affairs in the years 1878-85--a change undoubtedly due in the main
+to the Marquis of Salisbury.
+
+In the official notes of the Earl of Rosebery there is manifest somewhat
+more complaisance to Russia, as when on February 12 he instructed Sir
+William White to advise the Porte to modify its convention with Bulgaria
+by abandoning the stipulation as to mutual military aid. Doubtless this
+advice was sound. It coincided with the known opinions of the Court of
+Vienna; and at the same time Russia formally declared that she could
+never accept that condition[211]. As Germany took the same view the
+Porte agreed to expunge the obnoxious clause. The Government of the Czar
+also objected to the naming of Prince Alexander in the Convention. This
+unlooked-for slight naturally aroused the indignation of the Prince;
+but as the British Government deferred to Russian views on this matter,
+the Convention was finally signed at Constantinople on April 5, 1886.
+The Powers, including Turkey, thereby recognised "the Prince of
+Bulgaria" (not named) as Governor of Eastern Roumelia for a term of five
+years, and referred the "Organic Statute" of that province to revision
+by a joint Conference.
+
+[Footnote 211: _Ibid_. pp. 96-98.]
+
+The Prince submitted to this arrangement, provisional and humiliating
+though it was. But the insults inflicted by Russia bound him the more
+closely to his people; and at the united Parliament, where 182 members
+out of the total 300 supported his Ministers, he advocated measures that
+would cement the union. Bulgarian soon became the official language
+throughout South Bulgaria, to the annoyance of the Greek and Turkish
+minorities. But the chief cause of unrest continued to be the intrigues
+of Russian agents.
+
+The anger of the Czar at the success of his hated kinsman showed itself
+in various ways. Not content with inflicting every possible slight and
+disturbing the peace of Bulgaria through his agents, he even menaced
+Europe with war over that question. At Sevastopol on May 19, he declared
+that circumstances might compel him "to defend by force of arms the
+dignity of the Empire"--a threat probably aimed at Bulgaria and Turkey.
+On his return to Moscow he received an enthusiastic welcome from the
+fervid Slavophils of the old Russian capital, the Mayor expressing in
+his address the hope that "the cross of Christ will soon shine on St.
+Sofia" at Constantinople. At the end of June the Russian Government
+repudiated the clause of the Treaty of Berlin constituting Batoum a free
+port[212]. Despite a vigorous protest by Lord Rosebery against this
+infraction of treaty engagements, the Czar and M. de Giers held to their
+resolve, evidently by way of retort to the help given from London to the
+union of the two Bulgarias.
+
+[Footnote 212: Parl. Papers, Russia (1886), p. 828.]
+
+The Dual Monarchy, especially Hungary, also felt the weight of Russia's
+displeasure in return for the sympathy manifested for the Prince at
+Pesth and Vienna; and but for the strength which the friendship of
+Germany afforded, that Power would almost certainly have encountered war
+from the irate potentate of the North.
+
+Turkey, having no champion, was in still greater danger; her conduct in
+condoning the irregularities of Prince Alexander was as odious to
+Alexander III. as the atrocities of her Bashi-bazouks ten years before
+had been to his more chivalrous sire. It is an open secret that during
+the summer of 1886 the Czar was preparing to deal a heavy blow. The
+Sultan evaded it by adroitly shifting his ground and posing as a
+well-wisher of the Czar, whereupon M. Nelidoff, the Russian ambassador
+at Constantinople, proposed an offensive and defensive alliance, and
+went to the length of suggesting that they should wage war against
+Austria and England in order to restore the Sultan's authority over
+Bosnia and Egypt at the expense of those intrusive Powers. How far
+negotiations went on this matter and why they failed is not known. The
+ordinary explanation, that the Czar forbore to draw the sword because of
+his love of peace, hardly tallies with what is now known of his
+character and his diplomacy. It is more likely that he was appeased by
+the events now to be described, and thereafter attached less importance
+to a direct intervention in Balkan affairs.
+
+No greater surprise has happened in this generation than the kidnapping
+of Prince Alexander by officers of the army which he had lately led to
+victory. Yet the affair admits of explanation. Certain of their number
+nourished resentment against him for his imperfect recognition of their
+services during the Servian War, and for the introduction of German
+military instructors at its close. Among the malcontents was Bendereff,
+the hero of Slivnitza, who, having been guilty of discourtesy to the
+Prince, was left unrewarded. On this discontented knot of men Russian
+intriguers fastened themselves profitably, with the result that one
+regiment at least began to waver in its allegiance.
+
+A military plot was held in reserve as a last resort. In the first
+place, a Russian subject, Captain Nabokoff, sought to simplify the
+situation by hiring some Montenegrin desperadoes, and by seeking to
+murder or carry off the Prince as he drew near to Bourgas during a tour
+in Eastern Bulgaria. This plan came to light through the fidelity of a
+Bulgarian peasant, whereupon Nabokoff and a Montenegrin priest were
+arrested (May 18). At once the Russian Consul at that seaport appeared,
+demanded the release of the conspirators, and, when this was refused,
+threatened the Bulgarian authorities if justice took its course. It is
+not without significance that the Czar's warlike speech at Sevastopol
+startled the world on the day after the arrest of the conspirators at
+Bourgas. Apparently the arrest of Nabokoff impelled the Czar of all the
+Russias to uphold the dignity of his Empire by hurling threats against a
+State which protected itself from conspiracy. The champion of order in
+Russia thereby figured as the abettor of plotters in the Balkans.
+
+The menaces of the Northern Power availed to defer the trial of the
+conspirators, and the affair was still undecided when the conspirators
+at Sofia played their last card. Bendereff was at that time acting as
+Minister of War, and found means to spread broadcast a rumour that
+Servia was arming as if for war. Sending northwards some faithful troops
+to guard against this baseless danger, he left the capital at the mercy
+of the real enemy.
+
+On August 21, when all was ready, the Struma Regiment hastily marched
+back by night to Sofia, disarmed the few faithful troops there in
+garrison, surrounded the palace of the Prince, while the ringleaders
+burst into his bedchamber. He succeeded in fleeing through a corridor
+which led to the garden, only to be met with levelled bayonets and cries
+of hatred. The leaders thrust him into a corner, tore a sheet out of the
+visitors' book which lay on a table close by, and on it hastily scrawled
+words implying abdication; the Prince added his signature, along with
+the prayer, "God save Bulgaria." At dawn the mutineers forced him into a
+carriage, Bendereff and his accomplices crowding round to dismiss him
+with jeers and screen him from the sight of the public. Thence he was
+driven at the utmost speed through byways towards the Danube. There the
+conspirators had in readiness his own yacht, which they had seized, and
+carried him down the stream towards Russian territory.
+
+The outburst of indignation with which the civilised world heard of this
+foul deed had its counterpart in Bulgaria. So general and so keen was
+the reprobation (save in the Russian and Bismarckian Press) that the
+Russian Government took some steps to dissociate itself from the plot,
+while profiting by its results. On August 24, when the Prince was put on
+shore at Reni, the Russian authorities kept him under guard, and that,
+too, despite an order of the Czar empowering him to "continue his
+journey exactly as he might please." Far from this, he was detained for
+some little time, and then was suffered to depart by train only in a
+northerly direction. He ultimately entered Austrian territory by way of
+Lemberg in Galicia, on August 27. The aim of the St. Petersburg
+Government evidently was to give full time for the conspirators at Sofia
+to consolidate their power[213].
+
+[Footnote 213: A. von Huhn, _op. cit._ chap. iv.]
+
+Meanwhile, by military display, the distribution of money, and a _Te
+Deum_ at the Cathedral for "liberation from Prince Battenberg," the
+mutineers sought to persuade the men of Sofia that peace and prosperity
+would infallibly result from the returning favour of the Czar. The
+populace accepted the first tokens of his good-will and awaited
+developments. These were not promising for the mutineers. The British
+Consul at Philippopolis, Captain Jones, on hearing of the affair,
+hurried to the commander of the garrison, General Mutkuroff, and
+besought him to crush the plotters[214]. The General speedily enlisted
+his own troops and those in garrison elsewhere on the side of the
+Prince, with the result that a large part of the army refused to take
+the oath of allegiance to the new Russophil Ministry, composed of
+trimmers like Bishop Clement and Zankoff. Karaveloff also cast in his
+influence against them.
+
+[Footnote 214: See Mr. Minchin's account in the _Morning Advertiser_ for
+September 23, 1886.]
+
+Above all, Stambuloff worked furiously for the Prince; and when a mitred
+Vicar of Bray held the seals of office and enjoyed the official counsels
+of traitors and place-hunters, not all the prayers of the Greek Church
+and the gold of Russian agents could long avail to support the
+Government against the attacks of that strong-willed, clean-handed
+patriot. Shame at the disgrace thus brought on his people doubled his
+powers; and, with the aid of all that was best in the public life of
+Bulgaria, he succeeded in sweeping Clement and his Comus rout back to
+their mummeries and their underground plots. So speedy was the reverse
+of fortune that the new Provisional Government succeeded in thwarting
+the despatch of a Russian special Commissioner, General Dolgorukoff,
+through whom Alexander III. sought to bestow the promised blessings on
+that "much-tried" Principality.
+
+The voice of Bulgaria now made itself heard. There was but one cry--for
+the return of Prince Alexander. At once he consented to fulfil his
+people's desire; and, travelling by railway through Bukharest, he
+reached the banks of the Danube and set foot on his yacht, not now a
+prisoner, but the hero of the German, Magyar, and Balkan peoples. At
+Rustchuk officers and deputies bore him ashore shoulder-high to the
+enthusiastic people. He received a welcome even from the Consul-General
+for Russia--a fact which led him to take a false step. Later in the day,
+when Stambuloff was not present, he had an interview with this agent,
+and then sent a telegram to the Czar, announcing his return, his thanks
+for his friendly reception by Russia's chief agent, and his readiness to
+accept the advice of General Dolgorukoff. The telegram ended thus:--
+
+     I should be happy to be able to give to Your Majesty the
+     definitive proof of the devotion with which I am animated
+     towards Your august person. The monarchical principle forces
+     me to re-establish the reign of law (_la légalité_) in
+     Bulgaria and Roumelia. Russia having given me my crown, I am
+     ready to give it back into the hands of its Sovereign.
+
+To this the Czar sent the following telegraphic reply, and allowed it to
+appear at once in the official paper at St. Petersburg:--
+
+     I have received Your Highness's telegram. I cannot approve
+     your return to Bulgaria, as I foresee the sinister
+     consequences that it may bring on Bulgaria, already so much
+     tried. The mission of General Dolgorukoff is now inopportune.
+     I shall abstain from it in the sad state of things to which
+     Bulgaria is reduced so long as you remain there. Your
+     Highness will understand what you have to do. I reserve my
+     judgment as to what is commanded me by the venerated memory
+     of my father, the interests of Russia, and the peace of the
+     Orient[215].
+
+[Footnote 215: A. von Huhn, _The Kidnapping of Prince Alexander_, chap.
+xi. (London, 1887). Article III. of the Treaty of Berlin ran thus: "The
+Prince of Bulgaria shall be freely elected by the population and
+confirmed by the Sublime Porte, with the assent of the Powers." Russia
+had no right to _choose_ the Prince, and her _assent_ to his election
+was only that of _one_ among the six Great Powers. The mistake of Prince
+Alexander is therefore inexplicable.]
+
+What led the Prince to use the extraordinary words contained in the last
+sentence of his telegram can only be conjectured. The substance of his
+conversation with the Russian Consul-General is not known; and until the
+words of that official are fully explained he must be held open to the
+suspicion of having played on the Prince a diplomatic version of the
+confidence trick. Another version, that of M. Élie de Cyon, is that he
+acted on instructions from the Russian Chancellor, de Giers, who
+believed that the Czar would relent. On the contrary, he broke loose,
+and sent the answer given above[216].
+
+[Footnote 216: _Histoire de l'Entente franco-russe_, by Élie de Cyon, p.
+158.]
+
+It is not surprising that, after receiving the Czar's retort, the Prince
+seemed gloomy and depressed where all around him were full of joy. At
+Tirnova and Philippopolis he had the same reception; but an attempt to
+derail his train on the journey to Sofia showed that the malice of his
+foes was still unsated. The absence of the Russian and German Consuls
+from the State reception accorded to the Prince at the capital on
+September 3 showed that he had to reckon with the hostility or
+disapprobation of those Governments; and there was the ominous fact that
+the Russian agent at Sofia had recently intervened to prevent the
+punishment of the mutineers and Bishop Clement. Few, however, were
+prepared for what followed. On entering his palace, the Prince called
+his officers about him and announced that, despairing of overcoming the
+antipathy of the Czar to him, he must abdicate. Many of them burst into
+tears, and one of them cried, "Without your Highness there is no
+Bulgaria."
+
+This action, when the Prince seemed at the height of popularity, caused
+intense astonishment. The following are the reasons that probably
+dictated it. Firstly, he may have felt impelled to redeem the pledges
+which he too trustfully made to the Czar in his Rustchuk telegram, and
+of which that potentate took so unchivalrous an advantage. Secondly, the
+intervention of Russia to protect the mutineers from their just
+punishment betokened her intention to foment further plots. In this
+intervention, strange to say, she had the support of the German
+Government, Bismarck using his influence at Berlin persistently against
+the Prince, in order to avert the danger of war, which once or twice
+seemed to be imminent between Russia and Germany.
+
+Further, we may note that Austria and the other States had no desire to
+court an attack from the Eastern Power, on account of a personal affair
+between the two Alexanders. Great Britain also was at that time too
+hampered by domestic and colonial difficulties to be able to do more
+than offer good wishes.
+
+Thus the weakness or the weariness of the States friendly to Bulgaria
+left the Czar a free hand in the personal feud on which he set such
+store. Accordingly, on September 7, the Prince left Bulgaria amidst the
+lamentations of that usually stolid people and the sympathy of manly
+hearts throughout the world. At Buda-Pesth and London there were
+ominous signs that the Czar must not push his triumph further. Herr
+Tisza at the end of the month assured the Hungarian deputies that, if
+the Sultan did not choose to restore the old order of things in Southern
+Bulgaria, no other Power had the right to intervene there by force of
+arms. Lord Salisbury, also, at the Lord Mayor's banquet, on November 9,
+inveighed with startling frankness against the "officers debauched by
+foreign gold," who had betrayed their Prince. He further stated that all
+interest in foreign affairs centred in Bulgaria, and expressed the
+belief that the freedom of that State would be assured.
+
+These speeches were certainly intended as a warning to Russia and a
+protest against her action in Bulgaria. After the departure of Prince
+Alexander, the Czar hit upon the device of restoring order to that
+"much-tried" country through the instrumentality of General Kaulbars, a
+brother of the General who had sought to kidnap Prince Alexander three
+years before. It is known that the despatch of the younger Kaulbars was
+distasteful to the more pacific and Germanophil chancellor, de Giers,
+who is said to have worked against the success of his mission. Such at
+least is the version given by his private enemies, Katkoff and de
+Cyon[217]. Kaulbars soon succeeded in adding to the reputation of his
+family. On reaching Sofia, on September 25, he ordered the liberation of
+the military plotters still under arrest, and the adjournment of the
+forthcoming elections for the Sobranje; otherwise Russia would not
+regard them as legal. The Bulgarian Regents, Stambuloff at their head,
+stoutly opposed these demands and fixed the elections for October the
+10th; whereupon Kaulbars treated the men of Sofia, and thereafter of all
+the chief towns, to displays of bullying rhetoric, which succeeded in
+blotting out all memories of Russian exploits of nine years before[218].
+
+[Footnote 217: Élie de Cyon, _Histoire de l'Entente franco-russe_, pp.
+177-178.]
+
+[Footnote 218: The Russophil Drandar (_op. cit._ p. 214) calls these
+demands "remarqueblement modérées et sages"! For further details of
+Kaulbars' electioneering devices see Minchin, _op. cit._ pp. 327-330.]
+
+Despite his menace, that 100,000 Russian troops were ready to occupy
+Bulgaria, despite the murder of four patriots by his bravos at Dubnitza,
+Bulgaria flung back the threats by electing 470 supporters of
+independence and unity, as against 30 Russophils and 20 deputies of
+doubtful views. The Sobranje met at Tirnova, and, disregarding his
+protest, proceeded to elect Prince Waldemar of Denmark; it then
+confirmed Stambuloff in his almost dictatorial powers. The Czar's
+influence over the Danish Royal House led to the Prince promptly
+refusing that dangerous honour, which it is believed that Russia then
+designed for the Prince of Mingrelia, a dignitary of Russian Caucasia.
+
+The aim of the Czar and of Kaulbars now was to render all government
+impossible; but they had to deal with a man far more resolute and astute
+than Prince Alexander. Stambuloff and his countrymen fairly wearied out
+Kaulbars, until that imperial agent was suddenly recalled (November 19).
+He also ordered the Russian Consuls to withdraw.
+
+It is believed that the Czar recalled him partly because of the obvious
+failure of a hectoring policy, but also owing to the growing
+restlessness of Austria-Hungary, England, and Italy at Russia's
+treatment of Bulgaria. For several months European diplomacy turned on
+the question of Bulgaria's independence; and here Russia could not yet
+count on a French alliance. As has been noted above, Alexander III. and
+de Giers had tied their hands by the alliance contracted at Skiernewice
+in 1884; and the Czar had reason to expect that the Austro-German
+compact would hold good against him if he forced on his solution of the
+Balkan Question.
+
+Probably it was this consideration which led him to trust to underground
+means for assuring the dependence of Bulgaria. If so, he was again
+disappointed. Stambuloff met his agents everywhere, above ground and
+below ground. That son of an innkeeper at Tirnova now showed a power of
+inspiring men and controlling events equal to that of the innkeeper of
+the Pusterthal, Andreas Hofer. The discouraged Bulgarians everywhere
+responded to his call; at Rustchuk they crushed a rising of Russophil
+officers, and Stambuloff had nine of the rebels shot (March 7, 1887).
+Thereafter he acted as dictator and imprisoned numbers of suspects. His
+countrymen put up with the loss of civic freedom in order to secure the
+higher boon of national independence.
+
+In the main, however, the freedom of Bulgaria from Russian control was
+due to events transpiring in Central Europe. As will appear in Chapter
+XII. of this work, the Czar and de Giers became convinced, early in the
+year 1887, that Bismarck was preparing for war against France, and they
+determined to hold aloof from other questions, in order to be free to
+checkmate the designs of the war party at Berlin. The organ usually
+inspired by de Giers, the _Nord_, uttered an unmistakable warning on
+February 20, 1887, and even stated that, with this aim in view, Russia
+would let matters take their course in Bulgaria.
+
+Thus, once again, the complexities of the general situation promoted the
+cause of freedom in the Balkans; and the way was cleared for a resolute
+man to mount the throne at Sofia. In the course of a tour to the
+European capitals, a Bulgarian delegation found that man. The envoys
+were informed that Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, a grandson of Louis
+Philippe on the spindle-side, would welcome the dangerous honour. He was
+young, ambitious, and, as events were to prove, equally tactful and
+forceful according to circumstances. In vain did Russia seek to prevent
+his election by pushing on the Sultan to intervene. Abdul Hamid was not
+the man to let himself long be the catspaw of Russia, and now invited
+the Powers to name one or two candidates for the throne of Bulgaria.
+Stambuloff worked hard for the election of Prince Ferdinand; and on July
+7, 1887, he was unanimously elected by the Sobranje. Alone among the
+Great Powers, Russia protested against his election and threw many
+difficulties in his path. In order to please the Czar, the Sultan added
+his protest; but this act was soon seen to be merely a move in the
+diplomatic game.
+
+Limits of space, however, preclude the possibility of noting later
+events in the history of Bulgaria, such as the coolness that clouded the
+relations of the Prince to Stambuloff, the murder of the latter, and the
+final recognition of the Prince by the Russian Government after the
+"conversion" of his little son, Boris, to the Greek Church (Feb. 1896).
+In this curious way was fulfilled the prophetic advice given by Bismarck
+to the Prince not long after his acceptance of the crown of Bulgaria:
+"Play the dead (_faire mort_). . . . Let yourself be driven gently by the
+stream, and keep yourself, as hitherto, above water. Your greatest ally
+is time--force of habit. Avoid everything that might irritate your
+enemies. Unless you give them provocation, they cannot do you much harm,
+and in course of time the world will become accustomed to see you on the
+throne of Bulgaria[219]."
+
+[Footnote 219: _Personal Reminiscences of Prince Bismarck_, by S.
+Whitman, p. 179.]
+
+Time has worked on behalf of Bulgaria, and has helped to strengthen this
+Benjamin of the European family. Among the events which have made the
+chief States of to-day, none are more remarkable than those which
+endowed a population of downtrodden peasants with a passionate desire
+for national existence. Thanks to the liberating armies of Russia, to
+the prowess of Bulgarians themselves, to the inspiring personality of
+Prince Alexander and the stubborn tenacity of Stambuloff, the young
+State gained a firm grip on life. But other and stranger influences were
+at work compelling that people to act for itself; these are to be found
+in the perverse conduct of Alexander III. and of his agents. The policy
+of Russia towards Bulgaria may be characterised by a remark made by Sir
+Robert Morier to Sir M. Grant Duff in 1888: "Russia is a great
+bicephalic creature, having one head European, and the other Asiatic,
+but with the persistent habit of turning its European face to the East,
+and its Asiatic face to the West[220]." Asiatic methods, put in force
+against Slavised Tartars, have certainly played no small part in the
+upbuilding of this youngest of the European States.
+
+[Footnote 220: Sir M. Grant Duff, _Notes from a Diary (1886-88)_, vol.
+ii. p. 139.]
+
+In taking leave of the Balkan peoples, we may note the strange tendency
+of events towards equipoise in the Europe of the present age. Thirty
+years ago the Turkish Empire seemed at the point of dissolution. To-day
+it is stronger than ever; and this cause is to be found, not so much in
+the watchful cunning of Abdul Hamid, as in the vivifying principle of
+nationality, which has made of Bulgaria and Roumania two strong barriers
+against Russian aggression in that quarter. The feuds of those States
+have been replaced by something like friendship, which in its turn will
+probably ripen into alliance. Together they could put 250,000 good
+troops in the field--that is, a larger force than that which the Turks
+had in Europe during the war with Russia. Turkey is therefore fully as
+safe as she was under Abdul Aziz.
+
+An enlightened ruler could consolidate her position still further. Just
+as Austria has gained in strength by having Venetia as a friendly and
+allied land, rather than a subject province heaving with discontent, so,
+too, it is open to the Porte to secure the alliance of the Balkan States
+by treating them in an honourable way, and by according good government
+to Macedonia.
+
+Possibly the future may see the formation of a federation of all the
+States of European Turkey. If so, Russia will lose all foothold in a
+quarter where she formerly had the active support of three-fourths of
+the population. However that may be, it is certain that her mistakes in
+and after the year 1878 have profoundly modified the Eastern Question.
+They have served to cancel those which, as it seems to the present
+writer, Lord Beaconsfield committed in the years 1876-77; and the
+skilful diplomacy of Lord Salisbury and Sir William White has regained
+for England the prestige which she then lost among the rising peoples of
+the Peninsula.
+
+The final solution of the tangled racial problems of Mace donia cannot
+be long deferred, in spite of the timorous selfishness of the Powers who
+incurred treaty obligations for the welfare of that land; and, when that
+question can be no longer postponed or explained away, it is to be hoped
+that the British people, taking heed of the lessons of the past, will
+insist on a solution that will conform to the claims of humanity, which
+have been proved to be those of enlightened statesmanship[221].
+
+[Footnote 221: For the recent developments of the Macedonian Question,
+see _Turkey in Europe_, by "Odysseus" (1900); _the Middle Eastern
+Question_, by V. Chirol, 18s. net (Murray); _A Tour in Macedonia_, by
+G.F. Abbot (1903); _The Burden of the Balkans_, by Miss Edith Durham
+(1904); _The Balkans from Within_, by R. Wyon (1904); _The Balkan
+Question_, edited by L. Villari (1904); _Critical Times in Turkey_, by
+G. King-Lewis (1904); _Pro Macedonia_, by V. Bérard (Paris, 1904); _La
+Péninsule balkanique_, by Capitaine Lamouche (Paris, 1899).]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+NIHILISM AND ABSOLUTISM IN RUSSIA
+
+
+                  THE HOUSE OF ROMANOFF
+
+                        Catharine II.
+                        (1762-1796.)
+                             |
+                             |
+                           Paul.
+                        (1796-1801.)
+                             |
+                    ___________________
+                   |                   |
+              Alexander I.         Nicholas I.
+             (1801-1825.)         (1825-1855.)
+                                       |
+                          ________________________________________
+                         |             |             |            |
+                   Alexander II.   Constantine.   Nicholas.   Michael.
+                   (1855-1881.)
+                         |
+       ___________________________________________________________
+      |            |            |        |            |           |
+     Nicholas. Alexander III. Alexis.  Marie.      Sergius.      Paul.
+     (Died in   (1881-1894.)         (Duchess of (Assassinated
+     1865.)        |                 Edinburgh.) Feb. 17, 1905.)
+                   |
+              Nicholas II.
+              (1894--.)
+
+
+The Whig statesman, Charles James Fox, once made the profound though
+seemingly paradoxical assertion that the most dangerous part of a
+Revolution was the Restoration that ended it. In a similar way we may
+hazard the statement that the greatest danger brought about by war lies
+in the period of peace immediately following. Just as the strain
+involved by any physical effort is most felt when the muscles and nerves
+resume their normal action, so, too, the body politic is liable to
+depression when once the time of excitement is over and the artificial
+activities of war give place to the tiresome work of paying the bill.
+England after Waterloo, France and Germany after the war of 1870, afford
+examples of this truth; but never perhaps has it been more signally
+illustrated than in the Russia of 1878-82.
+
+There were several reasons why the reaction should be especially sharp
+in Russia. The Slav peoples that form the great bulk of her population
+are notoriously sensitive. Shut up for nearly half the year by the
+rigours of winter, they naturally develop habits of brooding
+introspection or coarse animalism--witness the plaintive strains of
+their folk-songs, the pessimism that haunts their literature, and the
+dram-drinking habits of the peasantry. The Muscovite temperament and the
+Muscovite climate naturally lead to idealist strivings against the
+hardships of life or a dull grovelling amongst them. Melancholy or vodka
+is the outcome of it all.
+
+The giant of the East was first aroused to a consciousness of his
+strength by the invasion of Napoleon the Great. The comparative ease
+with which the Grand Army was engulfed left on the national mind of
+Russia a consciousness of pride never to be lost even amidst the cruel
+disappointments of the Crimean War. Holy Russia had once beaten back the
+forces of Europe marshalled by the greatest captain of all time. She was
+therefore a match for the rest of the Continent. Such was the belief of
+every patriotic Muscovite. As for the Turks, they were not worthy of
+entering the lists against the soldiers of the Czar. Did not every
+decade bring further proofs of the decline of the Ottomans in governing
+capacity and military prowess? They might harry Bulgarian peasants and
+win laurels over the Servian militia. But how could that bankrupt State
+and its undisciplined hordes hold up against the might of Russia and the
+fervour of her liberating legions?
+
+After the indulgence of these day dreams the disillusionment caused by
+the events at Plevna came the more cruelly. One general after another
+became the scapegoat for the popular indignation. Then the General
+Staff was freely censured, and whispers went round that the Grand Duke
+Nicholas, brother of the Czar, was not only incompetent to conduct a
+great war, but guilty of underhand dealings with the contractors who
+defrauded the troops and battened on the public funds. Letters from the
+rank and file showed that the bread was bad, the shoes were rotten, the
+rifles outclassed by those of the Turks, and that trenching-tools were
+lacking for many precious weeks[222]. Then, too, the Bulgarian peasants
+were found to be in a state of comfort superior to that of the bulk of
+their liberators--a discovery which aroused in the Russian soldiery
+feelings like those of the troops of the old French monarchy when they
+fought side by side with the soldiers of Washington for the triumph of
+democracy in the New World. In both cases the lessons were stored up, to
+be used when the champions of liberty returned home and found the old
+order of things clanking on as slowly and rustily as ever.
+
+[Footnote 222: _Russia Before and After the War_, translated by E.F.
+Taylor (London, 1880), chap. xvi.: "We have been cheated by blockheads,
+robbed by people whose incapacity was even greater than their
+villainy."]
+
+Finally, there came the crushing blow of the Treaty of Berlin. The
+Russian people had fought for an ideal: they longed to see the cross
+take the place of the crescent which for five centuries had flashed
+defiance to Christendom from the summit of St. Sofia at Constantinople.
+But Britain's ironclads, Austria's legions, and German diplomacy barred
+the way in the very hour of triumph; and Russia drew back. To the Slav
+enthusiasts of Moscow even the Treaty of San Stefano had seemed a
+dereliction of a sacred duty; that of Berlin seemed the most
+cowardly of betrayals. As the Princess Radziwill confesses in her
+_Recollections_--that event made Nihilism possible.
+
+As usual, the populace, whether reactionary Slavophils or Liberals of
+the type of Western Europe, vented its spleen on the Government. For a
+time the strongest bureaucracy in Europe was driven to act on the
+defensive. The Czar returned stricken with asthma and prematurely aged
+by the privations and cares of the campaign. The Grand Duke Nicholas was
+recalled from his command, and, after bearing the signs of studied
+hostility of the Czarevitch, was exiled to his estates in February 1879.
+The Government inspired contempt rather than fear; and a new spirit of
+independence pervaded all classes. This was seen even as far back as
+February 1878, in the acquittal of Vera Zazulich, a lady who had shot
+the Chief of the Police at St. Petersburg, by a jury consisting of
+nobles and high officials; and the verdict, given in the face of damning
+evidence, was generally approved. Similar crimes occurred nearly every
+week[223]. Everything therefore, favoured the designs of those who
+sought to overthrow all government. In a word, the outcome of the war
+was Nihilism.
+
+[Footnote 223: _Ibid_. chap. xvii. The Government thereafter dispensed
+with the ordinary forms of justice for political crimes and judged them
+by special Commissions.]
+
+The father of this sombre creed was a wealthy Russian landlord named
+Bakunin; or rather, he shares this doubtful honour with the Frenchman
+Prudhon. Bakunin, who was born in 1814, entered on active life in the
+time of soulless repression inaugurated by the Czar Nicholas I.
+(1825-1855). Disgusted by Russian bureaucracy, the youth eagerly drank
+in the philosophy of Western Europe, especially that of Hegel. During a
+residence at Paris, he embraced and developed Prudhon's creed that
+"property is theft," and sought to prepare the way for a crusade against
+all Governments by forming the Alliance of Social Democracy (1869),
+which speedily became merged in the famous "Internationale." Driven
+successively from France and Central Europe, he was finally handed over
+to the Russians and sent to Siberia; thence he escaped to Japan and came
+to England, finally settling in Switzerland. His writings and speeches
+did much to rouse the Slavs of Austria, Poland, and Russia to a sense of
+their national importance, and of the duty of overthrowing the
+Governments that cramped their energies.
+
+As in the case of Prudhon his zeal for the non-existent and hatred of
+the actual bordered on madness, as when he included most of the results
+of art, literature, and science in his comprehensive anathemas.
+Nevertheless his crusade for destruction appealed to no small part of
+the sensitive peoples of the Slavonic race, who, differing in many
+details, yet all have a dislike of repression and a longing to have
+their "fling[224]." A union in a Panslavonic League for the overthrow of
+the Houses of Romanoff, Hapsburg, and Hohenzollern promised to satisfy
+the vague longings of that much-baffled race, whose name, denoting
+"glorious," had become the synonym for servitude of the lowest type.
+Such was the creed that disturbed Eastern and Central Europe throughout
+the period 1847-78, now and again developing a kind of iconoclastic
+frenzy among its votaries.
+
+[Footnote 224: For this peculiarity and a consequent tendency to
+extremes, see Prof. G. Brandes _Impressions of Russia_, p. 22.]
+
+This revolutionary creed absorbed another of a different kind. The
+second creed was scientific and self-centred; it had its origin in the
+Liberal movement of the sixties, when reforms set in, even in
+governmental circles. The Czar, Alexander II., in 1861 freed the serfs
+from the control of their lords, and allotted to them part of the plots
+which they had hitherto worked on a servile tenure. For various reasons,
+which we cannot here detail, the peasants were far from satisfied with
+this change, weighted, as it was, by somewhat onerous terms, irksome
+restrictions, and warped sometimes by dishonest or hostile officials.
+Limited powers of local government were also granted in 1864 to the
+local Zemstvos or land-organisations; but these again failed to satisfy
+the new cravings for a real system of self-government; and the Czar,
+seeing that his work produced more ferment than gratitude, began at the
+close of the sixties to fall back into the old absolutist ways[225].
+
+[Footnote 225: See Wallace's _Russia_, 2 vols.; _Russia under the
+Tzars_, by "Stepniak," vol. ii. chap. xxix.; also two lectures on
+Russian affairs by Prof. Vinogradoff, in _Lectures on the History of the
+Nineteenth Century_ (Camb. 1902).]
+
+At that time, too, a band of writers, of whom the novelist Turgenieff
+is the best known, were extolling the triumphs of scientific research
+and the benefits of Western democracy. He it was who adapted to
+scientific or ethical use the word "Nihilism" (already in use in France
+to designate Prudhon's theories), so as to represent the revolt of the
+individual against the religious creed and patriarchal customs of old
+Russia. "The fundamental principle of Nihilism," says "Stepniak," "was
+absolute individualism. It was the negation, in the name of individual
+liberty, of all the obligations imposed upon the individual by society,
+by family life, and by religion[226]."
+
+[Footnote 226: _Underground Russia_, by "Stepniak," Introduction, p. 4.
+Or, as Turgenieff phrased it in one of his novels: "a Nihilist is a man
+who submits to no authority, who accepts not a single principle upon
+faith merely, however high such a principle may stand in the eyes of
+men." In short, a Nihilist was an extreme individualist and
+rationalist.]
+
+For a time these disciples of Darwin and Herbert Spencer were satisfied
+with academic protests against autocracy; but the uselessness of such
+methods soon became manifest; the influence of professors and
+philosophic Epicureans could never permeate the masses of Russia and
+stir them to their dull depths. What "the intellectuals" needed was a
+creed which would appeal to the many.
+
+This they gained mainly from Bakunin. He had pointed the way to what
+seemed a practical policy, the ownership of the soil of Russia by the
+Mirs, the communes of her myriad villages. As to methods, he advocated a
+propaganda of violence. "Go among the people," he said, and convert them
+to your aims. The example of the Paris Communists in 1871 enforced his
+pleas; and in the subsequent years thousands of students, many of them
+of the highest families, quietly left their homes, donned the peasants'
+garb, smirched their faces, tarred their hands, and went into the
+villages or the factories in the hope of stirring up the thick
+sedimentary deposit of the Russian system[227]. In many cases their
+utmost efforts ended in failure, the tragi-comedy of which is finely
+set forth in Turgenieff's _Virgin Soil_. Still more frequently their
+goal proved to be--Siberia. But these young men and women did not toil
+for nought. Their efforts hastened the absorption of philosophic
+Nihilism in the creed of Prudhon and Bakunin. The Nihilist of
+Turgenieff's day had been a hedonist of the clubs, or a harmless weaver
+of scientific Utopias; the Nihilist of the new age was that most
+dangerous of men, a desperado girt with a fighting creed.
+
+[Footnote 227: _Russia in Revolution_, by G.H. Perriss, pp. 204-206,
+210-214; Arnaudo, _I Nihilismo_ (Turin, 1879). See, too, the chapters
+added by Sir D.M. Wallace to the new edition of his work
+_Russia_ (1905).]
+
+The fusing of these two diverse elements was powerfully helped on by the
+white heat of indignation that glowed throughout Russia when details of
+the official peculation and mismanagement of the war with Turkey became
+known. Everything combined to discredit the Government; and enthusiasts
+of all kinds felt that the days for scientific propaganda and stealthy
+agitation were past. Voltaire must give way to Marat. It was time for
+the bomb and the dagger to do their work.
+
+The new Nihilists organised an executive committee for the removal of
+the most obnoxious officials. Its success was startling. To name only a
+few of their chief deeds: on August 15, 1878, a Chief of the Police was
+slain near one of the Imperial Palaces at the capital; and, in February
+1879, the Governor of Kharkov was shot, the Nihilists succeeding in
+announcing his condemnation by placards mysteriously posted up in every
+large town. In vain did the Government intervene and substitute a
+military Commission in place of trial by jury. Exile and hanging only
+made the Nihilists more daring, and on more than one occasion the Czar
+nearly fell a victim to their desperadoes.
+
+The most astounding of these attempts was the explosion of a mine under
+the banqueting-hall of the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg on the
+evening of February 17, 1880, when the Imperial family escaped owing to
+a delay in the arrival of the Grand Duke of Hesse. Ten soldiers were
+killed and forty-eight wounded in and near the guard-room.
+
+The Czar answered outrage by terrorism. A week after this outrage he
+issued a ukase suspending the few remaining rights of local
+self-government hitherto spared by the reaction, and vesting practically
+all executive powers in a special Commission, presided over by General
+Loris Melikoff. This man was an Armenian by descent, and had
+distinguished himself as commander in the recent war in Asia, the
+capture of Kars being largely due to his dispositions. To these warlike
+gifts, uncommon in the Armenians of to-day, he added administrative
+abilities of a high order. Enjoying in a peculiar degree the confidence
+of Alexander II., he was charged with the supervision of all political
+trials and a virtual control of all the Governors-General of the Empire.
+Thereupon the central committee of the Nihilists proclaimed war _à
+outrance_ until the Czar conceded to a popularly elected National
+Assembly the right to reform the life of Russia.
+
+Here was the strength of the Nihilist party. By violent means it sought
+to extort what a large proportion of the townsfolk wished for and found
+no means of demanding in a lawful manner. Loris Melikoff, gifted with
+the shrewdness of his race, saw that the Government would effect little
+by terrorism alone. Wholesale arrests, banishment, and hangings only
+added to the number of the disaffected, especially as the condemned went
+to their doom with a calm heroism that inspired the desire of imitation
+or revenge. Repression must clearly be accompanied by reforms that would
+bridge over the gulf ever widening between the Government and the
+thinking classes of the people. He began by persuading the Emperor to
+release several hundreds of suspects and to relax the severe measures
+adopted against the students of the Universities. Lastly, he sought to
+induce the Czar to establish representative institutions, for which even
+the nobles were beginning to petition. Little by little he familiarised
+him with the plan of extending the system of the Zemstvos, so that there
+should be elective councils for towns and provinces, as well as
+delegations from the provincial _noblesse_. He did not propose to
+democratise the central Government. In his scheme the deputies of
+nobles and representatives of provinces and towns were to send delegates
+to the Council of State, a purely consultative body which Alexander I.
+had founded in 1802.
+
+Despite the tentative nature of these proposals, and the favourable
+reception accorded to them by the Council of State, the Czar for several
+days withheld his assent. On March 9 he signed the ukase, only to
+postpone its publication until March 12. Not until the morning of March
+13 did he give the final order for its publication in the _Messager
+Officiel_. It was his last act as lawgiver. On that day (March 1, and
+Sunday, in the Russian calendar) he went to the usual military parade,
+despite the earnest warnings of the Czarevitch and Loris Melikoff as to
+a rumoured Nihilist plot. To their pleadings he returned the answer,
+"Only Providence can protect me, and when it ceases to do so, these
+Cossacks cannot possibly help." On his return, alongside of the
+Catharine Canal, a bomb was thrown under his carriage; the explosion
+tore the back off the carriage, injuring some of his Cossack escort, but
+leaving the Emperor unhurt. True to his usual feelings of compassion, he
+at once alighted to inquire after the wounded. This act cost him his
+life. Another Nihilist quickly approached and flung a bomb right at his
+feet. As soon as the smoke cleared away, Alexander was seen to be
+frightfully mangled and lying in his blood. He could only murmur,
+"Quick, home; carry to the Palace; there die." There, surrounded by his
+dearest ones, Alexander II. breathed his last.
+
+In striking down the liberator of the serfs when on the point of
+recurring to earlier and better methods of rule, the Nihilists had dealt
+the death-blow to their own cause. As soon as the details of the outrage
+were known, the old love for the Czar welled forth: his imperfections in
+public and private life, the seeming weakness of his foreign policy, and
+his recent use of terrorism against the party of progress were
+forgotten; and to the sensitive Russian nature, ever prone to extremes,
+his figure stood forth as the friend of peace, and the would-be
+reformer, hindered in his efforts by unwise advisers and an
+untoward destiny.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+His successor was a man cast in a different mould. It is one of the
+peculiarities of the recent history of Russia that her rulers have
+broken away from the policy of their immediate predecessors, to recur to
+that which they had discarded. The vague and generous Liberalism of
+Alexander I. gave way in 1825 to the stern autocracy of his brother,
+Nicholas I. This being shattered by the Crimean War, Alexander II.
+harked back to the ideals of his uncle, and that, too, in the wavering
+and unsatisfactory way which had brought woe to that ruler and unrest to
+the people. Alexander III., raised to the throne by the bombs of the
+revolutionaries, determined to mould his policy on the principles of
+autocracy and orthodoxy. To pose as a reformer would have betokened fear
+of the Nihilists; and the new ruler, gifted with a magnificent physique,
+a narrow mind, and a stern will, ever based his conduct on elementary
+notions that appealed to the peasant and the common soldier. In 1825
+Nicholas I. had cowed the would-be rebels at his capital by a display of
+defiant animal courage. Alexander III. resolved to do the like. He had
+always been noted for a quiet persistence on which arguments fell in
+vain. The nickname, "bullock," which his father early gave him
+(shortened by his future subjects to "bull"), sufficiently summed up the
+supremacy of the material over the mental that characterised the new
+ruler. Bismarck, who knew him, had a poor idea of his abilities, and
+summed up his character by saying that he looked at things from the
+point of view of a Russian peasant[228]. That remark supplies a key to
+Russian politics during the years 1881-94.
+
+[Footnote 228: _Reminiscences of Bismarck_, by S. Whitman, p. 114;
+_Bismarck: some Secret Pages of his History_, by M. Busch, vol. iii.
+p. 150.]
+
+At first, when informed by Melikoff that the late Czar was on the point
+of making the constitutional experiment described above, Alexander III.
+exclaimed, "Change nothing in the orders of my father. This shall count
+as his will and testament." If he had held to this generous resolve the
+world's history would perhaps have been very different. Had he published
+his father's last orders; had he appealed to the people, like another
+Antony over the corpse of Cæar, the enthusiastic Slav temperament
+would have eagerly responded to this mark of Imperial confidence.
+Loyalty to the throne and fury against the Nihilists would have been the
+dominant feelings of the age, impelling all men to make the wisest use
+of the thenceforth sacred bequest of constitutional freedom.
+
+The man who is believed to have blighted these hopes was Pobyedonosteff,
+the Procureur of the highest Ecclesiastical Court of the Empire. To him
+had been confided the education of the present Czar; and the fervour of
+his orthodoxy, as well as the clear-cut simplicity of his belief in old
+Muscovite customs, had gained complete ascendancy over the mind of his
+pupil. Different estimates have been formed as to the character of
+Pobyedonosteff. In the eyes of some he is a conscientious zealot who
+believes in the mission of Holy Russia to vivify an age corrupted by
+democracy and unbelief; others regard him as the Russian Macchiavelli,
+straining his beliefs to an extent which his reason rejects, in order to
+gain power through the mechanism of the autocracy and the Greek Church.
+The thin face, passionless gaze, and coldly logical utterance bespeak
+the politician rather than the zealot; yet there seems to be good reason
+for believing that he is a "fanatic by reflection," not by
+temperament[229]. A volume of _Reflections_ which he has given to the
+world contains some entertaining judgments on the civilisation of the
+West. It may be worth while to select a few, as showing the views of the
+man who, through his pupil, influenced the fate of Russia and of
+the world.
+
+[Footnote 229: _Russia under Alexander III._, by H. von
+Samson-Himmelstierna, Eng. ed. ch. vii.]
+
+     Parliament is an institution serving for the satisfaction of
+     the personal ambition, vanity, and self-interest of its
+     members. The institution of Parliament is indeed one of the
+     greatest illustrations of human delusion. . . . On the pediment
+     of this edifice is inscribed, "All for the public good." This
+     is no more than a lying formula: Parliamentarism is the
+     triumph of egoism--its highest expression. . . .
+
+     From the day that man first fell, falsehood has ruled the
+     world--ruled it in human speech, in the practical business of
+     life, in all its relations and institutions. But never did
+     the Father of Lies spin such webs of falsehood of every kind
+     as in this restless age. . . . The press is one of the falsest
+     institutions of our time.
+
+In the chapter "Power and Authority" the author holds up to the gaze of
+a weary world a refreshing vision of a benevolent despotism which will
+save men in spite of themselves.
+
+     Power is the depository of truth, and needs, above all
+     things, men of truth, of clear intellects, of strong
+     understandings, and of sincere speech, who know the limits of
+     "yes" and "no," and never transcend them, etc[230].
+
+[Footnote 230: _Pobyedonosteff; his Reflections_, Eng. ed.]
+
+To this Muscovite Laud was now entrusted the task of drafting a
+manifesto in the interests of "power" and "truth."
+
+Meanwhile the Nihilists themselves had helped on the cause of reaction.
+Even before the funeral of Alexander II. their executive committee had
+forwarded to his successor a document beseeching him to give up
+arbitrary power and to take the people into his confidence. While
+purporting to impose no conditions, the Nihilist chiefs urged him to
+remember that two measures were needful preliminaries to any general
+pacification, namely, a general amnesty of all political offenders, as
+being merely "executors of a hard civic duty"; and "the convocation of
+representatives of all the Russian people for a revision and reform of
+all the private laws of the State, according to the will of the nation."
+In order that the election of this Assembly might be a reality, the Czar
+was pressed to grant freedom of speech and of public meetings[231].
+
+[Footnote 231: The whole document is printed in the Appendix to
+"Stepniak's" _Underground Russia_.]
+
+It is difficult to say whether the Nihilists meant this document as an
+appeal, or whether the addition of the demand of a general amnesty was
+intended to anger the Czar and drive him into the arms of the
+reactionaries. In either case, to press for the immediate pardon of his
+father's murderers appeared to Alexander III. an unpardonable insult.
+Thenceforth between him and the revolutionaries there could be no truce.
+As a sop to quiet the more moderate reformers, he ordered the
+appointment of a Commission, including a few members of Zemstvos, and
+even one peasant, to inquire into the condition of public-houses and the
+excessive consumption of vodka. Beyond this humdrum though useful
+question the imperial reformer did not deign to move.
+
+After a short truce, the revolutionaries speedily renewed their efforts
+against the chief officials who were told off to crush them; but it soon
+became clear that they had lost the good-will of the middle class. The
+Liberals looked on them, not merely as the murderers of the liberating
+Czar, but as the destroyers of the nascent constitution; and the masses
+looked on unmoved while five of the accomplices in the outrage of March
+13 were slowly done to death. In the next year twenty-two more suspects
+were arrested on the same count; ten were hanged and the rest exiled to
+Siberia. Despite these inroads into the little band of desperadoes, the
+survivors compassed the murder of the Public Prosecutor as he sat in a
+café at Odessa (March 30, 1882). On the other hand, the official police
+were helped for a time by zealous loyalists, who formed a "Holy Band"
+for secretly countermining the Nihilist organisation. These amateur
+detectives, however, did little except appropriate large donations,
+arrest a few harmless travellers and no small number of the secret
+police force. The professionals thereupon complained to the Czar, who
+suppressed the "Holy Band."
+
+The events of the years 1883 and 1884 showed that even the army, on
+which the Czar was bestowing every care, was permeated with Nihilism,
+women having by their arts won over many officers to the revolutionary
+cause. Poland, also, writhing with discontent under the Czar's stern
+despotism, was worked on with success by their emissaries; and the
+ardour of the Poles made the recruits especially dangerous to the
+authorities, ever fearful of another revolt in that unhappy land.
+Finally, the Czar was fain to shut himself up in nearly complete
+seclusion in his palace at Gatchina, near St. Petersburg, or in his
+winter retreat at Livadia, on the southern shores of the Crimea.
+
+These facts are of more than personal and local importance. They
+powerfully affected the European polity. These were the years which saw
+the Bulgarian Question come to a climax; and the impotence of Russia
+enabled that people and their later champions to press on to a solution
+which would have been impossible had the Czar been free to strike as he
+undoubtedly willed. For the present he favoured the cause of peace
+upheld by his chancellor, de Giers; and in the autumn of the year 1884,
+as will be shown in the following chapter, he entered into a compact at
+Skiernewice, which virtually allotted to Bismarck the arbitration on all
+urgent questions in the Balkans. As late as November 1885, we find Sir
+Robert Morier, British ambassador at the Russian Court, writing
+privately and in very homely phrase to his colleague at Constantinople,
+Sir William White: "I am convinced Russia does not want a general war in
+Europe about Turkey now, and that she is really suffering from a
+gigantic _Katzenjammer_ (surfeit) caused by the last war[232]." It is
+safe to say that Bulgaria largely owes her freedom from Russian control
+to the Nihilists.
+
+[Footnote 232: _Memoirs and Correspondence of Sir William White_, edited
+by H.S. Edwards, ch. xviii.]
+
+For the Czar the strain of prolonged warfare against unseen and
+desperate foes was terrible. Surrounded by sentries, shadowed by secret
+police, the lonely man yet persisted in governing with the assiduity and
+thoroughness of the great Napoleon. He tried to pry into all the affairs
+of his vast empire; and, as he held aloof even from his chief Ministers,
+he insisted that they should send to him detailed reports on all the
+affairs of State, foreign and domestic, military and naval, religious
+and agrarian. What wonder that the Nihilists persisted in their efforts,
+in the hope that even his giant strength must break down under the
+crushing burdens of toil and isolation. That he held up so long shows
+him to have been one of the strongest men and most persistent workers
+known to history. He had but one source of inspiration, religious zeal,
+and but one form of relaxation, the love of his devoted Empress.
+
+It is needless to refer to the later phases of the revolutionary
+movement. Despite their well-laid plans, the revolutionaries gradually
+lost ground; and in 1892 even Stepniak confessed that they alone could
+not hope to overthrow the autocracy. About that time, too, their party
+began to split in twain, a younger group claiming that the old terrorist
+methods must be replaced by economic propaganda of an advanced
+socialistic type among the workers of the towns. For this new departure
+and its results we must refer our readers to the new materials brought
+to light by Sir D. Mackenzie Wallace in the new edition of his work
+_Russia_ (1905).
+
+Here we can point out only a few of the more general causes that
+contributed to the triumph of the Czar. In the first place, the
+difficulties in the way of common action among the proletariat of Russia
+are very great. Millions of peasants, scattered over vast plains, where
+the great struggle is ever against the forces of nature, cannot
+effectively combine. Students of history will observe that even where
+the grievances are mainly agrarian, as in the France of 1789, the first
+definite outbreak is wont to occur in great towns. Russia has no Paris,
+eager to voice the needs of the many.
+
+Then again, the Russian peasants are rooted in customs and superstitions
+which cling about the Czar with strange tenacity and are proof against
+the reasoning of strangers. Their rising could, therefore, be very
+partial; besides which, the land is for the most part unsuited to the
+guerilla tactics that so often have favoured the cause of liberty in
+mountainous lands. The Czar and his officials know that the strength of
+their system lies in the ignorance of the peasants, in the soldierly
+instincts of their immense army, and in the spread of railways and
+telegraphs, which enables the central power to crush the beginnings of
+revolt. Thus the Czar's authority, resting incongruously on a faith dumb
+and grovelling as that of the Dark Ages, and on the latest developments
+of mechanical science, has been able to defy the tendencies of the age
+and the strivings of Russian reformers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The aim of this work prescribes a survey of those events alone which
+have made modern States what they are to-day; but the victory of
+absolutism in Russia has had so enormous an influence on the modern
+world--not least in the warping of democracy in France--that it will be
+well to examine the operation of other forces which contributed to the
+set back of reform in that Empire, especially as they involved a change
+in the relations of the central power to alien races in general, and to
+the Grand Duchy of Finland in particular.
+
+These forces, or ideals, may be summed up in the old Slavophil motto,
+"Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality." These old Muscovite ideals had lent
+strength to Nicholas I. in his day; and his grandson now determined to
+appeal to the feeling of Nationality in its narrowest and strongest
+form. That instinct, which Mazzini looked on as the means of raising in
+turn all the peoples of the world to the loftier plane of Humanity, was
+now to be the chief motive in the propulsion of the Juggernaut car of
+the Russian autocracy.
+
+The first to feel the weight of the governmental machine were the Jews.
+Rightly or wrongly, they were thought to be concerned in the peculations
+that disgraced the campaign of 1877 and in the plot for the murder of
+Alexander II. In quick succession the officials and the populace found
+out that outrages on the Jews would not be displeasing at headquarters.
+The secret once known, the rabble of several towns took the law into
+their own hands. In scores of places throughout the years 1881 and 1882,
+the mob plundered and fired their shops and houses, beat the wretched
+inmates, and in some cases killed them outright. At Elisabetgrad and
+Kiev the Jewish quarters were systematically pillaged and then given
+over to the flames. The fury reached its climax at the small town of
+Balta; the rabble pillaged 976 Jewish houses, and, not content with
+seizing all the wealth that came to hand, killed eight of the traders,
+besides wounding 211 others.
+
+Doubtless these outrages were largely due to race-hatred as well as to
+spite on the part of the heedless, slovenly natives against the keen and
+grasping Hebrews. The same feelings have at times swept over Roumania,
+Austria, Germany, and France. Jew-baiting has appealed even to nominally
+enlightened peoples as a novel and profitable kind of sport; and few of
+its votaries have had the hypocritical effrontery to cloak their conduct
+under the plea of religious zeal. The movement has at bottom everywhere
+been a hunt after Jewish treasure, embittered by the hatred of the clown
+for the successful trader, of the individualist native for an alien,
+clannish, and successful community. In Russia religious motives may
+possibly have weighed with the Czar and the more ignorant and bigoted of
+the peasantry; but levelling and communistic ideas certainly accounted
+for the widespread plundering--witness the words often on the lips of
+the rioters: "We are breakfasting on the Jews; we shall dine on the
+landlords, and sup on the priests." In 1890 there appeared a ukase
+ordering the return of the Jews to those provinces and districts where
+they had been formerly allowed to settle--that is, chiefly in the South
+and West; and all foreign Jews were expelled from the Empire. It is
+believed that as many as 225,000 Jewish families left Russia in the
+sixteen months following[233].
+
+[Footnote 233: Rambaud, _Histoire de la Russie_, ch. xxxviii.; Lowe,
+_Alexander III. of Russia_, ch. viii.; H. Frederic, _The New Exodus_;
+Professor Errera, _The Russian Jews_.]
+
+The next onslaught was made against a body of Christian dissenters, the
+humble community known as Stundists. These God-fearing peasants had
+taken a German name because the founder of their sect had been converted
+at the _Stunden_, or hour-long services, of German Lutherans long
+settled in the south of Russia; they held a simple evangelical faith;
+their conduct was admittedly far better than that of the peasants, who
+held to the mass of customs and superstitions dignified by the name of
+the orthodox Greek creed; and their piety and zeal served to spread the
+evangelical faith, especially among the more emotional people of South
+Russia, known as Little Russians.
+
+Up to the year 1878, Alexander II. refrained from persecuting them,
+possibly because he felt some sympathy with men who were fast raising
+themselves and their fellows above the old level of brutish ignorance.
+But in that year the Greek Church pressed him to take action. If he
+chastised them with whips, his son lashed them with scorpions. He saw
+that they were sapping the base of one of the three pillars that
+supported the imperial fabric--Orthodoxy, in the Russian sense. Orders
+went forth to stamp out the heretic pest. At once all the strength of
+the governmental machine was brought to bear on these non-resisting
+peasants. Imprisonment, exile, execution--such was their lot. Their
+communities, perhaps the happiest then to be found in rural Russia, were
+broken up, to be flung into remote corners of Transcaucasia or Siberia,
+and there doomed to the régime of the knout or the darkness of the
+mines[234]. According to present appearances the persecutors have
+succeeded. The evangelical faith seems to have been almost stamped out
+even in South Russia; and the Greek Church has regained its hold on the
+allegiance, if not on the beliefs and affections, of the masses.
+
+[Footnote 234: See an article by Count Leo Tolstoy in the _Contemporary
+Review_ for November 1895; also a pamphlet on "The Stundists," with
+Preface by Rev. J. Brown, D.D.]
+
+To account for this fact, we must remember the immense force of
+tradition and custom among a simple rural folk, also that very many
+Russians sincerely believe that their institutions and their national
+creed were destined to regenerate Europe. See, they said in effect,
+Western Europe oscillates between papal control and free thought; its
+industries, with their _laissez faire_ methods, raise the few to
+enormous wealth and crush the many into a new serfdom worse than the
+old. For all these evils Russia has a cure; her autocracy saves her from
+the profitless wrangling of Parliaments; her national Church sums up the
+beliefs and traditions of nobles and peasants; and at the base of her
+social system she possesses in the "Mir" a patriarchal communism against
+which the forces of the West will beat in vain. Looking on the Greek
+Church as a necessary part of the national life, they sought to wield
+its powers for nationalising all the races of that motley Empire.
+"Russia for the Russians," cried the Slavophils. "Let us be one people,
+with one creed. Let us reverence the Czar as head of the Church and of
+the State. In this unity lies our strength." However defective the
+argument logically, yet in the realm of sentiment, in which the Slavs
+live, move, and have their being, the plea passed muster. National pride
+was pressed into the service of the persecutors; and all dissenters,
+whether Roman Catholics of Poland, Lutherans of the Baltic Provinces, or
+Stundists of the Ukraine, felt the remorseless grinding of the State
+machine, while the Greek Church exalted its horn as it had not done for
+a century past.
+
+Other sides of this narrowly nationalising policy were seen in the
+determined repression of Polish feelings, of the Germans in the Baltic
+provinces, and of the Armenians of Transcaucasia. Finally, remorseless
+pressure was brought to bear on that interesting people, the Finns. We
+can here refer only to the last of these topics. The Germans in the
+Provinces of Livonia, Courland, and Esthonia formed the majority only
+among the land-holding and merchant classes; and the curbing of their
+semi-feudal privileges wore the look of a democratic reform.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The case was far different with the Finns. They are a non-Aryan people,
+and therefore differ widely from the Swedes and Russians. For centuries
+they formed part of the Swedish monarchy, deriving thence in large
+measure their literature, civilisation, and institutions. To this day
+the Swedish tongue is used by about one-half of their gentry and
+burghers. On the annexation of Finland by Alexander I., in consequence
+of the Franco-Russian compact framed at Tilsit in 1807, he made to their
+Estates a solemn promise to respect their constitution and laws. Similar
+engagements have been made by his successors. Despite some attempts by
+Nicholas I. to shelve the constitution of the Grand Duchy, local
+liberties remained almost intact up to a comparatively recent time. In
+the year 1869 the Finns gained further guarantees of their rights.
+Alexander II. then ratified the laws of Finland, and caused a statement
+of the relations between Finland and Russia to be drawn up.
+
+In view of the recent struggle between the Czar and the Finnish people,
+it may be well to give a sketch of their constitution. The sovereign
+governs, not as Emperor of Russia, but as Grand Duke of Finland. He
+delegates his administrative powers to a Senate, which is presided over
+by a Governor-General. This important official, as a matter of fact, has
+always been a Russian; his powers are, or rather were[235], shared by
+two sections of the Finnish Senate, each composed of ten members
+nominated by the Grand Duke. The Senate prepares laws and ordinances
+which the Grand Duke then submits to the Diet. This body consists of
+four Orders--nobles, clergy, burghers, and peasants. Since 1886 it has
+enjoyed to a limited extent the right of initiating laws. The Orders sit
+and vote separately. In most cases a resolution that is passed by three
+of them becomes law, when it has received the assent of the Grand Duke.
+But the assent of a majority in each of the four Orders is needed in the
+case of a proposal that affects the constitution of the Grand Duchy and
+the privileges of the Orders. In case a Bill is accepted by two Orders
+and is rejected by the other two, a deadlock is averted by each of the
+Orders appointing fifteen delegates; these sixty delegates, meeting
+without discussion, vote by ballot, and a bare majority carries the day.
+Measures are then referred to the Grand Duke, who, after consulting the
+Senate, gives or witholds his assent[236].
+
+[Footnote 235: A law of the autumn of 1902 altered this. It delegated
+the administration to the Governor-General, _assisted by_ the Senate.]
+
+[Footnote 236: For the constitution of Finland and its relation to
+Russia, see _A Précis of the Public Law of Finland_, by L. Mechelin,
+translated by C.J. Cooke (1889); _Pour la Finlande_, par Jean Deck;
+_Pour la Finlande, La Constitution du Grand Duché de Finlande_ (Paris,
+1900). J.R. Danielsson, _Finland's Union with the Russian Empire_
+(Borga, 1891).]
+
+A very important clause of the law of 1869 declares that "Fundamental
+laws can be made, altered, explained, or repealed, only on the
+representation of the Emperor and Grand Duke, and with the consent of
+all the Estates." This clause sharply marked off Finland from Russia,
+where the power of the Czar is theoretically unlimited. New taxes may
+not be imposed nor old taxes altered without the consent of the Finnish
+Diet; but, strange to say, the customs dues are fixed by the Government
+(that is, by the Grand Duke and the Senate) without the co-operation of
+the Diet. Despite the archaic form of its representation, the Finnish
+constitution (an offshoot of that of Sweden) has worked extremely well;
+and in regard to civil freedom and religious toleration, the Finns take
+their place among the most progressive communities of the world.
+Moreover, the constitution is no recent and artificial creation; it
+represents customs and beliefs that are deeply ingrained in a people
+who, like their Magyar kinsmen, cling firmly to the old, even while they
+hopefully confront the facts of the present. There was every ground for
+hope. Between the years 1812 and 1886 the population grew from 900,000
+to 2,300,000, and the revenue from less than 7,000,000 marks (a Finnish
+mark = about ten pence) to 40,000,000 marks.
+
+Possibly this prosperity prompted in the Russian bureaucracy the desire
+to bring the Grand Duchy closely into line with the rest of the Empire.
+On grounds other than constitutional, the bureaucrats had a case. They
+argued that while the revenue of Finland was increasing faster than that
+of Russia Proper, yet the Grand Duchy bore no share of the added
+military burdens. It voted only 17 per cent of its revenue for military
+defence as against 28 per cent set apart in the Russian Budget. The fact
+that the Swedish and Finnish languages, as well as Finnish money, were
+alone used on the railways of the Grand Duchy, even within a few miles
+of St. Petersburg, also formed a cause of complaint. When, therefore,
+the Slavophils began to raise a hue and cry against everything that
+marred the symmetry of the Empire, an anti-Finnish campaign lay in the
+nature of things. Historical students discovered that the constitution
+was the gift of the Czars, and that their goodwill had been grossly
+misused by the Finns. Others, who could not deny the validity of the
+Finnish constitution, claimed that even constitutions and laws must
+change with changing circumstances; that a narrow particularism was out
+of place in an age of railways and telegraphs; and that Finland must
+take its fair share in the work of national defence[237].
+
+[Footnote 237: See for the Russian case d'Elenew, _Les Prétentions des
+Séparatistes finlandais_ (1895); also _La Conquête de la Finlande_, by
+K. Ordine (1889)--answered by J.R. Danielsson, _op. cit._; also
+_Russland und Finland vom russischen Standpunkte aus betrachtet_, by
+"Sarmatus" (1903).]
+
+Little by little Alexander III. put in force this Slavophil creed
+against Finland. His position as Grand Duke gave him the right of
+initiating laws; but he overstepped his constitutional powers by
+imposing various changes. In January 1890 he appointed three committees,
+sitting at St. Petersburg, to bring the coinage, the customs system, and
+the postal service of Finland into harmony with those of Russia. In June
+there appeared an imperial ukase assimilating the postal service of
+Finland to that of Russia--an illegal act which led to the resignation
+of the Finnish Ministers. In May 1891 the "Committee for Finnish
+Affairs," sitting at St. Petersburg, was abolished; and that year saw
+other efforts curbing the liberty of the Press, and extending the use of
+the Russian language in the government of the Grand Duchy.
+
+The trenches having now been pushed forward against the outworks of
+Finnish freedom, an assault was prepared against the ramparts--the
+constitution itself. The assailants discovered in it a weak point, a
+lack of clearness in the clauses specifying the procedure to be followed
+in matters where common action had to be taken in Finland and in Russia.
+They saw here a chance of setting up an independent authority, which,
+under the guise of _interpreting_ the constitution, could be used for
+its suspension and overthrow. A committee, consisting of six Russians
+and four Finns, was appointed at the close of the year 1892 to codify
+laws and take the necessary action. It sat at St. Petersburg; but the
+opposition of the Finnish members, backed up by the public opinion of
+the whole Duchy, sufficed to postpone any definite decision. Probably
+this time of respite was due to the reluctance felt by Alexander III. in
+his closing days to push matters to an extreme.
+
+The alternating tendencies so well marked in the generations of the
+Romanoff rulers made themselves felt at the accession of Nicholas II.
+(Nov. 1, 1894). Lacking the almost animal force which carried Alexander
+III. so far in certain grooves, he resembles the earlier sovereigns of
+that name in the generous cosmopolitanism and dreamy good nature which
+shed an autumnal haze over their careers. Unfortunately the reforming
+Czars have been without the grit of the crowned Boyars, who trusted in
+Cossack, priest, and knout; and too often they have bent before the
+reactionary influences always strong at the Russian Court. To this
+peculiarity in the nature of Nicholas II. we may probably refer the
+oscillations in his Finnish policy. In the first years of his reign he
+gradually abated the rigour of his father's regime, and allowed greater
+liberty of the Press in Finland. The number of articles suppressed sank
+from 216 in the year 1893 to 40 in 1897[238].
+
+[Footnote 238: _Pour la Finlande_, par Jean Deck, p. 36.]
+
+The hopes aroused by this display of moderation soon vanished. Early in
+1898 the appointment of General Kuropatkin to the Ministry for War for
+Russia foreboded evil to the Grand Duchy. The new Minister speedily
+counselled the exploitation of the resources of Finland for the benefit
+of the Empire. Already the Russian General Staff had made efforts in
+this direction; and now Kuropatkin, supported by the whole weight of the
+Slavophil party, sought to convince the Czar of the danger of leaving
+the Finns with a separate military organisation. A military committee,
+in which there was only one Finn, the Minister Procope, had for some
+time been sitting at St. Petersburg, and finally gained over Nicholas
+II. to its views. He is said to have formed his final decision during
+his winter stay at Livadia in the Crimea, owing to the personal
+intervention of Kuropatkin, and that too in face of a protest from the
+Finnish Minister, Procope, against the suspension by imperial ukase of a
+fundamental law of the Grand Duchy. The Czar must have known of the
+unlawfulness of the present procedure, for on November 6/18, 1894,
+shortly after his accession, he signed the following declaration:--
+
+     . . . We have hereby desired to confirm and ratify the
+     religion, the fundamental laws, the rights and privileges of
+     every class in the said Grand Duchy, in particular, and all
+     its inhabitants high and low in general, which they,
+     according to the constitution of this country, had enjoyed,
+     promising to preserve the same steadfastly and in full
+     force[239].
+
+[Footnote 239: _The Rights of Finland_, p. 4 (Stockholm 1899). See too
+for the whole question _Finland and the Tsars, 1809-1899_, by J.R.
+Fisher (London, 2nd Edit. 1900).]
+
+The military system of Finland having been definitely organised by the
+Finnish law of 1878, that statute clearly came within the scope of those
+"fundamental laws" which Nicholas II. had promised to uphold in full
+force. We can imagine, then, the astonishment which fell on the Finnish
+Diet and people on the presentation of the famous Imperial Manifesto of
+February 3/15, 1899. While expressing a desire to leave purely Finnish
+affairs to the consideration of the Government and Diet of the Grand
+Duchy, the Czar warned his Finnish subjects that there were others that
+could not be so treated, seeing that they were "closely bound up with
+the needs of the whole Empire." As the Finnish constitution pointed out
+no way of treating such subjects, it was needful now to complete the
+existing institutions of the Duchy. The Manifesto proceded as follows:--
+
+     Whilst maintaining in full force the now prevailing statutes
+     which concern the promulgation of local laws touching
+     exclusively the internal affairs of Finland, We have found it
+     necessary to reserve to Ourselves the ultimate decision as to
+     which laws come within the scope of the general legislation
+     of the Empire. With this in view, We have with Our Royal Hand
+     established and confirmed the fundamental statutes for the
+     working out, revision, and promulgation of laws issued for
+     the Empire, including the Grand Duchy of Finland, which are
+     proclaimed simultaneously herewith[240].
+
+[Footnote 240: _The Rights of Finland_, pp. 6-7 also in _Pour la
+Finlande_, par J. Deck, p. 43.]
+
+The accompanying enactments made it clear that the Finnish Diet would
+thenceforth have only consultative duties in respect to any measure
+which seemed to the Czar to involve the interests of Russia as well as
+of Finland. In fact, the proposals of February 15 struck at the root of
+the constitution, subjecting it in all important matters to the will of
+the autocrat at St. Petersburg. At once the Finns saw the full extent of
+the calamity. They observed the following Sunday as a day of mourning;
+the people of Helsingfors, the capital, gathered around the statue of
+Alexander II., the organiser of their liberties, as a mute appeal to the
+generous instincts of his grandson. Everywhere, even in remote villages,
+solemn meetings of protest were held; but no violent act marred the
+impressiveness of these demonstrations attesting the surprise and grief
+of a loyal people.
+
+By an almost spontaneous impulse a petition was set on foot begging the
+Czar to reconsider his decision. If ever a petition deserved the name
+"national," it was that of Finland. Towns and villages signed almost _en
+masse_. Ski-runners braved the hardships of a severe winter in the
+effort to reach remote villages within the Arctic Circle; and within
+five days (March 10-14) 529,931 names were signed, the marks of
+illiterates being rejected. All was in vain. The Czar refused to receive
+the petition, and ordered the bearers of it to return home[241].
+
+[Footnote 241: _The Rights of Finland_, pp. 23-30.]
+
+The Russian Governor-General of Finland then began a brisk campaign
+against the Finnish newspapers. Four were promptly suppressed, while
+there were forty-three cases of "suspension" in the year 1899 alone. The
+public administration also underwent a drastic process of russification,
+Finnish officials and policemen being in very many cases ousted by
+Muscovites. Early in the year 1901 local postage stamps gave place to
+those of the Empire. Above all, General Kuropatkin was able almost
+completely to carry out his designs against the Finnish army, the law of
+1901 practically abolishing the old constitutional force and compelling
+Finns to serve in any part of the Empire--in defiance of the old
+statutes which limited their services to the Grand Duchy itself.
+
+The later developments of this interesting question fall without the
+scope of this volume. We can therefore only state that the steadfast
+opposition of the Finns to these illegal proceedings led to still
+harsher treatment, and that the few concessions granted since the
+outbreak of the Japanese War have apparently failed to soothe the
+resentment aroused by the former unprovoked attacks upon the liberties
+of Finland.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One fact, which cannot fail to elicit the attention of thoughtful
+students of contemporary history, is the absence of able leaders in the
+popular struggles of the age. Whether we look at the orderly resistance
+of the Finns, the efforts of the Russian revolutionaries, or the fitful
+efforts now and again put forth by the Poles, the same discouraging
+symptom is everywhere apparent. More than once the hour seemed to have
+struck for the overthrow of the old order, but no man appeared. Other
+instances might of course be cited to show that the adage about the
+hour and the man is more picturesque than true. The democratic movements
+of 1848-49 went to pieces largely owing to the coyness of the requisite
+hero. Or rather, perhaps, we ought to say that the heroes were there, in
+the persons of Cavour and Garibaldi, Bismarck and Moltke; but no one was
+at hand to set them in the places which they filled so ably in 1858-70.
+Will the future see the hapless, unguided efforts of to-day championed
+in an equally masterful way? If so, the next generation may see strange
+things happen in Russia, as also elsewhere.
+
+Two suggestions may be advanced, with all diffidence, as to the reasons
+for the absence of great leaders in the movements of to-day. As we noted
+in the chapter dealing with the suppression of the Paris Commune of
+1871, the centralised Governments now have a great material advantage in
+dealing with local disaffection owing to their control of telegraphs,
+railways, and machine-guns. This fact tells with crushing force, not
+only at the time of popular rising, but also on the men who work to that
+end. Little assurance was needed in the old days to compass the
+overthrow of Italian Dukes and German Translucencies. To-day he would be
+a man of boundlessly inspiring power who could hopefully challenge Czar
+or Kaiser to a conflict. The other advantage which Governments possess
+is in the intellectual sphere. There can be no doubt that the mere size
+of the States and Governments of the present age exercises a deadening
+effect on the minds of individuals. As the vastness of London produces
+inertia in civic affairs, so, too, the great Empires tend to deaden the
+initiative and boldness of their subjects. Those priceless qualities are
+always seen to greatest advantage in small States like the Athens of
+Pericles, the England of Elizabeth, or the Geneva of Rousseau; they are
+stifled under the pyramidal mass of the Empire of the Czars; and as a
+result there is seen a respectable mediocrity, equal only to the task of
+organising street demonstrations and abortive mutinies. It may be that
+in the future some commanding genius will arise, able to free himself
+from the paralysing incubus, to fire the dull masses with hope, and to
+turn the very vastness of the governmental machine into a means of
+destruction. But, for that achievement, he will need the magnetism of a
+Mirabeau, the savagery of a Marat, and the organising powers of a
+Bonaparte.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE TRIPLE AND DUAL ALLIANCES
+
+     "International policy is a fluid element which, under certain
+     conditions, will solidify, but, on a change of atmosphere,
+     reverts to its original condition."--Bismarck's _Reflections
+     and Reminiscences._
+
+
+It is one thing to build up a system of States: it is quite another
+thing to guarantee their existence. As in the life of individuals, so in
+that of nations, longevity is generally the result of a sound
+constitution, a healthy environment, and prudent conduct. That the new
+States of Europe possessed the first two of these requisites will be
+obvious to all who remember that they are co-extensive with those great
+limbs of Humanity, nations. Yet even so they needed protection from the
+intrigues of jealous dynasties and of dispossessed princes or priests,
+which have so often doomed promising experiments to failure. It is
+therefore essential to our present study to observe the means which
+endowed the European system with stability.
+
+Here again the master-builder was Bismarck. As he had concentrated all
+the powers of his mind on the completion of German unity (with its
+natural counterpart in Italy), so, too, he kept them on the stretch for
+its preservation. For two decades his policy bestrode the continent like
+a Colossus. It rested on two supporting ideas. The one was the
+maintenance of alliance with Russia, which had brought the events of the
+years 1863-70 within the bounds of possibility; the other aim was the
+isolation of France. Subsidiary notions now and again influenced him, as
+in 1884 when he sought to make bad blood between Russia and England in
+Central Asian affairs (see Chapter XIV.), or to busy all the Powers in
+colonial undertakings: but these considerations were secondary to the
+two main motives, which at one point converged and begot a haunting fear
+(the realisation of which overclouded his last years) that Russia and
+France would unite against Germany.
+
+In order, as he thought, to obviate for ever a renewal of the "policy of
+Tilsit" of the year 1807, he sought to favour the establishment of the
+Republic in France. In his eyes, the more Radical it was the better: and
+when Count von Arnim, the German ambassador at Paris, ventured to
+contravene his instructions in this matter, he subjected him to severe
+reproof and finally to disgrace. However harsh in his methods, Bismarck
+was undoubtedly right in substance. The main consideration was that
+which he set forth in his letter of December 20, 1872, to the
+Count:--"We want France to leave us in peace, and we have to prevent
+France finding an ally if she does not keep the peace. As long as France
+has no allies she is not dangerous to Germany." A monarchical reaction,
+he thought, might lead France to accord with Russia or Austria. A
+Republic of the type sought for by Gambetta could never achieve that
+task. Better, then, the red flag waving at Paris than the
+_fleur-de-lys._
+
+Still more important was it to bring about complete accord between the
+three empires. Here again the red spectre proved to be useful. Various
+signs seemed to point to socialism as the common enemy of them all. The
+doctrines of Bakunin, Herzen, and Lassalle had already begun to work
+threateningly in their midst, and Bismarck discreetly used this
+community of interest in one particular to bring about an agreement on
+matters purely political. In the month of September 1872 he realised one
+of his dearest hopes. The Czar, Alexander II., and the Austrian Emperor,
+Francis Joseph, visited Berlin, where they were most cordially received.
+At that city the chancellors of the three empires exchanged official
+memoranda--there seems to have been no formal treaty[242]--whereby they
+agreed to work together for the following purposes: the maintenance of
+the boundaries recently laid down, the settlement of problems arising
+from the Eastern Question, and the repression of revolutionary movements
+in Europe.
+
+[Footnote 242: In his speech of February 19, 1878, Bismarck said, "The
+_liaison_ of the three Emperors, which is habitually designated an
+alliance, rests on no written agreement and does not compel any one of
+the three Emperors to submit to the decisions of the two others."]
+
+Such was the purport of the Three Emperors' League of 1872. There is
+little doubt that Bismarck had worked on the Czar, always nervous as to
+the growth of the Nihilist movement in Russia, in order to secure his
+adhesion to the first two provisions of the new compact, which certainly
+did not benefit Russia. The German Chancellor has since told us that, as
+early as the month of September 1870, he sought to form such a league,
+with the addition of the newly-united Italian realm, in order to
+safeguard the interests of monarchy against republicans and
+revolutionaries[243]. After the lapse of two years his wish took effect,
+though Italy as yet did not join the cause of order. The new league
+stood forth as the embodiment of autocracy and a terror to the
+dissatisfied, whether revengeful Gauls, Danes, or Poles, intriguing
+cardinals--it was the time of the "May Laws"--or excited men who waved
+the red flag. It was a new version of the Holy Alliance formed after
+Waterloo by the monarchs of the very same Powers, which, under the plea
+of watching against French enterprises, succeeded in bolstering up
+despotism on the Continent for a whole generation.
+
+[Footnote 243: Débidour, _Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe_, vol. ii.
+pp. 458-59; Bismarck, _Reflections and Reminiscences_, vol. ii.
+ch. xxix.]
+
+Fortunately for the cause of liberty, the new league had little of the
+solidity of its predecessor. Either because the dangers against which it
+guarded were less serious, or owing to the jealousies which strained its
+structure from within, signs of weakness soon appeared, and the imposing
+fabric was disfigured by cracks which all the plastering of
+diplomatists failed to conceal. An eminent Russian historian, M.
+Tatischeff, has recently discovered the hidden divulsive agency. It
+seems that, not long after the formation of the Three Emperors' League,
+Germany and Austria secretly formed a separate compact, whereby the
+former agreed eventually to secure to the latter due compensation in the
+Balkan Peninsula for her losses in the wars of 1859 and 1866 (Lombardy,
+Venetia, and the control of the German Confederation, along with
+Holstein)[244].
+
+[Footnote 244: _The Emperor Alexander II.: His Life and Reign_, by S.S.
+Tatischeff (St. Petersburg, 1903), Appendix to vol. ii.]
+
+That is, the two Central Powers in 1872 secretly agreed to take action
+in the way in which Austria advanced in 1877-78, when she secured
+Herzegovina. When and to what extent Russian diplomatists became aware
+of this separate agreement is not known, but their suspicion or their
+resentment appears to have prompted them to the unfriendly action
+towards Germany which they took in the year 1875. According to the
+Bismarck _Reflections and Reminiscences_, the Russian Chancellor, Prince
+Gortchakoff, felt so keenly jealous of the rapid rise of the German
+Chancellor to fame and pre-eminence as to spread "the lie" that Germany
+was about to fall upon France. Even the uninitiated reader might feel
+some surprise that the Russian Chancellor should have endangered the
+peace of Europe and his own credit as a statesman for so slight a
+motive; but it now seems that Bismarck's assertion must be looked on as
+a "reflection," not as a "reminiscence."
+
+The same remark may perhaps apply to his treatment of the "affair of
+1875," which largely determined the future groupings of the Powers. At
+that time the recovery of France from the wounds of 1870 was well nigh
+complete; her military and constitutional systems were taking concrete
+form; and in the early part of the year 1875 the Chambers decreed a
+large increase to the armed forces in the form of "the fourth
+battalions." At once the military party at Berlin took alarm, and
+through their chief, Moltke, pressed on the Emperor William the need of
+striking promptly at France. The Republic, so they argued, could not
+endure the strain which it now voluntarily underwent; the outcome must
+be war; and war at once would be the most statesmanlike and merciful
+course. Whether the Emperor in any way acceded to these views is not
+known. He is said to have more than once expressed a keen desire to end
+his reign in peace.
+
+The part which Bismarck played at this crisis is also somewhat obscure.
+If the German Government wished to attack France, the natural plan would
+have been to keep that design secret until the time for action arrived.
+But it did not do so. Early in the month of April, von Radowitz, a man
+of high standing at the Court of Berlin, took occasion to speak to the
+French ambassador, de Gontaut-Biron, at a ball, and warned him in the
+most significant manner of the danger of war owing to the increase of
+French armaments. According to de Blowitz, the Paris correspondent of
+the _Times_ (who had his information direct from the French Premier, the
+Duc Decazes), Germany intended to "bleed France white" by compelling her
+finally to pay ten milliards of francs in twenty instalments, and by
+keeping an army of occupation in her Eastern Departments until the last
+half-milliard was paid. The French ambassador also states in his account
+of these stirring weeks that Bismarck had mentioned to the Belgian envoy
+the impossibility of France keeping up armaments, the outcome of which
+must be war[245].
+
+[Footnote 245: De Blowitz, _Memoirs_, ch. v.; _An Ambassador of the
+Vanquished_ (ed. by the Duc de Broglie), pp. 180 _et seq_. Probably the
+article "Krieg in Sicht," published in the _Berlin Post_ of April 15,
+1875, was "inspired."]
+
+As Radowitz continued in favour with Bismarck, his disclosure of German
+intentions seems to have been made with the Chancellor's approval; and
+we may explain his action as either a threat to compel France to reduce
+her army, a provocation to lead her to commit some indiscretion, or a
+means of undermining the plans of the German military party. Leaving
+these questions on one side, we may note that Gontaut-Biron's report to
+the Duc Decazes produced the utmost anxiety in official circles at
+Paris. The Duke took the unusual step of confiding the secret to
+Blowitz, showed him the document, along with other proofs of German
+preparations for war, and requested him to publish the chief facts in
+the _Times_. Delane, the editor of the _Times_, having investigated the
+affair, published the information on May 4. It produced an immense
+sensation. The Continental Press denounced it as an impudent fabrication
+designed to bring on war. We now know that it was substantially correct.
+Meanwhile Marshal MacMahon and the Duc Decazes had taken steps to
+solicit the help of the Czar if need arose. They despatched to St.
+Petersburg General Leflô, armed with proofs of the hostile designs of
+the German military chiefs. A perusal of them convinced Alexander II. of
+the seriousness of the situation; and he assured Leflô of his resolve to
+prevent an unprovoked attack on France. He was then about to visit his
+uncle, the German Emperor; and there is little doubt that his influence
+at Berlin helped to end the crisis.
+
+Other influences were also at work, emanating from Queen Victoria and
+the British Government. It is well known that Her late Majesty wrote to
+the Emperor William stating that it would be "easy to prove that her
+fears [of a Franco-German war] were not exaggerated[246]." The source of
+her information is now known to have been unexceptionable. It reached
+our Foreign Office through the medium of German ambassadors. Such is the
+story imparted by Lord Odo Russell, our Ambassador at Berlin, to his
+brother, and by him communicated to Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff. It
+concerns an interview between Gortchakoff and Bismarck in which the
+German Chancellor inveighed against the Russian Prince for blurting out,
+at a State banquet held the day before, the news that he had received a
+letter from Queen Victoria, begging him to work in the interests of
+peace. Bismarck thereafter sharply upbraided Gortchakoff for this
+amazing indiscretion. Lord Odo Russell was present at their interview
+in order to support the Russian Chancellor, who parried Bismarck's
+attack by affecting a paternal interest in his health:--
+
+     "Come, come, my dear Bismarck, be calm. You know that I am
+     very fond of you. I have known you since your childhood. But
+     I do not like you when you are hysterical. Come, you are
+     going to be hysterical. Pray be calm: come, come, my dear
+     fellow." A short time after this interview Bismarck
+     complained to Odo of "the preposterous folly and ignorance of
+     the English and all other Cabinets, who had mistaken stories
+     got up for speculations on the Bourse for the true policy of
+     the German Government." "Then will you," asked Odo, "censure
+     your four ambassadors who have misled us and the other
+     Powers?" Bismarck made no reply[247].
+
+[Footnote 246: _Bismarck: his Reflections_, etc., vol. ii. pp. 191-193,
+249-153 (Eng. ed.); the _Bismarck Jahrbuch_, vol. iv. p. 35.]
+
+[Footnote 247: Sir M. Grant Duff, _Notes from a Diary, 1886-88_, vol. i.
+p. 129. See, too, other proofs of the probability of an attack by
+Germany on France in Professor Geffcken's _Frankreich, Russland, und der
+Dreibund_, pp. 90 _et seq._]
+
+It seems, then, that the German Chancellor had no ground for suspicion
+against the Crown Princess as having informed Queen Victoria of the
+suggested attack on France; but thenceforth he had an intense dislike of
+these august ladies, and lost no opportunity of maligning them in
+diplomatic circles and through the medium of the Press. Yet, while
+nursing resentful thoughts against Queen Victoria, her daughter, and the
+British Ministry, the German Chancellor reserved his wrath mainly for
+his personal rival at St. Petersburg. The publication of Gortchakoff's
+circular despatch of May 10, 1875, beginning with the words, "Maintenant
+la paix est assurée," was in his eyes the crowning offence.
+
+The result was the beginning of a good understanding between Russia and
+France, and the weakening of the Three Emperors' League[248]. That
+league went to pieces for a time amidst the disputes at the Berlin
+Congress on the Eastern Question, where Germany's support of Austria's
+resolve to limit the sphere of Muscovite influence robbed the Czar of
+prospective spoils and placed a rival Power as "sentinel on the
+Balkans." Further, when Germany favoured Austrian interests in the many
+matters of detail that came up for settlement in those States, the rage
+in Russian official circles knew no bounds. Newspapers like the _Journal
+de St. Pétersbourg_, the _Russki Mir_, and the _Golos_, daily poured out
+the vials of their wrath against everything German; and that prince of
+publicists, Katkoff, with his coadjutor, Élie de Cyon, moved heaven and
+earth in the endeavour to prove that Bismarck alone had pushed Russia on
+to war with Turkey, and then had intervened to rob her of the fruits of
+victory. Amidst these clouds of invective, friendly hands were thrust
+forth from Paris and Moscow, and the effusive salutations of would-be
+statesmen marked the first beginnings of the present alliance. A Russian
+General--Obretchoff--went to Paris and "sounded the leading personages
+in Paris respecting a Franco-Russian alliance[249]."
+
+[Footnote 248: _Histoire de l'Entente franco-russe_, by Élie de Cyon,
+ch. i. (1895).]
+
+[Footnote 249: _Our Chancellor_, by M. Busch, vol. ii. pp. 137-138.]
+
+Clearly, it was high time for the two Central Powers to draw together.
+There was little to hinder their _rapprochement_. Bismarck's clemency to
+the Hapsburg Power in the hour of Prussia's triumph in 1866 now bore
+fruit; for when Russia sent a specific demand that the Court of Berlin
+must cease to support Austrian interests or forfeit the friendship of
+Russia, the German Chancellor speedily came to an understanding with
+Count Andrassy in an interview at Gastein on August 27-28, 1879. At
+first it had reference only to a defensive alliance against an attack by
+Russia, Count Andrassy, then about to retire from his arduous duties,
+declining to extend the arrangement to an attack by another
+Power--obviously France. The plan of the Austro-German alliance was
+secretly submitted by Bismarck to the King of Bavaria, who signified his
+complete approval[250]. It received a warm welcome from the Hapsburg
+Court; and, when the secret leaked out, Bismarck had enthusiastic
+greetings on his journey to Vienna and thence northwards to Berlin. The
+reason is obvious. For the first time in modern history the centre of
+Europe seemed about to form a lasting compact, strong enough to impose
+respect on the restless extremities. That of 1813 and 1814 had aimed
+only at the driving of Napoleon I. from Germany. The present alliance
+had its roots in more abiding needs.
+
+[Footnote 250: _Bismarck: Reflections and Reminiscences_, vol. ii. pp.
+251-289.]
+
+Strange to say, the chief obstacle was Kaiser Wilhelm himself. The old
+sovereign had very many claims on the gratitude of the German race, for
+his staunchness of character, singleness of aim, and homely good sense
+had made the triumphs of his reign possible. But the newer light of
+to-day reveals the limitations of his character. He never saw far ahead,
+and even in his survey of the present situation Prussian interests and
+family considerations held far too large a space. It was so now. Against
+the wishes of his Chancellor, he went to meet the Czar at Alexandrovo;
+and while the Austro-German compact took form at Gastein and Vienna,
+Czar and Kaiser were assuring each other of their unchanging friendship.
+Doubtless Alexander II. was sincere in these professions of affection
+for his august uncle; but Bismarck paid more heed to the fact that
+Russia had recently made large additions to her army, while dense clouds
+of her horsemen hung about the Polish border, ready to flood the
+Prussian plains. He saw safety only by opposing force to force. As he
+said to his secretary, Busch: "When we [Germany and Austria] are united,
+with our two million soldiers back to back, they [the Russians], with
+their Nihilism, will doubtless think twice before disturbing the peace."
+Finally the Emperor William agreed to the Austro-German compact,
+provided that the Czar should be informed that if he attacked Austria he
+would be opposed by both Powers[251].
+
+[Footnote 251: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, by M.
+Busch, vol. ii. p. 404; _Bismarck: Reflections and Reminiscences_, vol.
+ii. p. 268.]
+
+It was not until November 5, 1887, that the terms of the treaty were
+made known, and then through the medium of the _Times_. The official
+publication did not take place until February 3, 1888, at Berlin,
+Vienna, and Buda-Pesth. The compact provides that if either Germany or
+Austria shall be attacked by Russia, each Power must assist its
+neighbour with all its forces. If, however, the attack shall come from
+any other Power, the ally is pledged merely to observe neutrality; and
+not until Russia enters the field is the ally bound to set its armies in
+motion. Obviously the second case implies an attack by France on
+Germany; in that case Austria would remain neutral, carefully watching
+the conduct of Russia. As far as is known, the treaty does not provide
+for joint action, or mutual support, in regard to the Eastern Question,
+still less in matters further afield.
+
+In order to give pause to Russia, Bismarck even indulged in a passing
+flirtation with England. At the close of 1879, Lord Dufferin, then
+British ambassador at St. Petersburg, was passing through Berlin, and
+the Chancellor invited him to his estate at Varzin, and informed him
+that Russian overtures had been made to France through General
+Obretcheff, "but Chanzy [French ambassador at St. Petersburg], having
+reported that Russia was not ready, the French Government became less
+disposed than ever to embark on an adventurous policy[252]."
+
+[Footnote 252: _The Life of the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava_, by Sir A.
+Lyall (1905), vol. i. p. 304.]
+
+To the end of his days Bismarck maintained that the Austro-German
+alliance did not imply the lapse of the Three Emperors' League, but that
+the new compact, by making a Russian attack on Austria highly dangerous,
+if not impossible, helped to prolong the life of the old alliance.
+Obviously, however, the League was a mere "loud-sounding nothing" (to
+use a phrase of Metternich's) when two of its members had to unite to
+guard the weakest of the trio against the most aggressive. In the spirit
+of that statesmanlike utterance of Prince Bismarck, quoted as motto at
+the head of this chapter, we may say that the old Triple Alliance slowly
+dissolved under the influence of new atmospheric conditions. The three
+Emperors met for friendly intercourse in 1881, 1884, and 1885; and at or
+after the meeting of 1884, a Russo-German agreement was formed, by
+which the two Powers promised to observe a friendly neutrality in case
+either was attacked by a third Power. Probably the Afghan question, or
+Nihilism, brought Russia to accept Bismarck's advances; but when the
+fear of an Anglo-Russian war passed away, and the revolutionists were
+curbed, this agreement fell to the ground; and after the fall of
+Bismarck the compact was not renewed[253].
+
+[Footnote 253: On October 24, 1896, the _Hamburger Nachrichten_, a paper
+often inspired by Bismarck, gave some information (all that is known)
+about this shadowy agreement.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It will be well now to turn to the events which brought Italy into line
+with the Central Powers and thus laid the foundation of the Triple
+Alliance of to-day.
+
+The complex and uninteresting annals of Italy after the completion of
+her unity do not concern us here. The men whose achievements had
+ennobled the struggle for independence passed away in quick succession
+after the capture of Rome for the national cause. Mazzini died in March
+1872 at Pisa, mourning that united Italy was so largely the outcome of
+foreign help and monarchical bargainings. Garibaldi spent his last years
+in fulminating against the Government of Victor Emmanuel. The
+soldier-king himself passed away in January 1878, and his relentless
+opponent, Pius IX., expired a month later. The accession of Umberto I.
+and the election of Leo XIII. promised at first to assuage the feud
+between the Vatican and the Quirinal, but neither the tact of the new
+sovereign nor the personal suavity of the Pope brought about any real
+change. Italy remained a prey to the schism between Church and State. A
+further cause of weakness was the unfitness of many parts of the
+Peninsula for constitutional rule. Naples and the South were a century
+behind the North in all that made for civic efficiency, the taint of
+favouritism and corruption having spread from the governing circles to
+all classes of society. Clearly the time of wooing had been too short
+and feverish to lead up to a placid married life.
+
+During this period of debt and disenchantment came news of a slight
+inflicted by the Latin sister of the North. France had seized Tunis, a
+land on which Italian patriots looked as theirs by reversion, whereas
+the exigencies of statecraft assigned it to the French. It seems that
+during the Congress of Berlin (June-July 1878) Bismarck and Lord
+Salisbury unofficially dropped suggestions that their Governments would
+raise no objections to the occupation of Tunis by France. According to
+de Blowitz, Bismarck there took an early opportunity of seeing Lord
+Beaconsfield and of pointing out the folly of England quarrelling with
+Russia, when she might arrange matters more peaceably and profitably
+with her. England, said he, should let Russia have Constantinople and
+take Egypt in exchange; "France would not prove inexorable--besides, one
+might give her Tunis or Syria[254]." Another Congress story is to the
+effect that Lord Salisbury, on hearing of the annoyance felt in France
+at England's control over Cyprus, said to M. Waddington at Berlin: "Do
+what you like with Tunis; England will raise no objections." A little
+later, the two Governments came to a written understanding that France
+might occupy Tunis at a convenient opportunity.
+
+[Footnote 254: De Blowitz, _Memoirs_, ch. vi., also Busch, _Our
+Chancellor_, vol. ii. pp. 92-93.]
+
+The seizure of Tunis by France aroused all the more annoyance in Italy
+owing to the manner of its accomplishment. On May 11, 1881, when a large
+expedition was being prepared in her southern ports, M. Barthélémy de
+St. Hilaire disclaimed all idea of annexation, and asserted that the
+sole aim of France was the chastisement of a troublesome border tribe,
+the Kroumirs; but on the entry of the "red breeches" into Kairwan and
+the collapse of the Moslem resistance, the official assurance proved to
+be as unsubstantial as the inroads of the Kroumirs. Despite the protests
+that came from Rome and Constantinople, France virtually annexed that
+land, though the Sultan's representative, the Bey, still retains the
+shadow of authority[255].
+
+[Footnote 255: It transpired later on that Barthélémy de St. Hilaire did
+not know of the extent of the aims of the French military party, and
+that these subsequently gained the day; but this does not absolve the
+Cabinet and him of bad faith. Later on France fortified Bizerta, in
+contravention (so it is said) of an understanding with the British
+Government that no part of that coast should be fortified.]
+
+In vain did King Umberto's ministers appeal to Berlin for help against
+France. They received the reply that the affair had been virtually
+settled at the time of the Berlin Congress[256]. The resentment produced
+by these events in Italy led to the fall of the Cairoli Ministry, which
+had been too credulous of French assurances; and Depretis took the helm
+of State. Seeing that Bismarck had confessed his share in encouraging
+France to take Tunis, Italy's _rapprochement_ to Germany might seem to
+be unnatural. It was so. In truth, her alliance with the Central Powers
+was based, not on good-will to them, but on resentment against France.
+The Italian Nationalists saw in Austria the former oppressor, and still
+raised the cry of _Italia irredenta _for the recovery of the Italian
+districts of Tyrol, Istria, and Dalmatia. In January 1880, we find
+Bismarck writing: "Italy must not be numbered to-day among the
+peace-loving and conservative Powers, who must reckon with this fact. . . .
+We have much more ground to fear that Italy will join our adversaries
+than to hope that she will unite with us, seeing that we have no more
+inducements to offer her[257]."
+
+[Footnote 256: _Politische Geschichte der Gegenwart_, for 1881, p. 176;
+quoted by Lowe, _Life of Bismarck_, vol. ii. p. 133.]
+
+[Footnote 257: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages_, etc., vol. iii. p. 291.]
+
+This frame of mind changed after the French acquisition of Tunis.
+
+     Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes
+
+should have been the feeling of MM. Waddington and Ferry when Bismarck
+encouraged them to undertake that easiest but most expensive of
+conquests. The nineteenth century offers, perhaps, no more successful
+example of Macchiavellian statecraft. The estrangement of France and
+Italy postponed at any rate for a whole generation, possibly for the
+present age, that war of revenge in which up to the spring of 1881 the
+French might easily have gained the help of Italy. Thenceforth they had
+to reckon on her hostility. The irony of the situation was enhanced by
+the fact that the Tunis affair, with the recriminations to which it led,
+served to bring to power at Paris the very man who could best have
+marshalled the French people against Germany.
+
+Gambetta was the incarnation of the spirit of revenge. On more than one
+occasion he had abstained from taking high office in the shifting
+Ministries of the seventies; and it seems likely that by this
+calculating coyness he sought to keep his influence intact, not for the
+petty personal ends which have often been alleged, but rather with a
+view to the more effective embattling of all the national energies
+against Germany. Good-will to England and to the Latin peoples,
+hostility to the Power which had torn Elsass-Lothringen from
+France--such was the policy of Gambetta. He had therefore protested,
+though in vain, against the expedition to Tunis; and now, on his
+accession to power (November 9, 1881), he found Italy sullenly defiant,
+while he and his Radical friends could expect no help from the new
+autocrat of all the Russias. All hope of a war of revenge proved to be
+futile; and he himself fell from power on January 26, 1882[258]. The
+year to which he looked forward with high hopes proved to be singularly
+fatal to the foes of Germany. The armed intervention of Britain in Egypt
+turned the thoughts of Frenchmen from the Rhine to the Nile. Skobeleff,
+the arch enemy of all things Teutonic, passed away in the autumn; and
+its closing days witnessed the death of Gambetta at the hands of
+his mistress.
+
+[Footnote 258: Seignobos, _A Political History of Contemporary Europe_,
+vol. i. p. 210 (Eng. Ed.).]
+
+The resignation of Gambetta having slackened the tension between Germany
+and France, Bismarck displayed less desire for the alliance of Italy.
+Latterly, as a move in the German parliamentary game, he had coquetted
+with the Vatican; and as a result of this off-hand behaviour, Italy was
+slow in coming to accord with the Central Powers. Nevertheless, her
+resentment respecting Tunis overcame her annoyance at Bismarck's
+procedure; and on May 20, 1882, treaties were signed which bound Italy
+to the Central Powers for a term of five years. Their conditions have
+not been published, but there are good grounds for thinking that the
+three allies reciprocally guaranteed the possession of their present
+territories, agreed to resist attack on the lands of any one of them,
+and stipulated the amount of aid to be rendered by each in case of
+hostilities with France or Russia, or both Powers combined. Subsequent
+events would seem to show that the Roman Government gained from its
+northern allies no guarantee whatever for its colonial policy, or for
+the maintenance of the balance of power in the Mediterranean[259].
+
+[Footnote 259: For the Triple Alliance see the _Rev. des deux Mondes_,
+May 1, 1883; also Chiala, _Storia contemporanea--La Triplice e la
+Duplice Alleanza_ (1898).]
+
+Very many Italians have sharply questioned the value of the Triple
+Alliance to their country. Probably, when the truth comes fully to
+light, it will be found that the King and his Ministers needed some
+solid guarantee against the schemes of the Vatican to drive the monarchy
+from Rome. The relations between the Vatican and the Quirinal were very
+strained in the year 1882; and the alliance of Italy with Austria
+removed all fear of the Hapsburgs acting on behalf of the Jesuits and
+other clerical intriguers. The annoyance with which the clerical party
+in Italy received the news of the alliance shows that it must have
+interfered with their schemes. Another explanation is that Italy
+actually feared an attack from France in 1882 and sought protection from
+the Central Powers. We may add that on the renewal of the Triple
+Alliance in 1891, Italy pledged herself to send two corps through Tyrol
+to fight the French on their eastern frontier if they attacked Germany.
+But it is said that that clause was omitted from the treaty on its last
+renewal, in 1902.
+
+The accession of Italy to the Austro-German Alliance gave pause to
+Russia. The troubles with the Nihilists also indisposed Alexander III.
+from attempting any rash adventures, especially in concert with a
+democratic Republic which changed its Ministers every few months. His
+hatred of the Republic as the symbol of democracy equalled his distrust
+of it as a political kaleidoscope; and more than once he rejected the
+idea of a _rapprochement_ to the western Proteus because of "the absence
+of any personage authorised to assume the responsibility for a treaty of
+alliance[260]." These were the considerations, doubtless, which led him
+to dismiss the warlike Ignatieff, and to entrust the Ministry of Foreign
+Affairs to a hard-headed diplomatist, de Giers (June 12, 1882). His
+policy was peaceful and decidedly opposed to the Slavophil propaganda of
+Katkoff, who now for a time lost favour.
+
+[Footnote 260: Élie de Cyon, _op. cit._ p. 38.]
+
+For the present, then, Germany was safe. Russia turned her energies
+against England and achieved the easy and profitable triumphs in Central
+Asia which nearly brought her to war with the British Government (see
+Chapter xiv.).
+
+In the year 1884 Bismarck gained another success in bringing about the
+signature of a treaty of alliance between the three Empires. It was
+signed on March 24, 1884, at Berlin, but was not ratified until
+September, during a meeting of the three Emperors at Skiernewice. M.
+Élie de Cyon gives its terms as follows:
+
+(1) If one of the three contracting parties makes war on a fourth Power,
+the other two will maintain a benevolent neutrality. (To this Bismarck
+sought to add a corollary, that if two of them made war on a fourth
+Power, the third would equally remain neutral; but the Czar is said to
+have rejected this, in the interests of France.) (2) In case of a
+conflict in the Balkan Peninsula, the three Powers shall consult their
+own interests; and in the case of disagreement the third Power shall
+give a casting vote. (A protocol added here that Austria might annex
+Bosnia and Herzegovina, and occupy Novi-Bazar.) (3) The former special
+treaties between Russia and Germany, or Russia and Austria, are
+annulled. (4) The three Powers will supervise the execution of the terms
+of the Treaty of Berlin respecting Turkey; and if the Porte allows a
+fourth Power (evidently England) to enter the Dardanelles, it will
+incur the hostility of one of the three Powers (Russia). (5) They will
+not oppose the union of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia "if it comes about
+by the force of circumstances"; and will not allow Turkey to fortify the
+Balkan Passes. Finally, by Article 6, they forbid any one of the
+contracting Powers to occupy the Balkan Principalities. The compact held
+good only for three years.
+
+If these terms are correctly stated, the treaty was a great triumph for
+Austria and Germany at the expense of Russia. It is not surprising that
+the Czar finally broke away from the constraint imposed by the
+Skiernewice compact. As we have seen, his conduct towards Bulgaria in
+1885-86 brought him very near to a conflict with the Central Powers. The
+mystery is why he ever joined them on terms so disadvantageous. The
+explanation would seem to be that, like the King of Italy, he felt an
+alliance with the "conservative" Powers of Central Europe to be some
+safeguard against the revolutionary elements then so strong in Russia.
+
+In the years 1886-87 that danger became less acute, and the dictates of
+self-interest in foreign affairs resumed their normal sway. At the
+beginning of the year 1887 Katkoff regained his influence over the mind
+of the Czar by convincing him that the troubles in the Balkan Peninsula
+were fomented by the statesmen of Berlin and Vienna in order to distract
+his attention from Franco-German affairs. Let Russia and France join
+hands, said Katkoff in effect, and then Russia would have a free hand in
+Balkan politics and could lay down the law in European matters
+generally.
+
+In France the advantage of a Russian alliance was being loudly asserted
+by General Boulanger--then nearing the zenith of his popularity--as also
+by that brilliant leader of society, Mme. Adam, and a cluster of
+satellites in the Press. Even de Giers bowed before the idea of the
+hour, and allowed the newspaper which he inspired, _Le Nord_, to use
+these remarkable words (February 20, 1887):
+
+     Henceforth Russia will watch the events on the Rhine, and
+     relegates the Eastern Question to the second place. The
+     interests of Russia forbid her, in case of another
+     Franco-German war, observing the same benevolent neutrality
+     which she previously observed. The Cabinet of St. Petersburg
+     will in no case permit a further weakening of France. In
+     order to keep her freedom of action for this case, Russia
+     will avoid all conflict with Austria and England, and will
+     allow events to take their course in Bulgaria.
+
+Thus, early in the year 1887, the tendency towards that equilibrium of
+the Powers, which is the great fact of recent European history, began to
+exercise a sedative effect on Russian policy in Bulgaria and in Central
+Asia. That year saw the delimitation of the Russo-Afghan border, and the
+adjustment in Central Asian affairs of a balance corresponding to the
+equilibrium soon to be reached in European politics. That, too, was the
+time when Bulgaria began firmly and successfully to assert her
+independence and to crush every attempt at a rising on the part of her
+Russophil officers. This was seen after an attempt which they made at
+Rustchuk, when Stambuloff condemned nine of them to death. The Russian
+Government having recalled all its agents from Bulgaria, the task of
+saving these rebels devolved on the German Consuls, who were then doing
+duty for Russia. Their efforts were futile, and Katkoff used their
+failure as a means of poisoning the Czar's mind not only against
+Germany, but also against de Giers, who had suggested the supervision of
+Russian interests by German Consuls[261].
+
+[Footnote 261: Élie de Cyon, _op. cit._ p. 274.]
+
+Another incident of the spring-tide of 1887 kindled the Czar's anger
+against the Teutons more fiercely and with more reason. On April 20, a
+French police commissioner, Schnaebele, was arrested by two German
+agents or spies on the Alsacian border in a suspiciously brutal manner,
+and thrown into prison. Far from soothing the profound irritation which
+this affair produced in France, Bismarck poured oil upon the flames a
+few days later by a speech which seemed designed to extort from France a
+declaration of war. That, at least, was the impression produced on the
+mind of Alexander III., who took the unusual step of sending an
+autograph letter to the Emperor William I. He, in his turn, without
+referring the matter to Bismarck, gave orders for the instant release of
+Schnaebele[262]. Thus the incident closed; but the disagreeable
+impression which it created ended all chance of renewing the Three
+Emperors' League. The Skiernewice compact, which had been formed for
+three years, therefore came to an end.
+
+[Footnote 262: See the _Nouvelle Revue_ for April 15, 1890, for Cyon's
+version of the whole affair, which is treated with prudent brevity by
+Oncken, Blum, and Delbrück.]
+
+Already, if we may trust the imperfect information yet available, France
+and Russia had sought to break up the Triple Alliance. In the closing
+weeks of 1886 de Giers sought to entice Italy into a compact with Russia
+with a view to an attack on the Central States (her treaty with them
+expired in the month of May following), and pointed to Trieste and the
+Italian districts of Istria as a reward for this treachery. The French
+Government is also believed to have made similar overtures, holding out
+the Trentino (the southern part of Tyrol) as the bait. Signor Depretis,
+true to the policy of the Triple Alliance, repelled these offers--an act
+of constancy all the more creditable seeing that Bismarck had on more
+than one occasion shown scant regard for the interests of Italy.
+
+Even now he did little to encourage the King's Government to renew the
+alliance framed in 1882. Events, however, again brought the Roman
+Cabinet to seek for support. The Italian enterprise in Abyssinia had
+long been a drain on the treasury, and the annihilation of a force by
+those warlike mountaineers on January 26, 1887, sent a thrill of horror
+through the Peninsula. The internal situation was also far from
+promising. The breakdown of attempts at a compromise between the
+monarchy and Pope Leo XIII. revealed the adamantine hostility of the
+Vatican to the King's Government in Rome. A prey to these
+discouragements, King Umberto and his advisers were willing to renew
+the Triple Alliance (March 1887), though on terms no more advantageous
+than before. Signor Depretis, the chief champion of the alliance, died
+in July; but Signor Crispi, who thereafter held office, proved to be no
+less firm in its support. After a visit to Prince Bismarck at his abode
+of Friedrichsruh, near Hamburg, the Italian Prime Minister came back a
+convinced Teutophil, and announced that Italy adhered to the Central
+Powers in order to assure peace to Europe.
+
+Crispi also hinted that the naval support of England might be
+forthcoming if Italy were seriously threatened; and when the naval
+preparations at Toulon seemed to portend a raid on the ill-protected
+dockyard of Spezzia, British warships took up positions at Genoa in
+order to render help if it were needed. This incident led to a
+discussion in the _Neue Freie Presse_ of Vienna, owing to a speech made
+by Signor Chiala at Rome. Mr. Labouchere also, on February 10, 1888,
+sharply questioned Sir James Fergusson in the House of Commons on the
+alleged understanding between England and Italy. All information,
+however, was refused[263].
+
+[Footnote 263: Hansard, vol. cccxii. pp. 1180 _et seq._; Chiala, _La
+Triplice e la Duplice Alleanza_, app. ii.; Mr. Stillman, _Francesco
+Crispi_ (p. 177), believes in the danger to Spezzia.]
+
+Next to nothing, then, is known on the interesting question how far the
+British Government went in framing an agreement with Italy, and through
+her, with the Triple Alliance. We can only conjecture the motives which
+induced the Salisbury Cabinet to make a strategic turn towards that
+"conservative" alliance, and yet not definitely join it. The isolation
+of England proved, in the sequel, to be not only a source of annoyance
+to the Continental Powers but of weakness to herself, because her
+statesmen failed to use to the full the potential advantages of their
+position at the middle of the see-saw. Bismarck's dislike of England was
+not incurable; he was never a thorough-going "colonial"; and it is
+probable that the adhesion of England to his league would have
+inaugurated a period of mutual good-will in politics, colonial policy,
+and commerce. The abstention of England has in the sequel led German
+statesmen to show all possible deference to Russia, generally at the
+expense of British interests.
+
+The importance of this consideration becomes obvious when the dangers of
+the year 1887 are remembered. The excitement caused in Russia and France
+by the Rustchuk and Schnaebele affairs, the tension in Germany produced
+by the drastic proposals of a new Army Bill, and, above all, the
+prospect of the triumph of Boulangist militarism in France, kept the
+Continent in a state of tension for many months. In May, Katkoff nearly
+succeeded in persuading the Czar to dismiss de Giers and adopt a warlike
+policy, in the belief that a strong Cabinet was about to be formed at
+Paris with Boulanger as the real motive power. After a long ministerial
+crisis the proposed ministerial combination broke down; Boulanger was
+shelved, and the Czar is believed to have sharply rebuked Katkoff for
+his presumption[264]. This disappointment of his dearest hopes preyed on
+the health of that brilliant publicist and hastened his end, which
+occurred on August 1, 1887.
+
+[Footnote 264: This version (the usual one) is contested by Cyon, who
+says that Katkoff's influence over the Czar was undermined by a mean
+German intrigue.]
+
+The seed which Katkoff had sown was, however, to bring forth fruit.
+Despite the temporary discomfiture of the Slavophils, events tended to
+draw France and Russia more closely together. The formal statement of
+Signor Crispi that the Triple Alliance was a great and solid fact would
+alone have led to some counter move; and all the proofs of the
+instability of French politics furnished by the Grévy-Wilson scandals
+could not blind Russian statesmen to the need of some understanding with
+a great Power[265].
+
+[Footnote 265: See the Chauvinist pamphlets, _Échec et Mat à la
+Politique de l'Ennemi de la France_, by "un Russe" (Paris, 1887); and
+_Nécessité de l'Alliance franco-russe_, by P. Pader (Toulouse, 1888).]
+
+Bismarck sought to give the needed hand-grip. In November 1887, during
+an interview with the Czar at Berlin, he succeeded in exposing the
+forgery of some documents concerning Bulgaria which had prejudiced
+Alexander against him. He followed up this advantage by secretly
+offering the Cabinet of St. Petersburg a guarantee of German support in
+case of an attack from Austria; but it does not appear that the Czar
+placed much trust in the assurance, especially when Bismarck made his
+rhetorical fanfare of February 6, 1888, in order to ensure the raising
+of a loan of 28,000,000 marks for buying munitions of war.
+
+That speech stands forth as a landmark in European politics. In a
+simple, unadorned style the German Chancellor set forth the salient
+facts of the recent history of his land, showing how often its peace had
+been disturbed, and deducing the need for constant preparation in a
+State bordered, as Germany was, by powerful neighbours:--"The pike in
+the European pool prevent us from becoming carp; but we must fulfil the
+designs of Providence by making ourselves so strong that the pike can do
+no more than amuse us." He also traced the course of events which led to
+the treaties with Austria and Italy, and asserted that by their
+formation and by the recent publication of the treaty of 1882 with
+Austria the German Government had not sought in any way to threaten
+Russia. The present misunderstandings with that Power would doubtless
+pass away; but seeing that the Russian Press had "shown the door to an
+old, powerful, and effective friend, which we were, we shall not knock
+at it again."
+
+Bismarck's closing words--"We Germans fear God and nothing else in the
+world; and it is the fear of God which makes us seek peace and ensue
+it"--carried the Reichstag with him, with the result that the proposals
+of the Government were adopted almost unanimously, and Bismarck received
+an overwhelming ovation from the crowd outside. These days marked the
+climax of the Chancellor's career and the triumph of the policy which
+led to the Triple Alliance.
+
+The question, which of the two great hostile groups was the more sincere
+in its championship of peace principles, must remain one of the riddles
+of the age. Bismarck had certainly given much provocation to France in
+the Schnaebele affair; but in the year 1888 the chief danger to the
+cause of peace came from Boulanger and the Slavophils of Russia. The
+Chancellor, having carried through his army proposals, posed as a
+peacemaker; and Germany for some weeks bent all her thoughts on the
+struggle between life and death which made up the ninety days' reign of
+the Emperor Frederick III. Cyon and other French writers have laboured
+to prove that Bismarck's efforts to prevent his accession to the throne,
+on the ground that he was the victim of an incurable disease, betokened
+a desire for immediate war with France.
+
+It appears, however, that the contention of the Chancellor was strictly
+in accord with one of the fundamental laws of the Empire. His attitude
+towards France throughout the later phases of the Boulanger affair was
+coldly "correct," while he manifested the greatest deference towards the
+private prejudices of the Czar when the Empress Frederick allowed the
+proposals of marriage between her daughter and Prince Alexander of
+Battenberg to be renewed. Knowing the unchangeable hatred of the Czar
+for the ex-Prince of Bulgaria, Bismarck used all his influence to thwart
+the proposal, which was defeated by the personal intervention of the
+present Kaiser[266]. According to our present information, then, German
+policy was sincerely peaceful, alike in aim and in tone, during the
+first six months of the year; and the piling up of armaments which then
+went on from the Urals to the Pyrenees may be regarded as an
+unconsciously ironical tribute paid by the Continental Powers to the
+cause of peace.
+
+[Footnote 266: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages, etc._ vol. iii. p. 335.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A change came over the scene when William II. ascended the throne of
+Germany (June 15, 1888). At once he signalised the event by issuing a
+proclamation to the army, in which occurred the words: "I swear ever to
+remember that the eyes of my ancestors look down upon me from the other
+world, and that I shall one day have to render account to them of the
+glory and honour of the army." The navy received his salutation on that
+same day; and not until three days later did a proclamation go forth to
+his people. Men everywhere remembered that "Frederick the Noble" had
+first addressed his people, and then his army and navy. The inference
+was unavoidable that the young Kaiser meant to be a Frederick the Great
+rather than a "citizen Emperor," as his father had longed to be known.
+The world has now learnt to discount the utterances of the most
+impulsive of Hohenzollern rulers; but in those days, when it knew not
+his complex character, such an army order seemed to portend the advent
+of another Napoleon.
+
+Not only France but Russia felt some alarm. True, the young Kaiser
+speedily paid a visit to his relative at St. Petersburg; but it soon
+appeared that the stolid and very reserved Alexander III. knew not what
+to make of the versatile personality that now controlled the policy of
+Central Europe. It was therefore natural that France and Russia should
+take precautionary measures; and we now know that these were begun in
+the autumn of that year.
+
+In the first instance, they took the form of loans. A Parisian
+financier, M. Hoskier, Danish by descent, but French by naturalisation
+and sympathy, had long desired to use the resources of Paris as a means
+of cementing friendship, and, if possible, alliance with Russia. For
+some time he made financial overtures at St. Petersburg, only to find
+all doors closed against him by German capitalists. But in the spring of
+the year 1888 the Berlin Bourse had been seized by a panic at the
+excessive amount of Russian securities held by German houses; large
+sales took place, and thenceforth it seemed impossible for Russia to
+raise money at Berlin or Frankfurt except on very hard terms.
+
+Now was the opportunity for which the French houses had been waiting and
+working. In October 1888, Hoskier received an invitation to repair to
+St. Petersburg secretly, in order to consider the taking up of a loan of
+500,000,000 francs at 4 per cent, to replace war loans contracted in
+1877 at 5 per cent. At once he assured the Russian authorities that his
+syndicate would accept the offer, and though the German financiers
+raged and plotted against him, the loan went to Paris. This was the
+beginning of a series of loans launched by Russia at Paris, and so
+successfully that by the year 1894 as much as four milliards of francs
+(£160,000,000) is said to have been subscribed in that way[267]. Thus
+the wealth of France enabled Russia to consolidate her debt on easier
+terms, to undertake strategic railways, to build a new navy, and arm her
+immense forces with new and improved weapons. It is well known that
+Russia could not otherwise have ventured on these and other costly
+enterprises; and one cannot but admire the skill which she showed in
+making so timely a use of Gallic enthusiasm, as well as the
+statesmanlike foresight of the French in piling up these armaments on
+the weakest flank of Germany.
+
+[Footnote 267: E. Daudet, _Histoire diplomatique de l'Alliance
+franco-russe_, pp. 270-279.]
+
+Meanwhile the Boulangist bubble had burst. After his removal from the
+army on the score of insubordination, "le brav' général" entered into
+politics, and, to the surprise of all, gained an enormous majority in
+the election for a district of Paris (January 1889). It is believed
+that, had he rallied his supporters and marched against the Elysée, he
+might have overthrown the parliamentary Republic. But, like Robespierre
+at the crisis of his career, he did not strike--he discoursed of reason
+and moderation. For once the authorities took the initiative; and when
+the new Premier, Tirard, took action against him for treason, he fled to
+Brussels on the appropriate date of the 1st of April. Thenceforth, the
+Royalist-Bonapartist-Radical hybrid, known as Boulangism, ceased to
+scare the world; and its challenging snorts died away in sounds which
+were finally recognised as convulsive brayings. How far the Slavophils
+of Russia had a hand in goading on the creature is not known. Élie de
+Cyon, writing at a later date, declared that he all along saw through
+and distrusted Boulanger. Disclaimers of this kind were plentiful in the
+following years[268].
+
+[Footnote 268: De Cyon, _op. cit._ pp. 394 _et seq._]
+
+After the exposure of that hero of the Boulevards, it was natural that
+the Czar should decline to make a binding compact with France; and he
+signalised the isolation of Russia by proposing a toast to the Prince of
+Montenegro as "the only sincere and faithful friend of Russia."
+Nevertheless, the dismissal of Bismarck by William II., in March 1890,
+brought about a time of strain and friction between Russia and Germany
+which furthered the prospects of a Franco-Russian _entente_. Thenceforth
+peace depended on the will of a young autocrat who now and again gave
+the impression that he was about to draw the sword for the satisfaction
+of his ancestral _manes_. A sharp and long-continued tariff war between
+Germany and Russia also embittered the relations between the two Powers.
+
+Rumours of war were widespread in the year 1891. Wild tales were told as
+to a secret treaty between Germany and Belgium for procuring a passage
+to the Teutonic hosts through that neutralised kingdom, and thus turning
+the new eastern fortresses which France had constructed at enormous
+cost[269]. Parts of Northern France were to be the reward of King
+Leopold's complaisance, and the help of England and Turkey was to be
+secured by substantial bribes[270]. The whole scheme wears a look of
+amateurish grandiosity; but, on the principle that there is no smoke
+without fire (which does not always hold good for diplomatic smoke),
+much alarm was felt at Paris. The renewal of the Triple Alliance in June
+1891, for a term of six years, was followed up a month later by a visit
+of the Emperor William to England, during which he took occasion at the
+Guildhall to state his desire "to maintain the historical friendship
+between these our two nations" (July 10). Balanced though this assertion
+was by an expression of a hope in the peaceful progress of all peoples,
+the words sent an imaginative thrill to the banks of the Seine and
+the Neva.
+
+[Footnote 269: In the French Chamber of Deputies it was officially
+stated in 1893, that in two decades France had spent the sum of
+£614,000,000 on her army and the new fortresses, apart from that on
+strategic railways and the fleet.]
+
+[Footnote 270: Notovich, _L'Empereur Alexandre III._ ch. viii.]
+
+The outcome of it all was the visit of the French Channel Fleet to
+Cronstadt at the close of July; and the French statesman M. Flourens
+asserts that the Czar himself took the initiative in this matter[271].
+The fleet received an effusive welcome, and, to the surprise of all
+Europe, the Emperor visited the flagship of Admiral Gervais and remained
+uncovered while the band played the national airs of the two nations.
+Few persons ever expected the autocrat of the East to pay that tribute
+to the _Marseillaise_. But, in truth, French democracy was then entering
+on a new phase at home. Politicians of many shades of opinion had begun
+to cloak themselves with "opportunism"--a conveniently vague term, first
+employed by Gambetta, but finally used to designate any serviceable
+compromise between parliamentary rule, autocracy, and flamboyant
+militarism. The Cronstadt _fêtes_ helped on the warping process.
+
+[Footnote 271: L.E. Flourens, _Alexandre III.: sa Vie, son Oeuvre_, p.
+319.]
+
+Whether any definite compact was there signed is open to doubt. The
+_Times_ correspondent, writing on July 31 from St. Petersburg, stated
+that Admiral Gervais had brought with him from Paris a draft of a
+convention, which was to be considered and thereafter signed by the
+Russian Ministers for Foreign Affairs, War, and the Navy, but not by the
+Czar himself until the need for it arose. Probably, then, no alliance
+was formed, but military and naval conventions were drawn up to serve as
+bases for common action if an emergency should arise. These agreements
+were elaborated in conferences held by the Russian generals, Vanoffski
+and Obrucheff, with the French generals, Saussier, Miribel, and
+Boisdeffre. A Russian loan was soon afterwards floated at Paris amidst
+great enthusiasm.
+
+For the present the French had to be satisfied with this exchange of
+secret assurances and hard cash. The Czar refused to move further,
+mainly because the scandals connected with the Panama affair once more
+aroused his fears and disgust. De Cyon states that the degrading
+revelations which came to light, at the close of 1891 and early in 1892,
+did more than anything to delay the advent of a definite alliance. The
+return visit of a Russian squadron to French waters was therefore
+postponed to the month of October 1893, when there were wild rejoicings
+at Toulon. The Czar and President exchanged telegrams, the former
+referring to "the bonds which unite the two countries."
+
+It appeared for a time that Russia meant to keep her squadron in the
+Mediterranean; and representations on this subject are known to have
+been made by England and Italy, which once again drew close together. A
+British squadron visited Italian ports--an event which seemed to
+foreshadow the entrance of the Island Power to the Triple Alliance. The
+Russian fleet, however, left the Mediterranean, and the diplomatic
+situation remained unchanged. Despite all the passionate wooing of the
+Gallic race, no contract of marriage took place during the life of
+Alexander III. He died on November 1, 1894, and his memory was extolled
+in many quarters as that of the great peacemaker of the age.
+
+How far he deserved this praise, to which every statesman of the first
+rank laid claim, is matter for doubt. It is certain that he disliked war
+on account of the evil results accruing from the Russo-Turkish conflict;
+but whether his love of peace rested on grounds other than prudential
+will be questioned by those who remember his savage repression of
+non-Russian peoples in his Empire, his brutal treatment of the
+Bulgarians and of their Prince, his underhand intrigues against Servia
+and Roumania, and the favour which he showed to the commander who
+violated international law at Panjdeh. That the French should enshrine
+his memory in phrases to which their literary skill gives a world-wide
+vogue is natural, seeing that he ended their days of isolation and saved
+them from the consequences of Boulangism; but it still has to be proved
+that, apart from the Schnaebele affair, Germany ever sought a quarrel
+with France during the reign of Alexander III.; and it may finally
+appear that the Triple Alliance was the genuinely conservative league
+which saved Europe from the designs of the restless Republic and the
+exacting egotism of Alexander III.
+
+Another explanation of the Franco-Russian _entente_ is fully as tenable
+as the theory that the Czar based his policy on the seventh beatitude. A
+careful survey of the whole of that policy in Asia, as well as in
+Europe, seems to show that he drew near to the Republic in order to
+bring about an equilibrium in Europe which would enable him to throw his
+whole weight into the affairs of the Far East. Russian policy has
+oscillated now towards the West, now towards the East; but old-fashioned
+Russians have always deplored entanglement in European affairs, and have
+pointed to the more hopeful Orient. Even during the pursuit of
+Napoleon's shattered forces in their retreat from Moscow in 1812, the
+Russian Commander, Kutusoff, told Sir Robert Wilson that Napoleon's
+overthrow would benefit, not the world at large, but only England[272].
+He failed to do his utmost, largely because he looked forward to peace
+with France and a renewal of the Russian advance on India.
+
+[Footnote 272: _The French Invasion of Russia_, by Sir R. Wilson, p.
+234.]
+
+The belief that England was the enemy came to be increasingly held by
+leading Russians, especially, of course, after the Crimean War and the
+Berlin Congress. Russia's true mission, they said, lay in Asia. There,
+among those ill-compacted races, she could easily build up an Empire
+that never could be firmly founded on tough, recalcitrant Bulgars or
+warlike Turks. The Triple Alliance having closed the door to Russia on
+the West, there was the greater temptation to take the other alternative
+course--that line of least resistance which led towards Afghanistan and
+Manchuria. The value of an understanding with France was now clear to
+all. As we have seen, it guarded Russia's exposed frontier in Poland,
+and poured into the exchequer treasures which speedily took visible form
+in the Siberian railway, as well as the extensions of the lines leading
+to Merv and Tashkend.
+
+But this eastern trend of Russian policy can scarcely be called
+peaceful. The Panjdeh incident (March 29, 1885) would have led any other
+Government than that of Mr. Gladstone to declare war on the aggressor.
+Events soon turned the gaze of the Russians towards Manchuria, and the
+Franco-Russian agreement enabled them to throw their undivided energies
+in that direction (see Chapter XX.). It was French money which enabled
+Russia to dominate Manchuria, and, for the time, to overawe Japan. In
+short, the Dual Alliance peacefully conducted the Muscovites to
+Port Arthur.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The death of Alexander III. in November 1894 brought to power a very
+different personality, kindlier and more generous, but lacking the
+strength and prudence of the deceased ruler. Nicholas II. had none of
+that dislike of Western institutions which haunted his father. The way
+was therefore open for a more binding compact with France, the need for
+which was emphasised by the events of the years 1894-95 in the Far East.
+But the manner in which it came about is still but dimly known. Members
+of the House of Orleans are said to have taken part in the overtures,
+perhaps with the view of helping on the hypnotising influence which
+alliance with the autocracy of the East exerts on the democracy of
+the West.
+
+The Franco-Russian _entente_ ripened into an alliance in the year 1895.
+So, at least, we may judge from the reference to Russia as "notre allié"
+by the Prime Minister, M. Ribot, in the debate of June 10, 1895.
+Nicholas II., at the time of his visit to Paris in 1896, proclaimed his
+close friendship with the Republic; and during the return visit of
+President Faure to Cronstadt and St. Petersburg he gave an even more
+significant sign that the two nations were united by something more than
+sentiment and what Carlyle would have called the cash-nexus. On board
+the French warship _Pothuau_ he referred in his farewell speech to the
+"nations amies et alliées" (August 26, 1897).
+
+The treaty has never been made public, but a version of it appeared in
+the _Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung_ of September 21, 1901, and in the Paris
+paper, _La Liberté_ five days later. Mr. Henry Norman gives the
+following summary of the information there unofficially communicated.
+After stating that the treaty contains no direct reference to Germany,
+he proceeds: "It declares that if either nation is attacked, the other
+will come to its assistance with the whole of its military and naval
+forces, and that peace shall only be concluded in concert and by
+agreement between the two. No other _casus belli_ is mentioned, no term
+is fixed to the duration of the treaty, and the whole instrument
+consists of only a few clauses[273]."
+
+[Footnote 273: H. Norman, M.P., _All the Russias_, p. 390 (Heinemann,
+1902). See the articles on the alliance as it affects Anglo-French
+relations by M. de Pressensé in the _Nineteenth Century_ for February
+and November 1896; also Mr. Spenser Wilkinson's _The Nation's
+Awakening_, ch. v.]
+
+Obviously France and Russia cannot help one another with all their
+forces unless the common foe were Germany, or the Triple Alliance as a
+whole. In that case alone would such a clause be operative. The pressure
+of France and Russia on the flanks of the German Empire would be
+terrible; and it is inconceivable that Germany would attack France,
+knowing that such action would bring the weight of Russia upon her
+weakest frontier. It is, however, conceivable that the three central
+allies might deem the strain of an armed peace to be unendurable and
+attack France or Russia. To such an attack the Dual Alliance would
+oppose about equal forces, though now hampered by the weakening of the
+Empire in the Far East.
+
+Another account, also unofficial and discreetly vague, was given to the
+world by a diplomatist at the time when the Armenian outrages had for a
+time quickened the dull conscience of Christendom[274]. Assuming that
+the Sick Man of the East was at the point of death, the anonymous writer
+hinted at the profitable results obtainable by the Continental States
+if, leaving England out of count, they arranged the Eastern Question _à
+l'aimable_ among themselves. The Dual Alliance, he averred, would not
+meet the needs of the situation; for it did not contemplate the
+partition of Turkey or a general war in the East.
+
+[Footnote 274: _L'Alliance Franco-russe devant la Crise Orientale_, par
+un Diplomate étranger. (Paris, Plon. 1897).]
+
+     Both parties [France and Russia] have examined the course to
+     be taken in the case of aggression by one or more members of
+     the Triple Alliance; an understanding has been arrived at on
+     the great lines of general policy; but of necessity they did
+     not go further. If the Russian Government could not undertake
+     to place its sword at the service of France with a view to a
+     revision of the Treaty of Frankfurt--a demand, moreover,
+     which France did not make--it cannot claim that France should
+     mobilise her forces to permit it to extend its territory in
+     Europe or in Asia. They know that very well on the banks of
+     the Neva.
+
+To this interesting statement we may add that France and Russia have
+been at variance on the Eastern Question. Thus, when, in order to press
+her rightful claims on the Sultan, France determined to coerce him by
+the seizure of Mitylene, if need be, the Czar's Government is known to
+have discountenanced this drastic proceeding. Speaking generally, it is
+open to conjecture whether the Dual Alliance refers to other than
+European questions. This may be inferred from the following fact. On the
+announcement of the Anglo-Japanese compact early in 1902, by which
+England agreed to intervene in the Far Eastern Question if another Power
+helped Russia against Japan, the Governments of St. Petersburg and Paris
+framed a somewhat similar convention whereby France definitely agreed to
+take action if Russia were confronted by Japan and a European or
+American Power in these quarters. No such compact would have been needed
+if the Franco-Russian alliance had referred to the problems of the
+Far East.
+
+Another "disclosure" of the early part of 1904 is also noteworthy. The
+Paris _Figaro_ published official documents purporting to prove that
+the Czar Nicholas II., on being sounded by the French Government at the
+time of the Fashoda incident, declared his readiness to abide by his
+engagements in case France took action against Great Britain. The
+_Figaro_ used this as an argument in favour of France actively
+supporting Russia against Japan, if an appeal came from St. Petersburg.
+This contention would now meet with little support in France. The events
+of the Russo-Japanese War and the massacre of workmen in St. Petersburg
+on January 22, 1905, have visibly strained Franco-Russian relations.
+This is seen in the following speech of M. Anatole France on February 1,
+1905, with respect to his interview with the Premier, M. Combes:--
+
+     At the beginning of this war I had heard it said very vaguely
+     that there existed between France and Russia firm and fast
+     engagements, and that, if Russia came to blows with a second
+     Power, France would have to intervene. I asked M. Combes,
+     then Prime Minister, whether anything of the kind existed. M.
+     Combes thought it due to his position not to give a precise
+     answer; but he declared to me in the clearest way that so
+     long as he was Minister we need not fear that our sailors and
+     our soldiers would be sent to Japan. My own opinion is that
+     this folly is not to be apprehended under any Ministry. (_The
+     Times_. February 3.)
+
+At present, then, everything tends to show that the Franco-Russian
+alliance refers solely to European questions and is merely a defensive
+agreement in view of a possible attack from one or more members of the
+Triple Alliance. Seeing that the purely defensive character of the
+latter has always been emphasised, doubts are very naturally expressed
+in many quarters as to the use of these alliances. The only tangible
+advantage gained by any one of the five Powers is that Russia has had
+greater facilities for raising loans in France and in securing her hold
+on Manchuria. On the other hand, Frenchmen complain that the alliance
+has entailed an immense financial responsibility, which is dearly bought
+by the cessation of those irritating frontier incidents of the
+Schnaebele type which they had to put up with from Bismarck in the days
+of their isolation[275].
+
+[Footnote 275: See an article by Jules Simon in the _Contemporary
+Review_, May 1894.]
+
+Italy also questions the wisdom of her alliance with the Central Powers
+which brings no obvious return except in the form of slightly enhanced
+consideration from her Latin sister. In cultured circles on both sides
+of the Maritime Alps there is a strong feeling that the present
+international situation violates racial instincts and tradition; and, as
+we have already seen, Italy's attitude towards France is far different
+now from what it was in 1882. It is now practically certain that
+Italians would not allow the King's Government to fight France in the
+interests of the Central Powers. Their feelings are quite natural. What
+have Italians in common with Austrians and Prussians? Little more, we
+may reply, than French republicans with the subjects of the Czar. In
+truth both of these alliances rest, not on whole-hearted regard or
+affection, but on fear and on the compulsion which it exerts.
+
+To this fact we may, perhaps, largely attribute the _malaise_ of Europe.
+The Greek philosopher Empedocles looked on the world as the product of
+two all-pervading forces, love and hate, acting on blind matter: love
+brought cognate particles together and held them in union; hate or
+repulsion kept asunder the unlike or hostile elements. We may use the
+terms of this old cosmogony in reference to existing political
+conditions, and assert that these two elemental principles have drawn
+Europe apart into two hostile masses; with this difference, that the
+allies for the most part are held together, not so much by mutual regard
+as by hatred of their opposites. From this somewhat sweeping statement
+we must mark off one exception. There were two allies who came together
+with the ease which betokens a certain amount of affinity. Thanks to the
+statesmanlike moderation of Bismarck after Königgrätz, Austria willingly
+entered into a close compact with her former rival. At least that was
+the feeling among the Germans and Magyars of the Dual Monarchy. The
+Austro-German alliance, it may be predicted, will hold good while the
+Dual Monarchy exists in its present form; but even in that case fear of
+Russia is the one great binding force where so much else is centrifugal.
+If ever the Empire of the Czar should lose its prestige, possibly the
+two Central Powers would drift apart.
+
+Although there are signs of weakness in both alliances, they will
+doubtless remain standing as long as the need which called them into
+being remains. Despite all the efforts made on both sides, the military
+and naval resources of the two great leagues are approximately equal. In
+one respect, and in one alone, Europe has benefited from these
+well-matched efforts. The uneasy truce that has been dignified by the
+name of peace since the year 1878 results ultimately from the fact that
+war will involve the conflict of enormous citizen armies of nearly
+equal strength.
+
+So it has come to this, that in an age when the very conception of
+Christendom has vanished, and ideal principles have been well-nigh
+crushed out of life by the pressure of material needs, peace again
+depends on the once-derided principle of the balance of power. That it
+should be so is distressing to all who looked to see mankind win its way
+to a higher level of thought on international affairs. The level of
+thought in these matters could scarcely be lower than it has been since
+the Armenian massacres. The collective conscience of Europe is as torpid
+as it was in the eighteenth century, when weak States were crushed or
+partitioned, and armed strength came to be the only guarantee of safety.
+
+At the close of this volume we shall glance at some of the influences
+which the Tantalus toil of the European nations has exerted on the life
+of our age. It is not for nothing that hundreds of millions of men are
+ever striving to provide the sinews of war, and that rulers keep those
+sinews in a state of tension. The result is felt in all the other organs
+of the body politic. Certainly the governing classes of the Continent
+must be suffering from atrophy of the humorous instinct if they fail to
+note the practical nullity of the efforts which they and their subjects
+have long put forth. Perhaps some statistical satirist of the twentieth
+century will assess the economy of the process which requires nearly
+twelve millions of soldiers for the maintenance of peace in the most
+enlightened quarter of the globe.
+
+NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION
+
+In the _Echo de Paris_ of July 3, 1905, the Comte de Nion published
+documents which further prove the importance of the services rendered by
+Great Britain to France at the time of the war scare of May 1875. They
+confirm the account as given in this chapter, but add a few more
+details. See, too, corroborative evidence in the _Times_ for July
+4, 1905.
+
+NOTE TO THE THIRD EDITION
+
+It has been stated, apparently on good authority, that the informal
+conversations which went on during the Congress of Berlin between the
+plenipotentiaries of the Powers (see _ante_, p. 328) furnished Italy
+with an assurance that, in the event of France expanding in North
+Africa, Italy should find "compensation" in Tripoli. Apparently this
+explains her recent action there (October 1911).
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE CENTRAL ASIAN QUESTION
+
+     "The Germans have reached their day, the English their
+     mid-day, the French their afternoon, the Italians their
+     evening, the Spanish their night; but the Slavs stand on the
+     threshold of the morning."--MADAME NOVIKOFF ("O.K.")--_The
+     Friends and Foes of Russia_.
+
+
+The years 1879-85 which witnessed the conclusion of the various
+questions opened up by the Treaty of Berlin and the formation of the
+Triple Alliance mark the end of a momentous period in European history.
+The quarter of a century which followed the Franco-Austrian War of 1859
+in Northern Italy will always stand out as one of the most momentous
+epochs in State-building that the world has ever seen. Italy, Denmark,
+Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Turkey, assumed their present form. The
+Christians of the Balkan Peninsula made greater strides towards liberty
+than they had taken in the previous century. Finally, the new diplomatic
+grouping of the Powers helped to endow these changes with a permanence
+which was altogether wanting to the fitful efforts of the period
+1815-59. That earlier period was one of feverish impulse and picturesque
+failure; the two later decades were characterised by stern organisation
+and prosaic success.
+
+It generally happens to nations as to individuals that a period devoted
+to recovery from internal disorders is followed by a time of great
+productive and expansive power. The introspective epoch gives place to
+one of practical achievement. Faust gives up his barren speculations
+and feels his way from thought to action. From "In the beginning was the
+Word" he wins his way onward through "the Thought" and "the Might,"
+until he rewrites the dictum "In the beginning was the Deed." That is
+the change which came over Germany and Europe in the years 1850-80. The
+age of the theorisers of the _Vor-Parlament_ at Frankfurt gave place to
+the age of Bismarck. The ideals of Mazzini paled in the garish noonday
+of the monarchical triumph at Rome.
+
+Alas! too, the age of great achievement, that of the years 1859-85,
+makes way for a period characterised by satiety, torpor, and an
+indefinable _malaise_. Europe rests from the generous struggles of the
+past, and settles down uneasily into a time of veiled hostility and
+armed peace. Having framed their State systems and covering alliances,
+the nations no longer give heed to constitutions, rights of man, or
+duties of man; they plunge into commercialism, and search for new
+markets. Their attitude now is that of Ancient Pistol when he exclaims
+
+                  "The world's mine oyster,
+     Which I with sword will open."
+
+In Europe itself there is little to chronicle in the years 1885-1900,
+which are singularly dull in regard to political achievement. No popular
+movement (not even those of the distressed Cretans and Armenians) has
+aroused enough sympathy to bring it to the goal. The reason for this
+fact seems to be that the human race, like the individual, is subject to
+certain alternating moods which may be termed the enthusiastic and the
+practical; and that, during the latter phase, the material needs of life
+are so far exalted at the expense of the higher impulses that small
+struggling communities receive not a tithe of the sympathy which they
+would have aroused in more generous times.
+
+The fact need not beget despair. On the contrary, it should inspire the
+belief that, when the fit passes away, the healthier, nobler mood will
+once more come; and then the world will pulsate with new life, making
+wholesome use of the wealth previously stored up but not assimilated. It
+is significant that Gervinus, writing in 1853, spoke of that epoch as
+showing signs of disenchantment and exhaustion in the political sphere.
+In reality he was but six years removed from the beginning of an age of
+constructive activity the like of which has never been seen.
+
+Further, we may point out that the ebb in the tide of human affairs
+which set in about the year 1885 was due to specific causes operating
+with varied force on different peoples. First in point of time, at the
+close of the year 1879, came the decision of Bismarck and of the German
+Reichstag to abandon the cause of Free Trade in favour of a narrow
+commercial nationalism. Next came the murder of the Czar Alexander II.
+(March 1881), and the grinding down of the reformers and of all alien
+elements by his stern successor. Thus, the national impulse, which had
+helped on that of democracy in the previous generation, now lent its
+strength to the cause of economic, religious, and political reaction in
+the two greatest of European States.
+
+In other lands that vital force frittered itself away in the frothy
+rhetoric of Déroulède and the futile prancings of Boulanger, in the
+gibberings of _Italia Irredenta_, or in the noisy obstruction of Czechs
+and Parnellites in the Parliaments of Vienna and London. Everything
+proclaimed that the national principle had spent its force and could now
+merely turn and wobble until it came to rest.
+
+A curious series of events also served to discredit the party of
+progress in the constitutional States. Italian politics during the
+ascendancy of Depretis, Mancini, and Crispi became on the one side a
+mere scramble for power, on the other a nervous edging away from the
+gulf of bankruptcy ever yawning in front. France, too, was slow to
+habituate herself to parliamentary institutions, and her history in the
+years 1887 to 1893 is largely that of a succession of political scandals
+and screechy recriminations, from the time of the Grévy-Wilson affair to
+the loathsome end of the Panama Company. In the United Kingdom the
+wheels of progress lurched along heavily after the year 1886, when
+Gladstone made his sudden strategic turn towards the following of
+Parnell. Thus it came about that the parties of progress found
+themselves almost helpless or even discredited; and the young giant of
+Democracy suddenly stooped and shrivelled as if with premature decay.
+
+The causes of this seeming paralysis were not merely political and
+dynamic: they were also ethical. The fervour of religious faith was
+waning under the breath of a remorseless criticism and dogmatic
+materialism. Already, under their influence, the teachers of the earlier
+age, Carlyle, Tennyson, and Browning, had lost their joyousness and
+spontaneity; and the characteristic thinkers of the new age were chiefly
+remarkable for the arid formalism with which they preached the gospel of
+salvation for the strong and damnation to the weak. The results of the
+new creed were not long in showing themselves in the political sphere.
+If the survival of the fittest were the last word of philosophy, where
+was the need to struggle on behalf of the weak and oppressed? In that
+case, it might be better to leave them to the following clutch of the
+new scientific devil; while those who had charged through to the head of
+the rout enjoyed themselves with utmost abandon. Such was, and is, the
+deduction from the new gospel (crude enough, doubtless, in many
+respects), which has finally petrified in the lordly egotism of Nietzche
+and in the unlovely outlines of one or two up-to-date Utopias.
+
+These fashions will have their day. Meanwhile it is the duty of the
+historian to note that self-sacrifice and heroism have a hard struggle
+for life in an age which for a time exalted Herbert Spencer to the
+highest pinnacle of greatness, which still riots in the calculating
+selfishness of Nietzsche and raves about Omar Khayyám.
+
+Seeing, then, that the last fifteen years of the nineteenth century in
+Europe were almost barren of great formative movements such as had
+ennobled the previous decades, we may well leave that over-governed,
+over-drilled continent weltering in its riches and discontent, its
+militarism and moral weakness, in order to survey events further afield
+which carried on the State-building process to lands as yet chaotic or
+ill-organised. There, at least, we may chronicle some advance, hampered
+though it has been by the moral languor or laxity that has warped the
+action of Europeans in their new spheres.
+
+The transference of human interest from European history to that of Asia
+and Africa is certainly one of the distinguishing features of the years
+in question. The scene of great events shifts from the Rhine and the
+Danube to the Oxus and the Nile. The affairs of Rome, Alsace, and
+Bulgaria being settled for the present, the passions of great nations
+centre on Herat and Candahar, Alexandria and Khartum, the Cameroons,
+Zanzibar, and Johannesburg, Port Arthur and Korea. The United States,
+after recovering from the Civil War and completing their work of
+internal development, enter the lists as a colonising Power, and drive
+forth Spain from two of her historic possessions. Strife becomes keen
+over the islands of the Pacific. Australia seeks to lay hands on New
+Guinea, and the European Powers enter into hot discussions over
+Madagascar, the Carolines, Samoa, and many other isles.
+
+In short, these years saw a repetition of the colonial strifes that
+marked the latter half of the eighteenth century. Just as Europe, after
+solving the questions arising out of the religious wars, betook itself
+to marketing in the waste lands over the seas, so too, when the impulses
+arising from the incoming of the principles of democracy and nationality
+had worn themselves out, the commercial and colonial motive again came
+uppermost. And, as in the eighteenth century, so too after 1880 there
+was at hand an economic incentive spurring on the Powers to annexation
+of new lands. France had recurred to protective tariffs in 1870.
+Germany, under Bismarck, followed suit ten years later; and all the
+continental Powers in turn, oppressed by armaments and girt around with
+hostile tariffs, turned instinctively to the unclaimed territories
+oversea as life-saving annexes for their own overstocked
+industrial centres.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It will be convenient to begin the recital of extra-European events by
+considering the expansion of Russia and Great Britain in Central Asia.
+There, it is true, the commercial motive is less prominent than that of
+political rivalry; and the foregoing remarks apply rather to the recent
+history of Africa than to that of Central Asia. But, as the plan of this
+work is to some extent chronological, it seems better to deal first with
+events which had their beginning further back than those which relate to
+the partition of Africa.
+
+The two great colonising and conquering movements of recent times are
+those which have proceeded from London and Moscow as starting-points. In
+comparison with them the story of the enterprise of the Portuguese and
+Dutch has little more than the interest that clings around an almost
+vanished past. The halo of romance that hovers over the exploits of
+Spaniards in the New World has all but faded away. Even the more solid
+achievements of the gallant sons of France in a later age are of small
+account when compared with the five mighty commonwealths that bear
+witness to the strength of the English stock and the adaptability of its
+institutions, or with the portentous growth of the Russian Empire
+in Asia.
+
+The methods of expansion of these two great colonial Empires are
+curiously different; and students of Ancient History will recall a
+similar contrast in the story of the expansion of the Greek and Latin
+races. The colonial Empire of England has been sown broadcast over the
+seas by adventurous sailors, the freshness and spontaneity of whose
+actions recall corresponding traits in the maritime life of Athens.
+Nursed by the sea, and filled with the love of enterprise and freedom
+which that element inspires, both peoples sought wider spheres for their
+commerce, and homes more spacious and wealthy than their narrow cradles
+offered; but, above all, they longed to found a microcosm of Athens or
+England, with as little control from the mother-land as might be.
+
+The Russian Empire, on the other hand, somewhat resembles that of Rome
+in its steady, persistent extension of land boundaries by military and
+governmental methods. The Czars, like the Consuls and Emperors of Rome,
+set to work with a definite purpose, and brought to bear on the
+shifting, restless tribes beyond their borders the pressure of an
+unchanging policy and of a well-organised administration. Both States
+relied on discipline and civilisation to overcome animal strength and
+barbarism; and what they won by the sword, they kept by means of a good
+system of roads and by military colonies. In brief, while Ancient Greece
+and Modern England worked through sailors and traders, Rome and Russia
+worked through soldiers, road-makers, and proconsuls. The Sea Powers
+trusted mainly to individual initiative and civic freedom; the Land
+Powers founded their empires on organisation and order. The dominion of
+the former was sporadic and easily dissolvable; that of the latter was
+solid, and liable to be destroyed only by some mighty cataclysm. The
+contrast between them is as old and ineffaceable as that which subsists
+between the restless sea and the unchanging plain.
+
+While the comparison between England and Athens is incomplete, and at
+some points fallacious, that between the Czars and the Cæsars is in many
+ways curiously close and suggestive. As soon as the Roman eagles soared
+beyond the mighty ring of the Alps and perched securely on the slopes of
+Gaul and Rhætia, the great Republic had the military advantage of
+holding the central position as against the mutually hostile tribes of
+Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. Thanks to that advantage, to her
+organisation, and to her military colonies, she pushed forward an
+ever-widening girdle of empire, finally conferring the blessings of the
+_pax Romana_ on districts as far remote as the Tyne, the Lower Rhine and
+Danube, the Caucasus, and the Pillars of Hercules.
+
+Russia also has used to the full the advantages conferred by a central
+position, an inflexible policy, and a military-agrarian system well
+adapted to the needs of the nomadic peoples on her borders. In the
+fifteenth century, her polity emerged victorious from the long struggle
+with the Golden Horde of Tartars [I keep the usual spelling, though
+"Tatars" is the correct form]; and, as the barbarous Mongolians lost
+their hold on the districts of the middle Volga, the power of the Czars
+began its forward march, pressing back Asiatics on the East and Poles on
+the West. In 1556, Ivan the Terrible seized Astrakan at the mouth of the
+Volga, and victoriously held Russia's natural frontiers on the East, the
+Ural Mountains, and the northern shore of the Caspian Sea. We shall deal
+in a later chapter with her conquest of Siberia, and need only note here
+that Muscovite pioneers reached the shores of the Northern Pacific as
+early as the year 1636.
+
+Russia's conquests at the expense of Turks, Circassians, and Persians is
+a subject alien to this narrative; and the tragic story of the overthrow
+of Poland at the hand of the three partitioning Powers, Russia, Prussia,
+and Austria, does not concern us here.
+
+It is, however, needful to observe the means by which she was able to
+survive the dire perils of her early youth and to develop the colonising
+and conquering agencies of her maturer years. They may be summed up in
+the single word, "Cossacks."
+
+The Cossacks are often spoken of as though they were a race. They are
+not; they are bands or communities, partly military, partly nomadic or
+agricultural, as the case may be. They can be traced back to bands of
+outlaws who in the time of Russia's weakness roamed about on the verge
+of her settlements, plundering indifferently their Slavonic kinsmen, or
+the Tartars and Turks farther south. They were the "men of the plain,"
+who had fled from the villages of the Slavs, or (in fewer cases) from
+the caravans of the Tartars, owing to private feuds, or from love of a
+freer and more lucrative life than that of the village or the
+encampment. In this debatable land their numbers increased until, Slavs
+though they mainly were, they became a menace to the growing power of
+the Czars. Ivan the Terrible sent expeditions against them, transplanted
+many of their number, and compelled those who remained in the space
+between the rivers Don and Ural to submit to his authority, and to give
+military service in time of war in return for rights of pasturage and
+tillage in the districts thenceforth recognised as their own. Some of
+them transferred their energies to Asia; and it was a Cossack outlaw,
+Jermak, who conquered a great part of Siberia. The Russian pioneers, who
+early penetrated into Siberia or Turkestan, found it possible at a later
+time to use these children of the plain as a kind of protective belt
+against the warlike natives. The same use was made of them in the South
+against Turks. Catharine II. broke the power of the "Zaporoghians"
+(Cossacks of the Dnieper), and settled large numbers of them on the
+River Kuban to fight the Circassians.
+
+In short, out of the driftwood and wreckage of their primitive social
+system the Russians framed a bulwark against the swirling currents of
+the nomad world outside. In some respects the Cossacks resemble the
+roving bands of Saxons and Franks who pushed forward roughly but
+ceaselessly the boundaries of the Teutonic race[276]. But, whereas those
+offshoots soon came to have a life of their own, apart from the parent
+stems, Russia, on the other hand, has known how to keep a hold on her
+boisterous youth, turning their predatory instincts against her worst
+neighbours, and using them as hardy irregulars in her wars.
+
+[Footnote 276: See Cæsar, _Gallic War_, bk. vi., for an account of the
+formation, at the tribal meeting, of a roving band.]
+
+Considering the number of times that the Russian Government crushed the
+Cossack revolts, broke up their self-made organisation, and transplanted
+unruly bands to distant parts, their almost invariable loyalty to the
+central authority is very remarkable. It may be ascribed either to the
+veneration which they felt for the Czar, to the racial sentiment which
+dwells within the breast of nearly every Slav, or to their proximity to
+alien peoples whom they hated as Mohammedans or despised as godless
+pagans. In any case, the Russian autocracy gained untold advantages from
+the Cossack fringe on the confines of the Empire.
+
+Some faint conception of the magnitude of that gain may be formed, if,
+by way of contrast, we try to picture the Teutonic peoples always acting
+together, even through their distant offshoots; or, again, if by a
+flight of fancy we can imagine the British Government making a wise use
+of its old soldiers and the flotsam and jetsam of our cities for the
+formation of semi-military colonies on the most exposed frontiers of the
+Empire. That which our senators have done only in the case of the
+Grahamstown experiment of 1819, Russia has done persistently and
+successfully with materials far less promising--a triumph of
+organisation for which she has received scant credit.
+
+The roving Cossacks have become practically a mounted militia, highly
+mobile in peace and in war. Free from taxes, and enjoying certain
+agrarian or pastoral rights in the district which they protect, their
+position in the State is fully assured. At times the ordinary Russian
+settlers are turned into Cossacks. Either by that means, or by migration
+from Russia, or by a process of accretion from among the conquered
+nomads, their ranks are easily recruited; and the readiness with which
+Tartars and Turkomans are absorbed into this cheap and effective militia
+has helped to strengthen Russia alike in peace and war. The source of
+strength open to her on this side of her social system did not escape
+the notice of Napoleon--witness his famous remark that within fifty
+years Europe would be either Republican or Cossack[277].
+
+[Footnote 277: For the Cossacks, see D.M. Wallace's _Russia_, vol. ii.
+pp. 80-95; and Vladimir's _Russia on the Pacific_, pp. 46-49. The former
+points out that their once democratic organisation has vanished under
+the autocracy; and that their officers, appointed by the Czar, own most
+of the land, formerly held in common.]
+
+The firm organisation which Central Europe gained under the French
+Emperor's hammer-like blows served to falsify the prophecy; and the
+stream of Russian conquest, dammed up on the west by the
+newly-consolidated strength of Prussia and Austria, set strongly towards
+Asia. Pride at her overthrow of the great conqueror in 1812 had
+quickened the national consciousness of Russia; and besides this
+praiseworthy motive there was another perhaps equally potent, namely,
+the covetousness of her ruling class. The Memoirs written by her
+bureaucrats and generals reveal the extravagance, dissipation, and
+luxury of the Court circles. Fashionable society had as its main
+characteristic a barbaric and ostentatious extravagance, alike in
+gambling and feasting, in the festivals of the Court or in the scarcely
+veiled debauchery of its devotees. Baron Löwenstern, who moved in its
+higher ranks, tells of cases of a license almost incredible to those who
+have not pried among the garbage of the Court of Catharine II. This
+recklessness, resulting from the tendency of the Muscovite nature, as of
+the Muscovite climate, to indulge in extremes, begot an imperious need
+of large supplies of money; and, ground down as were the serfs on the
+broad domains of the nobles, the resulting revenues were all too scanty
+to fill up the financial void created by the urgent needs of St.
+Petersburg, Gatchina, or Monte Carlo. Larger domains had to be won in
+order to outvie rivals or stave off bankruptcy; and these new domains
+could most easily come by foreign conquest.
+
+For an analogous reason, the State itself suffered from land hunger. Its
+public service was no less corrupt than inefficient. Large sums
+frequently vanished, no one knew whither; but one infallible cure for
+bankruptcy was always at hand, namely, conquests over Poles, Turks,
+Circassians, or Tartars. To this Catharine II. had looked when she
+instituted the vicious practice of paying the nobles for their services
+at Court; and during her long career of conquest she greatly developed
+the old Muscovite system of meeting the costs of war out of the domains
+of the vanquished, besides richly dowering the Crown, and her generals
+and favoured courtiers. One of the Russian Ministers, referring to the
+notorious fact that his Government made war for the sake of booty as
+well as glory, said to a Frenchman, "We have remained somewhat Asiatic
+in that respect[278]." It is not always that a Minister reveals so
+frankly the motives that help to mould the policy of a great State.
+
+[Footnote 278: Quoted by Vandal, _Napoléon I. et Alexandre,_ vol. i. p.
+136.]
+
+The predatory instinct, once acquired, does not readily pass away.
+Alexander I. gratified it by forays in Circassia, even at the time when
+he was face to face with the might of the great Napoleon; and after the
+fall of the latter, Russia pushed on her confines in Georgia until they
+touched those of Persia. Under Nicholas I. little territory was added
+except the Kuban coast on the Black Sea, Erivan to the south of Georgia,
+and part of the Kirghiz lands in Turkestan.
+
+The reason for this quiescence was that almost up to the verge of the
+Crimean War Nicholas hoped to come to an understanding with England
+respecting an eventual partition of the Turkish Empire, Austria also
+gaining a share of the spoils. With the aim of baiting these proposals,
+he offered, during his visit to London in 1844, to refrain from any
+movement against the Khanates of Central Asia, concerning which British
+susceptibilities were becoming keen. His Chancellor, Count Nesselrode,
+embodied these proposals in an important Memorandum, containing a
+promise that Russia would leave the Khanates of Turkestan as a neutral
+zone in order to keep the Russian and British possessions in Asia "from
+dangerous contact[279]."
+
+[Footnote 279: Quoted on p. 14 of _A Diplomatic Study on the Crimean
+War,_ issued by the Russian Foreign Office, and attributed to Baron
+Jomini (Russian edition, 1879; English edition, 1882).]
+
+For reasons which we need not detail, British Ministers rejected these
+overtures, and by degrees England entered upon the task of defending the
+Sultan's dominions, largely on the assumption that they formed a
+necessary bulwark of her Indian Empire. It is not our purpose to
+criticise British policy at that time. We merely call attention to the
+fact that there seemed to be a prospect of a friendly understanding with
+Russia respecting Turkey, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Central Asia; and that
+the British Government decided to maintain the integrity of Turkey by
+attacking the Power which seemed about to impugn it. As a result, Turkey
+secured a new lease of life by the Crimean War, while Alexander II.
+deemed himself entirely free to press on Asiatic conquests from which
+his father had refrained. Thus, the two great expanding Powers entered
+anew on that course of rivalry in Asia which has never ceased, and which
+forms to-day the sole barrier to a good understanding between them.
+
+After the Crimean War circumstances favoured the advance of the Russian
+arms. England, busied with the Sepoy Mutiny in India, cared little what
+became of the rival Khans of Turkestan; and Lord Lawrence,
+Governor-General of India in 1863-69, enunciated the soothing doctrine
+that "Russia might prove a safer neighbour than the wild tribes of
+Central Asia." The Czar's emissaries therefore had easy work in
+fomenting the strifes that constantly arose in Bokhara, Khiva, and
+Tashkend, with the result that in 1864 the last-named was easily
+acquired by Russia. We may add here that Tashkend is now an important
+railway centre in the Russian Central Asian line, and that large stores
+of food and material are there accumulated, which may be utilised in
+case Russia makes a move against Afghanistan or Northern India.
+
+In 1868 an outbreak of Mohammedan fanaticism in Bokhara brought the
+Ameer of that town into collision with the Russians, who thereupon
+succeeded in taking Samarcand. The capital of the empire of Tamerlane,
+"the scourge of Asia," now sank to the level of an outpost of Russian
+power, and ultimately to that of a mart for cotton. The Khan of Bokhara
+fell into a position of complete subservience, and ceded to the
+conquerors the whole of his province of Samarcand[280].
+
+[Footnote 280: For an account of Samarcand and Bokhara, see _Russia in
+Central Asia,_ by Hon. G. (Lord) Curzon (1889); A. Vambéry's _Travels in
+Central Asia_ (1867-68); Rev. H. Lansdell, _Russian Central Asia,_ 2
+vols. (1885); E. Schuyler, _Journey in Russian Turkestan,_ etc., 2 vols.
+(1876); E. O'Donovan, _The Merv Oasis,_ 2 vols. (1883).]
+
+It is believed that the annexation of Samarcand was contrary to the
+intentions of the Czar. Alexander II. was a friend of peace; and he had
+no desire to push forward his frontiers to the verge of Afghanistan,
+where friction would probably ensue with the British Government. Already
+he had sought to allay the irritation prevalent in Russophobe circles in
+England. In November 1864, his Chancellor, Prince Gortchakoff, issued a
+circular setting forth the causes that impelled the Russians on their
+forward march. It was impossible, he said, to keep peace with
+uncivilised and predatory tribes on their frontiers. Russia must press
+on until she came into touch with a State whose authority would
+guarantee order on the boundaries. The argument was a strong one; and it
+may readily be granted that good government, civilisation, and commerce
+have benefited by the extension of the _pax Russica_ over the
+slave-hunting Turkomans and the inert tribes of Siberia.
+
+Nevertheless, as Gortchakoff's circular expressed the intention of
+refraining from conquest for the sake of conquest, the irritation in
+England became very great when the conquest of Tashkend, and thereafter
+of Samarcand, was ascribed, apparently on good grounds, to the ambition
+of the Russian commanders, Tchernaieff and Kaufmann respectively. On the
+news of the capture of Samarcand reaching London, the Russian ambassador
+hastened to assure the British Cabinet that his master did not intend to
+retain his conquest. Nevertheless, it was retained. The doctrine of
+political necessity proved to be as expansive as Russia's boundaries;
+and, after the rapid growth of the Indian Empire under Lord Dalhousie,
+the British Government could not deny the force of the plea.
+
+This mighty stride forward brought Russia to the northern bounds of
+Afghanistan, a land which was thenceforth to be the central knot of
+diplomatic problems of vast magnitude. It will therefore be well, in
+beginning our survey of a question which was to test the efficacy of
+autocracy and democracy in international affairs, to gain some notion
+of the physical and political conditions of the life of that people.
+
+As generally happens in a mountainous region in the midst of a great
+continent, their country exhibits various strata of conquest and
+settlement. The northern district, sloping towards Turkestan, is
+inhabited mainly by Turkomans who have not yet given up their roving
+habits. The rugged hill country bordering on the Punjab is held by
+Pathans and Ghilzais, who are said by some to be of the same stock as
+the Afghans. On the other hand, a well-marked local legend identifies
+the Afghans proper with the lost ten tribes of Israel; and those who
+love to speculate on that elusive and delusive subject may long use
+their ingenuity in speculating whether the oft-quoted text as to the
+chosen people possessing the gates of their enemies is more applicable
+to the sea-faring and sea-holding Anglo-Saxons or to the
+pass-holding Afghans.
+
+That elevated plateau, ridged with lofty mountains and furrowed with
+long clefts, has seen Turkomans, Persians, and many other races sweep
+over it; and the mixture of these and other races, perhaps including
+errant Hebrews, has there acquired the sturdiness, tenacity, and
+clannishness that mark the fragments of three nations clustering
+together in the Alpine valleys; while it retains the turbulence and
+fierceness of a full-blooded Asiatic stock. The Afghan problem is
+complicated by these local differences and rivalries; the north cohering
+with the Turkomans, Herat and the west having many affinities and
+interests in common with Persia, Candahar being influenced by
+Baluchistan, while the hill tribes of the north-east bristle with local
+peculiarities and aboriginal savagery. These districts can be welded
+together only by the will of a great ruler or in the white heat of
+religious fanaticism; and while Moslem fury sometimes unites all the
+Afghan clans, the Moslem marriage customs result fully as often in a
+superfluity of royal heirs, which gives rein to all the forces that make
+for disruption. Afghanistan is a hornet's nest; and yet, as we shall see
+presently, owing to geographical and strategical reasons, it cannot be
+left severely alone. The people are to the last degree clannish; and
+nothing but the grinding pressure of two mighty Empires has endowed them
+with political solidarity.
+
+It is not surprising that British statesmen long sought to avoid all
+responsibility for the internal affairs of such a land. As we have seen,
+the theory which found favour with Lord Lawrence was that of intervening
+as little as possible in the affairs of States bordering on India, a
+policy which was termed "masterly inactivity" by the late Mr. J.W.S.
+Wyllie. It was the outcome of the experience gained in the years
+1839-42, when, after alienating Dost Mohammed, the Ameer of Afghanistan,
+by its coolness, the Indian Government rushed to the other extreme and
+invaded the country in order to tear him from the arms of the more
+effusive Russians.
+
+The results are well known. Overweening confidence and military
+incapacity finally led to the worst disaster that befell a British army
+during the nineteenth century, only one officer escaping from among the
+4500 troops and 12,000 camp followers who sought to cut their way back
+through the Khyber Pass[281]. A policy of non-intervention in the
+affairs of so fickle and savage a people naturally ensued, and was
+stoutly maintained by Lords Canning, Elgin, and Lawrence, who held sway
+during and after the great storm of the Indian Mutiny. The worth of that
+theory of conduct came to be tested in 1863, on the occasion of the
+death of Dost Mohammed, who had latterly recovered Herat from Persia,
+and brought nearly the whole of the Afghan clans under his sway. He had
+been our friend during the Mutiny, when his hostility might readily have
+turned the wavering scales of war; and he looked for some tangible
+return for his loyal behaviour in preventing the attempt of some of his
+restless tribesmen to recover the once Afghan city of Peshawur.
+
+[Footnote 281: Sir J.W. Kaye, _History of the War in Afghanistan_, 5
+vols. (1851-78).]
+
+To his surprise and disgust he met with no return whatever, even in a
+matter which most nearly concerned his dynasty and the future of
+Afghanistan. As generally happens with Moslem rulers, the aged Ameer
+occupied his declining days with seeking to provide against the troubles
+that naturally resulted from the oriental profusion of his marriages.
+Dost Mohammed's quiver was blessed with the patriarchal equipment of
+sixteen sons--most of them stalwart, warlike, and ambitious. Eleven of
+them limited their desires to parts of Afghanistan, but five of them
+aspired to rule over all the tribes that go to make up that seething
+medley. Of these, Shere Ali was the third in age but the first in
+capacity, if not in prowess. Moreover, he was the favourite son of Dost
+Mohammed; but where rival mothers and rival tribes were concerned, none
+could foresee the issue of the pending conflict[282].
+
+[Footnote 282: G.B. Malleson, _History of Afghanistan_, p. 421.]
+
+Dost Mohammed sought to avert it by gaining the effective support of the
+Indian Government for his Benjamin. He pleaded in vain. Lord Canning,
+Governor-General of India at the time of the Mutiny, recognised Shere
+Ali as heir-apparent, but declined to give any promise of support either
+in arms or money. Even after the Mutiny was crushed, Lord Canning and
+his successor, Lord Elgin, adhered to the former decision, refusing even
+a grant of money and rifles for which father and son pleaded.
+
+As we have said, Dost Mohammed died in 1863; but even when Shere Ali was
+face to face with formidable family schisms and a widespread revolt,
+Lord Lawrence clung to the policy of recognising only "_de facto_
+Powers," that is, Powers which actually existed and could assert their
+authority. All that he offered was to receive Shere Ali in conference,
+and give him good advice; but he would only recognise him as Ameer of
+Afghanistan if he could prevail over his brothers and their tribesmen.
+He summed it up in this official letter of April 17, 1866, sent to the
+Governor of the Punjab:--
+
+It should be our policy to show clearly that we will not interfere in
+the struggle, that we will not aid either party, that we will leave the
+Afghans to settle their own quarrels, and that we are willing to be on
+terms of amity and good-will with the nation and with their rulers _de
+facto_. Suitable opportunities can be taken to declare that these are
+the principles which will guide our policy; and it is the belief of the
+Governor-General that such a policy will in the end be appreciated[283].
+
+[Footnote 283: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), p. 10. For a
+defence of this policy of "masterly inactivity," see Mr. Bosworth
+Smith's _Life of Lord Lawrence_, vol. ii. pp. 570-590; also Mr. J.W.S.
+Wyllie's _Essays on the External Policy of India_.]
+
+The Afghans did not appreciate it. Shere All protested that it placed a
+premium on revolt; he also complained that the Viceroy not only gave him
+no help, but even recognised his rival, Ufzul, when the latter captured
+Cabul. After the death of Ufzul and the assumption of authority at Cabul
+by a third brother, Azam, Shere Ali by a sudden and desperate attempt
+drove his rival from Cabul (September 8, 1868) and practically ended the
+schisms and strifes which for five years had rent Afghanistan in twain.
+Then, but then only, did Lord Lawrence consent to recognise him as Ameer
+of the whole land, and furnish him with £60,000 and a supply of arms. An
+act which, five years before, would probably have ensured the speedy
+triumph of Shere Ali and his lasting gratitude to Great Britain, now
+laid him under no sense of obligation[284]. He might have replied to
+Lord Lawrence with the ironical question with which Dr. Johnson declined
+Lord Chesterfield's belated offer of patronage: "Is not a patron, my
+lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the
+water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help?"
+
+[Footnote 284: The late Duke of Argyll in his _Eastern Question_ (vol.
+ii. p. 42) cited the fact of this offer of money and arms as a proof
+that Lord Lawrence was not wedded to the theory of "masterly
+inactivity," and stated that the gift helped Shere Ali to complete his
+success. It is clear, however, that Lord Lawrence waited to see whether
+that success was well assured before the offer was made.
+
+The Duke of Argyll proves one thing, that the action of Lord Lawrence in
+September 1868 was not due to Sir Henry Rawlinson's despatch from London
+(dated July 20, 1868) in favour of more vigorous action. It was due to
+Lawrence's perception of the change brought about by Russian action in
+the Khanate of Bokhara, near the Afghan border.]
+
+Moreover, there is every reason to think that Shere Ali, with the
+proneness of orientals to refer all actions to the most elemental
+motives, attributed the change of front at Calcutta solely to fear. That
+was the time when the Russian capture of Samarcand cowed the Khan of
+Bokhara and sent a thrill through Central Asia. In the political
+psychology of the Afghans, the tardy arrival at Cabul of presents from
+India argued little friendship for Shere Ali, but great dread of the
+conquering Muscovites.
+
+Such, then, was the policy of "masterly inactivity" in 1863-68, cheap
+for India, but excessively costly for Afghanistan. Lord Lawrence
+rendered incalculable services to India before and during the course of
+the Mutiny, but his conduct towards Shere Ali is certainly open to
+criticism. The late Duke of Argyll, Secretary of State for India in the
+Gladstone Ministry (1868-74), supported it in his work, _The Eastern
+Question,_ on the ground that the Anglo-Afghan treaty of 1855 pledged
+the British not to interfere in the affairs of Afghanistan[285]. But
+uncalled for interference is one thing; to refuse even a slight measure
+of help to an ally, who begs it as a return for most valuable services,
+is quite another thing.
+
+[Footnote 285: The Duke of Argyll, _op. cit._ vol. ii. p. 226 (London,
+1879). For the treaty, see Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878),
+p. 1.]
+
+Moreover, the Viceroy himself was brought by the stern logic of events
+implicitly to give up his policy. In one of his last official
+despatches, written on January 4, 1869, he recognised the gain to Russia
+that must accrue from our adherence to a merely passive policy in
+Central Asian affairs. He suggested that we should come to a "clear
+understanding with the Court of St. Petersburg as to its projects and
+designs in Central Asia, and that it might be given to understand in
+firm but courteous language, that it cannot be permitted to interfere in
+the affairs of Afghanistan, or in those of any State which lies
+contiguous to our frontier."
+
+This sentence tacitly implied a change of front; for any prohibition to
+Russia to interfere in the affairs of Afghanistan virtually involved
+Britain's claim to exercise some degree of suzerainty in that land. The
+way therefore seemed open for a new departure, especially as the new
+Governor-General, Lord Mayo, was thought to favour the more vigorous
+ideas latterly prevalent at Westminster. But when Shere Ali met the new
+Viceroy in a splendid Durbar at Umballa (March 1869) and formulated his
+requests for effective British support, in case of need, they were, in
+the main, refused[286].
+
+[Footnote 286: Sir W.W. Hunter, _The Earl of Mayo_, p. 125 (Oxford,
+1891); the Duke of Argyll, _op. cit._ vol. ii, p. 252.]
+
+We may here use the words in which the late Duke of Argyll summed up the
+wishes of the Ameer and the replies of Lord Mayo:--
+
+He (the Ameer) wanted to have an unconditional treaty, offensive and
+defensive. He wanted to have a fixed subsidy. He wanted to have a
+dynastic guarantee. He would have liked sometimes to get the loan of
+English officers to drill his troops, or to construct his
+forts--provided they retired the moment they had done this work for him.
+On the other hand, officers "resident" in his country as political
+agents of the British Government were his abhorrence.
+
+Lord Mayo's replies, or pledges, were virtually as follows:--
+
+The first pledge (says the Duke of Argyll) was that of non-interference
+in his (the Ameer's) affairs. The second pledge was that "we would
+support his independence." The third pledge was "that we would not force
+European officers, or residents, upon him against his wish[287]."
+
+[Footnote 287: Argyll, _op. cit._ vol. i. Preface, pp. xxiii.-xxvi.]
+
+There seems to have been no hopeless contrariety between the views of
+the Ameer and the Viceroy save in one matter that will be noted
+presently. It is also of interest to learn from the Duke's narrative,
+which claims to be official in substance, however partisan it may be in
+form, that there was no difference of opinion on this important subject
+between Lord Mayo and the Gladstone Ministry, which came to power
+shortly after his departure for India. The new Viceroy summed up his
+views in the following sentence, written to the Duke of Argyll: "The
+safe course lies in watchfulness, and friendly intercourse with
+neighbouring tribes."
+
+Apparently, then, there was a fair chance of arriving at an agreement
+with the Ameer. But the understanding broke down on the question of the
+amount of support to be accorded to Shere Ali's dynasty. That ruler
+wished for an important modification of the Anglo-Afghan treaty of 1855,
+which had bound his father to close friendship with the old Company
+without binding the Company to intervene in his favour. That, said Shere
+Ali, was a "dry friendship." He wanted a friendship more fruitful than
+that of the years 1863-67, and a direct support to his dynasty whenever
+he claimed it. The utmost concession that Lord Mayo would grant was that
+the British Government would "view with severe displeasure any attempt
+to disturb your position as Ruler of Cabul, and rekindle civil
+war[288]."
+
+[Footnote 288: Argyll, _op. cit._ vol. ii. p. 263.]
+
+It seems that Shere Ali thought lightly of Britain's "displeasure," for
+he departed ill at ease. Not even the occasional presents of money and
+weapons that found their way from Calcutta to Cabul could thenceforth
+keep his thoughts from turning northwards towards Russia. At Umballa he
+had said little about that Power; and the Viceroy had very wisely
+repressed any feelings of anxiety that he may have had on that score.
+Possibly the strength and cheeriness of Lord Mayo's personality would
+have helped to assuage the Ameer's wounded feelings; but that genial
+Irishman fell under the dagger of a fanatic during a tour in the Andaman
+Islands (February 1872). His death was a serious event. Shere Ali
+cherished towards him feelings which he did not extend to his successor,
+Lord Northbrook (1872-76).
+
+Yet, during that vice-royalty, the diplomatic action of Great Britain
+secured for the Ameer the recognition of his claims over the northern
+part of Afghanistan, as far as the banks of the Upper Oxus. In the
+years 1870-72 Russia stoutly contested those claims, but finally
+withdrew them, the Emperor declaring at the close of the latter year
+"that such a question should not be a cause of difference between the
+two countries, and he was determined it should not be so." It is further
+noteworthy that Russian official communications more than once referred
+to the Ameer of Afghanistan as being "under the protection of the Indian
+Government[289]".
+
+[Footnote 289: Argyll, _op. cit._ vol. ii. pp. 289, 292. For the Czar's
+assurance that "extension of territory" was "extension of weakness," see
+Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), p. 101.]
+
+These signal services of British diplomacy counted for little at Cabul
+in comparison with the question of the dynastic guarantee which we
+persistently withheld. In the spring of 1873, when matters relating to
+the Afghan-Persian frontier had to be adjusted, the Ameer sent his Prime
+Minister to Simla with the intention of using every diplomatic means for
+the extortion of that long-delayed boon.
+
+The time seemed to favour his design. Apart from the Persian boundary
+questions (which were settled in a manner displeasing to the Ameer),
+trouble loomed ahead in Central Asia. The Russians were advancing on
+Khiva; and the Afghan statesman, during his stay at Simla, sought to
+intimidate Lord Northbrook by parading this fact. He pointed out that
+Russia would easily conquer Khiva and then would capture Merv, near the
+western frontier of Afghanistan, "either in the current year or the
+next." Equally obvious was his aim in insisting that "the interests of
+the Afghan and English Governments are identical," and that "the border
+of Afghanistan is in truth the border of India." These were ingenious
+ways of working his intrenchments up to the hitherto inaccessible
+citadel of Indian border policy. The news of the Russian advance on
+Khiva lent strength to his argument.
+
+[Illustration: AFGHANISTAN]
+
+Yet, when he came to the question of the guarantee of Shere Ali's
+dynasty, he again met with a rebuff. In truth, Lord Northbrook and his
+advisers saw that the Ameer was seeking to frighten them about Russia
+in order to improve his own family prospects in Afghanistan; and, paying
+too much attention, perhaps, to the oriental artfulness of the method of
+request, and too little to the importance of the questions then at
+stake, he decided to meet the Ameer in regard to non-essentials, though
+he failed to satisfy him on the one thing held to be needful at the
+palace of Cabul.
+
+Anxious, however, to consult the Home Government on a matter of such
+importance, now that the Russians were known to be at Khiva, Lord
+Northbrook telegraphed to the Duke of Argyll on July 24, 1873:--
+
+Ameer of Cabul alarmed at Russian progress, dissatisfied with general
+assurance, and anxious to know how far he may rely on our help if
+invaded. I propose assuring him that if he unreservedly accepts and acts
+on our advice in all external relations, we will help him with money,
+arms, and troops, if necessary, to expel unprovoked aggression. We to be
+the judge of the necessity. Answer by telegraph quickly.
+
+The Gladstone Ministry was here at the parting of the ways. The Ameer
+asked them to form an alliance on equal terms. They refused, believing,
+as it seems, that they could keep to the old one-sided arrangement of
+1855, whereby the Ameer promised effective help to the Indian
+Government, if need be, and gained only friendly assurance in return.
+The Duke of Argyll telegraphed in reply on July 26:--
+
+Cabinet thinks you should inform Ameer that we do not at all share his
+alarm, and consider there is no cause for it; but you may assure him we
+shall maintain our settled policy in favour of Afghanistan if he abides
+by our advice in external affairs[290].
+
+[Footnote 290: Argyll, _op. cit._ vol. ii. 331. The Gladstone Cabinet
+clearly weakened Lord Northbrook's original proposal, and must therefore
+bear a large share of responsibility for the alienation of the Ameer
+which soon ensued. The Duke succeeded in showing up many inaccuracies in
+the versions of these events afterwards given by Lord Lytton and Lord
+Cranbrook; but he was seemingly quite unconscious of the consequences
+resulting from adherence to an outworn theory.]
+
+This answer, together with a present of £100,000 and 20,000 rifles, was
+all that the Ameer gained; his own shrewd sense had shown him long
+before that Britain must in any case defend Afghanistan against Russia.
+What he wanted was an official recognition of his own personal position
+as ruler, while he acted, so to speak, as the "Count of the Marches" of
+India. The Gladstone Government held out no hopes of assuring the future
+of their _Mark-graf_ or of his children after him. The remembrance of
+the disaster in the Khyber Pass in 1841 haunted them, as it had done
+their predecessors, like a ghost, and scared them from the course of
+action which might probably have led to the conclusion of a close
+offensive and defensive alliance between India and Afghanistan.
+
+Such a consummation was devoutly to be hoped for in view of events which
+had transpired in Central Asia. Khiva had been captured by the Russians.
+This Khanate intervened between Bokhara and the Caspian Sea, which the
+Russians used as their base of operations on the west. The plea of
+necessity was again put forward, and it might have been urged as
+forcibly on geographical and strategic grounds as on the causes that
+were alleged for the rupture. They consisted mainly of the frontier
+incidents that are wont to occur with restless, uncivilised neighbours.
+The Czar's Government also accused the Khivans of holding some Russian
+subjects in captivity, and of breaking their treaty of 1842 with Russia
+by helping the Khirgiz Horde in a recent revolt against their
+new masters.
+
+Russia soon had ready three columns, which were to converge on Khiva:
+one was stationed on the River Ural, a second at the rising port of
+Krasnovodsk on the Caspian Sea, and a third, under General Kaufmann, at
+Tashkend. So well were their operations timed that, though the distances
+to be traversed varied from 480 to 840 miles, in parts over a waterless
+desert, yet the three chief forces arrived almost simultaneously at
+Khiva and met with the merest show of resistance (June 1873). Setting
+the young Khan on the throne of his father, they took from him his
+ancestral lands of the right bank of the Amu Daria (Oxus) and imposed
+on him a crushing war indemnity of 2,200,000 roubles, which assured his
+entire dependence on his new creditors. They further secured their hold
+on these diminished territories by erecting two forts on the river[291].
+The Czar's Government was content with assuring its hold upon Khiva,
+without annexing the Khanate outright, seeing that it had disclaimed any
+such intention[292]. All the same, Russia was now mistress of nearly the
+whole of Central Asia; and the advance of roads and railways portended
+further conquests at the expense of Persia and the few remaining
+Turkoman tribes.
+
+[Footnote 291: J. Popowski, _The Rival Powers in Central Asia_, p. 47
+(Eng. edit).; A. Vambéry, _The Coming Struggle for India_, p. 21; A.R.
+Colquhoun, _Russia against India_, pp. 24-26; Lavisse and Rambaud,
+_Histoire Générale_, vol. xii. pp. 793-794.]
+
+[Footnote 292: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), p. 101.]
+
+In order to estimate the importance of these facts, it must be
+remembered that the teachings of Geography and History concur in showing
+the practicability of an invasion of India from Central Asia. Touching
+first the geographical facts, we may point out that India and
+Afghanistan stand in somewhat the same relation to the Asiatic continent
+that Italy and Switzerland hold to that of Europe. The rich lands and
+soft climate of both Peninsulas have always been an irresistible
+attraction to the dwellers among the more barren mountains and plains of
+the North; and the lie of the land on the borders of both of these
+seeming Eldorados favours the advance of more virile peoples in their
+search for more genial conditions of life. Nature, which enervates the
+defenders in their sultry plains, by her rigorous training imparts a
+touch of the wolf to the mountaineers or plain-dwellers of the North;
+and her guides (rivers and streams) conduct the hardy seekers for the
+sun by easy routes up to the final mountain barriers. Finally, those
+barriers, the Alps and the Hindu Koosh, are notched by passes that are
+practicable for large armies, as has been seen now and again from the
+times of Alexander the Great and Hannibal to those of Nadir Shah
+and Napoleon.
+
+In these conditions, physical and climatic, is to be found the reason
+for the success that has so often attended the invasions of Italy and
+India. Only when the Romans organised all the forces of their Peninsula
+and the fresh young life beyond, were the defensive powers of Italy
+equal to her fatally attractive powers. Only when Britain undertook the
+defence of India, could her peoples feel sure of holding the North-West
+against the restless Pathans and Afghans; and the situation was wholly
+changed when a great military Empire pushed its power to the river-gates
+of Afghanistan.
+
+The friendship of the Ameer was now a matter of vital concern; and yet,
+as we have seen, Lord Northbrook alienated him, firstly by giving an
+unfavourable verdict in regard to the Persian boundary in the district
+of Seistan, and still more so by refusing to grant the long-wished-for
+guarantee of his dynasty.
+
+The year 1873 marks a fatal turning-point in Anglo-Afghan relations.
+Yakub Khan told Lord Roberts at Cabul in 1879 that his father, Shere
+Ali, had been thoroughly disgusted with Lord Northbrook in 1873, "and at
+once made overtures to the Russians, with whom constant intercourse had
+since been kept up[293]."
+
+[Footnote 293: Lord Roberts, _Forty-one Years in India_, vol. ii. p.
+247; also _Life of Abdur Rahman_, by Mohammed Khan, 2 vols. (1900), vol.
+i. p. 149.]
+
+In fact, all who are familiar with the events preceding the first Afghan
+War (1839-42) can now see that events were fast drifting into a position
+dangerously like that which led Dost Mohammed to throw himself into the
+arms of Russia. At that time also the Afghan ruler had sought to gain
+the best possible terms for himself and his dynasty from the two rivals;
+and, finding that the Russian promises were far more alluring than those
+emanating from Calcutta, he went over to the Muscovites. At bottom that
+had been the determining cause of the first Afghan War; and affairs were
+once more beginning to revolve in the same vicious circle. Looking back
+on the events leading up to the second Afghan War, we can now see that a
+frank compliance with the demands of Shere Ali would have been far less
+costly than the non-committal policy which in 1873 alienated him.
+Outwardly he posed as the aggrieved but still faithful friend. In
+reality he was looking northwards for the personal guarantee which never
+came from Calcutta.
+
+It should, however, be stated that up to the time of the fall of the
+Gladstone Ministry (February 1874), Russia seemed to have no desire to
+meddle in Afghan affairs. The Russian Note of January 21, 1874, stated
+that the Imperial Government "continued to consider Afghanistan as
+entirely beyond its sphere of action[294]." Nevertheless, that
+declaration inspired little confidence. The Russophobes, headed by Sir
+Henry Rawlinson and Sir Bartle Frere, could reply that they distrusted
+Russian disclaimers concerning Afghanistan, when the plea of necessity
+had so frequently and so speedily relegated to oblivion the earlier
+"assurances of intention."
+
+[Footnote 294: Argyll, _Eastern Question_, vol. ii. p. 347. See,
+however, the letters that passed between General Kaufmann, Governor of
+Turkestan, and Cabul in 1870-74, in Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1
+(1881), pp. 2-10.]
+
+Such was the state of affairs when, in February 1874, Disraeli came to
+power at Westminster with Lord Salisbury as Secretary of State for
+India. The new Ministry soon showed the desire to adopt a more spirited
+foreign policy than their predecessors, who had fretted public opinion
+by their numerous acts of complaisance or surrender. Russia soon gave
+cause for complaint. In June 1874 the Governor of the trans-Caspian
+province issued a circular, warning the nomad Turkomans of the Persian
+border-lands against raiding; it applied to tribes inhabiting districts
+within what were considered to be the northern boundaries of Persia.
+This seemed to contravene the assurances previously given by Russia that
+she would not extend her possessions in the southern part of Central
+Asia[295]. It also foreshadowed another stride forward at the expense of
+the Turkoman districts both of Persia and Afghanistan.
+
+[Footnote 295: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), p. 107.]
+
+As no sufficient disclaimer appeared, the London partisans of the
+Indian "forward policy" sought to induce Lord Derby and Lord Salisbury
+to take precautionary measures. Their advice was summed up in the Note
+of January 11, 1875, written by that charming man and able
+administrator, Sir Bartle Frere. Its chief practical recommendation was,
+firstly, the despatch of British officers to act as political agents at
+Cabul, Candahar, and Herat; and, secondly, the occupation of the
+commanding position of Quetta, in Baluchistan, as an outpost commanding
+the chief line of advance from Central Asia into India[296].
+
+[Footnote 296: General Jacob had long before advocated the occupation of
+this strong flanking position. It was supported by Sir C. Dilke in his
+_Greater Britain_ (1867).]
+
+This Note soon gained the ear of the Cabinet; and on January 22, 1875,
+Lord Salisbury urged Lord Northbrook to take measures to procure the
+assent of the Ameer to the establishment of British officers at Candahar
+and Herat (not at Cabul)[297]. The request placed Lord Northbrook in an
+embarrassing position, seeing that he knew full well the great
+reluctance of the Ameer at all times to receive any British Mission. On
+examining the evidence as to the Ameer's objection to receive British
+Residents, the viceroy found it to be very strong, while there is ground
+for thinking that Ministers and officials in London either ignored it or
+sought to minimise its importance. The pressure which they brought to
+bear on Lord Northbrook was one of the causes that led to his
+resignation (February 1876). He believed that he was in honour bound by
+the promise, given to the Ameer at the Umballa Conference, not to impose
+a British Resident on him against his will.
+
+[Footnote 297: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), pp. 128-129.]
+
+He was succeeded by a man of marked personality, Lord Lytton. The only
+son of the celebrated novelist, he inherited decided literary gifts,
+especially an unusual facility of expression both in speech and writing,
+in prose and verse. Any tendency to redundance in speech is generally
+counted unfavourable to advancement in diplomatic circles, where
+Talleyrand's _mot_ as to language being a means of _concealing_ thought
+still finds favour. Owing, however, to the influence of his uncle, then
+British Ambassador at Washington, but far more to his own talents,
+Lytton rose rapidly in the diplomatic service, holding office in the
+chief embassies, until Disraeli discerned in the brilliant speaker and
+writer the gifts that would grace the new imperial policy in the East.
+
+In ordinary times the new Viceroy would probably have crowned the new
+programme with success. His charm and vivacity of manner appealed to
+orientals all the more by contrast with the cold and repellent behaviour
+that too often characterises Anglo-Indian officials in their dealings
+with natives. Lytton's mind was tinged with the eastern glow that lit up
+alike the stories, the speeches, and the policy of his chief. It is
+true, the imperialist programme was as grandiosely vague as the meaning
+of _Tancred_ itself; but in a land where forms and words count for much
+the lack of backbone in the new policy was less observed and commented
+on than by the matter-of-fact islanders whom it was designed to glorify.
+
+The apotheosis of the new policy was the proclamation of Queen Victoria
+as Empress of India (July 1, 1877), an event which was signalised by a
+splendid Durbar at Delhi on January 1, 1878. The new title warned the
+world that, however far Russia advanced in Central Asia, England nailed
+the flag of India to her masthead. It was also a useful reminder to the
+small but not uninfluential Positivist school in England that their
+"disapproval" of the existence of a British Empire in India was wholly
+Platonic. Seeing also that the name "Queen" in Hindu (_Malika_) was one
+of merely respectable mediocrity in that land of splendour, the new
+title, "Kaisar-i-Hind," helped to emphasise the supremacy of the British
+Raj over the Nizam and Gaekwar. In fact, it is difficult now to take
+seriously the impassioned protests with which a number of insulars
+greeted the proposal.
+
+Nevertheless, in one sense the change of title came about most
+inopportunely. Fate willed that over against the Durbar at Delhi there
+stood forth the spectral form of Famine, bestriding the dusty plains of
+the Carnatic. By the glint of her eyes the splendours of Delhi shone
+pale, and the viceregal eloquence was hushed in the distant hum of her
+multitudinous wailing. The contrast shocked all beholders, and unfitted
+them for a proper appreciation of the new foreign policy.
+
+That policy may also be arraigned on less sentimental grounds. The year
+1876 witnessed the re-opening of the Eastern Question in a most
+threatening manner, the Disraeli Ministry taking up what may be termed
+the Palmerstonian view that the maintenance of Turkey was essential to
+the stability of the Indian Empire. As happened in and after 1854,
+Russia, when thwarted in Europe, sought for her revenge in the lands
+bordering on India. No district was so favourable to Muscovite schemes
+as the Afghan frontier, then, as now, the weakest point in Great
+Britain's imperial armour. Thenceforth the Afghan Question became a
+pendant of the Eastern Question.
+
+Russia found ready to hand the means of impressing the Ameer with a
+sense of her irresistible power. The Czar's officials had little
+difficulty in picking a quarrel with the Khanate of Khokand. Under the
+pretext of suppressing a revolt (which Vambéry and others consider to
+have been prepared through Muscovite agencies) they sent troops,
+ostensibly with the view of favouring the Khan. The expedition gained a
+complete success, alike over the rebels and the Khan himself, who
+thenceforth sank to the level of pensioner of his liberators (1876). It
+is significant that General Kaufmann at once sent to the Ameer at Cabul
+a glowing account of the Russian success[298]; and the news of this
+communication increased the desire of the British Government to come to
+a clear understanding with the Ameer.
+
+[Footnote 298: Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1881), pp. 12-14;
+Shere Ali's letters to him (some of them suspicious) and the replies are
+also printed.]
+
+Unfortunately our authorities set to work in a way that increased his
+irritation. Lord Salisbury on February 28, 1876, instructed Lord Lytton
+to offer slightly larger concessions to Shere Ali; but he refused to go
+further than to allow "a frank recognition (not a guarantee) of a _de
+facto_ order in the succession" to the throne of Afghanistan, and
+undertook to defend his dominions against external attack "only in some
+clear case of unprovoked aggression." On the other hand, the British
+Government stated that "they must have, for their own agents, undisputed
+access to [the] frontier positions [of Afghanistan][299]." Thus, while
+granting very little more than before, the new Ministry claimed for
+British agents and officers a right of entry which wounded the pride of
+a suspicious ruler and a fanatical people.
+
+[Footnote 299: Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1881), pp. 156-159.]
+
+To sum up, we gave Shere Ali no help while he was struggling for power
+with his rivals; and after he had won the day, we pinned him to the
+terms of a one-sided alliance. In the matter of the Seistan frontier
+dispute with Persia, British arbitration was insolently defied by the
+latter Power, yet we urged the Ameer to accept the Shah's terms.
+According to Lord Napier of Magdala, he felt the loss of the once Afghan
+district of Seistan more keenly than anything else, and thenceforth
+regarded us as weak and untrustworthy[300].
+
+[Footnote 300: _Ibid_. pp. 225-226.]
+
+The Ameer's irritation increased at the close of the year when the
+Viceroy concluded an important treaty with the Khan of Khelat in
+Baluchistan. It would take us too far from our main path to turn aside
+into the jungle of Baluchee politics. Suffice it to say that the long
+series of civil strifes in that land had come to an end largely owing to
+the influence of Major (afterwards Sir Robert) Sandeman. His fine
+presence, masterful personality, frank, straightforward, and kindly
+demeanour early impressed the Khan and his turbulent Sirdars. In two
+Missions which he undertook to Khelat in the years 1875 and 1876, he
+succeeded in stilling their internal feuds and in clearing away the
+misunderstandings which had arisen with the Indian Government. But he
+saw still further ahead. Detecting signs of foreign intrigue in that
+land, he urged that British mediation should, if possible, become
+permanent. His arguments before long convinced the new Viceroy, Lord
+Lytton, who had at first doubted the advisability of the second Mission;
+and in the course of a tour along the north-west frontier, he held at
+Jacobabad a grand Durbar, which was attended by the Khan of Khelat and
+his once rebellious Sirdars. There on December 8, 1876, he signed a
+treaty with the Khan, whereby the British Government became the final
+arbiter in all disputes between him and his Sirdars, obtained the right
+of stationing British troops in certain parts of Baluchistan, and of
+constructing railways and telegraphs. Three lakhs of rupees were given
+to the Khan, and his yearly subsidy of Rs. 50,000 was doubled[301].
+
+[Footnote 301: _Sir Robert Sandeman_, by T.H. Thornton, chaps, ix.-x.;
+Parl. Papers relating to the Treaty . . . of 8th Dec. 1876; _The Forward
+Policy and its Results_, by R.I. Bruce; _Lord Lytton's Indian
+Administration,_ by Lady Betty Balfour, chap. iii.
+
+The Indian rupee is worth sixteen pence.]
+
+The Treaty of Jacobabad is one of the most satisfactory diplomatic
+triumphs of the present age. It came, not as the sequel to a sanguinary
+war, but as a sign of the confidence inspired in turbulent and sometimes
+treacherous chiefs by the sterling qualities of those able frontier
+statesmen, the Napiers, the Lawrences, General Jacob, and Major
+Sandeman. It spread the _pax Britannica_ over a land as large as Great
+Britain, and quietly brought a warlike people within the sphere of
+influence of India. It may be compared with Bonaparte's Act of Mediation
+in Switzerland (1803), as marking the triumph of a strong organising
+intelligence over factious groups, to which it imparted peace and order
+under the shelter of a generally beneficent suzerainty. Before long a
+strong garrison was posted at Quetta, and we gained the right to enlist
+Baluchee troops of excellent fighting powers. The Quetta position is a
+mountain bastion which strengthens the outer defences of India, just as
+the Alps and Juras, when under Napoleon's control, menaced any invaders
+of France.
+
+This great advantage was weighted by one considerable drawback. The
+victory of British influence in Baluchistan aroused the utmost
+resentment of Shere Ali, who now saw his southern frontier outflanked by
+Britain. Efforts were made in January-February 1877 to come to an
+understanding; but, as Lord Lytton insisted on the admission of British
+Residents to Afghanistan, a long succession of interviews at Peshawur,
+between the Ameer's chief adviser and Sir Lewis Pelly, led to no other
+result than an increase of suspicion on both sides. The Viceroy
+thereupon warned the Ameer that all supplies and subsidies would be
+stopped until he became amenable to advice and ceased to maltreat
+subjects known to be favourable to the British alliance. As a retort the
+Ameer sought to call the border tribes to a _Jehad_, or holy war,
+against the British, but with little success. He had no hold over the
+tribes between Chitral and the Khyber Pass; and the incident served only
+to strengthen the Viceroy's aim of subjecting them to Britain. In the
+case of the Jowakis we succeeded, though only after a campaign which
+proved to be costly in men and money.
+
+In fact, Lord Lytton was now convinced of the need of a radical change
+of frontier policy. He summed up his contentions in the following
+phrases in his despatches of the early summer of 1877:--"Shere Ali has
+irrevocably slipped out of our hands; . . . I conceive that it is rather
+the disintegration and weakening, than the consolidation and
+establishment, of the Afghan power at which we must now begin to aim."
+As for the mountain barrier, in which men of the Lawrence school had
+been wont to trust, he termed it "a military mouse-trap," and he stated
+that Napoleon I. had once for all shown the futility of relying on a
+mountain range that had several passes[302]. These assertions show what
+perhaps were the weak points of Lord Lytton in practical politics--an
+eager and impetuous disposition, too prone to be dazzled by the very
+brilliance of the phrases which he coined.
+
+[Footnote 302: Lady B. Balfour, _op. cit._ pp.166-185, 247-148.]
+
+At the close of his despatch of April 8, 1878, to Lord Cranbrook (Lord
+Salisbury's successor at the India Office) he sketched out, as "the best
+arrangement," a scheme for breaking up the Cabul power and bringing
+about "the creation of a West Afghan Khanate, including Merv, Maimena,
+Balkh, Candahar, and Herat, under some prince of our own selection, who
+would be dependent on our support. With Western Afghanistan thus
+disposed of, and a small station our own, close to our frontier in the
+Kurram valley, the destinies of Cabul itself would be to us a matter of
+no importance[303]."
+
+[Footnote 303: _Ibid_. pp. 246-247.]
+
+This, then, was the new policy in its widest scope. Naturally it met
+with sharp opposition from Lord Lawrence and others in the India Council
+at Whitehall. Besides involving a complete change of front, it would
+naturally lead to war with the Ameer, and (if the intentions about Merv
+were persisted in) with Russia as well. And for what purpose? In order
+that we might gain an advanced frontier and break in pieces the one
+important State which remained as a buffer between India and Russian
+Asia. In the eyes of all but the military men this policy stood
+self-condemned. Its opponents pointed out that doubtless Russian
+intrigues were going on at Cabul; but they were the result of the marked
+hostility between England and Russia in Europe, and a natural retort to
+the sending of Indian troops to Malta. Besides, was it true that British
+influence at Cabul was permanently lost? Might it not be restored by
+money and diplomacy? Or if these means failed, could not affairs be so
+worked at Cabul as to bring about the deposition of the Ameer in favour
+of some claimant who would support England? In any case, the extension
+of our responsibilities to centres so remote as Balkh and Herat would
+overstrain the already burdened finances of India, and impair her power
+of defence at vital points.
+
+These objections seem to have had some weight at Whitehall, for by the
+month of August the Viceroy somewhat lowered his tone; he gave up all
+hope of influencing Merv, and consented to make another effort to win
+back the Ameer, or to seek to replace him by a more tractable prince.
+But, failing this, he advised, though with reluctance on political
+grounds, the conquest and occupation of so much of Afghan territory as
+would "be absolutely requisite for the permanent maintenance of our
+North-West frontier[304]."
+
+[Footnote 304: Lady B. Balfour, _op. cit._ p. 255. For a defence of this
+on military grounds see Lord Roberts' _Forty-One Years in India_, vol.
+ii, p. 187; and Thorburn's _Asiatic Neighbours_, chap. xiv.]
+
+But by this time all hope of peace had become precarious. On June 13,
+the day of opening of the Congress of Berlin, a Russian Mission, under
+General Stolieteff, left Samarcand for Cabul. The Ameer is said to have
+heard this news with deep concern, and to have sought to prevent it
+crossing the frontier. The Russians, however, refused to turn back, and
+entered Cabul on July 22[305]. As will be seen by reference to
+Skobeleff's "Plan for the Invasion of India" (Appendix II.), the Mission
+was to be backed up by columns of troops; and, with the aim of
+redoubling the pressure of Russian diplomacy in Europe, the Minister for
+War at St. Petersburg had issued orders on April 25, 1878, for the
+despatch of three columns of troops which were to make a demonstration
+against India. The chief force, 12,000 strong, with 44 guns and a rocket
+battery, was to march from Samarcand and Tashkend on Cabul; the second,
+consisting of only 1700 men, was to stir up the mountain tribes of the
+Chitral district to raid the north of the Punjab; while the third, of
+the same strength, moved from the middle part of the Amu Daria (Oxus)
+towards Merv and Herat. The main force set out from Tashkend on June 13,
+and after a most trying march reached the Russo-Bokharan border, only to
+find that its toils were fruitless owing to the signature of the Treaty
+of Berlin (July 13). The same disappointing news dispelled the dreams of
+conquest which had nerved the other columns in their burning march.
+
+[Footnote 305: Parl Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), pp.242-243;
+_ibid._ Central Asia, No. 1, pp.165 _et seq._]
+
+Thus ended the scheme of invasion of India to which Skobeleff had
+lately given shape and body. In January 1877, while in his Central Asian
+command, he had drawn up a detailed plan, the important parts of which
+will be found in the Appendices of this volume. During the early spring
+of 1878, when the Russian army lay at San Stefano, near Constantinople,
+he drew up another plan of the same tenour. It seems certain that the
+general outline of these projects haunted the minds of officers and men
+in the expeditions just referred to; for the columns withdrew northwards
+most slowly and reluctantly[306].
+
+[Footnote 306: For details see _Russia's Advance towards India_, by "an
+Indian Officer," vol. ii. pp.109 _et seq._]
+
+A perusal of Skobeleff's plan will show that he relied also on a
+diplomatic Mission to Cabul and on the despatch of the Afghan pretender,
+Abdur Rahman, from Samarcand to the Afghan frontier. Both of these
+expedients were adopted in turn; the former achieved a startling but
+temporary success.
+
+As has been stated above, General Stolieteff's Mission entered Cabul on
+July 22. The chief himself returned on August 24; but other members of
+his Mission remained several weeks longer. There seem to be good grounds
+for believing that the Ameer, Shere Ali, signed a treaty with
+Stolieteff; but as to its purport we have no other clue than the draft
+which purports to be written out from memory by a secret agent of the
+Indian Government. Other Russian documents, some of which Lord Granville
+afterwards described as containing "some very disagreeable passages . . .
+written subsequently to the Treaty of Berlin," were found by Lord
+Roberts; and the Russian Government found it difficult to give a
+satisfactory explanation of them[307].
+
+[Footnote 307: The alleged treaty is printed, along with the other
+documents, in Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1881), pp. 17-30. See
+also Lord Roberts' _Forty-one Years in India_, vol. ii. p.477.]
+
+In any case the Government of India could not stand by and witness the
+intrusion of Muscovite influence into Afghanistan. Action, however, was
+very difficult owing to the alienation of the Ameer. His resentment had
+now settled into lasting hatred. As a test question Lord Lytton sought
+to impose on him the reception of a British Mission. On August 8 he
+received telegraphic permission from London to make this demand. The
+Ameer, however, refused to allow a single British officer to enter the
+country; and the death of his son and heir on August 17 enabled him to
+decline to attend to affairs of State for a whole month.
+
+His conduct in this matter was condoned by the champions of "masterly
+inactivity" in this country, who proceeded to accuse the Viceroy of
+haste in sending forward the British Mission to the frontier before the
+full time of mourning was over[308]. We now know, however, that this
+sympathy was misplaced. Shere Ali's grief did not prevent him seeing
+officers of the Russian Mission after his bereavement, and (as it seems)
+signing an alliance with the emissaries of the Czar. Lord Lytton was
+better informed as to the state of things at Cabul than were his very
+numerous critics, one of whom, under the shield of anonymity,
+confidently stated that the Russian Mission to Cabul was either an
+affair of etiquette or a means of warding off a prospective attack from
+India on Russian Turkestan; that the Ameer signed no treaty with the
+Mission, and was deeply embarrassed by its presence; while Lord Lytton's
+treatment of the Ameer was discourteous[309].
+
+[Footnote 308: Duke of Argyll, _The Eastern Question, _vol. ii. pp.
+504-507.]
+
+[Footnote 309: _The Causes of the Afghan War, _pp. 305 _et seq._]
+
+In the light of facts as now known, these charges are seen to be the
+outcome of a vivid imagination or of partisan malice. There can be no
+doubt that Shere Ali had played us false. Apart from his intrigues with
+Russia, he had condoned the murder of a British officer by keeping the
+murderer in office, and had sought to push on the frontier tribes into a
+holy war. Finally, he sent orders to stop the British Mission at Ali
+Musjid, the fort commanding the entrance to the Khyber Pass. This
+action, which occurred on September 22, must be pronounced a deliberate
+insult, seeing that the progress of that Mission had been so timed as
+that it should reach Cabul after the days of mourning were over. In the
+Viceroy's view, the proper retort would have been a declaration of war;
+but again the Home Government imposed caution, urging the despatch of an
+ultimatum so as to give time for repentance at Cabul. It was sent on
+November 2, with the intimation that if no answer reached the frontier
+by November 20, hostilities would begin. No answer came until a later
+date, and then it proved to be of an evasive character.
+
+Such, in brief outline, were the causes of the second Afghan War. In the
+fuller light of to-day it is difficult to account for the passion which
+the discussion of them aroused at the time. But the critics of the
+Government held strong ground at two points. They could show, first,
+that the war resulted in the main from Lord Beaconsfield's persistent
+opposition to Russia in the Eastern Question, also that the Muscovite
+intrigues at Cabul were a natural and very effective retort to the showy
+and ineffective expedient of bringing Indian troops to Malta; in short,
+that the Afghan War was due largely to Russia's desire for revenge.
+
+Secondly, they fastened on what was undoubtedly a weak point in the
+Ministerial case, namely, that Lord Beaconsfield's speech at the Lord
+Mayor's Banquet, on November 9, 1878, laid stress almost solely on the
+need for acquiring a scientific frontier on the north-west of India. In
+the parliamentary debate of December 9 he sought to rectify this mistake
+by stating that he had never asserted that a new frontier was the object
+of the war, but rather a possible consequence. His critics refused to
+accept the correction. They pinned him to his first words. If this were
+so, they said, what need of recounting our complaints against Shere Ali?
+These were merely the pretexts, not the causes, of a war which was to be
+waged solely in the cold-blooded quest for a scientific frontier. Perish
+India, they cried, if her fancied interests required the sacrifice of
+thousands of lives of brave hillmen on the altar of the new Imperialism.
+
+These accusations were logically justifiable against Ministers who dwelt
+largely on that frigid abstraction, the "scientific frontier," and laid
+less stress on the danger of leaving an ally of Russia on the throne of
+Afghanistan. The strong point of Lord Lytton's case lay in the fact that
+the policy of the Gladstone Ministry had led Shere Ali to side with
+Russia; but this fact was inadequately explained, or, at least, not in
+such a way as to influence public opinion. The popular fancy caught at
+the phrase "scientific frontier"; and for once Lord Beaconsfield's
+cleverness in phrase-making conspired to bring about his overthrow.
+
+But the logic of words does not correspond to the logic of facts. Words
+are for the most part simple, downright, and absolute. The facts of
+history are very rarely so. Their importance is very often relative, and
+is conditioned by changing circumstances. It was so with the events that
+led up to the second Afghan War. They were very complex, and could not
+be summed up, or disposed of, by reference to a single formula.
+Undoubtedly the question of the frontier was important; but it did not
+become of supreme importance until, firstly, Shere Ali became our enemy,
+and, secondly, showed unmistakable signs of having a close understanding
+with Russia. Thenceforth it became a matter of vital import for India to
+have a frontier readibly defensible against so strong a combination as
+that of Russia and Afghanistan.
+
+It would be interesting to know what Mr. Gladstone and his supporters
+would have done if they had come into power in the summer of 1878. That
+they blamed their opponents on many points of detail does not prove that
+they would not have taken drastic means to get rid of Shere Ali. In the
+unfortunate state into which affairs had drifted in 1878, how was that
+to be effected without war? The situation then existing may perhaps best
+be summed up in the words which General Roberts penned at Cabul on
+November 22, 1879, after a long and illuminating conversation with the
+new Ameer concerning his father's leanings towards Russia: "Our recent
+rupture with Shere Ali has, in fact, been the means of unmasking and
+checking a very serious conspiracy against the peace and security of our
+Indian Empire[310]."
+
+[Footnote 310: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1880), p. 171.]
+
+Given the situation actually existing in 1878, the action of the British
+Government is justifiable as regards details. The weak point of the
+Beaconsfield policy was this: that the situation need not have existed.
+As far as can be judged from the evidence hitherto published (if we
+except some wild talk on the part of Muscovite Chauvinists), Russia
+would not have interfered in Afghanistan except in order to paralyse
+England's action in Turkish affairs. As has been pointed out above, the
+Afghan trouble was a natural sequel to the opposition offered by
+Disraeli to Russia from the time of the re-opening of the Balkan problem
+in 1875-76; and the consideration of the events to be described in the
+following chapter will add one more to the many proofs already existing
+as to the fatefulness of the blunder committed by him when he wrecked
+the Berlin Memorandum, dissolved the Concert of the Powers, and rendered
+hopeless a peaceful solution of the Eastern Question.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE AFGHAN AND TURKOMAN CAMPAIGNS
+
+     "The Forward Policy--in other words, the policy of
+     endeavouring to extend our influence over, and establish law
+     and order on, that part of the [Indian] Border, where
+     anarchy, murder, and robbery up to the present time have
+     reigned supreme, a policy which has been attended with the
+     happiest results in Baluchistan and on the Gilgit
+     frontier--is necessitated by the incontrovertible fact that a
+     great Military Power is now within striking distance of our
+     Indian possessions, and in immediate contact with a State for
+     the integrity of which we have made ourselves
+     responsible."--LORD ROBERTS: Speech in the House of Lords,
+     March 7, 1898.
+
+
+The operations at the outset of the Afghan War ended with so easy a
+triumph for the British arms that it is needless to describe them in
+much detail. They were planned to proceed at three points on the
+irregular arc of the south-eastern border of Afghanistan. The most
+northerly column, that of General Sir Samuel Browne, had Peshawur as its
+base of supplies. Some 16,000 strong, it easily captured the fort of Ali
+Musjid at the mouth of the Khyber Pass, then threaded that defile with
+little or no opposition, and pushed on to Jelalabad. Around that town
+(rendered famous by General Sale's defence in 1841-2) it dealt out
+punishment to the raiding clans of Afridis.
+
+The column of the centre, acting from Kohat as a base against the Kurram
+Valley, was commanded by a general destined to win renown in the later
+phases of the war. Major-General Roberts represented all that was
+noblest and most chivalrous in the annals of the British Army in India.
+The second son of General Sir Abraham Roberts, G.C.B., and born at
+Cawnpore in 1832, he inherited the traditions of the service which he
+was to render still more illustrious. His frame, short and slight,
+seemed scarcely to fit him for warlike pursuits; and in ages when great
+stature and sturdy sinews were alone held in repute, he might have been
+relegated to civil life; but the careers of William III., Luxemburg,
+Nelson, and Roberts show that wiriness is more essential to a commander
+than animal strength, and that mind rather than muscle determines the
+course of campaigns. That the young aspirant for fame was not deficient
+in personal prowess appeared at Khudaganj, one of the battles of the
+Mutiny, when he captured a standard from two sepoys, and, later on the
+same day, cut down a third sepoy. But it was his clear insight into men
+and affairs, his hold on the principles of war, his alertness of mind,
+and his organising power, that raised him above the crowd of meritorious
+officers who saved India for Britain in those stormy days.
+
+His achievements as Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General at Delhi and
+elsewhere at that time need not be referred to here; for he himself has
+related them in clear, life-like, homely terms which reveal one of the
+sources of his personal influence. Englishmen admire a man who is active
+without being fussy, who combines greatness with simplicity, whose
+kindliness is as devoid of ostentation as his religion is of
+mawkishness, and with whom ambition is ever the handmaid of patriotism.
+The character of a commander perhaps counts for more with British troops
+than with any others, except the French; and the men who marched with
+Roberts from Cabul to Candahar, and from Paardeberg to Bloemfontein,
+could scarcely have carried out those feats of endurance for a general
+who did not possess both their trust and their love.
+
+The devotion of the Kurram column to its chief was soon put to the test.
+After advancing up that valley, girt on both sides with lofty mountains
+and scored with numerous gulleys, the force descried the Peiwar Kotal
+Pass at its head--a precipitous slope furrowed only in one place where a
+narrow zigzag path ran upwards through pines and giant boulders. A
+reconnaissance proved that the Afghans held the upper part in force; and
+for some time Roberts felt the gravest misgivings. Hiding these
+feelings, especially from his native troops, he spent a few days in
+reconnoitring this formidable position. These efforts resulted in the
+discovery by Major Collett of another practicable gorge further to the
+north leading up to a neighbouring height, the Peiwar Spingawi, whence
+the head of the Kotal might possibly be turned.
+
+To divide a column, comprising only 889 British and 2415 native troops,
+and that too in face of the superior numbers of the enemy, was a risky
+enterprise, but General Roberts determined to try the effect of a night
+march up to the Spingawi. He hoped by an attack at dawn on the Afghan
+detachment posted there, to turn the main position on the Kotal, and
+bring about its evacuation. This plan had often succeeded against
+Afghans. Their characteristics both in peace and war are distinctly
+feline. Prone to ease and enjoyment at ordinary times, yet, when stirred
+by lust of blood or booty, they are capable of great feats of swift
+fierce onset; but, like all men and animals dominated by sudden
+impulses, their bravery is fitful, and is apt to give way under
+persistent attack, or when their rear is threatened. The cat-like,
+stalking instinct has something of strategic caution, even in its
+wildest moods; it likes to be sure of the line of retreat[311].
+
+[Footnote 311: General [Sir] J.L. Vaughan, in a Lecture on "Afghanistan
+and the Military Operations therein" (December 6, 1878), said of the
+Afghans: "When resolutely attacked they rarely hold their ground with
+any tenacity, and are always anxious about their rear."]
+
+The British commander counted on exploiting these peculiarities to the
+full by stalking the enemy on their left flank, while he left about 1000
+men to attack them once more in front. Setting out at nightfall of
+December 1, he led the remainder northwards through a side valley, and
+then up a gully on the side of the Spingawi. The ascent through pine
+woods and rocks, in the teeth of an icy wind, was most trying; and the
+movement came near to failure owing to the treachery of two Pathan
+soldiers in the ranks, who fired off their rifles in the hope of warning
+the Afghans above them. The reports, it afterwards transpired, were
+heard by a sentry, who reported the matter to the commander of the
+Afghan detachment; he, for his part, did nothing. Much alarm was felt in
+the British column when the shots rang out in the darkness; a native
+officer hard by came up at once, and, by smelling the rifles of all his
+men, found out the offenders; but as they were Mohammedans, he said
+nothing, in the hope of screening his co-religionists. Later on, these
+facts transpired at a court-martial, whereupon the elder of the two
+offenders, who was also the first to fire, was condemned to death, and
+the younger to a long term of imprisonment. The defaulting officer
+likewise received due punishment[312].
+
+[Footnote 312: Lord Roberts, _Forty-One Years in India_, vol. ii. p. 130
+_et seq_.; Major J.A.S. Colquhoun, _With the Kurram Field Force,
+1878-79_, pp. 101-102.]
+
+After this alarming incident, the 72nd Highlanders were sent forward to
+take the place of the native regiment previously leading; and once more
+the little column struggled on through the darkness up the rocky path.
+Their staunchness met its reward. At dawn the Highlanders and 5th
+Gurkhas charged the Afghan detachment in its entrenchments and
+breastworks of trees, and were soon masters of the Spingawi position. A
+long and anxious time of waiting now ensued, caused by the failure of
+the first frontal attack on the Kotal; but Roberts' pressure on the
+flank of the main Afghan position and another frontal attack sent the
+enemy flying in utter rout, leaving behind guns and waggons. The Kurram
+column had driven eight Afghan regiments and numbers of hillmen from a
+seemingly impregnable position, and now held the second of the outer
+passes leading towards Cabul (December 2, 1878). The Afghans offered but
+slight resistance at the Shutargardan Pass further on, and from that
+point the invaders looked down on valleys that conducted them easily to
+the Ameer's capital[313].
+
+[Footnote 313: Lord Roberts, _op. cit._, vol. ii. pp. 135-149; S.H.
+Shadbolt, _The Afghan Campaigns of 1878-80_, vol. i. pp. 21-25
+(with plan).]
+
+Meanwhile equal success was attending the 3rd British column, that of
+General Biddulph, which operated from Quetta. It occupied Sibi and the
+Khojak Pass; and on January 8, 1879, General Stewart and the vanguard
+reached Candahar, which they entered in triumph. The people seemed to
+regard their entry with indifference. This was but natural. Shere Ali
+had ruined his own cause. Hearing of the first defeats he fled from
+Cabul in company with the remaining members of the Russian Mission still
+at that city (December 13), and made for Afghan Turkestan in the hope of
+inducing his northern allies to give active aid.
+
+He now discovered his error. The Czar's Government had been most active
+in making mischief between England and the Ameer, especially while the
+diplomatic struggle was going on at Berlin; but after the signature of
+the Treaty of Berlin (July 13, 1878), the natural leaning of Alexander
+II. towards peace and quietness began by degrees to assert itself. The
+warlike designs of Kaufmann and his officials in Turkestan received a
+check, though not so promptly as was consistent with strict neutrality.
+
+Gradually the veil fell from the ex-Ameer's eyes. On the day of his
+flight (December 13), he wrote to the "Officers of the British
+Government," stating that he was about to proceed to St. Petersburg,
+"where, before a Congress, the whole history of the transactions between
+myself and yourselves will be submitted to all the Powers[314]." But
+nine days later he published a firman containing a very remarkable
+letter purporting to come from General Stolieteff at Livadia in the
+Crimea, where he was staying with the Czar. After telling him that the
+British desired to come to terms with him (the Ameer) through the
+intervention of the Sultan, the letter proceeded as follows:--
+
+     But the Emperor's desire is that you should not admit the
+     English into your country, and like last year, you are to
+     treat them with deceit and deception until the present cold
+     season passes away. Then the Almighty's will will be made
+     manifest to you, that is to say, the [Russian] Government
+     having repeated the Bismillah, the Bismillah will come to
+     your assistance. In short you are to rest assured that
+     matters will end well. If God permits, we will convene a
+     Government meeting at St. Petersburg, that is to say, a
+     Congress, which means an assemblage of Powers. We will then
+     open an official discussion with the English Government, and
+     either by force of words and diplomatic action we will
+     entirely cut off all English communications and interference
+     with Afghanistan, or else events will end in a mighty and
+     important war. By the help of God, by spring not a symptom or
+     a vestige of trouble and dissatisfaction will remain in
+     Afghanistan.
+
+[Footnote 314: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 7, (1879), p. 9. He also
+states on p. 172 that the advice of the Afghan officials who accompanied
+Shere Ali in his flight was (even in April-May 1879) favourable to a
+Russian alliance, and that they advised Yakub in this sense. See
+Kaufmann's letters to Yakub, in Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No.
+9 (1879).]
+
+It is impossible to think that the Czar had any knowledge of this
+treacherous epistle, which, it is to be hoped, originated with the
+lowest of Russian agents, or emanated from some Afghan chief in their
+pay. Nevertheless the fact that Shere Ali published it shows that he
+hoped for Russian help, even when the British held the keys of his
+country in their hands. But one hope after another faded away, and in
+his last days he must have come to see that he had been merely the
+catspaw of the Russian bear. He died on February 21, 1879, hard by the
+city of Bactra, the modern Balkh.
+
+That "mother of cities" has seen strange vicissitudes. It nourished the
+Zoroastrian and Buddhist creeds in their youth; from its crowded
+monasteries there shone forth light to the teeming millions of Asia,
+until culture was stamped out under the heel of Genghis Khan, and later,
+of Timur. In a still later day it saw the dawning greatness of that most
+brilliant but ill-starred of the Mogul Emperors, Aurungzebe. Its fallen
+temples and convents, stretching over many a mile, proclaim it to be
+the city of buried hopes. There was, then, something fitting in the
+place of Shere Ali's death. He might so readily have built up a powerful
+Afghan State in friendly union with the British Raj; he chose otherwise,
+and ended his life amidst the wreckage of his plans and the ruin of his
+kingdom. This result of the trust which he had reposed in Muscovite
+promises was not lost on the Afghan people and their rulers.
+
+There is no need to detail the events of the first half of the year 1879
+in Afghanistan. On the assembly of Parliament in February, Lord
+Beaconsfield declared that our objects had been attained in that land
+now that the three chief mountain highways between Afghanistan and India
+were completely in our power. It remained to find a responsible ruler
+with whom a lasting peace could be signed. Many difficulties were in the
+way owing to the clannish feuds of the Afghans and the number of
+possible claimants for the crown. Two men stood forth as the most likely
+rulers, Shere Ali's rebellious son, Yakub Khan, who had lately been
+released from his long confinement, and Abdur Rahman, son of Ufzal Khan,
+who was still kept by the Russians in Turkestan under some measure of
+constraint, doubtless in the hope that he would be a serviceable trump
+card in the intricate play of rival interests certain to ensue at Cabul.
+
+About February 20, Yakub sent overtures for peace to the British
+Government; and, as the death of his father at that time greatly
+strengthened his claim, it was favourably considered at London and
+Calcutta. Despite one act at least of flagrant treachery, he was
+recognised as Ameer. On May 8 he entered the British camp at Gandarnak,
+near Jelalabad; and after negotiations, a treaty was signed there, May
+26. It provided for an amnesty, the control of the Ameer's foreign
+policy by the British Government, the establishment of a British
+Resident at Cabul, the construction of a telegraph line to that city,
+the grant of commercial facilities, and the cession to India of the
+frontier districts of Kurram, Pishin, and Sibi (the latter two are near
+Quetta). The British Government retained control over the Khyber and
+Michnee Passes and over the neighbouring tribes (which had never
+definitely acknowledged Afghan rule). It further agreed to pay to the
+Ameer and his successors a yearly subsidy of six lakhs of rupees (nearly
+£50,000)[315].
+
+[Footnote 315: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 7 (1879), p. 23; Roberts,
+_op. cit._ pp. 170-173.]
+
+General Roberts and many others feared that the treaty had been signed
+too hastily, and that the Afghans, "an essentially arrogant and
+conceited people," needed a severer lesson before they acquiesced in
+British suzerainty. But no sense of foreboding depressed Major Sir Louis
+Cavagnari, the gallant and able officer who had carried out so much of
+the work on the frontier, when he proceeded to take up his abode at
+Cabul as British Resident (July 24). The chief danger lay in the Afghan
+troops, particularly the regiments previously garrisoned at Herat, who
+knew little or nothing of British prowess, and whose fanaticism was
+inflamed by arrears of pay. Cavagnari's Journal kept at Cabul ended on
+August 19 with the statement that thirty-three Russians were coming up
+the Oxus to the Afghan frontier. But the real disturbing cause seems to
+have been the hatred of the Afghan troops to foreigners.
+
+Failure to pay was so usual a circumstance in Afghanistan as scarcely to
+account for the events that ensued. Yet it furnished the excuse for an
+outbreak. Early on September 3, when assembled for what proved to be the
+farce of payment at Bala Hissar (the citadel), three regiments mutinied,
+stoned their officers, and then rushed towards the British Embassy.
+These regiments took part in the first onset against an unfortified
+building held by the Mission and a small escort. A steady musketry fire
+from the defenders long held them at bay; but, when joined by townsfolk
+and other troops, the mutineers set fire to the gates, and then,
+bursting in, overpowered the gallant garrison. The Ameer made only
+slight efforts to quell this treacherous outbreak, and, while defending
+his own palaces by faithful troops, sent none to help the envoy. These
+facts, as reported by trustworthy witnesses, did not correspond to the
+magniloquent assurances of fidelity that came from Yakub himself[316].
+
+[Footnote 316: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1880), pp. 32-42,
+89-96.]
+
+Arrangements were at once made to retrieve this disaster, but staff and
+transport arrangements caused serious delay. At length General Roberts
+was able to advance up the Kurram Valley and carry the Shutargardan Pass
+by storm, an exploit fully equal to his former capture of the Peiwar
+Kotal in the same mountain range. Somewhat further on he met the Ameer,
+and was unfavourably impressed with him: "An insignificant-looking
+man, . . . with a receding forehead, a conical-shaped head, and no chin to
+speak of, . . . possessed moreover of a very shifty eye." Yakub justified
+this opinion by seeking on various pretexts to delay the British
+advance, and by sending to Cabul news as to the numbers of the
+British force.
+
+All told it numbered only 4000 fighting men with 18 cannon.
+Nevertheless, on nearing Cabul, it assailed a strong position at
+Charasia, held by 13 regular regiments of the enemy and some 10,000
+irregulars. The charges of Highlanders (the 72nd and 92nd), Gurkhas, and
+Punjabis proved to be irresistible, and drove the Afghans from two
+ridges in succession. This feat of arms, which bordered on the
+miraculous, served to reveal the feelings of the Ameer in a manner
+equally ludicrous and sinister. Sitting in the British camp, he watched
+the fight with great eagerness, then with growing concern, until he
+finally needed all his oriental composure for the final compliment which
+he bestowed on the victor. Later on it transpired that he and his
+adherents had laid careful plans for profiting by the defeat of the
+venturesome little force, so as to ensure its annihilation[317].
+
+[Footnote 317: Roberts, _op. cit._ vol. ii. pp. 213-224; Hensman, _The
+Afghan War of 1878-1880_.]
+
+The brilliant affair at Charasia served to bring out the conspicuous
+gallantry of two men, who were later on to win distinction in wider
+fields, Major White and Colour-Sergeant Hector Macdonald. White carried
+a ridge at the head of a body of 50 Highlanders. When the enemy fled to
+a second ridge, he resolved to spare the lives of his men by taking a
+rifle and stalking the enemy alone, until he suddenly appeared on their
+flank. Believing that his men were at his back, the Afghans turned
+and fled.
+
+On October 9 Roberts occupied the Siah Sang ridge, overlooking Cabul,
+and on the next day entered the citadel, Bala Hissar, to inspect the
+charred and blood-stained ruins of the British Embassy. In the embers of
+a fire he and his staff found numbers of human bones. On October 12
+Yakub came to the General to announce his intention of resigning the
+Ameership, as "he would rather be a grass-cutter in the English camp
+than ruler of Afghanistan." On the next day the British force entered
+the city itself in triumph, and Roberts put the Ameer's Ministers under
+arrest. The citizens were silent but respectful, and manifested their
+satisfaction when he proclaimed that only those guilty of the
+treacherous attack on the Residency would be punished. Cabul itself was
+much more Russian than English. The Afghan officers wore Russian
+uniforms, Russian goods were sold in the bazaars, and Russian money was
+found in the Treasury. It is evident that the Czar's officials had long
+been pushing on their designs, and that further persistency on the part
+of England in the antiquated policy of "masterly inactivity" would have
+led to Afghanistan becoming a Muscovite satrapy.
+
+The pendulum now swung sharply in favour of India. To that land Roberts
+despatched the ex-Ameer on December 1, on the finding of the Commission
+that he had been guilty of criminal negligence (if not worse) at the
+time of the massacre of Cavagnari and his escort. Two Afghan Sirdars,
+whose guilt respecting that tragedy had been clearly proven, were also
+deported and imprisoned. This caused much commotion, and towards the
+close of the year the preaching of a fanatic, whose name denoted
+"fragrance of the universe," stirred up hatred to the conquerors.
+
+Bands of tribesmen began to cluster around Cabul, and an endeavour to
+disperse them led to a temporary British reverse not far from the
+Sherpur cantonments where Roberts held his troops. The situation was
+serious. As generally happens with Asiatics, the hillmen rose by
+thousands at the news, and beset the line of communications with India.
+Sir Frederick Roberts, however, staunchly held his ground at the Sherpur
+camp, beating off one very serious attack of the tribesmen on December
+20-23. On the next day General Gough succeeded in breaking through from
+Gandamak to his relief. Other troops were hurried up from India, and
+this news ended the anxiety which had throbbed through the Empire at the
+news of Roberts being surrounded near Cabul.
+
+Now that the league of hillmen had been for the time broken up, it
+became more than ever necessary to find a ruler for Afghanistan, and
+settle affairs with all speed. This was also desirable in view of the
+probability of a general election in the United Kingdom in the early
+part of the year 1880, the Ministry wishing to have ready an Afghan
+settlement to act as a soporific drug on the ravening Cerberus of
+democracy at home. Unhappily, the outbreak of the Zulu War on January
+11, 1880, speedily followed by the disaster of Isandlana, redoubled the
+complaints in the United Kingdom, with the result that matters were more
+than ever pressed on in Afghanistan.
+
+Some of the tribes clamoured for the return of Yakub, only to be
+informed by General Roberts that such a step would never be allowed. In
+the midst of this uncertainty, when the hour for the advent of a strong
+man seemed to have struck, he opportunely appeared. Strange to say, he
+came from Russian Turkestan.
+
+As has been stated above, Abdur Rahman, son of Ufzal Khan, had long
+lived there as a pensioner of the Czar; his bravery and skill in
+intrigue had been well known. The Russian writer, Petrovsky, described
+him as longing, above all things, to get square with the English and
+Shere Ali. It was doubtless with this belief in the exile's aims that
+the Russians gave him £2500 and 200 rifles. His advent in Afghanistan
+seemed well calculated to add to the confusion there and to the
+difficulties of England. With only 100 followers he forded the Oxus and,
+early in 1880, began to gather around him a band in Afghan Turkestan.
+His success was startlingly rapid, and by the end of March he was master
+of all that district[318].
+
+[Footnote 318: See his adventures in _The Life of Abdur Rahman, _by
+Sultan Mohammed Khan, vol. ii, chaps, v., vi. He gave out that he came
+to expel the English (pp. 173-175).]
+
+But the political results of this first success were still more
+surprising. Lord Lytton, Sir Frederick Roberts, and Mr. Lepel Griffin
+(political commissioner in Afghanistan) soon saw the advantage of
+treating with him for his succession to the throne of Cabul. The
+Viceroy, however, true to his earlier resolve to break up Afghanistan,
+added the unpleasant condition that the districts of Candahar and Herat
+must now be severed from the north of Afghanistan. Abdur Rahman's first
+request that the whole land should form a neutral State under the joint
+protection of Great Britain and Russia was decisively negatived on the
+ground that the former Power stood pledged by the Treaty of Gandamak not
+to allow the intervention of any foreign State in Afghan affairs. A
+strong man like Abdur Rahman appreciated the decisiveness of this
+statement; and, while holding back his hand with the caution and
+suspicion natural to Afghans, he thenceforth leant more to the British
+side, despite the fact that Lord Lytton had recognised a second Shere
+Ali as "Wali," or Governor of Candahar and its district[319]. On April
+19, Sir Donald Stewart routed a large Afghan force near Ghaznee, and
+thereafter occupied that town. He reached Cabul on May 5. It appeared
+that the resistance of the natives was broken.
+
+[Footnote 319: Roberts, _op. cit._ vol. ii. pp. 315-323.]
+
+Such was the state of affairs when the General Election of April 1880
+installed Mr. Gladstone in power in place of Lord Beaconsfield. As has
+been hinted above, Afghan affairs had helped to bring about this change;
+and the world now waited to see what would be the action of the party
+which had fulminated against the "forward policy" in India. As is
+usually the case after ministerial changes, the new Prime Minister
+disappointed the hopes of his most ardent friends and the fears of his
+bitterest opponents. The policy of "scuttle" was, of course, never
+thought of; but, as the new Government stood pledged to limit its
+responsibilities in India as far as possible, one great change took
+place. Lord Lytton laid down his Viceroyalty when the full results of
+the General Election manifested themselves; and the world saw the
+strange sight of a brilliant and powerful ruler, who took precedence of
+ancient dynasties in India, retiring into private life at the bidding of
+votes silently cast in ballot-boxes far away in islands of the north.
+
+No more startling result of the working of the democratic system has
+ever been seen in Imperial affairs; and it may lead the student of Roman
+History to speculate what might have been the results in that ancient
+Empire if the populace of Italy could honestly have discharged the like
+duties with regard to the action of their proconsuls. Roman policy might
+have lacked some of its stateliness and solidity, but assuredly the
+government of the provinces would have improved. Whatever may be said as
+to the evils of change brought about by popular caprice, they are less
+serious than those which grow up under the shadow of an uncriticised and
+irresponsible bureaucracy.
+
+Some time elapsed before the new Viceroy, Lord Ripon, could take up the
+reins of power. In that interval difficulties had arisen with Abdur
+Rahman, but on July 20 the British authorities at Cabul publicly
+recognised him as Ameer of Northern Afghanistan. The question as to the
+severance of Candahar from Cabul, and the amount of the subsidy to be
+paid to the new ruler, were left open and caused some difference of
+opinion; but a friendly arrangement was practically assured a few
+days later.
+
+For many reasons this was desirable. As far back as April 11, 1880, Mr.
+(now Sir) Lepel Griffin had announced in a Durbar at Cabul that the
+British forces would withdraw from Afghanistan when the Government
+considered that a satisfactory settlement had been made; that it was the
+friend, not the enemy, of Islam, and would keep the sword for its
+enemies. The time had now come to make good these statements. In the
+closing days of July Abdur Rahman was duly installed in power at Cabul,
+and received 19-1/2 lakhs of rupees (£190,500)[320]. Meanwhile his
+champions prepared to evacuate that city and to avenge a disaster which
+had overtaken their arms in the Province of Candahar. On July 29 news
+arrived that a British brigade had been cut to pieces at Maiwand.
+
+[Footnote 320: _The Life of Abdur Rahman_, vol. ii. pp. 197-98. For
+these negotiations and the final recognition, see Parl. Papers,
+Afghanistan, No. 1 (1881), pp. 16-51.]
+
+The fact that we supported the Sirdar named Shere Ali at Candahar seemed
+to blight his authority over the tribesmen in that quarter. All hope of
+maintaining his rule vanished when tidings arrived that Ayub Khan, a
+younger brother of the deported Yakub, was marching from the side of
+Herat to claim the crown. Already the new pretender had gained the
+support of several Afghan chiefs around Herat, and now proclaimed a
+_jehad_, or holy war, against the infidels holding Cabul. With a force
+of 7500 men and 10 guns he left Herat on June 15, and moved towards the
+River Helmand, gathering around him numbers of tribesmen and
+ghazis[321].
+
+[Footnote 321: "A ghazi is a man who, purely for the sake of his
+religion, kills an unbeliever, Kaffir, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, or
+Christian, in the belief that in so doing he gains a sure title to
+Paradise" (R.I. Bruce, _The Forward Policy_, p. 245).]
+
+In order to break this gathering cloud of war betimes, the Indian
+Government ordered General Primrose, who commanded the British garrison
+at Candahar, to despatch a brigade to the Helmand. Accordingly,
+Brigadier-General Burrows, with 2300 British and Indian troops, marched
+out from Candahar on July 11. On the other side of the Helmand lay an
+Afghan force, acting in the British interest, sent thither by the
+Sirdar, Shere Ali. Two days later the whole native force mutinied and
+marched off towards Ayub Khan. Burrows promptly pursued them, captured
+their six guns, and scattered the mutineers with loss.
+
+Even so his position was most serious. In front of him, at no great
+distance, was a far superior force flushed with fanaticism and the hope
+of easy triumph; the River Helmand offered little, if any, protection,
+for at that season it was everywhere fordable; behind him stretched
+twenty-five miles of burning desert. By a speedy retreat across this
+arid zone to Khushk-i-Nakhud, Burrows averted the disaster then
+imminent, but his anxiety to carry out the telegraphic orders of the
+Commander-in-chief, and to prevent Ayub's force from reaching Ghaznee,
+led him into an enterprise which proved to be far beyond his strength.
+
+Hearing that 2000 of the enemy's horsemen and a large number of ghazis
+had hurried forward in advance of the main body to Maiwand, he
+determined to attack them there. At 6.30 A.M. on July 27 he struck camp
+and moved forwards with his little force of 2599 fighting men. Daring
+has wrought wonders in Indian warfare, but rarely has any British
+commander undertaken so dangerous a task as that to which Burrows set
+his hand on that morning.
+
+During his march he heard news from a spy that the Afghan main body was
+about to join their vanguard; but, either because he distrusted the
+news, or hoped even at the last to "pluck the flower, safety, out of the
+nettle, danger," he pushed on and sought to cut through the line of the
+enemy's advance as it made for Maiwand. About 10 A.M. his column passed
+the village of Khig and, crossing a dried watercourse, entered a parched
+plain whereon the fringe of the enemy's force could dimly be seen
+through the thick and sultry air. Believing that he had to deal with no
+large body of men, Burrows pushed on, and two of Lieutenant Maclaine's
+guns began to shell their scattered groups. Like wasps roused to fury,
+the ghazis rushed together as if for a charge, and lines of Afghan
+regulars came into view. The deceitful haze yielded up its secret.
+Burrows' brigade stood face to face with 15,000 Afghans. Moreover some
+influence, baleful to England, kept back those Asiatics from their
+usually heedless rush. Their guns came up and opened fire on Burrows'
+line. Even the white quivering groups of their ghazis forebore to charge
+with their whetted knives, but clung to a gully which afforded good
+cover 500 yards away from the British front and right flank; there the
+Afghan regulars galled the exposed khaki line, while their cannon, now
+numbering thirty pieces, kept up a fire to which Maclaine's twelve guns
+could give no adequate reply.
+
+[Illustration: Battle of Maiwand]
+
+It has been stated by military critics that Burrows erred in letting the
+fight at the outset become an affair of artillery, in which he was
+plainly the weaker. Some of his guns were put out of action; and in that
+open plain there was no cover for the fighting line, the reserves, or
+the supporting horse. All of them sustained heavy losses from the
+unusually accurate aim of the Afghan gunners. But the enemy had also
+suffered under our cannonade and musketry; and it is consonant with the
+traditions of Indian warfare to suppose that a charge firmly pushed home
+at the first signs of wavering in the hostile mass would have retrieved
+the day. Plassey and Assaye were won by sheer boldness. Such a chance is
+said to have occurred about noon at Maiwand. However that may be,
+Burrows decided to remain on the defensive, perhaps because the hostile
+masses were too dense and too full of fight to warrant the adoption of
+dashing tactics.
+
+After the sun passed his zenith the enemy began to press on the front
+and flanks. Burrows swung round his wings to meet these threatening
+moves; but, as the feline and predatory instincts of the Afghans kindled
+more and more at the sight of the weak, bent, and stationary line, so
+too the _morale_ of the defenders fell. The British and Indian troops
+alike were exhausted by the long march and by the torments of thirst in
+the sultry heat. Under the fire of the Afghan cannon and the frontal and
+flank advance of the enemy, the line began to waver about 2 P.M., and
+two of the foremost guns were lost. A native regiment in the centre,
+Jacob's Rifles, fled in utter confusion and spread disorder on the
+flanks, where the 1st Bombay Grenadiers and the 66th line regiment had
+long maintained a desperate fight. General Nuttall now ordered several
+squadrons of the 3rd Light Cavalry and 3rd Sind Horse to recover the
+guns and stay the onrushing tide, but their numbers were too small for
+the task, and the charge was not pressed home. Finally the whole mass of
+pursued and pursuers rolled towards the village of Khig and its outlying
+enclosures.
+
+There a final stand was made. Colonel Galbraith and about one hundred
+officers and men of the 66th threw themselves into a garden enclosure,
+plied the enemy fiercely with bullets, and time after time beat back
+every rush of the ghazis, now rioting in that carnival of death.
+Surrounded by the flood of the Afghan advance, the little band fought
+on, hopeless of life, but determined to uphold to the last the honour
+of their flag and country. At last only eleven were left. These heroes
+determined to die in the open; charging out on the masses around, they
+formed square, and back to back stood firing on the foe. Not until the
+last of them fell under the Afghan rifles did the ghazis venture to
+close in with their knives, so dauntless had been the bearing of this
+band[322].
+
+[Footnote 322: Report of General Primrose in Parl. Papers, Afghanistan,
+No. 3 (1880), p. 156.]
+
+They had not fought in vain. Their stubborn stand held back the Afghan
+pursuit and gave time for the fugitives to come together on the way back
+to Candahar. Had the pursuit been pushed on with vigour few, if any,
+could have survived. Even so, Maiwand was one of the gravest disasters
+ever sustained by our Indian army. It cost Burrows' force nearly half
+its numbers; 934 officers and men were killed and 175 wounded. The
+strange disproportion between these totals may serve as a measure of the
+ferocity of Afghans in the hour of victory. Of the non-combatants 790
+fell under the knives of the ghazis. The remnant struggled towards
+Candahar, whence, on the 28th, General Primrose despatched a column to
+the aid of the exhausted survivors. In the citadel of that fortress
+there mustered as many as 4360 effectives as night fell. But what were
+these in face of Ayub's victorious army, now joined by tribesmen eager
+for revenge and plunder[323]?
+
+[Footnote 323: S.H. Shadbolt, _The Afghan Campaigns of_ 1878-80, pp.
+96-100. Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 2 (1880), p. 21; No. 3, pp.
+103-5; Lord Roberts, _op. cit._ vol. ii. pp. 333-5; Hensman, _op. cit._
+pp. 553-4.]
+
+In face of this disaster, the British generals in Northern Afghanistan
+formed a decision commendable alike for its boldness and its sagacity.
+They decided to despatch at once all available troops from Cabul to the
+relief of the beleaguered garrison at Candahar. General Sir Frederick
+Roberts had handed over the command at Cabul to Sir Donald Stewart, and
+was about to operate among the tribes on the Afghan frontier when the
+news of the disaster sent him hurrying back to confer with the new
+commander-in-chief. Together they recommended the plan named above.
+
+It involved grave dangers: for affairs in the north of Afghanistan were
+unsettled; and to withdraw the rest of our force from Cabul to the
+Khyber would give the rein to local disaffection. The Indian authorities
+at Simla inclined to the despatch of the force at Quetta, comprising
+seven regiments of native troops, from Bombay. The route was certainly
+far easier; for, thanks to the toil of engineers, the railway from the
+Indus Valley towards Quetta had been completed up to a point in advance
+of Sibi; and the labours of Major Sandeman, Bruce, and others, had kept
+that district fairly quiet[324]. But the troops at Quetta and Pishin
+were held to be incapable of facing a superior force of victorious
+Afghans. At Cabul there were nine regiments of infantry, three of
+cavalry, and three mountain-batteries, all of them British or picked
+Indian troops. On August 3, Lord Ripon telegraphed his permission for
+the despatch of the Cabul field-force to Candahar. It amounted to 2835
+British (the 72nd and 92nd Highlanders and 2nd battalion of the 60th
+Rifles, and 9th Lancers), 7151 Indian troops, together with 18 guns. On
+August 9 it struck camp and set out on a march which was destined to
+be famous.
+
+[Footnote 324: _Colonel Sandeman: His Life and Work on our Indian
+Frontier,_ by T.H. Thornton; R.I. Bruce, _The Forward Policy and its
+Results_ (1900), chaps. iv. v.; _Candahar in 1879; being the Diary of
+Major Le Mesurier, R.E._ (1880). The last had reported in 1879 that the
+fortifications of Candahar were weak and the citadel in bad repair.]
+
+Fortunately before it left the Cabul camp on August 9, matters were
+skilfully arranged by Mr. Griffin with Abdur Rahman, on terms which will
+be noticed presently. In spite of one or two suspicious incidents, his
+loyalty to the British cause now seemed to be assured, and that, too, in
+spite of the remonstrances of many of his supporters. He therefore sent
+forward messengers to prepare the way for Roberts' force. They did so by
+telling the tribesmen that the new Ameer was sending the foreign army
+out of the land by way of Candahar! This pleasing fiction in some
+measure helped on the progress of the force, and the issue of events
+proved it to be no very great travesty of the truth.
+
+Every possible device was needed to ensure triumph over physical
+obstacles. In order to expedite the march through the difficult country
+between Cabul and Candahar, no wheeled guns or waggons went with the
+force. As many as 8000 native bearers or drivers set out with the force,
+but very many of them deserted, and the 8255 horses, mules and donkeys
+were thenceforth driven by men told off from the regiments. The line of
+march led at first through the fertile valley of the River Logar, where
+the troops and followers were able to reap the ripening crops and
+subsist in comfort. Money was paid for the crops thus appropriated.
+After leaving this fertile district for the barren uplands, the question
+of food and fuel became very serious; but it was overcome by ingenuity
+and patience, though occasional times of privation had to be faced, as,
+for instance, when only very small roots were found for the cooking of
+corn and meat. A lofty range, the Zamburak Kotal, was crossed with great
+toil and amidst biting cold at night-time; but the ability of the
+commander, the forethought and organising power of his Staff, and the
+hardihood of the men overcame all trials and obstacles.
+
+The army then reached the more fertile districts around Ghazni, and on
+August 15 gained an entry without resistance to that once formidable
+stronghold. Steady marching brought the force eight days later to the
+hill fort of Kelat-i-Ghilzai, where it received a hearty welcome from
+the British garrison of 900 men. Sir Frederick Roberts determined to
+take on these troops with him, as he needed all his strength to cope
+with the growing power of Yakub. After a day's rest (well earned, seeing
+that the force had traversed 225 miles in 14 days), the column set forth
+on its last stages, cheered by the thought of rescuing their comrades at
+Candahar, but more and more oppressed by the heat, which, in the lower
+districts of South Afghanistan, is as fierce as anywhere in the world.
+Mr. Hensman, the war correspondent of the _Daily News,_ summed up in one
+telling phrase the chief difficulties of the troops. "The sun laughed to
+scorn 100° F. in the shade." On the 27th the commander fell with a sharp
+attack of fever.
+
+Nevertheless he instructed the Indian cavalry to push on to Robat and
+open up heliographic communication with Candahar. It then transpired
+that the approach of the column had already changed the situation.
+Already, on August 23, Ayub had raised the siege and retired to the
+hills north of the city. That relief came none too soon appeared on the
+morning of the 31st, when the thin and feeble cheering that greeted the
+rescuers on their entrance to the long beleaguered town told its sad
+tale of want, disease, and depression of heart. The men who had marched
+313 miles in 22 days--an average of 14-1/4 miles a day--felt a thrill of
+sympathy, not unmixed with disgust in some cases, at the want of spirit
+too plainly discernible among the defenders. The Union Jack was not
+hoisted on the citadel until the rescuers were near at hand[325].
+General Roberts might have applied to them Hecuba's words to Priam:--
+
+     Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis
+     Tempus eget.
+
+As for the _morale_ of the relieving force, it now stood at the zenith,
+as was seen on the following day. Framing his measures so as to
+encourage Ayub to stand his ground, Roberts planned his attack in the
+way that had already led to success, namely, a frontal attack more
+imposing than serious, while the enemy's flank was turned and his
+communications threatened. These moves were carried out by Generals Ross
+and Baker with great skill. Under the persistent pressure of the British
+onset the Afghans fell back from position to position, north-west of
+Candahar; until finally Major White with the 92nd, supported by Gurkhas
+and the 23rd Pioneers, drove them back to their last ridge, the Baba
+Wali Kotal, swarmed up its western flank, and threw the whole of the
+hostile mass in utter confusion into the plain beyond. Owing to the very
+broken nature of the ground, few British and Indian horsemen were at
+hand to reap the full fruits of victory; but many of Ayub's regulars and
+ghazis fell under their avenging sabres. The beaten force deserved no
+mercy. When the British triumph was assured, the Afghan chief ordered
+his prisoner, Lieutenant Maclaine, to be butchered; whereupon he himself
+and his suite took to flight. The whole of his artillery, twenty-seven
+pieces, including the two British guns lost at Maiwand, fell into the
+victor's hands. In fact, Ayub's force ceased to exist; many of his
+troops at once assumed the garb of peaceful cultivators, and the
+Pretender himself fled to Herat[326].
+
+[Footnote 325: Roberts, _op. cit._ vol. ii. p. 357.]
+
+[Footnote 326: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 3 (1880), p. 82. Hensman,
+_The Afghan War;_ Shadbolt, _op. cit._ pp. 108-110. The last reckons
+Ayub's force at 12,800, of whom 1200 were slain.]
+
+Thus ended an enterprise which, but for the exercise of the highest
+qualities on the part of General Roberts, his Staff, the officers, and
+rank and file, might easily have ended in irretrievable disaster. This
+will appear from the following considerations. The question of food and
+water during a prolonged march in that parched season of the year might
+have caused the gravest difficulties; but they were solved by a wise
+choice of route along or near water-courses where water could generally
+be procured. The few days when little or no water could be had showed
+what might have happened. Further, the help assured by the action of the
+Ameer's emissaries among the tribesmen was of little avail after the
+valley of the Logar was left behind. Many of the tribes were actively
+hostile, and cut off stragglers and baggage-animals.
+
+Above and beyond these daily difficulties, there was the problem as to
+the line of retreat to be taken in case of a reverse inflicted by the
+tribes _en route._ The army had given up its base of operations; for at
+the same time the remaining British and Indian regiments at Cabul were
+withdrawn to the Khyber Pass. True, there was General Phayre's force
+holding Quetta, and endeavouring to stretch out a hand towards Candahar;
+but the natural obstacles and lack of transport prevented the arrival of
+help from that quarter. It is, however, scarcely correct to say that
+Roberts had no line of retreat assured in case of defeat[327]. No
+serious fighting was to be expected before Candahar; for the Afghan
+plundering instinct was likely to keep Ayub near to that city, where the
+garrison was hard pressed. After leaving Ghazni, the Quetta route became
+the natural way of retirement.
+
+[Footnote 327: Shadbolt, _op. cit._ p. 107.]
+
+As it happened, the difficulties were mainly those inflicted by the
+stern hand of Nature herself; and their severity may be gauged by the
+fact that out of a well-seasoned force of less than 10,000 fighting men
+as many as 940 sick had at once to go into hospital at Candahar. The
+burning days and frosty nights of the Afghan uplands were more fatal
+than the rifles of Ayub and the knives of the ghazis. As Lord Roberts
+has modestly admitted, the long march gained in dramatic effect because
+for three weeks he and his army were lost to the world, and, suddenly
+emerging from the unknown, gained a decisive triumph. But, allowing for
+this element of picturesqueness, so unusual in an age when the daily din
+of telegrams dulls the perception of readers, we may still maintain that
+the march from Cabul to Candahar will bear comparison with any similar
+achievement in modern history.
+
+The story of British relations with Afghanistan is one which
+illustrates the infinite capacity of our race to "muddle through" to
+some more or less satisfactory settlement. This was especially the case
+in the spring and summer of 1880, when the accession of Mr. Gladstone to
+power and the disaster of Maiwand changed the diplomatic and military
+situation. In one sense, and that not a cryptic one, these events served
+to supplement one another. They rendered inevitable the entire
+evacuation of Afghanistan. That, it need hardly be said, was the policy
+of Mr. Gladstone, of the Secretary for India, Lord Hartington (now Duke
+of Devonshire), and of Lord Ripon.
+
+On one point both parties were agreed. Events had shown how undesirable
+it was to hold Cabul and Central Afghanistan. The evacuation of all
+these districts was specified in Lord Lytton's last official Memorandum,
+that which he signed on June 7, 1880, as certain to take place as soon
+as the political arrangements at Cabul were duly settled. The retiring
+Viceroy, however, declared that in his judgment the whole Province of
+Candahar must be severed from the Cabul Power, whether Abdur Rahman
+assented to it or not[328]. Obviously this implied the subjection of
+Candahar to British rule in some form. General Roberts himself argued
+stoutly for the retention of that city and district; and so did most of
+the military men. Lord Wolseley, on the other hand, urged that it would
+place an undesirable strain upon the resources of India, and that the
+city could readily be occupied from the Quetta position, if ever the
+Russians advanced to Herat. The Cabinet strongly held this opinion. The
+exponents of Whig ideas, Lord Hartington and the Duke of Argyll, herein
+agreeing with the exponents of a peaceful un-Imperial commercialism, Mr.
+Bright and Mr. Chamberlain. Consequently the last of the British troops
+were withdrawn from Candahar on April 15, 1881.
+
+[Footnote 328: Lady B. Balfour, _op. cit._ pp. 430, 445. On June 8 Lord
+Ripon arrived at Simla and took over the Viceroyalty from Lord Lytton;
+the latter was raised to an earldom.]
+
+The retirement was more serious in appearance than in reality. The war
+had brought some substantial gains. The new frontier acquired by the
+Treaty of Gandamak--and the terms of that compact were practically void
+until Roberts' victory at Candahar gave them body and life--provided
+ample means for sending troops easily to the neighbourhood of Cabul,
+Ghazni, and Candahar; and experience showed that troops kept in the hill
+stations on the frontier preserved their mettle far better than those
+cantoned in or near the unhealthy cities just named. The Afghans had
+also learnt a sharp lesson of the danger and futility of leaning on
+Russia; and to this fact must be attributed the steady adherence of the
+new Ameer to the British side.
+
+Moreover, the success of his rule depended largely on our evacuation of
+his land. Experience has shown that a practically independent and united
+Afghanistan forms a better barrier to a Russian advance than an
+Afghanistan rent by the fanatical feuds that spring up during a foreign
+occupation. Finally, the great need of India after the long famine was
+economy. A prosperous and contented India might be trusted to beat off
+any army that Russia could send; a bankrupt India would be the
+breeding-ground of strife and mutiny; and on these fell powers Skobeleff
+counted as his most formidable allies[329].
+
+[Footnote 329: See Appendix; also Lord Hartington's speeches in the
+House of Commons, March 25-6, 1881]
+
+It remained to be seen whether Abdur Rahman could win Candahar and
+Herat, and, having won them, keep them. At first Fortune smiled on his
+rival, Ayub. That pretender sent a force from Herat southwards against
+the Ameer's troops, defeated them, and took Candahar (July 1881). But
+Abdur Rahman had learnt to scorn the shifts of the fickle goddess. With
+a large force he marched to that city, bought over a part of Ayub's
+following, and then utterly defeated the remainder. This defeat was the
+end of Ayub's career. Flying back to Herat, he found it in the hands of
+the Ameer's supporters, and was fain to seek refuge in Persia. Both of
+these successes seem to have been due to the subsidies which the new
+Ameer drew from India[330].
+
+[Footnote 330: Abdur Rahman's own account (_op. cit._ ch. ix.) ascribes
+his triumph to his own skill and to Ayub's cowardice.]
+
+We may here refer to the last scene in which Ayub played a part before
+Englishmen. Foiled of his hopes in Persia, he finally retired to India.
+At a later day he appeared as a pensioner on the bounty of that
+Government at a review held at Rawal Pindi in the Punjab in honour of
+the visit of H.R.H. Prince Victor. The Prince, on being informed of his
+presence, rode up to his carriage and saluted the fallen Sirdar. The
+incident profoundly touched the Afghans who were present. One of them
+said: "It was a noble act. It shows that you English are worthy to be
+the rulers of this land[331]."
+
+[Footnote 331: _Eighteen Years in the Khyber Pass (1879-1898)_, by
+Colonel Sir R. Warburton, p. 213. The author's father had married a
+niece of the Ameer Dost Mohammed.]
+
+The Afghans were accustomed to see the conquered crushed and scorned by
+the conqueror. Hence they did not resent the truculent methods resorted
+to by Abdur Rahman in the consolidation of his power. In his relentless
+grip the Afghan tribes soon acquired something of stability. Certainly
+Lord Lytton never made a wiser choice than that of Abdur Rahman for the
+Ameership; and, strange to say, that choice obviated the evils which the
+Viceroy predicted as certain to accrue from the British withdrawal from
+Candahar[332]. Contrasting the action of Great Britain towards himself
+with that of Russia towards Shere Ali in his closing days, the new Ameer
+could scarcely waver in his choice of an alliance. And while he held the
+Indian Government away at arm's length, he never wavered at heart.
+
+[Footnote 332: Lord Lytton's speech in the House of Lords, Jan. 1881.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For in the meantime Russia had resumed her southward march, setting to
+work with the doggedness that she usually displays in the task of
+avenging slights and overbearing opposition. The penury of the
+exchequer, the plots of the Nihilists, and the discontent of the whole
+people after the inglorious struggle with Turkey, would have imposed on
+any other Government a policy of rest and economy. To the stiff
+bureaucracy of St. Petersburg these were so many motives for adopting a
+forward policy in Asia. Conquests of Turkoman territory would bring
+wealth, at least to the bureaucrats and generals; and military triumphs
+might be counted on to raise the spirit of the troops, silence the talk
+about official peculations during the Turkish campaign, and act in the
+manner so sagaciously pointed out by Henry IV. to Prince Hal:--
+
+                          Therefore, my Harry,
+     Be it thy course to busy giddy minds
+     With foreign quarrels, that action, hence borne out,
+     May waste the memory of the former days.
+
+In the autumn of 1878 General Lomakin had waged an unsuccessful campaign
+against the Tekke Turkomans, and finally fell back with heavy losses on
+Krasnovodsk, his base of operations on the Caspian Sea. In the summer of
+1879 another expedition set out from that port to avenge the defeat.
+Owing to the death of the chief, Lomakin again rose to the command. His
+bad dispositions at the climax of the campaign led him to a more serious
+disaster. On coming up to the fortress of Denghil Tepe, near the town of
+Geok Tepe, he led only 1400 men, or less than half of his force, to
+bombard and storm a stronghold held by some 15,000 Turkomans, and
+fortified on the plan suggested by a British officer, Lieutenant
+Butler[333]. Preluding his attack by a murderous cannonade, he sent
+round his cavalry to check the flight of the faint-hearted among the
+garrison; and, before his guns had fully done their work, he ordered the
+whole line to advance and carry the walls by storm. At once the Turkoman
+fire redoubled in strength, tore away the front of every attacking
+party, and finally drove back the assailants everywhere with heavy loss
+(Sept. 9, 1879). On the morrow the invaders fell back on the River Atrek
+and thence made their way back to the Caspian in sore straits[334].
+
+[Footnote 333: This officer wrote to the _Globe_ on January 25, 1881,
+stating that he had fortified two other posts east of Denghil Tepe. This
+led Skobeleff to push on to Askabad after the capture of that place; but
+he found no strongholds. See Marvin's _Russian Advance towards
+India_, p. 85.]
+
+[Footnote 334: Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1880), pp. 167-173,
+182.]
+
+The next year witnessed the advent of a great soldier on the scene.
+Skobeleff, the stormy petrel of Russian life, the man whose giant frame
+was animated by a hero's soul, who, when pitched from his horse in the
+rush on one of the death-dealing redoubts at Plevna, rose undaunted to
+his feet, brandished his broken sword in the air and yelled at the enemy
+a defiance which thrilled his broken lines to a final mad charge over
+the rampart--Skobeleff was at hand. He had culled his first laurels at
+Khiva and Khokand, and now came to the shores of the Caspian to carry
+forward the standards which he hoped one day to plant on the walls of
+Delhi. That he cherished this hope is proved by the Memorandum which
+will be found in the Appendix of this volume. His disclaimer of any such
+intention to Mr. Charles Marvin (which will also be found there) shows
+that under his frank exterior there lay hidden the strain of Oriental
+duplicity so often found among his countrymen in political life.
+
+At once the operations felt the influence of his active, cheery, and
+commanding personality. The materials for a railway which had been lying
+unused at Bender were now brought up; and Russia found the money to set
+about the construction of a railway from Michaelovsk to the Tekke
+Turkoman country--an undertaking which was destined wholly to change the
+conditions of warfare in South Turkestan and on the Afghan border. By
+the close of the year more than forty miles were roughly laid down, and
+Skobeleff was ready for his final advance from Kizil Arvat towards
+Denghil Tepe.
+
+Meanwhile the Tekkes had gained reinforcements from their kinsmen in the
+Merv oasis, and had massed nearly 40,000 men--so rumour ran--at their
+stronghold. Nevertheless, they offered no serious resistance to the
+Russian advance, doubtless because they hoped to increase the
+difficulties of his retreat after the repulse which they determined to
+inflict at their hill fortress. But Skobeleff excelled Lomakin in skill
+no less than in prowess and magnetic influence. He proceeded to push his
+trenches towards the stronghold, so that on January 23, 1881, his men
+succeeded in placing 2600 pounds of gunpowder under the south-eastern
+corner of the rampart. Early on the following day the Russians began the
+assault; and while cannon and rockets wrought death and dismay among the
+ill-armed defenders, the mighty shock of the explosion tore away fifty
+yards of their rampart.
+
+At once the Russian lines moved forward to end the work begun by
+gunpowder. With the blare of martial music and with ringing cheers, they
+charged at the still formidable walls. A young officer, Colonel
+Kuropatkin, who has since won notoriety in other lands, was ready with
+twelve companies to rush into the breach. Their leading files swarmed up
+it before the Tekkes fully recovered from the blow dealt by the hand of
+western science; but then the brave nomads closed in on foes with whom
+they could fight, and brought the storming party to a standstill.
+Skobeleff was ready for the emergency. True to his Plevna tactics of
+ever feeding an attack at the crisis with new troops, he hurled forward
+two battalions of the line and companies of dismounted Cossacks. These
+pushed on the onset, hewed their way through all obstacles, and soon met
+the smaller storming parties which had penetrated at other points. By 1
+p.m. the Russian standard waved in triumph from the central hill of the
+fortress, and thenceforth bands of Tekkes began to stream forth into the
+desert on the further side.
+
+Now Skobeleff gave to his foes a sharp lesson, which, he claimed, was
+the most merciful in the end. He ordered his men, horse and foot alike,
+to pursue the fugitives and spare no one. Ruthlessly the order was
+obeyed. First, the flight of grape shot from the light guns, then the
+bayonet, and lastly the Cossack lance, strewed the plain with corpses
+of men, women, and children; darkness alone put an end to the butchery,
+and then the desert for eleven miles eastwards of Denghil Tepe bore
+witness to the thoroughness of Muscovite methods of warfare. All the men
+within the fortress were put to the sword. Skobeleff himself estimated
+the number of the slain at 20,000[335]. Booty to the value of £600,000
+fell to the lot of the victors. Since that awful day the once predatory
+tribes of Tekkes have given little trouble. Skobeleff sent his righthand
+man, Kuropatkin, to occupy Askabad, and reconnoitre towards Merv. But
+these moves were checked by order of the Czar.
+
+[Footnote 335: _Siege and Assault of Denghil Tepe_. By General Skobeleff
+(translated). London, 1881.]
+
+A curious incident, told to Lord Curzon, illustrates the dread in which
+Russian troops have since been held. At the opening of the railway to
+Askabad, five years later, the Russian military bands began to play. At
+once the women and children there present raised cries and shrieks of
+dread, while the men threw themselves on the ground. They imagined that
+the music was a signal for another onslaught like that which preluded
+the capture of their former stronghold[336].
+
+[Footnote 336: _Russia in Central Asia in 1889_. By the Hon. G.N. Curzon
+(1889), p. 83.]
+
+This victory proved to be the last of Skobeleff's career. The Government
+having used their knight-errant, now put him on one side as too
+insubordinate and ambitious for his post. To his great disgust, he was
+recalled. He did not long survive. Owing to causes that are little
+known, among which a round of fast-living is said to have played its
+part, he died suddenly from failure of the heart at his residence near
+Moscow (July 7 1882). Some there were who whispered dark things as to
+his militant notions being out of favour with the new Czar, Alexander
+III.; others pointed significantly to Bismarck. Others again prattled of
+Destiny; but the best comment on the death of Skobeleff would seem to be
+that illuminating saying of Novalis--"Character is Destiny." Love of
+fame prompted in him the desire one day to measure swords with Lord
+Roberts in the Punjab; but the coarser strain in his nature dragged him
+to earth at the age of thirty-nine.
+
+The accession of Alexander III., after the murder of his father on March
+13, 1881, promised for a short time to usher in a more peaceful policy;
+but, in truth, the last important diplomatic assurance of the reign of
+Alexander II. was that given by the Minister M. de Giers, to Lord
+Dufferin, as to Russia's resolve not to occupy Merv. "Not only do we not
+want to go there, but, happily, there is nothing which can require us to
+go there."
+
+In spite of a similar assurance given on April 5 to the Russian
+ambassador in London, both the need and the desire soon sprang into
+existence. Muscovite agents made their way to the fruitful oasis of
+Merv; and a daring soldier, Alikhanoff, in the guise of a merchant's
+clerk, proceeded thither early in 1882, skilfully distributed money to
+work up a Russian party, and secretly sketched a plan of the fortress.
+Many chiefs and traders opposed Russia bitterly, for our brilliant and
+adventurous countryman, O'Donovan, while captive there, sought to open
+their eyes to the coming danger. But England's influence had fallen to
+zero since Skobeleff's victory and her own withdrawal from
+Candahar[337].
+
+[Footnote 337: C. Marvin, _Merv, the Queen of the World_ (1881); E.
+O'Donovan, _The Merv Oasis_, 2 vols. (1882-83), and _Merv_ (1883).]
+
+In 1882 a Russian Engineer officer, Lessar, in the guise of a scientific
+explorer, surveyed the route between Merv and Herat, and found that it
+presented far fewer difficulties than had been formerly reported to
+exist[338]. Finally, in 1884, the Czar's Government sought to revenge
+itself for Britain's continued occupation of Egypt by fomenting trouble
+near the Afghan border. Alikhanoff then reappeared, not in disguise,
+browbeat the hostile chieftains at Merv by threats of a Russian
+invasion, and finally induced them to take an oath of allegiance to
+Alexander III. (Feb. 12, 1884)[339].
+
+[Footnote 338: See his reports in Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1
+(1884), pp. 26, 36, 39, 63, 96, 106.]
+
+[Footnote 339: _Ibid_. p. 119.]
+
+There was, however, some reason for Russia's violation of her repeated
+promises respecting Merv. In practical politics the theory of
+compensation has long gained an assured footing; and, seeing that
+Britain had occupied Egypt partly as the mandatory of Europe, and now
+refused to evacuate that land, the Russian Government had a good excuse
+for retaliation. As has happened at every time of tension between the
+two Empires since 1855, the Czar chose to embarrass the Island Power by
+pushing on towards India. As a matter of fact, the greater the pressure
+that Russia brought to bear on the Afghan frontier, the greater became
+the determination of England not to withdraw from Egypt. Hence, in the
+years 1882-4, both Powers plunged more deeply into that "vicious circle"
+in which the policy of the Crimean War had enclosed them, and from which
+they have never freed themselves.
+
+The fact is deplorable. It has produced endless friction and has
+strained the resources of two great Empires; but the allegation of
+Russian perfidy in the Merv affair may be left to those who look at
+facts solely from the insular standpoint. In the eyes of patriotic
+Russians England was the offender, first by opposing Muscovite policy
+tooth and nail in the Balkans, secondly by seizing Egypt, and thirdly by
+refusing to withdraw from that commanding position. The important fact
+to notice is that after each of these provocations Russia sought her
+revenge on that flank of the British Empire to which she was guided by
+her own sure instincts and by the shrieks of insular Cassandras. By
+moving a few sotnias of Cossacks towards Herat she compelled her rival
+to spend a hundredfold as much in military preparations in India.
+
+It is undeniable that Russia's persistent breach of her promises in
+Asiatic affairs exasperated public opinion, and brought the two Empires
+to the verge of war. Conduct of that description baffles the resources
+of diplomacy, which are designed to arrange disputes. Unfortunately,
+British foreign affairs were in the hands of Lord Granville, whose
+gentle reproaches only awakened contempt at St. Petersburg. The recent
+withdrawal of Lord Dufferin from St. Petersburg to Constantinople, on
+the plea of ill-health, was also a misfortune; but his appointment to
+the Viceroyalty of India (September 1884) placed at Calcutta a
+Governor-General superior to Lord Ripon in diplomatic experience.
+
+There was every need for the exercise of ability and firmness both at
+Westminster and Calcutta. The climax in Russia's policy of lance-pricks
+was reached in the following year; and it has been assumed, apparently
+on good authority, that the understanding arrived at by the three
+Emperors in their meeting at Skiernewice (September 1884) implied a
+tacit encouragement of Russia's designs in Central Asia, however much
+they were curbed in the Balkan Peninsula. This was certainly the aim of
+Bismarck, and that he knew a good deal about Russian movements is clear
+from his words to Busch on November 24, 1884: "Just keep a sharp
+look-out on the news from Afghanistan. Something will happen there
+soon[340]."
+
+[Footnote 340: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, vol. iii.
+pp. 124, 133 (Eng. ed.).]
+
+This was clearly more than a surmise. At that time an Anglo-Russian
+Boundary Commission was appointed to settle the many vexed questions
+concerning the delimitation of the Russo-Afghan boundary. General Sir
+Peter Lumsden proceeded to Sarrakhs, expecting there to meet the Russian
+Commissioners by appointment in the middle of October 1884. On various
+pretexts the work of the Commission was postponed in accordance with
+advices sent from St. Petersburg. The aim of this dilatory policy soon
+became evident. That was the time when (as will appear in Chapter XVI.)
+the British expedition was slowly working its way towards Khartum in the
+effort to unravel the web of fate then closing in on the gallant Gordon.
+The news of his doom reached England on February 5, 1885. Then it was
+that Russia unmasked her designs. They included the appropriation of the
+town and district of Panjdeh, which she herself had previously
+acknowledged to be in Afghan territory. In vain did Lord Granville
+protest; in vain did he put forward proposals which conceded very much
+to the Czar, but less than his Ministers determined to have. All that he
+could obtain was a promise that the Russians would not advance further
+during the negotiations.
+
+On March 13, Mr. Gladstone officially announced that an agreement to
+this effect had been arrived at with Russia. The Foreign Minister at St.
+Petersburg, M. de Giers, on March 16 assured our ambassador, Sir Edward
+Thornton, that that statement was correct. On March 26, however, the
+light troops of General Komaroff advanced beyond the line of demarcation
+previously agreed on, and on the following day pushed past the Afghan
+force holding positions in front of Panjdeh. The Afghans refused to be
+drawn into a fight, but held their ground; thereupon, on March 29,
+Komaroff sent them an ultimatum ordering them to withdraw beyond
+Panjdeh. A British staff-officer requested him to reconsider and recall
+this demand, but he himself was waived aside. Finally, on March 30,
+Komaroff attacked the Afghan position, and drove out the defenders with
+the loss of 900 men. The survivors fell back on Herat, General Lumsden
+and his escort retired in the same direction, and Russia took possession
+of the coveted prize[341].
+
+[Footnote 341: See Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1885), for General
+Lumsden's refutation of Komaroff's misstatements; also for the general
+accounts, _ibid_. No. 5 (1885), pp. 1-7.]
+
+The news of this outrage reached England on April 7, and sent a thrill
+of indignation through the breasts of the most peaceful. Twenty days
+later Mr. Gladstone proposed to Parliament to vote the sum of
+£11,000,000 for war preparations. Of this sum all but £4,500,000 (needed
+for the Sudan) was devoted to military and naval preparations against
+Russia; and we have the authority of Mr. John Morley for saying that
+this vote was supported by Liberals "with much more than a mechanical
+loyalty[342]." Russia had achieved the impossible; she had united
+Liberals of all shades of thought against her, and the joke about
+"Mervousness" was heard no more.
+
+[Footnote 342: J. Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii. p. 184.]
+
+Nevertheless the firmness of the Government resembled that of Bob
+Acres: it soon oozed away. Ministers deferred to the Czar's angry
+declaration that he would allow no inquiry into the action of General
+Komaroff. This alone was a most mischievous precedent, as it tended to
+inflate Russian officers with the belief that they could safely set at
+defiance the rules of international law. Still worse were the signs of
+favour showered on the violator of a truce by the sovereign who gained
+the reputation of being the upholder of peace. From all that is known
+semi-officially with respect to the acute crisis of the spring of 1885,
+it would appear that peace was due solely to the tact of Sir Robert
+Morier, our ambassador at St. Petersburg, and to the complaisance of the
+Gladstone Cabinet.
+
+Certainly this quality carried Ministers very far on the path of
+concession. When negotiations were resumed, the British Government
+belied its former promises of firmness in a matter that closely
+concerned our ally, and surrendered Panjdeh to Russia, but on the
+understanding that the Zulfikar Pass should be retained by the Afghans.
+It should be stated, however, that Abdur Rahman had already assured Lord
+Dufferin, during interviews which they had at Rawal Pindi early in
+April, of his readiness to give up Panjdeh if he could retain that pass
+and its approaches. The Russian Government conceded this point; but
+their negotiators then set to work to secure possession of heights
+dominating the pass. It seemed that Lord Granville was open to
+conviction even on this point.
+
+Such was the state of affairs when, on June 9, 1885, Mr. Gladstone's
+Ministry resigned owing to a defeat on a budget question. The accession
+of Lord Salisbury to power after a brief interval helped to clear up
+these disputes. The crisis in Bulgaria of September 1885 (see Chapter
+X.) also served to distract the Russian Government, the Czar's chief
+pre-occupation now being to have his revenge on Prince Alexander of
+Battenberg. Consequently the two Powers came to a compromise about the
+Zulfikar Pass[343]. There still remained several questions outstanding,
+and only after long and arduous surveys, not unmixed with disputes, was
+the present boundary agreed on in a Protocol signed on July 22, 1887. We
+may here refer to a prophecy made by one of Bismarck's _confidantes_,
+Bucher, at the close of May 1885: "I believe the [Afghan] matter will
+come up again in about five years, when the [Russian] railways are
+finished[344]."
+
+[Footnote 343: Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 4 (1885), pp. 41-72.]
+
+[Footnote 344: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages,_ etc., vol. iii. p. 135.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thus it was that Russia secured her hold on districts dangerously near
+to Herat. Her methods at Panjdeh can only be described as a deliberate
+outrage on international law. It is clear that Alexander III. and his
+officials cared nothing for the public opinion of Europe, and that they
+pushed on their claims by means which appealed with overpowering force
+to the dominant motive of orientals--fear. But their action was based on
+another consideration. Relying on Mr. Gladstone's well-known love of
+peace, they sought to degrade the British Government in the eyes of the
+Asiatic peoples. In some measure they succeeded. The prestige of Britain
+thenceforth paled before that of the Czar; and the ease and decisiveness
+of the Russian conquests, contrasting with the fitful advances and
+speedy withdrawals of British troops, spread the feeling in Central Asia
+that the future belonged to Russia.
+
+Fortunately, this was not the light in which Abdur Rahman viewed the
+incident. He was not the man to yield to intimidation. That "strange,
+strong creature," as Lord Dufferin called him, "showed less emotion than
+might have been expected," but his resentment against Russia was none
+the less keen[345]. Her pressure only served to drive him to closer
+union with Great Britain. Clearly the Russians misunderstood Abdur
+Rahman. Their miscalculation was equally great as regards the character
+of the Afghans and the conditions of life among those mountain clans.
+Russian officers and administrators, after pushing their way easily
+through the loose rubble of tribes that make up Turkestan, did not
+realise that they had to deal with very different men in Afghanistan. To
+ride roughshod over tribes who live in the desert and have no natural
+rallying-point may be very effective; but that policy is risky when
+applied to tribes who cling to their mountains.
+
+[Footnote 345: In his _Life_ (vol. i, pp. 244-246) he also greatly
+blames British policy.]
+
+The analogy of Afghanistan to Switzerland may again serve to illustrate
+the difference between mountaineers and plain-dwellers. It was only when
+the Hapsburgs or the French threatened the Swiss that they formed any
+effective union for the defence of the Fatherland. Always at variance in
+time of peace, the cantons never united save under the stress of a
+common danger. The greater the pressure from without, the closer was the
+union. That truth has been illustrated several times from the age of the
+legendary Tell down to the glorious efforts of 1798. In a word, the
+selfsame mountaineers who live disunited in time of peace, come together
+and act closely together in war, or under threat of war.
+
+Accordingly, the action of England in retiring from Candahar,
+contrasting as it did with Russia's action at Panjdeh, marked out the
+line of true policy for Abdur Rahman. Thenceforth he and his tribesmen
+saw more clearly than ever that Russia was the foe; and it is noteworthy
+that under the shadow of the northern peril there has grown up among
+those turbulent clans a sense of unity never known before. Unconsciously
+Russia has been playing the part of a Napoleon I.; she has ground
+together some at least of the peoples of Central Asia with a
+thoroughness which may lead to unexpected results if ever events favour
+a general rising against the conqueror.
+
+Amidst all his seeming vacillations of policy, Abdur Rahman was governed
+by the thought of keeping England, and still more Russia, from his land.
+He absolutely refused to allow railways and telegraphs to enter his
+territories; for, as he said: "Where Europeans build railways, their
+armies quickly follow. My neighbours have all been swallowed up in this
+manner. I have no wish to suffer their fate."
+
+His judgment was sound. Skobeleff conquered the Tekkes by his railway;
+and the acquisition of Merv and Panjdeh was really the outcome of the
+new trans-Caspian line, which, as Lord Curzon has pointed out,
+completely changed the problem of the defence of India. Formerly the
+natural line of advance for Russia was from Orenburg to Tashkend and the
+upper Oxus; and even now that railway would enable her to make a
+powerful diversion against Northern Afghanistan[346]. But the route from
+Krasnovodsk on the Caspian to Merv and Kushk presents a shorter and far
+easier route, leading, moreover, to the open side of Afghanistan, Herat,
+and Candahar. Recent experiments have shown that a division of troops
+can be sent in eight days from Moscow to Kushk within a short distance
+of the Afghan frontier. In a word, Russia can operate against
+Afghanistan by a line (or rather by two lines) far shorter and easier
+than any which Great Britain can use for its defence[347].
+
+[Footnote 346: See Col. A. Durand's _The Making of a Frontier_ (1899),
+pp. 41-43.]
+
+[Footnote 347: Colquhoun, _Russia against India_, p. 170. Lord Curzon in
+1894 went over much of the ground between Sarrakhs and Candahar and
+found it quite easy for an army (except in food supply).]
+
+It is therefore of the utmost importance to prevent her pushing on her
+railways into that country. This is the consideration which inspired Mr.
+Balfour's noteworthy declaration of May 11, 1905, in the House of
+Commons:--
+
+     As transport is the great difficulty of an invading army, we
+     must not allow anything to be done which would facilitate
+     transport. It ought in my opinion to be considered as an act
+     of direct aggression upon this country that any attempt
+     should be made to build a railway, in connection with the
+     Russian strategic railways, within the territory of
+     Afghanistan.
+
+It is fairly certain that the present Ameer, Habibulla, who succeeded
+his father in 1901, holds those views. This doubtless was the reason
+why, early in 1905, he took the unprecedented step of _inviting_ the
+Indian Government to send a Mission to Cabul. In view of the increase of
+Russia's railways in Central Asia there was more need than ever of
+coming to a secret understanding with a view to defence against
+that Power.
+
+Finally, we may note that Great Britain has done very much to make up
+for her natural defects of position. The Panjdeh affair having relegated
+the policy of "masterly inactivity" to the limbo of benevolent
+futilities, the materials for the Quetta railway, which had been in
+large part sent back to Bombay in the year 1881, were now brought back
+again; and an alternative route was made to Quetta. The urgent need of
+checkmating French intrigues in Burmah led to the annexation of that
+land (November 1885); and the Kurram Valley, commanding Cabul, which the
+Gladstone Government had abandoned, was reoccupied. The Quetta district
+was annexed to India in 1887 under the title of British Baluchistan. The
+year 1891 saw an important work undertaken in advance of Quetta, the
+Khojak tunnel being then driven through a range close by the Afghan
+frontier, while an entrenched camp was constructed near by for the
+storage of arms and supplies. These positions, and the general hold
+which Britain keeps over the Baluchee clans, enable the defenders of
+India to threaten on the flank any advance by the otherwise practicable
+route from Candahar to the Indus.
+
+Certainly there is every need for careful preparations against any such
+enterprise. Lord Curzon, writing before Russia's strategic railways were
+complete, thought it feasible for Russia speedily to throw 150,000 men
+into Afghanistan, feed them there, and send on 90,000 of them against
+the Indus[348]. After the optimistic account of the problem of Indian
+defence given by Mr. Balfour in the speech above referred to, it is well
+to remember that, though Russia cannot invade India until she has
+conquered Afghanistan, yet for that preliminary undertaking she has the
+advantages of time and position nearly entirely on her side. Further,
+the completion of her railways almost up to the Afghan frontier (the
+Tashkend railway is about to be pushed on to the north bank of the Oxus,
+near Balkh) minimises the difficulties of food supply and transport in
+Afghanistan, on which the Prime Minister laid so much stress.
+
+[Footnote 348: _Op. cit._ p. 307. Other authorities differ as to the
+practicability of feeding so large a force even in the comparatively
+fertile districts of Herat and Candahar.]
+
+It is, however, indisputable that the security of India has been greatly
+enhanced by the steady pushing on of that "Forward Policy," which all
+friends of peace used to decry. The Ameer, Abdur Rahman, irritated by
+the making of the Khojak tunnel, was soothed by Sir Mortimer Durand's
+Mission in 1893; and in return for an increase of subsidy and other
+advantages, he agreed that the tribes of the debatable borderland--the
+Waziris, Afridis, and those of the Swat and Chitral valleys--should be
+under the control of the Viceroy. Russia showed her annoyance at this
+Mission by seeking to seize an Afghan town, Murghab; but the Ameer's
+troops beat them off[349]. Lord Lansdowne claimed that this right of
+permanently controlling very troublesome tribes would end the days of
+futile "punitive expeditions." In the main he was right. The peace and
+security of the frontier depend on the tact with which some few scores
+of officers carry on difficult work of which no one ever hears[350].
+
+[Footnote 349: _Life of Abdur Rahman,_ vol. i. p. 287.]
+
+[Footnote 350: For this work see _The Life of Sir R. Sandeman_; Sir R.
+Warburton, _Eighteen Years in the Khyber_; Durand, _op. cit._; Bruce,
+_The Forward Policy and its Results_; Sir James Willcock's _From Cabul
+to Kumassi_; S.S. Thorburn, _The Punjab in Peace and War_.]
+
+In nearly all cases they have succeeded in their heroic toil. But the
+work of pacification was disturbed in the year 1895 by a rising in the
+Chitral Valley, which cut off in Chitral Fort a small force of Sikhs and
+loyal Kashmir troops with their British officers. Relieving columns from
+the Swat Valley and Gilgit cut their way through swarms of hillmen and
+relieved the little garrison after a harassing leaguer of forty-five
+days[351]. The annoyance evinced by Russian officers at the success of
+the expedition and the retention of the whole of the Chitral district
+(as large as Wales) prompts the conjecture that they had not been
+strangers to the original outbreak. In this year Russia and England
+delimited their boundaries in the Pamirs.
+
+[Footnote 351: _The Relief of Chitral_, by Captains G.J. and F.E.
+Younghusband (1895).]
+
+The year 1897 saw all the hill tribes west and south of Peshawur rise
+against the British Raj. Moslem fanaticism, kindled by the Sultan's
+victories over the Greeks, is said to have brought about the explosion,
+though critics of the Calcutta Government ascribe it to official
+folly[352]. With truly Roman solidity the British Government quelled the
+risings, the capture of the heights of Dargai by the "gay Gordons"
+showing the sturdy hillmen that they were no match for our best troops.
+Since then the "Forward Policy" has amply justified itself, thousands of
+fine troops being recruited from tribes which were recently daring
+marauders, ready for a dash into the plains of the Punjab at the bidding
+of any would-be disturber of the peace of India. In this case, then,
+Britain has transformed a troublesome border fringe into a
+protective girdle.
+
+[Footnote 352: See _The Punjab in Peace and War_, by S.S. Thorburn, _ad
+fin._]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Whether the Russian Government intends in the future to invade India is
+a question which time alone can answer. Viewing her Central Asian policy
+from the time of the Crimean War, the student must admit that it bears
+distinct traces of such a design. Her advance has always been most
+conspicuous in the years succeeding any rebuff dealt by Great Britain,
+as happened after that war, and still more, after the Berlin Congress.
+At first, the theory that a civilised Power must swallow up restless
+raiding neighbours could be cited in explanation of such progress; but
+such a defence utterly fails to account for the cynical aggression at
+Panjdeh and the favour shown by the Czar to the general who violated a
+truce. Equally does it fail to explain the pushing on of strategic
+railways since the time of the conclusion of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty
+of 1902. Possibly Russia intends only to exert upon that Achilles heel
+of the British Empire the terrible but nominally pacific pressure which
+she brings to bear on the open frontiers of Germany and Austria; and
+the constant discussion by her officers of plans of invasion of India
+may be wholly unofficial. At the same time we must remember that the
+idea has long been a favourite one with the Russian bureaucracy; and the
+example of the years 1877-81 shows that that class is ready and eager to
+wipe out by a campaign in Central Asia the memory of a war barren of
+fame and booty. But that again depends on more general questions,
+especially those of finance (now a very serious question for Russia,
+seeing that she has drained Paris and Berlin of all possible loans) and
+of alliance with some Great Power, or Powers, anxious to effect the
+overthrow of Great Britain.
+
+If Great Britain be not enervated by luxury; if she be not led astray
+from the paths of true policy by windy talk about "splendid isolation";
+if also she can retain the loyal support of the various peoples of
+India,--she may face the contingency of such an invasion with firmness
+and equanimity. That it will come is the opinion of very many
+authorities of high standing. A native gentleman of high official rank,
+who brings forward new evidence on the subject, has recently declared it
+to be "inevitable[353]." Such, too, is the belief of the greatest
+authority on Indian warfare. Lord Roberts closes his Autobiography by
+affirming that an invasion is "inevitable in the end. We have done much,
+and may do still more to delay it; but when that struggle comes, it will
+be incumbent upon us, both for political and military reasons, to make
+use of all the troops and war material that the Native States can place
+at our disposal."
+
+[Footnote 353: See _The Nineteenth Century and After_ for May 1905.]
+
+POSTSCRIPT
+
+On May 22, 1905, the _Times_ published particulars concerning the
+Anglo-Afghan Treaty recently signed at Cabul. It renewed the compact
+made with the late Ameer, whereby he agreed to have no relations with
+any foreign Power except Great Britain, the latter agreeing to defend
+him against foreign aggression. The subsidy of £120,000 a year is to be
+continued, but the present Ameer, Habibulla, henceforth receives a title
+equivalent to "King" and is styled "His Majesty."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+BRITAIN IN EGYPT
+
+
+It will be well to begin the story of the expansion of the nations of
+Europe in Africa by a brief statement of the events which brought
+Britain to her present position in Egypt. As we have seen, the French
+conquest of Tunis, occurring a year earlier, formed the first of the
+many expeditions which inaugurated "the partition of Africa"--a topic
+which, as regards the west, centre, and south of that continent, will
+engage our attention subsequently. In this chapter and the following it
+will be convenient to bring together the facts concerning the valley of
+the Nile, a district which up to a recent time has had only a slight
+connection with the other parts of that mighty continent. In his quaint
+account of that mysterious land, Herodotus always spoke of it as
+distinct from Libya; and this aloofness has characterised Lower Egypt
+almost down to the present age, when the events which we are about to
+consider brought it into close touch with the equatorial regions.
+
+The story of the infiltration of British influence into Egypt is one of
+the most curious in all history. To this day, despite the recent
+agreement with France (1904), the position of England in the valley of
+the Lower Nile is irregular, in view of the undeniable fact that the
+Sultan is still the suzerain of that land. What is even stranger, it
+results from the gradual control which the purse-holder has imposed on
+the borrower. The power that holds the purse-strings counts for much in
+the political world, as also elsewhere. Both in national and domestic
+affairs it ensures, in the last instance, the control of the earning
+department over the spending department. It is the _ultima ratio_ of
+Parliaments and husbands.
+
+In order fully to understand the relations of Egypt to Turkey and to the
+purse-holders of the West, we must glance back at the salient events in
+her history for the past century. The first event that brought the land
+of the Pharaohs into the arena of European politics was the conquest by
+Bonaparte in 1798. He meant to make Egypt a flourishing colony, to have
+the Suez Canal cut, and to use Alexandria and Suez as bases of action
+against the British possessions in India. This daring design was foiled
+by Nelson's victory at the Nile, and by the Abercromby-Hutchinson
+expedition of 1801, which compelled the surrender of the French army
+left by Bonaparte in Egypt. The three years of French occupation had no
+great political results except the awakening of British statesmanship to
+a sense of the value of Egypt for the safeguarding of India. They also
+served to weaken the power of the Mamelukes, a Circassian military caste
+which had reduced the Sultan's authority over Egypt to a mere shadow.
+The ruin of this warlike cavalry was gradually completed by an Albanian
+soldier of fortune named Mohammed Ali, who, first in the name of the
+Sultan, and later in defiance of his power, gradually won the allegiance
+of the different races of Egypt and made himself virtually ruler of the
+land. This powerful Pasha conquered the northern part of the Sudan, and
+founded Khartum as the southern bulwark of his realm (1823). He seems to
+have grasped the important fact that, as Egypt depends absolutely on the
+waters poured down by the Nile in its periodic floods, her rulers must
+control that river in its upper reaches--an idea also held by the ablest
+of the Pharaohs. To secure this control, what place could be so suitable
+as Khartum, at the junction of the White and Blue Niles?
+
+Mohammed Ali was able to build up an army and navy, which in 1841 was on
+the point of overthrowing Turkish power in Syria, when Great Britain
+intervened, and by the capture of Acre compelled the ambitious Pasha to
+abandon his northern schemes and own once more the suzerainty of the
+Porte. The Sultan, however, acknowledged that the Pashalic of Egypt
+should be hereditary in his family. We may remark here that England and
+France had nearly come to blows over the Syrian question of that year;
+but, thanks to the firm demeanour of Lord Palmerston, their rivalry
+ended, as in 1801, in the triumph of British influence and the assertion
+of the nominal ascendancy of the Sultan in Egypt. Mohammed was to pay
+his lord £363,000 a year. He died in 1849.
+
+No great event took place during the rule of the next Pashas, or
+Khedives as they were now termed, Abbas I. (1849-54), and Said
+(1854-63), except that M. de Lesseps, a French engineer, gained the
+consent of Said in 1856 to the cutting of a ship canal, the northern
+entrance to which bears the name of that Khedive. Owing to the rivalry
+of Britain and France over the canal it was not finished until 1869,
+during the rule of Ismail (1863-79). We may note here that, as the
+concession was granted to the Suez Canal Company only for ninety-nine
+years, the canal will become the property of the Egyptian Government in
+the year 1968.
+
+The opening of the canal placed Egypt once more on one of the greatest
+highways of the world's commerce, and promised to bring endless wealth
+to her ports. That hope has not been fulfilled. The profits have gone
+almost entirely to the foreign investors, and a certain amount of trade
+has been withdrawn from the Egyptian railways. Sir John Stokes, speaking
+in 1887, said he found in Egypt a prevalent impression that the country
+had been injured by the canal[354].
+
+[Footnote 354: Quoted by D.A. Cameron, _Egypt in the Nineteenth
+Century_, p. 242.]
+
+Certainly Egypt was less prosperous after its opening, but probably
+owing to another and mightier event which occurred at the beginning of
+Ismail's rule. This was the American Civil War. The blockade of the
+Southern States by the federal cruisers cut off from Lancashire and
+Northern France the supplies of raw cotton which are the life-blood of
+their industries. Cotton went up in price until even the conservative
+fellahin of Egypt saw the desirability of growing that strange new
+shrub--the first instance on record of a change in their tillage that
+came about without compulsion. So great were the profits reaped by
+intelligent growers that many fellahin bought Circassian and Abyssinian
+wives, and established harems in which jewels, perfumes, silks, and
+mirrors were to be found. In a word, Egypt rioted in its new-found
+wealth. This may be imagined from the totals of exports, which in three
+years rose from £4,500,000 to considerably more than £13,000,000[355].
+
+[Footnote 355: _Egypt and the Egyptian Question_, by Sir D. Mackenzie
+Wallace (1883), pp. 318-320.]
+
+But then came the end of the American Civil War. Cotton fell to its
+normal price, and ruin stared Egypt in the face. For not only merchants
+and fellahin, but also their ruler, had plunged into expenditure, and on
+the most lavish scale. Nay! Believing that the Suez Canal would bring
+boundless wealth to his land, Ismail persisted in his palace-building
+and other forms of oriental extravagance, with the result that in the
+first twelve years of his reign, that is, by the year 1875, he had spent
+more than £100,000,000 of public money, of which scarcely one-tenth had
+been applied to useful ends. The most noteworthy of these last were the
+Barrage of the Nile in the upper part of the Delta, an irrigation canal
+in Upper Egypt, the Ibrahimiyeh Canal, and the commencement of the Wady
+Haifa-Khartum railway. The grandeur of his views may be realised when it
+is remembered that he ordered this railway to be made of the same gauge
+as those of South Africa, because "it would save trouble in the end."
+
+As to the sudden fall in the price of cotton, his only expedient for
+making good the loss was to grow sugar on a great scale, but this was
+done so unwisely as to increase the deficits. As a natural consequence,
+the Egyptian debt, which at his accession stood at £3,000,000, reached
+the extraordinary sum of £89,000,000 in the year 1876, and that, too,
+despite the increase of the land tax by one-half. All the means which
+oriental ingenuity has devised for the systematic plunder of a people
+were now put in force; so that Sir Alfred Milner (now Lord Milner),
+after unequalled opportunities of studying the Egyptian Question,
+declared: "There is nothing in the financial history of any country,
+from the remotest ages to the present time, to equal this carnival of
+extravagance and oppression[356]."
+
+[Footnote 356: _England in Egypt_, by Sir Alfred Milner (Lord Milner),
+1892, pp. 216-219. (The Egyptian £ is equal to £1:0:6.) I give the
+figures as pounds sterling.]
+
+The Khedive himself had to make some sacrifices of a private nature, and
+one of these led to an event of international importance. Towards the
+close of the year 1875 he decided to sell the 177,000 shares which he
+held in the Suez Canal Company. In the first place he offered them
+secretly to the French Government for 100,000,000 francs; and the
+Foreign Minister, the Duc Decazes, it seems, wished to buy them; but the
+Premier, M. Buffet, and other Ministers hesitated, perhaps in view of
+the threats of war from Germany, which had alarmed all responsible men.
+In any case, France lost her chance[357]. Fortunately for Great Britain,
+news of the affair was sent to one of her ablest journalists, Mr.
+Frederick Greenwood, who at once begged Lord Derby, then Minister for
+Foreign Affairs, to grant him an interview. The result was an urgent
+message from Lord Derby to Colonel Staunton, the British envoy in Egypt,
+to find out the truth from the Khedive himself. The tidings proved to be
+correct, and the Beaconsfield Cabinet at once sanctioned the purchase of
+the shares for the sum of close on £4,000,000.
+
+[Footnote 357: _La Question d'Égypte_, by C. de Freycinet (1905), p.
+151.]
+
+It is said that the French envoy to Egypt was playing billiards when he
+heard of the purchase, and in his rage he broke his cue in half. His
+anger was natural, quite apart from financial considerations. In that
+respect the purchase has been a brilliant success; for the shares are
+now worth more than £30,000,000, and yield an annual return of about a
+million sterling; but this monetary gain is as nothing when compared
+with the influence which the United Kingdom has gained in the affairs of
+a great undertaking whereby M. de Lesseps hoped to assure the ascendancy
+of France in Egypt.
+
+The facts of history, it should be noted, lent support to this
+contention of "the great Frenchman." The idea of the canal had
+originated with Napoleon I., and it was revived with much energy by the
+followers of the French philosopher, St. Simon, in the years
+1833-37[358]. The project, however, then encountered the opposition of
+British statesmen, as it did from the days of Pitt to those of
+Palmerston. This was not unnatural; for it promised to bring back to the
+ports of the Mediterranean the preponderant share in the eastern trade
+which they had enjoyed before the discovery of the route by the Cape of
+Good Hope. The political and commercial interests of England were bound
+up with the sea route, especially after the Cape was definitively
+assigned to her by the Peace of Paris of 1814; but she could not see
+with indifference the control by France of a canal which would divert
+trade once more to the old overland route. That danger was now averted
+by the financial _coup_ just noticed--an affair which may prove to have
+been scarcely less important in a political sense than Nelson's victory
+at the Nile.
+
+[Footnote 358: _La Question d'Égypte_, by C. de Freycinet, p. 106.]
+
+In truth, the Sea Power has made up for her defects of position as
+regards Egypt by four great strokes--the triumph of her great admiral,
+the purchase of Ismail's canal shares, the repression of Arabi's revolt,
+and Lord Kitchener's victory at Omdurman. The present writer has not
+refrained from sharp criticism on British policy in the period
+1870-1900; and the Egyptian policy of the Cabinets of Queen Victoria has
+been at times open to grave censure; but, on the whole, it has come out
+well, thanks to the ability of individuals to supply the qualities of
+foresight, initiative, and unswerving persistence, in which Ministers
+since the time of Chatham have rarely excelled.
+
+The sale of Ismail's canal shares only served to stave off the
+impending crash which would have formed the natural sequel to this new
+"South Sea Bubble." All who took part in this carnival of folly ought to
+have suffered alike, Ismail and his beys along with the stock-jobbers
+and dividend-hunters of London and Paris. In an ordinary case these last
+would have lost their money; but in this instance the borrower was weak
+and dependent, while the lenders were in a position to stir up two
+powerful Governments to action. Nearly the whole of the Egyptian loans
+was held in England and France; and in 1876, when Ismail was floating
+swiftly down stream to the abyss of bankruptcy, the British and French
+bondholders cast about them for means to secure their own safety. They
+organised themselves for the protection of their interests. The Khedive
+consented to hear the advice of their representatives, Messrs. Goschen
+and Joubert; but it was soon clear that he desired merely a comfortable
+liquidation and the continuance of his present expenditure.
+
+That year saw the institution of the "Caisse de la Dette," with power to
+receive the revenue set aside for the service of the debt, and to
+sanction or forbid new loans; and in the month of November 1876 the
+commission of bondholders took the form of the "Dual Control." In 1878 a
+Commission was appointed with power to examine the whole of the Egyptian
+administration. It met with the strongest opposition from the Khedive,
+until in the next year means were found to bring about his abdication by
+the act of the Sultan (June 26, 1879). His successor was his son Tewfik
+(1879-92).
+
+On their side the bondholders had to submit to a reduction of rates of
+interest to a uniform rate of 4 per cent on the Unified Debt. Even so,
+it was found in the year 1881--a prosperous year--that about half of the
+Egyptian revenue, then £9,229,000, had to be diverted to the payment of
+that interest[359]. Again, one must remark that such a situation in an
+overtaxed country would naturally end in bankruptcy; but this was
+prevented by foreign control, which sought to cut down expenditure in
+all directions. As a natural result, many industries suffered from the
+lack of due support; for even in the silt-beds formed by the Nile (and
+they are the real Egypt) there is need of capital to bring about due
+results. In brief, the popular discontent gave strength to a movement
+which aimed at ousting foreign influences of every kind, not only the
+usurers and stock-jobbers that sucked the life-blood of the land, but
+even the engineers and bankers who quickened its sluggish circulation.
+This movement was styled a national movement; and its abettors raised
+that cry of "Egypt for Egyptians," which has had its counterpart
+wherever selfish patriots seek to keep all the good things of the land
+to themselves. The Egyptian troubles of the year 1882 originated partly
+in feelings of this narrow kind, and partly in the jealousies and
+strifes of military cliques.
+
+[Footnote 359: _England in Egypt_, etc. p. 222. See there for details as
+to the Dual Control; also de Freycinet, _op. cit_. chap. ii., and _The
+Expansion of Egypt_, by A. Silva White, chap. vi.]
+
+Sir D. Mackenzie Wallace, after carefully investigating the origin of
+the "Arabi movement," came to the conclusion that it was to be found in
+the determination of the native Egyptian officers to force their way to
+the higher grades of that army, hitherto reserved for Turks or
+Circassians. Said and Ismail had favoured the rise of the best soldiers
+of the fellahin class (that is, natives), and several of them, on
+becoming colonels, aimed at yet higher posts. This aroused bitter
+resentment in the dominant Turkish caste, which looked on the fellahin
+as born to pay taxes and bear burdens. Under the masterful Ismail these
+jealousies were hidden; but the young and inexperienced Tewfik, the
+nominee of the rival Western Powers, was unable to bridle the restless
+spirits of the army, who looked around them for means to strengthen
+their position at the expense of their rivals. These jealousies were
+inflamed by the youthful caprice of Tewfik. At first he extended great
+favour to Ali Fehmi, an officer of fellah descent, only to withdraw it
+owing to the intrigues of a Circassian rival. Ali Fehmi sought for
+revenge by forming a cabal with other fellah colonels, among whom a
+popular leader soon came to the front. This was Arabi Bey.
+
+Arabi's frame embodied the fine animal qualities of the better class of
+fellahin, but to these he added mental gifts of no mean order. After
+imbibing the rather narrow education of a devout Moslem, he formed some
+acquaintance with western thought, and from it his facile mind selected
+a stock of ideas which found ready expression in conversation. His soft
+dreamy eyes and fluent speech rarely failed to captivate men of all
+classes[360]. His popularity endowed the discontented camarilla with new
+vigour, enabling it to focus all the discontented elements, and to
+become a movement of almost national import. Yet Arabi was its
+spokesman, or figure-head, rather than the actual propelling power. He
+seems to have been to a large extent the dupe of schemers who pushed him
+on for their own advantage. At any rate it is significant that after his
+fall he declared that British supremacy was the one thing needful for
+Egypt; and during his old age, passed in Ceylon, he often made similar
+statements[361].
+
+[Footnote 360: Sir D.M. Wallace, _Egypt and the Egyptian Question_, p.
+67.]
+
+[Footnote 361: Mr. Morley says (_Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii. p. 73)
+that Arabi's movement "was in truth national as well as military; it was
+anti-European, and above all, it was in its objects anti-Turk."--In view
+of the evidence collected by Sir D.M. Wallace, and by Lord Milner
+(_England in Egypt_), I venture to question these statements. The
+movement clearly was military and anti-Turk in its beginning. Later on
+it sought support in the people, and became anti-European and to some
+extent national; but to that extent it ceased to be anti-Turk. Besides,
+why should the Sultan have encouraged it? How far it genuinely relied on
+the populace must for the present remain in doubt; but the evidence
+collected by Mr. Broadley, _How We Defended Arabi_ (1884), seems to show
+that Arabi and his supporters were inspired by thoroughly patriotic and
+enlightened motives.]
+
+The Khedive's Ministers, hearing of the intrigues of the discontented
+officers, resolved to arrest their chiefs; but on the secret leaking
+out, the offenders turned the tables on the authorities, and with
+soldiers at their back demanded the dismissal of the Minister of War and
+the redress of their chief grievance--the undue promotion of Turks and
+Circassians.
+
+The Khedive felt constrained to yield, and agreed to the appointment of
+a Minister of War who was a secret friend of the plotters. They next
+ventured on a military demonstration in front of the Khedive's palace,
+with a view to extorting the dismissal of the able and energetic Prime
+Minister, Riaz Pasha. Again Tewfik yielded, and consented to the
+appointment of the weak and indolent Sherif Pasha. To consolidate their
+triumph the mutineers now proposed measures which would please the
+populace. Chief among them was a plan for instituting a consultative
+National Assembly. This would serve as a check on the Dual Control and
+on the young Khedive, whom it had placed in his present
+ambiguous position.
+
+A Chamber of Notables met in the closing days of 1881, and awakened
+great hopes, not only in Egypt, but among all who saw hope in the
+feeling of nationality and in a genuine wish for reform among a Moslem
+people. What would have happened had the Notables been free to work out
+the future of Egypt, it is impossible to say. The fate of the Young
+Turkish party and of Midhat's constitution of December 1877 formed by no
+means a hopeful augury. In the abstract there is much to be said for the
+two chief demands of the Notables--that the Khedive's Ministers should
+be responsible to the people's representatives, and that the Dual
+Control of Great Britain and France should be limited to the control of
+the revenues set apart for the purposes of the Egyptian public debt. The
+petitioners, however, ignored the fact that democracy could scarcely be
+expected to work successfully in a land where not one man in a hundred
+had the least notion what it meant, and, further, that the Western
+Powers would not give up their coign of vantage at the bidding of
+Notables who really represented little more than the dominant military
+party. Besides, the acts of this party stamped it as oriental even while
+it masqueraded in the garb of western democracy. Having grasped the
+reins of government, the fellahin colonels proceeded to relegate their
+Turkish and Circassian rivals to service at Khartum--an ingenious form
+of banishment. Against this and other despotic acts the representatives
+of Great Britain and France energetically protested, and, seeing that
+the Khedive was helpless, they brought up ships of war to make a
+demonstration against the _de facto_ governors of Egypt.
+
+It should be noted that these steps were taken by the Gladstone and
+Gambetta Cabinets, which were not likely to intervene against a
+genuinely democratic movement merely in the interests of British and
+French bondholders. On January 7, 1882, the two Cabinets sent a Joint
+Note to the Khedive assuring him of their support and of their desire to
+remove all grievances, external and internal alike, that threatened the
+existing order[362].
+
+[Footnote 362: For Gambetta's despatches see de Freycinet, _op. cit._
+pp. 209 _et seq_.]
+
+While, however, the Western Powers sided with the Khedive, the other
+European States, including Turkey, began to show signs of impatience and
+annoyance at any intervention on their part. Russia saw the chance of
+revenge on England for the events of 1878, and Bismarck sought to gain
+the favour of the Sultan. As for that potentate, his conduct was as
+tortuous as usual. From the outset he gave secret support to Arabi's
+party, probably with the view of undermining the Dual Control and the
+Khedive's dynasty alike. He doubtless saw that Turkish interests might
+ultimately be furthered even by the men who had imprisoned or disgraced
+Turkish officers and Ministers.
+
+Possibly the whole question might have been peaceably solved had
+Gambetta remained in power; for he was strongly in favour of a joint
+Anglo-French intervention in case the disorders continued. The Gladstone
+Government at that time demurred to such intervention, and claimed that
+it would come more legally from Turkey, or, if this were undesirable,
+from all the Powers; but this divergence of view did not prevent the two
+Governments from acting together on several matters. Gambetta, however,
+fell from power at the end of January 1882, and his far weaker
+successor, de Freycinet, having to face a most complex parliamentary
+situation in France and the possible hostility of the other Powers, drew
+back from the leading position which Gambetta's bolder policy had
+accorded to France. The vacillations at Paris tended alike to weaken
+Anglo-French action and to encourage the Arabi party and the Sultan. As
+matters went from bad to worse in Egypt, the British Foreign Minister,
+Lord Granville, proposed on May 24 that the Powers should sanction an
+occupation of Egypt by Turkish troops. To this M. de Freycinet demurred,
+and, while declaring that France would not send an expedition, proposed
+that a European Conference should be held on the Egyptian Question.
+
+The Gladstone Cabinet at once agreed to this, and the Conference met for
+a short time at the close of June, but without the participation of
+Turkey[363]. For the Sultan, hoping that the divisions of the Powers
+would enable him to restore Turkish influence in Egypt, now set his
+emissaries to work to arouse there the Moslem fanaticism which he has so
+profitably exploited in all parts of his Empire. A Turkish Commission
+had been sent to inquire into matters--with the sole result of enriching
+the chief commissioner. In brief, thanks to the perplexities and
+hesitations of the Western Powers and the ill-humour manifested by
+Germany and Russia, Europe was helpless, and the Arabi party felt that
+they had the game in their own hands. Bismarck said to his secretary,
+Busch, on June 8: "They [the British] set about the affair in an awkward
+way, and have got on a wrong track by sending their ironclads to
+Alexandria, and now, finding that there is nothing to be done, they want
+the rest of Europe to help them out of their difficulty by means of a
+Conference[364]."
+
+[Footnote 363: Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, iii. p. 79.]
+
+[Footnote 364: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, vol. iii.
+p. 51.]
+
+Already, on May 27, the Egyptian malcontents had ventured on a great
+military demonstration against the Khedive, which led to Arabi being
+appointed Minister of War. His followers also sought to inflame the
+hatred to foreigners for which the greed of Greek and Jewish usurers was
+so largely responsible. The results perhaps surpassed the hopes of the
+Egyptian nationalists. Moslem fanaticism suddenly flashed into flame.
+On the 11th of June a street brawl between a Moslem and a Maltese led to
+a fierce rising. The "true believers" attacked the houses of the
+Europeans, secured a great quantity of loot, and killed about fifty of
+them, including men from the British squadron. The English party that
+always calls out for non-intervention made vigorous efforts at that
+time, and subsequently, to represent this riot and massacre as a mere
+passing event which did not seriously compromise the welfare of Egypt;
+but Sir Alfred Milner in his calm and judicial survey of the whole
+question states that the fears then entertained by Europeans in Egypt
+"so far from being exaggerated, . . . perhaps even fell short of the
+danger which was actually impending[365]."
+
+[Footnote 365: _England in Egypt_, p. 16. For details of the massacre
+and its preconcerted character, sec Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 4 (1884).]
+
+The events at Alexandria and Tantah made armed intervention inevitable.
+Nothing could be hoped for from Turkey. The Sultan's special envoy,
+Dervish Pasha, had arrived in Egypt only a few days before the outbreak;
+and after that occurrence Abdul Hamid thought fit to send a decoration
+to Arabi. Encouraged by the support of Turkey and by the well-known
+jealousies of the Powers, the military party now openly prepared to defy
+Europe. They had some grounds for hope. Every one knew that France was
+in a very cautious mood, having enough on her hands in Tunis and
+Algeria, while her relations to England had rapidly cooled[366].
+Germany, Russia, and Austria seemed to be acting together according to
+an understanding arrived at by the three Emperors after their meeting at
+Danzig in 1881; and Germany had begun that work of favouring the Sultan
+which enabled her to supplant British influence at Constantinople.
+Accordingly, few persons, least of all Arabi, believed that the
+Gladstone Cabinet would dare to act alone and strike a decisive blow.
+But they counted wrongly. Gladstone's toleration in regard to foreign
+affairs was large-hearted, but it had its limits. He now declared in
+Parliament that Arabi had thrown off the mask and was evidently working
+to depose the Khedive and oust all Europeans from Egypt; England would
+intervene to prevent this--if possible with the authority of Europe,
+with the support of France, and the co-operation of Turkey; but, if
+necessary, alone[367].
+
+[Footnote 366: For the reasons of de Freycinet's caution, see his work,
+ch. iii., especially pp. 236 _et seq_.]
+
+[Footnote 367: See, too, Gladstone's speech of July 25, 1882, in which
+he asserted that there was not a shred of evidence to support Arabi's
+claim to be the leader of a national party; also, his letter of July 14
+to John Bright, quoted by Mr. Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii. pp.
+84-85. Probably Gladstone was misinformed.]
+
+Even this clear warning was lost on Arabi and his following. Believing
+that Britain was too weak, and her Ministry too vacillating, to make
+good these threats, they proceeded to arm the populace and strengthen
+the forts of Alexandria. Sir Beauchamp Seymour, now at the head of a
+strong squadron, reported to London that these works were going on in a
+threatening manner, and on July 6 sent a demand to Arabi that the
+operations should cease at once. To this Arabi at once acceded.
+Nevertheless, the searchlight, when suddenly turned on, showed that work
+was going on at night. A report of an Egyptian officer was afterwards
+found in one of the forts, in which he complained of the use of the
+electric light by the English as distinctly discourteous. It may here be
+noted that M. de Freycinet, in his jaundiced survey of British action at
+this time, seeks to throw doubt on the resumption of work by Arabi's
+men. But Admiral Seymour's reports leave no loophole for doubt. Finally,
+on July 10, the admiral demanded, not only the cessation of hostile
+preparations, but the surrender of some of the forts into British hands.
+The French fleet now left the harbour and steamed for Port Said. Most of
+the Europeans of Alexandria had withdrawn to ships provided for them;
+and on the morrow, when the last of the twenty-four hours of grace
+brought no submission, the British fleet opened fire at 7 A.M.
+
+The ensuing action is of great interest as being one of the very few
+cases in modern warfare where ships have successfully encountered modern
+forts. The seeming helplessness of the British unarmoured ships before
+Cronstadt during the Crimean War, their failure before the forts of
+Sevastopol, and the uselessness of the French navy during the war of
+1870, had spread the notion that warships could not overpower modern
+fortifications. Probably this impression lay at the root of Arabi's
+defiance. He had some grounds for confidence. The British fleet
+consisted of eight battleships (of which only the _Inflexible_ and
+_Alexandra_ were of great fighting power), along with five unarmoured
+vessels. The forts mounted 33 rifled muzzle-loading guns, 3 rifled
+breech-loaders, and 120 old smooth-bores. The advantage in gun-power lay
+with the ships, especially as the sailors were by far the better
+marksmen. Yet so great is the superiority of forts over ships that the
+engagement lasted five hours or more (7 A.M. till noon) before most of
+the forts were silenced more or less completely. Fort Pharos continued
+to fire till 4 P.M. On the whole, the Egyptian gunners stood manfully to
+their guns. Considering the weight of metal thrown against the forts,
+namely, 1741 heavy projectiles and 1457 light, the damage done to them
+was not great, only 27 cannon being silenced completely, and 5
+temporarily. On the other hand, the ships were hit only 75 times and
+lost only 6 killed and 27 wounded. The results show that the
+comparatively distant cannonades of to-day, even with great guns, are
+far less deadly than the old sea-fights when ships were locked yard-arm
+to yard-arm.
+
+[Illustration: BATTLE OF ALEXANDRIA (BOMBARDMENT OF, 1882).]
+
+Had Admiral Seymour at once landed a force of marines and bluejackets,
+all the forts would probably have been surrendered at once. For some
+reason not fully known, this was not done. Spasmodic firing began again
+in the morning, but a truce was before long arranged, which proved to be
+only a device for enabling Arabi and his troops to escape. The city,
+meanwhile, was the scene of a furious outbreak against Europeans, in
+which some 400 or 500 persons perished. Damage, afterwards assessed at
+£7,000,000, was done by fire and pillage. It was not till the 14th
+that the admiral, after receiving reinforcements, felt able to send
+troops into the city, when a few severe examples cowed the plunderers
+and restored order. The Khedive, who had shut himself up in his palace
+at Ramleh, now came back to the seaport under the escort of a British
+force, and thenceforth remained virtually, though not in name, under
+British protection.
+
+The bombardment of Alexandria brought about the resignation of that
+sturdy Quaker, and friend of peace, Mr. John Bright from the Gladstone
+Ministry; but everything tends to show (as even M. de Freycinet admits)
+that the crisis took Ministers by surprise. Nothing was ready at home
+for an important campaign; and it would seem that hostilities resulted,
+firstly, from the violence of Arabi's supporters in Alexandria, and,
+secondly, from their persistence in warlike preparations which might
+have endangered the safety of Admiral Seymour's fleet. The situation was
+becoming like that of 1807 at the Dardanelles, when the Turks gave
+smooth promises to Admiral Duckworth, all the time strengthening their
+forts, with very disagreeable results. Probably the analogy of 1807,
+together with the proven perfidy of Arabi's men, brought on hostilities,
+which the British Ministers up to the end were anxious to avoid.
+
+In any case, the die was now cast, and England entered questioningly on
+a task, the magnitude and difficulty of which no one could then foresee.
+She entered on it alone, and that, too, though the Gladstone Ministry
+had made pressing overtures for the help of France, at any rate as
+regarded the protection of the Suez Canal. To this extent, de Freycinet
+and his colleagues were prepared to lend their assistance; but, despite
+Gambetta's urgent appeal for common action with England at that point,
+the Chamber of Deputies still remained in a cautiously negative mood,
+and to that frame of mind M. Clémenceau added strength by a speech
+ending with a glorification of prudence. "Europe," he said, "is covered
+with soldiers; every one is in a state of expectation; all the Power
+are reserving their future liberty of action; do you reserve the
+liberty of action of France." The restricted co-operation with England
+which the Cabinet recommended found favour with only seventy-five
+deputies; and, when face to face with a large hostile majority, de
+Freycinet and his colleagues resigned (July 29, 1882)[368]. Prudence,
+fear of the newly-formed Triple Alliance, or jealousy of England, drew
+France aside from the path to which her greatest captains, thinkers, and
+engineers had beckoned her in time past. Whatever the predominant motive
+may have been, it altered the course of history in the valley of
+the Nile.
+
+[Footnote 368: De Freycinet, _op, cit._ pp. 311-312.]
+
+After the refusal of France to co-operate with England even to the
+smallest extent, the Conference of the Powers became a nullity, and its
+sessions ceased despite the lack of any formal adjournment[369]. Here,
+as on so many other occasions, the Concert of the Powers displayed its
+weakness; and there can be no doubt that the Sultan and Arabi counted on
+that weakness in playing the dangerous game which brought matters to the
+test of the sword. The jealousies of the Powers now stood fully
+revealed. Russia entered a vigorous protest against England's action at
+Alexandria; Italy evinced great annoyance, and at once repelled a
+British proposal for her co-operation; Germany also showed much
+resentment, and turned the situation to profitable account by
+substituting her influence for that of Britain in the counsels of the
+Porte. The Sultan, thwarted in the midst of his tortuous intrigues for a
+great Moslem revival, showed his spleen and his diplomatic skill by
+loftily protesting against Britain's violation of international law, and
+thereafter by refusing (August 1) to proclaim Arabi a rebel against the
+Khedive's authority. The essential timidity of Abdul Hamid's nature in
+presence of superior force was shown by a subsequent change of front. On
+hearing of British successes, he placed Arabi under the ban
+(September 8).
+
+[Footnote 369: For its proceedings, see Parl. Papers, Egypt, 1882
+(Conference on Egyptian Affairs).]
+
+Meanwhile, the British expedition of some 10,000 men, despatched to
+Egypt under the command of Sir Garnet Wolseley made as though it would
+attack Arabi from Alexandria as a base. But on nearing that port at
+nightfall it steered about and occupied Port Said (August 15). Kantara
+and Ismailia, on the canal, were speedily seized; and the Seaforth
+Highlanders by a rapid march occupied Chalouf and prevented the cutting
+of the freshwater canal by the rebels. Thenceforth the little army had
+the advantage of marching near fresh water, and by a route on which
+Arabi was not at first expecting them. Sir Garnet Wolseley's movements
+were of that quick and decisive order which counts for so much against
+orientals. A sharp action at Tel-el-Mahuta obliged Arabi's forces, some
+10,000 strong, to abandon entrenchments thrown up at that point
+(August 24).
+
+Four days later there was desperate fighting at Kassassin Lock on the
+freshwater canal. There the Egyptians flung themselves in large numbers
+against a small force sent forward under General Graham to guard that
+important point. The assailants fought with the recklessness begotten by
+the proclamation of a holy war against infidels, and for some time the
+issue remained in doubt. At length, about sundown, three squadrons of
+the Household Cavalry, and the 7th Dragoon Guards, together with four
+light guns, were hastily sent forward from the main body in the rear to
+clinch the affair. General Drury Lowe wheeled this little force round
+the left flank of the enemy, and, coming up unperceived in the gathering
+darkness, charged with such fury as to scatter the hostile array in
+instant rout[370]. The enemy fell back on the entrenchments at
+Tel-el-Kebir, while the whole British force (including a division from
+India) concentrated at Kassassin, 17,400 strong, with 61 guns and
+6 Gatlings.
+
+[Footnote 370: _History of the Campaign in Egypt_ (War Office), by Col.
+J.F. Maurice, pp. 62-65.]
+
+The final action took place on September 13, at Tel-el-Kebir. There
+Arabi had thrown up a double line of earthworks of some strength,
+covering about four miles, and lay with a force that has been estimated
+at 20,000 to 25,000 regulars and 7000 irregulars. Had the assailants
+marched across the desert and attacked these works by day, they must
+have sustained heavy losses. Sir Garnet therefore determined to try the
+effect of a surprise at dawn, and moved his men forward after sunset of
+the 12th until they came within striking distance of the works. After a
+short rest they resumed their advance shortly before the time when the
+first streaks of dawn would appear on the eastern sky. At about 500
+yards from the works, the advance was dimly silhouetted against the
+paling orient. Shortly before five o'clock, an Egyptian rifle rang out a
+sharp warning, and forthwith the entrenchments spurted forth smoke and
+flame. At once the British answered by a cheer and a rush over the
+intervening ground, each regiment eager to be the first to ply the
+bayonet. The Highlanders, under the command of General Graham, were
+leading on the left, and therefore won in this race for glory; but on
+all sides the invaders poured almost simultaneously over the works. For
+several minutes there was sharp fighting on the parapet; but the British
+were not to be denied, and drove before them the defenders as a kind of
+living screen against the fire that came from the second entrenchments;
+these they carried also, and thrust the whole mass out into the
+desert[371]. There hundreds of them fell under the sabres of the British
+cavalry which swept down from the northern end of the lines; but the
+pursuit was neither prolonged nor sanguinary. Sir Garnet Wolseley was
+satisfied with the feat of dissolving Arabi's army into an armed or
+unarmed rabble by a single sharp blow, and now kept horses and men for
+further eventualities.
+
+[Footnote 371: _Life, Letters, and Diaries of General Sir Gerald Graham_
+(1901). J.F. Maurice, _op. cit._ pp. 84-95.]
+
+By one of those flashes of intuition that mark the born leader of men,
+the British commander perceived that the whole war might be ended if a
+force of cavalry pushed on to Cairo and demanded the surrender of its
+citadel at the moment when the news of the disaster at Tel-el-Kebir
+unmanned its defenders. The conception must rank as one of the most
+daring recorded in the annals of war. In the ancient capital of Egypt
+there were more than 300,000 Moslems, lately aroused to dangerous
+heights of fanaticism by the proclamation of a "holy war" against
+infidels. Its great citadel, towering some 250 feet above the city,
+might seem to bid defiance to all the horsemen of the British army.
+Finally, Arabi had repaired thither in order to inspire vigour into a
+garrison numbering some 10,000 men. Nevertheless, Wolseley counted on
+the moral effect of his victory to level the ramparts of the citadel and
+to abase the mushroom growth of Arabi's pride.
+
+His surmise was more than justified by events. While his Indian
+contingent pushed on to occupy Zagazig, Sir Drury Lowe, with a force
+mustering fewer than 500 sabres, pressed towards Cairo by a desert road
+in order to summon it on the morrow. After halting at Belbeïs the
+troopers gave rein to their steeds; and a ride of nearly 40 miles
+brought them to the city about sundown. Rumour magnified their numbers;
+while the fatalism that used to nerve the Moslem in his great days now
+predisposed him to bow the knee and mutter _Kismet_ at the advent of the
+seemingly predestined masters of Egypt. To this small, wearied, but
+lordly band Cairo surrendered, and Arabi himself handed over his sword.
+On the following day the infantry came up and made good this
+precarious conquest.
+
+In presence of this startling triumph the Press of the Continent sought
+to find grounds for the belief that Arabi, and Cairo as well, had been
+secretly bought over by British gold. It is somewhat surprising to find
+M. de Freycinet[372] repeating to-day this piece of spiteful silliness,
+which might with as much reason be used to explain away the victories of
+Clive and Coote, Outram and Havelock. The slanders of continental
+writers themselves stand in need of explanation. It is to be found in
+their annoyance at discovering that England had an army which could
+carry through a difficult campaign to a speedy and triumphant
+conclusion. Their typical attitude had been that of Bismarck, namely,
+of exultation at her difficulties and of hope of her discomfiture. Now
+their tone changed to one of righteous indignation at the irregularity
+of her conduct in acting on behalf of Europe without any mandate from
+the Powers, and in using the Suez Canal as a base of operations.
+
+[Footnote 372: _Op. cit._ p. 316.]
+
+In this latter respect Britain's conduct was certainly open to
+criticism[373]. On the other hand, it is doubtful whether Arabi would
+have provoked her to action had he not been tacitly encouraged by the
+other Powers, which, while professing their wish to see order restored
+in Egypt, in most cases secretly sought to increase her difficulties in
+undertaking that task. As for the Sultan, he had now trimmed his sails
+by declaring Arabi a rebel to the Khedive's authority; and in due course
+that officer was tried, found guilty, and exiled to Ceylon early in
+1883. The conduct of France, Germany, and Russia, if we may judge by the
+tone of their officially inspired Press, was scarcely more
+straightforward, and was certainly less discreet. On all sides there
+were diatribes against Britain's high-handed and lawless behaviour, and
+some German papers affected to believe that Hamburg might next be chosen
+for bombardment by the British fleet. These outbursts, in the case of
+Germany, may have been due to Bismarck's desire to please Russia, and
+secondarily France, in all possible ways. It is doubtful whether he
+gained this end. Certainly he and his underlings in the Press widened
+the gulf that now separated the two great Teutonic peoples.
+
+[Footnote 373: It is said, however, that Arabi had warned M. de Lesseps
+that "the defence of Egypt requires the temporary destruction of the
+Canal" (Traill, _England, Egypt, and the Sudan_, p. 57). The status of
+the Canal was defined in 1885. _Ibid_. p. 59.]
+
+The annoyance of France was more natural. She had made the Suez Canal,
+and had participated in the Dual Control; but her mistake in not sharing
+in the work of restoring order was irreparable. Every one in Egypt saw
+that the control of that country must rest with the Power which had
+swept away Arabi's Government and re-established the fallen authority
+of the Khedive. A few persons in England, even including one member of
+the Gladstone Administration, Mr. Courtney, urged a speedy withdrawal;
+but the Cabinet, which had been unwillingly but irresistibly drawn thus
+far by the force of circumstances, could not leave Egypt a prey to
+anarchy; and, clearly, the hand that repressed anarchy ruled the country
+for the time being. It is significant that on April 4, 1883, more than
+2600 Europeans in Egypt presented a petition begging that the British
+occupation might be permanent[374].
+
+[Footnote 374: Sir A. Milner, _England in Egypt_, p. 31.]
+
+Mr. Gladstone, however, and others of his Cabinet, had declared that it
+would be only temporary, and would, in fact, last only so long as to
+enable order and prosperity to grow up under the shadow of new and
+better institutions. These pledges were given with all sincerity, and
+the Prime Minister and his colleagues evidently wished to be relieved
+from what was to them a disagreeable burden. The French in Egypt, of
+course, fastened on these promises, and one of their newspapers, the
+_Journal Egyptien_, printed them every day at the head of its front
+columns[375]. Mr. Gladstone, who sought above all things for a friendly
+understanding with France, keenly felt, even to the end of his career,
+that the continued occupation of Egypt hindered that most desirable
+consummation. He was undoubtedly right. The irregularity of England's
+action in Egypt hampered her international relations at many points; and
+it may be assigned as one of the causes that brought France into
+alliance with Russia.
+
+[Footnote 375: H.F. Wood, _Egypt under the British_, p. 59 (1896).]
+
+What, then, hindered the fulfilment of Mr. Gladstone's pledges? In the
+first place, the dog-in-the-manger policy of French officials and
+publicists increased the difficulties of the British administrators who
+now, in the character of advisers of the Khedive, really guided him and
+controlled his Ministers. The scheme of administration adopted was in
+the main that advised by Lord Dufferin in his capacity of Special
+Envoy. The details, however, are too wide and complex to be set forth
+here. So also are those of the disputes between our officials and those
+of France. Suffice it to say that by shutting up the funds of the
+"Caisse de la Dette," the French administrators of that great reserve
+fund hoped to make Britain's position untenable and hasten her
+evacuation. In point of fact, these and countless other pin-pricks
+delayed Egypt's recovery and furnished a good reason why Britain should
+not withdraw[376].
+
+[Footnote 376: The reader should consult for full details Sir A. Milner,
+_England in Egypt_ (1892); Sir D.M. Wallace, _The Egyptian Question_
+(1883), especially chaps, xi.-xiii.; and A. Silva White, _The Expansion
+of Egypt_ (1899), the best account of the Anglo-Egyptian administration,
+with valuable Appendices on the "Caisse," etc.
+
+A far more favourable light is thrown on the conduct of Arabi and his
+partisans by Mr. A.M. Broadley in his work _How We Defended
+Arabi_ (1884).]
+
+But above and beyond these administrative details, there was one
+all-compelling cause, the war-cloud that now threatened the land of the
+Pharaohs from that home of savagery and fanaticism, the Sudan.
+
+NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION
+
+For new light on the nationalist movement in Egypt and the part which
+Arabi played in it, the reader should consult _How we defended Arabi_,
+by A.M. Broadley (London, 1884). The same writer in his _Tunis, Past and
+Present_ (2 vols. 1882) has thrown much light on the Tunis Question and
+on the Pan-Islamic movement in North Africa.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+GORDON AND THE SUDAN
+
+     What were my ideas in coming out? They were these: _Agreed
+     abandonment of Sudan, but extricate the garrisons_; and these
+     were the instructions of the Government (Gordon's _Journal_,
+     October 8, 1885).
+
+
+It is one of the peculiarities of the Moslem faith that any time of
+revival is apt to be accompanied by warlike fervour somewhat like that
+which enabled its early votaries to sweep over half of the known world
+in a single generation. This militant creed becomes dangerous when it
+personifies itself in a holy man who can make good his claim to be
+received as a successor of the Prophet. Such a man had recently appeared
+in the Sudan. It is doubtful whether Mohammed Ahmed was a genuine
+believer in his own extravagant claims, or whether he adopted them in
+order to wreak revenge on Rauf Pasha, the Egyptian Governor of the
+Sudan, for an insult inflicted by one of his underlings. In May 1881,
+while living near the island of Abba in the Nile, he put forward his
+claim to be the Messiah or Prophet, foretold by the founder of that
+creed. Retiring with some disciples to that island, he gained fame by
+his fervour and asceticism. His followers named him "El Mahdi," the
+leader, but his claims were scouted by the Ulemas of Khartum, Cairo, and
+Constantinople, on the ground that the Messiah of the Moslems was to
+arise in the East. Nevertheless, while the British were crushing Arabi's
+movement, the Mahdi stirred the Sudan to its depths, and speedily shook
+the Egyptian rule to its base[377].
+
+[Footnote 377: See the Report of the Intelligence Department of the War
+Office, printed in _The Journals of Major-General C.G. Gordon at
+Khartum_, Appendix to Bk. iv.]
+
+There was every reason to fear a speedy collapse. In the years 1874-76
+the Province of the White Nile had known the benefits of just and
+tactful rule under that born leader of men, Colonel Gordon; and in the
+three following years, as Governor-General of the Sudan, he gained
+greater powers, which he felt to be needful for the suppression of the
+slave-trade and other evils. Ill-health and underhand opposition of
+various kinds caused him to resign his post in 1879. Then, to the
+disgust of all, the Khedive named as his successor Rauf Pasha, whom
+Gordon had recently dismissed for maladministration of the Province of
+Harrar, on the borders of Abyssinia[378]. Thus the Sudan, after
+experiencing the benefits of a just and able government, reeled back
+into the bad old condition, at the time when the Mahdi was becoming a
+power in the land. No help was forthcoming from Egypt in the summer of
+1882, and the Mahdi's revolt rapidly made headway even despite several
+checks from the Egyptian troops.
+
+[Footnote 378: See Gordon's letter of April 1880, quoted in the
+Introduction to _The Journals of Major-General C.G. Gordon at Khartum_
+(1885), p. xvii.]
+
+Possibly, if Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues had decided to crush it in
+that autumn, the task might have been easy. But, far from doing so, they
+sought to dissuade the Khedive from attempting to hold the most
+disturbed districts, those of Kordofan and Darfur, beyond Khartum. This
+might have been the best course, if the evacuation could have been
+followed at once and without risk of disaster at the hands of the
+fanatics. But Tewfik willed otherwise. Against the advice of Lord
+Dufferin, he sought to reconquer the Sudan, and that, too, by wholly
+insufficient forces. The result was a series of disasters, culminating
+in the extermination of Hicks Pasha's Egyptian force by the Mahdi's
+followers near El Obeid, the capital of Kordofan (November 5, 1883).
+
+The details of the disaster are not fully known. Hicks Pasha was
+appointed, on August 20, 1883, by the Khedive to command the expedition
+into that province. He set out from Omdurman on September 9, with 10,000
+men, 4 Krupp guns and 16 light guns, 500 horses and 5500 camels. His
+last despatch, dated October 3, showed that the force had been greatly
+weakened by want of water and provisions, and most of all by the spell
+cast on the troops by the Mahdi's claim to invincibility. Nevertheless,
+Hicks checked the rebels in two or three encounters, but, according to
+the tale of one of the few survivors, a camel-driver, the force finally
+succumbed to a fierce charge on the Egyptian square at the close of an
+exhausting march, prolonged by the treachery of native guides. Nearly
+the whole force was put to the sword. Hicks Pasha perished, along with
+five British and four German officers, and many Egyptians of note. The
+adventurous newspaper correspondents, O'Donovan and Vizetelly, also met
+their doom (November 5, 1883)[379].
+
+[Footnote 379: Gordon's _Journals_, pp. 347-351; also Parl. Papers,
+Egypt, No. 12 (1884), pp. 85 and 127-131 for another account. See, too,
+Sir F.R. Wingate's _Mahdism_, chaps. i.-iii., for the rise of the Mahdi
+and his triumph over Hicks.]
+
+This catastrophe decided the history of the Sudan for many years. The
+British Government was in no respect responsible for the appointment of
+General Hicks to the Kordofan command. Lord Dufferin and Sir E. Malet
+had strongly urged the Khedive to abandon Kordofan and Darfur; but it
+would seem that the desire of the governing class at Cairo to have a
+hand in the Sudan administration overbore these wise remonstrances, and
+hence the disaster near El Obeid with its long train of evil
+consequences[380]. It was speedily followed by another reverse at Tokar
+not far from Suakim, where the slave-raiders and tribesmen of the Red
+Sea coast exterminated another force under the command of Captain
+Moncrieff.
+
+[Footnote 380: J. Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii. p. 146; Sir A.
+Lyall, _Life of Lord Dufferin_, vol. ii. chap. ii.]
+
+The Gladstone Ministry and the British advisers of the Khedive, among
+whom was Sir Evelyn Baring (the present Lord Cromer), again urged the
+entire evacuation of the Sudan, and the limitation of Egyptian authority
+to the strong position of the First Cataract at Assuan. This policy then
+received the entire approval of the man who was to be alike the hero and
+the martyr of that enterprise[381]. But how were the Egyptian garrisons
+to be withdrawn? It was a point of honour not to let them be slaughtered
+or enslaved by the cruel fanatics of the Mahdi. Yet under the lead of
+Egyptian officers they would almost certainly suffer one of these fates.
+A way of escape was suggested--by a London evening newspaper in the
+first instance. The name of Gordon was renowned for justice and
+hardihood all through the Sudan. Let this knight-errant be sent--so said
+this Mentor of the Press--and his strange power over men would
+accomplish the impossible. The proposal carried conviction everywhere,
+and Lord Granville, who generally followed any strong lead, sent for
+the General.
+
+[Footnote 381: Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii. p. 147.]
+
+Charles George Gordon, born at Woolwich in 1833, was the scion of a
+staunch race of Scottish fighters. His great-grandfather served under
+Cope at Prestonpans; his grandfather fought in Boscawen's expedition at
+Louisburg and under Wolfe at Quebec. His father attained the rank of
+Lieutenant-General. From his mother, too, he derived qualities of
+self-reliance and endurance of no mean order. Despite the fact that she
+had eleven children, and that three of her sons were out at the Crimea,
+she is said never to have quailed during that dark time. Of these sons,
+Charles George was serving in the Engineers; he showed at his first
+contact with war an aptitude and resource which won the admiration of
+all. "We used always to send him out to find what new move the Russians
+were making"--such was the testimony of one of his superior officers. Of
+his subsequent duties in delimiting the new Bessarabian frontier and his
+miraculous career in China we cannot speak in detail. By the consent of
+all, it was his soldierly spirit that helped to save that Empire from
+anarchy at the hands of the Taeping rebels, whose movement presented a
+strange medley of perverted Christianity, communism, and freebooting.
+There it was that his magnetic influence over men first had free play.
+Though he was only thirty years of age, his fine physique, dauntless
+daring, and the spirit of unquestionable authority that looked out from
+his kindly eyes, gained speedy control over the motley set of officers
+and the Chinese rank and file--half of them ex-rebels--that formed the
+nucleus of the "ever victorious army." What wonder that he was
+thenceforth known as "Chinese Gordon"?
+
+In the years 1865-71, which he spent at Gravesend in supervising the
+construction of the new forts at the mouth of the river, the religious
+and philanthropic side of his character found free play. His biographer,
+Mr. Hake, tells of his interest in the poor and suffering, and, above
+all, in friendless boys, who came to idolise his manly yet sympathetic
+nature. Called thereafter by the Khedive to succeed Sir Samuel Baker in
+the Governorship of the Sudan, he grappled earnestly with the fearful
+difficulties that beset all who have attempted to put down the
+slave-trade in its chief seat of activity. Later on he expressed the
+belief that "the Sudan is a useless possession, ever was so, ever will
+be so." These words, and certain episodes in his official career in
+India and in Cape Colony, revealed the weak side of a singularly noble
+nature. Occasionally he was hasty and impulsive in his decisions, and
+the pride of his race would then flash forth. During his cadetship at
+Woolwich he was rebuked for incompetence, and told that he would never
+make an officer. At once he tore the epaulets from his shoulders and
+flung them at his superior's feet. A certain impatience of control
+characterised him throughout life. No man was ever more chivalrous, more
+conscientious, more devoted, or abler in the management of inferiors;
+but his abilities lay rather in the direction of swift intuitions and
+prompt achievement than in sound judgment and plodding toil. In short,
+his qualities were those of a knight-errant, not those of a statesman.
+The imperious calls of conscience and of instinct endowed him with
+powers uniquely fitted to attract and enthral simple straightforward
+natures, and to sway orientals at his will. But the empire of
+conscience, instinct, and will-power consorts but ill with those
+diplomatic gifts of effecting a timely compromise which go far to make
+for success in life. This was at once the strength and the weakness of
+Gordon's being. In the midst of a _blasé_, sceptical age, his
+personality stood forth, God-fearing as that of a Covenanter, romantic
+as that of a Coeur de Lion, tender as that of a Florence Nightingale. In
+truth, it appealed to all that is most elemental in man.
+
+At that time Gordon was charged by the King of the Belgians to proceed
+to the Congo River to put down the slave-trade. Imagination will persist
+in wondering what might have been the result if he had carried out this
+much-needed duty. Possibly he might have acquired such an influence as
+to direct the "Congo Free State" to courses far other than those to
+which it has come. He himself discerned the greatness of the
+opportunity. In his letter of January 6, 1884, to H.M. Stanley, he
+stated that "no such efficacious means of cutting at root of slave-trade
+ever was presented as that which God has opened out to us through the
+kind disinterestedness of His Majesty."
+
+The die was now cast against the Congo and for the Nile. Gordon had a
+brief interview with four members of the Cabinet--Lords Granville,
+Hartington, Northbrooke, and Sir Charles Dilke,--Mr. Gladstone was
+absent at Hawarden; and they forthwith decided that he should go to the
+Upper Nile. What transpired in that most important meeting is known only
+from Gordon's account of it in a private letter:--
+
+     At noon he, Wolseley, came to me and took me to the
+     Ministers. He went in and talked to the Ministers, and came
+     back and said, "Her Majesty's Government want you to
+     undertake this. Government are determined to evacuate the
+     Sudan, for they will not guarantee future government. Will
+     you go and do it?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Go in." I went
+     in and saw them. They said, "Did Wolseley tell you our
+     orders?" I said, "Yes." I said, "You will not guarantee
+     future government of the Sudan, and you wish me to go up to
+     evacuate now?" They said, "Yes," and it was over, and I left
+     at 8 P.M. for Calais.
+
+Before seeing the Ministers, Gordon had a long interview with Lord
+Wolseley, who in the previous autumn had been named Baron Wolseley of
+Cairo. That conversation is also unknown to us, but obviously it must
+have influenced Gordon's impressions as to the scope of the duties
+sketched for him by the Cabinet. We turn, then, to the "Instructions to
+General Gordon," drawn up by the Ministry on Jan. 18, 1884. They
+directed him to "proceed at once to Egypt, to report to them on the
+military situation in the Sudan, and on the measures which it may be
+advisable to take for the security of the Egyptian garrisons still
+holding positions in that country and for the safety of the European
+population in Khartum." He was also to report on the best mode of
+effecting the evacuation of the interior of the Sudan and on measures
+that might be taken to counteract the consequent spread of the
+slave-trade. He was to be under the instructions of H.M.'s
+Consul-General at Cairo (Sir Evelyn Baring). There followed this
+sentence: "You will consider yourself authorised and instructed to
+perform such other duties as the Egyptian Government may desire to
+entrust to you, and as may be communicated to you by Sir Evelyn
+Baring[382]."
+
+[Footnote 382: Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 2 (1884), p. 3.]
+
+After receiving these instructions, Gordon started at once for Egypt,
+accompanied by Colonel Stewart. At Cairo he had an interview with Sir
+Evelyn Baring, and was appointed by the Khedive Governor-General of the
+Sudan. The firman of Jan. 26 contained these words: "We trust that you
+will carry out our good intentions for the establishment of justice and
+order, and that you will assure the peace and prosperity of the people
+of the Sudan by maintaining the security of the roads," etc. It
+contained not a word about the evacuation of the Sudan, nor did the
+Khedive's proclamation of the same date to the Sudanese. The only
+reference to evacuation was in his letter of the same date to Gordon,
+beginning thus: "You are aware that the object of your arrival here and
+of your mission to the Sudan is to carry into execution the evacuation
+of those territories and to withdraw our troops, civil officials, and
+such of the inhabitants, together with their belongings, as may wish to
+leave for Egypt. . . ." After completing this task he was to "take the
+necessary steps for establishing an organised Government in the
+different provinces of the Sudan for the maintenance of order and the
+cessation of all disasters and incitement to revolt[383]." How Gordon,
+after sending away all the troops, was to pacify that enormous territory
+His Highness did not explain.
+
+[Footnote 383: Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 12 (1884), pp. 27, 28.]
+
+There is almost as much ambiguity in the "further instructions" which
+Sir Evelyn Baring drew up on January 25 at Cairo. After stating that the
+British and Egyptian Governments had agreed on the necessity of
+"evacuating" the Sudan, he noted the fact that Gordon approved of it and
+thought it should on no account be changed; the despatch proceeds:--
+
+     You consider that it may take a few months to carry it out
+     with safety. You are further of opinion that "the restoration
+     of the country should be made to the different petty Sultans
+     who existed at the time of Mohammed Ali's conquest, and whose
+     families still exist"; and that an endeavour should be made
+     to form a confederation of those Sultans. In this view the
+     Egyptian Government entirely concur. It will of course be
+     fully understood that the Egyptian troops are not to be kept
+     in the Sudan merely with a view to consolidating the powers
+     of the new rulers of the country. But the Egyptian Government
+     has the fullest confidence in your judgment, your knowledge
+     of the country, and your comprehension of the general line of
+     policy to be pursued. You are therefore given full
+     discretionary power to retain the troops for such reasonable
+     period as you may think necessary, in order that the
+     abandonment of the country may be accomplished with the least
+     possible risk to life and property. A credit of £100,000 has
+     been opened for you at the Finance Department[384]. . . .
+
+[Footnote 384: Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 6 (1884), p. 3.]
+
+In themselves these instructions were not wholly clear. An officer who
+is allowed to use troops for the settlement or pacification of a vast
+tract of country can hardly be the agent of a policy of mere
+"abandonment." Neither Gordon nor Baring seems at that time to have felt
+the incongruity of the two sets of duties, but before long it flashed
+across Gordon's mind. At Abu Hammed, when nearing Khartum, he
+telegraphed to Baring: "I would most earnestly beg that evacuation but
+not abandonment be the programme to be followed." Or, as he phrased it,
+he wanted Egypt to recognise her "moral control and suzerainty" over the
+Sudan[385]. This, of course, was an extension of the programme to which
+he gave his assent at Cairo; it differed _toto caelo_ from the policy of
+abandonment laid down at London.
+
+[Footnote 385: Egypt, No. 12 (1884), p. 133.]
+
+Even now it is impossible to see why Ministers did not at once simplify
+the situation by a clear statement of their orders to Gordon, not of
+course as Governor-General of the Sudan, but as a British officer
+charged by them with a definite duty. At a later date they sought to
+limit him to the restricted sphere sketched out at London; but then it
+was too late to bend to their will a nature which, firm at all times,
+was hard as adamant when the voice of conscience spoke within. Already
+it had spoken, and against "abandonment."
+
+There were other confusing elements in the situation. Gordon believed
+that the "full discretionary power" granted to him by Sir E. Baring was
+a promise binding on the British Government; and, seeing that he was
+authorised to perform such other duties as Sir Evelyn Baring would
+communicate to him, he was right. But Ministers do not seem to have
+understood that this implied an immense widening of the original
+programme. Further, Sir Evelyn Baring used the terms "evacuation" and
+"abandonment" as if they were synonymous; while in Gordon's view they
+were very different. As we shall see, his nature, at once conscientious,
+vehement, and pertinacious, came to reject the idea of abandonment as
+cowardly and therefore impossible.
+
+Lastly, we may note that Gordon was left free to announce the
+forthcoming evacuation of the Sudan, or not, as he judged best[386]. He
+decided to keep it secret. Had he kept it entirely so for the present,
+he would have done well; but he is said to have divulged it to one or
+two officials at Berber; if so, it was a very regrettable imprudence,
+which compromised the defence of that town. But surely no man was ever
+charged with duties so complex and contradictory. The qualities of
+Nestor, Ulysses, and Achilles combined in one mortal could scarcely have
+availed to untie or sever that knot.
+
+[Footnote 386: _Ibid_. p. 27.]
+
+The first sharp collision between Gordon and the Home Government
+resulted from his urgent request for the employment of Zebehr Pasha as
+the future ruler of the Sudan. A native of the Sudan, this man had risen
+to great wealth and power by his energy and ambition, and figured as a
+kind of king among the slave-raiders of the Upper Nile, until, for some
+offence against the Egyptian Government, he was interned at Cairo. At
+that city Gordon had a conference with Zebehr in the presence of Sir E.
+Baring, Nubar Pasha, and others. It was long and stormy, and gave the
+impression of undying hatred felt by the slaver for the slave-liberator.
+This alone seemed to justify the Gladstone Ministry in refusing Gordon's
+request[387]. Had Zebehr gone with Gordon, he would certainly have
+betrayed him--so thought Sir Evelyn Baring.
+
+[Footnote 387: _Ibid_. pp. 38-41.]
+
+Setting out from Cairo and travelling quickly up the Nile, Gordon
+reached Khartum on February 18, and received an enthusiastic welcome
+from the discouraged populace. At once he publicly burned all
+instruments of torture and records of old debts; so that his popularity
+overshadowed that of the Mahdi. Again he urged the despatch of Zebehr
+as his "successor," after the withdrawal of troops and civilians from
+the Sudan. But, as Sir Evelyn Baring said in forwarding Gordon's request
+to Downing Street, it would be most dangerous to place them together at
+Khartum. It should further be noted that Gordon's telegrams showed his
+belief that the Mahdi's power was overrated, and that his advance in
+person on Khartum was most unlikely[388]. It is not surprising, then,
+that Lord Granville telegraphed to Sir E. Baring on February 22 that the
+public opinion of England "would not tolerate the appointment of Zebehr
+Pasha[389]." Already it had been offended by Gordon's proclamation at
+Khartum that the Government would not interfere with the buying and
+selling of slaves, though, as Sir Evelyn Baring pointed out, the
+re-establishment of slavery resulted quite naturally from the policy of
+evacuation; and he now strongly urged that Gordon should have "full
+liberty of action to complete the execution of his general plans[390]."
+
+[Footnote 388: Egypt, No. 12 (1884), pp. 74, 82, 88.]
+
+[Footnote 389: _Ibid_. p. 95.]
+
+[Footnote 390: _Ibid_. p. 94.]
+
+Here it is desirable to remember that the Mahdist movement was then
+confined almost entirely to three chief districts--Kordofan, parts of
+the lands adjoining the Blue Nile, and the tribes dwelling west and
+south-west of Suakim. For the present these last were the most
+dangerous. Already they had overpowered and slaughtered two Egyptian
+forces; and on February 22 news reached Cairo of the fall of Tokar
+before the valiant swordsmen of Osman Digna. But this was far away from
+the Nile and did not endanger Gordon. British troops were landed at
+Suakim for the protection of that port, but this step implied no change
+of policy respecting the Sudan. The slight impression which two
+brilliant but costly victories, those of El Teb and Tamai, made on the
+warlike tribes at the back of Suakim certainly showed the need of
+caution in pushing a force into the Sudan when the fierce heats of
+summer were coming on[391].
+
+[Footnote 391: For details of these battles, see Sir F. Wingate's
+_Mahdism_, chap, iii., and _Life of Sir Gerald Graham_ (1901).]
+
+The first hint of any change of policy was made by Gordon in his
+despatch of Feb. 26, to Sir E. Baring. After stating his regret at the
+refusal of the British Government to allow the despatch of Zebehr as his
+successor, he used these remarkable words:--
+
+You must remember that when evacuation is carried out, Mahdi will come
+down here, and, by agents, will not let Egypt be quiet. Of course my
+duty is evacuation, and the best I can for establishing a quiet
+government. The first I hope to accomplish. The second is a more
+difficult task, and concerns Egypt more than me. If Egypt is to be
+quiet, Mahdi must be smashed up. Mahdi is most unpopular, and with care
+and time could be smashed. Remember that once Khartum belongs to Mahdi,
+the task will be far more difficult; yet you will, for safety of Egypt,
+execute it. If you decide on smashing Mahdi, then send up another
+£100,000 and send up 200 Indian troops to Wady Haifa, and send officer
+up to Dongola under pretence to look out quarters for troops. Leave
+Suakim and Massowah alone. I repeat that evacuation is possible, but you
+will feel effect in Egypt, and will be forced to enter into a far more
+serious affair in order to guard Egypt. At present, it would be
+comparatively easy to destroy Mahdi[392].
+
+[Footnote 392: Egypt, No. 12 (1884), p. 115.]
+
+This statement arouses different opinions according to the point of view
+from which we regard it. As a declaration of general policy it is no
+less sound than prophetic; as a despatch from the Governor-General of
+the Sudan to the Egyptian Government, it claimed serious attention; as a
+recommendation sent by a British officer to the Home Government, it was
+altogether beyond his powers. Gordon was sent out for a distinct aim; he
+now proposed to subordinate that aim to another far vaster aim which lay
+beyond his province. Nevertheless, Sir E. Baring on February 28, and on
+March 4, urged the Gladstone Ministry even now to accede to Gordon's
+request for Zebehr Pasha as his successor, on the ground that some
+Government must be left in the Sudan, and Zebehr was deemed at Cairo to
+be the only possible governor. Again the Home Government refused, and
+thereby laid themselves under the moral obligation of suggesting an
+alternate course. The only course suggested was to allow the despatch of
+a British force up the Nile, if occasion seemed to demand it[393].
+
+[Footnote 393: Egypt, No. 12 (1884) p. 119.]
+
+In this connection it is well to remember that the question of Egypt and
+the Sudan was only one of many that distracted the attention of
+Ministers. The events outside Suakim alone might give them pause before
+they plunged into the Sudan; for that was the time when Russia was
+moving on towards Afghanistan; and the agreement between the three
+Emperors imposed the need of caution on a State as isolated and
+unpopular as England then was. In view of the designs of the German
+colonial party (see Chapter XVII.) and the pressure of the Irish
+problem, the Gladstone Cabinet was surely justified in refusing to
+undertake any new responsibilities, except on the most urgent need.
+Vital interests were at stake in too many places to warrant a policy of
+Quixotic adventure up the Nile.
+
+Nevertheless, it is regrettable that Ministers took up on the Sudan
+problem a position that was logically sound but futile in the sphere of
+action. Gordon's mission, according to Earl Granville, was a peaceful
+one, and he inquired anxiously what progress had been made in the
+withdrawal of the Egyptian garrisons and civilians. This question he
+put, even in the teeth of Gordon's positive statement in a telegram of
+March 8:--
+
+If you do not send Zebehr, you have no chance of getting the garrisons
+away; . . . Zebehr here would be far more powerful than the Mahdi, and he
+would make short work of the Mahdi[394].
+
+[Footnote 394: _Ibid_. p. 145.]
+
+A week earlier Gordon had closed a telegram with the despairing words:--
+
+I will do my best to carry out my instructions, but I feel conviction I
+shall be caught in Khartum[395].
+
+[Footnote 395: _Ibid_. p. 152.]
+
+It is not surprising that Ministers were perplexed by Gordon's
+despatches, or that Baring telegraphed to Khartum that he found it very
+difficult to understand what the General wanted. All who now peruse his
+despatches must have the same feeling, mixed with one of regret that he
+ever weakened his case by the proposal to "smash the Mahdi." Thenceforth
+the British Government obviously felt some distrust of their envoy; and
+in this disturbing factor, and the duality of Gordon's duties, we may
+discern one cause at least of the final disaster.
+
+On March 11, the British Government refused either to allow the
+appointment of Zebehr, or to send British or Indian troops from Suakim
+to Berber. Without wishing to force Gordon's hand prematurely, Earl
+Granville urged the need of evacuation at as early a date as might be
+practicable. On March 16, after hearing ominous news as to the spread of
+the Mahdi's power near to Khartum and Berber, he advised the evacuation
+of the former city at the earliest possible date[396]. We may here note
+that the rebels began to close round it on March 18.
+
+[Footnote 396: _Ibid_. pp. 158, 162, 166.]
+
+Earl Granville's advice directly conflicted with Gordon's sense of
+honour. As he stated, on or about March 20, the fidelity of the people
+of Khartum, while treachery was rife all around, bound him not to leave
+them until he could do so "under a Government which would give them some
+hope of peace." Here again his duty as Governor of the Sudan, or his
+extreme conscientiousness as a man, held him to his post despite the
+express recommendations of the British Government. His decision is ever
+to be regretted; but it redounds to his honour as a Christian and a
+soldier. At bottom, the misunderstanding between him and the Cabinet
+rested on a divergent view of duty. Gordon summed up his scruples in his
+telegram to Baring:--
+
+You must see that you could not recall me, nor could I possibly obey,
+until the Cairo _employés_ get out from all the places. I have named men
+to different places, thus involving them with the Mahdi. How could I
+look the world in the face if I abandoned them and fled? As a gentleman,
+could you advise this course?
+
+Earl Granville summed up his statement of the case in the words:--
+
+The Mission of General Gordon, as originally designed and decided upon,
+was of a pacific nature and in no way involved any movement of British
+forces. . . . He was, in addition, authorised and instructed to perform
+such other duties as the Egyptian Government might desire to entrust to
+him and as might be communicated by you to him. . . . Her Majesty's
+Government, bearing in mind the exigencies of the occasion, concurred in
+these instructions [those of the Egyptian Government], which virtually
+altered General Gordon's Mission from one of advice to that of
+executing, or at least directing, the evacuation not only of Khartum but
+of the whole Sudan, and they were willing that General Gordon should
+receive the very extended powers conferred upon him by the Khedive to
+enable him to effect his difficult task. But they have throughout joined
+in your anxiety that he should not expose himself to unnecessary
+personal risk, or place himself in a position from which retreat would
+be difficult[397].
+
+[Footnote 397: Egypt, No. 13 (1884), pp. 5, 6. Earl Granville made the
+same statement in his despatch of April 23. See, too, _The Life of Lord
+Granville_.]
+
+He then states that it is clear that Khartum can hold out for at least
+six months, if it is attacked, and, seeing that the British occupation
+of Egypt was only "for a special and temporary purpose," any expedition
+into the Sudan would be highly undesirable on general as well as
+diplomatic grounds.
+
+Both of these views of duty are intelligible as well as creditable to
+those who held them. But the former view is that of a high-souled
+officer; the latter, that of a responsible and much-tried Minister and
+diplomatist. They were wholly divergent, and divergence there
+spelt disaster.
+
+On hearing of the siege of Khartum, General Stephenson, then commanding
+the British forces in Egypt, advised the immediate despatch of a brigade
+to Dongola--a step which would probably have produced the best results;
+but that advice was overruled at London for the reasons stated above.
+Ministers seem to have feared that Gordon might use the force for
+offensive purposes. An Egyptian battalion was sent up the Nile to
+Korosko in the middle of May; but the "moral effect" hoped for from that
+daring step vanished in face of a serious reverse. On May 19, the
+important city of Berber was taken by the Mahdists[398].
+
+[Footnote 398: Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 25 (1884), pp. 129-131.]
+
+Difficult as the removal of about 10,000 to 15,000[399] Egyptians from
+Khartum had always been--and there were fifteen other garrisons to be
+rescued--it was now next to impossible, unless some blow were dealt at
+the rebels in that neighbourhood. The only effective blow would be that
+dealt by British or Indian troops, and this the Government refused,
+though Gordon again and again pointed out that a small well-equipped
+force would do far more than a large force. "A heavy, lumbering column,
+however strong, is nowhere in this land (so he wrote in his _Journals_
+on September 24). . . . It is the country of the irregular, not of the
+regular." A month after the capture of Berber a small British force left
+Siut, on the Nile, for Assuan; but this move, which would have sent a
+thrill through the Sudan in March, had little effect at midsummer. Even
+so, a prompt advance on Dongola and thence on Berber would probably have
+saved the situation at the eleventh hour.
+
+[Footnote 399: This is the number as estimated by Gordon in his
+_Journals_ (Sept. 10, 1884), p. 6.]
+
+But first the battle of the routes had to be fought out by the military
+authorities. As early as April 25, the Government ordered General
+Stephenson to report on the best means of relieving Gordon; after due
+consideration of this difficult problem he advised the despatch of
+10,000 men to Berber from Suakim in the month of September. Preparations
+were actually begun at Suakim; but in July experts began to favour the
+Nile route. In that month Lord Wolseley urged the immediate despatch of
+a force up that river, and he promised that it should be at Dongola by
+the middle of October. Even so, official hesitations hampered the
+enterprise, and it was not until July 29 that the decision seems to have
+been definitely formed in favour of the Nile route. Even on August 8,
+Lord Hartington, then War Minister, stated that help would be sent to
+Gordon, _if it proved to be necessary_[400]. On August 26, Lord Wolseley
+was appointed to the command of the relief expedition gathering on the
+Nile, but not until October 5 did he reach Wady Haifa, below the
+Second Cataract.
+
+[Footnote 400: Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii. p. 164.]
+
+Meanwhile the web of fate was closing in on Khartum. In vain did Gordon
+seek to keep communications open. All that he could do was to hold
+stoutly to that last bulwark of civilisation. There were still some
+grounds for hope. The Mahdi remained in Kordofan, want of food
+preventing his march northwards in force. Against his half-armed
+fanatics the city opposed a strong barrier. "Crows' feet" scattered on
+the ground ended their mad rushes, and mines blew them into the air by
+hundreds. Khartum seemed to defy those sons of the desert. The fire of
+the steamers drove them from the banks and pulverised their forts[401].
+The arsenal could turn out 50,000 Remington cartridges a week. There was
+every reason, then, for holding the city; for, as Gordon jotted down in
+his _Journal_ on September 17, if the Mahdi took Khartum, it would need
+a great force to stay his propaganda. Here and there in those pathetic
+records of a life and death struggle we catch a glimpse of Gordon's hope
+of saving Khartum for civilisation. More than once he noted the ease of
+holding the Sudan from the Nile as base. With forts at the cataracts and
+armed steamers patrolling the clear reaches of the river, the defence of
+the Sudan, he believed, was by no means impossible[402].
+
+[Footnote 401: For details, see _Letters from Khartum_, by Frank Power.]
+
+[Footnote 402: _Journal_, p. 35, etc.]
+
+On September 10 he succeeded in sending away down stream by steamer
+Colonel Stewart and Messrs. Power and Herbin; but unfortunately they
+were wrecked and murdered by Arabs near Korti. The advice and help of
+that gallant officer would have been of priceless service to the
+relieving force. On September 10, when the _Journals_ begin, Gordon was
+still hopeful of success, though food was scarce.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THE NILE.]
+
+At this time the rescue expedition was mustering at Wady Haifa, a point
+which the narrowing gorge of the Nile marks out as one of the natural
+defences of its lower valley. There the British and Egyptian Governments
+were collecting a force that soon amounted to 2570 British troops and
+some Egyptians, who were to be used solely for transport and portage
+duties. A striking tribute to the solidarity of the Empire was the
+presence of 350 Canadians, mostly French, whose skill in working boats
+up rapids won admiration on all sides. The difficulties of the Nile
+route were soon found to be far greater than had been imagined. Indeed
+many persons still believe that the Suakim-Berber route would have been
+far preferable. The Nile was unfortunately lower than usual, and many
+rapids, up which small steamers had been hauled when the waters ran deep
+and full, were impassable even for the whale-boats on which the
+expedition depended for its progress as far as Korti. Many a time all
+the boats had to be hauled up the banks and carried by Canadians or
+Egyptians to the next clear reaches. The letters written by Gordon in
+1877 in a more favourable season were now found to be misleading, and in
+part led to the miscalculation of time which was to prove so disastrous.
+
+Another untoward fact was the refusal of the authorities to push on the
+construction of the railway above Sarras. It had been completed from
+Wady Haifa up to that point, and much work had been done on it for about
+fifteen miles further. But, either from lack of the necessary funds, or
+because the line could not be completed in time, the construction was
+stopped by Lord Wolseley's orders early in October. Consequently much
+time was lost in dragging the boats and their stores up or around the
+difficult rapids above Semneh[403].
+
+[Footnote 403: See Gordon's letters of the year 1877, quoted in the
+Appendix of A. Macdonald's _Too Late for Gordon and Khartum_ (1887);
+also chap. vi. of that book.]
+
+Meanwhile a large quantity of stores had been collected at Dongola and
+Debbeh; numbers of boats were also there, so that a swift advance of a
+vanguard thence by the calmer reaches farther up the Nile seemed to
+offer many chances of success. It was in accord with Gordon's advice to
+act swiftly with small columns; but, for some reason, the plan was not
+acted on, though Colonel Kitchener, who had collected those stores,
+recommended it. Another argument for speedy action was the arrival on
+November 14, of a letter from Gordon, dated ten days before, in which he
+stated that he could hold out for forty days, but would find it hard to
+do so any longer.
+
+The advance of the main body to Dongola was very slow, despite the
+heroic toil of all concerned. We now know that up to the middle of
+September the Gladstone Ministry cherished the belief that the force
+need not advance beyond Dongola. Their optimism was once again at fault.
+The Mahdists were pressing on the siege of Khartum, and had overpowered
+and slaughtered faithful tribes farther down the river. Such was the
+news sent by Gordon and received by Lord Wolseley on December 31 at
+Korti. The "secret and confidential" part of Gordon's message was to the
+effect that food was running short, and the rescuers must come quickly;
+they should come by Metammeh or Berber, and inform Gordon by the
+messenger when they had taken Berber.
+
+The last entries in Gordon's _Journals_ or in that part which has
+survived, contain the following statements:--
+
+December 13. ". . . All that is absolutely necessary is for fifty of the
+expeditionary force to get on board a steamer and come up to Halfeyeh,
+and thus let their presence be felt; this is not asking much, but it
+must happen at once; or it will (as usual) be too late."
+
+December 14. [After stating that he would send down a steamer with the
+"Journal" towards the expeditionary force]. . . . "Now mark this, if the
+expeditionary force, and I ask for no more than two hundred men, does
+not come in ten days _the town may fall_; and I have done my best for
+the honour of our country. Good bye."
+
+Owing to lack of transport and other difficulties, the vanguard of the
+relieving force could not begin its march from the new Nile base, near
+Korti, until December 30. Thence the gallant Sir Herbert Stewart led a
+picked column of men with 1800 camels across the desert towards
+Metammeh. Lord Wolseley remained behind to guard the new base of
+operations. At Abu Klea wells, when nearing the Nile, the column was
+assailed by a great mass of Arabs. They advanced in five columns, each
+having a wedge-shaped head designed to pierce the British square. With a
+low murmuring cry or chant they rushed on in admirable order,
+disregarding the heavy losses caused by the steady fire of three faces
+of the square. Their leaders soon saw the weak place in the defence,
+namely, at one of the rear corners, where belated skirmishers were still
+running in for shelter, where also one of the guns jammed at the
+critical moment. One of their Emirs, calmly reciting his prayers, rode
+in through the gap thus formed, and for ten minutes bayonet and spear
+plied their deadly thrusts at close quarters. Thanks to the firmness of
+the British infantry, every Arab that forced his way in perished; but in
+this _mêlée_ there perished a stalwart soldier whom England could ill
+spare, Colonel Burnaby, hero of the ride to Khiva. Lord Charles
+Beresford, of the Naval Brigade, had a narrow escape while striving to
+set right the defective cannon. In all we lost 65 killed and 60 wounded,
+a proportion which tells its own tale as to the fighting[404].
+
+[Footnote 404: Sir C.W. Wilson, _From Korti to Khartum_, pp. 28-35; also
+see Hon. R. Talbot's article on "Abu Klea," in the _Nineteenth Century_
+for January 1886.]
+
+Two days later, while the force was beating off an attack of the Arabs
+near Metammeh, General Stewart received a wound which proved to be
+mortal. The command now devolved on Sir Charles Wilson of the Royal
+Engineers. After repelling the attacks of other Mahdists and making good
+his position on the Nile, the new commander came into touch with
+Gordon's steamers, which arrived there on the 21st, with 190 Sudanese.
+Again, however, the advance of other Arabs from Omdurman caused a delay
+until a fortified camp or zariba could be formed. Wilson now had but
+1322 unwounded men; and he saw that the Mahdists were in far greater
+force than Lord Wolseley or General Gordon had expected. Not until
+January 24 could the commander steam away southwards with 20 men of the
+Sussex regiment and the 190 Sudanese soldiers on the two largest of
+Gordon's boats--his "penny steamers" as he whimsically termed them.
+
+The sequel is well known. After overcoming many difficulties caused by
+rocks and sandbanks, after running the gauntlet of the Mahdist fire,
+this forlorn hope neared Khartum on the 28th, only to find that the
+place had fallen. There was nothing for it but to put about and escape
+while it was possible. Sir Charles Wilson has described the scene: "The
+masses of the enemy with their fluttering banners near Khartum, the long
+rows of riflemen in the shelter-trenches at Omdurman, the numerous
+groups of men on Tuti [Island], the bursting of shells, and the water
+torn up by hundreds of bullets, and occasionally heavier shot, made an
+impression never to be forgotten. Looking out over the stormy scene, it
+seemed almost impossible that we should escape[405]."
+
+[Footnote 405: Sir C.W. Wilson, _op. cit._ pp. 176-177.]
+
+Weighed down by grief at the sad failure of all their strivings, the
+little band yet succeeded in escaping to Metammeh. They afterwards found
+out that they were two days too late. The final cause of the fall of
+Khartum is not fully known. The notion first current, that it was due to
+treachery, has been discredited. Certainly the defenders were weakened
+by privation and cowed by the Mahdist successes. The final attack was
+also given at a weak place in the long line of defence; but whether the
+defenders all did their best, or were anxious to make terms with the
+Mahdi, will probably never be known. The conduct of the assailants in at
+once firing on the relieving force forbids the notion that they all
+along intended to get into Khartum by treachery just before the approach
+of the steamers. Had that been their aim, they would surely have added
+one crowning touch of guile, that of remaining quiet until Wilson and
+his men landed at Khartum. The capture of the town would therefore seem
+to be due to force, not to treachery.
+
+All these speculations are dwarfed by the overwhelming fact that Gordon
+perished. Various versions have been given of the manner of his death.
+One that rests on good authority is that he died fighting. Another
+account, which seems more consistent with his character, is that, on
+hearing of the enemy's rush into the town, he calmly remarked: "It is
+all finished; to-day Gordon will be killed." In a short time a chief of
+the Baggara Arabs with a few others burst in and ordered him to come to
+the Mahdi. Gordon refused. Thrice the Sheikh repeated the command.
+Thrice Gordon calmly repeated his refusal. The sheikh then drew his
+sword and slashed at his shoulder. Gordon still looked him steadily in
+the face. Thereupon the miscreant struck at his neck, cut off his head,
+and carried it to the Mahdi[406].
+
+[Footnote 406: A third account given by Bordeini Bey, a merchant of
+Khartum, differs in many details. It is printed by Sir F.R. Wingate in
+his _Mahdism_, p. 171.]
+
+Whatever may be the truth as to details, it is certain that no man ever
+looked death in the face so long and so serenely as Gordon. For him life
+was but duty--duty to God and duty to man. We may fitly apply to him the
+noble lines which Tennyson offered to the memory of another
+steadfast soul--
+
+     He, that ever following her commands,
+     On with toil of heart and knees and hands,
+     Thro' the long gorge to the far light has won
+     His path upward, and prevail'd,
+     Shall find the toppling crags of Duty scaled
+     Are close upon the shining table-lands
+     To which our God Himself is moon and sun.
+
+NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION
+
+Shortly before the publication of this work, Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice
+published his _Life of Earl Granville_, some of the details of which
+tend somewhat to modify the account of the relations subsisting between
+the Earl and General Gordon. See too the issue of the _Times_ of
+December 10, 1905 (Weekly Edition), for a correction of some of the
+statements, made in the _Life of Earl Granville_, by Lord Cromer (Sir
+Evelyn Baring).]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE CONQUEST OF THE SUDAN
+
+     "The Sudan, if once proper communication was established,
+     would not be difficult to govern. The only mode of improving
+     the access to the Sudan, seeing the impoverished state of
+     Egyptian finances, and the mode to do so without an outlay of
+     more than £10,000, is by the Nile."--_Gordon's Journals_
+     (Sept. 19, 1884).
+
+
+It may seem that an account of the fall of Khartum is out of place in a
+volume which deals only with formative events. But this is not so. The
+example of Gordon's heroism was of itself a great incentive to action
+for the cause of settled government in that land. For that cause he had
+given his life, and few Britons were altogether deaf to the mute appeal
+of that lonely struggle. Then again, the immense increase to the Mahdi's
+power resulting from the capture of the arsenal of Khartum constituted
+(as Gordon had prophesied) a serious danger to Egypt. The continued
+presence of British troops at Wady Haifa, and that alone, saved the
+valley of the Lower Nile from a desolating flood of savagery. This was a
+fact recognised by every one at Cairo, even by the ultra-Gallic party.
+Egypt alone has rarely been able to hold at bay any great downward
+movement of the tribes of Ethiopia and Nubia; and the danger was never
+so great as in and after 1885. The Mahdi's proclamations to the faithful
+now swelled with inconceivable pride. To a wavering sheikh he sent the
+warning: "If you live long enough you will see the troops of the Mahdi
+spreading over Europe, Rome, and Constantinople, after which there will
+be nothing left for you but hell and damnation." The mistiness of the
+geography was hidden by the vigour of the theology, and all the sceptics
+of Nubia hastened to accept the new prophet.
+
+But his time of tyranny soon drew to a close. A woman of Khartum, who
+had been outraged by him or his followers, determined to wreak her
+vengeance. On June 14, 1885, she succeeded in giving him slow poison,
+which led him to his death amidst long-drawn agonies eight days later.
+This ought to have been the death of Mahdism as well, but superstitions
+die hard in that land of fanatics. The Mahdi's factotum, an able
+intriguer named Abdullah Taashi, had previously gained from his master a
+written declaration that he was to be Khalifa after him; he now produced
+this document, and fortified its influence by describing in great detail
+a vision in which the ghost of the Mahdi handed him a sacred hair of
+inestimable worth, and an oblong-shaped light which had come direct from
+the hands of the true Prophet, who had received it from the hands of the
+angel Gabriel, to whom it had been entrusted by the Almighty.
+
+This silly story was eagerly believed by the many, the questioning few
+also finding it well to still their doubts in presence of death or
+torture. Piety and politics quickly worked hand in hand to found the
+impostor's authority. A mosque began to rise over the tomb of the Mahdi
+in his chosen capital, Omdurman; and his successor gained the support
+and the offerings of the thousands of pilgrims who came to visit that
+wonder-working shrine. Such was the basis of the new rule, which spread
+over the valley of the Upper and Middle Nile, and carried terror nearly
+to the borders of Egypt[407].
+
+[Footnote 407: Wingate, _Mahdism_, pp. 228-233.]
+
+There law and order slowly took root under the shadow of the British
+administration, but Egypt ceased to control the lands south of Wady
+Halfa. Mr. Gladstone announced that decision in the House of Commons on
+May 11, 1885; and those who discover traces of the perfidy of Albion
+even in the vacillations of her policy, maintain that that declaration
+was made with a view to an eventual annexation of the Sudan by England.
+Their contention would be still more forcible if they would prove that
+the Gladstone Ministry deliberately sacrificed Gordon at Khartum in
+order to increase the Mahdi's power and leave Egypt open to his blows,
+thereby gaining one more excuse for delaying the long-promised
+evacuation of the Nile delta by the redcoats. This was the _outcome_ of
+events; and those who argue backwards should have the courage of their
+convictions and throw all the facts of the case into their syllogisms.
+
+All who have any knowledge of the trend of British statesmanship in the
+eighties know perfectly well that the occupation of Egypt was looked on
+as a serious incubus. The Salisbury Cabinet sought to give effect to the
+promises of evacuation, and with that aim in view sent Sir Henry
+Drummond Wolff to Constantinople in the year 1887 for the settlement of
+details. The year 1890 was ultimately fixed, provided that no danger
+should accrue to Egypt from such action, and that Great Britain should
+"retain a treaty-right of intervention if at any time either the
+internal peace or external security [of Egypt] should be seriously
+threatened." To this last stipulation the Sultan seemed prepared to
+agree. Austria, Germany, and Italy notified their complete agreement
+with it; but France and Russia refused to accept the British offer with
+this proviso added, and even influenced the Sultan so that he too
+finally opposed it. Their unfriendly action can only be attributed to a
+desire of humiliating Great Britain, and of depriving her of any
+effective influence in the land which, at such loss of blood and
+treasure to herself, she had saved from anarchy. Their opposition
+wrecked the proposal, and the whole position therefore remained
+unchanged. British officials continued to administer Egypt in spite of
+opposition from the French in all possible details connected with the
+vital question of finance[408].
+
+[Footnote 408: _England in Egypt_, by Sir Alfred Milner, pp. 145-153.]
+
+Other incidents that occurred during the years intervening between the
+fall of Gordon and the despatch of Sir Herbert Kitchener's expedition
+need not detain us here[409]. The causes which led to this new departure
+will be more fitly considered when we come to notice the Fashoda
+incident; but we may here remark that they probably arose out of the
+French and Belgian schemes for the partition of Central Africa. A desire
+to rescue the Sudan from a cruel and degrading tyranny and to offer a
+tardy reparation to the memory of Gordon doubtless had some weight with
+Ministers, as it undoubtedly had with the public. Indeed, it is doubtful
+whether the _vox populi_ would have allowed the expedition but for these
+more sentimental considerations. But, in the view of the present writer,
+the Sudan expedition presents the best instance of foresight, resolve,
+and able execution that is to be found in the recent annals of Britain.
+
+[Footnote 409: For the Sudan in this period see Wingate's _Mahdism_;
+Slatin's _Fire and Sword in the Sudan_; C. Neufeld's _A Prisoner of the
+Khalifa_.]
+
+With the hour had come the man. During the dreary years of the "mark
+time" policy Colonel Kitchener had gained renown as a determined fighter
+and able organiser. For some time he acted as governor of Suakim, and
+showed his powers of command by gaining over some of the neighbouring
+tribes and planning an attack on Osman Digna which came very near to
+success. Under him and many other British officers the Egyptians and
+Sudanese gradually learnt confidence, and broke the spell of
+invincibility that so long had rested with the Dervish hordes. On all
+sides the power of the Khalifa was manifestly waning. The powerful
+Hadendowa tribe, near Suakim, which had given so much trouble in
+1883-84, became neutral. On the Nile also the Dervishes lost ground. The
+Anglo-Egyptian troops wrested from them the post of Sarras, some thirty
+miles south of Wady Halfa; and the efforts of the fanatics to capture
+the wells along desert routes far to the east of the river were bloodily
+repulsed. As long as Sarras, Wady Halfa, and those wells were firmly
+held, Egypt was safe.
+
+At Gedaref, not very far from Omdurman, the Khalifa sustained a severe
+check from the Italians (December 1893), who thereupon occupied the town
+of Kassala. It was not to be for any length of time. In all their
+enterprises against the warlike Abyssinians they completely failed; and,
+after sustaining the disastrous defeat of Adowa (March 1, 1896), the
+whole nation despaired of reaping any benefit from the Hinterland of
+their colony around Massowah. The new Cabinet at Rome resolved to
+withdraw from the districts around Kassala. On this news being
+communicated to the British Ministers, they sent a request to Rome that
+the evacuation of Kassala might be delayed until Anglo-Egyptian troops
+could be despatched to occupy that important station. In this way the
+intended withdrawal of the Italians served to strengthen the resolve of
+the British Government to help the Khedive in effecting the recovery of
+the Sudan[410].
+
+[Footnote 410: See _articles_ by Dr. E.J. Dillon and by Jules Simon in
+the _Contemporary Review_ for April and May 1896. Kassala was handed
+over to an Egyptian force under Colonel Parsons in December 1897. _The
+Egyptian Sudan_, by H.S.L. Alford and W.D. Sword (1898).]
+
+Preparations for the advance southwards went forward slowly and
+methodically through the summer and autumn of 1896. For the present the
+operations were limited to the recapture of Dongola. Sir Herbert
+Kitchener, then the Sirdar of the Egyptian army, was placed in command.
+Under him were men who had proved their worth in years of desultory
+fighting against the Khalifa--Broadwood, Hunter, Lewis, Macdonald,
+Maxwell, and many others. The training had been so long and severe as to
+weed out all weaklings; and the Sirdar himself was the very incarnation
+of that stern but salutary law of Nature which ordains the survival of
+the fittest. Scores of officers who failed to come up to his
+requirements were quietly removed; and the result was seen in a finely
+seasoned body of men, apt at all tasks, from staff duties to railway
+control. A comparison of the Egyptian army that fought at Omdurman with
+that which thirteen years before ran away screaming from a tenth of its
+number of Dervishes affords the most impressive lesson of modern times
+of the triumph of mind over matter, of western fortitude over the weaker
+side of eastern fatalism.
+
+Such a building up of character as this implies could not take place in
+a month or two, for the mind of Egyptians and Sudanese was at first an
+utter blank as to the need of prompt obedience and still prompter
+action. An amusing case of their incredible slackness has been recorded.
+On the first parade of a new camel transport corps before Lord
+Kitchener, the leading driver stopped his animal, and therefore all that
+followed, immediately in front of the Sirdar, in order to light a
+cigarette. It is needless to say, the cigarette was not lighted, but the
+would-be smoker had his first lesson as to the superiority of the claims
+of collectivism over the whims of the individual[411].
+
+[Footnote 411: _Sudan Campaign_, 1896-97, by "An Officer," p. 20.]
+
+As will be seen by reference to the map on page 477, the decision to
+limit the campaign to Dongola involved the choice of the Nile route. If
+the blow had been aimed straight at Khartum, the Suakim-Berber route, or
+even that by way of Kassala, would have had many advantages. Above all,
+the river route held out the prospect of effective help from gunboats in
+the final attacks on Berber, Omdurman, and Khartum. Seeing, however,
+that the greater part of the river's course between Sarras and Dongola
+was broken up by rapids, the railway and the camel had at first to
+perform nearly the whole of the transport duties for which the Nile was
+there unsuited. The work of repairing the railway from Wady Haifa to
+Sarras, and thenceforth of constructing it through rocky wastes, amidst
+constant risk of Dervish raids, called into play every faculty of
+ingenuity, patience, and hardihood. But little by little the line crept
+on; the locomotives carried the piles of food, stores, and ammunition
+further and further south, until on June 6, 1897, the first blow was
+dealt by the surprise and destruction of the Dervish force at Ferket.
+
+There a halt was called; for news came in that an unprecedented
+rain-storm further north had washed away the railway embankments from
+some of the gulleys. To make good the damage would take thirty days, it
+was said. The Sirdar declared that the line must be ready in twelve
+days; he went back to push on the work; in twelve days the line was
+ready. As an example of the varied difficulties that were met and
+overcome, we may mention one. The work of putting together a steamer,
+which had been brought up in sections, was stopped because an
+all-important nut had been lost in transit. At once the Sirdar ordered
+horsemen to patrol the railway line--and the nut was found. At last the
+vessel was ready; but on her trial trip she burst a cylinder and had to
+be left behind[412]. Three small steamers and four gunboats were,
+however, available for service in the middle of September, when the
+expedition moved on.
+
+[Footnote 412: _Ibid_, p. 54.]
+
+By this time the effective force numbered about 12,000 men. The
+Dervishes had little heart for fighting to the north of Dongola; and
+even at that town the Dervishes made but a poor stand, cowed as they
+were by the shells of the steamers and perplexed by the enveloping moves
+which the Sirdar ordered; 700 were taken in Dongola, and the best 300 of
+these were incorporated in the Sirdar's Sudanese regiments (Sept.
+23, 1896).
+
+Thus ended the first part of the expedition. Events had justified
+Gordon's statement that a small well-equipped expedition could speedily
+overthrow the Mahdi--that is, in the days of his comparative weakness
+before the capture of Khartum. The ease with which Dongola had been
+taken and the comparative cheapness of the expedition predisposed the
+Egyptian Government and the English public to view its extension
+southwards with less of disfavour.
+
+Again the new stride forward had to be prepared for by careful
+preparations at the base. The question of route also caused delay. It
+proved to be desirable to begin a new railway from Wady Haifa across the
+desert to Abu Hamed at the northern tip of the deep bend which the Nile
+makes below Berber. To drive a line into a desert in order to attack an
+enemy holding a good position beyond seemed a piece of fool-hardiness.
+Nevertheless it was done, and at the average rate of about 1 1/4 miles a
+day. In due course General Hunter pushed on and captured Abu Hamed, the
+inhabitants of which showed little fight, being thoroughly weary of
+Dervish tyranny (August 6, 1897).
+
+The arrival of gunboats after a long struggle with the rapids below Abu
+Hamed gave Hunter's little force a much-needed support; and before he
+could advance further, news reached him that the Dervishes had abandoned
+Berber. This step caused general surprise, and it has never been fully
+explained. Some have averred that a panic seized the wives of the
+Dervish garrison at Berber, and that when they rushed out of the town
+southwards their husbands followed them[413]. Certain it is that family
+feelings, which the Dervishes so readily outraged in others, played a
+leading part in many of their movements. Whatever the cause may have
+been, the abandonment of Berber greatly facilitated the work of Sir
+Herbert Kitchener. A strong force soon mustered at that town, and the
+route to the Red Sea was reopened by a friendly arrangement with the
+local sheikhs.
+
+[Footnote 413: _The Downfall of the Dervishes_, by E.N. Bennett, M.A.,
+p. 23.]
+
+The next important barrier to the advance was the river Atbara. Here the
+Dervishes had a force some 18,000 strong; but before long the Sirdar
+received timely reinforcement of a British brigade, consisting of the
+Cameron and Seaforth Highlanders and the Lincolnshire and Warwickshire
+regiments, under General Gatacre. Various considerations led the Sirdar
+to wait until he could strike a telling blow. What was most to be
+dreaded was the adoption of Parthian tactics by the enemy. Fortunately
+they had constructed a zariba (a camp surrounded by thorn-bushes) on the
+north bank of the Atbara at a point twenty miles above its confluence
+with the Nile. At last, on April 7, 1898, after trying to tempt the
+enemy to a battle in the open, the Sirdar moved forward his 14,000 men
+in the hope of rushing the position soon after dawn of the following
+day, Good Friday.
+
+Before the first streaks of sunrise tinged the east, the assailants
+moved forward to a ridge overlooking the Dervish position; but very few
+heads were seen above the thorny rampart in the hollow opposite. It was
+judged to be too risky at once to charge a superior force that clung to
+so strong a shelter; and for an hour and a half the British and Egyptian
+guns plied the zariba in the hope of bringing the fanatics out to fight.
+Still they kept quiet; and their fortitude during this time of carnage
+bore witness to their bravery and discipline[414].
+
+[Footnote 414: _The Egyptian Sudan: its Loss and Recovery,_ by H.S.L.
+Alford and W.D. Sword, ch. iv.]
+
+At 7.45 the Sirdar ordered the advance. The British brigade held the
+left wing, the Camerons leading in line formation, while behind them in
+columns were ranged the Warwicks, Seaforths, and Lincolns, to add weight
+to the onset. Macdonald's and Maxwell's Egyptian and Sudanese Brigades,
+drawn up in lines, formed the centre and right. Squadrons of Egyptian
+horse and a battery of Maxims confronted the Dervish horsemen ranged
+along; the front of a dense scrub to the left of the zariba. As the
+converging lines advanced, they were met by a terrific discharge;
+fortunately it was aimed too high, or the loss would have been fearful.
+Then the Highlanders and Sudanese rushed in, tore apart the thorn bushes
+and began a fierce fight at close quarters. From their shelter trenches,
+pits, and huts the Dervishes poured in spasmodic volleys, or rushed at
+their assailants with spear or bayonet. Even at this the fanatics of the
+desert were no match for the seasoned troops of the Sirdar; and soon the
+beaten remnant streamed out through the scrub or over the dry bed of the
+Atbara. About 2500 were killed, and 2000, including Mahmud, the
+commander, were taken prisoners. Those who attempted to reach the
+fertile country round Kassala were there hunted down or captured by the
+Egyptian garrison that lately had arrived there.
+
+As on previous occasions, the Sirdar now waited some time until the
+railway could be brought up to the points lately conquered. More
+gunboats were also constructed for the final stage of the expedition.
+The dash at Omdurman and Khartum promised to tax to the uttermost the
+strength of the army; but another brigade of British troops, commanded
+by Colonel Lyttelton, soon joined the expedition, bringing its effective
+strength up to 23,000 men. General Gatacre received the command of the
+British division. Ten gunboats, five transport steamers, and eight
+barges promised to secure complete command of the river banks and to
+provide means for transporting the army and all needful stores to the
+western bank of the Nile whenever the Sirdar judged it to be advisable.
+The midsummer rains in the equatorial districts now made their influence
+felt, and in the middle of August the Nile covered the sandbanks and
+rocks that made navigation dangerous at the time of "low Nile." In the
+last week of that month all was ready for the long and carefully
+prepared advance. The infantry travelled in steamers or barges as far as
+the foot of the Shabluka, or Sixth Cataract, and this method of advance
+left the Dervishes in some doubt by which bank the final advance
+would be made.
+
+By an unexpected piece of good fortune the Dervishes had evacuated the
+rocky heights of the Shabluka gorge. This was matter for rejoicing.
+There the Nile, which above and below is a mile wide, narrows to a
+channel of little more than a hundred yards in width. It is the natural
+defence of Khartum on the north. The strategy of the Khalifa was here
+again inexplicable, as also was his abandonment of the ridge at Kerreri,
+some seven miles north of Omdurman. Mr. Bennett Burleigh in his account
+of the campaign states that the Khalifa had repaired thither once a year
+to give thanks for the triumph about to be gained there.
+
+At last on September 1, on topping the Kerreri ridge, the invaders
+caught their first glimpse of Omdurman. Already the gunboats were
+steaming up to the Mahdist capital to throw in their first shells. They
+speedily dismounted several guns, and one of the shells tore away a
+large portion of the gaudy cupola that covered the Mahdi's tomb. Apart
+from this portent, nothing of moment was done on that day; but it seems
+probable that the bombardment led the Khalifa to hazard an attack on the
+invaders in the desert on the side away from the Nile. Nearer to the
+Sirdar's main force the skirmishing of the 21st Lancers, new to war but
+eager to "win their spurs," was answered by angry but impotent charges
+of the Khalifa's horse and foot, until at sunset both sides retired for
+the night's rest.
+
+The Anglo-Egyptian force made a zariba around the village of el-Gennuaia
+on the river bank; and there, in full expectation of a night attack,
+they sought what slumber was to be had. What with a panic rush of
+Sudanese servants and the stampede of an angry camel, the night wore
+away uneasily; but there was no charge of Dervishes such as might have
+carried death to the heart of that small zariba. It is said that the
+Sirdar had passed the hint to some trusty spies to pretend to be
+deserters and warn the enemy that _he_ was going to attack them by
+night. If this be so, spies have never done better service.
+
+When the first glimmer of dawn came on September 2, every man felt
+instinctively that the Khalifa had thrown away his last chance. Yet few
+were prepared for the crowning act of madness. Every one feared that he
+would hold fast to Omdurman and fight the new crusaders from house to
+house. Possibly the seeming weakness of the zariba tempted him to a
+concentric attack from the Kerreri Hills and the ridge which stretches
+on both sides of the steep slopes of the hill, Gebel Surgham. A glance
+at the accompanying plan will show that the position was such as to
+tempt a confident enemy. The Sirdar also manoeuvred so as to bring on an
+attack. He sent out the Egyptian cavalry and camel corps soon after dawn
+to the plain lying between Gebel Surgham and Omdurman to lure on the
+Khalifa's men.
+
+The device was completely successful. Believing that they could catch
+the horsemen in the rocky ridge alongside of Gebel Surgham, the
+Dervishes came forth from their capital in swarms, pressed them hard,
+and inflicted some losses. Retiring in good order, the cavalry drew on
+the eager hordes, until about 6.30 A.M. the white glint of their
+gibbehs, or tunics, showed thickly above the tawny slopes on either side
+of Gebel Surgham. On they came in unnumbered throngs, until, pressing
+northwards along the sky-line, their lines also topped the Kerreri Hills
+to the north of the zariba. Their aim was obvious: they intended to
+surround the invaders, pen them up in their zariba, and slaughter them
+there. To all who did not know the value of the central position in war
+and the power of modern weapons, the attack seemed to promise complete
+success. The invaders were 1300 miles away from Cairo and defeat would
+mean destruction.
+
+Religious zeal lent strength to the onset. From the converging crescent
+of the Mahdists a sound as of a dim murmur was wafted to the zariba.
+Little by little it deepened to a hoarse roar, as the host surged on,
+chanting the pious invocations that so often had struck terror into the
+Egyptians. Now they heard the threatening din with hearts unmoved; nay,
+with spirits longing for revenge for untold wrongs and insults. Thus for
+some minutes in that vast amphitheatre the discipline and calm
+confidence of the West stood quietly facing the fanatic fury of the
+East. Two worlds were there embattled: the world of Mohammedanism and
+the world of Christian civilisation; the empire of untutored force and
+the empire of mind.
+
+At last, after some minutes of tense expectancy, the cannon opened fire,
+and speedily gaps were seen in the white masses. Yet the crescent never
+slackened its advance, except when groups halted to fire their muskets
+at impossible ranges. Waving their flags and intoning their prayers, the
+Dervishes charged on in utter scorn of death; but when their ranks came
+within range of the musketry fire, they went down like swathes of grass
+under the scythe. Then was seen a marvellous sight. When the dead were
+falling their fastest, a band of about 150 Dervish horsemen formed
+near the Khalifa's dark-green standard in the centre and rushed across
+the fire zone, determined to snatch at triumph or gain the sensuous joys
+of the Moslem paradise. None of them rode far.
+
+[Illustration: THE DERVISH ATTACK ON MACDONALD.]
+
+[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF OMDURMAN.]
+
+Only on the north, where the camel-corps fell into an awkward plight
+among the rocks of the Kerreri slope, had the attack any chance of
+success; and there the shells of one of the six protecting gunboats
+helped to check the assailants. On this side, too, Colonel Broadwood and
+his Egyptian cavalry did excellent service by leading no small part of
+the Dervish left away from the attack on the zariba. At the middle of
+the fiery crescent the assailants did some execution by firing from a
+dip in the ground some 400 yards away; but their attempts to rush the
+intervening space all ended in mere slaughter. Not long after eight
+o'clock the Khalifa, seeing the hopelessness of attempting to cross the
+zone of fire around el-Gennuaia, now thickly strewn with his dead, drew
+off the survivors beyond the ridge of Gebel Surgham; and those who had
+followed Broadwood's horse also gave up their futile pursuit, and began
+to muster on the Kerreri ridge.
+
+The Sirdar now sought to force on a fight in the open; and with this aim
+in view commanded a general advance on Omdurman. In order, as it would
+seem, to keep a fighting formation that would impose respect on the
+bands of Dervishes on the Kerreri Hills, he adopted the formation known
+as echelon of brigades from the left. Macdonald's Sudanese brigade,
+which held the northern face of the zariba, was therefore compelled to
+swing round and march diagonally towards Gebel Surgham; and, having a
+longer space to cover than the other brigades, it soon fell behind them.
+
+For the present, however, the brunt of the danger fell, not on
+Macdonald, but on the vanguard. The 21st Lancers had been sent forward
+over the ridge between Gebel Surgham and the Nile with orders to
+reconnoitre, and, if possible, to head the Dervishes away from their
+city. Throwing out scouts, they rode over the ridge, but soon
+afterwards came upon a steep and therefore concealed khor or gulley
+whence a large body of concealed Dervishes poured a sharp fire[415]. At
+once Colonel Martin ordered his men to dash at the enemy. Eagerly the
+troopers obeyed the order and jumped their horses down the slope into
+the mass of furious fanatics below; these slashed to pieces every one
+that fell, and viciously sought to hamstring the horses from behind.
+Pushing through the mass, the lancers scrambled up the further bank,
+re-formed, and rushed at the groups beyond; after thrusting these aside,
+they betook themselves to less dramatic but more effective methods.
+Dismounting, they opened a rapid and very effective fire from their
+carbines on the throngs that still clustered in or near the gulley. The
+charge, though a fine display of British pluck, cost the horsemen dear:
+out of a total of 320 men 60 were killed and wounded; 119 horses were
+killed or made useless[416].
+
+[Footnote 415: Some accounts state that the Lancers had no scouts, but
+"an officer" denies this (_Sudan Campaign_, 1896-99, p. 198).]
+
+[Footnote 416: The general opinion of the army was that the charge of
+the Lancers "was magnificent, but was not war." See G.W. Steevens' _With
+Kitchener to Khartum_, ch. xxxii.]
+
+Meanwhile, Macdonald's brigade, consisting of one Egyptian and three
+Sudanese battalions, stood on the brink of disaster. The bands from the
+Kerreri Hills were secretly preparing to charge its rear, while masses
+of the Khalifa's main following turned back, rounded the western spurs
+of Gebel Surgham, and threatened to envelop its right flank. The Sirdar,
+on seeing the danger, ordered Wauchope's brigade to turn back to the
+help of Macdonald, while Maxwell's Sudanese, swarming up the eastern
+slopes of Gebel Surgham, poured deadly volleys on the Khalifa's
+following. Collinson's division and the camel corps were ordered to
+advance from the neighbourhood of the zariba and support Macdonald on
+that side. Before these dispositions were complete, that sturdy Scotsman
+and his Sudanese felt the full weight of the Khalifa's onset. Excited
+beyond measure, Macdonald's men broke into spasmodic firing as the enemy
+came on; the deployment into line was thereby disordered, and it needed
+all Macdonald's power of command to make good the line. His steadiness
+stiffened the defence, and before the potent charm of western discipline
+the Khalifa's onset died away.
+
+But now the storm cloud gathering in the rear burst with unexpected
+fury. Masses of men led by the Khalifa's son, the Sheikh ed Din, rushed
+down the Kerreri slopes and threatened to overwhelm the brigade. Again
+there was seen a proof of the ascendancy of mind over brute force. At
+once Macdonald ordered the left part of his line to wheel round, keeping
+the right as pivot, so that the whole speedily formed two fronts
+resembling a capital letter V, pointing outwards to the two hostile
+forces. Those who saw the movement wondered alike at the masterly
+resolve, the steadiness of execution, and the fanatical bravery which
+threatened to make it all of no avail. On came the white swarms of Arabs
+from the north, until the Sudanese firing once more became wild and
+ineffective; but, as the ammunition of the blacks ran low and they
+prepared to trust to the bayonet, the nearest unit of the British
+division, the Lincolns, doubled up, prolonged Macdonald's line to the
+right, and poured volley upon volley obliquely into the surging flood.
+It slackened, stood still, and then slowly ebbed. Macdonald's coolness
+and the timely arrival of the Lincolns undoubtedly averted a serious
+disaster[417].
+
+[Footnote 417: See Mr. Winston Churchill's _The River War_, vol. ii. pp.
+160-163, for the help given by the Lincolns.]
+
+Meanwhile, the Khalifa's main force had been held in check and decimated
+by the artillery now planted on Gebel Surgham and by the fire of the
+brigades on or near its slopes; so that about eleven o'clock the
+Sirdar's lines could everywhere advance. After beating off a desperate
+charge of Baggara horsemen from the west, Macdonald unbent his brigade
+and drove back the sullen hordes of ed Din to the western spurs of the
+Kerreri Hills, where they were harassed by Broadwood's horse. All was
+now ended, except at the centre of the Khalifa's force, where a
+faithful band clustered about the dark-green standard of their leader
+and chanted defiance to the infidels till one by one they fell. The
+chief himself, unworthy object of this devotion, fled away on a swift
+dromedary some time before the last group of stalwarts bit the sand.
+
+[Illustration: KHARTUM.]
+
+Despite the terrible heat and the thirst of his men, the Sirdar allowed
+only a brief rest before he resumed the march on Omdurman. Leaving no
+time for the bulk of the Dervish survivors to reach their capital, he
+pushed on at the head of Maxwell's brigade, while once more the shells
+of the gunboats spread terror in the city. The news brought by a few
+runaways and the sight of the Khalifa's standard carried behind the
+Egyptian ensign dispelled all hopes of resisting the disciplined
+Sudanese battalions; and, in order to clinch matters, the Sirdar with
+splendid courage rode at the head of the brigade to summon the city to
+surrender. Through the clusters of hovels on the outskirts he rode on
+despite the protests of his staff against any needless exposure of his
+life. He rightly counted on the effect which such boldness on the part
+of the chief must have on an undecided populace. Fanatics here and there
+fired on the conquerors, but the news of the Khalifa's cowardly flight
+from the city soon decided the wavering mass to bow before the
+inscrutable decrees of fate, and ask for backsheesh from the victors.
+
+Thus was Omdurman taken. Neufeld, an Austrian trader, and some Greeks
+and nuns who had been in captivity for several years, were at once set
+free. It was afterwards estimated that about 10,000 Dervishes perished
+in the battle; very many died of their wounds upon the field or were
+bayoneted owing to their persistence in firing on the victors. This
+episode formed the darkest side of the triumph; but it was malignantly
+magnified by some Continental journals into a wholesale slaughter. This
+is false. Omdurman will bear comparison with Skobeleff's victory at
+Denghil Tepé at all points.
+
+Two days after his triumph the Sirdar ordered a parade opposite the
+ruins of the palace in Khartum where Gordon had met his doom. The
+funeral service held there in memory of the dead hero was, perhaps, the
+most affecting scene that this generation has witnessed. Detachments of
+most of the regiments of the rescue force formed a semicircle round the
+Sirdar; and by his side stood a group of war-worn officers, who with him
+had toiled for years in order to see this day. The funeral service was
+intoned; the solemn assembly sang Gordon's favourite hymn, "Abide with
+me," and the Scottish pipes wailed their lament for the lost chieftain.
+Few eyes were undimmed by tears at the close of this service, a slight
+but affecting reparation for the delays and blunders of fourteen years
+before. Then the Union Jack and the Egyptian Crescent flag were hoisted
+and received a salute of 21 guns.
+
+The recovery of the Sudan by Egypt and Great Britain was not to pass
+unchallenged. All along France had viewed the reconquest of the valley
+of the upper Nile with ill-concealed jealousy, and some persons have
+maintained that the French Government was not a stranger to designs
+hatched in France for helping the Khalifa[418]. Now that these questions
+have been happily buried by the Anglo-French agreement of the year 1904,
+it would be foolish to recount all that was said amidst the excitements
+of the year 1898. Some reference must, however, be made to the Fashoda
+incident, which for a short space threatened to bring Great Britain and
+France to an open rupture.
+
+[Footnote 418: See an unsigned article in the _Contemporary Review_ for
+Dec. 1897.]
+
+On September 5, a steamer, flying the white flag, reached Omdurman. The
+ex-Dervish captain brought the news that at Fashoda he had been fired
+upon by white men bearing a strange flag. The Sirdar divined the truth,
+namely, that a French expedition under Major (now Colonel) Marchand must
+have made its way from the Congo to the White Nile at Fashoda with the
+aim of annexing that district for France.
+
+Now that the dust of controversy has cleared away, we can see facts in
+their true proportions, especially as the work recently published by M.
+de Freycinet and the revelations of Colonel Marchand have thrown more
+light on the affair. Briefly stated, the French case is as follows. Mr.
+Gladstone on May 11, 1885, declared officially that Egypt limited her
+sway to a line drawn through Wady Haifa. The authority of the Khedive
+over the Sudan therefore ceased, though this did not imply the cessation
+of the Sultan's suzerainty in those regions. Further, England had acted
+as if the Sudan were no man's land by appropriating the southernmost
+part in accordance with the Anglo-German agreement of July I, 1890; and
+Uganda became a British Protectorate in August 1894. The French
+protested against this extension of British influence over the Upper
+Nile; and we must admit that, in regard to international law, they were
+right. The power to will away that district lay with the Sultan, the
+Khedive's claims having practically lapsed. Germany, it is true, agreed
+not to contest the annexation of Uganda, but France did contest it.
+
+The Republic also entered a protest against the Anglo-Congolese
+Convention of May 12, 1894, whereby, in return for the acquisition of
+the right bank of the Upper Nile, England ceded to the Congo Free State
+the left bank[419]. That compact was accordingly withdrawn, and on
+August 14, 1894, France secured from the Free State the recognition of
+her claims to the left bank of the Nile with the exception of the Lado
+district below the Albert Nyanza. This action on the part of France
+implied a desire on her part to appropriate these lands, and to contest
+the British claim to the right bank. In regard to law, she was justified
+in so doing; and had she, acting as the mandatory of the Sultan, sent an
+expedition from the Congo to the Upper Nile, her conduct in proclaiming
+a Turco-Frankish condominium would have been unexceptionable. That of
+Britain was open to question, seeing that we practically ignored the
+Sultan[420] and acted (so far as is known) on our own initiative in
+reversing the policy of abandonment officially announced in May 1885.
+From the standpoint of equity, however, the Khedive had the first claim
+to the territories then given up under stress of circumstances; and the
+Power that helped him to regain the heritage of his sires obviously had
+a strong claim to consideration so long as it acted with the full
+consent of that potentate.
+
+[Footnote 419: Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 2 (1898), pp. 13-14.]
+
+[Footnote 420: The Earl of Kimberley's reply of Aug. 14, 1894, to M.
+Hanotaux, is very weak on this topic. Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 2 (1898),
+pp. 14-15.]
+
+The British Cabinet, that of Lord Rosebery, frankly proclaimed its
+determination to champion the claims of the Khedive against all comers,
+Sir Edward Grey declaring officially in the debate of March 28, 1895,
+that the despatch of a French expedition to the Upper Nile would be "an
+unfriendly act[421]." We know now, through the revelations made by
+Colonel Marchand in the _Matin_ of June 20, 1905, that in June 1895 he
+had pressed the French Government to intervene in that quarter; but it
+did little, relying (so M. de Freycinet states) on the compact of August
+14, 1894, and not, apparently, on any mandate from the Sultan. If so, it
+had less right to intervene than the British Government had in virtue of
+its close connection with the Khedive. As a matter of fact, both Powers
+lacked an authoritative mandate and acted in accordance with their own
+interests. It is therefore futile to appeal to law, as M. de
+Freycinet has done.
+
+[Footnote 421: _Ibid_. p. 18.]
+
+It remained to see which of the two would act the more efficiently. M.
+Marchand states that his plan of action was approved by the French
+Minister for the Colonies, M. Berthelot, on November 16, 1895; but
+little came of it until the news of the preparations for the
+Anglo-Egyptian Expedition reached Paris. It would be interesting to hear
+what Lord Rosebery and Sir Edward Grey would say to this. For the
+present we may affirm with some confidence that the tidings of the
+Franco-Congolese compact of August 1894 and of expeditions sent under
+Monteil and Liotard towards the Nile basin must have furnished the real
+motive for the despatch of the Sirdar's army on the expedition to
+Dongola. That event in its turn aroused angry feelings at Paris, and M.
+Berthelot went so far as to inform Lord Salisbury that he would not hold
+himself responsible for events that might occur if the expedition up the
+Nile were persisted in. After giving this brusque but useful warning of
+the importance which France attached to the Upper Nile, M. Berthelot
+quitted office, and M. Bourgeois, the Prime Minister, took the portfolio
+for foreign affairs. He pushed on the Marchand expedition; so also did
+his successor, M. Hanotaux, in the Méline Cabinet which speedily
+supervened.
+
+Marchand left Marseilles on June 25, 1896, to join his expeditionary
+force, then being prepared in the French Congo. It is needless to detail
+the struggles of the gallant band. After battling for two years with the
+rapids, swamps, forests, and mountains of Eastern Congoland and the
+Bahr-el-Ghazal, he brought his flotilla down to the White Nile, thence
+up its course to Fashoda, where he hoisted the tricolour (July 12,
+1898). His men strengthened the old Egyptian fort, and beat off an
+attack of the Dervishes.
+
+Nevertheless they had only half succeeded, for they relied on the
+approach of a French Mission from the east by way of Abyssinia. A Prince
+of the House of Orleans had been working hard to this end, but owing to
+the hostility of the natives of Southern Abyssinia that expedition had
+to fall back on Kukong. A Russian officer, Colonel Artomoroff, had
+struggled on down the River Sobat, but he and his band also had to
+retire[422]. The purport of these Franco-Russian designs is not yet
+known; but even so, we can see that the situation was one of great
+peril. Had the French and Russian officers from Abyssinia joined hands
+with Marchand at Fashoda, their Governments might have made it a point
+of honour to remain, and to claim for France a belt of territory
+extending from the confines of the French Congo eastwards to Obock on
+the Red Sea.
+
+[Footnote 422: _Marchand l'Africain_, by C. Castellani, pp. 279-280. The
+author reveals his malice by the statement (p. 293) that the Sirdar,
+after the battle of Omdurman, ordered 14,000 Dervish wounded to be
+_éventrés._]
+
+As it was, Marchand and his heroic little band were in much danger from
+the Dervishes when the Sirdar and his force steamed up to Fashoda. The
+interview between the two chiefs at that place was of historic interest.
+Sir Herbert Kitchener congratulated the Major on his triumph of
+exploration, but claimed that he must plant the flag of the Khedive at
+Fashoda. M. Marchand declared that he would hoist it himself over the
+village. "Over the fort, Major," replied the Sirdar. "I cannot permit
+it," exclaimed the Major, "as the French flag is there." A reference by
+the Sirdar to his superiority of force produced no effect, the French
+commander stating that if it were used he and his men would die at their
+posts. He, however, requested the Sirdar to let the matter be referred
+to the Government at Paris, to which Sir Herbert assented. After
+exchanging courteous gifts they parted, the Sirdar leaving an Egyptian
+force in the village, and lodging a written protest against the presence
+of the French force[423]. He then proceeded up stream to the Sobat
+tributary, on the banks of which at Nassar he left half of a Sudanese
+battalion to bar the road on that side to geographical explorers
+provided with flags. He then returned to Khartum.
+
+[Footnote 423: Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 2 (1898), p. 9; No. 3 (1898),
+pp. 3-4.]
+
+The sequel is well known. Lord Salisbury's Government behaved with
+unexpected firmness, asserting that the overthrow of the Mahdi brought
+again under the Egyptian flag all the lands which that leader had for a
+time occupied. The claim was not wholly convincing in the sphere of
+logic; but the victory of Omdurman gave it force. Clearly, then, whether
+Major Marchand was an emissary of civilisation or a pioneer of French
+rule, he had no _locus standi_ on the Nile. The French Government before
+long gave way and recalled Major Marchand, who returned to France by way
+of Cairo. This tame end to what was a heroic struggle to extend French
+influence greatly incensed the major; and at Cairo he made a speech,
+declaring that for the present France was worsted in the valley of the
+Nile, but the day might come when she would be supreme.
+
+It is generally believed that France gave way at this juncture partly
+because her navy was known to be unequal to a conflict with that of
+Great Britain, but also because Franco-German relations were none of the
+best. Or, in the language of the Parisian boulevards: "How do we know
+that while we are fighting the British for the Nile valley, Germany will
+not invade Lorraine?" As to the influences emanating from St. Petersburg
+contradictory statements have been made. Rumour asserted that the Czar
+sought to moderate the irritation in France and to bring about a
+peaceful settlement of the dispute; and this story won general
+acceptance. The astonishment was therefore great when, in the early part
+of the Russo-Japanese war, the Paris _Figaro_ published documents which
+seemed to prove that he had assured the French Government of his
+determination to fulfil the terms of the alliance if matters came to
+the sword.
+
+There we must leave the affair, merely noting that the Anglo-French
+agreement of March 1899 peaceably ended the dispute and placed the whole
+of the Egyptian Sudan, together with the Bahr-el-Ghazal district and the
+greater part of the Libyan Desert, west of Egypt, under the
+Anglo-Egyptian sphere of influence. (See map at the end of this volume.)
+
+The battle of Omdurman therefore ranks with the most decisive in modern
+history, not only in a military sense, but also because it extended
+British influence up the Nile valley as far as Uganda. Had French
+statesmen and M. Marchand achieved their aims, there is little doubt
+that a solid wedge would have been driven through north-central Africa
+from west to east, from the Ubangi Province of French Congoland to the
+mouth of the Red Sea. The Sirdar's triumph came just in time to thwart
+this design and to place in the hands that administered Egypt the
+control of the waters whence that land draws its life. Without crediting
+the stories that were put forth in the French Press as to the
+possibility of France damming up the Nile at Fashoda and diverting its
+floods into the Bahr-el-Ghazal district, we may recognise that the
+control of that river by Egypt is a vital necessity, and that the
+nation which helped the Khedive to regain that control thereby
+established one more claim to a close partnership in the administration
+at Cairo. The reasonableness of that claim was finally admitted by
+France in the Anglo-French agreement of the year 1904.
+
+That treaty set the seal, apparently, on a series of efforts of a
+strangely mixed character. The control of bondholders, the ill-advised
+strivings of Arabi, the armed intervention undertaken by Sir Beauchamp
+Seymour and Sir Garnet Wolseley, the forlorn hope of Gordon's Mission to
+Khartum, the fanaticism of the Mahdists, the diplomatic skill of Lord
+Cromer, the covert opposition of France and the Sultan, and the
+organising genius of Lord Kitchener--such is the medley of influences,
+ranging from the basest up to the noblest of which human nature is
+capable, that served to draw the Government of Great Britain deeper and
+deeper into the meshes of the Egyptian Question, until the heroism,
+skill, and stubbornness of a few of her sons brought about results which
+would now astonish those who early in the eighties tardily put forth the
+first timid efforts at intervention.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE PARTITION OF AFRICA
+
+
+In the opening up of new lands by European peoples the order of events
+is generally somewhat as follows:--First come explorers, pioneers, or
+missionaries. These having thrown some light on the character of a land
+or of its people, traders follow in their wake; and in due course
+factories are formed and settlements arise. The ideas of the new-comers
+as to the rights of property and landholding differ so widely from those
+of the natives, that quarrels and strifes frequently ensue. Warships and
+soldiers then appear on the scene; and the end of the old order of
+things is marked by the hoisting of the Union Jack, or the French or
+German tricolour. In the case of the expansion of Russia as we have
+seen, the procedure is far otherwise. But Africa has been for the most
+part explored, exploited, and annexed by agencies working from the sea
+and proceeding in the way just outlined.
+
+The period since the year 1870 has for the most part witnessed the
+operation of the last and the least romantic of these so-called
+civilising efforts. The great age of African exploration was then
+drawing to a close. In the year 1870 that devoted missionary explorer,
+David Livingstone, was lost to sight for many months owing to his
+earnest longing peacefully to solve the great problem of the waterways
+of Central Africa, and thus open up an easy path for the suppression of
+the slave-trade. But when, in 1871, Mr. H.M. Stanley, the enterprising
+correspondent of the _New York Herald_, at the head of a rescue
+expedition, met the grizzled, fever-stricken veteran near Ujiji and
+greeted him with the words--"Mr. Livingstone, I presume," the age of
+mystery and picturesqueness vanished away.
+
+A change in the spirit and methods of exploration naturally comes about
+when the efforts of single individuals give place to collective
+enterprise[424], and that change was now rapidly to come over the whole
+field of African exploration. The day of the Mungo Parks and
+Livingstones was passing away, and the day of associations and companies
+was at hand. In 1876, Leopold II., King of the Belgians, summoned to
+Brussels several of the leading explorers and geographers in order to
+confer on the best methods of opening up Africa. The specific results of
+this important Conference will be considered in the next chapter; but we
+may here note that, under the auspices of the "International Association
+for the Exploration and Civilisation of Africa" then founded, much
+pioneer work was carried out in districts remote from the River Congo.
+The vast continent also yielded up its secrets to travellers working
+their way in from the south and the north, so that in the late seventies
+the white races opened up to view vast and populous districts which
+imaginative chartographers in other ages had diversified with the
+Mountains of the Moon or with signs of the Zodiac and monstrosities of
+the animal creation.
+
+[Footnote 424: In saying this I do not underrate the achievements of
+explorers like Stanley, Thomson, Cameron, Schweinfurth, Pogge,
+Nachtigall, Pinto, de Brazza, Johnston, Wissmann, Holub, Lugard, and
+others; but apart from the first two, none of them made discoveries that
+can be called epoch-marking.]
+
+The last epoch-marking work carried through by an individual was
+accomplished by a Scottish explorer, whose achievements almost rivalled
+those of Livingstone. Joseph Thomson, a native of Dumfriesshire,
+succeeded in 1879 to the command of an exploring party which sought to
+open up the country around the lakes of Nyassa and Tanganyika. Four
+years later, on behalf of the Royal Geographical Society, he undertook
+to examine the country behind Mombasa which was little better known than
+when Vasco da Gama first touched there. In this journey Thomson
+discovered two snow-capped mountains, Kilimanjaro and Kenia, and made
+known the resources of the country as far inland as the Victoria Nyanza.
+Considering the small resources he had at hand, and the cruel and
+warlike character of the Masai people through whom he journeyed, this
+journey was by far the most remarkable and important in the annals of
+exploration during the eighties. Thomson afterwards undertook to open a
+way from the Benuë, the great eastern affluent of the Niger, to Lake
+Chad and the White Nile. Here again he succeeded beyond all expectation,
+while his tactful management of the natives led to political results of
+the highest importance, as will shortly appear.
+
+These explorations and those of French, German, and Portuguese
+travellers served to bring nearly the whole of Africa within the ken of
+the civilised world, and revealed the fact that nearly all parts of
+tropical Africa had a distinct commercial value.
+
+This discovery, we may point out, is the necessary preliminary to any
+great and sustained work of colonisation and annexation. Three
+conditions may be looked on as essential to such an effort. First, that
+new lands should be known to be worth the labour of exploitation or
+settlement; second, that the older nations should possess enough
+vitality to pour settlers and treasure into them; and thirdly, that
+mechanical appliances should be available for the overcoming of natural
+obstacles.
+
+Now, a brief glance at the great eras of exploring and colonising
+activity will show that in all these three directions the last thirty
+years have presented advantages which are unique in the history of the
+world. A few words will suffice to make good this assertion. The wars
+which constantly devastated the ancient world, and the feeble resources
+in regard to navigation wielded by adventurous captains, such as Hanno
+the Carthaginian, grievously hampered all the efforts of explorers by
+sea, while mechanical appliances were so weak as to cripple man's
+efforts at penetrating the interior. The same is true of the mediaeval
+voyagers and travellers. Only the very princes among men, Columbus,
+Magellan, Vasco da Gama, Cabot, Cabral, Gilbert, and Raleigh, could have
+done what they did with ships that were mere playthings. Science had to
+do her work of long and patient research before man could hopefully face
+the mighty forces and malignant influences of the tropics. Nor was the
+advance of knowledge and invention sufficient by itself to equip man for
+successful war against the ocean, the desert, the forest, and the swamp.
+The political and social development of the older countries was equally
+necessary. In order that thousands of settlers should be able and ready
+to press in where the one great leader had shown the way, Europe had to
+gain something like peace and stability. Only thus, when the natural
+surplus of the white races could devote itself to the task of peacefully
+subduing the earth rather than to the hideous work of mutual slaughter,
+could the life-blood of Europe be poured forth in fertilising streams
+into the waste places of the other continents.
+
+The latter half of the eighteenth century promised for a brief space to
+inaugurate such a period of expansive life. The close of the Seven
+Years' War seemed to be the starting point for a peaceful campaign
+against the unknown; but the efforts of Cook, d'Entrecasteaux, and
+others then had little practical result, owing to the American War of
+Independence, and the great cycle of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic
+Wars. These in their turn left Europe too exhausted to accomplish much
+in the way of colonial expansion until the middle of the nineteenth
+century. Even then, when the steamship and the locomotive were at hand
+to multiply man's powers, there was, as yet, no general wish, except on
+the part of the more fortunate English-speaking peoples, to enter into
+man's new heritage. The problems of Europe had to be settled before the
+age of expansive activity could dawn in its full radiance. As has been
+previously shown, Europe was in an introspective mood up to the years
+1870-1878.
+
+Our foregoing studies have shown that the years following the
+Russo-Turkish War of 1877-8, brought about a state of political
+equilibrium which made for peace and stagnation in Europe; and the
+natural forces of the Continent, cramped by the opposition of equal and
+powerful forces, took the line of least resistance--away from Europe.
+For Russia, the line of least resistance was in Central Asia. For all
+other European States it was the sea, and the new lands beyond.
+
+Furthermore, in that momentous decade the steamship and locomotive were
+constantly gaining in efficiency; electricity was entering the arena as
+a new and mighty force; by this time medical science had so far advanced
+as to screen man from many of the ills of which the tropics are profuse;
+and the repeating rifle multiplied the power of the white man in his
+conflicts with savage peoples. When all the advantages of the present
+generation are weighed in the balance against the meagre equipment of
+the earlier discoverers, the nineteenth century has scant claim for
+boasting over the fifteenth. In truth, its great achievements in this
+sphere have been practical and political. It has only fulfilled the rich
+promise of the age of the great navigators. Where they could but
+wonderingly skirt the fringes of a new world, the moderns have won their
+way to the heart of things and found many an Eldorado potentially richer
+than that which tempted the cupidity of Cortes and Pizarro.
+
+In one respect the European statesmen of the recent past tower above
+their predecessors of the centuries before. In the eighteenth century
+the "mercantilist" craze for seizing new markets and shutting out all
+possible rivals brought about most of the wars that desolated Europe. In
+the years 1880-1890 the great Powers put forth sustained and successful
+efforts to avert the like calamity, and to cloak with the mantle of
+diplomacy the eager scrambles for the unclaimed lands of the world.
+
+For various reasons the attention of statesmen turned almost solely on
+Africa. Central and South America were divided among States that were
+nominally civilised and enjoyed the protection of the Monroe Doctrine
+put forward by the United States. Australia was wholly British. In Asia
+the weakness of China was but dimly surmised; and Siam and Cochin China
+alone offered any field for settlement or conquest by European peoples
+from the sea. In Polynesia several groups of islands were still
+unclaimed; but these could not appease the land-hunger of Europe. Africa
+alone provided void spaces proportionate to the needs and ambitions of
+the white man. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 served to bring the
+east coast of that continent within easy reach of Europe; and the
+discoveries on the Upper Nile, Congo, and Niger opened a way into other
+large parts. Thus, by the year 1880, everything favoured the "partition
+of Africa."
+
+Rumour, in the guise of hints given by communicative young attachés or
+"well-informed" correspondents, ascribes the first beginnings of the
+plans for the partition of Africa to the informal conversations of
+statesmen at the time of the Congress of Berlin (1878). Just as an
+architect safeguards his creation by providing a lightning-conductor, so
+the builder of the German Empire sought to divert from that fabric the
+revengeful storms that might be expected from the south-west. Other
+statesmen were no less anxious than Bismarck to draw away the attention
+of rivals from their own political preserves by pointing the way to more
+desirable waste domains. In short, the statesmen of Europe sought to
+plant in Africa the lightning-conductors that would safeguard the new
+arrangements in Europe, including that of Cyprus. The German and British
+Governments are known then to have passed on hints to that of France as
+to the desirability of her appropriating Tunis. The Republic entered
+into the schemes, with results which have already been considered
+(Chapter XII.); and, as a sequel to the occupation of Tunis, plans were
+set on foot for the eventual conquest of the whole of the North-West of
+Africa (except Morocco and a few British, Spanish, and Portuguese
+settlements) from Cape Bon to Cape Verde, and thence nearly to the
+mouth of the River Niger. We may also note that in and after 1883 France
+matured her schemes for the conquest of part, and ultimately the whole,
+of Madagascar, a project which reached completion in the year 1885[425].
+
+[Footnote 425: For the French treaty of December 17, 1885, with
+Madagascar see Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 2 (1886).]
+
+The military occupation of Egypt by Great Britain in 1882 also served to
+quicken the interest of European Powers in Africa. It has been surmised
+that British acquiescence in French supremacy in Tunis, West Africa, and
+Madagascar had some connection with the events that transpired in Egypt,
+and that the perpetuation of British supremacy in the valley of the Nile
+was virtually bought by the surrender of most of our political and
+trading interests in these lands, the lapse of which under the French
+"protective" regime caused much heart-burning in commercial circles.
+
+Last among the special causes that concentrated attention on Africa was
+the activity of King Leopold's Association at Brussels in opening up the
+Congo district in the years 1879-1882. Everything therefore tended to
+make the ownership of tropical Africa the most complex question of the
+early part of the eighties.
+
+For various reasons Germany was a little later than France and England
+in entering the field. The hostility of France on the west, and, after
+1878, that of Russia on the east, made it inadvisable for the new Empire
+to give hostages to Fortune, in the shape of colonies, until by
+alliances it secured its position at home and possessed a fleet strong
+enough to defend distant possessions. In some measure the German
+Government had to curb the eagerness of its "colonial party." The
+present writer was in Germany in the year 1879, when the colonial
+propaganda was being pushed forward, and noted the eagerness in some
+quarters, and the distrust in others, with which pamphlets like that of
+Herr Fabri, _Bedarf Deutschland Colonien?_ were received. Bismarck
+himself at first checked the "colonials," until he felt sure of the
+European situation. That, however, was cleared up to some extent by the
+inclusion of Italy in the compact which thus became the Triple Alliance
+(May 1882), and by the advent to office of the pacific Chancellor, de
+Giers, at St. Petersburg a little later. There was therefore the less
+need officially to curb the colonising instinct of the Teutonic people.
+The formation of the German Colonial Society at Frankfurt in December
+1882, and the immense success attending its propaganda, spurred on the
+statesmen of Berlin to take action. They looked longingly (as they still
+do) towards Brazil, in whose southern districts their people had settled
+in large numbers; but over all that land the Monroe Doctrine spread its
+sheltering wings. A war with the United States would have been madness,
+and Germany therefore turned to Polynesia and Africa. We may note here
+that in 1885 she endeavoured to secure the Caroline Islands from Spain,
+whose title to them seemed to have lapsed; but Spanish pride flared up
+at the insult, and after a short space Bismarck soothed ruffled feelings
+at Madrid by accepting the mediation of the Pope, who awarded them to
+Spain--Germany, however, gaining the right to occupy an islet of the
+group as a coaling station.
+
+Africa, however, absorbed nearly all the energy of the German colonial
+party. The forward wing of that party early in the year 1884 inaugurated
+an anti-British campaign in the press, which probably had the support of
+the Government. As has been stated in chapter XII., that was the time
+when the Three Emperors' League showed signs of renewed vitality; and
+Bismarck, after signing the secret treaty of March 24, 1884 (later on
+ratified at Skiernevice), felt safe in pressing on colonial designs
+against England in Africa, especially as Russia was known to be planning
+equally threatening moves against the Queen's Empire in Asia. We do not
+know enough of what then went on between the German and Russian
+Chancellors to assert that they formed a definite agreement to harry
+British interests in those continents; but, judging from the general
+drift of Bismarck's diplomacy and from the "nagging" to which England
+was thenceforth subjected for two years, it seems highly probable that
+the policy ratified at Skiernevice aimed at marking time in European
+affairs and striding onwards in other continents at the expense of the
+Island Power.
+
+The Anglophobes of the German press at once fell foul of everything
+British; and that well-known paper the _Kölnische Zeitung_ in an article
+of April 22, 1884, used the following words:--"Africa is a large pudding
+which the English have prepared for themselves at other people's
+expense, and the crust of which is already fit for eating. Let us hope
+that our sailors will put a few pepper-corns into it on the Guinea
+coast, so that our friends on the Thames may not digest it too rapidly."
+The sequel will show whether the simile correctly describes either the
+state of John Bull's appetite or the easy aloofness of the
+Teutonic onlooker.
+
+It will be convenient to treat this great and complex subject on a
+topographical basis, and to begin with a survey of the affairs of East
+Africa, especially the districts on the mainland north and south of the
+island of Zanzibar. At that important trade centre, the natural starting
+point then for the vast district of the Great Lakes, the influence of
+British and Indian traders had been paramount; and for many years the
+Sultan of Zanzibar had been "under the direct influence of the United
+Kingdom and of the Government of India[426]." Nevertheless, in and after
+1880 German merchants, especially those of Hamburg, pressed in with
+great energy and formed plans for annexing the neighbouring territories
+on the mainland.
+
+[Footnote 426: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1886), p. 2.]
+
+Their energy was in strange contrast to the lethargy shown by the
+British Government in the protection of Anglo-Indian trade interests. In
+the year 1878 the Sultan of Zanzibar, who held a large territory on the
+mainland, had offered the control of all the commerce of his dominions
+to Sir W. Mackinnon, Chairman of the British-India Steam Navigation
+Company; but, for some unexplained reason, the Beaconsfield Cabinet
+declined to be a party to this arrangement, which, therefore, fell
+through[427]. Despite the fact that England and France had in 1862
+agreed to recognise the independence of the Sultan of Zanzibar, the
+Germans deemed the field to be clear, and early in November 1884, Dr.
+Karl Peters and two other enthusiasts of the colonial party landed at
+Zanzibar, disguised as mechanics, with the aim of winning new lands for
+their Fatherland. They had with them several blank treaty forms, the
+hidden potency of which was soon to be felt by dusky potentates on the
+mainland. Before long they succeeded in persuading some of these novices
+in diplomacy to set their marks to these documents, an act which
+converted them into subjects of the Kaiser, and speedily secured 60,000
+square miles for the German tricolour. It is said that the Government of
+Berlin either had no knowledge of, or disapproved of, these proceedings;
+and, when Earl Granville ventured on some representations respecting
+them, he received the reply, dated November 28, 1884, that the Imperial
+Government had no design of obtaining a protectorate over Zanzibar[428].
+It is difficult to reconcile these statements with the undoubted fact
+that on February 17, 1885, the German Emperor gave his sanction to the
+proceedings of Dr. Peters by extending his suzerainty over the signatory
+chiefs[429]. This event caused soreness among British explorers and
+Indian traders who had been the first to open up the country to
+civilisation. Nevertheless, the Gladstone Ministry took no effective
+steps to safeguard their interests.
+
+[Footnote 427: _The Partition of Africa_, by J. Scott Keltie (1893), pp.
+157, 225.]
+
+[Footnote 428: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1886), p. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 429: _Ibid_. pp. 12-20.]
+
+In defence of their academic treatment of this matter some
+considerations of a general nature may be urged.
+
+The need of colonies felt by Germany was so natural, so imperious, that
+it could not be met by the high and dry legal argument as to the
+priority of Great Britain's commercial interests. Such an attitude would
+have involved war with Germany about East Africa and war with France
+about West Africa, at the very time when we were on the brink of
+hostilities with Russia about Merv, and were actually fighting the
+Mahdists behind Suakim. The "weary Titan"--to use Matthew Arnold's
+picturesque phrase--was then overburdened. The motto, "Live and let
+live," was for the time the most reasonable, provided that it was not
+interpreted in a weak and maudlin way on essential points.
+
+Many critics, however, maintain that Mr. Gladstone's and Lord
+Granville's diplomatic dealings with Germany in the years 1884 and 1885
+displayed most lamentable weakness, even when Dr. Peters and others were
+known to be working hard at the back of Zanzibar, with the results that
+have been noted. In April 1885 the Cabinet ordered Sir John Kirk,
+British representative at Zanzibar, and founder of the hitherto
+unchallenged supremacy of his nation along that coast, forthwith to undo
+the work of a lifetime by "maintaining friendly relations" with the
+German authorities at that port. This, of course, implied a tacit
+acknowledgment by Britain of what amounted to a German protectorate over
+the mainland possessions of the Sultan. It is not often that a
+Government, in its zeal for "live and let live," imposes so humiliating
+a task on a British representative. The Sultan did not take the serene
+and philosophic view of the situation that was held at Downing Street,
+and the advent of a German squadron was necessary in order to procure
+his consent to these arrangements (August-December 1885.)[430]
+
+[Footnote 430: J. Scott Keltie, _The Partition of Africa_, ch. xv.]
+
+The Blue Book dealing with Zanzibar (Africa, No. 1, 1886) by no means
+solves the riddle of the negotiations which went on between London and
+Berlin early in the year 1885. From other sources we know that the most
+ardent of the German colonials were far from satisfied with their
+triumph. Curious details have appeared showing that their schemes
+included the laying of a trap for the Sultan of Zanzibar, which failed
+owing to clumsy baiting and the loquacity of the would-be captor. Lord
+Rosebery also managed, according to German accounts, to get the better
+of Count Herbert Bismarck in respect of St. Lucia Bay (see page 528)
+and districts on the Benuë River; so that this may perhaps be placed
+over against the losses sustained by Britain on the coast opposite
+Zanzibar. Even there, as we have seen, results did not fully correspond
+to the high hopes entertained by the German Chauvinists[431].
+
+[Footnote 431: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, vol. iii.
+pp. 135, 144-45. Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1886), pp. 39-45, 61 _et
+seq_.; also No. 3 (1886), pp. 4, 15.]
+
+In the meantime (June 1885) the Salisbury Cabinet came into office for a
+short time, but the evil effects of the slackness of British diplomacy
+were not yet at an end. At this time British merchants, especially those
+of Manchester, were endeavouring to develop the mountainous country
+around the giant cone of Mt. Kilimanjaro, where Mr. (now Sir) Harry
+Johnston had, in September 1884, secured some trading and other rights
+with certain chiefs. A company had been formed in order to further
+British interests, and this soon became the Imperial British East Africa
+Company, which aspired to territorial control in the parts north of
+those claimed by Dr. Peters' Company. A struggle took place between the
+two companies, the German East Africa Company laying claim to the
+Kilimanjaro district. Again it proved that the Germans had the more
+effective backing, and, despite objections urged by our Foreign
+Minister, Lord Rosebery, against the proceedings of German agents in
+that tract, the question of ownership was referred to the decision of an
+Anglo-German boundary commission.
+
+Lord Iddesleigh assumed control of the Foreign Office in August, but the
+advent of the Conservatives to power in no way helped on the British
+case. By an agreement between the two Powers, dated November 1, 1886,
+the Kilimanjaro district was assigned to Germany. From the northern
+spurs of that mountain the dividing line ran in a north-westerly
+direction towards the Victoria Nyanza. The same agreement recognised
+the authority of the Sultan of Zanzibar as extending over the island of
+that name, those of Pemba and Mafia, and over a strip of coastline ten
+nautical miles in width; but the ownership of the district of Vitu north
+of Mombasa was left open[432]. (See map at the close of this volume.)
+
+[Footnote 432: Banning, _op. cit._ pp. 45-50; Parl. Papers, Africa, No.
+3 (1887), pp. 46, 59.]
+
+On the whole, the skill which dispossessed a sovereign of most of his
+rights, under a plea of diplomatic rearrangements and the advancement of
+civilisation, must be pronounced unrivalled; and Britain cut a sorry
+figure as the weak and unwilling accessory to this act. The only
+satisfactory feature in the whole proceeding was Britain's success in
+leasing from the Sultan of Zanzibar administrative rights over the coast
+region around Mombasa. The gain of that part secured unimpeded access
+from the coast to the northern half of Lake Victoria Nyanza. The German
+Company secured similar rights over the coastline of their district, and
+in 1890 bought it outright. By an agreement of December 1896, the River
+Rovuma was recognised by Germany and Portugal as the boundary of their
+East African possessions.
+
+The lofty hopes once entertained by the Germans as to the productiveness
+of their part of East Africa have been but partially realised[433].
+Harsh treatment of the natives brought about a formidable revolt in
+1888-89. The need of British co-operation in the crushing of this revolt
+served to bring Germany to a more friendly attitude towards this
+country. Probably the resignation, or rather the dismissal, of Bismarck
+by the present Emperor, in March 1890, also tended to lessen the
+friction between England and Germany. The Prince while in retirement
+expressed strong disapproval of the East African policy of his
+successor, Count Caprivi.
+
+[Footnote 433: See the Report on German East Africa for 1900, in our
+_Diplomatic and Consular Reports_.]
+
+Its more conciliatory spirit found expression in the Anglo-German
+agreement of July 1, 1890, which delimited the districts claimed by the
+two nations around the Victoria Nyanza in a sense favourable to Great
+Britain and disappointing to that indefatigable treaty-maker, Dr.
+Peters. It acknowledged British claims to the northern half of the
+shores and waters of that great lake and to the valley of the Upper
+Nile, as also to the coast of the Indian Ocean about Vitu and thence
+northwards to Kismayu.
+
+On the other hand, Germany acquired the land north of Lake Nyassa, where
+British interests had been paramount. The same agreement applied both to
+the British and German lands in question the principle of free or
+unrestricted transit of goods, as also between the great lakes. Germany
+further recognised a British Protectorate over the islands held by the
+Sultan of Zanzibar, reserving certain rights for German commerce in the
+case of the Island of Mafia. Finally, Great Britain ceded to Germany the
+Island of Heligoland in the North Sea. On both sides of the North Sea
+the compact aroused a storm of hostile comment, which perhaps served to
+emphasise its fairness[434]. Bismarck's opinion deserves quotation:--
+
+     Zanzibar ought not to have been left to the English. It would
+     have been better to maintain the old arrangement. We could
+     then have had it at some later time when England required our
+     good offices against France or Russia. In the meantime our
+     merchants, who are cleverer, and, like the Jews, are
+     satisfied with smaller profits, would have kept the upper
+     hand in business. To regard Heligoland as an equivalent shows
+     more imagination than sound calculation. In the event of war
+     it would be better for us that it should be in the hands of a
+     neutral Power. It is difficult and most expensive to
+     fortify[435].
+
+[Footnote 434: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 6 (1890).]
+
+[Footnote 435: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, vol. iii.
+p. 353. See, too, S. Whitman, _Personal Reminiscences of Prince
+Bismarck_, p. 122.]
+
+The passage is instructive as showing the aim of Bismarck's colonial
+policy, namely, to wait until England's difficulties were acute (or
+perhaps to augment those difficulties, as he certainly did by furthering
+Russian schemes against Afghanistan in 1884-85[436]), and then to apply
+remorseless pressure at all points where the colonial or commercial
+interests of the two countries clashed.
+
+[Footnote 436: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, vol. iii.
+pp. 124, 133: also see p. 426 of this work.]
+
+The more his policy is known, the more dangerous to England it is seen
+to have been, especially in the years 1884-86. In fact, those persons
+who declaim against German colonial ambitions of to-day may be asked to
+remember that the extra-European questions recently at issue between
+Great Britain and Germany are trivial when compared with the momentous
+problems that were peacefully solved by the agreement of the year 1890.
+Of what importance are Samoa, Kiao-chow, and the problem of Morocco,
+compared with the questions of access to the great lakes of Africa and
+the control of the Lower Niger? It would be unfair to Wilhelm II., as
+also to the Salisbury Cabinet, not to recognise the statesmanlike
+qualities which led to the agreement of July 1, 1890--one of the most
+solid gains peacefully achieved for the cause of civilisation throughout
+the nineteenth century.
+
+Among its many benefits may be reckoned the virtual settlement of long
+and tangled disputes for supremacy in Uganda. We have no space in which
+to detail the rivalries of French and British missionaries and agents at
+the Court of King M'tesa and his successor M'wanga, or the futile
+attempt of Dr. Peters to thrust in German influence. Even the
+Anglo-German agreement of 1890 did not end the perplexities of the
+situation; for though the British East Africa Company (to which a
+charter had been granted in 1888) thenceforth had the chief influence on
+the northern shores of Victoria Nyanza, the British Government declined
+to assume any direct responsibility for so inaccessible a district.
+Thanks, however, to the activity and tact of Captain Lugard,
+difficulties were cleared away, with the result that the large and
+fertile territory of Uganda (formerly included in the Khedive's
+dominions) became a British Protectorate in August 1894 (see
+Chapter XVII).
+
+The significance of the events just described will be apparent when it
+is remembered that British East Africa, inclusive of Uganda and the
+Upper Nile basin, comprises altogether 670,000 square miles, to a large
+extent fertile, and capable of settlement by white men in the more
+elevated tracts of the interior. German East Africa contains 385,000
+square miles, and is also destined to have a future that will dwarf that
+of many of the secondary States of to-day.
+
+The prosperity of British East Africa was greatly enhanced by the
+opening of a railway, 580 miles long, from Mombasa to Victoria Nyanza in
+1902. Among other benefits, it has cut the ground from under the
+slave-trade, which used to depend on the human beast of burden for the
+carriage of all heavy loads[437].
+
+[Footnote 437: For the progress and prospects of this important colony,
+see Sir G. Portal, _The British Mission to Uganda in 1893_; Sir Charles
+Elliot, _British East Africa_ (1905); also Lugard, _Our East African
+Empire_; Sir H. Johnston, _The Uganda Protectorate_.]
+
+The Anglo-German agreement of 1890 also cleared up certain questions
+between Britain and Germany relating to South-West Africa which had made
+bad blood between the two countries. In and after the year 1882 the
+attention of the colonial party in Germany was turned to the district
+north of the Orange River, and in the spring of the year 1883 Herr
+Lüderitz founded a factory and hoisted the German flag at Angra Pequeña.
+There are grounds for thinking that that district was coveted, not so
+much for its intrinsic value, which is slight, as because it promised to
+open up communications with the Boer Republics. Lord Granville ventured
+to express his doubts on that subject to Count Herbert Bismarck, whom
+the Chancellor had sent to London in the summer of 1884 in order to take
+matters out of the hands of the too Anglophil ambassador, Count Münster.
+Anxious to show his mettle, young Bismarck fired up, and informed Lord
+Granville that his question was one of mere curiosity; later on he
+informed him that it was a matter which did not concern him[438].
+
+[Footnote 438: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, vol. iii.
+p. 120.]
+
+It must be admitted, however, that the British Government had acted in
+a dilatory and ineffective manner. Sir Donald Currie had introduced a
+deputation to Lord Derby, Colonial Minister in the Gladstone Cabinet,
+which warned him seriously as to German aims on the coast of Damaraland;
+in reply to which that phlegmatic Minister stated that Germany was not a
+colonising Power, and that the annexation of those districts would be
+resented by Great Britain as an "unfriendly act[439]." In November 1883
+the German ambassador inquired whether British protection would be
+accorded to a few German settlers on the coast of Damaraland. No
+decisive answer was given, though the existence of British interests
+there was affirmed. Then, when Germany claimed the right to annex it, a
+counter-claim was urged from Whitehall (probably at the instigation of
+the Cape Government) that the land in question was a subject of close
+interest to us, as it might be annexed in the future. It was against
+this belated and illogical plea that Count Bismarck was sent to lodge a
+protest; and in August 1884 Germany clinched the matter by declaring
+Angra Pequeña and surrounding districts to be German territory. (See
+note at the end of the chapter.)
+
+[Footnote 439: See Sir D. Currie's paper on South Africa to the members
+of the Royal Colonial Institute, April 10, 1888 (_Proceedings_, vol.
+xix. p. 240).]
+
+In this connection we may remark that Angra Pequeña had recently figured
+as a British settlement on German maps, including that of Stieler of the
+year 1882. Walfisch Bay, farther to the north, was left to the Union
+Jack, that flag having been hoisted there by official sanction in 1878
+owing to the urgent representations of Sir Bartle Frere, the Governor of
+Cape Colony. The rest of the coast was left to Germany; the Gladstone
+Government informed that of Berlin that no objection would be taken to
+her occupation of that territory. Great annoyance was felt at the Cape
+at what was looked on as an uncalled for surrender of British claims,
+especially when the Home Government failed to secure just treatment for
+the British settlers. Sir Charles Dilke states in his _Problems of
+Greater Britain_ that only the constant protests of the Cape Ministry
+prevented the authorities at Whitehall from complying with German
+unceasing requests for the cession of Walfisch Bay, doubtless as an item
+for exchange during the negotiations of 1889-90[440].
+
+[Footnote 440: _Op. cit._ vol. i. p. 502.]
+
+We may add here that in 1886 Germany defined the northern limits of
+"South-West Africa"--such was the name of the new colony--by an
+agreement with Portugal; and in 1890 an article of the Anglo-German
+agreement above referred to gave an eastward extension of that northern
+border which brought it to the banks of the River Zambesi.
+
+The British Government took a firmer stand in a matter that closely
+concerned the welfare of Natal and the relations of the Transvaal
+Republic to Germany. In 1884 some German prospectors sought to gain a
+footing in St. Lucia Bay in Zululand and to hoist the German flag. The
+full truth on this interesting matter is not yet known; it formed a
+pendant to the larger question of Delagoa Bay, which must be briefly
+noticed here.
+
+Friction had arisen between Great Britain and Portugal over conflicting
+claims respecting Delagoa Bay and its adjoining lands; and in this
+connection it may be of interest to note that the Disraeli Ministry had
+earlier missed an opportunity of buying out Portuguese claims. The late
+Lord Carnarvon stated that, when he took the portfolio for colonial
+affairs in that Ministry, he believed the purchase might have been
+effected for a comparatively small sum. Probably the authorities at
+Lisbon were aroused to a sense of the potential value of their Laurenço
+Marquez domain by the scramble for Africa which began early in the
+eighties; and it must be regretted that the British Government, with the
+lack of foresight which has so often characterised it, let slip the
+opportunity of securing Delagoa Bay until its value was greatly
+enhanced. It then agreed to refer the questions in dispute to the
+arbitration of General MacMahon, President of the French Republic
+(1875). As has generally happened when foreign potentates have
+adjudicated on British interests, his verdict was wholly hostile to us.
+It even assigned to Portugal a large district to the south of Delagoa
+Bay which the Portuguese had never thought of claiming from its native
+inhabitants, the Tongas[441]. In fact, a narrative of all the gains
+which have accrued to Portugal in Delagoa Bay, and thereafter to the
+people who controlled its railway to Pretoria, would throw a sinister
+light on the connection that has too often subsisted between the noble
+theory of arbitration and the profitable practice of peacefully willing
+away, or appropriating, the rights and possessions of others. Portugal
+soon proved to be unable to avail herself of the opportunities opened up
+by the gift unexpectedly awarded her by MacMahon. She was unable to
+control either the Tongas or the Boers.
+
+[Footnote 441: Sir C. Dilke, _Problems of Greater Britain_, vol. i. pp.
+553-556.]
+
+England having been ruled out, there was the chance for some other Power
+to step in and acquire St. Lucia Bay, one of the natural outlets of the
+southern part of the Transvaal Republic. It is an open secret that the
+forerunners of the "colonial party" in Germany had already sought to
+open up closer relations with the Boer Republics. In 1876 the President
+of the Transvaal, accompanied by a Dutch member of the Cape Parliament,
+visited Berlin, probably with the view of reciprocating those advances.
+They had an interview with Bismarck, the details of which are not fully
+known. Nothing, however, came of it at the time, owing to Bismarck's
+preoccupation in European affairs. Early in the "eighties," the German
+colonial party, then beginning its campaign, called attention repeatedly
+to the advantages of gaining a foothold in or near Delagoa Bay; but the
+rise of colonial feeling in Germany led to a similar development in the
+public sentiment of Portugal, and indeed of all lands; so that, by the
+time that Bismarck was won over to the cause of Teutonic Expansion, the
+Portuguese refused to barter away any of their ancient possessions. This
+probably accounts for the concentration of German energies on other
+parts of the South African coast, which, though less valuable in
+themselves, might serve as _points d'appui_ for German political agents
+and merchants in their future dealings with the Boers, who were then
+striving to gain control over Bechuanaland. The points selected by the
+Germans for their action were on the coast of Damaraland, as already
+stated, and St. Lucia Bay in Zululand, a position which President
+Burgers had striven to secure for the Transvaal in 1878.
+
+In reference to St. Lucia Bay our narrative must be shadowy in outline
+owing to the almost complete secrecy with which the German Government
+wisely shrouds a failure. The officials and newspaper writers of Germany
+have not yet contracted the English habit of proclaiming their
+intentions beforehand and of parading before the world their
+recriminations in case of a fiasco. All that can be said, then, with
+certainty is that in the autumn of 1884 a German trader named Einwold
+attempted to gain a footing in St. Lucia Bay and to prepare the way for
+the recognition of German claims if all went well. In fact, he could
+either be greeted as a _Mehrer des Reichs_, or be disowned as an
+unauthorised busybody.
+
+We may here cite passages from the Diary of Dr. Busch, Bismarck's
+secretary, which prove that the State took a lively interest in
+Einwold's adventure. On February 25, 1885, Busch had a conversation with
+Herr Andrae, in the course of which they "rejoiced at England's
+difficulties in the Sudan, and I expressed the hope that Wolseley's head
+would soon arrive in Cairo, nicely pickled and packed." Busch then
+referred to British friction with Russia in Afghanistan and with France
+in Burmah, and then put the question to Andrae, "'Have we given up South
+Africa; or is the Lucia Bay affair still open?' He said that the matter
+was still under consideration[442]."
+
+[Footnote 442: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, vol. iii.
+p. 132.]
+
+It has since transpired that the British Government might have yielded
+to pressure from Berlin, had not greater pressure been exercised from
+Natal and from British merchants and shipowners interested in the South
+African trade. Sir Donald Currie, in the paper already referred to,
+stated that he could easily have given particulars of the means which
+had to be used in order to spur on the British Government to decisive
+action. Unfortunately he was discreetly reticent, and merely stated that
+not only St. Lucia Bay, but the whole of the coast between Natal and the
+Delagoa Bay district was then in question, and that the Gladstone
+Ministry was finally induced to telegraph instructions to Cape Town for
+the despatch of a cruiser to assert British claims to St. Lucia Bay.
+H.M.S. _Goshawk_ at once steamed thither, and hoisted the British flag,
+by virtue of a treaty made with a Zulu chief in 1842. Then ensued the
+usual interchange of angry notes between Berlin and London; Bismarck and
+Count Herbert sought to win over, or browbeat, Lord Rosebery, then
+Colonial Minister. In this, however, he failed; and the explanation of
+the failure given to Busch was that Lord Rosebery was too clever for him
+and "quite mesmerised him." On May 7, 1885, Germany gave up her claims
+to that important position, in consideration of gaining at the expense
+of England in the Cameroons[443]. Here again a passage from Busch's
+record deserves quotation. In a conversation which he had with Bismarck
+on January 5, 1886, he put the question:--
+
+     "Why have we not been able to secure the Santa Lucia Bay?" I
+     asked. "Ah!" he replied, "it is not so valuable as it seemed
+     to be at first. People who were pursuing their own interests
+     on the spot represented it to be of greater importance than
+     it really was. And then the Boers were not disposed to take
+     any proper action in the matter. The bay would have been
+     valuable to us if the distance from the Transvaal were not so
+     great. And the English attached so much importance to it that
+     they declared it was impossible for them to give it up, and
+     they ultimately conceded a great deal to us in New Guinea and
+     Zanzibar. In colonial matters we must not take too much in
+     hand at a time, and we already have enough for a beginning.
+     We must now hold rather with the English, while, as you
+     know, we were formerly more on the French side[444]. But, as
+     the last elections in France show, every one of any
+     importance there had to make a show of hostility to us."
+
+[Footnote 443: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 6 (1885), p. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 444: He here referred to the Franco-German agreement of Dec.
+24, 1885, whereby the two Powers amicably settled the boundaries of
+their West African lands, and Germany agreed not to thwart French
+designs on Tahiti, the Society Isles, the New Hebrides, etc. See
+Banning, _Le Partage politique de l'Afrique_, pp. 22-26.]
+
+This passage explains, in part at least, why Bismarck gave up the
+nagging tactics latterly employed towards Great Britain. Evidently he
+had hoped to turn the current of thought in France from the
+Alsace-Lorraine question to the lands over the seas, and his henchmen in
+the Press did all in their power to persuade people, both in Germany and
+France, that England was the enemy. The Anglophobe agitation was fierce
+while it lasted; but its artificiality is revealed by the passage
+just quoted.
+
+We may go further, and say that the more recent outbreak of Anglophobia
+in Germany may probably be ascribed to the same official stimulus; and
+it too may be expected to cease when the politicians of Berlin see that
+it no longer pays to twist the British lion's tail. That sport ceased in
+and after 1886, because France was found still to be the enemy.
+Frenchmen did not speak much about Alsace-Lorraine. They followed
+Gambetta's advice: "Never speak about it, but always think of it." The
+recent French elections revealed that fact to Bismarck; and, lo! the
+campaign of calumny against England at once slackened.
+
+We may add that two German traders settled on the coast of Pondoland,
+south of Natal; and in August 1885 the statesmen of Berlin put forth
+feelers to Whitehall with a view to a German Protectorate of that coast.
+They met with a decisive repulse[445].
+
+[Footnote 445: Cape Colony, Papers on Pondoland, 1887, pp. 1, 41. For
+the progress of German South-West Africa and East Africa, see Parl.
+Papers, Germany, Nos. 474, 528, 2790.]
+
+Meanwhile, the dead-set made by Germany, France, and Russia against
+British interests in the years 1883-85 had borne fruit in a way little
+expected by those Powers, but fully consonant with previous experience.
+It awakened British statesmen from their apathy, and led them to adopt
+measures of unwonted vigour. The year 1885 saw French plans in
+Indo-China checked by the annexation of Burmah. German designs in South
+Africa undoubtedly quickened the resolve of the Gladstone Ministry to
+save Bechuanaland for the British Empire.
+
+It is impossible here to launch upon the troublous sea of Boer politics,
+especially as the conflict naturally resulting from two irreconcilable
+sets of ideas outlasted the century with which this work is concerned.
+We can therefore only state that filibustering bands of Boers had raided
+parts of Bechuanaland, and seemed about to close the trade-route
+northwards to the Zambesi. This alone would have been a serious bar to
+the prosperity of Cape Colony; but the loyalists had lost their
+confidence in the British Government since the events of 1880, while a
+large party in the Cape Ministry, including at that time Mr. Cecil
+Rhodes, seemed willing to abet the Boers in all their proceedings. A
+Boer deputation went to England in the autumn of 1883, and succeeded in
+cajoling Lord Derby into a very remarkable surrender. Among other
+things, he conceded to them an important strip of land west of the River
+Harts[446].
+
+[Footnote 446: For the negotiations and the Convention of February 27,
+1884, see Papers relating to the South African Republic, 1887.]
+
+Far from satisfying them, this act encouraged some of their more
+restless spirits to set up two republics named Stellaland and Goshen.
+There, however, they met a tough antagonist, John Mackenzie. That
+devoted missionary, after long acquaintance with Boers and Bechuanas,
+saw how serious would be the loss to the native tribes and to the cause
+of civilisation if the raiders were allowed to hold the routes to the
+interior. By degrees he aroused the sympathy of leading men in the
+Press, who thereupon began to whip up the laggards of Whitehall and
+Downing Street. Consequently, Mackenzie, on his return to South Africa,
+was commissioned to act as British Resident in Bechuanaland, and in that
+capacity he declared that country to be under British protection (May
+1884). At once the Dutch throughout South Africa raised a hue and cry
+against him, in which Mr. Rhodes joined, with the result that he was
+recalled on July 30.
+
+His place was taken by a statesman whose exploits raised him to a high
+place among builders of the Empire. However much Cecil Rhodes differed
+from Mackenzie on the native question and other affairs, he came to see
+the urgent need of saving for the Empire the central districts which, as
+an old Boer said, formed "the key of Africa." Never were the loyalists
+more dispirited at the lack of energy shown by the Home Government; and
+never was there greater need of firmness. In a sense, however, the
+action of the Germans on the coast of Damaraland (August-October 1884)
+helped to save the situation. The imperious need of keeping open the
+route to the interior, which would be closed to trade if ever the Boers
+and Germans joined hands, spurred on the Gladstone Ministry to support
+the measures proposed by Mr. Rhodes and the loyalists of Cape Colony.
+When the whole truth on that period comes to be known, it will probably
+be found that British rule was in very grave danger in the latter half
+of the year 1884.
+
+Certainly no small expedition ever accomplished so much for the Empire,
+at so trifling a cost and without the effusion of blood, as that which
+was now sent out. It was entrusted to Sir Charles Warren. He recruited
+his force mainly from the loyalists of South Africa, though a body named
+Methuen's Horse went out from these islands. In all it numbered nearly
+5000 men. Moving quickly from the Orange River through Griqualand West,
+he reached the banks of the Vaal at Barkly Camp by January 22, 1885,
+that is, only six weeks after his arrival at Cape Town. At the same time
+3000 troops took their station in the north of Natal in readiness to
+attack the Transvaal Boers, should they fall upon Warren. It soon
+transpired, however, that the more respectable Boers had little sympathy
+with the raiders into Bechuanaland. These again were so far taken aback
+by the speed of his movements and the thoroughness of his organisation
+as to manifest little desire to attack a force which seemed ever ready
+at all points and spied on them from balloons. The behaviour of the
+commander was as tactful as his dispositions were effective; and, as a
+result of these favouring circumstances (which the superficial may
+ascribe to luck), he was able speedily to clear Bechuanaland of those
+intruders[447].
+
+[Footnote 447: See Sir Charles Warren's short account of the expedition,
+in the _Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute for _1885-86, pp.
+5-45; also Mackenzie's _Austral Africa_, vol. ii. _ad init_., and _John
+Mackenzie_, by W.D. Mackenzie (1902).]
+
+On September 30 it became what it has since remained--a British
+possession, safeguarding the route into the interior and holding apart
+the Transvaal Boers from the contact with the Germans of Damaraland
+which could hardly fail to produce an explosion. The importance of the
+latter fact has already been made clear. The significance of the former
+will be apparent when we remember that Mr. Rhodes, in his later and
+better-known character of Empire-builder, was able from Bechuanaland as
+a base to extend the domain of his Chartered Company up to the southern
+end of Lake Tanganyika in the year 1889.
+
+It is well known that Rhodes hoped to extend the domain of his company
+as far north as the southern limit of the British East Africa Company.
+Here, however, the Germans forestalled him by their energy in Central
+Africa. Finally, the Anglo-German agreement of 1890 assigned to Germany
+all the _hinterland_ of Zanzibar as far west as the frontier of the
+Congo Free State, thus sterilising the idea of an all-British route from
+the Cape to Cairo, which possessed for some minds an alliterative and
+all-compelling charm.
+
+As for the future of the vast territory which came to be known popularly
+as Rhodesia, we may note that the part bordering on Lake Nyassa was
+severed from the South Africa Company in 1894, and was styled the
+British Central Africa Protectorate. In 1895 the south of Bechuanaland
+was annexed to Cape Colony, a step greatly regretted by many
+well-wishers of the natives. The intelligent chief, Khama, visited
+England in that year, mainly in order to protest against the annexation
+of his lands by Cape Colony and by the South Africa Company. In this he
+was successful; he and other chiefs are directly under the protection of
+the Crown, but parts of the north and east of Bechuanaland are
+administered by the British South Africa Company. The tracts between the
+Rivers Limpopo and Zambesi, and thence north to the Tanganyika, form a
+territory vaster and more populous than any which has in recent years
+been administered by a company; and its rule leaves much to be desired.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is time now to turn to the expansion of German and British spheres of
+influence in the Bight of Guinea and along the course of the Rivers
+Niger and Benuë. In the innermost part of the Bight of Guinea, British
+commercial interests had been paramount up to about 1880; but about that
+time German factories were founded in increasing numbers, and, owing to
+the dilatory action of British firms, gained increasing hold on the
+trade of several districts. The respect felt by native chiefs for
+British law was evinced by a request of five of the "Kings" of the
+Cameroons that they might have it introduced into their lands (1879).
+Authorities at Downing Street and Whitehall were deaf to the request. In
+striking contrast to this was the action of the German Government, which
+early in the year 1884 sent Dr. Nachtigall to explore those districts.
+The German ambassador in London informed Earl Granville on April 19,
+1884, that the object of his mission was "to complete the information
+now in possession of the Foreign Office at Berlin on the state of German
+commerce on that coast." He therefore requested that the British
+authorities there should be furnished with suitable recommendations for
+his reception[448]. This was accordingly done, and, after receiving
+hospitality at various consulates, he made treaties with native chiefs,
+and hoisted the German flag at several points previously considered to
+be under British influence. This was especially the case on the coast to
+the east of the River Niger.
+
+[Footnote 448: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1885), p. 14.]
+
+The British Government was incensed at this procedure, and all the more
+so as plans were then on foot for consolidating British influence in the
+Cameroons. On that river there were six British, and two German firms,
+and the natives had petitioned for the protection of England; but H.M.S.
+_Flint_, on steaming into that river on July 20, found that the German
+flag had been hoisted by the officers of the German warship _Möwe_.
+Nachtigall had signed a treaty with "King Bell" on July 12, whereby
+native habits were to remain unchanged and no customs dues levied, but
+the whole district was placed under German suzerainty[449]. The same had
+happened at neighbouring districts. Thereupon Consul Hewitt, in
+accordance with instructions from London, established British supremacy
+at the Oil Rivers, Old and New Calabar, and several other points
+adjoining the Niger delta as far west as Lagos.
+
+[Footnote 449: _Ibid_. p. 24.]
+
+For some time there was much friction between London and Berlin on these
+questions, but on May 7, 1885, an agreement was finally arrived at, a
+line drawn between the Rio del Rey and the Old Calabar River being fixed
+on as the boundary of the spheres of influence of the two Powers, while
+Germany further recognised the sovereignty of Britain over St. Lucia Bay
+in Zululand, and promised not to annex any land between Natal and
+Delagoa Bay[450]. Many censures were lavished on this agreement, which
+certainly sacrificed important British interests in the Cameroons in
+consideration of the abandonment of German claims on the Zulu coast
+which were legally untenable. Thus, by pressing on various points
+formerly regarded as under British influence, Bismarck secured at least
+one considerable district--one moreover that is the healthiest on the
+West African coast. Subsequent expansion made of the Cameroons a colony
+containing some 140,000 square miles with more than 1,100,000
+inhabitants.
+
+[Footnote 450: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 6 (1885), p. 2.]
+
+It is an open secret that Germany was working hard in 1884-85 to get a
+foothold on the Lower Niger and its great affluent, the Benuë. Two
+important colonial societies combined to send out Herr Flegel in the
+spring of 1885 to secure possession of districts on those rivers where
+British interests had hitherto been paramount. Fortunately for the cause
+of Free Trade (which Germany had definitely abandoned in 1880) private
+individuals had had enough foresight and determination to step in with
+effect, and to repair the harm which otherwise must have come from the
+absorption of Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues in home affairs.
+
+In the present case, British merchants were able to save the situation,
+because in the year 1879 the firms having important business dealings
+with the River Niger combined to form the National African Company in
+order to withstand the threatening pressure of the French advance soon
+to be described. In 1882 the Company's powers were extended, largely
+owing to Sir George Taubman Goldie, and it took the name of the National
+African Company. Extending its operations up the River Niger, it
+gradually cut the ground from under the French companies which had been
+formed for the exploitation and ultimate acquisition of those districts,
+so that after a time the French shareholders agreed to merge themselves
+in the British enterprise.
+
+This important step was taken just in time to forestall German action
+from the side of the Cameroons, which threatened to shut out British
+trade from the banks of the River Benuë and the shores of Lake Chad.
+Forewarned of this danger, Sir George Goldie and his directors urged
+that bold and successful explorer, Mr. Joseph Thomson, to safeguard the
+nation's interests along the Benuë and north thereof. Thomson had
+scarcely recovered from the hardships of his epoch-marking journey
+through Masailand; but he now threw himself into the breach, quickly
+travelled from England to the Niger, and by his unrivalled experience
+alike of the means of travel and of native ways, managed to frame
+treaties with the Sultans of Sokoto and Gando, before the German envoy
+reached his destination (1885). The energy of the National African
+Company and the promptitude and tact of Mr. Thomson secured for his
+countrymen undisputed access to Lake Chad and the great country peopled
+by the warlike Haussas[451].
+
+[Footnote 451: This greatest among recent explorers of Africa died in
+1895. He never received any appropriate reward from the Court for his
+great services to science and to the nation at large.]
+
+Seeing that both France and Germany seek to restrict foreign trade in
+their colonies, while Great Britain gives free access to all merchants
+on equal terms, we may regard this brilliant success as a gain, not only
+for the United Kingdom, but for the commerce of the world. The annoyance
+expressed in influential circles in Germany at the failure of the plans
+for capturing the trade of the Benuë district served to show the
+magnitude of the interests which had there been looked upon as
+prospectively and exclusively German. The delimitation of the new
+British territory with the Cameroon territory and its north-eastern
+extension to Lake Chad was effected by an Anglo-German agreement of
+1886, Germany gaining part of the upper Benuë and the southern shore of
+Lake Chad. In all, the territories controlled by the British Company
+comprised about 500,000 square miles (more than four times the size of
+the United Kingdom).
+
+It is somewhat characteristic of British colonial procedure in that
+period that many difficulties were raised as to the grant of a charter
+to the company which had carried through this work of national
+importance; but on July 10, 1886, it gained that charter with the title
+of the Royal Niger Company. The chief difficulties since that date have
+arisen from French aggressions on the west, which will be noticed
+presently.
+
+In 1897 the Royal Niger Company overthrew the power of the turbulent and
+slave-raiding Sultan of Nupe, near the Niger, but, as has so often
+happened, the very success of the company doomed it to absorption by the
+nation. On January 1, 1900, its governing powers were handed over to the
+Crown; the Union Jack replaced the private flag; and Sir Frederick
+Lugard added to the services which he had rendered to the Empire in
+Uganda by undertaking the organisation of this great and fertile colony.
+In an interesting paper, read before the Royal Geographical Society in
+November 1903, he thus characterised his administrative methods: "To
+rule through the native chiefs, and, while checking the extortionate
+levies of the past, fairly to assess and enforce the ancient tribute. By
+this means a fair revenue will be assured to the emirs, in lieu of their
+former source of wealth, which consisted in slaves and slave-raiding,
+and in extortionate taxes on trade. . . . Organised slave-raiding has
+become a thing of the past in the country where it lately existed in its
+worst form." He further stated that the new colony has made satisfactory
+progress; but light railways were much needed to connect Lake Chad with
+the Upper Nile and with the Gulf of Guinea. The area of Nigeria (apart
+from the Niger Coast Protectorate) is about 500,000 square miles[452].
+
+[Footnote 452: _The Geographical Journal_, January 1, 1904, pp. 5, 18,
+27.]
+
+The result, then, of the activity of French and Germans in West Africa
+has, on the whole, not been adverse to British interests. The efforts
+leading to these noteworthy results above would scarcely have been made
+but for some external stimulus. As happened in the days of Dupleix and
+Montcalm, and again at the time of the little-known efforts of Napoleon
+I. to appropriate the middle of Australia, the spur of foreign
+competition furthered not only the cause of exploration but also the
+expansion of the British Empire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The expansion of French influence in Africa has been far greater than
+that of Germany; and, while arousing less attention on political
+grounds, it has probably achieved more solid results--a fact all the
+more remarkable when we bear in mind the exhaustion of France in 1871,
+and the very slow growth of her population at home. From 1872 to 1901
+the number of her inhabitants rose from 36,103,000 to 38,962,000; while
+in the same time the figures for the German Empire showed an increase
+from 41,230,000 to 56,862,000. To some extent, then, the colonial growth
+of France is artificial; at least, it is not based on the imperious need
+which drives forth the surplus population of Great Britain and Germany.
+Nevertheless, so far as governmental energy and organising skill can
+make colonies successful, the French possessions in West Africa,
+Indo-China, Madagascar, and the Pacific, have certainly justified their
+existence[453]. No longer do we hear the old joke that a French colonial
+settlement consists of a dozen officials, a _restaurateur_, and a
+hair-dresser.
+
+[Footnote 453: See _La Colonisation chez les Peuples modernes_, by Paul
+Leroy-Beaulieu; _Discours et Opinions_, by Jules Ferry; _La France
+coloniale_ (6th edit. 1893), by Alfred Rambaud; _La Colonisation de
+l'Indo-Chine_ (1902), by Chailley-Bert; _L'Indo-Chine française_ (1905),
+by Paul Doumer (describing its progress under his administration);
+_Notre Epopée coloniale_ (1901), by P. Legendre; _La Mise en Valeur de
+notre Domaine coloniale_ (1903), by C. Guy; _Un Siècle d'Expansion
+coloniale_ (1900), by M. Dubois and A. Terrier; _Le Partage de
+l'Afrique_ (1898), by V. Deville.]
+
+In the seventies the French Republic took up once more the work of
+colonial expansion in West Africa, in which the Emperor Napoleon III.
+had taken great interest. The Governor of Senegal, M. Faidherbe, pushed
+on expeditions from that colony to the head waters of the Niger in the
+years 1879-81. There the French came into collision with a powerful
+slave-raiding chief, Samory, whom they worsted in a series of campaigns
+in the five years following. Events therefore promised to fulfil the
+desires of Gambetta, who, during his brief term of office in 1881,
+initiated plans for the construction of a trans-Saharan railway (never
+completed) and the establishment of two powerful French companies on the
+Upper Niger. French energy secured for the Republic the very lands which
+the great traveller Mungo Park first revealed to the gaze of civilised
+peoples. It is worthy of note that in the year 1865 the House of
+Commons, when urged to promote British trade and influence on that
+mighty river, passed a resolution declaring that any extension of our
+rule in that quarter was inexpedient. So rapid, however, was the
+progress of the French arms on the Niger, and in the country behind our
+Gold Coast settlements, that private individuals in London and Liverpool
+began to take action. Already in 1878 the British firms trading with the
+Lower Niger had formed the United African Company, with the results
+noted above. A British Protectorate was also established in the year
+1884 over the coast districts around Lagos, "with the view of guarding
+their interests against the advance of the French and Germans[454]."
+
+[Footnote 454: For its progress see Colonial Reports, Niger Coast
+Protectorate, for 1898-99. For the Franco-German agreement of December
+24, 1885, delimiting their West African lands, see Banning, _Le Partage
+politique de l'Afrique_, pp. 22-26. For the Anglo-French agreement of
+August 10, 1889, see Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 3 (1890).]
+
+Meanwhile the French were making rapid progress under the lead of
+Gallieni and Archinard. In 1890 the latter conquered Segu-Sikoro, and a
+year later Bissandugu. A far greater prize fell to the tricolour at the
+close of 1893. Boiteux and Bonnier succeeded in leading a flotilla and a
+column to the mysterious city of Timbuctu; but a little later a French
+force sustained a serious check from the neighbouring tribes. The affair
+only spurred on the Republic to still greater efforts, which led finally
+to the rout of Samory's forces and his capture in the year 1898. That
+redoubtable chief, who had defied France for fifteen years, was sent as
+a prisoner to Gaboon.
+
+These campaigns and other more peaceful "missions" added to the French
+possessions a vast territory of some 800,000 square kilometres in the
+basin of the Niger. Meanwhile disputes had occurred with the King of
+Dahomey, which led to the utter overthrow of his power by Colonel Dodds
+in a brilliant little campaign in 1892. The crowned slave-raider was
+captured and sent to Martinique.
+
+These rapid conquests, especially those on the Niger, brought France
+and England more than once to the verge of war. In the autumn of the
+year 1897, the aggressions of the French at and near Bussa, on the right
+bank of the Lower Niger, led to a most serious situation. Despite its
+inclusion in the domains of the Royal Niger Company, that town was
+occupied by French troops. At the Guildhall banquet (November 9), Lord
+Salisbury made the firm but really prudent declaration that the
+Government would brook no interference with the treaty rights of a
+British company. The pronouncement was timely; for French action at
+Bussa, taken in conjunction with the Marchand expedition from the Niger
+basin to the Upper Nile at Fashoda (see Chapter XVII.), seemed to
+betoken a deliberate defiance of the United Kingdom. Ultimately,
+however, the tricolour flag was withdrawn from situations that were
+legally untenable. These questions were settled by the Anglo-French
+agreement of 1898, which, we may add, cleared the ground for the still
+more important compact of 1904.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The limits of this chapter having already been passed, it is impossible
+to advert to the parts played by Italy and Portugal in the partition of
+Africa. At best they have been subsidiary; the colonial efforts of Italy
+in the Red Sea and in Somaliland have as yet produced little else than
+disaster and disappointment. But for the part played by Serpa Pinto in
+the Zambesi basin, the rôle of Portugal has been one of quiescence. Some
+authorities, as will appear in the following chapter, would describe it
+by a less euphonious term; it is now known that slave-hunting goes on in
+the upper part of the Zambesi basin owned by them. The French settlement
+at Obock, opposite Perim, and the partition of Somaliland between
+England and Italy, can also only be named.
+
+The general results of the partition of Africa may best be realised by
+studying the map at the close of this volume, and by the following
+statistics as presented by Mr. Scott Keltie in the _Encyclopoedia
+Britannica_:--
+
+                                                        Square Miles.
+     French territories in Africa (inclusive of
+     the Sahara) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,804,974
+     British (inclusive of the Transvaal and
+     Orange River Colonies, but exclusive
+     of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan--610,000
+     square miles) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,713,910
+     German. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   933,380
+     Congo Free State. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   900,000
+     Portuguese. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   790,124
+     Italian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   188,500
+
+These results correspond in the main to the foresight and energy
+displayed by the several States, and to the initial advantages which
+they enjoyed on the coast of Africa. The methods employed by France and
+Germany present a happy union of individual initiative with intelligent
+and persistent direction by the State; for it must be remembered that up
+to the year 1880 the former possessed few good bases of operation, and
+the latter none whatever. The natural portals of Africa were in the
+hands of Great Britain and Portugal. It is difficult to say what would
+have been the present state of Africa if everything had depended on the
+officials at Downing Street and Whitehall. Certainly the expansion of
+British influence in that continent (apart from the Nile valley) would
+have been insignificant but for the exertions of private individuals.
+Among them the names of Joseph Thomson, Sir William Mackinnon, Sir John
+Kirk, Sir Harry Johnston, Sir George Goldie, Sir Frederick Lugard, John
+Mackenzie, and Cecil Rhodes, will be remembered as those of veritable
+Empire-builders.
+
+Viewing the matter from the European standpoint, the partition of Africa
+may be regarded as a triumph for the cause of peace. In the years
+1880-1900, France, Germany, Great Britain, Portugal, Italy, and Belgium
+came into possession of new lands far larger than those for which French
+and British fleets and armies had fought so desperately in the
+eighteenth century. If we go further back and think of the wars waged
+for the possession of the barrier towns of Flanders, the contrast
+between the fruitless strifes of that age and the peaceful settlement of
+the affairs of a mighty continent will appear still more striking. It is
+true, of course, that the cutting up of the lands of natives by white
+men is as indefensible morally as it is inevitable in the eager
+expansiveness of the present age. Further, it may be admitted that the
+methods adopted towards the aborigines have sometimes been disgraceful.
+But even so, the events of the years 1880-1900, black as some of them
+are, compare favourably with those of the long ages when the term
+"African trade" was merely a euphemism for slave-hunting.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTE.--The Parliamentary Papers on Angra Pequeña (1884) show that the
+dispute with Germany was largely due to the desire of Lord Derby to see
+whether the Government of Cape Colony would bear the cost of
+administration of that whole coast if it were annexed. Owing to a change
+of Ministry at Cape Town early in 1884, the affirmative reply was very
+long in coming; and meantime Germany took decisive action, as described
+on p. 524.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE CONGO FREE STATE
+
+     "The object which unites us here to-day is one of those which
+     deserve in the highest degree to occupy the friends of
+     humanity. To open to civilisation the only part of our globe
+     where it has not yet penetrated, to pierce the darkness which
+     envelops entire populations, is, I venture to say, a crusade
+     worthy of this century of progress."--KING LEOPOLD II.,
+     _Speech to the Geographical Congress of 1876 at Brussels_.
+
+
+The Congo Free State owes its origin, firstly, to the self-denying
+pioneer-work of Livingstone; secondly, to the energy of the late Sir
+H.M. Stanley in clearing up the problems of African exploration which
+that devoted missionary had not fully solved, and thirdly, to the
+interest which His Majesty, Leopold II., King of the Belgians, has
+always taken in the opening up of that continent. It will be well
+briefly to note the chief facts which helped to fasten the gaze of
+Europe on the Congo basin; for these events had a practical issue; they
+served to bring King Leopold and Mr. Stanley into close touch with a
+view to the establishment of a settled government in the heart
+of Africa.
+
+In 1874 Mr. H.M. Stanley (he was not knighted until the year 1899)
+received a commission from the proprietors of the _Daily Telegraph_ to
+proceed to Central Africa in order to complete the geographical
+discoveries which had been cut short by the lamented death of
+Livingstone near Lake Bangweolo. That prince of explorers had not fully
+solved the riddle of the waterways of Central Africa. He had found what
+were really the head waters of the Congo at and near Lake Moero; and
+had even struck the mighty river itself as far down as Nyangwe; but he
+could not prove that these great streams formed the upper waters of
+the Congo.
+
+Stanley's journey in 1874-1877 led to many important discoveries. He
+first made clear the shape and extent of Victoria Nyanza; he tracked the
+chief feeder of that vast reservoir; and he proved that Lake Tanganyika
+drained into the River Congo. Voyaging down its course to the mouth, he
+found great and fertile territories, thus proving what Livingstone could
+only surmise, that here was the natural waterway into the heart of "the
+Dark Continent."
+
+Up to the year 1877 nearly all the pioneer work in the interior of the
+Congo basin was the outcome of Anglo-American enterprise. Therefore, so
+far as priority of discovery confers a claim to possession, that claim
+belonged to the English-speaking peoples. King Leopold recognised the
+fact and allowed a certain space of time for British merchants to enter
+on the possession of what was potentially their natural "sphere of
+influence." Stanley, however, failed to convince his countrymen of the
+feasibility of opening up that vast district to peaceful commerce. At
+that time they were suffering from severe depression in trade and
+agriculture, and from the disputes resulting from the Eastern Question
+both in the Near East and in Afghanistan. For the time "the weary Titan"
+was preoccupied and could not turn his thoughts to commercial expansion,
+which would speedily have cured his evils. Consequently, in November
+1878, Stanley proceeded to Brussels in order to present to King Leopold
+the opportunity which England let slip.
+
+Already the King of the Belgians had succeeded in arousing widespread
+interest in the exploration of Africa. In the autumn of 1876 he convened
+a meeting of leading explorers and geographers of the six Great Powers
+and of Belgium for the discussion of questions connected with the
+opening up of that continent; but at that time, and until the results
+of Stanley's journey were made known, the King and his coadjutors
+turned their gaze almost exclusively on East Africa. It is therefore
+scarcely appropriate for one of the Belgian panegyrists of the King to
+proclaim that when Central Africa celebrates its Day of Thanksgiving for
+the countless blessings of civilisation conferred by that monarch, it
+will look back on the day of meeting of that Conference (Sept. 12, 1876)
+as the dawn of the new era of goodwill and prosperity[455]. King
+Leopold, in opening the Conference, made use of the inspiring words
+quoted at the head of this chapter, and asked the delegates to discuss
+the means to be adopted for "planting definitely the standard of
+civilisation on the soil of Central Africa."
+
+[Footnote 455: _L'Afrique nouvelle_. Par. E. Descamps, Brussels, Paris,
+1903, p. 8.]
+
+As a result of the Conference, "The International Association for the
+Exploration and Civilisation of Africa" was founded. It had committees
+in most of the capitals of Europe, but the energy of King Leopold, and
+the sums which he and his people advanced for the pioneer work of the
+Association, early gave to that of Brussels a priority of which good use
+was made in the sequel[456]. The Great Powers were at this time
+distracted by the Russo-Turkish war and by the acute international
+crisis that supervened. Thus the jealousies and weakness of the Great
+Powers left the field free for Belgian activities, which, owing to the
+energy of a British explorer, were definitely concentrated upon the
+exploitation of the Congo.
+
+[Footnote 456: For details see J. de C. Macdonell, _King Leopold II_.,
+p. 113.]
+
+On November 25, 1878, a separate committee of the International
+Association was formed at Brussels with the name of "Comité d'Études du
+Haut Congo." In the year 1879 it took the title of the "International
+Association of the Congo," and for all practical purposes superseded its
+progenitor. Outwardly, however, the Association was still international.
+Stanley became its chief agent on the River Congo, and in the years
+1879-1880 made numerous treaties with local chiefs. In February 1880 he
+founded the first station of the Association at Vivi, and within four
+years established twenty-four stations on the main river and its chief
+tributaries. The cost of these explorations was largely borne by
+King Leopold.
+
+The King also commissioned Lieutenant von Wissmann to complete his
+former work of discovery in the great district watered by the River
+Kasai and its affluents; and in and after 1886 he and his coadjutor, Dr.
+Wolf, greatly extended the knowledge of the southern and central parts
+of the Congo basin[457]. In the meantime the British missionaries, Rev.
+W.H. Bentley and Rev. G. Grenfell, carried on explorations, especially
+on the River Ubangi, and in the lands between it and the Congo. The part
+which missionaries have taken in the work of discovery and pacification
+entitles them to a high place in the records of equatorial exploration;
+and their influence has often been exerted beneficially on behalf of the
+natives. We may add here that M. de Brazza did good work for the French
+tricolour in exploring the land north of the Congo and Ubangi rivers; he
+founded several stations, which were to develop into the great French
+Congo colony.
+
+[Footnote 457: H. von Wissmann, _My Second Journey through Equatorial
+Africa_, 1891. Rev. W.H. Bentley, _Pioneering on the Congo_, 2 vols.]
+
+Meanwhile events had transpired in Europe which served to give stability
+to these undertakings. The energy thrown into the exploration of the
+Congo basin soon awakened the jealousy of the Power which had long ago
+discovered the mouth of the great river and its adjacent coasts. In the
+years 1883, 1884, Portugal put forward a claim to the overlordship of
+those districts on the ground of priority of discovery and settlement.
+On all sides that claim was felt to be unreasonable. The occupation of
+that territory by the Portuguese had been short-lived, and nearly all
+traces of it had disappeared, except at Kabinda and one or two points on
+the coast. The fact that Diogo Cam and others had discovered the mouth
+of the Congo in the fifteenth century was a poor argument for closing to
+other peoples, three centuries later, the whole of the vast territory
+between that river and the mouth of the Zambesi. These claims raised the
+problem of the Hinterland, that is, the ownership of the whole range of
+territory behind a coast line. Furthermore, the Portuguese officials
+were notoriously inefficient and generally corrupt; while the customs
+system of that State was such as to fetter the activities of trade with
+shackles of a truly mediaeval type.
+
+Over against these musty claims of Portugal there stood the offers of
+"The International Association of the Congo" to bring the blessings of
+free trade and civilisation to downtrodden millions of negroes, if only
+access were granted from the sea. The contrast between the dull
+obscurantism of Lisbon and the benevolent intentions of Brussels struck
+the popular imagination. At that time the eye of faith discerned in the
+King of the Belgians the ideal godfather of a noble undertaking, and
+great was the indignation when Portugal interfered with freedom of
+access to the sea at the mouth of the Congo. Various matters were also
+in dispute between Portugal and Great Britain respecting trading rights
+at that important outlet; and they were by no means settled by an
+Anglo-Portuguese Convention of February 26 (1884), in which Lord
+Granville, Foreign Minister in the Gladstone Cabinet, was thought to
+display too much deference to questionable claims. Protests were urged
+against this Convention, by the United States, France, and Germany, with
+the result that the Lisbon Government proposed to refer all these
+matters to a Conference of the Powers; and arrangements were soon made
+for the summoning of their representatives to Berlin, under the
+presidency of Prince Bismarck.
+
+Before the Conference met, the United States took the decisive step of
+recognising the rights of the Association to the government of that
+river-basin (April 10, 1884)--a proceeding which ought to have secured
+to the United States an abiding influence on the affairs of the State
+which they did so much to create. The example set by the United States
+was soon followed by the other Powers. In that same month France
+withdrew the objections which she had raised to the work of the
+Association, and came to terms with it in a treaty whereby she gained
+priority in the right of purchase of its claims and possessions. The way
+having been thus cleared, the Berlin Conference met on November 15,
+1884. Prince Bismarck suggested that the three chief topics for
+consideration were (1) the freedom of navigation and of trade in the
+Congo area; (2) freedom of navigation on the River Niger; (3) the
+formalities to be thenceforth observed in lawful and valid annexations
+of territories in Africa. The British plenipotentiary, Sir Edward Malet,
+however, pointed out that, while his Government wished to preserve
+freedom of navigation and of trade upon the Niger, it would object to
+the formation of any international commission for those purposes, seeing
+that Great Britain was the sole proprietory Power on the Lower Niger
+(see Chapter XVIII.)[458]. This firm declaration possibly prevented the
+intrusion of claims which might have led to the whittling down of
+British rights on that great river. An Anglo-French Commission was
+afterwards appointed to supervise the navigation of the Niger.
+
+[Footnote 458: See Protocols, _Parl. Papers_, Africa, No. 4 (1885), pp.
+119 _et seq_.]
+
+The main question being thus concentrated on the Congo, Portugal was
+obliged to defer to the practically unanimous refusal of the Powers to
+recognise her claims over the lower parts of that river; and on November
+19 she conceded the principle of freedom of trade on those waters. Next,
+it was decided that the Congo Association should acquire and hold
+governing rights over nearly the whole of the vast expanse drained by
+the Congo, with some reservations in favour of France on the north and
+Portugal on the south. The extension of the principle of freedom of
+trade nearly to the Indian Ocean was likewise affirmed; and the
+establishment of monopolies or privileges "of any kind" was distinctly
+forbidden within the Congo area.
+
+An effort strictly to control the sale of intoxicating liquors to
+natives lapsed owing to the strong opposition of Germany and Holland,
+though a weaker motion on the same all-important matter found acceptance
+(December 22). On January 7, 1885, the Conference passed a stringent
+declaration against the slave-trade:--". . . these regions shall not be
+used as markets or routes of transit for the trade in slaves, no matter
+of what race. Each of these Powers binds itself to use all the means at
+its disposal to put an end to this trade, and to punish those engaged
+in it."
+
+The month of February saw the settlement of the boundary claims with
+France and Portugal, on bases nearly the same as those still existing.
+The Congo Association gained the northern bank of the river at its
+mouth, but ceded to Portugal a small strip of coast line a little
+further north around Kabinda. These arrangements were, on the whole,
+satisfactory to the three parties. France now definitively gained by
+treaty right her vast Congo territory of some 257,000 square miles in
+area, while Portugal retained on the south of the river a coast nearly
+1000 miles in length and a dominion estimated at 351,000 square miles.
+The Association, though handing over to these Powers respectively 60,000
+and 45,000 square miles of land which its pioneers hoped to obtain,
+nevertheless secured for itself an immense territory of some 870,000
+square miles.
+
+The General Act of the Berlin Conference was signed on February 26,
+1885. Its terms and those of the Protocols prove conclusively that the
+governing powers assigned to the Congo Association were assigned to a
+neutral and international State, responsible to the Powers which gave it
+its existence. In particular, Articles IV. and V. of the General Act ran
+as follows:--
+
+     Merchandise imported into these regions shall remain free
+     from import and transit dues. The Powers reserve to
+     themselves to determine, after the lapse of twenty years,
+     whether this freedom of import shall be retained or not.
+
+     No Power which exercises, or shall exercise, sovereign rights
+     in the above mentioned regions shall be allowed to grant
+     therein a monopoly or favour of any kind in matters of trade.
+     Foreigners, without distinction, shall enjoy protection of
+     their persons and property, as well as the right of acquiring
+     and transferring movable and immovable possessions, and
+     national rights and treatment in the exercise of their
+     professions.
+
+Before describing the growth of the Congo State, it is needful to refer
+to two preliminary considerations. Firstly, it should be noted that the
+Berlin Conference committed the mistake of failing to devise any means
+for securing the observance of the principles there laid down. Its work,
+considered in the abstract, was excellent. The mere fact that
+representatives of the Powers could meet amicably to discuss and settle
+the administration of a great territory which in other ages would have
+provoked them to deadly strifes, was in itself a most hopeful augury,
+and possibly the success of the Conference inspired a too confident
+belief in the effective watchfulness of the Powers over the welfare of
+the young State to which they then stood as godfathers. In any case it
+must be confessed that they have since interpreted their duties in the
+easy way to which godfathers are all too prone. As in the case of the
+Treaty of Berlin of 1878, so in that of the Conference of Berlin of
+1885, the fault lay not in the promise but in the failure of the
+executors to carry out the terms of the promise.
+
+Another matter remains to be noted. It resulted from the demands urged
+by Portugal in 1883-84. By way of retort, the plenipotentiaries now
+declared any occupation of territory to be valid only when it had
+effectively taken place and had been notified to all the Powers
+represented at the Conference. It also defined a "sphere of influence"
+as the area within which one Power is recognised as possessing priority
+of claims over other States. The doctrine was to prove convenient for
+expansive States in the future.
+
+The first important event in the life of the new State was the
+assumption by King Leopold II. of sovereign powers. All nations, and
+Belgium not the least, were startled by his announcement to his
+Ministers, on April 16, 1885, that he desired the assent of the Belgian
+Parliament to this proceeding. He stated that the union between Belgium
+and the Congo State would be merely personal, and that the latter would
+enjoy, like the former, the benefits of neutrality. The Parliament on
+April 28 gave its assent, with but one dissentient voice, on the
+understanding stated above. The Powers also signified their approval. On
+August 1, King Leopold informed them of the facts just stated, and
+announced that the new State took the title of the Congo Free State
+(_L'État indépendant du Congo_)[459].
+
+[Footnote 459: _The Story of the Congo Free State_, by H.W. Wack (New
+York, 1905), p. 101; Wauters, _L'État indépendant du Congo_, pp. 36-37.]
+
+Questions soon arose concerning the delimitation of the boundary with
+the French Congo territory; and these led to the signing of a protocol
+at Brussels on April 29, 1887, whereby the Congo Free State gave up
+certain of its claims in the northern part of the Congo region (the
+right bank of the River Ubangi), but exacted in return the addition of a
+statement "that the right of pre-emption accorded to France could not be
+claimed as against Belgium, of which King Leopold is sovereign[460]."
+
+[Footnote 460: _The Congo State_, by D.C. Boulger (London, 1896), p.
+62.]
+
+There seems, however, to be some question whether this clause is likely
+to have any practical effect. The clause is obviously inoperative if
+Belgium ultimately declines to take over the Congo territory, and there
+is at least the chance that this will happen. If it does happen, King
+Leopold and the Belgian Parliament recognise the prior claim of France
+to all the Congolese territory. The King and the Congo Ministers seem to
+have made use of this circumstance so as to strengthen the financial
+relations of France to their new State in several ways, notably in the
+formation of monopolist groups for the exploitation of Congoland. For
+the present we may remark that by a clause of the Franco-Belgian Treaty
+of Feb. 5, 1895, the Government of Brussels declared that it "recognises
+the right of preference possessed by France over its Congolese
+possessions, in case of their compulsory alienation, in whole or in
+part[461]."
+
+[Footnote 461: Cattier, _Droit et Administration de l'État indépendent
+du Congo_, p. 82.]
+
+Meanwhile King Leopold proceeded as if he were the absolute ruler of the
+new State. He bestowed on it a constitution on the most autocratic
+basis. M. Cattier, in his account of that constitution sums it up by
+stating that
+
+     The sovereign is the direct source of legislative, executive,
+     and judiciary powers. He can, if he chooses, delegate their
+     exercise to certain functionaries, but this delegation has no
+     other source than his will. . . . He can issue rules, on which,
+     so long as they last, is based the validity of certain acts
+     by himself or by his delegates. But he can cancel these rules
+     whenever they appear to him troublesome, useless, or
+     dangerous. The organisation of justice, the composition of
+     the army, financial systems, and industrial and commercial
+     institutions--all are established solely by him in accordance
+     with his just or faulty conceptions as to their usefulness or
+     efficiency[462].
+
+[Footnote 462: Cattier, _op. cit._ pp. 134-135.]
+
+A natural outcome of such a line of policy was the gradual elimination
+of non-Belgian officials. In July 1886 Sir Francis de Winton, Stanley's
+successor in the administration of the Congo area, gave place to a
+Belgian "Governor-General," M. Janssen; and similar changes were made in
+all grades of the service.
+
+Meanwhile other events were occurring which enabled the officials of the
+Congo State greatly to modify the provisions laid down at the Berlin
+Conference. These events were as follows. For many years the Arab
+slave-traders had been extending their raids in easterly and
+south-easterly directions, until they began to desolate the parts of the
+Congo State nearest to the great lakes and the Bahr-el-Ghazal.
+
+Their activity may be ascribed to the following causes. The slave-trade
+has for generations been pursued in Africa. The negro tribes themselves
+have long practised it; and the Arabs, in their gradual conquest of
+many districts of Central Africa, found it to be by far the most
+profitable of all pursuits. The market was almost boundless; for since
+the Congress of Vienna (1815) and the Congress of Verona (1822) the
+Christian Powers had forbidden their subjects any longer to pursue that
+nefarious calling. It is true that kidnapping of negroes went on
+secretly, despite all the efforts of British cruisers to capture the
+slavers. It is said that the last seizure of a Portuguese schooner
+illicitly trading in human flesh was made off the Congo coast as late as
+the year 1868[463]. But the cessation of the trans-Atlantic slave-trade
+only served to stimulate the Arab man-hunters of Eastern Africa to
+greater efforts; and the rise of Mahdism quickened the demand for slaves
+in an unprecedented manner. Thus, the hateful trade went on apace,
+threatening to devastate the Continent which explorers, missionaries,
+and traders were opening up.
+
+[Footnote 463: A.J. Wauters, _L'État indépendent du Congo_, p. 52.]
+
+The civilising and the devastating processes were certain soon to clash;
+and, as Stanley had foreseen, the conflict broke out on the Upper Congo.
+There the slave-raiders, subsidised or led by Arabs of Zanzibar, were
+specially active. Working from Ujiji and other bases, they attacked some
+of the expeditions sent by the Congo Free State. Chief among the raiders
+was a half-caste Arab negro nick-named Tipu Tib ("The gatherer of
+wealth"), who by his energy and cunning had become practically the
+master of a great district between the Congo and Lake Tanganyika. At
+first (1887-1888) the Congo Free State adopted Stanley's suggestion of
+appointing Tipu Tib to be its governor of the Stanley Falls district, at
+a salary of £30 a month[464]. So artificial an arrangement soon broke
+down, and war broke out early in 1892. The forces of the Congo Free
+State, led by Commandants Dhanis and Lothaire, and by Captain S.L.
+Hinde, finally worsted the Arabs after two long and wearisome campaigns
+waged on the Upper Congo. Into the details of the war it is impossible
+to enter. The accounts of all the operations, including that of Captain
+Hinde[465], are written with a certain reserve; and the impression that
+the writers were working on behalf of civilisation and humanity is
+somewhat blurred by the startling admissions made by Captain Hinde in a
+paper read by him before the Royal Geographical Society in London, on
+March 11, 1895. He there stated that the Arabs, "despite their
+slave-raiding propensities," had "converted the Manyema and Malela
+country into one of the most prosperous in Central Africa." He also
+confessed that during the fighting the two flourishing towns, Nyangwe
+and Kasongo, had been wholly swept away. In view of these statements the
+results of the campaign cannot be regarded with unmixed satisfaction.
+
+[Footnote 464: Stanley, _In Darkest Africa_, vol. i. pp. 60-70.]
+
+[Footnote 465: _The Fall of the Congo Arabs_, by Capt. S.L. Hinde
+(London, 1897).]
+
+Such, however, was not the view taken at the time. Not long before, the
+Continent had rung with the sermons and speeches of Cardinal Lavigerie,
+Bishop of Algiers, who, like a second Peter the Hermit, called all
+Christians to unite in a great crusade for the extirpation of slavery.
+The outcome of it all was the meeting of an Anti-Slavery Conference at
+Brussels, at the close of 1889, in which the Powers that had framed the
+Berlin Act again took part. The second article passed at Brussels
+asserted among other things the duties of the Powers "in giving aid to
+commercial enterprises to watch over their legality, controlling
+especially the contracts for service entered into with natives." The
+abuses in the trade in firearms were to be carefully checked and
+controlled.
+
+Towards the close of the Conference a proposal was brought forward (May
+10, 1890) to the effect that, as the suppression of the slave-trade and
+the work of upraising the natives would entail great expense, it was
+desirable to annul the clause in the Berlin Act prohibiting the
+imposition of import duties for, at least, twenty years from that date
+(that is, up to the year 1905). The proposal seemed so plausible as to
+disarm the opposition of all the Powers, except Holland, which strongly
+protested against the change. Lord Salisbury's Government neglected to
+safeguard British interests in this matter; and, despite the
+unremitting opposition of the Dutch Government, the obnoxious change was
+finally registered on January 2, 1892, it being understood that the
+duties were not to exceed 10 per cent _ad valorem_ except in the case of
+spirituous liquors, and that no differential treatment would be accorded
+to the imports of any nation or nations.
+
+Thus the European Powers, yielding to the specious plea that they must
+grant the Congo Free State the power of levying customs dues in order to
+further its philanthropic aims, gave up one of the fundamentals agreed
+on at the Berlin Conference. The _raison d'être_ of the Congo Free State
+was, that it stood for freedom of trade in that great area; and to sign
+away one of the birthrights of modern civilisation, owing to the plea of
+a temporary want of cash in Congoland, can only be described as the act
+of a political Esau. The General Act of the Brussels Conference received
+a provisional sanction (the clause respecting customs dues not yet being
+definitively settled) on July 2, 1890[466].
+
+[Footnote 466: On August 1, 1890, the Sultan of Zanzibar declared that
+no sale of slaves should thenceforth take place in his dominions. He
+also granted to slaves the right of appeal to him in case they were
+cruelly treated. See Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1890-91).]
+
+On the next day the Congo Free State entered into a financial
+arrangement with the Belgian Government which marked one more step in
+the reversal of the policy agreed on at Berlin five years previously. In
+this connection we must note that King Leopold by his will, dated August
+2, 1889, bequeathed to Belgium after his death all his sovereign rights
+over that State, "together with all the benefits, rights and advantages
+appertaining to that sovereignty." Apparently, the occasion that called
+forth the will was the urgent need of a loan of 10,000,000 francs which
+the Congo State pressed the Belgian Government to make on behalf of the
+Congo railway. Thus, on the very eve of the summoning of the European
+Conference at Brussels, the Congo Government (that is, King Leopold)
+had appealed, not to the Great Powers, but to the Belgian Government,
+and had sought to facilitate the grant of the desired loan by the
+prospect of the ultimate transfer of his sovereign rights to Belgium.
+
+Unquestionably the King had acted very generously in the past toward the
+Congo Association and State. It has even been affirmed that his loans
+often amounted to the sum of 40,000,000 francs a year; but, even so,
+that did not confer the right to will away to any one State the results
+of an international enterprise. As a matter of fact, however, the Congo
+State was at that time nearly bankrupt; and in this circumstance,
+doubtless, may be found an explanation of the apathy of the Powers in
+presence of an infraction of the terms of the Berlin Act of 1885.
+
+We are now in a position to understand more clearly the meaning of the
+Convention of July 3, 1890, between the Congo Free State and the Belgian
+Government. By its terms the latter pledged itself to advance a loan of
+25,000,000 francs to the Congo State in the course of ten years, without
+interest, on condition that at the close of six months after the
+expiration of that time Belgium should have the right of annexing the
+Free State with all its possessions and liabilities.
+
+Into the heated discussions which took place in the Belgian Parliament
+in the spring and summer of 1901 respecting the Convention of July 3,
+1890, we cannot enter. The King interfered so as to prevent the
+acceptance of a reasonable compromise proposed by the Belgian Prime
+Minister, M. Beernaert; and ultimately matters were arranged by a decree
+of August 7, 1901, which will probably lead to the transference of King
+Leopold's sovereign rights to Belgium at his death. In the meantime, the
+entire executive and legislative control is vested in him, and in a
+Colonial Minister and Council of four members, who are responsible
+solely to him, though the Minister has a seat in the Belgian
+Parliament[467]. To King Leopold, therefore, belongs the ultimate
+responsibility for all that is done in the Congo Free State. As M.
+Cattier phrased it in the year 1898: "Belgium has no more right to
+intervene in the internal affairs of the Congo than the Congo State has
+to intervene in Belgian affairs. As regards the Congo Government,
+Belgium has no right either of intervention, direction, or
+control[468]."
+
+[Footnote 467: H.R. Fox-Bourne, _Civilisation in Congoland_ p. 277.]
+
+[Footnote 468: M. Cattier, _op. cit._ p. 88.]
+
+Very many Belgians object strongly to the building up of an _imperium in
+imperio _in their land; and the wealth which the ivory and rubber of the
+Congo brings into their midst (not to speak of the stock-jobbing and
+company-promoting which go on at Brussels and Antwerp), does not blind
+them to the moral responsibility which the Belgian people has indirectly
+incurred. It is true that Belgium has no legal responsibility, but the
+State which has lent a large sum to the Congo Government, besides
+providing the great majority of the officials and exploiters of that
+territory, cannot escape some amount of responsibility. M. Vandervelde,
+leader of the Labour Party in Belgium, has boldly and persistently
+asserted the right of the Belgian people to a share in the control of
+its eventual inheritance, but hitherto all the efforts of his colleagues
+have failed before the groups of capitalists who have acquired great
+monopolist rights in Congoland.
+
+Having now traced the steps by which the Congolese Government reached
+its present anomalous position, we will proceed to give a short account
+of its material progress and administration.
+
+No one can deny that much has been done in the way of engineering. A
+light railway has been constructed from near Vivi on the Lower Congo to
+Stanley Pool, another from Boma into the districts north of that
+important river port. Others have been planned, or are already being
+constructed, between Stanley Falls and the northern end of Lake
+Tanganyika, with a branch to the Albert Nyanza. Another line will
+connect the upper part of the River Congo with the westernmost affluent
+of the River Kasai, thus taking the base of the arc instead of the
+immense curve of the main stream. By the year 1903, 480 kilometres of
+railway were open for traffic, while 1600 more were in course of
+construction or were being planned. It seems that the first 400
+kilometres, in the hilly region near the seaboard, cost 75,000,000
+francs in place of the 25,000,000 francs first estimated[469].
+Road-making has also been pushed on in many directions. A flotilla of
+steamers plies on the great river and its chief affluents. In 1885 there
+were but five; the number now exceeds a hundred. As many as 1532
+kilometres of telegraphs are now open. The exports advanced from
+1,980,441 francs in 1885-86 to 50,488,394 francs in 1901-02, mainly
+owing to the immense trade in rubber, of which more anon; the imports
+from 9,175,103 francs in 1893 to 23,102,064 in 19O1-O2[470].
+
+[Footnote 469: _L'Afrique nouvelle,_ by E. Descamps (1903), chap. xv.
+Much of the credit of the early railway-making was due to Colonel Thys.]
+
+[Footnote 470: _Ibid_. pp. 589-590.]
+
+Far more important is the moral gain which has resulted from the
+suppression of the slave-trade over a large part of the State. On this
+point we may quote the testimony of Mr. Roger Casement, British Consul
+at Boma, in an official report founded on observations taken during a
+long tour up the Congo. He writes: "The open selling of slaves and the
+canoe convoys which once navigated the Upper Congo have everywhere
+disappeared. No act of the Congo State Government has perhaps produced
+more laudable results than the vigorous suppression of this widespread
+evil[471]."
+
+[Footnote 471: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. I (1904), p. 26.]
+
+King Leopold has also striven hard to extend the bounds of the Congo
+State. Not satisfied with his compact with France of April 1887, which
+fixed the River Ubangi and its tributaries as the boundary of their
+possessions, he pushed ahead to the north-east of those confines, and
+early in the nineties established posts at Lado on the White Nile and in
+the Bahr-el-Ghazal basin. Clearly his aim was to conquer the districts
+which Egypt for the time had given up to the Mahdi. These efforts
+brought about sharp friction between the Congolese authorities and
+France and Great Britain. After long discussions the Cabinet of London
+agreed to the convention of May 12, 1894, whereby the Congo State gained
+the Bahr-el-Ghazal basin and the left bank of the Upper Nile, together
+with a port on the Albert Nyanza. On his side, King Leopold recognised
+the claims of England to the right bank of the Nile and to a strip of
+land between the Albert Nyanza and Lake Tanganyika. Owing to the strong
+protests of France and Germany this agreement was rescinded, and the
+Cabinet of Paris finally compelled King Leopold to give up all claims to
+the Bahr-el-Ghazal, though he acquired the right to lease the Lado
+district below the Albert Nyanza. The importance of these questions in
+the development of British policy in the Nile basin has been pointed out
+in Chapter XVII.
+
+The ostensible aim, however, of the founders of the Congo Free State
+was, not the exploitation of the Upper Nile district, the making of
+railways and the exportation of great quantities of ivory and rubber
+from Congoland, but the civilising and uplifting of Central Africa. The
+General Act of the Berlin Conference begins with an invocation to
+Almighty God; and the Brussels Conference imitated its predecessor in
+this particular. It is, therefore, as a civilising and moralising agency
+that the Congo Government will always be judged at the bar of posterity.
+
+The first essential of success in dealing with backward races is
+sympathy with their most cherished notions. Yet from the very outset one
+of these was violated. On July 1, 1885, a decree of the Congo Free State
+asserted that all vacant lands were the property of the Government, that
+is, virtually of the King himself. Further, on June 30, 1887, an
+ordinance was decreed, claiming the right to let or sell domains, and to
+grant mining or wood-cutting rights on any land, "the ownership of which
+is not recognised as appertaining to any one." These decrees, we may
+remark, were for some time kept secret, until their effects
+became obvious.
+
+All who know anything of the land systems of primitive peoples will see
+that they contravened the customs which the savage holds dear. The plots
+actually held and tilled by the natives are infinitesimally small when
+compared with the vast tracts over which their tribes claim hunting,
+pasturage, and other rights. The land system of the savage is everywhere
+communal. Individual ownership in the European sense is a comparatively
+late development. The Congolese authorities must have known this; for
+nearly all troubles with native races have arisen from the profound
+differences in the ideas of the European and the savage on the subject
+of land-holding.
+
+Yet, in face of the experience of former times, the Congo State put
+forward a claim which has led, or will lead, to the confiscation of all
+tribal or communal land-rights in that huge area. Such confiscation may,
+perhaps, be defended in the case of the United States, where the
+new-comers enormously outnumbered the Red Indians, and tilled land that
+previously lay waste. It is indefensible in the tropics, where the white
+settlers will always remain the units as compared with the millions whom
+they elevate or exploit[472]. The savage holds strongly to certain
+rudimentary ideas of justice, especially to the right, which he and his
+tribe have always claimed and exercised, of _using_ the tribal land for
+the primary needs of life. When he is denied the right of hunting,
+cutting timber, or pasturage, he feels "cribbed, cabined, and confined."
+This, doubtless, is the chief source of the quarrels between the new
+State and its _protégés_, also of the depression of spirits which Mr.
+Casement found so prevalent. The best French authorities on colonial
+development now admit that it is madness to interfere with the native
+land tenures in tropical Africa.
+
+The method used in the enlisting of men for public works and for the
+army has also caused many troubles. This question is admittedly one of
+great difficulty. Hard work must be done, and, in the tropics, the white
+man can only direct it. Besides, where life is fairly easy, men will not
+readily come forward to labour. Either the inducement offered must be
+adequate, or some form of compulsory enlistment must be adopted. The
+Belgian officials, in the plentiful lack of funds that has always
+clogged their State, have tried compulsion, generally through the native
+chiefs. These are induced, by the offer of cotton cloth or
+bright-coloured handkerchiefs, to supply men from the tribe. If the
+labourers are not forthcoming, the chief is punished, his village being
+sometimes burned. By means, then, of gaudy handkerchiefs, or firebrands,
+the labourers are obtained. They figure as "apprentices," under the law
+of November 8, 1888, which accorded "special protection to the blacks."
+
+[Footnote 472: The number of whites in Congoland is about 1700, of whom
+1060 are Belgians; the blacks number about 29,000,000, according to
+Stanley; the Belgian Governor-General, Wahis, thinks this below the
+truth. See Wauters, _L'État indépendant du Congo,_ pp. 261, 432.]
+
+The British Consul, Mr. Casement, in his report on the administration of
+the Congo, stated that the majority of the government workmen at
+Léopoldville were under some form of compulsion, but were, on the whole,
+well cared for[473].
+
+[Footnote 473: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1904), p. 27.]
+
+According to a German resident in Congoland, the lot of the apprentices
+differs little from that of slaves. Their position, as contrasted with
+that of their former relation to the chief, is humorously defined by the
+term _libérés_[474] The hardships of the labourers on the State railways
+were such that the British Government refused to allow them to be
+recruited from Sierra Leone or other British possessions.
+
+[Footnote 474: A. Boshart, _Zehn Jahre Afrikanischen Lebens_ (1898),
+quoted by Fox Bourne, _op. cit._ p. 77. For further details see the
+article by Mr. Glave, once an official of the Congo Free State, in the
+_Century Magazine_, vol. liii.; also his work, _Six Years in the
+Congo_ (1892).]
+
+However, now that a British Cabinet has allowed a great colony to make
+use of indentured yellow labour in its mines, Great Britain cannot,
+without glaring inconsistency, lodge any protest against the
+infringement, in Congoland, of the Act of the Berlin Conference in the
+matter of the treatment of hired labourers. If the lot of the Congolese
+apprentices is to be bettered, the initiative must be taken at some
+capital other than London.
+
+Another subject which nearly concerns the welfare of the Congo State is
+the recruiting and use of native troops. These are often raised from the
+most barbarous tribes of the far interior; their pay is very small; and
+too often the main inducement to serve under the blue banner with the
+golden star, is the facility for feasting and plunder at the expense of
+other natives who have not satisfied the authorities. As one of them
+naïvely said to Mr. Casement, _he preferred to be with the hunters
+rather than with the hunted._
+
+It seems that grave abuses first crept in during the course of the
+campaign for the extirpation of slavery and slave-raiding in the Stanley
+Falls region. The Arab slave-raiders were rich, not only in slaves, but
+in ivory--prizes which tempted the cupidity of the native troops, and
+even, it is said, of their European officers. In any case, it is certain
+that the liberating forces, hastily raised and imperfectly controlled,
+perpetrated shocking outrages on the tribes for whose sake they were
+waging war. The late Mr. Glave, in the article in the _Century Magazine_
+above referred to, found reason for doubting whether the crusade did not
+work almost as much harm as the evils it was sent to cure. His words
+were these: "The black soldiers are bent on fighting and raiding; they
+want no peaceful settlement. They have good rifles and ammunition,
+realise their superiority over the natives with their bows and arrows,
+and they want to shoot and kill and rob. Black delights to kill black,
+whether the victim be man, woman, or child, and no matter how
+defenceless." This deep-seated habit of mind is hard to eradicate; and
+among certain of the less reputable of the Belgian officers it has
+occasionally been used, in order to terrorise into obedience tribes that
+kicked against the decrees of the Congo State.
+
+Undoubtedly there is great difficulty in avoiding friction with native
+tribes. All Governments have at certain times and places behaved more or
+less culpably towards them. British annals have been fouled by many a
+misdeed on the part of harsh officials and grasping pioneers, while
+recent revelations as to the treatment of natives in Western Australia
+show the need of close supervision of officials even in a popularly
+governed colony. The record of German East Africa and the French Congo
+is also very far from clean. Still, in the opinion of all who have
+watched over the welfare of the aborigines--among whom we may name Sir
+Charles Dilke and Mr. Fox Bourne--the treatment of the natives in a
+large part of the Congo Free State has been worse than in the districts
+named above[475]. There is also the further damning fact that the very
+State which claimed to be a great philanthropic agency has, until very
+recently, refused to institute any full inquiry into the alleged defects
+of its administration.
+
+[Footnote 475: Sir Charles Dilke stated this very forcibly in a speech
+delivered at the Holborn Town Hall on June 7, 1905.]
+
+Some of these defects may be traced to the bad system of payment of
+officials. Not only are they underpaid, but they have no pension, such
+as is given by the British, French, and Dutch Governments to their
+employees. The result is that the Congolese officer looks on his term of
+service in that unhealthy climate as a time when he must enrich himself
+for life. Students of Roman History know that, when this feeling becomes
+a tradition, it is apt to lead to grave abuses, the recital of which
+adds an undying interest to the speech of Cicero against Verres. In the
+case of the Congolese administrators the State provided (doubtless
+unwittingly) an incentive to harshness. It frequently supplemented its
+inadequate stipends by "gratifications," which are thus described and
+criticised by M. Cattier: "The custom was introduced of paying to
+officials prizes proportioned to the amount of produce of the 'private
+domain' of the State, and of the taxes paid by the natives. That
+amounted to the inciting, by the spur of personal interest, of officials
+to severity and to rigour in the application of laws and regulations."
+Truly, a more pernicious application of the plan of "payment by results"
+cannot be conceived; and M. Cattier affirms that, though nominally
+abolished, it existed in reality down to the year 1898.
+
+Added to this are defects arising from the uncertainty of employment. An
+official may be discharged at once by the Governor-General on the ground
+of unfitness for service in Africa; and the man, when discharged, has no
+means of gaining redress. The natural result is the growth of a habit of
+almost slavish obedience to the authorities, not only in regard to the
+written law, but also to private and semi-official intimations[476].
+
+[Footnote 476: Cattier, _Droit et Administration . . . du Congo,_ pp.
+243-245.]
+
+Another blot on the record of the Congo Free State is the exclusive
+character of the trading corporation to which it has granted
+concessions. Despite the promises made to private firms that early
+sought to open up business in its land, the Government itself has become
+a great trading corporation, with monopolist rights which close great
+regions to private traders and subject the natives to vexatious burdens.
+This system took definite form in September 1891, when the Government
+claimed exclusive rights in trade in the extreme north and north-east.
+At the close of that year Captain Baert, the administrator of these
+districts, also enjoined the collection of rubber and other products by
+the natives for the benefit of the State.
+
+The next step was to forbid to private traders in that quarter the right
+of buying these products from natives. In May 1892 the State monopoly in
+rubber, etc., was extended to the "Equator" district, natives not being
+allowed to sell them to any one but a State official. Many of the
+merchants protested, but in vain. The chief result of their protest was
+the establishment of privileged companies, the "Société Anversoise" and
+the "Anglo-Belgian," and the reservation to the State of large areas
+under the title of _Domaines privés_ (Oct. 1892)[477]. The apologetic
+skill of the partisans of the Congo State is very great; but it will
+hardly be equal to the task of proving that this new departure is not a
+direct violation of Article V. of the General Act of the Berlin
+Conference of 1885, quoted above.
+
+[Footnote 477: For a map of the domains now appropriated by these and
+other privileged "Trusts," see Morel, _op. cit._ p. 466.]
+
+A strange commentary on the latter part of that article, according full
+protection to all foreigners, was furnished by the execution of the
+ex-missionary, Stokes, at the hands of Belgian officials in 1895--a
+matter for which the Congo Government finally made grudging and
+incomplete reparation[478]. Another case was as bad. In 1901 an Austrian
+trader, Rabinek, was arrested and imprisoned for "illegal" trading in
+rubber in the "Katanga Trust" country. Treated unfeelingly during his
+removal down the country, he succumbed to fever. His effects were seized
+and have not been restored to his heirs[479].
+
+[Footnote 478: See the evidence in Parl. Papers, Africa. No. 8 (1896).]
+
+[Footnote 479: Morel, _op. cit._ chaps. xxiii.-xxv.]
+
+When such treatment is meted out to white men who pursued their trade in
+reliance on the original constitution of the State, the natives may be
+expected to fare badly. Their misfortunes thickened when the Government,
+on the plea that natives must contribute towards the expenses of the
+State, began to require them to collect and hand in a certain amount of
+rubber. The evidence of Mr. Casement clearly shows that the natives
+could not understand why this should suddenly be imposed on them; that
+the amount claimed was often excessive; and that the punishment meted
+out for failure to comply with the official demands led to many
+barbarous actions on the part of officials and their native troops.
+Thus, at Bolobo, he found large numbers of industrious workers in iron
+who had fled from the "Domaine de la Couronne" (King Leopold's private
+domain) because "they had endured such ill-treatment at the hands of the
+Government officials and Government soldiers in their own country that
+life had become intolerable, that nothing had remained for them at home
+but to be killed for failure to bring in a certain amount of rubber, or
+to die of starvation or exposure in their attempts to satisfy the
+demands made upon them[480]."
+
+[Footnote 480: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. I (1904), pp. 29, 60. A
+missionary, Rev. J. Whitehead, wrote in July 1903: "During the past
+seven years this 'domaine privé' of King Leopold has been a veritable
+'hell on earth.'" (_Ibid_. p. 64).]
+
+On the north side of Lake Mantumba Mr. Casement found that the
+population had diminished by 60 or 70 per cent since the imposition of
+the rubber tax in 1893--a fact, however, which may be partly assigned to
+the sleeping sickness. The tax led to constant fighting, until at last
+the officials gave up the effort and imposed a requisition of food or
+gum-copal; the change seems to have been satisfactory there and in other
+parts where it has been tried. In the former time the native soldiers
+punished delinquents with mutilation: proofs on this subject here and in
+several other places were indisputable. On the River Lulongo, Mr.
+Casement found that the amount of rubber collected from the natives
+generally proved to be in proportion to the number of guns used by the
+collecting force[481]. In some few cases natives were shot, even by
+white officers, on account of their failure to bring in the due amount
+of rubber[482]. A comparatively venial form of punishment was the
+capture and detention of wives until their husbands made up the tale. Is
+it surprising that thousands of the natives of the north have fled into
+French Congoland, itself by no means free from the grip of monopolist
+companies, but not terrorised as are most of the tribes of the
+"Free State"?
+
+[Footnote 481: _Ibid_. pp. 34, 43, 44, 49, 76, etc.]
+
+[Footnote 482: _Ibid_. p. 70. The effort made by the Chevalier De
+Cuvelier to rebut Mr. Casement's charges consists mainly of an
+ineffective _tu quoque_. To compare the rubber-tax of the Congo State
+with the hut-tax of Sierra Leone begs the whole question. Mr. Casement
+proves (p. 27) that the natives do not object to reasonable taxation
+which comes regularly. They do object to demands for rubber which are
+excessive and often involve great privations. Above all, the punishments
+utterly cow them and cause them to flee to the forests.
+
+The efforts of Mr. Macdonnell in _King Leopold II_. (London, 1905) to
+refute Mr. Casement also seem to me weak and inconclusive. The reply of
+the Congo Free State is printed by Mr. H.W. Wack in the Appendix of his
+_Story of the Congo Free State_ (New York, 1905). It convicts Mr.
+Casement of inaccuracy on a few details. Despite all that has been
+written by various apologists, it may be affirmed that the Congo Free
+State has yet made no adequate defence. Possibly it will appear in the
+report which, it is hoped, will be published in full by the official
+commission of inquiry now sitting.]
+
+Livingstone, in his day, regarded ivory as the chief cause of the
+slave-trade in Central and Eastern Africa; but it is questionable
+whether even ivory (now a vanishing product) brought more woe to
+millions of negroes than the viscous fluid which enables the
+pleasure-seekers of Paris, London, and New York to rush luxuriously
+through space. The swift Juggernaut of the present age is accountable
+for as much misery as ever sugar or ivory was in the old slave days. But
+it seems that, so long as the motor-car industry prospers, the dumb woes
+of the millions of Africa will count for little in the Courts of Europe.
+During the session of 1904 Lord Lansdowne made praiseworthy efforts to
+call their attention to the misgovernment of the Congo State; but he met
+with no response except from the United States, Italy, and Turkey(!) A
+more signal proof of the weakness and cynical selfishness now prevalent
+in high quarters has never been given than in this abandonment of a
+plain and bounden duty.
+
+A slight amount of public spirit on the part of the signatories of the
+Berlin Act would have sufficed to prevent Congolese affairs drifting
+into the present highly anomalous situation. That land is not Belgian,
+and it is not international--except in a strictly legal sense. It is
+difficult to say what it is if it be not the private domain of King
+Leopold and of several monopolist-controlling trusts. Probably the only
+way out of the present slough of despond is the definite assumption of
+sole responsibility by the Belgian people; for it should be remembered
+that a very large number of patriotic Belgians urgently long to redress
+evils for which they feel themselves to be indirectly, and to a limited
+extent, chargeable. At present, those who carefully study the evidence
+relating to the Berlin Conference of 1885, and the facts, so far as they
+are ascertainable to-day, must pronounce the Congo experiment to be a
+terrible failure.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST
+
+     "This war, waged . . . for the command of the waters of the
+     Pacific Ocean, so urgently necessary for the peaceful
+     prosperity, not only of our own, but of other nations."--_The
+     Czar's Proclamation of March 3, 1905_.
+
+
+Of all the collisions of racial interests that have made recent history,
+none has turned the thoughts of the world to regions so remote, and
+events so dramatic in their intensity and momentous in their results, as
+that which has come about in Manchuria. The Far Eastern Question is the
+outcome of the expansion of two vigorous races, that of Russia and
+Japan, at the expense of the almost torpid polity of China. The struggle
+has taken place in the debatable lands north and west of Korea, where
+Tartars and Chinese formerly warred for supremacy, and where
+geographical and commercial considerations enhance the value of the most
+northerly of the ice-free ports of the Continent of Asia.
+
+In order to understand the significance of this great struggle, we must
+look back to the earlier stages of the extension of Russian influence.
+Up to a very recent period the eastern growth of Russia affords an
+instance of swift and natural expansion. Picture on the one side a young
+and vigorous community, dowered with patriotic pride by the long and
+eventually triumphant conflict with the Tartar hordes, and dwelling in
+dreary plains where Nature now and again drives men forth on the quest
+for a sufficiency of food. On the other hand, behold a vast territory,
+well-watered, with no natural barrier between the Urals and the Pacific,
+sparsely inhabited by tribes of nomads having little in common. The one
+active community will absorb the ill-organised units as inevitably as
+the rising tide overflows the neighbouring mud-flats when once the
+intervening barrier is overtopped. In the case of Russia and Siberia the
+only barrier is that of the Ural Mountains; and their gradual slopes
+form a slighter barrier than is anywhere else figured on the map of the
+world in so conspicuous a chain. The Urals once crossed, the slopes and
+waterways invite the traveller eastwards.
+
+The French revolutionists of 1793 used to say, "With bread and iron one
+can get to China." Russian pioneers had made good that boast nearly two
+centuries before it was uttered in Paris. The impelling force which set
+in motion the Muscovite tide originated with a man whose name is rarely
+heard outside Russia. Yet, if the fame of men were proportionate to the
+effect of their exploits, few names would be more widely known than that
+of Jermak. This man had been a hauler of boats up the banks of the
+Volga, until his strength, hardihood, and love of adventure impelled him
+to a freebooting life, wherein his powers of command and the fierce
+thoroughness of his methods speedily earned him the name of Jermak, "the
+millstone." In the year 1580, the wealthy family of the Stroganoffs,
+tempted by stories of the wealth to be gained from the fur-bearing
+animals of Siberia, turned their thoughts to Jermak and his robber band
+as the readiest tools for the conquest of those plains. The enterprise
+appealed to Jermak and the hardy Cossacks with whom he had to do. He and
+his men were no less skilled in river craft than in fighting; and the
+roving Cossack spirit kindled at the thought of new lands to harry.
+Proceeding by boat from Perm, they worked their way into the spurs of
+the Urals, and then by no very long _portage_ crossed one of its lower
+passes and found themselves on one of the tributaries of the Obi.
+
+Thenceforth their course was easy. Jermak and his small band of picked
+fighters were more than a match for the wretchedly armed and
+craven-spirited Tartars, who fled at the sound of firearms. In 1581 the
+settlement, called Sibir, fell to the invaders; and, though they soon
+abandoned this rude encampment for a new foundation, the town of
+Tobolsk, yet the name Siberia recalls their pride at the conquest of the
+enemy's capital. The traditional skill of the Cossacks in the handling
+of boats greatly aided their advance, and despite the death of Jermak in
+battle, his men pressed on and conquered nearly the half of Siberia
+within a decade. What Drake and the sea-dogs of Devon were then doing
+for England on the western main, was being accomplished for Russia by
+the ex-pirate and his band from the Volga. The two expansive movements
+were destined finally to meet on the shores of the Pacific in the
+northern creeks of what is now British Columbia.
+
+The later stages in Russian expansion need not detain us here. The
+excellence of the Cossack methods in foraying, pioneer-work, and the
+forming of military settlements, consolidated the Muscovite conquests.
+The Tartars were fain to submit to the Czar, or to flee to the nomad
+tribes of Central Asia or Northern China. The invaders reached the River
+Lena in the year 1630; and some of their adventurers voyaged down the
+Amur, and breasted the waves of the Pacific in 1636. Cossack bands
+conquered Kamchatka in 1699-1700[483].
+
+[Footnote 483: Vladimir, _Russia en the Pacific._]
+
+Meanwhile the first collision between the white and the yellow races
+took place on the River Amur, which the Chinese claimed as their own. At
+first the Russians easily prevailed; but in the year 1689 they suffered
+a check. New vigour was then manifested in the councils of Pekin, and
+the young Czar, Peter the Great, in his longing for triumphs over Swedes
+and Turks, thought lightly of gains at the expense of the "celestials."
+He therefore gave to Russian energies that trend westwards and
+southwards, which after him marked the reigns of Catharine II.,
+Alexander I., and, in part, of Nicholas I. The surrender of the Amur
+valley to China in 1689 ended all efforts of Russia in that direction
+for a century and a half. Many Russians believe that the earlier impulse
+was sounder and more fruitful in results for Russia than her meddling in
+the wars of the French Revolution and Empire.
+
+Not till 1846 did Russia resume her march down the valley of the Amur;
+and then the new movement was partly due to British action. At that time
+the hostility of Russia and Britain was becoming acute on Asiatic and
+Turkish questions. Further, the first Anglo-Chinese War (1840-42) led to
+the cession of Hong-Kong to the distant islanders, who also had five
+Chinese ports opened to their trade. This enabled Russia to pose as the
+protector of China, and to claim points of vantage whence her covering
+wings might be extended over that Empire. The statesmen of Pekin had
+little belief in the genuineness of these offers, especially in view of
+the thorough exploration of the Amur region and the Gulf of Okhotsk
+which speedily ensued.
+
+The Czar, in fact, now inaugurated a forward Asiatic policy, and
+confided it to an able governor, Muravieff (1847). The new departure was
+marked by the issue of an imperial ukase (1851) ordering the Russian
+settlers beyond Lake Baikal to conform to the Cossack system; that is,
+to become liable to military duties in return for the holding of land in
+the more exposed positions. Three years later Muravieff ordered 6000
+Cossacks to migrate from these trans-Baikal settlements to the land
+newly acquired from China on the borders of Manchuria[484]. In the same
+year the Russians established a station at the mouth of the Amur, and in
+1853 gained control over part of the Island of Saghalien.
+
+[Footnote 484: Popowski, _The Rival Powers in Central Asia_, p. 13.]
+
+For the present, then, everything seemed to favour Russia's forward
+policy. The tribes on the Amur were passive; an attack of an
+Anglo-French squadron on Petropaulovsk, a port in Kamchatka, failed
+(Aug. 1854); and the Russians hoped to be able to harry British commerce
+from this and other naval bases in the Pacific. Finally, the rupture
+with England and France, and the beginning of the Taeping rebellion in
+China, induced the Court of Pekin to agree to Russia's demands for the
+Amur boundary, and for a subsequent arrangement respecting the ownership
+of the districts between the mouth of that river and the bay on which
+now stands the port of Vladivostok (May 15, 1858). The latter concession
+left the door open for Muravieff to push on Russia's claims to this
+important wedge of territory. His action was characteristic. He settled
+Cossacks along the River Ussuri, a southern tributary of the Amur, and,
+by pressing ceaselessly on the celestials (then distracted by a war with
+England and France), he finally brought them to agree to the cession of
+the district around the new settlement, which was soon to receive the
+name of Vladivostok ("Lord of the East"). He also acquired for the Czar
+the Manchurian coast down to the bounds of Korea (November 2, 1860).
+Russia thus threw her arms around the great province which had provided
+China with her dynasty and her warrior caste, and was still one of the
+wealthiest and most cherished lands of that Empire. Having secured these
+points of vantage in Northern China, the Muscovites could await with
+confidence further developments in the decay of that once
+formidable organism.
+
+Such, in brief, is the story of Russian expansion from the Urals to the
+Sea of Japan. Probably no conquest of such magnitude was ever made with
+so little expenditure of blood and money. In one sense this is its
+justification, that is, if we view the course of events, not by the
+limelight of abstract right, but by the ordinary daylight of expediency.
+Conquests which strain the resources of the victors and leave the
+vanquished longing for revenge, carry their own condemnation. On the
+other hand, the triumph of Russia over the ill-organised tribes of
+Siberia and northern Manchuria reminds one of the easy and unalterable
+methods of Nature, which compels a lower type of life to yield up its
+puny force for the benefit of a higher. It resembles the victory of man
+over quadrupeds, of order over disorder, of well-regulated strength over
+weakness and stupidity.
+
+Muravieff deserves to rank among the makers of modern Russia. He waited
+his time, used his Cossack pawns as an effective screen to each new
+opening of the game, and pushed his foes hardest when they were at their
+weakest. Moreover, like Bismarck, he knew when to stop. He saw the limit
+that separated the practicable from the impracticable. He brought the
+Russian coast near to the latitudes where harbours are free from ice;
+but he forbore to encroach on Korea--a step which would have brought
+Japan on to the field of action. The Muscovite race, it was clear, had
+swallowed enough to busy its digestive powers for many a year; and it
+was partly on his advice that Russian North America was sold to the
+United States.
+
+Still, Russia's advance southwards towards ice-free ports was only
+checked, not stopped. In 1861 a Russian man-of-war took possession of
+the Tshushima Isles between Korea and Japan, but withdrew on the protest
+of the British admiral. Six years later the Muscovites strengthened
+their grip on Saghalien, and thereafter exercised with Japan joint
+sovereignty over that island. The natural result followed. In 1875
+Russia found means to eject her partner, the Japanese receiving as
+compensation undisputed claim to the barren Kuriles, which they already
+possessed[485].
+
+[Footnote 485: _The Russo-Japanese Conflict_, by K. Asakawa (1904), p.
+67; _Europe and the Far East_, by Sir R.K. Douglas (1904), p. 191.]
+
+Even before this further proof of Russia's expansiveness, Japan had seen
+the need of adapting herself to the new conditions consequent on the
+advent of the Great Powers in the Far East. This is not the place for a
+description of the remarkable Revolution of the years 1867-71. Suffice
+it to say that the events recounted above undoubtedly helped on the
+centralising of the powers in the hands of the Mikado, and the
+Europeanising of the institutions and armed forces of Japan. In face of
+aggressions by Russia and quarrels with the maritime Powers, a vigorous
+seafaring people felt the need of systems of organisation and
+self-defence other than those provided by the rule of feudal lords, and
+levies drilled with bows and arrows. The subsequent history of the Far
+East may be summed up in the statement that Japan faced the new
+situation with the brisk adaptability of a maritime people, while China
+plodded along on her old tracks with a patience and stubbornness
+eminently bovine.
+
+The events which finally brought Russia and Japan into collision arose
+out of the obvious need for the construction of a railway from St.
+Petersburg to the Pacific having its terminus on an ice-free port. Only
+so could Russia develop the resources of Siberia and the Amur Province.
+In the sixties and seventies trans-continental railways were being
+planned and successfully laid in North America. But there is this
+difference: in the New World the iron horse has been the friend of
+peace; in the Far East of Asia it has hurried on the advent of war; and
+for this reason, that Russia, having no ice-free harbour at the end of
+her great Siberian line, was tempted to grasp at one which the yellow
+races looked on as altogether theirs.
+
+The miscalculation was natural. The rapid extension of trade in the
+Pacific Ocean seemed to invite Russia to claim her full share in a
+development that had already enriched England, the United States, and,
+later, Germany and France; and events placed within the Muscovite grasp
+positions which fulfilled all the conditions requisite for commercial
+prosperity and military and naval domination.
+
+For many years past vague projects of a trans-Siberian railway had been
+in the air. In 1857 an English engineer offered to construct a horse
+tramway from Perm, across the Urals, and to the Pacific. An American
+also proposed to make a railway for locomotives from Irkutsk to the head
+waters of the Amur. In 1875 the Russian Government decided to construct
+a line from Perm as far as a western affluent of the River Obi; but
+owing to want of funds the line was carried no farther than Tiumen on
+the River Tobol (1880).
+
+The financial difficulty was finally overcome by the generosity of the
+French, who, as we have already seen (Chapter XII.), late in the
+eighties began to subscribe to all the Russian loans placed on the Paris
+Bourse. The scheme now became practicable, and in March 1891 an imperial
+ukase appeared sanctioning the mighty undertaking. It was made known at
+Vladivostok by the Czarevitch (now Nicholas II.) in the course of a
+lengthy tour in the Far East; and he is known then to have gained that
+deep interest in those regions which has moulded Russian policy
+throughout his reign. Quiet, unostentatious, and even apathetic on most
+subjects, he then, as we may judge from subsequent events, determined to
+give to Russian energies a decided trend towards the Pacific. As Czar,
+he has placed that aim in the forefront of his policy. With him the Near
+East has always been second to the Far East; and in the critical years
+1896-97, when the sufferings of Christians in Turkey became acute, he
+turned a deaf ear to the cries of myriads who had rarely sent their
+prayers northwards in vain. The most reasonable explanation of this
+callousness is that Nicholas II. at that time had no ears save for the
+call of the Pacific Ocean. This was certainly the policy of his
+Ministers, Prince Lobánoff, Count Muravieff, and Count Lamsdorff. It
+was oceanic.
+
+The necessary prelude to Russia's new policy was the completion of the
+trans-Siberian railway, certainly one of the greatest engineering feats
+ever attempted by man. While a large part of the route offers no more
+difficulty than the conquest of limitless levels, there are portions
+that have taxed to the utmost the skill and patience of the engineer.
+The deep trough of Lake Baikal has now (June 1905) been circumvented by
+the construction of a railway (here laid with double tracks) which
+follows the rocky southern shore. This part of the line, 244 versts (162
+miles) long, has involved enormous expense. In fifty-six miles there
+are thirty-nine tunnels, and thirteen galleries for protection against
+rock-slides. This short section is said to have cost £1,170,000. The
+energy with which the Government pushed on this stupendous work during
+the Russo-Japanese war yields one more proof of their determination to
+secure at all costs the aims which they set in view in and after the
+year 1891[486].
+
+[Footnote 486: See an article by Mr. J.M. Price in _The Fortnightly
+Review_ for May 1905.]
+
+Other parts of the track have also presented great difficulties. East of
+Lake Baikal the line gradually winds its way up to a plateau some 3000
+feet higher than the lake, and then descends to treacherous marsh lands.
+The district of the Amur bristles with obstacles, not the least being
+the terrible floods that now and again (as in 1897) turn the whole
+valley into a trough of swirling waters[487].
+
+[Footnote 487: _Russia on the Pacific_, by "Vladimir"; _The Awakening of
+the East_, by P. Leroy-Beaulieu, chaps, ix. x.]
+
+All these difficulties have been overcome in course of time; but there
+remained the question of the terminus. Up to the year 1894 the objective
+had been Vladivostok; but the outbreak of the Chino-Japanese War at that
+time opened up vast possibilities. Russia could either side with the
+islanders and share with them the spoils of Northern China, or, posing
+as the patron of the celestials, claim some profitable _douceurs_ as
+her reward.
+
+She chose the latter alternative, and, in the opinion of some of her own
+writers, wrongly. The war proved the daring, the patriotism, and the
+organising skill of the Japanese to be as signal as the sloth and
+corruptibility of their foes. Then, for the first time, the world saw
+the utter weakness of China--a fact which several observers (including
+Lord Curzon) had vainly striven to make clear. Even so, when Chinese
+generals and armies took to their heels at the slightest provocation;
+when their battleships were worsted by Japanese armoured cruisers; when
+their great stronghold, Port Arthur, was stormed with a loss of about
+400 killed, the moral of it all was hidden from the wise men of the
+West. Patronising things were said of the Japanese as conquerors--of the
+Chinese; but few persons realised that a new Power had arisen. It seemed
+the easiest of undertakings to despoil the "venomous dwarfs" of the
+fruits of their triumph over China[488].
+
+[Footnote 488: See the evidence adduced by V. Chirol, _The Far Eastern
+Question, _chap, xi., as to the _ultimately_ aggressive designs of China
+on Japan.]
+
+The chief conditions of the Chino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki (April
+17, 1895) were the handing over to Japan the island of Formosa and the
+Liaotung Peninsula. The latter was very valuable, inasmuch as it
+contained good ice-free harbours which dominated the Yellow Sea and the
+Gulf of Pechili; and herein must be sought the reason for the action of
+Russia at this crisis. Li Hung Chang, the Chinese negotiator, had
+already been bought over by Russia in an important matter[489], and he
+early disclosed the secret of the terms of peace with Japan. Russia was
+thus forewarned; and, before the treaty was ratified at Pekin, her
+Government, acting in concert with those of France and Germany,
+intervened with a menacing declaration that the cession of the Liaotung
+Peninsula would give to Japan a dangerous predominance in the affairs of
+China and disturb the whole balance of power in the Far East. The
+Russian Note addressed to Japan further stated that such a step would
+"be a perpetual obstacle to the permanent peace of the Far East." Had
+Russia alone been concerned, possibly the Japanese would have referred
+matters to the sword; but, when face to face with a combination of three
+Powers, they decided on May 4 to give way, and to restore the Liaotung
+Peninsula to China[490].
+
+[Footnote 489: _Manchu and Muscovite, _by B.L. Putnam Weale, p. 60.]
+
+[Footnote 490: Asakawa, _op. cit. _p, 76.]
+
+The reasons for the conduct of France and Germany in this matter are not
+fully known. We may safely conjecture that the Republic acted conjointly
+with the Czar in order to clinch the new Franco-Russian alliance, not
+from any special regard for China, a Power with which she had frequently
+come into collision respecting Tonquin. As for Germany, she was then
+entering on new colonial undertakings; and she doubtless saw in the
+joint intervention of 1895 a means of sterilising the Franco-Russian
+alliance, so far as she herself was concerned, and possibly of gaining
+Russia's assent to the future German expansion in the Far East.
+
+Here, of course, we are reduced to conjecture, but the conjecture is
+consonant with later developments. In any case, the new Triple Alliance
+was a temporary and artificial union, which prompt and united action on
+the part of Great Britain and the United States would have speedily
+dissolved. Unfortunately these Powers were engrossed in other concerns,
+and took no action to redress the balance which the self-constituted
+champions of political stability were upsetting to their own advantage.
+
+The effects of their action were diverse, and for the most part
+unforeseen. In the first place, Japan, far from being discouraged by
+this rebuff, set to work to perfect her army and navy, and with a
+thoroughness which Roon and Moltke would have envied. Organisation,
+weapons, drill, marksmanship (the last a weak point in the war with
+China) were improved; heavy ironclads were ordered, chiefly in British
+yards, and, when procured, were handled with wonderful efficiency. Few,
+if any, of those "disasters" which are so common in the British navy in
+time of peace, occurred in the new Japanese navy--a fact which redounds
+equally to the credit of the British instructors and to the pupils
+themselves.
+
+The surprising developments of the Far Eastern Question were soon to
+bring the new armaments to a terrible test. Japan and the whole world
+believed that the Liaotung Peninsula was made over to China in
+perpetuity. It soon appeared that the Czar and his Ministers had other
+views, and that, having used France and Germany for the purpose of
+warning off Japan, they were preparing schemes for the subjection of
+Manchuria to Russian influence. Or rather, it is probable that Li Hung
+Chang had already arranged the following terms with Russia as the price
+of her intervention on behalf of China. The needs of the Court of Pekin
+and the itching palms of its officials proved to be singularly helpful
+in the carrying out of the bargain. China being unequal to the task of
+paying the Japanese war indemnity, Russia undertook to raise a four per
+cent loan of 400,000,000 francs--of course mainly at Paris--in order to
+cover the half of that debt. In return for this favour, the Muscovites
+required the establishment of a Russo-Chinese Bank having widespread
+powers, comprising the receipt of taxes, the management of local
+finances, and the construction of such railway and telegraph lines as
+might be conceded by the Chinese authorities.
+
+This in itself was excellent "brokerage" on the French money, of which
+China was assumed to stand in need. At one stroke Russia ended the
+commercial supremacy of England in China, the result of a generation of
+commercial enterprise conducted on the ordinary lines, and substituted
+her own control, with powers almost equal to those of a Viceroy. They
+enabled her to displace Englishmen from various posts in Northern China
+and to clog the efforts of their merchants at every turn. The British
+Government, we may add, showed a singular equanimity in face of this
+procedure.
+
+But this was not all. At the close of March 1896, it appeared that the
+gratitude felt by the Chinese Andromeda to the Russian Perseus had
+ripened into a definite union. The two Powers framed a secret treaty of
+alliance which accorded to the northern State the right to make use of
+any harbour in China, and to levy Chinese troops in case of a conflict
+with an Asiatic State. In particular, the Court of Pekin granted to its
+ally the free use of Port Arthur in time of peace, or, if the other
+Powers should object, of Kiao-chau. Manchuria was thrown open to Russian
+officers for purposes of survey, etc., and it was agreed that on the
+completion of the trans-Siberian railway, a line should be constructed
+southwards to Talienwan or some other place, under the joint control of
+the two Powers[491].
+
+[Footnote 491: Asakawa, pp. 85-87.]
+
+The Treaty marks the end of the first stage in the Russification of
+Manchuria. Another stage was soon covered, and, as it seems, by the
+adroitness of Count Cassini, Russian Minister at Pekin. The details, and
+even the existence, of the Cassini Convention of September 30, 1896,
+have been disputed; but there are good grounds for accepting the
+following account as correct. Russia received permission to construct
+her line to Vladivostok across Manchuria, thereby saving the northern
+detour down the difficult valley of the Amur; also to build her own line
+to Mukden, if China found herself unable to do so; and the line
+southwards to Talienwan and Port Arthur was to be made on Russian plans.
+Further, all these new lines built by Russia might be guarded by her
+troops, presumably to protect them from natives who objected to the
+inventions of the "foreign devils." As regards naval affairs, the Czar's
+Government gained the right to "lease" from China the harbour of
+Kiao-chau for fifteen years; and, in case of war, to make use of Port
+Arthur. The last clauses granted to Russian subjects the right to
+acquire mining rights in Manchuria, and to the Czar's officers to drill
+the levies of that province in the European style, should China desire
+to reorganise them.[492]
+
+[Footnote 492: Asakawa, chap. ii.]
+
+But the protector had not reaped the full reward of his timely
+intervention in the spring of 1895. He had not yet gained complete
+control of an ice-free harbour. In fact, the prize of Kiao-chau, nearly
+within reach, now seemed to be snatched from his grasp by Kaiser
+Wilhelm. The details are well known. Two German subjects who were Roman
+Catholic missionaries in the Shan-tung province were barbarously
+murdered by Chinese ruffians on November 1, 1897. The outrage was of a
+flagrant kind, but in ordinary times would have been condoned by the
+punishment of the offenders and a fine payable by the district. But the
+occasion was far from ordinary. A German squadron therefore steamed into
+Kiao-chau and occupied that important harbour.
+
+There is reason to think that Germany had long been desirous of gaining
+a foothold in that rich province. The present writer has been assured by
+a geological expert, Professor Skertchley, who made the first map of the
+district for the Chinese authorities, that that map was urgently
+demanded by the German envoy at Pekin about this time. In any case, the
+mineral wealth of the district undoubtedly influenced the course of
+events. In accordance with a revised version of the old Christian
+saying: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of--the Empire," the
+Emperor William despatched his brother Prince Henry--the "mailed fist"
+of Germany--with a squadron to strengthen the Imperial grip on
+Kiao-chau. The Prince did so without opposition either from China or
+Russia. Finally, on March 5, 1898, the Court of Pekin confirmed to
+Germany the lease of that port and of the neighbouring parts of the
+province of Shan-tung.
+
+The whole affair caused a great stir, because it seemed to prelude a
+partition of China, and that, too, in spite of the well-meaning
+declarations of the Salisbury Cabinet in favour, first, of the integrity
+of that Empire, and, when that was untenable, of the policy of the "open
+door" for traders of all nations. Most significant of all was the
+conduct of Russia. As far as is known, she made no protest against the
+action of Germany in a district to which she herself had laid claim. It
+is reasonable, on more grounds than one, to suppose that the two Powers
+had come to some understanding, Russia conceding Kiao-chau to the
+Kaiser, provided that she herself gained Port Arthur and its peninsula.
+Obviously she could not have faced the ill-will of Japan, Great Britain,
+Germany, and the United States--all more or less concerned at her rapid
+strides southward; and it is at least highly probable that she bought
+off Germany by waiving her own claims to Kiao-chau, provided that she
+gained an ideal terminus for her Siberian line, and a great naval and
+military stronghold. It is also worth noting that the first German
+troops were landed at Kiao-chau on November 17, 1897, while three
+Russian warships steamed into Port Arthur on December 18; and that the
+German "lease" was signed at Pekin on March 5, 1898; while that
+accorded to Russia bears date March 27[493].
+
+[Footnote 493: Asakawa, p. 110, note.]
+
+If we accept the naive suggestion of the Russian author, "Vladimir," the
+occupation of Kiao-chau by Germany "forced" Russia "to claim some
+equivalent compensation." Or possibly the cession of Port Arthur was
+another of the items in Li Hung Chang's bargain with Russia. In any
+case, the Russian warships entered Port Arthur, at first as if for a
+temporary stay; when two British warships repaired thither the Czar's
+Government requested them to leave--a request with which the Salisbury
+Cabinet complied in an inexplicably craven manner (January 1898). Rather
+more pressure was needed on the somnolent mandarins of Pekin; but, under
+the threat of war with Russia if the lease of the Liao-tung Peninsula
+were not granted by March 27, it was signed on that day. She thereby
+gained control of that peninsula for twenty-five years, a period which
+might be extended "by mutual agreement." The control of all the land
+forces was vested in a Russian official; and China undertook not to
+quarter troops to the north without the consent of the Czar. Port Arthur
+was reserved to the use of Russian and Chinese ships of war; and Russia
+gained the right to erect fortifications.
+
+The British Government, which had hitherto sought to uphold the
+integrity of China, thereupon sought to "save its face" by leasing
+Wei-hai-wei (July 1). An excuse for the weakness of the Cabinet in
+Chinese affairs has been put forward, namely, that the issue of the
+Sudan campaign was still in doubt, and that the efforts of French and
+Russians to reach the Upper Nile from the French Congo and Southern
+Abyssinia compelled Ministers to concentrate their attention on that
+great enterprise. But this excuse will not bear examination. Strength at
+any one point of an Empire is not increased by discreditable surrenders
+at other points. No great statesman would have proceeded on such an
+assumption.
+
+Obviously the balance of gain in these shabby transactions in the north
+of China was enormously in favour of Russia. She now pushed on her
+railway southwards with all possible energy. It soon appeared that Port
+Arthur could not remain an open port, and it was closed to merchant
+ships. Then Talienwan was named in place of it, but under restrictions
+which made the place of little value to foreign merchants. Thereafter
+the new port of Dalny was set apart for purposes of commerce, but the
+efficacy of the arrangements there has never been tested. In the
+intentions of the Czar, Port Arthur was to become the Gibraltar of the
+Far East, while Dalny, as the commercial terminus of the trans-Siberian
+line, figured as the Cadiz of the new age of exploration and commerce
+opening out to the gaze of Russia.
+
+That motives of genuine philanthropy played their part in the Far
+Eastern policy of the Czar may readily be granted; but the enthusiasts
+who acclaimed him as the world's peacemaker at the Hague Congress (May
+1899) were somewhat troubled by the thought that he had compelled China
+to cede to his enormous Empire the very peninsula, the acquisition of
+which by little Japan had been declared to be an unwarrantable
+disturbance of the balance of power in the Far East.
+
+These events caused a considerable sensation in Great Britain, even in a
+generation which had become inured to "graceful concessions." In truth,
+the part played by her in the Far East has been a sorry one; and if
+there be eager partisans who still maintain that British Imperialism is
+an unscrupulously aggressive force, ever on the search for new enemies
+to fight and new lands to annex, a course of study in the Blue Books
+dealing with Chinese affairs in 1897-99 may with some confidence be
+prescribed as a sedative and lowering diet. It seems probable that the
+weakness of British diplomacy induced the belief at St. Petersburg that
+no opposition of any account would be forthcoming. With France acting as
+the complaisant treasurer, and Germany acquiescent, the Czar and his
+advisers might well believe that they had reached the goal of their
+efforts, "the domination of the Pacific."
+
+With the Boxer movement of the years 1899-1900 we have here no concern.
+Considered pathologically, it was only the spasmodic protest of a body
+which the dissectors believed to be ready for operation. To assign it
+solely to dislike of European missionaries argues sheer inability to
+grasp the laws of evidence. Missionaries had been working in China for
+several decades, and were no more disliked than other "foreign devils."
+The rising was clearly due to indignation at the rapacity of the
+European Powers. We may note that it gave the Russian governor of the
+town of Blagovestchensk an opportunity of cowing the Chinese of northern
+Manchuria by slaying and drowning some 4500 persons at that place (July
+1900). Thereafter Russia invaded Manchuria and claimed the unlimited
+rights due to actual conquest. On April 8, 1902, she promised to
+withdraw; but her persistent neglect to fulfil that promise (cemented by
+treaty with China) led to the outbreak of hostilities with Japan[494].
+
+[Footnote 494: Asakawa, chap. vii.; and for the Korean Question, chaps.
+xvi, xvii]
+
+We can now see that Russia, since the accession of Nicholas II., has
+committed two great faults in the Far East. She has overreached herself;
+and she has overlooked one very important factor in the problem--Japan.
+The subjects of the Mikado quivered with rage at the insult implied by
+the seizure of Port Arthur; but, with the instinct of a people at once
+proud and practical, they thrust down the flames of resentment and
+turned them into a mighty motive force. Their preparations for war,
+steady and methodical before, now gained redoubled energy; and the whole
+nation thrilled secretly but irresistibly to one cherished aim, the
+recovery of Port Arthur. How great is the power of chivalry and
+patriotism the world has now seen; but it is apt to forget that love of
+life and fear of death are feelings alike primal and inalienable among
+the Japanese as among other peoples. The inspiring force which nerved
+some 40,000 men gladly to lay down their lives on the hills around Port
+Arthur was the feeling that they were helping to hurl back in the face
+of Russia the gauntlet which she had there so insolently flung down as
+to an inferior race.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE NEW GROUPING OF THE GREAT POWERS[495]
+
+(1900-1907)
+
+
+When I penned the words at the end of Chapter XX. it seemed probable
+that the mad race in armaments must lead either to war or to revolution.
+In these three supplementary chapters I seek to trace very briefly the
+causes that have led to war, in other words, to the ascendancy (perhaps
+temporary) of the national principle over the social, and international
+tendencies of the age.
+
+[Footnote 495: Written in May-July 1915.]
+
+The collapse of the international and pacifist movement may be ascribed
+to various causes. The Franco-German and Russo-Turkish Wars left behind
+rankling hatreds which rendered it very difficult for nations to disarm;
+and, after the decline of those resentments, there arose others as the
+outcome of the Greco-Turkish War and the Boer War. Further, the conflict
+between Japan and Russia so far weakened the latter as to leave Germany
+and Austria almost supreme in Europe; and, while in France and the
+United Kingdom the social movement has made considerable progress,
+Germany and Austria have remained in what may be termed the national
+stage of development, which offers many advantages over the
+international for purposes of war. Then again in the Central Empires
+parliamentary institutions have not been successful, tending on the
+whole to accentuate the disputes between the dominant and the subject
+races. The same is partially true of Russia, and far more so of the
+Balkan States. Consequently, in Central and Eastern Europe the national
+idea has become militant and aggressive; while Great Britain, the
+Netherlands, and to some extent France, have sought as far as possible
+to concentrate their efforts upon social legislation, arming only in
+self-defence. In this contrast lay one of the dangers of the situation.
+
+Nationality caused the movements and wars of 1848-77. Thereafter, that
+principle seemed to wane. But it revived in redoubled force among the
+Balkan peoples owing partly to the brutal oppressions of the Sublime
+Porte; and the cognate idea, aiming, however, not at liberty but
+conquest, became increasingly popular with the German people after the
+accession of Kaiser William II. The sequel is only too well known.
+Civilisation has been overwhelmed by a recrudescence of nationalism, and
+the wealthiest age which the world has seen is a victim to the
+perfection and potency of its machinery. A recovery of the old belief in
+the solidarity of mankind and a conviction of the futility of all
+efforts for domination by any one people, are the first requisites
+towards the recovery of conditions that make for peace and good-will.
+
+Meanwhile, recent history has had to concern itself largely with
+groupings or alliances, which have in the main resulted from ambition,
+distrust, or fear. As has already been shown, the Partition of Africa
+was arranged without a resort to arms; but after that appropriation of
+the lands of the dark races, the white peoples in the south came into
+collision late in 1899.
+
+Much has been written as to the causes of the Boer War; but the secret
+encouragements which those brave farmers received from Germany are still
+only partly known. Even in 1894 Mr. Merriman warned Sir Edward Grey of
+the danger arising from "the steady way in which Krüger was Teutonising
+the Transvaal." Germany undoubtedly stiffened the neck of Krüger and the
+reactionary Boers in resisting the much-needed reforms. It is
+significant that the Kaiser's telegram to Krüger after the defeat of
+Jameson's raiders was sent only a few days before his declaration,
+January 18, 1896, that Germany must now pursue a World-Policy, as she
+did by browbeating Japan in the Far East. These developments had been
+rendered possible by the opening of the Kiel-North Sea Canal in 1895, an
+achievement which doubled the naval power of Germany. Thenceforth she
+pushed on construction, especially by the Navy Bill of 1898. Reliance on
+her largely accounts for the obstinate resistance of the Boers to the
+just demands of England and the Outlanders in 1899. A German historian,
+Count Reventlow, has said that "a British South Africa could not but
+thwart all German interests"; and the anti-British fury prevalent in
+Germany in and after 1899 augured ill for the preservation of peace in
+the twentieth century so soon as her new fleet was ready[496].
+
+[Footnote 496: E, Lewin, _The Germans and Africa_, p. xvii. and chaps.
+v.-xiii.; J.H. Rose, _The Origins of the War_, Lectures I.-III.;
+Reventlow, _Deutschlands auswärtige Politik_, p. 71.]
+
+The results of the Boer War were as follows. For the time Great Britain
+lost very seriously in prestige and in material resources. Amidst the
+successes gained by the Boers, the intervention of one or more European
+States in their favour seemed highly probable; and it is almost certain
+that Krüger relied on such an event. He paid visits to some of the chief
+European capitals, and was received by the French President (November
+1900), but not by Kaiser William. The personality and aims of the Kaiser
+will concern us later; but we may notice here that in that year he had
+special reasons for avoiding a rupture with the United Kingdom. The
+Franco-Russian Alliance gave him pause, especially since June 1898, when
+a resolute man, Delcassé, became Foreign Minister at Paris and showed
+less complaisance to Germany than had of late been the case[497].
+Besides, in 1898, the Kaiser had concluded with Great Britain a secret
+arrangement on African affairs, and early in 1900 acquired sole control
+of Samoa instead of the joint Anglo-American-German protectorate, which
+had produced friction. Finally, in the summer of 1900, the Boxer Rising
+in China opened up grave problems which demanded the co-operation of
+Germany and the United Kingdom.
+
+[Footnote 497: Delcassé was Foreign Minister in five Administrations
+until 1905.]
+
+It has often been stated that the Kaiser desired to form a Coalition
+against Great Britain during the Boer War; and it is fairly certain that
+he sounded Russia and France with a view to joint diplomatic efforts to
+stop the war on the plea of humanity, and that, after the failure of
+this device, he secretly informed the British Government of the danger
+which he claimed to have averted[498]. His actions reflected the
+impulsiveness and impetuosity which have often puzzled his subjects and
+alarmed his neighbours; but it seems likely that his aims were limited
+either to squeezing the British at the time of their difficulties, or to
+finding means of breaking up the Franco-Russian alliance. His energetic
+fishing in troubled waters caused much alarm; but it is improbable that
+he desired war with Great Britain until his new navy was ready for sea.
+The German Chancellor, Prince von Bülow, has since written as follows:
+"We gave England no cause to thwart us in the building of our fleet: . . .
+we never came into actual conflict with the Dual Alliance, which would
+have hindered us in the gradual acquisition of a navy[499]." This,
+doubtless, was the governing motive in German policy, to refrain from
+any action that would involve war, to seize every opportunity for
+pushing forward German claims, and, above all, to utilise the prevalent
+irritation at the helplessness of Germany at sea as a means of
+overcoming the still formidable opposition of German Liberals to the
+ever-increasing naval expenditure.
+
+[Footnote 498: Sir V. Chirol, _Quarterly Review_, Oct. 1914.]
+
+[Footnote 499: Bülow, _Imperial Germany_, pp. 98-9 (Eng. transl.);
+Rachfahl, _Kaiser und Reich_ (p. 163), states that, as in 1900-1, the
+German fleet, even along with those of France and Russia, was no match
+for the British fleet, Germany necessarily remained neutral. See, too,
+Hurd and Castle, _German Sea Power_, chap. v.]
+
+In order to discourage the futile anti-British diatribes in the German
+Press, Bülow declared in the Reichstag that in no quarter was there an
+intention to intervene against England. There are grounds for
+questioning the sincerity of this utterance; for the Russian statesman,
+Muraviev, certainly desired to intervene, as did influential groups at
+Petrograd, Berlin, and Paris. In any case, the danger to Great Britain
+was acute enough to evoke help from all parts of the Empire, and implant
+the conviction of the need of closer union and of maintaining naval
+supremacy. The risks of the years 1899-1902 also revealed the very grave
+danger of what had been termed "splendid isolation," and aroused a
+desire for a friendly understanding with one or more Powers as occasion
+might offer.
+
+The war produced similar impressions on the German people. Dislike of
+England, always acute in Prussia, especially in reactionary circles, now
+spread to all parts and all classes of the nation; and the Kaiser, as we
+have seen, made skilful use of it to further his naval policy. His
+speech at Hamburg on October 18, 1899, on the need of a great navy,
+marked the beginning of a new era, destined to end in war with Great
+Britain. Admiral von Tirpitz, in introducing the Amending Bill of
+February 1900, demanded the doubling of the navy in a scheme working
+automatically until 1920. The Socialist leader, Bebel, opposed it as
+certain to strain relations with England, a war with whom would be the
+greatest possible misfortune for the German people. On the other hand,
+the Chancellor, Prince Hohenlohe, voiced the opinions of the governing
+class and the German Navy League when he declared that the demand for a
+great navy originated in the ambition of the German nation to become a
+World-Power[500]. The Bill passed; and thenceforth the United Kingdom
+and Germany became declared rivals at sea. Fortunately for the
+islanders, the new German Navy could not be ready for action before the
+year 1904; otherwise, a very dangerous situation would have arisen. Even
+as it was, British statesmen were induced to secure an ally and to end
+the Boer War as quickly as possible.
+
+[Footnote 500: Prince Hohenlohe, _Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 480.]
+
+During that conflict the tension between England and the Dual Alliance
+(France and Russia) was at times so acute as to render it doubtful
+whether we should not gravitate towards the rival Triple Alliance. The
+problem was the most important that had confronted British statesmen
+during a century. Kinship and tradition seemed to beckon us towards
+Germany and Austria. On the other hand, democracy and social intercourse
+told in favour of the French connection. Further, now that Russia was
+retiring more and more from her Balkan and Central Asian projects in
+order to concentrate on the Far East, she ceased to threaten India and
+the Levant. Moreover, the personality of the Tsar, Nicholas II., was
+reassuring, while that of Kaiser Wilhelm II. aroused distrust and alarm.
+
+In truth, the inordinate vanity, restless energy, and flamboyant
+Chauvinism of the Kaiser placed great difficulties in the way of an
+Anglo-German Entente. An article believed to have been inspired by
+Bismarck contained the following reference to the Kaiser's megalomania:
+"It causes the deepest anxiety in Germany, because it is feared that it
+may lead to some irreparable piece of want of tact, and thence to war.
+For it is argued that, vanity being at the bottom of it all, and the
+Emperor finding he is unable to gain the premature immortality he
+thirsts for by peaceful prodigies, his restless nervous irritability may
+degenerate into recklessness, and then his megalomania may blind him to
+the dangers he and, above all, poor blood-soaken Germany may encounter
+on the war-path[501]." Kaiser William possesses more power of
+self-restraint than this passage indicates; for, though he has spread a
+warlike enthusiasm through his people, he has also restrained it until
+there arrived a fit opportunity for its exercise. It arrived when
+Germany and her Allies were far better prepared, both by land and sea,
+than the Powers whom she expected to meet in arms.
+
+[Footnote 501: _Contemporary Review_, April 1892.]
+
+His attitude towards Great Britain has varied surprisingly. During
+several years he figured as her friend. But it is difficult to believe
+that a man of his keen intellect did not discern ahead the collision
+which his policy must involve. His many claims to acquire maritime
+supremacy and a World-Empire were either mere bluff or a portentous
+challenge. Only the good-natured, easy-going British race could so long
+have clung to the former explanation, thereby leaving the most diffuse,
+vulnerable, and ill-armed Empire that has ever existed face to face with
+an Empire that is compact, well-fortified, and armed to the teeth. In
+this contrast lies one of the main causes of the present war.
+
+Moreover, the internal difficulties of France and the preoccupation of
+Russia in the Far East gave to Kaiser William a disquietingly easy
+victory in the affairs of the Near East. His visit to Constantinople and
+Palestine in 1898 inaugurated a Levantine policy destined to have
+momentous results. On the Bosphorus he scrupled not to clasp the hand of
+Sultan Abdul Hamid II., still reeking with the blood of the Christians
+of Armenia and Macedonia. At Jerusalem he figured as the Christian
+knight-errant, but at Damascus as the champion of the Moslem creed.
+After laying a wreath on the tomb of Saladin, he made a speech which
+revealed his plan of utilising the fighting power of Islam. He said:
+"The three hundred million Mohammedans who live scattered over the globe
+may be assured of this, that the German Emperor will be their friend at
+all times." Taken in conjunction with his pro-Turkish policy, this
+implied that the Triple Alliance was to be buttressed by the most
+terrible fighting force in the East[502].
+
+[Footnote 502: See Hurgronje, _The Holy War; made in Germany_, pp.
+27-39, 68-78; also G.E. Holt, _Morocco the Piquant_ (1914), who says
+(chap, xiv.): "Islam is waiting for war in Europe. . . . A war between any
+two European Powers, in my opinion, would mean the uprising of Islam."]
+
+During the tour he did profitable business with the Sublime Porte by
+gaining a promise for the construction of a railway to Bagdad and the
+Persian Gulf, under German auspices. The scheme took practical form in
+1902-3, when the Sultan granted a firman for the construction of that
+line together with very extensive proprietary rights along its course.
+Russian opposition had been bought off in 1900 by the adoption of a more
+southerly course than was originally designed; and the Kaiser now sought
+to get the financial support of England to the enterprise. British
+public opinion, however, was invincibly sceptical, and with justice, for
+the scheme would have ruined our valuable trade on the River Tigris and
+the Persian Gulf; while the proposed prolongation of the line to Koweit
+on the gulf would enable Germany, Austria, and Turkey to threaten India.
+
+By the year 1903 Austria was so far mistress of the Balkans as to render
+it possible for her and Germany in the near future to send troops
+through Constantinople and Asia Minor by the railways which they
+controlled. Accordingly, affairs in the Near East became increasingly
+strained; and, when Russia was involved in the Japanese War, no Great
+Power could effectively oppose Austro-German policy in that quarter. The
+influence of France and Britain, formerly paramount both politically and
+commercially in the Turkish Empire, declined, while that of Germany
+became supreme. Every consideration of prudence therefore prompted the
+Governments of London and Paris to come to a close understanding, in
+order to make headway against the aggressive designs of the two Kaisers
+in the Balkans and Asia Minor. Looking forward, we may note that the
+military collapse of Russia in 1904-5 enabled the Central Powers to push
+on in the Levant. Germany fastened her grip on the Turkish Government,
+exploited the resources of Asia Minor, and posed as the champion of the
+Moslem creed. Early in the twentieth century that creed became
+aggressive, mainly under the impulse of Sultan Abdul Hamid II., who
+varied his propagandism by massacre with appeals to the faithful to look
+to him as their one hope in this world. Constantinople and Cairo were
+the centres of this Pan-Islamic movement, which, aiming at the closer
+union of all Moslems in Asia, Europe, and Africa around the Sultan,
+threatened to embarrass Great Britain, France, and Russia. The Kaiser,
+seeing in this revival of Islam an effective force, took steps to
+encourage the "true believers" and strengthen the Sultan by the
+construction of a branch line of the Bagdad system running southwards
+through Aleppo and the district east of the Dead Sea towards Mecca.
+Purporting to be a means for lessening the hardships of pilgrims, it
+really enabled the Sultan to threaten the Suez Canal and Egypt.
+
+The aggressive character of these schemes explains why France, Great
+Britain, and Russia began to draw together for mutual support. The three
+Powers felt the threat implied in an organisation of the Moslem world
+under the aegis of the Kaiser. He, a diligent student of Napoleon's
+career, was evidently seeking to dominate the Near East, and to enrol on
+his side the force of Moslem enthusiasm which the Corsican had forfeited
+by his attack on Egypt in 1798. The construction of German railways in
+the Levant and the domination of the Balkan Peninsula by Austria would
+place in the hands of the Germanic Powers the keys of the Orient, which
+have always been the keys to World-Empire.
+
+Closely connected with these far-reaching schemes was the swift growth
+of the Pan-German movement. It sought to group the Germanic and cognate
+peoples in some form of political union--a programme which threatened to
+absorb Holland, Belgium, the greater part of Switzerland, the Baltic
+Provinces of Russia, the Western portions of the Hapsburg dominions,
+and, possibly, the Scandinavian peoples. The resulting State or
+Federation of States would thus extend from Ostend to Reval, from
+Amsterdam (or Bergen) to Trieste.
+
+Even those Germans who did not espouse these ambitious schemes became
+deeply imbued with the expansively patriotic ideas championed by the
+Kaiser. So far back as 1890 he ordered their enforcement in the
+universities and schools[503]. Thenceforth professors and teachers vied
+in their eagerness to extol the greatness of Germany and the civilising
+mission of the Hohenzollerns, whose exploits in the future were to
+eclipse all the achievements of Frederick the Great and William I.
+Moreover, the new German Navy was acclaimed as a necessary means to the
+triumph of German _Kultur_ throughout the world. Other nations were
+depicted as slothful, selfish, decadent; and the decline in the prestige
+of Great Britain, France, and Russia to some extent justified these
+pretensions. The Tsar, by turning away from the Balkans towards Korea,
+deadened Slav aspirations. For the time Pan-Slavism seemed moribund.
+Pan-Germanism became a far more threatening force.
+
+[Footnote 503: Latterly, the catchword, _England ist der Feind
+_("England is the enemy"), has been taught in very many schools.]
+
+Summing up, and including one topic that will soon be dealt with, we may
+conclude as follows: Germany showed that she did not want England's
+friendship, save in so far as it would help her to oppose the Monroe
+Doctrine or supply her with money to finish the Bagdad Railway. For
+reasons that have been explained, she and Austria were likely to
+undermine British interests in the Near East; while, on the other hand,
+the diversion of Russia's activities from Central Asia and the Balkans
+to the Far East, lessened the Muscovite menace which had so long
+determined the trend of British policy. Moreover, Russia's ally, France,
+showed a conciliatory spirit. Forgetting the rebuff at Fashoda (see
+_ante_, pp. 501-6), she aimed at expansion in Morocco. Now, Korea and
+Morocco did not vitally concern us. The Bagdad Railway and the Kaiser's
+court to Pan-Islamism were definite threats to our existence as an
+Empire. Finally, the development of the German Navy and the growth of a
+furiously anti-British propaganda threatened the long and vulnerable
+East Coast of Great Britain.
+
+A temporary understanding with Germany could have been attained if we
+had acquiesced in her claim for maritime equality and in the oriental
+and colonial enterprises which formed its sequel. But that course, by
+yielding to her undisputed ascendancy in all parts of the world, would
+have led to a policy of partition. Now, since 1688, British statesmen
+have consistently opposed, often by force of arms, a policy of partition
+at the expense of civilised nations. Their aim has been to support the
+weaker European States against the stronger and more aggressive, thus
+assuring a Balance of Power which in general has proved to be the chief
+safeguard of peace. In seeking an Entente with France, and subsequently
+with Russia, British policy has followed the course consistent with the
+counsels of moderation and the teachings of experience. We may note here
+that the German historian, Count Reventlow, has pointed out that the
+Berlin Government could not frame any lasting agreement with the
+British; for, sooner or later, they would certainly demand the
+limitation of Germany's colonial aims and of her naval development, to
+neither of which could she consent. The explanation is highly
+significant[504].
+
+[Footnote 504: Reventlow, _Deutschlands auswärtige Politik_, pp. 178-9;
+_Mr. Chamberlain's Speeches_, vol. ii. p. 68.]
+
+Nevertheless, at first Great Britain sought to come to a friendly
+understanding with Germany in the Far East, probably with a view to
+preventing the schemes of partition of China which in 1900 assumed a
+menacing guise. At that time Russia seemed likely to take the lead in
+those designs. But opposite to the Russian stronghold of Port Arthur was
+the German province of Kiao Chau, in which the Kaiser took a deep
+interest. His resolve to play a leading part in Chinese affairs appeared
+in his speech to the German troops sent out in 1900 to assist in
+quelling the Boxer Rising. He ordered them to adopt methods of terrorism
+like those of Attila's Huns, so that "no Chinaman will ever again dare
+to look askance at a German." The orders were ruthlessly obeyed. After
+the capture of Pekin by the Allies (September 1900) there ensued a time
+of wary balancing. Russia and Germany were both suspected of designs to
+cut up China; but they were opposed by Great Britain and Japan. This
+obscure situation was somewhat cleared by the statesmen of London and
+Berlin agreeing to maintain the territorial integrity of China and
+freedom of trade (October 1900). But in March 1901 the German
+Chancellor, Prince von Bülow, nullified the agreement by officially
+announcing that it did not apply to, or limit, the expansion of Russia
+in Manchuria. What caused this _volte face_ is not known; but it implied
+a renunciation of the British policy of the _status quo_ in the Far East
+and an official encouragement to Russia to push forward to the Pacific
+Ocean, where she was certain to come into conflict with Japan. Such a
+collision would enfeeble those two Powers; while Germany, as _tertius
+gaudens_ would be free to work her will both in Europe and Asia[505].
+
+[Footnote 505: In September 1895 the Tsar thanked Prince Hohenlohe for
+supporting his Far East policy, and said he was weary of Armenia and
+distrustful of England; so, too, in September 1896, when Russo-German
+relations were also excellent (_Hohenlohe Mems_., Eng. edit., ii.
+463, 470).]
+
+On the other hand, Eckardstein, the German ambassador in London, is said
+to have made proposals of an Anglo-German-Japanese Alliance in
+March-April 1901. If we may trust the work entitled _Secret Memoirs of
+Count Hayashi_ (Japanese ambassador in London) these proposals were
+dangled for some weeks, why, he could never understand. Probably Germany
+was playing a double game; for Hayashi believed that she had a secret
+understanding with Russia on these questions. He found that the
+Salisbury Cabinet welcomed her adhesion to the principles of maintaining
+the territorial integrity of China and of freedom of commerce in the Far
+East[506].
+
+[Footnote 506: _Secret Memoirs of Count Hayashi_ (London, 1915), pp.
+97-131. There are suspicious features about this book. I refer to it
+with all reserve. Reventlow (_Deutschlands auswärtige Politik_, p. 178)
+thinks Eckardstein may have been playing his own game--an improbable
+suggestion.]
+
+In October 1901 Germany proposed to the United Kingdom that each Power
+should guarantee the possessions of the other in every Continent except
+Asia. Why Asia was excepted is not clear, unless Germany wished to give
+Russia a free hand in that Continent. The Berlin Government laid stress
+on the need of our support in North and South America, where its aim of
+undermining the Monroe Doctrine was notorious. The proposed guarantee
+would also have compelled us to assist Germany in any dispute that might
+arise between her and France about Alsace-Lorraine or colonial
+questions. The aim was obvious, to gain the support of the British fleet
+either against the United States or France. A British diplomatist of
+high repute, who visited Berlin, has declared that the German Foreign
+Office made use of garbled and misleading documents to win him over to
+these views[507]. It was in vain. The British Government was not to be
+hoodwinked; and, as soon as it declined these compromising proposals, a
+storm of abuse swept through the German Press at the barbarities of
+British troops in South Africa. That incident ended all chance of an
+understanding, either between the two Governments or the two peoples.
+
+[Footnote 507: _Quarterly Review_, Oct. 1914, pp. 426-9.]
+
+The inclusion of Germany in the Anglo-Japanese compact proving to be
+impossible, the two Island Powers signed a treaty of alliance at London
+on January 30, 1902. It guaranteed the maintenance of the _status quo_
+in the Far East, and offered armed assistance by either signatory in the
+event of its ally being attacked by more than one Power[508]. The
+alliance ended the isolation of the British race, and marked the entry
+of Japan into the circle of the World-Powers. The chief objections to
+the new departure were its novelty, and the likelihood of its embroiling
+us finally with Russia and France or Russia and Germany. These fears
+were groundless; for France and even Russia(!) expressed their
+satisfaction at the treaty. Lord Lansdowne's diplomatic _coup_ not only
+ended the isolation of two Island States, which had been severally
+threatened by powerful rivals; it also safeguarded China; and finally,
+by raising the prestige of Great Britain, it helped to hasten the end of
+the Boer War. During the discussion of their future policy by the Boer
+delegates at Vereeniging on May 30, General Botha admitted that he no
+longer had any hope of intervention from the Continent of Europe; for
+their deputation thither had failed. All the leaders except De Wet
+agreed, and they came to terms with Lords Kitchener and Milner at
+Pretoria on May 31. That the Anglo-Japanese compact ended the last hopes
+of the Boers for intervention can scarcely be doubted.
+
+[Footnote 508: _E.g._, if the Russians alone attacked Japan we were not
+bound to help her: but if the French also attacked Japan we must help
+her. The aim clearly was to prevent Japan being overborne as in 1895
+(see p. 577). The treaty was signed for five years, but was renewed on
+August 12, 1905, and in July 1911.]
+
+Still more significant was the new alliance as a warning to Russia not
+to push too far her enterprises in the Far East. On April 12, 1902, she
+agreed with China to evacuate Manchuria; but (as has appeared in Chapter
+XX.) she finally pressed on, not only in Manchuria, but also in Korea,
+in which the Anglo-Japanese treaty recognised that Japan had predominant
+interests. For this forward policy Russia had the general support of the
+Kaiser, whose aims in the Near East were obviously served by the
+transference thence of Russia's activities to the Far East. It is,
+indeed, probable that he and his agents desired to embroil Russia and
+Japan. Certain it is that the Russian people regarded the Russo-Japanese
+War, which began in February 1904, as "The War of the Grand Dukes." The
+Russian troops fought an uphill fight loyally and doggedly, but with
+none of the enthusiasm so conspicuous in the present truly national
+struggle. In Manchuria the mistakes and incapacity of their leaders led
+to an almost unbroken series of defeats, ending with the protracted and
+gigantic contests around Mukden (March 1-10, 1905). The almost complete
+destruction of the Russian Baltic fleet by Admiral Togo at the Battle of
+Tsushima (May 27-28) ended the last hopes of the Tsar and his ministers;
+and, fearful of the rising discontent in Russia, they accepted the
+friendly offers of the United States for mediation. By the Treaty of
+Portsmouth (Sept. 5, 1905) they ceded to Japan the southern half of
+Saghalien and the Peninsula on which stands Port Arthur: they also
+agreed to evacuate South Manchuria and to recognise Korea as within
+Japan's sphere of influence. No war indemnity was paid. Indeed it could
+not be exacted, as Japan occupied no Russian territory which she did
+not intend to annex. To Russia the material results of the war were the
+loss of some 350,000 men, killed, wounded, and prisoners; of two fleets;
+and of the valuable provinces and ice-free harbours for the acquisition
+of which she had constructed the Trans-Siberian Railway. So heavy a blow
+had not been dealt to a Great Power since the fall of Napoleon III.; and
+worse, perhaps, than the material loss was that of prestige in accepting
+defeat at the hands of an Island State, whose people fifty years before
+fought with bows and arrows.
+
+Japan emerged from the war triumphant, but financially exhausted.
+Accordingly, she was not loath to conclude with Russia, on July 30,
+1907, a convention which adjusted outstanding questions in a friendly
+manner[509]. The truth about this Russo-Japanese _rapprochement_ is, of
+course, not known; but it may reasonably be ascribed in part to the good
+services of England (then about to frame an _entente_ with Russia); and
+in part to the suspicion of the statesmen of Petrograd and Tokio that
+German influences had secretly incited Russia to the policy of reckless
+exploitation in Korea which led to war and disaster.
+
+[Footnote 509: Hayashi, _op. cit._ ch. viii. and App. D. On June 10,
+1907, Japan concluded with France an agreement, for which see Hayashi,
+ch. vi. and App. C.]
+
+The chief results of the Russo-Japanese War were to paralyse Russia,
+thereby emasculating the Dual Alliance and leaving France as much
+exposed to German threats as she was before its conclusion; also to
+exalt the Triple Alliance and enable its members (Germany, Austria, and
+Italy) successively to adopt the forward policy which marked the years
+1905, 1908, 1911, and 1914. The Russo-Japanese War therefore inaugurated
+a new era in European History. Up to that time the Triple Alliance had
+been a defensive league, except when the exuberant impulses of Kaiser
+William forced it into provocative courses; and then the provocations
+generally stopped at telegrams and orations. But in and after 1905 the
+Triple Alliance forsook the watchwords of Bismarck, Andrassy and
+Crispi. Expansion at the cost of rivals became the dominant aim.
+
+We must now return to affairs in France which predisposed her to come to
+friendly terms, first with Italy, then with Great Britain. Her internal
+history in the years 1895-1906 turns largely on the Dreyfus affair. In
+1895, he, a Jewish officer in the French army, was accused and convicted
+of selling military secrets to Germany. But suspicions were aroused that
+he was the victim of anti-Semites or the scapegoat of the real
+offenders; and finally, thanks to the championship of Zola, his
+condemnation was proved to have been due to a forgery (July 1906).
+Meanwhile society had been rent in twain, and confidence in the army and
+in the administration of justice was seriously impaired. A furious
+anti-militarist agitation began, which had important consequences.
+Already in May 1900, the Premier, Waldeck-Rousseau, appointed as
+Minister of War General André, who sympathised with these views and
+dangerously relaxed discipline. The Combes Ministry, which succeeded in
+June 1902, embittered the strife between the clerical and anti-clerical
+sections by measures such as the separation of Church and State and the
+expulsion of the Religious Orders. In consequence France was almost
+helpless in the first years of the century, a fact which explains her
+readiness to clasp the hand of England in 1904 and, in 1905, after the
+military collapse of Russia in the Far East, to give way before the
+threats of Germany[510].
+
+[Footnote 510: Even in 1908 reckless strikes occurred, and there were no
+fewer than 11,223 cases of insubordination in the army. Professor
+Gustave Hervé left the University in order to direct a paper, _La Guerre
+sociale_, which advocated a war of classes.]
+
+The weakness of France predisposed Italy to forget the wrong done by
+French statesmen in seizing Tunis twenty years before. That wrong (as we
+saw on pp. 328, 329) drove Italy into the arms of Germany and Austria.
+But now Crispi and other pro-German authors of the Triple Alliance had
+passed away; and that compact, founded on passing passion against France
+rather than community of interest or sentiment with the Central
+Empires, had sensibly weakened. Time after time Italian Ministers
+complained of disregard of their interests by the men of Berlin and
+Vienna[511], whereas in 1898 France accorded to Italy a favourable
+commercial treaty. Victor Emmanuel III. paid his first state visit to
+Petrograd, not to Berlin. In December 1900 France and Italy came to an
+understanding respecting Tripoli and Morocco; and in May 1902 the able
+French Minister, Delcassé, then intent on his Morocco enterprise,
+prepared the way for it by a convention with Italy, which provided that
+France and Italy should thenceforth peaceably adjust their differences,
+mainly arising out of Mediterranean questions. Seeing that Italy and
+Austria were at variance respecting Albania, the Franco-Italian Entente
+weakened the Triple Alliance; and the old hatred of Austria appeared in
+the shouts of "Viva Trento," "Viva Trieste," often raised in front of
+the Austrian embassy at Rome. Despite the renewal of the Triple Alliance
+in 1907 and 1912, the adhesion of Italy was open to question, unless the
+Allies became the object of indisputable aggression.
+
+[Footnote 511: Crispi, _Memoirs_ (Eng. edit.) vol. ii. pp. 166, 169,
+472; vol. iii. pp. 330, 347.]
+
+Still more important was the Anglo-French Entente of 1904. That the
+Anglophobe outbursts of the Parisian Press and populace in 1902 should
+so speedily give way to a friendly understanding was the work, partly of
+the friends of peace in both lands, partly of the personal tact and
+charm of Edward VII. as manifested during his visit to Paris in May
+1903, but mainly of the French and British Governments. In October 1903
+they agreed by treaty to refer to arbitration before the Hague Tribunal
+disputes that might arise between them. This agreement (one of the
+greatest triumphs of the principle of arbitration[512]) naturally led to
+more cordial relations. During the visit of President Loubet and M.
+Delcassé to London in July 1903, the latter discussed with Lord
+Lansdowne the questions that hindered a settlement, namely, our
+occupation of Egypt (a rankling sore in France ever since 1882); French
+claims to dominate Morocco both commercially and politically, "the
+French shore" of Newfoundland, the New Hebrides, the French
+convict-station in New Caledonia, as also the territorial integrity of
+Siam, championed by England, threatened by France. A more complex set of
+problems never confronted statesmen. Yet a solution was found simply
+because both of them were anxious for a solution. Their anxiety is
+intelligible in view of the German activities just noticed, and of the
+outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in February 1904. True, France was
+allied to Russia only for European affairs; and our alliance with Japan
+referred mainly to the Far East. Still, there was danger of a collision,
+which both Paris and London wished to avert. It was averted by the skill
+and tact of Lord Lansdowne and M. Delcassé, whose conversations of July
+1903 pointed the way to the definitive compact of April 8, 1904.
+
+[Footnote 512: Sir Thomas Barclay, _Anglo-French Reminiscences_
+(1876-1906), ch. xviii-xxii; M. Hanotaux (_La Politique de l'Équilibre_,
+p. 415) claims that Mr. Chamberlain was chiefly instrumental in starting
+the negotiations leading to the Entente with France.]
+
+Stated briefly, France gave way on most of the questions named above,
+except one, that is, Morocco. There she attained her end, the
+recognition by us of her paramount claims. For this she conceded most of
+the points in dispute between the two countries in Egypt, though she
+maintains her Law School, hospitals, mission schools, and a few other
+institutions. Thenceforth England had opposed to her in that land only
+German influence and the Egyptian nationalists and Pan-Islam fanatics
+whom it sought to encourage. France also renounced some of her fishing
+rights in Newfoundland in return for gains of territory on the River
+Gambia and near Lake Chad. In return for these concessions she secured
+from us the recognition of her claim to watch over the tranquillity of
+Morocco, together with an offer of assistance for all "the
+administrative, economic, financial, and military reforms which it
+needs." True, she promised not to change the political condition of
+Morocco, as also to maintain equality of commercial privileges. Great
+Britain gave a similar undertaking for Egypt[513].
+
+[Footnote 513: A. Tardieu, _Questions diplomatiques de l'année 1904,
+_Appendix II. England in 1914 annulled the promise respecting Egypt
+because of the declaration of war by Turkey and the assistance afforded
+her by the Khedive, Abbas II. (see Earl of Cromer, _Modern Egypt and
+Abbas II_.), On February 15, 1904, France settled by treaty with Siam
+frontier disputes of long standing.]
+
+The Anglo-French Entente of 1904 is the most important event of modern
+diplomacy. Together with the preceding treaty of arbitration, it removed
+all likelihood of war between two nations which used to be "natural
+enemies"; and the fact that it in no respect menaced Germany appeared in
+the communication of its terms to the German ambassador in Paris shortly
+before its signature. On April 12 Bülow declared to the Reichstag his
+approval of the compact as likely to end disputes in several quarters,
+besides assuring peace and order in Morocco, where Germany's interests
+were purely commercial. Two days later, in reply to the Pan-German
+leader, Count Reventlow, he said he would not embark Germany on any
+enterprise in Morocco. These statements were reasonable and just. The
+Entente lessened the friction between Great Britain and Russia during
+untoward incidents of the Russo-Japanese War. After the conclusion of
+the Entente the Russian ambassador in Paris publicly stated the approval
+of his Government, and, quoting the proverb, "The friends of our friends
+are _our_ friends," added with a truly prophetic touch--"Who knows
+whether that will not be true?" The agreement also served to strengthen
+the position of France at a time when her internal crisis and the first
+Russian defeats in the Far East threatened to place her almost at the
+mercy of Germany. A dangerous situation would have arisen if France had
+not recently gained the friendship both of England and Italy.
+
+Finally, the Anglo-French Entente induced Italy to reconsider her
+position. Her dependence on us for coal and iron, together with the
+vulnerability of her numerous coast-towns, rendered a breach with the
+two Powers of the Entente highly undesirable, while on sentimental
+grounds she could scarcely take up the gauntlet for her former
+oppressor, Austria, against two nations which had assisted in her
+liberation. As we shall see, she declared at the Conference of Algeciras
+her complete solidarity with Great Britain.
+
+Even so, Germany held a commanding position owing to the completion of
+the first part of her naval programme, which placed her far ahead of
+France at sea. For reasons that have been set forth, the military and
+naval weakness of France was so marked as greatly to encourage German
+Chauvinists; but the Entente made them pause, especially when France
+agreed to concentrate her chief naval strength in the Mediterranean,
+while that of Great Britain was concentrated in the English Channel and
+the North Sea. It is certain that the Entente with France never amounted
+to an alliance; that was made perfectly clear; but it was unlikely that
+the British Government would tolerate an unprovoked attack upon the
+Republic, or look idly on while the Pan-Germans refashioned Europe and
+the other Continents. Besides, Great Britain was strong at sea. In 1905
+she possessed thirty-five battleships mounting 12-in. guns; while the
+eighteen German battleships carried only 11-in. and 9.4-in. guns.
+Further, in 1905-7 we began and finished the first _Dreadnought_; and
+the adoption of that type for the battle-fleet of the near future
+lessened the value of the Kiel-North Sea Canal, which was too small to
+receive _Dreadnoughts_. In these considerations may perhaps be found the
+reason for the caution of Germany at a time which was otherwise very
+favourable for aggressive action.
+
+Meanwhile Kaiser William, pressed on by the colonials, had intervened in
+a highly sensational manner in the Morocco Affair, thus emphasising his
+earlier assertion that nothing important must take place in any part of
+the world without the participation of Germany. Her commerce in Morocco
+was unimportant compared with that of France and Great Britain; but the
+position of that land, commanding the routes to the Mediterranean and
+the South Atlantic, was such as to interest all naval Powers, while the
+State that gained a foothold in Morocco would have a share in the Moslem
+questions then arising to prime importance. As we have seen, the Kaiser
+had in 1898 declared his resolve to befriend all Moslem peoples; and his
+Chancellor, Bülow, has asserted that Germany's pro-Islam policy
+compelled her to intervene in the Moroccan Question. The German
+ambassador at Constantinople, Baron von Marschall, said that, if after
+that promise Germany sacrificed Morocco, she would at once lose her
+position in Turkey, and therefore all the advantages and prospects that
+she had painfully acquired by the labour of many years[514].
+
+[Footnote 514: Bülow, _Imperial Germany_, p. 83.]
+
+On the other hand, the feuds of the Moorish tribes vitally concerned
+France because they led to many raids into her Algerian lands which she
+could not merely repel. In 1901 she adopted a more active policy, that
+of "pacific penetration," and, by successive compacts with Italy, Great
+Britain, and Spain, secured a kind of guardianship over Moroccan
+affairs. This policy, however, aroused deep resentment at Berlin. Though
+Germany was pacifically penetrating Turkey and Asia Minor, she grudged
+France her success in Morocco, not for commercial reasons but for
+others, closely connected with high diplomacy and world-policy. As the
+German historian, Rachfahl, declared, Morocco was to be a test of
+strength[515].
+
+[Footnote 515: Tardieu, _Questions diplomatiques de 1904_, pp. 56-102;
+Rachfahl, _Kaiser und Reich_, pp. 230-241; E.D. Morel, _Morocco in
+Diplomacy_, chaps, i-xii.]
+
+In one respect Germany had cause for complaint. On October 6, 1904,
+France signed a Convention with Spain in terms that were suspiciously
+vague. They were interpreted by secret articles which defined the
+spheres of French and Spanish influence in case the rule of the Sultan
+of Morocco ceased. It does not appear that Germany was aware of these
+secret articles at the time of her intervention[516]. But their
+existence, even perhaps their general tenor, was surmised. The effective
+causes of her intervention were, firstly, her resolve to be consulted
+in every matter of importance, and, secondly, the disaster that befel
+the Russians at Mukden early in March 1905. At the end of the month, the
+Kaiser landed at Tangier and announced in strident terms that he came to
+visit the Sultan as an independent sovereign. This challenge to French
+claims produced an acute crisis. Delcassé desired to persevere with
+pacific penetration; but in the debate of April 19 the deficiencies of
+the French military system were admitted with startling frankness; and a
+threat from Berlin revealed the intention of humiliating France, and, if
+possible, of severing the Anglo-French Entente. Here, indeed, is the
+inner significance of the crisis. Germany had lately declared her
+indifference to all but commercial questions in Morocco. But she now
+made use of the collapse of Russia to seek to end the Anglo-French
+connection which she had recently declared to be harmless. The aim
+obviously was to sow discord between those two Powers. In this she
+failed. Lord Lansdowne and Delcassé lent each other firm support, so
+much so that the Paris _Temps_ accused us of pushing France on in a
+dangerous affair which did not vitally concern her. The charge was not
+only unjust but ungenerous; for Germany had worked so as to induce
+England to throw over France or make France throw over England. The two
+Governments discerned the snare, and evaded it by holding firmly
+together[517].
+
+[Footnote 516: Rachfahl, pp. 235, 238. For details, _see_ Morel, chap.
+ii.]
+
+[Footnote 517: In an interview with M. Tardieu at Baden-Baden on October
+4, 1905, Bülow said that Germany intervened in Morocco because of her
+interests there, and also to protest against this new attempt to isolate
+her (Tardieu, _Questions actuelles de Politique étrangère_, p. 87). If
+so, her conduct increased that isolation. Probably the second
+Anglo-Japanese Treaty of August 12, 1905 (published on September 27),
+was due to fear of German aggression. France and Germany came to a
+preliminary agreement as to Morocco on September 28.]
+
+The chief difficulty of the situation was that it committed France to
+two gigantic tasks, that of pacifying Morocco and also of standing up to
+the Kaiser in Europe. In this respect the ground for the conflict was
+all in his favour; and both he and she knew it. Consequently, a
+compromise was desirable; and the Kaiser himself, in insisting on the
+holding of a Conference, built a golden bridge over which France might
+draw back, certainly with honour, probably with success; for in the
+diplomatic sphere she was at least as strong as he. When, therefore,
+Delcassé objected to the Conference, his colleagues accepted his
+resignation (June 6). His fall was hailed at Berlin as a humiliation for
+France. Nevertheless, her complaisance earned general sympathy, while
+the bullying tone of German diplomacy, continued during the Conference
+held at Algeciras, hardened the opposition of nearly all the Powers,
+including the United States. Especially noteworthy was the declaration
+of Italy that her interests were identical with those of England. German
+proposals were supported by Austria alone, who therefore gained from the
+Kaiser the doubtful compliment of having played the part of "a brilliant
+second" to Germany.
+
+It is needless to describe at length the Act of Algeciras (April 7,
+1906). It established a police and a State Bank in Morocco, suppressed
+smuggling and the illicit trade in arms, reformed the taxes, and set on
+foot public works. Of course, little resulted from all this; but the
+position of France was tacitly regularised, and she was left free to
+proceed with pacific penetration. "We are neither victors nor
+vanquished," said Bülow in reviewing the Act; and M. Rouvier echoed the
+statement for France. In reality, Germany had suffered a check. Her
+chief aim was to sever the Anglo-French Entente, and she failed. She
+sought to rally Italy to her side, and she failed; for Italy now
+proclaimed her accord with France on Mediterranean questions. Finally
+the _North German Gazette_ paid a tribute to the loyal and peaceable
+aims of French policy; while other less official German papers deplored
+the mistakes of their Government, which had emphasised the isolation of
+Germany[518]. This is indeed the outstanding result of the Conference.
+The threatening tone of Berlin had disgusted everybody. Above all it
+brought to more cordial relations the former rivals, Great Britain
+and Russia.
+
+[Footnote 518: Tardieu, _La Conference d'Algeciras_, pp. 410-20.]
+
+As has already appeared, the friction between Great Britain and Russia
+quickly disappeared after the Japanese War. During the Congress of
+Algeciras the former rivals worked cordially together to check the
+expansive policy of Germany, in which now lay the chief cause of
+political unrest. In fact, the Kaiser's Turcophile policy acquired a new
+significance owing to the spread of a Pan-Islamic propaganda which sent
+thrills of fanaticism through North-West Africa, Egypt, and Central
+Asia. At St. Helena Napoleon often declared Islam to be vastly superior
+to Christianity as a fighting creed; and his imitator now seemed about
+to marshal it against France, Russia, and Great Britain. Naturally, the
+three Powers drew together for mutual support. Further, Germany by
+herself was very powerful, the portentous growth of her manufactures and
+commerce endowing her with wealth which she spent lavishly on her army
+and navy. In May 1906 the Reichstag agreed to a new Navy Bill for
+further construction which was estimated to raise the total annual
+expenditure on the navy from £11,671,000 in 1905 to £16,492,000 in 1917;
+this too though Bebel had warned the House that the agitation of the_
+German Navy League had for its object a war with England.
+
+In 1906 and 1907 Edward VII. paid visits to William II., who returned
+the compliment in November 1907. But this interchange of courtesies
+could not end the distrust caused by Germany's increase of armaments.
+The peace-loving Administration of Campbell-Bannerman, installed in
+power by the General Election of 1906, sought to come to an
+understanding with Berlin, especially at the second Hague Conference of
+1907, with respect to a limitation of armaments. But Germany rejected
+all such proposals[519]. The hopelessness of framing a friendly
+arrangement with her threw us into the arms of Russia; and on August 31,
+1907, Anglo-Russian Conventions were signed defining in a friendly way
+the interests of the two Powers in Persia, Afghanistan, and Thibet.
+True, the interests of Persian reformers were sacrificed by this
+bargain; but it must be viewed, firstly, in the light of the Bagdad
+Railway scheme, which threatened soon to bring Germany to the gates of
+Persia and endanger the position of both Powers in that land[520];
+secondly, in that of the general situation, in which Germany and Austria
+were rapidly forcing their way to a complete military ascendancy and
+refused to consider any limitation of armaments. The detailed reasons
+which prompted the Anglo-Russian Entente are of course unknown. But the
+fact that the most democratic of all British Administrations should come
+to terms with the Russian autocracy is the most convincing proof of the
+very real danger which both States discerned in the aggressive conduct
+of the Central Powers. The Triple Alliance, designed by Bismarck solely
+to safeguard peace, became, in the hands of William II., a menace to his
+neighbours, and led them to form tentative and conditional arrangements
+for defence in case of attack. This is all that was meant by the Triple
+Entente. It formed a loose pendant to the Dual Alliance between France
+and Russia, which _was_ binding and solid. With those Powers the United
+Kingdom formed separate agreements; but they were not alliances; they
+were friendly understandings on certain specific objects, and in no
+respect threatened the Triple Alliance so long as it remained
+non-aggressive[521].
+
+[Footnote 519: See the cynical section in Reventlow, _op. cit._ (pp.
+280-8), entitled "Utopien und Intrigen im Haag." For Austria's efforts
+to prevent the Anglo-Russian Entente, see H.W. Steed, _The Hamburg
+Monarchy_, p. 230.]
+
+[Footnote 520: Rachfahl (p. 307) admits this, but accuses England of
+covert opposition everywhere, even at the Hague Conference.]
+
+[Footnote 521: On December 24, 1908, the Russian Foreign Minister,
+Izvolsky, assured the Duma that "no open or secret agreements directed
+against German interests existed between Russia and England."]
+
+One question remains. When was it that the friction between Great
+Britain and Germany first became acute? Some have dated it from the
+Morocco Affair of 1905-6. The assertion is inconsistent with the facts
+of the case. Long before that crisis the policy of the Kaiser tended
+increasingly towards a collision. His patronage of the Boers early in
+1896 was a threatening sign; still more so was his World-Policy,
+proclaimed repeatedly in the following years, when the appointments of
+Tirpitz and Bülow showed that the threats of capturing the trident, and
+so forth, were not mere bravado. The outbreak of the Boer War in 1899,
+followed quickly by the Kaiser's speech at Hamburg, and the adoption of
+accelerated naval construction in 1900, brought about serious tension,
+which was not relaxed by British complaisance respecting Samoa. The
+coquetting with the Sultan, the definite initiation of the Bagdad scheme
+(1902-3), and the completion of the first part of Germany's new naval
+programme in 1904 account for the Anglo-French Entente of that year. The
+chief significance of the Morocco Affair of 1905-6 lay in the Kaiser's
+design of severing that Entente. His failure, which was still further
+emphasised during the Algeciras Conference, proved that a policy which
+relies on menace and ever-increasing armaments arouses increasing
+distrust and leads the menaced States to form defensive arrangements.
+That is also the outstanding lesson of the career of Napoleon I.
+Nevertheless, the Kaiser, like the Corsican, persisted in forceful
+procedure, until Army Bills, Navy Bills, and the rejection of pacific
+proposals at the Hague, led to their natural result, the Anglo-Russian
+agreement of 1907. This event should have made him question the wisdom
+of relying on armed force and threatening procedure. The Entente between
+the Tsar and the Campbell-Bannerman Administration formed a tacit but
+decisive censure of the policy of Potsdam; for it realised the fears
+which had haunted Bismarck like a nightmare[522]. Its effect on William
+II. was to induce him to increase his military and naval preparations,
+to reject all proposals for the substitution of arbitration in place of
+the reign of force, and thereby to enclose the policy of the Great
+Powers in a vicious circle from which the only escape was a general
+reduction of armaments or war.
+
+[Footnote 522: _Bismarck, his Reflections and Recollections_, vol. ii.
+pp. 252, 289. There are grounds for thinking that William II. has been
+pushed on to a bellicose policy by the Navy, Colonial, and Pan-German
+Leagues. In 1908 he seems to have sought to pause; but powerful
+influences (as also at the time of the crises of July 1911 and 1914)
+propelled him. See an article in the _Revue de Paris_ of April 15, 1913,
+"Guillaume II et les pangermanistes." In my narrative I speak of the
+Kaiser as equivalent to the German Government; for he is absolute and
+his Ministers are responsible solely to him.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+TEUTON _versus_ SLAV (1908-13)
+
+     "To tell the truth, the Slav seems to us a born
+     slave."--TREITSCHKE, June 1876.
+
+
+On October 7, 1908, Austria-Hungary exploded a political bomb-shell by
+declaring her resolve to annex Bosnia-Herzegovina. Since the Treaty of
+Berlin of 1878, she had provisionally occupied and administered those
+provinces as mandatory of Europe (see p. 238). But now, without
+consulting Europe, she appropriated her charge. On the other hand, she
+consented to withdraw from the Sanjak of Novi-Bazar which she had
+occupied by virtue of a secret agreement with Russia of July 1878. Even
+so, her annexation of a great province caused a sharp crisis for the
+following reasons: (1) It violated the international law of Europe
+without any excuse whatever. (2) It exasperated Servia, which hoped
+ultimately to possess Bosnia, a land peopled by her kindred and
+necessary to her expansion seawards. (3) It no less deeply offended the
+Young Turks, who were resolved to revivify the Turkish people and assert
+their authority over all parts of the Ottoman dominions. (4) It came at
+the same time as the assumption by Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria of the
+title of Tsar of the Bulgarians. This change of title, which implied a
+prospect of sovereignty over the Bulgars of Macedonia, had been arranged
+during a recent visit to Buda-Pest, and foreshadowed the supremacy of
+Austrian influence not only in the new kingdom of Bulgaria but
+eventually in the Bulgar districts of Macedonia[523].
+
+[Footnote 523: H.W. Steed, _The Hapsburg Monarchy_, pp. 52, 214.]
+
+Thus, Austria's action constituted a serious challenge to the Powers in
+general, especially to Russia, Servia, and to regenerated Turkey[524].
+So daring a _coup_ had not been dealt by Austria since 1848, when
+Francis Joseph ascended the throne; it is believed that he desired to
+have the provinces as a jubilee gift, a set off to the loss of Lombardy
+and Venetia in 1859 and 1866. Certainly Austria had carried out great
+improvements in Bosnia; but an occupier who improves a farm does not
+gain the right to possess it except by agreement with others who have
+joint claims. Moreover, the Young Turks, in power since July 1908,
+boasted their ability to civilise Bosnia and all parts of their Empire.
+Servia also longed to include it in the large Servo-Croat kingdom of
+the future.
+
+[Footnote 524: The constitutional regime which the Young Turks imposed
+on the reactionary Abdul Hamid II., in July 1908, was hailed as a
+victory for British influence. The change in April 1909 favoured German
+influence. I have no space for an account of these complex events.]
+
+The Bosnian Question sprang out of a conflict of racial claims, which
+two masterful men, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand and the Austrian
+Foreign Minister, Aehrenthal, were resolved to decide in favour of
+Austria. The Archduke disliked, and was disliked by, the Germans and
+Magyars on account of his pro-Slav tendencies. In 1900 he contracted
+with a Slav lady, the Countess Chotek, a morganatic marriage, which
+brought him into strained relations with the Emperor and Court. A
+silent, resolute man, he determined to lessen German and Magyar
+influence in the Empire by favouring the law for universal suffrage
+(1906), and by the appointment as Foreign Minister of Aehrenthal, who
+harboured ambitiously expansive schemes. The Archduke also furthered a
+policy known as Trialism, that of federalising the Dual Monarchy by
+constituting the Slav provinces as the third of its component groups.
+The annexation of Bosnia would serve to advance this programme by
+depressing the hitherto dominant races, the Germans and Magyars,
+besides rescuing the monarchy from the position of "brilliant second" to
+Germany. Kaiser William was taken aback by this bold stroke, especially
+as it wounded Turkey; but he soon saw the advantage of having a vigorous
+rather than a passive Ally; and, in a visit which he paid to the
+Archduke in November 1908, their intercourse, which had hitherto been
+coldly courteous, ripened into friendship, which became enthusiastic
+admiration when the Archduke advocated the building of Austrian
+_Dreadnoughts_.
+
+The annexation of Bosnia was a defiance to Europe, because, at the
+Conference of the Powers held at London in 1871, they all (Austria
+included) solemnly agreed not to depart from their treaty engagements
+without a previous understanding with the co-signatories. Austria's
+conduct in 1908, therefore, dealt a severe blow to the regime of
+international law. But it was especially resented by the Russians,
+because for ages they had lavished blood and treasure in effecting the
+liberation of the Balkan peoples. Besides, in 1897, the Tsar had framed
+an agreement with the Court of Vienna for the purpose of exercising
+conjointly some measure of control over Balkan affairs; and he then
+vetoed Austria's suggestion for the acquisition of Bosnia. In 1903, when
+the two Empires drew up the "February" and "Mürzsteg" Programmes for
+more effectually dealing with the racial disputes in Macedonia, the
+Hapsburg Court did not renew the suggestion about Bosnia, yet in 1908
+Austria annexed that province. Obviously, she would not have thus defied
+the public law of Europe and Russian, Servian, and Turkish interests,
+but for the recent humiliation of Russia in the Far East, which explains
+both the dramatic intervention of the Kaiser at Tangier against Russia's
+ally, France, and the sudden apparition of Austria as an aggressive
+Power. In his speech to the Austro-Hungarian Delegations Aehrenthal
+declared that he intended to continue "an active foreign policy," which
+would enable Austria-Hungary to "occupy to the full her place in the
+world." She had to act because otherwise "affairs might have developed
+against her."
+
+Thus the Eastern Question once more became a matter of acute
+controversy. The Austro-Russian agreements of 1897 and 1903 had huddled
+up and cloaked over those racial and religious disputes, so that there
+was little chance of a general war arising out of them. But since 1908
+the Eastern Question has threatened to produce a general conflict unless
+Austria moderated her pretensions. She did not do so; for, as we have
+seen, Germany favoured them in order to assure uninterrupted
+communications between Central Europe and her Bagdad Railway. Already
+Hapsburg influence was supreme at Bukharest, Sofia, and in Macedonian
+affairs. If it could dominate Servia (anti-Austrian since the accession
+of King Peter in 1903) the whole of the Peninsula would be subject to
+Austro-German control. True, the influence of Germany at Constantinople
+at first suffered a shock from the Young Turk Revolution of July 1908;
+and those eager nationalists deeply resented the annexation of Bosnia,
+which they ascribed to the Austro-German alliance. The men of Berlin,
+however, so far from furthering that act, disapproved of it as
+endangering their control of Turkey and exploitation of its resources.
+In fact, Germany's task in inducing her prospective vassals, the Turks,
+to submit to spoliation at the hands of her ally, Austria, was
+exceedingly difficult; and in the tension thus created, the third
+partner of the Triple Alliance, Italy, very nearly parted company, from
+disgust at Austrian encroachments in a quarter where she cherished
+aspirations. As we have seen, Victor Emmanuel III., early in his reign,
+favoured friendly relations with Russia; and these ripened quickly
+during the "Annexation Crisis" of 1908-9, as both Powers desired to
+maintain the _status quo_ against Austria[525]. On December 24, 1908,
+the Russian Foreign Minister, Izvolsky, declared that, with that aim in
+view, he was acting in close concert with France, Great Britain, and
+Italy. He urged Bulgaria, Servia, and Montenegro to hold closely
+together for the defence of their common interests: "Our aim must be to
+bring them together and to combine them with Turkey in a common ideal of
+defence of their national and economic development." A cordial union
+between the Slav States and Turkey now seems a fantastic notion; but it
+was possible then, under pressure of the Austro-German menace, which the
+Young Turks were actively resisting.
+
+[Footnote 525: Tittoni, _Italy's Foreign and Colonial Policy_ (English
+translation, p. 128). Tittoni denied that the Triple Alliance empowered
+Italy to demand "compensation" if Austria expanded in the Balkans. But
+the Triple Alliance Treaty, as renewed in 1912, included such a
+clause, No. VII.]
+
+During the early part of 1909 a general war seemed imminent; for
+Slavonic feeling was violently excited in Russia and Servia. But,
+hostilities being impossible in winter, passions had time to cool. It
+soon became evident that those States could not make head against
+Austria and Germany. Moreover, the Franco-Russian alliance did not bind
+France to act with Russia unless the latter were definitely attacked;
+and France was weakened by the widespread strikes of 1907-8 and the
+vehement anti-militarist agitation already described. Further, Italy was
+distracted by the earthquake at Messina, and armed intervention was not
+to be expected from the Campbell-Bannerman Ministry. Bulgaria and
+Roumania were pro-Austrian. Turkey alone could not hope to reconquer
+Bosnia, and a Turco-Serb-Russian league was beyond the range of
+practical politics. These material considerations decided the issue of
+events. Towards the close of March, Kaiser William, the hitherto silent
+backer of Austria, ended the crisis by sending to his ambassador at
+Petrograd an autograph letter, the effect of which upon the Tsar was
+decisive. Russia gave way, and dissociated herself from France, England,
+and Italy. In consideration of an indemnity of £2,200,000 from Austria,
+Turkey recognised the annexation. Consequently no Conference of the
+Powers met even to register the _fait accompli_ in Bosnia. The Germanic
+Empires had coerced Russia and Servia, despoiled Turkey, and imposed
+their will on Europe. Kaiser William characteristically asserted that it
+was his apparition "in shining armour" by the side of Austria which
+decided the issue of events. Equally decisive, perhaps, was Germany's
+formidable shipbuilding in 1908-9, namely, four _Dreadnoughts_ to
+England's two, a fact which explains this statement of Bülow: "When at
+last, during the Bosnian crisis, the sky of international politics
+cleared, when German power on the Continent burst its encompassing
+bonds, we had already got beyond the stage of preparation in the
+construction of our fleet[526]."
+
+[Footnote 526: Bülow, _Imperial Germany_, p. 99.]
+
+The crisis of 1908-9 revealed in a startling manner the weakness of
+international law in a case where the stronger States were determined to
+have their way. It therefore tended to discourage the peace propaganda
+and the social movement in Great Britain and France. The increased speed
+of German naval construction alarmed the British people, who demanded
+precautionary measures[527]. France and Russia also improved their
+armaments, for it was clear that Austria, as well as Germany, intended
+to pursue an active foreign policy which would inflict other rebuffs on
+neighbours who were unprepared. Further, the Triple Entente had proved
+far too weak for the occasion. True, France and England loyally
+supported Russia in a matter which chiefly concerned her and Servia, and
+her sudden retreat before the Kaiser's menace left them in the lurch.
+Consequently, the relations between the Western Powers and Russia were
+decidedly cool during the years 1909-10, especially in and after
+November 1910, when the Tsar met Kaiser William at Potsdam, and framed
+an agreement, both as to their general relations and the railways then
+under construction towards Persia. On the other hand, the rapid advance
+of Germany and Austria alarmed Italy, who, in order to safeguard her
+interests in the Balkans (especially Albania), came to an understanding
+with Russia for the support of their claims. The details are not known,
+neither are the agreements of Austria with Bulgaria and Roumania,
+though it seems probable that they were framed with the two kings rather
+than with the Governments of Sofia and Bukharest. Those sovereigns were
+German princes, and the events of 1908-9 naturally attracted them
+towards the Central Powers.
+
+[Footnote 527: Annoyance had been caused by the Kaiser's letter of Feb.
+18, 1908, to Lord Tweedmouth, First Lord of the Admiralty, advising
+(though in friendly terms) the cessation of suspicion towards Germany's
+naval construction. It was held to be an attempt to put us off
+our guard.]
+
+In 1909-10 France and England also lost ground in Turkey. There the
+Young Turks, who seized power in July 1908, were overthrown in April
+1909, when Abdul Hamid II. was deposed. He was succeeded by his weakly
+complaisant brother, Mohammed V. This change, however, did not promote
+the cause of reform. The Turkish Parliament became a bear-garden, and
+the reformers the tools of reaction. In the four years 1908-12 there
+were seven Ministries and countless ministerial crises, and the Young
+Turks, copying the forms and killing the spirit of English Liberalism,
+soon became the most intolerant oppressors of their non-Moslem subjects.
+In administrative matters they acted on the old Turkish proverb--"The
+Sultan's treasure is a sea, and he who does not draw from it is a pig."
+Germany found means to satisfy these dominating and acquisitive
+instincts, and thus regained power at the Sublime Porte. The Ottoman
+Empire therefore remained the despair of patriotic reformers, a
+hunting-ground for Teutonic _concessionnaires_, a Hell for its Christian
+subjects, and the chief storm-centre of Europe[528].
+
+[Footnote 528: Lack of space precludes an account of the Cretan
+Question, also of the Agram and Friedjung trials which threw lurid light
+on Austria's treatment of her South-Slav subjects, for which see
+Seton-Watson, _Corruption and Reform in Hungary_. Rohrbach, _Der
+deutsche Gedanke in der Welt_ (1912), p. 172, explains the success of
+German efforts at the Porte by the belief of the Young Turks that
+Germany was the only Power that wished them well--Germany who helped
+Austria to secure Bosnia; Germany, whose Bagdad Railway scheme
+mercilessly exploited Turkish resources! (See D. Fraser, _The Short Cut
+to India_, chs. iii. iv.)]
+
+The death of King Edward VII. on May 6, 1910, was a misfortune for the
+cause of peace. His tact and discernment had on several occasions
+allayed animosity and paved the way for friendly understandings. True,
+the German Press sought to represent those efforts as directed towards
+the "encircling" (_Einkreisung_) of Germany. But here we may note that
+(1) King Edward never transgressed the constitutional usage, which
+prescribed that no important agreement be arrived at apart from the
+responsible Ministers of the Crown[529]. (2) The agreements with Spain,
+Italy, France, Germany, and Portugal (in 1903-4) were for the purposes
+of arbitration. (3) The alliance with Japan and the Ententes with France
+and Russia were designed to end the perilous state of isolation which
+existed at the time of his accession. (4) At that time Germany was
+allied to Austria, Italy, and (probably) Roumania, not to speak of her
+secret arrangements with Turkey. She had no right to complain of the
+ending of our isolation. (5) The marriage of King Alfonso of Spain with
+Princess Ena of Battenberg (May 1906), was a love-match, and was not the
+result of King Edward's efforts to detach Spain from Germany. It had no
+political significance. (6) The Kaiser's sister was Crown Princess (now
+Queen) of Greece; the King of Roumania was a Hohenzollern; and the King
+of Bulgaria and the Prince Consort of Holland were German Princes. (7)
+On several occasions King Edward testified his friendship with Germany,
+notably during his visit to Berlin in February 1909, which Germans admit
+to have helped on the friendly Franco-German agreement of that month on
+Morocco; also in his letter of January 1910, on the occasion of the
+Kaiser's birthday, when he expressed the hope that the United Kingdom
+and Germany might always work together for the maintenance of
+peace[530].
+
+[Footnote 529: I have been assured of this on high authority.]
+
+[Footnote 530: Viscount Esher, _the Influence of King Edward: and Other
+Essays_, p. 56. The "encircling" myth is worked up by Rachfahl, _Kaiser
+und Reich_, p, 228; Reventlow, _op, cit._ pp. 254, 279, 298, etc.; and
+by Rohrbach, _Der deutsche Gedanke in der Welt_ (ch. vi.), where he says
+that King Edward's chief idea from the outset was to cripple Germany. He
+therefore won over Japan, France, Spain, and Russia, his aim being to
+secure all Africa from the Cape to Cairo, and all Asia from the Sinaitic
+Peninsula to Burmah.]
+
+The chief danger to public tranquillity arises from the vigorous
+expansion of some peoples and the decay of others. Nearly all the great
+nations of Europe are expansive; but on their fringe lie other peoples,
+notably the Turks, Persians, Koreans, and the peoples of North Africa,
+who are in a state of decline or semi-anarchy. In such a state of things
+friction is inevitable and war difficult to avoid, unless in the
+councils of the nations goodwill and generosity prevail over the
+suspicion and greed which are too often the dominant motives. Scarcely
+was the Bosnian-Turkish crisis over before Morocco once more became a
+danger to the peace of the world.
+
+There the anarchy continued, with results that strained the relations
+between France and Germany. Nevertheless, on February 8, 1909 (probably
+owing to the friendly offices of Great Britain[531]), the two rivals
+came to an agreement that France should respect the independence of
+Morocco and not oppose German trade in that quarter, while Germany
+declared that her sole interests there were commercial, and that she
+would not oppose "the special political interests of France in that
+country[532]." But, as trade depended on the maintenance of order, this
+vague compact involved difficulties. Clearly, if disorders continued,
+the task of France would be onerous and relatively unprofitable, for she
+would be working largely for the benefit of British and German traders.
+Indeed, the new Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, admitted to the French
+ambassador, Jules Cambon, that thenceforth Morocco was a fruit destined
+to fall into the lap of France; only she must humour public opinion in
+Germany. Unfortunately, the "Consortium," for joint commercial
+enterprises of French and Germans in Morocco and the French Congo, broke
+down on points of detail; and this produced a very sore feeling in
+Germany in the spring of 1911. Further, as the Moorish rebels pushed
+their raids up to the very gates of Fez, French troops in those same
+months proceeded to march to that capital (April 1911). The Kaiser saw
+in that move, and a corresponding advance of Spanish troops in the
+North, a design to partition Morocco. Failing to secure what he
+considered satisfactory assurances, he decided to send to Agadir a
+corvette, the _Panther_ (July 1, 1911), replaced by a cruiser,
+the _Berlin_.
+
+[Footnote 531: Rachfahl, p. 310.]
+
+[Footnote 532: Morel, App. XIV.]
+
+Behind him were ambitious parties which sought to compass
+world-predominance for Germany. The Pan-German, Colonial, and Navy
+Leagues had gained enormous influence since 1905, when they induced the
+Kaiser to visit Tangiers; and early in 1911 they issued pamphlets urging
+the annexation of part of Morocco. The chief, termed _West-Marokko
+deutsch_, was inspired by the Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs,
+Kiderlen-Wächter, who thereafter urged officially that the Government
+must take into account public opinion--which he himself had manipulated.
+
+Again, as at Tangiers in 1905, Germany's procedure was needlessly
+provocative if, as the agreement of 1909 declared, her interests in
+Morocco were solely commercial. If this were so, why send a war-ship,
+when diplomatic insistence on the terms of 1909 would have met the needs
+of the case, especially as German trade with Morocco was less than half
+that of French firms and less than one-third that of British firms?
+Obviously, Germany was bent on something more than the maintenance of
+her trade (which, indeed, the French were furthering by suppressing
+anarchy); otherwise she would not have risked the chance of a collision
+which might at any time result from the presence of a German cruiser
+alongside French war-ships in a small harbour.
+
+It is almost certain that the colonial and war parties at Berlin sought
+to drive on the Kaiser to hostilities. The occasion was favourable. In
+the spring of 1911 France was a prey to formidable riots of
+vine-growers. On June 28 occurred an embarrassing change of Ministry.
+Besides, the French army and navy had not yet recovered from the
+Socialist régime of previous years. The remodelling of the Russian army
+was also very far from complete. Moreover, the Tsar and Kaiser had come
+to a friendly understanding at Potsdam in November 1910, respecting
+Persia and their attitude towards other questions, so that it was
+doubtful whether Russia would assist France if French action in Morocco
+could be made to appear irregular. As for Great Britain, her ability to
+afford sufficiently large and timely succour to the French was open to
+question. In the throes of a sharp constitutional crisis, and beset by
+acute Labour troubles, she was ill-fitted even to defend herself. By the
+close of 1911 the Navy would include only fourteen first-class ships as
+against Germany's nine; while Austria was also becoming a Naval Power.
+The weakness of France and England had appeared in the spring when they
+gave way before Germany's claims in Asia Minor. On March 18, 1911, by a
+convention with Turkey she acquired the right to construct from the
+Bagdad Railway a branch line to Alexandretta, together with large
+privileges over that port which made it practically German, and the
+natural outlet for Mesopotamia and North Syria, heretofore in the sphere
+of Great Britain and France. True, she waived conditionally her claim to
+push the Bagdad line to the Persian Gulf; but her recent bargain with
+the Tsar at Potsdam gave her the lion's share of the trade of
+Western Persia.
+
+After taking these strides in the Levant, Germany ought not to have
+shown jealousy of French progress in Morocco, where her commerce was
+small. As in 1905, she was clearly using the occasion to test the
+validity of the Anglo-French Entente and the effectiveness of British
+support to France. Probably, too, she desired either a territorial
+acquisition in South Morocco, for which the colonial party and most of
+the Press were clamouring; or she intended, in lieu of it, to acquire
+the French Congo. At present it is not clear at which of these objects
+she aimed. Kiderlen-Wächter declared privately that Germany must have
+the Agadir district, and would never merely accept in exchange Congolese
+territory[533].
+
+[Footnote 533: The following facts are significant. On November 9, 1911,
+the Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, assured the Reichstag that Germany had
+never intended to annex Moroccan territory, an assertion confirmed by
+Kiderlen-Wächter on Nov. 17. But during the libel action brought against
+the Berlin _Post_ it was positively affirmed that the Government and
+Kiderlen-Wächter had intended to annex South-West Morocco. A high
+official, Dr. Heilbronn, telephoned so to the _Post_, urging it to
+demand that step.]
+
+Whatever were the real aims of the Kaiser, they ran counter to French
+and British interests. Moreover, the warning of Sir Edward Grey, on July
+4, that we must be consulted as to any new developments, was completely
+ignored; and even on July 21 the German ambassador in London could give
+no assurance as to the policy of his Government. Consequently, on that
+evening Mr. Lloyd George, during a speech at the Mansion House, apprised
+Germany that any attempt to treat us as a negligible factor in the
+Cabinet of Nations "would be a humiliation intolerable for a great
+country like ours to endure." The tension must have been far more severe
+than appeared in the published documents to induce so peace-loving a
+Minister to speak in those terms. They aroused a storm of passion in the
+German Press; and, somewhat later, a German admiral, Stiege, declared
+that they would have justified an immediate declaration of war by
+Germany[534]. Certainly they were more menacing than is usual in
+diplomatic parlance; but our cavalier treatment by Germany (possibly due
+to Bethmann-Hollweg's belief in blunt Bismarckian ways) justified a
+protest, which, after all, was less questionable than Germany's
+despatching a cruiser to Agadir, owing to the reserve of the French
+Foreign Office. Up to July 27 the crisis remained acute; but on that day
+the German ambassador gave assurances as to a probable agreement
+with France.
+
+[Footnote 534: Rear-Admiral Stiege in _Überall_ for March 1912.]
+
+What caused the change of front at Berlin? Probably it was due to a
+sharp financial crisis (an unexpected result of the political crisis),
+which would have produced a general crash in German finance, then in an
+insecure position; and prudence may have counselled the adoption of the
+less ambitious course, namely a friendly negotiation with the French for
+territorial expansion in their Congo territory in return for the
+recognition of their protectorate of Morocco. Such a compromise (which,
+as we shall see, was finally arrived at) involved no loss for Germany.
+On the contrary, she gained fertile districts in the tropics and left
+the French committed to the Morocco venture, which, at great cost to
+them, would tend finally to benefit commerce in general, and therefore
+that of Germany.
+
+Also, before the end of these discussions there occurred two events
+which might well dispose the Kaiser to a compromise with France.
+Firstly, as a result of his negotiations with Russia (then beset by
+severe dearth) he secured larger railway and trading concessions in
+Persia, the compact of August 19 opening the door for further German
+enterprises in the Levant. Secondly, on September 29, Italy declared war
+on Turkey, partly (it is said) because recent German activity in Tripoli
+menaced the ascendancy which she was resolved to acquire in that land.
+This event greatly deranged the Kaiser's schemes. He had hoped to keep
+the Triple Alliance intact, and yet add to it the immense potential
+fighting force of Turkey and the Moslem World. Now, however he might
+"hedge," he could hardly avoid offending either Rome or Constantinople;
+and even if he succeeded, his friends would exhaust each other and be
+useless for the near future. Consequently, the Italo-Turkish War (with
+its sequel, the Balkan War of 1912) dealt him a severe blow. The Triple
+Alliance was at once strained nearly to breaking-point by Austria
+forbidding Italy to undertake naval operations in the Adriatic (probably
+also in the Aegean). Equally serious was the hostility of Moslems to
+Europeans in general which compromised the Kaiser's schemes for
+utilising Islam. Accordingly, for the present, his policy assumed a more
+peaceful guise.
+
+Here, doubtless, are the decisive reasons for the Franco-German accord
+of November 4, 1911, whereby the Berlin Government recognised a French
+protectorate over Morocco and agreed not to interfere in the
+Franco-Spanish negotiation still pending. France opened certain "closed"
+ports (among them Agadir), and guaranteed equality of trading rights to
+all nations. She also ceded to Germany about 100,000 square miles of
+fertile land in the north-west of her Congo territory, which afforded
+access to the rivers Congo and Ubangi. The explosion of Teutonic wrath
+produced by these far from unfavourable conditions revealed the
+magnitude of the designs that prompted the _coup_ of Agadir. The
+Colonial Minister at once resigned; and scornful laughter greeted the
+Chancellor when he announced to the Reichstag that the _Berlin_ would be
+withdrawn from that port, the protection of German subjects being no
+longer necessary. He added that Germany would neither fight for Southern
+Morocco nor dissipate her strength in distant expeditions. In fact, he
+would "avoid any war which was not required by German honour." Far
+different was the tone of the Conservative leader, Herr Heydebrand, who
+declared Mr. Lloyd George's "challenge" to be one which the German
+people would not tolerate; England had sought to involve them in a war
+with France, but they now saw "where the real enemy was to be found."
+The Crown Prince, who was present, loudly applauded these Anglophobe
+outbursts. The German Press showed no less bitterness. Besides
+criticising the Chancellor's blustering beginning and huckstering
+conclusion, they manifested a resolve that Germany should always and
+everywhere succeed. The Berlin journal, the _Post_, went so far as to
+call the Kaiser _ce poltron misérable_ for giving up South Morocco; and
+it was clear that a large section of the German people ardently desired
+war with the Western Powers.
+
+Many Frenchmen and Belgians credited the German colonial party with the
+design of acquiring the whole of the French Congo, as a first step
+towards annexing the Belgian Congo[535]. Belgium became alarmed, and in
+1913 greatly extended the principle of compulsory military service. On
+the other hand, the German Chauvinists certainly desired the acquisition
+of a naval base in Morocco which would help to link up their naval
+stations and facilitate the conquest of a World Empire. This was the
+policy set forth by Bernhardi in the closing parts of his work, _Germany
+and the next War,_ where he protested against the Chancellor's surrender
+of Morocco as degrading to the nation and damaging to its future.
+Following the lead of Treitschke, he depreciated colonies rich merely in
+products; for Germany needed homes for her children in future
+generations, and she must fight for them with all her might at the first
+favourable opportunity. This is the burden of Bernhardi's message, which
+bristles with rage at the loss of Morocco. He regarded that land as more
+important than the Congo; for, in addition to the strategic value of its
+coasts, it offered a fulcrum in the west whereby to raise the Moslems
+against the Triple Entente. In the Epilogue he writes: "Our relations
+with Islam have changed for the worse by the abandonment of
+Morocco. . . . We have lost prestige in the whole Mohammedan world,
+which is a matter of the first importance for us."
+
+[Footnote 535: Hanotaux, _La Politique de l'Équilibre_, p. 417.]
+
+The logical conclusion of Bernhardi's thesis was that Germany and
+Austria should boldly side with the Moors and Turks against France and
+Italy, summoning Islam to arms, if need be, against Christendom. Perhaps
+if Turkey had possessed the 1,500,000 troops whom her War Minister,
+Chevket Pacha, was hopefully striving to raise, this might have been the
+outcome of events. As it was, _Realpolitik_ counselled prudence, and the
+observance of the forms of Christianity.
+
+Certainly there was no sufficient pretext for war. France and Russia had
+humoured Germany. As to "the real enemy," light was thrown on her
+attitude during the debate of November 27, 1911, at Westminster. Sir
+Edward Grey then stated that we had consistently helped on, and not
+impeded, the Franco-German negotiations. Never had we played the
+dog-in-the-manger to Germany. In fact, the Berlin Government would
+greatly have eased the tension if she had declared earlier that she did
+not intend to take part of Morocco. Further, the Entente with France
+(made public on November 24) contained no secret articles; nor were
+there any in any compact made by the British Government. On December 6,
+Mr. Asquith declared that we had no secret engagement with any Power
+obliging us to take up arms. "We do not desire to stand in the light of
+any Power which wants to find its place in the sun. The first of British
+interests is, as it always has been, the peace of the world; and to its
+attainment British diplomacy and policy will be directed." The German
+Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, also said in the Reichstag, "We also,
+sirs, sincerely desire to live in peace and friendship with England"--an
+announcement received with complete silence. Some applause greeted his
+statement that he would welcome any definite proof that England desired
+friendlier relations with Germany.
+
+Thus ended the year 1911. Frenchmen were sore at discovering that the
+Entente entailed no obligation on our part to help them by force of
+arms[536]; and Germans, far from rejoicing at their easy acquisition of
+a new colony, harboured resentment against both the Western Powers.
+Britons had been aroused from party strifes and Labour quarrels by
+finding new proofs of the savage enmity with which Junkers, Colonials,
+and Pan-Germans regarded them; and the problem was--Should England seek
+to regain Germany's friendship, meanwhile remaining aloof from close
+connections with France and Russia; or should she recognise that her
+uncertain attitude possessed all the disadvantages and few of the
+advantages of a definite alliance?
+
+[Footnote 536: Hanotaux, _La Politique de l'Équilibre,_ p. 419.]
+
+Early in 1912 light was thrown on the situation, and the Berlin
+Government thenceforth could not plead ignorance as to our intentions;
+for efforts, both public and private, were made to improve Anglo-German
+relations. Mr. Churchill advocated a friendly understanding in naval
+affairs. Lord Haldane also visited Berlin on an official invitation. He
+declared to that Government that "we would in no circumstances be a
+party to any sort of aggression upon Germany." But we must oppose a
+violation of the neutrality of Belgium, and, if the naval competition
+continued, we should lay down two keels to Germany's one. As a sequel to
+these discussions the two Governments discussed the basis of an Entente.
+It soon appeared that Germany sought to bind us almost unconditionally
+to neutrality in all cases. To this the British Cabinet demurred, but
+suggested the following formula:
+
+     The two Powers being mutually desirous of securing peace and
+     friendship between them, England declares that she will
+     neither make, nor join in, any unprovoked attack upon
+     Germany. Aggression upon Germany is not the subject, and
+     forms no part of any treaty, understanding, or combination to
+     which England is now a party, nor will she become a party to
+     anything that has such an object.
+
+Further than this it refused to go; and Mr. Asquith in his speech of
+October 2, 1914, at Cardiff thus explained the reason:
+
+     They [the Germans] wanted us to go further. They asked us to
+     pledge ourselves absolutely to neutrality in the event of
+     Germany being engaged in war, and this, mark you, at a time
+     when Germany was enormously increasing both her aggressive
+     and defensive resources, and especially upon the sea. They
+     asked us (to put it quite plainly) for a free hand, so far as
+     we were concerned, when they selected the opportunity to
+     overbear, to dominate, the European World. To such a demand,
+     but one answer was possible, and that was the answer we
+     gave[537].
+
+[Footnote 537: See _Times_ of October 3, 1914, and July 20, 1915 (with
+quotations from the _North German Gazette_). Bethmann-Hollweg declared
+to the Reichstag, on August 19, 1915, that Asquith's statement was
+false; but in a letter published on August 26, and an official statement
+of September 1, 1915, Sir E. Grey convincingly refuted him.]
+
+Thus, efforts for a good understanding with Germany broke down owing to
+the exacting demands of German diplomacy for our neutrality in all
+circumstances (including, of course, a German invasion of Belgium).
+Thereupon she proceeded with a new Navy Act (the fifth in fourteen
+years) for a large increase in construction[538].
+
+[Footnote 538: Castle and Hurd, _German Naval Power_, pp. 142-152.]
+
+Perhaps Germany would have been more conciliatory if she had foreseen
+the events of the following autumn. As has already appeared, Italy's
+attack upon the Turks (coinciding with difficulties which their rigour
+raised up) furnished the opportunity--for which the Balkan States had
+been longing--to shake off the Turkish yoke. On March 13, 1912, Servia
+and Bulgaria framed a secret treaty of alliance against Turkey, which
+contained conditions as to joint action against Austria or Roumania, if
+they attacked, and a general understanding as to the partition of
+Macedonia. Greece came into the agreement later[539]. No time was fixed
+for action against Turkey; but in view of her obstinacy and intolerance
+action was inevitable. She precipitated matters by massacring Christians
+in and on the borders of Macedonia. Thereupon the three States and
+Montenegro demanded the enforcement of the reforms and toleration
+guaranteed by the Treaty of Berlin (see p. 242). The Turks having as
+usual temporised (though they were still at war with Italy[540]), the
+four States demanded complete autonomy and the reconstruction of
+frontiers according to racial needs. Both sides rejected the joint
+offers of Austria and Russia for friendly intervention; whereupon Turkey
+declared war upon Bulgaria and Servia (October 17). On the morrow Greece
+declared war upon her. Montenegro had already opened hostilities. In
+view of these facts, the later assertions of the German Powers, that the
+Balkan League was a Russian plot for overthrowing Turkey and weakening
+Teutonic influence, is palpably false. Turkey had treated her Christian
+subjects (including the once faithful Albanians) worse than ever. Their
+union against Turkey had long been foretold. It was helped on by
+Ottoman misrule, and finally cemented by massacre. Further, Russia and
+Austria acted together in seeking to avert an attack on Turkey; and the
+Powers collectively warned the Balkan States that no changes of boundary
+would be tolerated. Those States refused to accept the European fiat;
+for the present misrule was intolerable, and the inability of the Turks
+to cope with either the Italians or the Albanian rebels opened a vista
+of hope. The German accusations levelled at Russia were obviously part
+of the general scheme adopted at Berlin and Vienna for exasperating
+public opinion against the Slav cause.
+
+[Footnote 539: The claim that the Greek statesman, Venizelos, founded
+the league seems incorrect. So, too, is the rumour that Russia, through
+her minister, Hartvig, at Belgrade, framed it (but see N. Jorga, _Hist.
+des États balcaniques_, p. 436). Miliukoff, in a "Report to the Carnegie
+Foundation," denies this. The plan occurred to many men so soon as
+Turkish Reform proved a sham. Venizelos is said to have mooted it to Mr.
+James Bourchier in May 1911. (R. Rankin, _Inner History of the Balkan
+War_, p. 13.)]
+
+[Footnote 540: Italy made peace on October 15, gaining possession of
+Tripoli and agreeing to evacuate the Aegean Isles, but on various
+pretexts kept her troops there. A little later she renewed the Triple
+Alliance with Germany and Austria for five years. This may have resulted
+from the Balkan crisis then beginning, and from the visits of the
+Russian Foreign Minister, Sazonoff, to Paris and London, whereupon it
+was officially stated that Russia adhered both to her treaty with France
+and her Entente with England. He added that the grouping of the great
+States was necessary in the interests of the Balance of Power.]
+
+The Balkan States, though waging war with no combined aim, speedily
+overthrew the Turks in the most dramatic and decisive conflict of our
+age. The Greeks entered Salonica on November 8 (a Bulgarian force a few
+days later); on November 18 the Servians occupied Monastir, and the
+Albanian seaport, Durazzo, at the end of the month. The Bulgar army
+meanwhile drove the Turks southwards in headlong rout until in the third
+week of November the fortified Tchataldja Lines opposed an invincible
+obstacle. There, on December 3, all the belligerents, except Greece,
+concluded an armistice, and negotiations for peace were begun at London
+on December 16. Up to January 22, 1913, Turkey seemed inclined towards
+peace; but on the morrow a revolution took place at Constantinople, the
+Ministry of Kiamil Pacha being ousted by the warlike faction of Enver
+Bey. He, one of the contrivers of the revolution of July 1908, had since
+been attached to the Turkish Embassy at Berlin; and his successful coup
+was a triumph of German influence. The Peace Conference at London broke
+up on February 1. In March the Greeks and Bulgars captured Janina and
+Adrianople respectively, while Scutari fell to the Montenegrins (April
+22). The Powers (Russia included) demanded the evacuation of this town
+by Montenegro; for they had decided to constitute Albania (the most
+turbulent part of the Peninsula) an independent State, including
+Scutari.
+
+In Albania, as elsewhere, the feuds of rival races had drenched the
+Balkan lands with blood; Greek and Bulgar forces had fought near
+Salonica, and there seemed slight chance of a peaceful settlement in
+Central Macedonia. That chance disappeared when the Powers in the
+resumed Peace Conference at London persisted in ruling the Serbs and
+Montenegrins out of Albania, a decision obviously dictated by the
+longings of Austria and Italy to gain that land at a convenient
+opportunity. This blow to Servia's aspirations aroused passionate
+resentment both there and in Russia. Finally the Serbs gave way, and
+claimed a far larger part of Macedonia than had been mapped out in their
+agreement with Bulgaria prior to the war. Hence arose strifes between
+their forces, in which the Greeks also sided against the Bulgars.
+Meanwhile, the London Conference of the Powers and the Balkan States
+framed terms of peace, which were largely due to the influence of Sir
+Edward Grey[541].
+
+[Footnote 541: See _Times_ of May 30, 1913; Rankin, _op. cit._ p. 517.]
+
+They may be disregarded here; for they were soon disregarded by all the
+Balkan States. Seeking to steal a march upon their rivals, the Bulgar
+forces (it is said on the instigation of their King and his unofficial
+advisers) made a sudden and treacherous attack. Now, the dour, pushing
+Bulgars are the most unpopular race in the Peninsula. Therefore not only
+Serbs and Greeks, but also Roumanians and Turks turned savagely upon
+them[542]. Overwhelmed on all sides, Bulgaria sued for peace; and again
+the Great Powers had to revise terms that they had declared to be final.
+Ultimately, on August 10, 1913, the Peace of Bukharest was signed. It
+imposed the present boundaries of the Balkan States, and left them
+furious but helpless to resist a policy known to have been dictated
+largely from Vienna and Berlin. In May 1914 a warm friend of the Balkan
+peoples thus described its effects: "No permanent solution of the Balkan
+Question has been arrived at. The ethnographical questions have been
+ignored. A portion of each race has been handed over to be ruled by
+another which it detests. Servia has acquired a population which is
+mostly Bulgar and Albanian, though of the latter she has massacred and
+expelled many thousands. Bulgars have been captured by Greeks, Greeks by
+Bulgars, Albanians by Greeks, and not one of these races has as yet
+shown signs of being capable to rule another justly. The seeds have been
+sown of hatreds that will grow and bear fruit[543]." Especially
+lamentable were the recovery of the Adrianople district by the Turks and
+the unprovoked seizure of the purely Bulgar district south of Silistria
+by Roumania. On the other hand, Kaiser William thus congratulated her
+king, Charles (a Hohenzollern), on the peace, a "splendid result, for
+which not only your own people but all the belligerent States and the
+whole of Europe have to thank your wise and truly statesmanlike policy.
+At the same time your mentioning that I have been able to contribute to
+what has been achieved is a great satisfaction to me. I rejoice at our
+mutual co-operation in the cause of peace."
+
+[Footnote 542: Roumania's sudden intervention annoyed Austria, who had
+hoped for a longer and more exhausting war in the Balkans.]
+
+[Footnote 543: Edith Durham, _The Struggle for Scutari_, p. 315.]
+
+This telegram, following the trend of Austro-German policy, sought to
+win back Roumania to the Central Powers, from which she had of late
+sheered off. In other respects the Peace of Bukharest was a notable
+triumph for Austria and Germany. Not only had they rendered impossible a
+speedy revival of the Balkan League which had barred their expansion
+towards the Levant, but they bolstered up the Ottoman Power when its
+extrusion from Europe seemed imminent. They also exhausted Servia,
+reduced Bulgaria to ruin, and imposed on Albania a German prince,
+William of Wied, an officer in the Prussian army, who was destined to
+view his principality from the quarter-deck of his yacht. Such was the
+Treaty of Bukharest. Besides dealing a severe blow to the Slav cause, it
+perpetuated the recent infamous spoliations and challenged every one
+concerned to further conflicts. Within a year the whole of the Continent
+was in flames.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE CRISIS OF 1914
+
+     "We have an interest in the independence of Belgium which is
+     wider than that which we have in the literal operation of the
+     guarantee. It is found in the answer to the question whether
+     this country would quietly stand by and witness the
+     perpetration of the direst crime that ever stained the pages
+     of history and thus become participators in the
+     sin."--GLADSTONE:
+
+     Speech of August 1870.
+
+
+The Prussian and German Army Bills of 1860 and onwards have tended to
+make military preparedness a weighty factor in the recent development of
+nations; and the issue of events has too often been determined, not by
+the justice of a cause, but rather by the armed strength at the back of
+it. We must therefore glance at the military and naval preparations
+which enabled the Central Powers to win their perilous triumph over
+Russia and the Slavs of the Balkans. In April 1912 the German Chancellor
+introduced to the Reichstag Army and Navy Bills (passed on May 21)
+providing for great increases in the navy, also forces amounting to two
+new army corps, and that, too, though Germany's financial position was
+admitted to be "very serious," and the proposed measures merely
+precautionary. Nevertheless, only Socialists, Poles, and Alsatians voted
+against them. But the events of the first Balkan War were cited as
+menacing Germany with a conflict in which she "might have to protect,
+against several enemies, frontiers which are extended and by nature to a
+large extent open." A new Army Bill was therefore introduced in March
+1913 (passed in June), which increased the total of the forces by
+145,000, and raised their peace strength in 1914 to more than 870,000
+men. The Chancellor referred gratefully to "the extraordinary ability
+and spirit of conciliation" of Sir Edward Grey during the Conference at
+London, and admitted that a collision between Germans and Slavs was not
+inevitable; but Germany must take precautions, this, too, at a time when
+Russia and Austria agreed to place their forces again on a peace
+footing. Germany, far from relaxing her efforts after the sharp rebuff
+to the Slavonic cause in the summer of 1913, continued her military
+policy. It caused grave apprehension, especially as the new drastic
+taxes (estimated to produce £50,000,000) were loudly declared a burden
+that could not long be borne. As to the naval proposals, the Chancellor
+commended Mr. Churchill's suggestion (on March 26) of a "naval holiday,"
+but said there were many difficulties in the way.
+
+The British Naval Budget of 1912 had provided for a six years' programme
+of 25 _Dreadnoughts_ against Germany's 14; and for every extra German
+ship two British would be added. In March 1913 this was continued, with
+the offer of a "holiday" for 1914 if Germany would soon accept. No
+acceptance came. The peace strength of the British Regular Army was
+reckoned early in 1914 at 156,000 men, with about 250,000 effective
+Territorials.
+
+The increases in the German army induced the French Chambers, in July
+1913, to recur to three years' military service, that of two years being
+considered inadequate in face of the new menace from beyond the
+Rhine[544]. Jaurès and the Socialists, who advocated a national militia
+on the Swiss system, were beaten by 496 votes to 77, whereupon some of
+them resorted to obstructive tactics, and the measure was carried with
+some difficulty on July 8. The General Confederation of Labour and the
+Anarchist Congress both announced their resolve to keep up the
+agitation in the army against the three years' service. Mutinous
+symptoms had already appeared. The military equipment of the French army
+was officially admitted to be in an unsatisfactory state during the
+debate of July 13, 1914, when it appeared that France was far from ready
+for a campaign. The peace strength of the army was then reckoned at
+645,000 men.
+
+[Footnote 544: The _Temps_ of March 30, 1913, estimated that Germany
+would soon have 500,000 men in her first line, as against 175,000
+French, unless France recurred to three years' service. See M. Sembat,
+_Faites un Roi, si non faites la Paix._]
+
+In Russia in 1912 the chief efforts were concentrated on the navy. As
+regards the army, it was proposed in the Budget of July 1913 to retain
+300,000 men on active service for six months longer than before, thus
+strengthening the forces, especially during the winter months. Apart
+from this measure (a reply to that of Germany) no important development
+took place in 1912-14. The peace strength of the Russian army for Europe
+in 1914 exceeded 1,200,000[545]. That of Austria-Hungary exceeded
+460,000 men, that of Italy 300,000 men. Consequently the Triple Entente
+had on foot just over 2,000,000 men as against 1,590,000 for the Triple
+Alliance; but the latter group formed a solid well-prepared block, while
+the Triple Entente were separate units; and the Russian and British
+forces could not be speedily marshalled at the necessary points on the
+Continent. Moreover, all great wars, especially from the time of
+Frederick the Great, have shown the advantage of the central position,
+if vigorously and skilfully used.
+
+[Footnote 545: G. Alexinsky, _La Russie et la guerre_, pp. 83-88.]
+
+In these considerations lies the key to the European situation in the
+summer of 1914. The simmering of fiscal discontent and unsated military
+pride in Germany caused general alarm, especially when the memories of
+the Wars of Liberation of 1813-14 were systematically used to excite
+bellicose ardour against France. Against England it needed no official
+stimulus, for professors and teachers had long taught that "England was
+the foe." In particular preparations had been made in South-West Africa
+for stirring up a revolt of the Boers as a preliminary to the expulsion
+of the British from South Africa. Relations had been established with
+De Wet and Maritz. In 1913 the latter sent an agent to the German colony
+asking what aid the Kaiser would give and how far he would guarantee the
+independence of South Africa. The reply came: "I will not only
+acknowledge the independence of South Africa, but I will even guarantee
+it, provided the rebellion is started immediately[546]." The reason for
+the delay is not known. Probably on further inquiry it was found that
+the situation was not ready either in Europe or in South Africa. But as
+to German preparations for a war with England both in South-West Africa
+and Egypt there can be no doubt. India and probably Ireland also were
+not neglected.
+
+[Footnote 546: General Botha's speech at Cape Town, July 25, 1915.]
+
+In fact a considerable part of the German people looked forward to a war
+with Great Britain as equally inevitable and desirable. She was rich and
+pleasure-loving; her Government was apt to wait till public opinion had
+been decisively pronounced; her sons, too selfish to defend her, paid
+"mercenaries" to do it. Her scattered possessions would therefore fall
+an easy prey to a well-organised, warlike, and thoroughly patriotic
+nation. Let the world belong to the ablest race, the Germanic. Such had
+been the teachings of Treitschke and his disciples long before the Boer
+War or the Anglo-French Entente. Those events and the Morocco Question
+in 1905 and 1911 sharpened the rivalry; but it is a superficial reading
+of events to suppose that Morocco caused the rivalry, which clearly
+originated in the resolve of the Germans to possess a World-Empire. So
+soon as their influential classes distinctly framed that resolve a
+conflict was inevitable with Great Britain, which blocked their way to
+the Ocean and possessed in every sea valuable colonies which she seemed
+little able to defend. The Morocco affair annoyed them because, firstly,
+they wanted that strategic position, and secondly, they desired to
+sunder the Anglo-French Entente. But Morocco was settled in 1911, and
+still the friction continued unabated. There remained the Eastern
+Question, a far more serious affair; for on it hung the hopes of Germany
+in the Orient and of Austria in the Balkans.
+
+The difficulty for Germany was, how to equate her world-wide ambitions
+with the restricted and diverse aims of Austria and Italy. The interests
+of the two Central Empires harmonised only respecting the Eastern
+Question. _Weltpolitik_ in general and Morocco in particular did not in
+the least concern Austria. Further, the designs of Vienna and Rome on
+Albania clashed hopelessly. An effort was made in the Triple Alliance,
+as renewed in 1912, to safeguard Italian interests by insisting that, if
+Austria gained ground in the Balkans, Italy should have "compensation."
+The effort to lure the Government of Rome into Balkan adventures
+prompted the Austrian offer of August 9, 1913, for joint action against
+Servia. Italy refused, alleging that, as Servia was not guilty of
+aggression, the Austro-Italian Alliance did not hold good for such a
+venture. Germany also refused the Austrian offer--why is not clear.
+Austria was annoyed with the gains of Servia in the Peace of Bukharest,
+for which Kaiser William was largely responsible. Probably, then, they
+differed as to some of the details of the Balkan settlement. But it is
+far more probable that Germany checked the Austrians because she was not
+yet fully ready for vigorous action. The doctrine of complete
+preparedness was edifyingly set forth by a well-informed writer,
+Rohrbach, who, in 1912, urged his countrymen to be patient. In 1911 they
+had been wrong to worry France and England about Morocco, where German
+interests were not vital. Until the Bagdad and Hedjaz Railways had
+neared their goals, Turkish co-operation in an attack on Egypt would be
+weak. Besides, adds Rohrbach, the Kiel-North Sea Canal was not ready,
+and Heligoland and other coast defences were not sufficiently advanced
+for Germany confidently to face a war with England. Thanks to the
+Kaiser, the fleet would soon be in a splendid condition, and then
+Germany could launch out boldly in the world. The same course was urged
+by Count Reventlow early in 1914. Germany must continue to arm, though
+fully conscious that she was "constructing for her foreign politics and
+diplomacy, a Calvary which _nolens volens_ she would have to
+climb[547]."
+
+[Footnote 547: Rohrbach, _Der deutsche Gedanke in der Welt_ (1912), p.
+216 (more than 10,000 copies of this work were sold in a year);
+Reventlow, _Deutschlands auswärtige Politik,_ p. 251.]
+
+Other evidence, especially from Bernhardi, Frobenius, and the works of
+the Pan-German and Navy Leagues, might be quoted in proof of Germany's
+design to begin war when she was fully prepared. Now, the immense sums
+voted in the War Budget of 1913 had not as yet provided the stores of
+artillery and ammunition that were to astonish the world. Nor had Turkey
+recovered from the wounds of 1912. Nor was the enlarged Kiel-North Sea
+Canal ready. Its opening at Midsummer 1914 created a naval situation far
+more favourable to Germany. A year earlier a French naval officer had
+prophesied that she would await the opening of the canal before
+declaring war[548].
+
+[Footnote 548: _Revue des questions diplomatiques_ (1913), pp. 417-18.]
+
+At Midsummer 1914 the general position was as follows. Germany had
+reached the pitch of perfection in armaments, and the Kiel Canal was
+open. France was unready, though the three years' service promised to
+improve her army. The Russian forces were slowly improving in number and
+cohesion. Belgium also, alarmed by the German menace both in Europe and
+on the Congo, had in 1912-13 greatly extended the principle of
+compulsory service, so that in 1914 she would have more than 200,000 men
+available, and by 1926 as many as 340,000. In naval strength it was
+unlikely that Germany would catch up Great Britain. But the submarine
+promised to make even the most powerful ironclads of doubtful value.
+
+Consequently, Germany and her friends (except perhaps Turkey) could
+never hope to have a longer lead over the Entente Powers than in 1914,
+at least as regards efficiency and preparedness. Therefore in the eyes
+of the military party at Berlin the problem resembled that of 1756,
+which Frederick the Great thus stated: "The war was equally certain and
+inevitable. It only remained to calculate whether there was more
+advantage in deferring it a few months or beginning at once." We know
+what followed in 1756--the invasion of neutral Saxony, because she had
+not completed her armaments[549]. For William II. in 1914 the case of
+Belgium was very similar. She afforded him the shortest way of striking
+at his enemy and the richest land for feeding the German forces. That
+Prussia had guaranteed Belgian neutrality counted as naught; that in
+1912 Lord Haldane had warned him of the hostility of England if he
+invaded Belgium was scarcely more important. William, like his ancestor,
+acted solely on military considerations. He despised England: for was
+she not distracted by fierce party feuds, by Labour troubles, by wild
+women, and by what seemed to be the beginnings of civil war in Ireland?
+All the able rulers of the House of Hohenzollern have discerned when to
+strike and to strike hard. In July 1914 William II.'s action was
+typically Hohenzollern; and by this time his engaging personality and
+fiery speeches, aided by professorial and Press propaganda, had
+thoroughly Prussianised Germany. In regard to _moral_ as well as
+_matériel_, "the day" had come by Midsummer 1914.
+
+[Footnote 549: Frédéric, _Hist. de la guerre de sept Ans_, i. p. 37.]
+
+Moreover, her generally passive partner, Austria, was then excited to
+frenzy by the murder of the heir to the throne, Archduke Francis
+Ferdinand. The criminals were Austrian Serbs; but no proof was then or
+has since been forthcoming as to the complicity of the Servian
+Government. Nevertheless, in the state of acute tension long existing
+between Servia and Austria-Hungary, the affair seemed the climax of a
+series of efforts at wrecking the Dual Monarchy and setting up a
+Serbo-Croatian Kingdom. Therefore German and Magyar sentiment caught
+flame, and war with Servia was loudly demanded. Dr. Dillon, while
+minimising the question of the murder, prophesied that the quarrel would
+develop into a gigantic struggle between Teuton and Slav[550]. In this
+connection we must remember that the Central Empires had twice dictated
+to the rest of Europe: first, in the Bosnian crisis of 1908-9; secondly,
+in the negotiations which led to the Treaty of Bukharest (August 1913).
+On other occasions Kaiser William had bent the will of Tsar Nicholas
+II., notably in the Potsdam interview of November 1910. It is therefore
+possible that Berlin reckoned once more on the complaisance of Russia;
+and in that event Austria would have dragooned Servia and refashioned
+the Balkan lands at her will, Germany meanwhile "keeping the ring." This
+explanation of the crisis is, however, open to the objection that the
+questions at issue more vitally affected Russia than did those of
+1908-10, and she had nearly recovered normal strength. Unless the
+politicians of Berlin and Vienna were blind, they must have foreseen
+that Russia would aid Servia in resisting the outrageous demands sent
+from Vienna to Belgrade on July 23. Those demands were incompatible with
+Servia's independence; and though she, within the stipulated forty-eight
+hours, acquiesced in all save two of them, the Austrian Government
+declared war (July 28). In so doing it relied on the assurances of the
+German Ambassador, von Tchirsky, that Russia would not fight. But by way
+of retort to the Austrian order for complete mobilisation (July 31, 1
+A.M.), Russia quite early on that same day ordered a similar
+measure[551].
+
+[Footnote 550: _Daily Telegraph_, July 25, 1914.]
+
+[Footnote 551: _J'accuse_, pp. 134-5 (German edition). The partial
+mobilisations of Austria and Russia earlier were intended to threaten
+and protect Servia. The time of Austria's order for complete
+mobilisation is shown in French Yellow Book, No. 115. That of Russia in
+Austrian "Rotbuch," No. 52, and Russian Orange Book, No. 77.]
+
+The procedure of Austria and Germany now claims our attention. The
+policy of Count Berchtold, Austria's Foreign Minister, had generally
+been pacific. On July 28 he yielded to popular clamour for war against
+Servia, but only, it appears, because of his belief that "Russia would
+have no right to intervene after receiving his assurance that Austria
+sought no territorial aggrandisement." On July 30 and 31 he consented to
+continue friendly discussions with Russia. Even on August 1 the Austrian
+Ambassador at Petrograd expressed to the Foreign Minister, Sazonoff,
+the hope that things had not gone too far[552]. There was then still a
+hope that Sir Edward Grey's offer of friendly mediation might be
+accepted by Germany, Austria, and Russia. But on August 1 Germany
+declared war on Russia.
+
+[Footnote 552: Austrian "Rotbuch," Nos. 50-56; British White Papers,
+Miscellaneous (1914), No. 6 (No. 137), and No. 10, p. 3; French Yellow
+Book, No. 120.]
+
+It is well to remember that by her action in August 1913 she held back
+Austria from a warlike policy. In July 1914 some of Germany's officials
+knew of the tenor of the Austrian demands on the Court of Belgrade; and
+her Ambassador at Vienna stated on July 26 that Germany knew what she
+was doing in backing up Austria. Kaiser William, who had been on a
+yachting cruise, hurriedly returned to Berlin on the night of July
+26-27. He must have approved of Austria's declaration of war against
+Servia on July 28, for on that day his Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg,
+finally rejected Sir Edward Grey's proposal of a Peace Conference to
+settle that dispute. The Chancellor then also expressed to our
+Ambassador, Sir Edward Goschen, the belief that Russia had no right to
+intervene in the Austro-Serb affair. The Austrian Ambassador at Berlin
+also opined that "Russia neither wanted nor was in a position to make
+war." This belief was widely expressed in diplomatic circles at Berlin.
+Military men probably viewed matters from that standpoint; and in all
+probability there was a struggle between the civilians and the soldiers,
+which seems to have ended in a victory for the latter in an important
+Council meeting held at Potsdam on the evening of July 29. Immediately
+afterwards the Chancellor summoned Sir Edward Goschen and made to him
+the "infamous proposals" for the neutrality of Great Britain in case of
+a European War, provided that Germany (1) would engage to take no
+territory from the mainland of France (he would make no promise
+respecting the French colonies); (2) would respect the neutrality of
+Holland; (3) would restore the independence of Belgium in case the
+French menace compelled her to invade that country.
+
+These proposals prove that by the evening of July 29 Germany regarded
+war as imminent[553]. But why? Even in the East matters did not as yet
+threaten such a conflict. Russia had declared that Servia was not to be
+made a vassal of the Hapsburgs; and, to give effect to that declaration,
+she had mobilised the southern and eastern portions of her forces as a
+retort to a similar partial mobilisation by Austria. But neither Russia
+nor, perhaps, Austria wished for, or expected, a European war[554].
+Austria seems to have expected a _limited_ war, _i.e._ only with the
+Serbs. She denied that the Russians had any right to intervene so long
+as she did not annex Serb land. Her aim was to reduce the Serbs to
+vassalage, and she expected Germany successfully to prevent Russia's
+intervention, as in 1909[555]. The German proposals of July 29 are the
+first clear sign of a general conflict; for they presumed the
+probability of a war with France in which Belgium, and perhaps England,
+might be involved while Holland would be left alone. In the course of
+his remarks the Chancellor said that "he had in mind a general
+neutrality agreement between England and Germany"--a reference to the
+German offers of 1912 described in this chapter. As at that time the
+Chancellor sought to tie our hands in view of any action by Germany, so,
+too, at present his object clearly was to preclude the possibility of
+our stirring on behalf of Belgium. Both Goschen and Grey must have seen
+the snare. The former referred the proposals to Grey, who of course
+decisively refused them.
+
+[Footnote 553: M. Jules Cambon telegraphed from Berlin to his Government
+on July 30 that late on July 29 Germany had ordered mobilisation, but
+countermanded it in view of the reserve of Sir Edward Goschen as to
+England's attitude, and owing to the Tsar's telegram of July 29 to the
+Kaiser. Berlin papers which had announced the mobilisation were seized.
+All measures preliminary to mobilisation had been taken (French Yellow
+Book, No. 107; German White Book, No. 21).]
+
+[Footnote 554: Russian Orange Book, Nos. 25, 40, 43, 58.]
+
+[Footnote 555: Austrian "Rotbuch," Nos. 28, 31, 44; Brit. White Paper,
+Nos. 91-97, 161. _J'accuse_ (III. A) goes too far in accusing Austria of
+consciously provoking a European War; for, as I have shown, she wished
+on August 1 to continue negotiations with Russia. The retort that she
+did so only when she knew that Germany was about to throw down the
+gauntlet, seems to me far-fetched. Besides, Austria was not ready;
+Germany was.]
+
+This was the first of Grey's actions which betokened tension with
+Germany. Up to the 28th his efforts for peace had seemed not unlikely to
+be crowned with success. On July 20, that is three days before Austria
+precipitated the crisis, he begged the Berlin Government to seek to
+moderate her demands on Servia. The day after the Austrian Note he urged
+a Conference between France and England on one side and Germany and
+Italy on the other so as to counsel moderation to their respective
+Allies, Russia and Austria. It was Germany and Austria who negatived
+this by their acts of the 28th. Still Grey worked for peace, with the
+approval of Russia, and, on July 30 to August 1, of Austria. But on July
+31 and August 1 occurred events which frustrated these efforts. On July
+31 the Berlin Government, hearing of the complete mobilisation by Russia
+(a retort to the similar proceeding of Austria a few hours earlier),
+sent a stiff demand to Petrograd for demobilisation within twelve hours;
+also to Paris for a reply within eighteen hours whether it would remain
+neutral in case of a Russo-German War.
+
+Here we must pause to notice that to ask Russia to demobilise, without
+requiring the same measure from Austria, was manifestly unjust. Russia
+could not have assented without occupying an inferior position to
+Austria. If Germany had desired peace, she would have suggested the same
+action for each of the disputants. Further, while blaming the Russians
+for mobilising, she herself had taken all the preliminary steps,
+including what is called _Kriegsgefahr_, which made her army far better
+prepared for war than mobilisation itself did for the Russian Empire in
+view of its comparatively undeveloped railway system. Again, if the
+Kaiser wished to avoid war, why did he not agree to await the arrival
+(on August 1) of the special envoy, Tatisheff, whom, on the night of
+July 30, the Tsar had despatched to Berlin[556]? There is not a single
+sign that the Berlin Government really feared "the Eastern Colossus,"
+though statements as to "the eastern peril" were very serviceable in
+frightening German Socialists into line.
+
+[Footnote 556: German White Book, No. 23_a_; _J'accuse_, Section III. B,
+pp. 153, 164 (German edit.), shows that the German White Book suppressed
+the Tsar's second telegram of July 29 to the Kaiser, inviting him to
+refer the Austro-Serb dispute to the Hague Tribunal. (See, too, J.W.
+Headlam, _History of Twelve Days,_ p. 183.)]
+
+The German ultimatum failed to cow Russia; and as she returned no
+answer, the Kaiser declared war on August 1. He added by telegram that
+he had sought, _in accord with England,_ to mediate between Russia and
+Austria, but the Russian mobilisation led to his present action. In
+reply to the German demand at Paris the French Premier, M. Viviani,
+declared on August 1 at 1 P.M. that France would do that "which her
+interests dictated"--an evasive reply designed to gain time and to see
+what course Russia would take. The Kaiser having declared war on Russia,
+France had no alternative but to come to the assistance of her Ally. But
+the Kaiser's declaration of war against France did not reach Paris until
+August 3 at 6.45 P.M.[557] His aim was to leave France and Belgium in
+doubt as to his intentions, and meanwhile to mass overwhelming forces on
+their borders, especially that of Belgium.
+
+[Footnote 557: German White Book, Nos. 26, 27; French Yellow Book, No.
+147.]
+
+Meanwhile, on August 1, German officials detained and confiscated the
+cargoes of a few British ships. On August 2 German troops violated the
+neutrality of Luxemburg. On the same day Sir Edward Grey assured the
+French ambassador, M. Paul Cambon, that if the German fleet attacked
+that of France or her coasts, the British fleet would afford protection.
+This assurance depended, however, on the sanction of Parliament. It is
+practically certain that Parliament would have sanctioned this
+proceeding; and, if so, war would have come about owing to the naval
+understanding with France[558], that is, if Germany chose to disregard
+it. But another incident brought matters to a clearer issue. On August
+3, German troops entered Belgium, though on the previous day the German
+ambassador had assured the Government of King Albert that no such step
+would be taken. The pretext now was that the French were about to
+invade Belgium, as to which there was then, and has not been since, any
+proof whatever.
+
+[Footnote 558: British White Paper, No. 105 and _Enclosures_, also No.
+116.]
+
+Here we must go back in order to understand the action of the British,
+French, and German Governments. They and all the Powers had signed the
+treaty of 1839 guaranteeing the independence of Belgium; and nothing had
+occurred since to end their engagement. The German proposals of July 29,
+1914, having alarmed Sir Edward Grey, he required both from Paris and
+Berlin assurances that neither Power would invade Belgium. That of
+France on August 1 was clear and satisfactory. On July 31 the German
+Secretary of State, von Jagow, declined to give a reply, because "any
+reply they [the Emperor and Chancellor] might give could not but
+disclose a certain amount of their plan of campaign in the event of war
+ensuing." As on August 2 the official assurances of the German
+ambassador at Brussels were satisfactory, the British Foreign Office
+seems to have felt no great alarm on this topic. But at 7 P.M. of that
+evening the same ambassador presented a note from his Government
+demanding the right to march its troops into Belgium in order to prevent
+a similar measure by the French. On the morrow Belgium protested against
+this act, and denied the rumour as to French action. King Albert also
+telegraphed to King George asking for the help of the United Kingdom.
+The tidings reached the British Cabinet after it had been carefully
+considering whether German aggression on Belgium would not constitute a
+_casus belli_[559].
+
+[Footnote 559: British White Paper, Nos. 123, 151, 153; Belgian Grey
+Book, Nos. 20-25. For a full and convincing refutation of the German
+charges that our military attachés at Brussels in 1906 and 1912 had
+bound us by _conventions_(!) to land an army in Belgium, see second
+Belgian Grey Book, pp. 103-6; Headlam, _op. cit._, ch. xvi., also p.
+377, on the charge that France was about to invade Belgium.]
+
+The news of the German demand and the King's appeal reached Westminster
+just before the first debate on August 3. Sir Edward Grey stated that we
+were not parties to the Franco-Russian Alliance, of which we did not
+know the exact terms; and there was no binding compact with France; but
+the conversations on naval affairs pledged us to consult her with a
+view to preventing an unprovoked attack by the German navy. He explained
+his conditional promise to M. Cambon. Thereupon Mr. Redmond promised the
+enthusiastic support of all Irishmen. Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, though
+demurring to the policy of Sir Edward Grey, said, "If the Right
+Honourable gentleman could come to us and tell us that a small European
+nationality like Belgium is in danger, and could assure us that he is
+going to confine the conflict to that question, then we would support
+him." Now, the Cabinet had by this time resolved that the independence
+of Belgium should be a test question, as it was in 1870. Therefore,
+there seemed the hope that not only the Irish but all the Labour party
+would give united support to the Government. By the evening debate
+official information had arrived; and, apart from some cavilling
+criticisms, Parliament was overwhelmingly in favour of decided action on
+behalf of Belgium. Sir Edward Grey despatched to Berlin an ultimatum
+demanding the due recognition of Belgian neutrality by Germany. No
+answer being sent, Great Britain and Germany entered on a state of war
+shortly before midnight of August 4.
+
+The more fully the facts are known, the clearer appears the aggressive
+character of German policy. Some of her Ministers doubted the
+advisability of war, and hoped to compass their ends by threats as in
+1909 and 1913; but they were overborne by the bellicose party on or
+shortly before July 29. Whether the Kaiser, the Crown Prince, or the
+General Staff is most to blame, it is idle to speculate; but German
+diplomacy at the crisis shows every sign of having been forced on by
+military men. Bethmann-Hollweg was never remarkable for breadth of view
+and clearness of insight; yet he alone could scarcely have perpetrated
+the follies which alienated Italy and outraged the sentiments of the
+civilised world in order to gain a few days' start over France and stab
+her unguarded side. It is a clumsy imitation of the policy of
+Frederick in 1756.
+
+As to the forbearance of Great Britain at the crisis, few words are
+needed. In earlier times the seizure of British ships and their cargoes
+(August 1) would have led to a rupture. Clearly, Sir Edward Grey and his
+colleagues clung to peace as long as possible. The wisdom of his
+procedure at one or two points has been sharply impugned. Critics have
+said that early in the crisis he should have empowered Sir George
+Buchanan, our ambassador at Petrograd, to join Russia and France in a
+declaration of our resolve to join them in case of war[560]. But (1) no
+British Minister is justified in committing his country to such a course
+of action. (2) The terms of the Ententes did not warrant it. (3) A
+menace to Germany and Austria would, by the terms of the Triple
+Alliance, have compelled Italy to join them, and it was clearly the aim
+of the British Government to avert such a disaster. (4) On July 30 and
+31 Grey declared plainly to Germany that she must not count on our
+neutrality in all cases, and that a Franco-German War (quite apart from
+the question of Belgium) would probably draw us in[561].
+
+[Footnote 560: British White Paper, Nos. 6, 24, 99; Russian Orange Book,
+No. 17.]
+
+[Footnote 561: British White Paper, Nos. 101, 102, 111, 114, 119. I
+dissent from Mr. F.S. Oliver (_Ordeal by Battle,_ pp. 30-34) on the
+question discussed above. For other arguments, see my _Origins of the
+War,_ pp. 167-9. The ties binding Roumania to Germany and Austria were
+looser; but anything of the nature of a general threat to the Central
+Powers would probably have ranged her too on their side.]
+
+Sir Edward is also charged with not making our intentions clear as to
+what would happen in case of the violation of the neutrality of Belgium.
+But he demanded, both from France and Germany, assurances that they
+would respect that neutrality; and on August 1 he informed the German
+ambassador in London of our "very great regret" at the ambiguity of the
+German reply. Also, on August 2 the German ambassador at Brussels
+protested that Belgium was quite safe so far as concerned Germany[562].
+When a great Power gives those assurances, it does not improve matters
+to threaten her with war if she breaks them. She broke them on August 3;
+whereupon Grey took the decided action which Haldane had declared in
+1912 that we would take. The clamour raised in Germany as to our
+intervention being unexpected is probably the result of blind adherence
+to a preconceived theory and of rage at a "decadent" nation daring to
+oppose an "invincible" nation. The German Government of course knew the
+truth, but its education of public opinion through the Press had become
+a fine art. Therefore, at the beginning of the war all Germans believed
+that France was about to invade Belgium, whereupon they stepped in to
+save her; that the Eastern Colossus had precipitated the war by its
+causeless mobilisation (a falsehood which ranged nearly all German
+Socialists on the side of the Government); that Russia and Servia had
+planned the dismemberment of Austria; that, consequently, Teutons (and
+Turks) must fight desperately for national existence in a conflict
+forced upon them by Russia, Servia, and France, England perfidiously
+appearing as a renegade to her race and creed.
+
+[Footnote 562: British White Paper, Nos. 114, 122, 123, 125; Belgian
+Grey Book, No. 19.]
+
+By these falsehoods, dinned into a singularly well-drilled and docile
+people, the Germans were worked up to a state of frenzy for an
+enterprise for which their rulers had been preparing during more than a
+decade. The colossal stores of war material, amassed especially in
+1913-14 (some of them certain soon to deteriorate), the exquisitely
+careful preparations at all points of the national life, including the
+colonies, refute the fiction that war was forced upon Germany. The
+course of the negotiations preceding the war, the assiduous efforts of
+Germany to foment Labour troubles in Russia before the crisis, the
+unpreparedness of the Allies for the fierce and sustained energy of the
+Teutonic assault,--all these symptoms prove the guilt of Germany[563].
+The crowning proof is that up to the present (August 1915) she has not
+issued a complete set of diplomatic documents, and not one despatch
+which bears out the Chancellor's statement that he used his influence at
+Vienna for peace. The twenty-nine despatches published in her White Book
+are a mere fragment of her immense diplomatic correspondence which she
+has found it desirable to keep secret, and, as we have seen, her
+officials suppressed the Tsar's second telegram of July 29 urging that
+the Austro-Serb dispute be referred to the Hague Tribunal.
+
+[Footnote 563: See the damning indictment by a German in _J'accuse_,
+Section III., also the thorough and judicial examination by J.W.
+Headlam, _The History of Twelve Days_.]
+
+The sets of despatches published by the Allies show conclusively that
+each of them worked for peace and was surprised by the war. Their
+unpreparedness and the absolute preparedness of Germany have appeared so
+clearly during the course of hostilities as to give the lie to the
+German pamphleteers who have striven to prove that in the last resort
+the war was "a preventive war," that is, designed to avert a future
+conflict at a time unfavourable to Germany. There is not a sign that any
+one of the Powers of the Entente was making more than strictly defensive
+preparations; and, as has been shown, the Entente themselves were formed
+in order to give mutual protection in case of aggression from her. The
+desperate nature of that aggression appeared in her unscrupulous but
+successful efforts to force Turkey into war (Oct.-Nov. 1914). No crime
+against Christendom has equalled that whereby the champions of _Kultur_
+sought to stir up the fanatical passions of the Moslem World against
+Europe. Fortunately, that design has failed; and incidentally it added
+to the motives which have led Italy to break loose from the Central
+Powers and assist the Allies in assuring the future of the oppressed
+nationalities of Europe.
+
+[Illustration: THE PARTITION OF AFRICA IN 1902.]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Abdul, Aziz 168-9
+Abdul Hamid II., 169-70, 174, 177-9, 185-6, 204, 223-4, 238, 245-9,
+    259, 266-9, 274-5, 277, 285, 328, 436, 447-8, 453, 457, 591-2, 618
+Abdul Kerim, 194-6, 200, 204, 206
+Abdur Rahman, 389, 400, 404-5, 407, 417, 418-19, 428-31, 433
+Abeken, Herr, 44
+Abu Klea, Battle of, 480
+Abyssinia, 335, 487, 504
+Adam, Mme, 333
+Adrianople, 221, 223, 229, 251, 270
+Aehrenthal, Count, 613-4
+Afghanistan, 334, 345-6, 366, 378-9, 386-91, 472, 527
+  War in (1878-9), chap. xiv. 394 _passim_
+Africa, Partition of, chap. xviii, _passim_, 586
+Africa, South-West, 635-6
+Agadir, Coup d', 621, 623, 625
+Albania, 158, 229
+Albania, autonomy of, 630-1
+Albert, King of Belgium, 644-5
+Albrecht, Archduke, 33-6
+Alexander I., 31, 160-1, 297, 364
+Alexander II., 145, 167, 173-5, 180-83, 192, 204-5, 209-10, 215, 222-8,
+   234, 254-6, 289, 293, 295-8, 306, 308, 313, 318, 322, 325, 355, 398-9
+Alexander III., 255-65, 272-86, 298-9, 301-4, 309-11, 331, 337, 340,
+   343-6, 423-4, 428-9
+Alexander, Prince of Bulgaria, 254, 260-82, 286, 339, 428
+Alexandretta, 622
+Alexandria, bombardment of, 450-52
+Alfonso, King of Spain, 619
+_Algeciras_, Conference of, 604, 606-8, 610
+  Act of, 607
+Alikhanoff, M., 424
+Alsace, 94, 105, 132, 133-4
+Alvensleben, General von, 61, 65-7, 77
+Amur, river, 571, 572, 580
+Andrassy, Count, 164, 232, 599
+André, General, 600
+Anglo-French Entente (1904), 601-4, 606, 607, 609, 622, 626, 636
+Anglo-German Agreement (1890), 520-523,525, 532
+Anglo-Japanese Compact, 597-8, 602
+Anglo-Russian Conventions, 608-10
+Angra Pequeña, 523, 524
+Antonelli, Cardinal, 89
+Arabi Pasha, 266, 444, 447-9, 452, 453-7
+Archinard, M., 539
+Argyll, Duke of, 371-2, 376, 417
+Armenia, 220, 229, 242, 244, 250, 307
+Army Bill, French (1875), 119, 121-2
+Arnim, Count von, 123, 318
+Artomoroff, Colonel, 504
+Asquith, H.H., 626-8
+Atbara, Battle of the, 490-91
+Augustenburg, Duke of, 16
+Aumale, Duc d', 117
+Austria, 4-23, 32-7, 55, 63, 137, 148, 164, 177, 180-81, 184-6, 194,
+    227-8, 231, 232, 238, 242, 246, 257-8, 259, 271, 282, 284, 318,
+    320, 323-7, 331-3, 350-51, 485, 585, 592-3, 601, 604, 607, 609,
+    612-17, 622, 629-32, 634, 637, 639, 644, 647, 649
+  Army of, 635
+Austro-German Alliance, 324-7
+Austro-Prussian War (1866), 17-21
+Austro-Russian Agreements (1897 and 1903), 615
+Austro-Russian Treaty (1877), 179-180
+Ayub Khan, 407, 415, 418-9
+
+Baden, 12, 21
+Baden, Grand Duke of, 130
+Baert, Captain, 564
+Bagdad Railway, 591-4, 609, 615, 622, 637
+Bahr-el-Ghazal, the, 504, 506, 552, 558-9
+Bakunin, 292-5
+Balfour, Mr. A., 431-2
+Balkan League, the, 629, 632
+Balkan Peninsula, 25, 332
+Balkan Question, the, 631-2
+Balkan States, 586, 592, 616, 628-9, 633
+Balkan War (1912), 624, 629-31, 633
+Balkh, 399, 433
+Baluchistan, 367, 381, 384-6, 432
+Baring, Sir E., 463, 466-473
+Batak, 170, 171
+Batoum, 205, 229, 234, 241, 276
+Bavaria, 18, 20, 21, 131, 133-5
+Bazaine, Marshall, 63-5, 67-73, 75-8, 97
+Bazeilles, 79-82
+Beaconsfield, Earl of, 29, 165-6, 171, 175, 181, 182, 187-8, 220, 231,
+    232-3, 234, 236-7, 240-41, 243-5, 287, 328, 380, 282-3, 391-3,
+    400, 405, 440, 516
+Beaumont, Battle of, 78
+Bebel, Herr, 589
+Bechuanaland, 530-33
+Beernaert, M., 556
+Belfort, 98, 104, 105
+Belgium, 5, 16, 26, 148, 550-52, 555-7, 567, 625, 627-8, 638-9, 641-2,
+    644-8
+Bendereff, 271, 278-9
+Benedek, General, 18
+Benedetti, M., 40-43, 48
+Bentley, Rev. W.H., 546
+Berber, 473, 475, 478, 488, 490
+Berchtold, Count, 640
+Beresford, Lord Charles, 480
+Berlin Conference (1885), 548-50, 552, 559, 562, 567
+  Congress of (1878), 228, 235-42, 247, 259, 323, 328, 345, 388, 513
+  Memorandum, the, 167-9, 181
+Berlin, Treaty of (1878), 237-42, 253, 267-8, 275, 291, 332, 353, 612,
+    629
+Bernhardi, General von, 625-6, 638
+Besika Bay, 168, 171, 172, 177, 224
+Bessarabia, 160, 205, 230, 234, 260
+Bethman-Hollweg, Chancellor, 620, 623, 625, 627, 633-4, 641-2, 645-6, 648
+Beust, Count von, 32, 36, 37
+Biarritz, 16
+Biddulph, General, 398
+Bismarck, Prince Otto von, 8, 12-22, 27, 30, 31, 39, 41-49, 85, 86, 89,
+    94, 97, 103-5, 109, 114, 118, 123, 129-32, 137, 140, 141, 153, 164,
+    168, 173, 184, 228, 257, 261, 282, 317-27, 332, 335, 336-8, 342, 426,
+    446, 457, 513-15, 520-21, 527, 528, 534, 547, 548, 590, 599, 609
+  and "Protection," 141-150
+Bismarck, Count Herbert, 523-4, 528
+Blagovestchensk, 584
+Blowitz, M. de, 321-2
+Blumenthal, Count von, 72, 77, 85, 94
+Boer War, 585-8, 590, 597-8, 610, 636
+Bokhara, 365, 371
+Bonnier, M., 539
+Bordeaux, 98, 99, 103, 105, 106, 116, 118
+Bosnia, 163, 168, 238, 242, 258, 332
+Bosnia-Herzegovina, annexation of, 612, _seq_. 640
+Botha, General, 598
+Boulanger, General, 126, 333, 337, 339, 341
+Bourbaki, General, 98
+Bourbon, House of, 3-6
+Bourgas, 278
+Bourgeois, M., 504
+Boxer Movement, the, 583
+Boxer Rising in China (1900), 588, 595
+Brazza, M. de, 546
+Bremen, 132, 142
+Bright, Mr. J., 417, 452
+British Central Africa Protectorate, 533
+Broadwood, General, 487, 496, 498
+Browne, General Sir Samuel, 394
+Brussels, Conference at (1876), 545
+  Anti-Slavery Conference at, 534
+Buchanan, Sir George, 647
+Bukharest, Peace of (1913), 631-2, 637, 639
+Bukharest, Treaty of (1886), 272
+Bulgaria, 157-9, 163, 170-72, 176, 180, 225, 229-30, 234, 237-9,
+    251-288, 302, 333, 334
+  Campaigns in, 194-216
+Bülow, Prince von, 588-9, 596, 603, 605, 607, 617
+Bundesrath, the, 133-4, 138
+Burmah, 527, 530
+  Annexation of, 432
+Burnaby, Colonel, 480
+Burrows, Brigadier-General, 407
+Busa, 540
+Busch, Dr., 22, 143
+
+Cabul, 370, 381, 383, 387, 388, 390, 401-5, 412-413, 431
+Cabul, Treaty of (1905), 435
+Cairo, capture of, 455-6
+Cairoli, Signor, 329
+"Caisse de la Delte" (Egyptian), 442, 459
+Cambon, Jules, 620
+  Paul, 644, 646
+Cameroons, 528, 533-6
+Candahar, 367, 381, 387, 398, 405, 407, 413-18, 432
+Canning, Lord, 368
+Canrobert, Marshal, 72
+Caprivi, Count, 520
+Carnarvon, Lord, 225, 525
+Carnot, President Sadi, 127
+Casement, Mr. Roger, 558, 560-62, 565, 566
+Cassini, Count, 580
+Catharine II., 361
+Cattier, M., 552, 563, 564
+Cavagnari, Sir Louis, 401
+Cavour, Count, 8-11, 13, 90, 142, 161
+Centralisation of Governments, 111-112, 315
+Chad, Lake, 537
+Châlons-sur-Marne, 68, 74, 75
+Chamberlain, Mr., 417
+Chambord, Comte de, 117, 122, 123
+Charasia, Battle of (1878), 402-3
+Charles, King of Roumania, 192, 206, 210, 215, 230, 262, 632
+Charles Albert, King, 6-8
+Chevket Pacha, 626
+China, 568, 571-2, 576-82, 595-7
+Chino-Japanese War, 576-7
+Chitral, 386, 388, 433
+Chotek, Countess, 613
+Christian IX., 14
+Churchill, Winston, 627, 634
+Clement, Bishop, 280, 282
+Cobden, Mr., 142
+Colombey, Battle of, 63-5
+Combes, M., 349, 600
+Congo Free State, the, 502, 541, _passim_ chap. xix.
+Congo, French, 622, 625
+Constantinople, Conference of (1876), 174, 176-9
+Constitution, French (1875), 124-5
+  German, 132-7
+  Turkish (1876), 177-9
+Constitution of Finland, 308, 309
+Cossacks, the, 360-62, 434, 435, 453
+Coulmiers, Battle of, 97
+Cranbrook, Lord, 387
+Crete, 240, 248
+Crimean War, 8, 13, 30, 31, 161-2, 345, 365, 425, 434
+Crispi, Signor, 336, 337, 355, 600
+Cromer, Lord. _See_ Baring, Sir E.
+Cronstadt, 343, 346
+Crown Prince of Saxony, 74, 130
+Currie, Sir Donald, 524, 528
+Curzon, Lord, 423, 431, 432, 576
+Cyprus, 328
+  Convention, 234-5, 243-4, 250
+
+Dahomey, 539
+Dalmatia, 329
+Dalny, 583
+Dardanelles, the, 168, 222, 224, 225, 241
+Decazes, Duc, 321-2, 440
+Delagoa Bay, 525-6, 528, 534
+Delcassé, M., 587, 601, 606, 607
+Denghil Tepe, Battle of, 420-23, 500
+Denmark, 4, 5, 13-16, 35
+Depretis, Signor, 329, 335-6, 355
+Derby, Lord, 166, 176, 178, 181, 222, 224, 225, 226, 231, 243, 440,
+    524, 530
+De Wet, General, 598, 635
+Dhanis, Commandant, 553
+Dilke, Sir Charles, 465, 563
+Dillon, Dr., 639
+Disraeli. _See_ Beaconsfield
+Dobrudscha, 197, 199, 229-30, 240
+Dodds, Colonel, 539
+Dolgorukoff, General, 280-81
+Dongola, 474, 476, 479, 488, 489
+Dost Mohammed, 368, 379
+Dragomiroff, General, 197
+Dreyfus, M., 600
+Drouyn de Lhuys, 20
+Drury Lowe, General Sir, 454-6
+Dual Alliance, 342-50, 587-8, 590, 599, 609, 616, 644
+Dual Control, the (in Egypt), 442, 443, 445, 457
+Ducrot, General, 80, 81, 83
+Dufaure, M., 126, 245, 246
+Dufferin, Lord, 326, 424, 426-8, 429, 458, 461-2
+Dulcigno, 246-7
+Durand, Sir Mortimer, 433
+Durbar at Delhi (1878), 383
+
+East Africa (British), 520-21, 523
+  (German), 520-23
+East Africa Company (British), 519-22
+Eastern Question, the, 155-189, 222-250, 383, 615, 636-7
+Eastern Roumelia, 238, 253, 259, 260, 263-4, 268, 275-6, 333
+Eckardstein, Herr, 527
+Edward VII., 601, 608, 618-9
+Egypt, 166, 244, 266, 275, 602, 636-7,
+    _passim_ chaps. xv. xvi. xvii.
+Einwold, Herr, 527
+Elgin, Lord, 368
+Elliott, Sir Henry, 176, 177, 221
+El Obeid, Battle of, 461, 462
+El Teb, Battle of, 470
+Ems, 42-5
+Ena, Queen of Spain, 619
+England. _See_ Great Britain
+Enver Bey, 630
+Epirus, 241, 248
+Erzeroum, 194, 241
+Eugénie, Empress, 19, 29, 38, 47, 75, 87, 97, 139
+
+Faidherbe, M. 538
+Fashoda, 349, 501-6, 594
+Faure, President, 127, 346
+Favre, M. Jules, 87, 88, 94, 98, 103, 114
+Ferdinand, Prince, 285-6
+Ferdinand, Tsar, of Bulgaria, 612, 631
+Fergusson, Sir James, 336
+Ferry, M., 266, 329
+Finland, 304, 307-14
+Flegel, Herr, 535
+Floquet, M., 126
+Flourens, M., 343
+Forbach, Battle of, 62, 63
+Formosa, Island of, 577
+Fox Bourne, Mr., 563
+France, 3-6, 9, 19, 20, 25-9, 32, 33, 35, 46-9, 52-6, 87-9, 112, 161,
+    228, 318, 320-24, 326, 333-6, 337-8, 341-5, 347-9, 350, 437-8,
+    442, 446, 448, 452-3, 457, 458-9, 485, 513-514, 529, 535, 537-41,
+    546-9, 558, 559, 577-9, 585-6, 591, 593-4, 597, 599-608, 614-6, 618,
+    620-2, 624, 626, 638, 641-8
+  and Morocco, 602, 604-7, 609-10, 620 _seq_., 636-7
+  Army of, 634-5
+France and the Sudan, 501-6
+France and Tunis, 328-30
+Francis Ferdinand, Archduke, 613-4, 639
+Francis Joseph, 6, 32, 36, 173, 232, 318, 613
+Franco-German War, causes of, 36-49
+Franco-Italian Entente, 601
+Franco-Russian Alliance. (_See_ Dual Alliance)
+Frankfurt, Treaty of, 105, 114
+Frankfurt-on-Main, 11, 12, 21, 22
+Frederick the Great, 594, 635, 638, 646
+Frederick III., Crown Prince of Germany and Emperor, 18, 74, 76, 80,
+    130, 136, 151, 236
+Frederick VII., 14
+Frederick Charles, Prince, 66, 68
+Frederick William IV., 11-13, 31, 593
+Free Trade (in Germany), 141-3
+  (in France), 142
+French Congoland, 506, 546, 622, 625
+French Revolution of 1830, 5
+Frere, Sir Bartle, 380-81, 524
+Freycinet, M. de, 446, 447, 452, 456, 502, 503
+Frobenius, Herr, 638
+Frossard, General, 63-5
+
+Galatz, 197
+Galbraith, Colonel, 411
+Gallieni, M., 539
+Gallipoli, 222, 226
+Gambetta, M., 87, 96-101, 110, 125, 318, 330, 446, 452, 538
+Gandamak, Treaty of, 400, 418
+Garde Mobile, the, 55, 94
+Garde Nationale, the, 55, 94
+Garibaldi, 6, 7, 9-11, 28, 90-91, 327
+Gastein, Convention of, 16
+Gatacre, General, 490, 492
+Gavril, Pasha, 263
+Geok Tepe. _See_ Denghil Tepe
+George V., King of England, 645
+George, David Lloyd, 623, 625
+German Army, 135, 633-4
+German Army, Kriegsgefahr, 643
+  Confederation (1815-66), 4-22
+  Constitution (1871), 132-7
+  Empire, 129. _See_ Germany
+  Navy, 587-9, 594, 609, 617, 628, 633, 638
+  Zollverein, the, 141-2
+Germany, 3-6, 11-18, 20-23, 27, 34, 39, 45-9, 51-5, 129-154, 164-6,
+    223, 246, 275, 277, 282, 318-27, 329, 330, 337-9, 350, 447-8, 453,
+    457, 472, 485, 513-18, 520-22, 524-30, 533-7, 541, 547, 559,
+    577-9, 581, 585-9, 592, 595-7, 600-609, 615-18, 620-21, 623-8,
+    632, 634, 635-8, 640-49
+Gervais, Admiral, 343
+Ghaznee, Battle of, 405
+Giers, M. de, 258, 263, 265, 276, 281, 285, 302, 332, 333-5, 337, 424,
+    427, 515
+Gladstone, Mr., 29, 46, 172, 223, 244, 275, 356, 371, 372, 376, 380,
+    392, 405, 417, 427-9, 446, 448-9, 452, 458, 461, 465, 484-5, 502,
+    517, 524, 528, 530, 531
+Glave, Mr., 562
+Gold Coast, 539
+Goldie, Sir George T., 535, 541
+Gontaut-Biron, M. de, 421
+Gordon, General, _passim_ chaps. xvi. xvii.
+Gortchakoff, Prince, 164, 168, 190, 222, 226, 320, 322-3, 366
+Goschen, Lord, 244, 246, 442
+Goschen, Sir Edward, 641-2
+Gough, General, 404
+Gramont, Duc de, 32, 40, 42, 43, 47
+Grant Duff, Sir Mountstuart, 322
+Granville, Earl, 45, 389, 425-6, 447, 463, 465, 470, 473-4, 517, 523,
+    533, 547
+Gravelotte, Battle of, 68-73
+Great Britain, 14, 29, 30, 52, 95, 145, 147-9, 160-61, 168-77, 181,
+    187-8, 190, 231, 259, 266, 282, 284, 322-4, 328, 336, 337, 342,
+    364-6, 372-4, 382-4, 392-4, 400, 404-6, 417, 435, 513-14, 521,
+    523-30, 533-7, 541, 547, 578-9, 581-2, 585-7, 600, 604-9, 616,
+    618, 620, 622-3, 626-8, 636-9, 641-8
+  Army of, 634
+Great Britain and Egypt, _passim_ chaps. xv. xvi. xvii.
+Great Britain and Russia (1878), 222-8
+Greco-Turkish War, 585
+Greece, 5, 158, 160, 194, 227, 240-41, 245-8, 257, 267
+Grenfell, Rev. G., 546
+Grévy, M., 337, 355
+Grey, Sir Edward, 503, 586, 623, 626, 631, 634, 641-7
+Griffin, Sir Lepel, 405-6
+Gurko, General, 201-3, 208, 219
+
+Habibulla, Ameer of Afghanistan, 431, 435
+Hague Conference, 608
+  Congress, the (1899), 583
+  Tribunal, 601, 649
+Haldane, Lord, 627, 639, 647
+Hamburg, 132, 142
+Hanotaux, M., 504
+Hanover, 11, 21, 23
+Hartington, Lord, 417, 465, 476
+Hayashi, Count, 596
+Heligoland, 521, 637
+Herat, 367, 368, 381, 387, 388, 405, 425
+Héricourt, Battle of, 98
+Herzegovina, 163-5, 170, 238, 332
+Hesse-Cassel, 12, 21, 23
+Hesse Darmstadt, 20
+Heydebrand, Herr, 625
+Hicks, Pasha, 461-2
+Hinde, Captain S.L., 553
+Hinterland, Question of the, 547, 550
+Hohenlohe, Prince, 589
+Hohenzollern, House of, 11, 39-41, 129;
+  also _see_ Germany
+Holland, 5, 554-5, 641-2
+Holstein, 5, 26
+Holy Alliance, the, 5, 319
+Holy Roman Empire, the, 136
+Hornby, Admiral, 224
+Hoskier, M., 340
+Hudson, Sir James, 274
+Hungary, 32, 36, 159, 263, 277
+Hunter, General, 487
+
+Iddesleigh, Lord, 519
+Ignatieff, General, 174, 177, 181, 229, 230, 232, 332
+India, 165, 212, 365, 368, 592
+"International Association of the Congo," 545, 547-9
+"Internationale," the, 292
+Isabella, Queen, 40
+Ismail, Khedive, 438-40, 442
+Istria, 329
+Isvolsky, M., 615
+"_Italia irredenta_," 329
+Italo-Turkish War, the, 624, 628
+Italy, 4-11, 16-23, 28, 30, 34, 37, 38, 55, 56, 63, 89-92, 148, 228,
+    266, 284, 319, 335, 350, 453, 485, 487, 540, 541, 567, 601, 603-5,
+    607, 615-17, 624, 628, 631, 636, 643, 646-7, 649
+Italy and the Triple Alliance, 327-331, 600, 601, 615, 624, 637, 647
+
+Jacob, General, 385
+Jacobabad, Treaty of, 385
+Jagow, Herr von, 645
+Jameson, Dr. 587
+Janssen, M., 552
+Japan, 348, 572-4, 576-8, 581-4, 585, 597-9
+Jaurés, M., 634
+Jermak, 361, 569, 570
+Jesuits, the, 138
+Jews, persecution of the, 304, 305
+Johnstone, Sir Harry, 519, 541
+
+Kamchatka, 570, 571
+Karaveloff, M., 256, 259, 280
+Kars, 194, 229, 234
+Kassala, 487, 488, 491
+Katkoff, M., 259, 283, 324, 332, 333, 334, 337
+Kaufmann, General, 366, 383, 398
+Kaulbars, General, 255, 257-8, 283, 284
+Khalifa, _passim_ chap. xvii.
+Khama, 533
+Khartum, 437, 439, 445, _passim_ chaps. xvi. xvii.
+Khelat, Khan of, 384-5
+Khiva, 365, 374, 377
+Khokand, 383
+Khyber Pass, 386, 390, 394, 401, 412
+Kiamil Pacha, 630
+Kiao-chau, 580-81
+Kiderlen-Wächter, Herr, 621-2
+Kiel, North Sea Canal, 587, 604, 637-8
+Kirk, Sir John, 518, 541
+Kitchener, Lord, 441, 479, 598, _passim_ chap. xvii.
+Komaroff, General, 427, 428
+Königgrätz, Battle of, 18-20
+Kordofan, 461, 462, 470, 476
+Korea, 568
+Korsakoff, General, 254
+Kossuth, 6
+Krüdener, General, 200, 206-7
+Krüger, President, 586-7
+Kultur-Kampf, the, 139-41
+Kuropatkin, General, 311-12, 314, 422-3
+Kurram Valley, the, 394-7, 400
+
+Labouchere, Mr., 336
+Lado, 502, 558-9
+Lagos, 539
+Lamsdorff, Count, 575
+Lansdowne, Lord, 433, 567, 597, 602, 606
+Lavigerie, Cardinal, 534
+Lawrence, Lord J., 365, 368-9, 371, 385, 387
+Layard, Sir Henry, 221, 226, 245, 246
+Leboeuf, Marshall, 47, 53, 64, 65
+Lebrun, General, 34-6, 65
+Leflô, General, 322
+Le Mans, Battle of, 98
+Leo XIII., 327, 331, 335
+Leopold II. (King of the Belgians), 342, 465, 509, 514, 543,
+    550-52, 555-7, 558, 565
+Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern, 40, 42
+Lessar, M., 424
+Lesseps, M. de, 438, 441
+Lewis, General, 487
+Liaotung Peninsula, 577, 578, 581-2
+Liberation, Wars of (1813-14), 635
+Li-Hung Chang, 577, 578, 582
+Lissa, Battle of, 17
+Livingstone, D., 508-9, 543-4, 567
+Lobánoff, Prince, 575
+Local Government (French), 119, 120
+Lomakin, General, 420
+Lombardy, 5-11, 32
+London, Conference of (1867), 15, 28
+  Congress of (1871), 95
+London, Peace Conference at (1913), 630-31, 634
+Lorraine, 94, 103, 105, 132, 133-4
+Lothaire, Commandant, 553
+Loubet, M., 127, 601
+Louis Philippe, King, 6
+Lovtcha, 210, 212
+Lübeck, 132, 142
+Lüderitz, Herr, 523
+Lugard, Sir Frederick, 522, 537, 541
+Lumsden, Sir Peter, 426
+Luxemburg, 27, 28, 32, 39
+Lyttleton, Colonel, 492
+Lytton, Lord, 481-7, 490-92, 405-6, 417, 419
+
+Macdonald, General, 402, 487, 491, 496-8
+Macdonald, Ramsay, 646
+Macedonia, 158, 230, 248, 250, 287-8, 391
+Mackenzie, Rev. John, 530-31, 541
+Mackinnon, Sir William, 516, 541
+Maclaine, Lieutenant, 408, 415
+MacMahon, Marshall, 59-61, 74-80, 123, 125-7, 322, 525-6
+Mahdi, the, 266; chaps. xvi. xvii. _passim_
+Maiwand, Battle of, 407-11
+Malet, Sir Edward, 548
+Malmesbury, Lord, 47
+Manchuria, 345-6, 349, 568, 578, 580, 584
+Mancíní, Sígnor, 355
+Manin, 7
+Marchand, Colonel, 501-6, 540
+Maritz, General, 635
+Marschall, Baron von, 605
+Mars-la-Tour, Battle of, 67-70
+Maxwell, General, 487, 491, 497
+"May Laws," the, 139-41, 319
+Mayo, Lord, 372-3
+Mazzini, 6, 7, 91, 92, 304, 327
+Mecklenburg, 17, 142
+Mehemet Ali, Pasha, 204, 209, 215-16
+Melikoff, General Loris, 194, 296-8
+Méline, M., 504
+Mentana, Battle of, 28, 90
+Mercantile System, the, 150
+Merriman, Mr., 586
+Merv, 345, 374, 387, 388, 423-5, 431, 518
+Metternich, Prince, 7, 36
+Metz, 55, 63-73, 97, 104
+Mexico, 19, 26, 31
+Midhat, Pasha, 178-9, 186
+Milan, King, 167, 263, 269-72
+Milner, Lord, 440, 448, 598
+Milutin, General, 204, 215
+Mir, the, 294, 307
+Mohammed Ali, 437-8
+Mohammed V., 618
+Moltke, Count von, 18, 43, 65, 66, 78, 85, 104, 130, 193, 205, 320
+Mombasa, 520, 523
+Montenegro, 158, 163, 167, 173-4, 180, 194, 204, 225, 229, 232, 238,
+    242, 246-7, 263
+Morier, Sir Robert, 187, 273, 286, 302, 428
+Morley, Mr. John, 427
+Morocco, 602, 604-7, 609-10, 620 _seq_., 636-7
+Moslem Creed, the, and Christians, 156-8, 186-7
+Mukden, 598, 606
+Mukhtar, Pasha, 208
+Münster, Count, 523
+Murad V., 169
+Muravieff, Count, 571-3, 575, 589
+
+Nabokoff, Captain, 278
+Nachtigall, Dr., 533-4
+Napoleon I., 2-4, 12, 13, 15-17, 23, 25, 89, 100, 160, 325, 437, 537,
+    593, 608, 610
+Napoleon III., 6, 7, 9-11, 16, 17, 19, 20, 25-33, 37-40, 46-9, 52, 63-5,
+    75-8, 84-6, 88-9, 98, 99, 105, 123, 138, 142, 162, 538, 599
+Napoleon, Prince Jerome, 20, 37
+Natal, 527, 528, 529, 534
+National African Company, the, 535
+National Assembly, the French, 98-108, 115-26
+Nationality, 2-12, 23, 25, 26-8, 36, 89, 586
+Nelidoff, Count, 265, 274, 277
+Nelson, 437, 441
+Nesselrode, Count, 364
+Netherlands, the, 586
+Nice, 9, 30, 39
+Nicholas, I., 160, 289, 292, 304, 308, 364
+Nicholas II., 289, 311-14, 346, 349, 506, 575, 580, 584, 590, 594, 598,
+    610, 614, 617, 621-2, 640, 643, 649
+Nicholas, Grand Duke, 192-3, 200-2, 206, 210, 215, 223, 229, 291, 292
+Nicholas, Prince of Montenegro, 263
+Nicopolis, 196, 200-1, 206, 217
+Niger, river, 533-40, 548
+Nigeria, 534-7
+Nihilism, 112, 233, 266-7, 291-8, 300-4, 327
+Nikolsburg, 19
+Northbrook, Lord, 373-4, 376, 379, 381, 465
+Northcote, Sir Stafford, 168, 224, 225, 243
+North German Confederation, 22, 35, 51, 52, 136
+Norway, 4, 5
+Novi-Bazar, 332
+Novi-Bazar, Sanjak of, 612
+Nuttall, General, 411
+
+Obock, 504, 540
+Obretchoff, General, 324, 326
+O'Donovan, Mr., 424, 462
+Ollivier, M., 28, 29, 34, 41, 46, 47, 55, 65
+Olmütz, Convention of, 12, 18
+Omdurman, Battle of, 441, 493-500
+Orleans, 97
+Osman Digna, 470, 486
+Osman Pasha, 196, 200, 205, 214-19
+
+Palikao, Count, 65, 75, 77, 79, 87
+Palmerston, Lord, 30, 438, 441
+Pan-German Movement, 593-4, 621
+Pan-Islamic Movement, 592-3, 608
+Panjdeh, 346, 426-9, 432
+Papal States, the, 9, 10
+Paris, 87, 88, 95, 97, 98, 105, 107-113, 120
+Paris Commune, the (1871), 106-113, 116, 315
+Paris, Comte de, 117, 122
+Paris, Treaty of (1856), 161, 176
+Peiwar, Kotal, Battle at, 396
+Pekin, Capture of, 595
+Persia, 367, 368, 374, 378, 380, 609, 624
+Persian Gulf, the, 592
+Peshawur, 394
+Peter, King of Servia, 615
+Peters, Dr. Karl, 517-19, 522
+Phayre, General, 416
+Philippopolis, 219, 260, 263-4, 270, 271, 281
+Picard, M., 103
+Piedmont, 7
+Pishin, 400
+Pius IX., 6, 7, 38, 89-91, 122, 138-9, 141, 327
+Plevna, Battles at, 206-19
+Pobyedonosteff, 299, 300
+Poland, 4, 5, 25, 26, 31, 301
+Pondoland, 529
+Port Arthur, 346, 580
+Porte, the. _See_ Turkey
+Portsmouth, Treaty of, 598
+Portugal, 520, 525, 526, 540, 541, 546-9
+Posen, 141
+Primrose, General, 407, 411
+Prudhon, 292-5
+Prussia (1815-66), 4-22, 26, 51-5, 95, 130, 140, 141. _See_ Germany
+
+Quadrilateral, the Turkish, 194-7, 199-200
+Quetta, 381, 385, 398, 412, 416, 432
+
+Rabinek, Herr, 565
+Rachfahl, Herr, 605
+Radetzky, General, 209, 220
+Radowitz, Herr von, 321
+Radziwill, Princess, 236-7, 291
+Rauf Pasha, 460-61
+Rawlinson, Sir Henry, 380
+Redcliffe, Lord Stratford de, 188
+Redmond, Mr., 646
+Reichstag, the German, 133-4, 140, 141, 145-6
+Reventlow, Count, 587, 595, 603, 637-8
+Revolutions of 1848, 6-7, 11-12
+Rezonville, Battle of, 67-70
+Rhodes, Mr. Cecil, 530-32, 541
+Rhodesia, 532
+Riaz Pasha, 445
+Ribot, M., 346
+Ripon, Lord, 406, 412, 417
+Roberts, Lord, 379, 389, 392-3, 395-8, 402-4, 535
+Rohrbach, Herr, 637
+Rome, 7, 10, 38, 89-92, 95, 138
+Roon, Count von, 17, 43
+Rosebery, Earl of, 275, 276, 503, 519, 528
+Roumania, 26, 157, 158, 162, 192-3, 220, 222, 225, 229-30, 238-40,
+    257, 260-62, 269
+Roumania, King of, 41
+Rouvier, M., 607
+Royal Niger Company, the, 526, 540
+Rubber Tax, in Congo State, 565-7
+Russell, Lord John, 14, 15
+Russell, Lord Odo, 322
+Russia, 5, 9, 12, 13, 26, 31, 32, 55, 95, 112, 145, 148, 161, 164-8, 172,
+    182, 190-92, 231, 234, 240, 289, 290, 318, 322-7, 331-5, 337, 341-5,
+    347-9, 371, 446, 447-8, 457, 458, 472, 485, 527, 586, 590-91, 593-5,
+    597, 603, 606-8, 612-13, 615-17, 621, 624, 626, 629-31, 633-4,
+    640-44, 647-8
+  and Bulgaria, 253-88
+  and Finland, 307-14
+  and Japan, 585, 592, 598-9
+  and the Jews, 304-5
+  and Turkey, 222-7, 229-42
+  army of, 635, 638
+Russia in Central Asia, 359-66, 371-4, 376-80, 383, 387-91, 398-9, 403,
+    419-30
+  in the Far East, 595-6, 598, 614, chap. xx. _passim_
+Russo-Japanese War, 598-9, 602
+Russo-Turkish War, 585
+Rustchuk, 194, 199, 208, 265, 280-82, 285, 334
+
+Saarbrücken, Battle of, 61, 62
+Said, Khedive, 438
+St. Hilaire, Barthélémy de, 328
+St. Lucia Bay, 519, 525, 527, 528, 534
+St. Privat, Battle of _See_ Gravelotte
+St. Quentin, Battle of, 98
+Saladin, 591
+Salisbury, Marquis of, 176-7, 187, 232-4, 240, 243, 266-9, 272, 275,
+    283, 287, 328, 336, 380-81, 383, 387, 428, 505, 519, 522, 540,
+    554, 581
+Salonica, 167, 229
+Samarcand, 365-6, 371, 388-9, 604
+Samoa, 588, 610
+Samory, 539
+San Stefano, Treaty of, 229-32, 233, 238, 253
+Sandeman, Sir Robert, 384-5
+Sardinia, Kingdom of, 8-11, 162
+Saxony, 4, 5, 11, 18, 134-6
+Sazonoff, M., 641
+Schleswig-Holstein, 5, 12, 13-16, 21, 26, 142
+Schnaebele, M., 334, 338
+Sedan, Battle of, 77-88
+Septennate, the (in France), 123
+Serpa Pinto, 540
+Servia, 158-9, 163, 167, 173-4, 180, 194, 225, 229, 232, 238, 242, 257,
+    258, 267, 612-13, 615-16, 631, 637, 639-43, 648-9
+Seymour, Admiral, 449-50
+Shan-tung, Province of, 580, 581
+Shere Ali, 369-74, 376-7, 379-80, 384, 386-8, 390-92, 398-400
+Sherpur, Engagements at (1878), 404
+Shipka Pass, 197, 201-3, 208, 220
+Shumla, 194, 208
+Shutargardan Pass, the, 402
+Shuvaloff, Count, 233, 235
+Siberia, 361, 366, 570-72, 574
+Sibi, 398, 400
+Simon, Jules, 103
+Sistova, 196, 197, 199, 208, 217
+Skiernewice, 258, 266, 284, 302, 332-5, 426, 515-18
+Skobeleff, General, 198-9, 203, 210, 211-15, 220, 259, 330, 388-9,
+    421-4, 431
+Slave-trade, the, 558, 562
+Slavophils, the, 310-12, 339
+Slivnitza, Battle of, 270-71
+Soboleff, General, 255, 257-8
+Sofia, 210, 219, 271, 273, 278-9
+Solferino, Battle of, 9
+Somaliland, 540
+South Africa Company, British, 533
+South German Confederation, 21, 22, 35
+South-West Africa (German), 523-7, 531-2
+Spain, 40, 41, 42, 605
+Spicheren, Battle of, 62, 63
+Stambuloff, 256, 259, 264, 289, 283-6, 334
+Stanley, Sir H.M., 465, 508-9, 543-4, 552, 553
+State Socialism (in Germany), 150-53
+Steinmetz, General, 71
+Stephenson, General, 474
+Stepniak, 294, 303
+Stewart, Colonel, 466, 476
+Stewart, Sir Donald, 398, 405
+Stewart, Sit Herbert, 480
+Stiege, Admiral, 623
+Stoffel, Colonel, 53
+Stokes, Mr., execution of, 565
+Stolieteff, General, 388-90, 398
+Stundists, the, 305-7
+Suakim, 462, 473, 478, 486, 488, 518
+Sudan, the, _passim_ chaps. xvi. xvii.
+Suez Canal, the, 166, 190, 225, 438, 439, 457, 513
+Suleiman Pasha, 204, 208-9, 215, 216, 219, 221
+Swat Valley, the, 433
+Sweden, 4, 5
+Switzerland, 98, 148
+
+Tamai, Battle of, 470
+Tangier, 614
+Tashkend, 365, 388, 433
+Tatisheff, M., 643
+Tchernayeff, General, 174
+Tchirsky, Herr von, 640
+Tel-el-Kebir, Battle of, 454-5
+Tewfik, Khedive, 442-7, 452-3, 458, 461, 466-7, 487, 503, 507
+Thessaly, 240-41, 248-9
+Thiers, M., 26, 27, 47, 87, 94, 100-6, 108,
+    114-19, _passim_ chaps. iv. v.
+Thomson, Joseph, 509-10, 535-6, 541
+Thornton, Sir Edward, 427
+Three Emperors' League, the, 179, 184, 319-23, 326, 332-4, 448, 515
+Tilsit, Treaty of, 308
+Timbuctu, 539
+Tipu Tib, 553
+Tirard, M., 341
+Tirpitz, Admiral von, 589, 609
+Tisza, M., 180, 283
+Todleben, 216-17
+Togo, Admiral, 598
+Trans-Siberian Railway, the, 574-6, 580, 582-3, 599
+Transvaal, the, 525, 527, 586
+Treitschke, Herr, 626, 636
+Trentino, 335
+Triple Alliance, the, 21, 327-33, 335-9, 453, 515, 590-1, 599-601, 609,
+    615, 624, 635, 637, 647
+Triple Entente, the, 593, 595, 609, 617, 635, 647, 649
+Trochu, General, 101
+Tsushima, Battle of, 598
+Tunis, 328-30, 436, 448, 513-14, 600
+Turgenieff, 294, 295
+Turkestan, 361, 364, 366-7, 419-30
+Turkey, 5, 155, 168-77, 181, 187-8, 190-221, 229-42, 332, 342, 348,
+    436-8, 446, 502, 567, 592, 613, 615-616, 618, 624, 628-30, 632,
+    638-9
+
+Uganda, 502, 522-3
+Umballa, Conference at, 372-3
+Umberto I., King of Italy, 327, 329-31, 333, 335, 336
+United Kingdom. _See_ Great Britain
+United Netherlands, Kingdom of, 5
+United States, the, 30, 31, 547, 567, 578, 581, 596-8, 607
+
+Vandervelde, M., 557
+Venetia, 5-11, 17, 19, 21
+Verdun, 65, 68
+Versailles, 103, 106, 108, 109, 129
+Victor Emmanuel II., King of Italy, 2-11, 37, 63, 90, 327
+Victor Emmanuel III., 601, 615
+Victoria, Queen, 14, 145, 165, 171, 223-4, 261, 322
+  proclaimed Empress of India, 382
+Victoria, Crown Princess of Germany, 323
+Vienna, Treaty of (1815), 4, 5
+Vionville, Battle of, 67-70
+Viviani, M., 644
+Vladivostok, 572, 575, 580
+
+Waddington, M., 240, 245, 246, 328
+Wady Halfa, 439, 476, 478, 483, 484, 486, 489, 502
+Waldeck-Rousseau, M., 600
+Waldemar, Prince, 284
+Walfisch Bay, 524
+Wallachia, 160-62
+Warren, Sir Charles, 531-2
+Wei-hai-wei, 582
+West Africa, 533-40
+White, Major G., 402
+White, Sir William, 177, 187, 265, 267-9, 273-4, 287, 302
+Widdin, 194, 196, 200, 206, 270
+William I. (King of Prussia, German Emperor), 11-22, 31, 32, 41-6, 73,
+    104, 129-30, 137, 152, 236, 321-2, 325, 335, 339, 517, 594
+William II. (King of Prussia, German Emperor), 151-3, 339-40, 342, 522,
+    580, 582, 586-93, 598-9, 604, 606-611, 614, 616-7, 620-1, 623-4,
+    632, 636-7, 639-41, 643-6
+William, Crown Prince of Germany, 625, 646
+William of Weid, Prince, 632
+Wilson, Sir Charles, 480
+Wimpffen, General de, 79-86
+Winton, Sir Francis de, 552
+Wissmann, Lieutenant von, 546
+Wolf, Dr., 546
+Wolff, Sir H. Drummond, 485
+Wolseley, Lord, 454-6, 466, 475, 476, 478, 481, 507
+Wörth, Battle of, 59-62
+Würtemberg, 21, 131, 133-5, 137
+
+Yakub Khan, 379, 400-3
+Young Turk Party, the, 612-3, 616, 618
+  Revolution (1908), 615
+
+Zankoff, M., 280
+Zanzibar, 516-21, 532, 553
+Zazulich, Vera, 292
+Zebehr, Pasha, 469-73
+Zemstvo, the, 293, 296, 301
+Zola, Emile, 600
+Zulfikar Pass, the, 428
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Development of the European
+Nations, 1870-1914 (5th ed.), by John Holland Rose
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EUROPEAN NATIONS ***
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+"HTML Tidy for Windows (vers 1st February 2004), see www.w3.org">
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content=
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Development of the
+European Nations, by J. Holland Rose.</title>
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Development of the European Nations,
+1870-1914 (5th ed.), by John Holland Rose
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1914 (5th ed.)
+
+Author: John Holland Rose
+
+Release Date: January 9, 2005 [EBook #14644]
+[Last updated: November 27, 2020]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EUROPEAN NATIONS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charlie Kirschner and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<a name="001.png"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/001.png" width="80%" alt=""><br>
+<b>Campaigns 1859-71.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>THE DEVELOPMENT</h2>
+<h4>OF THE</h4>
+<h1>EUROPEAN NATIONS</h1>
+<h3>1870-1914</h3>
+<h5>BY</h5>
+<h3>J. HOLLAND ROSE LITT.D.</h3>
+<h5>FELLOW OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE<br>
+AUTHOR OF 'THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON,' 'THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PITT,'<br>
+'THE ORIGINS OF THE WAR,' ETC.</h5>
+<center>'Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere
+causas.'--VIRGIL.</center>
+<br>
+<h5>FIFTH EDITION, WITH A NEW PREFACE AND THREE SUPPLEMENTARY
+CHAPTERS</h5>
+<h5>1915</h5>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td><i>First Edition</i></td>
+<td align="right"><i>October</i> 1905.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Second</i>&nbsp;&nbsp;"</td>
+<td align="right"><i>November</i> 1905.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Third</i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"</td>
+<td align="right"><i>December</i> 1911.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Fourth</i>&nbsp;&nbsp;"</td>
+<td align="right"><i>November</i> 1914.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Fifth</i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"</td>
+<td align="right"><i>October</i> 1915.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<br>
+<center>TO<br>
+MY WIFE<br>
+WITHOUT WHOSE HELP<br>
+THIS WORK<br>
+COULD NOT HAVE BEEN COMPLETED</center>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagevii" id="pagevii"></a>[pg
+vii]</span>
+<h2>PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION</h2>
+<br>
+<p>In this Edition are included three new chapters (Nos.
+XXI.-XXIII.), in which I seek to describe the most important and
+best-ascertained facts of the period 1900-14. Necessarily, the
+narrative is tentative at many points; and it is impossible to
+attain impartiality; but I have sought to view events from the
+German as well as the British standpoint, and to sum up the
+evidence fairly. The addition of these chapters has necessitated
+the omission of the former Epilogue and Appendices. I regret the
+sacrifice of the Epilogue, for it emphasised two important
+considerations, (1) the tendency of British foreign policy towards
+undue complaisance, which by other Powers is often interpreted as
+weakness; (2) the danger arising from the keen competition in
+armaments. No one can review recent events without perceiving the
+significance of these considerations. Perhaps they may prove to be
+among the chief causes producing the terrible finale of July-August
+1914. I desire to express my acknowledgments and thanks for
+valuable advice given by Mr. J.W. Headlam, M.A., Mr. A.B. Hinds,
+M.A., and Dr. R.W. Seton-Watson, D. Litt.</p>
+<p>J.H.R.</p>
+<p>CAMBRIDGE,</p>
+<p><i>September</i> 5, 1915.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pageix" id="pageix"></a>[pg
+ix]</span>
+<h2>PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The outbreak of war in Europe is an event too momentous to be
+treated fully in this Preface. But I may point out that the
+catastrophe resulted from the two causes of unrest described in
+this volume, namely, the Alsace-Lorraine Question and the Eastern
+Question. Those disputes have dragged on without any attempt at
+settlement by the Great Powers. The Zabern incident inflamed public
+opinion in Alsace-Lorraine, and illustrated the overbearing
+demeanour of the German military caste; while the insidious
+attempts of Austria in 1913 to incite Bulgaria against Servia
+marked out the Hapsburg Empire as the chief enemy of the Slav
+peoples of the Balkan Peninsula after the collapse of Turkish power
+in 1912. The internal troubles of the United Kingdom, France, and
+Russia in July 1914 furnished the opportunity so long sought by the
+forward party at Berlin and Vienna; and the Austro-German Alliance,
+which, in its origin, was defensive (as I have shown in this
+volume), became offensive, Italy parting from her allies when she
+discovered their designs. Drawn into the Triple Alliance solely by
+pique against France after the Tunis affair, she now inclines
+towards the Anglo-French connection.</p>
+<p>Readers of my chapter on the Eastern Question will not fail to
+see how the neglect of the Balkan peoples by the Great Powers has
+left that wound festering in the weak side of Europe; and they will
+surmise that the Balkan troubles have, by a natural Nemesis, played
+their part in bringing about the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"pagex" id="pagex"></a>[pg x]</span> European War. It is for
+students of modern Europe to seek to form a healthy public opinion
+so that the errors of the past may not be repeated, and that the
+new Europe shall be constituted in conformity with the aspirations
+of the peoples themselves.</p>
+<p>CAMBRIDGE,</p>
+<p><i>September</i> 25, 1914.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagexi" id="pagexi"></a>[pg
+xi]</span>
+<h2>PREFACE</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The line of Virgil quoted on the title-page represents in the
+present case a sigh of aspiration, not a paean of achievement. No
+historical student, surely, can ever feel the conviction that he
+has fathomed the depths of that well where Truth is said to lie
+hid. What, then, must be the feelings of one who ventures into the
+mazy domain of recent annals, and essays to pick his way through
+thickets all but untrodden? More than once I have been tempted to
+give up the quest and turn aside to paths where pioneers have
+cleared the way. There, at least, the whereabouts of that fabulous
+well is known and the plummet is ready to hand. Nevertheless, I
+resolved to struggle through with my task, in the consciousness
+that the work of a pioneer may be helpful, provided that he
+carefully notches the track and thereby enables those who come
+after him to know what to seek and what to avoid.</p>
+<p>After all, there is no lack of guides in the present age. The
+number of memoir-writers and newspaper correspondents is legion;
+and I have come to believe that they are fully as trustworthy as
+similar witnesses have been in any age. The very keenness of their
+rivalry is some guarantee for truth. Doubtless competition for good
+"copy" occasionally leads to artful embroidering on humdrum
+actuality; but, after spending much time in scanning similar
+embroidery in the literature of the Napoleonic Era, I
+unhesitatingly place the work of Archibald Forbes, and that of
+several knights of the pen still living, far above the delusive
+tinsel of Marbot, Thi&eacute;bault, and S&eacute;gur. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="pagexii" id="pagexii"></a>[pg xii]</span> I will
+go further and say that, if we could find out what were the sources
+used by Thucydides, we should notice qualms of misgiving shoot
+through the circles of scientific historians as they contemplated
+his majestic work. In any case, I may appeal to the example of the
+great Athenian in support of the thesis that to undertake to write
+contemporary history is no vain thing.</p>
+<p>Above and beyond the accounts of memoir-writers and newspaper
+correspondents there are Blue Books. I am well aware that they do
+not always contain the whole truth. Sometimes the most important
+items are of necessity omitted. But the information which they
+contain is enormous; and, seeing that the rules of the public
+service keep the original records in Great Britain closed for
+well-nigh a century, only the most fastidious can object to the use
+of the wealth of materials given to the world in <i>Parliamentary
+Papers</i>.</p>
+<p>Besides these published sources there is the fund of information
+possessed by public men and the "well-informed" of various grades.
+Unfortunately this is rarely accessible, or only under conventional
+restrictions. Here and there I have been able to make use of it
+without any breach of trust; and to those who have enlightened my
+darkness I am very grateful. The illumination, I know, is only
+partial; but I hope that its effect, in respect to the twilight of
+diplomacy, may be compared to that of the Aurora Borealis
+lights.</p>
+<p>After working at my subject for some time, I found it desirable
+to limit it to events which had a distinctly formative influence on
+the development of European States. On questions of motive and
+policy I have generally refrained from expressing a decided
+verdict, seeing that these are always the most difficult to probe;
+and facile dogmatism on them is better fitted to omniscient
+leaderettes than to the pages of an historical work. At the same
+time, I have not hesitated to pronounce a judgment on these
+questions, and to differ from other writers, where the evidence has
+seemed to me decisive. To quote one instance, I reject the verdict
+of most authorities <span class="pagenum"><a name="pagexiii" id=
+"pagexiii"></a>[pg xiii]</span> on the question of Bismarck's
+treatment of the Ems telegram, and of its effect in the
+negotiations with France in July 1870.</p>
+<p>For the most part, however, I have dealt only with external
+events, pointing out now and again the part which they have played
+in the great drama of human action still going on around us. This
+limitation of aim has enabled me to take only specific topics, and
+to treat them far more fully than is done in the brief chronicle of
+facts presented by MM. Lavisse and Rambaud in the concluding volume
+of their <i>Histoire G&eacute;n&eacute;rale</i>. Where a series of
+events began in the year 1899 or 1900, and did not conclude before
+the time with which this narrative closes, I have left it on one
+side. Obviously the Boer War falls under this head. Owing to lack
+of space my references to the domestic concerns of the United
+Kingdom have been brief. I have regretfully omitted one imperial
+event of great importance, the formation of the Australian
+Commonwealth. After all, that concerned only the British race; and
+in my survey of the affairs of the Empire I have treated only those
+which directly affected other nations as well, namely the Afghan
+and Egyptian questions and the Partition of Africa. Here I have
+sought to show the connection with "world politics," and I trust
+that even specialists will find something new and suggestive in
+this method of treatment.</p>
+<p>In attempting to write a history of contemporary affairs, I
+regard it as essential to refer to the original authority, or
+authorities, in the case of every important statement. I have
+sought to carry out this rule (though at the cost of great
+additional toil) because it enables the reader to check the
+accuracy of the narrative and to gain hints for further reading. To
+compile bibliographies, where many new books are coming out every
+year, is a useless task; but exact references to the sources of
+information never lose their value.</p>
+<p>My thanks are due to many who have helped me in this
+undertaking. Among them I may name Sir Charles Dilke, M.P., Mr.
+James Bryce, M.P., and Mr. Chedo Mijatovich, who have given me
+valuable advice on special topics. My <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="pagexiv" id="pagexiv"></a>[pg xiv]</span>
+obligations are also due to a subject of the Czar, who has placed
+his knowledge at my service, but for obvious reasons does not wish
+his name to be known. Mr. Bernard Pares, M.A., of the University of
+Liverpool, has very kindly read over the proofs of the early
+chapters, and has offered most helpful suggestions. Messrs. G. Bell
+and Sons have granted me permission to make use of the plans of the
+chief battles of the Franco-German War from Mr. Hooper's work,
+<i>Sedan and the Downfall of the Second Empire</i>, published by
+them. To Mr. H.W. Wilson, author of <i>Ironclads in Action</i>, my
+thanks are also due for permission to make use of the plan
+illustrating the fighting at Alexandria in 1882.</p>
+<p>J.H.R.</p>
+<p><i>July, 1905.</i></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagexv" id="pagexv"></a>[pg
+xv]</span>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<center><a href="#INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page025">CHAPTER I<br>
+THE CAUSES OF THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR.</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page050">CHAPTER II<br>
+FROM W&Ouml;RTH TO GRAVELOTTE</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page073">CHAPTER III<br>
+SEDAN</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page093">CHAPTER IV<br>
+THE FOUNDING OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page114">CHAPTER V<br>
+THE FOUNDING OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC--<i>continued</i></a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page129">CHAPTER VI<br>
+THE GERMAN EMPIRE</a><br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagexvi" id="pagexvi"></a>[pg
+xvi]</span> <a href="#page155">CHAPTER VII<br>
+THE EASTERN QUESTION</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page190">CHAPTER VIII<br>
+THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page222">CHAPTER IX<br>
+THE BALKAN SETTLEMENT</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page251">CHAPTER X<br>
+THE MAKING OF BULGARIA</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page289">CHAPTER XI<br>
+NIHILISM AND ABSOLUTISM IN RUSSIA</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page317">CHAPTER XII<br>
+THE TRIPLE AND DUAL ALLIANCES</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page353">CHAPTER XIII<br>
+THE CENTRAL ASIAN QUESTION</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page394">CHAPTER XIV<br>
+THE AFGHAN AND TURKOMAN CAMPAIGNS</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page436">CHAPTER XV<br>
+BRITAIN IN EGYPT</a><br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagexvii" id="pagexvii"></a>[pg
+xvii]</span> <a href="#page460">CHAPTER XVI<br>
+GORDON AND THE SUDAN</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page483">CHAPTER XVII<br>
+THE CONQUEST OF THE SUDAN</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page508">CHAPTER XVIII<br>
+THE PARTITION OF AFRICA</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page543">CHAPTER XIX<br>
+THE CONGO FREE STATE</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page568">CHAPTER XX<br>
+RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page585">CHAPTER XXI<br>
+THE NEW GROUPING OF THE GREAT POWERS (1900-1907)</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page612">CHAPTER XXII<br>
+TEUTON <i>versus</i> SLAV (1908-13)</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page633">CHAPTER XXIII<br>
+THE CRISIS OF 1914</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page651">INDEX</a></center>
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagexix" id="pagexix"></a>[pg
+xix]</span>
+<h3>MAPS AND PLANS</h3>
+<br>
+<center><a href="#001.png">Campaigns of 1859-71</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page053">Sketch Map of the District between Metz and the
+Rhine</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page059">Plan of the Battle of W&ouml;rth</a><br>
+<br>
+Plan of the Battles of Rezonville and Gravelotte<br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page079">Plan of the Battle of Sedan</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page195">Map of Bulgaria</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page213">Plan of Plevna</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page239">Map of the Treaties of Berlin and San
+Stefano</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page249">Map of Thessaly</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page375">Map of Afghanistan</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page409">Battle of Maiwand</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page451">Battle of Alexandria (Bombardment of,
+1882)</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page477">Map of the Nile</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page495">The Battle of Omdurman</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page499">Plan of Khartum</a><br>
+<br>
+<a href="#page650">Map of Africa (1902) end of volume</a></center>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page001" id="page001"></a>[pg
+001]</span>
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION</h2>
+<blockquote>"The movements in the masses of European peoples are
+divided and slow, and their progress interrupted and impeded,
+because they are such great and unequally formed masses; but the
+preparation for the future is widely diffused, and . . . the promises
+of the age are so great that even the most faint-hearted rouse
+themselves to the belief that a time has arrived in which it is a
+privilege to live."--GERVINUS, 1853.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>The Roman poet Lucretius in an oft-quoted passage describes the
+satisfaction that naturally fills the mind when from some safe
+vantage-ground one looks forth on travellers tossed about on the
+stormy deep. We may perhaps use the poet's not very altruistic
+words as symbolising many of the feelings with which, at the dawn
+of the twentieth century, we look back over the stormy waters of
+the century that has passed away. Some congratulation on this score
+is justifiable, especially as those wars and revolutions have
+served to build up States that are far stronger than their
+predecessors, in proportion as they correspond more nearly with the
+desires of the nations that compose them.</p>
+<p>As we gaze at the revolutions and wars that form the
+storm-centres of the past century, we can now see some of the
+causes that brought about those storms. If we survey them with
+discerning eye, we soon begin to see that, in the main, the
+cyclonic disturbances had their origins in two great natural
+impulses of the civilised races of mankind. The first of these
+forces is that great impulse towards individual liberty, which we
+name Democracy; the second is that impulse, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page002" id="page002"></a>[pg 002]</span>
+scarcely less mighty and elemental, that prompts men to effect a
+close union with their kith and kin: this we may term
+Nationality.</p>
+<p>Now, it is true that these two forces have not led up to the
+last and crowning phase of human development, as their enthusiastic
+champions at one time asserted that they would; far from that, they
+are accountable, especially so the force of Nationality, for
+numerous defects in the life of the several peoples; and the
+national principle is at this very time producing great and
+needless friction in the dealings of nations. Yet, granting all
+this, it still remains true that Democracy and Nationality have
+been the two chief formative influences in the political
+development of Europe during the Nineteenth Century.</p>
+<p>In no age of the world's history have these two impulses worked
+with so triumphant an activity. They have not always been endowed
+with living force. Among many peoples they lay dormant for ages and
+were only called to life by some great event, such as the
+intolerable oppression of a despot or of a governing caste that
+crushed the liberties of the individual, or the domination of an
+alien people over one that obstinately refused to be assimilated.
+Sometimes the spark that kindled vital consciousness was the flash
+of a poet's genius, or the heroism of some sturdy son of the soil.
+The causes of awakening have been infinitely various, and have
+never wholly died away; but it is the special glory of the
+Nineteenth Century that races which had hitherto lain helpless and
+well-nigh dead, rose to manhood as if by magic, and shed their
+blood like water in the effort to secure a free and unfettered
+existence both for the individual and the nation. It is a true
+saying of the German historian, Gervinus, "The history of this age
+will no longer be only a relation of the lives of great men and of
+princes, but a biography of nations."</p>
+<p>At first sight, this illuminating statement seems to leave out
+of count the career of the mighty Napoleon. But it does not. The
+great Emperor unconsciously called into vigorous <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page003" id="page003"></a>[pg 003]</span> life
+the forces of Democracy and Nationality both in Germany and in
+Italy, where there had been naught but servility and disunion. His
+career, if viewed from our present standpoint, falls into two
+portions: first, that in which he figured as the champion of
+Revolutionary France and the liberator of Italy from foreign and
+domestic tyrants; and secondly, as imperial autocrat who conquered
+and held down a great part of Europe in his attempt to ruin British
+commerce. In the former of these enterprises he had the new forces
+of the age acting with him and endowing him with seemingly
+resistless might; in the latter part of his life he mistook his
+place in the economy of Nature, and by his violation of the
+principles of individual liberty and racial kinship in Spain and
+Central Europe, assured his own downfall.</p>
+<p>The greatest battle of the century was the tremendous strife
+that for three days surged to and fro around Leipzig in the month
+of October 1813, when Russians, Prussians, Austrians, Swedes,
+together with a few Britons, Hanoverians, and finally his own Saxon
+allies, combined to shake the imperial yoke from the neck of the
+Germanic peoples. This <i>V&ouml;lkerschlacht</i> (Battle of the
+Peoples), as the Germans term it, decided that the future of Europe
+was not to be moulded by the imperial autocrat, but by the will of
+the princes and nations whom his obstinacy had embattled against
+him. Far from recognising the verdict, the great man struggled on
+until the pertinacity of the allies finally drove him from power
+and assigned to France practically the same boundaries that she had
+had in 1791, before the time of her mighty expansion. That is to
+say, the nation which in its purely democratic form had easily
+overrun and subdued the neighbouring States in the time of their
+old, inert, semi-feudal existence, was overthrown by them when
+their national consciousness had been trampled into being by the
+legions of the great Emperor.</p>
+<p>In 1814, and again after Waterloo, France was driven in on
+herself, and resumed something like her old position in Europe,
+save that the throne of the Bourbons never acquired <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page004" id="page004"></a>[pg 004]</span> any
+solidity--the older branch of that family being unseated by the
+Revolution of 1830. In the centre of the Continent, the old
+dynasties had made common cause with the peoples in the national
+struggles of 1813-14, and therefore enjoyed more consideration--a
+fact which enabled them for a time to repress popular aspirations
+for constitutional rule and national unity.</p>
+<p>Nevertheless, by the Treaties of Vienna (1814-15) the centre of
+Europe was more solidly organised than ever before. In place of the
+effete institution known as the Holy Roman Empire, which Napoleon
+swept away in 1806, the Central States were reorganised in the
+German Confederation--a cumbrous and ineffective league in which
+Austria held the presidency. Austria also gained Venetia and
+Lombardy in Italy. The acquisition of the fertile Rhine Province by
+Prussia brought that vigorous State up to the bounds of Lorraine
+and made her the natural protectress of Germany against France.
+Russia acquired complete control over nearly the whole of the
+former Kingdom of Poland. Thus, the Powers that had been foremost
+in the struggle against Napoleon now gained most largely in the
+redistribution of lands in 1814-15, while the States that had been
+friendly to him now suffered for their devotion. Italy was split up
+into a mosaic of States; Saxony ceded nearly the half of her lands
+to Prussia; Denmark yielded up her ancient possession, Norway, to
+the Swedish Crown.</p>
+<p>In some respects the triumph of the national principle, which
+had brought victory to the old dynasties, strengthened the European
+fabric. The Treaties of Vienna brought the boundaries of States
+more nearly into accord with racial interests and sentiments than
+had been the case before; but in several instances those interests
+and feelings were chafed or violated by designing or short-sighted
+statesmen. The Germans, who had longed for an effective national
+union, saw with indignation that the constitution of the new
+Germanic Confederation left them under the control of the rulers of
+the component States and of the very real headship exercised by
+Austria, which was always used to repress popular movements.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page005" id="page005"></a>[pg
+005]</span> The Italians, who had also learned from Napoleon the
+secret that they were in all essentials a nation, deeply resented
+the domination of Austria in Lombardy-Venetia and the parcelling
+out of the rest of the Peninsula between reactionary kings
+somnolent dukes, and obscurantist clerics. The Belgians likewise
+protested against the enforced union with Holland in what was now
+called the Kingdom of the United Netherlands (1815-30). In the east
+of Europe the Poles struggled in vain against the fate which once
+more partitioned them between Russia, Austria, and Prussia. The
+Germans of Holstein, Schleswig, and Lauenburg submitted uneasily to
+the Danish rule; and only under the stress of demonstrations by the
+allies did the Norwegians accept the union with Sweden.</p>
+<p>It should be carefully noted that these were the very cases
+which caused most of the political troubles in the following
+period. In fact, most of the political occurrences on the Continent
+in the years 1815 to 1870--the revolts, revolutions, and wars, that
+give a special character to the history of the century--resulted
+directly from the bad or imperfect arrangements of the Congress of
+Vienna and of the so-called Holy Alliance of the monarchs who
+sought to perpetuate them. The effect of this widespread discontent
+was not felt at once. The peoples were too exhausted by the
+terrific strain of the Napoleonic wars to do much for a generation
+or more, save in times of popular excitement. Except in the
+south-east of Europe, where Greece, with the aid of Russia,
+Britain, and France, wrested her political independence from the
+grasp of the Sultan (1827), the forty years that succeeded Waterloo
+were broken by no important war; but they were marked by
+oft-recurring unrest and sedition. Thus, when the French Revolution
+of 1830 overthrew the reactionary dynasty of the elder Bourbons,
+the universal excitement caused by this event endowed the Belgians
+with strength sufficient to shake off the heavy yoke of the Dutch;
+while in Italy, Germany, and Poland the democrats and nationalists
+(now working generally <span class="pagenum"><a name="page006" id=
+"page006"></a>[pg 006]</span> in accord) made valiant but
+unsuccessful efforts to achieve their ideals.</p>
+<p>The same was the case in 1848. The excitement, which this time
+originated in Italy, spread to France, overthrew the throne of
+Louis Philippe (of the younger branch of the French Bourbons), and
+bade fair to roll half of the crowns of Europe into the gutter. But
+these spasmodic efforts of the democrats speedily failed.
+Inexperience, disunion, and jealousy paralysed their actions and
+yielded the victory to the old Governments. Frenchmen, in dismay at
+the seeming approach of communism and anarchy, fell back upon the
+odd expedient of a Napoleonic Republic, which in 1852 was easily
+changed by Louis Napoleon into an Empire modelled on that of his
+far greater uncle. The democrats of Germany achieved some startling
+successes over their repressive Governments in the spring of the
+year 1848, only to find that they could not devise a working
+constitution for the Fatherland; and the deputies who met at the
+federal capital, Frankfurt, to unify Germany "by speechifying and
+majorities," saw power slip back little by little into the hands of
+the monarchs and princes. In the Austrian Empire nationalist claims
+and strivings led to a very Babel of discordant talk and action,
+amidst which the young Hapsburg ruler, Francis Joseph, thanks to
+Russian military aid, was able to triumph over the valour of the
+Hungarians and the devotion of their champion, Kossuth.</p>
+<p>In Italy the same sad tale was told. In the spring of that year
+of revolutions, 1848, the rulers in quick succession granted
+constitutions to their subjects. The reforming Pope, Pius IX., and
+the patriotic King of Sardinia, Charles Albert, also made common
+cause with their peoples in the effort to drive out the Austrians
+from Lombardy-Venetia; but the Pope and all the potentates except
+Charles Albert speedily deserted the popular cause; friction
+between the King and the republican leaders, Mazzini and Garibaldi,
+further weakened the nationalists, and the Austrians had little
+difficulty in crushing Charles Albert's forces, whereupon he
+abdicated in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page007" id=
+"page007"></a>[pg 007]</span> favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel
+II. (1849). The Republics set up at Rome and Venice struggled
+valiantly for a time against great odds--Mazzini, Garibaldi, and
+their volunteers being finally overborne at the Eternal City by the
+French troops whom Louis Napoleon sent to restore the Pope (June
+1849); while, two months later, Venice surrendered to the Austrians
+whom she had long held at bay. The Queen of the Adriatic under the
+inspiring dictatorship of Manin had given a remarkable example of
+orderly constitutional government in time of siege.</p>
+<p>It seemed to be the lot of the nationalists and democrats to
+produce leaders who could thrill the imagination of men by lofty
+teachings and sublime heroism; who could, in a word, achieve
+everything but success. A poetess, who looked forth from Casa Guidi
+windows upon the tragi-comedy of Florentine failure in those years,
+wrote that what was needed was a firmer union, a more practical and
+intelligent activity, on the part both of the people and of the
+future leader:</p>
+<blockquote>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+A land's brotherhood<br>
+Is most puissant: men, upon the whole,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Are what they can be,--nations, what they would.<br>
+<br>
+Will therefore to be strong, thou Italy!<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Will to be noble!&nbsp;&nbsp;Austrian Metternich<br>
+Can fix no yoke unless the neck agree.<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Whatever hand shall grasp this oriflamme,<br>
+Whatever man (last peasant or first Pope<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Seeking to free his country) shall appear,<br>
+Teach, lead, strike fire into the masses, fill<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;These empty bladders with fine air, insphere<br>
+These wills into a unity of will,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And make of Italy a nation--dear<br>
+And blessed be that man!</blockquote>
+<p>When Elizabeth Barrett Browning penned those lines she cannot
+have surmised that two men were working their way up the rungs of
+the political ladder in Piedmont and Prussia, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page008" id="page008"></a>[pg 008]</span> whose
+keen intellects and masterful wills were to weld their Fatherlands
+into indissoluble union within the space of one momentous decade.
+These men were Cavour and Bismarck.</p>
+<p>It would far exceed the limits of space of this brief
+Introduction to tell, except in the briefest outline, the story of
+the plodding preparation and far-seeing diplomacy by which these
+statesmen raised their respective countries from depths of
+humiliation to undreamt of heights of triumph. The first thing was
+to restore the prestige of their States. No people can be strong in
+action that has lost belief in its own powers and has allowed its
+neighbours openly to flout it. The history of the world has shown
+again and again that politicians who allow their country to be
+regarded as <i>une quantit&eacute; n&eacute;gligeable</i> bequeath
+to some abler successor a heritage of struggle and war--struggle
+for the nation to recover its self-respect, and war to regain
+consideration and fair treatment from others. However much frothy
+talkers in their clubs may decry the claims of national prestige,
+no great statesman has ever underrated their importance. Certainly
+the first aim both of Cavour and Bismarck was to restore
+self-respect and confidence to their States after the humiliations
+and the dreary isolation of those dark years, 1848-51. We will
+glance, first, at the resurrection (<i>Risorgimento</i>) of the
+little Kingdom of Sardinia, which was destined to unify Italy.</p>
+<p>Charles Albert's abdication immediately after his defeat by the
+Austrians left no alternative to his son and successor, Victor
+Emmanuel II., but that of signing a disastrous peace with Austria.
+In a short time the stout-hearted young King called to his councils
+Count Cavour, the second son of a noble Piedmontese family, but of
+firmly Liberal principles, who resolved to make the little kingdom
+the centre of enlightenment and hope for despairing Italy. He
+strengthened the constitution (the only one out of many granted in
+1848 that survived the time of reaction); he reformed the tariff in
+the direction of Free Trade; and during the course of the Crimean
+War he persuaded his sovereign to make an active alliance with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page009" id="page009"></a>[pg
+009]</span> France and England, so as to bind them by all the
+claims of honour to help Sardinia in the future against Austria.
+The occasion was most opportune; for Austria was then suspected and
+disliked both by Russia and the Western Powers owing to her policy
+of armed neutrality. Nevertheless the reward of Cavour's diplomacy
+came slowly and incompletely. By skilfully vague promises (never
+reduced to writing) Cavour induced Napoleon III. to take up arms
+against Austria; but, after the great victory of Solferino (June
+24, 1859), the French Emperor enraged the Italians by breaking off
+the struggle before the allies recovered the great province of
+Venetia, which he had pledged himself to do. Worse still, he
+required the cession of Savoy and Nice to France, if the Central
+Duchies and the northern part of the Papal States joined the
+Kingdom of Sardinia, as they now did. Thus, the net result of
+Napoleon's intervention in Italy was his acquisition of Savoy and
+Nice (at the price of Italian hatred), and the gain of Lombardy and
+the central districts for the national cause (1859-60).</p>
+<p>The agony of mind caused by this comparative failure undermined
+Cavour's health; but in the last months of his life he helped to
+impel and guide the revolutionary elements in Italy to an
+enterprise that ended in a startling and momentous triumph. This
+was nothing less than the overthrow of Bourbon rule in Sicily and
+Southern Italy by Garibaldi. Thanks to Cavour's connivance, this
+dashing republican organised an expedition of about 1000 volunteers
+near Genoa, set sail for Sicily, and by a few blows shivered the
+chains of tyranny in that island. It is noteworthy that British
+war-ships lent him covert but most important help at Palermo and
+again in his crossing to the mainland; this timely aid and the
+presence of a band of Britons in his ranks laid the foundation of
+that friendship which has ever since united the two nations. In
+Calabria the hero met with the feeblest resistance from the Bourbon
+troops and the wildest of welcomes from the populace. At Salerno he
+took tickets for Naples and entered the enemy's capital by railway
+train (September 7). Then he <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page010" id="page010"></a>[pg 010]</span> purposed, after routing
+the Bourbon force north of the city, to go on and attack the French
+at Rome and proclaim a united Italy.</p>
+<p>Cavour took care that he should do no such thing. The
+Piedmontese statesman knew when to march onwards and when to halt.
+As his compatriot, Manzoni, said of him, "Cavour has all the
+prudence and all the imprudence of the true statesman." He had
+dared and won in 1855-59, and again in secretly encouraging
+Garibaldi's venture. Now it was time to stop in order to
+consolidate the gains to the national cause.</p>
+<p>The leader of the red-shirts, having done what no king could do,
+was thenceforth to be controlled by the monarchy of the north.
+Victor Emmanuel came in as the <i>deus ex machina</i>; his troops
+pressed southwards, occupying the eastern part of the Papal States
+in their march, and joined hands with the Garibaldians to the north
+of Naples, thus preventing the collision with France which the
+irregulars would have brought about. Even as it was, Cavour had
+hard work to persuade Napoleon that this was the only way of
+curbing Garibaldi and preventing the erection of a South Italian
+Republic; but finally the French Emperor looked on uneasily while
+the Pope's eastern territories were violated, and while the cause
+of Italian Unity was assured at the expense of the Pontiff whom
+France was officially supporting in Rome. A
+<i>pl&eacute;biscite</i>, or mass vote, of the people of Sicily,
+South Italy, and the eastern and central parts of the Papal States,
+was resorted to by Cavour in order to throw a cloak of legality
+over these irregular proceedings. The device pleased Napoleon, and
+it resulted in an overwhelming vote in favour of annexation to
+Victor Emmanuel's kingdom. Thus, in March 1861, the soldier-king
+was able amidst universal acclaim to take the title of King of
+Italy. Florence was declared to be the capital of the realm (1864),
+which embraced all parts of Italy except the Province of Venetia,
+pertaining to Austria, and the "Patrimonium Petri"--that is, Rome
+and its vicinity,--still held by the Pope and garrisoned by the
+French. The former of these was to be regained for <i>la patria</i>
+in 1866, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page011" id=
+"page011"></a>[pg 011]</span> the latter in 1870, in consequence of
+the mighty triumphs then achieved by the principle of nationality
+in Prussia and Germany. To these triumphs we must now briefly
+advert.</p>
+<p>No one who looked at the state of European politics in 1861,
+could have imagined that in less than ten years Prussia would have
+waged three wars and humbled the might of Austria and France. At
+that time she showed no signs of exceptional vigour: she had as yet
+produced no leaders so inspiring as Mazzini and Garibaldi, no
+statesman so able as Cavour. Her new king, William, far from
+arousing the feelings of growing enthusiasm that centred in Victor
+Emmanuel, was more and more distrusted and disliked by Liberals for
+the policy of militarism on which he had just embarked. In fact,
+the Hohenzollern dynasty was passing into a "Conflict Time" with
+its Parliament which threatened to impair the influence of Prussia
+abroad and to retard her recovery from the period of humiliations
+through which she had recently passed.</p>
+<p>A brief recital of those humiliations is desirable as showing,
+firstly, the suddenness with which the affairs of a nation may go
+to ruin in slack and unskilful hands, and, secondly, the immense
+results that can be achieved in a few years by a small band of able
+men who throw their whole heart into the work of national
+regeneration.</p>
+<p>The previous ruler, Frederick William IV., was a gifted and
+learned man, but he lacked soundness of judgment and strength of
+will--qualities which are of more worth in governing than graces of
+the intellect. At the time of the revolutionary outbreaks of 1848
+he capitulated to the Berlin mob and declared for a constitutional
+r&eacute;gime in which Prussia should merge herself in Germany; but
+when the excesses of the democrats had weakened their authority, he
+put them down by military force, refused the German Crown offered
+him by the popularly elected German Parliament assembled at
+Frankfurt-on-Main (April 1849); and thereupon attempted to form a
+smaller union of States, namely, Prussia, Saxony, and Hanover. This
+Three Kings' League, as it was called, soon <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page012" id="page012"></a>[pg 012]</span> came
+to an end; for it did not satisfy the nationalists who wished to
+see Germany united, the constitutionalists who aimed at the
+supremacy of Parliament, or the friends of the old order of things.
+The vacillations of Frederick William and the unpractical
+theorisings of the German Parliament at Frankfurt having aroused
+general disgust, Austria found little difficulty in restoring the
+power of the old Germanic Confederation in September, 1850. Strong
+in her alliance with Russia, she next compelled Frederick William
+to sign the Convention of Olm&uuml;tz (Nov. 1850). By this
+humiliating compact he agreed to forbear helping the German
+nationalists in Schleswig-Holstein to shake off the oppressive rule
+of the Danes; to withdraw Prussian troops from Hesse-Cassel and
+Baden, where strifes had broken out; and to acknowledge the
+supremacy of the old Federal Diet under the headship of Austria.
+Thus, it seemed that the Prussian monarchy was a source of weakness
+and disunion for North Germany, and that Austria, backed up by the
+might of Russia, must long continue to lord it over the cumbrous
+Germanic Confederation.</p>
+<p>But a young country squire, named Bismarck, even then resolved
+that the Prussian monarchy should be the means of strengthening and
+binding together the Fatherland. The resolve bespoke the patriotism
+of a sturdy, hopeful nature; and the young Bismarck was nothing if
+not patriotic, sturdy, and hopeful. The son of an ancient family in
+the Mark of Brandenburg, he brought to his life-work powers
+inherited from a line of fighting ancestors; and his mind was no
+less robust than his body. Quick at mastering a mass of details, he
+soon saw into the heart of a problem, and his solution of it was
+marked both by unfailing skill and by sound common sense as to the
+choice of men and means. In some respects he resembles Napoleon the
+Great. Granted that he was his inferior in the width of vision and
+the versatility of gifts that mark a world-genius, yet he was his
+equal in diplomatic resourcefulness and in the power of dealing
+lightning strokes; while his possession of the priceless gift of
+moderation endowed <span class="pagenum"><a name="page013" id=
+"page013"></a>[pg 013]</span> his greatest political achievements
+with a soundness and solidity never possessed by those of the
+mighty conqueror who "sought to give the <i>mot d'ordre</i> to the
+universe." If the figure of the Prussian does not loom so large on
+the canvas of universal history as that of the Corsican--if he did
+not tame a Revolution, remodel society, and reorganise a
+Continent--be it remembered that he made a United Germany, while
+Napoleon the Great left France smaller and weaker than he found
+her.</p>
+<p>Bismarck's first efforts, like those of Cavour for Sardinia,
+were directed to the task of restoring the prestige of his State.
+Early in his official career, the Prussian patriot urged the
+expediency of befriending Russia during the Crimean War, and he
+thus helped on that <i>rapprochement</i> between Berlin and St.
+Petersburg which brought the mighty triumphs of 1866 and 1870
+within the range of possibility. In 1857 Frederick William became
+insane; and his brother William took the reins of Government as
+Regent, and early in 1861 as King. The new ruler was less gifted
+than his unfortunate brother; but his homely common sense and
+tenacious will strengthened Prussian policy where it had been
+weakest. He soon saw the worth of Bismarck, employed him in high
+diplomatic positions, and when the royal proposals for
+strengthening the army were decisively rejected by the Prussian
+House of Representatives, he speedily sent for Bismarck to act as
+Minister-President (Prime Minister) and "tame" the refractory
+Parliament. The constitutional crisis was becoming more and more
+acute when a great national question came into prominence owing to
+the action of the Danes in Schleswig-Holstein affairs.</p>
+<p>Without entering into the very tangled web of customs, treaties,
+and dynastic claims that made up the Schleswig-Holstein question,
+we may here state that those Duchies were by ancient law very
+closely connected together, that the King of Denmark was only Duke
+of Schleswig-Holstein, and that the latter duchy, wholly German in
+population, formed part of the Germanic Confederation. Latterly the
+fervent nationalists in Denmark, while leaving Holstein to its
+German connections, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page014" id=
+"page014"></a>[pg 014]</span> had resolved thoroughly to "Danify"
+Schleswig, the northern half of which was wholly Danish, and they
+pressed on this policy by harsh and intolerant measures, making it
+difficult or well-nigh impossible for the Germans to have public
+worship in their own tongue and to secure German teachers for their
+children in the schools. Matters were already in a very strained
+state, when shortly before the death of King Frederick VII. of
+Denmark (November, 1863) the Rigsraad at Copenhagen sanctioned a
+constitution for Schleswig, which would practically have made it a
+part of the Danish monarchy. The King gave his assent to it, an act
+which his successor, Christian IX., ratified.</p>
+<p>Now, this action violated the last treaty--that signed by the
+Powers at London in 1852, which settled the affairs of the Duchies;
+and Bismarck therefore had strong ground for appealing to the
+Powers concerned, as also to the German Confederation, against this
+breach of treaty obligations. The Powers, especially England and
+France, sought to set things straight, but the efforts of our
+Foreign Minister, Lord John Russell, had no effect. The German
+Confederation also refused to take any steps about Schleswig as
+being outside its jurisdiction. Bismarck next persuaded Austria to
+help Prussia in defeating Danish designs on that duchy. The Danes,
+on the other hand, counted on the unofficial expressions of
+sympathy which came from the people of Great Britain and France at
+sight of a small State menaced by two powerful monarchies. In fact,
+the whole situation was complicated by this explosion of feeling,
+which seemed to the Danes to portend the armed intervention of the
+Western States, especially England, on their behalf. As far as is
+known, no official assurance to that effect ever went forth from
+London. In fact, it is certain that Queen Victoria absolutely
+forbade any such step; but the mischief done by sentimental
+orators, heedless newspaper-editors, and factious busybodies, could
+not be undone. As Lord John Russell afterwards stated in a short
+"Essay on the Policy of England": "It pleased some English
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page015" id="page015"></a>[pg
+015]</span> advisers of great influence to meddle in this affair;
+they were successful in thwarting the British Government, and in
+the end, with the professed view, and perhaps the real intention,
+of helping Denmark, their friendship tended to deprive her of
+Holstein and Schleswig altogether." This final judgment of a
+veteran statesman is worth quoting as showing his sense of the
+mischief done by well-meant but misguided sympathy, which pushed
+the Danes on to ruin and embittered our relations with Prussia for
+many years.</p>
+<p>Not that the conduct of the German Powers was flawless. On
+January 16, 1864, they sent to Copenhagen a demand for the
+withdrawal of the constitution for Schleswig within two days. The
+Danish Foreign Minister pointed out that, as the Rigsraad was not
+in session, this could not possibly be done within two days. In
+this last step, then, the German Powers were undoubtedly the
+aggressors<a name="FNanchor1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1">[1]</a>.
+The Prussian troops were ready near the River Eider, and at once
+invaded Schleswig. The Danes were soon beaten on the mainland; then
+a pause occurred, during which a Conference of the Powers concerned
+was held at London. It has been proved by the German historian, von
+Sybel, that the first serious suggestion to Prussia that she should
+take both the Duchies came secretly from Napoleon III. It was in
+vain that Lord John Russell suggested a sensible compromise,
+namely, the partition of Schleswig between Denmark and Germany
+according to the language-frontier inside the Duchy. To this the
+belligerents demurred on points of detail, the Prussian
+representative asserting that he would not leave a single German
+under Danish rule. The war was therefore resumed, and ended in a
+complete defeat for the weaker State, which finally surrendered
+both Duchies to Austria and Prussia (1864)<a name=
+"FNanchor2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2">[2]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page016" id="page016"></a>[pg
+016]</span>
+<p>The question of the sharing of the Duchies now formed one of the
+causes of the far greater war between the victors; but, in truth,
+it was only part of the much larger question, which had agitated
+Germany for centuries, whether the balance of power should belong
+to the North or the South. Bismarck also saw that the time was
+nearly ripe for settling this matter once for all in favour of
+Prussia; but he had hard work even to persuade his own sovereign;
+while the Prussian Parliament, as well as public opinion throughout
+Germany, was violently hostile to his schemes and favoured the
+claims of the young Duke of Augustenburg to the Duchies--claims
+that had much show of right. Matters were patched up for a time
+between the two German States, by the Convention of Gastein (August
+1865), while in reality each prepared for war and sought to gain
+allies.</p>
+<p>Here again Bismarck was successful. After vainly seeking to
+<i>buy</i> Venetia from the Austrian Court, Italy agreed to side
+with Prussia against that Power in order to wrest by force a
+province which she could not hope to gain peaceably. Russia, too,
+was friendly to the Court of Berlin, owing to the help which the
+latter had given her in crushing the formidable revolt of the Poles
+in 1863. It remained to keep France quiet. In this Bismarck thought
+he had succeeded by means of interviews which he held with Napoleon
+III. at Biarritz (Nov. 1865). What there occurred is not clearly
+known. That Bismarck played on the Emperor's foible for oppressed
+nationalities, in the case of Italy, is fairly certain; that he fed
+him with hopes of gaining Belgium, or a slice of German land, is
+highly probable, and none the less so because he later on
+indignantly denied in the Reichstag that he ever "held out the
+prospect to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page017" id=
+"page017"></a>[pg 017]</span> anybody of ceding a single German
+village, or even as much as a clover-field." In any case Napoleon
+seems to have promised to observe neutrality--not because he loved
+Prussia, but because he expected the German Powers to wear one
+another out and thus leave him master of the situation. In common
+with most of the wiseacres of those days he believed that Prussia
+and Italy would ultimately fall before the combined weight of
+Austria and of the German States, which closely followed her in the
+Confederation; whereupon he could step in and dictate his own
+terms<a name="FNanchor3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3">[3]</a>.</p>
+<p>Bismarck and the leaders of the Prussian army had few doubts as
+to the result. They were determined to force on the war, and early
+in June 1866 brought forward proposals at the Frankfurt Diet for
+the "reform" of the German Confederation, the chief of them being
+the exclusion of Austria, the establishment of a German Parliament
+elected by manhood suffrage, and the formation of a North German
+army commanded by the King of Prussia.</p>
+<p>A great majority of the Federal Diet rejected these proposals,
+and war speedily broke out, Austria being supported by nearly all
+the German States except the two Mecklenburgs.</p>
+<p>The weight of numbers was against Prussia, even though she had
+the help of the Italians operating against Venetia. On that side
+Austria was completely successful, as also in a sea-fight near
+Lissa in the Adriatic; but in the north the Hapsburgs and their
+German allies soon found out that organisation, armament, and
+genius count for more than numbers. The great organiser, von Roon,
+had brought Prussia's citizen army to a degree of efficiency that
+surprised every one; and the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page018" id="page018"></a>[pg 018]</span> quick-firing
+"needle-gun" dealt havoc and terror among the enemy. Using to the
+full the advantage of her central position against the German
+States, Prussia speedily worsted their isolated and badly-handled
+forces, while her chief armies overthrew those of Austria and
+Saxony in Bohemia. The Austrian plan of campaign had been to invade
+Prussia by two armies--a comparatively small force advancing from
+Cracow as a base into Silesia, while another, acting from
+Olm&uuml;tz, advanced through Bohemia to join the Saxons and march
+on Berlin, some 50,000 Bavarians joining them in Bohemia for the
+same enterprise. This design speedily broke down owing to the
+short-sighted timidity of the Bavarian Government, which refused to
+let its forces leave their own territory; the lack of railway
+facilities in the Austrian Empire also hampered the moving of two
+large armies to the northern frontier. Above all, the swift and
+decisive movements of the Prussians speedily drove the allies to
+act on the defensive--itself a grave misfortune in war.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile the Prussian strategist, von Moltke, was carrying out
+a far more incisive plan of operations--that of sending three
+Prussian armies into the middle of Bohemia, and there forming a
+great mass which would sweep away all obstacles from the road to
+Vienna. This design received prompt and skilful execution. Saxony
+was quickly overrun, and the irruption of three great armies into
+Bohemia compelled the Austrians and their Saxon allies hurriedly to
+alter their plans. After suffering several reverses in the north of
+Bohemia, their chief array under Benedek barred the way of the two
+northern Prussian armies on the heights north of the town of
+K&ouml;niggr&auml;tz. On the morning of July 3 the defenders long
+beat off all frontal attacks with heavy loss; but about 2 P.M. the
+Army of Silesia, under the Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia, after
+a forced march of twelve miles, threw itself on their right flank,
+where Benedek expected no very serious onset. After desperate
+fighting the Army of Silesia carried the village of Chlum in the
+heart of the Austrian position, and compelled Austrians and Saxons
+to a hurried retreat over the Elbe. In this the Austrian
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page019" id="page019"></a>[pg
+019]</span> infantry was saved from destruction by the heroic stand
+made by the artillery. Even so, the allies lost more than 13,000
+killed and wounded, 22,000 prisoners, and 187 guns<a name=
+"FNanchor4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4">[4]</a>.</p>
+<p>K&ouml;niggr&auml;tz (or Sadowa, as it is often called) decided
+the whole campaign. The invaders now advanced rapidly towards
+Vienna, and at the town of Nikolsburg concluded the Preliminaries
+of Peace with Austria (July 26), whereupon a mandate came from
+Paris, bidding them stop. In fact, the Emperor of the French
+offered his intervention in a manner most threatening to the
+victors. He sought to detach Italy from the Prussian alliance by
+the offer of Venetia as a left-handed present from himself--an
+offer which the Italian Government subsequently refused.</p>
+<p>To understand how Napoleon III. came to change front and belie
+his earlier promises, one must look behind the scenes. Enough is
+already known to show that the Emperor's hand was forced by his
+Ministers and by the Parisian Press, probably also by the Empress
+Eug&eacute;nie. Though desirous, apparently, of befriending
+Prussia, he had already yielded to their persistent pleas urging
+him to stay the growth of the Protestant Power of North Germany. On
+June 10, at the outbreak of the war, he secretly concluded a treaty
+with Austria, holding out to her the prospect of recovering the
+great province of Silesia (torn from her by Frederick the Great in
+1740) in return for a magnanimous cession of Venetia to Italy. The
+news of K&ouml;niggr&auml;tz led to a violent outburst of
+anti-Prussian feeling; but Napoleon refused to take action at once,
+when it might have been very effective.</p>
+<p>The best plan for the French Government would have been to send
+to the Rhine all the seasoned troops left available by Napoleon
+III.'s ill-starred Mexican enterprise, so as to help the
+hard-pressed South German forces, offering also the armed mediation
+of France to the combatants. In that case Prussia must have drawn
+back, and Napoleon III. could have dictated <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page020" id="page020"></a>[pg 020]</span> his
+own terms to Central Europe. But his earlier leanings towards
+Prussia and Italy, the advice of Prince Napoleon ("Plon-Plon") and
+Lavalette, and the wheedlings of the Prussian ambassador as to
+compensations which France might gain as a set-off to Prussia's
+aggrandisement, told on the French Emperor's nature, always
+somewhat sluggish and then prostrated by severe internal pain; with
+the result that he sent his proposals for a settlement of the
+points in dispute, but took no steps towards enforcing them. A
+fortnight thus slipped away, during which the Prussians reaped the
+full fruits of their triumph at K&ouml;niggr&auml;tz; and it was
+not until July 29, three days after the Preliminaries of Peace were
+signed, that the French Foreign Minister, Drouyn de Lhuys, worried
+his master, then prostrate with pain at Vichy, into sanctioning the
+following demands from victorious Prussia: the cession to France of
+the Rhenish Palatinate (belonging to Bavaria), the south-western
+part of Hesse Darmstadt, and that part of Prussia's Rhine-Province
+lying in the valley of the Saar which she had acquired after
+Waterloo. This would have brought within the French frontier the
+great fortress of Mainz (Mayence); but the great mass of these
+gains, it will be observed, would have been at the expense of South
+German States, whose cause France proclaimed her earnest desire to
+uphold against the encroaching power of Prussia.</p>
+<p>Bismarck took care to have an official copy of these demands in
+writing, the use of which will shortly appear; and having procured
+this precious document, he defied the French envoy, telling him
+that King William, rather than agree to such a surrender of German
+land, would make peace with Austria and the German States on any
+terms, and invade France at the head of the forces of a united
+Germany. This reply caused another change of front at Napoleon's
+Court. The demands were disavowed and the Foreign Minister, Drouyn
+de Lhuys, resigned<a name="FNanchor5"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_5">[5]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page021" id="page021"></a>[pg
+021]</span>
+<p>The completeness of Prussia's triumph over Austria and her
+German allies, together with the preparations of the Hungarians for
+revolt, decided the Court of Vienna to accept the Prussian terms
+which were embodied in the Treaty of Prague (Aug. 23); they were,
+the direct cession of Venetia to Italy; the exclusion of Austria
+from German affairs and her acceptance of the changes there
+pending; the cession to Prussia of Schleswig-Holstein; and the
+payment of 20,000,000 thalers (about &pound;3,000,000) as war
+indemnity. The lenience of these conditions was to have a very
+noteworthy result, namely, the speedy reconciliation of the two
+Powers: within twenty years they were firmly united in the Triple
+Alliance with Italy (see Chapter X.).</p>
+<p>Some difficulties stood in the way of peace between Prussia and
+her late enemies in the German Confederation, especially Bavaria.
+These last were removed when Bismarck privately disclosed to the
+Bavarian Foreign Minister the secret demand made by France for the
+cession of the Bavarian Palatinate. In the month of August, the
+South German States, Bavaria, W&uuml;rtemberg and Baden, accepted
+Prussia's terms; whereby they paid small war indemnities and
+recognised the new constitution of Germany. Outwardly they formed a
+South German Confederation; but this had a very shadowy existence;
+and the three States by secret treaties with Prussia agreed to
+place their armies and all military arrangements, in case of war,
+under the control of the King of Prussia. Thus within a month from
+the close of "the Seven Weeks' War," the whole of Germany was
+quietly but firmly bound to common action in military matters; and
+the actions of France left little doubt as to the need of these
+timely precautions.</p>
+<p>On those German States which stood in the way of Prussia's
+territorial development and had shown marked hostility, Bismarck
+bore hard. The Kingdom of Hanover, Electoral Hesse (Hesse-Cassel),
+the Duchy of Nassau, and the Free City of Frankfurt were annexed
+outright, Prussia thereby gaining direct contact with her
+Westphalian and Rhenish <span class="pagenum"><a name="page022" id=
+"page022"></a>[pg 022]</span> Provinces. The absorption of
+Frankfurt-on-the-Main, and the formation of a new league, the North
+German Confederation, swept away all the old federal machinery, and
+marked out Berlin, not Vienna or Frankfurt, as the future governing
+centre of the Fatherland. It was doubtless a perception of the vast
+gains to the national cause which prompted the Prussian Parliament
+to pass a Bill of Indemnity exonerating the King's Ministers for
+the illegal acts committed by them during the "Conflict Time"
+(1861-66)--acts which saved Prussia in spite of her Parliament.</p>
+<p>Constitutional freedom likewise benefited largely by the results
+of the war. The new North German Confederation was based avowedly
+on manhood suffrage, not because either King William or Bismarck
+loved democracy, but because after lately pledging themselves to it
+as the groundwork of reform of the old Confederation, they could
+not draw back in the hour of triumph. As Bismarck afterwards
+confessed to his Secretary, Dr. Busch, "I accepted universal
+suffrage, but with reluctance, as a Frankfurt tradition"
+(<i>i.e.</i> of the democratic Parliament of Frankfurt in
+1848)<a name="FNanchor6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6">[6]</a>. All the
+lands, therefore, between the Niemen and the Main were bound
+together in a Confederation based on constitutional principles,
+though the governing powers of the King and his Ministers continued
+to be far larger than is the case in Great Britain. To this matter
+we shall recur when we treat of the German Empire, formed by the
+union of the North and South German Confederations of 1866.</p>
+<p>Austria also was soon compelled to give way before the
+persistent demands of the Hungarian patriots for their ancient
+constitution, which happily blended monarchy and democracy.
+Accordingly, the centralised Hapsburg monarchy was remodelled by
+the <i>Ausgleich</i> (compromise) of 1867, and became the
+Dual-Monarchy of Austria-Hungary, the two parts of the realm being
+ruled quite separately for most purposes of government, and united
+only for those of army organisation, foreign <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page023" id="page023"></a>[pg 023]</span>
+policy, and finance. Parliamentary control became dominant in each
+part of the Empire; and the grievances resulting from autocratic or
+bureaucratic rule vanished from Hungary. They disappeared also from
+Hanover and Hesse-Cassel, where the Guelf sovereigns and Electors
+had generally repressed popular movements.</p>
+<p>Greatest of all the results of the war of 1866, however, was the
+gain to the national cause in Germany and Italy. Peoples that had
+long been divided were now in the brief space of three months
+brought within sight of the long-wished-for unity. The rush of
+these events blinded men to their enduring import and produced an
+impression that the Prussian triumph was like that of Napoleon I.,
+too sudden and brilliant to last. Those who hazarded this verdict
+forgot that his political arrangements for Europe violated every
+instinct of national solidarity; while those of 1866 served to
+group the hitherto divided peoples of North Germany and Italy
+around the monarchies that had proved to be the only possible
+rallying points in their respective countries. It was this
+harmonising of the claims and aspirations of monarchy, nationality,
+and democracy that gave to the settlement of 1866 its abiding
+importance, and fitted the two peoples for the crowning triumph of
+1870.</p>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page024" id="page024"></a>[pg
+024]</span>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor1">[1]</a> Lord
+Wodehouse (afterwards Earl of Kimberley) was at that time sent on a
+special mission to Copenhagen. When his official correspondence is
+published, it will probably throw light on many points.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor2">[2]</a> Sybel,
+<i>Die Begr&uuml;ndung des deutschen Reiches</i>, vol. iii. pp.
+299-344; D&eacute;bidour, <i>Hist. diplomatique de l'Europe</i>,
+vol. ii. pp. 261-273; Lowe, <i>Life of Bismarck</i>, vol. i. chap.
+vi.; Headlam, <i>Bismarck</i>, chap. viii.; Lord Malmesbury,
+<i>Memoirs of an ex-Minister</i> pp. 584-593 (small edition);
+Spencer Walpole, <i>Life of Lord J. Russell</i>, vol. ii. pp.
+396-411.<br>
+<br>
+In several respects the cause of ruin to Denmark in 1863-64 bears a
+remarkable resemblance to that which produced war in South Africa
+in 1899, viz. high-handed action of a minority towards men whom
+they treated as Outlanders, the stiff-necked obstinacy of the
+smaller State, and reliance on the vehement but (probably)
+unofficial offers of help or intervention by other nations.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor3">[3]</a> Busch,
+<i>Our Chancellor</i>, vol. ii. p. 17 (Eng. edit.);
+D&eacute;bidour, <i>Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe
+(1814-1878)</i>, vol ii. pp. 291-293. Lord Loftus in his
+<i>Diplomatic Reminiscences</i> (vol. ii. p. 280) says: "So
+satisfied was Bismarck that he could count on the neutrality of
+France, that no defensive military measures were taken on the Rhine
+and western frontier. He had no fears of Russia on the eastern
+frontier, and was therefore able to concentrate the military might
+of Prussia against Austria and her South German Allies."<br>
+<br>
+Light has been thrown on the bargainings between Italy and Prussia
+by the <i>Memoirs of General Govone</i>, who found Bismarck a hard
+bargainer.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor4">[4]</a> Sybel,
+<i>Die Begr&uuml;ndung des deutschen Reiches</i>, vol. v. pp.
+174-205; <i>Journals of Field Marshal Count von Blumenthal for 1866
+and 1871</i> (Eng. edit.), pp. 37-44.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor5">[5]</a> Sybel,
+<i>op. cit.</i> vol. v. pp. 365-374. D&eacute;bidour, <i>op.
+cit.</i> vol. ii. pp. 315-318. See too volume viii. of Ollivier's
+work, <i>L'Empire lib&eacute;ral</i>, published in 1904; and M. de
+la Gorce's work, <i>Histoire du second Empire</i>, vol. vi. (Paris
+1903).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor6">[6]</a> Busch,
+<i>Our Chancellor</i>, vol. ii. p. 196 (English edit.).</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page025" id="page025"></a>[pg
+025]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+<h3>THE CAUSES OF THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR</h3>
+<blockquote>"After the fatal year 1866, the Empire was in a state
+of decadence."--L. GREGOIRE, <i>Histoire de
+France</i>.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>The irony of history is nowhere more manifest than in the
+curious destiny which called a Napoleon III. to the place once
+occupied by Napoleon I., and at the very time when the national
+movements, unwittingly called to vigorous life by the great
+warrior, were attaining to the full strength of manhood. Napoleon
+III. was in many ways a well-meaning dreamer, who, unluckily for
+himself, allowed his dreams to encroach on his waking moments. In
+truth, his sluggish but very persistent mind never saw quite
+clearly where dreams must give way to realities; or, as M. de
+Falloux phrased it, "He does not know the difference between
+dreaming and thinking<a name="FNanchor7"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_7">[7]</a>." Thus his policy showed an odd mixture of
+generous haziness and belated practicality.</p>
+<p>Long study of his uncle's policy showed him, rightly enough,
+that it erred in trampling down the feeling of nationality in
+Germany and elsewhere. The nephew resolved to avoid this mistake
+and to pose as the champion of the oppressed and divided peoples of
+Italy, Germany, Poland, and the Balkan Peninsula--a programme that
+promised to appeal to the ideal aspirations of the French, to
+embarrass the dynasties that had overthrown the first Napoleon, and
+to yield substantial gains <span class="pagenum"><a name="page026"
+id="page026"></a>[pg 026]</span> for his nephew. Certainly it did
+so in the case of Italy; his championship of the Roumanians also
+helped on the making of that interesting Principality (1861) and
+gained the goodwill of Russia; but he speedily forfeited this by
+his wholly ineffective efforts on behalf of the Poles in 1863. His
+great mistakes, however, were committed in and after the year 1863,
+when he plunged into Mexican politics with the chimerical aim of
+founding a Roman Catholic Empire in Central America, and favoured
+the rise of Prussia in connection with the Schleswig-Holstein
+question. By the former of these he locked up no small part of his
+army in Mexico when he greatly needed it on the Rhine; by the
+latter he helped on the rise of the vigorous North German
+Power.</p>
+<p>As we have seen, he secretly advised Prussia to take both
+Schleswig and Holstein, thereby announcing his wish for the
+effective union of Germans with the one great State composed almost
+solely of Germans. "I shall always be consistent in my conduct," he
+said. "If I have fought for the independence of Italy, if I have
+lifted up my voice for Polish nationality, I cannot have other
+sentiments in Germany, or obey other principles." This declaration
+bespoke the doctrinaire rather than the statesman. Untaught by the
+clamour which French Chauvinists and ardent Catholics had raised
+against his armed support of the Italian national cause in 1859, he
+now proposed to further the aggrandisement of the Protestant North
+German Power which had sought to partition France in 1815.</p>
+<p>The clamour aroused by his leanings towards Prussia in 1864-66
+was naturally far more violent, in proportion as the interests of
+France were more closely at stake. Prussia held the Rhine Province;
+and French patriots, who clung to the doctrine of the "natural
+frontiers"--the Ocean, Pyrenees, Alps, and Rhine--looked on her as
+the natural enemy. They pointed out that millions of Frenchmen had
+shed their blood in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars to win
+and to keep the Rhine boundary; and their most eloquent spokesman,
+M. Thiers, who had devoted his historical gifts to glorifying those
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page027" id="page027"></a>[pg
+027]</span> great days, passionately declaimed against the policy
+of helping on the growth of the hereditary foe.</p>
+<p>We have already seen the results of this strife between the
+pro-Prussian foibles of the Emperor and the eager prejudices of
+Frenchmen, whose love of oppressed and divided nations grew in
+proportion to their distance from France, and changed to suspicion
+or hatred in the case of her neighbours. In 1866, under the breath
+of ministerial arguments and oratorical onslaughts Napoleon III.'s
+policy weakly wavered, thereby giving to Bismarck's statecraft a
+decisive triumph all along the line. In vain did he in the latter
+part of that year remind the Prussian statesman of his earlier
+promises (always discreetly vague) of compensation for France, and
+throw out diplomatic feelers for Belgium, or at any rate
+Luxemburg<a name="FNanchor8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8">[8]</a>. In
+vain did M. Thiers declare in the Chamber of Deputies that France,
+while recognising accomplished facts in Germany, ought "firmly to
+declare that we will not allow them to go further" (March 14,
+1867). Bismarck replied to this challenge of the French orator by
+publishing five days later the hitherto secret military alliances
+concluded with the South German States in August 1866. Thenceforth
+France knew that a war with Prussia would be war with a united
+Germany.</p>
+<p>In the following year the Zollverein, or German Customs' Union
+(which had been gradually growing since 1833), took a definitely
+national form in a Customs' Parliament which assembled in April
+1868, thus unifying Germany for purposes of trade as well as those
+of war. This sharp rebuff came at a time when Napoleon's throne was
+tottering from the utter collapse of his Mexican expedition; when,
+too, he more than ever needed popular support in France for the
+beginnings of a more constitutional rule. Early in 1867 he sought
+to buy Luxemburg from Holland. This action aroused a storm of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page028" id="page028"></a>[pg
+028]</span> wrath in Prussia, which had the right to garrison
+Luxemburg; but the question was patched up by a Conference of the
+Powers at London, the Duchy being declared neutral territory under
+the guarantee of Europe; the fortifications of its capital were
+also to be demolished, and the Prussian garrison withdrawn. This
+success for French diplomacy was repeated in Italy, where the
+French troops supporting the Pope crushed the efforts of Garibaldi
+and his irregulars to capture Rome, at the sanguinary fight of
+Mentana (November 3, 1867). The official despatch, stating that the
+new French rifle, the <i>chassep&ocirc;t</i>, "had done wonders,"
+spread jubilation through France and a sharp anti-Gallic sentiment
+throughout Italy.</p>
+<p>And while Italy heaved with longings for her natural capital,
+popular feelings in France and North Germany made steadily for
+war.</p>
+<p>Before entering upon the final stages of the dispute, it may be
+well to take a bird's-eye view of the condition of the chief Powers
+in so far as it explains their attitude towards the great
+struggle.</p>
+<p>The condition of French politics was strangely complex. The
+Emperor had always professed that he was the elect of France, and
+would ultimately crown his political edifice with the corner-stone
+of constitutional liberty. Had he done so in the successful years
+1855-61, possibly his dynasty might have taken root. He deferred
+action, however, until the darker years that came after 1866. In
+1868 greater freedom was allowed to the Press and in the case of
+public meetings. The General Election of the spring of 1869 showed
+large gains to the Opposition, and decided the Emperor to grant to
+the Corps L&eacute;gislatif the right of initiating laws
+concurrently with himself, and he declared that Ministers should be
+responsible to it (September 1869).</p>
+<p>These and a few other changes marked the transition from
+autocracy to the "Liberal Empire." One of the champions of
+constitutional principles, M. Emile Ollivier, formed a Cabinet to
+give effect to the new policy, and the Emperor, deeming the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page029" id="page029"></a>[pg
+029]</span> time ripe for consolidating his power on a democratic
+basis, consulted the country in a <i>pl&eacute;biscite</i>, or mass
+vote, primarily as to their judgment on the recent changes, but
+implicitly as to their confidence in the imperial system as a
+whole. His skill in joining together two topics that were really
+distinct, gained him a tactical victory. More than 7,350,000
+affirmative votes were given, as against 1,572,000 negatives; while
+1,900,000 voters registered no vote. This success at the polls
+emboldened the supporters of the Empire; and very many of them,
+especially, it is thought, the Empress Eug&eacute;nie, believed
+that only one thing remained in order to place the Napoleonic
+dynasty on a lasting basis--that was, a successful war.</p>
+<p>Champions of autocracy pointed out that the growth of Radicalism
+coincided with the period of military failures and diplomatic
+slights. Let Napoleon III., they said in effect, imitate the policy
+of his uncle, who, as long as he dazzled France by triumphs, could
+afford to laugh at the efforts of constitution-mongers. The big
+towns might prate of liberty; but what France wanted was glory and
+strong government. Such were their pleas: there was much in the
+past history of France to support them. The responsible advisers of
+the Emperor determined to take a stronger tone in foreign affairs,
+while the out-and-out Bonapartists jealously looked for any signs
+of official weakness so that they might undermine the Ollivier
+Ministry and hark back to absolutism. When two great parties in a
+State make national prestige a catchword of the political game,
+peace cannot be secure: that was the position of France in the
+early part of 1870<a name="FNanchor9"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_9">[9]</a>.</p>
+<p>The eve of the Franco-German War was a time of great importance
+for the United Kingdom. The Reform Bill of 1867 gave a great
+accession of power to the Liberal Party; and the General Election
+of November 1868 speedily led to the resignation of the Disraeli
+Cabinet and the accession of the Gladstone Ministry to power. This
+portended change in other directions than home affairs. The
+tradition of a spirited <span class="pagenum"><a name="page030" id=
+"page030"></a>[pg 030]</span> foreign policy died with Lord
+Palmerston in 1865. With the entry of John Bright to the new
+Cabinet peace at all costs became the dominant note of British
+statesmanship. There was much to be said in favour of this. England
+needed a time of rest in order to cope with the discontent of
+Ireland and the problems brought about by the growth of democracy
+and commercialism in the larger island. The disestablishment and
+partial disendowment of the Protestant Church in Ireland (July
+1869), the Irish Land Act (August 1870), and the Education Act of
+1870, showed the preoccupation of the Ministry for home affairs;
+while the readiness with which, a little later, they complied with
+all the wishes of the United States in the "Alabama" case, equally
+proclaimed their pacific intentions. England, which in 1860 had
+exercised so powerful an influence on the Italian national
+question, was for five years a factor of small account in European
+affairs. Far from pleasing the combatants, our neutrality annoyed
+both of them. The French accused England of "deserting" Napoleon
+III. in his time of need--a charge that has lately been revived by
+M. Hanotaux. To this it is only needful to reply that the French
+Emperor entered into alliance with us at the time of the Crimean
+War merely for his own objects, and allowed all friendly feeling to
+be ended by French threats of an invasion of England in 1858 and
+his shabby treatment of Italy in the matter of Savoy and Nice a
+year later. On his side, Bismarck also complained that our feeling
+for the German cause went no further than "theoretical sympathy,"
+and that "during the war England never compromised herself so far
+in our favour as to endanger her friendship with France. On the
+contrary." These vague and enigmatic charges at bottom only express
+the annoyance of the combatants at their failure to draw neutrals
+into the strife<a name="FNanchor10"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_10">[10]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page031" id="page031"></a>[pg
+031]</span>
+<p>The traditions of the United States, of course, forbade their
+intervention in the Franco-Prussian dispute. By an article of their
+political creed termed the Monroe Doctrine, they asserted their
+resolve not to interfere in European affairs and to prevent the
+interference of any strictly European State in those of the New
+World. It was on this rather vague doctrine that they cried "hands
+off" from Mexico to the French Emperor; and the abandonment of his
+<i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;</i>, the so-called Emperor Maximilian, by
+French troops, brought about the death of that unhappy prince and a
+sensible decline in the prestige of his patron (June 1867).</p>
+<p>Russia likewise remembered Napoleon III.'s championship of the
+Poles in 1863, which, however Platonic in its nature, caused the
+Czar some embarrassment. Moreover, King William of Prussia had
+soothed the Czar's feelings, ruffled by the dethroning of three
+German dynasties in 1866, by a skilful reply which alluded to his
+(King William's) desire to be of service to Russian interests
+elsewhere--a hint which the diplomatists of St. Petersburg
+remembered in 1870 to some effect.</p>
+<p>For the rest, the Czar Alexander II. (1855-81) and his Ministers
+were still absorbed in the internal policy of reform, which in the
+sixties freed the serfs and gave Russia new judicial and local
+institutions, doomed to be swept away in the reaction following the
+murder of that enlightened ruler. The Russian Government therefore
+pledged itself to neutrality, but in a sense favourable to Prussia.
+The Czar ascribed the Crimean War to the ambition of Napoleon III.,
+and remembered the friendship of Prussia at that time, as also in
+the Polish Revolt of 1863<a name="FNanchor11"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_11">[11]</a>. Bismarck's policy now brought its
+reward.</p>
+<p>The neutrality of Russia is always a matter of the utmost moment
+for the Central Powers in any war on their western frontiers. Their
+efforts against Revolutionary France in 1792-94 failed chiefly
+because of the ambiguous attitude of the Czarina Catherine II.; and
+the collapse of Frederick William IV.'s <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page032" id="page032"></a>[pg 032]</span> policy
+in 1848-51 was due to the hostility of his eastern neighbour. In
+fact, the removal of anxiety about her open frontier on the east
+was now worth a quarter of a million of men to Prussia.</p>
+<p>But the Czar's neutrality was in one matter distinctly friendly
+to his uncle, King William of Prussia. It is an open secret that
+unmistakable hints went from St. Petersburg to Vienna to the effect
+that, if Austria drew the sword for Napoleon III. she would have to
+reckon with an irruption of the Russians into her open Galician
+frontier. Probably this accounts for the conduct of the Hapsburg
+Power, which otherwise is inexplicable. A war of revenge against
+Prussia seemed to be the natural step to take. True, the Emperor
+Francis Joseph had small cause to like Napoleon III. The loss of
+Lombardy in 1859 still rankled in the breast of every patriotic
+Austrian; and the suspicions which that enigmatical ruler managed
+to arouse, prevented any definite agreement resulting from the
+meeting of the two sovereigns at Salzburg in 1867.</p>
+<p>The relations of France and Austria were still in the same
+uncertain state before the War of 1870. The foreign policy of
+Austria was in the hands of Count Beust, a bitter foe of Prussia;
+but after the concession of constitutional rule to Hungary by the
+compromise (<i>Ausgleich</i>) of 1867, the Dual Monarchy urgently
+needed rest, especially as its army was undergoing many changes.
+The Chancellor's action was therefore clogged on all sides.
+Nevertheless, when the Luxemburg affair of 1867 brought France and
+Prussia near to war, Napoleon began to make advances to the Court
+of Vienna. How far they went is not known. Beust has asserted in
+his correspondence with the French Foreign Minister, the Duc de
+Gramont (formerly ambassador at Vienna), that they never were more
+than discussions, and that they ended in 1869 without any written
+agreement. The sole understanding was to the effect that the policy
+of both States should be friendly and pacific, Austria reserving
+the right to remain neutral if France were compelled to make war.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page033" id="page033"></a>[pg
+033]</span> The two Empires further promised not to make any
+engagement with a third Power without informing the other.</p>
+<p>This statement is not very convincing. States do not usually
+bind themselves in the way just described, unless they have some
+advantageous agreement with the Power which has the first claim on
+their alliance. It is noteworthy, however, that the Duc de Gramont,
+in the correspondence alluded to above, admits that, as Ambassador
+and as Foreign Minister of France, he never had to claim the
+support of Austria in the war with Prussia<a name=
+"FNanchor12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12">[12]</a>.</p>
+<p>How are we to reconcile these statements with the undoubted fact
+that the Emperor Napoleon certainly expected help from Austria and
+also from Italy? The solution of the riddle seems to be that
+Napoleon, as also Francis Joseph and Victor Emmanuel, kept their
+Foreign Ministers in the dark on many questions of high policy,
+which they transacted either by private letters among themselves,
+or through military men who had their confidence. The French and
+Italian sovereigns certainly employed these methods, the latter
+because he was far more French in sympathy than his Ministers.</p>
+<p>As far back as the year 1868, Victor Emmanuel made overtures to
+Napoleon with a view to alliance, the chief aim of which, from his
+standpoint, was to secure the evacuation of Rome by the French
+troops, and the gain of the Eternal City for the national cause.
+Prince Napoleon lent his support to this scheme, and from an
+article written by him we know that the two sovereigns discussed
+the matter almost entirely by means of confidential letters<a name=
+"FNanchor13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13">[13]</a>. These discussions
+went on up to the month of June 1869. Francis Joseph, on hearing of
+them, urged the French Emperor to satisfy Italy, and thus pave the
+way for an alliance between the three Powers against Prussia.
+Nothing definite came of the affair, and chiefly, it would seem,
+owing to the influence of the Empress Eug&eacute;nie and the French
+clerics. She is said to have remarked: "Better <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page034" id="page034"></a>[pg 034]</span> the
+Prussians in Paris than the Italian troops in Rome." The diplomatic
+situation therefore remained vague, though in the second week of
+July 1870, the Emperor again took up the threads which, with
+greater firmness and foresight, he might have woven into a firm
+design.</p>
+<p>The understanding between the three Powers advanced only in
+regard to military preparations. The Austrian Archduke Albrecht,
+the victor of Custoza, burned to avenge the defeat of
+K&ouml;niggr&auml;tz, and with this aim in view visited Paris in
+February to March 1870. He then proposed to Napoleon an invasion of
+North Germany by the armies of France, Austria, and Italy. The
+French Emperor developed the plan by more specific overtures which
+he made in the month of June; but his Ministers were so far in the
+dark as to these military proposals that they were then suggesting
+the reduction of the French army by 10,000 men, while Ollivier, the
+Prime Minister, on June 30 declared to the French Chamber that
+peace had never been better assured<a name=
+"FNanchor14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14">[14]</a>.</p>
+<p>And yet on that same day General Lebrun, aide-de-camp to the
+Emperor, was drawing up at Paris a confidential report of the
+mission with which he had lately been entrusted to the Austrian
+military authorities. From that report we take the following
+particulars. On arriving at Vienna, he had three private interviews
+with the Archduke Albrecht, and set before him the desirability of
+a joint invasion of North Germany in the autumn of that year. To
+this the Archduke demurred, on the ground that such a campaign
+ought to begin in the spring if the full fruits of victory were to
+be gathered in before the short days came. Austria and Italy, he
+said, could not place adequate forces in the field in less than six
+weeks owing to lack of railways<a name="FNanchor15"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_15">[15]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page035" id="page035"></a>[pg
+035]</span>
+<p>Developing his own views, the Archduke then suggested that it
+would be desirable for France to undertake the war against North
+Germany not later than the middle of March 1871, Austria and Italy
+at the same time beginning their mobilisations, though not
+declaring war until their armies were ready at the end of six
+weeks. Two French armies should in the meantime cross the Rhine in
+order to sever the South Germans from the Confederation of the
+North, one of them marching towards Nuremberg, where it would be
+joined by the western army of Austria and the Italian forces sent
+through Tyrol. The other Austrian army would then invade Saxony or
+Lusatia in order to strike at Berlin. He estimated the forces of
+the States hostile to Prussia as follows:--</p>
+<br>
+<blockquote>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th>&nbsp;</th>
+<th>Men.</th>
+<th>Horses.</th>
+<th>Cannon.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>France</td>
+<td>309,000</td>
+<td>35,000</td>
+<td>972</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Austria (exclusive of reserve)</td>
+<td>360,000</td>
+<td>27,000</td>
+<td>1128</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Italy</td>
+<td>68,000</td>
+<td>5000</td>
+<td>180</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Denmark</td>
+<td>260,000 (?)</td>
+<td>2000</td>
+<td>72</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</blockquote>
+<p>He thus reckoned the forces of the two German
+Confederations:--</p>
+<blockquote>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th>&nbsp;</th>
+<th>&nbsp;</th>
+<th>&nbsp;</th>
+<th>&nbsp;</th>
+<th>Men.</th>
+<th>Horses.</th>
+<th>Cannon.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>North</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>377,000</td>
+<td>48,000</td>
+<td>1284</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>South</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>97,000</td>
+<td>10,000</td>
+<td>288</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</blockquote>
+<p>but the support of the latter might be hoped for. Lebrun again
+urged the desirability of a campaign in the autumn, but the
+Archduke repeated that it must begin in the spring. In <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page036" id="page036"></a>[pg 036]</span> that
+condition, as in his earlier statement that France must declare war
+first, while her allies prepared for war, we may discern a
+deep-rooted distrust of Napoleon III.</p>
+<p>On June 14 the Archduke introduced Lebrun to the Emperor Francis
+Joseph, who informed him that he wanted peace; but, he added, "if I
+make war, I must be forced to it." In case of war Prussia might
+exploit the national German sentiment existing in South Germany and
+Austria. He concluded with these words, "But if the Emperor
+Napoleon, compelled to accept or to declare war, came with his
+armies into South Germany, not as an enemy but as a liberator, I
+should be forced on my side to declare that I [would] make common
+cause with him. In the eyes of my people I could do no other than
+join my armies to those of France. That is what I pray you to say
+for me to the Emperor Napoleon; I hope that he will see, as I do,
+my situation both in home and foreign affairs." Such was the report
+which Lebrun drew up for Napoleon III. on June 30. It certainly led
+that sovereign to believe in the probability of Austrian help in
+the spring of 1871, but not before that time.</p>
+<p>The question now arises whether Bismarck was aware of these
+proposals. If warlike counsels prevailed at Vienna, it is probable
+that some preparations would be made, and the secret may have
+leaked out in this way, or possibly through the Hungarian
+administration. In any case, Bismarck knew that the Austrian
+chancellor, Count Beust, thirsted for revenge for the events of
+1866<a name="FNanchor16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16">[16]</a>. If he
+heard any whispers of an approaching league against Prussia, he
+would naturally see the advantage of pressing on war at once,
+before Austria and Italy were ready to enter the lists. Probably in
+this fact will be found one explanation of the origin of the
+Franco-German War.</p>
+<p>Before adverting to the proximate cause of the rupture, we may
+note that Beust's despatch of July 11, 1870, to Prince Metternich,
+Austrian ambassador at Paris, displayed genuine <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page037" id="page037"></a>[pg 037]</span> fear
+lest France should rush blindly into war with Prussia; and he
+charged Metternich tactfully to warn the French Government against
+such a course of action, which would "be contrary to all that we
+have agreed upon. . . . Even if we wished, we could not suddenly equip
+a respectably large force. . . . Our services are gained to a certain
+extent [by France]; but we shall not go further unless events carry
+us on; and we do not dream of plunging into war because it might
+suit France to do so."</p>
+<p>Again, however, the military men seem to have pushed on the
+diplomatists. The Archduke Albrecht and Count Vitzthum went to
+Paris charged with some promises of support to France in case of
+war. Thereafter, Count Beust gave the assurance at Vienna that the
+Austrians would be "faithful to our engagements, as they have been
+recorded in the letters exchanged last year between the two
+sovereigns. We consider the cause of France as ours, and we will
+contribute to the success of her arms to the utmost of our
+power<a name="FNanchor17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17">[17]</a>."</p>
+<p>In the midst of this maze of cross-purposes this much is clear:
+that both Emperors had gone to work behind the backs of their
+Ministers, and that the military chiefs of France and Austria
+brought their States to the brink of war while their Ministers and
+diplomatists were unaware of the nearness of danger.</p>
+<p>As we have seen, King Victor Emmanuel II. longed to draw the
+sword for Napoleon III., whose help to Italy in 1859-60 he so
+curiously overrated. Fortunately for Italy, his Ministers took a
+more practical view of the situation; but probably they too would
+have made common cause with France had they received a definite
+promise of the withdrawal of French troops from Rome and the
+satisfaction of Italian desires for the Eternal City as the
+national capital. This promise, even after the outbreak of war, the
+French Emperor declined to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page038"
+id="page038"></a>[pg 038]</span> give, though his cousin, Prince
+Napoleon, urged him vehemently to give way on that point<a name=
+"FNanchor18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18">[18]</a>.</p>
+<p>In truth, the Emperor could not well give way. An Oecumenical
+Council sat at Rome from December 1869 to July 1870; its
+Ultramontane tendencies were throughout strongly marked, as against
+the "Old Catholic" views; and it was a foregone conclusion that the
+Council would vote the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope in
+matters of religion--as it did on the day before France declared
+war against Prussia. How, then, could the Emperor, the "eldest son
+of the Church," as French monarchs have proudly styled themselves,
+bargain away Rome to the Italian Government, already stained by
+sacrilege, when this crowning aureole of grace was about to
+encircle the visible Head of the Church? There was no escape from
+the dilemma. Either Napoleon must go into war with shouts of
+"Judas" hurled at him by all pious Roman Catholics; or he must try
+his fortunes without the much-coveted help of Austria and Italy. He
+chose the latter alternative, largely, it would seem, owing to the
+influence of his vehemently Catholic Empress<a name=
+"FNanchor19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19">[19]</a>. After the first
+defeats he sought to open negotiations, but then it was too late.
+Prince Napoleon went to Florence and arrived there on August 20;
+but his utmost efforts failed to move the Italian Cabinet from
+neutrality.</p>
+<p>Even this brief survey of international relations shows that
+Napoleon III. was a source of weakness to France. Having seized on
+power by perfidious means, he throughout his whole reign strove to
+dazzle the French by a series of adventures, which indeed pleased
+the Parisians for the time, but at the cost of lasting distrust
+among the Powers. Generous in his aims, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page039" id="page039"></a>[pg 039]</span> he at
+first befriended the German and Italian national movements, but
+forfeited all the fruits of those actions by his pettifogging
+conduct about Savoy and Nice, the Rhineland and Belgium; while his
+final efforts to please French clericals and Chauvinists<a name=
+"FNanchor20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20">[20]</a> by supporting the
+Pope at Rome, lost him the support of States that might have
+retrieved the earlier blunders. In brief, by helping on the
+nationalists of North Germany and Italy he offended French public
+opinion; and his belated and spasmodic efforts to regain popularity
+at home aroused against him the distrust of all the Powers. Their
+feelings about him may be summarised in the <i>mot</i> of a
+diplomatist, "Scratch the Emperor and you will find the political
+refugee."</p>
+<p>How different were the careers of Napoleon III. and of Bismarck!
+By resolutely keeping before him the national aim, and that only,
+the Prussian statesman had reduced the tangle of German affairs to
+simplicity and now made ready for the crowning work of all. In his
+<i>Reminiscences</i> he avows his belief, as early as 1866, "that a
+war with France would succeed the war with Austria lay in the logic
+of history"; and again, "I did not doubt that a Franco-German War
+must take place before the construction of a United Germany could
+take place<a name="FNanchor21"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_21">[21]</a>." War would doubtless have broken out in
+1867 over the Luxemburg question, had he not seen the need of delay
+for strengthening the bonds of union with South Germany and
+assuring the increase of the armies of the Fatherland by the
+adoption of Prussian methods; or, as he phrased it, "each year's
+postponement of the war would add 100,000 trained soldiers to our
+army<a name="FNanchor22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22">[22]</a>." In
+1870 little was to be gained by delay. In fact, the unionist
+movement in Germany then showed ominous signs of slackening. In the
+South the Parliaments opposed any further approach to union with
+the North; and the voting of the military budget in the North for
+that year was likely to lead to strong opposition <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page040" id="page040"></a>[pg 040]</span> in the
+interests of the overtaxed people. A war might solve the unionist
+problem which was insoluble in time of peace; and a <i>casus
+belli</i> was at hand.</p>
+<p>Early in July 1870, the news leaked out that Prince Leopold of
+Hohenzollern was the officially accepted candidate for the throne
+of Spain, left vacant since the revolution which drove Queen
+Isabella into exile in 1868<a name="FNanchor23"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_23">[23]</a>. At once a thrill of rage shot through
+France; and the Duc de Gramont, Foreign Minister of the new
+Ollivier Ministry, gave expression to the prevailing feeling in his
+answer to a question on the subject in the Chamber of Deputies
+(July 6):--</p>
+<blockquote>We do not think that respect for the rights of a
+neighbouring people [Spain] obliges us to allow an alien Power
+[Prussia], by placing one of its princes on the throne of Charles
+V., to succeed in upsetting to our disadvantage the present
+equilibrium of forces in Europe, and imperil the interests and
+honour of France. We have the firm hope that this eventuality will
+not be realised. To hinder it, we count both on the wisdom of the
+German people and on the friendship of the Spanish people. If that
+should not be so, strong in your support and in that of the nation,
+we shall know how to fulfil our duty without hesitation and without
+weakness<a name="FNanchor24"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_24">[24]</a>.</blockquote>
+<p>The opening phrases were inaccurate. The prince in question was
+Prince Leopold of the Swabian and Roman Catholic branch of the
+Hohenzollern family, who, as the Duc de Gramont knew, could by no
+possibility recall the days when Charles V. reigned as Emperor in
+Germany and monarch in Spain. This misstatement showed the
+intention of the French Ministry to throw down the glove to
+Prussia--as is also clear from this statement in Gramont's despatch
+of July 10 to Benedetti: "If the King will not advise the Prince of
+Hohenzollern to withdraw, well, it is war forthwith, and in a few
+days we are at the Rhine<a name="FNanchor25"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_25">[25]</a>."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page041" id="page041"></a>[pg
+041]</span>
+<p>Nevertheless, those who were behind the scenes had just cause
+for anger against Bismarck. The revelations of Benedetti, French
+ambassador at Berlin, as well as the Memoirs of the King of
+Roumania (brother to Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern) leave no doubt
+that the candidature of the latter was privately and unofficially
+mooted in 1868, and again in the spring of 1869 through a Prussian
+diplomatist, Werthern, and that it met with no encouragement
+whatever from the Prussian monarch or the prince himself. But early
+in 1870 it was renewed in an official manner by the provisional
+Government of Spain, and (as seems certain) at the instigation of
+Bismarck, who, in May-June, succeeded in overcoming the reluctance
+of the prince and of King William. Bismarck even sought to hurry
+the matter through the Spanish Cortes so as to commit Spain to the
+plan; but this failed owing to the misinterpretation of a ciphered
+telegram from Berlin at Madrid<a name="FNanchor26"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_26">[26]</a>.</p>
+<p>Such was the state of the case when the affair became known to
+the Ollivier Ministry. Though not aware, seemingly, of all these
+details, Napoleon's advisers were justified in treating the matter,
+not as a private affair between the Hohenzollerns and Spain (as
+Germans then maintained it was) but as an attempt of the Prussian
+Government to place on the Spanish throne a prince who could not
+but be friendly to the North German Power. In fact, the French saw
+in it a challenge to war; and putting together all the facts as now
+known, we must pronounce that they were almost certainly right.
+Bismarck undoubtedly wanted war; and it is impossible to think that
+he did not intend to use this candidature as a means of
+exasperating the French. The man who afterwards declared that, at
+the beginning of the Danish disputes in 1863, he made up his mind
+to have Schleswig-Holstein for Prussia<a name=
+"FNanchor27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27">[27]</a>, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page042" id="page042"></a>[pg 042]</span>
+certainly saw in the Hohenzollern candidature a step towards a
+Prusso-Spanish alliance or a war with France that might cement
+German unity.</p>
+<p>In any case, that was the outcome of events. The French papers
+at once declaimed against the candidature in a way that aroused no
+less passion on the other side of the Rhine. For a brief space,
+however, matters seemed to be smoothed over by the calm good sense
+of the Prussian monarch and his nephew. The King was then at Ems,
+taking the waters, when Benedetti, the French ambassador, waited on
+him and pressed him most urgently to request Prince Leopold to
+withdraw from the candidature to the Spanish Crown. This the King
+declined to do in the way that was pointed out to him, rightly
+considering that such a course would play into the hands of the
+French by lowering his own dignity and the prestige of Prussia.
+Moreover, he, rather illogically, held the whole matter to be
+primarily one that affected the Hohenzollern family and Spain. The
+young prince, however, on hearing of the drift of events, solved
+the problem by declaring his intention not to accept the Crown of
+Spain (July 12). The action was spontaneous, emanating from Prince
+Leopold and his father Prince Antony, not from the Prussian
+monarch, though, on hearing of their decision, he informed
+Benedetti that he entirely approved it.</p>
+<p>If the French Government had really wished for peace, it would
+have let the matter end there. But it did not do so. The extreme
+Bonapartists--<i>plus royalistes que le roi</i>--all along wished
+to gain prestige for their sovereign by inflicting an open
+humiliation on King William and through him on Prussia. They were
+angry that he had evaded the snare, and now brought pressure to
+bear on the Ministry, especially the Duc de Gramont, so that at 7
+P.M. of that same day (July 12) he sent a telegram to Benedetti at
+Ems directing him to see King William and press him to declare that
+he "would not again authorise this candidature." The Minister
+added: "The effervescence of spirits [at Paris] is such that we do
+not know whether we shall succeed in mastering it." This was true.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page043" id="page043"></a>[pg
+043]</span> Paris was almost beside herself. As M. Sorel says: "The
+warm July evening drove into the streets a populace greedy of shows
+and excitements, whose imagination was spoiled by the custom of
+political quackery, for whom war was but a drama and history a
+romance<a name="FNanchor28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28">[28]</a>."
+Such was the impulse which led to Gramont's new demand, and it was
+made in spite of the remonstrances of the British ambassador, Lord
+Lyons.</p>
+<p>Viewing that demand in the clearer light of the present time, we
+must say that it was not unreasonable in itself; but it was
+presented in so insistent a way that King William declined to
+entertain it. Again Gramont pressed Benedetti to urge the matter;
+but the utmost that the King would do was to state: "He gives his
+approbation entirely and without reserve to the withdrawal of the
+Prince of Hohenzollern: he cannot do more." He refused to see the
+ambassador further on this subject; but on setting out to return to
+Berlin--a step necessitated by the growing excitement throughout
+Germany--he took leave of Benedetti with perfect cordiality (July
+14). The ambassador thereupon returned to Paris.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, however, Bismarck had given the last flick to the
+restive courses of the Press on both sides of the Rhine. In his
+<i>Reminiscences</i> he has described his depression of spirits on
+hearing the news of the withdrawal of Prince Leopold's candidature
+and of his nearly formed resolve to resign as a protest against so
+tame a retreat before French demands. But while Moltke, Roon, and
+he were dining together, a telegram reached him from the King at
+Ems, dated July 13, 3.50 P.M., which gave him leave to inform the
+ambassadors and the Press of the present state of affairs. Bismarck
+saw his chance. The telegram could be cut down so as to give a more
+resolute look to the whole affair. And, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page044" id="page044"></a>[pg 044]</span> after
+gaining Moltke's assurance that everything was ready for war, he
+proceeded to condense it. The facts here can only be understood by
+a comparison of the two versions. We therefore give the original as
+sent to Bismarck by Abeken, Secretary to the Foreign Office, who
+was then at Ems:--</p>
+<blockquote>His Majesty writes to me: "Count Benedetti spoke to me
+on<br>
+the promenade, in order to demand from me, finally in a very<br>
+importunate manner, that I should authorise him to telegraph at<br>
+once that I bound myself for all future time never again to give
+my<br>
+consent if the Hohenzollerns should renew their candidature. I<br>
+refused at last somewhat sternly, as it is neither right nor
+possible<br>
+to undertake engagements of this kind <i>&agrave; tout jamais</i>.
+Naturally I<br>
+told him that I had as yet received no news, and as he was
+earlier<br>
+informed about Paris and Madrid than myself, he could see
+clearly<br>
+that my Government once more had no hand in the matter." His<br>
+Majesty has since received a letter from the Prince. His
+Majesty<br>
+having told Count Benedetti that he was awaiting news from the<br>
+Prince, has decided, with reference to the above demand, upon
+the<br>
+representation of Count Eulenburg and myself, not to receive<br>
+Count Benedetti again, but only to let him be informed through
+an<br>
+aide-de-camp: "That his Majesty had now received from the<br>
+Prince confirmation of the news which Benedetti had already<br>
+received from Paris, and had nothing further to say to the<br>
+ambassador." His Majesty leaves it to your Excellency whether<br>
+Benedetti's fresh demand and its rejection should not be at
+once<br>
+communicated both to our ambassadors and to the Press.</blockquote>
+<p>Bismarck cut this down to the following:--</p>
+<blockquote>After the news of the renunciation of the hereditary
+Prince of<br>
+Hohenzollern had been officially communicated to the Imperial<br>
+Government of France by the Royal Government of Spain, the<br>
+French ambassador at Ems further demanded of his Majesty, the<br>
+King, that he would authorise him to telegraph to Paris that
+his<br>
+Majesty, the King, bound himself for all future time never
+again<br>
+to give his consent if the Hohenzollerns should renew their<br>
+candidature. His Majesty, the King, thereupon decided not to<br>
+receive the French ambassador again, and sent to tell him
+through<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page045" id="page045"></a>[pg
+045]</span> the aide-de-camp on duty that his Majesty had nothing
+further to<br>
+communicate to the ambassador.</blockquote>
+<p>Efforts have been made to represent Bismarck's "editing" of the
+Ems telegram as the decisive step leading to war; and in his
+closing years, when seized with the morbid desire of a partly
+discredited statesman to exaggerate his influence on events, he
+himself sought to perpetuate this version. He claims that the
+telegram, as it came from Ems, described the incident there "as a
+fragment of a negotiation still pending, and to be continued at
+Berlin." This claim is quite untenable. A careful perusal of the
+original despatch from Ems shows that the negotiation, far from
+being "still pending," was clearly described as having been closed
+on that matter. That Benedetti so regarded it is proved by his
+returning at once to Paris. If it could have been "continued at
+Berlin," he most certainly would have proceeded thither. Finally,
+the words in the original as to the King refusing Benedetti
+"somewhat sternly" were omitted, and very properly omitted, by
+Bismarck in his abbreviated version. Had he included those words,
+he might have claimed to be the final cause of the War of 1870. As
+it is, his claim must be set aside as the offspring of senile
+vanity. His version of the original Ems despatch did not contain a
+single offensive word, neither did it alter any statement. Abeken
+also admitted that his original telegram was far too long, and that
+Bismarck was quite justified in abbreviating it as he did<a name=
+"FNanchor29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29">[29]</a>.</p>
+<p>If we pay attention, not to the present more complete knowledge
+of the whole affair, but to the imperfect information then open to
+the German public, war was the natural result of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page046" id="page046"></a>[pg 046]</span> the
+second and very urgent demand that came from Paris. The Duc de
+Gramont in dispatching it must have known that he was playing a
+desperate game. Either Prussia would give way and France would
+score a diplomatic triumph over a hated rival; or Prussia would
+fight. The friends of peace in France thought matters hopeless when
+that demand was sent in so insistent a manner. As soon as Gladstone
+heard of the second demand of the Ollivier Ministry, he wrote to
+Lord Granville, then Foreign Minister: "It is our duty to represent
+the immense responsibility which will rest upon France, if she does
+not at once accept as satisfactory and conclusive the withdrawal of
+the candidature of Prince Leopold<a name="FNanchor30"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_30">[30]</a>."</p>
+<p>On the other hand, we must note that the conduct of the German
+Press at this crisis was certainly provocative of war. The morning
+on which Bismarck's telegram appeared in the official <i>North
+German Gazette</i>, saw a host of violent articles against France,
+and gleeful accounts of imaginary insults inflicted by the King on
+Benedetti. All this was to be expected after the taunts of
+cowardice freely levelled by the Parisian papers against Prussia
+for the last two days; but whether Bismarck directly inspired the
+many sensational versions of the Ems affair that appeared in North
+German papers on July 14 is not yet proven.</p>
+<p>However that may be, the French Government looked on the refusal
+of its last demand, the publication of Bismarck's telegram, and the
+insults of the German Press as a <i>casus belli</i>. The details of
+the sitting of the Emperor's Council at 10 P.M. on July 14, at
+which it was decided to call out the French reserves, are not yet
+known. Ollivier was not present. There had been a few hours of
+wavering on this question; but the tone of the Parisian evening
+papers--it was the French national day--the loud cries of the
+rabble for war, and their smashing the windows of the Prussian
+embassy, seem to have convinced the Emperor and his advisers that
+to draw back now would involve the fall of the dynasty. Report has
+uniformly pointed <span class="pagenum"><a name="page047" id=
+"page047"></a>[pg 047]</span> to the Empress as pressing these
+ideas on her consort, and the account which the Duc de Gramont
+later on gave to Lord Malmesbury of her words at that momentous
+Council-meeting support popular rumour. It is as follows:--</p>
+<blockquote>Before the final resolve to declare war the Emperor,
+Empress, and Ministers went to St. Cloud. After some discussion
+Gramont told me that the Empress, a high-spirited and
+impressionable woman, made a strong and most excited address,
+declaring that "war was inevitable if the honour of France was to
+be sustained." She was immediately followed by Marshal Leboeuf,
+who, in the most violent tone, threw down his portfolio and swore
+that if war was not declared he would give it up and renounce his
+military rank. The Emperor gave way, and Gramont went straight to
+the Chamber to announce the fatal news<a name=
+"FNanchor31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31">[31]</a>.</blockquote>
+<p>On the morrow (July 15) the Chamber of Deputies appointed a
+Commission, which hastily examined the diplomatic documents and
+reported in a sense favourable to the Ollivier Ministry, The
+subsequent debate made strongly for a rupture; and it is important
+to note that Ollivier and Gramont based the demand for warlike
+preparations on the fact that King William had refused to see the
+French ambassador, and held that that alone was a sufficient
+insult. In vain did Thiers protest against the war as inopportune,
+and demand to see all the necessary documents. The Chamber passed
+the war supplies by 246 votes to 10; and Thiers had his windows
+broken. Late on that night Gramont set aside a last attempt of Lord
+Granville to offer the mediation of England in the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page048" id="page048"></a>[pg 048]</span> cause
+of peace, on the ground that this would be to the harm of
+France--"unless means were found to stop the rapid mobilisation of
+the Prussian armies which were approaching our frontier<a name=
+"FNanchor32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32">[32]</a>." In this
+connection it is needful to state that the order for mobilising the
+North German troops was not given by the King of Prussia until late
+on July 15, when the war votes of the French Chambers were known at
+Berlin.</p>
+<p>Benedetti, in his review of the whole question, passes the
+following very noteworthy and sensible verdict: "It was public
+opinion which forced the [French] Government to draw the sword, and
+by an irresistible onset dictated its resolutions<a name=
+"FNanchor33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33">[33]</a>." This is
+certainly true for the public opinion of Paris, though not of
+France as a whole. The rural districts which form the real strength
+of France nearly always cling to peace. It is significant that the
+Prefects of French Departments reported that only 16 declared in
+favour of war, while 37 were in doubt on the matter, and 34
+accepted war with regret. This is what might be expected from a
+people which in the Provinces is marked by prudence and thrift.</p>
+<p>In truth, the people of modern Europe have settled down to a
+life of peaceful industry, in which war is the most hateful of
+evils. On the other hand, the massing of mankind in great cities,
+where thought is superficial and feelings can quickly be stirred by
+a sensation-mongering Press, has undoubtedly helped to feed
+political passions and national hatred. A rural population is not
+deeply stirred by stories of slights to ambassadors. The peasant of
+Brittany had no active dislike for the peasant of Brandenburg. Each
+only asked to be left to till his fields in peace and safety. But
+the crowds on the Parisian boulevards and in <i>Unter den
+Linden</i> took (and seemingly always will take) a very different
+view of life. To them the news of the humiliation of the rival
+beyond the Rhine was the greatest and therefore the most welcome of
+sensations; and, unfortunately, the papers which pandered to their
+habits set the tone of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page049" id=
+"page049"></a>[pg 049]</span> thought for no small part of France
+and Germany and exerted on national policy an influence out of all
+proportion to its real weight.</p>
+<p>The story of the Franco-German dispute is one of national
+jealousy carefully fanned for four years by newspaper editors and
+popular speakers until a spark sufficed to set Western Europe in a
+blaze. The spark was the Hohenzollern candidature, which would have
+fallen harmless had not the tinder been prepared since
+K&ouml;niggratz by journalists at Paris and Berlin. The resulting
+conflagration may justly be described as due partly to national
+friction and partly to the supposed interests of the Napoleonic
+dynasty, but also to the heat engendered by a sensational
+Press.</p>
+<p>It is well that one of the chief dangers to the peace of the
+modern world should be clearly recognised. The centralisation of
+governments and of population may have its advantages; but over
+against them we must set grave drawbacks; among those of a
+political kind the worst are the growth of nervousness and
+excitability, and the craving for sensation--qualities which
+undoubtedly tend to embitter national jealousies at all times, and
+in the last case to drive weak dynasties or Cabinets on to war.
+Certainly Bismarck's clever shifts to bring about a rupture in 1870
+would have failed had not the atmosphere both at Paris and Berlin
+been charged with electricity<a name="FNanchor34"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_34">[34]</a>.</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor7">[7]</a> <i>Notes
+from a Diary, 1851-1872</i>, by Sir M.E. Grant Duff, vol. i. p.
+120.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor8">[8]</a> In 1867
+Bismarck's promises went so far as the framing of a secret compact
+with France, one article of which stated that Prussia would not
+object to the annexation of Belgium by France. The agreement was
+first published by the <i>Times</i> on July 25, 1870, Bismarck then
+divulging the secret so as to inflame public opinion against
+France.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor9">[9]</a> See
+Ollivier's great work, <i>L'Empire lib&eacute;ral</i>, for full
+details of this time.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor10">[10]</a>
+Hanotaux, <i>Contemporary France</i>, vol. i. p. 9 (Eng. ed.);
+<i>Bismarck: his Reflections and Reminiscences,</i> vol. ii. p. 61.
+The popular Prussian view about England found expression in the
+comic paper <i>Kladderdatsch</i>:--<br>
+<br>
+Deutschland beziehe billige Sympathien<br>
+Und Frankreich theures Kriegsmateriel.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor11">[11]</a> See Sir
+H. Rumbold's <i>Recollections of a Diplomatist</i> (First Series),
+vol. ii. p. 292, for the Czar's hostility to France in 1870.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor12">[12]</a>
+<i>Memoirs of Count Beust</i>, vol. ii. pp. 358-359 (Appendix D,
+Eng. edit.).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor13">[13]</a>
+<i>Revue des deux Mondes</i> for April 1, 1878.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor14">[14]</a>
+Seignobos, <i>A Political History of Contemporary Europe</i>, vol.
+ii. pp. 806-807 (Eng. edit.). Oncken, <i>Zeitalter des Kaisers
+Wilhelm</i> (vol. i. pp. 720-740), tries to prove that there was a
+deep conspiracy against Prussia. I am not convinced by his
+evidence.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor15">[15]</a>
+<i>Souvenirs militaires</i>, by General B.L.J. Lebrun (Paris 1895),
+pp. 95-148.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor16">[16]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: his Reflections and Reminiscences</i>, vol. ii. p.
+58.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor17">[17]</a>
+<i>Memoirs of Count Beust,</i> vol. ii. p. 359. <i>The Present
+Position of European Politics</i> p. 366 (1887). By the author of
+<i>Greater Britain.</i></p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor18">[18]</a> See the
+<i>Rev. des deux Mondes</i> for April 1, 1878, and "Chronique" of
+the <i>Revue d'Histoire diplomatique</i> for 1905, p. 298; also
+W.H. Stillman, <i>The Union of Italy, 1815-1895</i>, p. 348.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor19">[19]</a> For the
+relations of France to the Vatican, see <i>Histoire du second
+Empire</i>, by M. De la Gorce, vol. vi. (Paris, 1903); also
+<i>Histoire Contemporaine</i> (<i>i.e.</i> of France in 1869-1875),
+by M. Samuel Denis, 4 vols. The Empress Eug&eacute;nie once said
+that she was "deux fois Catholique," as a Spaniard and as French
+Empress. (Sir M.K. Grant Duff, <i>Notes from a Diary,
+1851-1872</i>, vol. i. p. 125.)</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor20">[20]</a>
+Chauvinist is a term corresponding to our "Jingo." It is derived
+from a man named Chauvin, who lauded Napoleon I. and French glory
+to the skies.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor21">[21]</a>
+Bismarck, <i>Reminiscences</i>, vol. ii. pp. 41, 57 (Eng.
+edit.).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor22">[22]</a>
+<i>Ib.</i> p. 58.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor23">[23]</a> The
+ex-queen Isabella died in Paris in April 1904.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor24">[24]</a> Sorel,
+<i>Hist. diplomatique de la Guerre Franco-Allemande</i>, vol. i. p.
+77.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor25">[25]</a>
+Benedetti, <i>Ma Mission en Prusse</i>, p.34. This work contains
+the French despatches on the whole affair.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor26">[26]</a> In a
+recent work, <i>Kaiser Wilhelm und die Begr&uuml;ndung des Reichs,
+1866-1871</i>, Dr. Lorenz tries to absolve Bismarck from complicity
+in these intrigues, but without success. See <i>Reminiscences of
+the King of Roumania</i> (edited by S. Whitman), pp. 70, 86-87,
+92-95; also Headlam's <i>Bismarck</i>, p. 327.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor27">[27]</a> Busch,
+<i>Our Chancellor</i>, vol. i. p. 367.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor28">[28]</a> Sorel,
+<i>Hist. diplomatique de la Guerre Franco-Allemande</i>, vol. i.
+chap. iv.; also for the tone of the French Press, Giraudeau, <i>La
+V&eacute;rit&eacute; sur la Campagne de 1870</i>, pp. 46-60.<br>
+<br>
+Ollivier tried to persuade Sir M.E. Grant Duff (<i>Notes from a
+Diary, 1873-1881</i>, vol. i. p. 45) that the French demand to King
+William was quite friendly and natural.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor29">[29]</a>
+<i>Heinrich Abeken</i>, by Hedwig Abeken, p. 375. Bismarck's
+successor in the chancellory, Count Caprivi, set matters in their
+true light in a speech in the Reichstag shortly after the
+publication of Bismarck's <i>Reminiscences</i>.<br>
+<br>
+I dissent from the views expressed by the well-informed reviewer of
+Ollivier's <i>L'Empire lib&eacute;ral</i> (vol. viii.) in the
+<i>Times</i> of May 27, 1904, who pins his faith to an interview of
+Bismarck with Lord Loftus on July 13, 1870. Bismarck, of course
+wanted war; but so did Gramont, and I hold that <i>the latter</i>
+brought it about.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor30">[30]</a> J.
+Morley, <i>Life of Gladstone</i>, vol. ii. p. 328.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor31">[31]</a> This
+version has, I believe, not been refuted. Still, I must look on it
+with suspicion. No Minister, who had done so much to stir up the
+war-feeling, ought to have made any such confession--least of all
+against a lady, who could not answer it. M. Seignobos in his
+<i>Political History of Contemporary Europe</i>, vol. i. chap. vi.
+p. 184 (Eng edit.) says of Gramont: "He it was who embroiled France
+in the war with Prussia." In the course of the parliamentary
+inquiry of 1872 Gramont convicted himself and his Cabinet of folly
+in 1870 by using these words: "Je crois pouvoir d&eacute;clarer que
+si on avait eu un doute, un seule doute, sur notre aptitude
+&agrave; la guerre, on e&ucirc;t imm&eacute;diatement
+arr&ecirc;t&eacute; la n&eacute;gociation" (<i>Enqu&ecirc;te
+parlementaire</i>, I. vol. i. p. 108).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor32">[32]</a> Quoted
+by Sorel, <i>op. cit</i>. vol. i. p. 196.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor33">[33]</a>
+Benedetti, <i>Ma Mission en Prusse,</i> p. 411.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor34">[34]</a> Prince
+Leopold of Hohenzollern died at Berlin on June 8, 1905. He was born
+in 1835, and in 1861 married the Infanta of Portugal.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page050" id="page050"></a>[pg
+050]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+<h3>FROM W&Ouml;RTH TO GRAVELOTTE</h3>
+<blockquote>"The Chief of the General Staff had his eye fixed from
+the first upon the capture of the enemy's capital, the possession
+of which is of more importance in France than in other
+countries. . . . It is a delusion to believe that a plan of war may be
+laid for a prolonged period and carried out in every point."--VON
+MOLTKE, <i>The Franco-German War</i>.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>In olden times, before the invention of long-range arms of
+precision, warfare was decided mainly by individual bravery and
+strength. In the modern world victory has inclined more and more to
+that side which carefully prepares beforehand to throw a force,
+superior alike in armament and numbers, against the vitals of its
+enemy. Assuming that the combatants are fairly equal in physical
+qualities--and the spread of liberty has undoubtedly lessened the
+great differences that once were observable in this respect among
+European peoples--war becomes largely an affair of preliminary
+organisation. That is to say, it is now a matter of brain rather
+than muscle. Writers of the school of Carlyle may protest that all
+modern warfare is tame when compared with the splendidly rampant
+animalism of the Homeric fights. In the interests of Humanity it is
+to be hoped that the change will go on until war becomes wholly
+scientific and utterly unattractive. Meanwhile, the soldier-caste,
+the politician, and the tax-payer have to face the fact that the
+fortunes of war are very largely decided by humdrum costly
+preparations in time of peace.</p>
+<p>The last chapter set forth the causes that led to war in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page051" id="page051"></a>[pg
+051]</span> 1870. That event found Germany fully prepared. The
+lessons of the campaign of 1866 had not been lost upon the Prussian
+General Staff. The artillery was improved alike in
+<i>mat&eacute;riel</i> and in drill-tactics, Napoleon I.'s plan of
+bringing massed batteries to bear on decisive points being
+developed with Prussian thoroughness. The cavalry learnt to scout
+effectively and act as "the eyes and ears of an army," as well as
+to charge in brigades on a wavering foe. Universal military service
+had been compulsory in Prussia since 1813; but the organisation of
+territorial army corps now received fuller development, so that
+each part of Prussia, including, too, most of the North German
+Confederation, had its own small army complete in all arms, and
+reinforced from the Reserve, and, at need, from the
+Landwehr<a name="FNanchor35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35">[35]</a>.
+By virtue of the military conventions of 1866, the other German
+States adopted a similar system, save that while Prussians served
+for three years (with few exceptions in the case of successful
+examinees), the South Germans served with the colours for a shorter
+period. Those conventions also secured uniformity, or harmony, in
+the railway arrangements for the transport of troops.</p>
+<p>The General Staff of the North German Army had used these
+advantages to the utmost, by preparing a most complete plan of
+mobilisation--so complete, in fact, that the myriad orders had only
+to be drawn from their pigeon-holes and dated in the last hours of
+July 15. Forthwith the whole of the vast machinery started in swift
+but smooth working. Reservists speedily appeared at their
+regimental dep&ocirc;ts, there found their equipment, and speedily
+brought their regiments up to the war footing; trains were ready,
+timed according to an elaborate plan, to carry them Rhinewards;
+provisions and stores were sent forward, <i>ohne Hast, ohne
+Rast</i>, as the Germans say; and so perfect were the plans on
+rail, river, and road, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page052" id=
+"page052"></a>[pg 052]</span> that none of those blocks occurred
+which frequently upset the plans of the French. Thus, by dint of
+plodding preparation, a group of federal States gained a decisive
+advantage over a centralised Empire which left too many things to
+be arranged in the last few hours.</p>
+<p>Herein lies the true significance of the War of 1870. All
+Governments that were not content to jog along in the old military
+ruts saw the need of careful organisation, including the eventual
+control of all needful means of transport; and all that were wise
+hastened to adapt their system to the new order of things, which
+aimed at assuring the swift orderly movement of great masses of men
+by all the resources of mechanical science. Most of the civilised
+States soon responded to the new needs of the age; but a few (among
+them Great Britain) were content to make one or two superficial
+changes and slightly increase the number of troops, while leaving
+the all-important matter of organisation almost untouched; and
+that, too, despite the vivid contrast which every one could see
+between the machine-like regularity of the German mobilisation and
+the chaos that reigned on the French side.</p>
+<p>Outwardly, the French army appeared to be beyond the reach of
+criticism. The troops had in large measure seen active service in
+the various wars whereby Napoleon III. fulfilled his promise of
+1852--"The Empire is peace"; and their successes in the Crimea,
+Lombardy, Syria, and China, everywhere in fact but Mexico, filled
+them with warlike pride. Armed with the <i>chassep&ocirc;t</i>, a
+newer and better rifle than the needle-gun, while their artillery
+(admittedly rather weak) was strengthened by the
+<i>mitrailleuse</i>, they claimed to be the best in the world, and
+burned to measure swords with the upstart forces of Prussia.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page053" id="page053"></a>[pg
+053]</span>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/img002.jpg"><img src=
+"images/img002.jpg" width="100%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Sketch Map Of The District Between Metz And The Rhine.</b></p>
+<p>But there was a sombre reverse to this bright side. All thinking
+Frenchmen, including the Emperor, were aware of grave defects--the
+lack of training of the officers<a name="FNanchor36"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_36">[36]</a>, and the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page054" id="page054"></a>[pg 054]</span> want of adaptability in
+the General Staff, which had little of that practical knowledge
+that the German Staff secured by periods of service with the
+troops. Add to this the leaven of republicanism working strongly in
+the army as in the State, and producing distrust between officers
+and men; above all, the lack of men and materials; and the outlook
+was not reassuring to those who knew the whole truth. Inclusive of
+the levies of the year 1869, which were not quite ready for active
+service, France would have by August 1, 1870, as many as 567,000
+men in her regular army; but of these colonial, garrison, and other
+duties claimed as many as 230,000--a figure which seems designed to
+include the troops that existed only on paper. Not only the
+<i>personnel</i> but the <i>mat&eacute;riel</i> came far below what
+was expected. General Leboeuf, the War Minister, ventured to
+declare that all was ready even to the last button on the gaiters;
+but his boast at once rang false when at scores of military
+dep&ocirc;ts neither gaiters, boots, nor uniforms were ready for
+the reservists who needed them.</p>
+<p>Even where the organisation worked at its best, that best was
+slow and confused. There were no territorial army corps in time of
+peace; and the lack of this organisation led to a grievous waste of
+time and energy. Regiments were frequently far away from the
+dep&ocirc;ts which contained the reservists' equipment; and when
+these had found their equipment, they often wandered widely before
+finding their regiments on the way to the frontier. One general
+officer hunted about on the frontier for a command which did not
+exist. As a result of this lack of organisation, and of that
+control over the railways which the Germans had methodically
+enforced, France lost the many advantages which her compact
+territory and excellent railway system ought to have ensured over
+her more straggling and poorer rival.</p>
+<p>The loss of time was as fatal as it was singular under the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page055" id="page055"></a>[pg
+055]</span> rule of a Napoleon whose uncle had so often shattered
+his foes by swift movements of troops. In 1870 Napoleonic France
+had nothing but speed and dash on which to count. Numbers were
+against her. In 1869 Marshal Leboeuf had done away with the Garde
+Mobile, a sort of militia which had involved only fifteen days'
+drill in the year; and the Garde Nationale of the towns was less
+fit for campaigning than the re-formed Mobiles proved to be later
+on in the war. Thus France had no reserves: everything rested on
+the 330,000 men struggling towards the frontiers. It is doubtful
+whether there were more than 220,000 men in the first line by
+August 6, with some 50,000 more in reserve at Metz, etc.</p>
+<p>Against them Germany could at once put into the field 460,000
+infantry, 56,000 cavalry, with 1584 cannon; and she could raise
+these forces to some 1,180,000 men by calling out all the reserves
+and Landwehr. These last were men who had served their time and had
+not, as a rule, lost their soldierly qualities in civil life.
+Nearly 400,000 highly trained troops were ready to invade France
+early in August.</p>
+<p>In view of these facts it seems incredible that Ollivier, the
+French Prime Minister, could have publicly stated that he entered
+on war with a light heart. Doubtless, Ministers counted on help
+from Austria or Italy, perhaps from both; but, as it proved, they
+judged too hastily. As was stated in Chapter I. of this work,
+Austria was not likely to move as long as Russia favoured the cause
+of Prussia; for any threatening pressure of the Muscovites on the
+open flank of the Hapsburg States, Galicia, has sufficed to keep
+them from embarking on a campaign in the West. In this case, the
+statesmen of Vienna are said to have known by July 20 that Russia
+would quietly help Prussia; she informed the Hapsburg Government
+that any increase in its armaments would be met by a corresponding
+increase in those of Russia. The meaning of such a hint was clear;
+and Austria decided not to seek revenge for K&ouml;niggr&auml;tz
+unless the French triumph proved to be overwhelming. As for Italy,
+her alliance with <span class="pagenum"><a name="page056" id=
+"page056"></a>[pg 056]</span> France alone was very improbable for
+the reasons previously stated.</p>
+<p>Another will o' the wisp which flitted before the ardent
+Bonapartists who pushed on the Emperor to war, was that the South
+German States would forsake the North and range their troops under
+the French eagles, as they had done in the years 1805-12. The first
+plan of campaign drawn up at Paris aimed at driving a solid wedge
+of French troops between the two Confederations and inducing or
+compelling the South to join France; it was hoped that Saxony would
+follow. As a matter of fact, very many of the South Germans and
+Saxons disliked Prussian supremacy; Catholic Bavaria looked askance
+at the growing power of Protestant Prussia. W&uuml;rtemberg was
+Protestant, but far too democratic to wish for the control of the
+cast-iron bureaucrats of Berlin. The same was even more true of
+Saxony, where hostility to Prussia was a deep-rooted tradition;
+some of the Saxon troops on leaving their towns even shouted
+<i>Napoleon soll leben</i><a name="FNanchor37"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_37">[37]</a>. It is therefore quite possible that, had
+France struck quickly at the valleys of the Neckar and Main, she
+might have reduced the South German States to neutrality. Alliance
+perhaps was out of the question save under overwhelming compulsion;
+for France had alienated the Bavarian and Hessian Governments by
+her claims in 1866, and the South German people by her recent
+offensive treatment of the Hohenzollern candidature. It is,
+however, safe to assert that if Napoleon I. had ordered French
+affairs he would have swept the South Germans into his net a month
+after the outbreak of war, as he had done in 1805. But Nature had
+not bestowed warlike gifts on the nephew, who took command of the
+French army at Metz at the close of July 1870. His feeble health,
+alternating with periods of severe pain, took from him all that
+buoyancy which lends life to an army and vigour to the
+headquarters; and his Chief of Staff, Leboeuf, did not make good
+the lack of these qualities in the nominal chief.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page057" id="page057"></a>[pg
+057]</span>
+<p>All the initiative and vigour were on the east of the Rhine. The
+spread of the national principle to Central and South Germany had
+recently met with several checks; but the diplomatic blunders of
+the French Government, the threats of their Press that the
+Napoleonic troops would repeat the wonders of 1805; above all,
+admiration of the dignified conduct of King William under what were
+thought to be gratuitous insults from France, began to kindle the
+flame of German patriotism even in the particularists of the South.
+The news that the deservedly popular Crown Prince of Prussia,
+Frederick William, would command the army now mustering in the
+Palatinate, largely composed of South Germans, sent a thrill of joy
+through those States. Taught by the folly of her stay-at-home
+strategy in 1866, Bavaria readily sent her large contingent beyond
+the Rhine; and all danger of a French irruption into South Germany
+was ended by the speedy massing of the Third German Army, some
+200,000 strong in all, on the north of Alsace. For the French to
+cross the Rhine at Speyer, or even at Kehl, in front of a greatly
+superior army (though as yet they knew not its actual strength) was
+clearly impossible; and in the closing hours of July the French
+headquarters fell back on other plans, which, speaking generally,
+were to defend the French frontier from the Moselle to the Rhine by
+striking at the advanced German troops. At least, that seems to be
+the most natural explanation of the sudden and rather flurried
+changes then made.</p>
+<p>It was wise to hide this change to a strategic defensive by
+assuming a tactical offensive; and on August 2 two divisions of
+Frossard's corps attacked and drove back the advanced troops of the
+Second German Army from Saarbr&uuml;cken. The affair was
+unimportant: it could lead to nothing, unless the French had the
+means of following up the success. This they had not; and the
+advance of the First and Second German Armies, commanded by General
+Steinmetz and Prince Frederick Charles, was soon to deprive them of
+this position.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile the Germans were making ready a weighty <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page058" id="page058"></a>[pg 058]</span>
+enterprise. The muster of the huge Third Army to the north of
+Alsace enabled their General Staff to fix August 4 for a general
+advance against that frontier. It fell to this army, under the
+Crown Prince of Prussia, Frederick William, to strike the first
+great blow. Early on August 4 a strong Bavarian division advanced
+against the small fortified town of Weissenburg, which lies deep
+down in the valley of the Lauter, surrounded by lofty hills. There
+it surprised a weak French division, the vanguard of MacMahon's
+army, commanded by General Abel Douay, whose scouts had found no
+trace of the advancing enemy. About 10 A.M. Douay fell, mortally
+wounded; another German division, working round the town to the
+east, carried the strong position of the Geisberg; and these
+combined efforts, frontal and on the flank, forced the French
+hastily to retreat westwards over the hills to W&ouml;rth, after
+losing more than 2000 men.</p>
+<p>The news of this reverse and of the large German forces ready to
+pour into the north of Alsace led the Emperor to order the 7th
+French corps at Belfort, and the 5th in and around Bitsch, to send
+reinforcements to MacMahon, whose main force held the steep and
+wooded hills between the villages of W&ouml;rth, Fr&ouml;schweiler,
+and Reichshofen. The line of railway between Strassburg and Bitsch
+touches Reichshofen; but, for some reason that has never been
+satisfactorily explained, MacMahon was able to draw up only one
+division from the side of Strassburg and Belfort, and not one from
+Bitsch, which was within an easy march. The fact seems to be that
+de Failly, in command at Bitsch, was a prey to conflicting orders
+from Metz, and therefore failed to bring up the 5th corps as he
+should have done. MacMahon's cavalry was also very defective in
+scouting, and he knew nothing as to the strength of the forces
+rapidly drawing near from Weissenburg and the east.</p>
+<p>Certainly his position at W&ouml;rth was very strong. The French
+lines were ranged along the steep wooded slope running north and
+south, with buttress-like projections, intersected by gullies, the
+whole leading up to a plateau on which stand the village</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page059" id="page059"></a>[pg
+059]</span>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/img001.jpg"><img src=
+"images/img001.jpg" width="40%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Plan of the Battle of W&ouml;rth.</b></p>
+<p>of Fr&ouml;schweiler and the hamlet of Elsasshausen. Behind is
+the wood called the Grosser Wald, while the hamlet is flanked on
+the south and in front by an outlying wood, the Niederwald. Behind
+the Grosser Wald the ground sinks away to the valley in which runs
+the Bitsch-Reichshofen railway. In front of MacMahon's position lay
+the village of W&ouml;rth, deep in the valley of the Sauerbach. The
+invader would therefore have to carry this village or cross the
+stream, and press up the long open slopes on which were ranged the
+French troops and batteries with all the advantages of cover and
+elevation on their side. A poor general, having forces smaller than
+those of his enemy, might hope to hold such a position. But there
+was one great defect. Owing to de Failly's absence MacMahon had not
+enough men to hold the whole of the position marked out by Nature
+for defence.</p>
+<p>Conscious of its strength, the Prussian Crown Prince ordered the
+leaders of his vanguard not to bring on a general engagement on
+August 6, when the invading army had not at hand its full striking
+strength<a name="FNanchor38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38">[38]</a>.
+But orders failed to hold in the ardour of the Germans under the
+attacks of the French. Affairs of outposts along the Sauerbach
+early on that morning brought on a serious fight, which up to noon
+went against the invaders. At that time the Crown Prince galloped
+to the front, and ordered an attack with all available forces. The
+fighting, hitherto fierce but spasmodic between division and
+division, was now fed by a steady stream of German reinforcements,
+until 87,000 of the invaders sought to wrest from MacMahon the
+heights, with their woods and villages, which he had but 54,000 to
+defend. The superiority of numbers soon made itself felt. Pursuant
+to the Crown Prince's orders, parts of two Bavarian corps began to
+work their way (but with one strangely long interval of inaction)
+through the wood to the north of the French left wing; on the
+Prussian <span class="pagenum"><a name="page060" id=
+"page060"></a>[pg 060]</span> 11th corps fell the severer task of
+winning their way up the slopes south of W&ouml;rth, and thence up
+to the Niederwald and Elsasshausen. When these woods were won, the
+5th corps was to make its frontal attack from W&ouml;rth against
+Fr&ouml;schweiler. Despite the desperate efforts of the French and
+their Turco regiments, and a splendid but hopeless charge of two
+regiments of Cuirassiers and one of Lancers against the German
+infantry, the Niederwald and Elsasshausen were won; and about four
+o'clock the sustained fire of fifteen German batteries against
+Fr&ouml;schweiler enabled the 5th corps to struggle up that deadly
+glacis in spite of desperate charges by the defenders.</p>
+<p>Throughout the day the French showed their usual dash and
+devotion, some regiments being cut to pieces rather than retire.
+But by five o'clock the defence was outflanked on the two wings and
+crushed at the centre; human nature could stand no more after eight
+hours' fighting; and after a final despairing effort of the French
+Cuirassiers all their line gave way in a general rout down the
+slopes to Reichshofen and towards Saverne. Apart from the
+W&uuml;rtembergers held in reserve, few of the Germans were in a
+condition to press the pursuit. Nevertheless the fruits of victory
+were very great: 10,000 Frenchmen lay dead or wounded; 6000
+unwounded prisoners were taken, with 28 cannon and 5 mitrailleuses.
+Above all, MacMahon's fine army was utterly broken, and made no
+attempt to defend any of the positions on the north of the Vosges.
+Not even a tunnel was there blown up to delay the advance of the
+Germans. Hastily gathering up the 5th corps from Bitsch--the corps
+which ought to have been at W&ouml;rth--that gallant but
+unfortunate general struck out to the south-west for the great camp
+at Ch&acirc;lons. The triumph, however, cost the Germans dear. As
+many as 10,600 men were killed or wounded, the 5th Prussian corps
+alone losing more than half that number. Their cavalry failed to
+keep touch with the retreating French.</p>
+<p>On that same day (August 6) a disaster scarcely less serious
+overtook the French 2nd corps, which had been holding
+Saarbr&uuml;cken. Convinced that that post was too advanced and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page061" id="page061"></a>[pg
+061]</span> too weak in presence of the foremost divisions of the
+First and Second German Armies now advancing rapidly against it,
+General Frossard drew back his vanguard some mile and a half to the
+line of steep hills between Spicheren and Forbach, just within the
+French frontier. This retreat, as it seemed, tempted General Kameke
+to attack with a single division, as he was justified in doing in
+order to find the direction and strength of the retiring force. The
+attack, when pushed home, showed that the French were bent on
+making a stand on their commanding heights; and an onset on the
+Rothe Berg was stoutly beaten off about noon.</p>
+<p>But now the speedy advance and intelligent co-operation of other
+German columns was instrumental in turning an inconsiderable
+repulse into an important victory. General G&ouml;ben was not far
+off, and marching towards the firing, sent to offer his help with
+the 8th corps. General von Alvensleben, also, with the 3rd corps
+had reached Neunkirchen when the sound of firing near
+Saarbr&uuml;cken led him to push on for that place with the utmost
+speed. He entrained part of his corps and brought it up in time to
+strengthen the attack on the Rothe Berg and other heights nearer to
+Forbach. Each battalion as it arrived was hurled forward, and
+General von Fran&ccedil;ois, charging with his regiment, gained a
+lodgment half-way up the broken slope of the Rothe Berg, which was
+stoutly maintained even when he fell mortally wounded. Elsewhere
+the onsets were repelled by the French, who, despite their smaller
+numbers, kept up a sturdy resistance on the line of hills in the
+woods behind, and in the iron-works in front of Forbach. Even when
+the Germans carried the top of the Rothe Berg, their ranks were
+riddled by a cross fire; but by incredible exertions they managed
+to bring guns to the summit and retaliate with effect<a name=
+"FNanchor39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39">[39]</a>.</p>
+<p>This, together with the outflanking movement which <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page062" id="page062"></a>[pg 062]</span> their
+increasing numbers enabled them to carry out against the French
+left wing at Forbach, decided the day; and Frossard's corps fell
+back shattered towards the corps of Bazaine. It is noteworthy that
+this was but nine or ten miles to the rear. Bazaine had ordered
+three divisions to march towards the firing: one made for a wrong
+point and returned; the others made half-hearted efforts, and thus
+left Frossard to be overborne by numbers. The result of these
+disjointed movements was that both Frossard and Bazaine hurriedly
+retired towards Metz, while the First and Second German Armies now
+gathered up all their strength with the aim of shutting up the
+French in that fortress. To this end the First Army made for
+Colombey, east of Metz, while the leading part of the Second Army
+purposed to cross the Moselle south of Metz, and circle round that
+stronghold on the west.</p>
+<p>It is now time to turn to the French headquarters. These two
+crushing defeats on a single day utterly dashed Napoleon's plan of
+a spirited defence of the north-east frontier, until such time as
+the levies of 1869 should be ready, or Austria and Italy should
+draw the sword. On July 26 the Austrian ambassador assured the
+French Ministry that Austria was pushing on her preparations.
+Victor Emmanuel was with difficulty restrained by his Ministers
+from openly taking the side of France. On the night of August 6 he
+received telegraphic news of the Battles of W&ouml;rth and Forbach,
+whereupon he exclaimed, "Poor Emperor! I pity him, but I have had a
+lucky escape." Austria also drew back, and thus left France face to
+face with the naked truth that she stood alone and unready before a
+united and triumphant Germany, able to pour treble her own forces
+through the open portals of Lorraine and northern Alsace.</p>
+<p>Napoleon III., to do him justice, had never cherished the wild
+dreams that haunted the minds of his consort and of the frothy
+"Mamelukes" lately in favour at Court; still less did the "silent
+man of destiny" indulge in the idle boasts that had helped to
+alienate the sympathy of Europe and to weld together <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page063" id="page063"></a>[pg 063]</span>
+Germany to withstand the blows of a second Napoleonic invasion. The
+nephew knew full well that he was not the Great Napoleon--he knew
+it before Victor Hugo in spiteful verse vainly sought to dub him
+the Little. True, his statesmanship proved to be mere dreamy
+philosophising about nationalities; his administrative powers,
+small at the best, were ever clogged by his too generous desire to
+reward his fellow-conspirators of the <i>coup d'&eacute;tat</i> of
+1851; and his gifts for war were scarcely greater than those of the
+other <i>Napol&eacute;onides</i>, Joseph and Jerome. Nevertheless
+the reverses of his early life had strengthened that fund of quiet
+stoicism, that energy to resist if not to dare, which formed the
+backbone of an otherwise somewhat weak, shadowy, and uninspiring
+character. And now, in the rapid fall of his fortunes, the greatest
+adventurer of the nineteenth century showed to the full those
+qualities of toughness and dignified reserve which for twenty years
+had puzzled and imposed on that lively emotional people. By the
+side of the downcast braggarts of the Court and the unstrung
+screamers of the Parisian Press, his mien had something of the
+heroic. <i>Tout peut se r&eacute;tablir</i>--"All may yet be set
+right"--such was the vague but dignified phrase in which he
+summarised the results of August 6 to his people.</p>
+<p>The military situation now required a prompt retirement beyond
+the Moselle. The southerly line of retreat, which MacMahon and de
+Failly had been driven to take, forbade the hope of their junction
+with the main army at Metz in time to oppose a united front to the
+enemy. And it was soon known that their flight could not be stayed
+at Nancy or even at Toul. During the agony of suspense as to their
+movements and those of their German pursuers, the Emperor daily
+changed his plans. First, he and Leboeuf planned a retreat beyond
+the Moselle and Meuse; next, political considerations bade them
+stand firm on the banks of the Nied, some twelve miles east of
+Metz; and when this position seemed unsafe, they ended the
+marchings and counter-marchings of their troops by taking up a
+position at Colombey, nearer to Metz.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page064" id="page064"></a>[pg
+064]</span>
+<p>Meanwhile at Paris the Chamber of Deputies had overthrown the
+Ollivier Ministry, and the Empress-Regent installed in office Count
+Palikao. There was a general outcry against Leboeuf, and on the
+12th the Emperor resigned the command to Marshal Bazaine (Lebrun
+now acting as Chief of Staff), with the injunction to retreat
+westwards to Verdun. For the Emperor to order such a retreat in his
+own name was thought to be inopportune. Bazaine was a convenient
+scapegoat, and he himself knew it. Had he thrown an army corps into
+Metz and obeyed the Emperor's orders by retreating on Verdun,
+things would certainly have gone better than was now to be the
+case. In his printed defence Bazaine has urged that the army had
+not enough provisions for the march, and, further, that the
+outlying forts of Metz were not yet ready to withstand a siege--a
+circumstance which, if true, partly explains Bazaine's reluctance
+to leave the "virgin city<a name="FNanchor40"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_40">[40]</a>." Napoleon III. quitted it early on the
+16th: he and his escort were the last Frenchmen to get free of that
+death-trap for many a week.</p>
+<p>While Metz exercised this fatal fascination over the protecting
+army, the First and Second German Armies were striding westwards to
+envelop both the city and its guardians. Moltke's aim was to hold
+as many of the French to the neighbourhood of the fortress, while
+his left wing swung round it on the south. The result was the
+battle of Colombey on the east of Metz (August 14). It was a
+stubborn fight, costing the Germans some 5000 men, while the French
+with smaller losses finally withdrew under the eastern walls of
+Metz. But that heavy loss meant a great ultimate gain to Germany.
+The vacillations of Bazaine, whose strategy was far more faulty
+than that of Napoleon III. had been, together with the delay caused
+by the defiling of a great part of the army through the narrow
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page065" id="page065"></a>[pg
+065]</span> streets of Metz, gave the Germans an opportunity such
+as had not occurred since the year 1805, when Napoleon I. shut up
+an Austrian army in Ulm.</p>
+<p>The man who now saw the splendid chance of which Fortune
+vouchsafed a glimpse, was Lieutenant-General von Alvensleben,
+Commander of the 3rd corps, whose activity and resource had so
+largely contributed to the victory of Spicheren-Forbach. Though the
+orders of his Commander-in-Chief, Prince Frederick Charles, forbade
+an advance until the situation in front was more fully known, the
+General heard enough to convince himself that a rapid advance
+southwards to and over the Moselle might enable him to intercept
+the French retreat on Verdun, which might now be looked on as
+certain. Reporting his conviction to his chief as also to the royal
+headquarters, he struck out with all speed on the 15th, quietly
+threw a bridge over the river, and sent on his advanced guard as
+far as Pagny, near Gorze, while all his corps, about 33,000 strong,
+crossed the river about midnight. Soon after dawn, he pushed on
+towards Gorze, knowing by this time that the other corps of the
+Second Army were following him, while the 7th and 8th corps of the
+First Army were about to cross the river nearly opposite that
+town.</p>
+<p>This bold movement, which would have drawn on him sharp censure
+in case of overthrow, was more than justifiable seeing the
+discouraged state of the French troops, the supreme need of finding
+their line of retreat, and the splendid results that must follow on
+the interception of that retreat. The operations of war must always
+be attended with risk, and the great commander is he whose
+knowledge of the principles of strategy enables him quickly to see
+when the final gain warrants the running of risks, and how they may
+be met with the least likelihood of disaster.</p>
+<p>Alvensleben's advance was in accordance with Moltke's general
+plan of operations; but that corps-leader, finding the French to be
+in force between him and Metz, determined to attack them in order
+to delay their retreat. The result was the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page066" id="page066"></a>[pg 066]</span> battle
+of August 16, variously known as Vionville, Rezonville, or
+Mars-la-Tour--a battle that defies brief description, inasmuch as
+it represented the effort of the Third, or Brandenburg, corps, with
+little help at first from others, to hold its ground against the
+onsets of two French corps. Early in the fight Bazaine galloped up,
+but he did not bring forward the masses in his rear, probably
+because he feared to be cut off from Metz. Even so, all through the
+forenoon, it seemed that the gathering forces of the French must
+break through the thin lines audaciously thrust into that almost
+open plain on the flank of their line of march. But Alvensleben and
+his men held their ground with a dogged will that nothing could
+shatter. In one sense their audacity saved them. Bazaine for a long
+time could not believe that a single corps would throw itself
+against one of the two roads by which his great army was about to
+retreat. He believed that the northern road might also be in
+danger, and therefore did not launch at Alvensleben the solid
+masses that must have swept him back towards the Meuse. At noon
+four battalions of the German 10th corps struggled up from the
+south and took their share of the hitherto unequal fight.</p>
+<p>But the crisis of the fight came a little later. It was marked
+by one of the most daring and effective strokes ever dealt in
+modern warfare. At 2 o'clock, when the advance of Canrobert's 6th
+corps towards Vionville threatened to sweep away the wearied
+Brandenburgers, six squadrons of the 7th regiment of Cuirassiers
+with a few Uhlans flung themselves on the new lines of foemen, not
+to overpower them--that was impossible--but to delay their advance
+and weaken their impact. Only half of the brave horsemen returned
+from that ride of death, but they gained their end.</p>
+<p>The mad charge drove deep into the French array about
+Rezonville, and gave their leaders pause in the belief that it was
+but the first of a series of systematic attacks on the French left.
+System rather than dash was supposed to characterise German
+tactics; and the daring of their enemies for once made the French
+too methodical. Bazaine scarcely brought <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page067" id="page067"></a>[pg 067]</span> the
+3rd corps and the Guard into action at all, but kept them in
+reserve. As the afternoon sun waned, the whole weight of the German
+10th corps was thrown into the fight about Vionville, and the
+vanguards of the 8th and 9th came up from Gorze to threaten the
+French left. Fearing that he might be cut off from Metz on the
+south--a fear which had unaccountably haunted him all the
+day--Bazaine continued to feed that part of his lines; and thus
+Alvensleben was able to hold the positions near the southern road
+to Verdun, which he had seized in the morning. The day closed with
+a great cavalry combat on the German left wing in which the French
+had to give way. Darkness alone put an end to the deadly strife.
+Little more than two German corps had sufficed to stay the march of
+an army which potentially numbered in all more than 170,000
+men.</p>
+<p>On both sides the losses were enormous, namely, some 16,000
+killed and wounded. No cannon, standards, or prisoners were taken;
+but on that day the army of Prince Frederick Charles practically
+captured the whole of Bazaine's army. The statement may seem
+overdrawn, but it is none the less true. The advance of other
+German troops on that night made Bazaine's escape from Metz far
+more difficult than before, and very early on the morrow he drew
+back his lines through Gravelotte to a strong position nearer Metz.
+Thus, a battle, which in a tactical sense seemed to be
+inconclusive, became, when viewed in the light of strategy, the
+most decisive of the war. Had Bazaine used even the forces which he
+had in the field ready to hand he must have overborne Alvensleben;
+and the arrival of 170,000 good troops at Verdun or Ch&acirc;lons
+would have changed the whole course of the war. The campaign would
+probably have followed the course of the many campaigns waged in
+the valleys of the Meuse and Marne; and Metz, held by a garrison of
+suitable size, might have defied the efforts of a large besieging
+army for fully six months. These conjectures are not fanciful. The
+duration of the food supply of a garrison cut off from the outside
+world varies inversely with the size of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page068" id="page068"></a>[pg 068]</span> that
+garrison. The experiences of armies invading and defending the East
+of France also show with general accuracy what might have been
+expected if the rules of sound strategy had been observed. It was
+the actual course of events which transcended experience and set
+all probabilities at defiance.</p>
+<p>The battle of Gravelotte, or St. Privat, on the 18th completed
+the work so hardily begun by the 3rd German corps on the 16th. The
+need of driving back Bazaine's army upon Metz was pressing, and his
+inaction on the 17th gave time for nearly all the forces of the
+First and Second German Armies to be brought up to the German
+positions, some nine miles west of Metz, though one corps was left
+to the east of that fortress to hinder any attempt of the French to
+break out on that side. Bazaine, however, massed his great army on
+the west along a ridge stretching north and south, and presenting,
+especially in the southern half, steep slopes to the assailants. It
+also sloped away to the rear, thus enabling the defenders (as was
+the case with Wellington at Waterloo) secretly to reinforce any
+part of the line. On the French left wing, too, the slopes curved
+inward, thus giving the defenders ample advantage against any
+flanking movements on that side. On the north, between Amanvillers
+and Ste. Marie-aux-Ch&ecirc;nes, the defence had fewer strong
+points except those villages, the Jaumont Wood, and the gradual
+slope of the ground away to the little River Orne, which formed an
+open glacis. Bazaine massed his reserves on the plateau of
+Plappeville and to the rear of his left wing; but this cardinal
+fault in his dispositions--due to his haunting fear of being cut
+off from Metz--was long hidden by the woods and slopes in the rear
+of his centre. The position here and on the French left was very
+strong, and at several parts so far concealed the troops that up to
+11 A.M. the advancing Germans were in doubt whether the French
+would not seek to break away towards the north-west. That so great
+an army would remain merely on the defensive, a course so repugnant
+to the ardour of the French nature and the traditions of their
+army, entered into the thoughts of few.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page069" id="page069"></a>[pg
+069]</span> <span class="pagenum"><a name="page070" id=
+"page070"></a>[pg 070]</span>
+<p>Yet such was the case. The solution of the riddle is to be found
+in Bazaine's despatch of August 17 to the Minister of War: "We are
+going to put forth every effort to make good our supplies of all
+kinds in order to resume our march in two days if that is
+possible<a name="FNanchor41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41">[41]</a>."
+That the army was badly hampered by lack of stores is certain; but
+to postpone even for a single day the march to Verdun by the
+northern road--that by way of Briey--was fatal. Possibly, however,
+he hoped to deal the Germans so serious a blow, if they attacked
+him on the 18th, as to lighten the heavy task of cutting his way
+out on the 19th.</p>
+<p>If so, he nearly succeeded. The Germans were quite taken aback
+by the extent and strength of his lines. Their intention was to
+outflank his right wing, which was believed to stretch no further
+north than Amanvillers; but the rather premature advance of
+Manstein's 9th corps soon drew a deadly fire from that village and
+the heights on either side, which crushed the artillery of that
+corps. Soon the Prussian Guards and the 12th corps began to suffer
+from the fire poured in from the trenches that crowned the hill. On
+the German right, General Steinmetz, instead of waiting for the
+hoped-for flank attack on the north to take effect, sent the
+columns of the First Army to almost certain death in the defile in
+front of Gravelotte, and he persisted in these costly efforts even
+when the strength of the French position on that side was patent to
+all. For this the tough old soldier met with severe censure and
+ultimate disgrace. In his defence, however, it may be urged that
+when a great battle is raging with doubtful fortunes, the duty of a
+commander on the attacking side is to busy the enemy at as many
+points as possible, so that the final blow may be dealt with
+telling effect on a vital point where he cannot be adequately
+reinforced; and the bull-dog tactics of Steinmetz in front of
+Gravelotte, which cost the assailants many thousands of men, at any
+rate <span class="pagenum"><a name="page071" id="page071"></a>[pg
+071]</span> served to keep the French reserves on that side, and
+thereby weaken the support available for a more important point at
+the crisis of the fight. It so happened, too, that the action of
+Steinmetz strengthened the strange misconception of Bazaine that
+the Germans were striving to cut him off from Metz on the
+south.</p>
+<p>The real aim of the Germans was exactly the contrary, namely, to
+pin his whole army to Metz by swinging round their right flank on
+the villages of St. Privat and Raucourt. Having some 40,000 men
+under Canrobert in and between these villages, whose solid
+buildings gave the defence the best of cover, Bazaine had latterly
+taken little thought for that part of his lines, though it was
+dangerously far removed from his reserves. These he kept on the
+south, under the misconception which clung to him here as at
+Rezonville.</p>
+<p>The mistake was to prove fatal. As we have said, the German plan
+was to turn the French right wing in the more open country on the
+north. To this end the Prussian Guards and the Saxons, after
+driving the French outposts from Ste. Marie-aux-Ch&ecirc;nes,
+brought all their strength to the task of crushing the French at
+their chief stronghold on the right, St. Privat. The struggle of
+the Prussian Guards up the open slope between that village and
+Amanvillers left them a mere shadow of their splendid array; but
+the efforts of the German artillery cost the defenders dear: by
+seven o'clock St. Privat was in flames, and as the Saxons (the 12th
+corps), wheeling round from the north after a long flank-march,
+closed in on the outlying village of Raucourt, Canrobert saw that
+the day was lost unless he received prompt aid from the Imperial
+Guard. Bourbaki, however, brought up only some 3000 of these choice
+troops, and that too late to save St. Privat from the persistent
+fury of the German onset.</p>
+<p>As dusk fell over the scene of carnage the French right fell
+back in some disorder, even from part of Amanvillers. Farther
+south, they held their ground. On the whole they had dealt to their
+foes a loss of 20,159 men, or nearly a tenth of their <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page072" id="page072"></a>[pg 072]</span> total.
+Of the French forces engaged, some 150,000 in number, 7853 were
+killed and wounded, and 4419 were taken prisoners. The
+disproportion in the losses shows the toughness of the French
+defence and the (in part) unskilful character of the German attack.
+On this latter point the recently published <i>Journals</i> of
+Field-Marshal Count von Blumenthal supply some piquant details. He
+describes the indignation of King William at the wastefulness of
+the German tactics at Gravelotte: "He complained bitterly that the
+officers of the higher grades appeared to have forgotten all that
+had been so carefully taught them at manoeuvres, and had apparently
+all lost their heads." The same authority supplies what may be in
+part an explanation of this in his comment, written shortly before
+Gravelotte, that he believed there might not be another battle in
+the whole war--a remark which savours of presumption and folly.
+Gravelotte, therefore, cannot be considered as wholly creditable to
+the victors. Still, the result was that some 180,000 French troops
+were shut up within the outworks of Metz<a name=
+"FNanchor42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42">[42]</a>.</p>
+<br>
+<p>NOTE THE SECOND EDITION</p>
+<p>With reference to M. Ollivier's statement (quoted on p. 55) that
+he entered on war with a light heart, it should be added that he
+has since explained his meaning to have been that the cause of
+France was just, that of Prussia unjust.</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor35">[35]</a> By the
+Prussian law of November 9, 1867, soldiers had to serve three years
+with the colours, four in the reserve, and five in the Landwehr.
+Three new army corps (9th, 10th, and 11th) were formed in the newly
+annexed or confederated lands, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Saxony, etc.
+(Maurice, <i>The Franco-German War</i>, 1900).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor36">[36]</a> M. de
+la Gorce in his <i>Histoire du second Empire</i>, vol. vi., tells
+how the French officers scouted study of the art of war, while most
+of them looked on favouritism as the only means of promotion. The
+warnings of Colonel Stoffel, French Military Attach&eacute; at
+Berlin, were passed over, as those of "a Prussomane, whom Bismarck
+had fascinated."</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor37">[37]</a>
+<i>I.e</i>. "Long live Napoleon." The author had this from an
+Englishman who was then living in Saxony.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor38">[38]</a> See von
+Blumenthal's <i>Journals</i>, p. 87 (Eng. edit.): "The battle which
+I had expected to take place on the 7th, and for which I had
+prepared a good scheme for turning the enemy's right flank, came on
+of itself to-day."</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor39">[39]</a> For
+these details about the fighting at the Rothe Berg I am largely
+indebted to my friend, Mr. Bernard Pares, M.A., who has made a
+careful study of the ground there, as also at W&ouml;rth and
+Sedan.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor40">[40]</a> Bazaine
+gave this excuse in his <i>Rapport sommaire sur les
+Op&eacute;rations de l'Arm&eacute;e du Rhin</i>; but as a
+staff-officer pointed out in his incisive <i>R&eacute;ponse</i>,
+this reason must have been equally cogent when Napoleon (August 12)
+ordered him to retreat; and he was still bound to obey the
+Emperor's orders.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor41">[41]</a>
+Bazaine, <i>Rapport sommaire, etc.</i> The sentence quoted above is
+decisive. The defence which Bazaine and his few defenders later on
+put forward, as well as the attacks of his foes, are of course
+mixed up with theories evolved <i>after</i> the event.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor42">[42]</a> For
+fuller details of these battles the student should consult the two
+great works on the subject--the Staff Histories of the war, issued
+by the French and German General Staffs; Bazaine, <i>L'Arm&eacute;e
+du Rhin</i>, and <i>Episodes de la Guerre</i>; General Blumenthal's
+<i>Journals</i>; <i>Aus drei Kriegen</i>, by Gen. von Lignitz;
+Maurice, <i>The Franco-German War</i>; Hooper, <i>The Campaign of
+Sedan</i>; the War Correspondence of the <i>Times</i> and the
+<i>Daily News</i>, published in book form.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page073" id="page073"></a>[pg
+073]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+<h3>SEDAN</h3>
+<blockquote>"Nothing is more rash and contrary to the principles of
+war than to make a flank-march before an army in position,
+especially when this army occupies heights before which it is
+necessary to defile."--NAPOLEON I.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>The success of the German operations to the south and west of
+Metz virtually decided the whole of the campaign. The Germans could
+now draw on their vast reserves ever coming on from the Rhine,
+throw an iron ring around that fortress, and thereby deprive France
+of her only great force of regular troops. The throwing up of
+field-works and barricades went on with such speed that the
+blockading forces were able in a few days to detach a strong column
+towards Ch&acirc;lons-sur-Marne in order to help the army of the
+Crown Prince of Prussia. That army in the meantime was in pursuit
+of MacMahon by way of Nancy, and strained every nerve so as to be
+able to strike at the southern railway lines out of Paris. It was,
+however, diverted to the north-west by events soon to be
+described.</p>
+<p>The German force detached from the neighbourhood of Metz
+consisted of the Prussian Guards, the 4th and 12th corps, and two
+cavalry divisions. This army, known as the Army of the Meuse, was
+placed under the command of the Crown Prince of Saxony. Its aim
+was, in common with the Third German Army (that of the Crown Prince
+of Prussia), to strike at MacMahon before he received
+reinforcements. The screen of cavalry which preceded the Army of
+the Meuse passed that <span class="pagenum"><a name="page074" id=
+"page074"></a>[pg 074]</span> river on the 22nd, when the bulk of
+the forces of the Crown Prince of Prussia crossed not many miles
+farther to the south. The two armies swept on westwards within easy
+distance of one another; and on the 23rd their cavalry gleaned news
+of priceless value, namely, that MacMahon's army had left
+Ch&acirc;lons. On the next day the great camp was found
+deserted.</p>
+<p>In fact, MacMahon had undertaken a task of terrible difficulty.
+On taking over the command at Ch&acirc;lons, where Napoleon III.
+arrived from Metz on the 16th, he found hopeless disorder not only
+among his own beaten troops, but among many of the newcomers; the
+worst were the Garde Mobile, many regiments of whom greeted the
+Emperor with shouts of <i>&Agrave; Paris</i>. To meet the Germans
+in the open plains of Champagne with forces so incoherent and
+dispirited was sheer madness; and a council of war on the 17th came
+to the conclusion to fall back on the capital and operate within
+its outer forts--a step which might enable the army to regain
+confidence, repress any rising in the capital, and perhaps inflict
+checks on the Germans, until the provinces rose <i>en masse</i>
+against the invaders. But at this very time the Empress-Regent and
+the Palikao Ministry at Paris came to an exactly contrary decision,
+on the ground that the return of the Emperor with MacMahon's army
+would look like personal cowardice and a mean desertion of Bazaine
+at Metz. The Empress was for fighting <i>&agrave; outrance</i>, and
+her Government issued orders for a national rising and the
+enrolling of bodies of irregulars, or <i>francs-tireurs</i>, to
+harass the Germans<a name="FNanchor43"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_43">[43]</a>.</p>
+<p>Their decision was telegraphed to Napoleon III. at
+Ch&acirc;lons. Against his own better judgment the Emperor yielded
+to political considerations--that mill-stone around the neck of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page075" id="page075"></a>[pg
+075]</span> French army in 1870--and decided to strike out to the
+north with MacMahon's army, and by way of Montm&eacute;dy stretch a
+hand to Bazaine, who, on his side, was expected to make for that
+rendezvous. On the 21st, therefore, they marched to Reims. There
+the Emperor received a despatch which Bazaine had been able to get
+through the enemies' lines on the 19th, stating that the Germans
+were making their way in on Metz, but that he (Bazaine) hoped to
+break away towards Montm&eacute;dy and so join MacMahon's army.
+(This, it will be observed, was <i>after</i> Gravelotte had been
+lost.) Napoleon III. thereupon replied: "Received yours of the 19th
+at Reims; am going towards Montm&eacute;dy; shall be on the Aisne
+the day after to-morrow, and there will act according to
+circumstances to come to your aid." Bazaine did not receive this
+message until August 30, and then made only two weak efforts to
+break out on the north (August 31-September 1). The Marshal's
+action in sending that message must be pronounced one of the most
+fatal in the whole war. It led the Emperor and MacMahon to a false
+belief as to the position at Metz, and furnished a potent argument
+to the Empress and Palikao at Paris to urge a march towards
+Montm&eacute;dy at all costs.</p>
+<p>Doubtfully MacMahon led his straggling array from Reims in a
+north-easterly direction towards Stenay on the Meuse. Rain checked
+his progress, and dispirited the troops; but on the 27th August,
+while about half-way between the Aisne and the Meuse, his outposts
+touched those of the enemy. They were, in fact, those of the
+Prussian Crown Prince, whose army was about to cross the northern
+roads over the Argonne, the line of hills that saw the French stem
+the Prussian invasion in 1792. Far different was the state of
+affairs now. National enthusiasm, organisation, enterprise--all
+were on the side of the invaders. As has been pointed out, their
+horsemen found out on the 23rd that the Ch&acirc;lons camp was
+deserted; on the next day their scouts found out from a Parisian
+newspaper that MacMahon was at Reims; and, on the day following,
+newspaper tidings that had come round by way of London <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page076" id="page076"></a>[pg 076]</span>
+revealed the secret that MacMahon was striving to reach
+Bazaine.</p>
+<p>How it came about that this news escaped the eye of the censor
+has not been explained. If it was the work of an English
+journalist, that does not absolve the official censorship from the
+charge of gross carelessness in leaving even a loophole for the
+transmission of important secrets. Newspaper correspondents, of
+course, are the natural enemies of Governments in time of war; and
+the experience of the year 1870 shows that the fate of Empires may
+depend on the efficacy of the arrangements for controlling them. As
+a proof of the superiority of the German organisation, or of the
+higher patriotism of their newspapers, we may mention that no
+tidings of urgent importance leaked out through the German Press.
+This may have been due to a solemn declaration made by German
+newspaper editors and correspondents that they would never reveal
+such secrets; but, from what we know of the fierce competition of
+newspapers for priority of news, it is reasonable to suppose that
+the German Government took very good care that none came in their
+way.</p>
+<p>As a result of the excellent scouting of their cavalry and of
+the slipshod Press arrangements of the French Government, the
+German Army of the Meuse, on the 26th, took a general turn towards
+the north-west. This movement brought its outposts near to the
+southernmost divisions of MacMahon, and sent through that Marshal's
+staff the foreboding thrill felt by the commander of an unseaworthy
+craft at the oncoming of the first gust of a cyclone. He saw the
+madness of holding on his present course and issued orders for a
+retreat to M&eacute;zi&egrave;res, a fortress on the Meuse below
+Sedan. Once more, however, the Palikao Ministry intervened to
+forbid this salutary move--the only way out of imminent danger--and
+ordered him to march to the relief of Bazaine. At this crisis
+Napoleon III. showed the good sense which seemed to have deserted
+the French politicians: he advised the Marshal not to obey this
+order if he thought it dangerous. Nevertheless, MacMahon
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page077" id="page077"></a>[pg
+077]</span> decided to yield to the supposed interests of the
+dynasty, which the Emperor was ready to sacrifice to the higher
+claims of the safety of France. Their r&ocirc;les were thus
+curiously reversed. The Emperor reasoned as a sound patriot and a
+good strategist. MacMahon must have felt the same promptings, but
+obedience to the Empress and the Ministry, or chivalrous regard for
+Bazaine, overcame his scruples. He decided to plod on towards the
+Meuse.</p>
+<p>The Germans were now on the alert to entrap this army that
+exposed its flank in a long line of march near to the Belgian
+frontier. Their ubiquitous horsemen captured French despatches
+which showed them the intended moves in MacMahon's desperate game;
+Moltke hurried up every available division; and the elder of the
+two Alvenslebens had the honour of surprising de Failly's corps
+amidst the woods of the Ardennes near Beaumont, as they were in the
+midst of a meal. The French rallied and offered a brisk defence,
+but finally fell back in confusion northwards on Mouzon, with the
+loss of 2000 prisoners and 42 guns (August 30).</p>
+<p>This mishap, the lack of provisions, and the fatigue and
+demoralisation of his troops, caused MacMahon on the 31st to fall
+back on Sedan, a little town in the valley of the Meuse. It is
+surrounded by ramparts planned by the great Vauban, but, being
+commanded by wooded heights, it no longer has the importance that
+it possessed before the age of long-range guns of precision. The
+chief strength of the position for defence lay in the deep loop of
+the river below the town, the dense Garenne Wood to the north-east,
+and the hollow formed by the Givonne brook on the east, with the
+important village of Bazeilles. It is therefore not surprising that
+von Moltke, on seeing the French forces concentrating in this
+hollow, remarked to von Blumenthal, Chief of the Staff: "Now we
+have them in a trap; to-morrow we must cross over the Meuse early
+in the morning."</p>
+<p>The Emperor and MacMahon seem even then, on the afternoon of the
+31st, to have hoped to give their weary troops <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page078" id="page078"></a>[pg 078]</span> a
+brief rest, supply them with provisions and stores from the
+fortress, and on the morrow, or the 2nd, make their escape by way
+of M&eacute;zi&egrave;res. Possibly they might have done so on that
+night, and certainly they could have reached the Belgian frontier,
+only some six miles distant, and there laid down their arms to the
+Belgian troops whom the resourceful Bismarck had set on the <i>qui
+vive.</i> To remain quiet even for a day in Sedan was to court
+disaster; yet passivity characterised the French headquarters and
+the whole army on that afternoon and evening. True, MacMahon gave
+orders for the bridge over the Meuse at Donch&eacute;ry to be blown
+up, but the engine-driver who took the engineers charged with this
+important task, lost his nerve when German shells whizzed about his
+engine, and drove off before the powder and tools could be
+deposited. A second party, sent later on, found that bridge in the
+possession of the enemy. On the east side, above Sedan, the
+Bavarians seized the railway bridge south of Bazeilles, driving off
+the French who sought to blow it up<a name=
+"FNanchor44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44">[44]</a>.</p>
+<p>Over the Donch&eacute;ry bridge and two pontoon bridges
+constructed below that village the Germans poured their troops
+before dawn of September 1, and as the morning fog of that day
+slowly lifted, their columns were seen working round the north of
+the deep loop of the Meuse, thus cutting off escape on the west and
+north-west. Meanwhile, on the other side of the town, von der
+Tann's Bavarians had begun the fight. Pressing in on Bazeilles so
+as to hinder the retreat of the enemy (as had been so effectively
+done at Colombey, on the east of Metz), they at first surprised the
+sleeping French, but quickly drew on themselves a sharp and
+sustained counter-attack from the marines attached to the 12th
+French corps.</p>
+<p>In order to understand the persistent vigour of the French on
+this side, we must note the decisions formed by their headquarters
+on August 31 and early on September 1. At a council of war held on
+the afternoon of the 31st no decision</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page079" id="page079"></a>[pg
+079]</span>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/img003.jpg"><img src=
+"images/img003.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Plan of the Battle of Sedan.</b></p>
+<p>was reached, probably because the exhaustion of the 5th and 7th
+corps and the attack of the Bavarians on the 12th corps at
+Bazeilles rendered any decided movement very difficult. The general
+conclusion was that the army must have some repose; and Germans
+afterwards found on the battlefield a French order--"Rest to-day
+for the whole army." But already on the 30th an officer had come
+from Paris determined to restore the morale of the army and break
+through towards Bazaine. This was General de Wimpffen, who had
+gained distinction in previous wars, and, coming lately from
+Algeria to Paris, was there appointed to supersede de Failly in
+command of the 5th corps. Nor was this all. The Palikao Ministry
+apparently had some doubts as to MacMahon's energy, and feared that
+the Emperor himself hampered the operations. De Wimpffen therefore
+received an unofficial mandate to infuse vigour into the counsels
+at headquarters, and was entrusted with a secret written order to
+take over the supreme command if anything were to happen to
+MacMahon. On taking command of the 5th corps on the 30th, de
+Wimpffen found it demoralised by the hurried retreat through
+Mouzon; but neither this fact nor the exhaustion of the whole army
+abated the determination of this stalwart soldier to break through
+towards Metz.</p>
+<p>Early on September 1 the positions held by the French formed,
+roughly speaking, a triangle resting on the right bank of the Meuse
+from, near Bazeilles to Sedan and Glaire. Damming operations and
+the heavy rains of previous days had spread the river over the
+low-lying meadows, thus rendering it difficult, if not impossible,
+for an enemy to cross under fire; but this same fact lessened the
+space by which the French could endeavour to break through.
+Accordingly they deployed their forces almost wholly along the
+inner slopes of the Givonne brook and of the smaller stream that
+flows from the high land about Illy down to the village of Floing
+and thence to the Meuse. The heights of Illy, crowned by the
+Calvaire, formed the apex of the French position, while Floing and
+Bazeilles formed the other corners of what was in many <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page080" id="page080"></a>[pg 080]</span>
+respects good fighting-ground. Their strength was about 120,000
+men, though many of these were disabled or almost helpless from
+fatigue; that of the Germans was greater on the whole, but three of
+their corps could not reach the scene of action before 1 P.M. owing
+to the heaviness of the roads<a name="FNanchor45"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_45">[45]</a>. At first, then, the French had a
+superiority of force and a far more compact position, as will be
+seen by the accompanying plan.</p>
+<p>We now resume the account of the battle. The fighting in and
+around Bazeilles speedily led to one very important result. At 6
+A.M. a splinter of a shell fired by the assailants from the hills
+north-east of that village, severely wounded Marshal MacMahon as he
+watched the conflict from a point in front of the village of Balan.
+Thereupon he named General Ducrot as his successor, passing over
+the claims of two generals senior to him. Ducrot, realising the
+seriousness of the position, prepared to draw off the troops
+towards the Calvaire of Illy preparatory to a retreat on
+M&eacute;zi&egrave;res by way of St. Menges. The news of this
+impending retreat, which must be conducted under the hot fire of
+the Germans now threatening the line of the Givonne, cut de
+Wimpffen to the quick. He knew that the Crown Prince held a force
+to the south-west of Sedan, ready to fall on the flank of any force
+that sought to break away to M&eacute;zi&egrave;res; and a
+temporary success of his own 5th corps against the Saxons in la
+Moncelle strengthened his prepossession in favour of a combined
+move eastwards towards Carignan and Metz. Accordingly, about nine
+o'clock he produced the secret order empowering him to succeed
+MacMahon should the latter be incapacitated. Ducrot at once yielded
+to the ministerial ukase; the Emperor sought to intervene in favour
+of Ducrot, only to be waved aside by the confident de Wimpffen; and
+thus the long conflict between MacMahon and the Palikao Ministry
+ended in victory for the latter--and disaster for France<a name=
+"FNanchor46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46">[46]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page081" id="page081"></a>[pg
+081]</span>
+<p>In hazarding this last statement we do not mean to imply that a
+retreat on M&eacute;zi&egrave;res would then have saved the whole
+army. It might, however, have enabled part of it to break through
+either to M&eacute;zi&egrave;res or the Belgian boundary; and it is
+possible that Ducrot had the latter objective in view when he
+ordered the concentration at Illy. In any case, that move was now
+countermanded in favour of a desperate attack on the eastern
+assailants. It need hardly be said that the result of these
+vacillations was deplorable, unsteadying the defenders, and giving
+the assailants time to bring up troops and cannon, and thereby
+strengthen their grip on every important point. Especially valuable
+was the approach of the 2nd Bavarian corps; setting out from
+Raucourt at 4 A.M. it reached the hills south of Sedan about 9, and
+its artillery posted near Fr&eacute;nois began a terrible fire on
+the town and the French troops near it.</p>
+<p>About the same time the Second Division of the Saxons reinforced
+their hard-pressed comrades to the north of la Moncelle, where, on
+de Wimpffen's orders, the French were making a strong forward move.
+The opportune arrival of these new German troops saved their
+artillery, which had been doing splendid service. The French were
+driven back across the Givonne with heavy loss, and the massed
+battery of 100 guns crushed all further efforts at advance on this
+side. Meanwhile at Bazeilles the marines had worthily upheld the
+honour of the French arms. Despite the terrible artillery fire now
+concentrated on the village, they pushed the German footmen back,
+but never quite drove them out. These, when reinforced, renewed the
+fight with equal obstinacy; the inhabitants themselves joined in
+with whatever weapons fury suggested to them and as that merciless
+strife swayed to and fro amidst the roar of artillery, the crash of
+walls, and the hiss of flame, war was seen in all its naked
+ferocity.</p>
+<p>Yet here again, as at all points, the defence was gradually
+overborne by the superiority of the German artillery. About eleven
+o'clock the French, despite their superhuman efforts, were
+outflanked by the Bavarians and Saxons on the north of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page082" id="page082"></a>[pg 082]</span> the
+village. Even then, when the regulars fell back, some of the
+inhabitants went on with their mad resistance; a great part of the
+village was now in flames, but whether they were kindled by the
+Germans, or by the retiring French so as to delay the victors, has
+never been cleared up. In either case, several of the inhabitants
+perished in the flames; and it is admitted that the Bavarians burnt
+some of the villagers for firing on them from the windows<a name=
+"FNanchor47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47">[47]</a>.</p>
+<p>In the defence of Bazeilles the French infantry showed its usual
+courage and tenacity. Elsewhere the weary and dispirited columns
+were speedily becoming demoralised under the terrific artillery
+fire which the Germans poured in from many points of vantage. The
+Prussian Guards coming up from Villers Cernay about 10 A.M. planted
+their formidable batteries so as to sweep the Bois de Garenne and
+the ground about the Calvaire d'Illy from the eastward; and about
+that time the guns of the 5th and 11th German corps, that had early
+crossed the Meuse below Sedan, were brought to bear on the west
+front of that part of the French position. The apex of the
+defenders' triangle was thus severely searched by some 200 guns;
+and their discharges, soon supported by the fire of skirmishers and
+volleys from the troops, broke all forward movements of the French
+on that side. On the south and south-east as many cannon swept the
+French lines, but from a greater distance.</p>
+<p>Up to nearly noon there seemed some chance of the French
+bursting through on the north, and some of them did escape. Yet no
+well-sustained effort took place on that side, apparently because,
+even after the loss of Bazeilles at eleven o'clock, de Wimpffen
+clung to the belief that he could cut his way out towards Carignan,
+if not by Bazeilles, then perhaps by some other way, as Daigny or
+la Moncelle. The reasoning by which he convinced himself is hard to
+follow; for the only road to Carignan on that side runs through
+Bazeilles. Perhaps we ought to say that he did not reason, but was
+haunted by <span class="pagenum"><a name="page083" id=
+"page083"></a>[pg 083]</span> one fixed notion; and the history of
+war from the time of the Roman Varro down to the age of the
+Austrian Mack and the French de Wimpffen shows that men whose
+brains work in grooves and take no account of what is on the right
+hand and the left, are not fit to command armies; they only yield
+easy triumphs to the great masters of warfare--Hannibal, Napoleon
+the Great, and von Moltke.</p>
+<p>De Wimpffen, we say, paid little heed to the remonstrances of
+Generals Douay and Ducrot at leaving the northern apex and the
+north-western front of the defence to be crushed by weight of metal
+and of numbers. He rode off towards Balan, near which village the
+former defenders of Bazeilles were making a gallant and partly
+successful stand, and no reinforcements were sent to the hills on
+the north. The villages of Illy and Floing were lost; then the
+French columns gave ground even up the higher ground behind them,
+so great was the pressure of the German converging advance. Worst
+of all, skulkers began to hurry from the ranks and seek shelter in
+the woods, or even under the ramparts of Sedan far in the rear. The
+French gunners still plied their guns with steady devotion, though
+hopelessly outmatched at all points, but it was clear that only a
+great forward dash could save the day. Ducrot therefore ordered
+General Margueritte with three choice cavalry regiments (Chasseurs
+d'Afrique) and several squadrons of Lancers to charge the advancing
+lines. Moving forward from the northern edge of the Bois de Garenne
+to judge his ground, Margueritte fell mortally wounded. De
+Bauffremont took his place, and those brave horsemen swept forward
+on a task as hopeless as that of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, or
+that of the French Cuirassiers at W&ouml;rth<a name=
+"FNanchor48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48">[48]</a>. Their conduct was
+as glorious; but the terrible power of the modern rifle was once
+more revealed. The pounding of distant batteries they could brave;
+disordered but defiant they swept on towards the German lines, but
+when the German infantry opened fire almost at <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page084" id="page084"></a>[pg 084]</span> pistol
+range, rank after rank of the horsemen went down as grass before
+the scythe. Here and there small bands of horsemen charged the
+footmen on the flank, even in a few cases on their rear, it is
+said; but the charge, though bravely renewed, did little except to
+delay the German triumph and retrieve the honour of France.</p>
+<p>By about two o'clock the French cavalry was practically
+disabled, and there now remained no Imperial Guard, as at Waterloo,
+to shed some rays of glory over the disaster. Meanwhile, however,
+de Wimpffen had resolved to make one more effort. Gathering about
+him a few of the best infantry battalions in and about Sedan, he
+besought the Emperor to join him in cutting a way out towards the
+east. The Emperor sent no answer to this appeal; he judged that too
+much blood had already been needlessly shed. Still, de Wimpffen
+persisted in his mad endeavour. Bursting upon the Bavarians in the
+village of Balan, he drove them back for a space until his men,
+disordered by the rush, fell before the stubborn rally of the
+Bavarians and Saxons. With the collapse of this effort and the
+cutting up of the French cavalry behind Floing, the last frail
+barriers to the enemy's advance gave way. The roads to Sedan were
+now thronged with masses of fugitives, whose struggles to pass the
+drawbridges into the little fortress resembled an African battue;
+for King William and his Staff, in order to hurry on the inevitable
+surrender, bade the 200 or more pieces on the southern heights play
+upon the town. Still de Wimpffen refused to surrender, and, despite
+the orders of his sovereign, continued the hopeless struggle. At
+length, to stay the frightful carnage, the Emperor himself ordered
+the white flag to be hoisted<a name="FNanchor49"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_49">[49]</a>. A German officer went down to arrange
+preliminaries, and to his astonishment was ushered into the
+presence of the Emperor. The German Staff had no knowledge of his
+whereabouts. On hearing the news, King William, who throughout the
+day sat on horseback at the top of the slope behind Fr&eacute;nois,
+said to his <span class="pagenum"><a name="page085" id=
+"page085"></a>[pg 085]</span> son, the Crown Prince: "This is
+indeed a great success; and I thank thee that thou hast contributed
+to it." He gave his hand to his son, who kissed it, and then, in
+turn, to Moltke and to Bismarck, who kissed it also. In a short
+time, the French General Reille brought to the King the following
+autograph letter:--</p>
+<blockquote>MONSIEUR MON FR&Egrave;RE--N'ayant pu mourir au milieu
+de mes troupes, il ne me reste qu'&agrave; remettre mon
+&eacute;p&eacute;e entre les mains de Votre Majest&eacute;.--Je
+suis de Votre Majest&eacute; le bon Fr&egrave;re<br>
+<br>
+NAPOL&Eacute;ON.<br>
+<br>
+S&Eacute;DAN, <i>le 1er Septembre, 1870</i>.</blockquote>
+<p>The King named von Moltke to arrange the terms and then rode
+away to a village farther south, it being arranged, probably at
+Bismarck's suggestion, that he should not see the Emperor until all
+was settled. Meanwhile de Wimpffen and other French generals, in
+conference with von Moltke, Bismarck, and Blumenthal, at the
+village of Donch&eacute;ry, sought to gain easy terms by appealing
+to their generosity and by arguing that this would end the war and
+earn the gratitude of France. To all appeals for permission to let
+the captive army go to Algeria, or to lay down its arms in Belgium,
+the Germans were deaf,--Bismarck at length plainly saying that the
+French were an envious and jealous people on whose gratitude it
+would be idle to count. De Wimpffen then threatened to renew the
+fight rather than surrender, to which von Moltke grimly assented,
+but Bismarck again interposed to bring about a prolongation of the
+truce. Early on the morrow, Napoleon himself drove out to
+Donch&eacute;ry in the hope of seeing the King. The Bismarckian
+Boswell has given us a glimpse of him as he then appeared: "The
+look in his light grey eyes was somewhat soft and dreamy, like that
+of people who have lived too fast." [In his case, we may remark,
+this was induced by the painful disease which never left him all
+through the campaign, and carried him off three years later.] "He
+wore his cap a little on the right, to which side his head also
+inclined. His short legs <span class="pagenum"><a name="page086"
+id="page086"></a>[pg 086]</span> were out of proportion to the long
+upper body. His whole appearance was a little unsoldier-like. The
+man looked too soft--I might say too spongy--for the uniform he
+wore."</p>
+<p>Bismarck, the stalwart Teuton who had wrecked his policy at all
+points, met him at Donch&eacute;ry and foiled his wish to see the
+King, declaring this to be impossible until the terms of the
+capitulation were settled. The Emperor then had a conversation with
+the Chancellor in a little cottage belonging to a weaver. Seating
+themselves on two rush-bottomed chairs beside the one deal table,
+they conversed on the greatest affairs of State. The Emperor said
+he had not sought this war--"he had been driven into it by the
+pressure of public opinion. I replied" (wrote Bismarck) "that
+neither had any one with us wished for war--the King least of
+all<a name="FNanchor50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50">[50]</a>."
+Napoleon then pleaded for generous terms, but admitted that he, as
+a prisoner, could not fix them; they must be arranged with de
+Wimpffen. About ten o'clock the latter agreed to an unconditional
+surrender for the rank and file of the French army, but those
+officers who bound themselves by their word of honour (in writing)
+not to fight again during the present war were to be set free.
+Napoleon then had an interview with the King. What transpired is
+not known, but when the Emperor came out "his eyes" (wrote
+Bismarck) "were full of tears."</p>
+<p>The fallen monarch accepted the King's offer of the castle of
+Wilhelmsh&ouml;he near Cassel for his residence up to the end of
+the war; it was the abode on which Jerome Bonaparte had spent
+millions of thalers, wrung from Westphalian burghers, during his
+brief sovereignty in 1807-1813. Thither his nephew set out two days
+after the catastrophe of Sedan. And this, as it seems, was the end
+of a dynasty whose rise to power dated from the thrilling events of
+the Bridge of Lodi, Arcola, Rivoli, and the Pyramids. The French
+losses on September 1 were about 3000 killed, 14,000 wounded, and
+21,000 prisoners. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page087" id=
+"page087"></a>[pg 087]</span> On the next day there surrendered
+83,000 prisoners by virtue of the capitulation, along with 419
+field-pieces and 139 cannon of the fortress. Some 3000 had escaped,
+through the gap in the German lines on the north-east, to the
+Belgian frontier, and there laid down their arms.</p>
+<p>The news of this unparalleled disaster began to leak out at
+Paris late on the 2nd; on the morrow, when details were known,
+crowds thronged into the streets shouting "Down with the Empire!
+Long live the Republic!" Power still remained with the
+Empress-Regent and the Palikao Ministry. All must admit that the
+Empress Eug&eacute;nie did what was possible in this hopeless
+position. She appealed to that charming literary man, M. Prosper
+M&eacute;rim&eacute;e, to go to his friend, M. Thiers (at whom we
+shall glance presently), and beg him to form a Ministry that would
+save the Empire for the young Prince Imperial. M. Thiers politely
+but firmly refused to give a helping hand to the dynasty which he
+looked on as the author of his country's ruin.</p>
+<p>On that day the Empress also summoned the Chambers--the Senate
+and the Corps L&eacute;gislatif--a vain expedient, for in times of
+crisis the French look to a man, not to Chambers. The Empire had no
+man at hand. General Trochu, Governor of Paris, was suspected of
+being a Republican--at any rate he let matters take their course.
+On the 4th, vast crowds filled the streets; a rush was made to the
+Chamber, where various compromises were being discussed; the doors
+were forced, and amid wild excitement a proposal to dethrone the
+Napoleonic dynasty was put. Two Republican deputies, Gambetta and
+Jules Favre, declared that the H&ocirc;tel de Ville was the fit
+place to declare the Republic. There, accordingly, it was
+proclaimed, the deputies for the city of Paris taking office as the
+Government of National Defence. They were just in time to prevent
+Socialists like Blanqui, Flourens, and Henri Rochefort from
+installing the "Commune" in power. The Empress and the Prince
+Imperial at once fled, and, apart from a protest <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page088" id="page088"></a>[pg 088]</span> by the
+Senate, no voice was raised in defence of the Empire. Jules Favre
+who took up the burden of Foreign Affairs in the new Government of
+National Defence was able to say in his circular note of September
+6 that "the Revolution of September 4 took place without the
+shedding of a drop of blood or the loss of liberty to a single
+person<a name="FNanchor51"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_51">[51]</a>."</p>
+<p>That fact shows the unreality of Bonapartist rule in France. At
+bottom Napoleon III.'s ascendancy was due to several causes, that
+told against possible rivals rather than directly in his favour.
+Hatred of the socialists, whose rash political experiments had led
+to the bloody days of street fighting in Paris in June 1848,
+counted for much. Added to this was the unpopularity of the House
+of Orleans after the sordid and uninteresting rule of Louis
+Philippe (1830-48). The antiquated royalism of the Elder or
+Legitimist branch of that ill-starred dynasty made it equally an
+impossibility. Louis Napoleon promised to do what his predecessors,
+Monarchical and Republican, had signally failed to do, namely, to
+reconcile the claims of liberty and order at home and uphold the
+prestige of France abroad. For the first ten years the glamour of
+his name, the skill with which he promoted the material prosperity
+of France, and the successes of his early wars, promised to build
+up a lasting power. But then came the days of failing health and
+tottering prestige--of financial scandals, of the Mexican blunder,
+of the humiliation before the rising power of Prussia. To retrieve
+matters he toyed with democracy in France, and finally allowed his
+Ministers to throw down a challenge to Prussia; for, in the words
+of a French historian, the conditions on which he held power
+"condemned him to be brilliant<a name="FNanchor52"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_52">[52]</a>."</p>
+<p>Failing at Sedan, he lost all; and he knew it. His reign, in
+fact, was one long disaster for France. The canker of moral
+corruption began to weaken her public life when the creatures
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page089" id="page089"></a>[pg
+089]</span> of whom he made use in the <i>coup d'&eacute;tat</i> of
+1851 crept into place and power. The flashy sensationalism of his
+policy, setting the tone for Parisian society, was fatal to the
+honest unseen drudgery which builds up a solid edifice alike in
+public and in private life. Even the better qualities of his nature
+told against ultimate success. As has been shown, his vague but
+generous ideas on Nationality drew French policy away from the
+paths of obvious self-interest after the year 1864, and gave an
+easy victory to the keen and objective statecraft of Bismarck. That
+he loved France as sincerely as he believed in the power of the
+Bonapartist tradition to help her, can scarcely admit of doubt. His
+conduct during the war of 1870 showed him to be disinterested,
+while his vision was clearer than that of the Generals about him.
+But in the field of high policy, as in the moral events that make
+or mar a nation's life, his influence told heavily against the
+welfare of France; and he must have carried into exile the
+consciousness that his complex nature and ill-matched strivings had
+but served to bring his dynasty and his country to an unexampled
+overthrow.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>It may be well to notice here an event of world-wide importance,
+which came as a sequel to the military collapse of France. Italians
+had always looked to the day when Rome would be the national
+capital. The great Napoleon during his time of exile at St. Helena
+had uttered the prophetic words: "Italy isolated between her
+natural limits is destined to form a great and powerful nation. . . .
+Rome will without doubt be chosen by the Italians as their
+capital." The political and economic needs of the present,
+coinciding herein with the voice of tradition, always so strong in
+Italian hearts, pointed imperiously to Rome as the only possible
+centre of national life.</p>
+<p>As was pointed out in the Introduction, Pius IX. after the years
+of revolution, 1848-49, felt the need of French troops in his
+capital, and his harsh and reactionary policy (or rather, that of
+his masterful Secretary of State, Antonelli) before long completely
+alienated the feelings of his subjects.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page090" id="page090"></a>[pg
+090]</span>
+<p>After the master-mind of Cavour was removed by death, (June
+1861), the patriots struggled desperately, but in vain, to rid Rome
+of the presence of foreign troops and win her for the national
+cause. Garibaldi's raids of 1862 and 1867 were foiled, the one by
+Italian, the other by French troops; and the latter case, which led
+to the sharp fight of Mentana, effaced any feelings of gratitude to
+Napoleon III. for his earlier help, which survived after his
+appropriation of Savoy and Nice. Thus matters remained in 1867-70,
+the Pope relying on the support of French bayonets to coerce his
+own subjects. Clearly this was a state of things which could not
+continue. The first great shock must always bring down a political
+edifice which rests not on its own foundations, but on external
+buttresses. These were suddenly withdrawn by the war of 1870. Early
+in August, Napoleon ordered all his troops to leave the Papal
+States; and the downfall of his power a month later absolved Victor
+Emmanuel from the claims of gratitude which he still felt towards
+his ally of 1859.</p>
+<p>At once the forward wing of the Italian national party took
+action in a way that either forced, or more probably encouraged,
+Victor Emmanuel's Government to step in under the pretext of
+preventing the creation of a Roman Republic. The King invited Pius
+IX. to assent to the peaceful occupation of Rome by the royal
+troops, and on receiving the expected refusal, moved forward 35,000
+soldiers. The resistance of the 11,000 Papal troops proved to be
+mainly a matter of form. The wall near the Porta Pia soon crumbled
+before the Italian cannon, and after a brief struggle at the
+breach, the white flag was hoisted at the bidding of the Pope
+(Sept. 20).</p>
+<p>Thus fell the temporal power of the Papacy. The event aroused
+comparatively little notice in that year of marvels, but its
+results have been momentous. At the time there was a general sense
+of relief, if not of joy, in Italy, that the national movement had
+reached its goal, albeit in so tame and uninspiring a manner. Rome
+had long been a prey to political reaction, accompanied by police
+supervision of the most exasperating <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page091" id="page091"></a>[pg 091]</span> kind. The
+<i>pl&eacute;biscite</i> as to the future government gave 133,681
+votes for Victor Emmanuel's rule, and only 1507 negative
+votes<a name="FNanchor53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53">[53]</a>.</p>
+<p>Now, for the first time since the days of Napoleon I. and of the
+short-lived Republic for which Mazzini and Garibaldi worked and
+fought so nobly in 1849, the Eternal City began to experience the
+benefits of progressive rule. The royal government soon proved to
+be very far from perfect. Favouritism, the multiplication of
+sinecures, municipal corruption, and the prosaic inroads of
+builders and speculators, soon helped to mar the work of political
+reconstruction, and began to arouse a certain amount of regret for
+the more picturesque times of the Papal rule. A sentimental
+reaction of this kind is certain to occur in all cases of political
+change, especially in a city where tradition and emotion so long
+held sway.</p>
+<p>The consciences of the faithful were also troubled when the
+<i>fiat</i> of the Pope went forth excommunicating the robber-king
+and all his chief abettors in the work of sacrilege. Sons of the
+Church throughout Italy were bidden to hold no intercourse with the
+interlopers and to take no part in elections to the Italian
+Parliament which thenceforth met in Rome. The schism between the
+Vatican and the King's Court and Government was never to be bridged
+over; and even to-day it constitutes one of the most perplexing
+problems of Italy.</p>
+<p>Despite the fact that Rome and Italy gained little of that
+mental and moral stimulus which might have resulted from the
+completion of the national movement solely by the action of the
+people themselves, the fact nevertheless remains that Rome needed
+Italy and Italy needed Rome. The disappointment loudly expressed by
+idealists, sentimentalists, and reactionaries must not blind us to
+the fact that the Italians, and above all the Romans, have
+benefited by the advent of unity, political freedom, and civic
+responsibility. It may well be that, in acting as the leader of a
+constitutional people, the Eternal City <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page092" id="page092"></a>[pg 092]</span> will
+little by little develop higher gifts than those nurtured under
+Papal tutelage, and perhaps as beneficent to Humanity as those
+which, in the ancient world, bestowed laws on Europe.</p>
+<p>As Mazzini always insisted, political progress, to be sound,
+must be based ultimately on moral progress. It is of its very
+nature slow, and is therefore apt to escape the eyes of the
+moralist or cynic who dwells on the untoward signs of the present.
+But the Rome for which Mazzini and his compatriots yearned and
+struggled can hardly fail ultimately to rise to the height of her
+ancient traditions and of that noble prophecy of Dante:
+"<i>There</i> is the seat of empire. There never was, and there
+never will be, a people endowed with such capacity to acquire
+command, with more vigour to maintain it, and more gentleness in
+its exercise, than the Italian nation, and especially the Holy
+Roman people." The lines with which Mr. Swinburne closed his
+"Dedication" of <i>Songs before Sunrise</i> to Joseph Mazzini are
+worthy of finding a place side by side with the words of the
+mediaeval seer:--</p>
+<blockquote>Yea, even she as at first,<br>
+Yea, she alone and none other,<br>
+Shall cast down, shall build up, shall bring home,<br>
+Slake earth's hunger and thirst,<br>
+Lighten, and lead as a mother;<br>
+First name of the world's names, Rome.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor43">[43]</a> See
+General Lebrun's <i>Guerre de 1870: Bazailles-Sedan</i>, for an
+account of his corps of MacMahon's army.<br>
+<br>
+In view of the events of the late Boer War, it is worth noting that
+the Germans never acknowledged the <i>francs-tireurs</i> as
+soldiers, and forthwith issued an order ending with the words,
+"They are amenable to martial law and liable to be sentenced to
+death" (Maurice, <i>Franco-German War</i>, p. 215).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor44">[44]</a> Moltke,
+<i>The Franco-German War</i>, vol. i. p. 114. Hooper, <i>The
+Campaign of Sedan</i>, p. 296.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor45">[45]</a>
+Maurice, <i>The Franco-German War</i>, p. 235.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor46">[46]</a> See
+Lebrun's <i>Guerre de 1870: Bazeilles-S&eacute;dan</i>, for these
+disputes.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor47">[47]</a> M.
+Busch, <i>Bismarck in the Franco-German War</i>, vol. i. p.
+114.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor48">[48]</a> Lebrun
+(<i>op. cit.</i> pp. 126-127; also Appendix D) maintains that de
+Bauffremont then led the charge, de Gallifet leading only the 3rd
+Chasseurs d'Afrique.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor49">[49]</a> Lebrun,
+<i>op. cit.</i> pp. 130 <i>et seq.</i> for the disputes about
+surrender.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor50">[50]</a> Busch,
+<i>Bismarck on the Franco-German War</i>, vol. i. p. 109. Contrast
+this statement with his later efforts (<i>Reminiscences</i>, vol.
+ii. pp. 95-100) to prove that he helped to bring on war.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor51">[51]</a> Gabriel
+Hanotaux, <i>Contemporary France</i>, vol. i. p. 14 (Eng.
+edit.)</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor52">[52]</a> Said in
+1852 by an eminent Frenchman to our countryman, Nassau Senior
+(<i>Journals</i>, ii. <i>ad fin</i>).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor53">[53]</a>
+Countess Cesaresco, <i>The Liberation of Italy</i>, p. 411.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page093" id="page093"></a>[pg
+093]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+<h3>THE FOUNDING OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC</h3>
+<blockquote>"[Greek: egigneto te logo men daemokratia, ergo de hupo
+tou protou andros archae]."<br>
+<br>
+"Thus Athens, though still in name a democracy, was in fact ruled
+by her greatest man."--THUCYDIDES, book ii. chap. 65.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>The aim of this work being to trace the outlines only of those
+outstanding events which made the chief States of the world what
+they are to-day, we can give only the briefest glance at the
+remaining events of the Franco-German War and the splendid though
+hopeless rally attempted by the newly-installed Government of
+National Defence. Few facts in recent history have a more thrilling
+interest than the details of the valiant efforts made by the young
+Republic against the invaders. The spirit in which they were made
+breathed through the words of M. Picard's proclamation on September
+4: "The Republic saved us from the invasion of 1792. The Republic
+is proclaimed."</p>
+<p>Inspiring as was this reference to the great and successful
+effort of the First Republic against the troops of Central Europe
+in 1792, it was misleading. At that time Prussia had lapsed into a
+state of weakness through the double evils of favouritism and a
+facing-both-ways policy. Now she felt the strength born of sturdy
+championship of a great principle--that of Nationality--which had
+ranged nearly the whole of the German race on her side. France, on
+the other hand, owing to the shocking blunders of her politicians
+and generals during the war, had but one army corps free, that of
+General Vinoy, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page094" id=
+"page094"></a>[pg 094]</span> which hastily retreated from the
+neighbourhood of M&eacute;zi&egrave;res towards Paris on September
+2 to 4. She therefore had to count almost entirely on the Garde
+Mobile, the Garde Nationale, and Francs-tireurs; but bitter
+experience was to show that this raw material could not be
+organised in a few weeks to withstand the trained and triumphant
+legions of Germany.</p>
+<p>Nevertheless there was no thought of making peace with the
+invaders. The last message of Count Palikao to the Chambers had
+been one of defiance to the enemy; and the Parisian deputies,
+nearly all of them Republicans, who formed the Government of
+National Defence, scouted all faint-hearted proposals. Their policy
+took form in the famous phrase of Jules Favre, Minister of Foreign
+Affairs: "We will give up neither an inch of our territory nor a
+stone of our fortresses." This being so, all hope of compromise
+with the Germans was vain. Favre had interviews with Bismarck at
+the Ch&acirc;teau de Ferri&egrave;res (September 19); but his fine
+oratory, even his tears, made no impression on the Iron Chancellor,
+who declared that in no case would an armistice be granted, not
+even for the election of a National Assembly, unless France agreed
+to give up Alsace and a part of Lorraine, allowing the German
+troops also to hold, among other places, Strassburg and Toul.</p>
+<p>Obviously, a self-constituted body like the provisional
+Government at Paris could not accept these terms, which most deeply
+concerned the nation at large. In the existing temper of Paris and
+France, the mention of such terms meant war to the knife, as
+Bismarck must have known. On their side, Frenchmen could not
+believe that their great capital, with its bulwarks and ring of
+outer forts, could be taken; while the Germans--so it seems from
+the Diary of General von Blumenthal--looked forward to its speedy
+capitulation. One man there was who saw the pressing need of
+foreign aid. M. Thiers (whose personality will concern us a little
+later) undertook to go on a mission to the chief Powers of Europe
+in the hope of urging one or more of them to intervene on behalf of
+France.</p>
+<p>The details of that mission are, of course, not fully known.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page095" id="page095"></a>[pg
+095]</span> We can only state here that Russia now repaid Prussia's
+help in crushing the Polish rebellion of 1863 by neutrality, albeit
+tinged with a certain jealousy of German success. Bismarck had been
+careful to dull that feeling by suggesting that she (Russia) should
+take the present opportunity of annulling the provision, made after
+the Crimean War, which prevented her from sending war-ships on to
+the Black Sea; and this was subsequently done, under a thin
+diplomatic disguise, at the Congress of London (March 1871).
+Bismarck's astuteness in supporting Russia at this time therefore
+kept that Power quiet. As for Austria, she undoubtedly wished to
+intervene, but did not choose to risk a war with Russia, which
+would probably have brought another overthrow. Italy would not
+unsheathe her sword for France unless the latter recognised her
+right to Rome (which the Italian troops entered on September 20).
+To this the young French Republic demurred. Great Britain, of
+course, adhered to the policy of neutrality which she at first
+declared<a name="FNanchor54"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_54">[54]</a>.</p>
+<p>Accordingly, France had to rely on her own efforts. They were
+surprisingly great. Before the complete investment of Paris
+(September 20), a Delegation of the Government of National Defence
+had gone forth to Tours with the aim of stirring up the provinces
+to the succour of the besieged capital. Probably the whole of the
+Government ought to have gone there; for, shut up in the capital,
+it lost touch with the provinces, save when balloons and
+carrier-pigeons eluded the German sharpshooters and brought
+precious news<a name="FNanchor55"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_55">[55]</a>. The <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page096" id="page096"></a>[pg 096]</span> mistake was seen in time
+to enable a man of wondrous energy to leave Paris by balloon on
+October 7, to descend as a veritable <i>deus ex machina</i> on the
+faltering Delegation at Tours, and to stir the blood of France by
+his invective. There was a touch of the melodramatic not only in
+his apparition but in his speeches. Frenchmen, however, follow a
+leader all the better if he is a good stage-manager and a clever
+actor. The new leader was both; but he was something more.</p>
+<p>L&eacute;on Gambetta had leaped to the front rank at the Bar in
+the closing days of 1868 by a passionate outburst against the
+<i>coup d'&eacute;tat</i>, uttered, to the astonishment of all, in
+a small Court of Correctional Police, over a petty case of State
+prosecution of a small Parisian paper. Rejecting the ordinary
+methods of defence, the young barrister flung defiance at Napoleon
+III. as the author of the <i>coup d'&eacute;tat</i> and of all the
+present degradation of France. The daring of the young barrister,
+who thus turned the tables on the authorities and impeached the
+head of the State, made a profound impression; it was redoubled by
+the Southern intensity of his thought and expression. Disdaining
+all forms of rhetoric, he poured forth a torrent of ideas, clothing
+them in the first words that came to his facile tongue, enforcing
+them by blows of the fist or the most violent gestures, and yet,
+again, modulating the roar of passion to the falsetto of satire or
+the whisper of emotion. His short, thick-set frame, vibrating with
+strength, doubled the force of all his utterances. Nor did they
+lack the glamour of poetry and romance that might be expected from
+his Italian ancestry. He came of a Genoese stock that had for some
+time settled in the South of France. Strange fate, that called him
+now to the front with the aim of repairing the ills wrought to
+France by another Italian House! In time of peace his power over
+men would have raised him to the highest positions had his Bohemian
+exuberance of thought and speech been tameable. It was not. He
+scorned prudence in moderation at all times, and his behaviour,
+when the wave of Revolution at last carried him to power, gave
+point to the taunt of Thiers--"c'est un fou furieux." Such was the
+man who <span class="pagenum"><a name="page097" id=
+"page097"></a>[pg 097]</span> now brought the quenchless ardour of
+his patriotism to the task of rousing France. As far as words and
+energy could call forth armies, he succeeded; but as he lacked all
+military knowledge, his blind self-confidence was to cost France
+dear.</p>
+<p>Possibly the new levies of the Republic might at some point have
+pierced the immense circle of the German lines around Paris (for at
+first the besieging forces were less numerous than the besieged),
+had not the assailants been strengthened by the fall of Metz (Oct.
+27). This is not the place to discuss the culpability of Bazaine
+for the softness shown in the defence. The voluminous evidence
+taken at his trial shows that he was very slack in the critical
+days at the close of August; it is also certain that Bismarck duped
+him under the pretence that, on certain conditions to be arranged
+with the Empress Eug&eacute;nie, his army might be kept intact for
+the sake of re-establishing the Empire<a name=
+"FNanchor56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56">[56]</a>. The whole scheme
+was merely a device to gain time and keep Bazaine idle, and the
+German Chancellor succeeded here as at all points in his great
+game. On October 27, then, 6000 officers, 173,000 rank and file,
+were constrained by famine to surrender, along with 541
+field-pieces and 800 siege guns.</p>
+<p>This capitulation, the greatest recorded in the history of
+civilised nations, dealt a death-blow to the hopes of France.
+Strassburg had hoisted the white flag a month earlier; and the
+besiegers of these fortresses were free to march westwards and
+overwhelm the new levies. After gaining a success at Coulmiers,
+near Orleans (Nov. 9), the French were speedily driven down the
+valley of the Loire and thence as far west as Le <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page098" id="page098"></a>[pg 098]</span> Mans.
+In the North, at St. Quentin, the Germans were equally successful,
+as also in Burgundy against that once effective free-lance,
+Garibaldi, who came with his sons to fight for the Republic. The
+last effort was made by Bourbaki and a large but ill-compacted army
+against the enemy's communications in Alsace. By a speedy
+concentration the Germans at H&eacute;ricourt, near Belfort,
+defeated this daring move (imposed by the Government of National
+Defence on Bourbaki against his better judgment), and compelled him
+and his hard-pressed followers to pass over into Switzerland
+(January 30, 1871).</p>
+<p>Meanwhile Paris had already surrendered. During 130 days, and
+that too in a winter of unusual severity, the great city had held
+out with a courage that neither defeats, schisms, dearth of food,
+nor the bombardment directed against its southern quarters could
+overcome. Towards the close of January famine stared the defenders
+in the face, and on the 28th an armistice was concluded, which put
+an end to the war except in the neighbourhood of Belfort. That
+exception was due to the determination of the Germans to press
+Bourbaki hard, while the French negotiators were not aware of his
+plight. The garrison of Paris, except 12,000 men charged with the
+duty of keeping order, surrendered; the forts were placed in the
+besiegers' hands. When that was done the city was to be
+revictualled and thereafter pay a war contribution of 200,000,000
+francs (&pound;8,000,000). A National Assembly was to be freely
+elected and meet at Bordeaux to discuss the question of peace. The
+National Guards retained their arms, Favre maintaining that it
+would be impossible to disarm them; for this mistaken weakness he
+afterwards expressed his profound sorrow<a name=
+"FNanchor57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57">[57]</a>.</p>
+<p>Despite the very natural protests of Gambetta and many others
+against the virtual ending of the war at the dictation of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page099" id="page099"></a>[pg
+099]</span> the Parisian authorities, the voice of France ratified
+their action. An overwhelming majority declared for peace. The
+young Republic had done wonders in reviving the national spirit:
+Frenchmen could once more feel the self-confidence which had been
+damped by the surrenders of Sedan and Metz; but the instinct of
+self-preservation now called imperiously for the ending of the
+hopeless struggle. In the hurried preparations for the elections
+held on February 8, few questions were asked of the candidates
+except that of peace or war; and it soon appeared that a great
+majority was in favour of peace, even at the cost of part of the
+eastern provinces.</p>
+<p>Of the 630 deputies who met at Bordeaux on February 12, fully
+400 were Monarchists, nearly evenly divided between the Legitimists
+and Orleanists; 200 were professed Republicans; but only 30
+Bonapartists were returned. It is not surprising that the Assembly,
+which met in the middle of February, should soon have declared that
+the Napoleonic Empire had ceased to exist, as being "responsible
+for the ruin, invasion, and dismemberment of the country" (March
+1). These rather exaggerated charges (against which Napoleon III.
+protested from his place of exile, Chislehurst) were natural in the
+then deplorable condition of France. What is surprising and needs a
+brief explanation here, is the fact that a monarchical Assembly
+should have allowed the Republic to be founded.</p>
+<p>This paradoxical result sprang from several causes, some of them
+of a general nature, others due to party considerations, while the
+personal influence of one man perhaps turned the balance at this
+crisis in the history of France. We will consider them in the order
+here named.</p>
+<p>Stating the matter broadly, we may say that the present Assembly
+was not competent to decide on the future constitution of France;
+and that vague but powerful instinct, which guides representative
+bodies in such cases, told against any avowedly partisan effort in
+that direction. The deputies were fully aware that they were
+elected to decide the urgent question of peace or war, either to
+rescue France from her long agony, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page100" id="page100"></a>[pg 100]</span> or to pledge the last
+drops of her life-blood in an affair of honour. By an instinct of
+self-preservation, the electors, especially in the country
+districts, turned to the men of property and local influence as
+those who were most likely to save them from the frothy followers
+of Gambetta. Accordingly, local magnates were preferred to the
+barristers and pressmen, whose oratorical and literary gifts
+usually carry the day in France; and more than 200 noblemen were
+elected. They were chosen not on account of their nobility and
+royalism, but because they were certain to vote against the <i>fou
+furieux</i>.</p>
+<p>Then, too, the Royalists knew very well that time would be
+required to accustom France to the idea of a King, and to adjust
+the keen rivalries between the older and the younger branches of
+the Bourbon House. Furthermore, they were anxious that the odium of
+signing a disastrous peace should fall on the young Republic, not
+on the monarch of the future. Just as the great Napoleon in 1814
+was undoubtedly glad that the giving up of Belgium and the Rhine
+boundary should devolve on his successor, Louis XVIII., and counted
+on that as one of the causes undermining the restored monarchy, so
+now the Royalists intended to leave the disagreeable duty of ceding
+the eastern districts of France to the Republicans who had so
+persistently prolonged the struggle. The clamour of no small
+section of the Republican party for war <i>&agrave; outrance</i>
+still played into the hands of the royalists and partly justified
+this narrow partisanship. Events, however, were to prove here, as
+in so many cases, that the party which undertook a pressing duty
+and discharged it manfully, gained more in the end than those who
+shirked responsibility and left the conduct of affairs to their
+opponents. Men admire those who dauntlessly pluck the flower,
+safety, out of the nettle, danger.</p>
+<p>Finally, the influence of one commanding personality was
+ultimately to be given to the cause of the Republic. That strange
+instinct which in times of crisis turns the gaze of a people
+towards the one necessary man, now singled out M. Thiers. The
+veteran statesman was elected in twenty-six <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page101" id="page101"></a>[pg 101]</span>
+Departments. Gambetta and General Trochu, Governor of Paris, were
+each elected nine times over. It was clear that the popular voice
+was for the policy of statesmanlike moderation which Thiers now
+summed up in his person; and Gambetta for a time retired to
+Spain.</p>
+<p>The name of Thiers had not always stood for moderation. From the
+time of his youth, when his journalistic criticisms on the
+politics, literature, art and drama of the Restoration period set
+all tongues wagging, to the day when his many-sided gifts bore him
+to power under Louis Philippe, he stood for all that is most
+beloved by the vivacious sons of France. His early work, <i>The
+History of the French Revolution</i>, had endeared him to the
+survivors of the old Jacobin and Girondin parties, and his eager
+hostility to England during his term of office flattered the
+Chauvinist feelings that steadily grew in volume during the
+otherwise dull reign of Louis Philippe. In the main, Thiers was an
+upholder of the Orleans dynasty, yet his devotion to constitutional
+principles, the ardour of his Southern temperament,--he was a
+Marseillais by birth,--and the vivacious egotism that never brooked
+contradiction, often caused sharp friction with the King and the
+King's friends. He seemed born for opposition and criticism.
+Thereafter, his conduct of affairs helped to undermine the fabric
+of the Second Republic (1848-51). Flung into prison by the minions
+of Louis Napoleon at the time of the <i>coup d'&eacute;tat</i>, he
+emerged buoyant as ever, and took up again the r&ocirc;le that he
+loved so well.</p>
+<p>Nevertheless, amidst all the seeming vagaries of Thiers' conduct
+there emerge two governing principles--a passionate love of France,
+and a sincere attachment to reasoned liberty. The first was
+absolute and unchangeable; the second admitted of some variations
+if the ruler did not enhance the glory of France, and also (as some
+cynics said) recognise the greatness of M. Thiers. For the many
+gibes to which his lively talents and successful career exposed
+him, he had his revenge. His keen glance and incisive reasoning
+generally warned him <span class="pagenum"><a name="page102" id=
+"page102"></a>[pg 102]</span> of the probable fate of Dynasties and
+Ministries. Like Talleyrand, whom he somewhat resembled in
+versatility, opportunism, and undying love of France, he might have
+said that he never deserted a Government before it deserted itself.
+He foretold the fall of Louis Philippe under the reactionary Guizot
+Ministry as, later on, he foretold the fall of Napoleon III. He
+blamed the Emperor for not making war on Prussia in 1866 with the
+same unanswerable logic that marked his opposition to the mad rush
+for war in 1870. And yet the war spirit had been in some sense
+strengthened by his own writings. His great work, <i>The History of
+the Consulate and Empire</i>, which appeared from 1845 to 1862--the
+last eight volumes came out during the Second Empire--was in the
+main a glorification of the First Napoleon. Men therefore asked
+with some impatience why the panegyrist of the uncle should oppose
+the supremacy of the nephew; and the action of the crowd in
+smashing the historian's windows after his great speech against the
+war of 1870 cannot be called wholly illogical, even if it erred on
+the side of Gallic vivacity.</p>
+<p>In the feverish drama of French politics Time sometimes brings
+an appropriate Nemesis. It was so now. The man who had divided the
+energies of his manhood between parliamentary opposition of a
+somewhat factious type and the literary cultivation of the
+Napoleonic legend, was now in the evening of his days called upon
+to bear a crushing load of responsibility in struggling to win the
+best possible terms of peace from the victorious Teuton, in
+mediating between contending factions at Bordeaux and Paris, and,
+finally, in founding a form of government which never enlisted his
+whole-hearted sympathy, save as the least objectionable expedient
+then open to France.</p>
+<p>For the present, the great thing was to gain peace with the
+minimum of sacrifice for France. Who could drive a better bargain
+than Thiers, the man who knew France so well, and had recently felt
+the pulse of the Governments of Europe? Accordingly, on the 17th of
+February, the Assembly named him Head of the Executive Power "until
+it is based upon the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page103" id=
+"page103"></a>[pg 103]</span> French Constitution." He declined to
+accept this post until the words "of the French Republic" were
+substituted for the latter clause. He had every reason for urging
+this demand. Unlike the Republic of 1848, the strength of which was
+chiefly, or almost solely, in Paris, the Republic was proclaimed at
+Lyons, Marseilles, and Bordeaux, before any news came of the
+overthrow of the Napoleonic dynasty at the capital<a name=
+"FNanchor58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58">[58]</a>.</p>
+<p>He now entrusted three important portfolios, those for Foreign
+Affairs, Home Affairs, and Public Instruction, to pronounced
+Republicans--Jules Favre, Picard, and Jules Simon. Having pacified
+the monarchical majority by appealing to them to defer all
+questions respecting the future constitution until affairs were
+more settled, he set out to meet Bismarck at Versailles.</p>
+<p>A disadvantage which almost necessarily besets parliamentary
+institutions had weakened the French case before the negotiations
+began. The composition of the Assembly implied a strong desire for
+peace--a fact which Thiers had needlessly emphasised before he left
+Bordeaux. On the other hand, Bismarck was anxious to end the war.
+He knew enough to be uneasy at the attitude of the neutral States;
+for public opinion was veering round in England, Austria, and Italy
+to a feeling of keen sympathy for France, and even Russia was
+restless at the sight of the great military Empire that had sprung
+into being on her flank. The recent proclamation of the German
+Empire at Versailles--an event that will be treated in a later
+chapter--opened up a vista of great developments for the
+Fatherland, not unmixed with difficulties and dangers. Above all,
+sharp differences had arisen between him and the military men at
+the German headquarters, who wished to "bleed France white" by
+taking a large portion of French Lorraine (including its capital
+Nancy), a few colonies, and part of her fleet. It is now known that
+Bismarck, with the same moderation that he displayed after
+K&ouml;niggr&auml;tz, opposed these extreme claims, because he
+doubted the advisability of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page104"
+id="page104"></a>[pg 104]</span> keeping Metz, with its large
+French population. The words in which he let fall these thoughts
+while at dinner with Busch on February 21 deserve to be
+quoted:--</p>
+<blockquote>If they (the French) gave us a milliard more
+(&pound;40,000,000) we might perhaps let them have Metz. We would
+then take 800,000,000 francs, and build ourselves a fortress a few
+miles further back, somewhere about Falkenberg or
+Saarbr&uuml;ck--there must be some suitable spot thereabouts. We
+should thus make a clear profit of 200,000,000 francs. [N.B.--A
+milliard = 1,000,000,000 francs.] I do not like so many Frenchmen
+being in our house against their will. It is just the same with
+Belfort. It is all French there too. The military men, however,
+will not be willing to let Metz slip, and perhaps they are
+right<a name="FNanchor59"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_59">[59]</a>.</blockquote>
+<p>A sharp difference of opinion had arisen between Bismarck and
+Moltke on this question, and the Emperor Wilhelm intervened in
+favour of Moltke. That decided the question of Metz against Thiers
+despite his threat that this might lead to a renewal of war. For
+Belfort, however, the French statesman made a supreme effort. That
+fortress holds a most important position. Strong in itself, it
+stands as sentinel guarding the gap of nearly level ground between
+the spurs of the Vosges and those of the Jura. If that virgin
+stronghold were handed over to Germany, she would easily be able to
+pour her legions down the valley of the Doubs and dominate the rich
+districts of Burgundy and the Lyonnais. Besides, military honour
+required France to keep a fortress that had kept the tricolour
+flying. Metz the Germans held, and it was impossible to turn them
+out. Obviously the case of Belfort was on a different footing. In
+his conference of February 24, Thiers at last defied Bismarck in
+these words: "No; I will never yield Belfort and Metz in the same
+breath. You wish to ruin France in her finances, in her frontiers.
+Well! Take her. Conduct her administration, collect her revenues,
+and you will have to govern her in the face of Europe--if Europe
+permits<a name="FNanchor60"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_60">[60]</a>."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page105" id="page105"></a>[pg
+105]</span>
+<p>Probably this defiance had less weight with the Iron Chancellor
+than his conviction, noticed above, that to bring two entirely
+French towns within the German Empire would prove a source of
+weakness; beside which his own motto, <i>Beati possidentes</i>,
+told with effect in the case of Belfort. That stronghold was
+accordingly saved for France. Thiers also obtained a reduction of a
+milliard from the impossible sum of six milliards first named for
+the war indemnity due to Germany; in this matter Jules Favre states
+that British mediation had been of some avail. If so, it partly
+accounts for the hatred of England which Bismarck displayed in his
+later years. The Preliminaries of Peace were signed at Versailles
+on February 26.</p>
+<p>One other matter remained. The Germans insisted that, if Belfort
+remained to France, part of their army should enter Paris. In vain
+did Thiers and Jules Favre point out the irritation that this would
+cause and the possible ensuing danger. The German Emperor and his
+Staff made it a point of honour, and 30,000 of their troops
+accordingly marched in and occupied for a brief space the district
+of the Champs &Eacute;lys&eacute;es. The terms of peace were
+finally ratified in the Treaty of Frankfurt (May 10, 1871), whereby
+France ceded Alsace and part of Lorraine, with a population of some
+1,600,000 souls, and underwent the other losses noted above. Last
+but not least was the burden of supporting the German army of
+occupation that kept its grip on the north-east of France until, as
+the instalments came in, the foreign troops were proportionately
+drawn away eastwards. The magnitude of these losses and burdens had
+already aroused cries of anguish in France. The National Assembly
+at Bordeaux, on first hearing the terms, passionately confirmed the
+deposition of Napoleon III.; while the deputies from the ceded
+districts lodged a solemn protest against their expatriation (March
+1). Some of the advanced Republican deputies, refusing to
+acknowledge the cession of territory, resigned their seats in the
+Assembly. Thus there began a <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page106" id="page106"></a>[pg 106]</span> schism between the
+Radicals, especially those of Paris, and the Assembly, which was
+destined to widen into an impassable gulf. Matters were made worse
+by the decision of the Assembly to sit, not at the capital, but at
+Versailles, where it would be free from the commotions of the great
+city. Thiers himself declared in favour of Versailles; there the
+Assembly met for the first time on March 20, 1871.</p>
+<p>A conflict between this monarchical Assembly and the eager
+Radicals of Paris perhaps lay in the nature of things. The majority
+of the deputies looked forward to the return of the King (whether
+the Comte de Chambord of the elder Bourbons, or the Comte de Paris
+of the House of Orleans) as soon as France should be freed from the
+German armies of occupation and the spectre of the Red Terror. Some
+of their more impatient members openly showed their hand, and while
+at Bordeaux began to upbraid Thiers for his obstinate neutrality on
+this question. For his part, the wise old man had early seen the
+need of keeping the parties in check. On February 17 he begged them
+to defer questions as to the future form of government, working
+meanwhile solely for the present needs of France, and allowing
+future victory to be the meed of that party which showed itself
+most worthy of trust. "Can there be any man" (he exclaimed) "who
+would dare learnedly to discuss the articles of the Constitution,
+while our prisoners are dying of misery far away, or while our
+people, perishing of hunger, are obliged to give their last crust
+to the foreign soldiers?" A similar appeal on March led to the
+informal truce on constitutional questions known as the Compact of
+Bordeaux. It was at best an uncertain truce, certain to be broken
+at the first sign of activity on the Republican side.</p>
+<p>That activity was now put forth by the "Reds" of Paris. It would
+take us far too long to describe the origins of the municipal
+socialism which took form in the Parisian Commune of 1871. The
+first seeds of that movement had been sown by its prototype of
+1792-93, which summed up all the daring and vigour of the
+revolutionary socialism of that age. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page107" id="page107"></a>[pg 107]</span> The idea had been kept
+alive by the "National Workshops" of 1848, whose institution and
+final suppression by the young Republic of that year had been its
+own undoing.</p>
+<p>History shows, then, that Paris, as the head of France, was
+accustomed to think and act vigorously for herself in time of
+revolution. But experience proved no less plainly that the limbs,
+that is, the country districts, generally refused to follow the
+head in these fantastic movements. Hence, after a short spell of
+St. Vitus' activity, there always came a time of strife, followed
+only too often by torpor, when the body reduced the head to a state
+of benumbed subjection. The triumph of rural notions accounts for
+the reactions of 1831-47, and 1851-70. Paris having once more
+regained freedom of movement by the fall of the Second Empire on
+September 4, at once sought to begin her politico-social
+experiments, and, as we pointed out, only the promptitude of the
+"moderates," when face to face with the advancing Germans, averted
+the catastrophe of a socialistic regime in Paris during the siege.
+Even so, the Communists made two determined efforts to gain power;
+the former of these, on October 31, nearly succeeded. Other towns
+in the centre and south, notably Lyons, were also on the brink of
+revolutionary socialism, and the success of the movement in Paris
+might conceivably have led to a widespread trial of the communal
+experiment. The war helped to keep matters in the old lines.</p>
+<p>But now, the feelings of rage at the surrender of Paris and the
+cession of the eastern districts of France, together with hatred of
+the monarchical assembly that flouted the capital by sitting at the
+abode of the old Kings of France, served to raise popular passion
+to fever heat. The Assembly undoubtedly made many mistakes: it
+authorised the payment of rents and all other obligations in the
+capital for the period of siege as if in ordinary times, and it
+appointed an unpopular man to command the National Guards of Paris.
+At the close of February the National Guards formed a Central
+Committee to look after their interests and those of the capital;
+and when <span class="pagenum"><a name="page108" id=
+"page108"></a>[pg 108]</span> the Executive of the State sent
+troops of the line to seize their guns parked on Montmartre, the
+Nationals and the rabble turned out in force. The troops refused to
+act against the National Guards, and these murdered two Generals,
+Lecomte and Thomas (March 18). Thiers and his Ministers thereupon
+rather tamely retired to Versailles, and the capital fell into the
+hands of the Communists. Greater firmness at the outset might have
+averted the horrors that followed.</p>
+<p>The Communists speedily consulted the voice of the people by
+elections conducted in the most democratic spirit. In many respects
+their programme of municipal reforms marked a great improvement on
+the type of town-government prevalent during the Empire. That was,
+practically, under the control of the imperial
+<i>pr&eacute;fets</i>. The Communists now asserted the right of
+each town to complete self-government, with the control of its
+officials, magistrates, National Guards, and police, as well as of
+taxation, education, and many other spheres of activity. The more
+ambitious minds looked forward to a time when France would form a
+federation of self-governing Communes, whose delegates, deciding
+matters of national concern, would reduce the executive power to
+complete subservience. At bottom this Communal Federalism was the
+ideal of Rousseau and of his ideal Cantonal State.</p>
+<p>By such means, they hoped, the brain of France would control the
+body, the rural population inevitably taking the position of hewers
+of wood and drawers of water, both in a political and material
+sense. Undoubtedly the Paris Commune made some intelligent changes
+which pointed the way to reforms of lasting benefit; but it is very
+questionable whether its aims could have achieved permanence in a
+land so very largely agricultural as France then was. Certainly it
+started its experiment in the worst possible way, namely, by
+defying the constituted authorities of the nation at large, and by
+adopting the old revolutionary calendar, and the red flag, the
+symbol of social revolution. Thenceforth it was an affair of war to
+the knife.</p>
+<p>The National Government, sitting at Versailles, could not
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page109" id="page109"></a>[pg
+109]</span> at first act with much vigour. Many of the line
+regiments sympathised with the National Guards of Paris: these were
+200,000 strong, and had command of the walls and some of the posts
+to the south-west of Paris. The Germans still held the forts to the
+north and east of the capital, and refused to allow any attack on
+that side. It has even been stated that Bismarck favoured the
+Communists; but this is said to have resulted from their misreading
+of his promise to maintain a <i>friedlich</i> (peaceful) attitude,
+as if it were <i>freundlich</i> (friendly)<a name=
+"FNanchor61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61">[61]</a>. The full truth as
+to Bismarck's relations to the Commune is not known. The Germans,
+however, sent back a force of French prisoners, and these with
+other troops, after beating back the Communist sortie of April 3,
+began to threaten the defences of the city. The strife at once took
+on a savage character, as was inevitable after the murder of two
+Generals in Paris. The Versailles troops, treating the Communists
+as mere rebels, shot their chief officers. Thereupon the Commune
+retaliated by ordering the capture of hostages, and by seizing the
+Archbishop of Paris, and several other ecclesiastics (April 5). It
+also decreed the abolition of the budget for Public Worship and the
+confiscation of clerical and monastic property <i>throughout
+France</i>--a proposal which aroused ridicule and contempt.</p>
+<p>It would be tedious to dwell on the details of this terrible
+strife. Gradually the regular forces overpowered the National
+Guards of Paris, drove them from the southern forts, and finally
+(May 21) gained a lodgment within the walls of Paris at the Auteuil
+gate. Then followed a week of street-fighting and madness such as
+Europe had not seen since the Peninsular War. "Room for the people,
+for the bare-armed fighting men. The hour of the revolutionary war
+has struck." This was the placard posted throughout Paris on the
+22nd, by order of the Communist chief, Delescluze. And again,
+"After the barricades, our houses; after our houses, our ruins."
+Preparations were made to burn down a part of Central Paris to
+delay the progress of the Versaillese. Rumour magnified this into
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page110" id="page110"></a>[pg
+110]</span> a plan of wholesale incendiarism, and wild stories were
+told of <i>p&eacute;troleuses</i> flinging oil over buildings, and
+of Communist firemen ready to pump petroleum. A squad of infuriated
+"Reds" rushed off and massacred the Archbishop of Paris and six
+other hostages, while elsewhere Dominican friars, captured
+regulars, and police agents fell victims to the rage of the worsted
+party.</p>
+<p>Madness seemed to have seized on the women of Paris. Even when
+the men were driven from barricades by weight of numbers or by the
+capture of houses on their flank, these creatures fought on with
+the fury of despair till they met the death which the enraged
+linesmen dealt out to all who fought, or seemed to have fought.
+Simpson, the British war correspondent, tells how he saw a brutal
+officer tear the red cross off the arm of a nurse who tended the
+Communist wounded, so that she might be done to death as a
+fighter<a name="FNanchor62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62">[62]</a>.
+Both sides, in truth, were maddened by the long and murderous
+struggle, which showed once again that no strife is so horrible as
+that of civil war. On Sunday, May 28, the last desperate band was
+cut down at the Cemetery P&egrave;re-Lachaise, and fighting gave
+way to fusillades. Most of the chiefs perished without the pretence
+of trial, and the same fate befel thousands of National Guards, who
+were mown down in swathes and cast into trenches. In the last day
+of fighting, and the horrible time that followed, 17,000 Parisians
+are said to have perished<a name="FNanchor63"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_63">[63]</a>. Little by little, law reasserted her sway,
+but only to doom 9600 persons to heavy punishment. Not until 1879
+did feelings of mercy prevail, and then, owing to Gambetta's
+powerful pleading, an amnesty was passed for the surviving
+Communist prisoners.</p>
+<p>The Paris Commune affords the last important instance of a
+determined rising in Europe against a civilised Government. From
+this statement we of course except the fitful efforts of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page111" id="page111"></a>[pg
+111]</span> the Carlists in Spain; and it is needless to say that
+the risings of the Bulgarians and other Slavs against Turkish rule
+have been directed against an uncivilised Government. The absence
+of revolts in the present age marks it off from all that have
+preceded, and seems to call for a brief explanation. Obviously,
+there is no lack of discontent, as the sequel will show. Finland,
+portions of Caucasia, and all the parts of the once mighty realm of
+Poland which have fallen to Russia and Prussia, now and again heave
+with anger and resentment. But these feelings are suppressed. They
+do not flame forth, as was the case in Poland as late as the year
+1863. What is the reason for this? Mainly, it would seem, the
+enormous powers given to the modern organised State by the
+discoveries of mechanical science and the triumphs of the engineer.
+Telegraphy now flashes to the capital the news of a threatening
+revolt in the hundredth part of the time formerly taken by couriers
+with their relays of horses. Fully as great is the saving of time
+in the transport of large bodies of troops to the disaffected
+districts. Thus, the all-important factors that make for
+success--force, skill, and time--are all on the side of the central
+Governments<a name="FNanchor64"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_64">[64]</a>.</p>
+<p>The spread of constitutional rule has also helped to dispel
+discontent--or, at least, has altered its character. Representative
+government has tended to withdraw disaffection from the
+market-place, the purlieus of the poor, and the fastnesses of the
+forest, and to focus it noisily but peacefully in the columns of
+the Press and the arena of Parliament. The appeal now is not so
+much to arms as to argument; and in this new sphere a minority,
+provided that it is well organised and persistent, may generally
+hope to attain its ends. Revolt, even if it take the form of a
+refusal to pay taxes, is therefore an anachronism under a
+democracy; unless, as in the case of the American Civil War, two
+great sections of the country are irreconcilably opposed.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page112" id="page112"></a>[pg
+112]</span>
+<p>The fact, however, that there has been no widespread revolt in
+Russia since the year 1863, shows that democracy has not been the
+chief influence tending to dissolve or suppress discontent. As we
+shall see in a later chapter, Russia has defied constitutionalism
+and ground down alien races and creeds; yet (up to the year 1904)
+no great rising has shaken her autocratic system to its base. This
+seems to prove that the immunity of the present age in regard to
+insurrections is due rather to the triumphs of mechanical science
+than to the progress of democracy. The fact is not pleasing to
+contemplate; but it must be faced. So also must its natural
+corollary: that the minority, if rendered desperate, may be driven
+to arm itself with new and terrible engines of destruction in order
+to shatter that superiority of force with which science has endowed
+the centralised Governments of to-day.</p>
+<p>Certain it is that desperation, perhaps brought about by a sense
+of helplessness in face of an armed nation, was one of the
+characteristics of the Paris Commune, as it was also of Nihilism in
+Russia. In fact the Communist effort of 1871 may be termed a
+belated attempt on the part of a daring minority to dominate France
+by seizing the machinery of government at Paris. The success of the
+Extremists of 1793 and 1848 in similar experiments--not to speak of
+the Communistic rising of Babeuf in 1797--was only temporary; but
+doubtless it encouraged the "Reds" of 1871 to make their mad bid
+for power. Now, however, the case was very different. France was no
+longer a lethargic mass, dominated solely by the eager brain of
+Paris. The whole country thrilled with political life. For the
+time, the provinces held the directing power, which had been
+necessarily removed from the capital; and--most powerful motive of
+all--they looked on the Parisian experiment as gross treason to
+<i>la patrie</i>, while she lay at the feet of the Germans. Thus,
+the very motives which for a space lent such prestige and power to
+the Communistic Jacobins of 1793 told against their imitators in
+1871.</p>
+<p>The inmost details of their attempt will perhaps never be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page113" id="page113"></a>[pg
+113]</span> fully known; for too many of the actors died under the
+ruins of the building they had so heedlessly reared. Nevertheless,
+it is clear that the Commune was far from being the causeless
+outburst that it has often been represented. In part it resulted
+from the determination of the capital to free herself from the
+control of the "rurals" who dominated the National Assembly; and in
+that respect it foreshadowed, however crudely, what will probably
+be the political future of all great States, wherein the urban
+population promises altogether to outweigh and control that of the
+country. Further, it should be remembered that the experimenters of
+1871 believed the Assembly to have betrayed the cause of France by
+ceding her eastern districts, and to be on the point of handing
+over the Republic to the Monarchists. A fit of hysteria, or
+hypochondria, brought on by the exhausting siege and by
+exasperation at the triumphal entry of the Germans, added the touch
+of fury which enabled the Radicals of Paris to challenge the
+national authorities and thereafter to persist in their defiance
+with French logicality and ardour.</p>
+<p>France, on the other hand, looked on the Communist movement at
+Paris and in the southern towns as treason to the cause of national
+unity, when there was the utmost need of concord. Thus on both
+sides there were deplorable misunderstandings. In ordinary times
+they might have been cleared away by frank explanations between the
+more moderate leaders; but the feverish state of the public mind
+forbade all thoughts of compromise, and the very weakness brought
+on by the war sharpened the fit of delirium which will render the
+spring months of the year 1871 for ever memorable even in the
+thrilling annals of Paris.</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor54">[54]</a> See
+D&eacute;bidour, <i>Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe</i>, vol. ii.
+pp. 412-415. For Bismarck's fears of intervention, especially that
+of Austria, see his <i>Reminiscences</i>, vol. ii. p. 109 (English
+edit.); Count Beust's <i>Aus drei Viertel-Jahrhunderten</i>, pt.
+ii. pp. 361, 395; for Thiers' efforts see his <i>Notes</i> on the
+years 1870-73 (Paris 1904).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor55">[55]</a> M.
+Gr&eacute;goire in his <i>Histoire de France</i>, vol. iv. p. 647,
+states that 64 balloons left Paris during the siege, 5 were
+captured and 2 lost in the sea; 363 carrier-pigeons left the city
+and 57 came in. For details of the French efforts see <i>Les
+Responsabilit&eacute;s de la D&eacute;fense rationale</i>, by H.
+G&eacute;nevois; also <i>The People's War in France, 1870-1871</i>,
+by Col. L. Hale (The Pall Mall Military Series, 1904), founded on
+H&ouml;nig's <i>Der Volkskrieg an der Loire</i>.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor56">[56]</a> Bazaine
+gives the details from his point of view in his <i>Episodes de la
+Guerre de 1870 et le Blocus de Metz</i> (Madrid, 1883). One of the
+go-betweens was a man Regnier, who pretended to come from the
+Empress Eug&eacute;nie, then at Hastings; but Bismarck seems to
+have distrusted him and to have dismissed him curtly. The
+adventuress, Mme. Humbert, recently claimed that she had her
+"millions" from this Regnier. A sharp criticism on Bazaine's
+conduct at Metz is given in a pamphlet, <i>R&eacute;ponse au
+Rapport sommaire sur les Op&eacute;rations de l'Arm&eacute;e du
+Rhin</i>, by one of his Staff Officers. See, too, M. Samuel Denis
+in his recent work, <i>Histoire Contemporaine</i> (de France).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor57">[57]</a> It of
+course led up to the Communist revolt. Bismarck's relations to the
+disorderly elements in Paris are not fully known; but he warned
+Favre on Jan. 26 to "provoke an <i>&eacute;meute</i> while you have
+an army to suppress it with" (<i>Bismarck in Franco-German War</i>,
+vol. ii. p. 265).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor58">[58]</a>
+Seignobos, <i>A Political History of Contemporary Europe</i>, vol.
+i. p. 187 (Eng. edit.).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor59">[59]</a> Busch,
+<i>Bismarck in the Franco-German War</i>, vol. ii. p. 341.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor60">[60]</a> G.
+Hanotaux, <i>Contemporary France</i>, vol i. p. 124 (Eng. edit.).
+This work is the most detailed and authoritative that has yet
+appeared on these topics. See, too, M. Samuel Denis' work,
+<i>Histoire Contemporaine</i>.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor61">[61]</a>
+D&eacute;bidour, <i>Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe</i>, vol. ii.
+p. 438-440.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor62">[62]</a> <i>The
+Autobiography of William Simpson</i> (London, 1903), p. 261.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor63">[63]</a> G.
+Hanotaux, <i>Contemporary France</i>, p. 225. For further details
+see Lissagaray's <i>History of the Commune</i>; also personal
+details in Washburne's <i>Recollections of a Minister to
+France</i>, 1869-1877, vol. ii. chaps, ii.-vii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor64">[64]</a> See
+<i>Turkey in Europe</i>, by "Odysseus" (p. 130), for the parallel
+instance of the enhanced power of the Sultan Abdul Hamid owing to
+the same causes.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page114" id="page114"></a>[pg
+114]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+<h3>THE FOUNDING OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC (<i>continued</i>)</h3>
+<br>
+<p>The seemingly suicidal energy shown in the civil strifes at
+Paris served still further to depress the fortunes of France. On
+the very day when the Versailles troops entered the walls of Paris,
+Thiers and Favre signed the treaty of peace at Frankfurt. The terms
+were substantially those agreed on in the preliminaries of
+February, but the terms of payment of the indemnity were harder
+than before. Resistance was hopeless. In truth, the Iron Chancellor
+had recently used very threatening language: he accused the French
+Government of bad faith in procuring the release of a large force
+of French prisoners, ostensibly for the overthrow of the Commune,
+but really in order to patch up matters with the "Reds" of Paris
+and renew the war with Germany. Misrepresentations and threats like
+these induced Thiers and Favre to agree to the German demands,
+which took form in the Treaty of Frankfurt (May 10, 1871).</p>
+<p>Peace having been duly ratified on the hard terms<a name=
+"FNanchor65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65">[65]</a>, it remained to
+build up France almost <i>de nova</i>. Nearly everything was
+wanting. The treasury was nearly empty, and that <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page115" id="page115"></a>[pg 115]</span> too in
+face of the enormous demands made by Germany. It is said that in
+February 1871, the unhappy man who took up the Ministry of Finance,
+carried away all the funds of the national exchequer in his hat. As
+Thiers confessed to the Assembly, he had, for very patriotism, to
+close his eyes to the future and grapple with the problems of every
+day as they arose. But he had faith in France, and France had faith
+in him. The French people can perform wonders when they thoroughly
+trust their rulers. The inexhaustible wealth inherent in their
+soil, the thrift of the peasantry, and the self-sacrificing ardour
+shown by the nation when nerved by a high ideal, constituted an
+asset of unsuspected strength in face of the staggering blows dealt
+to French wealth and credit. The losses caused by the war, the
+Commune, and the cession of the eastern districts, involved losses
+that have been reckoned at more than &pound;614,000,000. Apart from
+the 1,597,000 inhabitants transferred to German rule, the loss of
+population due to the war and the civil strifes has been put as
+high as 491,000 souls<a name="FNanchor66"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_66">[66]</a>.</p>
+<p>Yet France flung herself with triumphant energy into the task of
+paying off the invaders. At the close of June 1871, a loan for two
+milliards and a quarter (&pound;90,000,000) was opened for
+subscription, and proved to be an immense success. The required
+amount was more than doubled. By means of the help of international
+banks, the first half milliard of the debt was paid off in July
+1871, and Normandy was freed from the burden of German occupation.
+We need not detail the dates of the successive payments. They
+revealed the unsuspected vitality of France and the energy of her
+Government and financiers. In March 1873, the arrangements for the
+payment of the last instalment were made, and in the autumn of that
+year the last German troops left Verdun and Belfort. For his great
+services in bending all the powers of France to this great
+financial feat, Thiers was universally acclaimed as the Liberator
+of the Territory,</p>
+<p>Yet that very same period saw him overthrown. To read
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page116" id="page116"></a>[pg
+116]</span> this riddle aright, we must review the outlines of
+French internal politics. We have already referred to the causes
+that sent up a monarchical majority to the National Assembly, the
+schisms that weakened the action of that majority, and the peculiar
+position held by M. Thiers, an Orleanist in theory, but the chief
+magistrate of the French Republic. No more paradoxical situation
+has ever existed; and its oddity was enhanced by the usually
+clear-cut logicality of French political thought. Now, after the
+war and the Commune, the outlook was dim, even to the keenest
+sight. One thing alone was clear, the duty of all citizens to defer
+raising any burning question until law, order, and the national
+finances were re-established. It was the perception of this truth
+that led to the provisional truce between the parties known as the
+Compact of Bordeaux. Flagrantly broken by the "Reds" of Paris in
+the spring of 1871, that agreement seemed doomed. The Republic
+itself was in danger of perishing as it did after the socialistic
+extravagances of the Revolution of 1848. But Thiers at once
+disappointed the monarchists by stoutly declaring that he would not
+abet the overthrow of the Republic: "We found the Republic
+established, as a fact of which we are not the authors; but I will
+not destroy the form of government which I am now using to restore
+order. . . . When all is settled, the country will have the liberty to
+choose as it pleases in what concerns its future destinies<a name=
+"FNanchor67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67">[67]</a>." Skilfully
+pointing the factions to the future as offering a final reward for
+their virtuous self-restraint, this masterly tactician gained time
+in which to heal the worst wounds dealt by the war.</p>
+<p>But it was amidst unending difficulties. The Monarchists, eager
+to emphasise the political reaction set in motion by the
+extravagances of the Paris Commune, wished to rid themselves at the
+earliest possible time of this self-confident little bourgeois who
+seemed to stand alone between them and the realisation of their
+hopes. Their more unscrupulous members belittled his services and
+hinted that love of power alone led him to cling to <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page117" id="page117"></a>[pg 117]</span> the
+Republic, and thus belie his political past. Then, too, the Orleans
+princes, the Duc d'Aumale and the Prince de Joinville, the
+surviving sons of King Louis Philippe, took their seats as deputies
+for the Oise and Haute-Marne Departments, thus keeping the
+monarchical ideal steadily before the eye of France. True, the Duc
+d'Aumale had declared to the electorate that he was ready to bow
+before the will of France whether it decided for a Constitutional
+Monarchy or a Liberal Republic; and the loyalty with which he
+served his country was destined to set the seal of honesty on a
+singularly interesting career. But there was no guarantee that the
+Chamber would not take upon itself to interpret the will of France
+and call from his place of exile in London the Comte de Paris, son
+of the eldest descendant of Louis Philippe, around whom the hopes
+of the Orleanists centred.</p>
+<p>Had Thiers followed his earlier convictions and declared for
+such a Restoration, it might quite conceivably have come about
+without very much resistance. But early in the year 1871, or
+perhaps after the fall of the Empire, he became convinced that
+France could not heal her grievous wounds except under a government
+that had its roots deep in the people's life. Now, the cause of
+monarchy in France was hopelessly weakened by schisms. Legitimists
+and Orleanists were at feud ever since, in 1830, Louis Philippe, so
+the former said, cozened the rightful heir out of his inheritance;
+and the efforts now made to fuse the claims of the two rival
+branches remained without result, owing to the stiff and dogmatic
+attitude of the Comte de Chambord, heir to the traditions of the
+elder branch. A Bonapartist Restoration was out of the question.
+Yet all three sections began more and more to urge their claims.
+Thiers met them with consummate skill. Occasionally they had reason
+to resent his tactics as showing unworthy finesse; but oftener they
+quailed before the startling boldness of his reminders that, as
+they constituted the majority of the deputies of France, they might
+at once undertake to restore the monarchy--if they could. "You do
+not, and you cannot, do so. There is only one throne and it cannot
+have <span class="pagenum"><a name="page118" id="page118"></a>[pg
+118]</span> three occupants<a name="FNanchor68"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_68">[68]</a>." Or, again, he cowed them by the sheer
+force of his personality: "If I were a weak man, I would flatter
+you," he once exclaimed. In the last resort he replied to their
+hints of his ambition and self-seeking by offering his resignation.
+Here again the logic of facts was with him. For many months he was
+the necessary man, and he and they knew it.</p>
+<p>But, as we have seen, there came a time when the last hard
+bargains with Bismarck as to the payment of the war debt neared
+their end; and the rapier-play between the Liberator of the
+Territory and the parties of the Assembly also drew to a close. In
+one matter he had given them just cause for complaint. As far back
+as November 13, 1872 (that is, before the financial problem was
+solved), he suddenly and without provocation declared from the
+tribune of the National Assembly that it was time to establish the
+Republic. The proposal was adjourned, but Thiers had damaged his
+influence. He had broken the "Compact of Bordeaux" and had shown
+his hand. The Assembly now knew that he was a Republican. Finally,
+he made a dignified speech to the Assembly, justifying his conduct
+in the past, appealing from the verdict of parties to the impartial
+tribunal of History, and prophesying that the welfare of France was
+bound up with the maintenance of the Conservative Republic. The
+Assembly by a majority of fourteen decided on a course of action
+that he disapproved, and he therefore resigned (May 24, 1873).</p>
+<p>It seems that History will justify his appeal to her tribunal.
+Looking, not at the occasional shifts that he used in order to
+disunite his opponents, but rather at the underlying motives that
+prompted his resolve to maintain that form of government which
+least divided his countrymen, posterity has praised his conduct as
+evincing keen insight into the situation, a glowing love for France
+before which all his earliest predilections vanished, and a
+masterly skill in guiding her from the abyss of anarchy, civil war,
+and bankruptcy that had but recently <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page119" id="page119"></a>[pg 119]</span> yawned at her feet.
+Having set her upon the path of safety, he now betook himself once
+more to those historical and artistic studies which he loved better
+than power and office. It is given to few men not only to write
+history but also to make history; yet in both spheres Thiers
+achieved signal success. Some one has dubbed him "the greatest
+little man known to history." Granting even that the paradox is
+tenable, we may still assert that his influence on the life of
+France exceeded that of many of her so-called heroes.</p>
+<p>In fact, it would be difficult to point out in any country
+during the Nineteenth Century, since the time of Bonaparte's
+Consulate, a work of political, economic, and social renovation
+greater than that which went on in the two years during which
+Thiers held the reins of power. Apart from the unparalleled feat of
+paying off the Germans, the Chief of the Executive breathed new
+vigour into the public service, revived national spirit in so
+noteworthy a way as to bring down threats of war from German
+military circles in 1872 (to be repeated more seriously in 1875),
+and placed on the Statute Book two measures of paramount
+importance. These were the reform of Local Government and the Army
+Bill.</p>
+<p>These measures claim a brief notice. The former of them
+naturally falls into two parts, dealing severally with the Commune
+and the Department. These are the two all-important areas in French
+life. In rural districts the Commune corresponds to the English
+parish; it is the oldest and best-defined of all local areas. In
+urban districts it corresponds with the municipality or township.
+The Revolutionists of 1790 and 1848 had sought to apply the
+principle of manhood suffrage to communal government; but their
+plans were swept away by the ensuing reactions, and the dawn of the
+Third Republic found the Communes, both rural and urban, under the
+control of the <i>pr&eacute;fets</i> and their subordinates. We
+must note here that the office of <i>pr&eacute;fet</i>, instituted
+by Bonaparte in 1800, was designed to link the local government of
+the Departments closely to the central power: this magistrate,
+appointed by the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page120" id=
+"page120"></a>[pg 120]</span> Executive at Paris, having almost
+unlimited control over local affairs throughout the several
+Departments. Indeed, it was against the excessive centralisation of
+the prefectorial system that the Parisian Communists made their
+heedless and unmeasured protest. The question having thus been
+thrust to the front, the Assembly brought forward (April 1871) a
+measure authorising the election of Communal Councils elected by
+every adult man who had resided for a year in the Commune. A
+majority of the Assembly wished that the right of choosing mayors
+should rest with the Communal Councils, but Thiers, browbeating the
+deputies by his favourite device of threatening to resign, carried
+an amendment limiting this right to towns of less than 20,000
+inhabitants. In the larger towns, and in all capitals of
+Departments, the mayors were to be appointed by the central power.
+Thus the Napoleonic tradition in favour of keeping local government
+under the oversight of officials nominated from Paris was to some
+extent perpetuated even in an avowedly democratic measure.</p>
+<p>Paris was to have a Municipal Council composed of eighty members
+elected by manhood suffrage from each ward; but the mayors of the
+twenty <i>arrondissements</i>, into which Paris is divided, were,
+and still are, appointed by the State; and here again the control
+of the police and other extensive powers are vested in the
+<i>Pr&eacute;fet</i> of the Department of the Seine, not in the
+mayors of the <i>arrondissements</i> or the Municipal Council. The
+Municipal or Communal Act of 1871, then, is a compromise--on the
+whole a good working compromise--between the extreme demands for
+local self-government and the Napoleonic tradition, now become an
+instinct with most Frenchmen in favour of central control over
+matters affecting public order<a name="FNanchor69"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_69">[69]</a>.</p>
+<p>The matter of Army Reform was equally pressing. Here, again,
+Thiers had the ground cleared before him by a great overturn, like
+that which enabled Bonaparte in his day to remodel France, and the
+builders of Modern Prussia--Stein, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page121" id="page121"></a>[pg 121]</span> Scharnhorst, and
+Hardenberg--to build up their State from its ruins. In particular,
+the inefficiency of the National Guards and of the Garde Mobile
+made it easy to reconstruct the French Army on the system of
+universal conscription in a regular army, the efficiency of which
+Prussia had so startlingly displayed in the campaigns of
+K&ouml;niggr&auml;tz (Sadowa) and Sedan. Thiers, however, had no
+belief in a short service system with its result of a huge force of
+imperfectly trained troops: he clung to the old professional army;
+and when that was shown to be inadequate to the needs of the new
+age, he pleaded that the period of compulsory service should be,
+not three, but five years. On the Assembly demurring to the expense
+and vital strain for the people which this implied, he declared
+with passionate emphasis that he would resign unless the five years
+were voted. They were voted (June 10, 1872). At the same time, the
+exemptions, so numerous during the Second Empire, were curtailed
+and the right of buying a substitute was swept away. After five
+years' service with the active army were to come four years with
+the reserve of the active army, followed by further terms in the
+territorial army. The favour of one year's service instead of five
+was to be accorded in certain well-defined cases, as, for instance,
+to those who had distinguished themselves at the
+<i>Lyc&eacute;es</i>, or highest grade public schools. Such was the
+law which was published on July 27, 1872<a name=
+"FNanchor70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70">[70]</a>.</p>
+<p>The sight of a nation taking on itself this heavy blood-tax
+(heavier than that of Germany, where the time of service with the
+colours was only for three years) aroused universal surprise, which
+beyond the Rhine took the form of suspicion that France was
+planning a war of revenge. That feeling grew in intensity in
+military circles in Berlin three years later, as the sequel will
+show. Undaunted by the thinly-veiled threats that came from
+Germany, France proceeded with the tasks of paying off her
+conquerors and reorganising her own forces; so that Thiers on his
+retirement from office could proudly <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page122" id="page122"></a>[pg 122]</span> point to the recovery of
+French credit and prestige after an unexampled overthrow.</p>
+<p>In feverish haste, the monarchical majority of the National
+Assembly appointed Marshal MacMahon to the Presidency (May 24,
+1873). They soon found out, however, the impossibility of founding
+a monarchy. The Comte de Paris, in whom the hopes of the Orleanists
+centred, went to the extreme of self-sacrifice, by visiting the
+Comte de Chambord, the Legitimist "King" of France, and recognising
+the validity of his claims to the throne. But this amiable
+pliability, while angering very many of the Orleanists, failed to
+move the monarch-designate by one hair's-breadth from those
+principles of divine right against which the more liberal
+monarchists always protested. "Henri V." soon declared that he
+would neither accept any condition nor grant a single guarantee as
+to the character of his future rule. Above all, he declared that he
+would never give up the white flag of the <i>ancien
+r&eacute;gime</i>. In his eyes the tricolour, which, shortly after
+the fall of the Bastille, Louis XVI. had recognised as the flag of
+France, represented the spirit of the Great Revolution, and for
+that great event he had the deepest loathing. As if still further
+to ruin his cause, the Count announced his intention of striving
+with all his might for the restoration of the Temporal Power of the
+Pope. It is said that the able Bishop of Orleans, Mgr. Dupanloup,
+on reading one of the letters by which the Comte de Chambord nailed
+the white flag to the mast, was driven to exclaim, "There! That
+makes the Republic! Poor France! All is lost."</p>
+<p>Thus the attempts at fusion of the two monarchical parties had
+only served to expose the weaknesses of their position and to warn
+France of the probable results of a monarchical restoration. That
+the country had well learnt the lesson appeared in the
+bye-elections, which in nearly every case went in favour of
+Republican candidates. Another event that happened early in 1873
+further served to justify Thiers' contention that the Republic was
+the only possible form of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page123"
+id="page123"></a>[pg 123]</span> government. On January 9, Napoleon
+III. died of the internal disease which for seven years past had
+been undermining his strength. His son, the Prince Imperial, was at
+present far too young to figure as a claimant to the throne.</p>
+<p>It is also an open secret that Bismarck worked hard to prevent
+all possibility of a royalist Restoration; and when the German
+ambassador at Paris, Count Arnim, opposed his wishes in this
+matter, he procured his recall and subjected him to a State
+prosecution. In fact, Bismarck believed that under a Republic
+France would be powerless in war, and, further, that she could
+never form that alliance with Russia which was the bugbear of his
+later days. A Russian diplomatist once told the Duc de Broglie that
+the kind of Republic which Bismarck wanted to see in France was
+"<i>une R&eacute;publique dissolvante</i>."</p>
+<p>Everything therefore concurred to postpone the monarchical
+question, and to prolong the informal truce which Thiers had been
+the first to bring about. Accordingly, in the month of November,
+the Assembly extended the Presidency of Marshal MacMahon to seven
+years--a period therefore known as the Septennate.</p>
+<p>Having now briefly shown the causes of the helplessness of the
+monarchical majority in the matter that it had most nearly at
+heart, we must pass over subsequent events save as they refer to
+that crowning paradox--the establishment of a Republican
+Constitution. This was due to the despair felt by many of the
+Orleanists of seeing a restoration during the lifetime of the Comte
+de Chambord, and to the alarm felt by all sections of the
+monarchists at the activity and partial success of the
+Bonapartists, who in the latter part of 1874 captured a few seats.
+Seeking above all things to keep out a Bonaparte, they did little
+to hinder the formation of a Constitution which all of them looked
+on as provisional. In fact, they adopted the policy of marking time
+until the death of the Comte de Chambord--whose hold on life proved
+to be no less tenacious than on his creed--should clear up the
+situation. Accordingly, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page124" id=
+"page124"></a>[pg 124]</span> after many diplomatic delays, the
+Committee which in 1873 had been charged to draw up the
+Constitution, presented its plan, which took form in the organic
+laws of February 25, 1875. They may be thus summarised:--</p>
+<p>The Legislature consists of two Assemblies--the Chamber of
+Deputies and the Senate, the former being elected by "universal"
+(or, more properly, <i>manhood</i>) suffrage. The composition of
+the Senate, as determined by a later law, lies with electoral
+bodies in each of the Departments; these bodies consist of the
+national deputies for that Department, the members of their General
+Councils and District Councils, and delegates from the Municipal
+Councils. Senators are elected for nine years; deputies to the
+Chamber of Deputies for four years. The President of the Republic
+is chosen by the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies sitting
+together for that purpose. He is chosen for seven years and is
+eligible for re-election; he is responsible to the Chambers only in
+case of high treason; he enjoys, conjointly with the members of the
+two Chambers, the right of proposing laws; he promulgates them when
+passed and supervises their execution; he disposes of the armed
+forces of France and has the right of pardon formerly vested in the
+Kings of France. Conformably to the advice of the Senate he may
+dissolve the Chamber of Deputies. Each Chamber may initiate
+proposals for laws, save that financial measures rest solely with
+the Chamber of Deputies.</p>
+<p>The Chambers may decide that the Constitution shall be revised.
+In that case, they meet together, as a National Assembly, to carry
+out such revision, which is determined by the bare majority. Each
+<i>arrondissement</i>, or district of a Department, elects one
+deputy. From 1885 to 1889 the elections were decided by each
+Department on a list, but since that time the earlier plan has been
+revived. We may also add that the seat of government was fixed at
+Versailles; four years later this was altered in favour of Paris,
+but certain of the most important functions, such as the election
+of a new President, take place at Versailles.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page125" id="page125"></a>[pg
+125]</span>
+<p>Taken as a whole, this Constitution was a clever compromise
+between the democratic and autocratic principles of government.
+Having its roots in manhood suffrage, it delegated very extensive
+powers to the head of the State. These powers are especially
+noteworthy if we compare them with those of the Ministry. The
+President commissions such and such a senator or deputy to form a
+Ministry (not necessarily representing the opinions of the majority
+of the Chambers); and that Ministry is responsible to the Chambers
+for the execution of laws and the general policy of the Government;
+but the President is not responsible to the Chambers, save in the
+single and very exceptional case of high treason to the State.
+Obviously, the Assembly wished to keep up the autocratic traditions
+of the past as well as to leave open the door for a revision of the
+Constitution at any time favourable to the monarchical cause. That
+this Constitution did not pave the way for the monarchy was due to
+several causes. Some we have named above.</p>
+<p>Another and perhaps a final cause was the unwillingness or
+inability of Marshal MacMahon to bring matters to the test of
+force. Actuated, perhaps, by motives similar to those which kept
+the Duke of Wellington from pushing matters to an extreme in
+England in 1831, the Marshal refused to carry out a <i>coup
+d'&eacute;tat</i> against the Republican majority sent up to the
+Chamber of Deputies by the General Election of January 1876. Once
+or twice he seemed on the point of using force. Thus, in May 1877,
+he ventured to dissolve the Chamber of Deputies; but the Republican
+party, led by the impetuous Gambetta, appealed to the country with
+decisive results. That orator's defiant challenge to the Marshal,
+either to submit or to resign (<i>se soumettre ou se
+d&eacute;mettre</i>) was taken up by France, with the result that
+nearly all the Republican deputies were re-elected. The President
+recognised the inevitable, and in December of that year charged M.
+Dufaure to form a Ministry that represented the Republican
+majority. In January 1879 even, some senatorial elections went
+against the President, and he accordingly resigned, January 30,
+1879.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page126" id="page126"></a>[pg
+126]</span>
+<p>In the year 1887 the Republic seemed for a time to be in danger
+owing to the intrigues of the Minister for War, General Boulanger.
+Making capital out of the difficulties of France, the financial
+scandals brought home to President Gr&eacute;vy, and his own
+popularity with the army, the General seemed to be preparing a
+<i>coup d'&eacute;tat</i>. The danger increased when the Ministry
+had to resign office (May 1887). A "National party" was formed,
+consisting of monarchists, Bonapartists, clericals, and even some
+crotchety socialists--in fact, of all who hoped to make capital out
+of the fell of the Parliamentary regime. The malcontents called for
+a plebiscite as to the form of government, hoping by these means to
+thrust in Boulanger as dictator to pave the way for the Comte de
+Paris up to the throne of France. After a prolonged crisis, the
+scheme ignominiously collapsed at the first show of vigour on the
+Republican side. When the new Floquet Ministry summoned Boulanger
+to appear before the High Court of Justice, he fled to Belgium, and
+shortly afterwards committed suicide.</p>
+<p>The chief feature of French political life, if one reviews it in
+its broad outlines, is the increase of stability. When we remember
+that that veteran opportunist, Talleyrand, on taking the oath of
+allegiance to the new Constitution of 1830, could say, "It is the
+thirteenth," and that no r&eacute;gime after that period lasted
+longer than eighteen years, we shall be chary of foretelling the
+speedy overthrow of the Third Republic at any and every period of
+Ministerial crisis or political ferment. Certainly the Republic has
+seen Ministries made and unmade in bewilderingly quick succession;
+but these are at most superficial changes--the real work of
+administration being done by the hierarchy of permanent officials
+first established by the great Napoleon. Even so terrible an event
+as the murder of President Sadi Carnot (June 1894) produced none of
+the fatal events that British alarmists confidently predicted. M.
+Casimir P&eacute;rier was quietly elected and ruled firmly. The
+same may be said of his successors, MM. Faure and Loubet. Sensible,
+businesslike men of bourgeois origin, they typify the new
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page127" id="page127"></a>[pg
+127]</span> France that has grown up since the age when military
+adventurers could keep their heels on her neck provided that they
+crowned her brow with laurels. That age would seem to have passed
+for ever away. A well-known adage says: "It is the unexpected that
+happens in French politics." To forecast their course is
+notoriously unsafe in that land of all lands. That careful and
+sagacious student of French life, Mr. Bodley, believes that the
+nation at heart dislikes the prudent tameness of Parliamentary
+rule, and that "the day will come when no power will prevent France
+from hailing a hero of her choice<a name="FNanchor71"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_71">[71]</a>."</p>
+<p>Doubtless the advent of a Napoleon the Great would severely test
+the qualities of prudence and patience that have gained strength
+under the shelter of democratic institutions. Yet it must always be
+remembered that Democracy has until now never had a fair chance in
+France. The bright hopes of 1789 faded away ten years later amidst
+the glamour of military glory. As for the Republic of 1848, it
+scarcely outlived the troubles of infancy. The Third Republic, on
+the other hand, has attained to manhood. It has met and overcome
+very many difficulties; at the outset parts of two valued provinces
+and a vast sum of treasure were torn away. In those early days of
+weakness it also crushed a serious revolt. The intrigues of
+Monarchists and Bonapartists were foiled. Hardest task of all, the
+natural irritation of Frenchmen at playing a far smaller part in
+the world was little by little allayed.</p>
+<p>In spite of these difficulties, the Third Republic has now
+lasted a quarter of a century. That is to say, it rests on the
+support of a generation which has gradually become accustomed to
+representative institutions--an advantage which its two
+predecessors did not enjoy. The success of institutions depends in
+the last resort on the character of those who work them; and the
+testimony of all observers is that the character of Frenchmen has
+slowly but surely changed in the direction which Thiers pointed out
+in the dark days of February 1871 as offering the only means of a
+sound national <span class="pagenum"><a name="page128" id=
+"page128"></a>[pg 128]</span> revival--"Yes: I believe in the
+future of France: I believe in it, but on condition that we have
+good sense; that we no longer use mere words as the current coin of
+our speech, but that under words we shall place realities; that we
+have not only good sense, but good sense endowed with courage."</p>
+<p>These are the qualities that have built up the France of to-day.
+The toil has been enormous, and it has been doubled by the worries
+and disappointments incident to Parliamentarism when grafted on to
+a semi-military bureaucracy; but the toil and the disappointments
+have played their part in purging the French nature of the frothy
+sensationalism and eager irresponsibility that naturally resulted
+from the Imperialism of the two Napoleons. France seems to be
+outgrowing the stage of hobble-de-hoyish ventures, military or
+communistic, and to have taken on the staid, sober, and
+self-respecting mien of manhood--a process helped on by the burdens
+of debt and conscription resulting from her juvenile escapades. In
+a word, she has attained to a full sense of responsibility. No
+longer are her constructive powers hopelessly outmatched by her
+critical powers. In the political sphere she has found a due
+balance between the brain and the hand. From analysis she has
+worked her way to synthesis.</p>
+<p>NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION</p>
+<p>The following are the Ministries of the Republic in
+1870-1900:--1870, Favre; 1871, Dufaure (1); 1873, De Broglie (1);
+1874, Cissey; 1875, Buffet; 1876, Dufaure (2); 1876, Simon; 1877,
+De Broglie (2); 1877, De Rochebouet; 1877, Dufaure (3); 1879,
+Waddington; 1879, Freycinet (1); 1880, Ferry (1); 1881, Gambetta;
+1882, Freycinet (2); 1882, Duclerc; 1883, Falli&egrave;res; 1883,
+Ferry (2); 1885, Brisson; 1886, Freycinet (3); 1886, Goblet; 1887,
+Rouvier; 1887, Tirard (1); 1888, Floquet; 1889, Tirard (2); 1890,
+Freycinet (4); 1892, Loubet; 1892, Ribot (1); 1892, Dupuy (1);
+1893, Casimir P&eacute;rier; 1894, Dupuy (2); 1895, Ribot (2);
+1895, Bourgeois; 1896, M&eacute;line; 1898, Brisson; 1898 Dupuy
+(3); 1899, Waldeck-Rousseau.</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor65">[65]</a> They
+included the right to hold four more Departments until the third
+half milliard (&pound;20,000,000, that is, &pound;60,000,000 in
+all) had been paid. A commercial treaty on favourable terms, those
+of the "most favoured nation," was arranged, as also an exchange of
+frontier strips near Luxemburg and Belfort. Germany acquired Elsass
+(Alsace) and part of Lorraine, free of all their debts.<br>
+<br>
+We may note here that the Anglo-French Treaty of Commerce arranged
+in 1860 with Napoleon largely by the aid of Cobden, was not renewed
+by the French Republic, which thereafter began to exclude British
+goods. Bismarck forced France at Frankfurt to concede favourable
+terms to German products. England was helpless. For this subject,
+see <i>Protection in France</i>, by H.O. Meredith (1905).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor66">[66]</a> Quoted
+by M. Hanotaux, <i>Contemporary France</i>, vol. i. pp.
+323-327.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor67">[67]</a> Speech
+of March 27, 1871.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor68">[68]</a> De
+Mazade, <i>Thiers</i>, p. 467. For a sharp criticism of Thiers, see
+Samuel Denis' <i>Histoire Contemperaine</i> (written from the
+royalist standpoint).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor69">[69]</a> On the
+strength of this instinct see Mr. Bodley's excellent work,
+<i>France</i>, vol. i. pp. 32-42. etc. For the Act, see Hanotaux
+<i>op. cit.</i> pp. 236-238.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor70">[70]</a>
+Hanotaux, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 452-465.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor71">[71]</a> Mr.
+Bodley, <i>France</i>, vol. i. <i>ad fin</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page129" id="page129"></a>[pg
+129]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+<h3>THE GERMAN EMPIRE</h3>
+<blockquote>"From the very beginning of my career my sole
+guiding-star has been how to unify Germany, and, that being
+achieved, how to strengthen, complete, and so constitute her
+unification that it may be preserved enduringly and with the
+goodwill of all concerned in it."--BISMARCK: Speech in the North
+German Reichstag, July 9, 1869.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>On the 18th of January 1871, while the German cannon were still
+thundering against Paris, a ceremony of world-wide import occurred
+in the Palace of the Kings of France at Versailles. King William of
+Prussia was proclaimed German Emperor. The scene lacked no element
+that could appeal to the historic imagination. It took place in the
+Mirror Hall, where all that was brilliant in the life of the old
+French monarchy used to encircle the person of Louis XIV. And now,
+long after that dynasty had passed away, and when the crown of the
+last of the Corsican adventurers had but recently fallen beneath
+the feet of the Parisians, the descendant of the Prussian
+Hohenzollerns celebrated the advent to the German people of that
+unity for which their patriots had vainly struggled for
+centuries.</p>
+<p>The men who had won this long-deferred boon were of no common
+stamp. King William himself, as is now shown by the publication of
+many of his letters to Bismarck, had played a far larger share in
+the making of a united Germany than was formerly believed. His
+plain good sense and unswerving fortitude had many times marked out
+the path of safety and kept <span class="pagenum"><a name="page130"
+id="page130"></a>[pg 130]</span> his country therein. The policy of
+the Army Bill of 1860, which brought salvation to Prussia in spite
+of her Parliament, was wholly his. Bismarck's masterful grip of the
+helm of State in and after 1862 helped to carry out that policy,
+just as von Roon's organising ability perfected the resulting
+military machine; but its prime author was the King, who now stood
+triumphant in the hall of his ancestral foes. Beside and behind him
+on the dais, in front of the colours of all the German States, were
+the chief princes of Germany--witnesses to the strength of the
+national sentiment which the wars against the First Napoleon had
+called forth, and the struggle with the nephew had now brought to
+maturity. Among their figures one might note the stalwart form of
+the Crown Prince, along with other members of the House of Prussia;
+the Grand Duke of Baden, son-in-law of the Prussian King; the Crown
+Prince of Saxony, and representatives of every reigning family of
+Germany. Still more remarkable were some of the men grouped before
+the King and princes. There was the thin war-worn face of Moltke;
+there, too, the sturdy figure of Bismarck: the latter, wrote Dr.
+Russell, "looking pale, but calm and self-possessed, elevated, as
+it were, by some internal force<a name="FNanchor72"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_72">[72]</a>."</p>
+<p>The King announced the re-establishment of the German Empire;
+and those around must have remembered that that venerable
+institution (which differed so widely from the present one that the
+word "re-establishment" was really misleading) had vanished but
+sixty-four years before at the behests of the First Napoleon. Next,
+Bismarck read the Kaiser's proclamation, stating his sense of duty
+to the German nation and his hope that, within new and stronger
+boundaries, which would guarantee them against attacks from France,
+they would enjoy peace and prosperity. The Grand Duke of Baden then
+called for three cheers for the Emperor, which were given with wild
+enthusiasm, and were taken up by the troops far round the iron ring
+that encircled Paris.</p>
+<p>Few events in history so much impress one, at first sight,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page131" id="page131"></a>[pg
+131]</span> with a sense of strength, spontaneity, and
+inevitableness. And yet, as more is known of the steps that led up
+to the closer union of the German States, that feeling is
+disagreeably warped. Even then it was known that Bavaria and
+W&uuml;rtemberg strongly objected to the closer form of union
+desired by the northern patriots, which would have reduced the
+secondary States to complete dependence on the federal Government.
+Owing to the great reluctance of the Bavarian Government and people
+to give up the control of their railways, posts and telegraphs,
+these were left at their disposal, the two other Southern States
+keeping the direction of the postal and telegraphic services in
+time of peace. Bavaria and W&uuml;rtemberg likewise reserved the
+control of their armed forces, though in case of war they were to
+be placed at the disposal of the Emperor--arrangements which also
+hold good for the Saxon forces. In certain legal and fiscal matters
+Bavaria also bargained for freedom of action.</p>
+<p>What was not known then, and has leaked out in more or less
+authentic ways, was the dislike, not only of most of the Bavarian
+people, but also of its Government, to the whole scheme of imperial
+union. It is certain that the letter which King Louis finally wrote
+to his brother princes to propose that union was originally drafted
+by Bismarck; and rumour asserts, on grounds not to be lightly
+dismissed, that the opposition of King Louis was not withdrawn
+until the Bavarian Court favourite, Count Holstein, came to
+Versailles and left it, not only with Bismarck's letter, but also
+with a considerable sum of money for his royal master and himself.
+Probably, however, the assent of the Bavarian monarch, who not many
+years after became insane, was helped by the knowledge that if he
+did not take the initiative, it would pass to the Grand Duke of
+Baden, an ardent champion of German unity.</p>
+<p>Whatever may be the truth as to this, there can be no doubt as
+to the annoyance felt by Roman Catholic Bavaria and Protestant
+democratic W&uuml;rtemberg at accepting the supremacy of the
+Prussian bureaucracy. This doubtless explains <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page132" id="page132"></a>[pg 132]</span> why
+Bismarck was so anxious to hurry through the negotiations, first,
+for the imperial union, and thereafter for the conclusion of peace
+with France.</p>
+<p>Even in a seemingly small matter he had met with much
+opposition, this time from his master. The aged monarch clung to
+the title King of Prussia; but if the title of Emperor was a
+political necessity, he preferred the title "Emperor of Germany";
+nevertheless, the Chancellor tactfully but firmly pointed out that
+this would imply a kind of feudal over-lordship of all German
+lands, and that the title "German Emperor", as that of chief of the
+nation, was far preferable. In the end the King yielded, but he
+retained a sore feeling against his trusted servant for some time
+on this matter. It seems that at one time he even thought of
+abdicating in favour of his son rather than "see the Prussian title
+supplanted<a name="FNanchor73"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_73">[73]</a>." However, he soon showed his gratitude for
+the immense services rendered by Bismarck to the Fatherland. On his
+next birthday (March 22) he raised the Chancellor to the rank of
+Prince and appointed him Chancellor of the Empire.</p>
+<p>It will be well to give here an outline of the Imperial
+Constitution. In all essentials it was an extension, with few
+changes, of the North German federal compact of the year 1866. It
+applied to the twenty-five States of Germany--inclusive, that is,
+of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck, but exclusive, for the present, of
+Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine). In those areas imperial law
+takes precedence of local law (save in a few specially reserved
+cases for Bavaria and the Free Cities). The same laws of
+citizenship hold good in all parts of the Empire. The Empire
+controls these laws, the issuing of passports, surveillance of
+foreigners and of manufactures, likewise matters relating to
+emigration and colonisation. Commerce, customs dues, weights and
+measures, coinage, banking regulations, patents, the consular
+service abroad, and matters relating to navigation also fall under
+its control. Railways, posts and telegraphs (with the exceptions
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page133" id="page133"></a>[pg
+133]</span> noted above) are subject to imperial supervision, the
+importance of which during the war had been so abundantly
+manifested.</p>
+<p>The King of Prussia is <i>ipso facto</i> German Emperor. He
+represents the Empire among foreign nations; he has the right to
+declare war, conclude peace, and frame alliances; but the consent
+of the Federal Council (Bundesrath) is needed for the declaration
+of war in the name of the Empire. The Emperor convenes, adjourns,
+and closes the sessions of the Federal Council and the Imperial
+Diet (Reichstag). They are convened every year. The Chancellor of
+the Empire presides in the Federal Council and supervises the
+conduct of its business. Proposals of laws are laid before the
+Reichstag in accordance with the resolutions of the Federal
+Council, and are supported by members of that Council. To the
+Emperor belongs the right of preparing and publishing the laws of
+the Empire: they must be passed by the Bundesrath and Reichstag,
+and then receive the assent of the Kaiser. They are then
+countersigned by the Chancellor, who thereby becomes responsible
+for their due execution.</p>
+<p>The members of the Bundesrath are appointed by the Federal
+Governments: they are sixty-two in number, and now include those
+from the Reichstand of Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine)<a name=
+"FNanchor74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74">[74]</a></p>
+<p>The Prussian Government nominates seventeen members; Bavaria
+six; Saxony and W&uuml;rtemburg and Alsace-Lorraine four each; and
+so on. The Bundesrath is presided over by the Imperial Chancellor.
+At the beginning of each yearly session it appoints eleven standing
+committees to deal with the following matters: (1) Army and
+fortifications; (2) the Navy; (3) tariff, excise, and taxes; (4)
+commerce and trade; (5) railways, posts and telegraphs; (6) civil
+and criminal law; (7) financial <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page134" id="page134"></a>[pg 134]</span> accounts; (8) foreign
+affairs; (9) Alsace-Lorraine; (10) the Imperial Constitution; (11)
+Standing Orders. Each committee is presided over by a chairman. In
+each committee at least four States of the Empire must be
+represented, and each State is entitled only to one vote. To this
+rule there are two modifications in the case of the committees on
+the army and on foreign affairs. In the former of these Bavaria has
+a permanent seat, while the Emperor appoints the other three
+members from as many States: in the latter case, Prussia, Bavaria,
+Saxony, and W&uuml;rtemberg only are represented. The Bundesrath
+takes action on the measures to be proposed to the Reichstag and
+the resolutions passed by that body; it also supervises the
+execution of laws, and may point out any defects in the laws or in
+their execution.</p>
+<p>The members of the Reichstag, or Diet, are elected by universal
+(more properly <i>manhood</i>) suffrage and by direct secret
+ballot, in proportion to the population of the several
+States<a name="FNanchor75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75">[75]</a>. On
+the average, each of the 397 members represents rather more than
+100,000 of the population. The proceedings of the Reichstag are
+public; it has the right (concurrently with those wielded by the
+Emperor and the Bundesrath) to propose laws for the Empire. It sits
+for three years, but may be dissolved by a resolution of the
+Bundesrath, with the consent of the Emperor. Deputies may not be
+bound by orders and instructions issued by their constituents. They
+are not paid.</p>
+<p>As has been noted above, important matters such as railway
+management, so far as it relates to the harmonious and effective
+working of the existing systems, and the construction of new lines
+needful for the welfare and the defence of Germany, are under the
+Control of the Empire--except in the case of Bavaria. The same
+holds good of posts and telegraphs except in the Southern States.
+Railway companies are bound to convey troops and warlike stores at
+uniform reduced rates. In fact, the Imperial Government controls
+the fares of all lines <span class="pagenum"><a name="page135" id=
+"page135"></a>[pg 135]</span> subject to its supervision, and has
+ordered the reduction of freightage for coal, coke, minerals, wood,
+stone, manure, etc., for long distances, "as demanded by the
+interests of agriculture and industry." In case of dearth, the
+railway companies can be compelled to forward food supplies at
+specially low rates.</p>
+<p>Further, with respect to military affairs, the central authority
+exercises a very large measure of control over the federated
+States. All German troops swear the oath of allegiance to the
+Emperor. He appoints all commanders of fortresses; the power of
+building fortresses within the Empire is also vested in him; he
+determines the strength of the contingents of the federated States,
+and in the last case may appoint their commanding officers; he may
+even proclaim martial law in any portion of the Empire, if public
+security demands it. The Prussian military code applies to all
+parts of the Empire (save to Bavaria, W&uuml;rtemberg, and Saxony
+in time of peace); and the military organisation is everywhere of
+the same general description, especially as regards length of
+service, character of the drill, and organisation in corps and
+regiments. Every German, unless physically unfit, is subject to
+military duty and cannot shift the burden on a substitute. He must
+serve for seven years in the standing army: that is, three years in
+the field army and four in the reserve; thereafter he takes his
+place in the Landwehr<a name="FNanchor76"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_76">[76]</a>.</p>
+<p>The secondary States are protected in one important respect. The
+last proviso of the Imperial Constitution stipulates that any
+proposal to modify it shall fail if fourteen, or more, votes are
+cast against it in the Federal Council. This implies that Bavaria,
+W&uuml;rtemberg, and Saxony, if they vote together, can prevent any
+change detrimental to their interests. On the whole, the new system
+is less centralised than that of the North German Confederation had
+been; and many of the Prussian <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page136" id="page136"></a>[pg 136]</span> Liberals, with whom the
+Crown Prince of Prussia very decidedly ranged himself on this
+question, complained that the government was more federal than
+ever, and that far too much had been granted to the particularist
+prejudices of the Southern States<a name="FNanchor77"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_77">[77]</a>. To all these objections Bismarck could
+unanswerably reply that it was far better to gain this great end
+without bitterness, even if the resulting compact were in some
+respects faulty, than to force on the Southern States a more
+logically perfect system that would perpetuate the sore feeling of
+the past.</p>
+<p>Such in its main outlines is the new Constitution of Germany. On
+the whole, it has worked well. That it has fulfilled all the
+expectations aroused in that year of triumph and jubilation will
+surprise no one who knows that absolute and lasting success is
+attained only in Utopias, never in practical politics. In truth,
+the suddenness with which German unity was finally achieved was in
+itself a danger.</p>
+<p>The English reader will perhaps find it hard to realise this
+until he remembers that the whole course of recorded history shows
+us the Germans politically disunited, or for the most part engaged
+in fratricidal strifes. When they first came within the ken of the
+historians of Ancient Rome, they were a set of warring tribes who
+banded together only under the pressure of overwhelming danger; and
+such was to be their fate for well-nigh two thousand years. Their
+union under the vigorous rule of the great Frankish chief whom the
+French call Charlemagne, was at best nominal and partial. The Holy
+Roman Empire, which he founded in the year 800 by a mystically
+vague compact with the Pope, was never a close bond of union, even
+in his stern and able hands. Under his weak successors that
+imposing league rarely promoted peace among its peoples, while the
+splendour of its chief elective dignity not seldom conduced to war.
+Next, feudalism came in as a strong political solvent, and thus for
+centuries Germany crumbled and mouldered away, until disunion
+seemed to be the fate of her richest lands, and particularism
+became a rooted instinct of her princes, burghers, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page137" id="page137"></a>[pg 137]</span> and
+peasants. Then again South was arrayed against North during and
+long after the time of the Reformation; when the strife of creeds
+was stayed, the rivalry of the Houses of Hapsburg and Hohenzollern
+added another cause of hatred.</p>
+<p>As a matter of fact, it was reserved for the two Napoleons,
+uncle and nephew, to force those divided peoples to comradeship in
+arms. The close of the campaign of 1813 and that of 1814 saw North
+and South, Prussians and Austrians, for the first time fighting
+heartily shoulder to shoulder in a great war--for that of 1792-94
+had only served to show their rooted suspicion and inner hostility.
+Owing to reasons that cannot be stated here, the peace of 1814-15
+led up to no effective union: it even perpetuated the old dualism
+of interests. But once more the hostility of France under a
+Napoleon strengthened the impulse to German consolidation, and on
+this occasion there was at hand a man who had carefully prepared
+the way for an abiding form of political union; his diplomatic
+campaign of the last seven years had secured Russia's friendship
+and consequently Austria's reluctant neutrality; as for the dislike
+of the Southern States to unite with the North, that feeling waned
+for a few weeks amidst the enthusiasm caused by the German
+triumphs. The opportunity was unexampled: it had not occurred even
+in 1814; it might never occur again; and it was certain to pass
+away when the war fever passed by. How wise, then, to strike while
+the iron was hot! The smaller details of the welding process were
+infinitely less important than the welding itself.</p>
+<p>One last consideration remains. If the opportunity was
+unexampled, so also were the statesmanlike qualities of the man who
+seized it. The more that we know concerning the narrowly Prussian
+feelings of King William, the centralising pedantry of the Crown
+Prince of Prussia, and the petty particularism of the Governments
+of Bavaria and W&uuml;rtemberg, the more does the figure of
+Bismarck stand out as that of the one great statesman of his
+country and era. However censurable much of his conduct may be, his
+action in working up to and finally consummating German unity at
+the right <span class="pagenum"><a name="page138" id=
+"page138"></a>[pg 138]</span> psychological moment stands out as
+one of the greatest feats of statesmanship which history
+records.</p>
+<p>But obviously a wedded life which had been preceded by no
+wooing, over whose nuptials Mars shed more influence than Venus,
+could not be expected to run a wholly smooth course. In fact, this
+latest instance in ethnical lore of marriage by capture has on the
+whole led to a more harmonious result than was to be expected.
+Possibly, if we could lift the veil of secrecy which is wisely kept
+drawn over the weightiest proceedings of the Bundesrath and its
+committees, the scene would appear somewhat different. As it is, we
+can refer here only to some questions of outstanding importance the
+details of which are fairly well known.</p>
+<p>The first of these which subjected the new Empire to any serious
+strain was a sharp religious struggle against the new claims of the
+Roman Catholic hierarchy. Without detailing the many causes of
+friction that sprang up between the new Empire and the Roman
+Catholic Church, we may state that most of them had their roots in
+the activity shown by that Church among the Poles of Prussian
+Poland (Posen), and also in the dogma of Papal infallibility.
+Decreed by the Oecumenical Council at Rome on the very eve of the
+outbreak of the Franco-German War, it seemed to be part and parcel
+of that forward Jesuit policy which was working for the overthrow
+of the chief Protestant States. Many persons--among them
+Bismarck<a name="FNanchor78"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_78">[78]</a>--claimed that the Empress Eug&eacute;nie's
+hatred of Prussia and the warlike influence which she is said to
+have exerted on Napoleon III. on that critical day, July 14, 1870,
+were prompted by Jesuitical intrigues. However that may be (and it
+is a matter on which no fair-minded man will dogmatise until her
+confidential papers see the light) there is little doubt that the
+Pope at Rome and the Roman hierarchy among the Catholics of Central
+and Eastern Europe did their best to <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page139" id="page139"></a>[pg 139]</span> prevent German unity and
+to introduce elements of discord. The dogma of the infallibility of
+the Pope in matters of faith and doctrine was itself a cause of
+strife. Many of the more learned and moderate of the German
+Catholics had protested against the new dogma, and some of these
+"Old Catholics", as they were called, tried to avoid teaching it in
+the Universities and schools. Their bishops, however, insisted that
+it should be taught, placed some recalcitrants under the lesser
+ban, and deprived them of their posts.</p>
+<p>When these high-handed proceedings were extended even to the
+schools, the Prussian Government intervened, and early in 1872
+passed a law ordaining that all school inspectors should be
+appointed by the King's Government at Berlin. This greatly
+irritated the Roman Catholic hierarchy and led up to aggressive
+acts on both sides, the German Reichstag taking up the matter and
+decreeing the exclusion of the Jesuits from all priestly and
+scholastic duties of whatever kind within the Empire (July 1872).
+The strife waxed ever fiercer. When the Roman Catholic bishops of
+Germany persisted in depriving "Old Catholics" of professorial and
+other charges, the central Government retorted by the famous "May
+Laws" of 1873. The first of these forbade the Roman Catholic Church
+to intervene in civil affairs in any way, or to coerce officials
+and citizens of the Empire. The second required of all ministers of
+religion that they should have passed the final examination at a
+High School, and also should have studied theology for three years
+at a German University: it further subjected all seminaries to
+State inspection. The third accorded fuller legal protection to
+dissidents from the various creeds.</p>
+<p>This anti-clerical policy is known as the "Kultur-Kampf", a term
+that denotes a struggle for civilisation against the forces of
+reaction. For some years the strife was of the sharpest kind. The
+Roman Catholic bishops continued to ban the "Old Catholics", while
+the State refused to recognise any act of marriage or christening
+performed by clerics who disobeyed the new laws. The logical sequel
+to this was obvious, namely, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page140" id="page140"></a>[pg 140]</span> that the State should
+insist on the religious ceremony of marriage being supplemented by
+a civil contract<a name="FNanchor79"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_79">[79]</a>. Acts to render this compulsory were first
+passed by the Prussian Landtag late in 1873 and by the German
+Reichstag in 1875.</p>
+<p>It would be alike needless and tedious to detail the further
+stages of this bitter controversy, especially as several of the
+later "May Laws" have been repealed. We may, however, note its
+significance in the development of parties. Many of the Prussian
+nobles and squires (Junkers the latter were called) joined issue
+with Bismarck on the Civil Marriage Act, and this schism weakened
+Bismarck's long alliance with the Conservative party. He enjoyed,
+however, the enthusiastic support of the powerful National Liberal
+party, as well as the Imperialist and Progressive groups. Differing
+on many points of detail, these parties aimed at strengthening the
+fabric of the central power, and it was with their aid in the
+Reichstag that the new institutions of Germany were planted and
+took root. The General Election of 1874 sent up as many as 155
+National Liberals, and they, with the other groups just named, gave
+the Government a force of 240 votes--a good working majority as
+long as Bismarck's aims were of a moderately Liberal character.
+This, however, was not always the case even in 1874-79, when he
+needed their alliance. His demand for a permanently large military
+establishment alienated his allies in 1874, and they found it hard
+to satisfy the requirements of his exacting and rigorous
+nature.</p>
+<p>The harshness of the "May Laws" also caused endless friction.
+Out of some 10,000 Roman Catholic priests in Prussia (to which
+kingdom alone the severest of these laws applied) only about thirty
+bowed the knee to the State. In 800 parishes the strife went so far
+that all religious services came to an end. In the year 1875, fines
+amounting to 28,000 marks (&pound;2800) were imposed, and 103
+clerics or their supporters were expelled from the Empire<a name=
+"FNanchor80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80">[80]</a>. Clearly this
+state of things <span class="pagenum"><a name="page141" id=
+"page141"></a>[pg 141]</span> could not continue without grave
+danger to the Empire; for the Church held on her way with her usual
+doggedness, strengthened by the "protesting" deputies from the
+Reichsland on the south-west, from Hanover (where the Guelph
+feeling was still uppermost), as well as those from Polish Posen
+and Danish Schleswig. Bismarck and the anti-clerical majority of
+the Reichstag scorned any thoughts of surrender. Yet, slowly but
+surely, events at the Vatican and in Germany alike made for
+compromise. In February 1878, Pope Pius IX. passed away. That
+unfortunate pontiff had never ceased to work against the interests
+of Prussia and Germany, while his encyclicals since 1873 mingled
+threats of defiance of the May Laws with insults against Prince
+Bismarck. His successor, Leo XIII. (1878-1903), showed rather more
+disposition to come to a compromise, and that, too, at a time when
+Bismarck's new commercial policy made the support of the Clerical
+Centre in the Reichstag peculiarly acceptable.</p>
+<p>Bismarck's resolve to give up the system of Free Trade, or
+rather of light customs dues, adopted by Prussia and the German
+Zollverein in 1865, is so momentous a fact in the economic history
+of the modern world, that we must here give a few facts which will
+enable the reader to understand the conditions attending German
+commerce up to the years 1878-79, when the great change came. The
+old order of things in Prussia, as in all German States, was
+strongly protective--in fact, to such an extent as often to prevent
+the passing of the necessaries of life from one little State to its
+Lilliputian neighbours. The rise of the national idea in Germany
+during the wars against the great Napoleon led to a more
+enlightened system, especially for Prussia. The Prussian law of
+1818 asserted the principle of imposing customs dues for revenue
+purposes, but taxed foreign products to a moderate extent. On
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page142" id="page142"></a>[pg
+142]</span> this basis she induced neighbouring small German States
+to join her in a Customs Union (Zollverein), which gradually
+extended, until by 1836 it included all the States of the present
+Empire except the two Mecklenburgs, the Elbe Duchies, and the three
+Free Cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and L&uuml;beck. That is to say,
+the attractive force of the highly developed Prussian State
+practically unified Germany for purposes of trade and commerce, and
+that, too, thirty-eight years before political union was
+achieved.</p>
+<p>This, be it observed, was on condition of internal Free Trade,
+but of moderate duties being levied on foreign products. Up to 1840
+these import duties were on the whole reduced; after that date a
+protectionist reaction set in; it was checked, however, by the
+strong wave of Free Trade feeling which swept over Europe after the
+victory of that principle in England in 1846-49. Of the new
+champions of Free Trade on the Continent, the foremost in point of
+time was Cavour, for that kingdom of Sardinia on which he built the
+foundations of a regenerated and united Italy. Far more important,
+however, was the victory which Cobden won in 1859-60 by inducing
+Napoleon III. to depart from the almost prohibitive system then in
+vogue in France. The Anglo-French Commercial Treaty of January 1860
+seemed to betoken the speedy conversion of the world to the
+enlightened policy of unfettered exchange of all its products. In
+1862 and 1865 the German Zollverein followed suit, relaxing duties
+on imported articles and manufactured goods--a process which was
+continued in its commercial treaties and tariff changes of the
+years 1868 and 1869.</p>
+<p>At this time Bismarck's opinions on fiscal matters were somewhat
+vague. He afterwards declared that he held Free Trade to be
+altogether false. But in this as in other matters he certainly let
+his convictions be shaped by expediency. Just before the conclusion
+of peace with France he so far approximated to Free Trade as to
+insist that the Franco-German Commercial Treaty of 1862, which the
+war had of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page143" id=
+"page143"></a>[pg 143]</span> course abrogated--- war puts an end
+to all treaties between the States directly engaged--should now be
+again regarded as in force and as holding good up to the year
+1887<a name="FNanchor81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81">[81]</a>. He
+even stated that he "would rather begin again the war of
+cannon-balls than expose himself to a war of tariffs." France and
+Germany, therefore, agreed to place one another permanently on "the
+most favoured nation" footing. Yet this same man, who so much
+desired to keep down the Franco-German tariff, was destined eight
+years later to initiate a protectionist policy which set back the
+cause of Free Trade for at least a generation.</p>
+<p>What brought about this momentous change? To answer this fully
+would take up a long chapter. We can only glance at the chief
+forces then at work. Firstly, Germany, after the year 1873, passed
+through a severe and prolonged economic crisis. It was largely due
+to the fever of speculation induced by the incoming of the French
+milliards into a land where gold had been none too plentiful.
+Despite the efforts of the German Government to hold back a large
+part of the war indemnity for purposes of military defence and
+substantial enterprises, the people imagined themselves to be
+suddenly rich. Prices rapidly rose, extravagant habits spread in
+all directions, and in the years 1872-73 company-promoting attained
+to the rank of a fine art, with the result that sober, hard-working
+Germany seemed to be almost another England at the time of the
+South Sea Bubble. Alluding to this time, Busch said to Bismarck
+early in 1887: "In the long-run the [French] milliards were no
+blessing, at least not for our manufacturers, as they led to
+over-production. It was merely the bankers who benefited, and of
+these only the big ones<a name="FNanchor82"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_82">[82]</a>."</p>
+<p>The result happened that always happens when a nation mistakes
+money, the means of commercial exchange, for the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page144" id="page144"></a>[pg 144]</span>
+ultimate source of wealth. After a time of inflation came the
+inevitable collapse. The unsound companies went by the board; even
+sound ventures were in some cases overturned. How grievously public
+credit suffered may be seen by the later official admission, that
+liquidations and bankruptcies of public companies in the following
+ten years inflicted on shareholders a total loss of more than
+345,000,000 marks (&pound;17,250,000)<a name=
+"FNanchor83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83">[83]</a>.</p>
+<p>Now, it was in the years 1876-77, while the nation lay deep in
+the trough of economic depression, that the demand for "protection
+for home industries" grew loud and persistent. Whether it would not
+have been raised even if German finance and industry had held on
+its way in a straight course and on an even keel, cannot of course
+be determined, for the protectionist movement had been growing
+since the year 1872, owing to the propaganda of the "Verein
+f&uuml;r Sozialpolitik" (Union for Social Politics) founded in that
+year. But it is safe to say that the collapse of speculation due to
+inflowing of the French milliards greatly strengthened the forces
+of economic reaction.</p>
+<p>Bismarck himself put it in this way: that the introduction of
+Free Trade in 1865 soon produced a state of atrophy in Germany;
+this was checked for a time by the French war indemnity; but
+Germany needed a permanent cure, namely, Protection. It is true
+that his ideal of national life had always been strict and
+narrow--in fact, that of the average German official; but we may
+doubt whether he had in view solely the shelter of the presumedly
+tender flora of German industry from the supposed deadly blasts of
+British, Austrian, and Russian competition. He certainly hoped to
+strengthen the fabric of his Empire by extending the customs system
+and making its revenue depend more largely on that source and less
+on the contributions of the federated States. But there was
+probably a still wider consideration. He doubtless wished to bring
+prominently before the public gaze another great subject that would
+distract it <span class="pagenum"><a name="page145" id=
+"page145"></a>[pg 145]</span> from the religious feuds described
+above and bring about a rearrangement of political parties. The
+British people has good reason to know that the discussion of
+fiscal questions that vitally touch every trade and every consumer,
+does act like the turning of a kaleidoscope upon party groupings;
+and we may fairly well assume that so far-seeing a statesman as
+Bismarck must have forecast the course of events.</p>
+<p>Reasons of statecraft also warned him to build up the Empire
+four-square while yet there was time. The rapid recovery of France,
+whose milliards had proved somewhat of a "Greek gift" to Germany,
+had led to threats on the part of the war party at Berlin, which
+brought from Queen Victoria, as also from the Czar Alexander,
+private but pressing intimations to Kaiser Wilhelm that no war of
+extermination must take place. This affair and its results in
+Germany's foreign policy will occupy us in Chapter XII. Here we may
+note that Bismarck saw in it a reason for suspecting Russia, hating
+England, and jealously watching every movement in France. Germany's
+future, it seemed, would have to be safeguarded by all the
+peaceable means available. How natural, then, to tone down her
+internal religious strifes by bringing forward another topic of
+still more absorbing interest, and to aim at building up a
+self-contained commercial life in the midst of uncertain, or
+possibly hostile, neighbours. In truth, if we view the question in
+its broad issues in the life of nations, we must grant that Free
+Trade could scarcely be expected to thrive amidst the jealousies
+and fears entailed by the war of 1870. That principle presupposes
+trust and good-will between nations; whereas the wars of 1859,
+1864, and 1870 left behind bitter memories and rankling ills.
+Viewed in this light, Germany's abandonment of Free Trade in 1878
+was but the natural result of that forceful policy by which she had
+cut the Gordian knot of her national problem.</p>
+<p>The economic change was decided on in the year 1879, when the
+federated States returned to "the time-honoured ways of 1823-65."
+Bismarck appealed to the Reichstag to <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page146" id="page146"></a>[pg 146]</span>
+preserve at least the German market to German industry. The chances
+of having a large export trade were on every ground precarious; but
+Germany could, at the worst, support herself. All interests were
+mollified by having moderate duties imposed to check imports. Small
+customs dues were placed on corn and other food supplies so as to
+please the agrarian party; imports of manufactured goods were taxed
+for the benefit of German industries, and even raw materials
+underwent small imposts. The Reichstag approved the change and on
+July 7 passed the Government's proposals by 217 to 117: the
+majority comprised the Conservatives, Clericals, the
+Alsace-Lorrainers, and a few National Liberals; while the bulk of
+the last-named, hitherto Bismarck's supporters on most topics,
+along with Radicals and Social Democrats, opposed it. The new
+tariff came into force on January 1, 1880.</p>
+<p>On the whole, much may be said in favour of the immediate
+results of the new policy. By the year 1885 the number of men
+employed in iron and steel works had increased by 35 per cent over
+the numbers of 1879; wages also had increased, and the returns of
+shipping and of the export trade showed a considerable rise. Of
+course, it is impossible to say whether this would not have
+happened in any case owing to the natural tendency to recovery from
+the deep depression of the years 1875-79. The duties on corn did
+not raise its price, which appears strange until we know that the
+foreign imports of corn were less than 8 per cent of the whole
+amount consumed. In 1885, therefore, Bismarck gave way to the
+demands of the agrarians that the corn duties should be raised
+still further, in order to make agriculture lucrative and to
+prevent the streaming of rural population to the towns. Again the
+docile Reichstag followed his lead. But, two years later, it seemed
+that the new corn duties had failed to check the fall of prices and
+keep landlords and farmers from ruin; once more, then, the duties
+were raised, being even doubled on certain food products. This time
+they undoubtedly had one important result, that of making the urban
+population, especially that of the great <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page147" id="page147"></a>[pg 147]</span>
+industrial centres, more and more hostile to the agrarians and to
+the Government which seemed to be legislating in their interests.
+From this time forward the Social Democrats began to be a power in
+the land.</p>
+<p>And yet, if we except the very important item of rent, which in
+Berlin presses with cruel weight on the labouring classes, the
+general trend of the prices of the necessaries of life in Germany
+has been downwards, in spite of all the protectionist duties. The
+evidence compiled in the British official Blue-book on "British and
+Foreign Trade and Industry" (1903. Cd. 1761, p. 226) yields the
+following results. By comparing the necessary expenditure on food
+of a workman's family of the same size and living under the same
+conditions, it appears that if we take that expenditure for the
+period 1897-1901 to represent the number 100 we have these
+results:--</p>
+<blockquote>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th>Period.</th>
+<th>Germany.</th>
+<th>United Kingdom.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1877-1881</td>
+<td align="center">112</td>
+<td align="center">140</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1882-1886</td>
+<td align="center">101</td>
+<td align="center">125</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1887-1891</td>
+<td align="center">103</td>
+<td align="center">106</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1892-1896</td>
+<td align="center">&nbsp;99</td>
+<td align="center">&nbsp;98</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1897-1901</td>
+<td align="center">100</td>
+<td align="center">100</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Thus the fall in the cost of living of a British working man's
+family has been 40 points, while that of the German working man
+shows a decline of only 12 points. It is, on the whole, surprising
+that there has not been more difference between the two
+countries<a name="FNanchor84"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_84">[84]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page148" id="page148"></a>[pg
+148]</span>
+<p>Before dealing with the new social problems that resulted, at
+least in part, from the new duties on food, we may point out that
+Bismarck and his successors at the German Chancellory have used the
+new tariff as a means of extorting better terms from the
+surrounding countries. The Iron Chancellor has always acted on the
+diplomatic principle <i>do ut des</i>--"I give that you may
+give"--with its still more cynical corollary--"Those who have
+nothing to give will get nothing." The new German tariff on
+agricultural products was stiffly applied against Austria for many
+years, to compel her to grant more favourable terms to German
+manufactured goods. For eleven years Austria-Hungary maintained
+their protective barriers; but in 1891 German persistence was
+rewarded in the form of a treaty by which the Dual Monarchy let in
+German goods on easier terms provided that the corn duties of the
+northern Power were relaxed. The fiscal strife with Russia was
+keener and longer, but had the same result (1894). Of a friendlier
+kind were the negotiations with Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland,
+which led to treaties with those States in 1891. It is needless to
+say that in each of these cases the lowering of the corn duties was
+sharply resisted by the German agrarians. We may here add that the
+Anglo-German commercial treaty which expired in 1903 has been
+extended for two years; and that Germany's other commercial
+treaties were at the same time continued.</p>
+<p>It is hazardous at present to venture on any definite judgment
+as to the measure of success attained by the German protectionist
+policy. Protectionists always point to the prosperity of Germany as
+the crowning proof of its efficacy. In one respect they are,
+perhaps, fully justified in so doing. The persistent pressure which
+Germany brought to bear on the even more protectionist systems of
+Russia and Austria undoubtedly induced those Powers to grant easier
+terms to German goods than they would have done had Germany lost
+her bargaining power by persisting in her former Free Trade
+tendencies. Her success in this matter is the best instance in
+recent economic <span class="pagenum"><a name="page149" id=
+"page149"></a>[pg 149]</span> history of the desirability of
+holding back something in reserve so as to be able to bargain
+effectively with a Power that keeps up hostile tariffs. In this
+jealously competitive age the State that has nothing more to offer
+is as badly off in economic negotiations as one that, in affairs of
+general policy, has no armaments wherewith to face a well-equipped
+foe. This consideration is of course scouted as heretical by
+orthodox economists; but it counts for much in the workaday world,
+where tariff wars and commercial treaty bargainings unfortunately
+still distract the energies of mankind.</p>
+<p>On the other hand, it would be risky to point to the internal
+prosperity of Germany and the vast growth of her exports as proofs
+of the soundness of protectionist theories. The marvellous growth
+of that prosperity is very largely due to the natural richness of a
+great part of the country, to the intelligence, energy, and
+foresight of her people and their rulers, and to the comparatively
+backward state of German industry and commerce up to the year 1870.
+Far on into the Nineteenth Century, Germany was suffering from the
+havoc wrought by the Napoleonic wars and still earlier struggles.
+Even after the year 1850, the political uncertainties of the time
+prevented her enjoying the prosperity that then visited England and
+France. Therefore, only since 1870 (or rather since 1877-78, when
+the results of the mad speculation of 1873 began to wear away) has
+she entered on the normal development of a modern industrial State;
+and he would be an eager partisan who would put down her prosperity
+mainly to the credit of the protectionist r&eacute;gime. In truth,
+no one can correctly gauge the value of the complex
+causes--economic, political, educational, scientific and
+engineering--that make for the prosperity of a vast industrial
+community. So closely are they intertwined in the nature of things,
+that dogmatic arguments laying stress on one of them alone must
+speedily be seen to be the merest juggling with facts and
+figures.</p>
+<p>As regards the wider influences exerted by Germany's new
+protective policy, we can here allude only to one; and that will
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page150" id="page150"></a>[pg
+150]</span> be treated more fully in the chapter dealing with the
+Partition of Africa. That policy gave a great stimulus to the
+colonial movement in Germany, and, through her, in all European
+States. As happened in the time of the old Mercantile System,
+Powers which limited their trade with their neighbours, felt an
+imperious need for absorbing new lands in the tropics to serve as
+close preserves for the mother-country. Other circumstances helped
+to impel Germany on the path of colonial expansion; but probably
+the most important, though the least obvious, was the recrudescence
+of that "Mercantilism" which Adam Smith had exploded. Thus, the
+triumph of the national principle in and after 1870 was
+consolidated by means which tended to segregate the human race in
+masses, regarding each other more or less as enemies or rivals,
+alike in the spheres of politics, commerce, and colonial
+expansion.</p>
+<p>We may conclude our brief survey of German constructive policy
+by glancing at the chief of the experiments which may be classed as
+akin to State Socialism.</p>
+<p>In 1882 the German Government introduced the Sickness Insurance
+Bill and the Accident Insurance Bill, but they were not passed till
+1884, and did not take effect till 1885. For the relief of sickness
+the Government relied on existing institutions organised for that
+object. This was very wise, seeing that the great difficulty is how
+to find out whether a man really is ill or is merely shamming
+illness. Obviously a local club can find that out far better than a
+great imperial agency can. The local club has every reason for
+looking sharply after doubtful cases as a State Insurance Fund
+cannot do. As regards sickness, then, the Imperial Government
+merely compelled all the labouring classes, with few exceptions, to
+belong to some sick fund. They were obliged to pay in a sum of not
+less than about fourpence in the pound of their weekly wages; and
+this payment of the workman has to be supplemented by half as much,
+paid by his employer--or rather, the employer pays the whole of the
+premium and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page151" id=
+"page151"></a>[pg 151]</span> deducts the share payable by the
+workman from his wages.</p>
+<p>Closely linked with this is the Accident Insurance Law. Here the
+brunt of the payment falls wholly on the employer. He alone pays
+the premiums for all his work-people; the amount varies according
+to (1) the man's wage, (2) the risk incidental to the employment.
+The latter is determined by the actuaries of the Government. If a
+man is injured (even if it be by his own carelessness) he receives
+payments during the first thirteen weeks from the ordinary Sick
+Fund. If his accident keeps him a prisoner any longer, he is paid
+from the Accident Fund of the employers of that particular trade,
+or from the Imperial Accident Fund. Here of course the chance of
+shamming increases, particularly if the man knows that he is being
+supported out of a general fund made up entirely by the employers'
+payments. The burden on the employers is certainly very heavy,
+seeing that for all kinds of accidents relief may be claimed; the
+only exception is in cases where the injury can be shown to be
+wilfully committed<a name="FNanchor85"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_85">[85]</a>. A British Blue-book issued on March 31,
+1905, shows that the enormous sum of &pound;5,372,150 was paid in
+Germany in the year 1902 as compensation to workmen for injuries
+sustained while at work.</p>
+<p>The burden of the employers does not end here. They have to bear
+their share of Old Age Insurance. This law was passed in 1889, at
+the close of the first year of the present Kaiser's reign. His
+father, the Emperor Frederick, during his brief reign had not
+favoured the principles of State Socialism; but the young Emperor
+William in November 1888 announced that he would further the work
+begun by <i>his grandfather</i>, and though the difficulties of
+insurance for old age were very great, yet, with God's help, they
+would prove not to be insuperable.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page152" id="page152"></a>[pg
+152]</span>
+<p>Certainly the effort was by far the greatest that had yet been
+made by any State. The young Emperor and his Chancellor sought to
+build up a fund whereby 12,000,000 of work-people might be guarded
+against the ills of a penniless old age. Their law provided for all
+workmen (even men in domestic service) whose yearly income did not
+exceed 2000 marks (&pound;100). Like the preceding laws, it was
+compulsory. Every youth who is physically and mentally sound, and
+who earns more than a minimum wage, must begin to put by a fixed
+proportion of that wage as soon as he completes his sixteenth year.
+His employer is also compelled to contribute the same amount for
+him. Mr. Dawson, in the work already referred to, gives some
+figures showing what the joint payment of employer and employed
+amount to on this score. If the workman earns &pound;15 a year
+(<i>i.e.</i> about 6s. a week), the sum of 3s. 3-1/2d. is put by
+for him yearly into the State Fund. If he earns &pound;36 a year,
+the joint annual payment will be 5s. 7-1/2d.; if he earns
+&pound;78, it will be 7s. a year, and so on. These payments are
+reckoned up in various classes, according to the amounts; and
+according to the total amount is the final annuity payable to the
+worker in the evening of his days. That evening is very slow in
+coming for the German worker. For old age merely, he cannot begin
+to draw his full pension until he has attained the ripe age of
+seventy-one years. Then he will draw the full amount. He may
+anticipate that if he be incapacitated; but in that case the
+pension will be on a lower scale, proportioned to the amounts paid
+in and the length of time of the payments.</p>
+<p>The details of the measure are so complex as to cause a good
+deal of friction and discontent. The calculation of the various
+payments alone employs an army of clerks: the need of safeguarding
+against personation and other kinds of fraud makes a great number
+of precautions necessary; and thus the whole system becomes tied up
+with red tape in a way that even the more patient workman of the
+Continent cannot endure.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page153" id="page153"></a>[pg
+153]</span>
+<p>In a large measure, then, the German Government has failed in
+its efforts to cure the industrial classes of their socialistic
+ideas. But its determination to attach them to the new German
+Empire, and to make that Empire the leading industrial State of the
+Continent, has had a complete triumph. So far as education,
+technical training, research, and enlightened laws can make a
+nation great, Germany is surely on the high road to national and
+industrial supremacy.</p>
+<p>It is a strange contrast that meets our eyes if we look back to
+the years before the advent of King William and Bismarck to power.
+In the dark days of the previous reign Germany was weak, divided,
+and helpless. In regard to political life and industry she was
+still almost in swaddling-clothes; and her struggles to escape from
+the irksome restraints of the old Confederation seemed likely to be
+as futile as they had been since the year 1815. But the advent of
+the King and his sturdy helper to power speedily changed the
+situation. The political problems were grappled with one by one,
+and were trenchantly solved. Union was won by Bismarck's diplomacy
+and Prussia's sword; and when the longed-for goal was reached in
+seven momentous years, the same qualities were brought to bear on
+the difficult task of consolidating that union. Those qualities
+were the courage and honesty of purpose that the House of
+Hohenzollern has always displayed since the days of the Great
+Elector; added to these were rarer gifts, namely, the width of
+view, the eagle foresight, the strength of will, the skill in the
+choice of means, that made up the imposing personality of Bismarck.
+It was with an eye to him, and to the astonishing triumphs wrought
+by his diplomacy over France, that a diplomatist thus summed up the
+results of the year 1870: "Europe has lost a mistress, but she has
+got a master."</p>
+<p>After the lapse of a generation that has been weighted with the
+cuirass of Militarism, we are able to appreciate the force of that
+remark. Equally true is it that the formation of the German Empire
+has not added to the culture and the inner <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page154" id="page154"></a>[pg 154]</span>
+happiness of the German people. The days of quiet culture and
+happiness are gone; and in their place has come a straining after
+ambitious aims which is a heavy drag even on the vitality of the
+Teutonic race. Still, whether for good or for evil, the unification
+of Germany must stand out as the greatest event in the history of
+the Nineteenth Century.</p>
+<br>
+<p>NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION</p>
+<p>The statement on page 135 that service in the German army is
+compulsory for seven years, three in the field army and four in the
+reserve, applies to the cavalry and artillery only. In the infantry
+the time of service is two years with the colours and five years in
+the reserve.</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor72">[72]</a> Quoted
+by C. Lowe, <i>Life of Bismarck</i>, vol. i. p. 615.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor73">[73]</a> E.
+Marcks, <i>Kaiser Wilhelm I.</i> (Leipzig, 1900), pp. 337-343.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor74">[74]</a> Up to
+1874 the government of Alsace-Lorraine was vested solely in the
+Emperor and Chancellor. In 1874 the conquered lands returned
+deputies to the Reichstag. In October 1879 they gained local
+representative institutions, but under the strict control of the
+Governor, Marshal von Manteuffel. This control has since been
+relaxed, the present administration being quasi-constitutional.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor75">[75]</a>
+Bismarck said in a speech to the Reichstag, on September 16, 1878:
+"I accepted universal suffrage, but with repugnance, as a Frankfurt
+tradition."</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor76">[76]</a> The
+three years are shortened to one year for those who have taken a
+high place in the Gymnasia (highest of the public schools); they
+feed and equip themselves and are termed "volunteers." Conscription
+is the rule on the coasts for service in the German Navy. For the
+text of the Imperial Constitution, see Lowe, <i>Life of
+Bismarck</i>, vol. ii. App. F.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor77">[77]</a> J.W.
+Headlam, <i>Bismarck</i>, p. 367.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor78">[78]</a> Busch,
+<i>Our Chancellor</i>, vol i. p. 139, where he quotes a
+conversation of Bismarck of Nov. 1883. On the Roman Catholic policy
+in Posen, see <i>ibid</i>. pp. 143-145.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor79">[79]</a> Lowe,
+<i>Life of Bismarck</i>, vol. ii. p. 336, note.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor80">[80]</a> Busch,
+<i>Our Chancellor</i>, vol. i. p. 122, quotes speeches of his hero
+to prove that Bismarck himself disliked this Civil Marriage Law.
+"From the political point of view I have convinced myself that the
+State . . . is constrained by the dictates of self-defence to enact
+this law in order to avert from a portion of His Majesty's subjects
+the evils with which they are menaced by the Bishops' rebellion
+against the laws and the State" (Speech of Jan. 17, 1873). In 1849
+he had opposed civil marriage.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor81">[81]</a> For
+that treaty, and Austria's desire in 1862 to enter the German
+Zollverein, see <i>The Diplomatic Reminiscences of Lord A.
+Loftus,</i> vol. ii. pp. 250-251.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor82">[82]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History,</i> by M. Busch,
+vol. iii. p. 161 (English edition).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor83">[83]</a> German
+State Paper of June 28, 1884, quoted by Dawson, <i>Bismarck and
+State Socialism</i>, App. B.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor84">[84]</a> In a
+recent work, <i>England and the English</i> (London, 1904), Dr.
+Carl Peters says: "Considering that wages in England average 20 per
+cent higher in England than in Germany, that the week has only 54
+working hours, and that all articles of food are cheaper, the
+fundamental conditions of prosperous home-life are all round more
+favourable in England than in Germany. And yet he [the British
+working-man] does not derive greater comfort from them, for the
+simple reason that a German labourer's wife is more economical and
+more industrious than the English wife."</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor85">[85]</a> For the
+account given above, as also that of the Old Age Insurance Law, I
+am indebted to Mr. Dawson's excellent little work, <i>Bismarck and
+State Socialism</i> (Swan Sonnenschein &amp; Co., 1890). See also
+the Appendix to <i>The German Empire of To-day</i>, by "Veritas"
+(1902).</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page155" id="page155"></a>[pg
+155]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+<h3>THE EASTERN QUESTION</h3>
+<blockquote>"Perhaps one fact which lies at the root of all the
+actions of the Turks, small and great, is that they are by nature
+nomads. . . . Hence it is that when the Turk retires from a country he
+leaves no more sign of himself than does a Tartar camp on the
+upland pastures where it has passed the summer."--<i>Turkey in
+Europe</i>, by "Odysseus."</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>The remark was once made that the Eastern Question was destined
+to perplex mankind up to the Day of Judgment. Certainly that
+problem is extraordinarily complex in its details. For a century
+and a half it has distracted the statesmen and philanthropists of
+Europe; for it concerns not only the ownership of lands of great
+intrinsic and strategic importance, but also the welfare of many
+peoples. It is a question, therefore, which no intelligent man
+ought to overlook.</p>
+<p>For the benefit of the tiresome person who insists on having a
+definition of every term, the Eastern Question may be briefly
+described as the problem of finding a <i>modus vivendi</i> between
+the Turks and their Christian subjects and the neighbouring States.
+This may serve as a general working statement. No one who is
+acquainted with the rules of Logic will accept it as a definition.
+Definitions can properly apply only to terms and facts that have a
+clear outline; and they can therefore very rarely apply to the
+facts of history, which are of necessity as many-sided as human
+life itself. The statement given above is incomplete, inasmuch as
+it neither hints at the great difficulty of reconciling the civic
+ideas of Christian and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page156" id=
+"page156"></a>[pg 156]</span> Turkish peoples, nor describes the
+political problems arising out of the decay of the Ottoman Power
+and the ambitions of its neighbours.</p>
+<p>It will be well briefly to see what are the difficulties that
+arise out of the presence of Christians under the rule of a great
+Moslem State. They are chiefly these. First, the Koran, though far
+from enjoining persecution of Christians, yet distinctly asserts
+the superiority of the true believer and the inferiority of "the
+people of the book" (Christians). The latter therefore are excluded
+from participation in public affairs, and in practice are refused a
+hearing in the law courts. Consequently they tend to sink to the
+position of hewers of wood and drawers of water to the Moslems,
+these on their side inevitably developing the defects of an
+exclusive dominant caste. This is so especially with the Turks.
+They are one of the least gifted of the Mongolian family of
+nations; brave in war and patient under suffering and reverses,
+they nevertheless are hopelessly narrow-minded and bigoted; and the
+Christians in their midst have fared perhaps worse than anywhere
+else among the Mohammedan peoples.</p>
+<p>M. de Lavelaye, who studied the condition of things in Turkey
+not long after the war of 1877-78, thus summed up the causes of the
+social and political decline of the Turks:--</p>
+<p>The true Mussulman loves neither progress, novelty, nor
+education; the Koran is enough for him. He is satisfied with his
+lot, therefore cares little for its improvement, somewhat like a
+Catholic monk; but at the same time he hates and despises the
+Christian <i>raya</i>, who is the labourer. He pitilessly despoils,
+fleeces, and ill-treats him to the extent of completely ruining and
+destroying those families, which are the only ones who cultivate
+the ground; it was a state of war continued in time of peace, and
+transformed into a regime of permanent spoliation and murder. The
+wife, even when she is the only one, is always an inferior being, a
+kind of slave, destitute of any intellectual culture; and as it is
+she who trains the children--boys and girls--the bad results are
+plainly seen.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page157" id="page157"></a>[pg
+157]</span>
+<p>Matters were not always and in all parts of Turkey so bad as
+this; but they frequently became so under cruel or corrupt
+governors, or in times when Moslem fanaticism ran riot. In truth,
+the underlying cause of Turkey's troubles is the ignorance and
+fanaticism of her people. These evils result largely from the utter
+absorption of all devout Moslems in their creed and ritual. Texts
+from the Koran guide their conduct; and all else is decided by
+fatalism, which is very often a mere excuse for doing
+nothing<a name="FNanchor86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86">[86]</a>.
+Consequently all movements for reform are mere ripples on the
+surface of Turkish life; they never touch its dull depths; and the
+Sultan and officials, knowing this, cling to the old ways with full
+confidence. The protests of Christian nations on behalf of their
+co-religionists are therefore met with a polite compliance which
+means nothing. Time after time the Sublime Porte has most solemnly
+promised to grant religious liberty to its Christian subjects; but
+the promises were but empty air, and those who made them knew it.
+In fact, the firmans of reform now and again issued with so much
+ostentation have never been looked on by good Moslems as binding,
+because the chief spiritual functionary, the Sheikh-ul-Islam, whose
+assent is needed to give validity to laws, has withheld it from
+those very ordinances. As he has power to depose the Sultan for a
+lapse of orthodoxy, the result may be imagined. The many attempts
+of the Christian Powers to enforce their notions of religious
+toleration on the Porte have in the end merely led to further
+displays of Oriental politeness.</p>
+<p>It may be asked: Why have not the Christians of Turkey united in
+order to gain civic rights? The answer is that they are profoundly
+divided in race and sentiment. In the north-east are the
+Roumanians, a Romano-Slavonic race long ago Latinised in speech and
+habit of mind by contact with Roman <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page158" id="page158"></a>[pg 158]</span> soldiers and settlers on
+the Lower Danube. South of that river there dwell the Bulgars, who,
+strictly speaking, are not Slavs but Mongolians. After long sojourn
+on the Volga they took to themselves the name of that river, lost
+their Tartar speech, and became Slav in sentiment and language.
+This change took place before the ninth century, when they migrated
+to the south and conquered the districts which they now inhabit.
+Their neighbours on the west, the Servians, are Slavs in every
+sense, and look back with pride to the time of the great Servian
+Kingdom, carved out by Stephen Dushan, which stretched southwards
+to the <i>&AElig;gean</i> and the Gulf of Corinth (about 1350).</p>
+<p>To the west of the present Kingdom of Servia dwell other
+Servians and Slavs, who have been partitioned and ground down by
+various conquerors and have kept fewer traditions than the Servians
+who won their freedom. But from this statement we must except the
+Montenegrins, who in their mountain fastnesses have ever defied the
+Turks. To the south of them is the large but little-known Province
+of Albania, inhabited by the descendants of the ancient Illyrians,
+with admixtures of Greeks in the south, Bulgarians in the east, and
+Servians in the north-east. Most of the Albanians forsook
+Christianity and are among the most fanatical and warlike upholders
+of Islam; but in their turbulent clan-life they often defy the
+authority of the Sultan, and uphold it only in order to keep their
+supremacy over the hated and despised Greeks and Bulgars on their
+outskirts. Last among the non-Turkish races of the Balkan Peninsula
+are a few Wallachs in Central Macedonia, and Greeks; these last
+inhabit Thessaly and the seaboard of Macedonia and of part of
+Roumelia. It is well said that Greek influence in the Balkans
+extends no further inland than that of the sea breezes.</p>
+<p>Such is the medley of races that complicates the Eastern
+Question. It may be said that Turkish rule in Europe survives owing
+to the racial divisions and jealousies of the Christians. The
+Sultan puts in force the old Roman motto, <i>Divide et impera</i>,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page159" id="page159"></a>[pg
+159]</span> and has hitherto done so, in the main, with success.
+That is the reason why Islam dominates Christianity in the
+south-east of Europe.</p>
+<p>This brief explanation will show what are the evils that affect
+Turkey as a whole and her Christian subjects in particular. They
+are due to the collision of two irreconcilable creeds and
+civilisations, the Christian and the Mohammedan. Both of them are
+gifted with vitality and propagandist power (witness the spread of
+the latter in Africa and Central Asia in our own day); and, while
+no comparison can be made between them on ideal grounds and in
+their ethical and civic results, it still remains true that Islam
+inspires its votaries with fanatical bravery in war. There is the
+weakness of the Christians of south-eastern Europe. Superior in all
+that makes for home life, civilisation, and civic excellence, they
+have in time past generally failed as soldiers when pitted against
+an equal number of Moslems. But the latter show no constructive
+powers in time of peace, and have very rarely assimilated the
+conquered races. Putting the matter baldly, we may say that it is a
+question of the survival of the fittest between beavers and bears.
+And in the Nineteenth Century the advantage has been increasingly
+with the former.</p>
+<p>These facts will appear if we take a brief glance at the salient
+features of the European history of Turkey. After capturing
+Constantinople, the capital of the old Eastern Empire, in the year
+1453, the Turks for a time rapidly extended their power over the
+neighbouring Christian States, Bulgaria, Servia, and Hungary. In
+the year 1683 they laid siege to Vienna; but after being beaten
+back from that city by the valiant Sobieski, King of Poland, they
+gradually lost ground. Little by little Hungary, Transylvania, the
+Crimea, and parts of the Ukraine (South Russia) were wrenched from
+their grasp; and the close of the eighteenth century saw their
+frontiers limited to the River Dniester and the Carpathians<a name=
+"FNanchor87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87">[87]</a>. Further losses
+were <span class="pagenum"><a name="page160" id="page160"></a>[pg
+160]</span> staved off only by the jealousies of the Great Powers.
+Joseph II. of Austria came near to effecting further conquests, but
+his schemes of partition fell through amidst the wholesale collapse
+of his too ambitious policy. Napoleon Bonaparte seized Egypt in
+1798, but was forced by Great Britain to give it back to Turkey
+(1801-2). In 1807-12 Alexander I. of Russia resumed the conquering
+march of the Czars southward, captured Bessarabia, and forced the
+Sultan to grant certain privileges to the Principalities of
+Moldavia and Wallachia. In 1815 the Servians revolted against
+Turkish rule: they had always remembered the days of their early
+fame, and in 1817 wrested from the Porte large rights of local
+self-government.</p>
+<p>Ten years later the intervention of England and France in favour
+of the Greek patriots led to the battle of Navarino, which
+destroyed the Turco-Egyptian fleet and practically secured the
+independence of Greece. An even worse blow was dealt by the Czar
+Nicholas I. of Russia. In 1829, at the close of a war in which his
+troops drove the Turks over the Balkans and away from Adrianople,
+he compelled the Porte to sign a peace at that city, whereby they
+acknowledged the almost complete independence of Moldavia and
+Wallachia. These Danubian Principalities owned the suzerainty of
+the Sultan and paid him a yearly tribute, but in other respects
+were practically free from his control, while the Czar gained for
+the time the right of protecting the Christians of the Eastern, or
+Greek, Church in the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan also recognised the
+independence of Greece. Further troubles ensued which laid Turkey
+for a time at the feet of Russia. England and France, however,
+intervened to raise her up; and they also thwarted the efforts of
+Mehemet Ali, the rebellious Pacha of Egypt, to seize Syria from his
+nominal lord, the Sultan.</p>
+<p>Even this bare summary will serve to illustrate three
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page161" id="page161"></a>[pg
+161]</span> important facts: first, that Turkey never consolidated
+her triumph over the neighbouring Christians, simply because she
+could not assimilate them, alien as they were, in race, and in the
+enjoyment of a higher creed and civilisation; second, that the
+Christians gained more and more support from kindred peoples
+(especially the Russians) as these last developed their energies;
+third, that the liberating process was generally (though not in
+1827) delayed by the action of the Western Powers (England and
+France), which, on grounds of policy, sought to stop the
+aggrandisement of Austria, or Russia, by supporting the Sultan's
+authority.</p>
+<p>The policy of supporting the Sultan against the aggression of
+Russia reached its climax in the Crimean War (1854-55), which was
+due mainly to the efforts of the Czar Nicholas to extend his
+protection over the Greek Christians in Turkey. France, England,
+and later on the Kingdom of Sardinia made war on Russia--France,
+chiefly because her new ruler, Napoleon III., wished to play a
+great part in the world, and avenge the disasters of the Moscow
+campaign of 1812; England, because her Government and people
+resented the encroachments of Russia in the East, and sincerely
+believed that Turkey was about to become a civilised State; and
+Sardinia, because her statesman Cavour saw in this action a means
+of securing the alliance of the two western States in his projected
+campaign against Austria. The war closed with the Treaty of Paris,
+of 1856, whereby the signatory Powers formally admitted Turkey "to
+participate in the advantages of the public law and system of
+Europe."</p>
+<p>This, however, merely signified that the signatory Powers would
+resist encroachments on the territorial integrity of Turkey. It did
+not limit the rights of the Powers, as specified in various
+"Capitulations," to safeguard their own subjects residing in Turkey
+against Turkish misrule. The Sultan raised great hopes by issuing a
+firman granting religious liberty to his Christian subjects; this
+was inserted in the Treaty of Paris, and thereby became part of the
+public law of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page162" id=
+"page162"></a>[pg 162]</span> Europe. The Powers also became
+<i>collectively</i> the guarantors of the local privileges of the
+Danubian Principalities. Another article of the Treaty provided for
+the exclusion of war-ships from the Black Sea. This of course
+applied specially to Russia and Turkey<a name=
+"FNanchor88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88">[88]</a>.</p>
+<p>The chief diplomatic result of the Crimean War, then, was to
+substitute a European recognition of religious toleration in Turkey
+for the control over her subjects of the Greek Church which Russia
+had claimed. The Sublime Porte was now placed in a stronger
+position than it had held since the year 1770; and the due
+performance of its promises would probably have led to the building
+up of a strong State. But the promises proved to be mere
+waste-paper. The Sultan, believing that England and France would
+always take his part, let matters go on in the old bad way. The
+natural results came to pass. The Christians showed increasing
+restiveness under Turkish rule. In 1860 numbers of them were
+massacred in the Lebanon, and Napoleon III. occupied part of Syria
+with French troops. The vassal States in Europe also displayed
+increasing vitality, while that of Turkey waned. In 1861, largely
+owing to the diplomatic help of Napoleon III., Moldavia and
+Wallachia united and formed the Principality of Roumania. In 1862,
+after a short but terrible struggle, the Servians rid themselves of
+the Turkish garrisons and framed a constitution of the Western
+type. But the worst blow came in 1870. During the course of the
+Franco-German War the Czar's Government (with the good-will and
+perhaps the active connivance of the Court of Berlin) announced
+that it would no longer be bound by the article of the Treaty of
+Paris excluding Russian war-ships from the Black Sea. The Gladstone
+Ministry sent a protest against this act, but took no steps to
+enforce its protest. Our young diplomatist, Sir <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page163" id="page163"></a>[pg 163]</span> Horace
+Rumbold, then at St. Petersburg, believed that she would have drawn
+back at a threat of war<a name="FNanchor89"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_89">[89]</a>. Finally, the Russian declaration was
+agreed to by the Powers in a Treaty signed at London on March 31,
+1871.</p>
+<p>These warnings were all thrown away on the Porte. Its promises
+of toleration to Christians were ignored; the wheels of government
+clanked on in the traditional rusty way; governors of provinces and
+districts continued, as of yore, to pocket the grants that were
+made for local improvements; in defiance of the promises given in
+1856, taxes continued to be "farmed" out to contractors; the
+evidence of Christians against Moslems was persistently refused a
+hearing in courts of justice<a name="FNanchor90"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_90">[90]</a>; and the collectors of taxes gave further
+turns of the financial screw in order to wring from the
+cultivators, especially from the Christians, the means of
+satisfying the needs of the State and the ever-increasing
+extravagance of the Sultan. Incidents which were observed in Bosnia
+by an Oxford scholar of high repute, in the summer of 1875, will be
+found quoted in an Appendix at the end of this volume.</p>
+<p>Matters came to a climax in the autumn of 1875 in Herzegovina,
+the southern part of Bosnia. There after a bad harvest the farmers
+of taxes and the Mohammedan landlords insisted on having their full
+quota; for many years the peasants had suffered under agrarian
+wrongs, which cannot be described here; and now this long-suffering
+peasantry, mostly Christians, fled to the mountains, or into
+Montenegro, whose sturdy mountaineers had never bent beneath the
+Turkish yoke<a name="FNanchor91"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_91">[91]</a>. Thence they made forays against their
+oppressors until the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page164" id=
+"page164"></a>[pg 164]</span> whole of that part of the Balkans was
+aflame with the old religious and racial feuds. The Slavs of
+Servia, Bulgaria, and of Austrian Dalmatia also gave secret aid to
+their kith and kin in the struggle against their Moslem overlords.
+These peoples had been aroused by the sight of the triumph of the
+national cause in Italy, and felt that the time had come to strike
+for freedom in the Balkans. Turkey therefore failed to stamp out
+the revolt in Herzegovina, fed as it was by the neighbouring Slav
+peoples; and it was clear to all the politicians of Europe that the
+Eastern Question was entering once more on an acute phase.</p>
+<p>These events aroused varied feelings in the European States. The
+Russian people, being in the main of Slavonic descent, sympathised
+deeply with the struggles of their kith and kin, who were rendered
+doubly dear by their membership in the Greek Church. The
+Panslavonic Movement, for bringing the scattered branches of the
+Slav race into some form of political union, was already gaining
+ground in Russia; but it found little favour with the St.
+Petersburg Government owing to the revolutionary aims of its
+partisans. Sympathy with the revolt in the Balkans was therefore
+confined to nationalist enthusiasts in the towns of Russia. Austria
+was still more anxious to prevent the spread of the Balkan rising
+to the millions of her own Slavs. Accordingly, the Austrian
+Chancellor, Count Andrassy, in concert with Prince Bismarck and the
+Russian statesman, Prince Gortchakoff, began to prepare a scheme of
+reforms which was to be pressed on the Sultan as a means of
+conciliating the insurgents of Herzegovina. They comprised (1) the
+improvement of the lot of the peasantry; (2) complete religious
+liberty; (3) the abolition of the farming of taxes; (4) the
+application of the local taxation to local needs; (5) the
+appointment of a Commission, half of Moslems, half of Christians,
+to supervise the execution of these reforms and of others recently
+promised by the Porte<a name="FNanchor92"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_92">[92]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page165" id="page165"></a>[pg
+165]</span>
+<p>These proposals would probably have been sent to the Porte
+before the close of 1875 but for the diplomatic intervention of the
+British Cabinet. Affairs at London were then in the hands of that
+skilful and determined statesman, Disraeli, soon to become Lord
+Beaconsfield. It is impossible to discuss fully the causes of that
+bias in his nature which prejudiced him against supporting the
+Christians of Turkey. Those causes were due in part to the Semitic
+instincts of his Jewish ancestry,--the Jews having consistently
+received better treatment from the Turks than from the
+Russians,--and in part to his staunch Imperialism, which saw in
+Muscovite expansion the chief danger to British communications with
+India. Mr. Bryce has recently pointed out in a suggestive survey of
+Disraeli's character that tradition had great weight with
+him<a name="FNanchor93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93">[93]</a>. It is
+known to have been a potent influence on the mind of Queen
+Victoria; and, as the traditional policy at Whitehall was to
+support Turkey against Russia, all the personal leanings, which
+count for so much, told in favour of a continuance in the old
+lines, even though the circumstances had utterly changed since the
+time of the Crimean War.</p>
+<p>When, therefore, Disraeli became aware that pressure was about
+to be applied to the Porte by the three Powers above named, he
+warned them that he considered any such action to be inopportune,
+seeing that Turkey ought to be allowed time to carry out a
+programme of reforms of recent date. By an <i>irad&eacute;</i> of
+October 2, 1875, the Sultan had promised to <i>all</i> his
+Christian subjects a remission of taxation and the right of
+choosing not only the controllers of taxes, but also delegates to
+supervise their rights at Constantinople.</p>
+<p>In taking these promises seriously, Disraeli stood almost alone.
+But his speech of November 9, 1875, at the Lord Mayor's banquet,
+showed that he viewed the Eastern Question solely from the
+standpoint of British interests. His acts spoke even more forcibly
+than his words. That was the time when the dawn of Imperialism
+flushed all the eastern sky. H.R.H. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page166" id="page166"></a>[pg 166]</span> the Prince of Wales had
+just begun his Indian tour amidst splendid festivities at Bombay;
+and the repetition of these in the native States undoubtedly did
+much to awaken interest in our Eastern Empire and cement the
+loyalty of its Princes and peoples. Next, at the close of the month
+of November, came the news that the British Government had bought
+the shares in the Suez Canal, previously owned by the Khedive of
+Egypt, for the sum of &pound;4,500,000<a name=
+"FNanchor94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94">[94]</a>. The transaction
+is now acknowledged by every thinking man to have been a
+master-stroke of policy, justified on all grounds, financial and
+Imperial. In those days it met with sharp censure from Disraeli's
+opponents. In a sense this was natural; for it seemed to be part of
+a scheme for securing British influence in the Levant and riding
+roughshod over the susceptibilities of the French (the constructors
+of the canal) and the plans of Russia. Everything pointed to the
+beginning of a period of spirited foreign policy which would lead
+to war with Russia.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile the three Empires delayed the presentation of their
+scheme of reforms for Turkey, and, as it would seem, out of
+deference to British representations. The troubles in Herzegovina
+therefore went on unchecked through the winter, the insurgents
+refusing to pay any heed to the Sultan's promises, even though
+these were extended by the <i>irad&eacute;</i> of December 12,
+offering religious liberty and the institution of electoral bodies
+throughout the whole of European Turkey. The statesmen of the
+Continent were equally sceptical as to the <i>bona fides</i> of
+these offers, and on January 31, 1876, presented to the Porte their
+scheme of reforms already described. Disraeli and our Foreign
+Minister, Lord Derby, gave a cold and guarded assent to the
+"Andrassy Note," though they were known to regard it as
+"inopportune." To the surprise of the world, the Porte accepted the
+Note on February 11, with one reservation.</p>
+<p>This act of acceptance, however, failed to satisfy the
+insurgents. They decided to continue the struggle. Their
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page167" id="page167"></a>[pg
+167]</span> irreconcilable attitude doubtless arose from their
+knowledge of the worthlessness of Turkish promises when not backed
+by pressure from the Powers; and it should be observed that the
+"Note" gave no hint of any such pressure<a name=
+"FNanchor95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95">[95]</a>. But it was also
+prompted by the hope that Servia and Montenegro would soon draw the
+sword on their behalf--as indeed happened later on. Those warlike
+peoples longed to join in the struggle against their ancestral
+foes; and their rulers were nothing loth to do so. Servia was then
+ruled by Prince Milan (1868-89), of that House of Obrenovitch which
+has been extinguished by the cowardly murders of June 1903 at
+Belgrade. He had recently married Nathalie Kechko, a noble Russian
+lady, whose connections strengthened the hopes that he naturally
+entertained of armed Muscovite help in case of a war with Turkey.
+Prince Nikita of Montenegro had married his second daughter to a
+Russian Grand Duke, cousin of the Czar Alexander II., and therefore
+cherished the same hopes. It was clear that unless energetic steps
+were taken by the Powers to stop the spread of the conflagration it
+would soon wrap the whole of the Balkan Peninsula in flames. An
+outbreak of Moslem fanaticism at Salonica (May 6), which led to the
+murder of the French and German Consuls at that port, shed a lurid
+light on the whole situation and convinced the Continental Powers
+that sterner measures must be adopted towards the Porte.</p>
+<p>Such was the position, and such the considerations, that led the
+three Empires to adopt more drastic proposals. Having found,
+meanwhile, by informal conferences with the Herzegovinian leaders,
+what were the essentials to a lasting settlement, they prepared to
+embody them in a second Note, the Berlin Memorandum, issued on May
+13. It was drawn up by the three Imperial Chancellors at Berlin,
+but Andrassy is <span class="pagenum"><a name="page168" id=
+"page168"></a>[pg 168]</span> known to have given a somewhat
+doubtful consent. T his "Berlin Memorandum" demanded the adoption
+of an armistice for two months; the repatriation of the Bosnian
+exiles and fugitives; the establishment of a mixed Commission for
+that purpose; the removal of Turkish troops from the rural
+districts of Bosnia; the right of the Consuls of the European
+Powers to see to the carrying out of all the promised reforms.
+Lastly, the Memorandum stated that if within two months the three
+Imperial Courts did not attain the end they had in view (viz. the
+carrying out of the needed reforms), it would become necessary to
+take "efficacious measures" for that purpose<a name=
+"FNanchor96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96">[96]</a>. Bismarck is known
+to have favoured the policy of Gortchakoff in this affair.</p>
+<p>The proposals of the Memorandum were at once sent to the
+British, French, and Italian Governments for their assent. The two
+last immediately gave it. After a brief delay the Disraeli Ministry
+sent a decisive refusal and made no alternative proposal, though
+one of its members, Sir Stafford Northcote, is known to have
+formulated a scheme<a name="FNanchor97"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_97">[97]</a>. The Cabinet took a still more serious
+step: on May 24, it ordered the British fleet in the Mediterranean
+to steam to Besika Bay, near the entrance to the Dardanelles--the
+very position it had taken before the Crimean War<a name=
+"FNanchor98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98">[98]</a>. It is needless to
+say that this act not only broke up the "European Concert," but
+ended all hopes of compelling Turkey at once to grant the
+much-needed reforms. That compulsion would have been irresistible
+had the British fleet joined the Powers in preventing the landing
+of troops from Asia Minor in the Balkan Peninsula. As it was, the
+Turks could draw those reinforcements without hindrance.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page169" id="page169"></a>[pg
+169]</span>
+<p>The Berlin Memorandum was, of course, not presented to Turkey,
+and partly owing to the rapid changes which then took place at
+Constantinople. To these we must now advert.</p>
+<p>The Sultan, Abdul Aziz, during his fifteen years of rule had
+increasingly shown himself to be apathetic, wasteful, and
+indifferent to the claims of duty. In the month of April, when the
+State repudiated its debts, and officials and soldiers were left
+unpaid, his life of luxurious retirement went on unchanged. It has
+been reckoned that of the total Turkish debt of
+&pound;T200,000,000, as much as &pound;T53,000,000 was due to his
+private extravagance<a name="FNanchor99"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_99">[99]</a>. Discontent therefore became rife,
+especially among the fanatical bands of theological students at
+Constantinople. These Softas, as they are termed, numbering some
+20,000 or more, determined to breathe new life into the Porte--an
+aim which the patriotic "Young Turkey" party already had in view.
+On May 11 large bands of Softas surrounded the buildings of the
+Grand Vizier and the Sheik-ul-Islam, and with wild cries compelled
+them to give up their powers in favour of more determined men. On
+the night of May 29-30 they struck at the Sultan himself. The new
+Ministers were on their side: the Sheik-ul-Islam, the chief of the
+Ulemas, who interpret Mohammedan theology and law, now gave
+sentence that the Sultan might be dethroned for mis-government; and
+this was done without the least show of resistance. His nephew,
+Murad Effendi, was at once proclaimed Sultan as Murad V.; a few
+days later the dethroned Sultan was secretly murdered, though
+possibly his death may have been due to suicide<a name=
+"FNanchor100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100">[100]</a>.</p>
+<p>We may add here that Murad soon showed himself to be a friend to
+reform; and this, rather than any incapacity for ruling, was
+probably the cause of the second palace revolution, which led to
+his deposition on August 31. Thereupon his brother, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page170" id="page170"></a>[pg 170]</span> the
+present ruler, Abdul Hamid, ascended the throne. His appearance was
+thus described by one who saw him at his first State progress
+through his capital: "A somewhat heavy and stern countenance . . .
+narrow at the temples, with a long gloomy cast of features, large
+ears, and dingy complexion. . . . It seemed to me the countenance of a
+ruler capable of good or evil, but knowing his own mind and
+determined to have his own way<a name="FNanchor101"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_101">[101]</a>." This forecast has been fulfilled in the
+most sinister manner.</p>
+<p>If any persons believed in the official promise of June 1, that
+there should be "liberty for all" in the Turkish dominions, they
+might have been undeceived by the events that had just transpired
+to the south of the Balkan Mountains. The outbreak of Moslem
+fanaticism, which at Constantinople led to the dethronement of two
+Sultans in order to place on the throne a stern devotee, had
+already deluged with blood the Bulgarian districts near
+Philippopolis. In the first days of May, the Christians of those
+parts, angered by the increase of misrule and fired with hope by
+the example of the Herzegovinians, had been guilty of acts of
+insubordination; and at Tatar Bazardjik a few Turkish officials
+were killed. The movement was of no importance, as the Christians
+were nearly all unarmed. Nevertheless, the authorities poured into
+the disaffected districts some 18,000 regulars, along with hordes
+of irregulars, or Bashi-Bazouks; and these, especially the last,
+proceeded to glut their hatred and lust in a wild orgy which
+desolated the whole region with a thoroughness that the Huns of
+Attila could scarcely have excelled (May 9-16). In the upper valley
+of the Maritza out of eighty villages, all but fifteen were
+practically wiped out. Batak, a flourishing town of some 7000
+inhabitants, underwent a systematic massacre, culminating in the
+butchery of all who had taken refuge in the largest church; of the
+whole population only 2000 managed to escape<a name=
+"FNanchor102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102">[102]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page171" id="page171"></a>[pg
+171]</span>
+<p>It is painful to have to add that the British Government was
+indirectly responsible for these events. Not only had it let the
+Turks know that it deprecated the intervention of the European
+Powers in Turkey (which was equivalent to giving the Turks <i>carte
+blanche</i> in dealing with their Christian subjects), but on
+hearing of the Herzegovina revolt, it pressed on the Porte the need
+of taking speedy measures to suppress them. The despatches of Sir
+Henry Elliott, our ambassador at Constantinople, also show that he
+had favoured the use of active measures towards the disaffected
+districts north of Philippopolis<a name="FNanchor103"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_103">[103]</a>.</p>
+<p>Of course, neither the British Government nor its ambassador
+foresaw the awful results of this advice; but their knowledge of
+Turkish methods should have warned them against giving it without
+adding the cautions so obviously needed. Sir Henry Elliott speedily
+protested against the measures adopted by the Turks, but then it
+was too late<a name="FNanchor104"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_104">[104]</a>. Furthermore, the contemptuous way in
+which Disraeli dismissed the first reports of the Bulgarian
+massacres as "coffee-house babble" revealed his whole attitude of
+mind on Turkish affairs; and the painful impression aroused by this
+utterance was increased by his declaration of July 30 that the
+British fleet then at Besika Bay was kept there solely in defence
+of British interests. He made a similar but more general statement
+in the House of Commons on August 11. On the next morning the world
+heard that Queen Victoria had been pleased to confer on him the
+title of Earl of Beaconsfield. It is well known, on his own
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page172" id="page172"></a>[pg
+172]</span> admission, that he could no longer endure the strain of
+the late sittings in the House of Commons and had besought Her
+Majesty for leave to retire. She, however, suggested the gracious
+alternative that he should continue in office with a seat in the
+House of Lords. None the less, the conferring of this honour was
+felt by very many to be singularly inopportune.</p>
+<p>For at this time tidings of the massacres at Batak and elsewhere
+began to be fully known. Despite the efforts of Ministers to
+discredit them, they aroused growing excitement; and when the whole
+truth was known, a storm of indignation swept over the country as
+over the whole of Europe. Efforts were made by the Turcophil Press
+to represent the new trend of popular feeling as a mere party move
+and an insidious attempt of the Liberal Opposition to exploit
+humanitarian sentiment; but this charge will not bear examination.
+Mr. Gladstone had retired from the Liberal Leadership early in 1875
+and was deeply occupied in literary work; and Lords Granville and
+Hartington, on whom devolved the duty of leading the Opposition,
+had been very sparing of criticisms on the foreign policy of the
+Cabinet. They, as well as Mr. Gladstone, had merely stated that the
+Government, on refusing to join in the Berlin Memorandum, ought to
+have formulated an alternative policy. We now know that Mr.
+Gladstone left his literary work doubtfully and reluctantly<a name=
+"FNanchor105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105">[105]</a>.</p>
+<p>Now, however, the events in Bulgaria shed a ghastly light on the
+whole situation, and showed the consequences of giving the "moral
+support" of Britain to the Turks. The whole question ceased to rest
+on the high and dry levels of diplomacy, and became one of life or
+death for many thousands of men and women. The conscience of the
+country was touched to the quick by the thought that the presence
+of the British Mediterranean fleet at Besika Bay was giving the
+same encouragement to the Turks as it had done before the Crimean
+War, and that, too, when they had belied the promises so solemnly
+given in 1856, and were now proved to be guilty of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page173" id="page173"></a>[pg 173]</span>
+unspeakable barbarities. In such a case, the British nation would
+have been disgraced had it not demanded that no further alliance
+should be formed. It was equally the duty of the leaders of the
+Opposition to voice what was undoubtedly the national sentiment. To
+have kept silence would have been to stultify our Parliamentary
+institutions. The parrot cry that British interests were endangered
+by Russia's supposed designs on Turkey, was met by the unanswerable
+reply that, if those designs existed, the best way to check them
+was to maintain the European Concert, and especially to keep in
+close touch with Austria, seeing that that Power had as much cause
+as England to dread any southward extension of the Czar's power.
+Russia might conceivably fight Turkey and Great Britain; but she
+would not wage war against Austria as well. Therefore, the dictates
+of humanity as well as those of common sense alike condemned the
+British policy, which from the outset had encouraged the Turks to
+resist European intervention, had made us in some measure
+responsible for the Bulgarian massacres, and, finally, had broken
+up the Concert of the Powers, from which alone a peaceful solution
+of the Eastern Question could be expected.</p>
+<p>The union of the Powers having been dissolved by British action,
+it was but natural that Russia and Austria should come to a private
+understanding. This came about at Reichstadt in Bohemia on July 8.
+No definitive treaty was signed, but the two Emperors and their
+Chancellors framed an agreement defining their spheres of influence
+in the Balkans in case war should break out between Russia and
+Turkey. Francis Joseph of Austria covenanted to observe a
+neutrality friendly to the Czar under certain conditions that will
+be noticed later on. Some of those conditions were distasteful to
+the Russian Government, which sounded Bismarck as to his attitude
+in case war broke out between the Czar and the Hapsburg ruler.
+Apparently the reply of the German Chancellor was unfavourable to
+Russia<a name="FNanchor106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106">[106]</a>,
+for it thereafter renewed the negotiations <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page174" id="page174"></a>[pg 174]</span> with
+the Court of Vienna. On the whole, the ensuing agreement was a
+great diplomatic triumph; for the Czar thereby secured the
+neutrality of Austria--a Power that might readily have remained in
+close touch with Great Britain had British diplomacy displayed more
+foresight.</p>
+<p>The prospects of a great war, meanwhile, had increased owing to
+the action of Servia and Montenegro. The rulers of those States,
+unable any longer to hold in their peoples, and hoping for support
+from their Muscovite kinsfolk, declared war on Turkey at the end of
+June. Russian volunteers thronged to the Servian forces by
+thousands; but, despite the leadership of the Russian General,
+Tchernayeff, they were soon overborne by the numbers and fanatical
+valour of the Turks. Early in September, Servia appealed to the
+Powers for their mediation; and, owing chiefly to the efforts of
+Great Britain, terms for an armistice were proposed by the new
+Sultan, Abdul Hamid, but of so hard a nature that the Servians
+rejected them.</p>
+<p>On the fortune of war still inclining against the Slavonic
+cause, the Russian people became intensely excited; and it was
+clear that they would speedily join in the war unless the Turks
+moderated their claims. There is reason to believe that the Czar
+Alexander II. dreaded the outbreak of hostilities with Turkey in
+which he might become embroiled with Great Britain. The Panslavonic
+party in Russia was then permeated by revolutionary elements that
+might threaten the stability of the dynasty at the end of a long
+and exhausting struggle. But, feeling himself in honour bound to
+rescue Servia and Montenegro from the results of their ill-judged
+enterprise, he assembled large forces in South Russia and sent
+General Ignatieff to Constantinople with the demand, urged in the
+most imperious manner (Oct. 30), that the Porte should immediately
+grant an armistice to those States. At once Abdul Hamid gave
+way.</p>
+<p>Even so, Alexander II. showed every desire of averting the
+horrors of war. Speaking to the British ambassador at St.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page175" id="page175"></a>[pg
+175]</span> Petersburg on November 2, he said that the present
+state of affairs in Turkey "was intolerable, and unless Europe was
+prepared to act with firmness and energy, he should be obliged to
+act alone." But he pledged his word that he desired no
+aggrandisement, and that "he had not the smallest wish or intention
+to be possessed of Constantinople<a name="FNanchor107"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_107">[107]</a>." At this time proposals for a Conference
+of the Powers at Constantinople were being mooted: they had been
+put forth by the British Government on October 5. There seemed,
+therefore, to be some hope of a compromise if the Powers reunited
+so as to bring pressure to bear on Turkey; for, a week later, the
+Sultan announced his intention of granting a constitution, with an
+elected Assembly to supervise the administration. But hopes of
+peace as well as of effective reform in Turkey were damped by the
+warlike speech of Lord Beaconsfield at the Lord Mayor's banquet on
+November 9. He then used these words. If Britain draws the sword
+"in a righteous cause; if the contest is one which concerns her
+liberty, her independence, or her Empire, her resources, I feel,
+are inexhaustible. She is not a country that, when she enters into
+a campaign, has to ask herself whether she can support a second or
+a third campaign." On the next day the Czar replied in a speech at
+Moscow to the effect that if the forthcoming Conference at
+Constantinople did not lead to practical results, Russia would be
+forced to take up arms; and he counted on the support of his
+people. A week later 160,000 Russian troops were mobilised.</p>
+<p>The issue was thus clear as far as concerned Russia. It was not
+so clear for Great Britain. Even now, we are in ignorance as to the
+real intent of Lord Beaconsfield's speech at the Guildhall. It
+seems probable that, as there were divisions in his Cabinet, he may
+have wished to bring about such a demonstration of public feeling
+as would strengthen his hands in proposing naval and military
+preparations. The duties of a Prime Minister are so complex that
+his words may be viewed either in an international sense, or as
+prompted by administrative <span class="pagenum"><a name="page176"
+id="page176"></a>[pg 176]</span> needs, or by his relations to his
+colleagues, or, again, they may be due merely to electioneering
+considerations. Whatever their real intent on this occasion, they
+were interpreted by Russia as a defiance and by Turkey as a promise
+of armed help.</p>
+<p>On the other hand, if Lord Beaconsfield hoped to strengthen the
+pro-Turkish feeling in the Cabinet and the country, he failed. The
+resentment aroused by Turkish methods of rule and repression was
+too deep to be eradicated even by his skilful appeals to
+Imperialist sentiment. The Bulgarian atrocities had at least
+brought this much of good: they rendered a Turco-British alliance
+absolutely impossible.</p>
+<p>Lord Derby had written to this effect on August 29 to Sir Henry
+Elliott: "The impression produced here by events in Bulgaria has
+completely destroyed sympathy with Turkey. The feeling is universal
+and so strong that even if Russia were to declare war against the
+Porte, Her Majesty's Government would find it practically
+impossible to interfere<a name="FNanchor108"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_108">[108]</a>."</p>
+<p>The assembly of a Conference of the envoys of the Powers at
+Constantinople was claimed to be a decisive triumph for British
+diplomacy. There were indeed some grounds for hoping that Turkey
+would give way before a reunited Europe. The pressure brought to
+bear on the British Cabinet by public opinion resulted in
+instructions being given to Lord Salisbury (our representative,
+along with Sir H. Elliott, at the Conference) which did not differ
+much from the avowed aims of Russia and of the other Powers. Those
+instructions stated that the Powers could not accept mere promises
+of reform, for "the whole history of the Ottoman Empire, since it
+was admitted into the European Concert under the engagements of the
+Treaty of Paris [1856], has proved that the Porte is unable to
+guarantee the execution of reforms in the provinces by Turkish
+officials, who accept them with reluctance and neglect them with
+impunity." The Cabinet, therefore, insisted that there must be
+"external guarantees," but stipulated that no foreign <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page177" id="page177"></a>[pg 177]</span> armies
+must be introduced into Turkey<a name="FNanchor109"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_109">[109]</a>. Here alone British Ministers were at
+variance with the other Powers; and when, in the preliminary
+meetings of the Conference, a proposal was made to bring Belgian
+troops in order to guarantee the thorough execution of the proposed
+reforms, Lord Salisbury did not oppose it. In pursuance of
+instructions from London, he even warned the Porte that Britain
+would not give any help in case war resulted from its refusal of
+the European proposals.</p>
+<p>It is well known that Lord Salisbury was far less pro-Turkish
+than the Prime Minister or the members of the British embassy at
+Constantinople. During a diplomatic tour that he had made to the
+chief capitals he convinced himself "that no Power was disposed to
+shield Turkey--not even Austria--if blood had to be shed for the
+<i>status quo</i>." (The words are those used by his assistant,
+Mr., afterwards Sir, William White.) He had had little or no
+difficulty in coming to an understanding with the Russian
+plenipotentiary, General Ignatieff, despite the intrigues of Sir
+Henry Elliott and his Staff to hinder it<a name=
+"FNanchor110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110">[110]</a>. Indeed, the
+situation shows what might have been effected in May 1876, had not
+the Turks then received the support of the British Government.</p>
+<p>Now, however, there were signs that the Turks declined to take
+the good advice of the Powers seriously; and on December 23, when
+the "full" meetings of the Conference began, the Sultan and his
+Ministers treated the plenipotentiaries to a display of injured
+virtue and reforming zeal that raised the situation to the level of
+the choicest comedy. In the midst of the proceedings, after the
+Turkish Foreign Minister, Safvet Pacha, had explained away the
+Bulgarian massacres as a myth woven by the Western imagination,
+salvoes of cannon were heard, that proclaimed the birth of a new
+and most democratic constitution for the whole of the Turkish
+Empire. Safvet did justice to the solemnity of the occasion; the
+envoys of the Powers <span class="pagenum"><a name="page178" id=
+"page178"></a>[pg 178]</span> suppressed their laughter; and before
+long, Lord Salisbury showed his resentment at this display of
+oriental irony and stubbornness by ordering the British Fleet to
+withdraw from Besika Bay<a name="FNanchor111"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_111">[111]</a>.</p>
+<p>But deeds and words were alike wasted on the Sultan and his
+Ministers. To all the proposals and warnings of the Powers they
+replied by pointing to the superior benefits about to be conferred
+by the new constitution. The Conference therefore speedily came to
+an end (Jan. 20). It had served its purpose. It had fooled
+Europe<a name="FNanchor112"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_112">[112]</a>.</p>
+<p>The responsibility for this act of cynical defiance must be
+assigned to one man. The Sultan had never before manifested a
+desire for any reform whatsoever; and it was not until December 19,
+1876, that he named as Grand Vizier Midhat Pasha, who was known to
+have long been weaving constitutional schemes. This Turkish
+Si&eacute;y&egrave;s was thrust to the front in time to promulgate
+that fundamental reform. His tenure of power, like that of the
+French constitution-monger in 1799, ended when the scheme had
+served the purpose of the real controller of events. Midhat
+obviously did not see whither things were tending. On January 24,
+1877, he wrote to Sa&iuml;d Pasha, stating that, according to the
+Turkish ambassador at London (Musurus Pasha), Lord Derby
+congratulated the Sublime Porte on the dissolution of the
+Conference, "which he considers a success for Turkey<a name=
+"FNanchor113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113">[113]</a>."</p>
+<p>It therefore only remained to set the constitution in motion.
+After six days, when no sign of action was forthcoming, Midhat
+wrote to the Sultan in urgent terms, reminding him that their
+object in promulgating the constitution "was certainly not merely
+to find a solution of the so-called Eastern <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page179" id="page179"></a>[pg 179]</span>
+Question, nor to seek thereby to make a demonstration that should
+conciliate the sympathies of Europe, which had been estranged from
+us." This Note seems to have irritated the Sultan. Abdul Hamid,
+with his small, nervous, exacting nature, has always valued
+Ministers in proportion to their obedience, not to their power of
+giving timely advice. In every independent suggestion he sees the
+germ of opposition, and perhaps of a palace plot. He did so now. By
+way of reply, he bade Midhat come to the Palace. Midhat, fearing a
+trap, deferred his visit, until he received the assurance that the
+order for the reforms had been issued. Then he obeyed the summons;
+at once he was apprehended, and was hurried to the Sultan's yacht,
+which forthwith steamed away for the Aegean (Feb. 5). The fact that
+he remained above its waters, and was allowed to proceed to Italy,
+may be taken as proof that his zeal for reform had been not without
+its uses in the game which the Sultan had played against the
+Powers. The Turkish Parliament, which assembled on March 1, acted
+with the subservience that might have been expected after this
+lesson. The Sultan dissolved it on the outbreak of war, and
+thereafter gave up all pretence of constitutional forms. As for
+Midhat, he was finally lured back to Turkey and done to death. Such
+was the end of the Turkish constitution, of the Turkish Parliament,
+and of their contriver<a name="FNanchor114"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_114">[114]</a>.</p>
+<p>Even the dissolution of the Conference of the Powers did not
+bring about war at once. It seems probable that the Czar hoped much
+from the statesmanlike conduct of Lord Salisbury at Constantinople,
+or perhaps he expected to secure the carrying out of the needed
+reforms by means of pressure from the Three Emperors' League (see
+Chapter XII.). But, unless the Russians gave up all interest in the
+fate of her kinsmen and co-religionists in Turkey, war was now the
+more probable outcome of events. Alexander had already applied to
+Germany for help, either diplomatic or military; but these
+overtures, of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page180" id=
+"page180"></a>[pg 180]</span> whatever kind, were declined by
+Bismarck--so he declared in his great speech of February 6, 1888.
+Accordingly, the Czar drew closer to Austria, with the result that
+the Reichstadt agreement of July 8, 1876, now assumed the form of a
+definitive treaty signed at Vienna between the two Powers on
+January 15, 1877.</p>
+<p>The full truth on this subject is not known. M. &Eacute;lie de
+Cyon, who claims to have seen the document, states that Austria
+undertook to remain neutral during the Russo-Turkish War, that she
+stipulated for a large addition of territory if the Turks were
+forced to quit Europe; also that a great Bulgaria should be formed,
+and that Servia and Montenegro should be extended so as to become
+conterminous. To the present writer this account appears suspect.
+It is inconceivable that Austria should have assented to an
+expansion of these principalities which would bar her road
+southward to Salonica<a name="FNanchor115"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_115">[115]</a>.</p>
+<p>Another and more probable version was given by the Hungarian
+Minister, M. Tisza, during the course of debates in the Hungarian
+Delegations in the spring of 1887, to this effect:--(1) No Power
+should claim an exclusive right of protecting the Christians of
+Turkey, and the Great Powers should pronounce on the results of the
+war; (2) Russia would annex no land on the right (south) bank of
+the Danube, would respect the integrity of Roumania, and refrain
+from touching Constantinople; (3) if Russia formed a new Slavonic
+State in the Balkans, it should not be at the expense of
+non-Slavonic peoples; and she would not claim special rights over
+Bulgaria, which was to be governed by a prince who was neither
+Russian nor Austrian; (4) Russia would not extend her military
+operations to the districts west of Bulgaria. These were the terms
+on which Austria agreed to remain neutral; and in certain cases she
+claimed to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina<a name=
+"FNanchor116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116">[116]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page181" id="page181"></a>[pg
+181]</span>
+<p>Doubtless these, or indeed any, concessions to Austria were
+repugnant to Alexander II. and Prince Gortchakoff; but her
+neutrality was essential to Russia's success in case war broke out;
+and the Czar's Government certainly acted with much skill in
+securing the friendly neutrality of the Power which in 1854 had
+exerted so paralysing a pressure on the Russian operations on the
+Lower Danube.</p>
+<p>Nevertheless, Alexander II. still sought to maintain the
+European Concert with a view to the exerting of pacific pressure
+upon Turkey. Early in March he despatched General Ignatieff on a
+mission to the capitals of the Great Powers; except at Westminster,
+that envoy found opinion favourable to the adoption of some form of
+coercion against Turkey, in case the Sultan still hardened his
+heart against good advice. Even the Beaconsfield Ministry finally
+agreed to sign a Protocol, that of March 31, 1877, which recounted
+the efforts of the six Great Powers for the improvement of the lot
+of the Christians in Turkey, and expressed their approval of the
+promises of reform made by that State on February 13, 1876. Passing
+over without notice the new Turkish Constitution, the Powers
+declared that they would carefully watch the carrying out of the
+promised reforms, and that, if no improvement in the lot of the
+Christians should take place, "they [the Powers] reserve to
+themselves to consider in common as to the means which they may
+deem best fitted to secure the wellbeing of the Christian
+populations, and the interests of the general peace<a name=
+"FNanchor117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117">[117]</a>." This final
+clause contained a suggestion scarcely less threatening than that
+with which the Berlin Memorandum had closed; and it is difficult to
+see why the British Cabinet, which now signed the London Protocol,
+should have wrecked that earlier effort of the Powers. In this as
+in other matters it is clear that the Cabinet was swayed by a "dual
+control."</p>
+<p>But now it was all one whether the British Government signed the
+Protocol or not. Turkey would have none of it. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page182" id="page182"></a>[pg 182]</span>
+Despite Lord Derby's warning that "the Sultan would be very unwise
+if he would not endeavour to avail himself of the opportunity
+afforded him to arrange a mutual disarmament," that potentate
+refused to move a hair's-breadth from his former position. On the
+12th of April the Turkish ambassador announced to Lord Derby the
+final decision of his Government: "Turkey, as an independent State,
+cannot submit to be placed under any surveillance, whether
+collective or not. . . . No consideration can arrest the Imperial
+Government in their determination to protest against the Protocol
+of the 31st March, and to consider it, as regards Turkey, as devoid
+of all equity, and consequently of all binding character." Lord
+Derby thereupon expressed his deep regret at this decision, and
+declared that he "did not see what further steps Her Majesty's
+Government could take to avert a war which appeared to have become
+inevitable<a name="FNanchor118"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_118">[118]</a>."</p>
+<p>The Russian Government took the same view of the case, and on
+April 7-19, 1877, stated in a despatch that, as a pacific solution
+of the Eastern Question was now impossible, the Czar had ordered
+his armies to cross the frontiers of Turkey. The official
+declaration of war followed on April 12-24. From the point of view
+of Lord Derby this seemed "inevitable." Nevertheless, on May 1 he
+put his name to an official document which reveals the curious
+dualism which then prevailed in the Beaconsfield Cabinet. This
+reply to the Russian despatch contained the assertion that the last
+answer of the Porte did not remove all hope of deference on its
+part to the wishes and advice of Europe, and "that the decision of
+the Russian Government is not one which can have their concurrence
+or approval." We shall not be far wrong in assuming that, while the
+hand that signed this document was the hand of Derby, the spirit
+behind it was that of Beaconsfield.</p>
+<p>In many quarters the action of Russia was stigmatised as the
+outcome of ambition and greed, rendered all the more odious by the
+cloak of philanthropy which she had hitherto <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page183" id="page183"></a>[pg 183]</span> worn.
+The time has not come when an exhaustive and decisive verdict can
+be given on this charge. Few movements have been free from all
+taint of meanness; but it is clearly unjust to rail against a great
+Power, because, at the end of a war which entailed frightful losses
+and a serious though temporary loss of prestige, it determined to
+exact from the enemy the only form of indemnity which was
+forthcoming, namely, a territorial indemnity. Russia's final
+claims, as will be seen, were open to criticism at several points;
+but the censure just referred to is puerile. It accords, however,
+with most of the criticisms passed in London "club-land," which
+were remarkable for their purblind cynicism.</p>
+<p>No one who has studied the mass of correspondence contained in
+the Blue-books relating to Turkey in 1875-77 can doubt that the
+Emperor Alexander II. displayed marvellous patience in face of a
+series of brutal provocations by Moslem fanatics and the clamour of
+his own people for a liberating crusade. Bismarck, who did not like
+the Czar, stated that he did not want war, but waged it "under
+stress of Panslavist influence<a name="FNanchor119"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_119">[119]</a>." That some of his Ministers and Generals
+had less lofty aims is doubtless true; but practically all
+authorities are now agreed that the maintenance of the European
+Concert would have been the best means of curbing those aims. Yet,
+despite the irritating conduct of the Beaconsfield Cabinet, the
+Emperor Alexander sought to re-unite Europe with a view to the
+execution of the needed reforms in Turkey. Even after the
+successive rebuffs of the rejection of the Berlin Memorandum by
+Great Britain and of the suggestions of the Powers at
+Constantinople by Turkey, he succeeded in restoring the semblance
+of accord between the Powers, and of leaving to Turkey the
+responsibility of finally and insolently defying their
+recommendations. A more complete diplomatic triumph has rarely been
+won. It was the reward of consistency and patience, qualities in
+which the Beaconsfield Cabinet was signally lacking.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page184" id="page184"></a>[pg
+184]</span>
+<p>We may notice one other criticism: that Russia's agreement with
+Austria implied the pre-existence of aggressive designs. This is by
+no means conclusive. That the Czar should have taken the precaution
+of coming to the arrangement of January 1877 with Austria does not
+prove that he was desirous of war. The attitude of Turkey during
+the Conference at Constantinople left but the slightest hope of
+peace. To prepare for war in such a case is not a proof of a desire
+for war, but only of common prudence.</p>
+<p>Certain writers in France and Germany have declared that
+Bismarck was the real author of the Russo-Turkish War. The
+dogmatism of their assertions is in signal contrast with the
+thinness of their evidence<a name="FNanchor120"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_120">[120]</a>. It rests mainly on the statement that
+the Three Emperors' League (see Chapter XII.) was still in force;
+that Bismarck had come to some arrangement for securing gains to
+Austria in the south-east as a set-off to her losses in 1859 and
+1866; that Austrian agents in Dalmatia had stirred up the
+Herzegovina revolt of 1875; and that Bismarck and Andrassy did
+nothing to avert the war of 1877. Possibly he had a hand in these
+events--he had in most events of the time; and there is a
+suspicious passage in his Memoirs as to the overtures made to
+Berlin in the autumn of 1876. The Czar's Ministers wished to know
+whether, in the event of a war with Austria, they would have the
+support of Germany. To this the Chancellor replied, that Germany
+could not allow the present equilibrium of the monarchical Powers
+to be disturbed: "The result . . . was that the Russian storm passed
+from Eastern Galicia to the Balkans<a name=
+"FNanchor121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121">[121]</a>." Thereafter
+Russia came to terms with Austria as described above.</p>
+<p>But the passage just cited only proves that Russia might have
+gone to war with Austria over the Eastern Question. In point of
+fact, she went to war with Turkey, after coming to a friendly
+arrangement with Austria. Bismarck <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page185" id="page185"></a>[pg 185]</span> therefore acted as
+"honest-broker" between his two allies; and it has yet to be proved
+that Bismarck did not sincerely work with the two other Empires to
+make the coercion of Turkey by the civilised Powers irresistibly
+strong. In his speech of December 6, 1876, to the Reichstag, the
+Chancellor made a plain and straightforward declaration of his
+policy, namely, that of neutrality, but inclining towards
+friendship with Austria. That, surely, did not drive Russia into
+war with Turkey, still less entice her into it. As for the
+statement that Austrian intrigues were the sole cause of the
+Bosnian revolt, it must appear childish to all who bear in mind the
+exceptional hardships and grievances of the peasants of that
+province. Finally, the assertion of a newspaper, the <i>Czas</i>,
+that Queen Victoria wrote to Bismarck in April 1877 urging him to
+protest against an attack by Russia on Turkey, may be dismissed as
+an impudent fabrication<a name="FNanchor122"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_122">[122]</a>. It was altogether opposed to the habits
+of her late Majesty to write letters of that kind to the Foreign
+Ministers of other Powers.</p>
+<p>Until documents of a contrary tenor come to light, we may say
+with some approach to certainty that the responsibility for the war
+of 1877-78 rests with the Sultan of Turkey and with those who
+indirectly encouraged him to set at naught the counsels of the
+Powers. Lord Derby and Lord Salisbury had of late plainly warned
+him of the consequences of his stubbornness; but the influence of
+the British embassy at Constantinople and of the Turkish ambassador
+in London seems greatly to have weakened the force of those
+warnings.</p>
+<p>It must always be remembered that the Turk will concede
+religious freedom and civic equality to the "Giaours" only under
+overwhelming pressure. In such a case he mutters "Kismet" ("It is
+fate"), and gives way; but the least sign of weakness or wavering
+on the part of the Powers awakens his fanatical scruples. Then his
+devotion to the Koran forbids any surrender. History has afforded
+several proofs of this, from the time of the Battle of Navarino
+(1827) to that of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page186" id=
+"page186"></a>[pg 186]</span> the intervention of the Western
+Powers on behalf of the slaughtered and harried Christians of the
+Lebanon (1860). Unfortunately Abdul Hamid had now come to regard
+the Concert of the Powers as a "loud-sounding nothing." With the
+usual bent of a mean and narrow nature he detected nothing but
+hypocrisy in its lofty professions, and self-seeking in its
+philanthropic aims, together with a treacherous desire among
+influential persons to make the whole scheme miscarry. Accordingly
+he fell back on the boundless fund of inertia, with which a devout
+Moslem ruler blocks the way to western reforms. A competent
+observer has finely remarked that the Turk never changes; his
+neighbours, his frontiers, his statute-books may change, but his
+ideas and his practice remain always the same. He will not be
+interfered with; he will not improve<a name=
+"FNanchor123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123">[123]</a>. To this
+statement we must add that only under dire necessity will he allow
+his Christian subjects to improve. The history of the Eastern
+Question may be summed up in these assertions.</p>
+<p>Abdul Hamid II. is the incarnation of the reactionary forces
+which have brought ruin to Turkey and misery to her Christian
+subjects. He owed his crown to a recrudescence of Moslem
+fanaticism; and his reign has illustrated the unsuspected strength
+and ferocity of his race and creed in face of the uncertain tones
+in which Christendom has spoken since the spring of the year 1876.
+The reasons which prompted his defiance a year later were revealed
+by his former Grand Vizier, Midhat Pasha, in an article in the
+<i>Nineteenth Century</i> for June 1877. The following passage is
+especially illuminating:--</p>
+<blockquote>Turkey was not unaware of the attitude of the English
+Government towards her; the British Cabinet had declared in clear
+terms that it would not interfere in our dispute. This decision of
+the English Cabinet was perfectly well known to us, but we knew
+still better that the general interests of Europe and the
+particular <span class="pagenum"><a name="page187" id=
+"page187"></a>[pg 187]</span> interests of England were so bound up
+in our dispute with Russia that, in spite of all the Declarations
+of the English Cabinet, it appeared to us to be absolutely
+impossible for her to avoid interfering sooner or later in this
+Eastern dispute. This profound belief, added to the reasons we have
+mentioned, was one of the principal factors of our contest with
+Russia<a name="FNanchor124"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_124">[124]</a>.</blockquote>
+<p>It appears, then, that the action of the British Government in
+the spring and summer of 1876, and the well-known desire of the
+Prime Minister to intervene in favour of Turkey, must have
+contributed to the Sultan's decision to court the risks of war
+rather than allow any intervention of the Powers on behalf of his
+Christian subjects.</p>
+<p>The information that has come to light from various quarters
+serves to strengthen the case against Lord Beaconsfield's policy in
+the years 1875-77. The letter written by Mr. White to Sir Robert
+Morier on January 16, 1877, and referred to above, shows that his
+diplomatic experience had convinced him of the futility of
+supporting Turkey against the Powers. In that letter he made use of
+these significant words:--"You know me well enough. I did not come
+here (Constantinople) to deceive Lord Salisbury or to defend an
+untenable Russophobe or pro-Turkish policy. There will probably be
+a difference of opinion in the Cabinet as to our future line of
+policy, and I shall not wonder if Lord Salisbury should upset Dizzy
+and take his place or leave the Government on this question. If he
+does the latter, the coach is indeed upset." Mr. White also
+referred to the <i>personnel</i> of the British Embassy at
+Constantinople in terms which show how mischievous must have been
+its influence on the counsels of the Porte.</p>
+<p>A letter from Sir Robert Morier of about the same date proves
+that that experienced diplomatist also saw the evil <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page188" id="page188"></a>[pg 188]</span>
+results certain to accrue from the Beaconsfield policy:--"I have
+not ceased to din that into the ears of the F.O. (Foreign Office),
+to make ourselves the <i>point d'appui</i> of the Christians in the
+Turkish Empire, and thus take all the wind out of the sails of
+Russia; and after the population had seen the difference between an
+English and a Russian occupation [of the disturbed parts of Turkey]
+it would jump to the eyes even of the blind, and we should
+<i>d&eacute;buter</i> into a new policy at Constantinople with an
+immense advantage<a name="FNanchor125"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_125">[125]</a>." This advice was surely statesmanlike.
+To support the young and growing nationalities in Turkey would
+serve, not only to checkmate the supposed aggressive designs of
+Russia, but also to array on the side of Britain the progressive
+forces of the East. To rely on the Turk was to rely on a moribund
+creature. It was even worse. It implied an indirect encouragement
+to the "sick man" to enter on a strife for which he was manifestly
+unequal, and in which we did not mean to help him. But these
+considerations failed to move Lord Beaconsfield and the Foreign
+Office from the paths of tradition and routine<a name=
+"FNanchor126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126">[126]</a>.</p>
+<p>Finally, in looking at the events of 1875-76 in their broad
+outlines, we may note the verdict of a veteran diplomatist, whose
+conduct before the Crimean War proved him to be as friendly to the
+interests of Turkey as he was hostile to those of Russia, but who
+now saw that the situation differed utterly from that which was
+brought about by the aggressive action of Czar Nicholas I. in 1854.
+In a series of letters to the <i>Times</i> he pointed out the
+supreme need of joint action by all the Powers who signed the
+Treaty of Paris; that that treaty by no means prohibited their
+intervention in the affairs of Turkey; that wise and timely
+intervention would be to the advantage of that State; that the
+Turks had always yielded to coercion if it were of overwhelming
+strength, but only on those terms; and that therefore the severance
+of England from the European Concert <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page189" id="page189"></a>[pg 189]</span> was greatly to be
+deplored<a name="FNanchor127"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_127">[127]</a>. In private this former champion of
+Turkey went even farther, and declared on Sept. 10, 1876, that the
+crisis in the East would not have become acute had Great Britain
+acted conjointly with the Powers<a name="FNanchor128"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_128">[128]</a>. There is every reason to believe that
+posterity will endorse this judgment of Lord Stratford de
+Redcliffe.</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor86">[86]</a> "Islam
+continues to be, as it has been for twelve centuries, the most
+inflexible adversary to the Western spirit" <i>(History of Serbia
+and the Slav Provinces of Turkey,</i> by L. von Ranke, Eng. edit.
+p. 296).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor87">[87]</a> The
+story that Peter the Great of Russia left a clause in his will,
+bidding Russia to go on with her southern conquests until she
+gained Constantinople, is an impudent fiction of French publicists
+in the year 1812, when Napoleon wished to keep Russia and Turkey at
+war. Of course, Peter the Great gave a mighty impulse to Russian
+movements towards Constantinople.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor88">[88]</a> For the
+treaty and the firman of 1856, see <i>The European Concert in the
+Eastern Question,</i> by T. E. Holland; also D&eacute;bidour,
+<i>Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe</i> (1814-1878), vol. ii. pp.
+150-152; <i>The Eastern Question,</i> by the late Duke of Argyll,
+vol. i. chap. i.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor89">[89]</a> Sir
+Horace Rumbold, <i>Recollections of a Diplomatist</i> (First
+Series), vol. ii. p. 295.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor90">[90]</a> As to
+this, see Reports: <i>Condition of Christians in Turkey</i> (1860).
+Presented to Parliament in 1861. Also Parliamentary Papers, Turkey,
+No. 16 (1877).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor91">[91]</a> Efforts
+were made by the British Consul, Holmes, and other pro-Turks, to
+assign this revolt to Panslavonic intrigues. That there were some
+Slavonic emissaries at work is undeniable; but it is equally
+certain that their efforts would have had no result but for the
+existence of unbearable ills. It is time, surely, to give up the
+notion that peoples rise in revolt merely owing to outside
+agitators. To revolt against the warlike Turks has never been
+child's play.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor92">[92]</a> For the
+full text, see Hertslet, <i>The Map of Europe by Treaty</i>, iv.
+pp. 2418-2429.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor93">[93]</a> Bryce,
+<i>Studies in Contemporary Biography</i> (1904).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor94">[94]</a> For
+details of this affair, see Chapter XV. of this work.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor95">[95]</a> See
+Parliamentary Papers, Turkey, No. 5 (1877), for Consul Freeman's
+report of March 17, 1877, of the outrages by the Turks in Bosnia.
+The refugees declared they would "sooner drown themselves in the
+Unna than again subject themselves to Turkish oppression." The
+Porte denied all the outrages.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor96">[96]</a>
+Hertslet, iv. pp. 2459-2463.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor97">[97]</a> <i>Sir
+Stafford Northcote, Earl of Iddesleigh</i>, by Andrew Lang, vol.
+ii. p. 181.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor98">[98]</a> Our
+ambassador at Constantinople, Sir Henry Elliott, asked (May 9) that
+a squadron should be sent there to reassure the British subjects in
+Turkey; but as the fleet was not ordered to proceed thither until
+after a long interval, and was kept there in great strength and for
+many months, it is fair to assume that the aim of our Government
+was to encourage Turkey.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor99">[99]</a>
+Gallenga, <i>The Eastern Question</i>, vol. ii. p. 99.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor100">[100]</a> For
+the aims of the Young Turkey party, see the <i>Life of Midhat
+Pasha</i>, by his son; also an article by Midhat in the
+<i>Nineteenth Century</i> for June 1878.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor101">[101]</a>
+Gallenga, <i>The Eastern Question</i>, vol. ii. p. 126. Murad died
+in the year 1904.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor102">[102]</a> Mr.
+Baring, a secretary of the British Legation at Constantinople,
+after a careful examination of the evidence, gave the number of
+Bulgarians slain as "not fewer than 12,000"; he opined that 163
+Mussulmans were perhaps killed early in May. He admitted the Batak
+horrors. Achmet Agha, their chief perpetrator, was at first
+condemned to death by a Turkish commission of inquiry, but he was
+finally pardoned. Shefket Pasha, whose punishment was also
+promised, was afterwards promoted to a high command. Parl. Papers,
+Turkey, No. 2 (1877), pp. 248-249; <i>ibid</i>. No. 15 (1877), No.
+77, p. 58. Mr. Layard, successor to Sir Henry Elliott at
+Constantinople, afterwards sought to reduce the numbers slain to
+3500. Turkey, No. 26 (1877), p. 54.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor103">[103]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 3 (1876), pp. 144, 173, 198-199.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor104">[104]</a> See,
+<i>inter alia</i>, his letter of May 26, 1876, quoted in <i>Life
+and Correspondence of William White</i> (1902), pp. 99-100.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor105">[105]</a> J.
+Morley, <i>Life of Gladstone</i>, vol. ii. pp. 548-549.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor106">[106]</a>
+Bismarck, <i>Reflections and Reminiscences</i> vol. ii. chap,
+xxviii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor107">[107]</a>
+Hertslet, iv. p. 2508.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor108">[108]</a>
+Parliamentary Papers, Turkey, No. 6 (1877).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor109">[109]</a>
+Parliamentary Papers, Turkey, ii. (1877), No. 1; also, in part, in
+Hertslet, iv. p. 2517.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor110">[110]</a>
+<i>Sir William White: Life and Correspondence</i>, p. 117.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor111">[111]</a> See
+Gallenga (<i>The Eastern Question</i>, vol. ii. pp. 255-258) as to
+the scepticism regarding the new constitution, felt alike by
+foreigners and natives at Constantinople.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor112">[112]</a> See
+Parl. Papers (1878), Turkey, No. 2, p. 114, for the constitution;
+and p. 302 for Lord Salisbury's criticisms on it; also <i>ibid</i>,
+pp. 344-345, for Turkey's final rejection of the proposals of the
+Powers.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor113">[113]</a>
+<i>Life of Midhat Pasha</i>, by Midhat Ali (1903), p. 142. Musurus
+must have deliberately misrepresented Lord Derby.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor114">[114]</a>
+<i>Life of Midhat Pasha</i>, chaps. v.-vii. For the Sultan's
+character and habits, see an article in the <i>Contemporary
+Review</i> for December 1896, by D. Kelekian.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor115">[115]</a>
+&Eacute;lie de Cyon, <i>Histoire de l'Entente franco-russe</i>,
+chap, i.; and in <i>Nouvelle Revue</i> for June 1, 1887. His
+account bears obvious signs of malice against Germany and
+Austria.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor116">[116]</a>
+D&eacute;bidour, <i>Hist. diplomatique de l'Europe</i> (1814-1878),
+vol. ii. p. 502.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor117">[117]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 9 (1877), p. 2.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor118">[118]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 15 (1877), pp. 354-355.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor119">[119]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: his Reflections and Reminiscences</i>, vol. ii. p. 259
+(Eng. ed.).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor120">[120]</a>
+&Eacute;lie de Cyon, <i>op. cit.</i> chap. i.; also in <i>Nouvelle
+Revue</i> for 1880.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor121">[121]</a>
+Bismarck, <i>Recollections and Reminiscences</i>, vol. ii. p. 231
+(Eng. ed.).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor122">[122]</a>
+Busch, <i>Our Chancellor</i>, vol. ii. p. 126.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor123">[123]</a>
+<i>Turkey in Europe</i>, by Odysseus, p. 139.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor124">[124]</a> See,
+too, the official report of our pro-Turkish Ambassador at
+Constantinople, Mr. Layard (May 30, 1877), as to the difficulty of
+our keeping out of the war in its final stages (Parl. Papers,
+Turkey, No. 26 (1877), p. 52).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor125">[125]</a>
+<i>Sir William White: Life and Correspondence</i>, pp. 115-117.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor126">[126]</a> For
+the power of tradition in the Foreign Office, see <i>Sir William
+White: Life and Correspondence</i>, p. 119.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor127">[127]</a>
+Letters of Dec. 31, 1875, May 16, 1876, and Sept. 9, 1876,
+republished with others in <i>The Eastern Question</i>, by Lord
+Stratford de Redcliffe (1881).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_128"></a><a href="#FNanchor128">[128]</a> J.
+Morley, <i>Life of Gladstone</i>, vol. ii. p. 555.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page190" id="page190"></a>[pg
+190]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+<h3>THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR</h3>
+<blockquote>"Knowledge of the great operations of war can be
+acquired only by experience and by the applied study of the
+campaigns of all the great captains. Gustavus, Turenne, and
+Frederick, as well as Alexander, Hannibal, and C&aelig;sar, have
+all acted on the same principles. To keep one's forces together, to
+bear speedily on any point, to be nowhere vulnerable,--such are the
+principles that assure victory."--NAPOLEON.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>Despite the menace to Russia contained in the British Note of
+May 1, 1877, there was at present little risk of a collision
+between the two Powers for the causes already stated. The
+Government of the Czar showed that it desired to keep on friendly
+terms with the Cabinet of St. James, for, in reply to a statement
+of Lord Derby that the security of Constantinople, Egypt, and the
+Suez Canal was a matter of vital concern for Great Britain, the
+Russian Chancellor, Prince Gortchakoff, on May 30 sent the
+satisfactory assurance that the two latter would remain outside the
+sphere of military operations; that the acquisition of the Turkish
+capital was "excluded from the views of His Majesty the Emperor,"
+and that its future was a question of common interest which could
+be settled only by a general understanding among the Powers<a name=
+"FNanchor129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129">[129]</a>. As long as
+Russia adhered to these promises there could scarcely be any
+question of Great Britain intervening on behalf of Turkey.</p>
+<p>Thus the general situation in the spring of 1877 scarcely seemed
+to warrant the hopes with which the Turks entered on <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page191" id="page191"></a>[pg 191]</span> the
+war. They stood alone confronting a Power which had vastly greater
+resources in men and treasure. Seeing that the Sultan had recently
+repudiated a large part of the State debt, and could borrow only at
+exorbitant rates of interest, it is even now mysterious how his
+Ministers managed to equip very considerable forces, and to arm
+them with quick-firing rifles and excellent cannon. The Turk is a
+born soldier, and will fight for nothing and live on next to
+nothing when his creed is in question; but that does not solve the
+problem how the Porte could buy huge stores of arms and ammunition.
+It had procured 300,000 American rifles, and bought 200,000 more
+early in the war. On this topic we must take refuge in the domain
+of legend, and say that the life of Turkey is the life of a
+phoenix: it now and again rises up fresh and defiant among the
+flames.</p>
+<p>As regards the Ottoman army, an English officer in its service,
+Lieutenant W.V. Herbert, states that the artillery was very good,
+despite the poor supply of horses; that the infantry was very good;
+the regular cavalry mediocre, the irregular cavalry useless. He
+estimates the total forces in Europe and Asia at 700,000; but, as
+he admits that the battalions of 800 men rarely averaged more than
+600, that total is clearly fallacious. An American authority
+believes that Turkey had not more than 250,000 men ready in Europe
+and that of these not more than 165,000 were north of the Balkans
+when the Russians advanced towards the Danube<a name=
+"FNanchor130"></a><a href="#Footnote_130">[130]</a>. Von Lignitz
+credits the Turks with only 215,000 regular troops and 100,000
+irregulars (Bashi Bazouks and Circassians) in the whole Empire; of
+these he assigns two-thirds to European Turkey<a name=
+"FNanchor131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131">[131]</a>.</p>
+<p>It seemed, then, that Russia had no very formidable task before
+her. Early in May seven army corps began to move towards that great
+river. They included 180 battalions of infantry, 200 squadrons of
+cavalry, and 800 guns--in all about <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page192" id="page192"></a>[pg 192]</span> 200,000 men. Their
+cannon were inferior to those of the Turks, but this seemed a small
+matter in view of the superior numbers which Russia seemed about to
+place in the field. The mobilisation of her huge army, however,
+went on slowly, and produced by no means the numbers that were
+officially reported. Our military attach&eacute; at the Russian
+headquarters, Colonel Wellesley, reported this fact to the British
+Government; and, on this being found out, incurred disagreeable
+slights from the Russian authorities<a name=
+"FNanchor132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132">[132]</a>.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile Russia had secured the co-operation of Roumania by a
+convention signed on April 16, whereby the latter State granted a
+free passage through that Principality, and promised friendly
+treatment to the Muscovite troops. The Czar in return pledged
+himself to "maintain and defend the actual integrity of
+Roumania<a name="FNanchor133"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_133">[133]</a>." The sequel will show how this promise
+was fulfilled. For the present it seemed that the interests of the
+Principality were fully secured. Accordingly Prince Charles (elder
+brother of the Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern, whose candidature
+for the Crown of Spain made so much stir in 1870) took the further
+step of abrogating the suzerainty of the Sultan over Roumania (June
+3).</p>
+<p>Even before the declaration of independence Roumania had
+ventured on a few acts of war against Turkey; but the co-operation
+of her army, comprising 50,000 regulars and 70,000 National Guards,
+with that of Russia proved to be a knotty question. The Emperor
+Alexander II., on reaching the Russian headquarters at Plojeschti,
+to the north of Bukharest, expressed his wish to help the Roumanian
+army, but insisted that it must be placed under the
+commander-in-chief of the Russian forces, the Grand Duke Nicholas.
+To this Prince Charles demurred, and the Roumanian troops at first
+took no active part in the campaign. Undoubtedly their non-arrival
+served to mar the plans of the Russian Staff<a name=
+"FNanchor134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134">[134]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page193" id="page193"></a>[pg
+193]</span>
+<p>Delays multiplied from the outset. The Russians, not having
+naval superiority in the Black Sea which helped to gain them their
+speedy triumph in the campaign of 1828, could only strike through
+Roumania and across the Danube and the difficult passes of the
+middle Balkans. Further, as the Roumanian railways had but single
+lines, the movement of men and stores to the Danube was very slow.
+Numbers of the troops, after camping on its marshy banks (for the
+river was then in flood), fell ill of malarial fever; above all,
+the carelessness of the Russian Staff and the unblushing peculation
+of its subordinates and contractors clogged the wheels of the
+military machine. One result of it was seen in the bad bread
+supplied to the troops. A Roumanian officer, when dining with the
+Grand Duke Nicholas, ventured to compare the ration bread of the
+Russians with the far better bread supplied to his own men at
+cheaper rates. The Grand Duke looked at the two specimens and
+then--talked of something else<a name="FNanchor135"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_135">[135]</a>. Nothing could be done until the flood
+subsided and large bodies of troops were ready to threaten the
+Turkish line of defence at several points<a name=
+"FNanchor136"></a><a href="#Footnote_136">[136]</a>. The Ottoman
+position by no means lacked elements of strength. The first of
+these was the Danube itself. The task of crossing a great river in
+front of an active foe is one of the most dangerous of all military
+operations. Any serious miscalculation of the strength, the
+position, or the mobility of the enemy's forces may lead to an
+irreparable disaster; and until the bridges used for the crossing
+are defended by <i>t&ecirc;tes de pont</i> the position of the
+column that has passed over is precarious.</p>
+<p>The Danube is especially hard to cross, because its northern
+bank is for the most part marshy, and is dominated by the southern
+bank. The German strategist, von Moltke, who knew Turkey well, and
+had written the best history of the Russo-Turkish War of 1828,
+maintained that the passage of <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page194" id="page194"></a>[pg 194]</span> the Danube must cost the
+invaders upwards of 50,000 men. Thereafter, they would be
+threatened by the Quadrilateral of fortresses--Rustchuk, Shumla,
+Varna, and Silistria. Three of these were connected by railway,
+which enabled the Turks to send troops quickly from the port of
+Varna to any position between the mountain stronghold of Shumla and
+the riverine fortress, Rustchuk.</p>
+<p>Even the non-military reader will see by a glance at the map
+that this Quadrilateral, if strongly held, practically barred the
+roads leading to the Balkans on their eastern side. It also
+endangered the march of an invading army through the middle of
+Bulgaria to the central passes of that chain. Moreover, there are
+in that part only two or three passes that can be attempted by an
+army with artillery. The fortress of Widdin, where Osman Pasha was
+known to have an army of about 40,000 seasoned troops, dominated
+the west of Bulgaria and the roads leading to the easier passes of
+the Balkans near Sofia.</p>
+<p>These being the difficulties that confronted the invaders in
+Europe, it is not surprising that the first important battles took
+place in Asia. On the Armenian frontier the Russians, under Loris
+Melikoff, soon gained decided advantages, driving back the Turks
+with considerable losses on Kars and Erzeroum. The tide of war soon
+turned in that quarter, but, for the present, the Muscovite
+triumphs sent a thrill of fear through Turkey, and probably
+strengthened the determination of Abdul-Kerim, the Turkish
+commander-in-chief in Europe, to maintain a cautious defensive.</p>
+<p>Much could be said in favour of a "Fabian" policy of delay.
+Large Turkish forces were in the western provinces warring against
+Montenegro, or watching Austria, Servia, and Greece. It is even
+said that Abdul-Kerim had not at first more than about 120,000 men
+in the whole of Bulgaria, inclusive of the army at Widdin. But
+obviously, if the invaders so far counted on his weakness as to
+thrust their columns across the Danube in front of forces that
+could be secretly and swiftly strengthened by drafts from the south
+and west, they would expose themselves</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page195" id="page195"></a>[pg
+195]</span>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/195.png" width="80%" alt=""><br>
+<b>Map of Bulgaria.</b></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page196" id="page196"></a>[pg
+196]</span>
+<p>to the gravest risks. The apologists of Abdul-Kerim claim that
+such was his design, and that the signs of sluggishness which he at
+first displayed formed a necessary part of a deep-laid scheme for
+luring the Russians to their doom. Let the invaders enter Central
+Bulgaria in force, and expose their flanks to Abdul-Kerim in the
+Quadrilateral, and to Osman Pasha at Widdin; then the Turks, by
+well-concerted moves against those flanks, would drive the enemy
+back on the Danube, and perhaps compel a large part of his forces
+to lay down their arms. Such is their explanation of the conduct of
+Abdul-Kerim.</p>
+<p>As the Turkish Government is wholly indifferent to the advance
+of historical knowledge, it is impossible even now to say whether
+this idea was definitely agreed on as the basis of the plan of
+campaign. There are signs that Abdul-Kerim and Osman Pasha adopted
+it, but whether it was ever approved by the War Council at
+Constantinople is a different question. Such a plan obviously
+implied the possession of great powers of self-control by the
+Sultan and his advisers, in face of the initial success of the
+Russians; and unless that self-control was proof against panic, the
+design could not but break down at the crucial point. Signs are not
+wanting that in the suggestions here tentatively offered, we find a
+key that unlocks the riddle of the Danubian campaign of 1877.</p>
+<p>At first Abdul-Kerim in the Quadrilateral, and Osman at Widdin,
+maintained a strict defensive. The former posted small bodies of
+troops, probably not more than 20,000 in all, at Sistova,
+Nicopolis, and other neighbouring points. But, apart from a heavy
+bombardment of Russian and Roumanian posts on the northern bank,
+neither commander did much to mar the hostile preparations. This
+want of initiative, which contrasted with the enterprise displayed
+by the Turks in 1854, enabled the invaders to mature their designs
+with little or no interruption.</p>
+<p>The Russian plan of campaign was to destroy or cripple the four
+small Turkish ironclads that patrolled the lower <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page197" id="page197"></a>[pg 197]</span>
+reaches of the river, to make feints at several points, and to
+force a passage at two places--first near Ibrail into the
+Dobrudscha, and thereafter, under cover of that diversion, from
+Simnitza to Sistova. The latter place of crossing combined all the
+possible advantages. It was far enough away from the Turkish
+Quadrilateral to afford the first essentials of safety; it was
+known to be but weakly held; its position on the shortest line of
+road between the Danube and a practicable pass of the Balkans--the
+Shipka Pass--formed a strong recommendation; while the presence of
+an island helped on the first preparations.</p>
+<p>The flood of the Danube having at last subsided, all was ready
+by midsummer. Russian batteries and torpedo-boats had destroyed two
+Turkish armoured gunboats in the lower reaches of the river, and on
+June 22 a Russian force crossed in boats from a point near Galatz
+to Matchin, and made good their hold on the Dobrudscha.</p>
+<p>Preparations were also ripe at Simnitza. In the narrow northern
+arm of the river the boats and pontoons collected by the Russians
+were launched with no difficulty, the island was occupied, and on
+the night of June 26-27, a Volhynian regiment, along with Cossacks,
+crossed in boats over the broad arm of the river, there some 1000
+yards wide, and gained a foothold on the bank. Already their
+numbers were thinned by a dropping fire from a Turkish detachment;
+but the Turks made the mistake of trusting to the bullet instead of
+plying the bayonet. Before dawn broke, the first-comers had been
+able to ensconce themselves under a bank until other boats came up.
+Then with rousing cheers they charged the Turks and pressed them
+back.</p>
+<p>This was the scene which greeted the eyes of General Dragomiroff
+as his boat drew near to the shore at 5 A.M. Half hidden by the
+morning mist, the issue seemed doubtful. But at his side stood a
+general, fresh from triumphs in Turkestan, who had begged to be
+allowed to come as volunteer or aide-de-camp. When Dragomiroff, in
+an agony of suspense, lowered his glass, the other continued to
+gaze, and at last <span class="pagenum"><a name="page198" id=
+"page198"></a>[pg 198]</span> exclaimed: "I congratulate you on
+your victory." "Where do you see that?" asked Dragomiroff "Where?
+on the faces of the soldiers. Look at them. Watch them as they
+charge the enemy. It is a pleasure to see them." The verdict was
+true. It was the verdict of Skobeleff<a name=
+"FNanchor137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137">[137]</a>.</p>
+<p>Such was the first appearance in European warfare of the
+greatest leader of men that Russia has produced since the days of
+Suvoroff. The younger man resembled that sturdy veteran in his
+passion for war, his ambition, and that frank, bluff bearing which
+always wins the hearts of the soldiery. The grandson of a peasant,
+whose bravery had won him promotion in the great year, 1812; the
+son of a general whose prowess was renowned--Skobeleff was at once
+a commander and a soldier. "Ah! he knew the soul of a soldier as if
+he were himself a private." These were the words often uttered by
+the Russians about Skobeleff; similar things had been said of
+Suvoroff in his day. For champions such as these the emotional
+Slavs will always pour out their blood like water. But, like the
+captor of Warsaw, Skobeleff knew when to put aside the bayonet and
+win the day by skill. Both were hard hitters, but they had a hold
+on the principles of the art of war. The combination of these
+qualities was formidable; and many Russians believe that, had the
+younger man, with his magnificent physique and magnetic
+personality, enjoyed the length of days vouchsafed to the
+diminutive Suvoroff, he would have changed the face of two
+continents.</p>
+<p>The United States attach&eacute; to the Russian army in the
+Russo-Turkish War afterwards spoke of his military genius as
+"stupendous," and prophesied that, should he live twenty years
+longer, and lead the Russian armies in the next Turkish war, he
+would win a place side by side with "Napoleon, Wellington, Grant,
+and Moltke." To equate these four names is a mark of transatlantic
+enthusiasm rather than of balanced judgment; <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page199" id="page199"></a>[pg 199]</span> but
+the estimate, so far as it concerns Skobeleff, reflects the opinion
+of nearly all who knew him<a name="FNanchor138"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_138">[138]</a>.</p>
+<p>Encouraged by the advent of Skobeleff and Dragomiroff, the
+Russians assumed the offensive with full effect, and by the
+afternoon of that eventful day, had mastered the rising ground
+behind Sistova. Here again the Turkish defence was tame. The town
+was unfortified, but its outskirts presented facilities for
+defence. Nevertheless, under the pressure of the Russian attack and
+of artillery fire from the north bank, the small Turkish garrison
+gave up the town and retreated towards Rustchuk. At many points on
+that day the Russians treated their foes to a heavy bombardment or
+feints of crossing, especially at Nicopolis and Rustchuk; and this
+accounts for the failure of the defenders to help the weak garrison
+on which fell the brunt of the attack. All things considered, the
+crossing of the Danube must rank as a highly creditable
+achievement, skilfully planned and stoutly carried out; it cost the
+invaders scarcely 700 men<a name="FNanchor139"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_139">[139]</a>.</p>
+<p>They now threw a pontoon-bridge across the Danube between
+Simnitza and Sistova; and by July 2 had 65,000 men and 244 cannon
+in and near the latter town. Meanwhile, their 14th corps held the
+central position of Babadagh in the Dobrudscha, thereby preventing
+any attack from the north-east side of the Quadrilateral against
+their communications with the south of Russia.</p>
+<p>It may be questioned, however, whether the invaders did well to
+keep so large a force in the Dobrudscha, seeing that a smaller body
+of light troops patrolling the left bank of the lower Danube or at
+the <i>t&ecirc;te de pont</i> at Matchin would have answered the
+same purpose. The chief use of the crossing at Matchin was to
+distract the attention of the enemy, an advance through the
+unhealthy district of the Dobrudscha against the Turkish
+Quadrilateral being in every way risky; above all, the retention
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page200" id="page200"></a>[pg
+200]</span> of a whole corps on that side weakened the main line of
+advance, that from Sistova; and here it was soon clear that the
+Russians had too few men for the enterprise in hand. The
+pontoon-bridge over the Danube was completed by July 2--a fact
+which enabled those troops which were in Roumania to be hurried
+forward to the front.</p>
+<p>Obviously it was unsafe to march towards the Balkans until both
+flanks were secured against onsets from the Quadrilateral on the
+east, and from Nicopolis and Widdin on the west. At Nicopolis,
+twenty-five miles away, there were about 10,000 Turks; and around
+Widdin, about 100 miles farther up the stream, Osman mustered
+40,000 more. To him Abdul-Kerim now sent an order to march against
+the flank of the invaders.</p>
+<p>Nor were the Balkan passes open to the Russians; for, after the
+crossing of the Danube, Reuf Pasha had orders to collect all
+available troops for their defence, from the Shipka Pass to the
+Slievno Pass farther east; 7000 men now held the Shipka; about
+10,000 acted as a general reserve at Slievno; 3000 were thrown
+forward to Tirnova, where the mountainous country begins, and
+detachments held the more difficult tracks over the mountains. An
+urgent message was also sent to Suleiman Pasha to disengage the
+largest possible force from the Montenegrin war; and, had he
+received this message in time, or had he acted with the needful
+speed and skill, events might have gone very differently.</p>
+<p>For some time the Turks seemed to be paralysed at all points by
+the vigour of the Muscovite movements. Two corps, the 13th and
+14th, marched south-east from Sistova to the torrent of the Jantra,
+or Yantra, and seized Biela, an important centre of roads in that
+district. This secured them against any immediate attack from the
+Quadrilateral. The Grand Duke Nicholas also ordered the 9th corps,
+under the command of General Kr&uuml;dener, to advance from Sistova
+and attack the weakly fortified town of Nicopolis. Aided by the
+Roumanian guns on the north bank of the Danube, this <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page201" id="page201"></a>[pg 201]</span> corps
+succeeded in overpowering the defence and capturing the town, along
+with 7000 troops and 110 guns (July 16).</p>
+<p>Thus the invaders seemed to have gained a secure base on the
+Danube, from Sistova to Nicopolis, whence they could safely push
+forward their vanguard to the Balkans. In point of fact their light
+troops had already seized one of its more difficult passes--an
+exploit that will always recall the name of that dashing leader,
+General Gurko. The plan now to be described was his conception; it
+was approved by the Grand Duke Nicholas. Setting out from Sistova
+and drawing part of his column from the forces at Biela, Gurko
+first occupied the important town of Tirnova, the small Turkish
+garrison making a very poor attempt to defend the old Bulgarian
+capital (July 7). The liberators there received an overwhelming
+ovation, and gained many recruits for the "Bulgarian Legion."
+Pushing ahead, the Cossacks and Dragoons seized large supplies of
+provisions stored by the Turks, and gained valuable news respecting
+the defences of the passes.</p>
+<p>The Shipka Pass, due south of Tirnova, was now strongly held,
+and Turkish troops were hurrying towards the two passes north of
+Slievno, some fifty miles farther east. Even so they had not enough
+men at hand to defend all the passes of the mountain chain that
+formed their chief line of defence. They left one of them
+practically undefended; this was the Khainkoi Pass, having an
+elevation of 3700 feet above the sea.</p>
+<p>A Russian diplomatist, Prince Tserteleff, who was charged to
+collect information about the passes, found that the Khainkoi
+enjoyed an evil reputation. "Ill luck awaits him who crosses the
+Khainkoi Pass," so ran the local proverb. He therefore determined
+to try it; by dint of questioning the friendly Bulgarian peasantry
+he found one man who had been through it once, and that was two
+years before with an ox-cart. Where an ox-cart could go, a light
+mountain gun could go. Accordingly, the Prince and General Rauch
+went with 200 Cossacks to explore the pass, set the men to work at
+the worst places, and, thanks to the secrecy observed by the
+peasantry, soon <span class="pagenum"><a name="page202" id=
+"page202"></a>[pg 202]</span> made the path to the summit
+practicable for cavalry and light guns. The Prince disguised
+himself as a Bulgarian shepherd to examine the southern outlet;
+and, on his bringing a favourable report, 11,000 men of Gurko's
+command began to thread the intricacies of the defile.</p>
+<p>Thanks to good food, stout hearts, jokes, and songs, they
+managed to get the guns up the worst places. Then began the perils
+of the descent. But the Turks knew nothing of their effort, else it
+might have ended far otherwise. At the southern end 300 Turkish
+regulars were peacefully smoking their pipes and cooking their food
+when the Cossack and Rifles in the vanguard burst upon them, drove
+them headlong, and seized the village of Khainkoi. A pass over the
+Balkans had been secured at the cost of two men killed and three
+wounded. Gurko was almost justified in sending to the Grand Duke
+Nicholas the proud vaunt that none but Russian soldiers could have
+brought field artillery over such a pass, and in the short space of
+three days (July 11-14)<a name="FNanchor140"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_140">[140]</a>.</p>
+<p>After bringing his column of 11,000 men through the pass, Gurko
+drove off four Turkish battalions sent against him from the Shipka
+Pass and Kazanlik. Next he sent out bands of Cossacks to spread
+terror southwards, and delude the Turks into the belief that he
+meant to strike at the important towns, Jeni Zagra and Eski Zagra,
+on the road to Adrianople. Having thus caused them to loosen their
+grip on Kazanlik and the Shipka, he wheeled his main force to the
+westward (leaving 3500 men to hold the exit of the Khainkoi), and
+drove the Turks successively from positions in front of the town,
+from the town itself, and then from the village of Shipka. Above
+that place towered the mighty wall of the Balkans, lessened
+somewhat at the pass itself, but presenting even there a seemingly
+impregnable position.</p>
+<p>Gurko, however, relied on the discouragement of the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page203" id="page203"></a>[pg 203]</span>
+Turkish garrison after the defeats of their comrades, and at seeing
+their positions turned on the south while they were also threatened
+on the north. For another Russian column had advanced from Tirnova
+up the more gradual northern slopes of the Balkans, and now began
+to hammer at the defences of the pass on that side. The garrison
+consisted of six and a half battalions under Khulussi Pasha, and
+the wreckage of five battalions already badly beaten by Gurko's
+column. These, with one battery of artillery, held the pass and the
+neighbouring peaks, which they had in part fortified.</p>
+<p>In pursuance of a pre-arranged plan for a joint attack on July
+17 of both Russian forces, the northern body advanced up the
+slopes; but, as Gurko's men were unable to make their diversion in
+time, the attack failed. An isolated attempt by Gurko's force on
+the next day also failed, the defenders disgracing themselves by
+tricking the Russians with the white flag and firing upon them. But
+the Turks were now in difficulties for want of food and water; or
+possibly they were seized with panic. At any rate, while amusing
+the Russians with proposals of surrender, they stole off in small
+bodies, early on July 19. The truth was, ere long, found out by
+outposts of the north Russian forces; Skobeleff and his men were
+soon at the summit, and there Gurko's vanguard speedily joined them
+with shouts of joy.</p>
+<p>Thus, within twenty-three days from the crossing of the Danube
+Gurko seized two passes of the Balkans, besides capturing 800
+prisoners and 13 guns. It is not surprising that a Turkish official
+despatch of July 21 to Suleiman summed up the position: "The
+existence of the Empire hangs on a hair." And when Gurko's light
+troops proceeded to raid the valley of the Maritsa, it seemed that
+the Turkish defence would collapse as helplessly as in the
+memorable campaign of 1828. We must add here that the Bulgarians
+now began to revenge themselves for the outrages of May 1876; and
+the struggle was sullied by horrible acts on both sides.</p>
+<p>The impression produced by these dramatic strokes was profound
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page204" id="page204"></a>[pg
+204]</span> and widespread. The British fleet was sent to Besika
+Bay, a step preparatory, as it seemed, to steaming up the
+Dardanelles to the Sea of Marmora. At Adrianople crowds of Moslems
+fled away in wild confusion towards Constantinople. There the
+frequent meetings of ministers at the Sultan's palace testified to
+the extent of the alarm; and that nervous despot wavered between
+the design of transferring the seat of government to Brussa in Asia
+Minor, and that of unfurling the standard of the Prophet and
+summoning all the faithful to rally to its defence against the
+infidels. Finally he took courage from despair, and adopted the
+more manly course. But first he disgraced his ministers. The War
+Minister and Abdul-Kerim were summarily deposed, the latter being
+sent off as prisoner to the island of Lemnos.</p>
+<p>All witnesses agree that the War Minister, Redif Pasha, was
+incapable and corrupt. The age and weakness of Abdul-Kerim might
+have excused his comparative inaction in the Quadrilateral in the
+first half of July. It is probable that his plan of campaign,
+described above, was sound; but he lacked the vigour, and the
+authorities at Constantinople lacked the courage, to carry it out
+thoroughly and consistently.</p>
+<p>Mehemet Ali Pasha, a renegade German, who had been warring with
+some success in Montenegro, assumed the supreme command on July 22;
+and Suleiman Pasha, who, with most of his forces had been brought
+by sea from Antivari to the mouth of the River Maritsa, now
+gathered together all the available troops for the defence of
+Roumelia.</p>
+<p>The Czar, on his side, cherished hopes of ending the war while
+Fortune smiled on his standards. There are good grounds for
+thinking that he had entered on it with great reluctance. In its
+early stages he let the British Government know of his desire to
+come to terms with Turkey; and now his War Minister, General
+Milutin, hinted to Colonel F.A. Wellesley, British attach&eacute;
+at headquarters, that the mediation of Great Britain would be
+welcomed by Russia. That officer on July 30 had an interview with
+the Emperor, who set forth the conditions on which he would be
+prepared to accept peace <span class="pagenum"><a name="page205"
+id="page205"></a>[pg 205]</span> with Turkey. They were--the
+recovery of the strip of Bessarabia lost in 1856, and the
+acquisition of Batoum in Asia Minor. Alexander II. also stated that
+he would not occupy Constantinople unless that step were
+necessitated by the course of events; that the Powers would be
+invited to a conference for the settlement of Turkish affairs; and
+that he had no wish to interfere with the British spheres of
+interest already referred to. Colonel Wellesley at once left
+headquarters for London, but on the following day the aspect of the
+campaign underwent a complete change, which, in the opinion of the
+British Government, rendered futile all hope of a settlement on the
+conditions laid down by the Czar.<a name="FNanchor141"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_141">[141]</a></p>
+<p>For now, when the Turkish cause seemed irrevocably lost, the
+work of a single brave man to the north of the Balkans dried up, as
+if by magic, the flood of invasion, brought back victory to the
+standards of Islam, and bade fair to overwhelm the presumptuous
+Muscovites in the waters of the Danube. Moltke in his account of
+the war of 1828, had noted a peculiarity of the Ottomans in warfare
+(a characteristic which they share with the glorious defenders of
+Saragossa in 1808) of beginning the real defence when others would
+abandon it as hopeless. This remark, if not true of the Turkish
+army as a whole, certainly applies to that part of it which was
+thrilled to deeds of daring by Osman Pasha.</p>
+<p>More fighting had fallen to him perhaps than to any Turk of his
+time. He was now forty years of age; his frame, slight and of
+middle height, gave no promise of strength or capacity; neither did
+his face, until the observer noted the power of his eyes to take in
+the whole situation "with one slow comprehensive look<a name=
+"FNanchor142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142">[142]</a>." This gave him
+a magnetic faculty, the effect of which was not wholly marred by
+his disdainful manners, curt speech, and contemptuous treatment of
+foreigners. Clearly here was a cold, sternly objective nature like
+that of Bonaparte. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page206" id=
+"page206"></a>[pg 206]</span> He was a good representative of the
+stolid Turk of the provinces, who, far from the debasing influence
+of the Court, retains the fanaticism and love of war on behalf of
+his creed that make his people terrible even in the days of
+decline<a name="FNanchor143"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_143">[143]</a>.</p>
+<p>In accordance with the original design of Abdul-Kerim, Osman had
+for some time remained passive at Widdin. On receiving orders from
+the commander-in-chief, he moved eastwards on July 13, with 40,000
+men, to save Nicopolis. Finding himself too late to save that place
+he then laid his plans for the seizure of Plevna. The importance of
+that town, as a great centre of roads, and as possessing many
+advantages for defence on the hills around, had been previously
+pointed out to the Russian Staff by Prince Charles of Roumania, as
+indeed, earlier still, by Moltke. Accordingly, the Grand Duke
+Nicholas had directed a small force of cavalry towards that town.
+General Kr&uuml;dener made the mistake of recalling it in order to
+assist in the attack on Nicopolis on July 14-16, an unlucky move,
+which enabled Osman to occupy Plevna without resistance on July
+19<a name="FNanchor144"></a><a href="#Footnote_144">[144]</a>. On
+the 18th the Grand Duke Nicholas ordered General Kr&uuml;dener to
+occupy Plevna. Knowing nothing of Osman's whereabouts, his vanguard
+advanced heedlessly on the town, only to meet with a very decided
+repulse, which cost the Russians 3000 men (July 20).</p>
+<p>Osman now entrenched himself on the open downs that stretch
+eastwards from Plevna. As will be seen by reference to the map on
+<a href="#page213">page 213</a>, his position, roughly speaking,
+formed an ellipse pointing towards the village of Grivitza. Above
+that village his engineers threw up two great redoubts which
+dominated the neighbourhood. Other redoubts and trenches screened
+Plevna on the north-east and south. Finally, the crowns of three
+main slopes lying to the east of Plevna bristled with defensive
+works. West of the town lay the deep vale of the little River Wid,
+itself the chief defence on that side. We may state here that
+during the long operations against Plevna <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page207" id="page207"></a>[pg 207]</span> the
+Russians had to content themselves with watching this western road
+to Orkanye and Sofia by means of cavalry; but the reinforcements
+from Sofia generally made their way in. From that same quarter the
+Turks were also able to despatch forces to occupy the town of
+Lovtcha, between Plevna and the Shipka Pass.</p>
+<p>The Russian Staff, realising its error in not securing this
+important centre of roads, and dimly surmising the strength of the
+entrenchments which Osman was throwing up near to the base of their
+operations, determined to attack Plevna at once. Their task proved
+to be one of unexpected magnitude. Already the long curve of the
+outer Turkish lines spread along slopes which formed natural
+glacis, while the ground farther afield was so cut up by hollows as
+to render one combined assault very difficult. The strength, and
+even the existence, of some of Osman's works were unknown. Finally,
+the Russians are said to have had only 32,000 infantry men at hand
+with two brigades of cavalry.</p>
+<p>Nevertheless, Generals Kr&uuml;dener and Schahofski received
+orders to attack forthwith. They did so on July 31. The latter,
+with 12,000 men took two of the outer redoubts on the south side,
+but had to fall back before the deadly fire that poured on him from
+the inner works. Kr&uuml;dener operated against the still stronger
+positions on the north; but, owing to difficulties that beset his
+advance, he was too late to make any diversion in favour of his
+colleague. In a word, the attack was ill planned and still worse
+combined. Five hours of desperate fighting yielded the assailants
+not a single substantial gain; their losses were stated officially
+to be 7336 killed and wounded; but this is certainly below the
+truth. Turkish irregulars followed the retreating columns at
+nightfall, and butchered the wounded, including all whom they found
+in a field-hospital.</p>
+<p>This second reverse at Plevna was a disaster of the first
+magnitude. The prolongation of the Russian line beyond the Balkans
+had left their base and flanks too weak to stand against the
+terrible blows that Osman seemed about to deal <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page208" id="page208"></a>[pg 208]</span> from
+his point of vantage. Plevna was to their right flank what Biela
+was to their left. Troops could not be withdrawn from the latter
+point lest the Turks from Shumla and Rustchuk should break through
+and cut their way to the bridge at Sistova; and now Osman's force
+threatened that spinal cord of the Russian communications. If he
+struck how could the blow be warded off? For bad news poured in
+from all quarters. From Armenia came the tidings that Mukhtar
+Pasha, after a skilful retreat and concentration of force, had
+turned on the Russians and driven them back in utter confusion.</p>
+<p>From beyond the Balkans Gurko sent news that Suleiman's army was
+working round by way of Adrianople, and threatened to pin him to
+the mountain chain. In fact, part of Gurko's corps sustained a
+serious reverse at Eski Zagra, and had to retreat in haste through
+the Khainkoi Pass; while its other sections made their way back to
+the Shipka Pass, leaving a rearguard to hold that important
+position (July 30-August 8). Thus, on all sides, proofs accumulated
+that the invaders had attempted far too much for their strength,
+and that their whole plan of campaign was more brilliant than
+sound. Possibly, had not the 14th corps been thrown away on the
+unhealthy Dobrudscha, enough men would have been at hand to save
+the situation. But now everything was at stake.</p>
+<p>The whole of the month of August was a time of grave crisis for
+the Russians, and it is the opinion of the best military critics
+that the Turks, with a little more initiative and power of
+combination, might have thrown the Russians back on the Danube in
+utter disarray. From this extremity the invaders were saved by the
+lack among the Turks of the above-named gifts, on which, rather
+than on mere bravery, the issue of campaigns and the fate of
+nations now ultimately depend. True to their old renown, the Turks
+showed signal prowess on the field of battle, but they lacked the
+higher intellectual qualities that garner the full harvest of
+results.</p>
+<p>Osman, either because he knew not that the Russians had used up
+their last reserves at Plevna, or because he mistrusted
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page209" id="page209"></a>[pg
+209]</span> the manoeuvring powers of his men, allowed
+Kr&uuml;dener quietly to draw off his shattered forces towards
+Sistova, and made only one rather half-hearted move against that
+all-important point. The new Turkish commander-in-chief, Mehemet
+Ali, gathered a formidable array in front of Shumla and drove the
+Russian army now led by the Cesarewich back on Biela, but failed to
+pierce their lines. Finally, Suleiman Pasha, in his pride at
+driving Gurko through the Khainkoi Pass, wasted time on the
+southern side, first by harrying the wretched Bulgarians, and then
+by hurling his brave troops repeatedly against the now almost
+impregnable position on the Shipka Pass.</p>
+<p>It is believed that jealousy of the neighbouring Turkish
+generals kept Suleiman from adopting less wasteful and more
+effective tactics. If he had made merely a feint of attacking that
+post, and had hurried with his main body through the Slievno Pass
+on the east to the aid of Mehemet, or through the western defiles
+of the Balkans to the help of the brave Osman in his Plevna-Lovtcha
+positions, probably the gain of force to one or other of them might
+have led to really great results. As it was, these generals dealt
+heavy losses to the invaders, but failed to drive them back on the
+Danube.</p>
+<p>Moreover, Russian reinforcements began to arrive by the middle
+of August, the Emperor having already, on July 22, called out the
+first ban of the militia and three divisions of the reserve of the
+line, in all some 224,000 men<a name="FNanchor145"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_145">[145]</a>.</p>
+<p>The bulk of these men did not arrive until September; and
+meanwhile the strain was terrible. The war correspondence of Mr.
+Archibald Forbes reveals the state of nervous anxiety in which
+Alexander II. was plunged at this time. Forbes had been a witness
+of the savage tenacity of the Turkish attack and the Russian
+defence on the hills commanding the Shipka Pass. Finally, he had
+shared in the joy of the hard-pressed defenders at the timely
+advent of a rifle battalion hastily sent up on Cossack ponies, and
+the decisive charge of General Radetzky at the head of two
+companies of reserves at a Turkish breastwork <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page210" id="page210"></a>[pg 210]</span> in the
+very crisis of the fight (Aug. 24). Then, after riding post-haste
+northwards to the Russian headquarters at Gornisstuden, he was at
+once taken to the Czar's tent, and noted the look of eager suspense
+on his face until he heard the reassuring news that Radetzky kept
+his seat firm on the pass.</p>
+<p>The worst was now over. The Russian Guards, 50,000 strong, were
+near at hand, along with the other reinforcements above named. The
+urgency of the crisis also led the Grand Duke Nicholas to waive his
+claim that the Roumanian troops should be placed under his
+immediate command. Accordingly, early in August, Prince Charles led
+some 35,000 Roumanians across the Danube, and was charged with the
+command of all the troops around Plevna<a name=
+"FNanchor146"></a><a href="#Footnote_146">[146]</a>. The hopes of
+the invaders were raised by Skobeleff's capture, on September 3, of
+Lovtcha, a place half-way between Plevna and the Balkans, which had
+ensured Osman's communications with Suleiman Pasha. The Turkish
+losses at Lovtcha are estimated at nearly 15,000 men<a name=
+"FNanchor147"></a><a href="#Footnote_147">[147]</a>.</p>
+<p>This success having facilitated the attack on Plevna from the
+south, a general assault was ordered for September 11. In the
+meantime Osman also had received large reinforcements from Sofia,
+and had greatly strengthened his defences. So skilfully had
+outworks been thrown up on the north-east of Plevna that what
+looked like an unimportant trench was found to be a new and
+formidable redoubt, which foiled the utmost efforts of the 3rd
+Roumanian division to struggle up the steep slopes on that side. To
+their 4th division and to a Russian brigade fell an equally hard
+task, that of advancing from the east against the two Grivitza
+redoubts which had defied all assaults. The Turks showed their
+usual constancy, despite the heavy and prolonged bombardment which
+preluded the attack here and all along the lines. But the weight
+and vigour of the onset told by degrees; and the Russian and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page211" id="page211"></a>[pg
+211]</span> Roumanian supports finally carried by storm the more
+southerly of the two redoubts. The Turks made desperate efforts to
+retrieve this loss. From the northern redoubt and the rear
+entrenchments somewhat to the south there came a galling fire which
+decimated the victors; for a time the Turks succeeded in recovering
+the work, but at nightfall the advance of other Russian and
+Roumanian troops ousted the Moslems. Thenceforth the redoubt was
+held by the allies.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, to the south of the village of Grivitza the 4th and
+9th Russian Corps had advanced in dense masses against the cluster
+of redoubts that crowned the heights south-east of Plevna; but
+their utmost efforts were futile; under the fearful fire of the
+Turks the most solid lines melted away, and the corps fell back at
+nightfall, with the loss of 110 officers and 5200 men.</p>
+<p>Only on the south and south-west did the assailants seriously
+imperil Osman's defence at a vital point; and here again Fortune
+bestowed her favours on a man who knew how to wrest the utmost from
+her, Michael Dimitrievitch Skobeleff. Few men or women could look
+on his stalwart figure, frank, bold features, and keen, kindling
+eyes without a thrill of admiration. Tales were told by the
+camp-fires of the daring of his early exploits in Central Asia;
+how, after the capture of Khiva in 1874, he dressed himself in
+Turkoman garb, and alone explored the route from that city to Igdy,
+as well as the old bed of the River Oxus; or again how, at the
+capture of Khokand in the following year, his skill and daring led
+to the overthrow of a superior force and the seizure of fifty-eight
+guns. Thus, at thirty-two years of age he was the darling of the
+troops; for his prowess in the field was not more marked than his
+care and foresight in the camp. While other generals took little
+heed of their men, he saw to their comforts and cheered them by his
+jokes. They felt that he was the embodiment of the patriotism, love
+of romantic exploit, and soaring ambition of the Great
+Russians.</p>
+<p>They were right. Already, as will appear in a later chapter,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page212" id="page212"></a>[pg
+212]</span> he was dreaming of the conquest of India; and, like
+Napoleon, he could not only see visions but also master details,
+from the principles of strategy to the routine of camp life, which
+made those visions realisable. If ambition spurred him on towards
+Delhi, hatred of things Teutonic pointed him to Berlin. Ill would
+it have fared with the peace of the world had this champion of the
+Slavonic race lived out his life. But his fiery nature wore out its
+tenement, the baser passions, so it is said, contributing to hasten
+the end of one who lived his true life only amidst the smoke of
+battle. In war he was sublime. Having recently came from Central
+Asia, he was at first unattached to any corps, and roved about in
+search of the fiercest fighting. His insight and skill had warded
+off a deadly flank attack on Schahofski's shattered corps at Plevna
+on July 30, and his prowess had contributed largely to the capture
+of Lovtcha on September 3. War correspondents, who knew their
+craft, turned to follow Skobeleff, wherever official reports might
+otherwise direct them; and the lust of fighting laid hold of the
+grey columns when they saw the "white general" approach.</p>
+<p>On September 11 Prince Imeritinski and Skobeleff (the order
+should be inverted) commanded the extreme left of the Russian line,
+attacking Plevna from the south. Having four regiments of the line
+and four battalions of sharpshooters--about 12,000 men in all--he
+ranged them at the foot of the hill, whose summit was crowned by an
+all-important redoubt-the "Kavanlik." There were four others that
+flanked the approach. When the Russian guns had thoroughly cleared
+the way for an assault, he ordered the bands to play and the two
+leading regiments to charge up the slope. Keeping his hand firmly
+on the pulse of the battle, he saw them begin to waver under the
+deadly fire of the Turks; at once he sent up a rival regiment; the
+new mass carried on the charge until it too threatened to die away.
+The fourth regiment struggled up into that wreath of death, and
+with the like result.</p>
+<p>Then Skobeleff called on his sharpshooters to drive home</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page213" id="page213"></a>[pg
+213]</span>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/img004.jpg"><img src=
+"images/img004.jpg" width="90%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Plan of Plevna.</b></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page214" id="page214"></a>[pg
+214]</span>
+<p>the onset. Riding on horseback before the invigorating lines, he
+swept on the stragglers and waverers until all of them came under
+the full blast of the Turkish flames vomited from the redoubt.
+There his sword fell, shivered in his hand, and his horse rolled
+over at the very verge of the fosse. Fierce as ever, the leader
+sprang to his feet, waved the stump in air, and uttered a shout
+which put fresh heart into his men. With him they swarmed into the
+fosse, up the bank, and fell on the defenders. The bayonet did the
+rest, taking deadly revenge for the murderous volleys.</p>
+<p>But Osman's engineers had provided against such an event. The
+redoubt was dominated from the left and could be swept by cross
+fire from the rear and right. On the morrow the Turks drew in large
+forces from the north side and pressed the victors hard. In vain
+did Skobeleff send urgent messages for reinforcements to make good
+the gaps in his ranks. None were sent, or indeed could be sent.
+Five times his men beat off the foe. The sixth charge hurled them
+first from the Kavanlik redoubt, and thereafter from the flanking
+works and trenches out on to that fatal slope. A war correspondent
+saw Skobeleff after this heart-breaking loss, "his face black with
+powder and smoke, his eyes haggard and bloodshot, and his voice
+quite gone. I never before saw such a picture of battle<a name=
+"FNanchor148"></a><a href="#Footnote_148">[148]</a>."</p>
+<p>Thus all the efforts of the Russians and Roumanians had failed
+to wrest more than a single redoubt from the Moslems; and at that
+point they were unable to make any advance against the inner works.
+The fighting of September 11-12 is believed to have cost the allies
+18,000 men killed and wounded out of the 75,000 infantrymen
+engaged. The mistakes of July 31 had been again repeated. The
+number of assailants was too small for an attack on so great an
+extent of fortified positions defended with quick-firing rifles.
+Had the Russians, while making feints at other points to hold the
+Turks there, concentrated their efforts either on the two Grivitza
+redoubts, or <span class="pagenum"><a name="page215" id=
+"page215"></a>[pg 215]</span> on those about the Kavanlik work,
+they would almost certainly have succeeded. As it was, they hurled
+troops in close order against lines, the strength of which was not
+well known; and none of their commanders but Skobeleff employed
+tactics that made the most of their forces<a name=
+"FNanchor149"></a><a href="#Footnote_149">[149]</a>. The depression
+at the Russian headquarters was now extreme<a name=
+"FNanchor150"></a><a href="#Footnote_150">[150]</a>. On September
+13 the Emperor held a council of war at which the Prince of
+Roumania, the Grand Duke Nicholas, General Milutin (Minister of
+War), and three other generals were present. The Grand Duke
+declared that the only prudent course was to retire to the Danube,
+construct a <i>t&ecirc;te de pont</i> guarding the southern end of
+their bridge and, after receiving reinforcements, again begin the
+conquest of Bulgaria. General Milutin, however, demurred to this,
+seeing that Osman's army was not mobile enough to press them hard;
+he therefore proposed to await the reinforcements in the positions
+around Plevna. The Grand Duke thereupon testily exclaimed that
+Milutin had better be placed in command, to which the Emperor
+replied: "No; you shall retain the command; but the plan suggested
+by the Minister of War shall be carried out<a name=
+"FNanchor151"></a><a href="#Footnote_151">[151]</a>."</p>
+<p>The Emperor's decision saved the situation. The Turks made no
+combined effort to advance towards Plevna in force; and Osman felt
+too little trust in the new levies that reached him from Sofia to
+move into the open and attack Sistova. Indeed, Turkish strategy
+over the whole field of war is open to grave censure. On their side
+there was a manifest lack of combination. Mehemet Ali pounded away
+for a month at the army of the Czarewitch on the River Lom, and
+then drew back his forces (September 24). He allowed Suleiman Pasha
+to fling his troops in vain against the natural stronghold of the
+Russians at the Shipka Pass, and had made no dispositions for
+succouring Lovtcha. Obviously he should have concentrated the
+Turkish forces so as to deal a timely and decisive blow either on
+the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page216" id="page216"></a>[pg
+216]</span> Lom or on the Sofia-Plevna road. When he proved his
+incapacity both as commander-in-chief and as commander of his own
+force, Turkish jealousy against the <i>quondam</i> German flared
+forth; and early in October he was replaced by Suleiman. The change
+was greatly for the worse. Suleiman's pride and obstinacy closed
+the door against larger ideas, and it has been confidently stated
+that at the end of the campaign he was bribed by the Russians to
+betray his cause. However that may be, it is certain that the
+Turkish generals continued to fight, each for his own hand, and
+thus lost the campaign.</p>
+<p>It was now clear that Osman must be starved out from the
+position which the skill of his engineers and the steadiness of his
+riflemen had so speedily transformed into an impregnable
+stronghold. Todleben, the Russian engineer, who had strengthened
+the outworks of Sevastopol, had been called up to oppose trench to
+trench, redoubt to redoubt. Yet so extensive were the Turkish
+works, and so active was Shevket Pasha's force at Sofia in sending
+help and provisions, that not until October 24 was the line of
+investment completed, and by an army which now numbered fully
+120,000 men. By December 10 Osman came to the end of his resources
+and strove to break out on the west over the River Wid towards
+Sofia. Masking the movement with great skill, he inflicted heavy
+losses on the besiegers. Slowly, however, they closed around him,
+and a last scene of slaughter ended in the surrender of the 43,000
+half-starved survivors, with the 77 guns that had wrought such
+havoc among the invaders. Osman's defence is open to criticism at
+some points, but it had cost Russia more than 50,000 lives, and
+paralysed her efforts in Europe during five months.</p>
+<p>The operations around Plevna are among the most instructive in
+modern warfare, as illustrating the immense power that quick-firing
+rifles confer upon the defence. Given a nucleus of well-trained
+troops, with skilled engineers, any position of ordinary strength
+can quickly be turned into a stronghold that will foil the efforts
+of a far greater number of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page217"
+id="page217"></a>[pg 217]</span> assailants. Experience at Plevna
+showed that four or five times as many men were needed to attack
+redoubts and trenches as in the days of muzzle-loading muskets. It
+also proved that infantry fire is far more deadly in such cases
+than the best served artillery. And yet a large part of Osman's
+troops--perhaps the majority after August--were not regulars.
+Doubtless that explains why (with the exception of an obstinate but
+unskilful effort to break out on August 31) he did not attack the
+Russians in the open after his great victories of July 31 and
+September 11-12. On both occasions the Russians were so badly
+shaken that, in the opinion of competent judges, they could easily
+have been driven in on Nicopolis or Sistova, in which case the
+bridges at those places might have been seized. But Osman did not
+do so, doubtless because he knew that his force, weak in cavalry
+and unused to manoeuvring, would be at a disadvantage in the open.
+Todleben, however, was informed on good authority that, when the
+Turkish commander heard of the likelihood of the investment of
+Plevna, he begged the Porte to allow him to retire; but the
+assurance of Shevket Pasha, the commander of the Turkish force at
+Sofia, that he could keep open communications between that place
+and Plevna, decided the authorities at Constantinople to order the
+continuance of defensive tactics<a name="FNanchor152"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_152">[152]</a>.</p>
+<p>Whatever may have been the cause of this decision it ruined the
+Turkish campaign. Adherence to the defensive spells defeat now, as
+it has always done. Defeat comes more slowly now that quick-firing
+rifles quadruple the power of the defence; but all the same it must
+come if the assailant has enough men to throw on that point and
+then at other points. Or, to use technical terms, while modern
+inventions alter tactics, that is, the dispositions of troops on
+the field of battle--a fact which the Russians seemed to ignore at
+Plevna--they do not change the fundamental principles of strategy.
+These are practically <span class="pagenum"><a name="page218" id=
+"page218"></a>[pg 218]</span> immutable, and they doom to failure
+the side that, at the critical points, persists in standing on the
+defensive. A study of the events around Plevna shows clearly what a
+brave but ill-trained army can do and what it cannot do under
+modern conditions.</p>
+<p>From the point of view of strategy--that is, the conduct of the
+great operations of a campaign--Osman's defence of Plevna yields
+lessons of equal interest. It affords the most brilliant example in
+modern warfare of the power of a force strongly intrenched in a
+favourable position to "contain," that is, to hold or hold back, a
+greater force of the enemy. Other examples are the Austrian defence
+of Mantua in 1796-97, which hindered the young Bonaparte's invasion
+of the Hapsburg States; Bazaine's defence of Metz in 1870; and Sir
+George White's defence of Ladysmith against the Boers. We have no
+space in which to compare these cases, in which the conditions
+varied so greatly. Suffice it to say that Mantua and Plevna were
+the most effective instances, largely because those strongholds lay
+near the most natural and easy line of advance for the invaders.
+Metz and Ladysmith possessed fewer advantages in this respect; and,
+considering the strength of the fortress and the size and quality
+of his army, Bazaine's conduct at Metz must rank as the weakest on
+record; for his 180,000 troops "contained" scarcely more than their
+own numbers of Germans.</p>
+<p>On the other hand, Osman's force brought three times its number
+of Russians to a halt for five months before hastily constructed
+lines. In the opinion of many authorities the Russians did wrong in
+making the whole campaign depend on Plevna. When it was clear that
+Osman would cling to the defensive, they might with safety have
+secretly detached part of the besieging force to help the army of
+the Czarewitch to drive back the Turks on Shumla. This would have
+involved no great risk; for the Russians occupied the inner lines
+of what was, roughly speaking, a triangle, resting on the Shipka
+Pass, the River Lom, and Plevna as its extreme points. Having the
+advantage of the inner position, they could quickly <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page219" id="page219"></a>[pg 219]</span> have
+moved part of their force at Plevna, battered in the Turkish
+defence on the Lom, and probably captured the Slievno passes. In
+that case they would have cleared a new line of advance to
+Constantinople farther to the east, and made the possession of
+Plevna of little worth. Its value always lay in its nearness to
+their main line of advance, but they were not tied to that line. It
+is safe to say that, if Moltke had directed their operations, he
+would have devised some better plan than that of hammering away at
+the redoubts of Plevna.</p>
+<p>In fact, the Russians made three great blunders: first, in
+neglecting to occupy Plevna betimes; second, in underrating Osman's
+powers of defence; third, in concentrating all their might on what
+was a very strong, but not an essential, point of the campaign.</p>
+<p>The closing scenes of the war are of little interest except in
+the domain of diplomacy. Servia having declared war against Turkey
+immediately after the fall of Plevna, the Turks were now hopelessly
+outnumbered. Gurko forced his way over one of the western passes of
+the Balkans, seized Sofia (January 4, 1878), and advancing quickly
+towards Philippopolis, utterly routed Suleiman's main force near
+that town (January 17). The Turkish commander-in-chief thus paid
+for his mistake in seeking to defend a mountain chain with several
+passes by distributing his army among those passes. Experience has
+proved that this invites disaster at the hands of an enterprising
+foe, and that the true policy is to keep light troops or scouts at
+all points, and the main forces at a chief central pass and at a
+convenient place in the rear, whence the invaders may be readily
+assailed before they complete the crossing. As it was, Suleiman saw
+his main force, still nearly 50,000 strong, scatter over the
+Rhodope mountains; many of them reached the Aegean Sea at Enos,
+whence they were conveyed by ship to the Dardanelles. He himself
+was tried by court-martial and imprisoned for fifteen years<a name=
+"FNanchor153"></a><a href="#Footnote_153">[153]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page220" id="page220"></a>[pg
+220]</span>
+<p>A still worse fate befell those of his troops which hung about
+Radetzky's front below the Shipka Pass. The Russians devised
+skilful moves for capturing this force. On January 5-8 Prince
+Mirsky threaded his way with a strong column through the deep snows
+of the Travna Pass, about twenty-five miles east of the Shipka,
+which he then approached; while Skobeleff struggled through a still
+more difficult defile west of the central position. The total
+strength of the Russians was 56,000 men. On the 8th, when their
+cannon were heard thundering in the rear of the Turkish earthworks
+at the foot of the Shipka Pass, Radetzky charged down on the
+Turkish positions in front, while Mirsky assailed them from the
+east. Skobeleff meanwhile had been detained by the difficulties of
+the path and the opposition of the Turks on the west. But on the
+morrow his onset on the main Turkish positions carried all before
+it. On all sides the Turks were worsted and laid down their arms;
+36,000 prisoners and 93 guns (so the Russians claim) were the prize
+of this brilliant feat (January 9, 1878)<a name=
+"FNanchor154"></a><a href="#Footnote_154">[154]</a>.</p>
+<p>In Roumelia, as in Armenia, there now remained comparatively few
+Turkish troops to withstand the Russian advance, and the capture of
+Constantinople seemed to be a matter of a few weeks. There are
+grounds for thinking that the British Ministry, or certainly its
+chief, longed to send troops from Malta to help in its defence.
+Colonel Wellesley, British attach&eacute; at the Russian
+headquarters, returned to London at the time when the news of the
+crossing of the Balkans reached the Foreign Office. At once he was
+summoned to see the Prime Minister, who inquired eagerly as to the
+length of time which would elapse before the Russians occupied
+Adrianople. The officer thought that that event might occur within
+a month--an estimate which proved to be above the mark. Lord
+Beaconsfield was deeply concerned to hear this and added, "If you
+can only guarantee me six weeks, I see my way." He did not further
+explain his meaning; but Colonel Wellesley felt sure that he wished
+to move British troops from <span class="pagenum"><a name="page221"
+id="page221"></a>[pg 221]</span> Malta to Constantinople<a name=
+"FNanchor155"></a><a href="#Footnote_155">[155]</a>. Fortunately
+the Russian advance to Adrianople was so speedy--their vanguard
+entered that city on January 20--as to dispose of any such project.
+But it would seem that only the utter collapse of the Turkish
+defence put an end to the plans of part at least of the British
+Cabinet for an armed intervention on behalf of Turkey.</p>
+<p>Here, then, as at so many points of their history, the Turks
+lost their opportunity, and that, too, through the incapacity and
+corruption of their governing class. The war of 1877 ended as so
+many of their wars had ended. Thanks to the bravery of their rank
+and file and the mistakes of the invaders, they gained tactical
+successes at some points; but they failed to win the campaign owing
+to the inability of their Government to organise soundly on a great
+scale, and the intellectual mediocrity of their commanders in the
+sphere of strategy. Mr. Layard, who succeeded Sir Henry Elliot at
+Constantinople early in 1878, had good reason for writing, "The
+utter rottenness of the present system has been fully revealed by
+the present war<a name="FNanchor156"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_156">[156]</a>." Whether Suleiman was guilty of perverse
+obstinacy, or, as has often been asserted, of taking bribes from
+the Russians, cannot be decided. What is certain is that he was
+largely responsible for the final <i>d&eacute;bacle</i>.</p>
+<p>But in a wider and deeper sense the Turks owed their misfortunes
+to themselves--to their customs and their creed. Success in war
+depends ultimately on the brain-power of the chief leaders and
+organisers; and that source of strength has long ago been dried up
+in Turkey by adhesion to a sterilising creed and cramping
+traditions. The wars of the latter half of the nineteenth century
+are of unique interest, not only because they have built up the
+great national fabrics of to-day, but also because they illustrate
+the truth of that suggestive remark of the great Napoleon, "The
+general who does great things is he who also possesses qualities
+adapted for civil life."</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_129"></a><a href="#FNanchor129">[129]</a>
+Hertslet, vol. iv. p. 2625.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_130"></a><a href="#FNanchor130">[130]</a>
+<i>The Campaign in Bulgaria</i>, by F.V. Greene, pt. ii. ch. i.;
+W.V. Herbert, <i>The Defence of Plevna</i>, chaps, i.-ii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor131">[131]</a>
+<i>Aus drei Kriegen</i>, by Gen. von Lignitz, p. 99.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor132">[132]</a>
+<i>With the Russians in War and Peace</i>, by Colonel F.A.
+Wellesley (1905), ch. xvii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor133">[133]</a>
+Hertslet, vol. iv. p. 2577.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor134">[134]</a>
+<i>Reminiscences of the King of Roumania</i>, edited by S. Whitman
+(1899), pp. 269, 274.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_135"></a><a href="#FNanchor135">[135]</a>
+Farcy, <i>La Guerre sur le Danube</i>, p. 73. For other
+malpractices see Colonel F.A. Wellesley's <i>With the Russians in
+Peace and War</i>, chs. xi. xii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_136"></a><a href="#FNanchor136">[136]</a>
+<i>Punch</i> hit off the situation by thus parodying the well-known
+line of Horace: "Russicus expectat dum defluat amnis."</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_137"></a><a href="#FNanchor137">[137]</a>
+Quoted from a report by an eye-witness, by "O.K." (Madame
+Novikoff), <i>Skobeleff and the Slavonic Cause</i>, p. 38. The
+crossing was planned by the Grand Duke Nicholas; see von Lignitz,
+<i>Aus drei Kriegen</i>, p. 149.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor138">[138]</a> F.V.
+Green, <i>Sketches of Army Life in Russia</i>, p. 142.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor139">[139]</a>
+Farcy, <i>La Guerre sur le Danube</i>, ch. viii.; <i>Daily News
+Correspondence of the War of 1877-78</i>, ch. viii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor140">[140]</a>
+<i>General Gurko's Advance Guard In 1877</i>, by Colonel Epauchin,
+translated by H. Havelock (The Wolseley Series, 1900), ch. ii.;
+<i>The Daily News War Correspondence</i> (1877), pp. 263-270.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor141">[141]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 9 (1878), Nos. 2, 3. <i>With the Russians
+in Peace and War</i>, by Colonel the Hon. F.A. Wellesley, ch.
+xx.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_142"></a><a href="#FNanchor142">[142]</a> W.W.
+Herbert, <i>The Defence of Plevna</i>, p. 81.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_143"></a><a href="#FNanchor143">[143]</a> For
+these qualities, see <i>Turkey in Europe</i>, by "Odysseus," p.
+97.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_144"></a><a href="#FNanchor144">[144]</a>
+Herbert, <i>The Defence of Plevna</i>, p. 129.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_145"></a><a href="#FNanchor145">[145]</a> F.V.
+Greene, <i>The Campaign in Bulgaria</i>, p. 225.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_146"></a><a href="#FNanchor146">[146]</a>
+<i>Reminiscences of the King of Roumania</i>, p. 275.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_147"></a><a href="#FNanchor147">[147]</a> F.V.
+Greene, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 232.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_148"></a><a href="#FNanchor148">[148]</a>
+<i>War Correspondence of the "Daily News,"</i> pp. 479-483. For
+another character-sketch of Skobeleff see the <i>Fortnightly
+Review</i> of Oct. 1882, by W.K. Rose.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_149"></a><a href="#FNanchor149">[149]</a> For
+an account of the battle, see Greene, <i>op. cit.</i> pt. ii. chap.
+v.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_150"></a><a href="#FNanchor150">[150]</a> Gen.
+von. Lignitz, <i>Aus drei Kriegen</i>, p. 167.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_151"></a><a href="#FNanchor151">[151]</a> Col.
+F.A. Wellesley, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 281.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_152"></a><a href="#FNanchor152">[152]</a> A.
+Forbes, <i>Czar and Sultan</i>, p. 291. On the other hand, W.V.
+Herbert (<i>op. cit.</i> p. 456) states that it was Osman's wish to
+retire to Orkanye, on the road to Sofia, and that this was
+forbidden. For remarks on this see Greene, <i>op. cit.</i> chap.
+viii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_153"></a><a href="#FNanchor153">[153]</a> Sir
+N. Layard attributed to him the overthrow of Turkey. See his letter
+of February 1, 1878, in <i>Sir W. White: Life and
+Correspondence</i>, p. 127.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_154"></a><a href="#FNanchor154">[154]</a>
+Greene, <i>op. cit.</i> chap. xi. I have been assured by an
+Englishman serving with the Turks that these numbers were greatly
+exaggerated.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_155"></a><a href="#FNanchor155">[155]</a>
+<i>With the Russians in Peace and War</i>, by Colonel F.A.
+Wellesley, p. 272.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_156"></a><a href="#FNanchor156">[156]</a>
+<i>Sir William White: Life and Correspondence</i>, p. 128.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page222" id="page222"></a>[pg
+222]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+<h3>THE BALKAN SETTLEMENT</h3>
+<blockquote>New hopes should animate the world; new light<br>
+Should dawn from new revealings to a race<br>
+Weighed down so long, forgotten so long.<br>
+<br>
+ROBERT BROWNING, <i>Paracelsus</i>.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>The collapse of the Turkish defence in Roumelia inaugurated a
+time of great strain and stress in Anglo-Russian relations. On
+December 13, 1877, that is, three days after the fall of Plevna,
+Lord Derby reminded the Russian Government of its promise of May
+30, 1876, that the acquisition of Constantinople was excluded from
+the wishes and intentions of the Emperor Alexander II., and
+expressed the earnest hope that the Turkish capital would not be
+occupied, even for military purposes. The reply of the Russian
+Chancellor (December 16) was reserved. It claimed that Russia must
+have full right of action, which is the right of every belligerent,
+and closed with a request for a clearer definition of the British
+interests which would be endangered by such a step. In his answer
+of January 13, 1878, the British Foreign Minister specified the
+occupation of the Dardanelles as an event that would endanger the
+good relations between England and Russia; whereupon Prince
+Gortchakoff, on January 16, 1878, gave the assurance that this step
+would not be taken unless British forces were landed at Gallipoli,
+or Turkish troops were concentrated there.</p>
+<p>So far this was satisfactory; but other signs seemed to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page223" id="page223"></a>[pg
+223]</span> betoken a resolve on the part of Russia to gain time
+while her troops pressed on towards Constantinople. The return of
+the Czar to St. Petersburg after the fall of Plevna had left more
+power in the hands of the Grand Duke Nicholas and of the many
+generals who longed to revenge themselves for the disasters in
+Bulgaria by seizing Constantinople.</p>
+<p>In face of the probability of this event, public opinion in
+England underwent a complete change. Russia appeared no longer as
+the champion of oppressed Christians, but as an ambitious and
+grasping Power. Mr. Gladstone's impassioned appeals for
+non-intervention lost their effect, and a warlike feeling began to
+prevail. The change of feeling was perfectly natural. Even those
+who claimed that the war might have been averted by the adoption of
+a different policy by the Beaconsfield Cabinet, had to face the
+facts of the situation; and these were extremely grave.</p>
+<p>The alarm increased when it was known that Turkey, on January 3,
+1878, had appealed to the Powers for their mediation, and that
+Germany had ostentatiously refused. It seemed probable that Russia,
+relying on the support of Germany, would endeavour to force her own
+terms on the Porte. Lord Loftus, British Ambassador at St.
+Petersburg, was therefore charged to warn the Ministers of the Czar
+(January 16) that any treaty made separately between Russia and
+Turkey, which affected the international treaties of 1856 and 1871,
+would not be valid without the consent of all the signatory Powers.
+Four days later the Muscovite vanguard entered Adrianople, and it
+appeared likely that peace would soon be dictated at Constantinople
+without regard to the interests of Great Britain and Austria.</p>
+<p>Such was the general position when Parliament met at Westminster
+on January 17. The Queen's Speech contained the significant phrase
+that, should hostilities be unfortunately prolonged, some
+unexpected occurrence might render it incumbent to adopt measures
+of precaution. Five days later it transpired that the Sultan had
+sent an appeal to Queen Victoria <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page224" id="page224"></a>[pg 224]</span> for her mediation with a
+view to arranging an armistice and the discussion of the
+preliminaries of peace. In accordance with this appeal, the Queen
+telegraphed to the Emperor of Russia in these terms:--</p>
+<blockquote>I have received a direct appeal from the Sultan which I
+cannot<br>
+leave without an answer. Knowing that you are sincerely
+desirous<br>
+of peace, I do not hesitate to communicate this fact to you, in
+hope<br>
+that you may accelerate the negotiations for the conclusion of
+an<br>
+armistice which may lead to an honourable peace.</blockquote>
+<p>This communication was sent with the approval of the Cabinet.
+The nature of the reply is not known. Probably it was not
+encouraging; for on the next day (January 23) the British Admiralty
+ordered Admiral Hornby with the Mediterranean fleet to steam up the
+Dardanelles to Constantinople. On the following day this was
+annulled, and the Admiral was directed not to proceed beyond Besika
+Bay<a name="FNanchor157"></a><a href="#Footnote_157">[157]</a>. The
+original order was the cause of the resignation of Lord Carnarvon.
+The retirement of Lord Derby was also announced, but he afterwards
+withdrew it, probably on condition that the fleet did not enter the
+Sea of Marmora.</p>
+<p>Light was thus thrown on the dissensions in the Cabinet, and the
+vacillations in British policy. Disraeli once said in his whimsical
+way that there were six parties in the Ministry. The first party
+wanted immediate war with Russia; the second was for war in order
+to save Constantinople; the third was for peace at any price; the
+fourth would let the Russians take Constantinople and <i>then</i>
+turn them out; the fifth wanted to plant the cross on the dome of
+St. Sofia; "and then there are the Prime Minister and the
+Chancellor of the Exchequer, who desire to see something done, but
+don't know exactly what<a name="FNanchor158"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_158">[158]</a>." The coupling of himself with the
+amiable Sir Stafford <span class="pagenum"><a name="page225" id=
+"page225"></a>[pg 225]</span> Northcote is a good instance of
+Disraelian irony. It is fairly certain that he was for war with
+Russia; that Lord Carnarvon constituted the third party, and Lord
+Derby the fourth.</p>
+<p>On the day after the resignation of Lord Carnarvon, the British
+Cabinet heard for the first time what were the demands of Russia.
+They included the formation of a Greater Bulgaria, "within the
+limits of the Bulgarian nationality," practically independent of
+the Sultan's direct control; the entire independence of Roumania,
+Servia, and Montenegro; a territorial and pecuniary indemnity to
+Russia for the expenses of the war; and "an ulterior understanding
+for safeguarding the rights and interests of Russia in the
+Straits."</p>
+<p>The extension of Bulgaria to the shores of the Aegean seemed at
+that time a mighty triumph for Russian influence; but it was the
+last item, vaguely foreshadowing the extension of Russian influence
+to the Dardanelles, that most aroused the alarm of the British
+Cabinet. Russian control of those straits would certainly have
+endangered Britain's connections with India by way of the Suez
+Canal, seeing that we then had no foothold in Egypt. Accordingly,
+on January 28, the Ministry proposed to Parliament the voting of an
+additional sum of &pound;6,000,000 towards increasing the armaments
+of the country. At once there arose strong protests against this
+proposal, especially from the districts then suffering from the
+prolonged depression of trade. The outcry was very natural; but
+none the less it can scarcely be justified in view of the magnitude
+of the British interests then at stake. Granted that the views of
+the Czar were pacific, those of his generals at the seat of war
+were very much open to question<a name="FNanchor159"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_159">[159]</a>. The long coveted prize of
+Constantinople, or the Dardanelles, was likely to tempt them to
+disregard official orders from St. Petersburg, unless they knew
+that any imprudent step would bring on a European <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page226" id="page226"></a>[pg 226]</span> war.
+In any case, the vote of &pound;6,000,000 was a precautionary
+measure; and it probably had the effect of giving pause to the
+enthusiasts at the Russian headquarters.</p>
+<p>The preliminary bases of peace between Russia and Turkey were
+signed at Adrianople (Jan. 31) on the terms summarised above,
+except that the Czar's Ministers now withdrew the obnoxious clause
+about the Straits. A line of demarcation was also agreed on between
+the hostile forces; it passed from Derkos, a lake near the Black
+Sea, to the north of Constantinople, in a southerly direction by
+the banks of the Karasou stream as far as the Sea of Marmora. This
+gave to the Russians the lines of Tchekmedje, the chief natural
+defence of Constantinople, and they occupied this position on
+February 6. This fact was reported by Mr. Layard, Sir Henry
+Elliot's successor at Constantinople, in alarmist terms, and it had
+the effect of stilling the opposition at Westminster to the vote of
+credit. Though official assurances of a reassuring kind came from
+Prince Gortchakoff at St. Petersburg, the British Ministry on
+February 7 ordered a part of the Mediterranean fleet to enter the
+Sea of Marmora for the defence of British interests and the
+protection of British subjects at Constantinople. The Czar's
+Government thereupon declared that if the British fleet steamed up
+the Bosporus, Russian troops would enter Constantinople for the
+protection of the Christian population.</p>
+<p>This rivalry in philanthropic zeal was not pushed to its logical
+issue, war. The British fleet stopped short of the Bosporus, but
+within sight of the Russian lines. True, these were pushed
+eastwards slightly beyond the limits agreed on with the Turks; but
+an arrangement was arrived at between Lord Derby and Prince
+Gortchakoff (Feb. 19) that the Russians would not occupy the lines
+of Bulair close to Constantinople, or the Peninsula of Gallipoli
+commanding the Dardanelles, provided that British forces were not
+landed in that important strait<a name="FNanchor160"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_160">[160]</a>. So matters rested, both sides regarding
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page227" id="page227"></a>[pg
+227]</span> each other with the sullenness of impotent wrath. As
+Bismarck said, a war would have been a fight between an elephant
+and a whale.</p>
+<p>The situation was further complicated by an invasion of Thessaly
+by the Greeks (Feb. 3); but they were withdrawn at once on the
+urgent remonstrance of the Powers, coupled with a promise that the
+claims of Greece would be favourably considered at the general
+peace<a name="FNanchor161"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_161">[161]</a>.</p>
+<p>In truth, all the racial hatreds, aspirations, and ambitions
+that had so long been pent up in the south-east of Europe now
+seemed on the point of bursting forth and overwhelming civilisation
+in a common ruin. Just as the earth's volcanic forces now and again
+threaten to tear their way through the crust, so now the immemorial
+feuds of Moslems and Christians, of Greeks, Servians, Bulgars,
+Wallachs, and Turks, promised to desolate the slopes of the
+Balkans, of Rhodope and the Pindus, and to spread the lava tide of
+war over the half of the Continent. The Russians and Bulgars,
+swarming over Roumelia, glutted their revenge for past defeats and
+massacres by outrages well-nigh as horrible as that of Batak. At
+once the fierce Moslems of the Rhodope Mountains rose in
+self-defence or for vengeance. And while the Russian eagles
+perforce checked their flight within sight of Stamboul, the Greeks
+and Armenians of that capital--nay, the very occupants of the
+foreign embassies--trembled at sight of the lust of blood that
+seized on the vengeful Ottomans.</p>
+<p>Nor was this all. Far away beyond the northern horizon the war
+cloud hung heavily over the Carpathians. The statesmen of Vienna,
+fearing that the terms of their bargain with Russia were now
+forgotten in the intoxication of her triumph, determined to compel
+the victors to lay their spoils before the Great Powers. In haste
+the Austrian and Hungarian troops took station on the great bastion
+of the Carpathians, and began to exert on the military situation
+the pressure which had been so fatal to Russia in her Turkish
+campaign of 1854.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page228" id="page228"></a>[pg
+228]</span>
+<p>But though everything betokened war, there were forces that
+worked slowly but surely for a pacific settlement. However
+threatening was the attitude of Russia, her rulers really desired
+peace. The war had shown once again the weakness of that Power for
+offence. Her strength lies in her boundless plains, in the devotion
+of her millions of peasants to the Czar, and in the patient,
+stubborn strength which is the outcome of long centuries of
+struggle with the yearly tyrant, winter. Her weakness lies in the
+selfishness, frivolity, corruption, and narrowness of outlook of
+her governing class--in short, in their incapacity for
+organisation. Against the steady resisting power of her peasants
+the great Napoleon had hurled his legions in vain. That campaign of
+1812 exhibited the strength of Russia for defence. But when, in
+fallacious trust in that precedent, she has undertaken great wars
+far from her base, failure has nearly always been the result. The
+pathetic devotion of her peasantry has not made up for the mental
+and moral defects of her governing classes. This fact had fixed
+itself on every competent observer in 1877. The Emperor Alexander
+knew it only too well. Now, early in 1878, it was fairly certain
+that his army would succumb under the frontal attacks of Turks and
+British, and the onset of the Austrians on their rear.</p>
+<p>Therefore when, on Feb. 4, the Hapsburg State proposed to refer
+the terms of peace to a Conference of the Powers at Vienna, the
+consent of Russia was almost certain, provided that the prestige of
+the Czar remained unimpaired. Three days later the place of meeting
+was changed to Berlin, the Conference also becoming a Congress,
+that is, a meeting where the chief Ministers of the Powers, not
+merely their Ambassadors, would take part. The United Kingdom,
+France, and Italy at once signified their assent to this proposal.
+As for Bismarck, he promised in a speech to the Reichstag (Feb. 19)
+that he would act as an "honest broker" between the parties most
+nearly concerned. There is little doubt that Russia took this in a
+sense favourable to her claims, and she, too, consented.</p>
+<p>Nevertheless, she sought to tie the hands of the Congress by
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page229" id="page229"></a>[pg
+229]</span> binding Turkey to a preliminary treaty signed on March
+3 at San Stefano, a village near to Constantinople. The terms
+comprised those stated above (p. 225), but they also stipulated the
+cession of frontier districts to Servia and Montenegro, while
+Russia was to acquire the Roumanian districts east of the River
+Pruth, Roumania receiving the Dobrudscha as an equivalent. Most
+serious of all was the erection of Bulgaria into an almost
+independent Principality, extending nearly as far south as Midia
+(on the Black Sea), Adrianople, Salonica, and beyond Ochrida in
+Albania. As will be seen by reference to the map (p. 239), this
+Principality would then have comprised more than half of the Balkan
+Peninsula, besides including districts on the &AElig;gean Sea and
+around the town of Monastir, for which the Greeks have never ceased
+to cherish hopes. A Russian Commissioner was to supervise the
+formation of the government for two years; all the fortresses on
+the Danube were to be razed, and none others constructed; Turkish
+forces were required entirely to evacuate the Principality, which
+was to be occupied by Russian troops for a space of time not
+exceeding two years.</p>
+<p>On her side, Turkey undertook to grant reforms to the Armenians,
+and protect them from Kurds and Circassians, Russia further claimed
+1,410,000,000 roubles as war indemnity, but consented to take the
+Dobrudscha district (offered to Roumania, as stated above), and in
+Asia the territories of Batoum, Kars, Ardahan, and Bayazid, in lieu
+of 1,100,000,000 roubles. The Porte afterwards declared that it
+signed this treaty under persistent pressure from the Grand Duke
+Nicholas and General Ignatieff, who again and again declared that
+otherwise the Russians would advance on the capital<a name=
+"FNanchor162"></a><a href="#Footnote_162">[162]</a>.</p>
+<p>At once, from all parts of the Balkan Peninsula, there arose a
+chorus of protests against the Treaty of San Stefano. The
+Mohammedans of the proposed State of Bulgaria protested against
+subjection to their former helots. The Greeks saw in <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page230" id="page230"></a>[pg 230]</span> the
+treaty the death-blow to their hopes of gaining the northern coasts
+of the Aegean and a large part of Central Macedonia. They
+fulminated against the Bulgarians as ignorant peasants, whose cause
+had been taken up recently by Russia for her own
+aggrandisement<a name="FNanchor163"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_163">[163]</a>. The Servians were equally indignant.
+They claimed, and with justice, that their efforts against the
+Turks should be rewarded by an increase of territory which would
+unite to them their kinsfolk in Macedonia and part of Bosnia, and
+place them on an equality with the upstart State of Bulgaria.
+Whereas the treaty assigned to these prot&eacute;g&eacute;s of
+Russia districts inhabited solely by Servians, thereby barring the
+way to any extension of that Principality.</p>
+<p>Still more urgent was the protest of the Roumanian Government.
+In return for the priceless services rendered by his troops at
+Plevna, Prince Charles and his Ministers were kept in the dark as
+to the terms arranged between Russia and Turkey. The Czar sent
+General Ignatieff to prepare the Prince for the news, and sought to
+mollify him by the hint that he might become also Prince of
+Bulgaria--a suggestion which was scornfully waved aside. The
+Government at Bukharest first learnt the full truth as to the
+Bessarabia-Dobrudscha exchange from the columns of the <i>Journal
+du St. P&eacute;tersbourg</i>, which proved that the much-prized
+Bessarabian territory was to be bargained away by the Power which
+had solemnly undertaken to uphold the integrity of the
+Principality. The Prince, the Cabinet, and the people unanimously
+inveighed against this proposal. On Feb. 4 the Roumanian Chamber of
+Deputies declared that Roumania would defend its territory to the
+last, by armed force if necessary; but it soon appeared that none
+of the Powers took any interest in the matter, and, thanks to the
+prudence of Prince Charles, the proud little nation gradually
+schooled itself to accept the inevitable<a name=
+"FNanchor164"></a><a href="#Footnote_164">[164]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page231" id="page231"></a>[pg
+231]</span>
+<p>The peace of Europe now turned on the question whether the
+Treaty of San Stefano would be submitted as a whole to the Congress
+of the Powers at Berlin; England claimed that it must be so
+submitted. This contention, in its extreme form, found no support
+from any of the Powers, not even from Austria, and it met with firm
+opposition from Russia. She, however, assured the Viennese Court
+that the Congress would decide which of the San Stefano terms
+affected the interests of Europe and would pronounce on them. The
+Beaconsfield Cabinet later on affirmed that "every article in the
+treaty between Russia and Turkey will be placed before the
+Congress--not necessarily for acceptance, but in order that it may
+be considered what articles require acceptance or concurrence by
+the several Powers and what do not<a name=
+"FNanchor165"></a><a href="#Footnote_165">[165]</a>."</p>
+<p>When this much was conceded, there remained no irreconcilable
+difference, unless the treaty contained secret articles which
+Russia claimed to keep back from the Congress. As far as we know,
+there were none. But the fact is that the dispute, small as it now
+appears to us, was intensified by the suspicions and resentment
+prevalent on both sides. The final decision of the St. Petersburg
+Government was couched in somewhat curt and threatening terms: "It
+leaves to the other Powers the liberty of raising such questions at
+the Congress as they may think it fit to discuss, and reserves to
+itself the liberty of accepting, or not accepting, the discussion
+of these questions<a name="FNanchor166"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_166">[166]</a>."</p>
+<p>This haughty reply, received at Downing Street on March 27,
+again brought the two States to the verge of war. Lord
+Beaconsfield, and all his colleagues but one, determined to make
+immediate preparations for the outbreak of hostilities; while Lord
+Derby, clinging to the belief that peace would best be preserved by
+ordinary negotiations, resigned the portfolio for foreign affairs
+(March 28); two days later he was <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page232" id="page232"></a>[pg 232]</span> succeeded by the Marquis
+of Salisbury<a name="FNanchor167"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_167">[167]</a>. On April 1 the Prime Minister gave
+notice of motion that the reserves of the army and militia should
+be called out; and on the morrow Lord Salisbury published a note
+for despatch to foreign courts summarising the grounds of British
+opposition to the Treaty of San Stefano, and to Russia's
+contentions respecting the Congress.</p>
+<p>Events took a still more threatening turn fifteen days later,
+when the Government ordered eight Indian regiments, along with two
+batteries of artillery, to proceed at once to Malta. The measure
+aroused strong differences of opinion, some seeing in it a masterly
+stroke which revealed the greatness of Britain's resources, while
+the more nervous of the Liberal watch-dogs bayed forth their fears
+that it was the beginning of a Strafford-like plot for undermining
+the liberties of England.</p>
+<p>So sharp were the differences of opinion in England, that Russia
+would perhaps have disregarded the threats of the Beaconsfield
+Ministry had she not been face to face with a hostile Austria. The
+great aim of the Czar's government was to win over the Dual
+Monarchy by offering a share of the spoils of Turkey. Accordingly,
+General Ignatieff went on a mission to the continental courts,
+especially to that of Vienna, and there is little doubt that he
+offered Bosnia to the Hapsburg Power. That was the least which
+Francis Joseph and Count Andrassy had the right to expect, for the
+secret compact made before the war promised them as much. In view
+of the enormous strides contemplated by Russia, they now asked for
+certain rights in connection with Servia and Montenegro, and
+commercial privileges that would open a way to Salonica<a name=
+"FNanchor168"></a><a href="#Footnote_168">[168]</a>. But Russia's
+aims, as expressed at San Stefano, clearly were to dominate the
+Greater Bulgaria there foreshadowed, which would probably shut out
+Austria from political and commercial influence over the regions
+north of Salonica. Ignatieff's effort to gain over Austria
+therefore failed; and it was doubtless <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page233" id="page233"></a>[pg 233]</span> Lord
+Beaconsfield's confidence in the certainty of Hapsburg support in
+case of war that prompted his defiance alike of Russia and of the
+Liberal party at home.</p>
+<p>The Czar's Government also was well aware of the peril of
+arousing a European war. Nihilism lifted its head threateningly at
+home; and the Russian troops before Constantinople were dying like
+flies in autumn. The outrages committed by them and the Bulgarians
+on the Moslems of Roumelia had, as we have seen, led to a revolt in
+the district of Mount Rhodope; and there was talk in some quarters
+of making a desperate effort to cut off the invaders from the
+Danube<a name="FNanchor169"></a><a href="#Footnote_169">[169]</a>.
+The discontent of the Roumanians might have been worked upon so as
+still further to endanger the Russian communications. Probably the
+knowledge of these plans and of the warlike preparations of Great
+Britain induced the Russian Government to moderate its tone. On
+April 9 it expressed a wish that Lord Salisbury would formulate a
+definite policy.</p>
+<p>The new Foreign Minister speedily availed himself of this offer;
+and the cause of peace was greatly furthered by secret negotiations
+which he carried on with Count Shuvaloff. The Russian ambassador in
+London had throughout bent his great abilities to a pacific
+solution of the dispute, and, on finding out the real nature of the
+British objections to the San Stefano Treaty, he proceeded to St.
+Petersburg to persuade the Emperor to accept certain changes. In
+this he succeeded, and on his return to London was able to come to
+an agreement with Lord Salisbury (May 30), the chief terms of which
+clearly foreshadowed those finally adopted at Berlin.</p>
+<p>In effect they were as follows: The Beaconsfield Cabinet
+strongly objected to the proposed wide extension of Bulgaria at the
+expense of other nationalities, and suggested that the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page234" id="page234"></a>[pg 234]</span>
+districts south of the Balkans, which were peopled almost wholly by
+Bulgarians, should not be wholly withdrawn from Turkish control,
+but "should receive a large measure of administrative
+self-government . . . with a Christian governor." To these proposals
+the Russian Government gave a conditional assent. Lord Salisbury
+further claimed that the Sultan should have the right "to canton
+troops on the frontiers of southern Bulgaria"; and that the militia
+of that province should be commanded by officers appointed by the
+Sultan with the consent of Europe. England also undertook to see
+that the cause of the Greeks in Thessaly and Epirus received the
+attention of all the Powers, in place of the intervention of Russia
+alone on their behalf, as specified in the San Stefano Treaty.</p>
+<p>Respecting the cession of Roumanian Bessarabia to Russia, on
+which the Emperor Alexander had throughout insisted (see page 205),
+England expressed "profound regret" at that demand, but undertook
+not to dispute it at the Congress. On his side the Emperor
+Alexander consented to restore Bayazid in Asia Minor to the Turks,
+but insisted on the retention of Batoum, Kars, and Ardahan. Great
+Britain acceded to this, but hinted that the defence of Turkey in
+Asia would thenceforth rest especially upon her--a hint to prepare
+Russia for the Cyprus Convention.</p>
+<p>For at this same time the Beaconsfield Cabinet had been treating
+secretly with the Sublime Porte. When Lord Salisbury found out that
+Russia would not abate her demands for Batoum, Ardahan, and Kars,
+he sought to safeguard British interests in the Levant by acquiring
+complete control over the island of Cyprus. His final instructions
+to Mr. Layard to that effect were telegraphed on May 30, that is,
+on the very day on which peace with Russia was practically
+assured<a name="FNanchor170"></a><a href="#Footnote_170">[170]</a>.
+The Porte, unaware of the fact that there was little fear of the
+renewal of hostilities, agreed to the secret Cyprus Convention on
+June 4; while Russia, knowing little or <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page235" id="page235"></a>[pg 235]</span>
+nothing as to Britain's arrangement with the Porte, acceded to the
+final arrangements for the discussion of Turkish affairs at Berlin.
+It is not surprising that this manner of doing business aroused
+great irritation both at St. Petersburg and Constantinople. Count
+Shuvaloff's behaviour at the Berlin Congress when the news came out
+proclaimed to the world that he considered himself tricked by Lord
+Beaconsfield; while that statesman disdainfully sipped nectar of
+delight that rarely comes to the lips even of the gods of
+diplomacy.</p>
+<p>The terms of the Cyprus Convention were to the effect that, if
+Russia retained the three districts in Asia Minor named above, or
+any of them (as it was perfectly certain that she would); or if she
+sought to take possession of any further Turkish territory in Asia
+Minor, Great Britain would help the Sultan by force of arms. He, on
+his side assigned to Great Britain the island of Cyprus, to be
+occupied and administered by her. He further promised "to introduce
+necessary reforms, to be agreed upon later between the two Powers,
+into the government, and for the protection of the Christian and
+other subjects of the Porte in these territories." On July I
+Britain also covenanted to pay to the Porte the surplus of revenue
+over expenditure in Cyprus, calculated upon the average of the last
+five years, and to restore Cyprus to Turkey if Russia gave up Kars
+and her other acquisitions<a name="FNanchor171"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_171">[171]</a>.</p>
+<p>Fortified by the secret understanding with Russia, and by the
+equally secret compact with Turkey, the British Government could
+enter the Congress of the Powers at Berlin with complete
+equanimity. It is true that news as to the agreement with Russia
+came out in a London newspaper which at once published a general
+description of the Anglo-Russian agreement of May 30; and when the
+correctness of the news was stoutly denied by Ministers, the
+original deed was given to the world by the same newspaper on June
+14; but again vigorous disclaimers <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page236" id="page236"></a>[pg 236]</span> and denials were given
+from the ministerial bench in Parliament<a name=
+"FNanchor172"></a><a href="#Footnote_172">[172]</a>. Thus, when
+Lords Beaconsfield and Salisbury proceeded to Berlin for the
+opening of the Congress (June 13), they were believed to hold the
+destinies of the British Empire in their hands, and the world
+waited with bated breath for the scraps of news that came from that
+centre of diplomacy.</p>
+<p>On various details there arose sharp differences which the
+tactful humour of the German Chancellor could scarcely set at rest.
+The fate of nations seemed to waver in the balance when Prince
+Gortchakoff gathered up his maps and threatened to hurry from the
+room, or when Lord Beaconsfield gave pressing orders for a special
+train to take him back to Calais; but there seemed good grounds for
+regarding these incidents rather as illustrative of character, or
+of the electioneering needs of a sensational age, than as throes in
+the birth of nationalities. The "Peace with honour," which the
+Prime Minister on his return announced at Charing Cross to an
+admiring crowd, had virtually been secured at Downing Street before
+the end of May respecting all the great points in dispute between
+England and Russia.</p>
+<p>We know little about the inner history of the Congress of
+Berlin, which is very different from the official Protocols that
+half reveal and half conceal its debates. One fact and one incident
+claim attention as serving to throw curious sidelights on policy
+and character respectively. The Emperor William had been shot at
+and severely wounded by a socialist fanatic, Dr. Nobiling, on June
+2, 1878, and during the whole time of the Congress the Crown Prince
+Frederick acted as regent of the Empire. Limited as his powers were
+by law, etiquette, and Bismarck, he is said to have used them on
+behalf of Austria and England. The old Emperor thought so; for in a
+moment of confiding indiscretion he hinted to the Princess
+Radziwill (a Russian by birth) that Russian interests would have
+fared <span class="pagenum"><a name="page237" id="page237"></a>[pg
+237]</span> better at Berlin had he then been steering the ship of
+State<a name="FNanchor173"></a><a href="#Footnote_173">[173]</a>.
+Possibly this explains why Bismarck always maintained that he had
+done what he could for his Eastern neighbour, and that he really
+deserved a Russian decoration for his services during the
+Congress.</p>
+<p>The incident, which flashes a search-light into character and
+discloses the <i>recherch&eacute;</i> joys of statecraft, is also
+described in the sprightly Memoirs of Princess Radziwill. She was
+present at a brilliant reception held on the evening of the day
+when the Cyprus Convention had come to light. Diplomatists and
+generals were buzzing eagerly and angrily when the Earl of
+Beaconsfield appeared. A slight hush came over the wasp-like
+clusters as he made his way among them, noting everything with his
+restless, inscrutable eyes. At last he came near the Princess, once
+a bitter enemy, but now captivated and captured by his powers of
+polite irony. "What are you thinking of," she asked. "I am not
+thinking at all," he replied, "I am enjoying myself<a name=
+"FNanchor174"></a><a href="#Footnote_174">[174]</a>." After that
+one can understand why Jew-baiting became a favourite sport in
+Russia throughout the next two decades.</p>
+<p>We turn now to note the terms of the Treaty of Berlin (July 13,
+1878)<a name="FNanchor175"></a><a href="#Footnote_175">[175]</a>.
+The importance of this compact will be seen if its provisions are
+compared with those of the Treaty of San Stefano, which it
+replaced. Instead of the greater Bulgaria subjected for two years
+to Russian control, the Congress ordained that Bulgaria proper
+should not extend beyond the main chain of the Balkans, thus
+reducing its extent from 163,000 square kilometres to 64,000, and
+its population from four millions to a million and a half. The
+period of military occupation and supervision of the new
+administration by Russia was reduced to nine months. At the end of
+that time, and on <span class="pagenum"><a name="page238" id=
+"page238"></a>[pg 238]</span> the completion of the "organic law,"
+a Prince was to be elected "freely" by the population of the
+Principality. The new State remained under the suzerainty of
+Turkey, the Sultan confirming the election of the new Prince of
+Bulgaria, "with the assent of the Powers."</p>
+<p>Another important departure from the San Stefano terms was the
+creation of the Province of Eastern Roumelia, with boundaries shown
+in the accompanying map. While having a Christian governor, and
+enjoying the rights of local self-government, it was to remain
+under "the direct political and military authority of the Sultan,
+under conditions of administrative autonomy." The Sultan retained
+the right of keeping garrisons there, though a local militia was to
+preserve internal order. As will be shown in the next chapter, this
+anomalous state of things passed away in 1885, when the province
+threw off Turkish control and joined Bulgaria.</p>
+<p>The other Christian States of the Balkans underwent changes of
+the highest importance. Montenegro lost half of her expected gains,
+but secured access to the sea at Antivari. The acquisitions of
+Servia were now effected at the expense of Bulgaria. These
+decisions were greatly in favour of Austria. To that Power the
+occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was now entrusted for an
+indefinite period in the interest of the peace of Europe, and she
+proceeded forthwith to drive a wedge between the Serbs of Servia
+and Montenegro. It is needless to say that, in spite of the armed
+opposition of the Mohammedan people of those provinces--which led
+to severe fighting in July to September of that year--Austria's
+occupation has been permanent, though nominally they still form
+part of the Turkish Empire.</p>
+<p>[Illustration: MAP OF THE TREATIES OF BERLIN AND SAN
+STEFANO.]</p>
+<p>Roumania and Servia gained complete independence and ceased to
+pay tribute to the Sultan, but both States complained of the lack
+of support accorded to them by Russia, considering the magnitude of
+their efforts for the Slavonic cause. Roumania certainly fared very
+badly at the hands of the Power for which it had done yeoman
+service in the</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page239" id="page239"></a>[pg
+239]</span>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/239.png" width="80%" alt=""><br>
+<b>Map of the Treaties of Berlin and San Stefano.</b></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page240" id="page240"></a>[pg
+240]</span>
+<p>war. The pride of the Roumanian people brooked no thought of
+accepting the Dobrudscha, a district in great part marshy and
+thinly populated, as an exchange for a fertile district peopled by
+their kith and kin. They let the world know that Russia
+appropriated their Bessarabian district by force, and that they
+accepted the Dobrudscha as a war indemnity. By dint of pressure
+exerted at the Congress their envoys secured a southern extension
+of its borders at the expense of Bulgaria, a proceeding which
+aroused the resentment of Russia.</p>
+<p>The conduct of the Czar's Government in this whole matter was
+most impolitic. It embittered the relations between the two States
+and drove the Government of Prince Charles to rely on Austria and
+the Triple Alliance. That is to say, Russia herself closed the door
+which had been so readily opened for her into the heart of the
+Sultan's dominions in 1828, 1854, and 1877<a name=
+"FNanchor176"></a><a href="#Footnote_176">[176]</a>. We may here
+remark that, on the motion of the French plenipotentiaries at the
+Congress, that body insisted that Jews must be admitted to the
+franchise in Roumania. This behest of the Powers aroused violent
+opposition in that State, but was finally, though by no means
+fully, carried out.</p>
+<p>Another Christian State of the Peninsula received scant
+consideration at the Congress. Greece, as we have seen, had
+recalled her troops from Thessaly on the understanding that her
+claims should be duly considered at the general peace. She now
+pressed those claims; but, apart from initial encouragement given
+by Lord Salisbury, she received little or no support. On the motion
+of the French plenipotentiary, M. Waddington, her desire to control
+the northern shores of the Aegean and the island of Crete was
+speedily set aside; but he sought to win for her practically the
+whole of Thessaly and Epirus. This, however, was firmly opposed by
+Lord Beaconsfield, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page241" id=
+"page241"></a>[pg 241]</span> who objected to the cession to her of
+the southern and purely Greek districts of Thessaly and Epirus. He
+protested against the notion that the plenipotentiaries had come to
+Berlin in order to partition "a worn-out State" (Turkey). They were
+there to "strengthen an ancient Empire--essential to the
+maintenance of peace."</p>
+<p>"As for Greece," he said, "States, like individuals, which have
+a future are in a position to be able to wait." True, he ended by
+expressing "the hope and even the conviction" that the Sultan would
+accept an equitable solution of the question of the Thessalian
+frontier; but the Congress acted on the other sage dictum and
+proceeded to subject the Hellenes to the educative influences of
+hope deferred. Protocol 13 had recorded the opinion of the Powers
+that the northern frontier of Greece should follow the courses of
+the Rivers Salammaria and Kalamas; but they finally decided to
+offer their mediation to the disputants only in case no agreement
+could be framed. The Sublime Porte, as we shall see, improved on
+the procrastinating methods of the Nestors of European
+diplomacy<a name="FNanchor177"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_177">[177]</a>.</p>
+<p>As regards matters that directly concerned Turkey and Russia, we
+may note that the latter finally agreed to forego the acquisition
+of the Bayazid district and the lands adjoining the caravan route
+from the Shah's dominions to Erzeroum. The Czar's Government also
+promised that Batoum should be a free port, and left unchanged the
+regulations respecting the navigation of the Dardanelles and
+Bosporus. By a subsequent treaty with Turkey of February 1879 the
+Porte agreed to pay to Russia a war indemnity of about
+&pound;32,000,000.</p>
+<p>More important from our standpoint are the clauses relating to
+the good government of the Christians of Turkey. By article 61 of
+the Treaty of Berlin the Porte bound itself to <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page242" id="page242"></a>[pg 242]</span> carry
+out "the improvements and reforms demanded by local requirements in
+the provinces inhabited by the Armenians, and to guarantee their
+security against the Circassians and Kurds." It even added the
+promise "periodically" to "make known the steps taken to this
+effect to the Powers who will superintend their application." In
+the next article Turkey promised to "maintain" the principle of
+religious liberty and to give it the widest application.
+Differences of religion were to be no bar to employment in any
+public capacity, and all persons were to "be admitted, without
+distinction of religion, to give evidence before the
+tribunals."</p>
+<p>Such was the Treaty of Berlin (July 13, 1878). Viewed in its
+broad outlines, it aimed at piecing together again the Turkish
+districts which had been severed at San Stefano; the Bulgars and
+Serbs who there gained the hope of effecting a real union of those
+races were now sundered once more, the former in three divisions;
+while the Serbs of Servia, Bosnia, and Montenegro were wedged apart
+by the intrusion of the Hapsburg Power. Yet, imperfect though it
+was in several points, that treaty promised substantial gains for
+the Christians of Turkey. The collapse of the Sultan's power had
+been so complete, so notorious, that few persons believed he would
+ever dare to disregard the mandate of the Great Powers and his own
+solemn promises stated above. But no one could then foresee the
+exhibition of weakness and cynicism in the policy of those Powers
+towards Turkey, which disgraced the polity of Europe in the last
+decades of the century. The causes that brought about that state of
+mental torpor in the face of hideous massacres, and of moral
+weakness displayed by sovereigns and statesmen in the midst of
+their millions of armed men, will be to some extent set forth in
+the following chapters.</p>
+<p>As regards the welfare of the Christians in Asia Minor, the
+Treaty of Berlin assigned equal responsibilities to all the
+signatory Powers. But the British Government had already laid
+itself under a special charge on their behalf by the terms
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page243" id="page243"></a>[pg
+243]</span> of the Cyprus Convention quoted above. Five days before
+that treaty was signed the world heard with a gasp of surprise that
+England had become practically mistress of Cyprus and assumed some
+measure of responsibility for the good government of the Christians
+of Asiatic Turkey. No limit of time was assigned for the duration
+of the Convention, and apparently it still holds good so far as
+relates to the material advantages accruing from the possession of
+that island.</p>
+<p>It is needless to say that the Cypriotes have benefited greatly
+by the British administration; the value of the imports and exports
+nearly doubled between 1878 and 1888. But this fact does not and
+cannot dispose of the larger questions opened up as to the methods
+of acquisition and of the moral responsibilities which it entailed.
+These at once aroused sharp differences of opinion. Admiration at
+the skill and daring which had gained for Britain a point of
+vantage in the Levant and set back Russia's prestige in that
+quarter was chequered by protests against the methods of secrecy,
+sensationalism, and self-seeking that latterly had characterised
+British diplomacy.</p>
+<p>One more surprise was still forthcoming. Lord Derby, speaking in
+the House of Lords on July 18, gave point to these protests by
+divulging a State secret of no small importance, namely, that one
+of the causes of his retirement at the end of March was a secret
+proposal of the Ministry to send an expedition from India to seize
+Cyprus and one of the Syrian ports with a view to operations
+against Russia, and that, too, with <i>or without</i> the consent
+of the Sultan. Whether the Cabinet arrived at anything like a
+decision in this question is very doubtful. Lord Salisbury stoutly
+denied the correctness of his predecessor's statement. The papers
+of Sir Stafford Northcote also show that the scheme at that time
+came up for discussion, but was "laid aside<a name=
+"FNanchor178"></a><a href="#Footnote_178">[178]</a>." Lord Derby,
+however, stated that he had kept private notes of the discussion;
+and it is improbable that he would have resigned on a question that
+was merely mooted and entirely dismissed. The mystery in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page244" id="page244"></a>[pg
+244]</span> which the deliberations of the Cabinet are involved,
+and very rightly involved, broods over this as over so many topics
+in which Lord Beaconsfield was concerned.</p>
+<p>On another and far weightier point no difference of opinion is
+possible. Viewed by the light of the Cyprus Convention, Britain's
+responsibility for assuring a minimum of good government for the
+Christians of Asiatic Turkey is undeniable. Unfortunately it admits
+of no denial that the duties which that responsibility involves
+have not been discharged. The story of the misgovernment and
+massacre of the Armenian Christians is one that will ever redound
+to the disgrace of all the signatories of the Treaty of Berlin; it
+is doubly disgraceful to the Power which framed the Cyprus
+Convention.</p>
+<p>A praiseworthy effort was made by the Beaconsfield Government to
+strengthen British influence and the cause of reform by sending a
+considerable number of well-educated men as Consuls to Asia Minor,
+under the supervision of the Consul-General, Sir Charles Wilson. In
+the first two years they effected much good, securing the dismissal
+of several of the worst Turkish officials, and implanting hope in
+the oppressed Greeks and Armenians. Had they been well supported
+from London, they might have wrought a permanent change. Such, at
+least, is the belief of Professor Ramsay after several years'
+experience in Asia Minor.</p>
+<p>Unfortunately, the Gladstone Government, which came into power
+in the spring of 1880, desired to limit its responsibilities on all
+sides, especially in the Levant. The British Consuls ceased to be
+supported, and after the arrival of Mr. (now Lord) Goschen at
+Constantinople in May 1880, as Ambassador Extraordinary, British
+influence began to suffer a decline everywhere through Turkey,
+partly owing to the events soon to be described. The outbreak of
+war in Egypt in 1882 was made a pretext by the British Government
+for the transference of the Consuls to Egypt; and thereafter
+matters in Asia Minor slid back into the old ruts. The progress of
+the Greeks and Armenians, the traders of that land, suffered a
+check; and the remarkable <span class="pagenum"><a name="page245"
+id="page245"></a>[pg 245]</span> Moslem revival which the Sultan
+inaugurated in that year (the year 1300 of the Mohammedan calendar)
+gradually led up to the troubles and massacres which culminated in
+the years 1896 and 1897. We may finally note that when the
+Gladstone Ministry left the field open in Asia Minor, the German
+Government promptly took possession; and since 1883 the influence
+of Berlin has more and more penetrated into the Sultan's lands in
+Europe and Asia<a name="FNanchor179"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_179">[179]</a>.</p>
+<p>The collapse of British influence at Constantinople was hastened
+on by the efforts made by the Cabinet of London, after Mr.
+Gladstone's accession to office, on behalf of Greece. It soon
+appeared that Abdul Hamid and his Ministers would pay no heed to
+the recommendations of the Great Powers on this head, for on July
+20, 1878, they informed Sir Henry Layard of their "final" decision
+that no Thessalian districts would be given up to Greece. Owing to
+pressure exerted by the Dufaure-Waddington Ministry in France, the
+Powers decided that a European Commission should be appointed to
+consider the whole question. To this the Beaconsfield Government
+gave a not very willing assent.</p>
+<p>The Porte bettered the example. It took care to name as the
+first place of meeting of the Commissioners a village to the north
+of the Gulf of Arta which was not discoverable on any map. When at
+last this mistake was rectified, and the Greek envoys on two
+occasions sought to steam into the gulf, they were fired on from
+the Turkish forts. After these amenities, the Commission finally
+met at Prevesa, only to have its report shelved by the Porte
+(January-March 1879). Next, in answer to a French demand for
+European intervention, the Turks opposed various devices taken from
+the inexhaustible stock of oriental subterfuges. So the time wore
+on until, in the spring of 1880, the fall of the Beaconsfield
+Ministry brought about a new political situation.</p>
+<p>The new Prime Minister, Mr. Gladstone, was known as the
+statesman who had given the Ionian Isles to Greece, and who
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page246" id="page246"></a>[pg
+246]</span> advocated the expulsion of the Turks, "bag and
+baggage," from Europe. At once the despatches from Downing Street
+took on a different complexion, and the substitution of Mr. Goschen
+for Sir Henry Layard at Constantinople enabled the Porte to hear
+the voice of the British people, undimmed by official checks. A
+Conference of the Powers met at Berlin to discuss the carrying out
+of their recommendations on the Greek Question, and of the terms of
+the late treaty respecting Montenegro.</p>
+<p>On this latter affair the Powers finally found it needful to
+make a joint naval demonstration against the troops of the Albanian
+League who sought to prevent the handing over of the seaport of
+Dulcigno to Montenegro, as prescribed by the Treaty of Berlin. But,
+as happened during the Concert of the Powers in the spring of 1876,
+a single discordant note sufficed to impair the effect of the
+collective voice. Then it was England which refused to employ any
+coercive measures; now it was Austria and Germany, and finally
+(after the resignation of the Waddington Ministry) France. When the
+Sultan heard of this discord in the European Concert, his Moslem
+scruples resumed their wonted sway, and the Albanians persisted in
+defying Europe.</p>
+<p>The warships of the Powers might have continued to threaten the
+Albanian coast with unshotted cannon to this day, had not the
+Gladstone Cabinet proposed drastic means for bringing the Sultan to
+reason. The plan was that the united fleet should steam straightway
+to Smyrna and land marines for the sequestration of the customs'
+dues of that important trading centre. Here again the Powers were
+not of one mind. The three dissentients again hung back; but they
+so far concealed their refusal, or reluctance, as to leave on Abdul
+Hamid's mind the impression that a united Christendom was about to
+seize Smyrna<a name="FNanchor180"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_180">[180]</a>. This was enough. He could now (October
+10, 1880) bow his head resignedly before superior force without
+sinning against the Moslem's <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page247" id="page247"></a>[pg 247]</span> unwritten but inviolable
+creed of never giving way before Christians save under absolute
+necessity. At once he ordered his troops to carry out the behests
+of the Powers; and after some fighting, Dervish Pasha drove the
+Albanians out of Dulcigno, and surrendered it to the Montenegrins
+(Nov.-Dec. 1880). Such is the official account; but, seeing that
+the Porte knows how to turn to account the fanaticism and
+turbulence of the Albanians<a name="FNanchor181"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_181">[181]</a>, it may be that their resistance all
+along was but a device of that resourceful Government to thwart the
+will of Europe.</p>
+<p>The same threat as to the seizure of the Turkish customs-house
+at Smyrna sufficed to help on the solution of the Greek Question.
+The delays and insults of the Turks had driven the Greeks to
+desperation, and only the urgent remonstrances of the Powers
+availed to hold back the Cabinet of Athens from a declaration of
+war. This danger by degrees passed away; but, as usually happens
+where passions are excited on both sides, every compromise pressed
+on the litigants by the arbiters presented great difficulty. The
+Congress of Berlin had recommended the extension of Greek rule over
+the purely Hellenic districts of Thessaly, assigning as the new
+boundaries the course of the Rivers Salammaria and Kalamas, the
+latter of which flows into the sea opposite the Island of
+Corfu.</p>
+<p>Another Conference of the Powers (it was the third) met to
+decide the details of that proposal; but owing to the change of
+Government in France, along with other causes, the whole question
+proved to be very intricate. In the end, the Powers induced the
+Sultan to sign the Convention of May 24, 1881, whereby the course
+of the River Arta was substituted for that of the Kalamas.</p>
+<p>As a set-off to this proposal, which involved the loss of
+Jannina and Prevesa for Greece, they awarded to the Hellenes some
+districts north of the Salammaria which helped partially to screen
+the town of Larissa from the danger of Turkish <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page248" id="page248"></a>[pg 248]</span>
+inroads<a name="FNanchor182"></a><a href="#Footnote_182">[182]</a>.
+To this arrangement Moslems and Christians sullenly assented. On
+the whole the Greeks gained 13,200 square kilometres in territory
+and about 150,000 inhabitants, but their failure to gain several
+Hellenic districts of Epirus rankled deep in the popular
+consciousness and prepared the way for the events of 1885 and
+1897.</p>
+<p>These later developments can receive here only the briefest
+reference. In the former year, when the two Bulgarias framed their
+union, the Greeks threatened Turkey with war, but were speedily
+brought to another frame of mind by a "pacific" blockade by the
+Powers. Embittered by this treatment, the Hellenes sought to push
+on their cause in Macedonia and Crete through a powerful Society,
+the "Ethnike Hetairia." The chronic discontent of the Cretans at
+Turkish misrule and the outrages of the Moslem troops led to grave
+complications in 1897. At the beginning of that year the Powers
+intervened with a proposal for the appointment of a foreign
+gendarmerie (January 1897). In order to defeat this plan the Sultan
+stirred up Moslem fanaticism in the island, until the resulting
+atrocities brought Greece into the field both in Thessaly and
+Crete. During the ensuing strifes in Crete the Powers demeaned
+themselves by siding against the Christian insurgents, and some
+Greek troops sent from Athens to their aid. Few events in our age
+have caused a more painful sensation than the bombardment of Cretan
+villages by British and French warships. The Powers also proclaimed
+a "pacific" blockade of Crete (March-May 1897). The inner reasons
+that prompted these actions are not fully known. It may safely be
+said that they will need far fuller justification than that which
+was given in the explanations of Ministers at Westminster.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile the passionate resentment felt by the Greeks had
+dragged the Government of King George into war with Turkey (April
+18, 1897). The little kingdom was speedily overpowered by Turks and
+Albanians; and despite the recall of their troops from Crete, the
+Hellenes were unable to hold <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page249" id="page249"></a>[pg 249]</span> Phersala and other
+positions in the middle of Thessaly. The Powers, however,
+intervened on May 12, and proceeded to pare down the exorbitant
+terms of the Porte, allowing it to gain only small strips in the
+north of Thessaly, as a "strategic rectification" of the frontier.
+The Turkish demand of &pound;T10,000,000 was reduced to T4,000,000
+(September 18).</p>
+<br>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/249.png" width="80%" alt=""><br>
+<b>Map of Thessaly.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>This successful war against Greece raised the prestige of Turkey
+and added fuel to the flames of Mohammedan bigotry. These, as we
+have seen, had been assiduously fanned by Abdul Hamid II. ever
+since the year 1882, when a Pan-Islam movement began. The results
+of this revival were far-reaching, being felt even among the hill
+tribes on the Afghan-Punjab border (see Chapter XIV.). Throughout
+the Ottoman Empire the Mohammedans began to assert their
+superiority <span class="pagenum"><a name="page250" id=
+"page250"></a>[pg 250]</span> over Christians; and, as Professor
+Ramsay has observed, "the means whereby Turkish power is restored
+is always the same--massacre<a name="FNanchor183"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_183">[183]</a>."</p>
+<p>It would be premature to inquire which of the European Powers
+must be held chiefly responsible for the toleration of the hideous
+massacres of the Armenians in 1896-97, and the atrocious
+misgovernment of Macedonia, by the Turks. All the Great Powers who
+signed the Berlin Treaty are guilty; and, as has been stated above,
+the State which framed the Cyprus Convention is doubly guilty, so
+far as concerns the events in Armenia. A grave share of
+responsibility also rests with those who succeeded in handing back
+a large part of Macedonia to the Turks. But the writer who in the
+future undertakes to tell the story of the decline of European
+morality at the close of the nineteenth century, and the growth of
+cynicism and selfishness, will probably pass still severer censures
+on the Emperors of Germany and Russia, who, with the unequalled
+influence which they wielded over the Porte, might have intervened
+with effect to screen their co-religionists from unutterable
+wrongs, and yet, as far as is known, raised not a finger on their
+behalf. The Treaty of Berlin, which might have inaugurated an era
+of good government throughout the whole of Turkey if the Powers had
+been true to their trust, will be cited as damning evidence in the
+account of the greatest betrayal of a trust which Modern History
+records.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>NOTE.--For the efforts made by the British Government on behalf
+of the Armenians, the reader should consult the last chapter of Mr.
+James Bryce's book, <i>Transcaucasia and Mount Ararat</i> (new
+edition, 1896). Further information may be expected in the <i>Life
+of Earl Granville</i>, soon to appear, from the pen of Lord Edmund
+Fitzmaurice.</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_157"></a><a href="#FNanchor157">[157]</a> For
+the odd mistake in a telegram, which caused the original order, see
+<i>Sir Stafford Northcote, Earl of Iddesleigh</i>, by Andrew Lang,
+vol. ii. pp. 111-112.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_158"></a><a href="#FNanchor158">[158]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. pp. 105-106. For the telegrams between the First Lord
+of the Admiralty, W.H. Smith, and Admiral Hornby, see <i>Life and
+Times of W.H. Smith</i>, by Sir H. Maxwell, vol. i. chap. xi.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_159"></a><a href="#FNanchor159">[159]</a> See
+the compromising revelations made by an anonymous Russian writer in
+the <i>Revue de Paris</i> for July 15, 1897. The authoress, "O.K.,"
+in her book, <i>The Friends and Foes of Russia</i> (pp. 240-241),
+states that only the autocracy could have stayed the Russian
+advance on Constantinople. General U.S. Grant told her that if he
+had had such an order, he would have put it in his pocket and
+produced it again when in Constantinople.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_160"></a><a href="#FNanchor160">[160]</a>
+Hertslet, iv. p. 2670.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_161"></a><a href="#FNanchor161">[161]</a> L.
+Sergeant, <i>Greece in the Nineteenth Century</i> (1897), ch.
+xi.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_162"></a><a href="#FNanchor162">[162]</a> For
+the text of the treaty see Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 22 (1878);
+also <i>The European Concert in the Eastern Question</i> by T.E.
+Holland, pp. 335-348.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_163"></a><a href="#FNanchor163">[163]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 31 (1878), Nos. 6-17, and enclosures;
+<i>L'Hell&eacute;nisme et la Mac&eacute;donie</i>, by N. Kasasis
+(Paris, 1904); L. Sergeant, <i>op. cit.</i> ch. xii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_164"></a><a href="#FNanchor164">[164]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 30 (1878); also <i>Reminiscences of the
+King of Roumania</i>, chs. x. xi.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_165"></a><a href="#FNanchor165">[165]</a> Lord
+Derby to Sir H. Elliot, March 13, 1878. Turkey, No. xxiv. (1878),
+No 9, p. 5.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_166"></a><a href="#FNanchor166">[166]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. No. 15, p. 7.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_167"></a><a href="#FNanchor167">[167]</a> See
+p. 243 for Lord Derby's further reason for resigning.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_168"></a><a href="#FNanchor168">[168]</a>
+D&eacute;bidour, <i>Hist. diplomatique de l'Europe</i>, vol. ii. p.
+515.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_169"></a><a href="#FNanchor169">[169]</a> For
+these outrages, see Parl. Papers, Turkey (1878), Nos. 42 and 45,
+with numerous enclosures. The larger plans of the Rhodope
+insurgents and their abettors at Constantinople are not fully
+known. An Englishman, Sinclair, and some other free-lances were
+concerned in the affair. The Rhodope district long retained a kind
+of independence, see <i>Les &Eacute;v&eacute;nements politiques en
+Bulgarie</i>, by A.G. Drandar, Appendix.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_170"></a><a href="#FNanchor170">[170]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 36 (1878). See, too, <i>ibid</i>. No.
+43.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_171"></a><a href="#FNanchor171">[171]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 36 (1878); Hertslet, vol. iv. pp.
+2722-2725; Holland, <i>op. cit.</i>, pp. 354-356.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_172"></a><a href="#FNanchor172">[172]</a> Mr.
+Charles Marvin, a clerk in the Foreign Office, was charged with
+this offence, but the prosecution failed (July 16) owing to lack of
+sufficient evidence.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_173"></a><a href="#FNanchor173">[173]</a>
+Princess Radziwill, <i>My Recollections</i> (Eng. ed. 1900), p.
+91.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_174"></a><a href="#FNanchor174">[174]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. p. 149.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_175"></a><a href="#FNanchor175">[175]</a> For
+the Protocols, see Parl. Papers, Turkey (1878), No. 39. For the
+Treaty see <i>ibid</i>. No. 44; also <i>The European Concert in the
+Eastern Question</i>, by T. E. Holland, pp. 277-307.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_176"></a><a href="#FNanchor176">[176]</a>
+Frederick, Crown Prince of Germany, expressed the general opinion
+in a letter written to Prince Charles after the Berlin Congress:
+"Russia's conduct, after the manful service you did for that
+colossal Empire, meets with censure on all sides."
+(<i>Reminiscences of the King of Roumania</i>, p. 325).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_177"></a><a href="#FNanchor177">[177]</a> See
+Mr. L. Sergeant's <i>Greece in the Nineteenth Century</i> (1897),
+ch. xii., for the speeches of the Greek envoys at the Congress;
+also that of Sir Charles Dilke in the House of Commons in the
+debate of July 29-August 2, 1878, as to England's desertion of the
+Greek cause after the ninth session (June 29) of the Berlin
+Congress.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_178"></a><a href="#FNanchor178">[178]</a>
+<i>Sir Stafford Northcote</i>, vol. ii. p. 108.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_179"></a><a href="#FNanchor179">[179]</a> See
+<i>Impressions of Turkey</i>, by Professor W.M. Ramsay (1897),
+chap. vi.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_180"></a><a href="#FNanchor180">[180]</a>
+<i>Life of Gladstone</i>, by J. Morley, vol. iii. p. 9.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_181"></a><a href="#FNanchor181">[181]</a> See
+<i>Turkey in Europe</i>, by "Odysseus," p. 434.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_182"></a><a href="#FNanchor182">[182]</a>
+<i>The European Concert in the Eastern Question</i>, by T.E.
+Holland, pp. 60-69.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_183"></a><a href="#FNanchor183">[183]</a>
+<i>Impressions of Turkey</i>, by W.M. Ramsay, p. 139.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page251" id="page251"></a>[pg
+251]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+<h3>THE MAKING OF BULGARIA</h3>
+<blockquote>"If you can help to build up these peoples into a
+bulwark of independent States and thus screen the 'sick man' from
+the fury of the northern blast, for God's sake do it."--SIR R.
+MORIER to SIR W. WHITE, <i>December 27, 1885</i>.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>The failure which attended the forward Hellenic movement during
+the years 1896-97 stands in sharp relief with the fortunes of the
+Bulgarians. To the rise of this youngest, and not the least
+promising, of European States, we must devote a whole chapter; for
+during a decade the future of the Balkan Peninsula and the policy
+of the Great Powers turned very largely on the emancipation of this
+interesting race from the effective control of the Sultan and the
+Czar.</p>
+<p>The rise of this enigmatical people affords a striking example
+of the power of national feeling to uplift the downtrodden. Until
+the year 1876, the very name Bulgarian was scarcely known except as
+a geographical term. Kinglake, in his charming work, <i>Eothen</i>,
+does not mention the Bulgarians, though he travelled on horseback
+from Belgrade to Sofia and thence to Adrianople. And yet in 1828,
+the conquering march of the Russians to Adrianople had awakened
+that people to a passing thrill of national consciousness. Other
+travellers,--for instance, Cyprien Robert in the "thirties,"--noted
+their sturdy patience in toil, their slowness to act, but their
+great perseverance and will-power, when the resolve was formed.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page252" id="page252"></a>[pg
+252]</span>
+<p>These qualities may perhaps be ascribed to their Tatar (Tartar)
+origin. Ethnically, they are closely akin to the Magyars and Turks,
+but, having been long settled on the banks of the Volga (hence
+their name, Bulgarian = Volgarian), they adopted the speech and
+religion of the Slavs. They have lived this new life for about a
+thousand years<a name="FNanchor184"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_184">[184]</a>; and in this time have been completely
+changed. Though their flat lips and noses bespeak an Asiatic
+origin, they are practically Slavs, save that their temperament is
+less nervous, and their persistence greater than that of their
+co-religionists<a name="FNanchor185"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_185">[185]</a>. Their determined adhesion to Slav ideals
+and rejection of Turkish ways should serve as a reminder to
+anthropologists that peoples are not mainly to be judged and
+divided off by craniological peculiarities. Measurement of skulls
+may tell us something concerning the basal characteristics of
+tribes: it leaves untouched the boundless fund of beliefs,
+thoughts, aspirations, and customs which mould the lives of
+nations. The peoples of to-day are what their creeds, customs, and
+hopes have made them; as regards their political life, they have
+little more likeness to their tribal forefathers than the average
+man has to the chimpanzee.</p>
+<p>The first outstanding event in the recent rise of the Bulgarian
+race was the acquisition of spiritual independence in 1869-70.
+Hitherto they, in common with nearly all the Slavs, had belonged to
+the Greek Church, and had recognised the supremacy of its Patriarch
+at Constantinople, but, as the national idea progressed, the
+Bulgarians sought to have their own Church. It was in vain that the
+Greeks protested against this schismatic attempt. The Western
+Powers and Russia favoured it; the Porte also was not loth to see
+the Christians further divided. Early in the year 1870, the
+Bulgarian Church came into existence, with an Exarch of its own at
+Constantinople who has survived the numerous attempts of the Greeks
+to ban him as a schismatic from the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page253" id="page253"></a>[pg 253]</span> "Universal Church." The
+Bulgarians therefore took rank with the other peoples of the
+Peninsula as a religious entity., the Roumanian and Servian
+Churches having been constituted early in the century. In fact, the
+Porte recognises the Bulgarians, even in Macedonia, as an
+independent religious community, a right which it does not accord
+to the Servians; the latter, in Macedonia, are counted only as
+"Greeks<a name="FNanchor186"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_186">[186]</a>."</p>
+<p>The Treaty of San Stefano promised to make the Bulgarians the
+predominant race of the Balkan Peninsula for the benefit of Russia;
+but, as we have seen, the efforts of Great Britain and Austria,
+backed by the jealousies of Greeks and Servians, led to a radical
+change in those arrangements. The Treaty of Berlin divided that
+people into three unequal parts. The larger mass, dwelling in
+Bulgaria Proper, gained entire independence of the Sultan, save in
+the matter of suzerainty; the Bulgarians on the southern slopes of
+the Balkans acquired autonomy only in local affairs, and remained
+under the control of the Porte in military affairs and in matters
+of high policy; while the Bulgarians who dwelt in Macedonia, about
+1,120,000 in number, were led to hope something from articles 61
+and 62 of the Treaty of Berlin, but remained otherwise at the mercy
+of the Sultan<a name="FNanchor187"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_187">[187]</a>.</p>
+<p>This unsatisfactory state of things promised to range the
+Principality of Bulgaria entirely on the side of Russia, and at the
+outset the hope of all Bulgarians was for a close friendship with
+the great Power that had effected their liberation. These
+sentiments, however, speedily cooled. The officers appointed by the
+Czar to organise the Principality carried out their task in a
+high-handed way that soon irritated the newly enfranchised people.
+Gratitude is a feeling that soon vanishes, especially in political
+life. There, far more than in private life, it is a great mistake
+for the party that has conferred a boon <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page254" id="page254"></a>[pg 254]</span> to
+remind the recipient of what he owes, especially if that recipient
+be young and aspiring. Yet that was the mistake committed
+everywhere throughout Bulgaria. The army, the public
+service--everything--was modelled on Russian lines during the time
+of the occupation, until the overbearing ways of the officials
+succeeded in dulling the memory of the services rendered in the
+war. The fact of the liberation was forgotten amidst the irritation
+aroused by the constant reminders of it.</p>
+<p>The Russians succeeded in alienating even the young German
+prince who came, with the full favour of the Czar Alexander II., to
+take up the reins of Government. A scion of the House of Hesse
+Darmstadt by a morganatic marriage, Prince Alexander of Battenberg
+had been sounded by the Russian authorities, with a view to his
+acceptance of the Bulgarian crown. By the vote of the Bulgarian
+Chamber, it was offered to him on April 29, 1879. He accepted it,
+knowing full well that it would be a thorny honour for a youth of
+twenty-two years of age. His tall commanding frame, handsome
+features, ability and prowess as a soldier, and, above all, his
+winsome address, seemed to mark him out as a natural leader of men;
+and he received a warm welcome from the Bulgarians in the month of
+July.</p>
+<p>His difficulties began at once. The chief Russian administrator,
+Dondukoff Korsakoff, had thrust his countrymen into all the
+important and lucrative posts, thereby leaving out in the cold the
+many Bulgarians, who, after working hard for the liberation of
+their land, now saw it transferred from the slovenly overlordship
+of the Turk to the masterful grip of the Muscovite. The
+Principality heaved with discontent, and these feelings finally
+communicated themselves to the sympathetic nature of the Prince.
+But duty and policy alike forbade him casting off the Russian
+influence. No position could be more trying for a young man of
+chivalrous and ambitious nature, endowed with a strain of
+sensitiveness which he probably derived from his Polish mother. He
+early set <span class="pagenum"><a name="page255" id=
+"page255"></a>[pg 255]</span> forth his feelings in a private
+letter to Prince Charles of Roumania:--</p>
+<p>Devoted with my whole heart to the Czar Alexander, I am anxious
+to do nothing that can be called anti-Russian. Unfortunately the
+Russian officials have acted with the utmost want of tact;
+confusion prevails in every office, and peculation, thanks to
+Dondukoff's decrees, is all but sanctioned. I am daily confronted
+with the painful alternative of having to decide either to assent
+to the Russian demands or to be accused in Russia of ingratitude
+and of "injuring the most sacred feelings of the Bulgarians." My
+position is truly terrible.</p>
+<p>The friction with Russia increased with time. Early in the year
+1880, Prince Alexander determined to go to St. Petersburg to appeal
+to the Czar in the hope of allaying the violence of the Panslavonic
+intriguers. Matters improved for a time, but only because the
+Prince accepted the guidance of the Czar. Thereafter he retained
+most of his pro-Russian Ministers, even though the second
+Legislative Assembly, elected in the spring of that year, was
+strongly Liberal and anti-Russian. In April 1881 he acted on the
+advice of one of his Ministers, a Russian general named Ehrenroth,
+and carried matters with a high hand: he dissolved the Assembly,
+suspended the constitution, encouraged his officials to browbeat
+the voters, and thereby gained a docile Chamber, which carried out
+his behests by decreeing a Septennate, or autocratic rule for seven
+years. In order to prop up his miniature czardom, he now asked the
+new Emperor, Alexander III., to send him two Russian Generals. His
+request was granted in the persons of Generals Soboleff and
+Kaulbars, who became Ministers of the Interior and for War; a
+third, General Tioharoff, being also added as Minister of
+Justice.</p>
+<p>The triumph of Muscovite influence now seemed to be complete,
+until the trio just named usurped the functions of the Bulgarian
+Ministers and informed the Prince that they took their orders from
+the Czar, not from him. Chafing <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page256" id="page256"></a>[pg 256]</span> at these self-imposed
+Russian bonds, the Prince now leant more on the moderate Liberals,
+headed by Karaveloff; and on the Muscovites intriguing in the same
+quarter, and with the troops, with a view to his deposition, they
+met with a complete repulse. An able and vigorous young Bulgarian,
+Stambuloff, was now fast rising in importance among the more
+resolute nationalists. The son of an innkeeper of Tirnova, he was
+sent away to be educated at Odessa; there he early became imbued
+with Nihilist ideas, and on returning to the Danubian lands, framed
+many plots for the expulsion of the Turks from Bulgaria. His
+thick-set frame, his force of will, his eloquent, passionate
+speech, and, above all, his burning patriotism, soon brought him to
+the front as the leader of the national party; and he now strove
+with all his might to prevent his land falling to the position of a
+mere satrapy of the liberators. Better the puny autocracy of Prince
+Alexander than the very real despotism of the nominees of the
+Emperor Alexander III.</p>
+<p>The character of the new Czar will engage our attention in the
+following chapter; here we need only say that the more his narrow,
+hard, and overbearing nature asserted itself, the greater appeared
+the danger to the liberties of the Principality. At last, when the
+situation became unbearable, the Prince resolved to restore the
+Bulgarian constitution; and he took this momentous step, on
+September 18, 1883, without consulting the three Russian Ministers,
+who thereupon resigned<a name="FNanchor188"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_188">[188]</a>.</p>
+<p>At once the Prince summoned Karaveloff, and said to him: "My
+dear Karaveloff--For the second time I swear to thee that I will be
+entirely submissive to the will of the people, and that I will
+govern in full accordance with the constitution of Tirnova. Let us
+forget what passed during the <i>coup d'&eacute;tat</i>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page257" id="page257"></a>[pg
+257]</span> [of 1881], and work together for the prosperity of the
+country." He embraced him; and that embrace was the pledge of a
+close union of hearts between him and his people<a name=
+"FNanchor189"></a><a href="#Footnote_189">[189]</a>.</p>
+<p>The Czar forthwith showed his anger at this act of independence,
+and, counting it a sign of defiance, allowed or encouraged his
+agents in Bulgaria to undermine the power of the Prince, and
+procure his deposition. For two years they struggled in vain. An
+attempt by the Russian Generals Soboleff and Kaulbars to kidnap the
+Prince by night failed, owing to the loyalty of Lieutenant
+Martinoff, then on duty at his palace; the two ministerial plotters
+forthwith left Bulgaria<a name="FNanchor190"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_190">[190]</a>.</p>
+<p>Even now the scales did not fall from the eyes of the Emperor
+Alexander III. Bismarck was once questioned by the faithful Busch
+as to the character of that potentate. The German Boswell remarked
+that he had heard Alexander III. described as "stupid, exceedingly
+stupid"; whereupon the Chancellor replied: "In a general way that
+is saying too much<a name="FNanchor191"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_191">[191]</a>." Leaving to posterity the task of
+deciding that question, we may here point out that Muscovite policy
+in the years 1878-85 achieved a truly remarkable feat in uniting
+all the liberated races of the Balkan Peninsula against their
+liberators. By the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, Russia had
+alienated the Roumanians, Servians, and Greeks; so that when the
+Princes of those two Slav Principalities decided to take the kingly
+title (as they did in the spring of 1881 and 1882 respectively), it
+was after visits to Berlin and Vienna, whereby they tacitly
+signified their friendliness to the Central Powers.</p>
+<p>In the case of Servia this went to the length of alliance. On
+June 25, 1881, the Foreign Minister, M. Mijatovich, concluded with
+Austria-Hungary a secret convention, whereby <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page258" id="page258"></a>[pg 258]</span> Servia
+agreed to discourage any movement among the Slavs of Bosnia, while
+the Dual Monarchy promised to refrain from any action detrimental
+to Servian hopes for what is known as old Servia. The agreement was
+for eight years; but it was not renewed in 1889<a name=
+"FNanchor192"></a><a href="#Footnote_192">[192]</a>. The fact,
+however, that such a compact could be framed within three years of
+the Berlin Congress, shows how keen was the resentment of the
+Servian Government at the neglect of its interests by Russia, both
+there and at San Stefano.</p>
+<p>The gulf between Bulgaria and Russia widened more slowly, but
+with the striking sequel that will be seen. The Dondukoffs,
+Soboleffs, and Kaulbars first awakened and then estranged the
+formerly passive and docile race for whose aggrandisement Russia
+had incurred the resentment of the neighbouring peoples. Under
+Muscovite tutelage the "ignorant Bulgarian peasants" were
+developing a strong civic and political instinct. Further, the
+Czar's attacks, now on the Prince, and then on the popular party,
+served to bind these formerly discordant elements into an alliance.
+Stambuloff, the very embodiment of young Bulgaria in tenacity of
+purpose and love of freedom, was now the President of the Sobranje,
+or National Assembly, and he warmly supported Prince Alexander so
+long as he withstood Russian pretensions. At the outset the strifes
+at Sofia had resembled a triangular duel, and the Russian agents
+could readily have disposed of the third combatant had they sided
+either with the Prince or with the Liberals. By browbeating both
+they simplified the situation to the benefit both of the Prince and
+of the nascent liberties of Bulgaria.</p>
+<p>Alexander III. and his Chancellor, de Giers, had also tied their
+hands in Balkan affairs by a treaty which they framed with Austria
+and Germany, and signed and ratified at the meeting of the three
+Emperors at Skiernewice (September 1884--see Chapter XII.). The
+most important of its provisions from our present standpoint was
+that by which, in the event of two of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page259" id="page259"></a>[pg 259]</span> the
+three Empires disagreeing on Balkan questions, the casting vote
+rested with the third Power. This gave to Bismarck the same role of
+arbiter which he had played at the Berlin Congress.</p>
+<p>But in the years 1885 and 1886, the Czar and his agents
+committed a series of blunders, by the side of which their earlier
+actions seemed statesmanlike. The welfare of the Bulgarian people
+demanded an early reversal of the policy decided on at the Congress
+of Berlin (1878), whereby the southern Bulgarians were divided from
+their northern brethren in order that the Sultan might have the
+right to hold the Balkan passes in time of war. That is to say, the
+Powers, especially Great Britain and Austria, set aside the claims
+of a strong racial instinct for purely military reasons. The
+breakdown of this artificial arrangement was confidently predicted
+at the time; and Russian agents at first took the lead in preparing
+for the future union. Skobeleff, Katkoff, and the Panslavonic
+societies of Russia encouraged the formation of "gymnastic
+societies" in Eastern Roumelia, and the youth of that province
+enrolled themselves with such ardour that by the year 1885 more
+than 40,000 were trained to the use of arms. As for the protests of
+the Sultan and those of his delegates at Philippopolis, they were
+stilled by hints from St. Petersburg, or by demands for the prompt
+payment of Turkey's war debt to Russia. All the world knew that,
+thanks to Russian patronage, Eastern Roumelia had slipped entirely
+from the control of Abdul Hamid.</p>
+<p>By the summer of 1885, the unionist movement had acquired great
+strength. But now, at the critical time, when Russia should have
+led that movement, she let it drift, or even, we may say, cast off
+the tow-rope. Probably the Czar and his Ministers looked on the
+Bulgarians as too weak or too stupid to act for themselves. It was
+a complete miscalculation; for now Stambuloff and Karaveloff had
+made that aim their own, and brought to its accomplishment all the
+skill and zeal which they had learned in a long career of
+resistance to Turkish and Russian masters. There is reason to think
+that <span class="pagenum"><a name="page260" id="page260"></a>[pg
+260]</span> they and their coadjutors at Philippopolis pressed on
+events in the month of September 1885, because the Czar was then
+known to disapprove any immediate action.</p>
+<p>In order to understand the reason for this strange reversal of
+Russia's policy, we must scrutinise events more closely. The secret
+workings of that policy have been laid bare in a series of State
+documents, the genuineness of which is not altogether established.
+They are said to have been betrayed to the Bulgarian patriots by a
+Russian agent, and they certainly bear signs of authenticity. If we
+accept them (and up to the present they have been accepted by
+well-informed men) the truth is as follows:--</p>
+<p>Russia would have worked hard for the union of Eastern Roumelia
+to Bulgaria, provided that the Prince abdicated and his people
+submitted completely to Russian control. Quite early in his reign
+Alexander III. discovered in them an independence which his
+masterful nature ill brooked. He therefore postponed that scheme
+until the Prince should abdicate or be driven out. As one of the
+Muscovite agents phrased it in the spring of 1881, the union must
+not be brought about until a Russian protectorate should be founded
+in the Principality; for if they made Bulgaria too strong, it would
+become "a second Roumania," that is, as "ungrateful" to Russia as
+Roumania had shown herself after the seizure of her Bessarabian
+lands. In fact, the Bulgarians could gain the wish of their hearts
+only on one condition--that of proclaiming the Emperor Alexander
+Grand Duke of the greater State of the future<a name=
+"FNanchor193"></a><a href="#Footnote_193">[193]</a>.</p>
+<p>The chief obstacles in the way of Russia's aggrandisement were
+the susceptibilities of "the Battenberger," as her agents
+impertinently named him, and the will of Stambuloff. When
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page261" id="page261"></a>[pg
+261]</span> the Czar, by his malevolent obstinacy, finally brought
+these two men to accord, it was deemed needful to adopt various
+devices in order to shatter the forces which Russian diplomacy had
+succeeded in piling up in its own path. But here again we are
+reminded of the Horatian precept--</p>
+<blockquote>Vis consili expers mole ruit sua.</blockquote>
+<p>To the hectorings of Russian agents the "peasant State" offered
+an ever firmer resistance, and by the summer of 1885 it was clear
+that bribery and bullying were equally futile.</p>
+<p>Of course the Emperor of all the Russias had it in his power to
+harry the Prince in many ways. Thus in the summer of 1885, when a
+marriage was being arranged between him and the Princess Victoria,
+daughter of the Crown Princess of Germany, the Czar's influence at
+Berlin availed to veto an engagement which is believed to have been
+the heartfelt wish of both the persons most nearly concerned. In
+this matter Bismarck, true to his policy of softening the Czar's
+annoyance at the Austro-German alliance by complaisance in all
+other matters, made himself Russia's henchman, and urged his
+press-trumpet, Busch, to write newspaper articles abusing Queen
+Victoria as having instigated this match solely with a view to the
+substitution of British for Russian influence in Bulgaria<a name=
+"FNanchor194"></a><a href="#Footnote_194">[194]</a>. The more
+servile part of the German Press improved on these suggestions, and
+stigmatised the Bulgarian Revolution of the ensuing autumn as an
+affair trumped up at London. So far is it possible for minds of a
+certain type to read their own pettiness into events.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, if we may credit the despatches above referred to,
+the Russian Government was seeking to drag Bulgaria into
+fratricidal strife with Roumania over some trifling disputes
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page262" id="page262"></a>[pg
+262]</span> about the new border near Silistria. That quarrel, if
+well managed, promised to be materially advantageous to Russia and
+mentally soothing to her ruler. It would weaken the Danubian States
+and help to bring them back to the heel of their former protector.
+Further, seeing that the behaviour of King Charles to his Russian
+benefactors was no less "ungrateful" than that of Prince Alexander,
+it would be a fit Nemesis for these <i>ingrats</i> to be set by the
+ears. Accordingly, in the month of August 1885, orders were issued
+to Russian agents to fan the border dispute; and on August 12/30
+the Director of the Asiatic Department at St. Petersburg wrote the
+following instructions to the Russian Consul-General at
+Rustchuk:--</p>
+<blockquote>You remember that the union [of the two Bulgarias] must
+not take place until after the abdication of Prince Alexander.
+However, the ill-advised and hostile attitude of King Charles of
+Roumania [to Russia] obliges the imperial government to postpone
+for some time the projected union of Eastern Roumelia to the
+Principality, as well as the abdication and expulsion of the Prince
+of Bulgaria. In the session of the Council of [Russian] Ministers
+held yesterday it was decided to beg the Emperor to call Prince
+Alexander to Copenhagen or to St. Petersburg in order to inform him
+that, according to the will of His Majesty, Bulgaria must defend by
+armed force her rights over the points hereinbefore
+mentioned<a name="FNanchor195"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_195">[195]</a>.</blockquote>
+<p>The despatch then states that Russia will keep Turkey quiet and
+will eventually make war on Roumania; also, that if Bulgaria
+triumphs over Roumania, the latter will pay her in territory or
+money, or in both. Possibly, however, the whole scheme may have
+been devised to serve as a decoy to bring Prince Alexander within
+the power of his imperial patrons, who, in that case, would
+probably have detained and dethroned him.</p>
+<p>Further light was thrown on the tortuous course of Russian
+diplomacy by a speech of Count Eugen Zichy to the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page263" id="page263"></a>[pg 263]</span>
+Hungarian Delegations about a year later. He made the startling
+declaration that in the summer of 1885 Russia concluded a treaty
+with Montenegro with the aim of dethroning King Milan and Prince
+Alexander, and the division of the Balkan States between Prince
+Nicholas of Montenegro and the Karageorgevich Pretender who has
+since made his way to the throne at Belgrade. The details of these
+schemes are not known, but the searchlight thrown upon them from
+Buda-Pesth revealed the shifts of the policy of those "friends of
+peace," the Czar Alexander III. and his Chancellor, de Giers.</p>
+<p>Prince Alexander may not have been aware of these schemes in
+their full extent, but he and his friends certainly felt the meshes
+closing around them. There were only two courses open, either
+completely to submit to the Czar (which, for the Prince, implied
+abdication) or to rely on the Bulgarian people. The Prince took the
+course which would have been taken by every man worthy of the name.
+It is, however, almost certain that he did not foresee the events
+at Philippopolis. He gave his word to a German officer, Major von
+Huhn, that he had not in the least degree expected the unionist
+movement to take so speedy and decisive a step forward as it did in
+the middle of September. The Prince, in fact, had been on a tour
+throughout Europe, and expressed the same opinion to the Russian
+Chancellor, de Giers, at Franzensbad.</p>
+<p>But by this time everything was ready at Philippopolis. As the
+men of Eastern Roumelia were all of one mind in this matter, it was
+the easiest of tasks to surprise the Sultan's representative,
+Gavril Pasha, to surround his office with soldiers, and to request
+him to leave the province (September 18). A carriage was ready to
+conduct him towards Sofia. In it sat a gaily dressed peasant girl
+holding a drawn sword. Gavril turned red with rage at this insult,
+but he mounted the vehicle, and was driven through the town and
+thence towards the Balkans.</p>
+<p>Such was the departure of the last official of the Sultan from
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page264" id="page264"></a>[pg
+264]</span> the land which the Turks had often drenched with blood;
+such was the revenge of the southern Bulgarians for the atrocities
+of 1876. Not a drop of blood was shed; and Major von Huhn, who soon
+arrived at Philippopolis, found Greeks and Turks living contentedly
+under the new government. The word "revolution" is in such cases a
+misnomer. South Bulgaria merely returned to its natural
+state<a name="FNanchor196"></a><a href="#Footnote_196">[196]</a>.
+But nothing will convince diplomatists that events can happen
+without the pulling of wires by themselves or their rivals. In this
+instance they found that Prince Alexander had made the
+revolution.</p>
+<p>At first, however, the Prince doubted whether he should accept
+the crown of a Greater Bulgaria which the men of Philippopolis now
+enthusiastically offered to him. Stambuloff strongly urged him to
+accept, even if he thereby still further enraged the Czar: "Sire,"
+he said, "two roads lie before you: the one to Philippopolis and as
+far beyond as God may lead; the other to Sistova and Darmstadt. I
+counsel you to take the crown the nation offers you." On the 20th
+the Prince announced his acceptance of the crown of a united
+Bulgaria. As he said to the British Consul at Philippopolis, he
+would have been a "sharper" (<i>filou</i>) not to side with his
+people<a name="FNanchor197"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_197">[197]</a>.</p>
+<p>Few persons were prepared for the outburst of wrath of the Czar
+at hearing this news. Early in his reign he had concentrated into a
+single phrase--"silly Pole"--the spleen of an essentially narrow
+nature at seeing a kinsman and a dependant dare to think and act
+for himself<a name="FNanchor198"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_198">[198]</a>. But on this occasion, as we can now see,
+the Prince had marred Russia's plans in the most serious way.
+Stambuloff and he had deprived her of her unionist trump card. The
+Czar found his project of becoming Grand Duke of a Greater Bulgaria
+blocked by the action of this same hated kinsman. Is it surprising
+that his usual stolidity gave way to one of those fits of bull-like
+fury which <span class="pagenum"><a name="page265" id=
+"page265"></a>[pg 265]</span> aroused the fear of all who beheld
+them? Thenceforth between the Emperor Alexander and Prince
+Alexander the relations might be characterised by the curt phrase
+which Palafox hurled at the French from the weak walls of
+Saragossa--"War to the knife." Like Palafox, the Prince now had no
+hope but in the bravery of his people.</p>
+<p>In the ciphered telegrams of September 19 and 20, which the
+Director of the Asiatic Department at St. Petersburg sent to the
+Russian Consul-General at Rustchuk, the note of resentment and
+revenge was clearly sounded. The events in Eastern Roumelia had
+changed "all our intentions." The agent was therefore directed to
+summon the chief Russian officers in Bulgaria and ask them whether
+the "young" Bulgarian officers could really command brigades and
+regiments, and organise the artillery; also whether that army could
+alone meet the army of "a neighbouring State." The replies of the
+officers being decidedly in the negative, they were ordered to
+leave Bulgaria<a name="FNanchor199"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_199">[199]</a>. Nelidoff, the Russian ambassador at
+Constantinople, also worked furiously to spur on the Sultan to
+revenge the insult inflicted on him by Prince Alexander.</p>
+<p>Sir William White believed that the <i>volte face</i> in Russian
+policy was due solely to Nelidoff's desire to thwart the peaceful
+policy of the Russian Chancellor, de Giers, who at that time
+chanced to be absent in Tyrol, while the Czar also was away at
+Copenhagen<a name="FNanchor200"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_200">[200]</a>. But it now appears that the Russian
+Foreign Office took Nelidoff's view, and bade him press Turkey to
+restore the "legal order" of things in Eastern Roumelia. Further,
+the Ministers of the Czar found that Servia, Greece, and perhaps
+also Roumania, intended to oppose the aggrandisement of Bulgaria;
+and it therefore seemed easy to chastise "the Battenberger" for his
+wanton disturbance of the peace of Europe.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page266" id="page266"></a>[pg
+266]</span>
+<p>Possibly Russia would herself have struck at Bulgaria but for
+the difficulties of the general situation. How great these were
+will be realised by a perusal of the following chapters, which deal
+with the spread of Nihilism in Russia, the formation of the
+Austro-German alliance, and the favour soon shown to it by Italy,
+the estrangement of England and the Porte owing to the action taken
+by the former in Egypt, and the sharp collision of interests
+between Russia and England at Panjdeh on the Afghan frontier. When
+it is further remembered that France fretted at the untoward
+results of M. Ferry's forward policy in Tonquin; that Germany was
+deeply engaged in colonial efforts; and that the United Kingdom was
+distracted by those efforts, by the failure of the expedition to
+Khartum, and by the Parnellite agitation in Ireland--the complexity
+of the European situation will be sufficiently evident. Assuredly
+the events of the year 1885 were among the most distracting ever
+recorded in the history of Europe.</p>
+<p>This clash of interests among nations wearied by war, and
+alarmed at the apparition of the red spectre of revolution in their
+midst, told by no means unfavourably on the fortunes of the Balkan
+States. The dominant facts of the situation were, firstly, that
+Russia no longer had a free hand in the Balkan Peninsula in face of
+the compact between the three Emperors ratified at Skiernewice in
+the previous autumn (see Chapter XII.); and, secondly, that the
+traditional friendship between England and the Porte had been
+replaced by something like hostility. Seeing that the Sultan had
+estranged the British Government by his very suspicious action
+during the revolts of Arabi Pasha and of the Mahdi, even those who
+had loudly proclaimed the need of propping up his authority as
+essential to the stability of our Eastern Empire now began to
+revise their prejudices.</p>
+<p>Thus, when Lord Salisbury came to office, if not precisely to
+power, in June 1885, he found affairs in the East rapidly ripening
+for a change of British policy--a change which is known to have
+corresponded with his own convictions. Finally, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page267" id="page267"></a>[pg 267]</span> the
+marriage of Princess Beatrice to Prince Henry of Battenberg, on
+July 23, 1885, added that touch of personal interest which enabled
+Court circles to break with the traditions of the past and to face
+the new situation with equanimity. Accordingly the power of
+Britain, which in 1876-78 had been used to thwart the growth of
+freedom in the Balkan Peninsula, was now put forth to safeguard the
+union of Bulgaria. During these critical months Sir William White
+acted as ambassador at Constantinople, and used his great knowledge
+of the Balkan peoples with telling effect for this salutary
+purpose.</p>
+<p>Lord Salisbury advised the Sultan not to send troops into
+Southern Bulgaria; and the warning chimed in with the note of
+timorous cunning which formed the undertone of that monarch's
+thought and policy. Distracted by the news of the warlike
+preparations of Servia and Greece, Abdul Hamid looked on Russia's
+advice in a contrary sense as a piece of Muscovite treachery. About
+the same time, too, there were rumours of palace plots at
+Constantinople; and the capricious recluse of Yildiz finally
+decided to keep his best troops near at hand. It appears, then,
+that Nihilism in Russia and the spectre of conspiracy always
+haunting the brain of Abdul Hamid played their part in assuring the
+liberties of Bulgaria.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile the Powers directed their ambassadors at
+Constantinople to hold a preliminary Conference at which Turkey
+would be represented. The result was a declaration expressing
+formal disapproval of the violation of the Treaty of Berlin, and a
+hope that all parties concerned would keep the peace. This mild
+protest very inadequately reflected the character of the
+discussions which had been going on between the several Courts.
+Russia, it is known, wished to fasten the blame for the revolution
+on Prince Alexander; but all public censure was vetoed by
+England.</p>
+<p>Probably her action was as effective in still weightier matters.
+A formal Conference of the ambassadors of the Powers met at
+Constantinople on November 5; and there again Sir William White,
+acting on instructions from Lord Salisbury, defended <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page268" id="page268"></a>[pg 268]</span> the
+Bulgarian cause, and sought to bring about a friendly understanding
+between the Porte and "a people occupying so important a position
+in the Sultan's dominions." Lord Salisbury also warned the Turkish
+ambassador in London that if Turkey sought to expel Prince
+Alexander from Eastern Roumelia, she would "be making herself the
+instrument of those who desired the fall of the Ottoman
+Empire<a name="FNanchor201"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_201">[201]</a>."</p>
+<p>This reference to the insidious means used by Russia for
+bringing the Turks to a state of tutelage, as a preliminary to
+partition, was an effective reminder of the humiliations which they
+had undergone at the hands of Russia by the Treaty of Unkiar
+Skelessi (1833). France also showed no disposition to join the
+Russian and Austrian demand that the Sultan should at once
+re-establish the <i>status quo</i>; and by degrees the more
+intelligent Turks came to see that a strong Bulgaria, independent
+of Russian control, might be an additional safeguard against the
+Colossus of the North. Russia's insistence on the exact fulfilment
+of the Treaty of Berlin helped to open their eyes, and lent force
+to Sir William White's arguments as to the need of strengthening
+that treaty by "introducing into it a timely improvement<a name=
+"FNanchor202"></a><a href="#Footnote_202">[202]</a>."</p>
+<p>Owing to the opposition offered by Great Britain, and to some
+extent by France, to the proposed restoration of the old order of
+things in Eastern Roumelia, the Conference came to an end at the
+close of November, the three Imperial Powers blaming Sir William
+White for his obstructive tactics. The charges will not bear
+examination, but they show the irritation of those Governments at
+England's championship of the Bulgarian cause<a name=
+"FNanchor203"></a><a href="#Footnote_203">[203]</a>. The Bulgarians
+always remember the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page269" id=
+"page269"></a>[pg 269]</span> names of Lord Salisbury and Sir
+William White as those of friends in need.</p>
+<p>In the main, however, the consolidation of Bulgaria was achieved
+by her own stalwart sons. While the Imperial Powers were proposing
+to put back the hands of the clock, an alarum sounded forth,
+proclaiming the advent of a new era in the history of the Balkan
+peoples. The action which brought about this change was startling
+alike in its inception, in the accompanying incidents, and still
+more in its results.</p>
+<p>Where Abdul Hamid forebore to enter, even as the mandatory of
+the Continental Courts, there Milan of Servia rushed in. As an
+excuse for his aggression, the Kinglet of Belgrade alleged the harm
+done to Servian trade by a recent revision of the Bulgarian tariff.
+But the Powers assessed this complaint and others at their due
+value, and saw in his action merely the desire to seize a part of
+Western Bulgaria as a set-off to the recent growth of that
+Principality. On all sides his action in declaring war against
+Prince Alexander (November 14) met with reprobation, even on the
+part of his guide and friend, Austria. A recent report of the
+Hungarian Committee on Foreign Affairs contained a recommendation
+which implied that he ought to receive compensation; and this
+seemed to show the wish of the more active part of the Dual
+Monarchy peacefully but effectively to champion his cause<a name=
+"FNanchor204"></a><a href="#Footnote_204">[204]</a>.</p>
+<p>Nevertheless, the King decided to carve out his fortunes by his
+own sword. He had some grounds for confidence. If a Bulgarian
+<i>fait accompli</i> could win tacit recognition from the Powers,
+why should not a Servian triumph over Bulgaria force their hands
+once more? Prince Alexander was unsafe on his throne; thanks to the
+action of Russia his troops had very few experienced officers; and
+in view of the Sultan's resentment his southern border could not be
+denuded of troops. Never did a case seem more desperate than that
+of the "Peasant State," deserted and flouted by Russia, disliked by
+the Sultan, on bad terms with Roumania, and publicly lectured by
+the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page270" id="page270"></a>[pg
+270]</span> Continental Powers for her irregular conduct. Servia's
+triumph seemed assured.</p>
+<p>But now there came forth one more proof of the vitalising force
+of the national principle. In seven years the downtrodden peasants
+of Bulgaria had become men, and now astonished the world by their
+prowess. The withdrawal of the Russian officers left half of the
+captaincies vacant; but they were promptly filled up by
+enthusiastic young lieutenants. Owing to the blowing up of the line
+from Philippopolis to Adrianople, only five locomotives were
+available for carrying back northwards the troops which had
+hitherto been massed on the southern border; and these five were
+already overstrained. Yet the engineers now worked them still
+harder and they did not break down<a name=
+"FNanchor205"></a><a href="#Footnote_205">[205]</a>. The hardy
+peasants tramped impossibly long distances in their longing to meet
+the Servians. The arrangements were carried through with a success
+which seems miraculous in an inexperienced race. The explanation
+was afterwards rightly discerned by an English visitor to Bulgaria.
+"This is the secret of Bulgarian independence--everybody is in grim
+earnest. The Bulgarians do not care about amusements<a name=
+"FNanchor206"></a><a href="#Footnote_206">[206]</a>." In that
+remark there is food for thought. Inefficiency has no place among a
+people that looks to the welfare of the State as all in all.
+Breakdowns occur when men think more about "sport" and pleasure
+than about doing their utmost for their country.</p>
+<p>The results of this grim earnestness were to astonish the world.
+The Servians at first gained some successes in front of Widdin and
+Slivnitza; but the defenders of the latter place (an all-important
+position north-west of Sofia) hurried up all possible forces. Two
+Bulgarian regiments are said to have marched 123 kilometres in
+thirty hours in order to defend that military outwork of their
+capital; while others, worn out with marching, rode forward on
+horseback, two men to each horse, and then threw themselves into
+the fight. The Bulgarian <span class="pagenum"><a name="page271"
+id="page271"></a>[pg 271]</span> artillery was well served, and
+proved to be very superior to that of the Servians.</p>
+<p>Thus, on the first two days of conflict at Slivnitza, the
+defenders beat back the Servians with some loss. On the third day
+(November 19), after receiving reinforcements, they took the
+offensive, with surprising vigour. A talented young officer,
+Bendereff, led their right wing, with bands playing and colours
+flying, to storm the hillsides that dominated the Servian position.
+The hardy peasants scaled the hills and delivered the final bayonet
+charge so furiously that there and on all sides the invaders fled
+in wild panic, and scarcely halted until they reached their own
+frontier.</p>
+<p>Thenceforth King Milan had hard work to keep his men together.
+Many of them were raw troops; their ammunition was nearly
+exhausted; and their <i>morale</i> had vanished utterly. Prince
+Alexander had little difficulty in thrusting them forth from Pirot,
+and seemed to have before him a clear road to Belgrade, when
+suddenly he was brought to a halt by a menace from the
+north<a name="FNanchor207"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_207">[207]</a>.</p>
+<p>A special envoy sent by the Hapsburgs, Count Khevenh&uuml;ller,
+came in haste to the headquarters of the Prince on November 28, and
+in imperious terms bade him grant an armistice to Servia, otherwise
+Austrian troops would forthwith cross the frontier to her
+assistance. Before this threat Alexander gave way, and was blamed
+by some of his people for this act of complaisance. But assuredly
+he could not well have acted otherwise. The three Emperors, of late
+acting in accord in Balkan questions, had it in their power to
+crush him by launching the Turks against Philippopolis, or their
+own troops against Sofia. He had satisfied the claims of honour; he
+had punished Servia for her peevish and unsisterly jealousy. Under
+his lead the Bulgarians had covered themselves with glory, and had
+leaped at a bound from political youth to manhood. Why should he
+risk their new-found unity merely <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page272" id="page272"></a>[pg 272]</span> in order to abase
+Servia? The Prince never acted more prudently than when he decided
+not to bring into the field the Power which, as he believed, had
+pushed on Servia to war<a name="FNanchor208"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_208">[208]</a>.</p>
+<p>Had he known that the Russian Chancellor, de Giers, on hearing
+of Austria's threat to Bulgaria, informed the Court of Vienna of
+the Czar's condign displeasure if that threat were carried into
+effect, perhaps he would have played a grand game, advancing on
+Belgrade, dethroning the already unpopular King Milan, and offering
+to the Czar the headship of a united Servo-Bulgarian State. He
+might thus have appeased that sovereign, but at the cost of a
+European war. Whether from lack of information, or from a sense of
+prudence and humanity, the Prince held back and decided for peace
+with Servia. Despite many difficulties thrown in the way by King
+Milan, this was the upshot of the ensuing negotiations. The two
+States finally came to terms by the Treaty of Bukharest, where,
+thanks to the good sense of the negotiators and the efforts of
+Turkey to compose these strifes, peace was assured on the basis of
+the <i>status quo ante bellum</i> (March 3, 1886).</p>
+<p>Already the Porte had manifested its good-will towards Bulgaria
+in the most signal manner. This complete reversal of policy may be
+assigned to several causes. Firstly, Prince Alexander, on marching
+against the Servians, had very tactfully proclaimed that he did so
+on behalf of the existing order of things, which they were bent on
+overthrowing. His actions having corresponded to his words, the
+Porte gradually came to see in him a potent defender against
+Russia. This change in the attitude of the Sultan was undoubtedly
+helped on by the arguments of Lord Salisbury to the Turkish
+ambassador at London. He summarised the whole case for a
+recognition of the union of the two Bulgarias in the following
+remarks (December 23, 1885):--</p>
+<blockquote>Every week's experience showed that the Porte had
+little to<br>
+dread from the subserviency of Bulgaria to foreign influence,
+if<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page273" id="page273"></a>[pg
+273]</span> only Bulgaria were allowed enjoyment of her unanimous
+desires, and the Porte did not gratuitously place itself in
+opposition to the<br>
+general feeling of the people. A Bulgaria, friendly to the
+Porte,<br>
+and jealous of foreign influence, would be a far surer bulwark<br>
+against foreign aggression than two Bulgarias, severed in
+administration,<br>
+but united in considering the Porte as the only obstacle to<br>
+their national development<a name="FNanchor209"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_209">[209]</a>.</blockquote>
+<p>Events served to reveal the soundness of this statesmanlike
+pronouncement. At the close of the year Prince Alexander returned
+from the front to Sofia and received an overwhelming ovation as the
+champion of Bulgarian liberties. Further, he now found no
+difficulty in coming to an understanding with the Turkish
+Commissioners sent to investigate the state of opinion in Southern
+Bulgaria. Most significant of all was the wrath of the Czar at the
+sight of his popularity, and the utter collapse of the Russian
+party at Sofia.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile the Powers found themselves obliged little by little
+to abandon their pedantic resolve to restore the Treaty of Berlin.
+Sir Robert Morier, British ambassador at St. Petersburg, in a
+letter of December 27, 1885, to Sir William White, thus commented
+on the causes that assured success to the Bulgarian cause:</p>
+<blockquote>The very great prudence shown by Lord Salisbury, and
+the consummate<br>
+ability with which you played your part, have made it a<br>
+successful game; but the one crowning good fortune, which we<br>
+mainly owe to the incalculable folly of the Servian attack, has
+been<br>
+that Prince Alexander's generalship and the fighting capacities
+of<br>
+his soldiers have placed our rival action [his own and that of
+Sir<br>
+W. White] in perfect harmony with the crushing logic of fact.<br>
+The rivalry is thus completely swamped in the bit of cosmic
+work<br>
+so successfully accomplished. A State has been evolved out of
+the<br>
+protoplasm of Balkan chaos.</blockquote>
+<p>Sir Robert Morier finally stated that if Sir William White
+succeeded in building up an independent Bulgaria friendly to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page274" id="page274"></a>[pg
+274]</span> Roumania, he would have achieved the greatest feat of
+diplomacy since Sir James Hudson's statesmanlike moves at Turin in
+the critical months of 1859-60 gained for England a more
+influential position in Italy than France had secured by her aid in
+the campaign of Solferino. The praise is overstrained, inasmuch as
+it leaves out of count the statecraft of Bismarck in the years
+1863-64 and 1869-70; but certainly among the <i>peaceful</i>
+triumphs of recent years that of Sir William White must rank very
+high.</p>
+<p>If, however, we examine the inner cause of the success of the
+diplomacy of Hudson and White we must assign it in part to the
+mistakes of the liberating Powers, France and Russia. Napoleon
+III., by requiring the cession of Savoy and Nice, and by revealing
+his design to Gallicise the Italian Peninsula, speedily succeeded
+in alienating the Italians. The action of Russia, in compelling
+Bulgaria to give up the Dobrudscha as an equivalent to the part of
+Bessarabia which she took from Roumania, also strained the sense of
+gratitude of those peoples; and the conduct of Muscovite agents in
+Bulgaria provoked in that Principality feelings bitterer than those
+which the Italians felt at the loss of Savoy and Nice. So true is
+it that in public as in private life the manner in which a wrong is
+inflicted counts for more than the wrong itself. It was on this
+sense of resentment (misnamed "ingratitude" by the "liberators")
+that British diplomacy worked with telling effect in both cases. It
+conferred on the "liberated" substantial benefits; but their worth
+was doubled by the contrast which they offered to the losses or the
+irritation consequent on the actions of Napoleon III. and of
+Alexander III.</p>
+<p>To the present writer it seems that the great achievements of
+Sir William White were, first, that he kept the Sultan quiet (a
+course, be it remarked, from which that nervous recluse was never
+averse) when Nelidoff sought to hound him on against Bulgaria; and,
+still more, that he helped to bring about a good understanding
+between Constantinople and Sofia. In view of the hatred which Abdul
+Hamid bore to England <span class="pagenum"><a name="page275" id=
+"page275"></a>[pg 275]</span> after her intervention in Egypt in
+1882, this was certainly a great diplomatic achievement; but
+possibly Abdul Hamid hoped to reap advantages on the Nile from his
+complaisance to British policy in the Balkans.</p>
+<p>The outcome of it all was the framing of a Turco-Bulgarian
+Convention (February 1, 1886) whereby the Porte recognised Prince
+Alexander as Governor of Eastern Roumelia for a term of five years;
+a few border districts in Rhodope, inhabited by Moslems, were ceded
+to the Sultan, and (wonder of wonders!) Turkey and Bulgaria
+concluded an offensive and defensive alliance. In case of foreign
+aggression on Bulgaria, Turkish troops would be sent thither to be
+commanded by the Prince; if Turkey were invaded, Bulgarian troops
+would form part of the Sultan's army repelling the invader. In
+other respects the provisions of the Treaty of Berlin remained in
+force for Southern Bulgaria<a name="FNanchor210"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_210">[210]</a>.</p>
+<p>On that same day, as it chanced, the Salisbury Cabinet resigned
+office, and Mr. Gladstone became Prime Minister, Lord Rosebery
+taking the portfolio for Foreign Affairs. This event produced
+little variation in Britain's Eastern policy, and that statement
+will serve to emphasise the importance of the change of attitude of
+the Conservative party towards those affairs in the years
+1878-85--a change undoubtedly due in the main to the Marquis of
+Salisbury.</p>
+<p>In the official notes of the Earl of Rosebery there is manifest
+somewhat more complaisance to Russia, as when on February 12 he
+instructed Sir William White to advise the Porte to modify its
+convention with Bulgaria by abandoning the stipulation as to mutual
+military aid. Doubtless this advice was sound. It coincided with
+the known opinions of the Court of Vienna; and at the same time
+Russia formally declared that she could never accept that
+condition<a name="FNanchor211"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_211">[211]</a>. As Germany took the same view the Porte
+agreed to expunge the obnoxious clause. The Government of the Czar
+also objected to the naming of Prince Alexander in the Convention.
+This <span class="pagenum"><a name="page276" id="page276"></a>[pg
+276]</span> unlooked-for slight naturally aroused the indignation
+of the Prince; but as the British Government deferred to Russian
+views on this matter, the Convention was finally signed at
+Constantinople on April 5, 1886. The Powers, including Turkey,
+thereby recognised "the Prince of Bulgaria" (not named) as Governor
+of Eastern Roumelia for a term of five years, and referred the
+"Organic Statute" of that province to revision by a joint
+Conference.</p>
+<p>The Prince submitted to this arrangement, provisional and
+humiliating though it was. But the insults inflicted by Russia
+bound him the more closely to his people; and at the united
+Parliament, where 182 members out of the total 300 supported his
+Ministers, he advocated measures that would cement the union.
+Bulgarian soon became the official language throughout South
+Bulgaria, to the annoyance of the Greek and Turkish minorities. But
+the chief cause of unrest continued to be the intrigues of Russian
+agents.</p>
+<p>The anger of the Czar at the success of his hated kinsman showed
+itself in various ways. Not content with inflicting every possible
+slight and disturbing the peace of Bulgaria through his agents, he
+even menaced Europe with war over that question. At Sevastopol on
+May 19, he declared that circumstances might compel him "to defend
+by force of arms the dignity of the Empire"--a threat probably
+aimed at Bulgaria and Turkey. On his return to Moscow he received
+an enthusiastic welcome from the fervid Slavophils of the old
+Russian capital, the Mayor expressing in his address the hope that
+"the cross of Christ will soon shine on St. Sofia" at
+Constantinople. At the end of June the Russian Government
+repudiated the clause of the Treaty of Berlin constituting Batoum a
+free port<a name="FNanchor212"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_212">[212]</a>. Despite a vigorous protest by Lord
+Rosebery against this infraction of treaty engagements, the Czar
+and M. de Giers held to their resolve, evidently by way of retort
+to the help given from London to the union of the two
+Bulgarias.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page277" id="page277"></a>[pg
+277]</span>
+<p>The Dual Monarchy, especially Hungary, also felt the weight of
+Russia's displeasure in return for the sympathy manifested for the
+Prince at Pesth and Vienna; and but for the strength which the
+friendship of Germany afforded, that Power would almost certainly
+have encountered war from the irate potentate of the North.</p>
+<p>Turkey, having no champion, was in still greater danger; her
+conduct in condoning the irregularities of Prince Alexander was as
+odious to Alexander III. as the atrocities of her Bashi-bazouks ten
+years before had been to his more chivalrous sire. It is an open
+secret that during the summer of 1886 the Czar was preparing to
+deal a heavy blow. The Sultan evaded it by adroitly shifting his
+ground and posing as a well-wisher of the Czar, whereupon M.
+Nelidoff, the Russian ambassador at Constantinople, proposed an
+offensive and defensive alliance, and went to the length of
+suggesting that they should wage war against Austria and England in
+order to restore the Sultan's authority over Bosnia and Egypt at
+the expense of those intrusive Powers. How far negotiations went on
+this matter and why they failed is not known. The ordinary
+explanation, that the Czar forbore to draw the sword because of his
+love of peace, hardly tallies with what is now known of his
+character and his diplomacy. It is more likely that he was appeased
+by the events now to be described, and thereafter attached less
+importance to a direct intervention in Balkan affairs.</p>
+<p>No greater surprise has happened in this generation than the
+kidnapping of Prince Alexander by officers of the army which he had
+lately led to victory. Yet the affair admits of explanation.
+Certain of their number nourished resentment against him for his
+imperfect recognition of their services during the Servian War, and
+for the introduction of German military instructors at its close.
+Among the malcontents was Bendereff, the hero of Slivnitza, who,
+having been guilty of discourtesy to the Prince, was left
+unrewarded. On this discontented <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page278" id="page278"></a>[pg 278]</span> knot of men Russian
+intriguers fastened themselves profitably, with the result that one
+regiment at least began to waver in its allegiance.</p>
+<p>A military plot was held in reserve as a last resort. In the
+first place, a Russian subject, Captain Nabokoff, sought to
+simplify the situation by hiring some Montenegrin desperadoes, and
+by seeking to murder or carry off the Prince as he drew near to
+Bourgas during a tour in Eastern Bulgaria. This plan came to light
+through the fidelity of a Bulgarian peasant, whereupon Nabokoff and
+a Montenegrin priest were arrested (May 18). At once the Russian
+Consul at that seaport appeared, demanded the release of the
+conspirators, and, when this was refused, threatened the Bulgarian
+authorities if justice took its course. It is not without
+significance that the Czar's warlike speech at Sevastopol startled
+the world on the day after the arrest of the conspirators at
+Bourgas. Apparently the arrest of Nabokoff impelled the Czar of all
+the Russias to uphold the dignity of his Empire by hurling threats
+against a State which protected itself from conspiracy. The
+champion of order in Russia thereby figured as the abettor of
+plotters in the Balkans.</p>
+<p>The menaces of the Northern Power availed to defer the trial of
+the conspirators, and the affair was still undecided when the
+conspirators at Sofia played their last card. Bendereff was at that
+time acting as Minister of War, and found means to spread broadcast
+a rumour that Servia was arming as if for war. Sending northwards
+some faithful troops to guard against this baseless danger, he left
+the capital at the mercy of the real enemy.</p>
+<p>On August 21, when all was ready, the Struma Regiment hastily
+marched back by night to Sofia, disarmed the few faithful troops
+there in garrison, surrounded the palace of the Prince, while the
+ringleaders burst into his bedchamber. He succeeded in fleeing
+through a corridor which led to the garden, only to be met with
+levelled bayonets and cries of hatred. The leaders thrust him into
+a corner, tore a sheet out of the visitors' book which lay on a
+table close by, and on it hastily scrawled words <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page279" id="page279"></a>[pg 279]</span>
+implying abdication; the Prince added his signature, along with the
+prayer, "God save Bulgaria." At dawn the mutineers forced him into
+a carriage, Bendereff and his accomplices crowding round to dismiss
+him with jeers and screen him from the sight of the public. Thence
+he was driven at the utmost speed through byways towards the
+Danube. There the conspirators had in readiness his own yacht,
+which they had seized, and carried him down the stream towards
+Russian territory.</p>
+<p>The outburst of indignation with which the civilised world heard
+of this foul deed had its counterpart in Bulgaria. So general and
+so keen was the reprobation (save in the Russian and Bismarckian
+Press) that the Russian Government took some steps to dissociate
+itself from the plot, while profiting by its results. On August 24,
+when the Prince was put on shore at Reni, the Russian authorities
+kept him under guard, and that, too, despite an order of the Czar
+empowering him to "continue his journey exactly as he might
+please." Far from this, he was detained for some little time, and
+then was suffered to depart by train only in a northerly direction.
+He ultimately entered Austrian territory by way of Lemberg in
+Galicia, on August 27. The aim of the St. Petersburg Government
+evidently was to give full time for the conspirators at Sofia to
+consolidate their power<a name="FNanchor213"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_213">[213]</a>.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, by military display, the distribution of money, and a
+<i>Te Deum</i> at the Cathedral for "liberation from Prince
+Battenberg," the mutineers sought to persuade the men of Sofia that
+peace and prosperity would infallibly result from the returning
+favour of the Czar. The populace accepted the first tokens of his
+good-will and awaited developments. These were not promising for
+the mutineers. The British Consul at Philippopolis, Captain Jones,
+on hearing of the affair, hurried to the commander of the garrison,
+General Mutkuroff, and besought him to crush the plotters<a name=
+"FNanchor214"></a><a href="#Footnote_214">[214]</a>. The General
+speedily enlisted his own troops and those in garrison elsewhere on
+the side of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page280" id=
+"page280"></a>[pg 280]</span> Prince, with the result that a large
+part of the army refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new
+Russophil Ministry, composed of trimmers like Bishop Clement and
+Zankoff. Karaveloff also cast in his influence against them.</p>
+<p>Above all, Stambuloff worked furiously for the Prince; and when
+a mitred Vicar of Bray held the seals of office and enjoyed the
+official counsels of traitors and place-hunters, not all the
+prayers of the Greek Church and the gold of Russian agents could
+long avail to support the Government against the attacks of that
+strong-willed, clean-handed patriot. Shame at the disgrace thus
+brought on his people doubled his powers; and, with the aid of all
+that was best in the public life of Bulgaria, he succeeded in
+sweeping Clement and his Comus rout back to their mummeries and
+their underground plots. So speedy was the reverse of fortune that
+the new Provisional Government succeeded in thwarting the despatch
+of a Russian special Commissioner, General Dolgorukoff, through
+whom Alexander III. sought to bestow the promised blessings on that
+"much-tried" Principality.</p>
+<p>The voice of Bulgaria now made itself heard. There was but one
+cry--for the return of Prince Alexander. At once he consented to
+fulfil his people's desire; and, travelling by railway through
+Bukharest, he reached the banks of the Danube and set foot on his
+yacht, not now a prisoner, but the hero of the German, Magyar, and
+Balkan peoples. At Rustchuk officers and deputies bore him ashore
+shoulder-high to the enthusiastic people. He received a welcome
+even from the Consul-General for Russia--a fact which led him to
+take a false step. Later in the day, when Stambuloff was not
+present, he had an interview with this agent, and then sent a
+telegram to the Czar, announcing his return, his thanks for his
+friendly reception by Russia's chief agent, and his readiness to
+accept the advice of General Dolgorukoff. The telegram ended
+thus:--</p>
+<blockquote>I should be happy to be able to give to Your Majesty
+the definitive<br>
+proof of the devotion with which I am animated towards Your<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page281" id="page281"></a>[pg
+281]</span> august person. The monarchical principle forces me to
+re-establish<br>
+the reign of law (<i>la l&eacute;galit&eacute;</i>) in Bulgaria and
+Roumelia. Russia<br>
+having given me my crown, I am ready to give it back into the<br>
+hands of its Sovereign.</blockquote>
+<p>To this the Czar sent the following telegraphic reply, and
+allowed it to appear at once in the official paper at St.
+Petersburg:--</p>
+<blockquote>I have received Your Highness's telegram. I cannot
+approve your return to Bulgaria, as I foresee the sinister
+consequences that it may bring on Bulgaria, already so much tried.
+The mission of General Dolgorukoff is now inopportune. I shall
+abstain from it in the sad state of things to which Bulgaria is
+reduced so long as you remain there. Your Highness will understand
+what you have to do. I reserve my judgment as to what is commanded
+me by the venerated memory of my father, the interests of Russia,
+and the peace of the Orient<a name="FNanchor215"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_215">[215]</a>.</blockquote>
+<p>What led the Prince to use the extraordinary words contained in
+the last sentence of his telegram can only be conjectured. The
+substance of his conversation with the Russian Consul-General is
+not known; and until the words of that official are fully explained
+he must be held open to the suspicion of having played on the
+Prince a diplomatic version of the confidence trick. Another
+version, that of M. &Eacute;lie de Cyon, is that he acted on
+instructions from the Russian Chancellor, de Giers, who believed
+that the Czar would relent. On the contrary, he broke loose, and
+sent the answer given above<a name="FNanchor216"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_216">[216]</a>.</p>
+<p>It is not surprising that, after receiving the Czar's retort,
+the Prince seemed gloomy and depressed where all around him were
+full of joy. At Tirnova and Philippopolis he had the same
+reception; but an attempt to derail his train on the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page282" id="page282"></a>[pg 282]</span>
+journey to Sofia showed that the malice of his foes was still
+unsated. The absence of the Russian and German Consuls from the
+State reception accorded to the Prince at the capital on September
+3 showed that he had to reckon with the hostility or disapprobation
+of those Governments; and there was the ominous fact that the
+Russian agent at Sofia had recently intervened to prevent the
+punishment of the mutineers and Bishop Clement. Few, however, were
+prepared for what followed. On entering his palace, the Prince
+called his officers about him and announced that, despairing of
+overcoming the antipathy of the Czar to him, he must abdicate. Many
+of them burst into tears, and one of them cried, "Without your
+Highness there is no Bulgaria."</p>
+<p>This action, when the Prince seemed at the height of popularity,
+caused intense astonishment. The following are the reasons that
+probably dictated it. Firstly, he may have felt impelled to redeem
+the pledges which he too trustfully made to the Czar in his
+Rustchuk telegram, and of which that potentate took so unchivalrous
+an advantage. Secondly, the intervention of Russia to protect the
+mutineers from their just punishment betokened her intention to
+foment further plots. In this intervention, strange to say, she had
+the support of the German Government, Bismarck using his influence
+at Berlin persistently against the Prince, in order to avert the
+danger of war, which once or twice seemed to be imminent between
+Russia and Germany.</p>
+<p>Further, we may note that Austria and the other States had no
+desire to court an attack from the Eastern Power, on account of a
+personal affair between the two Alexanders. Great Britain also was
+at that time too hampered by domestic and colonial difficulties to
+be able to do more than offer good wishes.</p>
+<p>Thus the weakness or the weariness of the States friendly to
+Bulgaria left the Czar a free hand in the personal feud on which he
+set such store. Accordingly, on September 7, the Prince left
+Bulgaria amidst the lamentations of that usually stolid people and
+the sympathy of manly hearts throughout the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page283" id="page283"></a>[pg 283]</span> world.
+At Buda-Pesth and London there were ominous signs that the Czar
+must not push his triumph further. Herr Tisza at the end of the
+month assured the Hungarian deputies that, if the Sultan did not
+choose to restore the old order of things in Southern Bulgaria, no
+other Power had the right to intervene there by force of arms. Lord
+Salisbury, also, at the Lord Mayor's banquet, on November 9,
+inveighed with startling frankness against the "officers debauched
+by foreign gold," who had betrayed their Prince. He further stated
+that all interest in foreign affairs centred in Bulgaria, and
+expressed the belief that the freedom of that State would be
+assured.</p>
+<p>These speeches were certainly intended as a warning to Russia
+and a protest against her action in Bulgaria. After the departure
+of Prince Alexander, the Czar hit upon the device of restoring
+order to that "much-tried" country through the instrumentality of
+General Kaulbars, a brother of the General who had sought to kidnap
+Prince Alexander three years before. It is known that the despatch
+of the younger Kaulbars was distasteful to the more pacific and
+Germanophil chancellor, de Giers, who is said to have worked
+against the success of his mission. Such at least is the version
+given by his private enemies, Katkoff and de Cyon<a name=
+"FNanchor217"></a><a href="#Footnote_217">[217]</a>. Kaulbars soon
+succeeded in adding to the reputation of his family. On reaching
+Sofia, on September 25, he ordered the liberation of the military
+plotters still under arrest, and the adjournment of the forthcoming
+elections for the Sobranje; otherwise Russia would not regard them
+as legal. The Bulgarian Regents, Stambuloff at their head, stoutly
+opposed these demands and fixed the elections for October the 10th;
+whereupon Kaulbars treated the men of Sofia, and thereafter of all
+the chief towns, to displays of bullying rhetoric, which succeeded
+in blotting out all memories of Russian exploits of nine years
+before<a name="FNanchor218"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_218">[218]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page284" id="page284"></a>[pg
+284]</span>
+<p>Despite his menace, that 100,000 Russian troops were ready to
+occupy Bulgaria, despite the murder of four patriots by his bravos
+at Dubnitza, Bulgaria flung back the threats by electing 470
+supporters of independence and unity, as against 30 Russophils and
+20 deputies of doubtful views. The Sobranje met at Tirnova, and,
+disregarding his protest, proceeded to elect Prince Waldemar of
+Denmark; it then confirmed Stambuloff in his almost dictatorial
+powers. The Czar's influence over the Danish Royal House led to the
+Prince promptly refusing that dangerous honour, which it is
+believed that Russia then designed for the Prince of Mingrelia, a
+dignitary of Russian Caucasia.</p>
+<p>The aim of the Czar and of Kaulbars now was to render all
+government impossible; but they had to deal with a man far more
+resolute and astute than Prince Alexander. Stambuloff and his
+countrymen fairly wearied out Kaulbars, until that imperial agent
+was suddenly recalled (November 19). He also ordered the Russian
+Consuls to withdraw.</p>
+<p>It is believed that the Czar recalled him partly because of the
+obvious failure of a hectoring policy, but also owing to the
+growing restlessness of Austria-Hungary, England, and Italy at
+Russia's treatment of Bulgaria. For several months European
+diplomacy turned on the question of Bulgaria's independence; and
+here Russia could not yet count on a French alliance. As has been
+noted above, Alexander III. and de Giers had tied their hands by
+the alliance contracted at Skiernewice in 1884; and the Czar had
+reason to expect that the Austro-German compact would hold good
+against him if he forced on his solution of the Balkan
+Question.</p>
+<p>Probably it was this consideration which led him to trust to
+underground means for assuring the dependence of Bulgaria. If so,
+he was again disappointed. Stambuloff met his agents everywhere,
+above ground and below ground. That son of an innkeeper at Tirnova
+now showed a power of inspiring men and controlling events equal to
+that of the innkeeper of the Pusterthal, Andreas Hofer. The
+discouraged Bulgarians <span class="pagenum"><a name="page285" id=
+"page285"></a>[pg 285]</span> everywhere responded to his call; at
+Rustchuk they crushed a rising of Russophil officers, and
+Stambuloff had nine of the rebels shot (March 7, 1887). Thereafter
+he acted as dictator and imprisoned numbers of suspects. His
+countrymen put up with the loss of civic freedom in order to secure
+the higher boon of national independence.</p>
+<p>In the main, however, the freedom of Bulgaria from Russian
+control was due to events transpiring in Central Europe. As will
+appear in Chapter XII. of this work, the Czar and de Giers became
+convinced, early in the year 1887, that Bismarck was preparing for
+war against France, and they determined to hold aloof from other
+questions, in order to be free to checkmate the designs of the war
+party at Berlin. The organ usually inspired by de Giers, the
+<i>Nord</i>, uttered an unmistakable warning on February 20, 1887,
+and even stated that, with this aim in view, Russia would let
+matters take their course in Bulgaria.</p>
+<p>Thus, once again, the complexities of the general situation
+promoted the cause of freedom in the Balkans; and the way was
+cleared for a resolute man to mount the throne at Sofia. In the
+course of a tour to the European capitals, a Bulgarian delegation
+found that man. The envoys were informed that Prince Ferdinand of
+Saxe-Coburg, a grandson of Louis Philippe on the spindle-side,
+would welcome the dangerous honour. He was young, ambitious, and,
+as events were to prove, equally tactful and forceful according to
+circumstances. In vain did Russia seek to prevent his election by
+pushing on the Sultan to intervene. Abdul Hamid was not the man to
+let himself long be the catspaw of Russia, and now invited the
+Powers to name one or two candidates for the throne of Bulgaria.
+Stambuloff worked hard for the election of Prince Ferdinand; and on
+July 7, 1887, he was unanimously elected by the Sobranje. Alone
+among the Great Powers, Russia protested against his election and
+threw many difficulties in his path. In order to please the Czar,
+the Sultan added his protest; but this <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page286" id="page286"></a>[pg 286]</span> act
+was soon seen to be merely a move in the diplomatic game.</p>
+<p>Limits of space, however, preclude the possibility of noting
+later events in the history of Bulgaria, such as the coolness that
+clouded the relations of the Prince to Stambuloff, the murder of
+the latter, and the final recognition of the Prince by the Russian
+Government after the "conversion" of his little son, Boris, to the
+Greek Church (Feb. 1896). In this curious way was fulfilled the
+prophetic advice given by Bismarck to the Prince not long after his
+acceptance of the crown of Bulgaria: "Play the dead (<i>faire
+mort</i>). . . . Let yourself be driven gently by the stream, and keep
+yourself, as hitherto, above water. Your greatest ally is
+time--force of habit. Avoid everything that might irritate your
+enemies. Unless you give them provocation, they cannot do you much
+harm, and in course of time the world will become accustomed to see
+you on the throne of Bulgaria<a name="FNanchor219"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_219">[219]</a>."</p>
+<p>Time has worked on behalf of Bulgaria, and has helped to
+strengthen this Benjamin of the European family. Among the events
+which have made the chief States of to-day, none are more
+remarkable than those which endowed a population of downtrodden
+peasants with a passionate desire for national existence. Thanks to
+the liberating armies of Russia, to the prowess of Bulgarians
+themselves, to the inspiring personality of Prince Alexander and
+the stubborn tenacity of Stambuloff, the young State gained a firm
+grip on life. But other and stranger influences were at work
+compelling that people to act for itself; these are to be found in
+the perverse conduct of Alexander III. and of his agents. The
+policy of Russia towards Bulgaria may be characterised by a remark
+made by Sir Robert Morier to Sir M. Grant Duff in 1888: "Russia is
+a great bicephalic creature, having one head European, and the
+other Asiatic, but with the persistent habit of turning its
+European face to the East, and its Asiatic face to the West<a name=
+"FNanchor220"></a><a href="#Footnote_220">[220]</a>." <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page287" id="page287"></a>[pg 287]</span>
+Asiatic methods, put in force against Slavised Tartars, have
+certainly played no small part in the upbuilding of this youngest
+of the European States.</p>
+<p>In taking leave of the Balkan peoples, we may note the strange
+tendency of events towards equipoise in the Europe of the present
+age. Thirty years ago the Turkish Empire seemed at the point of
+dissolution. To-day it is stronger than ever; and this cause is to
+be found, not so much in the watchful cunning of Abdul Hamid, as in
+the vivifying principle of nationality, which has made of Bulgaria
+and Roumania two strong barriers against Russian aggression in that
+quarter. The feuds of those States have been replaced by something
+like friendship, which in its turn will probably ripen into
+alliance. Together they could put 250,000 good troops in the
+field--that is, a larger force than that which the Turks had in
+Europe during the war with Russia. Turkey is therefore fully as
+safe as she was under Abdul Aziz.</p>
+<p>An enlightened ruler could consolidate her position still
+further. Just as Austria has gained in strength by having Venetia
+as a friendly and allied land, rather than a subject province
+heaving with discontent, so, too, it is open to the Porte to secure
+the alliance of the Balkan States by treating them in an honourable
+way, and by according good government to Macedonia.</p>
+<p>Possibly the future may see the formation of a federation of all
+the States of European Turkey. If so, Russia will lose all foothold
+in a quarter where she formerly had the active support of
+three-fourths of the population. However that may be, it is certain
+that her mistakes in and after the year 1878 have profoundly
+modified the Eastern Question. They have served to cancel those
+which, as it seems to the present writer, Lord Beaconsfield
+committed in the years 1876-77; and the skilful diplomacy of Lord
+Salisbury and Sir William White has regained for England the
+prestige which she then lost among the rising peoples of the
+Peninsula.</p>
+<p>The final solution of the tangled racial problems of Mace
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page288" id="page288"></a>[pg
+288]</span> donia cannot be long deferred, in spite of the timorous
+selfishness of the Powers who incurred treaty obligations for the
+welfare of that land; and, when that question can be no longer
+postponed or explained away, it is to be hoped that the British
+people, taking heed of the lessons of the past, will insist on a
+solution that will conform to the claims of humanity, which have
+been proved to be those of enlightened statesmanship<a name=
+"FNanchor221"></a><a href="#Footnote_221">[221]</a>.</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_184"></a><a href="#FNanchor184">[184]</a>
+<i>The Peasant State: Bulgaria in 1894</i>, by E. Dicey, C.B.
+(1904), p. 11.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_185"></a><a href="#FNanchor185">[185]</a>
+<i>Turkey in Europe</i>, by "Odysseus," pp. 28, 356, 367.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_186"></a><a href="#FNanchor186">[186]</a>
+<i>Turkey in Europe</i>, by "Odysseus," pp. 280-283, 297; <i>The
+Peasant State</i>, by E. Dicey, pp. 75-77.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_187"></a><a href="#FNanchor187">[187]</a>
+R&eacute;cius, Kiepert, Ritter, and other geographers and
+ethnologists, admit that the majority in Macedonia is
+Bulgarian.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_188"></a><a href="#FNanchor188">[188]</a> For
+the scenes which then occurred, see <i>Le Prince Alexandre de
+Battenberg en Bulgarie</i>, by A.G. Drandar, pp. 169 <i>et
+seq</i>.; also A. Koch, <i>F&uuml;rst Alexander von Bulgarien</i>,
+pp. 144-147.<br>
+<br>
+For the secret aims of Russia, see <i>Documents secrets de la
+Politique russe en Orient</i>, by R. Leonoff (Berlin, 1893), pp.
+49-65. General Soboleff, <i>Der erste F&uuml;rst von Bulgarian</i>
+(Leipzig, 1896), has given a highly coloured Russian account of all
+these incidents.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_189"></a><a href="#FNanchor189">[189]</a> See
+Laveleye's <i>The Balkan Peninsula</i>, pp. 259-262, for an account
+of Karaveloff.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_190"></a><a href="#FNanchor190">[190]</a>
+J.G.C. Minchin, <i>The Growth of Freedom in the Balkan
+Peninsula</i> (1886) p. 237. The author, Consul-General for Servia
+in London, had earlier contributed many articles to the
+<i>Times</i> and <i>Morning Advertiser</i> on Balkan affairs.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_191"></a><a href="#FNanchor191">[191]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History</i>, by Dr. M. Busch
+(Note of January 5, 1886), vol. iii. p. 150 (English edition).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_192"></a><a href="#FNanchor192">[192]</a> The
+treaty has not been published; for this general description of it I
+am indebted to the kindness of M. Mijatovich himself.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_193"></a><a href="#FNanchor193">[193]</a>
+<i>Documents secrets de la Politique russe en Orient,</i> ed. by R.
+Leonoff (Berlin, 1893), pp. 8, 48. This work is named by M. Malet
+in his <i>Bibliographie</i> on the Eastern Question on p. 448, vol.
+ix., of the <i>Histoire G&eacute;n&eacute;rale of</i> MM. Lavisse
+and Rambaud. I have been assured of its genuineness by a gentleman
+well versed in the politics of the Balkan States.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_194"></a><a href="#FNanchor194">[194]</a> For
+Bismarck's action and that of the Emperor William I. in 1885, see
+<i>Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History</i>, by M. Busch,
+vol. iii. pp. 171, 180, 292, also p. 335. Russian agents came to
+Stambuloff in the summer of 1885 to say that "Prince Alexander must
+be got rid of before he can ally himself with the German family
+regnant." Stambuloff informed the Prince of this. See
+<i>Stambuloff</i>, by A.H. Beaman, p. 52.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_195"></a><a href="#FNanchor195">[195]</a> R.
+Leonoff, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 81-84.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_196"></a><a href="#FNanchor196">[196]</a>
+<i>The Struggle of the Bulgarians for National Independence</i>, by
+Major A. von Huhn, chap. ii. See, too, Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 1
+(1886), p. 83.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_197"></a><a href="#FNanchor197">[197]</a>
+<i>Stambuloff</i>, by A.H. Beaman, chap. iii.; Parl. Papers,
+<i>ibid</i>. p. 81.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_198"></a><a href="#FNanchor198">[198]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: Reflections and Reminiscences</i>, vol. ii. p. 116
+(Eng. ed.).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_199"></a><a href="#FNanchor199">[199]</a> R.
+Leonoff, <i>op. cit.</i> Nos. 75, 77.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_200"></a><a href="#FNanchor200">[200]</a>
+<i>Sir William White: Memoirs and Correspondence</i>, by H.
+Sutherland Edwards, pp. 231-232.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_201"></a><a href="#FNanchor201">[201]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 1 (1886), pp. 214-215. See, too,
+<i>ibid</i>. pp. 197 <i>et seq</i>. for Lord Salisbury's
+instructions to Sir William White for the Conference. In view of
+them it is needless to waste space in refuting the arguments of the
+Russophil A.G. Drandar, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 147, that England sought
+to make war between the Balkan States.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_202"></a><a href="#FNanchor202">[202]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. pp. 273-274, 288, for Russia's policy; p. 284 for Sir
+W. White's argument.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_203"></a><a href="#FNanchor203">[203]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. pp. 370-372.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_204"></a><a href="#FNanchor204">[204]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 1 (1886), p. 250.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_205"></a><a href="#FNanchor205">[205]</a> A.
+von Huhn, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 105.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_206"></a><a href="#FNanchor206">[206]</a>
+E.A.B. Hodgetts, <i>Round about Armenia</i>, p. 7.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_207"></a><a href="#FNanchor207">[207]</a>
+Drandar, <i>&Eacute;v&eacute;nements politiques en Bulgarie</i>,
+pp. 89-116; von Huhn, <i>op. cit.</i> chaps. x. xi.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_208"></a><a href="#FNanchor208">[208]</a>
+Drandar, <i>op. cit.</i> chap. iii.; Kuhn, <i>op. cit.</i> chap.
+xviii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_209"></a><a href="#FNanchor209">[209]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 1 (1886), p. 424.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_210"></a><a href="#FNanchor210">[210]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 2 (1886).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_211"></a><a href="#FNanchor211">[211]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. pp. 96-98.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_212"></a><a href="#FNanchor212">[212]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Russia (1886), p. 828.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_213"></a><a href="#FNanchor213">[213]</a> A.
+von Huhn, <i>op. cit.</i> chap. iv.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_214"></a><a href="#FNanchor214">[214]</a> See
+Mr. Minchin's account in the <i>Morning Advertiser</i> for
+September 23, 1886.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_215"></a><a href="#FNanchor215">[215]</a> A.
+von Huhn, <i>The Kidnapping of Prince Alexander</i>, chap. xi.
+(London, 1887). Article III. of the Treaty of Berlin ran thus: "The
+Prince of Bulgaria shall be freely elected by the population and
+confirmed by the Sublime Porte, with the assent of the Powers."
+Russia had no right to <i>choose</i> the Prince, and her
+<i>assent</i> to his election was only that of <i>one</i> among the
+six Great Powers. The mistake of Prince Alexander is therefore
+inexplicable.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_216"></a><a href="#FNanchor216">[216]</a>
+<i>Histoire de l'Entente franco-russe</i>, by &Eacute;lie de Cyon,
+p. 158.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_217"></a><a href="#FNanchor217">[217]</a>
+&Eacute;lie de Cyon, <i>Histoire de l'Entente franco-russe</i>, pp.
+177-178.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_218"></a><a href="#FNanchor218">[218]</a> The
+Russophil Drandar (<i>op. cit.</i> p. 214) calls these demands
+"remarqueblement mod&eacute;r&eacute;es et sages"! For further
+details of Kaulbars' electioneering devices see Minchin, <i>op.
+cit.</i> pp. 327-330.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_219"></a><a href="#FNanchor219">[219]</a>
+<i>Personal Reminiscences of Prince Bismarck</i>, by S. Whitman, p.
+179.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_220"></a><a href="#FNanchor220">[220]</a> Sir
+M. Grant Duff, <i>Notes from a Diary (1886-88)</i>, vol. ii. p.
+139.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_221"></a><a href="#FNanchor221">[221]</a> For
+the recent developments of the Macedonian Question, see <i>Turkey
+in Europe</i>, by "Odysseus" (1900); <i>the Middle Eastern
+Question</i>, by V. Chirol, 18s. net (Murray); <i>A Tour in
+Macedonia</i>, by G.F. Abbot (1903); <i>The Burden of the
+Balkans</i>, by Miss Edith Durham (1904); <i>The Balkans from
+Within</i>, by R. Wyon (1904); <i>The Balkan Question</i>, edited
+by L. Villari (1904); <i>Critical Times in Turkey</i>, by G.
+King-Lewis (1904); <i>Pro Macedonia</i>, by V. B&eacute;rard
+(Paris, 1904); <i>La P&eacute;ninsule balkanique</i>, by Capitaine
+Lamouche (Paris, 1899).</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page289" id="page289"></a>[pg
+289]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+<h3>NIHILISM AND ABSOLUTISM IN RUSSIA</h3>
+<br>
+<center>THE HOUSE OF ROMANOFF</center>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/289.png" width="80%" alt=""></p>
+<br>
+<p>The Whig statesman, Charles James Fox, once made the profound
+though seemingly paradoxical assertion that the most dangerous part
+of a Revolution was the Restoration that ended it. In a similar way
+we may hazard the statement that the greatest danger brought about
+by war lies in the period of peace immediately following. Just as
+the strain involved by any physical effort is most felt when the
+muscles and nerves resume their normal action, so, too, the body
+politic is liable to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page290" id=
+"page290"></a>[pg 290]</span> depression when once the time of
+excitement is over and the artificial activities of war give place
+to the tiresome work of paying the bill. England after Waterloo,
+France and Germany after the war of 1870, afford examples of this
+truth; but never perhaps has it been more signally illustrated than
+in the Russia of 1878-82.</p>
+<p>There were several reasons why the reaction should be especially
+sharp in Russia. The Slav peoples that form the great bulk of her
+population are notoriously sensitive. Shut up for nearly half the
+year by the rigours of winter, they naturally develop habits of
+brooding introspection or coarse animalism--witness the plaintive
+strains of their folk-songs, the pessimism that haunts their
+literature, and the dram-drinking habits of the peasantry. The
+Muscovite temperament and the Muscovite climate naturally lead to
+idealist strivings against the hardships of life or a dull
+grovelling amongst them. Melancholy or vodka is the outcome of it
+all.</p>
+<p>The giant of the East was first aroused to a consciousness of
+his strength by the invasion of Napoleon the Great. The comparative
+ease with which the Grand Army was engulfed left on the national
+mind of Russia a consciousness of pride never to be lost even
+amidst the cruel disappointments of the Crimean War. Holy Russia
+had once beaten back the forces of Europe marshalled by the
+greatest captain of all time. She was therefore a match for the
+rest of the Continent. Such was the belief of every patriotic
+Muscovite. As for the Turks, they were not worthy of entering the
+lists against the soldiers of the Czar. Did not every decade bring
+further proofs of the decline of the Ottomans in governing capacity
+and military prowess? They might harry Bulgarian peasants and win
+laurels over the Servian militia. But how could that bankrupt State
+and its undisciplined hordes hold up against the might of Russia
+and the fervour of her liberating legions?</p>
+<p>After the indulgence of these day dreams the disillusionment
+caused by the events at Plevna came the more cruelly. One general
+after another became the scapegoat for the popular <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page291" id="page291"></a>[pg 291]</span>
+indignation. Then the General Staff was freely censured, and
+whispers went round that the Grand Duke Nicholas, brother of the
+Czar, was not only incompetent to conduct a great war, but guilty
+of underhand dealings with the contractors who defrauded the troops
+and battened on the public funds. Letters from the rank and file
+showed that the bread was bad, the shoes were rotten, the rifles
+outclassed by those of the Turks, and that trenching-tools were
+lacking for many precious weeks<a name="FNanchor222"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_222">[222]</a>. Then, too, the Bulgarian peasants were
+found to be in a state of comfort superior to that of the bulk of
+their liberators--a discovery which aroused in the Russian soldiery
+feelings like those of the troops of the old French monarchy when
+they fought side by side with the soldiers of Washington for the
+triumph of democracy in the New World. In both cases the lessons
+were stored up, to be used when the champions of liberty returned
+home and found the old order of things clanking on as slowly and
+rustily as ever.</p>
+<p>Finally, there came the crushing blow of the Treaty of Berlin.
+The Russian people had fought for an ideal: they longed to see the
+cross take the place of the crescent which for five centuries had
+flashed defiance to Christendom from the summit of St. Sofia at
+Constantinople. But Britain's ironclads, Austria's legions, and
+German diplomacy barred the way in the very hour of triumph; and
+Russia drew back. To the Slav enthusiasts of Moscow even the Treaty
+of San Stefano had seemed a dereliction of a sacred duty; that of
+Berlin seemed the most cowardly of betrayals. As the Princess
+Radziwill confesses in her <i>Recollections</i>--that event made
+Nihilism possible.</p>
+<p>As usual, the populace, whether reactionary Slavophils or
+Liberals of the type of Western Europe, vented its spleen on the
+Government. For a time the strongest bureaucracy in Europe was
+driven to act on the defensive. The Czar <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page292" id="page292"></a>[pg 292]</span>
+returned stricken with asthma and prematurely aged by the
+privations and cares of the campaign. The Grand Duke Nicholas was
+recalled from his command, and, after bearing the signs of studied
+hostility of the Czarevitch, was exiled to his estates in February
+1879. The Government inspired contempt rather than fear; and a new
+spirit of independence pervaded all classes. This was seen even as
+far back as February 1878, in the acquittal of Vera Zazulich, a
+lady who had shot the Chief of the Police at St. Petersburg, by a
+jury consisting of nobles and high officials; and the verdict,
+given in the face of damning evidence, was generally approved.
+Similar crimes occurred nearly every week<a name=
+"FNanchor223"></a><a href="#Footnote_223">[223]</a>. Everything
+therefore, favoured the designs of those who sought to overthrow
+all government. In a word, the outcome of the war was Nihilism.</p>
+<p>The father of this sombre creed was a wealthy Russian landlord
+named Bakunin; or rather, he shares this doubtful honour with the
+Frenchman Prudhon. Bakunin, who was born in 1814, entered on active
+life in the time of soulless repression inaugurated by the Czar
+Nicholas I. (1825-1855). Disgusted by Russian bureaucracy, the
+youth eagerly drank in the philosophy of Western Europe, especially
+that of Hegel. During a residence at Paris, he embraced and
+developed Prudhon's creed that "property is theft," and sought to
+prepare the way for a crusade against all Governments by forming
+the Alliance of Social Democracy (1869), which speedily became
+merged in the famous "Internationale." Driven successively from
+France and Central Europe, he was finally handed over to the
+Russians and sent to Siberia; thence he escaped to Japan and came
+to England, finally settling in Switzerland. His writings and
+speeches did much to rouse the Slavs of Austria, Poland, and Russia
+to a sense of their national importance, and of the duty of
+overthrowing the Governments that cramped their energies.</p>
+<p>As in the case of Prudhon his zeal for the non-existent
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page293" id="page293"></a>[pg
+293]</span> and hatred of the actual bordered on madness, as when
+he included most of the results of art, literature, and science in
+his comprehensive anathemas. Nevertheless his crusade for
+destruction appealed to no small part of the sensitive peoples of
+the Slavonic race, who, differing in many details, yet all have a
+dislike of repression and a longing to have their "fling<a name=
+"FNanchor224"></a><a href="#Footnote_224">[224]</a>." A union in a
+Panslavonic League for the overthrow of the Houses of Romanoff,
+Hapsburg, and Hohenzollern promised to satisfy the vague longings
+of that much-baffled race, whose name, denoting "glorious," had
+become the synonym for servitude of the lowest type. Such was the
+creed that disturbed Eastern and Central Europe throughout the
+period 1847-78, now and again developing a kind of iconoclastic
+frenzy among its votaries.</p>
+<p>This revolutionary creed absorbed another of a different kind.
+The second creed was scientific and self-centred; it had its origin
+in the Liberal movement of the sixties, when reforms set in, even
+in governmental circles. The Czar, Alexander II., in 1861 freed the
+serfs from the control of their lords, and allotted to them part of
+the plots which they had hitherto worked on a servile tenure. For
+various reasons, which we cannot here detail, the peasants were far
+from satisfied with this change, weighted, as it was, by somewhat
+onerous terms, irksome restrictions, and warped sometimes by
+dishonest or hostile officials. Limited powers of local government
+were also granted in 1864 to the local Zemstvos or
+land-organisations; but these again failed to satisfy the new
+cravings for a real system of self-government; and the Czar, seeing
+that his work produced more ferment than gratitude, began at the
+close of the sixties to fall back into the old absolutist
+ways<a name="FNanchor225"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_225">[225]</a>.</p>
+<p>At that time, too, a band of writers, of whom the novelist
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page294" id="page294"></a>[pg
+294]</span> Turgenieff is the best known, were extolling the
+triumphs of scientific research and the benefits of Western
+democracy. He it was who adapted to scientific or ethical use the
+word "Nihilism" (already in use in France to designate Prudhon's
+theories), so as to represent the revolt of the individual against
+the religious creed and patriarchal customs of old Russia. "The
+fundamental principle of Nihilism," says "Stepniak," "was absolute
+individualism. It was the negation, in the name of individual
+liberty, of all the obligations imposed upon the individual by
+society, by family life, and by religion<a name=
+"FNanchor226"></a><a href="#Footnote_226">[226]</a>."</p>
+<p>For a time these disciples of Darwin and Herbert Spencer were
+satisfied with academic protests against autocracy; but the
+uselessness of such methods soon became manifest; the influence of
+professors and philosophic Epicureans could never permeate the
+masses of Russia and stir them to their dull depths. What "the
+intellectuals" needed was a creed which would appeal to the
+many.</p>
+<p>This they gained mainly from Bakunin. He had pointed the way to
+what seemed a practical policy, the ownership of the soil of Russia
+by the Mirs, the communes of her myriad villages. As to methods, he
+advocated a propaganda of violence. "Go among the people," he said,
+and convert them to your aims. The example of the Paris Communists
+in 1871 enforced his pleas; and in the subsequent years thousands
+of students, many of them of the highest families, quietly left
+their homes, donned the peasants' garb, smirched their faces,
+tarred their hands, and went into the villages or the factories in
+the hope of stirring up the thick sedimentary deposit of the
+Russian system<a name="FNanchor227"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_227">[227]</a>. In many cases their utmost efforts ended
+in failure, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page295" id=
+"page295"></a>[pg 295]</span> the tragi-comedy of which is finely
+set forth in Turgenieff's <i>Virgin Soil</i>. Still more frequently
+their goal proved to be--Siberia. But these young men and women did
+not toil for nought. Their efforts hastened the absorption of
+philosophic Nihilism in the creed of Prudhon and Bakunin. The
+Nihilist of Turgenieff's day had been a hedonist of the clubs, or a
+harmless weaver of scientific Utopias; the Nihilist of the new age
+was that most dangerous of men, a desperado girt with a fighting
+creed.</p>
+<p>The fusing of these two diverse elements was powerfully helped
+on by the white heat of indignation that glowed throughout Russia
+when details of the official peculation and mismanagement of the
+war with Turkey became known. Everything combined to discredit the
+Government; and enthusiasts of all kinds felt that the days for
+scientific propaganda and stealthy agitation were past. Voltaire
+must give way to Marat. It was time for the bomb and the dagger to
+do their work.</p>
+<p>The new Nihilists organised an executive committee for the
+removal of the most obnoxious officials. Its success was startling.
+To name only a few of their chief deeds: on August 15, 1878, a
+Chief of the Police was slain near one of the Imperial Palaces at
+the capital; and, in February 1879, the Governor of Kharkov was
+shot, the Nihilists succeeding in announcing his condemnation by
+placards mysteriously posted up in every large town. In vain did
+the Government intervene and substitute a military Commission in
+place of trial by jury. Exile and hanging only made the Nihilists
+more daring, and on more than one occasion the Czar nearly fell a
+victim to their desperadoes.</p>
+<p>The most astounding of these attempts was the explosion of a
+mine under the banqueting-hall of the Winter Palace at St.
+Petersburg on the evening of February 17, 1880, when the Imperial
+family escaped owing to a delay in the arrival of the Grand Duke of
+Hesse. Ten soldiers were killed and forty-eight wounded in and near
+the guard-room.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page296" id="page296"></a>[pg
+296]</span>
+<p>The Czar answered outrage by terrorism. A week after this
+outrage he issued a ukase suspending the few remaining rights of
+local self-government hitherto spared by the reaction, and vesting
+practically all executive powers in a special Commission, presided
+over by General Loris Melikoff. This man was an Armenian by
+descent, and had distinguished himself as commander in the recent
+war in Asia, the capture of Kars being largely due to his
+dispositions. To these warlike gifts, uncommon in the Armenians of
+to-day, he added administrative abilities of a high order. Enjoying
+in a peculiar degree the confidence of Alexander II., he was
+charged with the supervision of all political trials and a virtual
+control of all the Governors-General of the Empire. Thereupon the
+central committee of the Nihilists proclaimed war <i>&agrave;
+outrance</i> until the Czar conceded to a popularly elected
+National Assembly the right to reform the life of Russia.</p>
+<p>Here was the strength of the Nihilist party. By violent means it
+sought to extort what a large proportion of the townsfolk wished
+for and found no means of demanding in a lawful manner. Loris
+Melikoff, gifted with the shrewdness of his race, saw that the
+Government would effect little by terrorism alone. Wholesale
+arrests, banishment, and hangings only added to the number of the
+disaffected, especially as the condemned went to their doom with a
+calm heroism that inspired the desire of imitation or revenge.
+Repression must clearly be accompanied by reforms that would bridge
+over the gulf ever widening between the Government and the thinking
+classes of the people. He began by persuading the Emperor to
+release several hundreds of suspects and to relax the severe
+measures adopted against the students of the Universities. Lastly,
+he sought to induce the Czar to establish representative
+institutions, for which even the nobles were beginning to petition.
+Little by little he familiarised him with the plan of extending the
+system of the Zemstvos, so that there should be elective councils
+for towns and provinces, as well as delegations from the provincial
+<i>noblesse</i>. He did not propose to democratise the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page297" id="page297"></a>[pg 297]</span>
+central Government. In his scheme the deputies of nobles and
+representatives of provinces and towns were to send delegates to
+the Council of State, a purely consultative body which Alexander I.
+had founded in 1802.</p>
+<p>Despite the tentative nature of these proposals, and the
+favourable reception accorded to them by the Council of State, the
+Czar for several days withheld his assent. On March 9 he signed the
+ukase, only to postpone its publication until March 12. Not until
+the morning of March 13 did he give the final order for its
+publication in the <i>Messager Officiel</i>. It was his last act as
+lawgiver. On that day (March 1, and Sunday, in the Russian
+calendar) he went to the usual military parade, despite the earnest
+warnings of the Czarevitch and Loris Melikoff as to a rumoured
+Nihilist plot. To their pleadings he returned the answer, "Only
+Providence can protect me, and when it ceases to do so, these
+Cossacks cannot possibly help." On his return, alongside of the
+Catharine Canal, a bomb was thrown under his carriage; the
+explosion tore the back off the carriage, injuring some of his
+Cossack escort, but leaving the Emperor unhurt. True to his usual
+feelings of compassion, he at once alighted to inquire after the
+wounded. This act cost him his life. Another Nihilist quickly
+approached and flung a bomb right at his feet. As soon as the smoke
+cleared away, Alexander was seen to be frightfully mangled and
+lying in his blood. He could only murmur, "Quick, home; carry to
+the Palace; there die." There, surrounded by his dearest ones,
+Alexander II. breathed his last.</p>
+<p>In striking down the liberator of the serfs when on the point of
+recurring to earlier and better methods of rule, the Nihilists had
+dealt the death-blow to their own cause. As soon as the details of
+the outrage were known, the old love for the Czar welled forth: his
+imperfections in public and private life, the seeming weakness of
+his foreign policy, and his recent use of terrorism against the
+party of progress were forgotten; and to the sensitive Russian
+nature, ever prone to extremes, his <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page298" id="page298"></a>[pg 298]</span> figure stood forth as
+the friend of peace, and the would-be reformer, hindered in his
+efforts by unwise advisers and an untoward destiny.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>His successor was a man cast in a different mould. It is one of
+the peculiarities of the recent history of Russia that her rulers
+have broken away from the policy of their immediate predecessors,
+to recur to that which they had discarded. The vague and generous
+Liberalism of Alexander I. gave way in 1825 to the stern autocracy
+of his brother, Nicholas I. This being shattered by the Crimean
+War, Alexander II. harked back to the ideals of his uncle, and
+that, too, in the wavering and unsatisfactory way which had brought
+woe to that ruler and unrest to the people. Alexander III., raised
+to the throne by the bombs of the revolutionaries, determined to
+mould his policy on the principles of autocracy and orthodoxy. To
+pose as a reformer would have betokened fear of the Nihilists; and
+the new ruler, gifted with a magnificent physique, a narrow mind,
+and a stern will, ever based his conduct on elementary notions that
+appealed to the peasant and the common soldier. In 1825 Nicholas I.
+had cowed the would-be rebels at his capital by a display of
+defiant animal courage. Alexander III. resolved to do the like. He
+had always been noted for a quiet persistence on which arguments
+fell in vain. The nickname, "bullock," which his father early gave
+him (shortened by his future subjects to "bull"), sufficiently
+summed up the supremacy of the material over the mental that
+characterised the new ruler. Bismarck, who knew him, had a poor
+idea of his abilities, and summed up his character by saying that
+he looked at things from the point of view of a Russian
+peasant<a name="FNanchor228"></a><a href="#Footnote_228">[228]</a>.
+That remark supplies a key to Russian politics during the years
+1881-94.</p>
+<p>At first, when informed by Melikoff that the late Czar was on
+the point of making the constitutional experiment described
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page299" id="page299"></a>[pg
+299]</span> above, Alexander III. exclaimed, "Change nothing in the
+orders of my father. This shall count as his will and testament."
+If he had held to this generous resolve the world's history would
+perhaps have been very different. Had he published his father's
+last orders; had he appealed to the people, like another Antony
+over the corpse of C&aelig;sar, the enthusiastic Slav temperament
+would have eagerly responded to this mark of Imperial confidence.
+Loyalty to the throne and fury against the Nihilists would have
+been the dominant feelings of the age, impelling all men to make
+the wisest use of the thenceforth sacred bequest of constitutional
+freedom.</p>
+<p>The man who is believed to have blighted these hopes was
+Pobyedonosteff, the Procureur of the highest Ecclesiastical Court
+of the Empire. To him had been confided the education of the
+present Czar; and the fervour of his orthodoxy, as well as the
+clear-cut simplicity of his belief in old Muscovite customs, had
+gained complete ascendancy over the mind of his pupil. Different
+estimates have been formed as to the character of Pobyedonosteff.
+In the eyes of some he is a conscientious zealot who believes in
+the mission of Holy Russia to vivify an age corrupted by democracy
+and unbelief; others regard him as the Russian Macchiavelli,
+straining his beliefs to an extent which his reason rejects, in
+order to gain power through the mechanism of the autocracy and the
+Greek Church. The thin face, passionless gaze, and coldly logical
+utterance bespeak the politician rather than the zealot; yet there
+seems to be good reason for believing that he is a "fanatic by
+reflection," not by temperament<a name="FNanchor229"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_229">[229]</a>. A volume of <i>Reflections</i> which he
+has given to the world contains some entertaining judgments on the
+civilisation of the West. It may be worth while to select a few, as
+showing the views of the man who, through his pupil, influenced the
+fate of Russia and of the world.</p>
+<blockquote>Parliament is an institution serving for the
+satisfaction of the<br>
+personal ambition, vanity, and self-interest of its members.
+The<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page300" id="page300"></a>[pg
+300]</span> institution of Parliament is indeed one of the greatest
+illustrations<br>
+of human delusion. . . . On the pediment of this edifice is
+inscribed,<br>
+"All for the public good." This is no more than a lying<br>
+formula: Parliamentarism is the triumph of egoism--its highest<br>
+expression. . . .<br>
+<br>
+From the day that man first fell, falsehood has ruled the
+world--ruled<br>
+it in human speech, in the practical business of life, in all<br>
+its relations and institutions. But never did the Father of
+Lies<br>
+spin such webs of falsehood of every kind as in this restless
+age. . . .<br>
+The press is one of the falsest institutions of our
+time.</blockquote>
+<p>In the chapter "Power and Authority" the author holds up to the
+gaze of a weary world a refreshing vision of a benevolent despotism
+which will save men in spite of themselves.</p>
+<blockquote>Power is the depository of truth, and needs, above all
+things,<br>
+men of truth, of clear intellects, of strong understandings, and
+of<br>
+sincere speech, who know the limits of "yes" and "no," and
+never<br>
+transcend them, etc<a name="FNanchor230"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_230">[230]</a>.</blockquote>
+<p>To this Muscovite Laud was now entrusted the task of drafting a
+manifesto in the interests of "power" and "truth."</p>
+<p>Meanwhile the Nihilists themselves had helped on the cause of
+reaction. Even before the funeral of Alexander II. their executive
+committee had forwarded to his successor a document beseeching him
+to give up arbitrary power and to take the people into his
+confidence. While purporting to impose no conditions, the Nihilist
+chiefs urged him to remember that two measures were needful
+preliminaries to any general pacification, namely, a general
+amnesty of all political offenders, as being merely "executors of a
+hard civic duty"; and "the convocation of representatives of all
+the Russian people for a revision and reform of all the private
+laws of the State, according to the will of the nation." In order
+that the election of this Assembly might be a reality, the Czar was
+pressed to grant freedom of speech and of public meetings<a name=
+"FNanchor231"></a><a href="#Footnote_231">[231]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page301" id="page301"></a>[pg
+301]</span>
+<p>It is difficult to say whether the Nihilists meant this document
+as an appeal, or whether the addition of the demand of a general
+amnesty was intended to anger the Czar and drive him into the arms
+of the reactionaries. In either case, to press for the immediate
+pardon of his father's murderers appeared to Alexander III. an
+unpardonable insult. Thenceforth between him and the
+revolutionaries there could be no truce. As a sop to quiet the more
+moderate reformers, he ordered the appointment of a Commission,
+including a few members of Zemstvos, and even one peasant, to
+inquire into the condition of public-houses and the excessive
+consumption of vodka. Beyond this humdrum though useful question
+the imperial reformer did not deign to move.</p>
+<p>After a short truce, the revolutionaries speedily renewed their
+efforts against the chief officials who were told off to crush
+them; but it soon became clear that they had lost the good-will of
+the middle class. The Liberals looked on them, not merely as the
+murderers of the liberating Czar, but as the destroyers of the
+nascent constitution; and the masses looked on unmoved while five
+of the accomplices in the outrage of March 13 were slowly done to
+death. In the next year twenty-two more suspects were arrested on
+the same count; ten were hanged and the rest exiled to Siberia.
+Despite these inroads into the little band of desperadoes, the
+survivors compassed the murder of the Public Prosecutor as he sat
+in a caf&eacute; at Odessa (March 30, 1882). On the other hand, the
+official police were helped for a time by zealous loyalists, who
+formed a "Holy Band" for secretly countermining the Nihilist
+organisation. These amateur detectives, however, did little except
+appropriate large donations, arrest a few harmless travellers and
+no small number of the secret police force. The professionals
+thereupon complained to the Czar, who suppressed the "Holy
+Band."</p>
+<p>The events of the years 1883 and 1884 showed that even the army,
+on which the Czar was bestowing every care, was permeated with
+Nihilism, women having by their arts won over many officers to the
+revolutionary cause. Poland, also, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page302" id="page302"></a>[pg 302]</span> writhing with discontent
+under the Czar's stern despotism, was worked on with success by
+their emissaries; and the ardour of the Poles made the recruits
+especially dangerous to the authorities, ever fearful of another
+revolt in that unhappy land. Finally, the Czar was fain to shut
+himself up in nearly complete seclusion in his palace at Gatchina,
+near St. Petersburg, or in his winter retreat at Livadia, on the
+southern shores of the Crimea.</p>
+<p>These facts are of more than personal and local importance. They
+powerfully affected the European polity. These were the years which
+saw the Bulgarian Question come to a climax; and the impotence of
+Russia enabled that people and their later champions to press on to
+a solution which would have been impossible had the Czar been free
+to strike as he undoubtedly willed. For the present he favoured the
+cause of peace upheld by his chancellor, de Giers; and in the
+autumn of the year 1884, as will be shown in the following chapter,
+he entered into a compact at Skiernewice, which virtually allotted
+to Bismarck the arbitration on all urgent questions in the Balkans.
+As late as November 1885, we find Sir Robert Morier, British
+ambassador at the Russian Court, writing privately and in very
+homely phrase to his colleague at Constantinople, Sir William
+White: "I am convinced Russia does not want a general war in Europe
+about Turkey now, and that she is really suffering from a gigantic
+<i>Katzenjammer</i> (surfeit) caused by the last war<a name=
+"FNanchor232"></a><a href="#Footnote_232">[232]</a>." It is safe to
+say that Bulgaria largely owes her freedom from Russian control to
+the Nihilists.</p>
+<p>For the Czar the strain of prolonged warfare against unseen and
+desperate foes was terrible. Surrounded by sentries, shadowed by
+secret police, the lonely man yet persisted in governing with the
+assiduity and thoroughness of the great Napoleon. He tried to pry
+into all the affairs of his vast empire; and, as he held aloof even
+from his chief Ministers, he insisted that they should send to him
+detailed reports on all the affairs of State, foreign <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page303" id="page303"></a>[pg 303]</span> and
+domestic, military and naval, religious and agrarian. What wonder
+that the Nihilists persisted in their efforts, in the hope that
+even his giant strength must break down under the crushing burdens
+of toil and isolation. That he held up so long shows him to have
+been one of the strongest men and most persistent workers known to
+history. He had but one source of inspiration, religious zeal, and
+but one form of relaxation, the love of his devoted Empress.</p>
+<p>It is needless to refer to the later phases of the revolutionary
+movement. Despite their well-laid plans, the revolutionaries
+gradually lost ground; and in 1892 even Stepniak confessed that
+they alone could not hope to overthrow the autocracy. About that
+time, too, their party began to split in twain, a younger group
+claiming that the old terrorist methods must be replaced by
+economic propaganda of an advanced socialistic type among the
+workers of the towns. For this new departure and its results we
+must refer our readers to the new materials brought to light by Sir
+D. Mackenzie Wallace in the new edition of his work <i>Russia</i>
+(1905).</p>
+<p>Here we can point out only a few of the more general causes that
+contributed to the triumph of the Czar. In the first place, the
+difficulties in the way of common action among the proletariat of
+Russia are very great. Millions of peasants, scattered over vast
+plains, where the great struggle is ever against the forces of
+nature, cannot effectively combine. Students of history will
+observe that even where the grievances are mainly agrarian, as in
+the France of 1789, the first definite outbreak is wont to occur in
+great towns. Russia has no Paris, eager to voice the needs of the
+many.</p>
+<p>Then again, the Russian peasants are rooted in customs and
+superstitions which cling about the Czar with strange tenacity and
+are proof against the reasoning of strangers. Their rising could,
+therefore, be very partial; besides which, the land is for the most
+part unsuited to the guerilla tactics that so often have favoured
+the cause of liberty in mountainous lands. The Czar and his
+officials know that the strength of their system <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page304" id="page304"></a>[pg 304]</span> lies
+in the ignorance of the peasants, in the soldierly instincts of
+their immense army, and in the spread of railways and telegraphs,
+which enables the central power to crush the beginnings of revolt.
+Thus the Czar's authority, resting incongruously on a faith dumb
+and grovelling as that of the Dark Ages, and on the latest
+developments of mechanical science, has been able to defy the
+tendencies of the age and the strivings of Russian reformers.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>The aim of this work prescribes a survey of those events alone
+which have made modern States what they are to-day; but the victory
+of absolutism in Russia has had so enormous an influence on the
+modern world--not least in the warping of democracy in France--that
+it will be well to examine the operation of other forces which
+contributed to the set back of reform in that Empire, especially as
+they involved a change in the relations of the central power to
+alien races in general, and to the Grand Duchy of Finland in
+particular.</p>
+<p>These forces, or ideals, may be summed up in the old Slavophil
+motto, "Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality." These old Muscovite
+ideals had lent strength to Nicholas I. in his day; and his
+grandson now determined to appeal to the feeling of Nationality in
+its narrowest and strongest form. That instinct, which Mazzini
+looked on as the means of raising in turn all the peoples of the
+world to the loftier plane of Humanity, was now to be the chief
+motive in the propulsion of the Juggernaut car of the Russian
+autocracy.</p>
+<p>The first to feel the weight of the governmental machine were
+the Jews. Rightly or wrongly, they were thought to be concerned in
+the peculations that disgraced the campaign of 1877 and in the plot
+for the murder of Alexander II. In quick succession the officials
+and the populace found out that outrages on the Jews would not be
+displeasing at headquarters. The secret once known, the rabble of
+several towns took the law into their own hands. In scores of
+places throughout the years 1881 and 1882, the mob plundered and
+fired their shops <span class="pagenum"><a name="page305" id=
+"page305"></a>[pg 305]</span> and houses, beat the wretched
+inmates, and in some cases killed them outright. At Elisabetgrad
+and Kiev the Jewish quarters were systematically pillaged and then
+given over to the flames. The fury reached its climax at the small
+town of Balta; the rabble pillaged 976 Jewish houses, and, not
+content with seizing all the wealth that came to hand, killed eight
+of the traders, besides wounding 211 others.</p>
+<p>Doubtless these outrages were largely due to race-hatred as well
+as to spite on the part of the heedless, slovenly natives against
+the keen and grasping Hebrews. The same feelings have at times
+swept over Roumania, Austria, Germany, and France. Jew-baiting has
+appealed even to nominally enlightened peoples as a novel and
+profitable kind of sport; and few of its votaries have had the
+hypocritical effrontery to cloak their conduct under the plea of
+religious zeal. The movement has at bottom everywhere been a hunt
+after Jewish treasure, embittered by the hatred of the clown for
+the successful trader, of the individualist native for an alien,
+clannish, and successful community. In Russia religious motives may
+possibly have weighed with the Czar and the more ignorant and
+bigoted of the peasantry; but levelling and communistic ideas
+certainly accounted for the widespread plundering--witness the
+words often on the lips of the rioters: "We are breakfasting on the
+Jews; we shall dine on the landlords, and sup on the priests." In
+1890 there appeared a ukase ordering the return of the Jews to
+those provinces and districts where they had been formerly allowed
+to settle--that is, chiefly in the South and West; and all foreign
+Jews were expelled from the Empire. It is believed that as many as
+225,000 Jewish families left Russia in the sixteen months
+following<a name="FNanchor233"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_233">[233]</a>.</p>
+<p>The next onslaught was made against a body of Christian
+dissenters, the humble community known as Stundists. These
+God-fearing peasants had taken a German name because the founder of
+their sect had been converted at the <i>Stunden</i>, or hour-long
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page306" id="page306"></a>[pg
+306]</span> services, of German Lutherans long settled in the south
+of Russia; they held a simple evangelical faith; their conduct was
+admittedly far better than that of the peasants, who held to the
+mass of customs and superstitions dignified by the name of the
+orthodox Greek creed; and their piety and zeal served to spread the
+evangelical faith, especially among the more emotional people of
+South Russia, known as Little Russians.</p>
+<p>Up to the year 1878, Alexander II. refrained from persecuting
+them, possibly because he felt some sympathy with men who were fast
+raising themselves and their fellows above the old level of brutish
+ignorance. But in that year the Greek Church pressed him to take
+action. If he chastised them with whips, his son lashed them with
+scorpions. He saw that they were sapping the base of one of the
+three pillars that supported the imperial fabric--Orthodoxy, in the
+Russian sense. Orders went forth to stamp out the heretic pest. At
+once all the strength of the governmental machine was brought to
+bear on these non-resisting peasants. Imprisonment, exile,
+execution--such was their lot. Their communities, perhaps the
+happiest then to be found in rural Russia, were broken up, to be
+flung into remote corners of Transcaucasia or Siberia, and there
+doomed to the r&eacute;gime of the knout or the darkness of the
+mines<a name="FNanchor234"></a><a href="#Footnote_234">[234]</a>.
+According to present appearances the persecutors have succeeded.
+The evangelical faith seems to have been almost stamped out even in
+South Russia; and the Greek Church has regained its hold on the
+allegiance, if not on the beliefs and affections, of the
+masses.</p>
+<p>To account for this fact, we must remember the immense force of
+tradition and custom among a simple rural folk, also that very many
+Russians sincerely believe that their institutions and their
+national creed were destined to regenerate Europe. See, they said
+in effect, Western Europe oscillates between papal control and free
+thought; its industries, with their <i>laissez faire</i> methods,
+raise the few to enormous wealth and crush the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page307" id="page307"></a>[pg 307]</span> many
+into a new serfdom worse than the old. For all these evils Russia
+has a cure; her autocracy saves her from the profitless wrangling
+of Parliaments; her national Church sums up the beliefs and
+traditions of nobles and peasants; and at the base of her social
+system she possesses in the "Mir" a patriarchal communism against
+which the forces of the West will beat in vain. Looking on the
+Greek Church as a necessary part of the national life, they sought
+to wield its powers for nationalising all the races of that motley
+Empire. "Russia for the Russians," cried the Slavophils. "Let us be
+one people, with one creed. Let us reverence the Czar as head of
+the Church and of the State. In this unity lies our strength."
+However defective the argument logically, yet in the realm of
+sentiment, in which the Slavs live, move, and have their being, the
+plea passed muster. National pride was pressed into the service of
+the persecutors; and all dissenters, whether Roman Catholics of
+Poland, Lutherans of the Baltic Provinces, or Stundists of the
+Ukraine, felt the remorseless grinding of the State machine, while
+the Greek Church exalted its horn as it had not done for a century
+past.</p>
+<p>Other sides of this narrowly nationalising policy were seen in
+the determined repression of Polish feelings, of the Germans in the
+Baltic provinces, and of the Armenians of Transcaucasia. Finally,
+remorseless pressure was brought to bear on that interesting
+people, the Finns. We can here refer only to the last of these
+topics. The Germans in the Provinces of Livonia, Courland, and
+Esthonia formed the majority only among the land-holding and
+merchant classes; and the curbing of their semi-feudal privileges
+wore the look of a democratic reform.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>The case was far different with the Finns. They are a non-Aryan
+people, and therefore differ widely from the Swedes and Russians.
+For centuries they formed part of the Swedish monarchy, deriving
+thence in large measure their literature, civilisation, and
+institutions. To this day the Swedish tongue is used by about
+one-half of their gentry and burghers. On <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page308" id="page308"></a>[pg 308]</span> the
+annexation of Finland by Alexander I., in consequence of the
+Franco-Russian compact framed at Tilsit in 1807, he made to their
+Estates a solemn promise to respect their constitution and laws.
+Similar engagements have been made by his successors. Despite some
+attempts by Nicholas I. to shelve the constitution of the Grand
+Duchy, local liberties remained almost intact up to a comparatively
+recent time. In the year 1869 the Finns gained further guarantees
+of their rights. Alexander II. then ratified the laws of Finland,
+and caused a statement of the relations between Finland and Russia
+to be drawn up.</p>
+<p>In view of the recent struggle between the Czar and the Finnish
+people, it may be well to give a sketch of their constitution. The
+sovereign governs, not as Emperor of Russia, but as Grand Duke of
+Finland. He delegates his administrative powers to a Senate, which
+is presided over by a Governor-General. This important official, as
+a matter of fact, has always been a Russian; his powers are, or
+rather were<a name="FNanchor235"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_235">[235]</a>, shared by two sections of the Finnish
+Senate, each composed of ten members nominated by the Grand Duke.
+The Senate prepares laws and ordinances which the Grand Duke then
+submits to the Diet. This body consists of four Orders--nobles,
+clergy, burghers, and peasants. Since 1886 it has enjoyed to a
+limited extent the right of initiating laws. The Orders sit and
+vote separately. In most cases a resolution that is passed by three
+of them becomes law, when it has received the assent of the Grand
+Duke. But the assent of a majority in each of the four Orders is
+needed in the case of a proposal that affects the constitution of
+the Grand Duchy and the privileges of the Orders. In case a Bill is
+accepted by two Orders and is rejected by the other two, a deadlock
+is averted by each of the Orders appointing fifteen delegates;
+these sixty delegates, meeting without discussion, vote by ballot,
+and a bare majority carries the day. Measures are then referred to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page309" id="page309"></a>[pg
+309]</span> the Grand Duke, who, after consulting the Senate, gives
+or witholds his assent<a name="FNanchor236"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_236">[236]</a>.</p>
+<p>A very important clause of the law of 1869 declares that
+"Fundamental laws can be made, altered, explained, or repealed,
+only on the representation of the Emperor and Grand Duke, and with
+the consent of all the Estates." This clause sharply marked off
+Finland from Russia, where the power of the Czar is theoretically
+unlimited. New taxes may not be imposed nor old taxes altered
+without the consent of the Finnish Diet; but, strange to say, the
+customs dues are fixed by the Government (that is, by the Grand
+Duke and the Senate) without the co-operation of the Diet. Despite
+the archaic form of its representation, the Finnish constitution
+(an offshoot of that of Sweden) has worked extremely well; and in
+regard to civil freedom and religious toleration, the Finns take
+their place among the most progressive communities of the world.
+Moreover, the constitution is no recent and artificial creation; it
+represents customs and beliefs that are deeply ingrained in a
+people who, like their Magyar kinsmen, cling firmly to the old,
+even while they hopefully confront the facts of the present. There
+was every ground for hope. Between the years 1812 and 1886 the
+population grew from 900,000 to 2,300,000, and the revenue from
+less than 7,000,000 marks (a Finnish mark = about ten pence) to
+40,000,000 marks.</p>
+<p>Possibly this prosperity prompted in the Russian bureaucracy the
+desire to bring the Grand Duchy closely into line with the rest of
+the Empire. On grounds other than constitutional, the bureaucrats
+had a case. They argued that while the revenue of Finland was
+increasing faster than that of Russia Proper, yet the Grand Duchy
+bore no share of the added military burdens. It voted only 17 per
+cent of its <span class="pagenum"><a name="page310" id=
+"page310"></a>[pg 310]</span> revenue for military defence as
+against 28 per cent set apart in the Russian Budget. The fact that
+the Swedish and Finnish languages, as well as Finnish money, were
+alone used on the railways of the Grand Duchy, even within a few
+miles of St. Petersburg, also formed a cause of complaint. When,
+therefore, the Slavophils began to raise a hue and cry against
+everything that marred the symmetry of the Empire, an anti-Finnish
+campaign lay in the nature of things. Historical students
+discovered that the constitution was the gift of the Czars, and
+that their goodwill had been grossly misused by the Finns. Others,
+who could not deny the validity of the Finnish constitution,
+claimed that even constitutions and laws must change with changing
+circumstances; that a narrow particularism was out of place in an
+age of railways and telegraphs; and that Finland must take its fair
+share in the work of national defence<a name=
+"FNanchor237"></a><a href="#Footnote_237">[237]</a>.</p>
+<p>Little by little Alexander III. put in force this Slavophil
+creed against Finland. His position as Grand Duke gave him the
+right of initiating laws; but he overstepped his constitutional
+powers by imposing various changes. In January 1890 he appointed
+three committees, sitting at St. Petersburg, to bring the coinage,
+the customs system, and the postal service of Finland into harmony
+with those of Russia. In June there appeared an imperial ukase
+assimilating the postal service of Finland to that of Russia--an
+illegal act which led to the resignation of the Finnish Ministers.
+In May 1891 the "Committee for Finnish Affairs," sitting at St.
+Petersburg, was abolished; and that year saw other efforts curbing
+the liberty of the Press, and extending the use of the Russian
+language in the government of the Grand Duchy.</p>
+<p>The trenches having now been pushed forward against the outworks
+of Finnish freedom, an assault was prepared against <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page311" id="page311"></a>[pg 311]</span> the
+ramparts--the constitution itself. The assailants discovered in it
+a weak point, a lack of clearness in the clauses specifying the
+procedure to be followed in matters where common action had to be
+taken in Finland and in Russia. They saw here a chance of setting
+up an independent authority, which, under the guise of
+<i>interpreting</i> the constitution, could be used for its
+suspension and overthrow. A committee, consisting of six Russians
+and four Finns, was appointed at the close of the year 1892 to
+codify laws and take the necessary action. It sat at St.
+Petersburg; but the opposition of the Finnish members, backed up by
+the public opinion of the whole Duchy, sufficed to postpone any
+definite decision. Probably this time of respite was due to the
+reluctance felt by Alexander III. in his closing days to push
+matters to an extreme.</p>
+<p>The alternating tendencies so well marked in the generations of
+the Romanoff rulers made themselves felt at the accession of
+Nicholas II. (Nov. 1, 1894). Lacking the almost animal force which
+carried Alexander III. so far in certain grooves, he resembles the
+earlier sovereigns of that name in the generous cosmopolitanism and
+dreamy good nature which shed an autumnal haze over their careers.
+Unfortunately the reforming Czars have been without the grit of the
+crowned Boyars, who trusted in Cossack, priest, and knout; and too
+often they have bent before the reactionary influences always
+strong at the Russian Court. To this peculiarity in the nature of
+Nicholas II. we may probably refer the oscillations in his Finnish
+policy. In the first years of his reign he gradually abated the
+rigour of his father's regime, and allowed greater liberty of the
+Press in Finland. The number of articles suppressed sank from 216
+in the year 1893 to 40 in 1897<a name="FNanchor238"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_238">[238]</a>.</p>
+<p>The hopes aroused by this display of moderation soon vanished.
+Early in 1898 the appointment of General Kuropatkin to the Ministry
+for War for Russia foreboded evil to the Grand Duchy. The new
+Minister speedily counselled the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page312" id="page312"></a>[pg 312]</span> exploitation of the
+resources of Finland for the benefit of the Empire. Already the
+Russian General Staff had made efforts in this direction; and now
+Kuropatkin, supported by the whole weight of the Slavophil party,
+sought to convince the Czar of the danger of leaving the Finns with
+a separate military organisation. A military committee, in which
+there was only one Finn, the Minister Procope, had for some time
+been sitting at St. Petersburg, and finally gained over Nicholas
+II. to its views. He is said to have formed his final decision
+during his winter stay at Livadia in the Crimea, owing to the
+personal intervention of Kuropatkin, and that too in face of a
+protest from the Finnish Minister, Procope, against the suspension
+by imperial ukase of a fundamental law of the Grand Duchy. The Czar
+must have known of the unlawfulness of the present procedure, for
+on November 6/18, 1894, shortly after his accession, he signed the
+following declaration:--</p>
+<blockquote>. . . We have hereby desired to confirm and ratify the
+religion,<br>
+the fundamental laws, the rights and privileges of every class in
+the<br>
+said Grand Duchy, in particular, and all its inhabitants high
+and<br>
+low in general, which they, according to the constitution of
+this<br>
+country, had enjoyed, promising to preserve the same steadfastly
+and<br>
+in full force<a name="FNanchor239"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_239">[239]</a>.</blockquote>
+<p>The military system of Finland having been definitely organised
+by the Finnish law of 1878, that statute clearly came within the
+scope of those "fundamental laws" which Nicholas II. had promised
+to uphold in full force. We can imagine, then, the astonishment
+which fell on the Finnish Diet and people on the presentation of
+the famous Imperial Manifesto of February 3/15, 1899. While
+expressing a desire to leave purely Finnish affairs to the
+consideration of the Government and Diet of the Grand Duchy, the
+Czar warned his Finnish subjects that there were others that could
+not be so treated, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page313" id=
+"page313"></a>[pg 313]</span> seeing that they were "closely bound
+up with the needs of the whole Empire." As the Finnish constitution
+pointed out no way of treating such subjects, it was needful now to
+complete the existing institutions of the Duchy. The Manifesto
+proceded as follows:--</p>
+<blockquote>Whilst maintaining in full force the now prevailing
+statutes<br>
+which concern the promulgation of local laws touching
+exclusively<br>
+the internal affairs of Finland, We have found it necessary to<br>
+reserve to Ourselves the ultimate decision as to which laws
+come<br>
+within the scope of the general legislation of the Empire. With<br>
+this in view, We have with Our Royal Hand established and
+confirmed<br>
+the fundamental statutes for the working out, revision, and<br>
+promulgation of laws issued for the Empire, including the Grand<br>
+Duchy of Finland, which are proclaimed simultaneously
+herewith<a name="FNanchor240"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_240">[240]</a>.</blockquote>
+<p>The accompanying enactments made it clear that the Finnish Diet
+would thenceforth have only consultative duties in respect to any
+measure which seemed to the Czar to involve the interests of Russia
+as well as of Finland. In fact, the proposals of February 15 struck
+at the root of the constitution, subjecting it in all important
+matters to the will of the autocrat at St. Petersburg. At once the
+Finns saw the full extent of the calamity. They observed the
+following Sunday as a day of mourning; the people of Helsingfors,
+the capital, gathered around the statue of Alexander II., the
+organiser of their liberties, as a mute appeal to the generous
+instincts of his grandson. Everywhere, even in remote villages,
+solemn meetings of protest were held; but no violent act marred the
+impressiveness of these demonstrations attesting the surprise and
+grief of a loyal people.</p>
+<p>By an almost spontaneous impulse a petition was set on foot
+begging the Czar to reconsider his decision. If ever a petition
+deserved the name "national," it was that of Finland. Towns and
+villages signed almost <i>en masse</i>. Ski-runners braved the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page314" id="page314"></a>[pg
+314]</span> hardships of a severe winter in the effort to reach
+remote villages within the Arctic Circle; and within five days
+(March 10-14) 529,931 names were signed, the marks of illiterates
+being rejected. All was in vain. The Czar refused to receive the
+petition, and ordered the bearers of it to return home<a name=
+"FNanchor241"></a><a href="#Footnote_241">[241]</a>.</p>
+<p>The Russian Governor-General of Finland then began a brisk
+campaign against the Finnish newspapers. Four were promptly
+suppressed, while there were forty-three cases of "suspension" in
+the year 1899 alone. The public administration also underwent a
+drastic process of russification, Finnish officials and policemen
+being in very many cases ousted by Muscovites. Early in the year
+1901 local postage stamps gave place to those of the Empire. Above
+all, General Kuropatkin was able almost completely to carry out his
+designs against the Finnish army, the law of 1901 practically
+abolishing the old constitutional force and compelling Finns to
+serve in any part of the Empire--in defiance of the old statutes
+which limited their services to the Grand Duchy itself.</p>
+<p>The later developments of this interesting question fall without
+the scope of this volume. We can therefore only state that the
+steadfast opposition of the Finns to these illegal proceedings led
+to still harsher treatment, and that the few concessions granted
+since the outbreak of the Japanese War have apparently failed to
+soothe the resentment aroused by the former unprovoked attacks upon
+the liberties of Finland.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>One fact, which cannot fail to elicit the attention of
+thoughtful students of contemporary history, is the absence of able
+leaders in the popular struggles of the age. Whether we look at the
+orderly resistance of the Finns, the efforts of the Russian
+revolutionaries, or the fitful efforts now and again put forth by
+the Poles, the same discouraging symptom is everywhere apparent.
+More than once the hour seemed to have struck for the overthrow of
+the old order, but no man appeared. Other instances might of course
+be cited to show that the adage <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page315" id="page315"></a>[pg 315]</span> about the hour and the
+man is more picturesque than true. The democratic movements of
+1848-49 went to pieces largely owing to the coyness of the
+requisite hero. Or rather, perhaps, we ought to say that the heroes
+were there, in the persons of Cavour and Garibaldi, Bismarck and
+Moltke; but no one was at hand to set them in the places which they
+filled so ably in 1858-70. Will the future see the hapless,
+unguided efforts of to-day championed in an equally masterful way?
+If so, the next generation may see strange things happen in Russia,
+as also elsewhere.</p>
+<p>Two suggestions may be advanced, with all diffidence, as to the
+reasons for the absence of great leaders in the movements of
+to-day. As we noted in the chapter dealing with the suppression of
+the Paris Commune of 1871, the centralised Governments now have a
+great material advantage in dealing with local disaffection owing
+to their control of telegraphs, railways, and machine-guns. This
+fact tells with crushing force, not only at the time of popular
+rising, but also on the men who work to that end. Little assurance
+was needed in the old days to compass the overthrow of Italian
+Dukes and German Translucencies. To-day he would be a man of
+boundlessly inspiring power who could hopefully challenge Czar or
+Kaiser to a conflict. The other advantage which Governments possess
+is in the intellectual sphere. There can be no doubt that the mere
+size of the States and Governments of the present age exercises a
+deadening effect on the minds of individuals. As the vastness of
+London produces inertia in civic affairs, so, too, the great
+Empires tend to deaden the initiative and boldness of their
+subjects. Those priceless qualities are always seen to greatest
+advantage in small States like the Athens of Pericles, the England
+of Elizabeth, or the Geneva of Rousseau; they are stifled under the
+pyramidal mass of the Empire of the Czars; and as a result there is
+seen a respectable mediocrity, equal only to the task of organising
+street demonstrations and abortive mutinies. It may be that in the
+future some commanding genius will arise, able to free himself from
+the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page316" id="page316"></a>[pg
+316]</span> paralysing incubus, to fire the dull masses with hope,
+and to turn the very vastness of the governmental machine into a
+means of destruction. But, for that achievement, he will need the
+magnetism of a Mirabeau, the savagery of a Marat, and the
+organising powers of a Bonaparte.</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_222"></a><a href="#FNanchor222">[222]</a>
+<i>Russia Before and After the War</i>, translated by E.F. Taylor
+(London, 1880), chap. xvi.: "We have been cheated by blockheads,
+robbed by people whose incapacity was even greater than their
+villainy."</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_223"></a><a href="#FNanchor223">[223]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. chap. xvii. The Government thereafter dispensed with
+the ordinary forms of justice for political crimes and judged them
+by special Commissions.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_224"></a><a href="#FNanchor224">[224]</a> For
+this peculiarity and a consequent tendency to extremes, see Prof.
+G. Brandes <i>Impressions of Russia</i>, p. 22.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_225"></a><a href="#FNanchor225">[225]</a> See
+Wallace's <i>Russia</i>, 2 vols.; <i>Russia under the Tzars</i>, by
+"Stepniak," vol. ii. chap. xxix.; also two lectures on Russian
+affairs by Prof. Vinogradoff, in <i>Lectures on the History of the
+Nineteenth Century</i> (Camb. 1902).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_226"></a><a href="#FNanchor226">[226]</a>
+<i>Underground Russia</i>, by "Stepniak," Introduction, p. 4. Or,
+as Turgenieff phrased it in one of his novels: "a Nihilist is a man
+who submits to no authority, who accepts not a single principle
+upon faith merely, however high such a principle may stand in the
+eyes of men." In short, a Nihilist was an extreme individualist and
+rationalist.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_227"></a><a href="#FNanchor227">[227]</a>
+<i>Russia in Revolution</i>, by G.H. Perriss, pp. 204-206, 210-214;
+Arnaudo, <i>I Nihilismo</i> (Turin, 1879). See, too, the chapters
+added by Sir D.M. Wallace to the new edition of his work
+<i>Russia</i> (1905).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_228"></a><a href="#FNanchor228">[228]</a>
+<i>Reminiscences of Bismarck</i>, by S. Whitman, p. 114;
+<i>Bismarck: some Secret Pages of his History</i>, by M. Busch,
+vol. iii. p. 150.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_229"></a><a href="#FNanchor229">[229]</a>
+<i>Russia under Alexander III.</i>, by H. von Samson-Himmelstierna,
+Eng. ed. ch. vii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_230"></a><a href="#FNanchor230">[230]</a>
+<i>Pobyedonosteff; his Reflections</i>, Eng. ed.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_231"></a><a href="#FNanchor231">[231]</a> The
+whole document is printed in the Appendix to "Stepniak's"
+<i>Underground Russia</i>.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_232"></a><a href="#FNanchor232">[232]</a>
+<i>Memoirs and Correspondence of Sir William White</i>, edited by
+H.S. Edwards, ch. xviii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_233"></a><a href="#FNanchor233">[233]</a>
+Rambaud, <i>Histoire de la Russie</i>, ch. xxxviii.; Lowe,
+<i>Alexander III. of Russia</i>, ch. viii.; H. Frederic, <i>The New
+Exodus</i>; Professor Errera, <i>The Russian Jews</i>.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_234"></a><a href="#FNanchor234">[234]</a> See
+an article by Count Leo Tolstoy in the <i>Contemporary Review</i>
+for November 1895; also a pamphlet on "The Stundists," with Preface
+by Rev. J. Brown, D.D.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_235"></a><a href="#FNanchor235">[235]</a> A
+law of the autumn of 1902 altered this. It delegated the
+administration to the Governor-General, <i>assisted by</i> the
+Senate.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_236"></a><a href="#FNanchor236">[236]</a> For
+the constitution of Finland and its relation to Russia, see <i>A
+Pr&eacute;cis of the Public Law of Finland</i>, by L. Mechelin,
+translated by C.J. Cooke (1889); <i>Pour la Finlande</i>, par Jean
+Deck; <i>Pour la Finlande, La Constitution du Grand Duch&eacute; de
+Finlande</i> (Paris, 1900). J.R. Danielsson, <i>Finland's Union
+with the Russian Empire</i> (Borga, 1891).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_237"></a><a href="#FNanchor237">[237]</a> See
+for the Russian case d'Elenew, <i>Les Pr&eacute;tentions des
+S&eacute;paratistes finlandais</i> (1895); also <i>La
+Conqu&ecirc;te de la Finlande</i>, by K. Ordine (1889)--answered by
+J.R. Danielsson, <i>op. cit.</i>; also <i>Russland und Finland vom
+russischen Standpunkte aus betrachtet</i>, by "Sarmatus"
+(1903).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_238"></a><a href="#FNanchor238">[238]</a>
+<i>Pour la Finlande</i>, par Jean Deck, p. 36.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_239"></a><a href="#FNanchor239">[239]</a>
+<i>The Rights of Finland</i>, p. 4 (Stockholm 1899). See too for
+the whole question <i>Finland and the Tsars, 1809-1899</i>, by J.R.
+Fisher (London, 2nd Edit. 1900).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_240"></a><a href="#FNanchor240">[240]</a>
+<i>The Rights of Finland</i>, pp. 6-7 also in <i>Pour la
+Finlande</i>, par J. Deck, p. 43.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_241"></a><a href="#FNanchor241">[241]</a>
+<i>The Rights of Finland</i>, pp. 23-30.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page317" id="page317"></a>[pg
+317]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+<h3>THE TRIPLE AND DUAL ALLIANCES</h3>
+<blockquote>"International policy is a fluid element which, under
+certain conditions, will solidify, but, on a change of atmosphere,
+reverts to its original condition."--Bismarck's <i>Reflections and
+Reminiscences.</i></blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>It is one thing to build up a system of States: it is quite
+another thing to guarantee their existence. As in the life of
+individuals, so in that of nations, longevity is generally the
+result of a sound constitution, a healthy environment, and prudent
+conduct. That the new States of Europe possessed the first two of
+these requisites will be obvious to all who remember that they are
+co-extensive with those great limbs of Humanity, nations. Yet even
+so they needed protection from the intrigues of jealous dynasties
+and of dispossessed princes or priests, which have so often doomed
+promising experiments to failure. It is therefore essential to our
+present study to observe the means which endowed the European
+system with stability.</p>
+<p>Here again the master-builder was Bismarck. As he had
+concentrated all the powers of his mind on the completion of German
+unity (with its natural counterpart in Italy), so, too, he kept
+them on the stretch for its preservation. For two decades his
+policy bestrode the continent like a Colossus. It rested on two
+supporting ideas. The one was the maintenance of alliance with
+Russia, which had brought the events of the years 1863-70 within
+the bounds of possibility; the other <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page318" id="page318"></a>[pg 318]</span> aim was the isolation of
+France. Subsidiary notions now and again influenced him, as in 1884
+when he sought to make bad blood between Russia and England in
+Central Asian affairs (see Chapter XIV.), or to busy all the Powers
+in colonial undertakings: but these considerations were secondary
+to the two main motives, which at one point converged and begot a
+haunting fear (the realisation of which overclouded his last years)
+that Russia and France would unite against Germany.</p>
+<p>In order, as he thought, to obviate for ever a renewal of the
+"policy of Tilsit" of the year 1807, he sought to favour the
+establishment of the Republic in France. In his eyes, the more
+Radical it was the better: and when Count von Arnim, the German
+ambassador at Paris, ventured to contravene his instructions in
+this matter, he subjected him to severe reproof and finally to
+disgrace. However harsh in his methods, Bismarck was undoubtedly
+right in substance. The main consideration was that which he set
+forth in his letter of December 20, 1872, to the Count:--"We want
+France to leave us in peace, and we have to prevent France finding
+an ally if she does not keep the peace. As long as France has no
+allies she is not dangerous to Germany." A monarchical reaction, he
+thought, might lead France to accord with Russia or Austria. A
+Republic of the type sought for by Gambetta could never achieve
+that task. Better, then, the red flag waving at Paris than the
+<i>fleur-de-lys.</i></p>
+<p>Still more important was it to bring about complete accord
+between the three empires. Here again the red spectre proved to be
+useful. Various signs seemed to point to socialism as the common
+enemy of them all. The doctrines of Bakunin, Herzen, and Lassalle
+had already begun to work threateningly in their midst, and
+Bismarck discreetly used this community of interest in one
+particular to bring about an agreement on matters purely political.
+In the month of September 1872 he realised one of his dearest
+hopes. The Czar, Alexander II., and the Austrian Emperor, Francis
+Joseph, visited Berlin, where they were most cordially received. At
+that city the chancellors <span class="pagenum"><a name="page319"
+id="page319"></a>[pg 319]</span> of the three empires exchanged
+official memoranda--there seems to have been no formal
+treaty<a name="FNanchor242"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_242">[242]</a>--whereby they agreed to work together for
+the following purposes: the maintenance of the boundaries recently
+laid down, the settlement of problems arising from the Eastern
+Question, and the repression of revolutionary movements in
+Europe.</p>
+<p>Such was the purport of the Three Emperors' League of 1872.
+There is little doubt that Bismarck had worked on the Czar, always
+nervous as to the growth of the Nihilist movement in Russia, in
+order to secure his adhesion to the first two provisions of the new
+compact, which certainly did not benefit Russia. The German
+Chancellor has since told us that, as early as the month of
+September 1870, he sought to form such a league, with the addition
+of the newly-united Italian realm, in order to safeguard the
+interests of monarchy against republicans and
+revolutionaries<a name="FNanchor243"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_243">[243]</a>. After the lapse of two years his wish
+took effect, though Italy as yet did not join the cause of order.
+The new league stood forth as the embodiment of autocracy and a
+terror to the dissatisfied, whether revengeful Gauls, Danes, or
+Poles, intriguing cardinals--it was the time of the "May Laws"--or
+excited men who waved the red flag. It was a new version of the
+Holy Alliance formed after Waterloo by the monarchs of the very
+same Powers, which, under the plea of watching against French
+enterprises, succeeded in bolstering up despotism on the Continent
+for a whole generation.</p>
+<p>Fortunately for the cause of liberty, the new league had little
+of the solidity of its predecessor. Either because the dangers
+against which it guarded were less serious, or owing to the
+jealousies which strained its structure from within, signs of
+weakness soon appeared, and the imposing fabric was disfigured
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page320" id="page320"></a>[pg
+320]</span> by cracks which all the plastering of diplomatists
+failed to conceal. An eminent Russian historian, M. Tatischeff, has
+recently discovered the hidden divulsive agency. It seems that, not
+long after the formation of the Three Emperors' League, Germany and
+Austria secretly formed a separate compact, whereby the former
+agreed eventually to secure to the latter due compensation in the
+Balkan Peninsula for her losses in the wars of 1859 and 1866
+(Lombardy, Venetia, and the control of the German Confederation,
+along with Holstein)<a name="FNanchor244"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_244">[244]</a>.</p>
+<p>That is, the two Central Powers in 1872 secretly agreed to take
+action in the way in which Austria advanced in 1877-78, when she
+secured Herzegovina. When and to what extent Russian diplomatists
+became aware of this separate agreement is not known, but their
+suspicion or their resentment appears to have prompted them to the
+unfriendly action towards Germany which they took in the year 1875.
+According to the Bismarck <i>Reflections and Reminiscences</i>, the
+Russian Chancellor, Prince Gortchakoff, felt so keenly jealous of
+the rapid rise of the German Chancellor to fame and pre-eminence as
+to spread "the lie" that Germany was about to fall upon France.
+Even the uninitiated reader might feel some surprise that the
+Russian Chancellor should have endangered the peace of Europe and
+his own credit as a statesman for so slight a motive; but it now
+seems that Bismarck's assertion must be looked on as a
+"reflection," not as a "reminiscence."</p>
+<p>The same remark may perhaps apply to his treatment of the
+"affair of 1875," which largely determined the future groupings of
+the Powers. At that time the recovery of France from the wounds of
+1870 was well nigh complete; her military and constitutional
+systems were taking concrete form; and in the early part of the
+year 1875 the Chambers decreed a large increase to the armed forces
+in the form of "the fourth battalions." At once the military party
+at Berlin took alarm, and through their chief, Moltke, pressed on
+the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page321" id="page321"></a>[pg
+321]</span> Emperor William the need of striking promptly at
+France. The Republic, so they argued, could not endure the strain
+which it now voluntarily underwent; the outcome must be war; and
+war at once would be the most statesmanlike and merciful course.
+Whether the Emperor in any way acceded to these views is not known.
+He is said to have more than once expressed a keen desire to end
+his reign in peace.</p>
+<p>The part which Bismarck played at this crisis is also somewhat
+obscure. If the German Government wished to attack France, the
+natural plan would have been to keep that design secret until the
+time for action arrived. But it did not do so. Early in the month
+of April, von Radowitz, a man of high standing at the Court of
+Berlin, took occasion to speak to the French ambassador, de
+Gontaut-Biron, at a ball, and warned him in the most significant
+manner of the danger of war owing to the increase of French
+armaments. According to de Blowitz, the Paris correspondent of the
+<i>Times</i> (who had his information direct from the French
+Premier, the Duc Decazes), Germany intended to "bleed France white"
+by compelling her finally to pay ten milliards of francs in twenty
+instalments, and by keeping an army of occupation in her Eastern
+Departments until the last half-milliard was paid. The French
+ambassador also states in his account of these stirring weeks that
+Bismarck had mentioned to the Belgian envoy the impossibility of
+France keeping up armaments, the outcome of which must be
+war<a name="FNanchor245"></a><a href="#Footnote_245">[245]</a>.</p>
+<p>As Radowitz continued in favour with Bismarck, his disclosure of
+German intentions seems to have been made with the Chancellor's
+approval; and we may explain his action as either a threat to
+compel France to reduce her army, a provocation to lead her to
+commit some indiscretion, or a means of undermining the plans of
+the German military party. Leaving these questions on one side, we
+may note that Gontaut-Biron's <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page322" id="page322"></a>[pg 322]</span> report to the Duc
+Decazes produced the utmost anxiety in official circles at Paris.
+The Duke took the unusual step of confiding the secret to Blowitz,
+showed him the document, along with other proofs of German
+preparations for war, and requested him to publish the chief facts
+in the <i>Times</i>. Delane, the editor of the <i>Times</i>, having
+investigated the affair, published the information on May 4. It
+produced an immense sensation. The Continental Press denounced it
+as an impudent fabrication designed to bring on war. We now know
+that it was substantially correct. Meanwhile Marshal MacMahon and
+the Duc Decazes had taken steps to solicit the help of the Czar if
+need arose. They despatched to St. Petersburg General Lefl&ocirc;,
+armed with proofs of the hostile designs of the German military
+chiefs. A perusal of them convinced Alexander II. of the
+seriousness of the situation; and he assured Lefl&ocirc; of his
+resolve to prevent an unprovoked attack on France. He was then
+about to visit his uncle, the German Emperor; and there is little
+doubt that his influence at Berlin helped to end the crisis.</p>
+<p>Other influences were also at work, emanating from Queen
+Victoria and the British Government. It is well known that Her late
+Majesty wrote to the Emperor William stating that it would be "easy
+to prove that her fears [of a Franco-German war] were not
+exaggerated<a name="FNanchor246"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_246">[246]</a>." The source of her information is now
+known to have been unexceptionable. It reached our Foreign Office
+through the medium of German ambassadors. Such is the story
+imparted by Lord Odo Russell, our Ambassador at Berlin, to his
+brother, and by him communicated to Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff. It
+concerns an interview between Gortchakoff and Bismarck in which the
+German Chancellor inveighed against the Russian Prince for blurting
+out, at a State banquet held the day before, the news that he had
+received a letter from Queen Victoria, begging him to work in the
+interests of peace. Bismarck thereafter sharply upbraided
+Gortchakoff for this amazing indiscretion. Lord Odo Russell
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page323" id="page323"></a>[pg
+323]</span> was present at their interview in order to support the
+Russian Chancellor, who parried Bismarck's attack by affecting a
+paternal interest in his health:--</p>
+<blockquote>"Come, come, my dear Bismarck, be calm. You know that I
+am<br>
+very fond of you. I have known you since your childhood. But<br>
+I do not like you when you are hysterical. Come, you are going<br>
+to be hysterical. Pray be calm: come, come, my dear fellow."<br>
+A short time after this interview Bismarck complained to Odo of<br>
+"the preposterous folly and ignorance of the English and all
+other<br>
+Cabinets, who had mistaken stories got up for speculations on
+the<br>
+Bourse for the true policy of the German Government." "Then<br>
+will you," asked Odo, "censure your four ambassadors who have<br>
+misled us and the other Powers?" Bismarck made no reply<a name=
+"FNanchor247"></a><a href="#Footnote_247">[247]</a>.</blockquote>
+<p>It seems, then, that the German Chancellor had no ground for
+suspicion against the Crown Princess as having informed Queen
+Victoria of the suggested attack on France; but thenceforth he had
+an intense dislike of these august ladies, and lost no opportunity
+of maligning them in diplomatic circles and through the medium of
+the Press. Yet, while nursing resentful thoughts against Queen
+Victoria, her daughter, and the British Ministry, the German
+Chancellor reserved his wrath mainly for his personal rival at St.
+Petersburg. The publication of Gortchakoff's circular despatch of
+May 10, 1875, beginning with the words, "Maintenant la paix est
+assur&eacute;e," was in his eyes the crowning offence.</p>
+<p>The result was the beginning of a good understanding between
+Russia and France, and the weakening of the Three Emperors'
+League<a name="FNanchor248"></a><a href="#Footnote_248">[248]</a>.
+That league went to pieces for a time amidst the disputes at the
+Berlin Congress on the Eastern Question, where Germany's support of
+Austria's resolve to limit the sphere of Muscovite influence robbed
+the Czar of prospective spoils and placed a rival Power as
+"sentinel on the Balkans." <span class="pagenum"><a name="page324"
+id="page324"></a>[pg 324]</span> Further, when Germany favoured
+Austrian interests in the many matters of detail that came up for
+settlement in those States, the rage in Russian official circles
+knew no bounds. Newspapers like the <i>Journal de St.
+P&eacute;tersbourg</i>, the <i>Russki Mir</i>, and the
+<i>Golos</i>, daily poured out the vials of their wrath against
+everything German; and that prince of publicists, Katkoff, with his
+coadjutor, &Eacute;lie de Cyon, moved heaven and earth in the
+endeavour to prove that Bismarck alone had pushed Russia on to war
+with Turkey, and then had intervened to rob her of the fruits of
+victory. Amidst these clouds of invective, friendly hands were
+thrust forth from Paris and Moscow, and the effusive salutations of
+would-be statesmen marked the first beginnings of the present
+alliance. A Russian General--Obretchoff--went to Paris and "sounded
+the leading personages in Paris respecting a Franco-Russian
+alliance<a name="FNanchor249"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_249">[249]</a>."</p>
+<p>Clearly, it was high time for the two Central Powers to draw
+together. There was little to hinder their <i>rapprochement</i>.
+Bismarck's clemency to the Hapsburg Power in the hour of Prussia's
+triumph in 1866 now bore fruit; for when Russia sent a specific
+demand that the Court of Berlin must cease to support Austrian
+interests or forfeit the friendship of Russia, the German
+Chancellor speedily came to an understanding with Count Andrassy in
+an interview at Gastein on August 27-28, 1879. At first it had
+reference only to a defensive alliance against an attack by Russia,
+Count Andrassy, then about to retire from his arduous duties,
+declining to extend the arrangement to an attack by another
+Power--obviously France. The plan of the Austro-German alliance was
+secretly submitted by Bismarck to the King of Bavaria, who
+signified his complete approval<a name="FNanchor250"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_250">[250]</a>. It received a warm welcome from the
+Hapsburg Court; and, when the secret leaked out, Bismarck had
+enthusiastic greetings on his journey to Vienna and thence
+northwards to Berlin. The reason is obvious. For the first time in
+modern history the centre of Europe seemed about to <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page325" id="page325"></a>[pg 325]</span> form a
+lasting compact, strong enough to impose respect on the restless
+extremities. That of 1813 and 1814 had aimed only at the driving of
+Napoleon I. from Germany. The present alliance had its roots in
+more abiding needs.</p>
+<p>Strange to say, the chief obstacle was Kaiser Wilhelm himself.
+The old sovereign had very many claims on the gratitude of the
+German race, for his staunchness of character, singleness of aim,
+and homely good sense had made the triumphs of his reign possible.
+But the newer light of to-day reveals the limitations of his
+character. He never saw far ahead, and even in his survey of the
+present situation Prussian interests and family considerations held
+far too large a space. It was so now. Against the wishes of his
+Chancellor, he went to meet the Czar at Alexandrovo; and while the
+Austro-German compact took form at Gastein and Vienna, Czar and
+Kaiser were assuring each other of their unchanging friendship.
+Doubtless Alexander II. was sincere in these professions of
+affection for his august uncle; but Bismarck paid more heed to the
+fact that Russia had recently made large additions to her army,
+while dense clouds of her horsemen hung about the Polish border,
+ready to flood the Prussian plains. He saw safety only by opposing
+force to force. As he said to his secretary, Busch: "When we
+[Germany and Austria] are united, with our two million soldiers
+back to back, they [the Russians], with their Nihilism, will
+doubtless think twice before disturbing the peace." Finally the
+Emperor William agreed to the Austro-German compact, provided that
+the Czar should be informed that if he attacked Austria he would be
+opposed by both Powers<a name="FNanchor251"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_251">[251]</a>.</p>
+<p>It was not until November 5, 1887, that the terms of the treaty
+were made known, and then through the medium of the <i>Times</i>.
+The official publication did not take place until February 3, 1888,
+at Berlin, Vienna, and Buda-Pesth. The compact provides that if
+either Germany or Austria shall be <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page326" id="page326"></a>[pg 326]</span> attacked by Russia, each
+Power must assist its neighbour with all its forces. If, however,
+the attack shall come from any other Power, the ally is pledged
+merely to observe neutrality; and not until Russia enters the field
+is the ally bound to set its armies in motion. Obviously the second
+case implies an attack by France on Germany; in that case Austria
+would remain neutral, carefully watching the conduct of Russia. As
+far as is known, the treaty does not provide for joint action, or
+mutual support, in regard to the Eastern Question, still less in
+matters further afield.</p>
+<p>In order to give pause to Russia, Bismarck even indulged in a
+passing flirtation with England. At the close of 1879, Lord
+Dufferin, then British ambassador at St. Petersburg, was passing
+through Berlin, and the Chancellor invited him to his estate at
+Varzin, and informed him that Russian overtures had been made to
+France through General Obretcheff, "but Chanzy [French ambassador
+at St. Petersburg], having reported that Russia was not ready, the
+French Government became less disposed than ever to embark on an
+adventurous policy<a name="FNanchor252"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_252">[252]</a>."</p>
+<p>To the end of his days Bismarck maintained that the
+Austro-German alliance did not imply the lapse of the Three
+Emperors' League, but that the new compact, by making a Russian
+attack on Austria highly dangerous, if not impossible, helped to
+prolong the life of the old alliance. Obviously, however, the
+League was a mere "loud-sounding nothing" (to use a phrase of
+Metternich's) when two of its members had to unite to guard the
+weakest of the trio against the most aggressive. In the spirit of
+that statesmanlike utterance of Prince Bismarck, quoted as motto at
+the head of this chapter, we may say that the old Triple Alliance
+slowly dissolved under the influence of new atmospheric conditions.
+The three Emperors met for friendly intercourse in 1881, 1884, and
+1885; and at or after the meeting of 1884, a Russo-German agreement
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page327" id="page327"></a>[pg
+327]</span> was formed, by which the two Powers promised to observe
+a friendly neutrality in case either was attacked by a third Power.
+Probably the Afghan question, or Nihilism, brought Russia to accept
+Bismarck's advances; but when the fear of an Anglo-Russian war
+passed away, and the revolutionists were curbed, this agreement
+fell to the ground; and after the fall of Bismarck the compact was
+not renewed<a name="FNanchor253"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_253">[253]</a>.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>It will be well now to turn to the events which brought Italy
+into line with the Central Powers and thus laid the foundation of
+the Triple Alliance of to-day.</p>
+<p>The complex and uninteresting annals of Italy after the
+completion of her unity do not concern us here. The men whose
+achievements had ennobled the struggle for independence passed away
+in quick succession after the capture of Rome for the national
+cause. Mazzini died in March 1872 at Pisa, mourning that united
+Italy was so largely the outcome of foreign help and monarchical
+bargainings. Garibaldi spent his last years in fulminating against
+the Government of Victor Emmanuel. The soldier-king himself passed
+away in January 1878, and his relentless opponent, Pius IX.,
+expired a month later. The accession of Umberto I. and the election
+of Leo XIII. promised at first to assuage the feud between the
+Vatican and the Quirinal, but neither the tact of the new sovereign
+nor the personal suavity of the Pope brought about any real change.
+Italy remained a prey to the schism between Church and State. A
+further cause of weakness was the unfitness of many parts of the
+Peninsula for constitutional rule. Naples and the South were a
+century behind the North in all that made for civic efficiency, the
+taint of favouritism and corruption having spread from the
+governing circles to all classes of society. Clearly the time of
+wooing had been too short and feverish to lead up to a placid
+married life.</p>
+<p>During this period of debt and disenchantment came news
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page328" id="page328"></a>[pg
+328]</span> of a slight inflicted by the Latin sister of the North.
+France had seized Tunis, a land on which Italian patriots looked as
+theirs by reversion, whereas the exigencies of statecraft assigned
+it to the French. It seems that during the Congress of Berlin
+(June-July 1878) Bismarck and Lord Salisbury unofficially dropped
+suggestions that their Governments would raise no objections to the
+occupation of Tunis by France. According to de Blowitz, Bismarck
+there took an early opportunity of seeing Lord Beaconsfield and of
+pointing out the folly of England quarrelling with Russia, when she
+might arrange matters more peaceably and profitably with her.
+England, said he, should let Russia have Constantinople and take
+Egypt in exchange; "France would not prove inexorable--besides, one
+might give her Tunis or Syria<a name="FNanchor254"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_254">[254]</a>." Another Congress story is to the effect
+that Lord Salisbury, on hearing of the annoyance felt in France at
+England's control over Cyprus, said to M. Waddington at Berlin: "Do
+what you like with Tunis; England will raise no objections." A
+little later, the two Governments came to a written understanding
+that France might occupy Tunis at a convenient opportunity.</p>
+<p>The seizure of Tunis by France aroused all the more annoyance in
+Italy owing to the manner of its accomplishment. On May 11, 1881,
+when a large expedition was being prepared in her southern ports,
+M. Barth&eacute;l&eacute;my de St. Hilaire disclaimed all idea of
+annexation, and asserted that the sole aim of France was the
+chastisement of a troublesome border tribe, the Kroumirs; but on
+the entry of the "red breeches" into Kairwan and the collapse of
+the Moslem resistance, the official assurance proved to be as
+unsubstantial as the inroads of the Kroumirs. Despite the protests
+that came from Rome and Constantinople, France virtually annexed
+that land, though the Sultan's representative, the Bey, still
+retains the shadow of authority<a name="FNanchor255"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_255">[255]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page329" id="page329"></a>[pg
+329]</span>
+<p>In vain did King Umberto's ministers appeal to Berlin for help
+against France. They received the reply that the affair had been
+virtually settled at the time of the Berlin Congress<a name=
+"FNanchor256"></a><a href="#Footnote_256">[256]</a>. The resentment
+produced by these events in Italy led to the fall of the Cairoli
+Ministry, which had been too credulous of French assurances; and
+Depretis took the helm of State. Seeing that Bismarck had confessed
+his share in encouraging France to take Tunis, Italy's
+<i>rapprochement</i> to Germany might seem to be unnatural. It was
+so. In truth, her alliance with the Central Powers was based, not
+on good-will to them, but on resentment against France. The Italian
+Nationalists saw in Austria the former oppressor, and still raised
+the cry of <i>Italia irredenta</i> for the recovery of the Italian
+districts of Tyrol, Istria, and Dalmatia. In January 1880, we find
+Bismarck writing: "Italy must not be numbered to-day among the
+peace-loving and conservative Powers, who must reckon with this
+fact. . . . We have much more ground to fear that Italy will join our
+adversaries than to hope that she will unite with us, seeing that
+we have no more inducements to offer her<a name=
+"FNanchor257"></a><a href="#Footnote_257">[257]</a>."</p>
+<p>This frame of mind changed after the French acquisition of
+Tunis.</p>
+<blockquote>Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes</blockquote>
+<p>should have been the feeling of MM. Waddington and Ferry when
+Bismarck encouraged them to undertake that easiest but most
+expensive of conquests. The nineteenth century offers, perhaps, no
+more successful example of Macchiavellian statecraft. The
+estrangement of France and Italy postponed at any rate for a whole
+generation, possibly for the present age, that war of revenge in
+which up to the spring of 1881 the French might easily have gained
+the help of Italy. Thenceforth they <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page330" id="page330"></a>[pg 330]</span> had to reckon on her
+hostility. The irony of the situation was enhanced by the fact that
+the Tunis affair, with the recriminations to which it led, served
+to bring to power at Paris the very man who could best have
+marshalled the French people against Germany.</p>
+<p>Gambetta was the incarnation of the spirit of revenge. On more
+than one occasion he had abstained from taking high office in the
+shifting Ministries of the seventies; and it seems likely that by
+this calculating coyness he sought to keep his influence intact,
+not for the petty personal ends which have often been alleged, but
+rather with a view to the more effective embattling of all the
+national energies against Germany. Good-will to England and to the
+Latin peoples, hostility to the Power which had torn
+Elsass-Lothringen from France--such was the policy of Gambetta. He
+had therefore protested, though in vain, against the expedition to
+Tunis; and now, on his accession to power (November 9, 1881), he
+found Italy sullenly defiant, while he and his Radical friends
+could expect no help from the new autocrat of all the Russias. All
+hope of a war of revenge proved to be futile; and he himself fell
+from power on January 26, 1882<a name="FNanchor258"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_258">[258]</a>. The year to which he looked forward with
+high hopes proved to be singularly fatal to the foes of Germany.
+The armed intervention of Britain in Egypt turned the thoughts of
+Frenchmen from the Rhine to the Nile. Skobeleff, the arch enemy of
+all things Teutonic, passed away in the autumn; and its closing
+days witnessed the death of Gambetta at the hands of his
+mistress.</p>
+<p>The resignation of Gambetta having slackened the tension between
+Germany and France, Bismarck displayed less desire for the alliance
+of Italy. Latterly, as a move in the German parliamentary game, he
+had coquetted with the Vatican; and as a result of this off-hand
+behaviour, Italy was slow in coming to accord with the Central
+Powers. Nevertheless, her resentment respecting Tunis overcame her
+annoyance at Bismarck's procedure; and on May 20, 1882, treaties
+were signed which <span class="pagenum"><a name="page331" id=
+"page331"></a>[pg 331]</span> bound Italy to the Central Powers for
+a term of five years. Their conditions have not been published, but
+there are good grounds for thinking that the three allies
+reciprocally guaranteed the possession of their present
+territories, agreed to resist attack on the lands of any one of
+them, and stipulated the amount of aid to be rendered by each in
+case of hostilities with France or Russia, or both Powers combined.
+Subsequent events would seem to show that the Roman Government
+gained from its northern allies no guarantee whatever for its
+colonial policy, or for the maintenance of the balance of power in
+the Mediterranean<a name="FNanchor259"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_259">[259]</a>.</p>
+<p>Very many Italians have sharply questioned the value of the
+Triple Alliance to their country. Probably, when the truth comes
+fully to light, it will be found that the King and his Ministers
+needed some solid guarantee against the schemes of the Vatican to
+drive the monarchy from Rome. The relations between the Vatican and
+the Quirinal were very strained in the year 1882; and the alliance
+of Italy with Austria removed all fear of the Hapsburgs acting on
+behalf of the Jesuits and other clerical intriguers. The annoyance
+with which the clerical party in Italy received the news of the
+alliance shows that it must have interfered with their schemes.
+Another explanation is that Italy actually feared an attack from
+France in 1882 and sought protection from the Central Powers. We
+may add that on the renewal of the Triple Alliance in 1891, Italy
+pledged herself to send two corps through Tyrol to fight the French
+on their eastern frontier if they attacked Germany. But it is said
+that that clause was omitted from the treaty on its last renewal,
+in 1902.</p>
+<p>The accession of Italy to the Austro-German Alliance gave pause
+to Russia. The troubles with the Nihilists also indisposed
+Alexander III. from attempting any rash adventures, especially in
+concert with a democratic Republic which changed <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page332" id="page332"></a>[pg 332]</span> its
+Ministers every few months. His hatred of the Republic as the
+symbol of democracy equalled his distrust of it as a political
+kaleidoscope; and more than once he rejected the idea of a
+<i>rapprochement</i> to the western Proteus because of "the absence
+of any personage authorised to assume the responsibility for a
+treaty of alliance<a name="FNanchor260"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_260">[260]</a>." These were the considerations,
+doubtless, which led him to dismiss the warlike Ignatieff, and to
+entrust the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to a hard-headed
+diplomatist, de Giers (June 12, 1882). His policy was peaceful and
+decidedly opposed to the Slavophil propaganda of Katkoff, who now
+for a time lost favour.</p>
+<p>For the present, then, Germany was safe. Russia turned her
+energies against England and achieved the easy and profitable
+triumphs in Central Asia which nearly brought her to war with the
+British Government (see <a href="#page394">Chapter xiv.</a>).</p>
+<p>In the year 1884 Bismarck gained another success in bringing
+about the signature of a treaty of alliance between the three
+Empires. It was signed on March 24, 1884, at Berlin, but was not
+ratified until September, during a meeting of the three Emperors at
+Skiernewice. M. &Eacute;lie de Cyon gives its terms as follows:</p>
+<p>(1) If one of the three contracting parties makes war on a
+fourth Power, the other two will maintain a benevolent neutrality.
+(To this Bismarck sought to add a corollary, that if two of them
+made war on a fourth Power, the third would equally remain neutral;
+but the Czar is said to have rejected this, in the interests of
+France.) (2) In case of a conflict in the Balkan Peninsula, the
+three Powers shall consult their own interests; and in the case of
+disagreement the third Power shall give a casting vote. (A protocol
+added here that Austria might annex Bosnia and Herzegovina, and
+occupy Novi-Bazar.) (3) The former special treaties between Russia
+and Germany, or Russia and Austria, are annulled. (4) The three
+Powers will supervise the execution of the terms of the Treaty of
+Berlin respecting Turkey; and if the Porte allows a fourth
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page333" id="page333"></a>[pg
+333]</span> Power (evidently England) to enter the Dardanelles, it
+will incur the hostility of one of the three Powers (Russia). (5)
+They will not oppose the union of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia "if
+it comes about by the force of circumstances"; and will not allow
+Turkey to fortify the Balkan Passes. Finally, by Article 6, they
+forbid any one of the contracting Powers to occupy the Balkan
+Principalities. The compact held good only for three years.</p>
+<p>If these terms are correctly stated, the treaty was a great
+triumph for Austria and Germany at the expense of Russia. It is not
+surprising that the Czar finally broke away from the constraint
+imposed by the Skiernewice compact. As we have seen, his conduct
+towards Bulgaria in 1885-86 brought him very near to a conflict
+with the Central Powers. The mystery is why he ever joined them on
+terms so disadvantageous. The explanation would seem to be that,
+like the King of Italy, he felt an alliance with the "conservative"
+Powers of Central Europe to be some safeguard against the
+revolutionary elements then so strong in Russia.</p>
+<p>In the years 1886-87 that danger became less acute, and the
+dictates of self-interest in foreign affairs resumed their normal
+sway. At the beginning of the year 1887 Katkoff regained his
+influence over the mind of the Czar by convincing him that the
+troubles in the Balkan Peninsula were fomented by the statesmen of
+Berlin and Vienna in order to distract his attention from
+Franco-German affairs. Let Russia and France join hands, said
+Katkoff in effect, and then Russia would have a free hand in Balkan
+politics and could lay down the law in European matters
+generally.</p>
+<p>In France the advantage of a Russian alliance was being loudly
+asserted by General Boulanger--then nearing the zenith of his
+popularity--as also by that brilliant leader of society, Mme. Adam,
+and a cluster of satellites in the Press. Even de Giers bowed
+before the idea of the hour, and allowed the newspaper which he
+inspired, <i>Le Nord</i>, to use these remarkable words (February
+20, 1887):</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page334" id="page334"></a>[pg
+334]</span>
+<blockquote>Henceforth Russia will watch the events on the Rhine,
+and<br>
+relegates the Eastern Question to the second place. The interests
+of<br>
+Russia forbid her, in case of another Franco-German war,
+observing<br>
+the same benevolent neutrality which she previously observed.<br>
+The Cabinet of St. Petersburg will in no case permit a further<br>
+weakening of France. In order to keep her freedom of action for<br>
+this case, Russia will avoid all conflict with Austria and
+England,<br>
+and will allow events to take their course in
+Bulgaria.</blockquote>
+<p>Thus, early in the year 1887, the tendency towards that
+equilibrium of the Powers, which is the great fact of recent
+European history, began to exercise a sedative effect on Russian
+policy in Bulgaria and in Central Asia. That year saw the
+delimitation of the Russo-Afghan border, and the adjustment in
+Central Asian affairs of a balance corresponding to the equilibrium
+soon to be reached in European politics. That, too, was the time
+when Bulgaria began firmly and successfully to assert her
+independence and to crush every attempt at a rising on the part of
+her Russophil officers. This was seen after an attempt which they
+made at Rustchuk, when Stambuloff condemned nine of them to death.
+The Russian Government having recalled all its agents from
+Bulgaria, the task of saving these rebels devolved on the German
+Consuls, who were then doing duty for Russia. Their efforts were
+futile, and Katkoff used their failure as a means of poisoning the
+Czar's mind not only against Germany, but also against de Giers,
+who had suggested the supervision of Russian interests by German
+Consuls<a name="FNanchor261"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_261">[261]</a>.</p>
+<p>Another incident of the spring-tide of 1887 kindled the Czar's
+anger against the Teutons more fiercely and with more reason. On
+April 20, a French police commissioner, Schnaebele, was arrested by
+two German agents or spies on the Alsacian border in a suspiciously
+brutal manner, and thrown into prison. Far from soothing the
+profound irritation which this affair produced in France, Bismarck
+poured oil upon the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page335" id=
+"page335"></a>[pg 335]</span> flames a few days later by a speech
+which seemed designed to extort from France a declaration of war.
+That, at least, was the impression produced on the mind of
+Alexander III., who took the unusual step of sending an autograph
+letter to the Emperor William I. He, in his turn, without referring
+the matter to Bismarck, gave orders for the instant release of
+Schnaebele<a name="FNanchor262"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_262">[262]</a>. Thus the incident closed; but the
+disagreeable impression which it created ended all chance of
+renewing the Three Emperors' League. The Skiernewice compact, which
+had been formed for three years, therefore came to an end.</p>
+<p>Already, if we may trust the imperfect information yet
+available, France and Russia had sought to break up the Triple
+Alliance. In the closing weeks of 1886 de Giers sought to entice
+Italy into a compact with Russia with a view to an attack on the
+Central States (her treaty with them expired in the month of May
+following), and pointed to Trieste and the Italian districts of
+Istria as a reward for this treachery. The French Government is
+also believed to have made similar overtures, holding out the
+Trentino (the southern part of Tyrol) as the bait. Signor Depretis,
+true to the policy of the Triple Alliance, repelled these
+offers--an act of constancy all the more creditable seeing that
+Bismarck had on more than one occasion shown scant regard for the
+interests of Italy.</p>
+<p>Even now he did little to encourage the King's Government to
+renew the alliance framed in 1882. Events, however, again brought
+the Roman Cabinet to seek for support. The Italian enterprise in
+Abyssinia had long been a drain on the treasury, and the
+annihilation of a force by those warlike mountaineers on January
+26, 1887, sent a thrill of horror through the Peninsula. The
+internal situation was also far from promising. The breakdown of
+attempts at a compromise between the monarchy and Pope Leo XIII.
+revealed the adamantine hostility of the Vatican to the King's
+Government in Rome. A prey to these discouragements, King Umberto
+and his advisers were <span class="pagenum"><a name="page336" id=
+"page336"></a>[pg 336]</span> willing to renew the Triple Alliance
+(March 1887), though on terms no more advantageous than before.
+Signor Depretis, the chief champion of the alliance, died in July;
+but Signor Crispi, who thereafter held office, proved to be no less
+firm in its support. After a visit to Prince Bismarck at his abode
+of Friedrichsruh, near Hamburg, the Italian Prime Minister came
+back a convinced Teutophil, and announced that Italy adhered to the
+Central Powers in order to assure peace to Europe.</p>
+<p>Crispi also hinted that the naval support of England might be
+forthcoming if Italy were seriously threatened; and when the naval
+preparations at Toulon seemed to portend a raid on the
+ill-protected dockyard of Spezzia, British warships took up
+positions at Genoa in order to render help if it were needed. This
+incident led to a discussion in the <i>Neue Freie Presse</i> of
+Vienna, owing to a speech made by Signor Chiala at Rome. Mr.
+Labouchere also, on February 10, 1888, sharply questioned Sir James
+Fergusson in the House of Commons on the alleged understanding
+between England and Italy. All information, however, was
+refused<a name="FNanchor263"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_263">[263]</a>.</p>
+<p>Next to nothing, then, is known on the interesting question how
+far the British Government went in framing an agreement with Italy,
+and through her, with the Triple Alliance. We can only conjecture
+the motives which induced the Salisbury Cabinet to make a strategic
+turn towards that "conservative" alliance, and yet not definitely
+join it. The isolation of England proved, in the sequel, to be not
+only a source of annoyance to the Continental Powers but of
+weakness to herself, because her statesmen failed to use to the
+full the potential advantages of their position at the middle of
+the see-saw. Bismarck's dislike of England was not incurable; he
+was never a thorough-going "colonial"; and it is probable that the
+adhesion of England to his league would have inaugurated a period
+of mutual good-will in politics, colonial policy, and commerce. The
+abstention of England has in the sequel led German statesmen to
+show all <span class="pagenum"><a name="page337" id=
+"page337"></a>[pg 337]</span> possible deference to Russia,
+generally at the expense of British interests.</p>
+<p>The importance of this consideration becomes obvious when the
+dangers of the year 1887 are remembered. The excitement caused in
+Russia and France by the Rustchuk and Schnaebele affairs, the
+tension in Germany produced by the drastic proposals of a new Army
+Bill, and, above all, the prospect of the triumph of Boulangist
+militarism in France, kept the Continent in a state of tension for
+many months. In May, Katkoff nearly succeeded in persuading the
+Czar to dismiss de Giers and adopt a warlike policy, in the belief
+that a strong Cabinet was about to be formed at Paris with
+Boulanger as the real motive power. After a long ministerial crisis
+the proposed ministerial combination broke down; Boulanger was
+shelved, and the Czar is believed to have sharply rebuked Katkoff
+for his presumption<a name="FNanchor264"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_264">[264]</a>. This disappointment of his dearest hopes
+preyed on the health of that brilliant publicist and hastened his
+end, which occurred on August 1, 1887.</p>
+<p>The seed which Katkoff had sown was, however, to bring forth
+fruit. Despite the temporary discomfiture of the Slavophils, events
+tended to draw France and Russia more closely together. The formal
+statement of Signor Crispi that the Triple Alliance was a great and
+solid fact would alone have led to some counter move; and all the
+proofs of the instability of French politics furnished by the
+Gr&eacute;vy-Wilson scandals could not blind Russian statesmen to
+the need of some understanding with a great Power<a name=
+"FNanchor265"></a><a href="#Footnote_265">[265]</a>.</p>
+<p>Bismarck sought to give the needed hand-grip. In November 1887,
+during an interview with the Czar at Berlin, he succeeded in
+exposing the forgery of some documents concerning Bulgaria which
+had prejudiced Alexander against him. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page338" id="page338"></a>[pg 338]</span> He
+followed up this advantage by secretly offering the Cabinet of St.
+Petersburg a guarantee of German support in case of an attack from
+Austria; but it does not appear that the Czar placed much trust in
+the assurance, especially when Bismarck made his rhetorical fanfare
+of February 6, 1888, in order to ensure the raising of a loan of
+28,000,000 marks for buying munitions of war.</p>
+<p>That speech stands forth as a landmark in European politics. In
+a simple, unadorned style the German Chancellor set forth the
+salient facts of the recent history of his land, showing how often
+its peace had been disturbed, and deducing the need for constant
+preparation in a State bordered, as Germany was, by powerful
+neighbours:--"The pike in the European pool prevent us from
+becoming carp; but we must fulfil the designs of Providence by
+making ourselves so strong that the pike can do no more than amuse
+us." He also traced the course of events which led to the treaties
+with Austria and Italy, and asserted that by their formation and by
+the recent publication of the treaty of 1882 with Austria the
+German Government had not sought in any way to threaten Russia. The
+present misunderstandings with that Power would doubtless pass
+away; but seeing that the Russian Press had "shown the door to an
+old, powerful, and effective friend, which we were, we shall not
+knock at it again."</p>
+<p>Bismarck's closing words--"We Germans fear God and nothing else
+in the world; and it is the fear of God which makes us seek peace
+and ensue it"--carried the Reichstag with him, with the result that
+the proposals of the Government were adopted almost unanimously,
+and Bismarck received an overwhelming ovation from the crowd
+outside. These days marked the climax of the Chancellor's career
+and the triumph of the policy which led to the Triple Alliance.</p>
+<p>The question, which of the two great hostile groups was the more
+sincere in its championship of peace principles, must remain one of
+the riddles of the age. Bismarck had certainly given much
+provocation to France in the Schnaebele affair; <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page339" id="page339"></a>[pg 339]</span> but in
+the year 1888 the chief danger to the cause of peace came from
+Boulanger and the Slavophils of Russia. The Chancellor, having
+carried through his army proposals, posed as a peacemaker; and
+Germany for some weeks bent all her thoughts on the struggle
+between life and death which made up the ninety days' reign of the
+Emperor Frederick III. Cyon and other French writers have laboured
+to prove that Bismarck's efforts to prevent his accession to the
+throne, on the ground that he was the victim of an incurable
+disease, betokened a desire for immediate war with France.</p>
+<p>It appears, however, that the contention of the Chancellor was
+strictly in accord with one of the fundamental laws of the Empire.
+His attitude towards France throughout the later phases of the
+Boulanger affair was coldly "correct," while he manifested the
+greatest deference towards the private prejudices of the Czar when
+the Empress Frederick allowed the proposals of marriage between her
+daughter and Prince Alexander of Battenberg to be renewed. Knowing
+the unchangeable hatred of the Czar for the ex-Prince of Bulgaria,
+Bismarck used all his influence to thwart the proposal, which was
+defeated by the personal intervention of the present Kaiser<a name=
+"FNanchor266"></a><a href="#Footnote_266">[266]</a>. According to
+our present information, then, German policy was sincerely
+peaceful, alike in aim and in tone, during the first six months of
+the year; and the piling up of armaments which then went on from
+the Urals to the Pyrenees may be regarded as an unconsciously
+ironical tribute paid by the Continental Powers to the cause of
+peace.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>A change came over the scene when William II. ascended the
+throne of Germany (June 15, 1888). At once he signalised the event
+by issuing a proclamation to the army, in which occurred the words:
+"I swear ever to remember that the eyes of my ancestors look down
+upon me from the other world, and that I shall one day have to
+render account to them of the glory and honour of the army." The
+navy received his salutation <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page340" id="page340"></a>[pg 340]</span> on that same day; and
+not until three days later did a proclamation go forth to his
+people. Men everywhere remembered that "Frederick the Noble" had
+first addressed his people, and then his army and navy. The
+inference was unavoidable that the young Kaiser meant to be a
+Frederick the Great rather than a "citizen Emperor," as his father
+had longed to be known. The world has now learnt to discount the
+utterances of the most impulsive of Hohenzollern rulers; but in
+those days, when it knew not his complex character, such an army
+order seemed to portend the advent of another Napoleon.</p>
+<p>Not only France but Russia felt some alarm. True, the young
+Kaiser speedily paid a visit to his relative at St. Petersburg; but
+it soon appeared that the stolid and very reserved Alexander III.
+knew not what to make of the versatile personality that now
+controlled the policy of Central Europe. It was therefore natural
+that France and Russia should take precautionary measures; and we
+now know that these were begun in the autumn of that year.</p>
+<p>In the first instance, they took the form of loans. A Parisian
+financier, M. Hoskier, Danish by descent, but French by
+naturalisation and sympathy, had long desired to use the resources
+of Paris as a means of cementing friendship, and, if possible,
+alliance with Russia. For some time he made financial overtures at
+St. Petersburg, only to find all doors closed against him by German
+capitalists. But in the spring of the year 1888 the Berlin Bourse
+had been seized by a panic at the excessive amount of Russian
+securities held by German houses; large sales took place, and
+thenceforth it seemed impossible for Russia to raise money at
+Berlin or Frankfurt except on very hard terms.</p>
+<p>Now was the opportunity for which the French houses had been
+waiting and working. In October 1888, Hoskier received an
+invitation to repair to St. Petersburg secretly, in order to
+consider the taking up of a loan of 500,000,000 francs at 4 per
+cent, to replace war loans contracted in 1877 at 5 per cent. At
+once he assured the Russian authorities that his <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page341" id="page341"></a>[pg 341]</span>
+syndicate would accept the offer, and though the German financiers
+raged and plotted against him, the loan went to Paris. This was the
+beginning of a series of loans launched by Russia at Paris, and so
+successfully that by the year 1894 as much as four milliards of
+francs (&pound;160,000,000) is said to have been subscribed in that
+way<a name="FNanchor267"></a><a href="#Footnote_267">[267]</a>.
+Thus the wealth of France enabled Russia to consolidate her debt on
+easier terms, to undertake strategic railways, to build a new navy,
+and arm her immense forces with new and improved weapons. It is
+well known that Russia could not otherwise have ventured on these
+and other costly enterprises; and one cannot but admire the skill
+which she showed in making so timely a use of Gallic enthusiasm, as
+well as the statesmanlike foresight of the French in piling up
+these armaments on the weakest flank of Germany.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile the Boulangist bubble had burst. After his removal
+from the army on the score of insubordination, "le brav'
+g&eacute;n&eacute;ral" entered into politics, and, to the surprise
+of all, gained an enormous majority in the election for a district
+of Paris (January 1889). It is believed that, had he rallied his
+supporters and marched against the Elys&eacute;e, he might have
+overthrown the parliamentary Republic. But, like Robespierre at the
+crisis of his career, he did not strike--he discoursed of reason
+and moderation. For once the authorities took the initiative; and
+when the new Premier, Tirard, took action against him for treason,
+he fled to Brussels on the appropriate date of the 1st of April.
+Thenceforth, the Royalist-Bonapartist-Radical hybrid, known as
+Boulangism, ceased to scare the world; and its challenging snorts
+died away in sounds which were finally recognised as convulsive
+brayings. How far the Slavophils of Russia had a hand in goading on
+the creature is not known. &Eacute;lie de Cyon, writing at a later
+date, declared that he all along saw through and distrusted
+Boulanger. Disclaimers of this kind were plentiful in the following
+years<a name="FNanchor268"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_268">[268]</a>.</p>
+<p>After the exposure of that hero of the Boulevards, it was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page342" id="page342"></a>[pg
+342]</span> natural that the Czar should decline to make a binding
+compact with France; and he signalised the isolation of Russia by
+proposing a toast to the Prince of Montenegro as "the only sincere
+and faithful friend of Russia." Nevertheless, the dismissal of
+Bismarck by William II., in March 1890, brought about a time of
+strain and friction between Russia and Germany which furthered the
+prospects of a Franco-Russian <i>entente</i>. Thenceforth peace
+depended on the will of a young autocrat who now and again gave the
+impression that he was about to draw the sword for the satisfaction
+of his ancestral <i>manes</i>. A sharp and long-continued tariff
+war between Germany and Russia also embittered the relations
+between the two Powers.</p>
+<p>Rumours of war were widespread in the year 1891. Wild tales were
+told as to a secret treaty between Germany and Belgium for
+procuring a passage to the Teutonic hosts through that neutralised
+kingdom, and thus turning the new eastern fortresses which France
+had constructed at enormous cost<a name="FNanchor269"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_269">[269]</a>. Parts of Northern France were to be the
+reward of King Leopold's complaisance, and the help of England and
+Turkey was to be secured by substantial bribes<a name=
+"FNanchor270"></a><a href="#Footnote_270">[270]</a>. The whole
+scheme wears a look of amateurish grandiosity; but, on the
+principle that there is no smoke without fire (which does not
+always hold good for diplomatic smoke), much alarm was felt at
+Paris. The renewal of the Triple Alliance in June 1891, for a term
+of six years, was followed up a month later by a visit of the
+Emperor William to England, during which he took occasion at the
+Guildhall to state his desire "to maintain the historical
+friendship between these our two nations" (July 10). Balanced
+though this assertion was by an expression of a hope in the
+peaceful progress of all peoples, the words sent an imaginative
+thrill to the banks of the Seine and the Neva.</p>
+<p>The outcome of it all was the visit of the French Channel Fleet
+to Cronstadt at the close of July; and the French statesman
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page343" id="page343"></a>[pg
+343]</span> M. Flourens asserts that the Czar himself took the
+initiative in this matter<a name="FNanchor271"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_271">[271]</a>. The fleet received an effusive welcome,
+and, to the surprise of all Europe, the Emperor visited the
+flagship of Admiral Gervais and remained uncovered while the band
+played the national airs of the two nations. Few persons ever
+expected the autocrat of the East to pay that tribute to the
+<i>Marseillaise</i>. But, in truth, French democracy was then
+entering on a new phase at home. Politicians of many shades of
+opinion had begun to cloak themselves with "opportunism"--a
+conveniently vague term, first employed by Gambetta, but finally
+used to designate any serviceable compromise between parliamentary
+rule, autocracy, and flamboyant militarism. The Cronstadt
+<i>f&ecirc;tes</i> helped on the warping process.</p>
+<p>Whether any definite compact was there signed is open to doubt.
+The <i>Times</i> correspondent, writing on July 31 from St.
+Petersburg, stated that Admiral Gervais had brought with him from
+Paris a draft of a convention, which was to be considered and
+thereafter signed by the Russian Ministers for Foreign Affairs,
+War, and the Navy, but not by the Czar himself until the need for
+it arose. Probably, then, no alliance was formed, but military and
+naval conventions were drawn up to serve as bases for common action
+if an emergency should arise. These agreements were elaborated in
+conferences held by the Russian generals, Vanoffski and Obrucheff,
+with the French generals, Saussier, Miribel, and Boisdeffre. A
+Russian loan was soon afterwards floated at Paris amidst great
+enthusiasm.</p>
+<p>For the present the French had to be satisfied with this
+exchange of secret assurances and hard cash. The Czar refused to
+move further, mainly because the scandals connected with the Panama
+affair once more aroused his fears and disgust. De Cyon states that
+the degrading revelations which came to light, at the close of 1891
+and early in 1892, did more than <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page344" id="page344"></a>[pg 344]</span> anything to delay the
+advent of a definite alliance. The return visit of a Russian
+squadron to French waters was therefore postponed to the month of
+October 1893, when there were wild rejoicings at Toulon. The Czar
+and President exchanged telegrams, the former referring to "the
+bonds which unite the two countries."</p>
+<p>It appeared for a time that Russia meant to keep her squadron in
+the Mediterranean; and representations on this subject are known to
+have been made by England and Italy, which once again drew close
+together. A British squadron visited Italian ports--an event which
+seemed to foreshadow the entrance of the Island Power to the Triple
+Alliance. The Russian fleet, however, left the Mediterranean, and
+the diplomatic situation remained unchanged. Despite all the
+passionate wooing of the Gallic race, no contract of marriage took
+place during the life of Alexander III. He died on November 1,
+1894, and his memory was extolled in many quarters as that of the
+great peacemaker of the age.</p>
+<p>How far he deserved this praise, to which every statesman of the
+first rank laid claim, is matter for doubt. It is certain that he
+disliked war on account of the evil results accruing from the
+Russo-Turkish conflict; but whether his love of peace rested on
+grounds other than prudential will be questioned by those who
+remember his savage repression of non-Russian peoples in his
+Empire, his brutal treatment of the Bulgarians and of their Prince,
+his underhand intrigues against Servia and Roumania, and the favour
+which he showed to the commander who violated international law at
+Panjdeh. That the French should enshrine his memory in phrases to
+which their literary skill gives a world-wide vogue is natural,
+seeing that he ended their days of isolation and saved them from
+the consequences of Boulangism; but it still has to be proved that,
+apart from the Schnaebele affair, Germany ever sought a quarrel
+with France during the reign of Alexander III.; and it may finally
+appear that the Triple Alliance was the genuinely conservative
+league which saved Europe from the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page345" id="page345"></a>[pg 345]</span> designs of the restless
+Republic and the exacting egotism of Alexander III.</p>
+<p>Another explanation of the Franco-Russian <i>entente</i> is
+fully as tenable as the theory that the Czar based his policy on
+the seventh beatitude. A careful survey of the whole of that policy
+in Asia, as well as in Europe, seems to show that he drew near to
+the Republic in order to bring about an equilibrium in Europe which
+would enable him to throw his whole weight into the affairs of the
+Far East. Russian policy has oscillated now towards the West, now
+towards the East; but old-fashioned Russians have always deplored
+entanglement in European affairs, and have pointed to the more
+hopeful Orient. Even during the pursuit of Napoleon's shattered
+forces in their retreat from Moscow in 1812, the Russian Commander,
+Kutusoff, told Sir Robert Wilson that Napoleon's overthrow would
+benefit, not the world at large, but only England<a name=
+"FNanchor272"></a><a href="#Footnote_272">[272]</a>. He failed to
+do his utmost, largely because he looked forward to peace with
+France and a renewal of the Russian advance on India.</p>
+<p>The belief that England was the enemy came to be increasingly
+held by leading Russians, especially, of course, after the Crimean
+War and the Berlin Congress. Russia's true mission, they said, lay
+in Asia. There, among those ill-compacted races, she could easily
+build up an Empire that never could be firmly founded on tough,
+recalcitrant Bulgars or warlike Turks. The Triple Alliance having
+closed the door to Russia on the West, there was the greater
+temptation to take the other alternative course--that line of least
+resistance which led towards Afghanistan and Manchuria. The value
+of an understanding with France was now clear to all. As we have
+seen, it guarded Russia's exposed frontier in Poland, and poured
+into the exchequer treasures which speedily took visible form in
+the Siberian railway, as well as the extensions of the lines
+leading to Merv and Tashkend.</p>
+<p>But this eastern trend of Russian policy can scarcely be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page346" id="page346"></a>[pg
+346]</span> called peaceful. The Panjdeh incident (March 29, 1885)
+would have led any other Government than that of Mr. Gladstone to
+declare war on the aggressor. Events soon turned the gaze of the
+Russians towards Manchuria, and the Franco-Russian agreement
+enabled them to throw their undivided energies in that direction
+(see Chapter XX.). It was French money which enabled Russia to
+dominate Manchuria, and, for the time, to overawe Japan. In short,
+the Dual Alliance peacefully conducted the Muscovites to Port
+Arthur.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>The death of Alexander III. in November 1894 brought to power a
+very different personality, kindlier and more generous, but lacking
+the strength and prudence of the deceased ruler. Nicholas II. had
+none of that dislike of Western institutions which haunted his
+father. The way was therefore open for a more binding compact with
+France, the need for which was emphasised by the events of the
+years 1894-95 in the Far East. But the manner in which it came
+about is still but dimly known. Members of the House of Orleans are
+said to have taken part in the overtures, perhaps with the view of
+helping on the hypnotising influence which alliance with the
+autocracy of the East exerts on the democracy of the West.</p>
+<p>The Franco-Russian <i>entente</i> ripened into an alliance in
+the year 1895. So, at least, we may judge from the reference to
+Russia as "notre alli&eacute;" by the Prime Minister, M. Ribot, in
+the debate of June 10, 1895. Nicholas II., at the time of his visit
+to Paris in 1896, proclaimed his close friendship with the
+Republic; and during the return visit of President Faure to
+Cronstadt and St. Petersburg he gave an even more significant sign
+that the two nations were united by something more than sentiment
+and what Carlyle would have called the cash-nexus. On board the
+French warship <i>Pothuau</i> he referred in his farewell speech to
+the "nations amies et alli&eacute;es" (August 26, 1897).</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page347" id="page347"></a>[pg
+347]</span>
+<p>The treaty has never been made public, but a version of it
+appeared in the <i>Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung</i> of September 21,
+1901, and in the Paris paper, <i>La Libert&eacute;</i> five days
+later. Mr. Henry Norman gives the following summary of the
+information there unofficially communicated. After stating that the
+treaty contains no direct reference to Germany, he proceeds: "It
+declares that if either nation is attacked, the other will come to
+its assistance with the whole of its military and naval forces, and
+that peace shall only be concluded in concert and by agreement
+between the two. No other <i>casus belli</i> is mentioned, no term
+is fixed to the duration of the treaty, and the whole instrument
+consists of only a few clauses<a name="FNanchor273"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_273">[273]</a>."</p>
+<p>Obviously France and Russia cannot help one another with all
+their forces unless the common foe were Germany, or the Triple
+Alliance as a whole. In that case alone would such a clause be
+operative. The pressure of France and Russia on the flanks of the
+German Empire would be terrible; and it is inconceivable that
+Germany would attack France, knowing that such action would bring
+the weight of Russia upon her weakest frontier. It is, however,
+conceivable that the three central allies might deem the strain of
+an armed peace to be unendurable and attack France or Russia. To
+such an attack the Dual Alliance would oppose about equal forces,
+though now hampered by the weakening of the Empire in the Far
+East.</p>
+<p>Another account, also unofficial and discreetly vague, was given
+to the world by a diplomatist at the time when the Armenian
+outrages had for a time quickened the dull conscience of
+Christendom<a name="FNanchor274"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_274">[274]</a>. Assuming that the Sick Man of the East
+was at the point of death, the anonymous writer hinted at the
+profitable results obtainable by the Continental States if,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page348" id="page348"></a>[pg
+348]</span> leaving England out of count, they arranged the Eastern
+Question <i>&agrave; l'aimable</i> among themselves. The Dual
+Alliance, he averred, would not meet the needs of the situation;
+for it did not contemplate the partition of Turkey or a general war
+in the East.</p>
+<blockquote>Both parties [France and Russia] have examined the
+course to<br>
+be taken in the case of aggression by one or more members of
+the<br>
+Triple Alliance; an understanding has been arrived at on the
+great<br>
+lines of general policy; but of necessity they did not go
+further.<br>
+If the Russian Government could not undertake to place its
+sword<br>
+at the service of France with a view to a revision of the Treaty
+of<br>
+Frankfurt--a demand, moreover, which France did not make--it<br>
+cannot claim that France should mobilise her forces to permit it
+to<br>
+extend its territory in Europe or in Asia. They know that very<br>
+well on the banks of the Neva.</blockquote>
+<p>To this interesting statement we may add that France and Russia
+have been at variance on the Eastern Question. Thus, when, in order
+to press her rightful claims on the Sultan, France determined to
+coerce him by the seizure of Mitylene, if need be, the Czar's
+Government is known to have discountenanced this drastic
+proceeding. Speaking generally, it is open to conjecture whether
+the Dual Alliance refers to other than European questions. This may
+be inferred from the following fact. On the announcement of the
+Anglo-Japanese compact early in 1902, by which England agreed to
+intervene in the Far Eastern Question if another Power helped
+Russia against Japan, the Governments of St. Petersburg and Paris
+framed a somewhat similar convention whereby France definitely
+agreed to take action if Russia were confronted by Japan and a
+European or American Power in these quarters. No such compact would
+have been needed if the Franco-Russian alliance had referred to the
+problems of the Far East.</p>
+<p>Another "disclosure" of the early part of 1904 is also
+noteworthy. The Paris <i>Figaro</i> published official documents
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page349" id="page349"></a>[pg
+349]</span> purporting to prove that the Czar Nicholas II., on
+being sounded by the French Government at the time of the Fashoda
+incident, declared his readiness to abide by his engagements in
+case France took action against Great Britain. The <i>Figaro</i>
+used this as an argument in favour of France actively supporting
+Russia against Japan, if an appeal came from St. Petersburg. This
+contention would now meet with little support in France. The events
+of the Russo-Japanese War and the massacre of workmen in St.
+Petersburg on January 22, 1905, have visibly strained
+Franco-Russian relations. This is seen in the following speech of
+M. Anatole France on February 1, 1905, with respect to his
+interview with the Premier, M. Combes:--</p>
+<blockquote>At the beginning of this war I had heard it said very
+vaguely<br>
+that there existed between France and Russia firm and fast
+engagements,<br>
+and that, if Russia came to blows with a second Power,<br>
+France would have to intervene. I asked M. Combes, then Prime<br>
+Minister, whether anything of the kind existed. M. Combes<br>
+thought it due to his position not to give a precise answer; but
+he<br>
+declared to me in the clearest way that so long as he was
+Minister<br>
+we need not fear that our sailors and our soldiers would be sent
+to<br>
+Japan. My own opinion is that this folly is not to be
+apprehended<br>
+under any Ministry. (<i>The Times</i>. February 3.)</blockquote>
+<p>At present, then, everything tends to show that the
+Franco-Russian alliance refers solely to European questions and is
+merely a defensive agreement in view of a possible attack from one
+or more members of the Triple Alliance. Seeing that the purely
+defensive character of the latter has always been emphasised,
+doubts are very naturally expressed in many quarters as to the use
+of these alliances. The only tangible advantage gained by any one
+of the five Powers is that Russia has had greater facilities for
+raising loans in France and in securing her hold on Manchuria. On
+the other hand, Frenchmen complain that the alliance has entailed
+an immense financial responsibility, which is dearly bought by the
+cessation of those irritating frontier incidents of the Schnaebele
+type which they <span class="pagenum"><a name="page350" id=
+"page350"></a>[pg 350]</span> had to put up with from Bismarck in
+the days of their isolation<a name="FNanchor275"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_275">[275]</a>.</p>
+<p>Italy also questions the wisdom of her alliance with the Central
+Powers which brings no obvious return except in the form of
+slightly enhanced consideration from her Latin sister. In cultured
+circles on both sides of the Maritime Alps there is a strong
+feeling that the present international situation violates racial
+instincts and tradition; and, as we have already seen, Italy's
+attitude towards France is far different now from what it was in
+1882. It is now practically certain that Italians would not allow
+the King's Government to fight France in the interests of the
+Central Powers. Their feelings are quite natural. What have
+Italians in common with Austrians and Prussians? Little more, we
+may reply, than French republicans with the subjects of the Czar.
+In truth both of these alliances rest, not on whole-hearted regard
+or affection, but on fear and on the compulsion which it
+exerts.</p>
+<p>To this fact we may, perhaps, largely attribute the
+<i>malaise</i> of Europe. The Greek philosopher Empedocles looked
+on the world as the product of two all-pervading forces, love and
+hate, acting on blind matter: love brought cognate particles
+together and held them in union; hate or repulsion kept asunder the
+unlike or hostile elements. We may use the terms of this old
+cosmogony in reference to existing political conditions, and assert
+that these two elemental principles have drawn Europe apart into
+two hostile masses; with this difference, that the allies for the
+most part are held together, not so much by mutual regard as by
+hatred of their opposites. From this somewhat sweeping statement we
+must mark off one exception. There were two allies who came
+together with the ease which betokens a certain amount of affinity.
+Thanks to the statesmanlike moderation of Bismarck after
+K&ouml;niggr&auml;tz, Austria willingly entered into a close
+compact with her former rival. At least that was the feeling among
+the Germans and Magyars of the Dual Monarchy. The <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page351" id="page351"></a>[pg 351]</span>
+Austro-German alliance, it may be predicted, will hold good while
+the Dual Monarchy exists in its present form; but even in that case
+fear of Russia is the one great binding force where so much else is
+centrifugal. If ever the Empire of the Czar should lose its
+prestige, possibly the two Central Powers would drift apart.</p>
+<p>Although there are signs of weakness in both alliances, they
+will doubtless remain standing as long as the need which called
+them into being remains. Despite all the efforts made on both
+sides, the military and naval resources of the two great leagues
+are approximately equal. In one respect, and in one alone, Europe
+has benefited from these well-matched efforts. The uneasy truce
+that has been dignified by the name of peace since the year 1878
+results ultimately from the fact that war will involve the conflict
+of enormous citizen armies of nearly equal strength.</p>
+<p>So it has come to this, that in an age when the very conception
+of Christendom has vanished, and ideal principles have been
+well-nigh crushed out of life by the pressure of material needs,
+peace again depends on the once-derided principle of the balance of
+power. That it should be so is distressing to all who looked to see
+mankind win its way to a higher level of thought on international
+affairs. The level of thought in these matters could scarcely be
+lower than it has been since the Armenian massacres. The collective
+conscience of Europe is as torpid as it was in the eighteenth
+century, when weak States were crushed or partitioned, and armed
+strength came to be the only guarantee of safety.</p>
+<p>At the close of this volume we shall glance at some of the
+influences which the Tantalus toil of the European nations has
+exerted on the life of our age. It is not for nothing that hundreds
+of millions of men are ever striving to provide the sinews of war,
+and that rulers keep those sinews in a state of tension. The result
+is felt in all the other organs of the body politic. Certainly the
+governing classes of the Continent must be suffering from atrophy
+of the humorous instinct if <span class="pagenum"><a name="page352"
+id="page352"></a>[pg 352]</span> they fail to note the practical
+nullity of the efforts which they and their subjects have long put
+forth. Perhaps some statistical satirist of the twentieth century
+will assess the economy of the process which requires nearly twelve
+millions of soldiers for the maintenance of peace in the most
+enlightened quarter of the globe.</p>
+<br>
+<p>NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION</p>
+<p>In the <i>Echo de Paris</i> of July 3, 1905, the Comte de Nion
+published documents which further prove the importance of the
+services rendered by Great Britain to France at the time of the war
+scare of May 1875. They confirm the account as given in this
+chapter, but add a few more details. See, too, corroborative
+evidence in the <i>Times</i> for July 4, 1905.</p>
+<br>
+<p>NOTE TO THE THIRD EDITION</p>
+<p>It has been stated, apparently on good authority, that the
+informal conversations which went on during the Congress of Berlin
+between the plenipotentiaries of the Powers (see <i>ante</i>, p.
+328) furnished Italy with an assurance that, in the event of France
+expanding in North Africa, Italy should find "compensation" in
+Tripoli. Apparently this explains her recent action there (October
+1911).</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_242"></a><a href="#FNanchor242">[242]</a> In
+his speech of February 19, 1878, Bismarck said, "The <i>liaison</i>
+of the three Emperors, which is habitually designated an alliance,
+rests on no written agreement and does not compel any one of the
+three Emperors to submit to the decisions of the two others."</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_243"></a><a href="#FNanchor243">[243]</a>
+D&eacute;bidour, <i>Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe</i>, vol. ii.
+pp. 458-59; Bismarck, <i>Reflections and Reminiscences</i>, vol.
+ii. ch. xxix.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_244"></a><a href="#FNanchor244">[244]</a>
+<i>The Emperor Alexander II.: His Life and Reign</i>, by S.S.
+Tatischeff (St. Petersburg, 1903), Appendix to vol. ii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_245"></a><a href="#FNanchor245">[245]</a> De
+Blowitz, <i>Memoirs</i>, ch. v.; <i>An Ambassador of the
+Vanquished</i> (ed. by the Duc de Broglie), pp. 180 <i>et seq</i>.
+Probably the article "Krieg in Sicht," published in the <i>Berlin
+Post</i> of April 15, 1875, was "inspired."</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_246"></a><a href="#FNanchor246">[246]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: his Reflections</i>, etc., vol. ii. pp. 191-193,
+249-153 (Eng. ed.); the <i>Bismarck Jahrbuch</i>, vol. iv. p.
+35.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_247"></a><a href="#FNanchor247">[247]</a> Sir
+M. Grant Duff, <i>Notes from a Diary, 1886-88</i>, vol. i. p. 129.
+See, too, other proofs of the probability of an attack by Germany
+on France in Professor Geffcken's <i>Frankreich, Russland, und der
+Dreibund</i>, pp. 90 <i>et seq.</i></p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_248"></a><a href="#FNanchor248">[248]</a>
+<i>Histoire de l'Entente franco-russe</i>, by &Eacute;lie de Cyon,
+ch. i. (1895).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_249"></a><a href="#FNanchor249">[249]</a>
+<i>Our Chancellor</i>, by M. Busch, vol. ii. pp. 137-138.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_250"></a><a href="#FNanchor250">[250]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: Reflections and Reminiscences</i>, vol. ii. pp.
+251-289.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_251"></a><a href="#FNanchor251">[251]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History</i>, by M. Busch,
+vol. ii. p. 404; <i>Bismarck: Reflections and Reminiscences</i>,
+vol. ii. p. 268.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_252"></a><a href="#FNanchor252">[252]</a>
+<i>The Life of the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava</i>, by Sir A. Lyall
+(1905), vol. i. p. 304.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_253"></a><a href="#FNanchor253">[253]</a> On
+October 24, 1896, the <i>Hamburger Nachrichten</i>, a paper often
+inspired by Bismarck, gave some information (all that is known)
+about this shadowy agreement.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_254"></a><a href="#FNanchor254">[254]</a> De
+Blowitz, <i>Memoirs</i>, ch. vi., also Busch, <i>Our
+Chancellor</i>, vol. ii. pp. 92-93.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_255"></a><a href="#FNanchor255">[255]</a> It
+transpired later on that Barth&eacute;l&eacute;my de St. Hilaire
+did not know of the extent of the aims of the French military
+party, and that these subsequently gained the day; but this does
+not absolve the Cabinet and him of bad faith. Later on France
+fortified Bizerta, in contravention (so it is said) of an
+understanding with the British Government that no part of that
+coast should be fortified.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_256"></a><a href="#FNanchor256">[256]</a>
+<i>Politische Geschichte der Gegenwart</i>, for 1881, p. 176;
+quoted by Lowe, <i>Life of Bismarck</i>, vol. ii. p. 133.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_257"></a><a href="#FNanchor257">[257]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: Some Secret Pages</i>, etc., vol. iii. p. 291.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_258"></a><a href="#FNanchor258">[258]</a>
+Seignobos, <i>A Political History of Contemporary Europe</i>, vol.
+i. p. 210 (Eng. Ed.).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_259"></a><a href="#FNanchor259">[259]</a> For
+the Triple Alliance see the <i>Rev. des deux Mondes</i>, May 1,
+1883; also Chiala, <i>Storia contemporanea--La Triplice e la
+Duplice Alleanza</i> (1898).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_260"></a><a href="#FNanchor260">[260]</a>
+&Eacute;lie de Cyon, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 38.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_261"></a><a href="#FNanchor261">[261]</a>
+&Eacute;lie de Cyon, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 274.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_262"></a><a href="#FNanchor262">[262]</a> See
+the <i>Nouvelle Revue</i> for April 15, 1890, for Cyon's version of
+the whole affair, which is treated with prudent brevity by Oncken,
+Blum, and Delbr&uuml;ck.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_263"></a><a href="#FNanchor263">[263]</a>
+Hansard, vol. cccxii. pp. 1180 <i>et seq.</i>; Chiala, <i>La
+Triplice e la Duplice Alleanza</i>, app. ii.; Mr. Stillman,
+<i>Francesco Crispi</i> (p. 177), believes in the danger to
+Spezzia.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_264"></a><a href="#FNanchor264">[264]</a> This
+version (the usual one) is contested by Cyon, who says that
+Katkoff's influence over the Czar was undermined by a mean German
+intrigue.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_265"></a><a href="#FNanchor265">[265]</a> See
+the Chauvinist pamphlets, <i>&Eacute;chec et Mat &agrave; la
+Politique de l'Ennemi de la France</i>, by "un Russe" (Paris,
+1887); and <i>N&eacute;cessit&eacute; de l'Alliance
+franco-russe</i>, by P. Pader (Toulouse, 1888).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_266"></a><a href="#FNanchor266">[266]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: Some Secret Pages, etc.</i> vol. iii. p. 335.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_267"></a><a href="#FNanchor267">[267]</a> E.
+Daudet, <i>Histoire diplomatique de l'Alliance franco-russe</i>,
+pp. 270-279.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_268"></a><a href="#FNanchor268">[268]</a> De
+Cyon, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 394 <i>et seq.</i></p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_269"></a><a href="#FNanchor269">[269]</a> In
+the French Chamber of Deputies it was officially stated in 1893,
+that in two decades France had spent the sum of &pound;614,000,000
+on her army and the new fortresses, apart from that on strategic
+railways and the fleet.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_270"></a><a href="#FNanchor270">[270]</a>
+Notovich, <i>L'Empereur Alexandre III.</i> ch. viii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_271"></a><a href="#FNanchor271">[271]</a> L.E.
+Flourens, <i>Alexandre III.: sa Vie, son Oeuvre</i>, p. 319.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_272"></a><a href="#FNanchor272">[272]</a>
+<i>The French Invasion of Russia</i>, by Sir R. Wilson, p. 234.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_273"></a><a href="#FNanchor273">[273]</a> H.
+Norman, M.P., <i>All the Russias</i>, p. 390 (Heinemann, 1902). See
+the articles on the alliance as it affects Anglo-French relations
+by M. de Pressens&eacute; in the <i>Nineteenth Century</i> for
+February and November 1896; also Mr. Spenser Wilkinson's <i>The
+Nation's Awakening</i>, ch. v.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_274"></a><a href="#FNanchor274">[274]</a>
+<i>L'Alliance Franco-russe devant la Crise Orientale</i>, par un
+Diplomate &eacute;tranger. (Paris, Plon. 1897).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_275"></a><a href="#FNanchor275">[275]</a> See
+an article by Jules Simon in the <i>Contemporary Review</i>, May
+1894.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page353" id="page353"></a>[pg
+353]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+<h3>THE CENTRAL ASIAN QUESTION</h3>
+<blockquote>"The Germans have reached their day, the English their
+mid-day, the French their afternoon, the Italians their evening,
+the Spanish their night; but the Slavs stand on the threshold of
+the morning."--MADAME NOVIKOFF ("O.K.")--<i>The Friends and Foes of
+Russia</i>.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>The years 1879-85 which witnessed the conclusion of the various
+questions opened up by the Treaty of Berlin and the formation of
+the Triple Alliance mark the end of a momentous period in European
+history. The quarter of a century which followed the
+Franco-Austrian War of 1859 in Northern Italy will always stand out
+as one of the most momentous epochs in State-building that the
+world has ever seen. Italy, Denmark, Austria-Hungary, Germany, and
+Turkey, assumed their present form. The Christians of the Balkan
+Peninsula made greater strides towards liberty than they had taken
+in the previous century. Finally, the new diplomatic grouping of
+the Powers helped to endow these changes with a permanence which
+was altogether wanting to the fitful efforts of the period 1815-59.
+That earlier period was one of feverish impulse and picturesque
+failure; the two later decades were characterised by stern
+organisation and prosaic success.</p>
+<p>It generally happens to nations as to individuals that a period
+devoted to recovery from internal disorders is followed by a time
+of great productive and expansive power. The introspective epoch
+gives place to one of practical achievement. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page354" id="page354"></a>[pg 354]</span> Faust
+gives up his barren speculations and feels his way from thought to
+action. From "In the beginning was the Word" he wins his way onward
+through "the Thought" and "the Might," until he rewrites the dictum
+"In the beginning was the Deed." That is the change which came over
+Germany and Europe in the years 1850-80. The age of the theorisers
+of the <i>Vor-Parlament</i> at Frankfurt gave place to the age of
+Bismarck. The ideals of Mazzini paled in the garish noonday of the
+monarchical triumph at Rome.</p>
+<p>Alas! too, the age of great achievement, that of the years
+1859-85, makes way for a period characterised by satiety, torpor,
+and an indefinable <i>malaise</i>. Europe rests from the generous
+struggles of the past, and settles down uneasily into a time of
+veiled hostility and armed peace. Having framed their State systems
+and covering alliances, the nations no longer give heed to
+constitutions, rights of man, or duties of man; they plunge into
+commercialism, and search for new markets. Their attitude now is
+that of Ancient Pistol when he exclaims</p>
+<blockquote>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"The
+world's mine oyster,<br>
+Which I with sword will open."</blockquote>
+<p>In Europe itself there is little to chronicle in the years
+1885-1900, which are singularly dull in regard to political
+achievement. No popular movement (not even those of the distressed
+Cretans and Armenians) has aroused enough sympathy to bring it to
+the goal. The reason for this fact seems to be that the human race,
+like the individual, is subject to certain alternating moods which
+may be termed the enthusiastic and the practical; and that, during
+the latter phase, the material needs of life are so far exalted at
+the expense of the higher impulses that small struggling
+communities receive not a tithe of the sympathy which they would
+have aroused in more generous times.</p>
+<p>The fact need not beget despair. On the contrary, it should
+inspire the belief that, when the fit passes away, the healthier,
+nobler mood will once more come; and then the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page355" id="page355"></a>[pg 355]</span> world
+will pulsate with new life, making wholesome use of the wealth
+previously stored up but not assimilated. It is significant that
+Gervinus, writing in 1853, spoke of that epoch as showing signs of
+disenchantment and exhaustion in the political sphere. In reality
+he was but six years removed from the beginning of an age of
+constructive activity the like of which has never been seen.</p>
+<p>Further, we may point out that the ebb in the tide of human
+affairs which set in about the year 1885 was due to specific causes
+operating with varied force on different peoples. First in point of
+time, at the close of the year 1879, came the decision of Bismarck
+and of the German Reichstag to abandon the cause of Free Trade in
+favour of a narrow commercial nationalism. Next came the murder of
+the Czar Alexander II. (March 1881), and the grinding down of the
+reformers and of all alien elements by his stern successor. Thus,
+the national impulse, which had helped on that of democracy in the
+previous generation, now lent its strength to the cause of
+economic, religious, and political reaction in the two greatest of
+European States.</p>
+<p>In other lands that vital force frittered itself away in the
+frothy rhetoric of D&eacute;roul&egrave;de and the futile prancings
+of Boulanger, in the gibberings of <i>Italia Irredenta</i>, or in
+the noisy obstruction of Czechs and Parnellites in the Parliaments
+of Vienna and London. Everything proclaimed that the national
+principle had spent its force and could now merely turn and wobble
+until it came to rest.</p>
+<p>A curious series of events also served to discredit the party of
+progress in the constitutional States. Italian politics during the
+ascendancy of Depretis, Mancini, and Crispi became on the one side
+a mere scramble for power, on the other a nervous edging away from
+the gulf of bankruptcy ever yawning in front. France, too, was slow
+to habituate herself to parliamentary institutions, and her history
+in the years 1887 to 1893 is largely that of a succession of
+political scandals and screechy recriminations, from the time of
+the Gr&eacute;vy-Wilson affair to the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page356" id="page356"></a>[pg 356]</span>
+loathsome end of the Panama Company. In the United Kingdom the
+wheels of progress lurched along heavily after the year 1886, when
+Gladstone made his sudden strategic turn towards the following of
+Parnell. Thus it came about that the parties of progress found
+themselves almost helpless or even discredited; and the young giant
+of Democracy suddenly stooped and shrivelled as if with premature
+decay.</p>
+<p>The causes of this seeming paralysis were not merely political
+and dynamic: they were also ethical. The fervour of religious faith
+was waning under the breath of a remorseless criticism and dogmatic
+materialism. Already, under their influence, the teachers of the
+earlier age, Carlyle, Tennyson, and Browning, had lost their
+joyousness and spontaneity; and the characteristic thinkers of the
+new age were chiefly remarkable for the arid formalism with which
+they preached the gospel of salvation for the strong and damnation
+to the weak. The results of the new creed were not long in showing
+themselves in the political sphere. If the survival of the fittest
+were the last word of philosophy, where was the need to struggle on
+behalf of the weak and oppressed? In that case, it might be better
+to leave them to the following clutch of the new scientific devil;
+while those who had charged through to the head of the rout enjoyed
+themselves with utmost abandon. Such was, and is, the deduction
+from the new gospel (crude enough, doubtless, in many respects),
+which has finally petrified in the lordly egotism of Nietzche and
+in the unlovely outlines of one or two up-to-date Utopias.</p>
+<p>These fashions will have their day. Meanwhile it is the duty of
+the historian to note that self-sacrifice and heroism have a hard
+struggle for life in an age which for a time exalted Herbert
+Spencer to the highest pinnacle of greatness, which still riots in
+the calculating selfishness of Nietzsche and raves about Omar
+Khayy&aacute;m.</p>
+<p>Seeing, then, that the last fifteen years of the nineteenth
+century in Europe were almost barren of great formative movements
+such as had ennobled the previous decades, we may well <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page357" id="page357"></a>[pg 357]</span> leave
+that over-governed, over-drilled continent weltering in its riches
+and discontent, its militarism and moral weakness, in order to
+survey events further afield which carried on the State-building
+process to lands as yet chaotic or ill-organised. There, at least,
+we may chronicle some advance, hampered though it has been by the
+moral languor or laxity that has warped the action of Europeans in
+their new spheres.</p>
+<p>The transference of human interest from European history to that
+of Asia and Africa is certainly one of the distinguishing features
+of the years in question. The scene of great events shifts from the
+Rhine and the Danube to the Oxus and the Nile. The affairs of Rome,
+Alsace, and Bulgaria being settled for the present, the passions of
+great nations centre on Herat and Candahar, Alexandria and Khartum,
+the Cameroons, Zanzibar, and Johannesburg, Port Arthur and Korea.
+The United States, after recovering from the Civil War and
+completing their work of internal development, enter the lists as a
+colonising Power, and drive forth Spain from two of her historic
+possessions. Strife becomes keen over the islands of the Pacific.
+Australia seeks to lay hands on New Guinea, and the European Powers
+enter into hot discussions over Madagascar, the Carolines, Samoa,
+and many other isles.</p>
+<p>In short, these years saw a repetition of the colonial strifes
+that marked the latter half of the eighteenth century. Just as
+Europe, after solving the questions arising out of the religious
+wars, betook itself to marketing in the waste lands over the seas,
+so too, when the impulses arising from the incoming of the
+principles of democracy and nationality had worn themselves out,
+the commercial and colonial motive again came uppermost. And, as in
+the eighteenth century, so too after 1880 there was at hand an
+economic incentive spurring on the Powers to annexation of new
+lands. France had recurred to protective tariffs in 1870. Germany,
+under Bismarck, followed suit ten years later; and all the
+continental Powers in turn, oppressed by armaments and girt around
+with hostile tariffs, turned instinctively to the unclaimed
+territories oversea as <span class="pagenum"><a name="page358" id=
+"page358"></a>[pg 358]</span> life-saving annexes for their own
+overstocked industrial centres.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>It will be convenient to begin the recital of extra-European
+events by considering the expansion of Russia and Great Britain in
+Central Asia. There, it is true, the commercial motive is less
+prominent than that of political rivalry; and the foregoing remarks
+apply rather to the recent history of Africa than to that of
+Central Asia. But, as the plan of this work is to some extent
+chronological, it seems better to deal first with events which had
+their beginning further back than those which relate to the
+partition of Africa.</p>
+<p>The two great colonising and conquering movements of recent
+times are those which have proceeded from London and Moscow as
+starting-points. In comparison with them the story of the
+enterprise of the Portuguese and Dutch has little more than the
+interest that clings around an almost vanished past. The halo of
+romance that hovers over the exploits of Spaniards in the New World
+has all but faded away. Even the more solid achievements of the
+gallant sons of France in a later age are of small account when
+compared with the five mighty commonwealths that bear witness to
+the strength of the English stock and the adaptability of its
+institutions, or with the portentous growth of the Russian Empire
+in Asia.</p>
+<p>The methods of expansion of these two great colonial Empires are
+curiously different; and students of Ancient History will recall a
+similar contrast in the story of the expansion of the Greek and
+Latin races. The colonial Empire of England has been sown broadcast
+over the seas by adventurous sailors, the freshness and spontaneity
+of whose actions recall corresponding traits in the maritime life
+of Athens. Nursed by the sea, and filled with the love of
+enterprise and freedom which that element inspires, both peoples
+sought wider spheres for their commerce, and homes more spacious
+and wealthy than their narrow cradles offered; <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page359" id="page359"></a>[pg 359]</span> but,
+above all, they longed to found a microcosm of Athens or England,
+with as little control from the mother-land as might be.</p>
+<p>The Russian Empire, on the other hand, somewhat resembles that
+of Rome in its steady, persistent extension of land boundaries by
+military and governmental methods. The Czars, like the Consuls and
+Emperors of Rome, set to work with a definite purpose, and brought
+to bear on the shifting, restless tribes beyond their borders the
+pressure of an unchanging policy and of a well-organised
+administration. Both States relied on discipline and civilisation
+to overcome animal strength and barbarism; and what they won by the
+sword, they kept by means of a good system of roads and by military
+colonies. In brief, while Ancient Greece and Modern England worked
+through sailors and traders, Rome and Russia worked through
+soldiers, road-makers, and proconsuls. The Sea Powers trusted
+mainly to individual initiative and civic freedom; the Land Powers
+founded their empires on organisation and order. The dominion of
+the former was sporadic and easily dissolvable; that of the latter
+was solid, and liable to be destroyed only by some mighty
+cataclysm. The contrast between them is as old and ineffaceable as
+that which subsists between the restless sea and the unchanging
+plain.</p>
+<p>While the comparison between England and Athens is incomplete,
+and at some points fallacious, that between the Czars and the
+C&aelig;sars is in many ways curiously close and suggestive. As
+soon as the Roman eagles soared beyond the mighty ring of the Alps
+and perched securely on the slopes of Gaul and Rh&aelig;tia, the
+great Republic had the military advantage of holding the central
+position as against the mutually hostile tribes of Western,
+Central, and Eastern Europe. Thanks to that advantage, to her
+organisation, and to her military colonies, she pushed forward an
+ever-widening girdle of empire, finally conferring the blessings of
+the <i>pax Romana</i> on districts as far remote as the Tyne, the
+Lower Rhine and Danube, the Caucasus, and the Pillars of
+Hercules.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page360" id="page360"></a>[pg
+360]</span>
+<p>Russia also has used to the full the advantages conferred by a
+central position, an inflexible policy, and a military-agrarian
+system well adapted to the needs of the nomadic peoples on her
+borders. In the fifteenth century, her polity emerged victorious
+from the long struggle with the Golden Horde of Tartars [I keep the
+usual spelling, though "Tatars" is the correct form]; and, as the
+barbarous Mongolians lost their hold on the districts of the middle
+Volga, the power of the Czars began its forward march, pressing
+back Asiatics on the East and Poles on the West. In 1556, Ivan the
+Terrible seized Astrakan at the mouth of the Volga, and
+victoriously held Russia's natural frontiers on the East, the Ural
+Mountains, and the northern shore of the Caspian Sea. We shall deal
+in a later chapter with her conquest of Siberia, and need only note
+here that Muscovite pioneers reached the shores of the Northern
+Pacific as early as the year 1636.</p>
+<p>Russia's conquests at the expense of Turks, Circassians, and
+Persians is a subject alien to this narrative; and the tragic story
+of the overthrow of Poland at the hand of the three partitioning
+Powers, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, does not concern us here.</p>
+<p>It is, however, needful to observe the means by which she was
+able to survive the dire perils of her early youth and to develop
+the colonising and conquering agencies of her maturer years. They
+may be summed up in the single word, "Cossacks."</p>
+<p>The Cossacks are often spoken of as though they were a race.
+They are not; they are bands or communities, partly military,
+partly nomadic or agricultural, as the case may be. They can be
+traced back to bands of outlaws who in the time of Russia's
+weakness roamed about on the verge of her settlements, plundering
+indifferently their Slavonic kinsmen, or the Tartars and Turks
+farther south. They were the "men of the plain," who had fled from
+the villages of the Slavs, or (in fewer cases) from the caravans of
+the Tartars, owing to private feuds, or from love of a freer and
+more <span class="pagenum"><a name="page361" id="page361"></a>[pg
+361]</span> lucrative life than that of the village or the
+encampment. In this debatable land their numbers increased until,
+Slavs though they mainly were, they became a menace to the growing
+power of the Czars. Ivan the Terrible sent expeditions against
+them, transplanted many of their number, and compelled those who
+remained in the space between the rivers Don and Ural to submit to
+his authority, and to give military service in time of war in
+return for rights of pasturage and tillage in the districts
+thenceforth recognised as their own. Some of them transferred their
+energies to Asia; and it was a Cossack outlaw, Jermak, who
+conquered a great part of Siberia. The Russian pioneers, who early
+penetrated into Siberia or Turkestan, found it possible at a later
+time to use these children of the plain as a kind of protective
+belt against the warlike natives. The same use was made of them in
+the South against Turks. Catharine II. broke the power of the
+"Zaporoghians" (Cossacks of the Dnieper), and settled large numbers
+of them on the River Kuban to fight the Circassians.</p>
+<p>In short, out of the driftwood and wreckage of their primitive
+social system the Russians framed a bulwark against the swirling
+currents of the nomad world outside. In some respects the Cossacks
+resemble the roving bands of Saxons and Franks who pushed forward
+roughly but ceaselessly the boundaries of the Teutonic race<a name=
+"FNanchor276"></a><a href="#Footnote_276">[276]</a>. But, whereas
+those offshoots soon came to have a life of their own, apart from
+the parent stems, Russia, on the other hand, has known how to keep
+a hold on her boisterous youth, turning their predatory instincts
+against her worst neighbours, and using them as hardy irregulars in
+her wars.</p>
+<p>Considering the number of times that the Russian Government
+crushed the Cossack revolts, broke up their self-made organisation,
+and transplanted unruly bands to distant parts, their almost
+invariable loyalty to the central authority is very remarkable. It
+may be ascribed either to the veneration <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page362" id="page362"></a>[pg 362]</span> which
+they felt for the Czar, to the racial sentiment which dwells within
+the breast of nearly every Slav, or to their proximity to alien
+peoples whom they hated as Mohammedans or despised as godless
+pagans. In any case, the Russian autocracy gained untold advantages
+from the Cossack fringe on the confines of the Empire.</p>
+<p>Some faint conception of the magnitude of that gain may be
+formed, if, by way of contrast, we try to picture the Teutonic
+peoples always acting together, even through their distant
+offshoots; or, again, if by a flight of fancy we can imagine the
+British Government making a wise use of its old soldiers and the
+flotsam and jetsam of our cities for the formation of semi-military
+colonies on the most exposed frontiers of the Empire. That which
+our senators have done only in the case of the Grahamstown
+experiment of 1819, Russia has done persistently and successfully
+with materials far less promising--a triumph of organisation for
+which she has received scant credit.</p>
+<p>The roving Cossacks have become practically a mounted militia,
+highly mobile in peace and in war. Free from taxes, and enjoying
+certain agrarian or pastoral rights in the district which they
+protect, their position in the State is fully assured. At times the
+ordinary Russian settlers are turned into Cossacks. Either by that
+means, or by migration from Russia, or by a process of accretion
+from among the conquered nomads, their ranks are easily recruited;
+and the readiness with which Tartars and Turkomans are absorbed
+into this cheap and effective militia has helped to strengthen
+Russia alike in peace and war. The source of strength open to her
+on this side of her social system did not escape the notice of
+Napoleon--witness his famous remark that within fifty years Europe
+would be either Republican or Cossack<a name=
+"FNanchor277"></a><a href="#Footnote_277">[277]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page363" id="page363"></a>[pg
+363]</span>
+<p>The firm organisation which Central Europe gained under the
+French Emperor's hammer-like blows served to falsify the prophecy;
+and the stream of Russian conquest, dammed up on the west by the
+newly-consolidated strength of Prussia and Austria, set strongly
+towards Asia. Pride at her overthrow of the great conqueror in 1812
+had quickened the national consciousness of Russia; and besides
+this praiseworthy motive there was another perhaps equally potent,
+namely, the covetousness of her ruling class. The Memoirs written
+by her bureaucrats and generals reveal the extravagance,
+dissipation, and luxury of the Court circles. Fashionable society
+had as its main characteristic a barbaric and ostentatious
+extravagance, alike in gambling and feasting, in the festivals of
+the Court or in the scarcely veiled debauchery of its devotees.
+Baron L&ouml;wenstern, who moved in its higher ranks, tells of
+cases of a license almost incredible to those who have not pried
+among the garbage of the Court of Catharine II. This recklessness,
+resulting from the tendency of the Muscovite nature, as of the
+Muscovite climate, to indulge in extremes, begot an imperious need
+of large supplies of money; and, ground down as were the serfs on
+the broad domains of the nobles, the resulting revenues were all
+too scanty to fill up the financial void created by the urgent
+needs of St. Petersburg, Gatchina, or Monte Carlo. Larger domains
+had to be won in order to outvie rivals or stave off bankruptcy;
+and these new domains could most easily come by foreign
+conquest.</p>
+<p>For an analogous reason, the State itself suffered from land
+hunger. Its public service was no less corrupt than inefficient.
+Large sums frequently vanished, no one knew whither; but one
+infallible cure for bankruptcy was always at hand, namely,
+conquests over Poles, Turks, Circassians, or Tartars. To this
+Catharine II. had looked when she instituted the vicious practice
+of paying the nobles for their services at Court; and during her
+long career of conquest she greatly developed the old Muscovite
+system of meeting the costs of war out of the domains of the
+vanquished, besides richly dowering the Crown, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page364" id="page364"></a>[pg 364]</span> and
+her generals and favoured courtiers. One of the Russian Ministers,
+referring to the notorious fact that his Government made war for
+the sake of booty as well as glory, said to a Frenchman, "We have
+remained somewhat Asiatic in that respect<a name=
+"FNanchor278"></a><a href="#Footnote_278">[278]</a>." It is not
+always that a Minister reveals so frankly the motives that help to
+mould the policy of a great State.</p>
+<p>The predatory instinct, once acquired, does not readily pass
+away. Alexander I. gratified it by forays in Circassia, even at the
+time when he was face to face with the might of the great Napoleon;
+and after the fall of the latter, Russia pushed on her confines in
+Georgia until they touched those of Persia. Under Nicholas I.
+little territory was added except the Kuban coast on the Black Sea,
+Erivan to the south of Georgia, and part of the Kirghiz lands in
+Turkestan.</p>
+<p>The reason for this quiescence was that almost up to the verge
+of the Crimean War Nicholas hoped to come to an understanding with
+England respecting an eventual partition of the Turkish Empire,
+Austria also gaining a share of the spoils. With the aim of baiting
+these proposals, he offered, during his visit to London in 1844, to
+refrain from any movement against the Khanates of Central Asia,
+concerning which British susceptibilities were becoming keen. His
+Chancellor, Count Nesselrode, embodied these proposals in an
+important Memorandum, containing a promise that Russia would leave
+the Khanates of Turkestan as a neutral zone in order to keep the
+Russian and British possessions in Asia "from dangerous
+contact<a name="FNanchor279"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_279">[279]</a>."</p>
+<p>For reasons which we need not detail, British Ministers rejected
+these overtures, and by degrees England entered upon the task of
+defending the Sultan's dominions, largely on the assumption that
+they formed a necessary bulwark of her Indian Empire. It is not our
+purpose to criticise British policy at <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page365" id="page365"></a>[pg 365]</span> that
+time. We merely call attention to the fact that there seemed to be
+a prospect of a friendly understanding with Russia respecting
+Turkey, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Central Asia; and that the British
+Government decided to maintain the integrity of Turkey by attacking
+the Power which seemed about to impugn it. As a result, Turkey
+secured a new lease of life by the Crimean War, while Alexander II.
+deemed himself entirely free to press on Asiatic conquests from
+which his father had refrained. Thus, the two great expanding
+Powers entered anew on that course of rivalry in Asia which has
+never ceased, and which forms to-day the sole barrier to a good
+understanding between them.</p>
+<p>After the Crimean War circumstances favoured the advance of the
+Russian arms. England, busied with the Sepoy Mutiny in India, cared
+little what became of the rival Khans of Turkestan; and Lord
+Lawrence, Governor-General of India in 1863-69, enunciated the
+soothing doctrine that "Russia might prove a safer neighbour than
+the wild tribes of Central Asia." The Czar's emissaries therefore
+had easy work in fomenting the strifes that constantly arose in
+Bokhara, Khiva, and Tashkend, with the result that in 1864 the
+last-named was easily acquired by Russia. We may add here that
+Tashkend is now an important railway centre in the Russian Central
+Asian line, and that large stores of food and material are there
+accumulated, which may be utilised in case Russia makes a move
+against Afghanistan or Northern India.</p>
+<p>In 1868 an outbreak of Mohammedan fanaticism in Bokhara brought
+the Ameer of that town into collision with the Russians, who
+thereupon succeeded in taking Samarcand. The capital of the empire
+of Tamerlane, "the scourge of Asia," now sank to the level of an
+outpost of Russian power, and ultimately to that of a mart for
+cotton. The Khan of Bokhara fell into a position of complete
+subservience, and ceded to the conquerors the whole of his province
+of Samarcand<a name="FNanchor280"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_280">[280]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page366" id="page366"></a>[pg
+366]</span>
+<p>It is believed that the annexation of Samarcand was contrary to
+the intentions of the Czar. Alexander II. was a friend of peace;
+and he had no desire to push forward his frontiers to the verge of
+Afghanistan, where friction would probably ensue with the British
+Government. Already he had sought to allay the irritation prevalent
+in Russophobe circles in England. In November 1864, his Chancellor,
+Prince Gortchakoff, issued a circular setting forth the causes that
+impelled the Russians on their forward march. It was impossible, he
+said, to keep peace with uncivilised and predatory tribes on their
+frontiers. Russia must press on until she came into touch with a
+State whose authority would guarantee order on the boundaries. The
+argument was a strong one; and it may readily be granted that good
+government, civilisation, and commerce have benefited by the
+extension of the <i>pax Russica</i> over the slave-hunting
+Turkomans and the inert tribes of Siberia.</p>
+<p>Nevertheless, as Gortchakoff's circular expressed the intention
+of refraining from conquest for the sake of conquest, the
+irritation in England became very great when the conquest of
+Tashkend, and thereafter of Samarcand, was ascribed, apparently on
+good grounds, to the ambition of the Russian commanders,
+Tchernaieff and Kaufmann respectively. On the news of the capture
+of Samarcand reaching London, the Russian ambassador hastened to
+assure the British Cabinet that his master did not intend to retain
+his conquest. Nevertheless, it was retained. The doctrine of
+political necessity proved to be as expansive as Russia's
+boundaries; and, after the rapid growth of the Indian Empire under
+Lord Dalhousie, the British Government could not deny the force of
+the plea.</p>
+<p>This mighty stride forward brought Russia to the northern bounds
+of Afghanistan, a land which was thenceforth to be the central knot
+of diplomatic problems of vast magnitude. It will therefore be
+well, in beginning our survey of a question which was to test the
+efficacy of autocracy and democracy in <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page367" id="page367"></a>[pg 367]</span>
+international affairs, to gain some notion of the physical and
+political conditions of the life of that people.</p>
+<p>As generally happens in a mountainous region in the midst of a
+great continent, their country exhibits various strata of conquest
+and settlement. The northern district, sloping towards Turkestan,
+is inhabited mainly by Turkomans who have not yet given up their
+roving habits. The rugged hill country bordering on the Punjab is
+held by Pathans and Ghilzais, who are said by some to be of the
+same stock as the Afghans. On the other hand, a well-marked local
+legend identifies the Afghans proper with the lost ten tribes of
+Israel; and those who love to speculate on that elusive and
+delusive subject may long use their ingenuity in speculating
+whether the oft-quoted text as to the chosen people possessing the
+gates of their enemies is more applicable to the sea-faring and
+sea-holding Anglo-Saxons or to the pass-holding Afghans.</p>
+<p>That elevated plateau, ridged with lofty mountains and furrowed
+with long clefts, has seen Turkomans, Persians, and many other
+races sweep over it; and the mixture of these and other races,
+perhaps including errant Hebrews, has there acquired the
+sturdiness, tenacity, and clannishness that mark the fragments of
+three nations clustering together in the Alpine valleys; while it
+retains the turbulence and fierceness of a full-blooded Asiatic
+stock. The Afghan problem is complicated by these local differences
+and rivalries; the north cohering with the Turkomans, Herat and the
+west having many affinities and interests in common with Persia,
+Candahar being influenced by Baluchistan, while the hill tribes of
+the north-east bristle with local peculiarities and aboriginal
+savagery. These districts can be welded together only by the will
+of a great ruler or in the white heat of religious fanaticism; and
+while Moslem fury sometimes unites all the Afghan clans, the Moslem
+marriage customs result fully as often in a superfluity of royal
+heirs, which gives rein to all the forces that make for disruption.
+Afghanistan is a hornet's nest; and yet, as we shall see presently,
+owing to geographical and strategical <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page368" id="page368"></a>[pg 368]</span>
+reasons, it cannot be left severely alone. The people are to the
+last degree clannish; and nothing but the grinding pressure of two
+mighty Empires has endowed them with political solidarity.</p>
+<p>It is not surprising that British statesmen long sought to avoid
+all responsibility for the internal affairs of such a land. As we
+have seen, the theory which found favour with Lord Lawrence was
+that of intervening as little as possible in the affairs of States
+bordering on India, a policy which was termed "masterly inactivity"
+by the late Mr. J.W.S. Wyllie. It was the outcome of the experience
+gained in the years 1839-42, when, after alienating Dost Mohammed,
+the Ameer of Afghanistan, by its coolness, the Indian Government
+rushed to the other extreme and invaded the country in order to
+tear him from the arms of the more effusive Russians.</p>
+<p>The results are well known. Overweening confidence and military
+incapacity finally led to the worst disaster that befell a British
+army during the nineteenth century, only one officer escaping from
+among the 4500 troops and 12,000 camp followers who sought to cut
+their way back through the Khyber Pass<a name=
+"FNanchor281"></a><a href="#Footnote_281">[281]</a>. A policy of
+non-intervention in the affairs of so fickle and savage a people
+naturally ensued, and was stoutly maintained by Lords Canning,
+Elgin, and Lawrence, who held sway during and after the great storm
+of the Indian Mutiny. The worth of that theory of conduct came to
+be tested in 1863, on the occasion of the death of Dost Mohammed,
+who had latterly recovered Herat from Persia, and brought nearly
+the whole of the Afghan clans under his sway. He had been our
+friend during the Mutiny, when his hostility might readily have
+turned the wavering scales of war; and he looked for some tangible
+return for his loyal behaviour in preventing the attempt of some of
+his restless tribesmen to recover the once Afghan city of
+Peshawur.</p>
+<p>To his surprise and disgust he met with no return whatever, even
+in a matter which most nearly concerned his dynasty and the future
+of Afghanistan. As generally happens with Moslem <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page369" id="page369"></a>[pg 369]</span>
+rulers, the aged Ameer occupied his declining days with seeking to
+provide against the troubles that naturally resulted from the
+oriental profusion of his marriages. Dost Mohammed's quiver was
+blessed with the patriarchal equipment of sixteen sons--most of
+them stalwart, warlike, and ambitious. Eleven of them limited their
+desires to parts of Afghanistan, but five of them aspired to rule
+over all the tribes that go to make up that seething medley. Of
+these, Shere Ali was the third in age but the first in capacity, if
+not in prowess. Moreover, he was the favourite son of Dost
+Mohammed; but where rival mothers and rival tribes were concerned,
+none could foresee the issue of the pending conflict<a name=
+"FNanchor282"></a><a href="#Footnote_282">[282]</a>.</p>
+<p>Dost Mohammed sought to avert it by gaining the effective
+support of the Indian Government for his Benjamin. He pleaded in
+vain. Lord Canning, Governor-General of India at the time of the
+Mutiny, recognised Shere Ali as heir-apparent, but declined to give
+any promise of support either in arms or money. Even after the
+Mutiny was crushed, Lord Canning and his successor, Lord Elgin,
+adhered to the former decision, refusing even a grant of money and
+rifles for which father and son pleaded.</p>
+<p>As we have said, Dost Mohammed died in 1863; but even when Shere
+Ali was face to face with formidable family schisms and a
+widespread revolt, Lord Lawrence clung to the policy of recognising
+only "<i>de facto</i> Powers," that is, Powers which actually
+existed and could assert their authority. All that he offered was
+to receive Shere Ali in conference, and give him good advice; but
+he would only recognise him as Ameer of Afghanistan if he could
+prevail over his brothers and their tribesmen. He summed it up in
+this official letter of April 17, 1866, sent to the Governor of the
+Punjab:--</p>
+<p>It should be our policy to show clearly that we will not
+interfere in the struggle, that we will not aid either party, that
+we will leave the Afghans to settle their own quarrels, and that we
+are willing to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page370" id=
+"page370"></a>[pg 370]</span> be on terms of amity and good-will
+with the nation and with their rulers <i>de facto</i>. Suitable
+opportunities can be taken to declare that these are the principles
+which will guide our policy; and it is the belief of the
+Governor-General that such a policy will in the end be
+appreciated<a name="FNanchor283"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_283">[283]</a>.</p>
+<p>The Afghans did not appreciate it. Shere All protested that it
+placed a premium on revolt; he also complained that the Viceroy not
+only gave him no help, but even recognised his rival, Ufzul, when
+the latter captured Cabul. After the death of Ufzul and the
+assumption of authority at Cabul by a third brother, Azam, Shere
+Ali by a sudden and desperate attempt drove his rival from Cabul
+(September 8, 1868) and practically ended the schisms and strifes
+which for five years had rent Afghanistan in twain. Then, but then
+only, did Lord Lawrence consent to recognise him as Ameer of the
+whole land, and furnish him with &pound;60,000 and a supply of
+arms. An act which, five years before, would probably have ensured
+the speedy triumph of Shere Ali and his lasting gratitude to Great
+Britain, now laid him under no sense of obligation<a name=
+"FNanchor284"></a><a href="#Footnote_284">[284]</a>. He might have
+replied to Lord Lawrence with the ironical question with which Dr.
+Johnson declined Lord Chesterfield's belated offer of patronage:
+"Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man
+struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground,
+encumbers him with help?"</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page371" id="page371"></a>[pg
+371]</span>
+<p>Moreover, there is every reason to think that Shere Ali, with
+the proneness of orientals to refer all actions to the most
+elemental motives, attributed the change of front at Calcutta
+solely to fear. That was the time when the Russian capture of
+Samarcand cowed the Khan of Bokhara and sent a thrill through
+Central Asia. In the political psychology of the Afghans, the tardy
+arrival at Cabul of presents from India argued little friendship
+for Shere Ali, but great dread of the conquering Muscovites.</p>
+<p>Such, then, was the policy of "masterly inactivity" in 1863-68,
+cheap for India, but excessively costly for Afghanistan. Lord
+Lawrence rendered incalculable services to India before and during
+the course of the Mutiny, but his conduct towards Shere Ali is
+certainly open to criticism. The late Duke of Argyll, Secretary of
+State for India in the Gladstone Ministry (1868-74), supported it
+in his work, <i>The Eastern Question,</i> on the ground that the
+Anglo-Afghan treaty of 1855 pledged the British not to interfere in
+the affairs of Afghanistan<a name="FNanchor285"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_285">[285]</a>. But uncalled for interference is one
+thing; to refuse even a slight measure of help to an ally, who begs
+it as a return for most valuable services, is quite another
+thing.</p>
+<p>Moreover, the Viceroy himself was brought by the stern logic of
+events implicitly to give up his policy. In one of his last
+official despatches, written on January 4, 1869, he recognised the
+gain to Russia that must accrue from our adherence to a merely
+passive policy in Central Asian affairs. He suggested that we
+should come to a "clear understanding with the Court of St.
+Petersburg as to its projects and designs in Central Asia, and that
+it might be given to understand in firm but courteous language,
+that it cannot be permitted to interfere in the affairs of
+Afghanistan, or in those of any State which lies contiguous to our
+frontier."</p>
+<p>This sentence tacitly implied a change of front; for any
+prohibition to Russia to interfere in the affairs of Afghanistan
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page372" id="page372"></a>[pg
+372]</span> virtually involved Britain's claim to exercise some
+degree of suzerainty in that land. The way therefore seemed open
+for a new departure, especially as the new Governor-General, Lord
+Mayo, was thought to favour the more vigorous ideas latterly
+prevalent at Westminster. But when Shere Ali met the new Viceroy in
+a splendid Durbar at Umballa (March 1869) and formulated his
+requests for effective British support, in case of need, they were,
+in the main, refused<a name="FNanchor286"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_286">[286]</a>.</p>
+<p>We may here use the words in which the late Duke of Argyll
+summed up the wishes of the Ameer and the replies of Lord
+Mayo:--</p>
+<p>He (the Ameer) wanted to have an unconditional treaty, offensive
+and defensive. He wanted to have a fixed subsidy. He wanted to have
+a dynastic guarantee. He would have liked sometimes to get the loan
+of English officers to drill his troops, or to construct his
+forts--provided they retired the moment they had done this work for
+him. On the other hand, officers "resident" in his country as
+political agents of the British Government were his abhorrence.</p>
+<p>Lord Mayo's replies, or pledges, were virtually as
+follows:--</p>
+<p>The first pledge (says the Duke of Argyll) was that of
+non-interference in his (the Ameer's) affairs. The second pledge
+was that "we would support his independence." The third pledge was
+"that we would not force European officers, or residents, upon him
+against his wish<a name="FNanchor287"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_287">[287]</a>."</p>
+<p>There seems to have been no hopeless contrariety between the
+views of the Ameer and the Viceroy save in one matter that will be
+noted presently. It is also of interest to learn from the Duke's
+narrative, which claims to be official in substance, however
+partisan it may be in form, that there was no difference of opinion
+on this important subject between Lord Mayo and the Gladstone
+Ministry, which came to power shortly <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page373" id="page373"></a>[pg 373]</span> after
+his departure for India. The new Viceroy summed up his views in the
+following sentence, written to the Duke of Argyll: "The safe course
+lies in watchfulness, and friendly intercourse with neighbouring
+tribes."</p>
+<p>Apparently, then, there was a fair chance of arriving at an
+agreement with the Ameer. But the understanding broke down on the
+question of the amount of support to be accorded to Shere Ali's
+dynasty. That ruler wished for an important modification of the
+Anglo-Afghan treaty of 1855, which had bound his father to close
+friendship with the old Company without binding the Company to
+intervene in his favour. That, said Shere Ali, was a "dry
+friendship." He wanted a friendship more fruitful than that of the
+years 1863-67, and a direct support to his dynasty whenever he
+claimed it. The utmost concession that Lord Mayo would grant was
+that the British Government would "view with severe displeasure any
+attempt to disturb your position as Ruler of Cabul, and rekindle
+civil war<a name="FNanchor288"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_288">[288]</a>."</p>
+<p>It seems that Shere Ali thought lightly of Britain's
+"displeasure," for he departed ill at ease. Not even the occasional
+presents of money and weapons that found their way from Calcutta to
+Cabul could thenceforth keep his thoughts from turning northwards
+towards Russia. At Umballa he had said little about that Power; and
+the Viceroy had very wisely repressed any feelings of anxiety that
+he may have had on that score. Possibly the strength and cheeriness
+of Lord Mayo's personality would have helped to assuage the Ameer's
+wounded feelings; but that genial Irishman fell under the dagger of
+a fanatic during a tour in the Andaman Islands (February 1872). His
+death was a serious event. Shere Ali cherished towards him feelings
+which he did not extend to his successor, Lord Northbrook
+(1872-76).</p>
+<p>Yet, during that vice-royalty, the diplomatic action of Great
+Britain secured for the Ameer the recognition of his claims over
+the northern part of Afghanistan, as far as the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page374" id="page374"></a>[pg 374]</span> banks
+of the Upper Oxus. In the years 1870-72 Russia stoutly contested
+those claims, but finally withdrew them, the Emperor declaring at
+the close of the latter year "that such a question should not be a
+cause of difference between the two countries, and he was
+determined it should not be so." It is further noteworthy that
+Russian official communications more than once referred to the
+Ameer of Afghanistan as being "under the protection of the Indian
+Government<a name="FNanchor289"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_289">[289]</a>".</p>
+<p>These signal services of British diplomacy counted for little at
+Cabul in comparison with the question of the dynastic guarantee
+which we persistently withheld. In the spring of 1873, when matters
+relating to the Afghan-Persian frontier had to be adjusted, the
+Ameer sent his Prime Minister to Simla with the intention of using
+every diplomatic means for the extortion of that long-delayed
+boon.</p>
+<p>The time seemed to favour his design. Apart from the Persian
+boundary questions (which were settled in a manner displeasing to
+the Ameer), trouble loomed ahead in Central Asia. The Russians were
+advancing on Khiva; and the Afghan statesman, during his stay at
+Simla, sought to intimidate Lord Northbrook by parading this fact.
+He pointed out that Russia would easily conquer Khiva and then
+would capture Merv, near the western frontier of Afghanistan,
+"either in the current year or the next." Equally obvious was his
+aim in insisting that "the interests of the Afghan and English
+Governments are identical," and that "the border of Afghanistan is
+in truth the border of India." These were ingenious ways of working
+his intrenchments up to the hitherto inaccessible citadel of Indian
+border policy. The news of the Russian advance on Khiva lent
+strength to his argument.</p>
+<p>[Illustration: AFGHANISTAN]</p>
+<p>Yet, when he came to the question of the guarantee of Shere
+Ali's dynasty, he again met with a rebuff. In truth, Lord
+Northbrook and his advisers saw that the Ameer was seeking to</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page375" id="page375"></a>[pg
+375]</span>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/375.png" width="80%" alt=""><br>
+<b>Map of Afghanistan.</b></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page376" id="page376"></a>[pg
+376]</span>
+<p>frighten them about Russia in order to improve his own family
+prospects in Afghanistan; and, paying too much attention, perhaps,
+to the oriental artfulness of the method of request, and too little
+to the importance of the questions then at stake, he decided to
+meet the Ameer in regard to non-essentials, though he failed to
+satisfy him on the one thing held to be needful at the palace of
+Cabul.</p>
+<p>Anxious, however, to consult the Home Government on a matter of
+such importance, now that the Russians were known to be at Khiva,
+Lord Northbrook telegraphed to the Duke of Argyll on July 24,
+1873:--</p>
+<p>Ameer of Cabul alarmed at Russian progress, dissatisfied with
+general assurance, and anxious to know how far he may rely on our
+help if invaded. I propose assuring him that if he unreservedly
+accepts and acts on our advice in all external relations, we will
+help him with money, arms, and troops, if necessary, to expel
+unprovoked aggression. We to be the judge of the necessity. Answer
+by telegraph quickly.</p>
+<p>The Gladstone Ministry was here at the parting of the ways. The
+Ameer asked them to form an alliance on equal terms. They refused,
+believing, as it seems, that they could keep to the old one-sided
+arrangement of 1855, whereby the Ameer promised effective help to
+the Indian Government, if need be, and gained only friendly
+assurance in return. The Duke of Argyll telegraphed in reply on
+July 26:--</p>
+<p>Cabinet thinks you should inform Ameer that we do not at all
+share his alarm, and consider there is no cause for it; but you may
+assure him we shall maintain our settled policy in favour of
+Afghanistan if he abides by our advice in external affairs<a name=
+"FNanchor290"></a><a href="#Footnote_290">[290]</a>.</p>
+<p>This answer, together with a present of &pound;100,000 and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page377" id="page377"></a>[pg
+377]</span> 20,000 rifles, was all that the Ameer gained; his own
+shrewd sense had shown him long before that Britain must in any
+case defend Afghanistan against Russia. What he wanted was an
+official recognition of his own personal position as ruler, while
+he acted, so to speak, as the "Count of the Marches" of India. The
+Gladstone Government held out no hopes of assuring the future of
+their <i>Mark-graf</i> or of his children after him. The
+remembrance of the disaster in the Khyber Pass in 1841 haunted
+them, as it had done their predecessors, like a ghost, and scared
+them from the course of action which might probably have led to the
+conclusion of a close offensive and defensive alliance between
+India and Afghanistan.</p>
+<p>Such a consummation was devoutly to be hoped for in view of
+events which had transpired in Central Asia. Khiva had been
+captured by the Russians. This Khanate intervened between Bokhara
+and the Caspian Sea, which the Russians used as their base of
+operations on the west. The plea of necessity was again put
+forward, and it might have been urged as forcibly on geographical
+and strategic grounds as on the causes that were alleged for the
+rupture. They consisted mainly of the frontier incidents that are
+wont to occur with restless, uncivilised neighbours. The Czar's
+Government also accused the Khivans of holding some Russian
+subjects in captivity, and of breaking their treaty of 1842 with
+Russia by helping the Khirgiz Horde in a recent revolt against
+their new masters.</p>
+<p>Russia soon had ready three columns, which were to converge on
+Khiva: one was stationed on the River Ural, a second at the rising
+port of Krasnovodsk on the Caspian Sea, and a third, under General
+Kaufmann, at Tashkend. So well were their operations timed that,
+though the distances to be traversed varied from 480 to 840 miles,
+in parts over a waterless desert, yet the three chief forces
+arrived almost simultaneously at Khiva and met with the merest show
+of resistance (June 1873). Setting the young Khan on the throne of
+his father, they took from him his ancestral lands of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page378" id="page378"></a>[pg 378]</span> the
+right bank of the Amu Daria (Oxus) and imposed on him a crushing
+war indemnity of 2,200,000 roubles, which assured his entire
+dependence on his new creditors. They further secured their hold on
+these diminished territories by erecting two forts on the
+river<a name="FNanchor291"></a><a href="#Footnote_291">[291]</a>.
+The Czar's Government was content with assuring its hold upon
+Khiva, without annexing the Khanate outright, seeing that it had
+disclaimed any such intention<a name="FNanchor292"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_292">[292]</a>. All the same, Russia was now mistress of
+nearly the whole of Central Asia; and the advance of roads and
+railways portended further conquests at the expense of Persia and
+the few remaining Turkoman tribes.</p>
+<p>In order to estimate the importance of these facts, it must be
+remembered that the teachings of Geography and History concur in
+showing the practicability of an invasion of India from Central
+Asia. Touching first the geographical facts, we may point out that
+India and Afghanistan stand in somewhat the same relation to the
+Asiatic continent that Italy and Switzerland hold to that of
+Europe. The rich lands and soft climate of both Peninsulas have
+always been an irresistible attraction to the dwellers among the
+more barren mountains and plains of the North; and the lie of the
+land on the borders of both of these seeming Eldorados favours the
+advance of more virile peoples in their search for more genial
+conditions of life. Nature, which enervates the defenders in their
+sultry plains, by her rigorous training imparts a touch of the wolf
+to the mountaineers or plain-dwellers of the North; and her guides
+(rivers and streams) conduct the hardy seekers for the sun by easy
+routes up to the final mountain barriers. Finally, those barriers,
+the Alps and the Hindu Koosh, are notched by passes that are
+practicable for large armies, as has been seen now and again from
+the times of Alexander the Great and Hannibal to those of Nadir
+Shah and Napoleon.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page379" id="page379"></a>[pg
+379]</span>
+<p>In these conditions, physical and climatic, is to be found the
+reason for the success that has so often attended the invasions of
+Italy and India. Only when the Romans organised all the forces of
+their Peninsula and the fresh young life beyond, were the defensive
+powers of Italy equal to her fatally attractive powers. Only when
+Britain undertook the defence of India, could her peoples feel sure
+of holding the North-West against the restless Pathans and Afghans;
+and the situation was wholly changed when a great military Empire
+pushed its power to the river-gates of Afghanistan.</p>
+<p>The friendship of the Ameer was now a matter of vital concern;
+and yet, as we have seen, Lord Northbrook alienated him, firstly by
+giving an unfavourable verdict in regard to the Persian boundary in
+the district of Seistan, and still more so by refusing to grant the
+long-wished-for guarantee of his dynasty.</p>
+<p>The year 1873 marks a fatal turning-point in Anglo-Afghan
+relations. Yakub Khan told Lord Roberts at Cabul in 1879 that his
+father, Shere Ali, had been thoroughly disgusted with Lord
+Northbrook in 1873, "and at once made overtures to the Russians,
+with whom constant intercourse had since been kept up<a name=
+"FNanchor293"></a><a href="#Footnote_293">[293]</a>."</p>
+<p>In fact, all who are familiar with the events preceding the
+first Afghan War (1839-42) can now see that events were fast
+drifting into a position dangerously like that which led Dost
+Mohammed to throw himself into the arms of Russia. At that time
+also the Afghan ruler had sought to gain the best possible terms
+for himself and his dynasty from the two rivals; and, finding that
+the Russian promises were far more alluring than those emanating
+from Calcutta, he went over to the Muscovites. At bottom that had
+been the determining cause of the first Afghan War; and affairs
+were once more beginning to revolve in the same vicious circle.
+Looking back on the events leading up to the second Afghan War, we
+can now see that a frank compliance with the demands of Shere Ali
+would <span class="pagenum"><a name="page380" id="page380"></a>[pg
+380]</span> have been far less costly than the non-committal policy
+which in 1873 alienated him. Outwardly he posed as the aggrieved
+but still faithful friend. In reality he was looking northwards for
+the personal guarantee which never came from Calcutta.</p>
+<p>It should, however, be stated that up to the time of the fall of
+the Gladstone Ministry (February 1874), Russia seemed to have no
+desire to meddle in Afghan affairs. The Russian Note of January 21,
+1874, stated that the Imperial Government "continued to consider
+Afghanistan as entirely beyond its sphere of action<a name=
+"FNanchor294"></a><a href="#Footnote_294">[294]</a>." Nevertheless,
+that declaration inspired little confidence. The Russophobes,
+headed by Sir Henry Rawlinson and Sir Bartle Frere, could reply
+that they distrusted Russian disclaimers concerning Afghanistan,
+when the plea of necessity had so frequently and so speedily
+relegated to oblivion the earlier "assurances of intention."</p>
+<p>Such was the state of affairs when, in February 1874, Disraeli
+came to power at Westminster with Lord Salisbury as Secretary of
+State for India. The new Ministry soon showed the desire to adopt a
+more spirited foreign policy than their predecessors, who had
+fretted public opinion by their numerous acts of complaisance or
+surrender. Russia soon gave cause for complaint. In June 1874 the
+Governor of the trans-Caspian province issued a circular, warning
+the nomad Turkomans of the Persian border-lands against raiding; it
+applied to tribes inhabiting districts within what were considered
+to be the northern boundaries of Persia. This seemed to contravene
+the assurances previously given by Russia that she would not extend
+her possessions in the southern part of Central Asia<a name=
+"FNanchor295"></a><a href="#Footnote_295">[295]</a>. It also
+foreshadowed another stride forward at the expense of the Turkoman
+districts both of Persia and Afghanistan.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page381" id="page381"></a>[pg
+381]</span>
+<p>As no sufficient disclaimer appeared, the London partisans of
+the Indian "forward policy" sought to induce Lord Derby and Lord
+Salisbury to take precautionary measures. Their advice was summed
+up in the Note of January 11, 1875, written by that charming man
+and able administrator, Sir Bartle Frere. Its chief practical
+recommendation was, firstly, the despatch of British officers to
+act as political agents at Cabul, Candahar, and Herat; and,
+secondly, the occupation of the commanding position of Quetta, in
+Baluchistan, as an outpost commanding the chief line of advance
+from Central Asia into India<a name="FNanchor296"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_296">[296]</a>.</p>
+<p>This Note soon gained the ear of the Cabinet; and on January 22,
+1875, Lord Salisbury urged Lord Northbrook to take measures to
+procure the assent of the Ameer to the establishment of British
+officers at Candahar and Herat (not at Cabul)<a name=
+"FNanchor297"></a><a href="#Footnote_297">[297]</a>. The request
+placed Lord Northbrook in an embarrassing position, seeing that he
+knew full well the great reluctance of the Ameer at all times to
+receive any British Mission. On examining the evidence as to the
+Ameer's objection to receive British Residents, the viceroy found
+it to be very strong, while there is ground for thinking that
+Ministers and officials in London either ignored it or sought to
+minimise its importance. The pressure which they brought to bear on
+Lord Northbrook was one of the causes that led to his resignation
+(February 1876). He believed that he was in honour bound by the
+promise, given to the Ameer at the Umballa Conference, not to
+impose a British Resident on him against his will.</p>
+<p>He was succeeded by a man of marked personality, Lord Lytton.
+The only son of the celebrated novelist, he inherited decided
+literary gifts, especially an unusual facility of expression both
+in speech and writing, in prose and verse. Any tendency to
+redundance in speech is generally counted unfavourable to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page382" id="page382"></a>[pg
+382]</span> advancement in diplomatic circles, where Talleyrand's
+<i>mot</i> as to language being a means of <i>concealing</i>
+thought still finds favour. Owing, however, to the influence of his
+uncle, then British Ambassador at Washington, but far more to his
+own talents, Lytton rose rapidly in the diplomatic service, holding
+office in the chief embassies, until Disraeli discerned in the
+brilliant speaker and writer the gifts that would grace the new
+imperial policy in the East.</p>
+<p>In ordinary times the new Viceroy would probably have crowned
+the new programme with success. His charm and vivacity of manner
+appealed to orientals all the more by contrast with the cold and
+repellent behaviour that too often characterises Anglo-Indian
+officials in their dealings with natives. Lytton's mind was tinged
+with the eastern glow that lit up alike the stories, the speeches,
+and the policy of his chief. It is true, the imperialist programme
+was as grandiosely vague as the meaning of <i>Tancred</i> itself;
+but in a land where forms and words count for much the lack of
+backbone in the new policy was less observed and commented on than
+by the matter-of-fact islanders whom it was designed to
+glorify.</p>
+<p>The apotheosis of the new policy was the proclamation of Queen
+Victoria as Empress of India (July 1, 1877), an event which was
+signalised by a splendid Durbar at Delhi on January 1, 1878. The
+new title warned the world that, however far Russia advanced in
+Central Asia, England nailed the flag of India to her masthead. It
+was also a useful reminder to the small but not uninfluential
+Positivist school in England that their "disapproval" of the
+existence of a British Empire in India was wholly Platonic. Seeing
+also that the name "Queen" in Hindu (<i>Malika</i>) was one of
+merely respectable mediocrity in that land of splendour, the new
+title, "Kaisar-i-Hind," helped to emphasise the supremacy of the
+British Raj over the Nizam and Gaekwar. In fact, it is difficult
+now to take seriously the impassioned protests with which a number
+of insulars greeted the proposal.</p>
+<p>Nevertheless, in one sense the change of title came about
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page383" id="page383"></a>[pg
+383]</span> most inopportunely. Fate willed that over against the
+Durbar at Delhi there stood forth the spectral form of Famine,
+bestriding the dusty plains of the Carnatic. By the glint of her
+eyes the splendours of Delhi shone pale, and the viceregal
+eloquence was hushed in the distant hum of her multitudinous
+wailing. The contrast shocked all beholders, and unfitted them for
+a proper appreciation of the new foreign policy.</p>
+<p>That policy may also be arraigned on less sentimental grounds.
+The year 1876 witnessed the re-opening of the Eastern Question in a
+most threatening manner, the Disraeli Ministry taking up what may
+be termed the Palmerstonian view that the maintenance of Turkey was
+essential to the stability of the Indian Empire. As happened in and
+after 1854, Russia, when thwarted in Europe, sought for her revenge
+in the lands bordering on India. No district was so favourable to
+Muscovite schemes as the Afghan frontier, then, as now, the weakest
+point in Great Britain's imperial armour. Thenceforth the Afghan
+Question became a pendant of the Eastern Question.</p>
+<p>Russia found ready to hand the means of impressing the Ameer
+with a sense of her irresistible power. The Czar's officials had
+little difficulty in picking a quarrel with the Khanate of Khokand.
+Under the pretext of suppressing a revolt (which Vamb&eacute;ry and
+others consider to have been prepared through Muscovite agencies)
+they sent troops, ostensibly with the view of favouring the Khan.
+The expedition gained a complete success, alike over the rebels and
+the Khan himself, who thenceforth sank to the level of pensioner of
+his liberators (1876). It is significant that General Kaufmann at
+once sent to the Ameer at Cabul a glowing account of the Russian
+success<a name="FNanchor298"></a><a href="#Footnote_298">[298]</a>;
+and the news of this communication increased the desire of the
+British Government to come to a clear understanding with the
+Ameer.</p>
+<p>Unfortunately our authorities set to work in a way that
+increased his irritation. Lord Salisbury on February 28, 1876,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page384" id="page384"></a>[pg
+384]</span> instructed Lord Lytton to offer slightly larger
+concessions to Shere Ali; but he refused to go further than to
+allow "a frank recognition (not a guarantee) of a <i>de facto</i>
+order in the succession" to the throne of Afghanistan, and
+undertook to defend his dominions against external attack "only in
+some clear case of unprovoked aggression." On the other hand, the
+British Government stated that "they must have, for their own
+agents, undisputed access to [the] frontier positions [of
+Afghanistan]<a name="FNanchor299"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_299">[299]</a>." Thus, while granting very little more
+than before, the new Ministry claimed for British agents and
+officers a right of entry which wounded the pride of a suspicious
+ruler and a fanatical people.</p>
+<p>To sum up, we gave Shere Ali no help while he was struggling for
+power with his rivals; and after he had won the day, we pinned him
+to the terms of a one-sided alliance. In the matter of the Seistan
+frontier dispute with Persia, British arbitration was insolently
+defied by the latter Power, yet we urged the Ameer to accept the
+Shah's terms. According to Lord Napier of Magdala, he felt the loss
+of the once Afghan district of Seistan more keenly than anything
+else, and thenceforth regarded us as weak and untrustworthy<a name=
+"FNanchor300"></a><a href="#Footnote_300">[300]</a>.</p>
+<p>The Ameer's irritation increased at the close of the year when
+the Viceroy concluded an important treaty with the Khan of Khelat
+in Baluchistan. It would take us too far from our main path to turn
+aside into the jungle of Baluchee politics. Suffice it to say that
+the long series of civil strifes in that land had come to an end
+largely owing to the influence of Major (afterwards Sir Robert)
+Sandeman. His fine presence, masterful personality, frank,
+straightforward, and kindly demeanour early impressed the Khan and
+his turbulent Sirdars. In two Missions which he undertook to Khelat
+in the years 1875 and 1876, he succeeded in stilling their internal
+feuds and in clearing away the misunderstandings which had arisen
+with the Indian Government. But he saw still further ahead.
+Detecting <span class="pagenum"><a name="page385" id=
+"page385"></a>[pg 385]</span> signs of foreign intrigue in that
+land, he urged that British mediation should, if possible, become
+permanent. His arguments before long convinced the new Viceroy,
+Lord Lytton, who had at first doubted the advisability of the
+second Mission; and in the course of a tour along the north-west
+frontier, he held at Jacobabad a grand Durbar, which was attended
+by the Khan of Khelat and his once rebellious Sirdars. There on
+December 8, 1876, he signed a treaty with the Khan, whereby the
+British Government became the final arbiter in all disputes between
+him and his Sirdars, obtained the right of stationing British
+troops in certain parts of Baluchistan, and of constructing
+railways and telegraphs. Three lakhs of rupees were given to the
+Khan, and his yearly subsidy of Rs. 50,000 was doubled<a name=
+"FNanchor301"></a><a href="#Footnote_301">[301]</a>.</p>
+<p>The Treaty of Jacobabad is one of the most satisfactory
+diplomatic triumphs of the present age. It came, not as the sequel
+to a sanguinary war, but as a sign of the confidence inspired in
+turbulent and sometimes treacherous chiefs by the sterling
+qualities of those able frontier statesmen, the Napiers, the
+Lawrences, General Jacob, and Major Sandeman. It spread the <i>pax
+Britannica</i> over a land as large as Great Britain, and quietly
+brought a warlike people within the sphere of influence of India.
+It may be compared with Bonaparte's Act of Mediation in Switzerland
+(1803), as marking the triumph of a strong organising intelligence
+over factious groups, to which it imparted peace and order under
+the shelter of a generally beneficent suzerainty. Before long a
+strong garrison was posted at Quetta, and we gained the right to
+enlist Baluchee troops of excellent fighting powers. The Quetta
+position is a mountain bastion which strengthens the outer defences
+of India, just as the Alps and Juras, when under Napoleon's
+control, menaced any invaders of France.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page386" id="page386"></a>[pg
+386]</span>
+<p>This great advantage was weighted by one considerable drawback.
+The victory of British influence in Baluchistan aroused the utmost
+resentment of Shere Ali, who now saw his southern frontier
+outflanked by Britain. Efforts were made in January-February 1877
+to come to an understanding; but, as Lord Lytton insisted on the
+admission of British Residents to Afghanistan, a long succession of
+interviews at Peshawur, between the Ameer's chief adviser and Sir
+Lewis Pelly, led to no other result than an increase of suspicion
+on both sides. The Viceroy thereupon warned the Ameer that all
+supplies and subsidies would be stopped until he became amenable to
+advice and ceased to maltreat subjects known to be favourable to
+the British alliance. As a retort the Ameer sought to call the
+border tribes to a <i>Jehad</i>, or holy war, against the British,
+but with little success. He had no hold over the tribes between
+Chitral and the Khyber Pass; and the incident served only to
+strengthen the Viceroy's aim of subjecting them to Britain. In the
+case of the Jowakis we succeeded, though only after a campaign
+which proved to be costly in men and money.</p>
+<p>In fact, Lord Lytton was now convinced of the need of a radical
+change of frontier policy. He summed up his contentions in the
+following phrases in his despatches of the early summer of
+1877:--"Shere Ali has irrevocably slipped out of our hands; . . . I
+conceive that it is rather the disintegration and weakening, than
+the consolidation and establishment, of the Afghan power at which
+we must now begin to aim." As for the mountain barrier, in which
+men of the Lawrence school had been wont to trust, he termed it "a
+military mouse-trap," and he stated that Napoleon I. had once for
+all shown the futility of relying on a mountain range that had
+several passes<a name="FNanchor302"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_302">[302]</a>. These assertions show what perhaps were
+the weak points of Lord Lytton in practical politics--an eager and
+impetuous disposition, too prone to be dazzled by the very
+brilliance of the phrases which he coined.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page387" id="page387"></a>[pg
+387]</span>
+<p>At the close of his despatch of April 8, 1878, to Lord Cranbrook
+(Lord Salisbury's successor at the India Office) he sketched out,
+as "the best arrangement," a scheme for breaking up the Cabul power
+and bringing about "the creation of a West Afghan Khanate,
+including Merv, Maimena, Balkh, Candahar, and Herat, under some
+prince of our own selection, who would be dependent on our support.
+With Western Afghanistan thus disposed of, and a small station our
+own, close to our frontier in the Kurram valley, the destinies of
+Cabul itself would be to us a matter of no importance<a name=
+"FNanchor303"></a><a href="#Footnote_303">[303]</a>."</p>
+<p>This, then, was the new policy in its widest scope. Naturally it
+met with sharp opposition from Lord Lawrence and others in the
+India Council at Whitehall. Besides involving a complete change of
+front, it would naturally lead to war with the Ameer, and (if the
+intentions about Merv were persisted in) with Russia as well. And
+for what purpose? In order that we might gain an advanced frontier
+and break in pieces the one important State which remained as a
+buffer between India and Russian Asia. In the eyes of all but the
+military men this policy stood self-condemned. Its opponents
+pointed out that doubtless Russian intrigues were going on at
+Cabul; but they were the result of the marked hostility between
+England and Russia in Europe, and a natural retort to the sending
+of Indian troops to Malta. Besides, was it true that British
+influence at Cabul was permanently lost? Might it not be restored
+by money and diplomacy? Or if these means failed, could not affairs
+be so worked at Cabul as to bring about the deposition of the Ameer
+in favour of some claimant who would support England? In any case,
+the extension of our responsibilities to centres so remote as Balkh
+and Herat would overstrain the already burdened finances of India,
+and impair her power of defence at vital points.</p>
+<p>These objections seem to have had some weight at Whitehall, for
+by the month of August the Viceroy somewhat lowered his tone; he
+gave up all hope of influencing Merv, and <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page388" id="page388"></a>[pg 388]</span>
+consented to make another effort to win back the Ameer, or to seek
+to replace him by a more tractable prince. But, failing this, he
+advised, though with reluctance on political grounds, the conquest
+and occupation of so much of Afghan territory as would "be
+absolutely requisite for the permanent maintenance of our
+North-West frontier<a name="FNanchor304"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_304">[304]</a>."</p>
+<p>But by this time all hope of peace had become precarious. On
+June 13, the day of opening of the Congress of Berlin, a Russian
+Mission, under General Stolieteff, left Samarcand for Cabul. The
+Ameer is said to have heard this news with deep concern, and to
+have sought to prevent it crossing the frontier. The Russians,
+however, refused to turn back, and entered Cabul on July 22<a name=
+"FNanchor305"></a><a href="#Footnote_305">[305]</a>. As will be
+seen by reference to Skobeleff's "Plan for the Invasion of India"
+(Appendix II.), the Mission was to be backed up by columns of
+troops; and, with the aim of redoubling the pressure of Russian
+diplomacy in Europe, the Minister for War at St. Petersburg had
+issued orders on April 25, 1878, for the despatch of three columns
+of troops which were to make a demonstration against India. The
+chief force, 12,000 strong, with 44 guns and a rocket battery, was
+to march from Samarcand and Tashkend on Cabul; the second,
+consisting of only 1700 men, was to stir up the mountain tribes of
+the Chitral district to raid the north of the Punjab; while the
+third, of the same strength, moved from the middle part of the Amu
+Daria (Oxus) towards Merv and Herat. The main force set out from
+Tashkend on June 13, and after a most trying march reached the
+Russo-Bokharan border, only to find that its toils were fruitless
+owing to the signature of the Treaty of Berlin (July 13). The same
+disappointing news dispelled the dreams of conquest which had
+nerved the other columns in their burning march.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page389" id="page389"></a>[pg
+389]</span>
+<p>Thus ended the scheme of invasion of India to which Skobeleff
+had lately given shape and body. In January 1877, while in his
+Central Asian command, he had drawn up a detailed plan, the
+important parts of which will be found in the Appendices of this
+volume. During the early spring of 1878, when the Russian army lay
+at San Stefano, near Constantinople, he drew up another plan of the
+same tenour. It seems certain that the general outline of these
+projects haunted the minds of officers and men in the expeditions
+just referred to; for the columns withdrew northwards most slowly
+and reluctantly<a name="FNanchor306"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_306">[306]</a>.</p>
+<p>A perusal of Skobeleff's plan will show that he relied also on a
+diplomatic Mission to Cabul and on the despatch of the Afghan
+pretender, Abdur Rahman, from Samarcand to the Afghan frontier.
+Both of these expedients were adopted in turn; the former achieved
+a startling but temporary success.</p>
+<p>As has been stated above, General Stolieteff's Mission entered
+Cabul on July 22. The chief himself returned on August 24; but
+other members of his Mission remained several weeks longer. There
+seem to be good grounds for believing that the Ameer, Shere Ali,
+signed a treaty with Stolieteff; but as to its purport we have no
+other clue than the draft which purports to be written out from
+memory by a secret agent of the Indian Government. Other Russian
+documents, some of which Lord Granville afterwards described as
+containing "some very disagreeable passages . . . written
+subsequently to the Treaty of Berlin," were found by Lord Roberts;
+and the Russian Government found it difficult to give a
+satisfactory explanation of them<a name="FNanchor307"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_307">[307]</a>.</p>
+<p>In any case the Government of India could not stand by and
+witness the intrusion of Muscovite influence into <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page390" id="page390"></a>[pg 390]</span>
+Afghanistan. Action, however, was very difficult owing to the
+alienation of the Ameer. His resentment had now settled into
+lasting hatred. As a test question Lord Lytton sought to impose on
+him the reception of a British Mission. On August 8 he received
+telegraphic permission from London to make this demand. The Ameer,
+however, refused to allow a single British officer to enter the
+country; and the death of his son and heir on August 17 enabled him
+to decline to attend to affairs of State for a whole month.</p>
+<p>His conduct in this matter was condoned by the champions of
+"masterly inactivity" in this country, who proceeded to accuse the
+Viceroy of haste in sending forward the British Mission to the
+frontier before the full time of mourning was over<a name=
+"FNanchor308"></a><a href="#Footnote_308">[308]</a>. We now know,
+however, that this sympathy was misplaced. Shere Ali's grief did
+not prevent him seeing officers of the Russian Mission after his
+bereavement, and (as it seems) signing an alliance with the
+emissaries of the Czar. Lord Lytton was better informed as to the
+state of things at Cabul than were his very numerous critics, one
+of whom, under the shield of anonymity, confidently stated that the
+Russian Mission to Cabul was either an affair of etiquette or a
+means of warding off a prospective attack from India on Russian
+Turkestan; that the Ameer signed no treaty with the Mission, and
+was deeply embarrassed by its presence; while Lord Lytton's
+treatment of the Ameer was discourteous<a name=
+"FNanchor309"></a><a href="#Footnote_309">[309]</a>.</p>
+<p>In the light of facts as now known, these charges are seen to be
+the outcome of a vivid imagination or of partisan malice. There can
+be no doubt that Shere Ali had played us false. Apart from his
+intrigues with Russia, he had condoned the murder of a British
+officer by keeping the murderer in office, and had sought to push
+on the frontier tribes into a holy war. Finally, he sent orders to
+stop the British Mission at Ali Musjid, the fort commanding the
+entrance to the Khyber Pass. This action, which occurred on
+September 22, must be <span class="pagenum"><a name="page391" id=
+"page391"></a>[pg 391]</span> pronounced a deliberate insult,
+seeing that the progress of that Mission had been so timed as that
+it should reach Cabul after the days of mourning were over. In the
+Viceroy's view, the proper retort would have been a declaration of
+war; but again the Home Government imposed caution, urging the
+despatch of an ultimatum so as to give time for repentance at
+Cabul. It was sent on November 2, with the intimation that if no
+answer reached the frontier by November 20, hostilities would
+begin. No answer came until a later date, and then it proved to be
+of an evasive character.</p>
+<p>Such, in brief outline, were the causes of the second Afghan
+War. In the fuller light of to-day it is difficult to account for
+the passion which the discussion of them aroused at the time. But
+the critics of the Government held strong ground at two points.
+They could show, first, that the war resulted in the main from Lord
+Beaconsfield's persistent opposition to Russia in the Eastern
+Question, also that the Muscovite intrigues at Cabul were a natural
+and very effective retort to the showy and ineffective expedient of
+bringing Indian troops to Malta; in short, that the Afghan War was
+due largely to Russia's desire for revenge.</p>
+<p>Secondly, they fastened on what was undoubtedly a weak point in
+the Ministerial case, namely, that Lord Beaconsfield's speech at
+the Lord Mayor's Banquet, on November 9, 1878, laid stress almost
+solely on the need for acquiring a scientific frontier on the
+north-west of India. In the parliamentary debate of December 9 he
+sought to rectify this mistake by stating that he had never
+asserted that a new frontier was the object of the war, but rather
+a possible consequence. His critics refused to accept the
+correction. They pinned him to his first words. If this were so,
+they said, what need of recounting our complaints against Shere
+Ali? These were merely the pretexts, not the causes, of a war which
+was to be waged solely in the cold-blooded quest for a scientific
+frontier. Perish India, they cried, if her fancied interests
+required the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page392" id=
+"page392"></a>[pg 392]</span> sacrifice of thousands of lives of
+brave hillmen on the altar of the new Imperialism.</p>
+<p>These accusations were logically justifiable against Ministers
+who dwelt largely on that frigid abstraction, the "scientific
+frontier," and laid less stress on the danger of leaving an ally of
+Russia on the throne of Afghanistan. The strong point of Lord
+Lytton's case lay in the fact that the policy of the Gladstone
+Ministry had led Shere Ali to side with Russia; but this fact was
+inadequately explained, or, at least, not in such a way as to
+influence public opinion. The popular fancy caught at the phrase
+"scientific frontier"; and for once Lord Beaconsfield's cleverness
+in phrase-making conspired to bring about his overthrow.</p>
+<p>But the logic of words does not correspond to the logic of
+facts. Words are for the most part simple, downright, and absolute.
+The facts of history are very rarely so. Their importance is very
+often relative, and is conditioned by changing circumstances. It
+was so with the events that led up to the second Afghan War. They
+were very complex, and could not be summed up, or disposed of, by
+reference to a single formula. Undoubtedly the question of the
+frontier was important; but it did not become of supreme importance
+until, firstly, Shere Ali became our enemy, and, secondly, showed
+unmistakable signs of having a close understanding with Russia.
+Thenceforth it became a matter of vital import for India to have a
+frontier readibly defensible against so strong a combination as
+that of Russia and Afghanistan.</p>
+<p>It would be interesting to know what Mr. Gladstone and his
+supporters would have done if they had come into power in the
+summer of 1878. That they blamed their opponents on many points of
+detail does not prove that they would not have taken drastic means
+to get rid of Shere Ali. In the unfortunate state into which
+affairs had drifted in 1878, how was that to be effected without
+war? The situation then existing may perhaps best be summed up in
+the words which General Roberts penned at Cabul on November 22,
+1879, after <span class="pagenum"><a name="page393" id=
+"page393"></a>[pg 393]</span> a long and illuminating conversation
+with the new Ameer concerning his father's leanings towards Russia:
+"Our recent rupture with Shere Ali has, in fact, been the means of
+unmasking and checking a very serious conspiracy against the peace
+and security of our Indian Empire<a name="FNanchor310"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_310">[310]</a>."</p>
+<p>Given the situation actually existing in 1878, the action of the
+British Government is justifiable as regards details. The weak
+point of the Beaconsfield policy was this: that the situation need
+not have existed. As far as can be judged from the evidence
+hitherto published (if we except some wild talk on the part of
+Muscovite Chauvinists), Russia would not have interfered in
+Afghanistan except in order to paralyse England's action in Turkish
+affairs. As has been pointed out above, the Afghan trouble was a
+natural sequel to the opposition offered by Disraeli to Russia from
+the time of the re-opening of the Balkan problem in 1875-76; and
+the consideration of the events to be described in the following
+chapter will add one more to the many proofs already existing as to
+the fatefulness of the blunder committed by him when he wrecked the
+Berlin Memorandum, dissolved the Concert of the Powers, and
+rendered hopeless a peaceful solution of the Eastern Question.</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_276"></a><a href="#FNanchor276">[276]</a> See
+C&aelig;sar, <i>Gallic War</i>, bk. vi., for an account of the
+formation, at the tribal meeting, of a roving band.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_277"></a><a href="#FNanchor277">[277]</a> For
+the Cossacks, see D. M. Wallace's <i>Russia</i>, vol. ii. pp.
+80-95; and Vladimir's <i>Russia on the Pacific</i>, pp. 46-49. The
+former points out that their once democratic organisation has
+vanished under the autocracy; and that their officers, appointed by
+the Czar, own most of the land, formerly held in common.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_278"></a><a href="#FNanchor278">[278]</a>
+Quoted by Vandal, <i>Napol&eacute;on I. et Alexandre,</i> vol. i.
+p. 136.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_279"></a><a href="#FNanchor279">[279]</a>
+Quoted on p. 14 of <i>A Diplomatic Study on the Crimean War,</i>
+issued by the Russian Foreign Office, and attributed to Baron
+Jomini (Russian edition, 1879; English edition, 1882).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_280"></a><a href="#FNanchor280">[280]</a> For
+an account of Samarcand and Bokhara, see <i>Russia in Central
+Asia,</i> by Hon. G. (Lord) Curzon (1889); A. Vamb&eacute;ry's
+<i>Travels in Central Asia</i> (1867-68); Rev. H. Lansdell,
+<i>Russian Central Asia,</i> 2 vols. (1885); E. Schuyler,
+<i>Journey in Russian Turkestan,</i> etc., 2 vols. (1876); E.
+O'Donovan, <i>The Merv Oasis,</i> 2 vols. (1883).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_281"></a><a href="#FNanchor281">[281]</a> Sir
+J.W. Kaye, <i>History of the War in Afghanistan</i>, 5 vols.
+(1851-78).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_282"></a><a href="#FNanchor282">[282]</a> G.B.
+Malleson, <i>History of Afghanistan</i>, p. 421.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_283"></a><a href="#FNanchor283">[283]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), p. 10. For a defence of
+this policy of "masterly inactivity," see Mr. Bosworth Smith's
+<i>Life of Lord Lawrence</i>, vol. ii. pp. 570-590; also Mr. J.W.S.
+Wyllie's <i>Essays on the External Policy of India</i>.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_284"></a><a href="#FNanchor284">[284]</a> The
+late Duke of Argyll in his <i>Eastern Question</i> (vol. ii. p. 42)
+cited the fact of this offer of money and arms as a proof that Lord
+Lawrence was not wedded to the theory of "masterly inactivity," and
+stated that the gift helped Shere Ali to complete his success. It
+is clear, however, that Lord Lawrence waited to see whether that
+success was well assured before the offer was made.<br>
+<br>
+The Duke of Argyll proves one thing, that the action of Lord
+Lawrence in September 1868 was not due to Sir Henry Rawlinson's
+despatch from London (dated July 20, 1868) in favour of more
+vigorous action. It was due to Lawrence's perception of the change
+brought about by Russian action in the Khanate of Bokhara, near the
+Afghan border.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_285"></a><a href="#FNanchor285">[285]</a> The
+Duke of Argyll, <i>op. cit.</i> vol. ii. p. 226 (London, 1879). For
+the treaty, see Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), p. 1.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_286"></a><a href="#FNanchor286">[286]</a> Sir
+W.W. Hunter, <i>The Earl of Mayo</i>, p. 125 (Oxford, 1891); the
+Duke of Argyll, <i>op. cit.</i> vol. ii, p. 252.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_287"></a><a href="#FNanchor287">[287]</a>
+Argyll, <i>op. cit.</i> vol. i. Preface, pp. xxiii.-xxvi.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_288"></a><a href="#FNanchor288">[288]</a>
+Argyll, <i>op. cit.</i> vol. ii. p. 263.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_289"></a><a href="#FNanchor289">[289]</a>
+Argyll, <i>op. cit.</i> vol. ii. pp. 289, 292. For the Czar's
+assurance that "extension of territory" was "extension of
+weakness," see Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), p. 101.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_290"></a><a href="#FNanchor290">[290]</a>
+Argyll, <i>op. cit.</i> vol. ii. 331. The Gladstone Cabinet clearly
+weakened Lord Northbrook's original proposal, and must therefore
+bear a large share of responsibility for the alienation of the
+Ameer which soon ensued. The Duke succeeded in showing up many
+inaccuracies in the versions of these events afterwards given by
+Lord Lytton and Lord Cranbrook; but he was seemingly quite
+unconscious of the consequences resulting from adherence to an
+outworn theory.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_291"></a><a href="#FNanchor291">[291]</a> J.
+Popowski, <i>The Rival Powers in Central Asia</i>, p. 47 (Eng.
+edit).; A. Vamb&eacute;ry, <i>The Coming Struggle for India</i>, p.
+21; A.R. Colquhoun, <i>Russia against India</i>, pp. 24-26; Lavisse
+and Rambaud, <i>Histoire G&eacute;n&eacute;rale</i>, vol. xii. pp.
+793-794.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_292"></a><a href="#FNanchor292">[292]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), p. 101.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_293"></a><a href="#FNanchor293">[293]</a> Lord
+Roberts, <i>Forty-one Years in India</i>, vol. ii. p. 247; also
+<i>Life of Abdur Rahman</i>, by Mohammed Khan, 2 vols. (1900), vol.
+i. p. 149.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_294"></a><a href="#FNanchor294">[294]</a>
+Argyll, <i>Eastern Question</i>, vol. ii. p. 347. See, however, the
+letters that passed between General Kaufmann, Governor of
+Turkestan, and Cabul in 1870-74, in Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No.
+1 (1881), pp. 2-10.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_295"></a><a href="#FNanchor295">[295]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), p. 107.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_296"></a><a href="#FNanchor296">[296]</a>
+General Jacob had long before advocated the occupation of this
+strong flanking position. It was supported by Sir C. Dilke in his
+<i>Greater Britain</i> (1867).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_297"></a><a href="#FNanchor297">[297]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), pp. 128-129.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_298"></a><a href="#FNanchor298">[298]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1881), pp. 12-14; Shere Ali's
+letters to him (some of them suspicious) and the replies are also
+printed.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_299"></a><a href="#FNanchor299">[299]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1881), pp. 156-159.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_300"></a><a href="#FNanchor300">[300]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. pp. 225-226.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_301"></a><a href="#FNanchor301">[301]</a>
+<i>Sir Robert Sandeman</i>, by T.H. Thornton, chaps, ix.-x.; Parl.
+Papers relating to the Treaty . . . of 8th Dec. 1876; <i>The Forward
+Policy and its Results</i>, by R.I. Bruce; <i>Lord Lytton's Indian
+Administration,</i> by Lady Betty Balfour, chap. iii.<br>
+<br>
+The Indian rupee is worth sixteen pence.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_302"></a><a href="#FNanchor302">[302]</a> Lady
+B. Balfour, <i>op. cit.</i> pp.166-185, 247-148.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_303"></a><a href="#FNanchor303">[303]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. pp. 246-247.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_304"></a><a href="#FNanchor304">[304]</a> Lady
+B. Balfour, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 255. For a defence of this on
+military grounds see Lord Roberts' <i>Forty-One Years in India</i>,
+vol. ii, p. 187; and Thorburn's <i>Asiatic Neighbours</i>, chap.
+xiv.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_305"></a><a href="#FNanchor305">[305]</a> Parl
+Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), pp.242-243; <i>ibid.</i> Central
+Asia, No. 1, pp.165 <i>et seq.</i></p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_306"></a><a href="#FNanchor306">[306]</a> For
+details see <i>Russia's Advance towards India</i>, by "an Indian
+Officer," vol. ii. pp.109 <i>et seq.</i></p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_307"></a><a href="#FNanchor307">[307]</a> The
+alleged treaty is printed, along with the other documents, in Parl.
+Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1881), pp. 17-30. See also Lord
+Roberts' <i>Forty-one Years in India</i>, vol. ii. p.477.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_308"></a><a href="#FNanchor308">[308]</a> Duke
+of Argyll, <i>The Eastern Question,</i> vol. ii. pp. 504-507.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_309"></a><a href="#FNanchor309">[309]</a>
+<i>The Causes of the Afghan War,</i> pp. 305 <i>et seq.</i></p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_310"></a><a href="#FNanchor310">[310]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1880), p. 171.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page394" id="page394"></a>[pg
+394]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+<h3>THE AFGHAN AND TURKOMAN CAMPAIGNS</h3>
+<blockquote>"The Forward Policy--in other words, the policy of
+endeavouring to extend our influence over, and establish law and
+order on, that part of the [Indian] Border, where anarchy, murder,
+and robbery up to the present time have reigned supreme, a policy
+which has been attended with the happiest results in Baluchistan
+and on the Gilgit frontier--is necessitated by the incontrovertible
+fact that a great Military Power is now within striking distance of
+our Indian possessions, and in immediate contact with a State for
+the integrity of which we have made ourselves responsible."--LORD
+ROBERTS: Speech in the House of Lords, March 7, 1898.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>The operations at the outset of the Afghan War ended with so
+easy a triumph for the British arms that it is needless to describe
+them in much detail. They were planned to proceed at three points
+on the irregular arc of the south-eastern border of Afghanistan.
+The most northerly column, that of General Sir Samuel Browne, had
+Peshawur as its base of supplies. Some 16,000 strong, it easily
+captured the fort of Ali Musjid at the mouth of the Khyber Pass,
+then threaded that defile with little or no opposition, and pushed
+on to Jelalabad. Around that town (rendered famous by General
+Sale's defence in 1841-2) it dealt out punishment to the raiding
+clans of Afridis.</p>
+<p>The column of the centre, acting from Kohat as a base against
+the Kurram Valley, was commanded by a general destined to win
+renown in the later phases of the war. Major-General Roberts
+represented all that was noblest and <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page395" id="page395"></a>[pg 395]</span> most chivalrous in the
+annals of the British Army in India. The second son of General Sir
+Abraham Roberts, G.C.B., and born at Cawnpore in 1832, he inherited
+the traditions of the service which he was to render still more
+illustrious. His frame, short and slight, seemed scarcely to fit
+him for warlike pursuits; and in ages when great stature and sturdy
+sinews were alone held in repute, he might have been relegated to
+civil life; but the careers of William III., Luxemburg, Nelson, and
+Roberts show that wiriness is more essential to a commander than
+animal strength, and that mind rather than muscle determines the
+course of campaigns. That the young aspirant for fame was not
+deficient in personal prowess appeared at Khudaganj, one of the
+battles of the Mutiny, when he captured a standard from two sepoys,
+and, later on the same day, cut down a third sepoy. But it was his
+clear insight into men and affairs, his hold on the principles of
+war, his alertness of mind, and his organising power, that raised
+him above the crowd of meritorious officers who saved India for
+Britain in those stormy days.</p>
+<p>His achievements as Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General at
+Delhi and elsewhere at that time need not be referred to here; for
+he himself has related them in clear, life-like, homely terms which
+reveal one of the sources of his personal influence. Englishmen
+admire a man who is active without being fussy, who combines
+greatness with simplicity, whose kindliness is as devoid of
+ostentation as his religion is of mawkishness, and with whom
+ambition is ever the handmaid of patriotism. The character of a
+commander perhaps counts for more with British troops than with any
+others, except the French; and the men who marched with Roberts
+from Cabul to Candahar, and from Paardeberg to Bloemfontein, could
+scarcely have carried out those feats of endurance for a general
+who did not possess both their trust and their love.</p>
+<p>The devotion of the Kurram column to its chief was soon put to
+the test. After advancing up that valley, girt on both sides with
+lofty mountains and scored with numerous gulleys, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page396" id="page396"></a>[pg 396]</span> the
+force descried the Peiwar Kotal Pass at its head--a precipitous
+slope furrowed only in one place where a narrow zigzag path ran
+upwards through pines and giant boulders. A reconnaissance proved
+that the Afghans held the upper part in force; and for some time
+Roberts felt the gravest misgivings. Hiding these feelings,
+especially from his native troops, he spent a few days in
+reconnoitring this formidable position. These efforts resulted in
+the discovery by Major Collett of another practicable gorge further
+to the north leading up to a neighbouring height, the Peiwar
+Spingawi, whence the head of the Kotal might possibly be
+turned.</p>
+<p>To divide a column, comprising only 889 British and 2415 native
+troops, and that too in face of the superior numbers of the enemy,
+was a risky enterprise, but General Roberts determined to try the
+effect of a night march up to the Spingawi. He hoped by an attack
+at dawn on the Afghan detachment posted there, to turn the main
+position on the Kotal, and bring about its evacuation. This plan
+had often succeeded against Afghans. Their characteristics both in
+peace and war are distinctly feline. Prone to ease and enjoyment at
+ordinary times, yet, when stirred by lust of blood or booty, they
+are capable of great feats of swift fierce onset; but, like all men
+and animals dominated by sudden impulses, their bravery is fitful,
+and is apt to give way under persistent attack, or when their rear
+is threatened. The cat-like, stalking instinct has something of
+strategic caution, even in its wildest moods; it likes to be sure
+of the line of retreat<a name="FNanchor311"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_311">[311]</a>.</p>
+<p>The British commander counted on exploiting these peculiarities
+to the full by stalking the enemy on their left flank, while he
+left about 1000 men to attack them once more in front. Setting out
+at nightfall of December 1, he led the remainder northwards through
+a side valley, and then up a gully <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page397" id="page397"></a>[pg 397]</span> on the side of the
+Spingawi. The ascent through pine woods and rocks, in the teeth of
+an icy wind, was most trying; and the movement came near to failure
+owing to the treachery of two Pathan soldiers in the ranks, who
+fired off their rifles in the hope of warning the Afghans above
+them. The reports, it afterwards transpired, were heard by a
+sentry, who reported the matter to the commander of the Afghan
+detachment; he, for his part, did nothing. Much alarm was felt in
+the British column when the shots rang out in the darkness; a
+native officer hard by came up at once, and, by smelling the rifles
+of all his men, found out the offenders; but as they were
+Mohammedans, he said nothing, in the hope of screening his
+co-religionists. Later on, these facts transpired at a
+court-martial, whereupon the elder of the two offenders, who was
+also the first to fire, was condemned to death, and the younger to
+a long term of imprisonment. The defaulting officer likewise
+received due punishment<a name="FNanchor312"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_312">[312]</a>.</p>
+<p>After this alarming incident, the 72nd Highlanders were sent
+forward to take the place of the native regiment previously
+leading; and once more the little column struggled on through the
+darkness up the rocky path. Their staunchness met its reward. At
+dawn the Highlanders and 5th Gurkhas charged the Afghan detachment
+in its entrenchments and breastworks of trees, and were soon
+masters of the Spingawi position. A long and anxious time of
+waiting now ensued, caused by the failure of the first frontal
+attack on the Kotal; but Roberts' pressure on the flank of the main
+Afghan position and another frontal attack sent the enemy flying in
+utter rout, leaving behind guns and waggons. The Kurram column had
+driven eight Afghan regiments and numbers of hillmen from a
+seemingly impregnable position, and now held the second of the
+outer passes leading towards Cabul (December 2, 1878). The Afghans
+offered but slight resistance at the Shutargardan Pass <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page398" id="page398"></a>[pg 398]</span>
+further on, and from that point the invaders looked down on valleys
+that conducted them easily to the Ameer's capital<a name=
+"FNanchor313"></a><a href="#Footnote_313">[313]</a>.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile equal success was attending the 3rd British column,
+that of General Biddulph, which operated from Quetta. It occupied
+Sibi and the Khojak Pass; and on January 8, 1879, General Stewart
+and the vanguard reached Candahar, which they entered in triumph.
+The people seemed to regard their entry with indifference. This was
+but natural. Shere Ali had ruined his own cause. Hearing of the
+first defeats he fled from Cabul in company with the remaining
+members of the Russian Mission still at that city (December 13),
+and made for Afghan Turkestan in the hope of inducing his northern
+allies to give active aid.</p>
+<p>He now discovered his error. The Czar's Government had been most
+active in making mischief between England and the Ameer, especially
+while the diplomatic struggle was going on at Berlin; but after the
+signature of the Treaty of Berlin (July 13, 1878), the natural
+leaning of Alexander II. towards peace and quietness began by
+degrees to assert itself. The warlike designs of Kaufmann and his
+officials in Turkestan received a check, though not so promptly as
+was consistent with strict neutrality.</p>
+<p>Gradually the veil fell from the ex-Ameer's eyes. On the day of
+his flight (December 13), he wrote to the "Officers of the British
+Government," stating that he was about to proceed to St.
+Petersburg, "where, before a Congress, the whole history of the
+transactions between myself and yourselves will be submitted to all
+the Powers<a name="FNanchor314"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_314">[314]</a>." But nine days later he published a
+firman containing a very remarkable letter purporting to come from
+General Stolieteff at Livadia in the Crimea, where <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page399" id="page399"></a>[pg 399]</span> he was
+staying with the Czar. After telling him that the British desired
+to come to terms with him (the Ameer) through the intervention of
+the Sultan, the letter proceeded as follows:--</p>
+<blockquote>But the Emperor's desire is that you should not admit
+the English into your country, and like last year, you are to treat
+them with deceit and deception until the present cold season passes
+away. Then the Almighty's will will be made manifest to you, that
+is to say, the [Russian] Government having repeated the Bismillah,
+the Bismillah will come to your assistance. In short you are to
+rest assured that matters will end well. If God permits, we will
+convene a Government meeting at St. Petersburg, that is to say, a
+Congress, which means an assemblage of Powers. We will then open an
+official discussion with the English Government, and either by
+force of words and diplomatic action we will entirely cut off all
+English communications and interference with Afghanistan, or else
+events will end in a mighty and important war. By the help of God,
+by spring not a symptom or a vestige of trouble and dissatisfaction
+will remain in Afghanistan.</blockquote>
+<p>It is impossible to think that the Czar had any knowledge of
+this treacherous epistle, which, it is to be hoped, originated with
+the lowest of Russian agents, or emanated from some Afghan chief in
+their pay. Nevertheless the fact that Shere Ali published it shows
+that he hoped for Russian help, even when the British held the keys
+of his country in their hands. But one hope after another faded
+away, and in his last days he must have come to see that he had
+been merely the catspaw of the Russian bear. He died on February
+21, 1879, hard by the city of Bactra, the modern Balkh.</p>
+<p>That "mother of cities" has seen strange vicissitudes. It
+nourished the Zoroastrian and Buddhist creeds in their youth; from
+its crowded monasteries there shone forth light to the teeming
+millions of Asia, until culture was stamped out under the heel of
+Genghis Khan, and later, of Timur. In a still later day it saw the
+dawning greatness of that most brilliant but ill-starred of the
+Mogul Emperors, Aurungzebe. Its fallen <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page400" id="page400"></a>[pg 400]</span>
+temples and convents, stretching over many a mile, proclaim it to
+be the city of buried hopes. There was, then, something fitting in
+the place of Shere Ali's death. He might so readily have built up a
+powerful Afghan State in friendly union with the British Raj; he
+chose otherwise, and ended his life amidst the wreckage of his
+plans and the ruin of his kingdom. This result of the trust which
+he had reposed in Muscovite promises was not lost on the Afghan
+people and their rulers.</p>
+<p>There is no need to detail the events of the first half of the
+year 1879 in Afghanistan. On the assembly of Parliament in
+February, Lord Beaconsfield declared that our objects had been
+attained in that land now that the three chief mountain highways
+between Afghanistan and India were completely in our power. It
+remained to find a responsible ruler with whom a lasting peace
+could be signed. Many difficulties were in the way owing to the
+clannish feuds of the Afghans and the number of possible claimants
+for the crown. Two men stood forth as the most likely rulers, Shere
+Ali's rebellious son, Yakub Khan, who had lately been released from
+his long confinement, and Abdur Rahman, son of Ufzal Khan, who was
+still kept by the Russians in Turkestan under some measure of
+constraint, doubtless in the hope that he would be a serviceable
+trump card in the intricate play of rival interests certain to
+ensue at Cabul.</p>
+<p>About February 20, Yakub sent overtures for peace to the British
+Government; and, as the death of his father at that time greatly
+strengthened his claim, it was favourably considered at London and
+Calcutta. Despite one act at least of flagrant treachery, he was
+recognised as Ameer. On May 8 he entered the British camp at
+Gandarnak, near Jelalabad; and after negotiations, a treaty was
+signed there, May 26. It provided for an amnesty, the control of
+the Ameer's foreign policy by the British Government, the
+establishment of a British Resident at Cabul, the construction of a
+telegraph line to that city, the grant of commercial facilities,
+and the cession to India of the frontier districts of Kurram,
+Pishin, and Sibi (the latter two are <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page401" id="page401"></a>[pg 401]</span> near Quetta). The
+British Government retained control over the Khyber and Michnee
+Passes and over the neighbouring tribes (which had never definitely
+acknowledged Afghan rule). It further agreed to pay to the Ameer
+and his successors a yearly subsidy of six lakhs of rupees (nearly
+&pound;50,000)<a name="FNanchor315"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_315">[315]</a>.</p>
+<p>General Roberts and many others feared that the treaty had been
+signed too hastily, and that the Afghans, "an essentially arrogant
+and conceited people," needed a severer lesson before they
+acquiesced in British suzerainty. But no sense of foreboding
+depressed Major Sir Louis Cavagnari, the gallant and able officer
+who had carried out so much of the work on the frontier, when he
+proceeded to take up his abode at Cabul as British Resident (July
+24). The chief danger lay in the Afghan troops, particularly the
+regiments previously garrisoned at Herat, who knew little or
+nothing of British prowess, and whose fanaticism was inflamed by
+arrears of pay. Cavagnari's Journal kept at Cabul ended on August
+19 with the statement that thirty-three Russians were coming up the
+Oxus to the Afghan frontier. But the real disturbing cause seems to
+have been the hatred of the Afghan troops to foreigners.</p>
+<p>Failure to pay was so usual a circumstance in Afghanistan as
+scarcely to account for the events that ensued. Yet it furnished
+the excuse for an outbreak. Early on September 3, when assembled
+for what proved to be the farce of payment at Bala Hissar (the
+citadel), three regiments mutinied, stoned their officers, and then
+rushed towards the British Embassy. These regiments took part in
+the first onset against an unfortified building held by the Mission
+and a small escort. A steady musketry fire from the defenders long
+held them at bay; but, when joined by townsfolk and other troops,
+the mutineers set fire to the gates, and then, bursting in,
+overpowered the gallant garrison. The Ameer made only slight
+efforts to quell this treacherous outbreak, and, while defending
+his own palaces by faithful troops, sent none to help the envoy.
+These facts, as reported by trustworthy witnesses, did not
+correspond to the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page402" id=
+"page402"></a>[pg 402]</span> magniloquent assurances of fidelity
+that came from Yakub himself<a name="FNanchor316"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_316">[316]</a>.</p>
+<p>Arrangements were at once made to retrieve this disaster, but
+staff and transport arrangements caused serious delay. At length
+General Roberts was able to advance up the Kurram Valley and carry
+the Shutargardan Pass by storm, an exploit fully equal to his
+former capture of the Peiwar Kotal in the same mountain range.
+Somewhat further on he met the Ameer, and was unfavourably
+impressed with him: "An insignificant-looking man, . . . with a
+receding forehead, a conical-shaped head, and no chin to speak of,
+. . . possessed moreover of a very shifty eye." Yakub justified this
+opinion by seeking on various pretexts to delay the British
+advance, and by sending to Cabul news as to the numbers of the
+British force.</p>
+<p>All told it numbered only 4000 fighting men with 18 cannon.
+Nevertheless, on nearing Cabul, it assailed a strong position at
+Charasia, held by 13 regular regiments of the enemy and some 10,000
+irregulars. The charges of Highlanders (the 72nd and 92nd),
+Gurkhas, and Punjabis proved to be irresistible, and drove the
+Afghans from two ridges in succession. This feat of arms, which
+bordered on the miraculous, served to reveal the feelings of the
+Ameer in a manner equally ludicrous and sinister. Sitting in the
+British camp, he watched the fight with great eagerness, then with
+growing concern, until he finally needed all his oriental composure
+for the final compliment which he bestowed on the victor. Later on
+it transpired that he and his adherents had laid careful plans for
+profiting by the defeat of the venturesome little force, so as to
+ensure its annihilation<a name="FNanchor317"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_317">[317]</a>.</p>
+<p>The brilliant affair at Charasia served to bring out the
+conspicuous gallantry of two men, who were later on to win
+distinction in wider fields, Major White and Colour-Sergeant Hector
+Macdonald. White carried a ridge at the head of a <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page403" id="page403"></a>[pg 403]</span> body
+of 50 Highlanders. When the enemy fled to a second ridge, he
+resolved to spare the lives of his men by taking a rifle and
+stalking the enemy alone, until he suddenly appeared on their
+flank. Believing that his men were at his back, the Afghans turned
+and fled.</p>
+<p>On October 9 Roberts occupied the Siah Sang ridge, overlooking
+Cabul, and on the next day entered the citadel, Bala Hissar, to
+inspect the charred and blood-stained ruins of the British Embassy.
+In the embers of a fire he and his staff found numbers of human
+bones. On October 12 Yakub came to the General to announce his
+intention of resigning the Ameership, as "he would rather be a
+grass-cutter in the English camp than ruler of Afghanistan." On the
+next day the British force entered the city itself in triumph, and
+Roberts put the Ameer's Ministers under arrest. The citizens were
+silent but respectful, and manifested their satisfaction when he
+proclaimed that only those guilty of the treacherous attack on the
+Residency would be punished. Cabul itself was much more Russian
+than English. The Afghan officers wore Russian uniforms, Russian
+goods were sold in the bazaars, and Russian money was found in the
+Treasury. It is evident that the Czar's officials had long been
+pushing on their designs, and that further persistency on the part
+of England in the antiquated policy of "masterly inactivity" would
+have led to Afghanistan becoming a Muscovite satrapy.</p>
+<p>The pendulum now swung sharply in favour of India. To that land
+Roberts despatched the ex-Ameer on December 1, on the finding of
+the Commission that he had been guilty of criminal negligence (if
+not worse) at the time of the massacre of Cavagnari and his escort.
+Two Afghan Sirdars, whose guilt respecting that tragedy had been
+clearly proven, were also deported and imprisoned. This caused much
+commotion, and towards the close of the year the preaching of a
+fanatic, whose name denoted "fragrance of the universe," stirred up
+hatred to the conquerors.</p>
+<p>Bands of tribesmen began to cluster around Cabul, and an
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page404" id="page404"></a>[pg
+404]</span> endeavour to disperse them led to a temporary British
+reverse not far from the Sherpur cantonments where Roberts held his
+troops. The situation was serious. As generally happens with
+Asiatics, the hillmen rose by thousands at the news, and beset the
+line of communications with India. Sir Frederick Roberts, however,
+staunchly held his ground at the Sherpur camp, beating off one very
+serious attack of the tribesmen on December 20-23. On the next day
+General Gough succeeded in breaking through from Gandamak to his
+relief. Other troops were hurried up from India, and this news
+ended the anxiety which had throbbed through the Empire at the news
+of Roberts being surrounded near Cabul.</p>
+<p>Now that the league of hillmen had been for the time broken up,
+it became more than ever necessary to find a ruler for Afghanistan,
+and settle affairs with all speed. This was also desirable in view
+of the probability of a general election in the United Kingdom in
+the early part of the year 1880, the Ministry wishing to have ready
+an Afghan settlement to act as a soporific drug on the ravening
+Cerberus of democracy at home. Unhappily, the outbreak of the Zulu
+War on January 11, 1880, speedily followed by the disaster of
+Isandlana, redoubled the complaints in the United Kingdom, with the
+result that matters were more than ever pressed on in
+Afghanistan.</p>
+<p>Some of the tribes clamoured for the return of Yakub, only to be
+informed by General Roberts that such a step would never be
+allowed. In the midst of this uncertainty, when the hour for the
+advent of a strong man seemed to have struck, he opportunely
+appeared. Strange to say, he came from Russian Turkestan.</p>
+<p>As has been stated above, Abdur Rahman, son of Ufzal Khan, had
+long lived there as a pensioner of the Czar; his bravery and skill
+in intrigue had been well known. The Russian writer, Petrovsky,
+described him as longing, above all things, to get square with the
+English and Shere Ali. It was doubtless with this belief in the
+exile's aims that the Russians gave him &pound;2500 and 200 rifles.
+His advent in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page405" id=
+"page405"></a>[pg 405]</span> Afghanistan seemed well calculated to
+add to the confusion there and to the difficulties of England. With
+only 100 followers he forded the Oxus and, early in 1880, began to
+gather around him a band in Afghan Turkestan. His success was
+startlingly rapid, and by the end of March he was master of all
+that district<a name="FNanchor318"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_318">[318]</a>.</p>
+<p>But the political results of this first success were still more
+surprising. Lord Lytton, Sir Frederick Roberts, and Mr. Lepel
+Griffin (political commissioner in Afghanistan) soon saw the
+advantage of treating with him for his succession to the throne of
+Cabul. The Viceroy, however, true to his earlier resolve to break
+up Afghanistan, added the unpleasant condition that the districts
+of Candahar and Herat must now be severed from the north of
+Afghanistan. Abdur Rahman's first request that the whole land
+should form a neutral State under the joint protection of Great
+Britain and Russia was decisively negatived on the ground that the
+former Power stood pledged by the Treaty of Gandamak not to allow
+the intervention of any foreign State in Afghan affairs. A strong
+man like Abdur Rahman appreciated the decisiveness of this
+statement; and, while holding back his hand with the caution and
+suspicion natural to Afghans, he thenceforth leant more to the
+British side, despite the fact that Lord Lytton had recognised a
+second Shere Ali as "Wali," or Governor of Candahar and its
+district<a name="FNanchor319"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_319">[319]</a>. On April 19, Sir Donald Stewart routed a
+large Afghan force near Ghaznee, and thereafter occupied that town.
+He reached Cabul on May 5. It appeared that the resistance of the
+natives was broken.</p>
+<p>Such was the state of affairs when the General Election of April
+1880 installed Mr. Gladstone in power in place of Lord
+Beaconsfield. As has been hinted above, Afghan affairs had helped
+to bring about this change; and the world now waited to see what
+would be the action of the party which had <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page406" id="page406"></a>[pg 406]</span>
+fulminated against the "forward policy" in India. As is usually the
+case after ministerial changes, the new Prime Minister disappointed
+the hopes of his most ardent friends and the fears of his bitterest
+opponents. The policy of "scuttle" was, of course, never thought
+of; but, as the new Government stood pledged to limit its
+responsibilities in India as far as possible, one great change took
+place. Lord Lytton laid down his Viceroyalty when the full results
+of the General Election manifested themselves; and the world saw
+the strange sight of a brilliant and powerful ruler, who took
+precedence of ancient dynasties in India, retiring into private
+life at the bidding of votes silently cast in ballot-boxes far away
+in islands of the north.</p>
+<p>No more startling result of the working of the democratic system
+has ever been seen in Imperial affairs; and it may lead the student
+of Roman History to speculate what might have been the results in
+that ancient Empire if the populace of Italy could honestly have
+discharged the like duties with regard to the action of their
+proconsuls. Roman policy might have lacked some of its stateliness
+and solidity, but assuredly the government of the provinces would
+have improved. Whatever may be said as to the evils of change
+brought about by popular caprice, they are less serious than those
+which grow up under the shadow of an uncriticised and irresponsible
+bureaucracy.</p>
+<p>Some time elapsed before the new Viceroy, Lord Ripon, could take
+up the reins of power. In that interval difficulties had arisen
+with Abdur Rahman, but on July 20 the British authorities at Cabul
+publicly recognised him as Ameer of Northern Afghanistan. The
+question as to the severance of Candahar from Cabul, and the amount
+of the subsidy to be paid to the new ruler, were left open and
+caused some difference of opinion; but a friendly arrangement was
+practically assured a few days later.</p>
+<p>For many reasons this was desirable. As far back as April 11,
+1880, Mr. (now Sir) Lepel Griffin had announced in a Durbar at
+Cabul that the British forces would withdraw <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page407" id="page407"></a>[pg 407]</span> from
+Afghanistan when the Government considered that a satisfactory
+settlement had been made; that it was the friend, not the enemy, of
+Islam, and would keep the sword for its enemies. The time had now
+come to make good these statements. In the closing days of July
+Abdur Rahman was duly installed in power at Cabul, and received
+19-1/2 lakhs of rupees (&pound;190,500)<a name=
+"FNanchor320"></a><a href="#Footnote_320">[320]</a>. Meanwhile his
+champions prepared to evacuate that city and to avenge a disaster
+which had overtaken their arms in the Province of Candahar. On July
+29 news arrived that a British brigade had been cut to pieces at
+Maiwand.</p>
+<p>The fact that we supported the Sirdar named Shere Ali at
+Candahar seemed to blight his authority over the tribesmen in that
+quarter. All hope of maintaining his rule vanished when tidings
+arrived that Ayub Khan, a younger brother of the deported Yakub,
+was marching from the side of Herat to claim the crown. Already the
+new pretender had gained the support of several Afghan chiefs
+around Herat, and now proclaimed a <i>jehad</i>, or holy war,
+against the infidels holding Cabul. With a force of 7500 men and 10
+guns he left Herat on June 15, and moved towards the River Helmand,
+gathering around him numbers of tribesmen and ghazis<a name=
+"FNanchor321"></a><a href="#Footnote_321">[321]</a>.</p>
+<p>In order to break this gathering cloud of war betimes, the
+Indian Government ordered General Primrose, who commanded the
+British garrison at Candahar, to despatch a brigade to the Helmand.
+Accordingly, Brigadier-General Burrows, with 2300 British and
+Indian troops, marched out from Candahar on July 11. On the other
+side of the Helmand lay an Afghan force, acting in the British
+interest, sent thither by the Sirdar, Shere Ali. Two days later the
+whole native force mutinied and marched off towards Ayub Khan.
+Burrows <span class="pagenum"><a name="page408" id=
+"page408"></a>[pg 408]</span> promptly pursued them, captured their
+six guns, and scattered the mutineers with loss.</p>
+<p>Even so his position was most serious. In front of him, at no
+great distance, was a far superior force flushed with fanaticism
+and the hope of easy triumph; the River Helmand offered little, if
+any, protection, for at that season it was everywhere fordable;
+behind him stretched twenty-five miles of burning desert. By a
+speedy retreat across this arid zone to Khushk-i-Nakhud, Burrows
+averted the disaster then imminent, but his anxiety to carry out
+the telegraphic orders of the Commander-in-chief, and to prevent
+Ayub's force from reaching Ghaznee, led him into an enterprise
+which proved to be far beyond his strength.</p>
+<p>Hearing that 2000 of the enemy's horsemen and a large number of
+ghazis had hurried forward in advance of the main body to Maiwand,
+he determined to attack them there. At 6.30 A.M. on July 27 he
+struck camp and moved forwards with his little force of 2599
+fighting men. Daring has wrought wonders in Indian warfare, but
+rarely has any British commander undertaken so dangerous a task as
+that to which Burrows set his hand on that morning.</p>
+<p>During his march he heard news from a spy that the Afghan main
+body was about to join their vanguard; but, either because he
+distrusted the news, or hoped even at the last to "pluck the
+flower, safety, out of the nettle, danger," he pushed on and sought
+to cut through the line of the enemy's advance as it made for
+Maiwand. About 10 A.M. his column passed the village of Khig and,
+crossing a dried watercourse, entered a parched plain whereon the
+fringe of the enemy's force could dimly be seen through the thick
+and sultry air. Believing that he had to deal with no large body of
+men, Burrows pushed on, and two of Lieutenant Maclaine's guns began
+to shell their scattered groups. Like wasps roused to fury, the
+ghazis rushed together as if for a charge, and lines of Afghan
+regulars came into view. The deceitful haze yielded up its secret.
+Burrows' brigade stood face to face with 15,000 Afghans.
+Moreover</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page409" id="page409"></a>[pg
+409]</span>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/409.png" width="80%" alt=""><br>
+<b>Battle of Maiwand.</b></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page410" id="page410"></a>[pg
+410]</span>
+<p>some influence, baleful to England, kept back those Asiatics
+from their usually heedless rush. Their guns came up and opened
+fire on Burrows' line. Even the white quivering groups of their
+ghazis forebore to charge with their whetted knives, but clung to a
+gully which afforded good cover 500 yards away from the British
+front and right flank; there the Afghan regulars galled the exposed
+khaki line, while their cannon, now numbering thirty pieces, kept
+up a fire to which Maclaine's twelve guns could give no adequate
+reply.</p>
+<p>[Illustration: Battle of Maiwand]</p>
+<p>It has been stated by military critics that Burrows erred in
+letting the fight at the outset become an affair of artillery, in
+which he was plainly the weaker. Some of his guns were put out of
+action; and in that open plain there was no cover for the fighting
+line, the reserves, or the supporting horse. All of them sustained
+heavy losses from the unusually accurate aim of the Afghan gunners.
+But the enemy had also suffered under our cannonade and musketry;
+and it is consonant with the traditions of Indian warfare to
+suppose that a charge firmly pushed home at the first signs of
+wavering in the hostile mass would have retrieved the day. Plassey
+and Assaye were won by sheer boldness. Such a chance is said to
+have occurred about noon at Maiwand. However that may be, Burrows
+decided to remain on the defensive, perhaps because the hostile
+masses were too dense and too full of fight to warrant the adoption
+of dashing tactics.</p>
+<p>After the sun passed his zenith the enemy began to press on the
+front and flanks. Burrows swung round his wings to meet these
+threatening moves; but, as the feline and predatory instincts of
+the Afghans kindled more and more at the sight of the weak, bent,
+and stationary line, so too the <i>morale</i> of the defenders
+fell. The British and Indian troops alike were exhausted by the
+long march and by the torments of thirst in the sultry heat. Under
+the fire of the Afghan cannon and the frontal and flank advance of
+the enemy, the line began to waver about 2 P.M., and two of the
+foremost guns were lost. A native regiment in the centre, Jacob's
+Rifles, fled in utter <span class="pagenum"><a name="page411" id=
+"page411"></a>[pg 411]</span> confusion and spread disorder on the
+flanks, where the 1st Bombay Grenadiers and the 66th line regiment
+had long maintained a desperate fight. General Nuttall now ordered
+several squadrons of the 3rd Light Cavalry and 3rd Sind Horse to
+recover the guns and stay the onrushing tide, but their numbers
+were too small for the task, and the charge was not pressed home.
+Finally the whole mass of pursued and pursuers rolled towards the
+village of Khig and its outlying enclosures.</p>
+<p>There a final stand was made. Colonel Galbraith and about one
+hundred officers and men of the 66th threw themselves into a garden
+enclosure, plied the enemy fiercely with bullets, and time after
+time beat back every rush of the ghazis, now rioting in that
+carnival of death. Surrounded by the flood of the Afghan advance,
+the little band fought on, hopeless of life, but determined to
+uphold to the last the honour of their flag and country. At last
+only eleven were left. These heroes determined to die in the open;
+charging out on the masses around, they formed square, and back to
+back stood firing on the foe. Not until the last of them fell under
+the Afghan rifles did the ghazis venture to close in with their
+knives, so dauntless had been the bearing of this band<a name=
+"FNanchor322"></a><a href="#Footnote_322">[322]</a>.</p>
+<p>They had not fought in vain. Their stubborn stand held back the
+Afghan pursuit and gave time for the fugitives to come together on
+the way back to Candahar. Had the pursuit been pushed on with
+vigour few, if any, could have survived. Even so, Maiwand was one
+of the gravest disasters ever sustained by our Indian army. It cost
+Burrows' force nearly half its numbers; 934 officers and men were
+killed and 175 wounded. The strange disproportion between these
+totals may serve as a measure of the ferocity of Afghans in the
+hour of victory. Of the non-combatants 790 fell under the knives of
+the ghazis. The remnant struggled towards Candahar, whence, on the
+28th, General Primrose despatched a column to the aid of the
+exhausted survivors. In the citadel of that fortress there
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page412" id="page412"></a>[pg
+412]</span> mustered as many as 4360 effectives as night fell. But
+what were these in face of Ayub's victorious army, now joined by
+tribesmen eager for revenge and plunder<a name=
+"FNanchor323"></a><a href="#Footnote_323">[323]</a>?</p>
+<p>In face of this disaster, the British generals in Northern
+Afghanistan formed a decision commendable alike for its boldness
+and its sagacity. They decided to despatch at once all available
+troops from Cabul to the relief of the beleaguered garrison at
+Candahar. General Sir Frederick Roberts had handed over the command
+at Cabul to Sir Donald Stewart, and was about to operate among the
+tribes on the Afghan frontier when the news of the disaster sent
+him hurrying back to confer with the new commander-in-chief.
+Together they recommended the plan named above.</p>
+<p>It involved grave dangers: for affairs in the north of
+Afghanistan were unsettled; and to withdraw the rest of our force
+from Cabul to the Khyber would give the rein to local disaffection.
+The Indian authorities at Simla inclined to the despatch of the
+force at Quetta, comprising seven regiments of native troops, from
+Bombay. The route was certainly far easier; for, thanks to the toil
+of engineers, the railway from the Indus Valley towards Quetta had
+been completed up to a point in advance of Sibi; and the labours of
+Major Sandeman, Bruce, and others, had kept that district fairly
+quiet<a name="FNanchor324"></a><a href="#Footnote_324">[324]</a>.
+But the troops at Quetta and Pishin were held to be incapable of
+facing a superior force of victorious Afghans. At Cabul there were
+nine regiments of infantry, three of cavalry, and three
+mountain-batteries, all of them British or picked Indian troops. On
+August 3, Lord Ripon telegraphed his permission for the despatch of
+the Cabul field-force to Candahar. It amounted to 2835 British (the
+72nd and 92nd Highlanders and 2nd battalion <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page413" id="page413"></a>[pg 413]</span> of the
+60th Rifles, and 9th Lancers), 7151 Indian troops, together with 18
+guns. On August 9 it struck camp and set out on a march which was
+destined to be famous.</p>
+<p>Fortunately before it left the Cabul camp on August 9, matters
+were skilfully arranged by Mr. Griffin with Abdur Rahman, on terms
+which will be noticed presently. In spite of one or two suspicious
+incidents, his loyalty to the British cause now seemed to be
+assured, and that, too, in spite of the remonstrances of many of
+his supporters. He therefore sent forward messengers to prepare the
+way for Roberts' force. They did so by telling the tribesmen that
+the new Ameer was sending the foreign army out of the land by way
+of Candahar! This pleasing fiction in some measure helped on the
+progress of the force, and the issue of events proved it to be no
+very great travesty of the truth.</p>
+<p>Every possible device was needed to ensure triumph over physical
+obstacles. In order to expedite the march through the difficult
+country between Cabul and Candahar, no wheeled guns or waggons went
+with the force. As many as 8000 native bearers or drivers set out
+with the force, but very many of them deserted, and the 8255
+horses, mules and donkeys were thenceforth driven by men told off
+from the regiments. The line of march led at first through the
+fertile valley of the River Logar, where the troops and followers
+were able to reap the ripening crops and subsist in comfort. Money
+was paid for the crops thus appropriated. After leaving this
+fertile district for the barren uplands, the question of food and
+fuel became very serious; but it was overcome by ingenuity and
+patience, though occasional times of privation had to be faced, as,
+for instance, when only very small roots were found for the cooking
+of corn and meat. A lofty range, the Zamburak Kotal, was crossed
+with great toil and amidst biting cold at night-time; but the
+ability of the commander, the forethought and organising power of
+his Staff, and the hardihood of the men overcame all trials and
+obstacles.</p>
+<p>The army then reached the more fertile districts around
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page414" id="page414"></a>[pg
+414]</span> Ghazni, and on August 15 gained an entry without
+resistance to that once formidable stronghold. Steady marching
+brought the force eight days later to the hill fort of
+Kelat-i-Ghilzai, where it received a hearty welcome from the
+British garrison of 900 men. Sir Frederick Roberts determined to
+take on these troops with him, as he needed all his strength to
+cope with the growing power of Yakub. After a day's rest (well
+earned, seeing that the force had traversed 225 miles in 14 days),
+the column set forth on its last stages, cheered by the thought of
+rescuing their comrades at Candahar, but more and more oppressed by
+the heat, which, in the lower districts of South Afghanistan, is as
+fierce as anywhere in the world. Mr. Hensman, the war correspondent
+of the <i>Daily News,</i> summed up in one telling phrase the chief
+difficulties of the troops. "The sun laughed to scorn 100&deg; F.
+in the shade." On the 27th the commander fell with a sharp attack
+of fever.</p>
+<p>Nevertheless he instructed the Indian cavalry to push on to
+Robat and open up heliographic communication with Candahar. It then
+transpired that the approach of the column had already changed the
+situation. Already, on August 23, Ayub had raised the siege and
+retired to the hills north of the city. That relief came none too
+soon appeared on the morning of the 31st, when the thin and feeble
+cheering that greeted the rescuers on their entrance to the long
+beleaguered town told its sad tale of want, disease, and depression
+of heart. The men who had marched 313 miles in 22 days--an average
+of 14-1/4 miles a day--felt a thrill of sympathy, not unmixed with
+disgust in some cases, at the want of spirit too plainly
+discernible among the defenders. The Union Jack was not hoisted on
+the citadel until the rescuers were near at hand<a name=
+"FNanchor325"></a><a href="#Footnote_325">[325]</a>. General
+Roberts might have applied to them Hecuba's words to Priam:--</p>
+<blockquote>Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis<br>
+Tempus eget.</blockquote>
+<p>As for the <i>morale</i> of the relieving force, it now stood at
+the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page415" id="page415"></a>[pg
+415]</span> zenith, as was seen on the following day. Framing his
+measures so as to encourage Ayub to stand his ground, Roberts
+planned his attack in the way that had already led to success,
+namely, a frontal attack more imposing than serious, while the
+enemy's flank was turned and his communications threatened. These
+moves were carried out by Generals Ross and Baker with great skill.
+Under the persistent pressure of the British onset the Afghans fell
+back from position to position, north-west of Candahar; until
+finally Major White with the 92nd, supported by Gurkhas and the
+23rd Pioneers, drove them back to their last ridge, the Baba Wali
+Kotal, swarmed up its western flank, and threw the whole of the
+hostile mass in utter confusion into the plain beyond. Owing to the
+very broken nature of the ground, few British and Indian horsemen
+were at hand to reap the full fruits of victory; but many of Ayub's
+regulars and ghazis fell under their avenging sabres. The beaten
+force deserved no mercy. When the British triumph was assured, the
+Afghan chief ordered his prisoner, Lieutenant Maclaine, to be
+butchered; whereupon he himself and his suite took to flight. The
+whole of his artillery, twenty-seven pieces, including the two
+British guns lost at Maiwand, fell into the victor's hands. In
+fact, Ayub's force ceased to exist; many of his troops at once
+assumed the garb of peaceful cultivators, and the Pretender himself
+fled to Herat<a name="FNanchor326"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_326">[326]</a>.</p>
+<p>Thus ended an enterprise which, but for the exercise of the
+highest qualities on the part of General Roberts, his Staff, the
+officers, and rank and file, might easily have ended in
+irretrievable disaster. This will appear from the following
+considerations. The question of food and water during a prolonged
+march in that parched season of the year might have caused the
+gravest difficulties; but they were solved by a wise choice of
+route along or near water-courses where water could generally be
+procured. The few days when little or no water could be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page416" id="page416"></a>[pg
+416]</span> had showed what might have happened. Further, the help
+assured by the action of the Ameer's emissaries among the tribesmen
+was of little avail after the valley of the Logar was left behind.
+Many of the tribes were actively hostile, and cut off stragglers
+and baggage-animals.</p>
+<p>Above and beyond these daily difficulties, there was the problem
+as to the line of retreat to be taken in case of a reverse
+inflicted by the tribes <i>en route.</i> The army had given up its
+base of operations; for at the same time the remaining British and
+Indian regiments at Cabul were withdrawn to the Khyber Pass. True,
+there was General Phayre's force holding Quetta, and endeavouring
+to stretch out a hand towards Candahar; but the natural obstacles
+and lack of transport prevented the arrival of help from that
+quarter. It is, however, scarcely correct to say that Roberts had
+no line of retreat assured in case of defeat<a name=
+"FNanchor327"></a><a href="#Footnote_327">[327]</a>. No serious
+fighting was to be expected before Candahar; for the Afghan
+plundering instinct was likely to keep Ayub near to that city,
+where the garrison was hard pressed. After leaving Ghazni, the
+Quetta route became the natural way of retirement.</p>
+<p>As it happened, the difficulties were mainly those inflicted by
+the stern hand of Nature herself; and their severity may be gauged
+by the fact that out of a well-seasoned force of less than 10,000
+fighting men as many as 940 sick had at once to go into hospital at
+Candahar. The burning days and frosty nights of the Afghan uplands
+were more fatal than the rifles of Ayub and the knives of the
+ghazis. As Lord Roberts has modestly admitted, the long march
+gained in dramatic effect because for three weeks he and his army
+were lost to the world, and, suddenly emerging from the unknown,
+gained a decisive triumph. But, allowing for this element of
+picturesqueness, so unusual in an age when the daily din of
+telegrams dulls the perception of readers, we may still maintain
+that the march from Cabul to Candahar will bear comparison with any
+similar achievement in modern history.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page417" id="page417"></a>[pg
+417]</span>
+<p>The story of British relations with Afghanistan is one which
+illustrates the infinite capacity of our race to "muddle through"
+to some more or less satisfactory settlement. This was especially
+the case in the spring and summer of 1880, when the accession of
+Mr. Gladstone to power and the disaster of Maiwand changed the
+diplomatic and military situation. In one sense, and that not a
+cryptic one, these events served to supplement one another. They
+rendered inevitable the entire evacuation of Afghanistan. That, it
+need hardly be said, was the policy of Mr. Gladstone, of the
+Secretary for India, Lord Hartington (now Duke of Devonshire), and
+of Lord Ripon.</p>
+<p>On one point both parties were agreed. Events had shown how
+undesirable it was to hold Cabul and Central Afghanistan. The
+evacuation of all these districts was specified in Lord Lytton's
+last official Memorandum, that which he signed on June 7, 1880, as
+certain to take place as soon as the political arrangements at
+Cabul were duly settled. The retiring Viceroy, however, declared
+that in his judgment the whole Province of Candahar must be severed
+from the Cabul Power, whether Abdur Rahman assented to it or
+not<a name="FNanchor328"></a><a href="#Footnote_328">[328]</a>.
+Obviously this implied the subjection of Candahar to British rule
+in some form. General Roberts himself argued stoutly for the
+retention of that city and district; and so did most of the
+military men. Lord Wolseley, on the other hand, urged that it would
+place an undesirable strain upon the resources of India, and that
+the city could readily be occupied from the Quetta position, if
+ever the Russians advanced to Herat. The Cabinet strongly held this
+opinion. The exponents of Whig ideas, Lord Hartington and the Duke
+of Argyll, herein agreeing with the exponents of a peaceful
+un-Imperial commercialism, Mr. Bright and Mr. Chamberlain.
+Consequently the last of the British troops were withdrawn from
+Candahar on April 15, 1881.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page418" id="page418"></a>[pg
+418]</span>
+<p>The retirement was more serious in appearance than in reality.
+The war had brought some substantial gains. The new frontier
+acquired by the Treaty of Gandamak--and the terms of that compact
+were practically void until Roberts' victory at Candahar gave them
+body and life--provided ample means for sending troops easily to
+the neighbourhood of Cabul, Ghazni, and Candahar; and experience
+showed that troops kept in the hill stations on the frontier
+preserved their mettle far better than those cantoned in or near
+the unhealthy cities just named. The Afghans had also learnt a
+sharp lesson of the danger and futility of leaning on Russia; and
+to this fact must be attributed the steady adherence of the new
+Ameer to the British side.</p>
+<p>Moreover, the success of his rule depended largely on our
+evacuation of his land. Experience has shown that a practically
+independent and united Afghanistan forms a better barrier to a
+Russian advance than an Afghanistan rent by the fanatical feuds
+that spring up during a foreign occupation. Finally, the great need
+of India after the long famine was economy. A prosperous and
+contented India might be trusted to beat off any army that Russia
+could send; a bankrupt India would be the breeding-ground of strife
+and mutiny; and on these fell powers Skobeleff counted as his most
+formidable allies<a name="FNanchor329"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_329">[329]</a>.</p>
+<p>It remained to be seen whether Abdur Rahman could win Candahar
+and Herat, and, having won them, keep them. At first Fortune smiled
+on his rival, Ayub. That pretender sent a force from Herat
+southwards against the Ameer's troops, defeated them, and took
+Candahar (July 1881). But Abdur Rahman had learnt to scorn the
+shifts of the fickle goddess. With a large force he marched to that
+city, bought over a part of Ayub's following, and then utterly
+defeated the remainder. This defeat was the end of Ayub's career.
+Flying back to Herat, he found it in the hands of the Ameer's
+supporters, and was fain to seek refuge in Persia. Both of these
+successes <span class="pagenum"><a name="page419" id=
+"page419"></a>[pg 419]</span> seem to have been due to the
+subsidies which the new Ameer drew from India<a name=
+"FNanchor330"></a><a href="#Footnote_330">[330]</a>.</p>
+<p>We may here refer to the last scene in which Ayub played a part
+before Englishmen. Foiled of his hopes in Persia, he finally
+retired to India. At a later day he appeared as a pensioner on the
+bounty of that Government at a review held at Rawal Pindi in the
+Punjab in honour of the visit of H.R.H. Prince Victor. The Prince,
+on being informed of his presence, rode up to his carriage and
+saluted the fallen Sirdar. The incident profoundly touched the
+Afghans who were present. One of them said: "It was a noble act. It
+shows that you English are worthy to be the rulers of this
+land<a name="FNanchor331"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_331">[331]</a>."</p>
+<p>The Afghans were accustomed to see the conquered crushed and
+scorned by the conqueror. Hence they did not resent the truculent
+methods resorted to by Abdur Rahman in the consolidation of his
+power. In his relentless grip the Afghan tribes soon acquired
+something of stability. Certainly Lord Lytton never made a wiser
+choice than that of Abdur Rahman for the Ameership; and, strange to
+say, that choice obviated the evils which the Viceroy predicted as
+certain to accrue from the British withdrawal from Candahar<a name=
+"FNanchor332"></a><a href="#Footnote_332">[332]</a>. Contrasting
+the action of Great Britain towards himself with that of Russia
+towards Shere Ali in his closing days, the new Ameer could scarcely
+waver in his choice of an alliance. And while he held the Indian
+Government away at arm's length, he never wavered at heart.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>For in the meantime Russia had resumed her southward march,
+setting to work with the doggedness that she usually displays in
+the task of avenging slights and overbearing opposition. The penury
+of the exchequer, the plots of the Nihilists, and the discontent of
+the whole people after the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page420"
+id="page420"></a>[pg 420]</span> inglorious struggle with Turkey,
+would have imposed on any other Government a policy of rest and
+economy. To the stiff bureaucracy of St. Petersburg these were so
+many motives for adopting a forward policy in Asia. Conquests of
+Turkoman territory would bring wealth, at least to the bureaucrats
+and generals; and military triumphs might be counted on to raise
+the spirit of the troops, silence the talk about official
+peculations during the Turkish campaign, and act in the manner so
+sagaciously pointed out by Henry IV. to Prince Hal:--</p>
+<blockquote>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Therefore,
+my Harry,<br>
+Be it thy course to busy giddy minds<br>
+With foreign quarrels, that action, hence borne out,<br>
+May waste the memory of the former days.</blockquote>
+<p>In the autumn of 1878 General Lomakin had waged an unsuccessful
+campaign against the Tekke Turkomans, and finally fell back with
+heavy losses on Krasnovodsk, his base of operations on the Caspian
+Sea. In the summer of 1879 another expedition set out from that
+port to avenge the defeat. Owing to the death of the chief, Lomakin
+again rose to the command. His bad dispositions at the climax of
+the campaign led him to a more serious disaster. On coming up to
+the fortress of Denghil Tepe, near the town of Geok Tepe, he led
+only 1400 men, or less than half of his force, to bombard and storm
+a stronghold held by some 15,000 Turkomans, and fortified on the
+plan suggested by a British officer, Lieutenant Butler<a name=
+"FNanchor333"></a><a href="#Footnote_333">[333]</a>. Preluding his
+attack by a murderous cannonade, he sent round his cavalry to check
+the flight of the faint-hearted among the garrison; and, before his
+guns had fully done their work, he ordered the whole line to
+advance and carry the walls by storm. At once the Turkoman fire
+redoubled in strength, tore away the front of every attacking
+party, and finally drove <span class="pagenum"><a name="page421"
+id="page421"></a>[pg 421]</span> back the assailants everywhere
+with heavy loss (Sept. 9, 1879). On the morrow the invaders fell
+back on the River Atrek and thence made their way back to the
+Caspian in sore straits<a name="FNanchor334"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_334">[334]</a>.</p>
+<p>The next year witnessed the advent of a great soldier on the
+scene. Skobeleff, the stormy petrel of Russian life, the man whose
+giant frame was animated by a hero's soul, who, when pitched from
+his horse in the rush on one of the death-dealing redoubts at
+Plevna, rose undaunted to his feet, brandished his broken sword in
+the air and yelled at the enemy a defiance which thrilled his
+broken lines to a final mad charge over the rampart--Skobeleff was
+at hand. He had culled his first laurels at Khiva and Khokand, and
+now came to the shores of the Caspian to carry forward the
+standards which he hoped one day to plant on the walls of Delhi.
+That he cherished this hope is proved by the Memorandum which will
+be found in the Appendix of this volume. His disclaimer of any such
+intention to Mr. Charles Marvin (which will also be found there)
+shows that under his frank exterior there lay hidden the strain of
+Oriental duplicity so often found among his countrymen in political
+life.</p>
+<p>At once the operations felt the influence of his active, cheery,
+and commanding personality. The materials for a railway which had
+been lying unused at Bender were now brought up; and Russia found
+the money to set about the construction of a railway from
+Michaelovsk to the Tekke Turkoman country--an undertaking which was
+destined wholly to change the conditions of warfare in South
+Turkestan and on the Afghan border. By the close of the year more
+than forty miles were roughly laid down, and Skobeleff was ready
+for his final advance from Kizil Arvat towards Denghil Tepe.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile the Tekkes had gained reinforcements from their
+kinsmen in the Merv oasis, and had massed nearly 40,000 men--so
+rumour ran--at their stronghold. Nevertheless, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page422" id="page422"></a>[pg 422]</span> they
+offered no serious resistance to the Russian advance, doubtless
+because they hoped to increase the difficulties of his retreat
+after the repulse which they determined to inflict at their hill
+fortress. But Skobeleff excelled Lomakin in skill no less than in
+prowess and magnetic influence. He proceeded to push his trenches
+towards the stronghold, so that on January 23, 1881, his men
+succeeded in placing 2600 pounds of gunpowder under the
+south-eastern corner of the rampart. Early on the following day the
+Russians began the assault; and while cannon and rockets wrought
+death and dismay among the ill-armed defenders, the mighty shock of
+the explosion tore away fifty yards of their rampart.</p>
+<p>At once the Russian lines moved forward to end the work begun by
+gunpowder. With the blare of martial music and with ringing cheers,
+they charged at the still formidable walls. A young officer,
+Colonel Kuropatkin, who has since won notoriety in other lands, was
+ready with twelve companies to rush into the breach. Their leading
+files swarmed up it before the Tekkes fully recovered from the blow
+dealt by the hand of western science; but then the brave nomads
+closed in on foes with whom they could fight, and brought the
+storming party to a standstill. Skobeleff was ready for the
+emergency. True to his Plevna tactics of ever feeding an attack at
+the crisis with new troops, he hurled forward two battalions of the
+line and companies of dismounted Cossacks. These pushed on the
+onset, hewed their way through all obstacles, and soon met the
+smaller storming parties which had penetrated at other points. By 1
+p.m. the Russian standard waved in triumph from the central hill of
+the fortress, and thenceforth bands of Tekkes began to stream forth
+into the desert on the further side.</p>
+<p>Now Skobeleff gave to his foes a sharp lesson, which, he
+claimed, was the most merciful in the end. He ordered his men,
+horse and foot alike, to pursue the fugitives and spare no one.
+Ruthlessly the order was obeyed. First, the flight of grape shot
+from the light guns, then the bayonet, and lastly <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page423" id="page423"></a>[pg 423]</span> the
+Cossack lance, strewed the plain with corpses of men, women, and
+children; darkness alone put an end to the butchery, and then the
+desert for eleven miles eastwards of Denghil Tepe bore witness to
+the thoroughness of Muscovite methods of warfare. All the men
+within the fortress were put to the sword. Skobeleff himself
+estimated the number of the slain at 20,000<a name=
+"FNanchor335"></a><a href="#Footnote_335">[335]</a>. Booty to the
+value of &pound;600,000 fell to the lot of the victors. Since that
+awful day the once predatory tribes of Tekkes have given little
+trouble. Skobeleff sent his righthand man, Kuropatkin, to occupy
+Askabad, and reconnoitre towards Merv. But these moves were checked
+by order of the Czar.</p>
+<p>A curious incident, told to Lord Curzon, illustrates the dread
+in which Russian troops have since been held. At the opening of the
+railway to Askabad, five years later, the Russian military bands
+began to play. At once the women and children there present raised
+cries and shrieks of dread, while the men threw themselves on the
+ground. They imagined that the music was a signal for another
+onslaught like that which preluded the capture of their former
+stronghold<a name="FNanchor336"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_336">[336]</a>.</p>
+<p>This victory proved to be the last of Skobeleff's career. The
+Government having used their knight-errant, now put him on one side
+as too insubordinate and ambitious for his post. To his great
+disgust, he was recalled. He did not long survive. Owing to causes
+that are little known, among which a round of fast-living is said
+to have played its part, he died suddenly from failure of the heart
+at his residence near Moscow (July 7 1882). Some there were who
+whispered dark things as to his militant notions being out of
+favour with the new Czar, Alexander III.; others pointed
+significantly to Bismarck. Others again prattled of Destiny; but
+the best comment on the death of Skobeleff would seem to be that
+illuminating saying of Novalis--"Character is Destiny." Love of
+fame prompted in him the desire one day to measure swords with Lord
+Roberts <span class="pagenum"><a name="page424" id=
+"page424"></a>[pg 424]</span> in the Punjab; but the coarser strain
+in his nature dragged him to earth at the age of thirty-nine.</p>
+<p>The accession of Alexander III., after the murder of his father
+on March 13, 1881, promised for a short time to usher in a more
+peaceful policy; but, in truth, the last important diplomatic
+assurance of the reign of Alexander II. was that given by the
+Minister M. de Giers, to Lord Dufferin, as to Russia's resolve not
+to occupy Merv. "Not only do we not want to go there, but, happily,
+there is nothing which can require us to go there."</p>
+<p>In spite of a similar assurance given on April 5 to the Russian
+ambassador in London, both the need and the desire soon sprang into
+existence. Muscovite agents made their way to the fruitful oasis of
+Merv; and a daring soldier, Alikhanoff, in the guise of a
+merchant's clerk, proceeded thither early in 1882, skilfully
+distributed money to work up a Russian party, and secretly sketched
+a plan of the fortress. Many chiefs and traders opposed Russia
+bitterly, for our brilliant and adventurous countryman, O'Donovan,
+while captive there, sought to open their eyes to the coming
+danger. But England's influence had fallen to zero since
+Skobeleff's victory and her own withdrawal from Candahar<a name=
+"FNanchor337"></a><a href="#Footnote_337">[337]</a>.</p>
+<p>In 1882 a Russian Engineer officer, Lessar, in the guise of a
+scientific explorer, surveyed the route between Merv and Herat, and
+found that it presented far fewer difficulties than had been
+formerly reported to exist<a name="FNanchor338"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_338">[338]</a>. Finally, in 1884, the Czar's Government
+sought to revenge itself for Britain's continued occupation of
+Egypt by fomenting trouble near the Afghan border. Alikhanoff then
+reappeared, not in disguise, browbeat the hostile chieftains at
+Merv by threats of a Russian invasion, and finally induced them to
+take an oath of allegiance to Alexander III. (Feb. 12,
+1884)<a name="FNanchor339"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_339">[339]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page425" id="page425"></a>[pg
+425]</span>
+<p>There was, however, some reason for Russia's violation of her
+repeated promises respecting Merv. In practical politics the theory
+of compensation has long gained an assured footing; and, seeing
+that Britain had occupied Egypt partly as the mandatory of Europe,
+and now refused to evacuate that land, the Russian Government had a
+good excuse for retaliation. As has happened at every time of
+tension between the two Empires since 1855, the Czar chose to
+embarrass the Island Power by pushing on towards India. As a matter
+of fact, the greater the pressure that Russia brought to bear on
+the Afghan frontier, the greater became the determination of
+England not to withdraw from Egypt. Hence, in the years 1882-4,
+both Powers plunged more deeply into that "vicious circle" in which
+the policy of the Crimean War had enclosed them, and from which
+they have never freed themselves.</p>
+<p>The fact is deplorable. It has produced endless friction and has
+strained the resources of two great Empires; but the allegation of
+Russian perfidy in the Merv affair may be left to those who look at
+facts solely from the insular standpoint. In the eyes of patriotic
+Russians England was the offender, first by opposing Muscovite
+policy tooth and nail in the Balkans, secondly by seizing Egypt,
+and thirdly by refusing to withdraw from that commanding position.
+The important fact to notice is that after each of these
+provocations Russia sought her revenge on that flank of the British
+Empire to which she was guided by her own sure instincts and by the
+shrieks of insular Cassandras. By moving a few sotnias of Cossacks
+towards Herat she compelled her rival to spend a hundredfold as
+much in military preparations in India.</p>
+<p>It is undeniable that Russia's persistent breach of her promises
+in Asiatic affairs exasperated public opinion, and brought the two
+Empires to the verge of war. Conduct of that description baffles
+the resources of diplomacy, which are designed to arrange disputes.
+Unfortunately, British foreign affairs were in the hands of Lord
+Granville, whose gentle reproaches only awakened contempt at St.
+Petersburg. The <span class="pagenum"><a name="page426" id=
+"page426"></a>[pg 426]</span> recent withdrawal of Lord Dufferin
+from St. Petersburg to Constantinople, on the plea of ill-health,
+was also a misfortune; but his appointment to the Viceroyalty of
+India (September 1884) placed at Calcutta a Governor-General
+superior to Lord Ripon in diplomatic experience.</p>
+<p>There was every need for the exercise of ability and firmness
+both at Westminster and Calcutta. The climax in Russia's policy of
+lance-pricks was reached in the following year; and it has been
+assumed, apparently on good authority, that the understanding
+arrived at by the three Emperors in their meeting at Skiernewice
+(September 1884) implied a tacit encouragement of Russia's designs
+in Central Asia, however much they were curbed in the Balkan
+Peninsula. This was certainly the aim of Bismarck, and that he knew
+a good deal about Russian movements is clear from his words to
+Busch on November 24, 1884: "Just keep a sharp look-out on the news
+from Afghanistan. Something will happen there soon<a name=
+"FNanchor340"></a><a href="#Footnote_340">[340]</a>."</p>
+<p>This was clearly more than a surmise. At that time an
+Anglo-Russian Boundary Commission was appointed to settle the many
+vexed questions concerning the delimitation of the Russo-Afghan
+boundary. General Sir Peter Lumsden proceeded to Sarrakhs,
+expecting there to meet the Russian Commissioners by appointment in
+the middle of October 1884. On various pretexts the work of the
+Commission was postponed in accordance with advices sent from St.
+Petersburg. The aim of this dilatory policy soon became evident.
+That was the time when (as will appear in Chapter XVI.) the British
+expedition was slowly working its way towards Khartum in the effort
+to unravel the web of fate then closing in on the gallant Gordon.
+The news of his doom reached England on February 5, 1885. Then it
+was that Russia unmasked her designs. They included the
+appropriation of the town and district of Panjdeh, which she
+herself had previously acknowledged to be in Afghan territory. In
+vain did Lord Granville protest; in vain did he put forward
+proposals which conceded <span class="pagenum"><a name="page427"
+id="page427"></a>[pg 427]</span> very much to the Czar, but less
+than his Ministers determined to have. All that he could obtain was
+a promise that the Russians would not advance further during the
+negotiations.</p>
+<p>On March 13, Mr. Gladstone officially announced that an
+agreement to this effect had been arrived at with Russia. The
+Foreign Minister at St. Petersburg, M. de Giers, on March 16
+assured our ambassador, Sir Edward Thornton, that that statement
+was correct. On March 26, however, the light troops of General
+Komaroff advanced beyond the line of demarcation previously agreed
+on, and on the following day pushed past the Afghan force holding
+positions in front of Panjdeh. The Afghans refused to be drawn into
+a fight, but held their ground; thereupon, on March 29, Komaroff
+sent them an ultimatum ordering them to withdraw beyond Panjdeh. A
+British staff-officer requested him to reconsider and recall this
+demand, but he himself was waived aside. Finally, on March 30,
+Komaroff attacked the Afghan position, and drove out the defenders
+with the loss of 900 men. The survivors fell back on Herat, General
+Lumsden and his escort retired in the same direction, and Russia
+took possession of the coveted prize<a name=
+"FNanchor341"></a><a href="#Footnote_341">[341]</a>.</p>
+<p>The news of this outrage reached England on April 7, and sent a
+thrill of indignation through the breasts of the most peaceful.
+Twenty days later Mr. Gladstone proposed to Parliament to vote the
+sum of &pound;11,000,000 for war preparations. Of this sum all but
+&pound;4,500,000 (needed for the Sudan) was devoted to military and
+naval preparations against Russia; and we have the authority of Mr.
+John Morley for saying that this vote was supported by Liberals
+"with much more than a mechanical loyalty<a name=
+"FNanchor342"></a><a href="#Footnote_342">[342]</a>." Russia had
+achieved the impossible; she had united Liberals of all shades of
+thought against her, and the joke about "Mervousness" was heard no
+more.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page428" id="page428"></a>[pg
+428]</span>
+<p>Nevertheless the firmness of the Government resembled that of
+Bob Acres: it soon oozed away. Ministers deferred to the Czar's
+angry declaration that he would allow no inquiry into the action of
+General Komaroff. This alone was a most mischievous precedent, as
+it tended to inflate Russian officers with the belief that they
+could safely set at defiance the rules of international law. Still
+worse were the signs of favour showered on the violator of a truce
+by the sovereign who gained the reputation of being the upholder of
+peace. From all that is known semi-officially with respect to the
+acute crisis of the spring of 1885, it would appear that peace was
+due solely to the tact of Sir Robert Morier, our ambassador at St.
+Petersburg, and to the complaisance of the Gladstone Cabinet.</p>
+<p>Certainly this quality carried Ministers very far on the path of
+concession. When negotiations were resumed, the British Government
+belied its former promises of firmness in a matter that closely
+concerned our ally, and surrendered Panjdeh to Russia, but on the
+understanding that the Zulfikar Pass should be retained by the
+Afghans. It should be stated, however, that Abdur Rahman had
+already assured Lord Dufferin, during interviews which they had at
+Rawal Pindi early in April, of his readiness to give up Panjdeh if
+he could retain that pass and its approaches. The Russian
+Government conceded this point; but their negotiators then set to
+work to secure possession of heights dominating the pass. It seemed
+that Lord Granville was open to conviction even on this point.</p>
+<p>Such was the state of affairs when, on June 9, 1885, Mr.
+Gladstone's Ministry resigned owing to a defeat on a budget
+question. The accession of Lord Salisbury to power after a brief
+interval helped to clear up these disputes. The crisis in Bulgaria
+of September 1885 (see Chapter X.) also served to distract the
+Russian Government, the Czar's chief pre-occupation now being to
+have his revenge on Prince Alexander of Battenberg. Consequently
+the two Powers came to a compromise about the Zulfikar Pass<a name=
+"FNanchor343"></a><a href="#Footnote_343">[343]</a>. There still
+remained several <span class="pagenum"><a name="page429" id=
+"page429"></a>[pg 429]</span> questions outstanding, and only after
+long and arduous surveys, not unmixed with disputes, was the
+present boundary agreed on in a Protocol signed on July 22, 1887.
+We may here refer to a prophecy made by one of Bismarck's
+<i>confidantes</i>, Bucher, at the close of May 1885: "I believe
+the [Afghan] matter will come up again in about five years, when
+the [Russian] railways are finished<a name=
+"FNanchor344"></a><a href="#Footnote_344">[344]</a>."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Thus it was that Russia secured her hold on districts
+dangerously near to Herat. Her methods at Panjdeh can only be
+described as a deliberate outrage on international law. It is clear
+that Alexander III. and his officials cared nothing for the public
+opinion of Europe, and that they pushed on their claims by means
+which appealed with overpowering force to the dominant motive of
+orientals--fear. But their action was based on another
+consideration. Relying on Mr. Gladstone's well-known love of peace,
+they sought to degrade the British Government in the eyes of the
+Asiatic peoples. In some measure they succeeded. The prestige of
+Britain thenceforth paled before that of the Czar; and the ease and
+decisiveness of the Russian conquests, contrasting with the fitful
+advances and speedy withdrawals of British troops, spread the
+feeling in Central Asia that the future belonged to Russia.</p>
+<p>Fortunately, this was not the light in which Abdur Rahman viewed
+the incident. He was not the man to yield to intimidation. That
+"strange, strong creature," as Lord Dufferin called him, "showed
+less emotion than might have been expected," but his resentment
+against Russia was none the less keen<a name=
+"FNanchor345"></a><a href="#Footnote_345">[345]</a>. Her pressure
+only served to drive him to closer union with Great Britain.
+Clearly the Russians misunderstood Abdur Rahman. Their
+miscalculation was equally great as regards the character of the
+Afghans and the conditions of life among those mountain clans.
+Russian officers and administrators, after pushing their way easily
+through the loose rubble <span class="pagenum"><a name="page430"
+id="page430"></a>[pg 430]</span> of tribes that make up Turkestan,
+did not realise that they had to deal with very different men in
+Afghanistan. To ride roughshod over tribes who live in the desert
+and have no natural rallying-point may be very effective; but that
+policy is risky when applied to tribes who cling to their
+mountains.</p>
+<p>The analogy of Afghanistan to Switzerland may again serve to
+illustrate the difference between mountaineers and plain-dwellers.
+It was only when the Hapsburgs or the French threatened the Swiss
+that they formed any effective union for the defence of the
+Fatherland. Always at variance in time of peace, the cantons never
+united save under the stress of a common danger. The greater the
+pressure from without, the closer was the union. That truth has
+been illustrated several times from the age of the legendary Tell
+down to the glorious efforts of 1798. In a word, the selfsame
+mountaineers who live disunited in time of peace, come together and
+act closely together in war, or under threat of war.</p>
+<p>Accordingly, the action of England in retiring from Candahar,
+contrasting as it did with Russia's action at Panjdeh, marked out
+the line of true policy for Abdur Rahman. Thenceforth he and his
+tribesmen saw more clearly than ever that Russia was the foe; and
+it is noteworthy that under the shadow of the northern peril there
+has grown up among those turbulent clans a sense of unity never
+known before. Unconsciously Russia has been playing the part of a
+Napoleon I.; she has ground together some at least of the peoples
+of Central Asia with a thoroughness which may lead to unexpected
+results if ever events favour a general rising against the
+conqueror.</p>
+<p>Amidst all his seeming vacillations of policy, Abdur Rahman was
+governed by the thought of keeping England, and still more Russia,
+from his land. He absolutely refused to allow railways and
+telegraphs to enter his territories; for, as he said: "Where
+Europeans build railways, their armies quickly follow. My
+neighbours have all been swallowed up in this manner. I have no
+wish to suffer their fate."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page431" id="page431"></a>[pg
+431]</span>
+<p>His judgment was sound. Skobeleff conquered the Tekkes by his
+railway; and the acquisition of Merv and Panjdeh was really the
+outcome of the new trans-Caspian line, which, as Lord Curzon has
+pointed out, completely changed the problem of the defence of
+India. Formerly the natural line of advance for Russia was from
+Orenburg to Tashkend and the upper Oxus; and even now that railway
+would enable her to make a powerful diversion against Northern
+Afghanistan<a name="FNanchor346"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_346">[346]</a>. But the route from Krasnovodsk on the
+Caspian to Merv and Kushk presents a shorter and far easier route,
+leading, moreover, to the open side of Afghanistan, Herat, and
+Candahar. Recent experiments have shown that a division of troops
+can be sent in eight days from Moscow to Kushk within a short
+distance of the Afghan frontier. In a word, Russia can operate
+against Afghanistan by a line (or rather by two lines) far shorter
+and easier than any which Great Britain can use for its
+defence<a name="FNanchor347"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_347">[347]</a>.</p>
+<p>It is therefore of the utmost importance to prevent her pushing
+on her railways into that country. This is the consideration which
+inspired Mr. Balfour's noteworthy declaration of May 11, 1905, in
+the House of Commons:--</p>
+<blockquote>As transport is the great difficulty of an invading
+army, we must not allow anything to be done which would facilitate
+transport. It ought in my opinion to be considered as an act of
+direct aggression upon this country that any attempt should be made
+to build a railway, in connection with the Russian strategic
+railways, within the territory of Afghanistan.</blockquote>
+<p>It is fairly certain that the present Ameer, Habibulla, who
+succeeded his father in 1901, holds those views. This doubtless was
+the reason why, early in 1905, he took the unprecedented step of
+<i>inviting</i> the Indian Government to send a Mission to Cabul.
+In view of the increase of Russia's <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page432" id="page432"></a>[pg 432]</span> railways in Central Asia
+there was more need than ever of coming to a secret understanding
+with a view to defence against that Power.</p>
+<p>Finally, we may note that Great Britain has done very much to
+make up for her natural defects of position. The Panjdeh affair
+having relegated the policy of "masterly inactivity" to the limbo
+of benevolent futilities, the materials for the Quetta railway,
+which had been in large part sent back to Bombay in the year 1881,
+were now brought back again; and an alternative route was made to
+Quetta. The urgent need of checkmating French intrigues in Burmah
+led to the annexation of that land (November 1885); and the Kurram
+Valley, commanding Cabul, which the Gladstone Government had
+abandoned, was reoccupied. The Quetta district was annexed to India
+in 1887 under the title of British Baluchistan. The year 1891 saw
+an important work undertaken in advance of Quetta, the Khojak
+tunnel being then driven through a range close by the Afghan
+frontier, while an entrenched camp was constructed near by for the
+storage of arms and supplies. These positions, and the general hold
+which Britain keeps over the Baluchee clans, enable the defenders
+of India to threaten on the flank any advance by the otherwise
+practicable route from Candahar to the Indus.</p>
+<p>Certainly there is every need for careful preparations against
+any such enterprise. Lord Curzon, writing before Russia's strategic
+railways were complete, thought it feasible for Russia speedily to
+throw 150,000 men into Afghanistan, feed them there, and send on
+90,000 of them against the Indus<a name="FNanchor348"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_348">[348]</a>. After the optimistic account of the
+problem of Indian defence given by Mr. Balfour in the speech above
+referred to, it is well to remember that, though Russia cannot
+invade India until she has conquered Afghanistan, yet for that
+preliminary undertaking she has the advantages of time and position
+nearly entirely on her side. Further, the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page433" id="page433"></a>[pg 433]</span>
+completion of her railways almost up to the Afghan frontier (the
+Tashkend railway is about to be pushed on to the north bank of the
+Oxus, near Balkh) minimises the difficulties of food supply and
+transport in Afghanistan, on which the Prime Minister laid so much
+stress.</p>
+<p>It is, however, indisputable that the security of India has been
+greatly enhanced by the steady pushing on of that "Forward Policy,"
+which all friends of peace used to decry. The Ameer, Abdur Rahman,
+irritated by the making of the Khojak tunnel, was soothed by Sir
+Mortimer Durand's Mission in 1893; and in return for an increase of
+subsidy and other advantages, he agreed that the tribes of the
+debatable borderland--the Waziris, Afridis, and those of the Swat
+and Chitral valleys--should be under the control of the Viceroy.
+Russia showed her annoyance at this Mission by seeking to seize an
+Afghan town, Murghab; but the Ameer's troops beat them off<a name=
+"FNanchor349"></a><a href="#Footnote_349">[349]</a>. Lord Lansdowne
+claimed that this right of permanently controlling very troublesome
+tribes would end the days of futile "punitive expeditions." In the
+main he was right. The peace and security of the frontier depend on
+the tact with which some few scores of officers carry on difficult
+work of which no one ever hears<a name="FNanchor350"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_350">[350]</a>.</p>
+<p>In nearly all cases they have succeeded in their heroic toil.
+But the work of pacification was disturbed in the year 1895 by a
+rising in the Chitral Valley, which cut off in Chitral Fort a small
+force of Sikhs and loyal Kashmir troops with their British
+officers. Relieving columns from the Swat Valley and Gilgit cut
+their way through swarms of hillmen and relieved the little
+garrison after a harassing leaguer of forty-five days<a name=
+"FNanchor351"></a><a href="#Footnote_351">[351]</a>. The annoyance
+evinced by Russian officers at the success of the expedition and
+the retention of the whole of the Chitral district (as large as
+Wales) prompts the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page434" id=
+"page434"></a>[pg 434]</span> conjecture that they had not been
+strangers to the original outbreak. In this year Russia and England
+delimited their boundaries in the Pamirs.</p>
+<p>The year 1897 saw all the hill tribes west and south of Peshawur
+rise against the British Raj. Moslem fanaticism, kindled by the
+Sultan's victories over the Greeks, is said to have brought about
+the explosion, though critics of the Calcutta Government ascribe it
+to official folly<a name="FNanchor352"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_352">[352]</a>. With truly Roman solidity the British
+Government quelled the risings, the capture of the heights of
+Dargai by the "gay Gordons" showing the sturdy hillmen that they
+were no match for our best troops. Since then the "Forward Policy"
+has amply justified itself, thousands of fine troops being
+recruited from tribes which were recently daring marauders, ready
+for a dash into the plains of the Punjab at the bidding of any
+would-be disturber of the peace of India. In this case, then,
+Britain has transformed a troublesome border fringe into a
+protective girdle.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Whether the Russian Government intends in the future to invade
+India is a question which time alone can answer. Viewing her
+Central Asian policy from the time of the Crimean War, the student
+must admit that it bears distinct traces of such a design. Her
+advance has always been most conspicuous in the years succeeding
+any rebuff dealt by Great Britain, as happened after that war, and
+still more, after the Berlin Congress. At first, the theory that a
+civilised Power must swallow up restless raiding neighbours could
+be cited in explanation of such progress; but such a defence
+utterly fails to account for the cynical aggression at Panjdeh and
+the favour shown by the Czar to the general who violated a truce.
+Equally does it fail to explain the pushing on of strategic
+railways since the time of the conclusion of the Anglo-Japanese
+Treaty of 1902. Possibly Russia intends only to exert upon that
+Achilles heel of the British Empire the terrible but nominally
+pacific pressure which she brings to bear on the open frontiers of
+Germany and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page435" id=
+"page435"></a>[pg 435]</span> Austria; and the constant discussion
+by her officers of plans of invasion of India may be wholly
+unofficial. At the same time we must remember that the idea has
+long been a favourite one with the Russian bureaucracy; and the
+example of the years 1877-81 shows that that class is ready and
+eager to wipe out by a campaign in Central Asia the memory of a war
+barren of fame and booty. But that again depends on more general
+questions, especially those of finance (now a very serious question
+for Russia, seeing that she has drained Paris and Berlin of all
+possible loans) and of alliance with some Great Power, or Powers,
+anxious to effect the overthrow of Great Britain.</p>
+<p>If Great Britain be not enervated by luxury; if she be not led
+astray from the paths of true policy by windy talk about "splendid
+isolation"; if also she can retain the loyal support of the various
+peoples of India,--she may face the contingency of such an invasion
+with firmness and equanimity. That it will come is the opinion of
+very many authorities of high standing. A native gentleman of high
+official rank, who brings forward new evidence on the subject, has
+recently declared it to be "inevitable<a name=
+"FNanchor353"></a><a href="#Footnote_353">[353]</a>." Such, too, is
+the belief of the greatest authority on Indian warfare. Lord
+Roberts closes his Autobiography by affirming that an invasion is
+"inevitable in the end. We have done much, and may do still more to
+delay it; but when that struggle comes, it will be incumbent upon
+us, both for political and military reasons, to make use of all the
+troops and war material that the Native States can place at our
+disposal."</p>
+<br>
+<p>POSTSCRIPT</p>
+<p>On May 22, 1905, the <i>Times</i> published particulars
+concerning the Anglo-Afghan Treaty recently signed at Cabul. It
+renewed the compact made with the late Ameer, whereby he agreed to
+have no relations with any foreign Power except Great Britain, the
+latter agreeing to defend him against foreign aggression. The
+subsidy of &pound;120,000 a year is to be continued, but the
+present Ameer, Habibulla, henceforth receives a title equivalent to
+"King" and is styled "His Majesty."</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_311"></a><a href="#FNanchor311">[311]</a>
+General [Sir] J.L. Vaughan, in a Lecture on "Afghanistan and the
+Military Operations therein" (December 6, 1878), said of the
+Afghans: "When resolutely attacked they rarely hold their ground
+with any tenacity, and are always anxious about their rear."</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_312"></a><a href="#FNanchor312">[312]</a> Lord
+Roberts, <i>Forty-One Years in India</i>, vol. ii. p. 130 <i>et
+seq</i>.; Major J.A.S. Colquhoun, <i>With the Kurram Field Force,
+1878-79</i>, pp. 101-102.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_313"></a><a href="#FNanchor313">[313]</a> Lord
+Roberts, <i>op. cit.</i>, vol. ii. pp. 135-149; S.H. Shadbolt,
+<i>The Afghan Campaigns of 1878-80</i>, vol. i. pp. 21-25 (with
+plan).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_314"></a><a href="#FNanchor314">[314]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 7, (1879), p. 9. He also states on
+p. 172 that the advice of the Afghan officials who accompanied
+Shere Ali in his flight was (even in April-May 1879) favourable to
+a Russian alliance, and that they advised Yakub in this sense. See
+Kaufmann's letters to Yakub, in Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 9
+(1879).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_315"></a><a href="#FNanchor315">[315]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 7 (1879), p. 23; Roberts, <i>op.
+cit.</i> pp. 170-173.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_316"></a><a href="#FNanchor316">[316]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1880), pp. 32-42, 89-96.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_317"></a><a href="#FNanchor317">[317]</a>
+Roberts, <i>op. cit.</i> vol. ii. pp. 213-224; Hensman, <i>The
+Afghan War of 1878-1880</i>.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_318"></a><a href="#FNanchor318">[318]</a> See
+his adventures in <i>The Life of Abdur Rahman,</i> by Sultan
+Mohammed Khan, vol. ii, chaps, v., vi. He gave out that he came to
+expel the English (pp. 173-175).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_319"></a><a href="#FNanchor319">[319]</a>
+Roberts, <i>op. cit.</i> vol. ii. pp. 315-323.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_320"></a><a href="#FNanchor320">[320]</a>
+<i>The Life of Abdur Rahman</i>, vol. ii. pp. 197-98. For these
+negotiations and the final recognition, see Parl. Papers,
+Afghanistan, No. 1 (1881), pp. 16-51.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_321"></a><a href="#FNanchor321">[321]</a> "A
+ghazi is a man who, purely for the sake of his religion, kills an
+unbeliever, Kaffir, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, or Christian, in the
+belief that in so doing he gains a sure title to Paradise" (R.I.
+Bruce, <i>The Forward Policy</i>, p. 245).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_322"></a><a href="#FNanchor322">[322]</a>
+Report of General Primrose in Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 3
+(1880), p. 156.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_323"></a><a href="#FNanchor323">[323]</a> S.H.
+Shadbolt, <i>The Afghan Campaigns of</i> 1878-80, pp. 96-100. Parl.
+Papers, Afghanistan, No. 2 (1880), p. 21; No. 3, pp. 103-5; Lord
+Roberts, <i>op. cit.</i> vol. ii. pp. 333-5; Hensman, <i>op.
+cit.</i> pp. 553-4.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_324"></a><a href="#FNanchor324">[324]</a>
+<i>Colonel Sandeman: His Life and Work on our Indian Frontier,</i>
+by T.H. Thornton; R.I. Bruce, <i>The Forward Policy and its
+Results</i> (1900), chaps. iv. v.; <i>Candahar in 1879; being the
+Diary of Major Le Mesurier, R.E.</i> (1880). The last had reported
+in 1879 that the fortifications of Candahar were weak and the
+citadel in bad repair.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_325"></a><a href="#FNanchor325">[325]</a>
+Roberts, <i>op. cit.</i> vol. ii. p. 357.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_326"></a><a href="#FNanchor326">[326]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 3 (1880), p. 82. Hensman, <i>The
+Afghan War;</i> Shadbolt, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 108-110. The last
+reckons Ayub's force at 12,800, of whom 1200 were slain.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_327"></a><a href="#FNanchor327">[327]</a>
+Shadbolt, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 107.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_328"></a><a href="#FNanchor328">[328]</a> Lady
+B. Balfour, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 430, 445. On June 8 Lord Ripon
+arrived at Simla and took over the Viceroyalty from Lord Lytton;
+the latter was raised to an earldom.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_329"></a><a href="#FNanchor329">[329]</a> See
+Appendix; also Lord Hartington's speeches in the House of Commons,
+March 25-6, 1881</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_330"></a><a href="#FNanchor330">[330]</a>
+Abdur Rahman's own account (<i>op. cit.</i> ch. ix.) ascribes his
+triumph to his own skill and to Ayub's cowardice.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_331"></a><a href="#FNanchor331">[331]</a>
+<i>Eighteen Years in the Khyber Pass (1879-1898)</i>, by Colonel
+Sir R. Warburton, p. 213. The author's father had married a niece
+of the Ameer Dost Mohammed.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_332"></a><a href="#FNanchor332">[332]</a> Lord
+Lytton's speech in the House of Lords, Jan. 1881.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_333"></a><a href="#FNanchor333">[333]</a> This
+officer wrote to the <i>Globe</i> on January 25, 1881, stating that
+he had fortified two other posts east of Denghil Tepe. This led
+Skobeleff to push on to Askabad after the capture of that place;
+but he found no strongholds. See Marvin's <i>Russian Advance
+towards India</i>, p. 85.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_334"></a><a href="#FNanchor334">[334]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1880), pp. 167-173, 182.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_335"></a><a href="#FNanchor335">[335]</a>
+<i>Siege and Assault of Denghil Tepe</i>. By General Skobeleff
+(translated). London, 1881.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_336"></a><a href="#FNanchor336">[336]</a>
+<i>Russia in Central Asia in 1889</i>. By the Hon. G.N. Curzon
+(1889), p. 83.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_337"></a><a href="#FNanchor337">[337]</a> C.
+Marvin, <i>Merv, the Queen of the World</i> (1881); E. O'Donovan,
+<i>The Merv Oasis</i>, 2 vols. (1882-83), and <i>Merv</i>
+(1883).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_338"></a><a href="#FNanchor338">[338]</a> See
+his reports in Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1884), pp. 26,
+36, 39, 63, 96, 106.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_339"></a><a href="#FNanchor339">[339]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. p. 119.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_340"></a><a href="#FNanchor340">[340]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History</i>, vol. iii. pp.
+124, 133 (Eng. ed.).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_341"></a><a href="#FNanchor341">[341]</a> See
+Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1885), for General Lumsden's
+refutation of Komaroff's misstatements; also for the general
+accounts, <i>ibid</i>. No. 5 (1885), pp. 1-7.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_342"></a><a href="#FNanchor342">[342]</a> J.
+Morley, <i>Life of Gladstone</i>, vol. iii. p. 184.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_343"></a><a href="#FNanchor343">[343]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 4 (1885), pp. 41-72.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_344"></a><a href="#FNanchor344">[344]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: Some Secret Pages,</i> etc., vol. iii. p. 135.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_345"></a><a href="#FNanchor345">[345]</a> In
+his <i>Life</i> (vol. i, pp. 244-246) he also greatly blames
+British policy.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_346"></a><a href="#FNanchor346">[346]</a> See
+Col. A. Durand's <i>The Making of a Frontier</i> (1899), pp.
+41-43.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_347"></a><a href="#FNanchor347">[347]</a>
+Colquhoun, <i>Russia against India</i>, p. 170. Lord Curzon in 1894
+went over much of the ground between Sarrakhs and Candahar and
+found it quite easy for an army (except in food supply).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_348"></a><a href="#FNanchor348">[348]</a>
+<i>Op. cit.</i> p. 307. Other authorities differ as to the
+practicability of feeding so large a force even in the
+comparatively fertile districts of Herat and Candahar.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_349"></a><a href="#FNanchor349">[349]</a>
+<i>Life of Abdur Rahman,</i> vol. i. p. 287.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_350"></a><a href="#FNanchor350">[350]</a> For
+this work see <i>The Life of Sir R. Sandeman</i>; Sir R. Warburton,
+<i>Eighteen Years in the Khyber</i>; Durand, <i>op. cit.</i>;
+Bruce, <i>The Forward Policy and its Results</i>; Sir James
+Willcock's <i>From Cabul to Kumassi</i>; S.S. Thorburn, <i>The
+Punjab in Peace and War</i>.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_351"></a><a href="#FNanchor351">[351]</a>
+<i>The Relief of Chitral</i>, by Captains G.J. and F.E.
+Younghusband (1895).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_352"></a><a href="#FNanchor352">[352]</a> See
+<i>The Punjab in Peace and War</i>, by S.S. Thorburn, <i>ad
+fin.</i></p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_353"></a><a href="#FNanchor353">[353]</a> See
+<i>The Nineteenth Century and After</i> for May 1905.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page436" id="page436"></a>[pg
+436]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+<h3>BRITAIN IN EGYPT</h3>
+<br>
+<p>It will be well to begin the story of the expansion of the
+nations of Europe in Africa by a brief statement of the events
+which brought Britain to her present position in Egypt. As we have
+seen, the French conquest of Tunis, occurring a year earlier,
+formed the first of the many expeditions which inaugurated "the
+partition of Africa"--a topic which, as regards the west, centre,
+and south of that continent, will engage our attention
+subsequently. In this chapter and the following it will be
+convenient to bring together the facts concerning the valley of the
+Nile, a district which up to a recent time has had only a slight
+connection with the other parts of that mighty continent. In his
+quaint account of that mysterious land, Herodotus always spoke of
+it as distinct from Libya; and this aloofness has characterised
+Lower Egypt almost down to the present age, when the events which
+we are about to consider brought it into close touch with the
+equatorial regions.</p>
+<p>The story of the infiltration of British influence into Egypt is
+one of the most curious in all history. To this day, despite the
+recent agreement with France (1904), the position of England in the
+valley of the Lower Nile is irregular, in view of the undeniable
+fact that the Sultan is still the suzerain of that land. What is
+even stranger, it results from the gradual control which the
+purse-holder has imposed on the borrower. The power that holds the
+purse-strings counts for much in the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page437" id="page437"></a>[pg 437]</span> political world, as also
+elsewhere. Both in national and domestic affairs it ensures, in the
+last instance, the control of the earning department over the
+spending department. It is the <i>ultima ratio</i> of Parliaments
+and husbands.</p>
+<p>In order fully to understand the relations of Egypt to Turkey
+and to the purse-holders of the West, we must glance back at the
+salient events in her history for the past century. The first event
+that brought the land of the Pharaohs into the arena of European
+politics was the conquest by Bonaparte in 1798. He meant to make
+Egypt a flourishing colony, to have the Suez Canal cut, and to use
+Alexandria and Suez as bases of action against the British
+possessions in India. This daring design was foiled by Nelson's
+victory at the Nile, and by the Abercromby-Hutchinson expedition of
+1801, which compelled the surrender of the French army left by
+Bonaparte in Egypt. The three years of French occupation had no
+great political results except the awakening of British
+statesmanship to a sense of the value of Egypt for the safeguarding
+of India. They also served to weaken the power of the Mamelukes, a
+Circassian military caste which had reduced the Sultan's authority
+over Egypt to a mere shadow. The ruin of this warlike cavalry was
+gradually completed by an Albanian soldier of fortune named
+Mohammed Ali, who, first in the name of the Sultan, and later in
+defiance of his power, gradually won the allegiance of the
+different races of Egypt and made himself virtually ruler of the
+land. This powerful Pasha conquered the northern part of the Sudan,
+and founded Khartum as the southern bulwark of his realm (1823). He
+seems to have grasped the important fact that, as Egypt depends
+absolutely on the waters poured down by the Nile in its periodic
+floods, her rulers must control that river in its upper reaches--an
+idea also held by the ablest of the Pharaohs. To secure this
+control, what place could be so suitable as Khartum, at the
+junction of the White and Blue Niles?</p>
+<p>Mohammed Ali was able to build up an army and navy, which in
+1841 was on the point of overthrowing Turkish <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page438" id="page438"></a>[pg 438]</span> power
+in Syria, when Great Britain intervened, and by the capture of Acre
+compelled the ambitious Pasha to abandon his northern schemes and
+own once more the suzerainty of the Porte. The Sultan, however,
+acknowledged that the Pashalic of Egypt should be hereditary in his
+family. We may remark here that England and France had nearly come
+to blows over the Syrian question of that year; but, thanks to the
+firm demeanour of Lord Palmerston, their rivalry ended, as in 1801,
+in the triumph of British influence and the assertion of the
+nominal ascendancy of the Sultan in Egypt. Mohammed was to pay his
+lord &pound;363,000 a year. He died in 1849.</p>
+<p>No great event took place during the rule of the next Pashas, or
+Khedives as they were now termed, Abbas I. (1849-54), and Said
+(1854-63), except that M. de Lesseps, a French engineer, gained the
+consent of Said in 1856 to the cutting of a ship canal, the
+northern entrance to which bears the name of that Khedive. Owing to
+the rivalry of Britain and France over the canal it was not
+finished until 1869, during the rule of Ismail (1863-79). We may
+note here that, as the concession was granted to the Suez Canal
+Company only for ninety-nine years, the canal will become the
+property of the Egyptian Government in the year 1968.</p>
+<p>The opening of the canal placed Egypt once more on one of the
+greatest highways of the world's commerce, and promised to bring
+endless wealth to her ports. That hope has not been fulfilled. The
+profits have gone almost entirely to the foreign investors, and a
+certain amount of trade has been withdrawn from the Egyptian
+railways. Sir John Stokes, speaking in 1887, said he found in Egypt
+a prevalent impression that the country had been injured by the
+canal<a name="FNanchor354"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_354">[354]</a>.</p>
+<p>Certainly Egypt was less prosperous after its opening, but
+probably owing to another and mightier event which occurred at the
+beginning of Ismail's rule. This was the American Civil War. The
+blockade of the Southern States by the federal cruisers cut off
+from Lancashire and Northern France the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page439" id="page439"></a>[pg 439]</span>
+supplies of raw cotton which are the life-blood of their
+industries. Cotton went up in price until even the conservative
+fellahin of Egypt saw the desirability of growing that strange new
+shrub--the first instance on record of a change in their tillage
+that came about without compulsion. So great were the profits
+reaped by intelligent growers that many fellahin bought Circassian
+and Abyssinian wives, and established harems in which jewels,
+perfumes, silks, and mirrors were to be found. In a word, Egypt
+rioted in its new-found wealth. This may be imagined from the
+totals of exports, which in three years rose from &pound;4,500,000
+to considerably more than &pound;13,000,000<a name=
+"FNanchor355"></a><a href="#Footnote_355">[355]</a>.</p>
+<p>But then came the end of the American Civil War. Cotton fell to
+its normal price, and ruin stared Egypt in the face. For not only
+merchants and fellahin, but also their ruler, had plunged into
+expenditure, and on the most lavish scale. Nay! Believing that the
+Suez Canal would bring boundless wealth to his land, Ismail
+persisted in his palace-building and other forms of oriental
+extravagance, with the result that in the first twelve years of his
+reign, that is, by the year 1875, he had spent more than
+&pound;100,000,000 of public money, of which scarcely one-tenth had
+been applied to useful ends. The most noteworthy of these last were
+the Barrage of the Nile in the upper part of the Delta, an
+irrigation canal in Upper Egypt, the Ibrahimiyeh Canal, and the
+commencement of the Wady Haifa-Khartum railway. The grandeur of his
+views may be realised when it is remembered that he ordered this
+railway to be made of the same gauge as those of South Africa,
+because "it would save trouble in the end."</p>
+<p>As to the sudden fall in the price of cotton, his only expedient
+for making good the loss was to grow sugar on a great scale, but
+this was done so unwisely as to increase the deficits. As a natural
+consequence, the Egyptian debt, which at his accession stood at
+&pound;3,000,000, reached the extraordinary sum of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page440" id="page440"></a>[pg 440]</span>
+&pound;89,000,000 in the year 1876, and that, too, despite the
+increase of the land tax by one-half. All the means which oriental
+ingenuity has devised for the systematic plunder of a people were
+now put in force; so that Sir Alfred Milner (now Lord Milner),
+after unequalled opportunities of studying the Egyptian Question,
+declared: "There is nothing in the financial history of any
+country, from the remotest ages to the present time, to equal this
+carnival of extravagance and oppression<a name=
+"FNanchor356"></a><a href="#Footnote_356">[356]</a>."</p>
+<p>The Khedive himself had to make some sacrifices of a private
+nature, and one of these led to an event of international
+importance. Towards the close of the year 1875 he decided to sell
+the 177,000 shares which he held in the Suez Canal Company. In the
+first place he offered them secretly to the French Government for
+100,000,000 francs; and the Foreign Minister, the Duc Decazes, it
+seems, wished to buy them; but the Premier, M. Buffet, and other
+Ministers hesitated, perhaps in view of the threats of war from
+Germany, which had alarmed all responsible men. In any case, France
+lost her chance<a name="FNanchor357"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_357">[357]</a>. Fortunately for Great Britain, news of
+the affair was sent to one of her ablest journalists, Mr. Frederick
+Greenwood, who at once begged Lord Derby, then Minister for Foreign
+Affairs, to grant him an interview. The result was an urgent
+message from Lord Derby to Colonel Staunton, the British envoy in
+Egypt, to find out the truth from the Khedive himself. The tidings
+proved to be correct, and the Beaconsfield Cabinet at once
+sanctioned the purchase of the shares for the sum of close on
+&pound;4,000,000.</p>
+<p>It is said that the French envoy to Egypt was playing billiards
+when he heard of the purchase, and in his rage he broke his cue in
+half. His anger was natural, quite apart from financial
+considerations. In that respect the purchase has been a brilliant
+success; for the shares are now worth more than &pound;30,000,000,
+and yield an annual return of about a million <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page441" id="page441"></a>[pg 441]</span>
+sterling; but this monetary gain is as nothing when compared with
+the influence which the United Kingdom has gained in the affairs of
+a great undertaking whereby M. de Lesseps hoped to assure the
+ascendancy of France in Egypt.</p>
+<p>The facts of history, it should be noted, lent support to this
+contention of "the great Frenchman." The idea of the canal had
+originated with Napoleon I., and it was revived with much energy by
+the followers of the French philosopher, St. Simon, in the years
+1833-37<a name="FNanchor358"></a><a href="#Footnote_358">[358]</a>.
+The project, however, then encountered the opposition of British
+statesmen, as it did from the days of Pitt to those of Palmerston.
+This was not unnatural; for it promised to bring back to the ports
+of the Mediterranean the preponderant share in the eastern trade
+which they had enjoyed before the discovery of the route by the
+Cape of Good Hope. The political and commercial interests of
+England were bound up with the sea route, especially after the Cape
+was definitively assigned to her by the Peace of Paris of 1814; but
+she could not see with indifference the control by France of a
+canal which would divert trade once more to the old overland route.
+That danger was now averted by the financial <i>coup</i> just
+noticed--an affair which may prove to have been scarcely less
+important in a political sense than Nelson's victory at the
+Nile.</p>
+<p>In truth, the Sea Power has made up for her defects of position
+as regards Egypt by four great strokes--the triumph of her great
+admiral, the purchase of Ismail's canal shares, the repression of
+Arabi's revolt, and Lord Kitchener's victory at Omdurman. The
+present writer has not refrained from sharp criticism on British
+policy in the period 1870-1900; and the Egyptian policy of the
+Cabinets of Queen Victoria has been at times open to grave censure;
+but, on the whole, it has come out well, thanks to the ability of
+individuals to supply the qualities of foresight, initiative, and
+unswerving persistence, in which Ministers since the time of
+Chatham have rarely excelled.</p>
+<p>The sale of Ismail's canal shares only served to stave off the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page442" id="page442"></a>[pg
+442]</span> impending crash which would have formed the natural
+sequel to this new "South Sea Bubble." All who took part in this
+carnival of folly ought to have suffered alike, Ismail and his beys
+along with the stock-jobbers and dividend-hunters of London and
+Paris. In an ordinary case these last would have lost their money;
+but in this instance the borrower was weak and dependent, while the
+lenders were in a position to stir up two powerful Governments to
+action. Nearly the whole of the Egyptian loans was held in England
+and France; and in 1876, when Ismail was floating swiftly down
+stream to the abyss of bankruptcy, the British and French
+bondholders cast about them for means to secure their own safety.
+They organised themselves for the protection of their interests.
+The Khedive consented to hear the advice of their representatives,
+Messrs. Goschen and Joubert; but it was soon clear that he desired
+merely a comfortable liquidation and the continuance of his present
+expenditure.</p>
+<p>That year saw the institution of the "Caisse de la Dette," with
+power to receive the revenue set aside for the service of the debt,
+and to sanction or forbid new loans; and in the month of November
+1876 the commission of bondholders took the form of the "Dual
+Control." In 1878 a Commission was appointed with power to examine
+the whole of the Egyptian administration. It met with the strongest
+opposition from the Khedive, until in the next year means were
+found to bring about his abdication by the act of the Sultan (June
+26, 1879). His successor was his son Tewfik (1879-92).</p>
+<p>On their side the bondholders had to submit to a reduction of
+rates of interest to a uniform rate of 4 per cent on the Unified
+Debt. Even so, it was found in the year 1881--a prosperous
+year--that about half of the Egyptian revenue, then
+&pound;9,229,000, had to be diverted to the payment of that
+interest<a name="FNanchor359"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_359">[359]</a>. Again, one must remark that such a
+situation in an overtaxed <span class="pagenum"><a name="page443"
+id="page443"></a>[pg 443]</span> country would naturally end in
+bankruptcy; but this was prevented by foreign control, which sought
+to cut down expenditure in all directions. As a natural result,
+many industries suffered from the lack of due support; for even in
+the silt-beds formed by the Nile (and they are the real Egypt)
+there is need of capital to bring about due results. In brief, the
+popular discontent gave strength to a movement which aimed at
+ousting foreign influences of every kind, not only the usurers and
+stock-jobbers that sucked the life-blood of the land, but even the
+engineers and bankers who quickened its sluggish circulation. This
+movement was styled a national movement; and its abettors raised
+that cry of "Egypt for Egyptians," which has had its counterpart
+wherever selfish patriots seek to keep all the good things of the
+land to themselves. The Egyptian troubles of the year 1882
+originated partly in feelings of this narrow kind, and partly in
+the jealousies and strifes of military cliques.</p>
+<p>Sir D. Mackenzie Wallace, after carefully investigating the
+origin of the "Arabi movement," came to the conclusion that it was
+to be found in the determination of the native Egyptian officers to
+force their way to the higher grades of that army, hitherto
+reserved for Turks or Circassians. Said and Ismail had favoured the
+rise of the best soldiers of the fellahin class (that is, natives),
+and several of them, on becoming colonels, aimed at yet higher
+posts. This aroused bitter resentment in the dominant Turkish
+caste, which looked on the fellahin as born to pay taxes and bear
+burdens. Under the masterful Ismail these jealousies were hidden;
+but the young and inexperienced Tewfik, the nominee of the rival
+Western Powers, was unable to bridle the restless spirits of the
+army, who looked around them for means to strengthen their position
+at the expense of their rivals. These jealousies were inflamed by
+the youthful caprice of Tewfik. At first he extended great favour
+to Ali Fehmi, an officer of fellah descent, only to withdraw it
+owing to the intrigues of a Circassian rival. Ali Fehmi sought for
+revenge by forming a cabal with other <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page444" id="page444"></a>[pg 444]</span> fellah
+colonels, among whom a popular leader soon came to the front. This
+was Arabi Bey.</p>
+<p>Arabi's frame embodied the fine animal qualities of the better
+class of fellahin, but to these he added mental gifts of no mean
+order. After imbibing the rather narrow education of a devout
+Moslem, he formed some acquaintance with western thought, and from
+it his facile mind selected a stock of ideas which found ready
+expression in conversation. His soft dreamy eyes and fluent speech
+rarely failed to captivate men of all classes<a name=
+"FNanchor360"></a><a href="#Footnote_360">[360]</a>. His popularity
+endowed the discontented camarilla with new vigour, enabling it to
+focus all the discontented elements, and to become a movement of
+almost national import. Yet Arabi was its spokesman, or
+figure-head, rather than the actual propelling power. He seems to
+have been to a large extent the dupe of schemers who pushed him on
+for their own advantage. At any rate it is significant that after
+his fall he declared that British supremacy was the one thing
+needful for Egypt; and during his old age, passed in Ceylon, he
+often made similar statements<a name="FNanchor361"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_361">[361]</a>.</p>
+<p>The Khedive's Ministers, hearing of the intrigues of the
+discontented officers, resolved to arrest their chiefs; but on the
+secret leaking out, the offenders turned the tables on the
+authorities, and with soldiers at their back demanded the dismissal
+of the Minister of War and the redress of their chief
+grievance--the undue promotion of Turks and Circassians.</p>
+<p>The Khedive felt constrained to yield, and agreed to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page445" id="page445"></a>[pg
+445]</span> appointment of a Minister of War who was a secret
+friend of the plotters. They next ventured on a military
+demonstration in front of the Khedive's palace, with a view to
+extorting the dismissal of the able and energetic Prime Minister,
+Riaz Pasha. Again Tewfik yielded, and consented to the appointment
+of the weak and indolent Sherif Pasha. To consolidate their triumph
+the mutineers now proposed measures which would please the
+populace. Chief among them was a plan for instituting a
+consultative National Assembly. This would serve as a check on the
+Dual Control and on the young Khedive, whom it had placed in his
+present ambiguous position.</p>
+<p>A Chamber of Notables met in the closing days of 1881, and
+awakened great hopes, not only in Egypt, but among all who saw hope
+in the feeling of nationality and in a genuine wish for reform
+among a Moslem people. What would have happened had the Notables
+been free to work out the future of Egypt, it is impossible to say.
+The fate of the Young Turkish party and of Midhat's constitution of
+December 1877 formed by no means a hopeful augury. In the abstract
+there is much to be said for the two chief demands of the
+Notables--that the Khedive's Ministers should be responsible to the
+people's representatives, and that the Dual Control of Great
+Britain and France should be limited to the control of the revenues
+set apart for the purposes of the Egyptian public debt. The
+petitioners, however, ignored the fact that democracy could
+scarcely be expected to work successfully in a land where not one
+man in a hundred had the least notion what it meant, and, further,
+that the Western Powers would not give up their coign of vantage at
+the bidding of Notables who really represented little more than the
+dominant military party. Besides, the acts of this party stamped it
+as oriental even while it masqueraded in the garb of western
+democracy. Having grasped the reins of government, the fellahin
+colonels proceeded to relegate their Turkish and Circassian rivals
+to service at Khartum--an ingenious form of banishment. Against
+this and other despotic acts the representatives of Great Britain
+and France <span class="pagenum"><a name="page446" id=
+"page446"></a>[pg 446]</span> energetically protested, and, seeing
+that the Khedive was helpless, they brought up ships of war to make
+a demonstration against the <i>de facto</i> governors of Egypt.</p>
+<p>It should be noted that these steps were taken by the Gladstone
+and Gambetta Cabinets, which were not likely to intervene against a
+genuinely democratic movement merely in the interests of British
+and French bondholders. On January 7, 1882, the two Cabinets sent a
+Joint Note to the Khedive assuring him of their support and of
+their desire to remove all grievances, external and internal alike,
+that threatened the existing order<a name=
+"FNanchor362"></a><a href="#Footnote_362">[362]</a>.</p>
+<p>While, however, the Western Powers sided with the Khedive, the
+other European States, including Turkey, began to show signs of
+impatience and annoyance at any intervention on their part. Russia
+saw the chance of revenge on England for the events of 1878, and
+Bismarck sought to gain the favour of the Sultan. As for that
+potentate, his conduct was as tortuous as usual. From the outset he
+gave secret support to Arabi's party, probably with the view of
+undermining the Dual Control and the Khedive's dynasty alike. He
+doubtless saw that Turkish interests might ultimately be furthered
+even by the men who had imprisoned or disgraced Turkish officers
+and Ministers.</p>
+<p>Possibly the whole question might have been peaceably solved had
+Gambetta remained in power; for he was strongly in favour of a
+joint Anglo-French intervention in case the disorders continued.
+The Gladstone Government at that time demurred to such
+intervention, and claimed that it would come more legally from
+Turkey, or, if this were undesirable, from all the Powers; but this
+divergence of view did not prevent the two Governments from acting
+together on several matters. Gambetta, however, fell from power at
+the end of January 1882, and his far weaker successor, de
+Freycinet, having to face a most complex parliamentary situation in
+France and the possible hostility of the other Powers, drew back
+from the leading <span class="pagenum"><a name="page447" id=
+"page447"></a>[pg 447]</span> position which Gambetta's bolder
+policy had accorded to France. The vacillations at Paris tended
+alike to weaken Anglo-French action and to encourage the Arabi
+party and the Sultan. As matters went from bad to worse in Egypt,
+the British Foreign Minister, Lord Granville, proposed on May 24
+that the Powers should sanction an occupation of Egypt by Turkish
+troops. To this M. de Freycinet demurred, and, while declaring that
+France would not send an expedition, proposed that a European
+Conference should be held on the Egyptian Question.</p>
+<p>The Gladstone Cabinet at once agreed to this, and the Conference
+met for a short time at the close of June, but without the
+participation of Turkey<a name="FNanchor363"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_363">[363]</a>. For the Sultan, hoping that the
+divisions of the Powers would enable him to restore Turkish
+influence in Egypt, now set his emissaries to work to arouse there
+the Moslem fanaticism which he has so profitably exploited in all
+parts of his Empire. A Turkish Commission had been sent to inquire
+into matters--with the sole result of enriching the chief
+commissioner. In brief, thanks to the perplexities and hesitations
+of the Western Powers and the ill-humour manifested by Germany and
+Russia, Europe was helpless, and the Arabi party felt that they had
+the game in their own hands. Bismarck said to his secretary, Busch,
+on June 8: "They [the British] set about the affair in an awkward
+way, and have got on a wrong track by sending their ironclads to
+Alexandria, and now, finding that there is nothing to be done, they
+want the rest of Europe to help them out of their difficulty by
+means of a Conference<a name="FNanchor364"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_364">[364]</a>."</p>
+<p>Already, on May 27, the Egyptian malcontents had ventured on a
+great military demonstration against the Khedive, which led to
+Arabi being appointed Minister of War. His followers also sought to
+inflame the hatred to foreigners for which the greed of Greek and
+Jewish usurers was so largely responsible. The results perhaps
+surpassed the hopes of the Egyptian <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page448" id="page448"></a>[pg 448]</span> nationalists. Moslem
+fanaticism suddenly flashed into flame. On the 11th of June a street
+brawl between a Moslem and a Maltese led to a fierce rising. The
+"true believers" attacked the houses of the Europeans, secured a
+great quantity of loot, and killed about fifty of them, including
+men from the British squadron. The English party that always calls
+out for non-intervention made vigorous efforts at that time, and
+subsequently, to represent this riot and massacre as a mere passing
+event which did not seriously compromise the welfare of Egypt; but
+Sir Alfred Milner in his calm and judicial survey of the whole
+question states that the fears then entertained by Europeans in
+Egypt "so far from being exaggerated, . . . perhaps even fell short
+of the danger which was actually impending<a name=
+"FNanchor365"></a><a href="#Footnote_365">[365]</a>."</p>
+<p>The events at Alexandria and Tantah made armed intervention
+inevitable. Nothing could be hoped for from Turkey. The Sultan's
+special envoy, Dervish Pasha, had arrived in Egypt only a few days
+before the outbreak; and after that occurrence Abdul Hamid thought
+fit to send a decoration to Arabi. Encouraged by the support of
+Turkey and by the well-known jealousies of the Powers, the military
+party now openly prepared to defy Europe. They had some grounds for
+hope. Every one knew that France was in a very cautious mood,
+having enough on her hands in Tunis and Algeria, while her
+relations to England had rapidly cooled<a name=
+"FNanchor366"></a><a href="#Footnote_366">[366]</a>. Germany,
+Russia, and Austria seemed to be acting together according to an
+understanding arrived at by the three Emperors after their meeting
+at Danzig in 1881; and Germany had begun that work of favouring the
+Sultan which enabled her to supplant British influence at
+Constantinople. Accordingly, few persons, least of all Arabi,
+believed that the Gladstone Cabinet would dare to act alone and
+strike a decisive blow. But they counted wrongly. Gladstone's
+toleration in regard to foreign affairs <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page449" id="page449"></a>[pg 449]</span> was
+large-hearted, but it had its limits. He now declared in Parliament
+that Arabi had thrown off the mask and was evidently working to
+depose the Khedive and oust all Europeans from Egypt; England would
+intervene to prevent this--if possible with the authority of
+Europe, with the support of France, and the co-operation of Turkey;
+but, if necessary, alone<a name="FNanchor367"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_367">[367]</a>.</p>
+<p>Even this clear warning was lost on Arabi and his following.
+Believing that Britain was too weak, and her Ministry too
+vacillating, to make good these threats, they proceeded to arm the
+populace and strengthen the forts of Alexandria. Sir Beauchamp
+Seymour, now at the head of a strong squadron, reported to London
+that these works were going on in a threatening manner, and on July
+6 sent a demand to Arabi that the operations should cease at once.
+To this Arabi at once acceded. Nevertheless, the searchlight, when
+suddenly turned on, showed that work was going on at night. A
+report of an Egyptian officer was afterwards found in one of the
+forts, in which he complained of the use of the electric light by
+the English as distinctly discourteous. It may here be noted that
+M. de Freycinet, in his jaundiced survey of British action at this
+time, seeks to throw doubt on the resumption of work by Arabi's
+men. But Admiral Seymour's reports leave no loophole for doubt.
+Finally, on July 10, the admiral demanded, not only the cessation
+of hostile preparations, but the surrender of some of the forts
+into British hands. The French fleet now left the harbour and
+steamed for Port Said. Most of the Europeans of Alexandria had
+withdrawn to ships provided for them; and on the morrow, when the
+last of the twenty-four hours of grace brought no submission, the
+British fleet opened fire at 7 A.M.</p>
+<p>The ensuing action is of great interest as being one of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page450" id="page450"></a>[pg
+450]</span> very few cases in modern warfare where ships have
+successfully encountered modern forts. The seeming helplessness of
+the British unarmoured ships before Cronstadt during the Crimean
+War, their failure before the forts of Sevastopol, and the
+uselessness of the French navy during the war of 1870, had spread
+the notion that warships could not overpower modern fortifications.
+Probably this impression lay at the root of Arabi's defiance. He
+had some grounds for confidence. The British fleet consisted of
+eight battleships (of which only the <i>Inflexible</i> and
+<i>Alexandra</i> were of great fighting power), along with five
+unarmoured vessels. The forts mounted 33 rifled muzzle-loading
+guns, 3 rifled breech-loaders, and 120 old smooth-bores. The
+advantage in gun-power lay with the ships, especially as the
+sailors were by far the better marksmen. Yet so great is the
+superiority of forts over ships that the engagement lasted five
+hours or more (7 A.M. till noon) before most of the forts were
+silenced more or less completely. Fort Pharos continued to fire
+till 4 P.M. On the whole, the Egyptian gunners stood manfully to
+their guns. Considering the weight of metal thrown against the
+forts, namely, 1741 heavy projectiles and 1457 light, the damage
+done to them was not great, only 27 cannon being silenced
+completely, and 5 temporarily. On the other hand, the ships were
+hit only 75 times and lost only 6 killed and 27 wounded. The
+results show that the comparatively distant cannonades of to-day,
+even with great guns, are far less deadly than the old sea-fights
+when ships were locked yard-arm to yard-arm.</p>
+<p>[Illustration: BATTLE OF ALEXANDRIA (BOMBARDMENT OF, 1882).]</p>
+<p>Had Admiral Seymour at once landed a force of marines and
+bluejackets, all the forts would probably have been surrendered at
+once. For some reason not fully known, this was not done. Spasmodic
+firing began again in the morning, but a truce was before long
+arranged, which proved to be only a device for enabling Arabi and
+his troops to escape. The city, meanwhile, was the scene of a
+furious outbreak against Europeans, in which some 400 or 500
+persons perished. Damage, afterwards assessed at &pound;7,000,000,
+was done by fire</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page451" id="page451"></a>[pg
+451]</span>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/451.png" width="80%" alt=""><br>
+<b>Battle of Alexandria (Bombardment of, 1882)</b></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page452" id="page452"></a>[pg
+452]</span>
+<p>and pillage. It was not till the 14th that the admiral, after
+receiving reinforcements, felt able to send troops into the city,
+when a few severe examples cowed the plunderers and restored order.
+The Khedive, who had shut himself up in his palace at Ramleh, now
+came back to the seaport under the escort of a British force, and
+thenceforth remained virtually, though not in name, under British
+protection.</p>
+<p>The bombardment of Alexandria brought about the resignation of
+that sturdy Quaker, and friend of peace, Mr. John Bright from the
+Gladstone Ministry; but everything tends to show (as even M. de
+Freycinet admits) that the crisis took Ministers by surprise.
+Nothing was ready at home for an important campaign; and it would
+seem that hostilities resulted, firstly, from the violence of
+Arabi's supporters in Alexandria, and, secondly, from their
+persistence in warlike preparations which might have endangered the
+safety of Admiral Seymour's fleet. The situation was becoming like
+that of 1807 at the Dardanelles, when the Turks gave smooth
+promises to Admiral Duckworth, all the time strengthening their
+forts, with very disagreeable results. Probably the analogy of
+1807, together with the proven perfidy of Arabi's men, brought on
+hostilities, which the British Ministers up to the end were anxious
+to avoid.</p>
+<p>In any case, the die was now cast, and England entered
+questioningly on a task, the magnitude and difficulty of which no
+one could then foresee. She entered on it alone, and that, too,
+though the Gladstone Ministry had made pressing overtures for the
+help of France, at any rate as regarded the protection of the Suez
+Canal. To this extent, de Freycinet and his colleagues were
+prepared to lend their assistance; but, despite Gambetta's urgent
+appeal for common action with England at that point, the Chamber of
+Deputies still remained in a cautiously negative mood, and to that
+frame of mind M. Cl&eacute;menceau added strength by a speech
+ending with a glorification of prudence. "Europe," he said, "is
+covered with soldiers; every one is in a state of expectation; all
+the Power <span class="pagenum"><a name="page453" id=
+"page453"></a>[pg 453]</span> are reserving their future liberty of
+action; do you reserve the liberty of action of France." The
+restricted co-operation with England which the Cabinet recommended
+found favour with only seventy-five deputies; and, when face to
+face with a large hostile majority, de Freycinet and his colleagues
+resigned (July 29, 1882)<a name="FNanchor368"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_368">[368]</a>. Prudence, fear of the newly-formed
+Triple Alliance, or jealousy of England, drew France aside from the
+path to which her greatest captains, thinkers, and engineers had
+beckoned her in time past. Whatever the predominant motive may have
+been, it altered the course of history in the valley of the
+Nile.</p>
+<p>After the refusal of France to co-operate with England even to
+the smallest extent, the Conference of the Powers became a nullity,
+and its sessions ceased despite the lack of any formal
+adjournment<a name="FNanchor369"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_369">[369]</a>. Here, as on so many other occasions, the
+Concert of the Powers displayed its weakness; and there can be no
+doubt that the Sultan and Arabi counted on that weakness in playing
+the dangerous game which brought matters to the test of the sword.
+The jealousies of the Powers now stood fully revealed. Russia
+entered a vigorous protest against England's action at Alexandria;
+Italy evinced great annoyance, and at once repelled a British
+proposal for her co-operation; Germany also showed much resentment,
+and turned the situation to profitable account by substituting her
+influence for that of Britain in the counsels of the Porte. The
+Sultan, thwarted in the midst of his tortuous intrigues for a great
+Moslem revival, showed his spleen and his diplomatic skill by
+loftily protesting against Britain's violation of international
+law, and thereafter by refusing (August 1) to proclaim Arabi a
+rebel against the Khedive's authority. The essential timidity of
+Abdul Hamid's nature in presence of superior force was shown by a
+subsequent change of front. On hearing of British successes, he
+placed Arabi under the ban (September 8).</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, the British expedition of some 10,000 men,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page454" id="page454"></a>[pg
+454]</span> despatched to Egypt under the command of Sir Garnet
+Wolseley made as though it would attack Arabi from Alexandria as a
+base. But on nearing that port at nightfall it steered about and
+occupied Port Said (August 15). Kantara and Ismailia, on the canal,
+were speedily seized; and the Seaforth Highlanders by a rapid march
+occupied Chalouf and prevented the cutting of the freshwater canal
+by the rebels. Thenceforth the little army had the advantage of
+marching near fresh water, and by a route on which Arabi was not at
+first expecting them. Sir Garnet Wolseley's movements were of that
+quick and decisive order which counts for so much against
+orientals. A sharp action at Tel-el-Mahuta obliged Arabi's forces,
+some 10,000 strong, to abandon entrenchments thrown up at that
+point (August 24).</p>
+<p>Four days later there was desperate fighting at Kassassin Lock
+on the freshwater canal. There the Egyptians flung themselves in
+large numbers against a small force sent forward under General
+Graham to guard that important point. The assailants fought with
+the recklessness begotten by the proclamation of a holy war against
+infidels, and for some time the issue remained in doubt. At length,
+about sundown, three squadrons of the Household Cavalry, and the
+7th Dragoon Guards, together with four light guns, were hastily
+sent forward from the main body in the rear to clinch the affair.
+General Drury Lowe wheeled this little force round the left flank
+of the enemy, and, coming up unperceived in the gathering darkness,
+charged with such fury as to scatter the hostile array in instant
+rout<a name="FNanchor370"></a><a href="#Footnote_370">[370]</a>.
+The enemy fell back on the entrenchments at Tel-el-Kebir, while the
+whole British force (including a division from India) concentrated
+at Kassassin, 17,400 strong, with 61 guns and 6 Gatlings.</p>
+<p>The final action took place on September 13, at Tel-el-Kebir.
+There Arabi had thrown up a double line of earthworks of some
+strength, covering about four miles, and lay with a force that has
+been estimated at 20,000 to 25,000 regulars and 7000 <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page455" id="page455"></a>[pg 455]</span>
+irregulars. Had the assailants marched across the desert and
+attacked these works by day, they must have sustained heavy losses.
+Sir Garnet therefore determined to try the effect of a surprise at
+dawn, and moved his men forward after sunset of the 12th until they
+came within striking distance of the works. After a short rest they
+resumed their advance shortly before the time when the first
+streaks of dawn would appear on the eastern sky. At about 500 yards
+from the works, the advance was dimly silhouetted against the
+paling orient. Shortly before five o'clock, an Egyptian rifle rang
+out a sharp warning, and forthwith the entrenchments spurted forth
+smoke and flame. At once the British answered by a cheer and a rush
+over the intervening ground, each regiment eager to be the first to
+ply the bayonet. The Highlanders, under the command of General
+Graham, were leading on the left, and therefore won in this race
+for glory; but on all sides the invaders poured almost
+simultaneously over the works. For several minutes there was sharp
+fighting on the parapet; but the British were not to be denied, and
+drove before them the defenders as a kind of living screen against
+the fire that came from the second entrenchments; these they
+carried also, and thrust the whole mass out into the desert<a name=
+"FNanchor371"></a><a href="#Footnote_371">[371]</a>. There hundreds
+of them fell under the sabres of the British cavalry which swept
+down from the northern end of the lines; but the pursuit was
+neither prolonged nor sanguinary. Sir Garnet Wolseley was satisfied
+with the feat of dissolving Arabi's army into an armed or unarmed
+rabble by a single sharp blow, and now kept horses and men for
+further eventualities.</p>
+<p>By one of those flashes of intuition that mark the born leader
+of men, the British commander perceived that the whole war might be
+ended if a force of cavalry pushed on to Cairo and demanded the
+surrender of its citadel at the moment when the news of the
+disaster at Tel-el-Kebir unmanned its defenders. The conception
+must rank as one of the most daring recorded <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page456" id="page456"></a>[pg 456]</span> in the
+annals of war. In the ancient capital of Egypt there were more than
+300,000 Moslems, lately aroused to dangerous heights of fanaticism
+by the proclamation of a "holy war" against infidels. Its great
+citadel, towering some 250 feet above the city, might seem to bid
+defiance to all the horsemen of the British army. Finally, Arabi
+had repaired thither in order to inspire vigour into a garrison
+numbering some 10,000 men. Nevertheless, Wolseley counted on the
+moral effect of his victory to level the ramparts of the citadel
+and to abase the mushroom growth of Arabi's pride.</p>
+<p>His surmise was more than justified by events. While his Indian
+contingent pushed on to occupy Zagazig, Sir Drury Lowe, with a
+force mustering fewer than 500 sabres, pressed towards Cairo by a
+desert road in order to summon it on the morrow. After halting at
+Belbe&iuml;s the troopers gave rein to their steeds; and a ride of
+nearly 40 miles brought them to the city about sundown. Rumour
+magnified their numbers; while the fatalism that used to nerve the
+Moslem in his great days now predisposed him to bow the knee and
+mutter <i>Kismet</i> at the advent of the seemingly predestined
+masters of Egypt. To this small, wearied, but lordly band Cairo
+surrendered, and Arabi himself handed over his sword. On the
+following day the infantry came up and made good this precarious
+conquest.</p>
+<p>In presence of this startling triumph the Press of the Continent
+sought to find grounds for the belief that Arabi, and Cairo as
+well, had been secretly bought over by British gold. It is somewhat
+surprising to find M. de Freycinet<a name=
+"FNanchor372"></a><a href="#Footnote_372">[372]</a> repeating
+to-day this piece of spiteful silliness, which might with as much
+reason be used to explain away the victories of Clive and Coote,
+Outram and Havelock. The slanders of continental writers themselves
+stand in need of explanation. It is to be found in their annoyance
+at discovering that England had an army which could carry through a
+difficult campaign to a speedy and triumphant conclusion. Their
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page457" id="page457"></a>[pg
+457]</span> typical attitude had been that of Bismarck, namely, of
+exultation at her difficulties and of hope of her discomfiture. Now
+their tone changed to one of righteous indignation at the
+irregularity of her conduct in acting on behalf of Europe without
+any mandate from the Powers, and in using the Suez Canal as a base
+of operations.</p>
+<p>In this latter respect Britain's conduct was certainly open to
+criticism<a name="FNanchor373"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_373">[373]</a>. On the other hand, it is doubtful
+whether Arabi would have provoked her to action had he not been
+tacitly encouraged by the other Powers, which, while professing
+their wish to see order restored in Egypt, in most cases secretly
+sought to increase her difficulties in undertaking that task. As
+for the Sultan, he had now trimmed his sails by declaring Arabi a
+rebel to the Khedive's authority; and in due course that officer
+was tried, found guilty, and exiled to Ceylon early in 1883. The
+conduct of France, Germany, and Russia, if we may judge by the tone
+of their officially inspired Press, was scarcely more
+straightforward, and was certainly less discreet. On all sides
+there were diatribes against Britain's high-handed and lawless
+behaviour, and some German papers affected to believe that Hamburg
+might next be chosen for bombardment by the British fleet. These
+outbursts, in the case of Germany, may have been due to Bismarck's
+desire to please Russia, and secondarily France, in all possible
+ways. It is doubtful whether he gained this end. Certainly he and
+his underlings in the Press widened the gulf that now separated the
+two great Teutonic peoples.</p>
+<p>The annoyance of France was more natural. She had made the Suez
+Canal, and had participated in the Dual Control; but her mistake in
+not sharing in the work of restoring order was irreparable. Every
+one in Egypt saw that the control of that country must rest with
+the Power which had swept away Arabi's Government and
+re-established the fallen <span class="pagenum"><a name="page458"
+id="page458"></a>[pg 458]</span> authority of the Khedive. A few
+persons in England, even including one member of the Gladstone
+Administration, Mr. Courtney, urged a speedy withdrawal; but the
+Cabinet, which had been unwillingly but irresistibly drawn thus far
+by the force of circumstances, could not leave Egypt a prey to
+anarchy; and, clearly, the hand that repressed anarchy ruled the
+country for the time being. It is significant that on April 4,
+1883, more than 2600 Europeans in Egypt presented a petition
+begging that the British occupation might be permanent<a name=
+"FNanchor374"></a><a href="#Footnote_374">[374]</a>.</p>
+<p>Mr. Gladstone, however, and others of his Cabinet, had declared
+that it would be only temporary, and would, in fact, last only so
+long as to enable order and prosperity to grow up under the shadow
+of new and better institutions. These pledges were given with all
+sincerity, and the Prime Minister and his colleagues evidently
+wished to be relieved from what was to them a disagreeable burden.
+The French in Egypt, of course, fastened on these promises, and one
+of their newspapers, the <i>Journal Egyptien</i>, printed them
+every day at the head of its front columns<a name=
+"FNanchor375"></a><a href="#Footnote_375">[375]</a>. Mr. Gladstone,
+who sought above all things for a friendly understanding with
+France, keenly felt, even to the end of his career, that the
+continued occupation of Egypt hindered that most desirable
+consummation. He was undoubtedly right. The irregularity of
+England's action in Egypt hampered her international relations at
+many points; and it may be assigned as one of the causes that
+brought France into alliance with Russia.</p>
+<p>What, then, hindered the fulfilment of Mr. Gladstone's pledges?
+In the first place, the dog-in-the-manger policy of French
+officials and publicists increased the difficulties of the British
+administrators who now, in the character of advisers of the
+Khedive, really guided him and controlled his Ministers. The scheme
+of administration adopted was in the main that advised by Lord
+Dufferin in his capacity of Special Envoy. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page459" id="page459"></a>[pg 459]</span> The
+details, however, are too wide and complex to be set forth here. So
+also are those of the disputes between our officials and those of
+France. Suffice it to say that by shutting up the funds of the
+"Caisse de la Dette," the French administrators of that great
+reserve fund hoped to make Britain's position untenable and hasten
+her evacuation. In point of fact, these and countless other
+pin-pricks delayed Egypt's recovery and furnished a good reason why
+Britain should not withdraw<a name="FNanchor376"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_376">[376]</a>.</p>
+<p>But above and beyond these administrative details, there was one
+all-compelling cause, the war-cloud that now threatened the land of
+the Pharaohs from that home of savagery and fanaticism, the
+Sudan.</p>
+<br>
+<p>NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION</p>
+<p>For new light on the nationalist movement in Egypt and the part
+which Arabi played in it, the reader should consult <i>How we
+defended Arabi</i>, by A.M. Broadley (London, 1884). The same
+writer in his <i>Tunis, Past and Present</i> (2 vols. 1882) has
+thrown much light on the Tunis Question and on the Pan-Islamic
+movement in North Africa.</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_354"></a><a href="#FNanchor354">[354]</a>
+Quoted by D.A. Cameron, <i>Egypt in the Nineteenth Century</i>, p.
+242.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_355"></a><a href="#FNanchor355">[355]</a>
+<i>Egypt and the Egyptian Question</i>, by Sir D. Mackenzie Wallace
+(1883), pp. 318-320.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_356"></a><a href="#FNanchor356">[356]</a>
+<i>England in Egypt</i>, by Sir Alfred Milner (Lord Milner), 1892,
+pp. 216-219. (The Egyptian &pound; is equal to &pound;1:0:6.) I
+give the figures as pounds sterling.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_357"></a><a href="#FNanchor357">[357]</a>
+<i>La Question d'&Eacute;gypte</i>, by C. de Freycinet (1905), p.
+151.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_358"></a><a href="#FNanchor358">[358]</a>
+<i>La Question d'&Eacute;gypte</i>, by C. de Freycinet, p. 106.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_359"></a><a href="#FNanchor359">[359]</a>
+<i>England in Egypt</i>, etc. p. 222. See there for details as to
+the Dual Control; also de Freycinet, <i>op. cit</i>. chap. ii., and
+<i>The Expansion of Egypt</i>, by A. Silva White, chap. vi.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_360"></a><a href="#FNanchor360">[360]</a> Sir
+D.M. Wallace, <i>Egypt and the Egyptian Question</i>, p. 67.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_361"></a><a href="#FNanchor361">[361]</a> Mr.
+Morley says (<i>Life of Gladstone</i>, vol. iii. p. 73) that
+Arabi's movement "was in truth national as well as military; it was
+anti-European, and above all, it was in its objects anti-Turk."--In
+view of the evidence collected by Sir D.M. Wallace, and by Lord
+Milner (<i>England in Egypt</i>), I venture to question these
+statements. The movement clearly was military and anti-Turk in its
+beginning. Later on it sought support in the people, and became
+anti-European and to some extent national; but to that extent it
+ceased to be anti-Turk. Besides, why should the Sultan have
+encouraged it? How far it genuinely relied on the populace must for
+the present remain in doubt; but the evidence collected by Mr.
+Broadley, <i>How We Defended Arabi</i> (1884), seems to show that
+Arabi and his supporters were inspired by thoroughly patriotic and
+enlightened motives.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_362"></a><a href="#FNanchor362">[362]</a> For
+Gambetta's despatches see de Freycinet, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 209
+<i>et seq</i>.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_363"></a><a href="#FNanchor363">[363]</a>
+Morley, <i>Life of Gladstone</i>, iii. p. 79.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_364"></a><a href="#FNanchor364">[364]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History</i>, vol. iii. p.
+51.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_365"></a><a href="#FNanchor365">[365]</a>
+<i>England in Egypt</i>, p. 16. For details of the massacre and its
+preconcerted character, sec Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 4 (1884).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_366"></a><a href="#FNanchor366">[366]</a> For
+the reasons of de Freycinet's caution, see his work, ch. iii.,
+especially pp. 236 <i>et seq</i>.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_367"></a><a href="#FNanchor367">[367]</a> See,
+too, Gladstone's speech of July 25, 1882, in which he asserted that
+there was not a shred of evidence to support Arabi's claim to be
+the leader of a national party; also, his letter of July 14 to John
+Bright, quoted by Mr. Morley, <i>Life of Gladstone</i>, vol. iii.
+pp. 84-85. Probably Gladstone was misinformed.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_368"></a><a href="#FNanchor368">[368]</a> De
+Freycinet, <i>op, cit.</i> pp. 311-312.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_369"></a><a href="#FNanchor369">[369]</a> For
+its proceedings, see Parl. Papers, Egypt, 1882 (Conference on
+Egyptian Affairs).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_370"></a><a href="#FNanchor370">[370]</a>
+<i>History of the Campaign in Egypt</i> (War Office), by Col. J.F.
+Maurice, pp. 62-65.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_371"></a><a href="#FNanchor371">[371]</a>
+<i>Life, Letters, and Diaries of General Sir Gerald Graham</i>
+(1901). J.F. Maurice, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 84-95.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_372"></a><a href="#FNanchor372">[372]</a>
+<i>Op. cit.</i> p. 316.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_373"></a><a href="#FNanchor373">[373]</a> It
+is said, however, that Arabi had warned M. de Lesseps that "the
+defence of Egypt requires the temporary destruction of the Canal"
+(Traill, <i>England, Egypt, and the Sudan</i>, p. 57). The status
+of the Canal was defined in 1885. <i>Ibid</i>. p. 59.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_374"></a><a href="#FNanchor374">[374]</a> Sir
+A. Milner, <i>England in Egypt</i>, p. 31.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_375"></a><a href="#FNanchor375">[375]</a> H.F.
+Wood, <i>Egypt under the British</i>, p. 59 (1896).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_376"></a><a href="#FNanchor376">[376]</a> The
+reader should consult for full details Sir A. Milner, <i>England in
+Egypt</i> (1892); Sir D.M. Wallace, <i>The Egyptian Question</i>
+(1883), especially chaps, xi.-xiii.; and A. Silva White, <i>The
+Expansion of Egypt</i> (1899), the best account of the
+Anglo-Egyptian administration, with valuable Appendices on the
+"Caisse," etc.<br>
+<br>
+A far more favourable light is thrown on the conduct of Arabi and
+his partisans by Mr. A.M. Broadley in his work <i>How We Defended
+Arabi</i> (1884).</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page460" id="page460"></a>[pg
+460]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+<h3>GORDON AND THE SUDAN</h3>
+<blockquote>What were my ideas in coming out? They were these:
+<i>Agreed abandonment of Sudan, but extricate the garrisons</i>;
+and these were the instructions of the Government (Gordon's
+<i>Journal</i>, October 8, 1885).</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>It is one of the peculiarities of the Moslem faith that any time
+of revival is apt to be accompanied by warlike fervour somewhat
+like that which enabled its early votaries to sweep over half of
+the known world in a single generation. This militant creed becomes
+dangerous when it personifies itself in a holy man who can make
+good his claim to be received as a successor of the Prophet. Such a
+man had recently appeared in the Sudan. It is doubtful whether
+Mohammed Ahmed was a genuine believer in his own extravagant
+claims, or whether he adopted them in order to wreak revenge on
+Rauf Pasha, the Egyptian Governor of the Sudan, for an insult
+inflicted by one of his underlings. In May 1881, while living near
+the island of Abba in the Nile, he put forward his claim to be the
+Messiah or Prophet, foretold by the founder of that creed. Retiring
+with some disciples to that island, he gained fame by his fervour
+and asceticism. His followers named him "El <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page461" id="page461"></a>[pg 461]</span>
+Mahdi," the leader, but his claims were scouted by the Ulemas of
+Khartum, Cairo, and Constantinople, on the ground that the Messiah
+of the Moslems was to arise in the East. Nevertheless, while the
+British were crushing Arabi's movement, the Mahdi stirred the Sudan
+to its depths, and speedily shook the Egyptian rule to its
+base<a name="FNanchor377"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_377">[377]</a>.</p>
+<p>There was every reason to fear a speedy collapse. In the years
+1874-76 the Province of the White Nile had known the benefits of
+just and tactful rule under that born leader of men, Colonel
+Gordon; and in the three following years, as Governor-General of
+the Sudan, he gained greater powers, which he felt to be needful
+for the suppression of the slave-trade and other evils. Ill-health
+and underhand opposition of various kinds caused him to resign his
+post in 1879. Then, to the disgust of all, the Khedive named as his
+successor Rauf Pasha, whom Gordon had recently dismissed for
+maladministration of the Province of Harrar, on the borders of
+Abyssinia<a name="FNanchor378"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_378">[378]</a>. Thus the Sudan, after experiencing the
+benefits of a just and able government, reeled back into the bad
+old condition, at the time when the Mahdi was becoming a power in
+the land. No help was forthcoming from Egypt in the summer of 1882,
+and the Mahdi's revolt rapidly made headway even despite several
+checks from the Egyptian troops.</p>
+<p>Possibly, if Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues had decided to
+crush it in that autumn, the task might have been easy. But, far
+from doing so, they sought to dissuade the Khedive from attempting
+to hold the most disturbed districts, those of Kordofan and Darfur,
+beyond Khartum. This might have been the best course, if the
+evacuation could have been followed at once and without risk of
+disaster at the hands of the fanatics. But Tewfik willed otherwise.
+Against the advice of Lord Dufferin, he sought to reconquer the
+Sudan, and that, too, by wholly insufficient forces. The result was
+a series of disasters, culminating in the extermination of Hicks
+Pasha's Egyptian force by the Mahdi's followers near El Obeid, the
+capital of Kordofan (November 5, 1883).</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page462" id="page462"></a>[pg
+462]</span>
+<p>The details of the disaster are not fully known. Hicks Pasha was
+appointed, on August 20, 1883, by the Khedive to command the
+expedition into that province. He set out from Omdurman on
+September 9, with 10,000 men, 4 Krupp guns and 16 light guns, 500
+horses and 5500 camels. His last despatch, dated October 3, showed
+that the force had been greatly weakened by want of water and
+provisions, and most of all by the spell cast on the troops by the
+Mahdi's claim to invincibility. Nevertheless, Hicks checked the
+rebels in two or three encounters, but, according to the tale of
+one of the few survivors, a camel-driver, the force finally
+succumbed to a fierce charge on the Egyptian square at the close of
+an exhausting march, prolonged by the treachery of native guides.
+Nearly the whole force was put to the sword. Hicks Pasha perished,
+along with five British and four German officers, and many
+Egyptians of note. The adventurous newspaper correspondents,
+O'Donovan and Vizetelly, also met their doom (November 5,
+1883)<a name="FNanchor379"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_379">[379]</a>.</p>
+<p>This catastrophe decided the history of the Sudan for many
+years. The British Government was in no respect responsible for the
+appointment of General Hicks to the Kordofan command. Lord Dufferin
+and Sir E. Malet had strongly urged the Khedive to abandon Kordofan
+and Darfur; but it would seem that the desire of the governing
+class at Cairo to have a hand in the Sudan administration overbore
+these wise remonstrances, and hence the disaster near El Obeid with
+its long train of evil consequences<a name=
+"FNanchor380"></a><a href="#Footnote_380">[380]</a>. It was
+speedily followed by another reverse at Tokar not far from Suakim,
+where the slave-raiders and tribesmen of the Red Sea coast
+exterminated another force under the command of Captain
+Moncrieff.</p>
+<p>The Gladstone Ministry and the British advisers of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page463" id="page463"></a>[pg
+463]</span> Khedive, among whom was Sir Evelyn Baring (the present
+Lord Cromer), again urged the entire evacuation of the Sudan, and
+the limitation of Egyptian authority to the strong position of the
+First Cataract at Assuan. This policy then received the entire
+approval of the man who was to be alike the hero and the martyr of
+that enterprise<a name="FNanchor381"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_381">[381]</a>. But how were the Egyptian garrisons to
+be withdrawn? It was a point of honour not to let them be
+slaughtered or enslaved by the cruel fanatics of the Mahdi. Yet
+under the lead of Egyptian officers they would almost certainly
+suffer one of these fates. A way of escape was suggested--by a
+London evening newspaper in the first instance. The name of Gordon
+was renowned for justice and hardihood all through the Sudan. Let
+this knight-errant be sent--so said this Mentor of the Press--and
+his strange power over men would accomplish the impossible. The
+proposal carried conviction everywhere, and Lord Granville, who
+generally followed any strong lead, sent for the General.</p>
+<p>Charles George Gordon, born at Woolwich in 1833, was the scion
+of a staunch race of Scottish fighters. His great-grandfather
+served under Cope at Prestonpans; his grandfather fought in
+Boscawen's expedition at Louisburg and under Wolfe at Quebec. His
+father attained the rank of Lieutenant-General. From his mother,
+too, he derived qualities of self-reliance and endurance of no mean
+order. Despite the fact that she had eleven children, and that
+three of her sons were out at the Crimea, she is said never to have
+quailed during that dark time. Of these sons, Charles George was
+serving in the Engineers; he showed at his first contact with war
+an aptitude and resource which won the admiration of all. "We used
+always to send him out to find what new move the Russians were
+making"--such was the testimony of one of his superior officers. Of
+his subsequent duties in delimiting the new Bessarabian frontier
+and his miraculous career in China we cannot speak in detail. By
+the consent of all, it was his <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page464" id="page464"></a>[pg 464]</span> soldierly spirit that
+helped to save that Empire from anarchy at the hands of the Taeping
+rebels, whose movement presented a strange medley of perverted
+Christianity, communism, and freebooting. There it was that his
+magnetic influence over men first had free play. Though he was only
+thirty years of age, his fine physique, dauntless daring, and the
+spirit of unquestionable authority that looked out from his kindly
+eyes, gained speedy control over the motley set of officers and the
+Chinese rank and file--half of them ex-rebels--that formed the
+nucleus of the "ever victorious army." What wonder that he was
+thenceforth known as "Chinese Gordon"?</p>
+<p>In the years 1865-71, which he spent at Gravesend in supervising
+the construction of the new forts at the mouth of the river, the
+religious and philanthropic side of his character found free play.
+His biographer, Mr. Hake, tells of his interest in the poor and
+suffering, and, above all, in friendless boys, who came to idolise
+his manly yet sympathetic nature. Called thereafter by the Khedive
+to succeed Sir Samuel Baker in the Governorship of the Sudan, he
+grappled earnestly with the fearful difficulties that beset all who
+have attempted to put down the slave-trade in its chief seat of
+activity. Later on he expressed the belief that "the Sudan is a
+useless possession, ever was so, ever will be so." These words, and
+certain episodes in his official career in India and in Cape
+Colony, revealed the weak side of a singularly noble nature.
+Occasionally he was hasty and impulsive in his decisions, and the
+pride of his race would then flash forth. During his cadetship at
+Woolwich he was rebuked for incompetence, and told that he would
+never make an officer. At once he tore the epaulets from his
+shoulders and flung them at his superior's feet. A certain
+impatience of control characterised him throughout life. No man was
+ever more chivalrous, more conscientious, more devoted, or abler in
+the management of inferiors; but his abilities lay rather in the
+direction of swift intuitions and prompt achievement than in sound
+judgment and plodding toil. In short, his qualities were those of a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page465" id="page465"></a>[pg
+465]</span> knight-errant, not those of a statesman. The imperious
+calls of conscience and of instinct endowed him with powers
+uniquely fitted to attract and enthral simple straightforward
+natures, and to sway orientals at his will. But the empire of
+conscience, instinct, and will-power consorts but ill with those
+diplomatic gifts of effecting a timely compromise which go far to
+make for success in life. This was at once the strength and the
+weakness of Gordon's being. In the midst of a <i>blas&eacute;</i>,
+sceptical age, his personality stood forth, God-fearing as that of
+a Covenanter, romantic as that of a Coeur de Lion, tender as that
+of a Florence Nightingale. In truth, it appealed to all that is
+most elemental in man.</p>
+<p>At that time Gordon was charged by the King of the Belgians to
+proceed to the Congo River to put down the slave-trade. Imagination
+will persist in wondering what might have been the result if he had
+carried out this much-needed duty. Possibly he might have acquired
+such an influence as to direct the "Congo Free State" to courses
+far other than those to which it has come. He himself discerned the
+greatness of the opportunity. In his letter of January 6, 1884, to
+H.M. Stanley, he stated that "no such efficacious means of cutting
+at root of slave-trade ever was presented as that which God has
+opened out to us through the kind disinterestedness of His
+Majesty."</p>
+<p>The die was now cast against the Congo and for the Nile. Gordon
+had a brief interview with four members of the Cabinet--Lords
+Granville, Hartington, Northbrooke, and Sir Charles Dilke,--Mr.
+Gladstone was absent at Hawarden; and they forthwith decided that
+he should go to the Upper Nile. What transpired in that most
+important meeting is known only from Gordon's account of it in a
+private letter:--</p>
+<blockquote>At noon he, Wolseley, came to me and took me to the
+Ministers.<br>
+He went in and talked to the Ministers, and came back and<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page466" id="page466"></a>[pg
+466]</span> said, "Her Majesty's Government want you to undertake
+this.<br>
+Government are determined to evacuate the Sudan, for they will<br>
+not guarantee future government. Will you go and do it?" I<br>
+said, "Yes." He said, "Go in." I went in and saw them. They<br>
+said, "Did Wolseley tell you our orders?" I said, "Yes." I
+said,<br>
+"You will not guarantee future government of the Sudan, and you<br>
+wish me to go up to evacuate now?" They said, "Yes," and it<br>
+was over, and I left at 8 P.M. for Calais.</blockquote>
+<p>Before seeing the Ministers, Gordon had a long interview with
+Lord Wolseley, who in the previous autumn had been named Baron
+Wolseley of Cairo. That conversation is also unknown to us, but
+obviously it must have influenced Gordon's impressions as to the
+scope of the duties sketched for him by the Cabinet. We turn, then,
+to the "Instructions to General Gordon," drawn up by the Ministry
+on Jan. 18, 1884. They directed him to "proceed at once to Egypt,
+to report to them on the military situation in the Sudan, and on
+the measures which it may be advisable to take for the security of
+the Egyptian garrisons still holding positions in that country and
+for the safety of the European population in Khartum." He was also
+to report on the best mode of effecting the evacuation of the
+interior of the Sudan and on measures that might be taken to
+counteract the consequent spread of the slave-trade. He was to be
+under the instructions of H.M.'s Consul-General at Cairo (Sir
+Evelyn Baring). There followed this sentence: "You will consider
+yourself authorised and instructed to perform such other duties as
+the Egyptian Government may desire to entrust to you, and as may be
+communicated to you by Sir Evelyn Baring<a name=
+"FNanchor382"></a><a href="#Footnote_382">[382]</a>."</p>
+<p>After receiving these instructions, Gordon started at once for
+Egypt, accompanied by Colonel Stewart. At Cairo he had an interview
+with Sir Evelyn Baring, and was appointed by the Khedive
+Governor-General of the Sudan. The firman of Jan. 26 contained
+these words: "We trust that you will carry out our good intentions
+for the establishment of justice and order, and that you will
+assure the peace and prosperity of the people of the Sudan by
+maintaining the security of the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page467" id="page467"></a>[pg 467]</span> roads," etc. It
+contained not a word about the evacuation of the Sudan, nor did the
+Khedive's proclamation of the same date to the Sudanese. The only
+reference to evacuation was in his letter of the same date to
+Gordon, beginning thus: "You are aware that the object of your
+arrival here and of your mission to the Sudan is to carry into
+execution the evacuation of those territories and to withdraw our
+troops, civil officials, and such of the inhabitants, together with
+their belongings, as may wish to leave for Egypt. . . ." After
+completing this task he was to "take the necessary steps for
+establishing an organised Government in the different provinces of
+the Sudan for the maintenance of order and the cessation of all
+disasters and incitement to revolt<a name=
+"FNanchor383"></a><a href="#Footnote_383">[383]</a>." How Gordon,
+after sending away all the troops, was to pacify that enormous
+territory His Highness did not explain.</p>
+<p>There is almost as much ambiguity in the "further instructions"
+which Sir Evelyn Baring drew up on January 25 at Cairo. After
+stating that the British and Egyptian Governments had agreed on the
+necessity of "evacuating" the Sudan, he noted the fact that Gordon
+approved of it and thought it should on no account be changed; the
+despatch proceeds:--</p>
+<blockquote>You consider that it may take a few months to carry it
+out with<br>
+safety. You are further of opinion that "the restoration of the<br>
+country should be made to the different petty Sultans who
+existed<br>
+at the time of Mohammed Ali's conquest, and whose families
+still<br>
+exist"; and that an endeavour should be made to form a
+confederation<br>
+of those Sultans. In this view the Egyptian Government<br>
+entirely concur. It will of course be fully understood that the<br>
+Egyptian troops are not to be kept in the Sudan merely with a<br>
+view to consolidating the powers of the new rulers of the
+country.<br>
+But the Egyptian Government has the fullest confidence in your<br>
+judgment, your knowledge of the country, and your comprehension<br>
+of the general line of policy to be pursued. You are<br>
+therefore given full discretionary power to retain the troops
+for<br>
+such reasonable period as you may think necessary, in order
+that<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page468" id="page468"></a>[pg
+468]</span> the abandonment of the country may be accomplished with
+the<br>
+least possible risk to life and property. A credit of
+&pound;100,000 has<br>
+been opened for you at the Finance Department<a name=
+"FNanchor384"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_384">[384]</a>. . . .</blockquote>
+<p>In themselves these instructions were not wholly clear. An
+officer who is allowed to use troops for the settlement or
+pacification of a vast tract of country can hardly be the agent of
+a policy of mere "abandonment." Neither Gordon nor Baring seems at
+that time to have felt the incongruity of the two sets of duties,
+but before long it flashed across Gordon's mind. At Abu Hammed,
+when nearing Khartum, he telegraphed to Baring: "I would most
+earnestly beg that evacuation but not abandonment be the programme
+to be followed." Or, as he phrased it, he wanted Egypt to recognise
+her "moral control and suzerainty" over the Sudan<a name=
+"FNanchor385"></a><a href="#Footnote_385">[385]</a>. This, of
+course, was an extension of the programme to which he gave his
+assent at Cairo; it differed <i>toto caelo</i> from the policy of
+abandonment laid down at London.</p>
+<p>Even now it is impossible to see why Ministers did not at once
+simplify the situation by a clear statement of their orders to
+Gordon, not of course as Governor-General of the Sudan, but as a
+British officer charged by them with a definite duty. At a later
+date they sought to limit him to the restricted sphere sketched out
+at London; but then it was too late to bend to their will a nature
+which, firm at all times, was hard as adamant when the voice of
+conscience spoke within. Already it had spoken, and against
+"abandonment."</p>
+<p>There were other confusing elements in the situation. Gordon
+believed that the "full discretionary power" granted to him by Sir
+E. Baring was a promise binding on the British Government; and,
+seeing that he was authorised to perform such other duties as Sir
+Evelyn Baring would communicate to him, he was right. But Ministers
+do not seem to have understood that this implied an immense
+widening of the original <span class="pagenum"><a name="page469"
+id="page469"></a>[pg 469]</span> programme. Further, Sir Evelyn
+Baring used the terms "evacuation" and "abandonment" as if they
+were synonymous; while in Gordon's view they were very different.
+As we shall see, his nature, at once conscientious, vehement, and
+pertinacious, came to reject the idea of abandonment as cowardly
+and therefore impossible.</p>
+<p>Lastly, we may note that Gordon was left free to announce the
+forthcoming evacuation of the Sudan, or not, as he judged
+best<a name="FNanchor386"></a><a href="#Footnote_386">[386]</a>. He
+decided to keep it secret. Had he kept it entirely so for the
+present, he would have done well; but he is said to have divulged
+it to one or two officials at Berber; if so, it was a very
+regrettable imprudence, which compromised the defence of that town.
+But surely no man was ever charged with duties so complex and
+contradictory. The qualities of Nestor, Ulysses, and Achilles
+combined in one mortal could scarcely have availed to untie or
+sever that knot.</p>
+<p>The first sharp collision between Gordon and the Home Government
+resulted from his urgent request for the employment of Zebehr Pasha
+as the future ruler of the Sudan. A native of the Sudan, this man
+had risen to great wealth and power by his energy and ambition, and
+figured as a kind of king among the slave-raiders of the Upper
+Nile, until, for some offence against the Egyptian Government, he
+was interned at Cairo. At that city Gordon had a conference with
+Zebehr in the presence of Sir E. Baring, Nubar Pasha, and others.
+It was long and stormy, and gave the impression of undying hatred
+felt by the slaver for the slave-liberator. This alone seemed to
+justify the Gladstone Ministry in refusing Gordon's request<a name=
+"FNanchor387"></a><a href="#Footnote_387">[387]</a>. Had Zebehr
+gone with Gordon, he would certainly have betrayed him--so thought
+Sir Evelyn Baring.</p>
+<p>Setting out from Cairo and travelling quickly up the Nile,
+Gordon reached Khartum on February 18, and received an enthusiastic
+welcome from the discouraged populace. At once he publicly burned
+all instruments of torture and records of old debts; so that his
+popularity overshadowed that of the Mahdi. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page470" id="page470"></a>[pg 470]</span> Again
+he urged the despatch of Zebehr as his "successor," after the
+withdrawal of troops and civilians from the Sudan. But, as Sir
+Evelyn Baring said in forwarding Gordon's request to Downing
+Street, it would be most dangerous to place them together at
+Khartum. It should further be noted that Gordon's telegrams showed
+his belief that the Mahdi's power was overrated, and that his
+advance in person on Khartum was most unlikely<a name=
+"FNanchor388"></a><a href="#Footnote_388">[388]</a>. It is not
+surprising, then, that Lord Granville telegraphed to Sir E. Baring
+on February 22 that the public opinion of England "would not
+tolerate the appointment of Zebehr Pasha<a name=
+"FNanchor389"></a><a href="#Footnote_389">[389]</a>." Already it
+had been offended by Gordon's proclamation at Khartum that the
+Government would not interfere with the buying and selling of
+slaves, though, as Sir Evelyn Baring pointed out, the
+re-establishment of slavery resulted quite naturally from the
+policy of evacuation; and he now strongly urged that Gordon should
+have "full liberty of action to complete the execution of his
+general plans<a name="FNanchor390"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_390">[390]</a>."</p>
+<p>Here it is desirable to remember that the Mahdist movement was
+then confined almost entirely to three chief districts--Kordofan,
+parts of the lands adjoining the Blue Nile, and the tribes dwelling
+west and south-west of Suakim. For the present these last were the
+most dangerous. Already they had overpowered and slaughtered two
+Egyptian forces; and on February 22 news reached Cairo of the fall
+of Tokar before the valiant swordsmen of Osman Digna. But this was
+far away from the Nile and did not endanger Gordon. British troops
+were landed at Suakim for the protection of that port, but this
+step implied no change of policy respecting the Sudan. The slight
+impression which two brilliant but costly victories, those of El
+Teb and Tamai, made on the warlike tribes at the back of Suakim
+certainly showed the need of caution in pushing a force into the
+Sudan when the fierce heats of summer were coming on<a name=
+"FNanchor391"></a><a href="#Footnote_391">[391]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page471" id="page471"></a>[pg
+471]</span>
+<p>The first hint of any change of policy was made by Gordon in his
+despatch of Feb. 26, to Sir E. Baring. After stating his regret at
+the refusal of the British Government to allow the despatch of
+Zebehr as his successor, he used these remarkable words:--</p>
+<p>You must remember that when evacuation is carried out, Mahdi
+will come down here, and, by agents, will not let Egypt be quiet.
+Of course my duty is evacuation, and the best I can for
+establishing a quiet government. The first I hope to accomplish.
+The second is a more difficult task, and concerns Egypt more than
+me. If Egypt is to be quiet, Mahdi must be smashed up. Mahdi is
+most unpopular, and with care and time could be smashed. Remember
+that once Khartum belongs to Mahdi, the task will be far more
+difficult; yet you will, for safety of Egypt, execute it. If you
+decide on smashing Mahdi, then send up another &pound;100,000 and
+send up 200 Indian troops to Wady Haifa, and send officer up to
+Dongola under pretence to look out quarters for troops. Leave
+Suakim and Massowah alone. I repeat that evacuation is possible,
+but you will feel effect in Egypt, and will be forced to enter into
+a far more serious affair in order to guard Egypt. At present, it
+would be comparatively easy to destroy Mahdi<a name=
+"FNanchor392"></a><a href="#Footnote_392">[392]</a>.</p>
+<p>This statement arouses different opinions according to the point
+of view from which we regard it. As a declaration of general policy
+it is no less sound than prophetic; as a despatch from the
+Governor-General of the Sudan to the Egyptian Government, it
+claimed serious attention; as a recommendation sent by a British
+officer to the Home Government, it was altogether beyond his
+powers. Gordon was sent out for a distinct aim; he now proposed to
+subordinate that aim to another far vaster aim which lay beyond his
+province. Nevertheless, Sir E. Baring on February 28, and on March
+4, urged the Gladstone Ministry even now to accede to Gordon's
+request for Zebehr Pasha as his successor, on the ground that some
+Government must be left in the Sudan, and Zebehr was deemed at
+Cairo to be the only possible governor. Again the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page472" id="page472"></a>[pg 472]</span> Home
+Government refused, and thereby laid themselves under the moral
+obligation of suggesting an alternate course. The only course
+suggested was to allow the despatch of a British force up the Nile,
+if occasion seemed to demand it<a name="FNanchor393"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_393">[393]</a>.</p>
+<p>In this connection it is well to remember that the question of
+Egypt and the Sudan was only one of many that distracted the
+attention of Ministers. The events outside Suakim alone might give
+them pause before they plunged into the Sudan; for that was the
+time when Russia was moving on towards Afghanistan; and the
+agreement between the three Emperors imposed the need of caution on
+a State as isolated and unpopular as England then was. In view of
+the designs of the German colonial party (see Chapter XVII.) and
+the pressure of the Irish problem, the Gladstone Cabinet was surely
+justified in refusing to undertake any new responsibilities, except
+on the most urgent need. Vital interests were at stake in too many
+places to warrant a policy of Quixotic adventure up the Nile.</p>
+<p>Nevertheless, it is regrettable that Ministers took up on the
+Sudan problem a position that was logically sound but futile in the
+sphere of action. Gordon's mission, according to Earl Granville,
+was a peaceful one, and he inquired anxiously what progress had
+been made in the withdrawal of the Egyptian garrisons and
+civilians. This question he put, even in the teeth of Gordon's
+positive statement in a telegram of March 8:--</p>
+<p>If you do not send Zebehr, you have no chance of getting the
+garrisons away; . . . Zebehr here would be far more powerful than the
+Mahdi, and he would make short work of the Mahdi<a name=
+"FNanchor394"></a><a href="#Footnote_394">[394]</a>.</p>
+<p>A week earlier Gordon had closed a telegram with the despairing
+words:--</p>
+<p>I will do my best to carry out my instructions, but I feel
+conviction I shall be caught in Khartum<a name=
+"FNanchor395"></a><a href="#Footnote_395">[395]</a>.</p>
+<p>It is not surprising that Ministers were perplexed by Gordon's
+despatches, or that Baring telegraphed to Khartum <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page473" id="page473"></a>[pg 473]</span> that
+he found it very difficult to understand what the General wanted.
+All who now peruse his despatches must have the same feeling, mixed
+with one of regret that he ever weakened his case by the proposal
+to "smash the Mahdi." Thenceforth the British Government obviously
+felt some distrust of their envoy; and in this disturbing factor,
+and the duality of Gordon's duties, we may discern one cause at
+least of the final disaster.</p>
+<p>On March 11, the British Government refused either to allow the
+appointment of Zebehr, or to send British or Indian troops from
+Suakim to Berber. Without wishing to force Gordon's hand
+prematurely, Earl Granville urged the need of evacuation at as
+early a date as might be practicable. On March 16, after hearing
+ominous news as to the spread of the Mahdi's power near to Khartum
+and Berber, he advised the evacuation of the former city at the
+earliest possible date<a name="FNanchor396"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_396">[396]</a>. We may here note that the rebels began
+to close round it on March 18.</p>
+<p>Earl Granville's advice directly conflicted with Gordon's sense
+of honour. As he stated, on or about March 20, the fidelity of the
+people of Khartum, while treachery was rife all around, bound him
+not to leave them until he could do so "under a Government which
+would give them some hope of peace." Here again his duty as
+Governor of the Sudan, or his extreme conscientiousness as a man,
+held him to his post despite the express recommendations of the
+British Government. His decision is ever to be regretted; but it
+redounds to his honour as a Christian and a soldier. At bottom, the
+misunderstanding between him and the Cabinet rested on a divergent
+view of duty. Gordon summed up his scruples in his telegram to
+Baring:--</p>
+<p>You must see that you could not recall me, nor could I possibly
+obey, until the Cairo <i>employ&eacute;s</i> get out from all the
+places. I have named men to different places, thus involving them
+with the Mahdi. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page474" id=
+"page474"></a>[pg 474]</span> How could I look the world in the
+face if I abandoned them and fled? As a gentleman, could you advise
+this course?</p>
+<p>Earl Granville summed up his statement of the case in the
+words:--</p>
+<p>The Mission of General Gordon, as originally designed and
+decided upon, was of a pacific nature and in no way involved any
+movement of British forces. . . . He was, in addition, authorised and
+instructed to perform such other duties as the Egyptian Government
+might desire to entrust to him and as might be communicated by you
+to him. . . . Her Majesty's Government, bearing in mind the exigencies
+of the occasion, concurred in these instructions [those of the
+Egyptian Government], which virtually altered General Gordon's
+Mission from one of advice to that of executing, or at least
+directing, the evacuation not only of Khartum but of the whole
+Sudan, and they were willing that General Gordon should receive the
+very extended powers conferred upon him by the Khedive to enable
+him to effect his difficult task. But they have throughout joined
+in your anxiety that he should not expose himself to unnecessary
+personal risk, or place himself in a position from which retreat
+would be difficult<a name="FNanchor397"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_397">[397]</a>.</p>
+<p>He then states that it is clear that Khartum can hold out for at
+least six months, if it is attacked, and, seeing that the British
+occupation of Egypt was only "for a special and temporary purpose,"
+any expedition into the Sudan would be highly undesirable on
+general as well as diplomatic grounds.</p>
+<p>Both of these views of duty are intelligible as well as
+creditable to those who held them. But the former view is that of a
+high-souled officer; the latter, that of a responsible and
+much-tried Minister and diplomatist. They were wholly divergent,
+and divergence there spelt disaster.</p>
+<p>On hearing of the siege of Khartum, General Stephenson, then
+commanding the British forces in Egypt, advised the immediate
+despatch of a brigade to Dongola--a step which would probably have
+produced the best results; but that advice <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page475" id="page475"></a>[pg 475]</span> was
+overruled at London for the reasons stated above. Ministers seem to
+have feared that Gordon might use the force for offensive purposes.
+An Egyptian battalion was sent up the Nile to Korosko in the middle
+of May; but the "moral effect" hoped for from that daring step
+vanished in face of a serious reverse. On May 19, the important
+city of Berber was taken by the Mahdists<a name=
+"FNanchor398"></a><a href="#Footnote_398">[398]</a>.</p>
+<p>Difficult as the removal of about 10,000 to 15,000<a name=
+"FNanchor399"></a><a href="#Footnote_399">[399]</a> Egyptians from
+Khartum had always been--and there were fifteen other garrisons to
+be rescued--it was now next to impossible, unless some blow were
+dealt at the rebels in that neighbourhood. The only effective blow
+would be that dealt by British or Indian troops, and this the
+Government refused, though Gordon again and again pointed out that
+a small well-equipped force would do far more than a large force.
+"A heavy, lumbering column, however strong, is nowhere in this land
+(so he wrote in his <i>Journals</i> on September 24). . . . It is the
+country of the irregular, not of the regular." A month after the
+capture of Berber a small British force left Siut, on the Nile, for
+Assuan; but this move, which would have sent a thrill through the
+Sudan in March, had little effect at midsummer. Even so, a prompt
+advance on Dongola and thence on Berber would probably have saved
+the situation at the eleventh hour.</p>
+<p>But first the battle of the routes had to be fought out by the
+military authorities. As early as April 25, the Government ordered
+General Stephenson to report on the best means of relieving Gordon;
+after due consideration of this difficult problem he advised the
+despatch of 10,000 men to Berber from Suakim in the month of
+September. Preparations were actually begun at Suakim; but in July
+experts began to favour the Nile route. In that month Lord Wolseley
+urged the immediate despatch of a force up that river, and he
+promised that it <span class="pagenum"><a name="page476" id=
+"page476"></a>[pg 476]</span> should be at Dongola by the middle of
+October. Even so, official hesitations hampered the enterprise, and
+it was not until July 29 that the decision seems to have been
+definitely formed in favour of the Nile route. Even on August 8,
+Lord Hartington, then War Minister, stated that help would be sent
+to Gordon, <i>if it proved to be necessary</i><a name=
+"FNanchor400"></a><a href="#Footnote_400">[400]</a>. On August 26,
+Lord Wolseley was appointed to the command of the relief expedition
+gathering on the Nile, but not until October 5 did he reach Wady
+Haifa, below the Second Cataract.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile the web of fate was closing in on Khartum. In vain did
+Gordon seek to keep communications open. All that he could do was
+to hold stoutly to that last bulwark of civilisation. There were
+still some grounds for hope. The Mahdi remained in Kordofan, want
+of food preventing his march northwards in force. Against his
+half-armed fanatics the city opposed a strong barrier. "Crows'
+feet" scattered on the ground ended their mad rushes, and mines
+blew them into the air by hundreds. Khartum seemed to defy those
+sons of the desert. The fire of the steamers drove them from the
+banks and pulverised their forts<a name="FNanchor401"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_401">[401]</a>. The arsenal could turn out 50,000
+Remington cartridges a week. There was every reason, then, for
+holding the city; for, as Gordon jotted down in his <i>Journal</i>
+on September 17, if the Mahdi took Khartum, it would need a great
+force to stay his propaganda. Here and there in those pathetic
+records of a life and death struggle we catch a glimpse of Gordon's
+hope of saving Khartum for civilisation. More than once he noted
+the ease of holding the Sudan from the Nile as base. With forts at
+the cataracts and armed steamers patrolling the clear reaches of
+the river, the defence of the Sudan, he believed, was by no means
+impossible<a name="FNanchor402"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_402">[402]</a>.</p>
+<p>On September 10 he succeeded in sending away down stream by
+steamer Colonel Stewart and Messrs. Power and Herbin; but
+unfortunately they were wrecked and murdered</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page477" id="page477"></a>[pg
+477]</span>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/477.png" width="80%" alt=""><br>
+<b>Map of the Nile</b></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page478" id="page478"></a>[pg
+478]</span>
+<p>by Arabs near Korti. The advice and help of that gallant officer
+would have been of priceless service to the relieving force. On
+September 10, when the <i>Journals</i> begin, Gordon was still
+hopeful of success, though food was scarce.</p>
+<p>At this time the rescue expedition was mustering at Wady Haifa,
+a point which the narrowing gorge of the Nile marks out as one of
+the natural defences of its lower valley. There the British and
+Egyptian Governments were collecting a force that soon amounted to
+2570 British troops and some Egyptians, who were to be used solely
+for transport and portage duties. A striking tribute to the
+solidarity of the Empire was the presence of 350 Canadians, mostly
+French, whose skill in working boats up rapids won admiration on
+all sides. The difficulties of the Nile route were soon found to be
+far greater than had been imagined. Indeed many persons still
+believe that the Suakim-Berber route would have been far
+preferable. The Nile was unfortunately lower than usual, and many
+rapids, up which small steamers had been hauled when the waters ran
+deep and full, were impassable even for the whale-boats on which
+the expedition depended for its progress as far as Korti. Many a
+time all the boats had to be hauled up the banks and carried by
+Canadians or Egyptians to the next clear reaches. The letters
+written by Gordon in 1877 in a more favourable season were now
+found to be misleading, and in part led to the miscalculation of
+time which was to prove so disastrous.</p>
+<p>Another untoward fact was the refusal of the authorities to push
+on the construction of the railway above Sarras. It had been
+completed from Wady Haifa up to that point, and much work had been
+done on it for about fifteen miles further. But, either from lack
+of the necessary funds, or because the line could not be completed
+in time, the construction was stopped by Lord Wolseley's orders
+early in October. Consequently much time was lost in dragging the
+boats and their stores up or around the difficult rapids above
+Semneh<a name="FNanchor403"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_403">[403]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page479" id="page479"></a>[pg
+479]</span>
+<p>Meanwhile a large quantity of stores had been collected at
+Dongola and Debbeh; numbers of boats were also there, so that a
+swift advance of a vanguard thence by the calmer reaches farther up
+the Nile seemed to offer many chances of success. It was in accord
+with Gordon's advice to act swiftly with small columns; but, for
+some reason, the plan was not acted on, though Colonel Kitchener,
+who had collected those stores, recommended it. Another argument
+for speedy action was the arrival on November 14, of a letter from
+Gordon, dated ten days before, in which he stated that he could
+hold out for forty days, but would find it hard to do so any
+longer.</p>
+<p>The advance of the main body to Dongola was very slow, despite
+the heroic toil of all concerned. We now know that up to the middle
+of September the Gladstone Ministry cherished the belief that the
+force need not advance beyond Dongola. Their optimism was once
+again at fault. The Mahdists were pressing on the siege of Khartum,
+and had overpowered and slaughtered faithful tribes farther down
+the river. Such was the news sent by Gordon and received by Lord
+Wolseley on December 31 at Korti. The "secret and confidential"
+part of Gordon's message was to the effect that food was running
+short, and the rescuers must come quickly; they should come by
+Metammeh or Berber, and inform Gordon by the messenger when they
+had taken Berber.</p>
+<p>The last entries in Gordon's <i>Journals</i> or in that part
+which has survived, contain the following statements:--</p>
+<p>December 13. ". . . All that is absolutely necessary is for fifty
+of the expeditionary force to get on board a steamer and come up to
+Halfeyeh, and thus let their presence be felt; this is not asking
+much, but it must happen at once; or it will (as usual) be too
+late."</p>
+<p>December 14. [After stating that he would send down a steamer
+with the "Journal" towards the expeditionary force]. . . . "Now mark
+this, if the expeditionary force, and I ask for no more than two
+hundred men, does not come in ten days <i>the town may fall</i>;
+and I have done my best for the honour of our country. Good
+bye."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page480" id="page480"></a>[pg
+480]</span>
+<p>Owing to lack of transport and other difficulties, the vanguard
+of the relieving force could not begin its march from the new Nile
+base, near Korti, until December 30. Thence the gallant Sir Herbert
+Stewart led a picked column of men with 1800 camels across the
+desert towards Metammeh. Lord Wolseley remained behind to guard the
+new base of operations. At Abu Klea wells, when nearing the Nile,
+the column was assailed by a great mass of Arabs. They advanced in
+five columns, each having a wedge-shaped head designed to pierce
+the British square. With a low murmuring cry or chant they rushed
+on in admirable order, disregarding the heavy losses caused by the
+steady fire of three faces of the square. Their leaders soon saw
+the weak place in the defence, namely, at one of the rear corners,
+where belated skirmishers were still running in for shelter, where
+also one of the guns jammed at the critical moment. One of their
+Emirs, calmly reciting his prayers, rode in through the gap thus
+formed, and for ten minutes bayonet and spear plied their deadly
+thrusts at close quarters. Thanks to the firmness of the British
+infantry, every Arab that forced his way in perished; but in this
+<i>m&ecirc;l&eacute;e</i> there perished a stalwart soldier whom
+England could ill spare, Colonel Burnaby, hero of the ride to
+Khiva. Lord Charles Beresford, of the Naval Brigade, had a narrow
+escape while striving to set right the defective cannon. In all we
+lost 65 killed and 60 wounded, a proportion which tells its own
+tale as to the fighting<a name="FNanchor404"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_404">[404]</a>.</p>
+<p>Two days later, while the force was beating off an attack of the
+Arabs near Metammeh, General Stewart received a wound which proved
+to be mortal. The command now devolved on Sir Charles Wilson of the
+Royal Engineers. After repelling the attacks of other Mahdists and
+making good his position on the Nile, the new commander came into
+touch with Gordon's steamers, which arrived there on the 21st, with
+190 Sudanese. Again, however, the advance of other Arabs from
+Omdurman <span class="pagenum"><a name="page481" id=
+"page481"></a>[pg 481]</span> caused a delay until a fortified camp
+or zariba could be formed. Wilson now had but 1322 unwounded men;
+and he saw that the Mahdists were in far greater force than Lord
+Wolseley or General Gordon had expected. Not until January 24 could
+the commander steam away southwards with 20 men of the Sussex
+regiment and the 190 Sudanese soldiers on the two largest of
+Gordon's boats--his "penny steamers" as he whimsically termed
+them.</p>
+<p>The sequel is well known. After overcoming many difficulties
+caused by rocks and sandbanks, after running the gauntlet of the
+Mahdist fire, this forlorn hope neared Khartum on the 28th, only to
+find that the place had fallen. There was nothing for it but to put
+about and escape while it was possible. Sir Charles Wilson has
+described the scene: "The masses of the enemy with their fluttering
+banners near Khartum, the long rows of riflemen in the
+shelter-trenches at Omdurman, the numerous groups of men on Tuti
+[Island], the bursting of shells, and the water torn up by hundreds
+of bullets, and occasionally heavier shot, made an impression never
+to be forgotten. Looking out over the stormy scene, it seemed
+almost impossible that we should escape<a name=
+"FNanchor405"></a><a href="#Footnote_405">[405]</a>."</p>
+<p>Weighed down by grief at the sad failure of all their strivings,
+the little band yet succeeded in escaping to Metammeh. They
+afterwards found out that they were two days too late. The final
+cause of the fall of Khartum is not fully known. The notion first
+current, that it was due to treachery, has been discredited.
+Certainly the defenders were weakened by privation and cowed by the
+Mahdist successes. The final attack was also given at a weak place
+in the long line of defence; but whether the defenders all did
+their best, or were anxious to make terms with the Mahdi, will
+probably never be known. The conduct of the assailants in at once
+firing on the relieving force forbids the notion that they all
+along intended to get into Khartum by treachery just before the
+approach of the steamers. Had that been their aim, they would
+surely have added one <span class="pagenum"><a name="page482" id=
+"page482"></a>[pg 482]</span> crowning touch of guile, that of
+remaining quiet until Wilson and his men landed at Khartum. The
+capture of the town would therefore seem to be due to force, not to
+treachery.</p>
+<p>All these speculations are dwarfed by the overwhelming fact that
+Gordon perished. Various versions have been given of the manner of
+his death. One that rests on good authority is that he died
+fighting. Another account, which seems more consistent with his
+character, is that, on hearing of the enemy's rush into the town,
+he calmly remarked: "It is all finished; to-day Gordon will be
+killed." In a short time a chief of the Baggara Arabs with a few
+others burst in and ordered him to come to the Mahdi. Gordon
+refused. Thrice the Sheikh repeated the command. Thrice Gordon
+calmly repeated his refusal. The sheikh then drew his sword and
+slashed at his shoulder. Gordon still looked him steadily in the
+face. Thereupon the miscreant struck at his neck, cut off his head,
+and carried it to the Mahdi<a name="FNanchor406"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_406">[406]</a>.</p>
+<p>Whatever may be the truth as to details, it is certain that no
+man ever looked death in the face so long and so serenely as
+Gordon. For him life was but duty--duty to God and duty to man. We
+may fitly apply to him the noble lines which Tennyson offered to
+the memory of another steadfast soul--</p>
+<blockquote>He, that ever following her commands,<br>
+On with toil of heart and knees and hands,<br>
+Thro' the long gorge to the far light has won<br>
+His path upward, and prevail'd,<br>
+Shall find the toppling crags of Duty scaled<br>
+Are close upon the shining table-lands<br>
+To which our God Himself is moon and sun.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION</p>
+<p>Shortly before the publication of this work, Lord Edmund
+Fitzmaurice published his <i>Life of Earl Granville</i>, some of
+the details of which tend somewhat to modify the account of the
+relations subsisting between the Earl and General Gordon. See too
+the issue of the <i>Times</i> of December 10, 1905 (Weekly
+Edition), for a correction of some of the statements, made in the
+<i>Life of Earl Granville</i>, by Lord Cromer (Sir Evelyn
+Baring).]</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_377"></a><a href="#FNanchor377">[377]</a> See
+the Report of the Intelligence Department of the War Office,
+printed in <i>The Journals of Major-General C.G. Gordon at
+Khartum</i>, Appendix to Bk. iv.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_378"></a><a href="#FNanchor378">[378]</a> See
+Gordon's letter of April 1880, quoted in the Introduction to <i>The
+Journals of Major-General C.G. Gordon at Khartum</i> (1885), p.
+xvii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_379"></a><a href="#FNanchor379">[379]</a>
+Gordon's <i>Journals</i>, pp. 347-351; also Parl. Papers, Egypt,
+No. 12 (1884), pp. 85 and 127-131 for another account. See, too,
+Sir F.R. Wingate's <i>Mahdism</i>, chaps. i.-iii., for the rise of
+the Mahdi and his triumph over Hicks.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_380"></a><a href="#FNanchor380">[380]</a> J.
+Morley, <i>Life of Gladstone</i>, vol. iii. p. 146; Sir A. Lyall,
+<i>Life of Lord Dufferin</i>, vol. ii. chap. ii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_381"></a><a href="#FNanchor381">[381]</a>
+Morley, <i>Life of Gladstone</i>, vol. iii. p. 147.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_382"></a><a href="#FNanchor382">[382]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 2 (1884), p. 3.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_383"></a><a href="#FNanchor383">[383]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 12 (1884), pp. 27, 28.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_384"></a><a href="#FNanchor384">[384]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 6 (1884), p. 3.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_385"></a><a href="#FNanchor385">[385]</a>
+Egypt, No. 12 (1884), p. 133.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_386"></a><a href="#FNanchor386">[386]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. p. 27.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_387"></a><a href="#FNanchor387">[387]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. pp. 38-41.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_388"></a><a href="#FNanchor388">[388]</a>
+Egypt, No. 12 (1884), pp. 74, 82, 88.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_389"></a><a href="#FNanchor389">[389]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. p. 95.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_390"></a><a href="#FNanchor390">[390]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. p. 94.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_391"></a><a href="#FNanchor391">[391]</a> For
+details of these battles, see Sir F. Wingate's <i>Mahdism</i>,
+chap, iii., and <i>Life of Sir Gerald Graham</i> (1901).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_392"></a><a href="#FNanchor392">[392]</a>
+Egypt, No. 12 (1884), p. 115.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_393"></a><a href="#FNanchor393">[393]</a>
+Egypt, No. 12 (1884) p. 119.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_394"></a><a href="#FNanchor394">[394]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. p. 145.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_395"></a><a href="#FNanchor395">[395]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. p. 152.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_396"></a><a href="#FNanchor396">[396]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. pp. 158, 162, 166.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_397"></a><a href="#FNanchor397">[397]</a>
+Egypt, No. 13 (1884), pp. 5, 6. Earl Granville made the same
+statement in his despatch of April 23. See, too, <i>The Life of
+Lord Granville</i>.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_398"></a><a href="#FNanchor398">[398]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 25 (1884), pp. 129-131.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_399"></a><a href="#FNanchor399">[399]</a> This
+is the number as estimated by Gordon in his <i>Journals</i> (Sept.
+10, 1884), p. 6.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_400"></a><a href="#FNanchor400">[400]</a>
+Morley, <i>Life of Gladstone</i>, vol. iii. p. 164.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_401"></a><a href="#FNanchor401">[401]</a> For
+details, see <i>Letters from Khartum</i>, by Frank Power.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_402"></a><a href="#FNanchor402">[402]</a>
+<i>Journal</i>, p. 35, etc.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_403"></a><a href="#FNanchor403">[403]</a> See
+Gordon's letters of the year 1877, quoted in the Appendix of A.
+Macdonald's <i>Too Late for Gordon and Khartum</i> (1887); also
+chap. vi. of that book.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_404"></a><a href="#FNanchor404">[404]</a> Sir
+C.W. Wilson, <i>From Korti to Khartum</i>, pp. 28-35; also see Hon.
+R. Talbot's article on "Abu Klea," in the <i>Nineteenth Century</i>
+for January 1886.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_405"></a><a href="#FNanchor405">[405]</a> Sir
+C.W. Wilson, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 176-177.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_406"></a><a href="#FNanchor406">[406]</a> A
+third account given by Bordeini Bey, a merchant of Khartum, differs
+in many details. It is printed by Sir F.R. Wingate in his
+<i>Mahdism</i>, p. 171.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page483" id="page483"></a>[pg
+483]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+<h3>THE CONQUEST OF THE SUDAN</h3>
+<blockquote>"The Sudan, if once proper communication was
+established, would not be difficult to govern. The only mode of
+improving the access to the Sudan, seeing the impoverished state of
+Egyptian finances, and the mode to do so without an outlay of more
+than &pound;10,000, is by the Nile."--<i>Gordon's Journals</i>
+(Sept. 19, 1884).</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>It may seem that an account of the fall of Khartum is out of
+place in a volume which deals only with formative events. But this
+is not so. The example of Gordon's heroism was of itself a great
+incentive to action for the cause of settled government in that
+land. For that cause he had given his life, and few Britons were
+altogether deaf to the mute appeal of that lonely struggle. Then
+again, the immense increase to the Mahdi's power resulting from the
+capture of the arsenal of Khartum constituted (as Gordon had
+prophesied) a serious danger to Egypt. The continued presence of
+British troops at Wady Haifa, and that alone, saved the valley of
+the Lower Nile from a desolating flood of savagery. This was a fact
+recognised by every one at Cairo, even by the ultra-Gallic party.
+Egypt alone has rarely been able to hold at bay any great downward
+movement of the tribes of Ethiopia and Nubia; and the danger was
+never so great as in and after 1885. The Mahdi's proclamations to
+the faithful now swelled with inconceivable pride. To a wavering
+sheikh he sent the warning: "If you live long enough you will see
+the troops of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page484" id=
+"page484"></a>[pg 484]</span> the Mahdi spreading over Europe,
+Rome, and Constantinople, after which there will be nothing left
+for you but hell and damnation." The mistiness of the geography was
+hidden by the vigour of the theology, and all the sceptics of Nubia
+hastened to accept the new prophet.</p>
+<p>But his time of tyranny soon drew to a close. A woman of
+Khartum, who had been outraged by him or his followers, determined
+to wreak her vengeance. On June 14, 1885, she succeeded in giving
+him slow poison, which led him to his death amidst long-drawn
+agonies eight days later. This ought to have been the death of
+Mahdism as well, but superstitions die hard in that land of
+fanatics. The Mahdi's factotum, an able intriguer named Abdullah
+Taashi, had previously gained from his master a written declaration
+that he was to be Khalifa after him; he now produced this document,
+and fortified its influence by describing in great detail a vision
+in which the ghost of the Mahdi handed him a sacred hair of
+inestimable worth, and an oblong-shaped light which had come direct
+from the hands of the true Prophet, who had received it from the
+hands of the angel Gabriel, to whom it had been entrusted by the
+Almighty.</p>
+<p>This silly story was eagerly believed by the many, the
+questioning few also finding it well to still their doubts in
+presence of death or torture. Piety and politics quickly worked
+hand in hand to found the impostor's authority. A mosque began to
+rise over the tomb of the Mahdi in his chosen capital, Omdurman;
+and his successor gained the support and the offerings of the
+thousands of pilgrims who came to visit that wonder-working shrine.
+Such was the basis of the new rule, which spread over the valley of
+the Upper and Middle Nile, and carried terror nearly to the borders
+of Egypt<a name="FNanchor407"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_407">[407]</a>.</p>
+<p>There law and order slowly took root under the shadow of the
+British administration, but Egypt ceased to control the lands south
+of Wady Halfa. Mr. Gladstone announced that decision in the House
+of Commons on May 11, 1885; and those <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page485" id="page485"></a>[pg 485]</span> who
+discover traces of the perfidy of Albion even in the vacillations
+of her policy, maintain that that declaration was made with a view
+to an eventual annexation of the Sudan by England. Their contention
+would be still more forcible if they would prove that the Gladstone
+Ministry deliberately sacrificed Gordon at Khartum in order to
+increase the Mahdi's power and leave Egypt open to his blows,
+thereby gaining one more excuse for delaying the long-promised
+evacuation of the Nile delta by the redcoats. This was the
+<i>outcome</i> of events; and those who argue backwards should have
+the courage of their convictions and throw all the facts of the
+case into their syllogisms.</p>
+<p>All who have any knowledge of the trend of British statesmanship
+in the eighties know perfectly well that the occupation of Egypt
+was looked on as a serious incubus. The Salisbury Cabinet sought to
+give effect to the promises of evacuation, and with that aim in
+view sent Sir Henry Drummond Wolff to Constantinople in the year
+1887 for the settlement of details. The year 1890 was ultimately
+fixed, provided that no danger should accrue to Egypt from such
+action, and that Great Britain should "retain a treaty-right of
+intervention if at any time either the internal peace or external
+security [of Egypt] should be seriously threatened." To this last
+stipulation the Sultan seemed prepared to agree. Austria, Germany,
+and Italy notified their complete agreement with it; but France and
+Russia refused to accept the British offer with this proviso added,
+and even influenced the Sultan so that he too finally opposed it.
+Their unfriendly action can only be attributed to a desire of
+humiliating Great Britain, and of depriving her of any effective
+influence in the land which, at such loss of blood and treasure to
+herself, she had saved from anarchy. Their opposition wrecked the
+proposal, and the whole position therefore remained unchanged.
+British officials continued to administer Egypt in spite of
+opposition from the French in all possible details connected with
+the vital question of finance<a name="FNanchor408"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_408">[408]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page486" id="page486"></a>[pg
+486]</span>
+<p>Other incidents that occurred during the years intervening
+between the fall of Gordon and the despatch of Sir Herbert
+Kitchener's expedition need not detain us here<a name=
+"FNanchor409"></a><a href="#Footnote_409">[409]</a>. The causes
+which led to this new departure will be more fitly considered when
+we come to notice the Fashoda incident; but we may here remark that
+they probably arose out of the French and Belgian schemes for the
+partition of Central Africa. A desire to rescue the Sudan from a
+cruel and degrading tyranny and to offer a tardy reparation to the
+memory of Gordon doubtless had some weight with Ministers, as it
+undoubtedly had with the public. Indeed, it is doubtful whether the
+<i>vox populi</i> would have allowed the expedition but for these
+more sentimental considerations. But, in the view of the present
+writer, the Sudan expedition presents the best instance of
+foresight, resolve, and able execution that is to be found in the
+recent annals of Britain.</p>
+<p>With the hour had come the man. During the dreary years of the
+"mark time" policy Colonel Kitchener had gained renown as a
+determined fighter and able organiser. For some time he acted as
+governor of Suakim, and showed his powers of command by gaining
+over some of the neighbouring tribes and planning an attack on
+Osman Digna which came very near to success. Under him and many
+other British officers the Egyptians and Sudanese gradually learnt
+confidence, and broke the spell of invincibility that so long had
+rested with the Dervish hordes. On all sides the power of the
+Khalifa was manifestly waning. The powerful Hadendowa tribe, near
+Suakim, which had given so much trouble in 1883-84, became neutral.
+On the Nile also the Dervishes lost ground. The Anglo-Egyptian
+troops wrested from them the post of Sarras, some thirty miles
+south of Wady Halfa; and the efforts of the fanatics to capture the
+wells along desert routes far to the east of the river were
+bloodily repulsed. As long as Sarras, Wady Halfa, and those wells
+were firmly held, Egypt was safe.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page487" id="page487"></a>[pg
+487]</span>
+<p>At Gedaref, not very far from Omdurman, the Khalifa sustained a
+severe check from the Italians (December 1893), who thereupon
+occupied the town of Kassala. It was not to be for any length of
+time. In all their enterprises against the warlike Abyssinians they
+completely failed; and, after sustaining the disastrous defeat of
+Adowa (March 1, 1896), the whole nation despaired of reaping any
+benefit from the Hinterland of their colony around Massowah. The
+new Cabinet at Rome resolved to withdraw from the districts around
+Kassala. On this news being communicated to the British Ministers,
+they sent a request to Rome that the evacuation of Kassala might be
+delayed until Anglo-Egyptian troops could be despatched to occupy
+that important station. In this way the intended withdrawal of the
+Italians served to strengthen the resolve of the British Government
+to help the Khedive in effecting the recovery of the Sudan<a name=
+"FNanchor410"></a><a href="#Footnote_410">[410]</a>.</p>
+<p>Preparations for the advance southwards went forward slowly and
+methodically through the summer and autumn of 1896. For the present
+the operations were limited to the recapture of Dongola. Sir
+Herbert Kitchener, then the Sirdar of the Egyptian army, was placed
+in command. Under him were men who had proved their worth in years
+of desultory fighting against the Khalifa--Broadwood, Hunter,
+Lewis, Macdonald, Maxwell, and many others. The training had been
+so long and severe as to weed out all weaklings; and the Sirdar
+himself was the very incarnation of that stern but salutary law of
+Nature which ordains the survival of the fittest. Scores of
+officers who failed to come up to his requirements were quietly
+removed; and the result was seen in a finely seasoned body of men,
+apt at all tasks, from staff duties to railway control. A
+comparison of the Egyptian army that fought at Omdurman with that
+which thirteen years before ran away <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page488" id="page488"></a>[pg 488]</span> screaming from a tenth
+of its number of Dervishes affords the most impressive lesson of
+modern times of the triumph of mind over matter, of western
+fortitude over the weaker side of eastern fatalism.</p>
+<p>Such a building up of character as this implies could not take
+place in a month or two, for the mind of Egyptians and Sudanese was
+at first an utter blank as to the need of prompt obedience and
+still prompter action. An amusing case of their incredible
+slackness has been recorded. On the first parade of a new camel
+transport corps before Lord Kitchener, the leading driver stopped
+his animal, and therefore all that followed, immediately in front
+of the Sirdar, in order to light a cigarette. It is needless to
+say, the cigarette was not lighted, but the would-be smoker had his
+first lesson as to the superiority of the claims of collectivism
+over the whims of the individual<a name="FNanchor411"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_411">[411]</a>.</p>
+<p>As will be seen by reference to the map on page 477, the
+decision to limit the campaign to Dongola involved the choice of
+the Nile route. If the blow had been aimed straight at Khartum, the
+Suakim-Berber route, or even that by way of Kassala, would have had
+many advantages. Above all, the river route held out the prospect
+of effective help from gunboats in the final attacks on Berber,
+Omdurman, and Khartum. Seeing, however, that the greater part of
+the river's course between Sarras and Dongola was broken up by
+rapids, the railway and the camel had at first to perform nearly
+the whole of the transport duties for which the Nile was there
+unsuited. The work of repairing the railway from Wady Haifa to
+Sarras, and thenceforth of constructing it through rocky wastes,
+amidst constant risk of Dervish raids, called into play every
+faculty of ingenuity, patience, and hardihood. But little by little
+the line crept on; the locomotives carried the piles of food,
+stores, and ammunition further and further south, until on June 6,
+1897, the first blow was dealt by the surprise and destruction of
+the Dervish force at Ferket.</p>
+<p>There a halt was called; for news came in that an unprecedented
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page489" id="page489"></a>[pg
+489]</span> rain-storm further north had washed away the railway
+embankments from some of the gulleys. To make good the damage would
+take thirty days, it was said. The Sirdar declared that the line
+must be ready in twelve days; he went back to push on the work; in
+twelve days the line was ready. As an example of the varied
+difficulties that were met and overcome, we may mention one. The
+work of putting together a steamer, which had been brought up in
+sections, was stopped because an all-important nut had been lost in
+transit. At once the Sirdar ordered horsemen to patrol the railway
+line--and the nut was found. At last the vessel was ready; but on
+her trial trip she burst a cylinder and had to be left
+behind<a name="FNanchor412"></a><a href="#Footnote_412">[412]</a>.
+Three small steamers and four gunboats were, however, available for
+service in the middle of September, when the expedition moved
+on.</p>
+<p>By this time the effective force numbered about 12,000 men. The
+Dervishes had little heart for fighting to the north of Dongola;
+and even at that town the Dervishes made but a poor stand, cowed as
+they were by the shells of the steamers and perplexed by the
+enveloping moves which the Sirdar ordered; 700 were taken in
+Dongola, and the best 300 of these were incorporated in the
+Sirdar's Sudanese regiments (Sept. 23, 1896).</p>
+<p>Thus ended the first part of the expedition. Events had
+justified Gordon's statement that a small well-equipped expedition
+could speedily overthrow the Mahdi--that is, in the days of his
+comparative weakness before the capture of Khartum. The ease with
+which Dongola had been taken and the comparative cheapness of the
+expedition predisposed the Egyptian Government and the English
+public to view its extension southwards with less of disfavour.</p>
+<p>Again the new stride forward had to be prepared for by careful
+preparations at the base. The question of route also caused delay.
+It proved to be desirable to begin a new railway from Wady Haifa
+across the desert to Abu Hamed at the northern tip of the deep bend
+which the Nile makes below <span class="pagenum"><a name="page490"
+id="page490"></a>[pg 490]</span> Berber. To drive a line into a
+desert in order to attack an enemy holding a good position beyond
+seemed a piece of fool-hardiness. Nevertheless it was done, and at
+the average rate of about 1 1/4 miles a day. In due course General
+Hunter pushed on and captured Abu Hamed, the inhabitants of which
+showed little fight, being thoroughly weary of Dervish tyranny
+(August 6, 1897).</p>
+<p>The arrival of gunboats after a long struggle with the rapids
+below Abu Hamed gave Hunter's little force a much-needed support;
+and before he could advance further, news reached him that the
+Dervishes had abandoned Berber. This step caused general surprise,
+and it has never been fully explained. Some have averred that a
+panic seized the wives of the Dervish garrison at Berber, and that
+when they rushed out of the town southwards their husbands followed
+them<a name="FNanchor413"></a><a href="#Footnote_413">[413]</a>.
+Certain it is that family feelings, which the Dervishes so readily
+outraged in others, played a leading part in many of their
+movements. Whatever the cause may have been, the abandonment of
+Berber greatly facilitated the work of Sir Herbert Kitchener. A
+strong force soon mustered at that town, and the route to the Red
+Sea was reopened by a friendly arrangement with the local
+sheikhs.</p>
+<p>The next important barrier to the advance was the river Atbara.
+Here the Dervishes had a force some 18,000 strong; but before long
+the Sirdar received timely reinforcement of a British brigade,
+consisting of the Cameron and Seaforth Highlanders and the
+Lincolnshire and Warwickshire regiments, under General Gatacre.
+Various considerations led the Sirdar to wait until he could strike
+a telling blow. What was most to be dreaded was the adoption of
+Parthian tactics by the enemy. Fortunately they had constructed a
+zariba (a camp surrounded by thorn-bushes) on the north bank of the
+Atbara at a point twenty miles above its confluence with the Nile.
+At last, on April 7, 1898, after trying to tempt the enemy to a
+battle in the open, the Sirdar moved forward his 14,000 men in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page491" id="page491"></a>[pg
+491]</span> the hope of rushing the position soon after dawn of the
+following day, Good Friday.</p>
+<p>Before the first streaks of sunrise tinged the east, the
+assailants moved forward to a ridge overlooking the Dervish
+position; but very few heads were seen above the thorny rampart in
+the hollow opposite. It was judged to be too risky at once to
+charge a superior force that clung to so strong a shelter; and for
+an hour and a half the British and Egyptian guns plied the zariba
+in the hope of bringing the fanatics out to fight. Still they kept
+quiet; and their fortitude during this time of carnage bore witness
+to their bravery and discipline<a name="FNanchor414"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_414">[414]</a>.</p>
+<p>At 7.45 the Sirdar ordered the advance. The British brigade held
+the left wing, the Camerons leading in line formation, while behind
+them in columns were ranged the Warwicks, Seaforths, and Lincolns,
+to add weight to the onset. Macdonald's and Maxwell's Egyptian and
+Sudanese Brigades, drawn up in lines, formed the centre and right.
+Squadrons of Egyptian horse and a battery of Maxims confronted the
+Dervish horsemen ranged along; the front of a dense scrub to the
+left of the zariba. As the converging lines advanced, they were met
+by a terrific discharge; fortunately it was aimed too high, or the
+loss would have been fearful. Then the Highlanders and Sudanese
+rushed in, tore apart the thorn bushes and began a fierce fight at
+close quarters. From their shelter trenches, pits, and huts the
+Dervishes poured in spasmodic volleys, or rushed at their
+assailants with spear or bayonet. Even at this the fanatics of the
+desert were no match for the seasoned troops of the Sirdar; and
+soon the beaten remnant streamed out through the scrub or over the
+dry bed of the Atbara. About 2500 were killed, and 2000, including
+Mahmud, the commander, were taken prisoners. Those who attempted to
+reach the fertile country round Kassala were there hunted down or
+captured by the Egyptian garrison that lately had arrived
+there.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page492" id="page492"></a>[pg
+492]</span>
+<p>As on previous occasions, the Sirdar now waited some time until
+the railway could be brought up to the points lately conquered.
+More gunboats were also constructed for the final stage of the
+expedition. The dash at Omdurman and Khartum promised to tax to the
+uttermost the strength of the army; but another brigade of British
+troops, commanded by Colonel Lyttelton, soon joined the expedition,
+bringing its effective strength up to 23,000 men. General Gatacre
+received the command of the British division. Ten gunboats, five
+transport steamers, and eight barges promised to secure complete
+command of the river banks and to provide means for transporting
+the army and all needful stores to the western bank of the Nile
+whenever the Sirdar judged it to be advisable. The midsummer rains
+in the equatorial districts now made their influence felt, and in
+the middle of August the Nile covered the sandbanks and rocks that
+made navigation dangerous at the time of "low Nile." In the last
+week of that month all was ready for the long and carefully
+prepared advance. The infantry travelled in steamers or barges as
+far as the foot of the Shabluka, or Sixth Cataract, and this method
+of advance left the Dervishes in some doubt by which bank the final
+advance would be made.</p>
+<p>By an unexpected piece of good fortune the Dervishes had
+evacuated the rocky heights of the Shabluka gorge. This was matter
+for rejoicing. There the Nile, which above and below is a mile
+wide, narrows to a channel of little more than a hundred yards in
+width. It is the natural defence of Khartum on the north. The
+strategy of the Khalifa was here again inexplicable, as also was
+his abandonment of the ridge at Kerreri, some seven miles north of
+Omdurman. Mr. Bennett Burleigh in his account of the campaign
+states that the Khalifa had repaired thither once a year to give
+thanks for the triumph about to be gained there.</p>
+<p>At last on September 1, on topping the Kerreri ridge, the
+invaders caught their first glimpse of Omdurman. Already the
+gunboats were steaming up to the Mahdist capital to throw in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page493" id="page493"></a>[pg
+493]</span> their first shells. They speedily dismounted several
+guns, and one of the shells tore away a large portion of the gaudy
+cupola that covered the Mahdi's tomb. Apart from this portent,
+nothing of moment was done on that day; but it seems probable that
+the bombardment led the Khalifa to hazard an attack on the invaders
+in the desert on the side away from the Nile. Nearer to the
+Sirdar's main force the skirmishing of the 21st Lancers, new to war
+but eager to "win their spurs," was answered by angry but impotent
+charges of the Khalifa's horse and foot, until at sunset both sides
+retired for the night's rest.</p>
+<p>The Anglo-Egyptian force made a zariba around the village of
+el-Gennuaia on the river bank; and there, in full expectation of a
+night attack, they sought what slumber was to be had. What with a
+panic rush of Sudanese servants and the stampede of an angry camel,
+the night wore away uneasily; but there was no charge of Dervishes
+such as might have carried death to the heart of that small zariba.
+It is said that the Sirdar had passed the hint to some trusty spies
+to pretend to be deserters and warn the enemy that <i>he</i> was
+going to attack them by night. If this be so, spies have never done
+better service.</p>
+<p>When the first glimmer of dawn came on September 2, every man
+felt instinctively that the Khalifa had thrown away his last
+chance. Yet few were prepared for the crowning act of madness.
+Every one feared that he would hold fast to Omdurman and fight the
+new crusaders from house to house. Possibly the seeming weakness of
+the zariba tempted him to a concentric attack from the Kerreri
+Hills and the ridge which stretches on both sides of the steep
+slopes of the hill, Gebel Surgham. A glance at the accompanying
+plan will show that the position was such as to tempt a confident
+enemy. The Sirdar also manoeuvred so as to bring on an attack. He
+sent out the Egyptian cavalry and camel corps soon after dawn to
+the plain lying between Gebel Surgham and Omdurman to lure on the
+Khalifa's men.</p>
+<p>The device was completely successful. Believing that they could
+catch the horsemen in the rocky ridge alongside of Gebel
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page494" id="page494"></a>[pg
+494]</span> Surgham, the Dervishes came forth from their capital in
+swarms, pressed them hard, and inflicted some losses. Retiring in
+good order, the cavalry drew on the eager hordes, until about 6.30
+A.M. the white glint of their gibbehs, or tunics, showed thickly
+above the tawny slopes on either side of Gebel Surgham. On they
+came in unnumbered throngs, until, pressing northwards along the
+sky-line, their lines also topped the Kerreri Hills to the north of
+the zariba. Their aim was obvious: they intended to surround the
+invaders, pen them up in their zariba, and slaughter them there. To
+all who did not know the value of the central position in war and
+the power of modern weapons, the attack seemed to promise complete
+success. The invaders were 1300 miles away from Cairo and defeat
+would mean destruction.</p>
+<p>Religious zeal lent strength to the onset. From the converging
+crescent of the Mahdists a sound as of a dim murmur was wafted to
+the zariba. Little by little it deepened to a hoarse roar, as the
+host surged on, chanting the pious invocations that so often had
+struck terror into the Egyptians. Now they heard the threatening
+din with hearts unmoved; nay, with spirits longing for revenge for
+untold wrongs and insults. Thus for some minutes in that vast
+amphitheatre the discipline and calm confidence of the West stood
+quietly facing the fanatic fury of the East. Two worlds were there
+embattled: the world of Mohammedanism and the world of Christian
+civilisation; the empire of untutored force and the empire of
+mind.</p>
+<p>At last, after some minutes of tense expectancy, the cannon
+opened fire, and speedily gaps were seen in the white masses. Yet
+the crescent never slackened its advance, except when groups halted
+to fire their muskets at impossible ranges. Waving their flags and
+intoning their prayers, the Dervishes charged on in utter scorn of
+death; but when their ranks came within range of the musketry fire,
+they went down like swathes of grass under the scythe. Then was
+seen a marvellous sight. When the dead were falling their fastest,
+a band of about 150</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page495" id="page495"></a>[pg
+495]</span>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/495.png" width="80%" alt=""><br>
+<b>The Battle of Omdurman</b></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page496" id="page496"></a>[pg
+496]</span>
+<p>Dervish horsemen formed near the Khalifa's dark-green standard
+in the centre and rushed across the fire zone, determined to snatch
+at triumph or gain the sensuous joys of the Moslem paradise. None
+of them rode far.</p>
+<p>Only on the north, where the camel-corps fell into an awkward
+plight among the rocks of the Kerreri slope, had the attack any
+chance of success; and there the shells of one of the six
+protecting gunboats helped to check the assailants. On this side,
+too, Colonel Broadwood and his Egyptian cavalry did excellent
+service by leading no small part of the Dervish left away from the
+attack on the zariba. At the middle of the fiery crescent the
+assailants did some execution by firing from a dip in the ground
+some 400 yards away; but their attempts to rush the intervening
+space all ended in mere slaughter. Not long after eight o'clock the
+Khalifa, seeing the hopelessness of attempting to cross the zone of
+fire around el-Gennuaia, now thickly strewn with his dead, drew off
+the survivors beyond the ridge of Gebel Surgham; and those who had
+followed Broadwood's horse also gave up their futile pursuit, and
+began to muster on the Kerreri ridge.</p>
+<p>The Sirdar now sought to force on a fight in the open; and with
+this aim in view commanded a general advance on Omdurman. In order,
+as it would seem, to keep a fighting formation that would impose
+respect on the bands of Dervishes on the Kerreri Hills, he adopted
+the formation known as echelon of brigades from the left.
+Macdonald's Sudanese brigade, which held the northern face of the
+zariba, was therefore compelled to swing round and march diagonally
+towards Gebel Surgham; and, having a longer space to cover than the
+other brigades, it soon fell behind them.</p>
+<p>For the present, however, the brunt of the danger fell, not on
+Macdonald, but on the vanguard. The 21st Lancers had been sent
+forward over the ridge between Gebel Surgham and the Nile with
+orders to reconnoitre, and, if possible, to head the Dervishes away
+from their city. Throwing out scouts, they <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page497" id="page497"></a>[pg 497]</span> rode
+over the ridge, but soon afterwards came upon a steep and therefore
+concealed khor or gulley whence a large body of concealed Dervishes
+poured a sharp fire<a name="FNanchor415"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_415">[415]</a>. At once Colonel Martin ordered his men
+to dash at the enemy. Eagerly the troopers obeyed the order and
+jumped their horses down the slope into the mass of furious
+fanatics below; these slashed to pieces every one that fell, and
+viciously sought to hamstring the horses from behind. Pushing
+through the mass, the lancers scrambled up the further bank,
+re-formed, and rushed at the groups beyond; after thrusting these
+aside, they betook themselves to less dramatic but more effective
+methods. Dismounting, they opened a rapid and very effective fire
+from their carbines on the throngs that still clustered in or near
+the gulley. The charge, though a fine display of British pluck,
+cost the horsemen dear: out of a total of 320 men 60 were killed
+and wounded; 119 horses were killed or made useless<a name=
+"FNanchor416"></a><a href="#Footnote_416">[416]</a>.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, Macdonald's brigade, consisting of one Egyptian and
+three Sudanese battalions, stood on the brink of disaster. The
+bands from the Kerreri Hills were secretly preparing to charge its
+rear, while masses of the Khalifa's main following turned back,
+rounded the western spurs of Gebel Surgham, and threatened to
+envelop its right flank. The Sirdar, on seeing the danger, ordered
+Wauchope's brigade to turn back to the help of Macdonald, while
+Maxwell's Sudanese, swarming up the eastern slopes of Gebel
+Surgham, poured deadly volleys on the Khalifa's following.
+Collinson's division and the camel corps were ordered to advance
+from the neighbourhood of the zariba and support Macdonald on that
+side. Before these dispositions were complete, that sturdy Scotsman
+and his Sudanese felt the full weight of the Khalifa's onset.
+Excited beyond measure, Macdonald's men broke into spasmodic firing
+as the enemy <span class="pagenum"><a name="page498" id=
+"page498"></a>[pg 498]</span> came on; the deployment into line was
+thereby disordered, and it needed all Macdonald's power of command
+to make good the line. His steadiness stiffened the defence, and
+before the potent charm of western discipline the Khalifa's onset
+died away.</p>
+<p>But now the storm cloud gathering in the rear burst with
+unexpected fury. Masses of men led by the Khalifa's son, the Sheikh
+ed Din, rushed down the Kerreri slopes and threatened to overwhelm
+the brigade. Again there was seen a proof of the ascendancy of mind
+over brute force. At once Macdonald ordered the left part of his
+line to wheel round, keeping the right as pivot, so that the whole
+speedily formed two fronts resembling a capital letter V, pointing
+outwards to the two hostile forces. Those who saw the movement
+wondered alike at the masterly resolve, the steadiness of
+execution, and the fanatical bravery which threatened to make it
+all of no avail. On came the white swarms of Arabs from the north,
+until the Sudanese firing once more became wild and ineffective;
+but, as the ammunition of the blacks ran low and they prepared to
+trust to the bayonet, the nearest unit of the British division, the
+Lincolns, doubled up, prolonged Macdonald's line to the right, and
+poured volley upon volley obliquely into the surging flood. It
+slackened, stood still, and then slowly ebbed. Macdonald's coolness
+and the timely arrival of the Lincolns undoubtedly averted a
+serious disaster<a name="FNanchor417"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_417">[417]</a>.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, the Khalifa's main force had been held in check and
+decimated by the artillery now planted on Gebel Surgham and by the
+fire of the brigades on or near its slopes; so that about eleven
+o'clock the Sirdar's lines could everywhere advance. After beating
+off a desperate charge of Baggara horsemen from the west, Macdonald
+unbent his brigade and drove back the sullen hordes of ed Din to
+the western spurs of the Kerreri Hills, where they were harassed by
+Broadwood's horse. All was now ended, except at the centre of the
+Khalifa's force,</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page499" id="page499"></a>[pg
+499]</span>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/499.png" width="80%" alt=""><br>
+<b>Plan of Khartum</b></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page500" id="page500"></a>[pg
+500]</span>
+<p>where a faithful band clustered about the dark-green standard of
+their leader and chanted defiance to the infidels till one by one
+they fell. The chief himself, unworthy object of this devotion,
+fled away on a swift dromedary some time before the last group of
+stalwarts bit the sand.</p>
+<p>Despite the terrible heat and the thirst of his men, the Sirdar
+allowed only a brief rest before he resumed the march on Omdurman.
+Leaving no time for the bulk of the Dervish survivors to reach
+their capital, he pushed on at the head of Maxwell's brigade, while
+once more the shells of the gunboats spread terror in the city. The
+news brought by a few runaways and the sight of the Khalifa's
+standard carried behind the Egyptian ensign dispelled all hopes of
+resisting the disciplined Sudanese battalions; and, in order to
+clinch matters, the Sirdar with splendid courage rode at the head
+of the brigade to summon the city to surrender. Through the
+clusters of hovels on the outskirts he rode on despite the protests
+of his staff against any needless exposure of his life. He rightly
+counted on the effect which such boldness on the part of the chief
+must have on an undecided populace. Fanatics here and there fired
+on the conquerors, but the news of the Khalifa's cowardly flight
+from the city soon decided the wavering mass to bow before the
+inscrutable decrees of fate, and ask for backsheesh from the
+victors.</p>
+<p>Thus was Omdurman taken. Neufeld, an Austrian trader, and some
+Greeks and nuns who had been in captivity for several years, were
+at once set free. It was afterwards estimated that about 10,000
+Dervishes perished in the battle; very many died of their wounds
+upon the field or were bayoneted owing to their persistence in
+firing on the victors. This episode formed the darkest side of the
+triumph; but it was malignantly magnified by some Continental
+journals into a wholesale slaughter. This is false. Omdurman will
+bear comparison with Skobeleff's victory at Denghil Tep&eacute; at
+all points.</p>
+<p>Two days after his triumph the Sirdar ordered a parade
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page501" id="page501"></a>[pg
+501]</span> opposite the ruins of the palace in Khartum where
+Gordon had met his doom. The funeral service held there in memory
+of the dead hero was, perhaps, the most affecting scene that this
+generation has witnessed. Detachments of most of the regiments of
+the rescue force formed a semicircle round the Sirdar; and by his
+side stood a group of war-worn officers, who with him had toiled
+for years in order to see this day. The funeral service was
+intoned; the solemn assembly sang Gordon's favourite hymn, "Abide
+with me," and the Scottish pipes wailed their lament for the lost
+chieftain. Few eyes were undimmed by tears at the close of this
+service, a slight but affecting reparation for the delays and
+blunders of fourteen years before. Then the Union Jack and the
+Egyptian Crescent flag were hoisted and received a salute of 21
+guns.</p>
+<p>The recovery of the Sudan by Egypt and Great Britain was not to
+pass unchallenged. All along France had viewed the reconquest of
+the valley of the upper Nile with ill-concealed jealousy, and some
+persons have maintained that the French Government was not a
+stranger to designs hatched in France for helping the
+Khalifa<a name="FNanchor418"></a><a href="#Footnote_418">[418]</a>.
+Now that these questions have been happily buried by the
+Anglo-French agreement of the year 1904, it would be foolish to
+recount all that was said amidst the excitements of the year 1898.
+Some reference must, however, be made to the Fashoda incident,
+which for a short space threatened to bring Great Britain and
+France to an open rupture.</p>
+<p>On September 5, a steamer, flying the white flag, reached
+Omdurman. The ex-Dervish captain brought the news that at Fashoda
+he had been fired upon by white men bearing a strange flag. The
+Sirdar divined the truth, namely, that a French expedition under
+Major (now Colonel) Marchand must have made its way from the Congo
+to the White Nile at Fashoda with the aim of annexing that district
+for France.</p>
+<p>Now that the dust of controversy has cleared away, we can see
+facts in their true proportions, especially as the work
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page502" id="page502"></a>[pg
+502]</span> recently published by M. de Freycinet and the
+revelations of Colonel Marchand have thrown more light on the
+affair. Briefly stated, the French case is as follows. Mr.
+Gladstone on May 11, 1885, declared officially that Egypt limited
+her sway to a line drawn through Wady Haifa. The authority of the
+Khedive over the Sudan therefore ceased, though this did not imply
+the cessation of the Sultan's suzerainty in those regions. Further,
+England had acted as if the Sudan were no man's land by
+appropriating the southernmost part in accordance with the
+Anglo-German agreement of July I, 1890; and Uganda became a British
+Protectorate in August 1894. The French protested against this
+extension of British influence over the Upper Nile; and we must
+admit that, in regard to international law, they were right. The
+power to will away that district lay with the Sultan, the Khedive's
+claims having practically lapsed. Germany, it is true, agreed not
+to contest the annexation of Uganda, but France did contest it.</p>
+<p>The Republic also entered a protest against the Anglo-Congolese
+Convention of May 12, 1894, whereby, in return for the acquisition
+of the right bank of the Upper Nile, England ceded to the Congo
+Free State the left bank<a name="FNanchor419"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_419">[419]</a>. That compact was accordingly withdrawn,
+and on August 14, 1894, France secured from the Free State the
+recognition of her claims to the left bank of the Nile with the
+exception of the Lado district below the Albert Nyanza. This action
+on the part of France implied a desire on her part to appropriate
+these lands, and to contest the British claim to the right bank. In
+regard to law, she was justified in so doing; and had she, acting
+as the mandatory of the Sultan, sent an expedition from the Congo
+to the Upper Nile, her conduct in proclaiming a Turco-Frankish
+condominium would have been unexceptionable. That of Britain was
+open to question, seeing that we practically ignored the
+Sultan<a name="FNanchor420"></a><a href="#Footnote_420">[420]</a>
+and acted (so far as is known) <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page503" id="page503"></a>[pg 503]</span> on our own initiative in
+reversing the policy of abandonment officially announced in May
+1885. From the standpoint of equity, however, the Khedive had the
+first claim to the territories then given up under stress of
+circumstances; and the Power that helped him to regain the heritage
+of his sires obviously had a strong claim to consideration so long
+as it acted with the full consent of that potentate.</p>
+<p>The British Cabinet, that of Lord Rosebery, frankly proclaimed
+its determination to champion the claims of the Khedive against all
+comers, Sir Edward Grey declaring officially in the debate of March
+28, 1895, that the despatch of a French expedition to the Upper
+Nile would be "an unfriendly act<a name="FNanchor421"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_421">[421]</a>." We know now, through the revelations
+made by Colonel Marchand in the <i>Matin</i> of June 20, 1905, that
+in June 1895 he had pressed the French Government to intervene in
+that quarter; but it did little, relying (so M. de Freycinet
+states) on the compact of August 14, 1894, and not, apparently, on
+any mandate from the Sultan. If so, it had less right to intervene
+than the British Government had in virtue of its close connection
+with the Khedive. As a matter of fact, both Powers lacked an
+authoritative mandate and acted in accordance with their own
+interests. It is therefore futile to appeal to law, as M. de
+Freycinet has done.</p>
+<p>It remained to see which of the two would act the more
+efficiently. M. Marchand states that his plan of action was
+approved by the French Minister for the Colonies, M. Berthelot, on
+November 16, 1895; but little came of it until the news of the
+preparations for the Anglo-Egyptian Expedition reached Paris. It
+would be interesting to hear what Lord Rosebery and Sir Edward Grey
+would say to this. For the present we may affirm with some
+confidence that the tidings of the Franco-Congolese compact of
+August 1894 and of expeditions sent under Monteil and Liotard
+towards the Nile basin must have furnished the real motive for the
+despatch of the Sirdar's army on the expedition to Dongola. That
+event in its turn aroused <span class="pagenum"><a name="page504"
+id="page504"></a>[pg 504]</span> angry feelings at Paris, and M.
+Berthelot went so far as to inform Lord Salisbury that he would not
+hold himself responsible for events that might occur if the
+expedition up the Nile were persisted in. After giving this brusque
+but useful warning of the importance which France attached to the
+Upper Nile, M. Berthelot quitted office, and M. Bourgeois, the
+Prime Minister, took the portfolio for foreign affairs. He pushed
+on the Marchand expedition; so also did his successor, M. Hanotaux,
+in the M&eacute;line Cabinet which speedily supervened.</p>
+<p>Marchand left Marseilles on June 25, 1896, to join his
+expeditionary force, then being prepared in the French Congo. It is
+needless to detail the struggles of the gallant band. After
+battling for two years with the rapids, swamps, forests, and
+mountains of Eastern Congoland and the Bahr-el-Ghazal, he brought
+his flotilla down to the White Nile, thence up its course to
+Fashoda, where he hoisted the tricolour (July 12, 1898). His men
+strengthened the old Egyptian fort, and beat off an attack of the
+Dervishes.</p>
+<p>Nevertheless they had only half succeeded, for they relied on
+the approach of a French Mission from the east by way of Abyssinia.
+A Prince of the House of Orleans had been working hard to this end,
+but owing to the hostility of the natives of Southern Abyssinia
+that expedition had to fall back on Kukong. A Russian officer,
+Colonel Artomoroff, had struggled on down the River Sobat, but he
+and his band also had to retire<a name="FNanchor422"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_422">[422]</a>. The purport of these Franco-Russian
+designs is not yet known; but even so, we can see that the
+situation was one of great peril. Had the French and Russian
+officers from Abyssinia joined hands with Marchand at Fashoda,
+their Governments might have made it a point of honour to remain,
+and to claim for France a belt of territory extending from the
+confines of the French Congo eastwards to Obock on the Red Sea.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page505" id="page505"></a>[pg
+505]</span>
+<p>As it was, Marchand and his heroic little band were in much
+danger from the Dervishes when the Sirdar and his force steamed up
+to Fashoda. The interview between the two chiefs at that place was
+of historic interest. Sir Herbert Kitchener congratulated the Major
+on his triumph of exploration, but claimed that he must plant the
+flag of the Khedive at Fashoda. M. Marchand declared that he would
+hoist it himself over the village. "Over the fort, Major," replied
+the Sirdar. "I cannot permit it," exclaimed the Major, "as the
+French flag is there." A reference by the Sirdar to his superiority
+of force produced no effect, the French commander stating that if
+it were used he and his men would die at their posts. He, however,
+requested the Sirdar to let the matter be referred to the
+Government at Paris, to which Sir Herbert assented. After
+exchanging courteous gifts they parted, the Sirdar leaving an
+Egyptian force in the village, and lodging a written protest
+against the presence of the French force<a name=
+"FNanchor423"></a><a href="#Footnote_423">[423]</a>. He then
+proceeded up stream to the Sobat tributary, on the banks of which
+at Nassar he left half of a Sudanese battalion to bar the road on
+that side to geographical explorers provided with flags. He then
+returned to Khartum.</p>
+<p>The sequel is well known. Lord Salisbury's Government behaved
+with unexpected firmness, asserting that the overthrow of the Mahdi
+brought again under the Egyptian flag all the lands which that
+leader had for a time occupied. The claim was not wholly convincing
+in the sphere of logic; but the victory of Omdurman gave it force.
+Clearly, then, whether Major Marchand was an emissary of
+civilisation or a pioneer of French rule, he had no <i>locus
+standi</i> on the Nile. The French Government before long gave way
+and recalled Major Marchand, who returned to France by way of
+Cairo. This tame end to what was a heroic struggle to extend French
+influence greatly incensed the major; and at Cairo he made a
+speech, declaring that for the present France was worsted in the
+valley of the Nile, but the day might come when she would be
+supreme.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page506" id="page506"></a>[pg
+506]</span>
+<p>It is generally believed that France gave way at this juncture
+partly because her navy was known to be unequal to a conflict with
+that of Great Britain, but also because Franco-German relations
+were none of the best. Or, in the language of the Parisian
+boulevards: "How do we know that while we are fighting the British
+for the Nile valley, Germany will not invade Lorraine?" As to the
+influences emanating from St. Petersburg contradictory statements
+have been made. Rumour asserted that the Czar sought to moderate
+the irritation in France and to bring about a peaceful settlement
+of the dispute; and this story won general acceptance. The
+astonishment was therefore great when, in the early part of the
+Russo-Japanese war, the Paris <i>Figaro</i> published documents
+which seemed to prove that he had assured the French Government of
+his determination to fulfil the terms of the alliance if matters
+came to the sword.</p>
+<p>There we must leave the affair, merely noting that the
+Anglo-French agreement of March 1899 peaceably ended the dispute
+and placed the whole of the Egyptian Sudan, together with the
+Bahr-el-Ghazal district and the greater part of the Libyan Desert,
+west of Egypt, under the Anglo-Egyptian sphere of influence. (See
+map at the end of this volume.)</p>
+<p>The battle of Omdurman therefore ranks with the most decisive in
+modern history, not only in a military sense, but also because it
+extended British influence up the Nile valley as far as Uganda. Had
+French statesmen and M. Marchand achieved their aims, there is
+little doubt that a solid wedge would have been driven through
+north-central Africa from west to east, from the Ubangi Province of
+French Congoland to the mouth of the Red Sea. The Sirdar's triumph
+came just in time to thwart this design and to place in the hands
+that administered Egypt the control of the waters whence that land
+draws its life. Without crediting the stories that were put forth
+in the French Press as to the possibility of France damming up the
+Nile at Fashoda and diverting its floods into the Bahr-el-Ghazal
+district, we may recognise that the control <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page507" id="page507"></a>[pg 507]</span> of
+that river by Egypt is a vital necessity, and that the nation which
+helped the Khedive to regain that control thereby established one
+more claim to a close partnership in the administration at Cairo.
+The reasonableness of that claim was finally admitted by France in
+the Anglo-French agreement of the year 1904.</p>
+<p>That treaty set the seal, apparently, on a series of efforts of
+a strangely mixed character. The control of bondholders, the
+ill-advised strivings of Arabi, the armed intervention undertaken
+by Sir Beauchamp Seymour and Sir Garnet Wolseley, the forlorn hope
+of Gordon's Mission to Khartum, the fanaticism of the Mahdists, the
+diplomatic skill of Lord Cromer, the covert opposition of France
+and the Sultan, and the organising genius of Lord Kitchener--such
+is the medley of influences, ranging from the basest up to the
+noblest of which human nature is capable, that served to draw the
+Government of Great Britain deeper and deeper into the meshes of
+the Egyptian Question, until the heroism, skill, and stubbornness
+of a few of her sons brought about results which would now astonish
+those who early in the eighties tardily put forth the first timid
+efforts at intervention.</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_407"></a><a href="#FNanchor407">[407]</a>
+Wingate, <i>Mahdism</i>, pp. 228-233.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_408"></a><a href="#FNanchor408">[408]</a>
+<i>England in Egypt</i>, by Sir Alfred Milner, pp. 145-153.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_409"></a><a href="#FNanchor409">[409]</a> For
+the Sudan in this period see Wingate's <i>Mahdism</i>; Slatin's
+<i>Fire and Sword in the Sudan</i>; C. Neufeld's <i>A Prisoner of
+the Khalifa</i>.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_410"></a><a href="#FNanchor410">[410]</a> See
+<i>articles</i> by Dr. E. J. Dillon and by Jules Simon in the
+<i>Contemporary Review</i> for April and May 1896. Kassala was
+handed over to an Egyptian force under Colonel Parsons in December
+1897. <i>The Egyptian Sudan</i>, by H. S. L. Alford and W. D. Sword
+(1898).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_411"></a><a href="#FNanchor411">[411]</a>
+<i>Sudan Campaign</i>, 1896-97, by "An Officer," p. 20.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_412"></a><a href="#FNanchor412">[412]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>, p. 54.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_413"></a><a href="#FNanchor413">[413]</a>
+<i>The Downfall of the Dervishes</i>, by E. N. Bennett, M.A., p.
+23.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_414"></a><a href="#FNanchor414">[414]</a>
+<i>The Egyptian Sudan: its Loss and Recovery,</i> by H. S. L.
+Alford and W. D. Sword, ch. iv.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_415"></a><a href="#FNanchor415">[415]</a> Some
+accounts state that the Lancers had no scouts, but "an officer"
+denies this (<i>Sudan Campaign</i>, 1896-99, p. 198).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_416"></a><a href="#FNanchor416">[416]</a> The
+general opinion of the army was that the charge of the Lancers "was
+magnificent, but was not war." See G.W. Steevens' <i>With Kitchener
+to Khartum</i>, ch. xxxii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_417"></a><a href="#FNanchor417">[417]</a> See
+Mr. Winston Churchill's <i>The River War</i>, vol. ii. pp. 160-163,
+for the help given by the Lincolns.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_418"></a><a href="#FNanchor418">[418]</a> See
+an unsigned article in the <i>Contemporary Review</i> for Dec.
+1897.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_419"></a><a href="#FNanchor419">[419]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 2 (1898), pp. 13-14.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_420"></a><a href="#FNanchor420">[420]</a> The
+Earl of Kimberley's reply of Aug. 14, 1894, to M. Hanotaux, is very
+weak on this topic. Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 2 (1898), pp.
+14-15.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_421"></a><a href="#FNanchor421">[421]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. p. 18.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_422"></a><a href="#FNanchor422">[422]</a>
+<i>Marchand l'Africain</i>, by C. Castellani, pp. 279-280. The
+author reveals his malice by the statement (p. 293) that the
+Sirdar, after the battle of Omdurman, ordered 14,000 Dervish
+wounded to be <i>&eacute;ventr&eacute;s.</i></p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_423"></a><a href="#FNanchor423">[423]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 2 (1898), p. 9; No. 3 (1898), pp. 3-4.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page508" id="page508"></a>[pg
+508]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+<h3>THE PARTITION OF AFRICA</h3>
+<br>
+<p>In the opening up of new lands by European peoples the order of
+events is generally somewhat as follows:--First come explorers,
+pioneers, or missionaries. These having thrown some light on the
+character of a land or of its people, traders follow in their wake;
+and in due course factories are formed and settlements arise. The
+ideas of the new-comers as to the rights of property and
+landholding differ so widely from those of the natives, that
+quarrels and strifes frequently ensue. Warships and soldiers then
+appear on the scene; and the end of the old order of things is
+marked by the hoisting of the Union Jack, or the French or German
+tricolour. In the case of the expansion of Russia as we have seen,
+the procedure is far otherwise. But Africa has been for the most
+part explored, exploited, and annexed by agencies working from the
+sea and proceeding in the way just outlined.</p>
+<p>The period since the year 1870 has for the most part witnessed
+the operation of the last and the least romantic of these so-called
+civilising efforts. The great age of African exploration was then
+drawing to a close. In the year 1870 that devoted missionary
+explorer, David Livingstone, was lost to sight for many months
+owing to his earnest longing peacefully to solve the great problem
+of the waterways of Central Africa, and thus open up an easy path
+for the suppression of the slave-trade. But when, in 1871, Mr. H.
+M. Stanley, the enterprising <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page509" id="page509"></a>[pg 509]</span> correspondent of the
+<i>New York Herald</i>, at the head of a rescue expedition, met the
+grizzled, fever-stricken veteran near Ujiji and greeted him with
+the words--"Mr. Livingstone, I presume," the age of mystery and
+picturesqueness vanished away.</p>
+<p>A change in the spirit and methods of exploration naturally
+comes about when the efforts of single individuals give place to
+collective enterprise<a name="FNanchor424"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_424">[424]</a>, and that change was now rapidly to come
+over the whole field of African exploration. The day of the Mungo
+Parks and Livingstones was passing away, and the day of
+associations and companies was at hand. In 1876, Leopold II., King
+of the Belgians, summoned to Brussels several of the leading
+explorers and geographers in order to confer on the best methods of
+opening up Africa. The specific results of this important
+Conference will be considered in the next chapter; but we may here
+note that, under the auspices of the "International Association for
+the Exploration and Civilisation of Africa" then founded, much
+pioneer work was carried out in districts remote from the River
+Congo. The vast continent also yielded up its secrets to travellers
+working their way in from the south and the north, so that in the
+late seventies the white races opened up to view vast and populous
+districts which imaginative chartographers in other ages had
+diversified with the Mountains of the Moon or with signs of the
+Zodiac and monstrosities of the animal creation.</p>
+<p>The last epoch-marking work carried through by an individual was
+accomplished by a Scottish explorer, whose achievements almost
+rivalled those of Livingstone. Joseph Thomson, a native of
+Dumfriesshire, succeeded in 1879 to the command of an exploring
+party which sought to open up the country around the lakes of
+Nyassa and Tanganyika. Four years later, on behalf of the Royal
+Geographical Society, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page510" id=
+"page510"></a>[pg 510]</span> he undertook to examine the country
+behind Mombasa which was little better known than when Vasco da
+Gama first touched there. In this journey Thomson discovered two
+snow-capped mountains, Kilimanjaro and Kenia, and made known the
+resources of the country as far inland as the Victoria Nyanza.
+Considering the small resources he had at hand, and the cruel and
+warlike character of the Masai people through whom he journeyed,
+this journey was by far the most remarkable and important in the
+annals of exploration during the eighties. Thomson afterwards
+undertook to open a way from the Benu&euml;, the great eastern
+affluent of the Niger, to Lake Chad and the White Nile. Here again
+he succeeded beyond all expectation, while his tactful management
+of the natives led to political results of the highest importance,
+as will shortly appear.</p>
+<p>These explorations and those of French, German, and Portuguese
+travellers served to bring nearly the whole of Africa within the
+ken of the civilised world, and revealed the fact that nearly all
+parts of tropical Africa had a distinct commercial value.</p>
+<p>This discovery, we may point out, is the necessary preliminary
+to any great and sustained work of colonisation and annexation.
+Three conditions may be looked on as essential to such an effort.
+First, that new lands should be known to be worth the labour of
+exploitation or settlement; second, that the older nations should
+possess enough vitality to pour settlers and treasure into them;
+and thirdly, that mechanical appliances should be available for the
+overcoming of natural obstacles.</p>
+<p>Now, a brief glance at the great eras of exploring and
+colonising activity will show that in all these three directions
+the last thirty years have presented advantages which are unique in
+the history of the world. A few words will suffice to make good
+this assertion. The wars which constantly devastated the ancient
+world, and the feeble resources in regard to navigation wielded by
+adventurous captains, such as Hanno the Carthaginian, grievously
+hampered all the efforts of explorers by sea, while <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page511" id="page511"></a>[pg 511]</span>
+mechanical appliances were so weak as to cripple man's efforts at
+penetrating the interior. The same is true of the mediaeval
+voyagers and travellers. Only the very princes among men, Columbus,
+Magellan, Vasco da Gama, Cabot, Cabral, Gilbert, and Raleigh, could
+have done what they did with ships that were mere playthings.
+Science had to do her work of long and patient research before man
+could hopefully face the mighty forces and malignant influences of
+the tropics. Nor was the advance of knowledge and invention
+sufficient by itself to equip man for successful war against the
+ocean, the desert, the forest, and the swamp. The political and
+social development of the older countries was equally necessary. In
+order that thousands of settlers should be able and ready to press
+in where the one great leader had shown the way, Europe had to gain
+something like peace and stability. Only thus, when the natural
+surplus of the white races could devote itself to the task of
+peacefully subduing the earth rather than to the hideous work of
+mutual slaughter, could the life-blood of Europe be poured forth in
+fertilising streams into the waste places of the other
+continents.</p>
+<p>The latter half of the eighteenth century promised for a brief
+space to inaugurate such a period of expansive life. The close of
+the Seven Years' War seemed to be the starting point for a peaceful
+campaign against the unknown; but the efforts of Cook,
+d'Entrecasteaux, and others then had little practical result, owing
+to the American War of Independence, and the great cycle of the
+Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. These in their turn left Europe
+too exhausted to accomplish much in the way of colonial expansion
+until the middle of the nineteenth century. Even then, when the
+steamship and the locomotive were at hand to multiply man's powers,
+there was, as yet, no general wish, except on the part of the more
+fortunate English-speaking peoples, to enter into man's new
+heritage. The problems of Europe had to be settled before the age
+of expansive activity could dawn in its full radiance. As has been
+previously shown, Europe was in an introspective mood up to the
+years 1870-1878.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page512" id="page512"></a>[pg
+512]</span>
+<p>Our foregoing studies have shown that the years following the
+Russo-Turkish War of 1877-8, brought about a state of political
+equilibrium which made for peace and stagnation in Europe; and the
+natural forces of the Continent, cramped by the opposition of equal
+and powerful forces, took the line of least resistance--away from
+Europe. For Russia, the line of least resistance was in Central
+Asia. For all other European States it was the sea, and the new
+lands beyond.</p>
+<p>Furthermore, in that momentous decade the steamship and
+locomotive were constantly gaining in efficiency; electricity was
+entering the arena as a new and mighty force; by this time medical
+science had so far advanced as to screen man from many of the ills
+of which the tropics are profuse; and the repeating rifle
+multiplied the power of the white man in his conflicts with savage
+peoples. When all the advantages of the present generation are
+weighed in the balance against the meagre equipment of the earlier
+discoverers, the nineteenth century has scant claim for boasting
+over the fifteenth. In truth, its great achievements in this sphere
+have been practical and political. It has only fulfilled the rich
+promise of the age of the great navigators. Where they could but
+wonderingly skirt the fringes of a new world, the moderns have won
+their way to the heart of things and found many an Eldorado
+potentially richer than that which tempted the cupidity of Cortes
+and Pizarro.</p>
+<p>In one respect the European statesmen of the recent past tower
+above their predecessors of the centuries before. In the eighteenth
+century the "mercantilist" craze for seizing new markets and
+shutting out all possible rivals brought about most of the wars
+that desolated Europe. In the years 1880-1890 the great Powers put
+forth sustained and successful efforts to avert the like calamity,
+and to cloak with the mantle of diplomacy the eager scrambles for
+the unclaimed lands of the world.</p>
+<p>For various reasons the attention of statesmen turned almost
+solely on Africa. Central and South America were <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page513" id="page513"></a>[pg 513]</span>
+divided among States that were nominally civilised and enjoyed the
+protection of the Monroe Doctrine put forward by the United States.
+Australia was wholly British. In Asia the weakness of China was but
+dimly surmised; and Siam and Cochin China alone offered any field
+for settlement or conquest by European peoples from the sea. In
+Polynesia several groups of islands were still unclaimed; but these
+could not appease the land-hunger of Europe. Africa alone provided
+void spaces proportionate to the needs and ambitions of the white
+man. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 served to bring the east
+coast of that continent within easy reach of Europe; and the
+discoveries on the Upper Nile, Congo, and Niger opened a way into
+other large parts. Thus, by the year 1880, everything favoured the
+"partition of Africa."</p>
+<p>Rumour, in the guise of hints given by communicative young
+attaches or "well-informed" correspondents, ascribes the first
+beginnings of the plans for the partition of Africa to the informal
+conversations of statesmen at the time of the Congress of Berlin
+(1878). Just as an architect safeguards his creation by providing a
+lightning-conductor, so the builder of the German Empire sought to
+divert from that fabric the revengeful storms that might be
+expected from the south-west. Other statesmen were no less anxious
+than Bismarck to draw away the attention of rivals from their own
+political preserves by pointing the way to more desirable waste
+domains. In short, the statesmen of Europe sought to plant in
+Africa the lightning-conductors that would safeguard the new
+arrangements in Europe, including that of Cyprus. The German and
+British Governments are known then to have passed on hints to that
+of France as to the desirability of her appropriating Tunis. The
+Republic entered into the schemes, with results which have already
+been considered (Chapter XII.); and, as a sequel to the occupation
+of Tunis, plans were set on foot for the eventual conquest of the
+whole of the North-West of Africa (except Morocco and a few
+British, Spanish, and Portuguese settlements) from Cape Bon to Cape
+Verde, and thence nearly <span class="pagenum"><a name="page514"
+id="page514"></a>[pg 514]</span> to the mouth of the River Niger.
+We may also note that in and after 1883 France matured her schemes
+for the conquest of part, and ultimately the whole, of Madagascar,
+a project which reached completion in the year 1885<a name=
+"FNanchor425"></a><a href="#Footnote_425">[425]</a>.</p>
+<p>The military occupation of Egypt by Great Britain in 1882 also
+served to quicken the interest of European Powers in Africa. It has
+been surmised that British acquiescence in French supremacy in
+Tunis, West Africa, and Madagascar had some connection with the
+events that transpired in Egypt, and that the perpetuation of
+British supremacy in the valley of the Nile was virtually bought by
+the surrender of most of our political and trading interests in
+these lands, the lapse of which under the French "protective"
+regime caused much heart-burning in commercial circles.</p>
+<p>Last among the special causes that concentrated attention on
+Africa was the activity of King Leopold's Association at Brussels
+in opening up the Congo district in the years 1879-1882. Everything
+therefore tended to make the ownership of tropical Africa the most
+complex question of the early part of the eighties.</p>
+<p>For various reasons Germany was a little later than France and
+England in entering the field. The hostility of France on the west,
+and, after 1878, that of Russia on the east, made it inadvisable
+for the new Empire to give hostages to Fortune, in the shape of
+colonies, until by alliances it secured its position at home and
+possessed a fleet strong enough to defend distant possessions. In
+some measure the German Government had to curb the eagerness of its
+"colonial party." The present writer was in Germany in the year
+1879, when the colonial propaganda was being pushed forward, and
+noted the eagerness in some quarters, and the distrust in others,
+with which pamphlets like that of Herr Fabri, <i>Bedarf Deutschland
+Colonien?</i> were received. Bismarck himself at first checked the
+"colonials," until he felt sure of the European situation. That,
+however, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page515" id=
+"page515"></a>[pg 515]</span> was cleared up to some extent by the
+inclusion of Italy in the compact which thus became the Triple
+Alliance (May 1882), and by the advent to office of the pacific
+Chancellor, de Giers, at St. Petersburg a little later. There was
+therefore the less need officially to curb the colonising instinct
+of the Teutonic people. The formation of the German Colonial
+Society at Frankfurt in December 1882, and the immense success
+attending its propaganda, spurred on the statesmen of Berlin to
+take action. They looked longingly (as they still do) towards
+Brazil, in whose southern districts their people had settled in
+large numbers; but over all that land the Monroe Doctrine spread
+its sheltering wings. A war with the United States would have been
+madness, and Germany therefore turned to Polynesia and Africa. We
+may note here that in 1885 she endeavoured to secure the Caroline
+Islands from Spain, whose title to them seemed to have lapsed; but
+Spanish pride flared up at the insult, and after a short space
+Bismarck soothed ruffled feelings at Madrid by accepting the
+mediation of the Pope, who awarded them to Spain--Germany, however,
+gaining the right to occupy an islet of the group as a coaling
+station.</p>
+<p>Africa, however, absorbed nearly all the energy of the German
+colonial party. The forward wing of that party early in the year
+1884 inaugurated an anti-British campaign in the press, which
+probably had the support of the Government. As has been stated in
+chapter XII., that was the time when the Three Emperors' League
+showed signs of renewed vitality; and Bismarck, after signing the
+secret treaty of March 24, 1884 (later on ratified at Skiernevice),
+felt safe in pressing on colonial designs against England in
+Africa, especially as Russia was known to be planning equally
+threatening moves against the Queen's Empire in Asia. We do not
+know enough of what then went on between the German and Russian
+Chancellors to assert that they formed a definite agreement to
+harry British interests in those continents; but, judging from the
+general drift of Bismarck's diplomacy and from the "nagging" to
+which England was thenceforth subjected for <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page516" id="page516"></a>[pg 516]</span> two
+years, it seems highly probable that the policy ratified at
+Skiernevice aimed at marking time in European affairs and striding
+onwards in other continents at the expense of the Island Power.</p>
+<p>The Anglophobes of the German press at once fell foul of
+everything British; and that well-known paper the <i>K&ouml;lnische
+Zeitung</i> in an article of April 22, 1884, used the following
+words:--"Africa is a large pudding which the English have prepared
+for themselves at other people's expense, and the crust of which is
+already fit for eating. Let us hope that our sailors will put a few
+pepper-corns into it on the Guinea coast, so that our friends on
+the Thames may not digest it too rapidly." The sequel will show
+whether the simile correctly describes either the state of John
+Bull's appetite or the easy aloofness of the Teutonic onlooker.</p>
+<p>It will be convenient to treat this great and complex subject on
+a topographical basis, and to begin with a survey of the affairs of
+East Africa, especially the districts on the mainland north and
+south of the island of Zanzibar. At that important trade centre,
+the natural starting point then for the vast district of the Great
+Lakes, the influence of British and Indian traders had been
+paramount; and for many years the Sultan of Zanzibar had been
+"under the direct influence of the United Kingdom and of the
+Government of India<a name="FNanchor426"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_426">[426]</a>." Nevertheless, in and after 1880 German
+merchants, especially those of Hamburg, pressed in with great
+energy and formed plans for annexing the neighbouring territories
+on the mainland.</p>
+<p>Their energy was in strange contrast to the lethargy shown by
+the British Government in the protection of Anglo-Indian trade
+interests. In the year 1878 the Sultan of Zanzibar, who held a
+large territory on the mainland, had offered the control of all the
+commerce of his dominions to Sir W. Mackinnon, Chairman of the
+British-India Steam Navigation Company; but, for some unexplained
+reason, the Beaconsfield <span class="pagenum"><a name="page517"
+id="page517"></a>[pg 517]</span> Cabinet declined to be a party to
+this arrangement, which, therefore, fell through<a name=
+"FNanchor427"></a><a href="#Footnote_427">[427]</a>. Despite the
+fact that England and France had in 1862 agreed to recognise the
+independence of the Sultan of Zanzibar, the Germans deemed the
+field to be clear, and early in November 1884, Dr. Karl Peters and
+two other enthusiasts of the colonial party landed at Zanzibar,
+disguised as mechanics, with the aim of winning new lands for their
+Fatherland. They had with them several blank treaty forms, the
+hidden potency of which was soon to be felt by dusky potentates on
+the mainland. Before long they succeeded in persuading some of
+these novices in diplomacy to set their marks to these documents,
+an act which converted them into subjects of the Kaiser, and
+speedily secured 60,000 square miles for the German tricolour. It
+is said that the Government of Berlin either had no knowledge of,
+or disapproved of, these proceedings; and, when Earl Granville
+ventured on some representations respecting them, he received the
+reply, dated November 28, 1884, that the Imperial Government had no
+design of obtaining a protectorate over Zanzibar<a name=
+"FNanchor428"></a><a href="#Footnote_428">[428]</a>. It is
+difficult to reconcile these statements with the undoubted fact
+that on February 17, 1885, the German Emperor gave his sanction to
+the proceedings of Dr. Peters by extending his suzerainty over the
+signatory chiefs<a name="FNanchor429"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_429">[429]</a>. This event caused soreness among British
+explorers and Indian traders who had been the first to open up the
+country to civilisation. Nevertheless, the Gladstone Ministry took
+no effective steps to safeguard their interests.</p>
+<p>In defence of their academic treatment of this matter some
+considerations of a general nature may be urged.</p>
+<p>The need of colonies felt by Germany was so natural, so
+imperious, that it could not be met by the high and dry legal
+argument as to the priority of Great Britain's commercial
+interests. Such an attitude would have involved war with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page518" id="page518"></a>[pg
+518]</span> Germany about East Africa and war with France about
+West Africa, at the very time when we were on the brink of
+hostilities with Russia about Merv, and were actually fighting the
+Mahdists behind Suakim. The "weary Titan"--to use Matthew Arnold's
+picturesque phrase--was then overburdened. The motto, "Live and let
+live," was for the time the most reasonable, provided that it was
+not interpreted in a weak and maudlin way on essential points.</p>
+<p>Many critics, however, maintain that Mr. Gladstone's and Lord
+Granville's diplomatic dealings with Germany in the years 1884 and
+1885 displayed most lamentable weakness, even when Dr. Peters and
+others were known to be working hard at the back of Zanzibar, with
+the results that have been noted. In April 1885 the Cabinet ordered
+Sir John Kirk, British representative at Zanzibar, and founder of
+the hitherto unchallenged supremacy of his nation along that coast,
+forthwith to undo the work of a lifetime by "maintaining friendly
+relations" with the German authorities at that port. This, of
+course, implied a tacit acknowledgment by Britain of what amounted
+to a German protectorate over the mainland possessions of the
+Sultan. It is not often that a Government, in its zeal for "live
+and let live," imposes so humiliating a task on a British
+representative. The Sultan did not take the serene and philosophic
+view of the situation that was held at Downing Street, and the
+advent of a German squadron was necessary in order to procure his
+consent to these arrangements (August-December 1885.)<a name=
+"FNanchor430"></a><a href="#Footnote_430">[430]</a></p>
+<p>The Blue Book dealing with Zanzibar (Africa, No. 1, 1886) by no
+means solves the riddle of the negotiations which went on between
+London and Berlin early in the year 1885. From other sources we
+know that the most ardent of the German colonials were far from
+satisfied with their triumph. Curious details have appeared showing
+that their schemes included the laying of a trap for the Sultan of
+Zanzibar, which failed owing to clumsy baiting and the loquacity of
+the would-be <span class="pagenum"><a name="page519" id=
+"page519"></a>[pg 519]</span> captor. Lord Rosebery also managed,
+according to German accounts, to get the better of Count Herbert
+Bismarck in respect of St. Lucia Bay (see page 528) and districts
+on the Benu&euml; River; so that this may perhaps be placed over
+against the losses sustained by Britain on the coast opposite
+Zanzibar. Even there, as we have seen, results did not fully
+correspond to the high hopes entertained by the German
+Chauvinists<a name="FNanchor431"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_431">[431]</a>.</p>
+<p>In the meantime (June 1885) the Salisbury Cabinet came into
+office for a short time, but the evil effects of the slackness of
+British diplomacy were not yet at an end. At this time British
+merchants, especially those of Manchester, were endeavouring to
+develop the mountainous country around the giant cone of Mt.
+Kilimanjaro, where Mr. (now Sir) Harry Johnston had, in September
+1884, secured some trading and other rights with certain chiefs. A
+company had been formed in order to further British interests, and
+this soon became the Imperial British East Africa Company, which
+aspired to territorial control in the parts north of those claimed
+by Dr. Peters' Company. A struggle took place between the two
+companies, the German East Africa Company laying claim to the
+Kilimanjaro district. Again it proved that the Germans had the more
+effective backing, and, despite objections urged by our Foreign
+Minister, Lord Rosebery, against the proceedings of German agents
+in that tract, the question of ownership was referred to the
+decision of an Anglo-German boundary commission.</p>
+<p>Lord Iddesleigh assumed control of the Foreign Office in August,
+but the advent of the Conservatives to power in no way helped on
+the British case. By an agreement between the two Powers, dated
+November 1, 1886, the Kilimanjaro district was assigned to Germany.
+From the northern spurs of that mountain the dividing line ran in a
+north-westerly direction towards the Victoria Nyanza. The same
+agreement recognised <span class="pagenum"><a name="page520" id=
+"page520"></a>[pg 520]</span> the authority of the Sultan of
+Zanzibar as extending over the island of that name, those of Pemba
+and Mafia, and over a strip of coastline ten nautical miles in
+width; but the ownership of the district of Vitu north of Mombasa
+was left open<a name="FNanchor432"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_432">[432]</a>. (See map at the close of this
+volume.)</p>
+<p>On the whole, the skill which dispossessed a sovereign of most
+of his rights, under a plea of diplomatic rearrangements and the
+advancement of civilisation, must be pronounced unrivalled; and
+Britain cut a sorry figure as the weak and unwilling accessory to
+this act. The only satisfactory feature in the whole proceeding was
+Britain's success in leasing from the Sultan of Zanzibar
+administrative rights over the coast region around Mombasa. The
+gain of that part secured unimpeded access from the coast to the
+northern half of Lake Victoria Nyanza. The German Company secured
+similar rights over the coastline of their district, and in 1890
+bought it outright. By an agreement of December 1896, the River
+Rovuma was recognised by Germany and Portugal as the boundary of
+their East African possessions.</p>
+<p>The lofty hopes once entertained by the Germans as to the
+productiveness of their part of East Africa have been but partially
+realised<a name="FNanchor433"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_433">[433]</a>. Harsh treatment of the natives brought
+about a formidable revolt in 1888-89. The need of British
+co-operation in the crushing of this revolt served to bring Germany
+to a more friendly attitude towards this country. Probably the
+resignation, or rather the dismissal, of Bismarck by the present
+Emperor, in March 1890, also tended to lessen the friction between
+England and Germany. The Prince while in retirement expressed
+strong disapproval of the East African policy of his successor,
+Count Caprivi.</p>
+<p>Its more conciliatory spirit found expression in the
+Anglo-German agreement of July 1, 1890, which delimited the
+districts claimed by the two nations around the Victoria
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page521" id="page521"></a>[pg
+521]</span> Nyanza in a sense favourable to Great Britain and
+disappointing to that indefatigable treaty-maker, Dr. Peters. It
+acknowledged British claims to the northern half of the shores and
+waters of that great lake and to the valley of the Upper Nile, as
+also to the coast of the Indian Ocean about Vitu and thence
+northwards to Kismayu.</p>
+<p>On the other hand, Germany acquired the land north of Lake
+Nyassa, where British interests had been paramount. The same
+agreement applied both to the British and German lands in question
+the principle of free or unrestricted transit of goods, as also
+between the great lakes. Germany further recognised a British
+Protectorate over the islands held by the Sultan of Zanzibar,
+reserving certain rights for German commerce in the case of the
+Island of Mafia. Finally, Great Britain ceded to Germany the Island
+of Heligoland in the North Sea. On both sides of the North Sea the
+compact aroused a storm of hostile comment, which perhaps served to
+emphasise its fairness<a name="FNanchor434"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_434">[434]</a>. Bismarck's opinion deserves
+quotation:--</p>
+<blockquote>Zanzibar ought not to have been left to the English. It
+would have been better to maintain the old arrangement. We could
+then have had it at some later time when England required our good
+offices against France or Russia. In the meantime our merchants,
+who are cleverer, and, like the Jews, are satisfied with smaller
+profits, would have kept the upper hand in business. To regard
+Heligoland as an equivalent shows more imagination than sound
+calculation. In the event of war it would be better for us that it
+should be in the hands of a neutral Power. It is difficult and most
+expensive to fortify<a name="FNanchor435"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_435">[435]</a>.</blockquote>
+<p>The passage is instructive as showing the aim of Bismarck's
+colonial policy, namely, to wait until England's difficulties were
+acute (or perhaps to augment those difficulties, as he certainly
+did by furthering Russian schemes against Afghanistan <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page522" id="page522"></a>[pg 522]</span> in
+1884-85<a name="FNanchor436"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_436">[436]</a>), and then to apply remorseless pressure
+at all points where the colonial or commercial interests of the two
+countries clashed.</p>
+<p>The more his policy is known, the more dangerous to England it
+is seen to have been, especially in the years 1884-86. In fact,
+those persons who declaim against German colonial ambitions of
+to-day may be asked to remember that the extra-European questions
+recently at issue between Great Britain and Germany are trivial
+when compared with the momentous problems that were peacefully
+solved by the agreement of the year 1890. Of what importance are
+Samoa, Kiao-chow, and the problem of Morocco, compared with the
+questions of access to the great lakes of Africa and the control of
+the Lower Niger? It would be unfair to Wilhelm II., as also to the
+Salisbury Cabinet, not to recognise the statesmanlike qualities
+which led to the agreement of July 1, 1890--one of the most solid
+gains peacefully achieved for the cause of civilisation throughout
+the nineteenth century.</p>
+<p>Among its many benefits may be reckoned the virtual settlement
+of long and tangled disputes for supremacy in Uganda. We have no
+space in which to detail the rivalries of French and British
+missionaries and agents at the Court of King M'tesa and his
+successor M'wanga, or the futile attempt of Dr. Peters to thrust in
+German influence. Even the Anglo-German agreement of 1890 did not
+end the perplexities of the situation; for though the British East
+Africa Company (to which a charter had been granted in 1888)
+thenceforth had the chief influence on the northern shores of
+Victoria Nyanza, the British Government declined to assume any
+direct responsibility for so inaccessible a district. Thanks,
+however, to the activity and tact of Captain Lugard, difficulties
+were cleared away, with the result that the large and fertile
+territory of Uganda (formerly included in the Khedive's dominions)
+became a British Protectorate in August 1894 (see Chapter
+XVII).</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page523" id="page523"></a>[pg
+523]</span>
+<p>The significance of the events just described will be apparent
+when it is remembered that British East Africa, inclusive of Uganda
+and the Upper Nile basin, comprises altogether 670,000 square
+miles, to a large extent fertile, and capable of settlement by
+white men in the more elevated tracts of the interior. German East
+Africa contains 385,000 square miles, and is also destined to have
+a future that will dwarf that of many of the secondary States of
+to-day.</p>
+<p>The prosperity of British East Africa was greatly enhanced by
+the opening of a railway, 580 miles long, from Mombasa to Victoria
+Nyanza in 1902. Among other benefits, it has cut the ground from
+under the slave-trade, which used to depend on the human beast of
+burden for the carriage of all heavy loads<a name=
+"FNanchor437"></a><a href="#Footnote_437">[437]</a>.</p>
+<p>The Anglo-German agreement of 1890 also cleared up certain
+questions between Britain and Germany relating to South-West Africa
+which had made bad blood between the two countries. In and after
+the year 1882 the attention of the colonial party in Germany was
+turned to the district north of the Orange River, and in the spring
+of the year 1883 Herr L&uuml;deritz founded a factory and hoisted
+the German flag at Angra Peque&ntilde;a. There are grounds for
+thinking that that district was coveted, not so much for its
+intrinsic value, which is slight, as because it promised to open up
+communications with the Boer Republics. Lord Granville ventured to
+express his doubts on that subject to Count Herbert Bismarck, whom
+the Chancellor had sent to London in the summer of 1884 in order to
+take matters out of the hands of the too Anglophil ambassador,
+Count M&uuml;nster. Anxious to show his mettle, young Bismarck
+fired up, and informed Lord Granville that his question was one of
+mere curiosity; later on he informed him that it was a matter which
+did not concern him<a name="FNanchor438"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_438">[438]</a>.</p>
+<p>It must be admitted, however, that the British Government
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page524" id="page524"></a>[pg
+524]</span> had acted in a dilatory and ineffective manner. Sir
+Donald Currie had introduced a deputation to Lord Derby, Colonial
+Minister in the Gladstone Cabinet, which warned him seriously as to
+German aims on the coast of Damaraland; in reply to which that
+phlegmatic Minister stated that Germany was not a colonising Power,
+and that the annexation of those districts would be resented by
+Great Britain as an "unfriendly act<a name=
+"FNanchor439"></a><a href="#Footnote_439">[439]</a>." In November
+1883 the German ambassador inquired whether British protection
+would be accorded to a few German settlers on the coast of
+Damaraland. No decisive answer was given, though the existence of
+British interests there was affirmed. Then, when Germany claimed
+the right to annex it, a counter-claim was urged from Whitehall
+(probably at the instigation of the Cape Government) that the land
+in question was a subject of close interest to us, as it might be
+annexed in the future. It was against this belated and illogical
+plea that Count Bismarck was sent to lodge a protest; and in August
+1884 Germany clinched the matter by declaring Angra Peque&ntilde;a
+and surrounding districts to be German territory. (See note at the
+end of the chapter.)</p>
+<p>In this connection we may remark that Angra Peque&ntilde;a had
+recently figured as a British settlement on German maps, including
+that of Stieler of the year 1882. Walfisch Bay, farther to the
+north, was left to the Union Jack, that flag having been hoisted
+there by official sanction in 1878 owing to the urgent
+representations of Sir Bartle Frere, the Governor of Cape Colony.
+The rest of the coast was left to Germany; the Gladstone Government
+informed that of Berlin that no objection would be taken to her
+occupation of that territory. Great annoyance was felt at the Cape
+at what was looked on as an uncalled for surrender of British
+claims, especially when the Home Government failed to secure just
+treatment for the British settlers. Sir Charles Dilke states in his
+<i>Problems of Greater Britain</i> that only the constant protests
+of the Cape <span class="pagenum"><a name="page525" id=
+"page525"></a>[pg 525]</span> Ministry prevented the authorities at
+Whitehall from complying with German unceasing requests for the
+cession of Walfisch Bay, doubtless as an item for exchange during
+the negotiations of 1889-90<a name="FNanchor440"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_440">[440]</a>.</p>
+<p>We may add here that in 1886 Germany defined the northern limits
+of "South-West Africa"--such was the name of the new colony--by an
+agreement with Portugal; and in 1890 an article of the Anglo-German
+agreement above referred to gave an eastward extension of that
+northern border which brought it to the banks of the River
+Zambesi.</p>
+<p>The British Government took a firmer stand in a matter that
+closely concerned the welfare of Natal and the relations of the
+Transvaal Republic to Germany. In 1884 some German prospectors
+sought to gain a footing in St. Lucia Bay in Zululand and to hoist
+the German flag. The full truth on this interesting matter is not
+yet known; it formed a pendant to the larger question of Delagoa
+Bay, which must be briefly noticed here.</p>
+<p>Friction had arisen between Great Britain and Portugal over
+conflicting claims respecting Delagoa Bay and its adjoining lands;
+and in this connection it may be of interest to note that the
+Disraeli Ministry had earlier missed an opportunity of buying out
+Portuguese claims. The late Lord Carnarvon stated that, when he
+took the portfolio for colonial affairs in that Ministry, he
+believed the purchase might have been effected for a comparatively
+small sum. Probably the authorities at Lisbon were aroused to a
+sense of the potential value of their Lauren&ccedil;o Marquez
+domain by the scramble for Africa which began early in the
+eighties; and it must be regretted that the British Government,
+with the lack of foresight which has so often characterised it, let
+slip the opportunity of securing Delagoa Bay until its value was
+greatly enhanced. It then agreed to refer the questions in dispute
+to the arbitration of General MacMahon, President of the French
+Republic (1875). As has generally happened when foreign
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page526" id="page526"></a>[pg
+526]</span> potentates have adjudicated on British interests, his
+verdict was wholly hostile to us. It even assigned to Portugal a
+large district to the south of Delagoa Bay which the Portuguese had
+never thought of claiming from its native inhabitants, the
+Tongas<a name="FNanchor441"></a><a href="#Footnote_441">[441]</a>.
+In fact, a narrative of all the gains which have accrued to
+Portugal in Delagoa Bay, and thereafter to the people who
+controlled its railway to Pretoria, would throw a sinister light on
+the connection that has too often subsisted between the noble
+theory of arbitration and the profitable practice of peacefully
+willing away, or appropriating, the rights and possessions of
+others. Portugal soon proved to be unable to avail herself of the
+opportunities opened up by the gift unexpectedly awarded her by
+MacMahon. She was unable to control either the Tongas or the
+Boers.</p>
+<p>England having been ruled out, there was the chance for some
+other Power to step in and acquire St. Lucia Bay, one of the
+natural outlets of the southern part of the Transvaal Republic. It
+is an open secret that the forerunners of the "colonial party" in
+Germany had already sought to open up closer relations with the
+Boer Republics. In 1876 the President of the Transvaal, accompanied
+by a Dutch member of the Cape Parliament, visited Berlin, probably
+with the view of reciprocating those advances. They had an
+interview with Bismarck, the details of which are not fully known.
+Nothing, however, came of it at the time, owing to Bismarck's
+preoccupation in European affairs. Early in the "eighties," the
+German colonial party, then beginning its campaign, called
+attention repeatedly to the advantages of gaining a foothold in or
+near Delagoa Bay; but the rise of colonial feeling in Germany led
+to a similar development in the public sentiment of Portugal, and
+indeed of all lands; so that, by the time that Bismarck was won
+over to the cause of Teutonic Expansion, the Portuguese refused to
+barter away any of their ancient possessions. This probably
+accounts for the concentration of German energies on other parts of
+the South African coast, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page527"
+id="page527"></a>[pg 527]</span> which, though less valuable in
+themselves, might serve as <i>points d'appui</i> for German
+political agents and merchants in their future dealings with the
+Boers, who were then striving to gain control over Bechuanaland.
+The points selected by the Germans for their action were on the
+coast of Damaraland, as already stated, and St. Lucia Bay in
+Zululand, a position which President Burgers had striven to secure
+for the Transvaal in 1878.</p>
+<p>In reference to St. Lucia Bay our narrative must be shadowy in
+outline owing to the almost complete secrecy with which the German
+Government wisely shrouds a failure. The officials and newspaper
+writers of Germany have not yet contracted the English habit of
+proclaiming their intentions beforehand and of parading before the
+world their recriminations in case of a fiasco. All that can be
+said, then, with certainty is that in the autumn of 1884 a German
+trader named Einwold attempted to gain a footing in St. Lucia Bay
+and to prepare the way for the recognition of German claims if all
+went well. In fact, he could either be greeted as a <i>Mehrer des
+Reichs</i>, or be disowned as an unauthorised busybody.</p>
+<p>We may here cite passages from the Diary of Dr. Busch,
+Bismarck's secretary, which prove that the State took a lively
+interest in Einwold's adventure. On February 25, 1885, Busch had a
+conversation with Herr Andrae, in the course of which they
+"rejoiced at England's difficulties in the Sudan, and I expressed
+the hope that Wolseley's head would soon arrive in Cairo, nicely
+pickled and packed." Busch then referred to British friction with
+Russia in Afghanistan and with France in Burmah, and then put the
+question to Andrae, "'Have we given up South Africa; or is the
+Lucia Bay affair still open?' He said that the matter was still
+under consideration<a name="FNanchor442"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_442">[442]</a>."</p>
+<p>It has since transpired that the British Government might have
+yielded to pressure from Berlin, had not greater pressure been
+exercised from Natal and from British merchants and <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page528" id="page528"></a>[pg 528]</span>
+shipowners interested in the South African trade. Sir Donald
+Currie, in the paper already referred to, stated that he could
+easily have given particulars of the means which had to be used in
+order to spur on the British Government to decisive action.
+Unfortunately he was discreetly reticent, and merely stated that
+not only St. Lucia Bay, but the whole of the coast between Natal
+and the Delagoa Bay district was then in question, and that the
+Gladstone Ministry was finally induced to telegraph instructions to
+Cape Town for the despatch of a cruiser to assert British claims to
+St. Lucia Bay. H.M.S. <i>Goshawk</i> at once steamed thither, and
+hoisted the British flag, by virtue of a treaty made with a Zulu
+chief in 1842. Then ensued the usual interchange of angry notes
+between Berlin and London; Bismarck and Count Herbert sought to win
+over, or browbeat, Lord Rosebery, then Colonial Minister. In this,
+however, he failed; and the explanation of the failure given to
+Busch was that Lord Rosebery was too clever for him and "quite
+mesmerised him." On May 7, 1885, Germany gave up her claims to that
+important position, in consideration of gaining at the expense of
+England in the Cameroons<a name="FNanchor443"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_443">[443]</a>. Here again a passage from Busch's record
+deserves quotation. In a conversation which he had with Bismarck on
+January 5, 1886, he put the question:--</p>
+<blockquote>"Why have we not been able to secure the Santa Lucia
+Bay?" I asked. "Ah!" he replied, "it is not so valuable as it
+seemed to be at first. People who were pursuing their own interests
+on the spot represented it to be of greater importance than it
+really was. And then the Boers were not disposed to take any proper
+action in the matter. The bay would have been valuable to us if the
+distance from the Transvaal were not so great. And the English
+attached so much importance to it that they declared it was
+impossible for them to give it up, and they ultimately conceded a
+great deal to us in New Guinea and Zanzibar. In colonial matters we
+must not take too much in hand at a time, and we already have
+enough for a beginning. We must now hold rather with the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page529" id="page529"></a>[pg
+529]</span> English, while, as you know, we were formerly more on
+the French side<a name="FNanchor444"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_444">[444]</a>. But, as the last elections in France
+show, every one of any importance there had to make a show of
+hostility to us."</blockquote>
+<p>This passage explains, in part at least, why Bismarck gave up
+the nagging tactics latterly employed towards Great Britain.
+Evidently he had hoped to turn the current of thought in France
+from the Alsace-Lorraine question to the lands over the seas, and
+his henchmen in the Press did all in their power to persuade
+people, both in Germany and France, that England was the enemy. The
+Anglophobe agitation was fierce while it lasted; but its
+artificiality is revealed by the passage just quoted.</p>
+<p>We may go further, and say that the more recent outbreak of
+Anglophobia in Germany may probably be ascribed to the same
+official stimulus; and it too may be expected to cease when the
+politicians of Berlin see that it no longer pays to twist the
+British lion's tail. That sport ceased in and after 1886, because
+France was found still to be the enemy. Frenchmen did not speak
+much about Alsace-Lorraine. They followed Gambetta's advice: "Never
+speak about it, but always think of it." The recent French
+elections revealed that fact to Bismarck; and, lo! the campaign of
+calumny against England at once slackened.</p>
+<p>We may add that two German traders settled on the coast of
+Pondoland, south of Natal; and in August 1885 the statesmen of
+Berlin put forth feelers to Whitehall with a view to a German
+Protectorate of that coast. They met with a decisive
+repulse<a name="FNanchor445"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_445">[445]</a>.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, the dead-set made by Germany, France, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page530" id="page530"></a>[pg
+530]</span> Russia against British interests in the years 1883-85
+had borne fruit in a way little expected by those Powers, but fully
+consonant with previous experience. It awakened British statesmen
+from their apathy, and led them to adopt measures of unwonted
+vigour. The year 1885 saw French plans in Indo-China checked by the
+annexation of Burmah. German designs in South Africa undoubtedly
+quickened the resolve of the Gladstone Ministry to save
+Bechuanaland for the British Empire.</p>
+<p>It is impossible here to launch upon the troublous sea of Boer
+politics, especially as the conflict naturally resulting from two
+irreconcilable sets of ideas outlasted the century with which this
+work is concerned. We can therefore only state that filibustering
+bands of Boers had raided parts of Bechuanaland, and seemed about
+to close the trade-route northwards to the Zambesi. This alone
+would have been a serious bar to the prosperity of Cape Colony; but
+the loyalists had lost their confidence in the British Government
+since the events of 1880, while a large party in the Cape Ministry,
+including at that time Mr. Cecil Rhodes, seemed willing to abet the
+Boers in all their proceedings. A Boer deputation went to England
+in the autumn of 1883, and succeeded in cajoling Lord Derby into a
+very remarkable surrender. Among other things, he conceded to them
+an important strip of land west of the River Harts<a name=
+"FNanchor446"></a><a href="#Footnote_446">[446]</a>.</p>
+<p>Far from satisfying them, this act encouraged some of their more
+restless spirits to set up two republics named Stellaland and
+Goshen. There, however, they met a tough antagonist, John
+Mackenzie. That devoted missionary, after long acquaintance with
+Boers and Bechuanas, saw how serious would be the loss to the
+native tribes and to the cause of civilisation if the raiders were
+allowed to hold the routes to the interior. By degrees he aroused
+the sympathy of leading men in the Press, who thereupon began to
+whip up the laggards of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page531" id=
+"page531"></a>[pg 531]</span> Whitehall and Downing Street.
+Consequently, Mackenzie, on his return to South Africa, was
+commissioned to act as British Resident in Bechuanaland, and in
+that capacity he declared that country to be under British
+protection (May 1884). At once the Dutch throughout South Africa
+raised a hue and cry against him, in which Mr. Rhodes joined, with
+the result that he was recalled on July 30.</p>
+<p>His place was taken by a statesman whose exploits raised him to
+a high place among builders of the Empire. However much Cecil
+Rhodes differed from Mackenzie on the native question and other
+affairs, he came to see the urgent need of saving for the Empire
+the central districts which, as an old Boer said, formed "the key
+of Africa." Never were the loyalists more dispirited at the lack of
+energy shown by the Home Government; and never was there greater
+need of firmness. In a sense, however, the action of the Germans on
+the coast of Damaraland (August-October 1884) helped to save the
+situation. The imperious need of keeping open the route to the
+interior, which would be closed to trade if ever the Boers and
+Germans joined hands, spurred on the Gladstone Ministry to support
+the measures proposed by Mr. Rhodes and the loyalists of Cape
+Colony. When the whole truth on that period comes to be known, it
+will probably be found that British rule was in very grave danger
+in the latter half of the year 1884.</p>
+<p>Certainly no small expedition ever accomplished so much for the
+Empire, at so trifling a cost and without the effusion of blood, as
+that which was now sent out. It was entrusted to Sir Charles
+Warren. He recruited his force mainly from the loyalists of South
+Africa, though a body named Methuen's Horse went out from these
+islands. In all it numbered nearly 5000 men. Moving quickly from
+the Orange River through Griqualand West, he reached the banks of
+the Vaal at Barkly Camp by January 22, 1885, that is, only six
+weeks after his arrival at Cape Town. At the same time 3000 troops
+took their station in the north of Natal in readiness to attack the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page532" id="page532"></a>[pg
+532]</span> Transvaal Boers, should they fall upon Warren, It soon
+transpired, however, that the more respectable Boers had little
+sympathy with the raiders into Bechuanaland. These again were so
+far taken aback by the speed of his movements and the thoroughness
+of his organisation as to manifest little desire to attack a force
+which seemed ever ready at all points and spied on them from
+balloons. The behaviour of the commander was as tactful as his
+dispositions were effective; and, as a result of these favouring
+circumstances (which the superficial may ascribe to luck), he was
+able speedily to clear Bechuanaland of those intruders<a name=
+"FNanchor447"></a><a href="#Footnote_447">[447]</a>.</p>
+<p>On September 30 it became what it has since remained--a British
+possession, safeguarding the route into the interior and holding
+apart the Transvaal Boers from the contact with the Germans of
+Damaraland which could hardly fail to produce an explosion. The
+importance of the latter fact has already been made clear. The
+significance of the former will be apparent when we remember that
+Mr. Rhodes, in his later and better-known character of
+Empire-builder, was able from Bechuanaland as a base to extend the
+domain of his Chartered Company up to the southern end of Lake
+Tanganyika in the year 1889.</p>
+<p>It is well known that Rhodes hoped to extend the domain of his
+company as far north as the southern limit of the British East
+Africa Company. Here, however, the Germans forestalled him by their
+energy in Central Africa. Finally, the Anglo-German agreement of
+1890 assigned to Germany all the <i>hinterland</i> of Zanzibar as
+far west as the frontier of the Congo Free State, thus sterilising
+the idea of an all-British route from the Cape to Cairo, which
+possessed for some minds an alliterative and all-compelling
+charm.</p>
+<p>As for the future of the vast territory which came to be known
+popularly as Rhodesia, we may note that the part <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page533" id="page533"></a>[pg 533]</span>
+bordering on Lake Nyassa was severed from the South Africa Company
+in 1894, and was styled the British Central Africa Protectorate. In
+1895 the south of Bechuanaland was annexed to Cape Colony, a step
+greatly regretted by many well-wishers of the natives. The
+intelligent chief, Khama, visited England in that year, mainly in
+order to protest against the annexation of his lands by Cape Colony
+and by the South Africa Company. In this he was successful; he and
+other chiefs are directly under the protection of the Crown, but
+parts of the north and east of Bechuanaland are administered by the
+British South Africa Company. The tracts between the Rivers Limpopo
+and Zambesi, and thence north to the Tanganyika, form a territory
+vaster and more populous than any which has in recent years been
+administered by a company; and its rule leaves much to be
+desired.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>It is time now to turn to the expansion of German and British
+spheres of influence in the Bight of Guinea and along the course of
+the Rivers Niger and Benu&euml;. In the innermost part of the Bight
+of Guinea, British commercial interests had been paramount up to
+about 1880; but about that time German factories were founded in
+increasing numbers, and, owing to the dilatory action of British
+firms, gained increasing hold on the trade of several districts.
+The respect felt by native chiefs for British law was evinced by a
+request of five of the "Kings" of the Cameroons that they might
+have it introduced into their lands (1879). Authorities at Downing
+Street and Whitehall were deaf to the request. In striking contrast
+to this was the action of the German Government, which early in the
+year 1884 sent Dr. Nachtigall to explore those districts. The
+German ambassador in London informed Earl Granville on April 19,
+1884, that the object of his mission was "to complete the
+information now in possession of the Foreign Office at Berlin on
+the state of German commerce on that coast." He therefore requested
+that the British authorities there should be furnished with
+suitable recommendations for <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page534" id="page534"></a>[pg 534]</span> his reception<a name=
+"FNanchor448"></a><a href="#Footnote_448">[448]</a>. This was
+accordingly done, and, after receiving hospitality at various
+consulates, he made treaties with native chiefs, and hoisted the
+German flag at several points previously considered to be under
+British influence. This was especially the case on the coast to the
+east of the River Niger.</p>
+<p>The British Government was incensed at this procedure, and all
+the more so as plans were then on foot for consolidating British
+influence in the Cameroons. On that river there were six British,
+and two German firms, and the natives had petitioned for the
+protection of England; but H.M.S. <i>Flint</i>, on steaming into
+that river on July 20, found that the German flag had been hoisted
+by the officers of the German warship <i>M&ouml;we</i>. Nachtigall
+had signed a treaty with "King Bell" on July 12, whereby native
+habits were to remain unchanged and no customs dues levied, but the
+whole district was placed under German suzerainty<a name=
+"FNanchor449"></a><a href="#Footnote_449">[449]</a>. The same had
+happened at neighbouring districts. Thereupon Consul Hewitt, in
+accordance with instructions from London, established British
+supremacy at the Oil Rivers, Old and New Calabar, and several other
+points adjoining the Niger delta as far west as Lagos.</p>
+<p>For some time there was much friction between London and Berlin
+on these questions, but on May 7, 1885, an agreement was finally
+arrived at, a line drawn between the Rio del Rey and the Old
+Calabar River being fixed on as the boundary of the spheres of
+influence of the two Powers, while Germany further recognised the
+sovereignty of Britain over St. Lucia Bay in Zululand, and promised
+not to annex any land between Natal and Delagoa Bay<a name=
+"FNanchor450"></a><a href="#Footnote_450">[450]</a>. Many censures
+were lavished on this agreement, which certainly sacrificed
+important British interests in the Cameroons in consideration of
+the abandonment of German claims on the Zulu coast which were
+legally untenable. Thus, by pressing on various points formerly
+regarded as under British influence, Bismarck secured at least one
+considerable district--one moreover that is the healthiest
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page535" id="page535"></a>[pg
+535]</span> on the West African coast. Subsequent expansion made of
+the Cameroons a colony containing some 140,000 square miles with
+more than 1,100,000 inhabitants.</p>
+<p>It is an open secret that Germany was working hard in 1884-85 to
+get a foothold on the Lower Niger and its great affluent, the
+Benu&euml;. Two important colonial societies combined to send out
+Herr Flegel in the spring of 1885 to secure possession of districts
+on those rivers where British interests had hitherto been
+paramount. Fortunately for the cause of Free Trade (which Germany
+had definitely abandoned in 1880) private individuals had had
+enough foresight and determination to step in with effect, and to
+repair the harm which otherwise must have come from the absorption
+of Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues in home affairs.</p>
+<p>In the present case, British merchants were able to save the
+situation, because in the year 1879 the firms having important
+business dealings with the River Niger combined to form the
+National African Company in order to withstand the threatening
+pressure of the French advance soon to be described. In 1882 the
+Company's powers were extended, largely owing to Sir George Taubman
+Goldie, and it took the name of the National African Company.
+Extending its operations up the River Niger, it gradually cut the
+ground from under the French companies which had been formed for
+the exploitation and ultimate acquisition of those districts, so
+that after a time the French shareholders agreed to merge
+themselves in the British enterprise.</p>
+<p>This important step was taken just in time to forestall German
+action from the side of the Cameroons, which threatened to shut out
+British trade from the banks of the River Benu&euml; and the shores
+of Lake Chad. Forewarned of this danger, Sir George Goldie and his
+directors urged that bold and successful explorer, Mr. Joseph
+Thomson, to safeguard the nation's interests along the Benu&euml;
+and north thereof. Thomson had scarcely recovered from the
+hardships of his epoch-marking journey through Masailand; but he
+now threw <span class="pagenum"><a name="page536" id=
+"page536"></a>[pg 536]</span> himself into the breach, quickly
+travelled from England to the Niger, and by his unrivalled
+experience alike of the means of travel and of native ways, managed
+to frame treaties with the Sultans of Sokoto and Gando, before the
+German envoy reached his destination (1885). The energy of the
+National African Company and the promptitude and tact of Mr.
+Thomson secured for his countrymen undisputed access to Lake Chad
+and the great country peopled by the warlike Haussas<a name=
+"FNanchor451"></a><a href="#Footnote_451">[451]</a>.</p>
+<p>Seeing that both France and Germany seek to restrict foreign
+trade in their colonies, while Great Britain gives free access to
+all merchants on equal terms, we may regard this brilliant success
+as a gain, not only for the United Kingdom, but for the commerce of
+the world. The annoyance expressed in influential circles in
+Germany at the failure of the plans for capturing the trade of the
+Benu&euml; district served to show the magnitude of the interests
+which had there been looked upon as prospectively and exclusively
+German. The delimitation of the new British territory with the
+Cameroon territory and its north-eastern extension to Lake Chad was
+effected by an Anglo-German agreement of 1886, Germany gaining part
+of the upper Benu&euml; and the southern shore of Lake Chad. In
+all, the territories controlled by the British Company comprised
+about 500,000 square miles (more than four times the size of the
+United Kingdom).</p>
+<p>It is somewhat characteristic of British colonial procedure in
+that period that many difficulties were raised as to the grant of a
+charter to the company which had carried through this work of
+national importance; but on July 10, 1886, it gained that charter
+with the title of the Royal Niger Company. The chief difficulties
+since that date have arisen from French aggressions on the west,
+which will be noticed presently.</p>
+<p>In 1897 the Royal Niger Company overthrew the power of the
+turbulent and slave-raiding Sultan of Nupe, near the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page537" id="page537"></a>[pg 537]</span> Niger,
+but, as has so often happened, the very success of the company
+doomed it to absorption by the nation. On January 1, 1900, its
+governing powers were handed over to the Crown; the Union Jack
+replaced the private flag; and Sir Frederick Lugard added to the
+services which he had rendered to the Empire in Uganda by
+undertaking the organisation of this great and fertile colony. In
+an interesting paper, read before the Royal Geographical Society in
+November 1903, he thus characterised his administrative methods:
+"To rule through the native chiefs, and, while checking the
+extortionate levies of the past, fairly to assess and enforce the
+ancient tribute. By this means a fair revenue will be assured to
+the emirs, in lieu of their former source of wealth, which
+consisted in slaves and slave-raiding, and in extortionate taxes on
+trade. . . . Organised slave-raiding has become a thing of the past in
+the country where it lately existed in its worst form." He further
+stated that the new colony has made satisfactory progress; but
+light railways were much needed to connect Lake Chad with the Upper
+Nile and with the Gulf of Guinea. The area of Nigeria (apart from
+the Niger Coast Protectorate) is about 500,000 square miles<a name=
+"FNanchor452"></a><a href="#Footnote_452">[452]</a>.</p>
+<p>The result, then, of the activity of French and Germans in West
+Africa has, on the whole, not been adverse to British interests.
+The efforts leading to these noteworthy results above would
+scarcely have been made but for some external stimulus. As happened
+in the days of Dupleix and Montcalm, and again at the time of the
+little-known efforts of Napoleon I. to appropriate the middle of
+Australia, the spur of foreign competition furthered not only the
+cause of exploration but also the expansion of the British
+Empire.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>The expansion of French influence in Africa has been far greater
+than that of Germany; and, while arousing less attention on
+political grounds, it has probably achieved more solid results--a
+fact all the more remarkable when we bear <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page538" id="page538"></a>[pg 538]</span> in
+mind the exhaustion of France in 1871, and the very slow growth of
+her population at home. From 1872 to 1901 the number of her
+inhabitants rose from 36,103,000 to 38,962,000; while in the same
+time the figures for the German Empire showed an increase from
+41,230,000 to 56,862,000. To some extent, then, the colonial growth
+of France is artificial; at least, it is not based on the imperious
+need which drives forth the surplus population of Great Britain and
+Germany. Nevertheless, so far as governmental energy and organising
+skill can make colonies successful, the French possessions in West
+Africa, Indo-China, Madagascar, and the Pacific, have certainly
+justified their existence<a name="FNanchor453"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_453">[453]</a>. No longer do we hear the old joke that a
+French colonial settlement consists of a dozen officials, a
+<i>restaurateur</i>, and a hair-dresser.</p>
+<p>In the seventies the French Republic took up once more the work
+of colonial expansion in West Africa, in which the Emperor Napoleon
+III. had taken great interest. The Governor of Senegal, M.
+Faidherbe, pushed on expeditions from that colony to the head
+waters of the Niger in the years 1879-81. There the French came
+into collision with a powerful slave-raiding chief, Samory, whom
+they worsted in a series of campaigns in the five years following.
+Events therefore promised to fulfil the desires of Gambetta, who,
+during his brief term of office in 1881, initiated plans for the
+construction of a trans-Saharan railway (never completed) and the
+establishment of two powerful French companies on the Upper Niger.
+French energy secured for the Republic the very lands which the
+great traveller Mungo Park first revealed to the gaze of civilised
+peoples. It is worthy of note that in the year 1865 the House of
+Commons, when urged to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page539" id=
+"page539"></a>[pg 539]</span> promote British trade and influence
+on that mighty river, passed a resolution declaring that any
+extension of our rule in that quarter was inexpedient. So rapid,
+however, was the progress of the French arms on the Niger, and in
+the country behind our Gold Coast settlements, that private
+individuals in London and Liverpool began to take action. Already
+in 1878 the British firms trading with the Lower Niger had formed
+the United African Company, with the results noted above. A British
+Protectorate was also established in the year 1884 over the coast
+districts around Lagos, "with the view of guarding their interests
+against the advance of the French and Germans<a name=
+"FNanchor454"></a><a href="#Footnote_454">[454]</a>."</p>
+<p>Meanwhile the French were making rapid progress under the lead
+of Gallieni and Archinard. In 1890 the latter conquered
+Segu-Sikoro, and a year later Bissandugu. A far greater prize fell
+to the tricolour at the close of 1893. Boiteux and Bonnier
+succeeded in leading a flotilla and a column to the mysterious city
+of Timbuctu; but a little later a French force sustained a serious
+check from the neighbouring tribes. The affair only spurred on the
+Republic to still greater efforts, which led finally to the rout of
+Samory's forces and his capture in the year 1898. That redoubtable
+chief, who had defied France for fifteen years, was sent as a
+prisoner to Gaboon.</p>
+<p>These campaigns and other more peaceful "missions" added to the
+French possessions a vast territory of some 800,000 square
+kilometres in the basin of the Niger. Meanwhile disputes had
+occurred with the King of Dahomey, which led to the utter overthrow
+of his power by Colonel Dodds in a brilliant little campaign in
+1892. The crowned slave-raider was captured and sent to
+Martinique.</p>
+<p>These rapid conquests, especially those on the Niger,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page540" id="page540"></a>[pg
+540]</span> brought France and England more than once to the verge
+of war. In the autumn of the year 1897, the aggressions of the
+French at and near Bussa, on the right bank of the Lower Niger, led
+to a most serious situation. Despite its inclusion in the domains
+of the Royal Niger Company, that town was occupied by French
+troops. At the Guildhall banquet (November 9), Lord Salisbury made
+the firm but really prudent declaration that the Government would
+brook no interference with the treaty rights of a British company.
+The pronouncement was timely; for French action at Bussa, taken in
+conjunction with the Marchand expedition from the Niger basin to
+the Upper Nile at Fashoda (see Chapter XVII.), seemed to betoken a
+deliberate defiance of the United Kingdom. Ultimately, however, the
+tricolour flag was withdrawn from situations that were legally
+untenable. These questions were settled by the Anglo-French
+agreement of 1898, which, we may add, cleared the ground for the
+still more important compact of 1904.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>The limits of this chapter having already been passed, it is
+impossible to advert to the parts played by Italy and Portugal in
+the partition of Africa. At best they have been subsidiary; the
+colonial efforts of Italy in the Red Sea and in Somaliland have as
+yet produced little else than disaster and disappointment. But for
+the part played by Serpa Pinto in the Zambesi basin, the r&ocirc;le
+of Portugal has been one of quiescence. Some authorities, as will
+appear in the following chapter, would describe it by a less
+euphonious term; it is now known that slave-hunting goes on in the
+upper part of the Zambesi basin owned by them. The French
+settlement at Obock, opposite Perim, and the partition of
+Somaliland between England and Italy, can also only be named.</p>
+<p>The general results of the partition of Africa may best be
+realised by studying the map at the close of this volume, and by
+the following statistics as presented by Mr. Scott Keltie in the
+<i>Encyclopoedia Britannica</i>:--</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page541" id="page541"></a>[pg
+541]</span>
+<blockquote>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th>&nbsp;</th>
+<th>Square Miles.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>French territories in Africa (inclusive of the Sahara)</td>
+<td>3,804,974</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>British (inclusive of the Transvaal and</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Orange River Colonies, but exclusive</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan--610,000</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>square miles)</td>
+<td>2,713,910</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>German</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;933,380</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Congo Free State</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;900,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Portuguese</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;790,124</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Italian</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;188,500</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</blockquote>
+<p>These results correspond in the main to the foresight and energy
+displayed by the several States, and to the initial advantages
+which they enjoyed on the coast of Africa. The methods employed by
+France and Germany present a happy union of individual initiative
+with intelligent and persistent direction by the State; for it must
+be remembered that up to the year 1880 the former possessed few
+good bases of operation, and the latter none whatever. The natural
+portals of Africa were in the hands of Great Britain and Portugal.
+It is difficult to say what would have been the present state of
+Africa if everything had depended on the officials at Downing
+Street and Whitehall. Certainly the expansion of British influence
+in that continent (apart from the Nile valley) would have been
+insignificant but for the exertions of private individuals. Among
+them the names of Joseph Thomson, Sir William Mackinnon, Sir John
+Kirk, Sir Harry Johnston, Sir George Goldie, Sir Frederick Lugard,
+John Mackenzie, and Cecil Rhodes, will be remembered as those of
+veritable Empire-builders.</p>
+<p>Viewing the matter from the European standpoint, the partition
+of Africa may be regarded as a triumph for the cause of peace. In
+the years 1880-1900, France, Germany, Great Britain, Portugal,
+Italy, and Belgium came into possession of new lands far larger
+than those for which French and British fleets and armies had
+fought so desperately in the eighteenth <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page542" id="page542"></a>[pg 542]</span>
+century. If we go further back and think of the wars waged for the
+possession of the barrier towns of Flanders, the contrast between
+the fruitless strifes of that age and the peaceful settlement of
+the affairs of a mighty continent will appear still more striking.
+It is true, of course, that the cutting up of the lands of natives
+by white men is as indefensible morally as it is inevitable in the
+eager expansiveness of the present age. Further, it may be admitted
+that the methods adopted towards the aborigines have sometimes been
+disgraceful. But even so, the events of the years 1880-1900, black
+as some of them are, compare favourably with those of the long ages
+when the term "African trade" was merely a euphemism for
+slave-hunting.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>NOTE.--The Parliamentary Papers on Angra Peque&ntilde;a (1884)
+show that the dispute with Germany was largely due to the desire of
+Lord Derby to see whether the Government of Cape Colony would bear
+the cost of administration of that whole coast if it were annexed.
+Owing to a change of Ministry at Cape Town early in 1884, the
+affirmative reply was very long in coming; and meantime Germany
+took decisive action, as described on p. 524.</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_424"></a><a href="#FNanchor424">[424]</a> In
+saying this I do not underrate the achievements of explorers like
+Stanley, Thomson, Cameron, Schweinfurth, Pogge, Nachtigall, Pinto,
+de Brazza, Johnston, Wissmann, Holub, Lugard, and others; but apart
+from the first two, none of them made discoveries that can be
+called epoch-marking.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_425"></a><a href="#FNanchor425">[425]</a> For
+the French treaty of December 17, 1885, with Madagascar see Parl.
+Papers, Africa, No. 2 (1886).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_426"></a><a href="#FNanchor426">[426]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1886), p. 2.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_427"></a><a href="#FNanchor427">[427]</a>
+<i>The Partition of Africa</i>, by J. Scott Keltie (1893), pp. 157,
+225.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_428"></a><a href="#FNanchor428">[428]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1886), p. 1.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_429"></a><a href="#FNanchor429">[429]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. pp. 12-20.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_430"></a><a href="#FNanchor430">[430]</a> J.
+Scott Keltie, <i>The Partition of Africa</i>, ch. xv.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_431"></a><a href="#FNanchor431">[431]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History</i>, vol. iii. pp.
+135, 144-45. Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1886), pp. 39-45, 61
+<i>et seq</i>.; also No. 3 (1886), pp. 4, 15.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_432"></a><a href="#FNanchor432">[432]</a>
+Banning, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 45-50; Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 3
+(1887), pp. 46, 59.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_433"></a><a href="#FNanchor433">[433]</a> See
+the Report on German East Africa for 1900, in our <i>Diplomatic and
+Consular Reports</i>.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_434"></a><a href="#FNanchor434">[434]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 6 (1890).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_435"></a><a href="#FNanchor435">[435]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History</i>, vol. iii. p.
+353. See, too, S. Whitman, <i>Personal Reminiscences of Prince
+Bismarck</i>, p. 122.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_436"></a><a href="#FNanchor436">[436]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History</i>, vol. iii. pp.
+124, 133: also see p. 426 of this work.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_437"></a><a href="#FNanchor437">[437]</a> For
+the progress and prospects of this important colony, see Sir G.
+Portal, <i>The British Mission to Uganda in 1893</i>; Sir Charles
+Elliot, <i>British East Africa</i> (1905); also Lugard, <i>Our East
+African Empire</i>; Sir H. Johnston, <i>The Uganda
+Protectorate</i>.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_438"></a><a href="#FNanchor438">[438]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History</i>, vol. iii. p.
+120.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_439"></a><a href="#FNanchor439">[439]</a> See
+Sir D. Currie's paper on South Africa to the members of the Royal
+Colonial Institute, April 10, 1888 (<i>Proceedings</i>, vol. xix.
+p. 240).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_440"></a><a href="#FNanchor440">[440]</a>
+<i>Op. cit.</i> vol. i. p. 502.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_441"></a><a href="#FNanchor441">[441]</a> Sir
+C. Dilke, <i>Problems of Greater Britain</i>, vol. i. pp.
+553-556.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_442"></a><a href="#FNanchor442">[442]</a>
+<i>Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History</i>, vol. iii. p.
+132.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_443"></a><a href="#FNanchor443">[443]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 6 (1885), p. 2.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_444"></a><a href="#FNanchor444">[444]</a> He
+here referred to the Franco-German agreement of Dec. 24, 1885,
+whereby the two Powers amicably settled the boundaries of their
+West African lands, and Germany agreed not to thwart French designs
+on Tahiti, the Society Isles, the New Hebrides, etc. See Banning,
+<i>Le Partage politique de l'Afrique</i>, pp. 22-26.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_445"></a><a href="#FNanchor445">[445]</a> Cape
+Colony, Papers on Pondoland, 1887, pp. 1, 41. For the progress of
+German South-West Africa and East Africa, see Parl. Papers,
+Germany, Nos. 474, 528, 2790.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_446"></a><a href="#FNanchor446">[446]</a> For
+the negotiations and the Convention of February 27, 1884, see
+Papers relating to the South African Republic, 1887.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_447"></a><a href="#FNanchor447">[447]</a> See
+Sir Charles Warren's short account of the expedition, in the
+<i>Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute for</i> 1885-86, pp.
+5-45; also Mackenzie's <i>Austral Africa</i>, vol. ii. <i>ad
+init</i>., and <i>John Mackenzie</i>, by W.D. Mackenzie (1902).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_448"></a><a href="#FNanchor448">[448]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1885), p. 14.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_449"></a><a href="#FNanchor449">[449]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. p. 24.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_450"></a><a href="#FNanchor450">[450]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 6 (1885), p. 2.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_451"></a><a href="#FNanchor451">[451]</a> This
+greatest among recent explorers of Africa died in 1895. He never
+received any appropriate reward from the Court for his great
+services to science and to the nation at large.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_452"></a><a href="#FNanchor452">[452]</a>
+<i>The Geographical Journal</i>, January 1, 1904, pp. 5, 18,
+27.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_453"></a><a href="#FNanchor453">[453]</a> See
+<i>La Colonisation chez les Peuples modernes</i>, by Paul
+Leroy-Beaulieu; <i>Discours et Opinions</i>, by Jules Ferry; <i>La
+France coloniale</i> (6th edit. 1893), by Alfred Rambaud; <i>La
+Colonisation de l'Indo-Chine</i> (1902), by Chailley-Bert;
+<i>L'Indo-Chine fran&ccedil;aise</i> (1905), by Paul Doumer
+(describing its progress under his administration); <i>Notre
+Epop&eacute;e coloniale</i> (1901), by P. Legendre; <i>La Mise en
+Valeur de notre Domaine coloniale</i> (1903), by C. Guy; <i>Un
+Si&egrave;cle d'Expansion coloniale</i> (1900), by M. Dubois and A.
+Terrier; <i>Le Partage de l'Afrique</i> (1898), by V. Deville.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_454"></a><a href="#FNanchor454">[454]</a> For
+its progress see Colonial Reports, Niger Coast Protectorate, for
+1898-99. For the Franco-German agreement of December 24, 1885,
+delimiting their West African lands, see Banning, <i>Le Partage
+politique de l'Afrique</i>, pp. 22-26. For the Anglo-French
+agreement of August 10, 1889, see Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 3
+(1890).</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page543" id="page543"></a>[pg
+543]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+<h3>THE CONGO FREE STATE</h3>
+<blockquote>"The object which unites us here to-day is one of those
+which deserve in the highest degree to occupy the friends of
+humanity. To open to civilisation the only part of our globe where
+it has not yet penetrated, to pierce the darkness which envelops
+entire populations, is, I venture to say, a crusade worthy of this
+century of progress."--KING LEOPOLD II., <i>Speech to the
+Geographical Congress of 1876 at Brussels</i>.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>The Congo Free State owes its origin, firstly, to the
+self-denying pioneer-work of Livingstone; secondly, to the energy
+of the late Sir H.M. Stanley in clearing up the problems of African
+exploration which that devoted missionary had not fully solved, and
+thirdly, to the interest which His Majesty, Leopold II., King of
+the Belgians, has always taken in the opening up of that continent.
+It will be well briefly to note the chief facts which helped to
+fasten the gaze of Europe on the Congo basin; for these events had
+a practical issue; they served to bring King Leopold and Mr.
+Stanley into close touch with a view to the establishment of a
+settled government in the heart of Africa.</p>
+<p>In 1874 Mr. H.M. Stanley (he was not knighted until the year
+1899) received a commission from the proprietors of the <i>Daily
+Telegraph</i> to proceed to Central Africa in order to complete the
+geographical discoveries which had been cut short by the lamented
+death of Livingstone near Lake Bangweolo. That prince of explorers
+had not fully solved the riddle of the waterways of Central Africa.
+He had found what were really <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page544" id="page544"></a>[pg 544]</span> the head waters of the
+Congo at and near Lake Moero; and had even struck the mighty river
+itself as far down as Nyangwe; but he could not prove that these
+great streams formed the upper waters of the Congo.</p>
+<p>Stanley's journey in 1874-1877 led to many important
+discoveries. He first made clear the shape and extent of Victoria
+Nyanza; he tracked the chief feeder of that vast reservoir; and he
+proved that Lake Tanganyika drained into the River Congo. Voyaging
+down its course to the mouth, he found great and fertile
+territories, thus proving what Livingstone could only surmise, that
+here was the natural waterway into the heart of "the Dark
+Continent."</p>
+<p>Up to the year 1877 nearly all the pioneer work in the interior
+of the Congo basin was the outcome of Anglo-American enterprise.
+Therefore, so far as priority of discovery confers a claim to
+possession, that claim belonged to the English-speaking peoples.
+King Leopold recognised the fact and allowed a certain space of
+time for British merchants to enter on the possession of what was
+potentially their natural "sphere of influence." Stanley, however,
+failed to convince his countrymen of the feasibility of opening up
+that vast district to peaceful commerce. At that time they were
+suffering from severe depression in trade and agriculture, and from
+the disputes resulting from the Eastern Question both in the Near
+East and in Afghanistan. For the time "the weary Titan" was
+preoccupied and could not turn his thoughts to commercial
+expansion, which would speedily have cured his evils. Consequently,
+in November 1878, Stanley proceeded to Brussels in order to present
+to King Leopold the opportunity which England let slip.</p>
+<p>Already the King of the Belgians had succeeded in arousing
+widespread interest in the exploration of Africa. In the autumn of
+1876 he convened a meeting of leading explorers and geographers of
+the six Great Powers and of Belgium for the discussion of questions
+connected with the opening up of that continent; but at that time,
+and until the results of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page545"
+id="page545"></a>[pg 545]</span> Stanley's journey were made known,
+the King and his coadjutors turned their gaze almost exclusively on
+East Africa. It is therefore scarcely appropriate for one of the
+Belgian panegyrists of the King to proclaim that when Central
+Africa celebrates its Day of Thanksgiving for the countless
+blessings of civilisation conferred by that monarch, it will look
+back on the day of meeting of that Conference (Sept. 12, 1876) as
+the dawn of the new era of goodwill and prosperity<a name=
+"FNanchor455"></a><a href="#Footnote_455">[455]</a>. King Leopold,
+in opening the Conference, made use of the inspiring words quoted
+at the head of this chapter, and asked the delegates to discuss the
+means to be adopted for "planting definitely the standard of
+civilisation on the soil of Central Africa."</p>
+<p>As a result of the Conference, "The International Association
+for the Exploration and Civilisation of Africa" was founded. It had
+committees in most of the capitals of Europe, but the energy of
+King Leopold, and the sums which he and his people advanced for the
+pioneer work of the Association, early gave to that of Brussels a
+priority of which good use was made in the sequel<a name=
+"FNanchor456"></a><a href="#Footnote_456">[456]</a>. The Great
+Powers were at this time distracted by the Russo-Turkish war and by
+the acute international crisis that supervened. Thus the jealousies
+and weakness of the Great Powers left the field free for Belgian
+activities, which, owing to the energy of a British explorer, were
+definitely concentrated upon the exploitation of the Congo.</p>
+<p>On November 25, 1878, a separate committee of the International
+Association was formed at Brussels with the name of "Comit&eacute;
+d'&Eacute;tudes du Haut Congo." In the year 1879 it took the title
+of the "International Association of the Congo," and for all
+practical purposes superseded its progenitor. Outwardly, however,
+the Association was still international. Stanley became its chief
+agent on the River Congo, and in the years 1879-1880 made numerous
+treaties with local chiefs. In <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page546" id="page546"></a>[pg 546]</span> February 1880 he founded
+the first station of the Association at Vivi, and within four years
+established twenty-four stations on the main river and its chief
+tributaries. The cost of these explorations was largely borne by
+King Leopold.</p>
+<p>The King also commissioned Lieutenant von Wissmann to complete
+his former work of discovery in the great district watered by the
+River Kasai and its affluents; and in and after 1886 he and his
+coadjutor, Dr. Wolf, greatly extended the knowledge of the southern
+and central parts of the Congo basin<a name=
+"FNanchor457"></a><a href="#Footnote_457">[457]</a>. In the
+meantime the British missionaries, Rev. W.H. Bentley and Rev. G.
+Grenfell, carried on explorations, especially on the River Ubangi,
+and in the lands between it and the Congo. The part which
+missionaries have taken in the work of discovery and pacification
+entitles them to a high place in the records of equatorial
+exploration; and their influence has often been exerted
+beneficially on behalf of the natives. We may add here that M. de
+Brazza did good work for the French tricolour in exploring the land
+north of the Congo and Ubangi rivers; he founded several stations,
+which were to develop into the great French Congo colony.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile events had transpired in Europe which served to give
+stability to these undertakings. The energy thrown into the
+exploration of the Congo basin soon awakened the jealousy of the
+Power which had long ago discovered the mouth of the great river
+and its adjacent coasts. In the years 1883, 1884, Portugal put
+forward a claim to the overlordship of those districts on the
+ground of priority of discovery and settlement. On all sides that
+claim was felt to be unreasonable. The occupation of that territory
+by the Portuguese had been short-lived, and nearly all traces of it
+had disappeared, except at Kabinda and one or two points on the
+coast. The fact that Diogo Cam and others had discovered the mouth
+of the Congo in the fifteenth century was a poor argument for
+closing to other peoples, three centuries later, the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page547" id="page547"></a>[pg 547]</span> whole
+of the vast territory between that river and the mouth of the
+Zambesi. These claims raised the problem of the Hinterland, that
+is, the ownership of the whole range of territory behind a coast
+line. Furthermore, the Portuguese officials were notoriously
+inefficient and generally corrupt; while the customs system of that
+State was such as to fetter the activities of trade with shackles
+of a truly mediaeval type.</p>
+<p>Over against these musty claims of Portugal there stood the
+offers of "The International Association of the Congo" to bring the
+blessings of free trade and civilisation to downtrodden millions of
+negroes, if only access were granted from the sea. The contrast
+between the dull obscurantism of Lisbon and the benevolent
+intentions of Brussels struck the popular imagination. At that time
+the eye of faith discerned in the King of the Belgians the ideal
+godfather of a noble undertaking, and great was the indignation
+when Portugal interfered with freedom of access to the sea at the
+mouth of the Congo. Various matters were also in dispute between
+Portugal and Great Britain respecting trading rights at that
+important outlet; and they were by no means settled by an
+Anglo-Portuguese Convention of February 26 (1884), in which Lord
+Granville, Foreign Minister in the Gladstone Cabinet, was thought
+to display too much deference to questionable claims. Protests were
+urged against this Convention, by the United States, France, and
+Germany, with the result that the Lisbon Government proposed to
+refer all these matters to a Conference of the Powers; and
+arrangements were soon made for the summoning of their
+representatives to Berlin, under the presidency of Prince
+Bismarck.</p>
+<p>Before the Conference met, the United States took the decisive
+step of recognising the rights of the Association to the government
+of that river-basin (April 10, 1884)--a proceeding which ought to
+have secured to the United States an abiding influence on the
+affairs of the State which they did so much to create. The example
+set by the United States was soon followed by the other Powers. In
+that same month <span class="pagenum"><a name="page548" id=
+"page548"></a>[pg 548]</span> France withdrew the objections which
+she had raised to the work of the Association, and came to terms
+with it in a treaty whereby she gained priority in the right of
+purchase of its claims and possessions. The way having been thus
+cleared, the Berlin Conference met on November 15, 1884. Prince
+Bismarck suggested that the three chief topics for consideration
+were (1) the freedom of navigation and of trade in the Congo area;
+(2) freedom of navigation on the River Niger; (3) the formalities
+to be thenceforth observed in lawful and valid annexations of
+territories in Africa. The British plenipotentiary, Sir Edward
+Malet, however, pointed out that, while his Government wished to
+preserve freedom of navigation and of trade upon the Niger, it
+would object to the formation of any international commission for
+those purposes, seeing that Great Britain was the sole proprietory
+Power on the Lower Niger (see Chapter XVIII.)<a name=
+"FNanchor458"></a><a href="#Footnote_458">[458]</a>. This firm
+declaration possibly prevented the intrusion of claims which might
+have led to the whittling down of British rights on that great
+river. An Anglo-French Commission was afterwards appointed to
+supervise the navigation of the Niger.</p>
+<p>The main question being thus concentrated on the Congo, Portugal
+was obliged to defer to the practically unanimous refusal of the
+Powers to recognise her claims over the lower parts of that river;
+and on November 19 she conceded the principle of freedom of trade
+on those waters. Next, it was decided that the Congo Association
+should acquire and hold governing rights over nearly the whole of
+the vast expanse drained by the Congo, with some reservations in
+favour of France on the north and Portugal on the south. The
+extension of the principle of freedom of trade nearly to the Indian
+Ocean was likewise affirmed; and the establishment of monopolies or
+privileges "of any kind" was distinctly forbidden within the Congo
+area.</p>
+<p>An effort strictly to control the sale of intoxicating liquors
+to natives lapsed owing to the strong opposition of Germany
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page549" id="page549"></a>[pg
+549]</span> and Holland, though a weaker motion on the same
+all-important matter found acceptance (December 22). On January 7,
+1885, the Conference passed a stringent declaration against the
+slave-trade:--". . . these regions shall not be used as markets or
+routes of transit for the trade in slaves, no matter of what race.
+Each of these Powers binds itself to use all the means at its
+disposal to put an end to this trade, and to punish those engaged
+in it."</p>
+<p>The month of February saw the settlement of the boundary claims
+with France and Portugal, on bases nearly the same as those still
+existing. The Congo Association gained the northern bank of the
+river at its mouth, but ceded to Portugal a small strip of coast
+line a little further north around Kabinda. These arrangements
+were, on the whole, satisfactory to the three parties. France now
+definitively gained by treaty right her vast Congo territory of
+some 257,000 square miles in area, while Portugal retained on the
+south of the river a coast nearly 1000 miles in length and a
+dominion estimated at 351,000 square miles. The Association, though
+handing over to these Powers respectively 60,000 and 45,000 square
+miles of land which its pioneers hoped to obtain, nevertheless
+secured for itself an immense territory of some 870,000 square
+miles.</p>
+<p>The General Act of the Berlin Conference was signed on February
+26, 1885. Its terms and those of the Protocols prove conclusively
+that the governing powers assigned to the Congo Association were
+assigned to a neutral and international State, responsible to the
+Powers which gave it its existence. In particular, Articles IV. and
+V. of the General Act ran as follows:--</p>
+<blockquote>Merchandise imported into these regions shall remain
+free from import and transit dues. The Powers reserve to themselves
+to determine, after the lapse of twenty years, whether this freedom
+of import shall be retained or not.<br>
+<br>
+No Power which exercises, or shall exercise, sovereign rights in
+the above mentioned regions shall be allowed to grant therein a
+monopoly or favour of any kind in matters of trade. Foreigners,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page550" id="page550"></a>[pg
+550]</span> without distinction, shall enjoy protection of their
+persons and property, as well as the right of acquiring and
+transferring movable and immovable possessions, and national rights
+and treatment in the exercise of their professions.</blockquote>
+<p>Before describing the growth of the Congo State, it is needful
+to refer to two preliminary considerations. Firstly, it should be
+noted that the Berlin Conference committed the mistake of failing
+to devise any means for securing the observance of the principles
+there laid down. Its work, considered in the abstract, was
+excellent. The mere fact that representatives of the Powers could
+meet amicably to discuss and settle the administration of a great
+territory which in other ages would have provoked them to deadly
+strifes, was in itself a most hopeful augury, and possibly the
+success of the Conference inspired a too confident belief in the
+effective watchfulness of the Powers over the welfare of the young
+State to which they then stood as godfathers. In any case it must
+be confessed that they have since interpreted their duties in the
+easy way to which godfathers are all too prone. As in the case of
+the Treaty of Berlin of 1878, so in that of the Conference of
+Berlin of 1885, the fault lay not in the promise but in the failure
+of the executors to carry out the terms of the promise.</p>
+<p>Another matter remains to be noted. It resulted from the demands
+urged by Portugal in 1883-84. By way of retort, the
+plenipotentiaries now declared any occupation of territory to be
+valid only when it had effectively taken place and had been
+notified to all the Powers represented at the Conference. It also
+defined a "sphere of influence" as the area within which one Power
+is recognised as possessing priority of claims over other States.
+The doctrine was to prove convenient for expansive States in the
+future.</p>
+<p>The first important event in the life of the new State was the
+assumption by King Leopold II. of sovereign powers. All nations,
+and Belgium not the least, were startled by his announcement to his
+Ministers, on April 16, 1885, that he <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page551" id="page551"></a>[pg 551]</span>
+desired the assent of the Belgian Parliament to this proceeding. He
+stated that the union between Belgium and the Congo State would be
+merely personal, and that the latter would enjoy, like the former,
+the benefits of neutrality. The Parliament on April 28 gave its
+assent, with but one dissentient voice, on the understanding stated
+above. The Powers also signified their approval. On August 1, King
+Leopold informed them of the facts just stated, and announced that
+the new State took the title of the Congo Free State
+(<i>L'&Eacute;tat ind&eacute;pendant du Congo</i>)<a name=
+"FNanchor459"></a><a href="#Footnote_459">[459]</a>.</p>
+<p>Questions soon arose concerning the delimitation of the boundary
+with the French Congo territory; and these led to the signing of a
+protocol at Brussels on April 29, 1887, whereby the Congo Free
+State gave up certain of its claims in the northern part of the
+Congo region (the right bank of the River Ubangi), but exacted in
+return the addition of a statement "that the right of pre-emption
+accorded to France could not be claimed as against Belgium, of
+which King Leopold is sovereign<a name="FNanchor460"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_460">[460]</a>."</p>
+<p>There seems, however, to be some question whether this clause is
+likely to have any practical effect. The clause is obviously
+inoperative if Belgium ultimately declines to take over the Congo
+territory, and there is at least the chance that this will happen.
+If it does happen, King Leopold and the Belgian Parliament
+recognise the prior claim of France to all the Congolese territory.
+The King and the Congo Ministers seem to have made use of this
+circumstance so as to strengthen the financial relations of France
+to their new State in several ways, notably in the formation of
+monopolist groups for the exploitation of Congoland. For the
+present we may remark that by a clause of the Franco-Belgian Treaty
+of Feb. 5, 1895, the Government of Brussels declared that it
+"recognises the right of preference possessed by France over its
+Congolese <span class="pagenum"><a name="page552" id=
+"page552"></a>[pg 552]</span> possessions, in case of their
+compulsory alienation, in whole or in part<a name=
+"FNanchor461"></a><a href="#Footnote_461">[461]</a>."</p>
+<p>Meanwhile King Leopold proceeded as if he were the absolute
+ruler of the new State. He bestowed on it a constitution on the
+most autocratic basis. M. Cattier, in his account of that
+constitution sums it up by stating that</p>
+<blockquote>The sovereign is the direct source of legislative,
+executive, and judiciary powers. He can, if he chooses, delegate
+their exercise to certain functionaries, but this delegation has no
+other source than his will. . . . He can issue rules, on which, so
+long as they last, is based the validity of certain acts by himself
+or by his delegates. But he can cancel these rules whenever they
+appear to him troublesome, useless, or dangerous. The organisation
+of justice, the composition of the army, financial systems, and
+industrial and commercial institutions--all are established solely
+by him in accordance with his just or faulty conceptions as to
+their usefulness or efficiency<a name="FNanchor462"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_462">[462]</a>.</blockquote>
+<p>A natural outcome of such a line of policy was the gradual
+elimination of non-Belgian officials. In July 1886 Sir Francis de
+Winton, Stanley's successor in the administration of the Congo
+area, gave place to a Belgian "Governor-General," M. Janssen; and
+similar changes were made in all grades of the service.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile other events were occurring which enabled the
+officials of the Congo State greatly to modify the provisions laid
+down at the Berlin Conference. These events were as follows. For
+many years the Arab slave-traders had been extending their raids in
+easterly and south-easterly directions, until they began to
+desolate the parts of the Congo State nearest to the great lakes
+and the Bahr-el-Ghazal.</p>
+<p>Their activity may be ascribed to the following causes. The
+slave-trade has for generations been pursued in Africa. The negro
+tribes themselves have long practised it; and the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page553" id="page553"></a>[pg 553]</span> Arabs,
+in their gradual conquest of many districts of Central Africa,
+found it to be by far the most profitable of all pursuits. The
+market was almost boundless; for since the Congress of Vienna
+(1815) and the Congress of Verona (1822) the Christian Powers had
+forbidden their subjects any longer to pursue that nefarious
+calling. It is true that kidnapping of negroes went on secretly,
+despite all the efforts of British cruisers to capture the slavers.
+It is said that the last seizure of a Portuguese schooner illicitly
+trading in human flesh was made off the Congo coast as late as the
+year 1868<a name="FNanchor463"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_463">[463]</a>. But the cessation of the trans-Atlantic
+slave-trade only served to stimulate the Arab man-hunters of
+Eastern Africa to greater efforts; and the rise of Mahdism
+quickened the demand for slaves in an unprecedented manner. Thus,
+the hateful trade went on apace, threatening to devastate the
+Continent which explorers, missionaries, and traders were opening
+up.</p>
+<p>The civilising and the devastating processes were certain soon
+to clash; and, as Stanley had foreseen, the conflict broke out on
+the Upper Congo. There the slave-raiders, subsidised or led by
+Arabs of Zanzibar, were specially active. Working from Ujiji and
+other bases, they attacked some of the expeditions sent by the
+Congo Free State. Chief among the raiders was a half-caste Arab
+negro nick-named Tipu Tib ("The gatherer of wealth"), who by his
+energy and cunning had become practically the master of a great
+district between the Congo and Lake Tanganyika. At first
+(1887-1888) the Congo Free State adopted Stanley's suggestion of
+appointing Tipu Tib to be its governor of the Stanley Falls
+district, at a salary of &pound;30 a month<a name=
+"FNanchor464"></a><a href="#Footnote_464">[464]</a>. So artificial
+an arrangement soon broke down, and war broke out early in 1892.
+The forces of the Congo Free State, led by Commandants Dhanis and
+Lothaire, and by Captain S.L. Hinde, finally worsted the Arabs
+after two long and wearisome campaigns waged on the Upper Congo.
+Into the details of the war it is impossible to <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page554" id="page554"></a>[pg 554]</span> enter.
+The accounts of all the operations, including that of Captain
+Hinde<a name="FNanchor465"></a><a href="#Footnote_465">[465]</a>,
+are written with a certain reserve; and the impression that the
+writers were working on behalf of civilisation and humanity is
+somewhat blurred by the startling admissions made by Captain Hinde
+in a paper read by him before the Royal Geographical Society in
+London, on March 11, 1895. He there stated that the Arabs, "despite
+their slave-raiding propensities," had "converted the Manyema and
+Malela country into one of the most prosperous in Central Africa."
+He also confessed that during the fighting the two flourishing
+towns, Nyangwe and Kasongo, had been wholly swept away. In view of
+these statements the results of the campaign cannot be regarded
+with unmixed satisfaction.</p>
+<p>Such, however, was not the view taken at the time. Not long
+before, the Continent had rung with the sermons and speeches of
+Cardinal Lavigerie, Bishop of Algiers, who, like a second Peter the
+Hermit, called all Christians to unite in a great crusade for the
+extirpation of slavery. The outcome of it all was the meeting of an
+Anti-Slavery Conference at Brussels, at the close of 1889, in which
+the Powers that had framed the Berlin Act again took part. The
+second article passed at Brussels asserted among other things the
+duties of the Powers "in giving aid to commercial enterprises to
+watch over their legality, controlling especially the contracts for
+service entered into with natives." The abuses in the trade in
+firearms were to be carefully checked and controlled.</p>
+<p>Towards the close of the Conference a proposal was brought
+forward (May 10, 1890) to the effect that, as the suppression of
+the slave-trade and the work of upraising the natives would entail
+great expense, it was desirable to annul the clause in the Berlin
+Act prohibiting the imposition of import duties for, at least,
+twenty years from that date (that is, up to the year 1905). The
+proposal seemed so plausible as to disarm the opposition of all the
+Powers, except Holland, which strongly protested against the
+change. Lord Salisbury's Government neglected to safeguard
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page555" id="page555"></a>[pg
+555]</span> British interests in this matter; and, despite the
+unremitting opposition of the Dutch Government, the obnoxious
+change was finally registered on January 2, 1892, it being
+understood that the duties were not to exceed 10 per cent <i>ad
+valorem</i> except in the case of spirituous liquors, and that no
+differential treatment would be accorded to the imports of any
+nation or nations.</p>
+<p>Thus the European Powers, yielding to the specious plea that
+they must grant the Congo Free State the power of levying customs
+dues in order to further its philanthropic aims, gave up one of the
+fundamentals agreed on at the Berlin Conference. The <i>raison
+d'&ecirc;tre</i> of the Congo Free State was, that it stood for
+freedom of trade in that great area; and to sign away one of the
+birthrights of modern civilisation, owing to the plea of a
+temporary want of cash in Congoland, can only be described as the
+act of a political Esau. The General Act of the Brussels Conference
+received a provisional sanction (the clause respecting customs dues
+not yet being definitively settled) on July 2, 1890<a name=
+"FNanchor466"></a><a href="#Footnote_466">[466]</a>.</p>
+<p>On the next day the Congo Free State entered into a financial
+arrangement with the Belgian Government which marked one more step
+in the reversal of the policy agreed on at Berlin five years
+previously. In this connection we must note that King Leopold by
+his will, dated August 2, 1889, bequeathed to Belgium after his
+death all his sovereign rights over that State, "together with all
+the benefits, rights and advantages appertaining to that
+sovereignty." Apparently, the occasion that called forth the will
+was the urgent need of a loan of 10,000,000 francs which the Congo
+State pressed the Belgian Government to make on behalf of the Congo
+railway. Thus, on the very eve of the summoning of the European
+Conference at Brussels, the Congo Government <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page556" id="page556"></a>[pg 556]</span> (that
+is, King Leopold) had appealed, not to the Great Powers, but to the
+Belgian Government, and had sought to facilitate the grant of the
+desired loan by the prospect of the ultimate transfer of his
+sovereign rights to Belgium.</p>
+<p>Unquestionably the King had acted very generously in the past
+toward the Congo Association and State. It has even been affirmed
+that his loans often amounted to the sum of 40,000,000 francs a
+year; but, even so, that did not confer the right to will away to
+any one State the results of an international enterprise. As a
+matter of fact, however, the Congo State was at that time nearly
+bankrupt; and in this circumstance, doubtless, may be found an
+explanation of the apathy of the Powers in presence of an
+infraction of the terms of the Berlin Act of 1885.</p>
+<p>We are now in a position to understand more clearly the meaning
+of the Convention of July 3, 1890, between the Congo Free State and
+the Belgian Government. By its terms the latter pledged itself to
+advance a loan of 25,000,000 francs to the Congo State in the
+course of ten years, without interest, on condition that at the
+close of six months after the expiration of that time Belgium
+should have the right of annexing the Free State with all its
+possessions and liabilities.</p>
+<p>Into the heated discussions which took place in the Belgian
+Parliament in the spring and summer of 1901 respecting the
+Convention of July 3, 1890, we cannot enter. The King interfered so
+as to prevent the acceptance of a reasonable compromise proposed by
+the Belgian Prime Minister, M. Beernaert; and ultimately matters
+were arranged by a decree of August 7, 1901, which will probably
+lead to the transference of King Leopold's sovereign rights to
+Belgium at his death. In the meantime, the entire executive and
+legislative control is vested in him, and in a Colonial Minister
+and Council of four members, who are responsible solely to him,
+though the Minister has a seat in the Belgian Parliament<a name=
+"FNanchor467"></a><a href="#Footnote_467">[467]</a>. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page557" id="page557"></a>[pg 557]</span> To
+King Leopold, therefore, belongs the ultimate responsibility for
+all that is done in the Congo Free State. As M. Cattier phrased it
+in the year 1898: "Belgium has no more right to intervene in the
+internal affairs of the Congo than the Congo State has to intervene
+in Belgian affairs. As regards the Congo Government, Belgium has no
+right either of intervention, direction, or control<a name=
+"FNanchor468"></a><a href="#Footnote_468">[468]</a>."</p>
+<p>Very many Belgians object strongly to the building up of an
+<i>imperium in imperio</i> in their land; and the wealth which the
+ivory and rubber of the Congo brings into their midst (not to speak
+of the stock-jobbing and company-promoting which go on at Brussels
+and Antwerp), does not blind them to the moral responsibility which
+the Belgian people has indirectly incurred. It is true that Belgium
+has no legal responsibility, but the State which has lent a large
+sum to the Congo Government, besides providing the great majority
+of the officials and exploiters of that territory, cannot escape
+some amount of responsibility. M. Vandervelde, leader of the Labour
+Party in Belgium, has boldly and persistently asserted the right of
+the Belgian people to a share in the control of its eventual
+inheritance, but hitherto all the efforts of his colleagues have
+failed before the groups of capitalists who have acquired great
+monopolist rights in Congoland.</p>
+<p>Having now traced the steps by which the Congolese Government
+reached its present anomalous position, we will proceed to give a
+short account of its material progress and administration.</p>
+<p>No one can deny that much has been done in the way of
+engineering. A light railway has been constructed from near Vivi on
+the Lower Congo to Stanley Pool, another from Boma into the
+districts north of that important river port. Others have been
+planned, or are already being constructed, between Stanley Falls
+and the northern end of Lake Tanganyika, with a branch to the
+Albert Nyanza. Another line <span class="pagenum"><a name="page558"
+id="page558"></a>[pg 558]</span> will connect the upper part of the
+River Congo with the westernmost affluent of the River Kasai, thus
+taking the base of the arc instead of the immense curve of the main
+stream. By the year 1903, 480 kilometres of railway were open for
+traffic, while 1600 more were in course of construction or were
+being planned. It seems that the first 400 kilometres, in the hilly
+region near the seaboard, cost 75,000,000 francs in place of the
+25,000,000 francs first estimated<a name="FNanchor469"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_469">[469]</a>. Road-making has also been pushed on in
+many directions. A flotilla of steamers plies on the great river
+and its chief affluents. In 1885 there were but five; the number
+now exceeds a hundred. As many as 1532 kilometres of telegraphs are
+now open. The exports advanced from 1,980,441 francs in 1885-86 to
+50,488,394 francs in 1901-02, mainly owing to the immense trade in
+rubber, of which more anon; the imports from 9,175,103 francs in
+1893 to 23,102,064 in 19O1-O2<a name="FNanchor470"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_470">[470]</a>.</p>
+<p>Far more important is the moral gain which has resulted from the
+suppression of the slave-trade over a large part of the State. On
+this point we may quote the testimony of Mr. Roger Casement,
+British Consul at Boma, in an official report founded on
+observations taken during a long tour up the Congo. He writes: "The
+open selling of slaves and the canoe convoys which once navigated
+the Upper Congo have everywhere disappeared. No act of the Congo
+State Government has perhaps produced more laudable results than
+the vigorous suppression of this widespread evil<a name=
+"FNanchor471"></a><a href="#Footnote_471">[471]</a>."</p>
+<p>King Leopold has also striven hard to extend the bounds of the
+Congo State. Not satisfied with his compact with France of April
+1887, which fixed the River Ubangi and its tributaries as the
+boundary of their possessions, he pushed ahead to the north-east of
+those confines, and early in the nineties established posts at Lado
+on the White Nile and in the Bahr-el-Ghazal <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page559" id="page559"></a>[pg 559]</span> basin.
+Clearly his aim was to conquer the districts which Egypt for the
+time had given up to the Mahdi. These efforts brought about sharp
+friction between the Congolese authorities and France and Great
+Britain. After long discussions the Cabinet of London agreed to the
+convention of May 12, 1894, whereby the Congo State gained the
+Bahr-el-Ghazal basin and the left bank of the Upper Nile, together
+with a port on the Albert Nyanza. On his side, King Leopold
+recognised the claims of England to the right bank of the Nile and
+to a strip of land between the Albert Nyanza and Lake Tanganyika.
+Owing to the strong protests of France and Germany this agreement
+was rescinded, and the Cabinet of Paris finally compelled King
+Leopold to give up all claims to the Bahr-el-Ghazal, though he
+acquired the right to lease the Lado district below the Albert
+Nyanza. The importance of these questions in the development of
+British policy in the Nile basin has been pointed out in Chapter
+XVII.</p>
+<p>The ostensible aim, however, of the founders of the Congo Free
+State was, not the exploitation of the Upper Nile district, the
+making of railways and the exportation of great quantities of ivory
+and rubber from Congoland, but the civilising and uplifting of
+Central Africa. The General Act of the Berlin Conference begins
+with an invocation to Almighty God; and the Brussels Conference
+imitated its predecessor in this particular. It is, therefore, as a
+civilising and moralising agency that the Congo Government will
+always be judged at the bar of posterity.</p>
+<p>The first essential of success in dealing with backward races is
+sympathy with their most cherished notions. Yet from the very
+outset one of these was violated. On July 1, 1885, a decree of the
+Congo Free State asserted that all vacant lands were the property
+of the Government, that is, virtually of the King himself. Further,
+on June 30, 1887, an ordinance was decreed, claiming the right to
+let or sell domains, and to grant mining or wood-cutting rights on
+any land, "the ownership of which is not recognised as appertaining
+to any one." These <span class="pagenum"><a name="page560" id=
+"page560"></a>[pg 560]</span> decrees, we may remark, were for some
+time kept secret, until their effects became obvious.</p>
+<p>All who know anything of the land systems of primitive peoples
+will see that they contravened the customs which the savage holds
+dear. The plots actually held and tilled by the natives are
+infinitesimally small when compared with the vast tracts over which
+their tribes claim hunting, pasturage, and other rights. The land
+system of the savage is everywhere communal. Individual ownership
+in the European sense is a comparatively late development. The
+Congolese authorities must have known this; for nearly all troubles
+with native races have arisen from the profound differences in the
+ideas of the European and the savage on the subject of
+land-holding.</p>
+<p>Yet, in face of the experience of former times, the Congo State
+put forward a claim which has led, or will lead, to the
+confiscation of all tribal or communal land-rights in that huge
+area. Such confiscation may, perhaps, be defended in the case of
+the United States, where the new-comers enormously outnumbered the
+Red Indians, and tilled land that previously lay waste. It is
+indefensible in the tropics, where the white settlers will always
+remain the units as compared with the millions whom they elevate or
+exploit<a name="FNanchor472"></a><a href="#Footnote_472">[472]</a>.
+The savage holds strongly to certain rudimentary ideas of justice,
+especially to the right, which he and his tribe have always claimed
+and exercised, of <i>using</i> the tribal land for the primary
+needs of life. When he is denied the right of hunting, cutting
+timber, or pasturage, he feels "cribbed, cabined, and confined."
+This, doubtless, is the chief source of the quarrels between the
+new State and its <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;s</i>, also of the
+depression of spirits which Mr. Casement found so prevalent. The
+best French authorities on colonial development now admit that it
+is madness to interfere with the native land tenures in tropical
+Africa.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page561" id="page561"></a>[pg
+561]</span>
+<p>The method used in the enlisting of men for public works and for
+the army has also caused many troubles. This question is admittedly
+one of great difficulty. Hard work must be done, and, in the
+tropics, the white man can only direct it. Besides, where life is
+fairly easy, men will not readily come forward to labour. Either
+the inducement offered must be adequate, or some form of compulsory
+enlistment must be adopted. The Belgian officials, in the plentiful
+lack of funds that has always clogged their State, have tried
+compulsion, generally through the native chiefs. These are induced,
+by the offer of cotton cloth or bright-coloured handkerchiefs, to
+supply men from the tribe. If the labourers are not forthcoming,
+the chief is punished, his village being sometimes burned. By
+means, then, of gaudy handkerchiefs, or firebrands, the labourers
+are obtained. They figure as "apprentices," under the law of
+November 8, 1888, which accorded "special protection to the
+blacks."</p>
+<p>The British Consul, Mr. Casement, in his report on the
+administration of the Congo, stated that the majority of the
+government workmen at L&eacute;opoldville were under some form of
+compulsion, but were, on the whole, well cared for<a name=
+"FNanchor473"></a><a href="#Footnote_473">[473]</a>.</p>
+<p>According to a German resident in Congoland, the lot of the
+apprentices differs little from that of slaves. Their position, as
+contrasted with that of their former relation to the chief, is
+humorously defined by the term <i>lib&eacute;r&eacute;s</i><a name=
+"FNanchor474"></a><a href="#Footnote_474">[474]</a> The hardships
+of the labourers on the State railways were such that the British
+Government refused to allow them to be recruited from Sierra Leone
+or other British possessions.</p>
+<p>However, now that a British Cabinet has allowed a great colony
+to make use of indentured yellow labour in its mines, Great Britain
+cannot, without glaring inconsistency, lodge any protest against
+the infringement, in Congoland, of the Act of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page562" id="page562"></a>[pg 562]</span> the
+Berlin Conference in the matter of the treatment of hired
+labourers. If the lot of the Congolese apprentices is to be
+bettered, the initiative must be taken at some capital other than
+London.</p>
+<p>Another subject which nearly concerns the welfare of the Congo
+State is the recruiting and use of native troops. These are often
+raised from the most barbarous tribes of the far interior; their
+pay is very small; and too often the main inducement to serve under
+the blue banner with the golden star, is the facility for feasting
+and plunder at the expense of other natives who have not satisfied
+the authorities. As one of them na&iuml;vely said to Mr. Casement,
+<i>he preferred to be with the hunters rather than with the
+hunted.</i></p>
+<p>It seems that grave abuses first crept in during the course of
+the campaign for the extirpation of slavery and slave-raiding in
+the Stanley Falls region. The Arab slave-raiders were rich, not
+only in slaves, but in ivory--prizes which tempted the cupidity of
+the native troops, and even, it is said, of their European
+officers. In any case, it is certain that the liberating forces,
+hastily raised and imperfectly controlled, perpetrated shocking
+outrages on the tribes for whose sake they were waging war. The
+late Mr. Glave, in the article in the <i>Century Magazine</i> above
+referred to, found reason for doubting whether the crusade did not
+work almost as much harm as the evils it was sent to cure. His
+words were these: "The black soldiers are bent on fighting and
+raiding; they want no peaceful settlement. They have good rifles
+and ammunition, realise their superiority over the natives with
+their bows and arrows, and they want to shoot and kill and rob.
+Black delights to kill black, whether the victim be man, woman, or
+child, and no matter how defenceless." This deep-seated habit of
+mind is hard to eradicate; and among certain of the less reputable
+of the Belgian officers it has occasionally been used, in order to
+terrorise into obedience tribes that kicked against the decrees of
+the Congo State.</p>
+<p>Undoubtedly there is great difficulty in avoiding friction
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page563" id="page563"></a>[pg
+563]</span> with native tribes. All Governments have at certain
+times and places behaved more or less culpably towards them.
+British annals have been fouled by many a misdeed on the part of
+harsh officials and grasping pioneers, while recent revelations as
+to the treatment of natives in Western Australia show the need of
+close supervision of officials even in a popularly governed colony.
+The record of German East Africa and the French Congo is also very
+far from clean. Still, in the opinion of all who have watched over
+the welfare of the aborigines--among whom we may name Sir Charles
+Dilke and Mr. Fox Bourne--the treatment of the natives in a large
+part of the Congo Free State has been worse than in the districts
+named above<a name="FNanchor475"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_475">[475]</a>. There is also the further damning fact
+that the very State which claimed to be a great philanthropic
+agency has, until very recently, refused to institute any full
+inquiry into the alleged defects of its administration.</p>
+<p>Some of these defects may be traced to the bad system of payment
+of officials. Not only are they underpaid, but they have no
+pension, such as is given by the British, French, and Dutch
+Governments to their employees. The result is that the Congolese
+officer looks on his term of service in that unhealthy climate as a
+time when he must enrich himself for life. Students of Roman
+History know that, when this feeling becomes a tradition, it is apt
+to lead to grave abuses, the recital of which adds an undying
+interest to the speech of Cicero against Verres. In the case of the
+Congolese administrators the State provided (doubtless unwittingly)
+an incentive to harshness. It frequently supplemented its
+inadequate stipends by "gratifications," which are thus described
+and criticised by M. Cattier: "The custom was introduced of paying
+to officials prizes proportioned to the amount of produce of the
+'private domain' of the State, and of the taxes paid by the
+natives. That amounted to the inciting, by the spur of personal
+interest, of officials to severity and to rigour <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page564" id="page564"></a>[pg 564]</span> in the
+application of laws and regulations." Truly, a more pernicious
+application of the plan of "payment by results" cannot be
+conceived; and M. Cattier affirms that, though nominally abolished,
+it existed in reality down to the year 1898.</p>
+<p>Added to this are defects arising from the uncertainty of
+employment. An official may be discharged at once by the
+Governor-General on the ground of unfitness for service in Africa;
+and the man, when discharged, has no means of gaining redress. The
+natural result is the growth of a habit of almost slavish obedience
+to the authorities, not only in regard to the written law, but also
+to private and semi-official intimations<a name=
+"FNanchor476"></a><a href="#Footnote_476">[476]</a>.</p>
+<p>Another blot on the record of the Congo Free State is the
+exclusive character of the trading corporation to which it has
+granted concessions. Despite the promises made to private firms
+that early sought to open up business in its land, the Government
+itself has become a great trading corporation, with monopolist
+rights which close great regions to private traders and subject the
+natives to vexatious burdens. This system took definite form in
+September 1891, when the Government claimed exclusive rights in
+trade in the extreme north and north-east. At the close of that
+year Captain Baert, the administrator of these districts, also
+enjoined the collection of rubber and other products by the natives
+for the benefit of the State.</p>
+<p>The next step was to forbid to private traders in that quarter
+the right of buying these products from natives. In May 1892 the
+State monopoly in rubber, etc., was extended to the "Equator"
+district, natives not being allowed to sell them to any one but a
+State official. Many of the merchants protested, but in vain. The
+chief result of their protest was the establishment of privileged
+companies, the "Soci&eacute;t&eacute; Anversoise" and the
+"Anglo-Belgian," and the reservation to the State of large areas
+under the title of <i>Domaines priv&eacute;s</i> (Oct.
+1892)<a name="FNanchor477"></a><a href="#Footnote_477">[477]</a>.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page565" id="page565"></a>[pg
+565]</span> The apologetic skill of the partisans of the Congo
+State is very great; but it will hardly be equal to the task of
+proving that this new departure is not a direct violation of
+Article V. of the General Act of the Berlin Conference of 1885,
+quoted above.</p>
+<p>A strange commentary on the latter part of that article,
+according full protection to all foreigners, was furnished by the
+execution of the ex-missionary, Stokes, at the hands of Belgian
+officials in 1895--a matter for which the Congo Government finally
+made grudging and incomplete reparation<a name=
+"FNanchor478"></a><a href="#Footnote_478">[478]</a>. Another case
+was as bad. In 1901 an Austrian trader, Rabinek, was arrested and
+imprisoned for "illegal" trading in rubber in the "Katanga Trust"
+country. Treated unfeelingly during his removal down the country,
+he succumbed to fever. His effects were seized and have not been
+restored to his heirs<a name="FNanchor479"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_479">[479]</a>.</p>
+<p>When such treatment is meted out to white men who pursued their
+trade in reliance on the original constitution of the State, the
+natives may be expected to fare badly. Their misfortunes thickened
+when the Government, on the plea that natives must contribute
+towards the expenses of the State, began to require them to collect
+and hand in a certain amount of rubber. The evidence of Mr.
+Casement clearly shows that the natives could not understand why
+this should suddenly be imposed on them; that the amount claimed
+was often excessive; and that the punishment meted out for failure
+to comply with the official demands led to many barbarous actions
+on the part of officials and their native troops. Thus, at Bolobo,
+he found large numbers of industrious workers in iron who had fled
+from the "Domaine de la Couronne" (King Leopold's private domain)
+because "they had endured such ill-treatment at the hands of the
+Government officials and Government soldiers in their own country
+that life had become intolerable, that nothing had remained for
+them at home but to be killed for failure to bring in a certain
+amount of rubber, or to die of <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page566" id="page566"></a>[pg 566]</span> starvation or exposure
+in their attempts to satisfy the demands made upon them<a name=
+"FNanchor480"></a><a href="#Footnote_480">[480]</a>."</p>
+<p>On the north side of Lake Mantumba Mr. Casement found that the
+population had diminished by 60 or 70 per cent since the imposition
+of the rubber tax in 1893--a fact, however, which may be partly
+assigned to the sleeping sickness. The tax led to constant
+fighting, until at last the officials gave up the effort and
+imposed a requisition of food or gum-copal; the change seems to
+have been satisfactory there and in other parts where it has been
+tried. In the former time the native soldiers punished delinquents
+with mutilation: proofs on this subject here and in several other
+places were indisputable. On the River Lulongo, Mr. Casement found
+that the amount of rubber collected from the natives generally
+proved to be in proportion to the number of guns used by the
+collecting force<a name="FNanchor481"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_481">[481]</a>. In some few cases natives were shot,
+even by white officers, on account of their failure to bring in the
+due amount of rubber<a name="FNanchor482"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_482">[482]</a>. A comparatively venial form of
+punishment was the capture and detention of wives until their
+husbands made up the tale. Is it surprising that thousands of the
+natives of the north have <span class="pagenum"><a name="page567"
+id="page567"></a>[pg 567]</span> fled into French Congoland, itself
+by no means free from the grip of monopolist companies, but not
+terrorised as are most of the tribes of the "Free State"?</p>
+<p>Livingstone, in his day, regarded ivory as the chief cause of
+the slave-trade in Central and Eastern Africa; but it is
+questionable whether even ivory (now a vanishing product) brought
+more woe to millions of negroes than the viscous fluid which
+enables the pleasure-seekers of Paris, London, and New York to rush
+luxuriously through space. The swift Juggernaut of the present age
+is accountable for as much misery as ever sugar or ivory was in the
+old slave days. But it seems that, so long as the motor-car
+industry prospers, the dumb woes of the millions of Africa will
+count for little in the Courts of Europe. During the session of
+1904 Lord Lansdowne made praiseworthy efforts to call their
+attention to the misgovernment of the Congo State; but he met with
+no response except from the United States, Italy, and Turkey(!) A
+more signal proof of the weakness and cynical selfishness now
+prevalent in high quarters has never been given than in this
+abandonment of a plain and bounden duty.</p>
+<p>A slight amount of public spirit on the part of the signatories
+of the Berlin Act would have sufficed to prevent Congolese affairs
+drifting into the present highly anomalous situation. That land is
+not Belgian, and it is not international--except in a strictly
+legal sense. It is difficult to say what it is if it be not the
+private domain of King Leopold and of several
+monopolist-controlling trusts. Probably the only way out of the
+present slough of despond is the definite assumption of sole
+responsibility by the Belgian people; for it should be remembered
+that a very large number of patriotic Belgians urgently long to
+redress evils for which they feel themselves to be indirectly, and
+to a limited extent, chargeable. At present, those who carefully
+study the evidence relating to the Berlin Conference of 1885, and
+the facts, so far as they are ascertainable to-day, must pronounce
+the Congo experiment to be a terrible failure.</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_455"></a><a href="#FNanchor455">[455]</a>
+<i>L'Afrique nouvelle</i>. Par. E. Descamps, Brussels, Paris, 1903,
+p. 8.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_456"></a><a href="#FNanchor456">[456]</a> For
+details see J. de C. Macdonell, <i>King Leopold II</i>., p.
+113.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_457"></a><a href="#FNanchor457">[457]</a> H.
+von Wissmann, <i>My Second Journey through Equatorial Africa</i>,
+1891. Rev. W.H. Bentley, <i>Pioneering on the Congo</i>, 2
+vols.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_458"></a><a href="#FNanchor458">[458]</a> See
+Protocols, <i>Parl. Papers</i>, Africa, No. 4 (1885), pp. 119 <i>et
+seq</i>.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_459"></a><a href="#FNanchor459">[459]</a>
+<i>The Story of the Congo Free State</i>, by H.W. Wack (New York,
+1905), p. 101; Wauters, <i>L'&Eacute;tat ind&eacute;pendant du
+Congo</i>, pp. 36-37.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_460"></a><a href="#FNanchor460">[460]</a>
+<i>The Congo State</i>, by D.C. Boulger (London, 1896), p. 62.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_461"></a><a href="#FNanchor461">[461]</a>
+Cattier, <i>Droit et Administration de l'&Eacute;tat
+ind&eacute;pendent du Congo</i>, p. 82.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_462"></a><a href="#FNanchor462">[462]</a>
+Cattier, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 134-135.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_463"></a><a href="#FNanchor463">[463]</a> A.J.
+Wauters, <i>L'&Eacute;tat ind&eacute;pendent du Congo</i>, p.
+52.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_464"></a><a href="#FNanchor464">[464]</a>
+Stanley, <i>In Darkest Africa</i>, vol. i. pp. 60-70.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_465"></a><a href="#FNanchor465">[465]</a>
+<i>The Fall of the Congo Arabs</i>, by Capt. S.L. Hinde (London,
+1897).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_466"></a><a href="#FNanchor466">[466]</a> On
+August 1, 1890, the Sultan of Zanzibar declared that no sale of
+slaves should thenceforth take place in his dominions. He also
+granted to slaves the right of appeal to him in case they were
+cruelly treated. See Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1890-91).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_467"></a><a href="#FNanchor467">[467]</a> H.R.
+Fox-Bourne, <i>Civilisation in Congoland</i> p. 277.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_468"></a><a href="#FNanchor468">[468]</a> M.
+Cattier, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 88.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_469"></a><a href="#FNanchor469">[469]</a>
+<i>L'Afrique nouvelle,</i> by E. Descamps (1903), chap. xv. Much of
+the credit of the early railway-making was due to Colonel Thys.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_470"></a><a href="#FNanchor470">[470]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. pp. 589-590.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_471"></a><a href="#FNanchor471">[471]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Africa, No. I (1904), p. 26.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_472"></a><a href="#FNanchor472">[472]</a> The
+number of whites in Congoland is about 1700, of whom 1060 are
+Belgians; the blacks number about 29,000,000, according to Stanley;
+the Belgian Governor-General, Wahis, thinks this below the truth.
+See Wauters, <i>L'&Eacute;tat ind&eacute;pendant du Congo,</i> pp.
+261, 432.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_473"></a><a href="#FNanchor473">[473]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1904), p. 27.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_474"></a><a href="#FNanchor474">[474]</a> A.
+Boshart, <i>Zehn Jahre Afrikanischen Lebens</i> (1898), quoted by
+Fox Bourne, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 77. For further details see the
+article by Mr. Glave, once an official of the Congo Free State, in
+the <i>Century Magazine</i>, vol. liii.; also his work, <i>Six
+Years in the Congo</i> (1892).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_475"></a><a href="#FNanchor475">[475]</a> Sir
+Charles Dilke stated this very forcibly in a speech delivered at
+the Holborn Town Hall on June 7, 1905.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_476"></a><a href="#FNanchor476">[476]</a>
+Cattier, <i>Droit et Administration . . . du Congo,</i> pp.
+243-245.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_477"></a><a href="#FNanchor477">[477]</a> For
+a map of the domains now appropriated by these and other privileged
+"Trusts," see Morel, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 466.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_478"></a><a href="#FNanchor478">[478]</a> See
+the evidence in Parl. Papers, Africa. No. 8 (1896).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_479"></a><a href="#FNanchor479">[479]</a>
+Morel, <i>op. cit.</i> chaps. xxiii.-xxv.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_480"></a><a href="#FNanchor480">[480]</a>
+Parl. Papers, Africa, No. I (1904), pp. 29, 60. A missionary, Rev.
+J. Whitehead, wrote in July 1903: "During the past seven years
+this 'domaine priv&eacute;' of King Leopold has been a veritable
+'hell on earth.'" (<i>Ibid</i>. p. 64).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_481"></a><a href="#FNanchor481">[481]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. pp. 34, 43, 44, 49, 76, etc.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_482"></a><a href="#FNanchor482">[482]</a>
+<i>Ibid</i>. p. 70. The effort made by the Chevalier De Cuvelier to
+rebut Mr. Casement's charges consists mainly of an ineffective
+<i>tu quoque</i>. To compare the rubber-tax of the Congo State with
+the hut-tax of Sierra Leone begs the whole question. Mr. Casement
+proves (p. 27) that the natives do not object to reasonable
+taxation which comes regularly. They do object to demands for
+rubber which are excessive and often involve great privations.
+Above all, the punishments utterly cow them and cause them to flee
+to the forests.<br>
+<br>
+The efforts of Mr. Macdonnell in <i>King Leopold II</i>. (London,
+1905) to refute Mr. Casement also seem to me weak and inconclusive.
+The reply of the Congo Free State is printed by Mr. H.W. Wack in
+the Appendix of his <i>Story of the Congo Free State</i> (New York,
+1905). It convicts Mr. Casement of inaccuracy on a few details.
+Despite all that has been written by various apologists, it may be
+affirmed that the Congo Free State has yet made no adequate
+defence. Possibly it will appear in the report which, it is hoped,
+will be published in full by the official commission of inquiry now
+sitting.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page568" id="page568"></a>[pg
+568]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+<h3>RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST</h3>
+<blockquote>"This war, waged . . . for the command of the waters of
+the Pacific Ocean, so urgently necessary for the peaceful
+prosperity, not only of our own, but of other nations."--<i>The
+Czar's Proclamation of March 3, 1905</i>.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>Of all the collisions of racial interests that have made recent
+history, none has turned the thoughts of the world to regions so
+remote, and events so dramatic in their intensity and momentous in
+their results, as that which has come about in Manchuria. The Far
+Eastern Question is the outcome of the expansion of two vigorous
+races, that of Russia and Japan, at the expense of the almost
+torpid polity of China. The struggle has taken place in the
+debatable lands north and west of Korea, where Tartars and Chinese
+formerly warred for supremacy, and where geographical and
+commercial considerations enhance the value of the most northerly
+of the ice-free ports of the Continent of Asia.</p>
+<p>In order to understand the significance of this great struggle,
+we must look back to the earlier stages of the extension of Russian
+influence. Up to a very recent period the eastern growth of Russia
+affords an instance of swift and natural expansion. Picture on the
+one side a young and vigorous community, dowered with patriotic
+pride by the long and eventually triumphant conflict with the
+Tartar hordes, and dwelling in dreary plains where Nature now and
+again drives men forth on the quest for a sufficiency of food. On
+the other <span class="pagenum"><a name="page569" id=
+"page569"></a>[pg 569]</span> hand, behold a vast territory,
+well-watered, with no natural barrier between the Urals and the
+Pacific, sparsely inhabited by tribes of nomads having little in
+common. The one active community will absorb the ill-organised
+units as inevitably as the rising tide overflows the neighbouring
+mud-flats when once the intervening barrier is overtopped. In the
+case of Russia and Siberia the only barrier is that of the Ural
+Mountains; and their gradual slopes form a slighter barrier than is
+anywhere else figured on the map of the world in so conspicuous a
+chain. The Urals once crossed, the slopes and waterways invite the
+traveller eastwards.</p>
+<p>The French revolutionists of 1793 used to say, "With bread and
+iron one can get to China." Russian pioneers had made good that
+boast nearly two centuries before it was uttered in Paris. The
+impelling force which set in motion the Muscovite tide originated
+with a man whose name is rarely heard outside Russia. Yet, if the
+fame of men were proportionate to the effect of their exploits, few
+names would be more widely known than that of Jermak. This man had
+been a hauler of boats up the banks of the Volga, until his
+strength, hardihood, and love of adventure impelled him to a
+freebooting life, wherein his powers of command and the fierce
+thoroughness of his methods speedily earned him the name of Jermak,
+"the millstone." In the year 1580, the wealthy family of the
+Stroganoffs, tempted by stories of the wealth to be gained from the
+fur-bearing animals of Siberia, turned their thoughts to Jermak and
+his robber band as the readiest tools for the conquest of those
+plains. The enterprise appealed to Jermak and the hardy Cossacks
+with whom he had to do. He and his men were no less skilled in
+river craft than in fighting; and the roving Cossack spirit kindled
+at the thought of new lands to harry. Proceeding by boat from Perm,
+they worked their way into the spurs of the Urals, and then by no
+very long <i>portage</i> crossed one of its lower passes and found
+themselves on one of the tributaries of the Obi.</p>
+<p>Thenceforth their course was easy. Jermak and his small
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page570" id="page570"></a>[pg
+570]</span> band of picked fighters were more than a match for the
+wretchedly armed and craven-spirited Tartars, who fled at the sound
+of firearms. In 1581 the settlement, called Sibir, fell to the
+invaders; and, though they soon abandoned this rude encampment for
+a new foundation, the town of Tobolsk, yet the name Siberia recalls
+their pride at the conquest of the enemy's capital. The traditional
+skill of the Cossacks in the handling of boats greatly aided their
+advance, and despite the death of Jermak in battle, his men pressed
+on and conquered nearly the half of Siberia within a decade. What
+Drake and the sea-dogs of Devon were then doing for England on the
+western main, was being accomplished for Russia by the ex-pirate
+and his band from the Volga. The two expansive movements were
+destined finally to meet on the shores of the Pacific in the
+northern creeks of what is now British Columbia.</p>
+<p>The later stages in Russian expansion need not detain us here.
+The excellence of the Cossack methods in foraying, pioneer-work,
+and the forming of military settlements, consolidated the Muscovite
+conquests. The Tartars were fain to submit to the Czar, or to flee
+to the nomad tribes of Central Asia or Northern China. The invaders
+reached the River Lena in the year 1630; and some of their
+adventurers voyaged down the Amur, and breasted the waves of the
+Pacific in 1636. Cossack bands conquered Kamchatka in
+1699-1700<a name="FNanchor483"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_483">[483]</a>.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile the first collision between the white and the yellow
+races took place on the River Amur, which the Chinese claimed as
+their own. At first the Russians easily prevailed; but in the year
+1689 they suffered a check. New vigour was then manifested in the
+councils of Pekin, and the young Czar, Peter the Great, in his
+longing for triumphs over Swedes and Turks, thought lightly of
+gains at the expense of the "celestials." He therefore gave to
+Russian energies that trend westwards and southwards, which after
+him marked the reigns of Catharine II., Alexander I., and, in part,
+of Nicholas I. The <span class="pagenum"><a name="page571" id=
+"page571"></a>[pg 571]</span> surrender of the Amur valley to China
+in 1689 ended all efforts of Russia in that direction for a century
+and a half. Many Russians believe that the earlier impulse was
+sounder and more fruitful in results for Russia than her meddling
+in the wars of the French Revolution and Empire.</p>
+<p>Not till 1846 did Russia resume her march down the valley of the
+Amur; and then the new movement was partly due to British action.
+At that time the hostility of Russia and Britain was becoming acute
+on Asiatic and Turkish questions. Further, the first Anglo-Chinese
+War (1840-42) led to the cession of Hong-Kong to the distant
+islanders, who also had five Chinese ports opened to their trade.
+This enabled Russia to pose as the protector of China, and to claim
+points of vantage whence her covering wings might be extended over
+that Empire. The statesmen of Pekin had little belief in the
+genuineness of these offers, especially in view of the thorough
+exploration of the Amur region and the Gulf of Okhotsk which
+speedily ensued.</p>
+<p>The Czar, in fact, now inaugurated a forward Asiatic policy, and
+confided it to an able governor, Muravieff (1847). The new
+departure was marked by the issue of an imperial ukase (1851)
+ordering the Russian settlers beyond Lake Baikal to conform to the
+Cossack system; that is, to become liable to military duties in
+return for the holding of land in the more exposed positions. Three
+years later Muravieff ordered 6000 Cossacks to migrate from these
+trans-Baikal settlements to the land newly acquired from China on
+the borders of Manchuria<a name="FNanchor484"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_484">[484]</a>. In the same year the Russians
+established a station at the mouth of the Amur, and in 1853 gained
+control over part of the Island of Saghalien.</p>
+<p>For the present, then, everything seemed to favour Russia's
+forward policy. The tribes on the Amur were passive; an attack of
+an Anglo-French squadron on Petropaulovsk, a port in Kamchatka,
+failed (Aug. 1854); and the Russians hoped to be able to harry
+British commerce from this and other naval <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page572" id="page572"></a>[pg 572]</span> bases
+in the Pacific. Finally, the rupture with England and France, and
+the beginning of the Taeping rebellion in China, induced the Court
+of Pekin to agree to Russia's demands for the Amur boundary, and
+for a subsequent arrangement respecting the ownership of the
+districts between the mouth of that river and the bay on which now
+stands the port of Vladivostok (May 15, 1858). The latter
+concession left the door open for Muravieff to push on Russia's
+claims to this important wedge of territory. His action was
+characteristic. He settled Cossacks along the River Ussuri, a
+southern tributary of the Amur, and, by pressing ceaselessly on the
+celestials (then distracted by a war with England and France), he
+finally brought them to agree to the cession of the district around
+the new settlement, which was soon to receive the name of
+Vladivostok ("Lord of the East"). He also acquired for the Czar the
+Manchurian coast down to the bounds of Korea (November 2, 1860).
+Russia thus threw her arms around the great province which had
+provided China with her dynasty and her warrior caste, and was
+still one of the wealthiest and most cherished lands of that
+Empire. Having secured these points of vantage in Northern China,
+the Muscovites could await with confidence further developments in
+the decay of that once formidable organism.</p>
+<p>Such, in brief, is the story of Russian expansion from the Urals
+to the Sea of Japan. Probably no conquest of such magnitude was
+ever made with so little expenditure of blood and money. In one
+sense this is its justification, that is, if we view the course of
+events, not by the limelight of abstract right, but by the ordinary
+daylight of expediency. Conquests which strain the resources of the
+victors and leave the vanquished longing for revenge, carry their
+own condemnation. On the other hand, the triumph of Russia over the
+ill-organised tribes of Siberia and northern Manchuria reminds one
+of the easy and unalterable methods of Nature, which compels a
+lower type of life to yield up its puny force for the benefit of a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page573" id="page573"></a>[pg
+573]</span> higher. It resembles the victory of man over
+quadrupeds, of order over disorder, of well-regulated strength over
+weakness and stupidity.</p>
+<p>Muravieff deserves to rank among the makers of modern Russia. He
+waited his time, used his Cossack pawns as an effective screen to
+each new opening of the game, and pushed his foes hardest when they
+were at their weakest. Moreover, like Bismarck, he knew when to
+stop. He saw the limit that separated the practicable from the
+impracticable. He brought the Russian coast near to the latitudes
+where harbours are free from ice; but he forbore to encroach on
+Korea--a step which would have brought Japan on to the field of
+action. The Muscovite race, it was clear, had swallowed enough to
+busy its digestive powers for many a year; and it was partly on his
+advice that Russian North America was sold to the United
+States.</p>
+<p>Still, Russia's advance southwards towards ice-free ports was
+only checked, not stopped. In 1861 a Russian man-of-war took
+possession of the Tshushima Isles between Korea and Japan, but
+withdrew on the protest of the British admiral. Six years later the
+Muscovites strengthened their grip on Saghalien, and thereafter
+exercised with Japan joint sovereignty over that island. The
+natural result followed. In 1875 Russia found means to eject her
+partner, the Japanese receiving as compensation undisputed claim to
+the barren Kuriles, which they already possessed<a name=
+"FNanchor485"></a><a href="#Footnote_485">[485]</a>.</p>
+<p>Even before this further proof of Russia's expansiveness, Japan
+had seen the need of adapting herself to the new conditions
+consequent on the advent of the Great Powers in the Far East. This
+is not the place for a description of the remarkable Revolution of
+the years 1867-71. Suffice it to say that the events recounted
+above undoubtedly helped on the centralising of the powers in the
+hands of the Mikado, and the Europeanising of the institutions and
+armed forces of Japan. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page574" id=
+"page574"></a>[pg 574]</span> In face of aggressions by Russia and
+quarrels with the maritime Powers, a vigorous seafaring people felt
+the need of systems of organisation and self-defence other than
+those provided by the rule of feudal lords, and levies drilled with
+bows and arrows. The subsequent history of the Far East may be
+summed up in the statement that Japan faced the new situation with
+the brisk adaptability of a maritime people, while China plodded
+along on her old tracks with a patience and stubbornness eminently
+bovine.</p>
+<p>The events which finally brought Russia and Japan into collision
+arose out of the obvious need for the construction of a railway
+from St. Petersburg to the Pacific having its terminus on an
+ice-free port. Only so could Russia develop the resources of
+Siberia and the Amur Province. In the sixties and seventies
+trans-continental railways were being planned and successfully laid
+in North America. But there is this difference: in the New World
+the iron horse has been the friend of peace; in the Far East of
+Asia it has hurried on the advent of war; and for this reason, that
+Russia, having no ice-free harbour at the end of her great Siberian
+line, was tempted to grasp at one which the yellow races looked on
+as altogether theirs.</p>
+<p>The miscalculation was natural. The rapid extension of trade in
+the Pacific Ocean seemed to invite Russia to claim her full share
+in a development that had already enriched England, the United
+States, and, later, Germany and France; and events placed within
+the Muscovite grasp positions which fulfilled all the conditions
+requisite for commercial prosperity and military and naval
+domination.</p>
+<p>For many years past vague projects of a trans-Siberian railway
+had been in the air. In 1857 an English engineer offered to
+construct a horse tramway from Perm, across the Urals, and to the
+Pacific. An American also proposed to make a railway for
+locomotives from Irkutsk to the head waters of the Amur. In 1875
+the Russian Government decided to construct a line from Perm as far
+as a western <span class="pagenum"><a name="page575" id=
+"page575"></a>[pg 575]</span> affluent of the River Obi; but owing
+to want of funds the line was carried no farther than Tiumen on the
+River Tobol (1880).</p>
+<p>The financial difficulty was finally overcome by the generosity
+of the French, who, as we have already seen (Chapter XII.), late in
+the eighties began to subscribe to all the Russian loans placed on
+the Paris Bourse. The scheme now became practicable, and in March
+1891 an imperial ukase appeared sanctioning the mighty undertaking.
+It was made known at Vladivostok by the Czarevitch (now Nicholas
+II.) in the course of a lengthy tour in the Far East; and he is
+known then to have gained that deep interest in those regions which
+has moulded Russian policy throughout his reign. Quiet,
+unostentatious, and even apathetic on most subjects, he then, as we
+may judge from subsequent events, determined to give to Russian
+energies a decided trend towards the Pacific. As Czar, he has
+placed that aim in the forefront of his policy. With him the Near
+East has always been second to the Far East; and in the critical
+years 1896-97, when the sufferings of Christians in Turkey became
+acute, he turned a deaf ear to the cries of myriads who had rarely
+sent their prayers northwards in vain. The most reasonable
+explanation of this callousness is that Nicholas II. at that time
+had no ears save for the call of the Pacific Ocean. This was
+certainly the policy of his Ministers, Prince Lob&aacute;noff,
+Count Muravieff, and Count Lamsdorff. It was oceanic.</p>
+<p>The necessary prelude to Russia's new policy was the completion
+of the trans-Siberian railway, certainly one of the greatest
+engineering feats ever attempted by man. While a large part of the
+route offers no more difficulty than the conquest of limitless
+levels, there are portions that have taxed to the utmost the skill
+and patience of the engineer. The deep trough of Lake Baikal has
+now (June 1905) been circumvented by the construction of a railway
+(here laid with double tracks) which follows the rocky southern
+shore. This part of the line, 244 versts (162 miles) long, has
+involved enormous <span class="pagenum"><a name="page576" id=
+"page576"></a>[pg 576]</span> expense. In fifty-six miles there are
+thirty-nine tunnels, and thirteen galleries for protection against
+rock-slides. This short section is said to have cost
+&pound;1,170,000. The energy with which the Government pushed on
+this stupendous work during the Russo-Japanese war yields one more
+proof of their determination to secure at all costs the aims which
+they set in view in and after the year 1891<a name=
+"FNanchor486"></a><a href="#Footnote_486">[486]</a>.</p>
+<p>Other parts of the track have also presented great difficulties.
+East of Lake Baikal the line gradually winds its way up to a
+plateau some 3000 feet higher than the lake, and then descends to
+treacherous marsh lands. The district of the Amur bristles with
+obstacles, not the least being the terrible floods that now and
+again (as in 1897) turn the whole valley into a trough of swirling
+waters<a name="FNanchor487"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_487">[487]</a>.</p>
+<p>All these difficulties have been overcome in course of time; but
+there remained the question of the terminus. Up to the year 1894
+the objective had been Vladivostok; but the outbreak of the
+Chino-Japanese War at that time opened up vast possibilities.
+Russia could either side with the islanders and share with them the
+spoils of Northern China, or, posing as the patron of the
+celestials, claim some profitable <i>douceurs</i> as her
+reward.</p>
+<p>She chose the latter alternative, and, in the opinion of some of
+her own writers, wrongly. The war proved the daring, the
+patriotism, and the organising skill of the Japanese to be as
+signal as the sloth and corruptibility of their foes. Then, for the
+first time, the world saw the utter weakness of China--a fact which
+several observers (including Lord Curzon) had vainly striven to
+make clear. Even so, when Chinese generals and armies took to their
+heels at the slightest provocation; when their battleships were
+worsted by Japanese armoured cruisers; when their great stronghold,
+Port Arthur, was stormed with a loss of about 400 killed, the moral
+of it all <span class="pagenum"><a name="page577" id=
+"page577"></a>[pg 577]</span> was hidden from the wise men of the
+West. Patronising things were said of the Japanese as
+conquerors--of the Chinese; but few persons realised that a new
+Power had arisen. It seemed the easiest of undertakings to despoil
+the "venomous dwarfs" of the fruits of their triumph over
+China<a name="FNanchor488"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_488">[488]</a>.</p>
+<p>The chief conditions of the Chino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki
+(April 17, 1895) were the handing over to Japan the island of
+Formosa and the Liaotung Peninsula. The latter was very valuable,
+inasmuch as it contained good ice-free harbours which dominated the
+Yellow Sea and the Gulf of Pechili; and herein must be sought the
+reason for the action of Russia at this crisis. Li Hung Chang, the
+Chinese negotiator, had already been bought over by Russia in an
+important matter<a name="FNanchor489"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_489">[489]</a>, and he early disclosed the secret of the
+terms of peace with Japan. Russia was thus forewarned; and, before
+the treaty was ratified at Pekin, her Government, acting in concert
+with those of France and Germany, intervened with a menacing
+declaration that the cession of the Liaotung Peninsula would give
+to Japan a dangerous predominance in the affairs of China and
+disturb the whole balance of power in the Far East. The Russian
+Note addressed to Japan further stated that such a step would "be a
+perpetual obstacle to the permanent peace of the Far East." Had
+Russia alone been concerned, possibly the Japanese would have
+referred matters to the sword; but, when face to face with a
+combination of three Powers, they decided on May 4 to give way, and
+to restore the Liaotung Peninsula to China<a name=
+"FNanchor490"></a><a href="#Footnote_490">[490]</a>.</p>
+<p>The reasons for the conduct of France and Germany in this matter
+are not fully known. We may safely conjecture that the Republic
+acted conjointly with the Czar in order to clinch the new
+Franco-Russian alliance, not from any special regard for China, a
+Power with which she had frequently come into <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page578" id="page578"></a>[pg 578]</span>
+collision respecting Tonquin. As for Germany, she was then entering
+on new colonial undertakings; and she doubtless saw in the joint
+intervention of 1895 a means of sterilising the Franco-Russian
+alliance, so far as she herself was concerned, and possibly of
+gaining Russia's assent to the future German expansion in the Far
+East.</p>
+<p>Here, of course, we are reduced to conjecture, but the
+conjecture is consonant with later developments. In any case, the
+new Triple Alliance was a temporary and artificial union, which
+prompt and united action on the part of Great Britain and the
+United States would have speedily dissolved. Unfortunately these
+Powers were engrossed in other concerns, and took no action to
+redress the balance which the self-constituted champions of
+political stability were upsetting to their own advantage.</p>
+<p>The effects of their action were diverse, and for the most part
+unforeseen. In the first place, Japan, far from being discouraged
+by this rebuff, set to work to perfect her army and navy, and with
+a thoroughness which Roon and Moltke would have envied.
+Organisation, weapons, drill, marksmanship (the last a weak point
+in the war with China) were improved; heavy ironclads were ordered,
+chiefly in British yards, and, when procured, were handled with
+wonderful efficiency. Few, if any, of those "disasters" which are
+so common in the British navy in time of peace, occurred in the new
+Japanese navy--a fact which redounds equally to the credit of the
+British instructors and to the pupils themselves.</p>
+<p>The surprising developments of the Far Eastern Question were
+soon to bring the new armaments to a terrible test. Japan and the
+whole world believed that the Liaotung Peninsula was made over to
+China in perpetuity. It soon appeared that the Czar and his
+Ministers had other views, and that, having used France and Germany
+for the purpose of warning off Japan, they were preparing schemes
+for the subjection of Manchuria to Russian influence. Or rather, it
+is probable that Li Hung Chang had already arranged the following
+terms with Russia as the price of her intervention on behalf of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page579" id="page579"></a>[pg
+579]</span> China. The needs of the Court of Pekin and the itching
+palms of its officials proved to be singularly helpful in the
+carrying out of the bargain. China being unequal to the task of
+paying the Japanese war indemnity, Russia undertook to raise a four
+per cent loan of 400,000,000 francs--of course mainly at Paris--in
+order to cover the half of that debt. In return for this favour,
+the Muscovites required the establishment of a Russo-Chinese Bank
+having widespread powers, comprising the receipt of taxes, the
+management of local finances, and the construction of such railway
+and telegraph lines as might be conceded by the Chinese
+authorities.</p>
+<p>This in itself was excellent "brokerage" on the French money, of
+which China was assumed to stand in need. At one stroke Russia
+ended the commercial supremacy of England in China, the result of a
+generation of commercial enterprise conducted on the ordinary
+lines, and substituted her own control, with powers almost equal to
+those of a Viceroy. They enabled her to displace Englishmen from
+various posts in Northern China and to clog the efforts of their
+merchants at every turn. The British Government, we may add, showed
+a singular equanimity in face of this procedure.</p>
+<p>But this was not all. At the close of March 1896, it appeared
+that the gratitude felt by the Chinese Andromeda to the Russian
+Perseus had ripened into a definite union. The two Powers framed a
+secret treaty of alliance which accorded to the northern State the
+right to make use of any harbour in China, and to levy Chinese
+troops in case of a conflict with an Asiatic State. In particular,
+the Court of Pekin granted to its ally the free use of Port Arthur
+in time of peace, or, if the other Powers should object, of
+Kiao-chau. Manchuria was thrown open to Russian officers for
+purposes of survey, etc., and it was agreed that on the completion
+of the trans-Siberian railway, a line should be constructed
+southwards to Talienwan or some other place, under the joint
+control of the two Powers<a name="FNanchor491"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_491">[491]</a>.</p>
+<p>The Treaty marks the end of the first stage in the Russification
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page580" id="page580"></a>[pg
+580]</span> of Manchuria. Another stage was soon covered, and, as
+it seems, by the adroitness of Count Cassini, Russian Minister at
+Pekin. The details, and even the existence, of the Cassini
+Convention of September 30, 1896, have been disputed; but there are
+good grounds for accepting the following account as correct. Russia
+received permission to construct her line to Vladivostok across
+Manchuria, thereby saving the northern detour down the difficult
+valley of the Amur; also to build her own line to Mukden, if China
+found herself unable to do so; and the line southwards to Talienwan
+and Port Arthur was to be made on Russian plans. Further, all these
+new lines built by Russia might be guarded by her troops,
+presumably to protect them from natives who objected to the
+inventions of the "foreign devils." As regards naval affairs, the
+Czar's Government gained the right to "lease" from China the
+harbour of Kiao-chau for fifteen years; and, in case of war, to
+make use of Port Arthur. The last clauses granted to Russian
+subjects the right to acquire mining rights in Manchuria, and to
+the Czar's officers to drill the levies of that province in the
+European style, should China desire to reorganise them.<a name=
+"FNanchor492"></a><a href="#Footnote_492">[492]</a></p>
+<p>But the protector had not reaped the full reward of his timely
+intervention in the spring of 1895. He had not yet gained complete
+control of an ice-free harbour. In fact, the prize of Kiao-chau,
+nearly within reach, now seemed to be snatched from his grasp by
+Kaiser Wilhelm. The details are well known. Two German subjects who
+were Roman Catholic missionaries in the Shan-tung province were
+barbarously murdered by Chinese ruffians on November 1, 1897. The
+outrage was of a flagrant kind, but in ordinary times would have
+been condoned by the punishment of the offenders and a fine payable
+by the district. But the occasion was far from ordinary. A German
+squadron therefore steamed into Kiao-chau and occupied that
+important harbour.</p>
+<p>There is reason to think that Germany had long been <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page581" id="page581"></a>[pg 581]</span>
+desirous of gaining a foothold in that rich province. The present
+writer has been assured by a geological expert, Professor
+Skertchley, who made the first map of the district for the Chinese
+authorities, that that map was urgently demanded by the German
+envoy at Pekin about this time. In any case, the mineral wealth of
+the district undoubtedly influenced the course of events. In
+accordance with a revised version of the old Christian saying: "The
+blood of the martyrs is the seed of--the Empire," the Emperor
+William despatched his brother Prince Henry--the "mailed fist" of
+Germany--with a squadron to strengthen the Imperial grip on
+Kiao-chau. The Prince did so without opposition either from China
+or Russia. Finally, on March 5, 1898, the Court of Pekin confirmed
+to Germany the lease of that port and of the neighbouring parts of
+the province of Shan-tung.</p>
+<p>The whole affair caused a great stir, because it seemed to
+prelude a partition of China, and that, too, in spite of the
+well-meaning declarations of the Salisbury Cabinet in favour,
+first, of the integrity of that Empire, and, when that was
+untenable, of the policy of the "open door" for traders of all
+nations. Most significant of all was the conduct of Russia. As far
+as is known, she made no protest against the action of Germany in a
+district to which she herself had laid claim. It is reasonable, on
+more grounds than one, to suppose that the two Powers had come to
+some understanding, Russia conceding Kiao-chau to the Kaiser,
+provided that she herself gained Port Arthur and its peninsula.
+Obviously she could not have faced the ill-will of Japan, Great
+Britain, Germany, and the United States--all more or less concerned
+at her rapid strides southward; and it is at least highly probable
+that she bought off Germany by waiving her own claims to Kiao-chau,
+provided that she gained an ideal terminus for her Siberian line,
+and a great naval and military stronghold. It is also worth noting
+that the first German troops were landed at Kiao-chau on November
+17, 1897, while three Russian warships steamed into Port Arthur on
+December 18; and that the German <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page582" id="page582"></a>[pg 582]</span> "lease" was signed at
+Pekin on March 5, 1898; while that accorded to Russia bears date
+March 27<a name="FNanchor493"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_493">[493]</a>.</p>
+<p>If we accept the naive suggestion of the Russian author,
+"Vladimir," the occupation of Kiao-chau by Germany "forced" Russia
+"to claim some equivalent compensation." Or possibly the cession of
+Port Arthur was another of the items in Li Hung Chang's bargain
+with Russia. In any case, the Russian warships entered Port Arthur,
+at first as if for a temporary stay; when two British warships
+repaired thither the Czar's Government requested them to leave--a
+request with which the Salisbury Cabinet complied in an
+inexplicably craven manner (January 1898). Rather more pressure was
+needed on the somnolent mandarins of Pekin; but, under the threat
+of war with Russia if the lease of the Liao-tung Peninsula were not
+granted by March 27, it was signed on that day. She thereby gained
+control of that peninsula for twenty-five years, a period which
+might be extended "by mutual agreement." The control of all the
+land forces was vested in a Russian official; and China undertook
+not to quarter troops to the north without the consent of the Czar.
+Port Arthur was reserved to the use of Russian and Chinese ships of
+war; and Russia gained the right to erect fortifications.</p>
+<p>The British Government, which had hitherto sought to uphold the
+integrity of China, thereupon sought to "save its face" by leasing
+Wei-hai-wei (July 1). An excuse for the weakness of the Cabinet in
+Chinese affairs has been put forward, namely, that the issue of the
+Sudan campaign was still in doubt, and that the efforts of French
+and Russians to reach the Upper Nile from the French Congo and
+Southern Abyssinia compelled Ministers to concentrate their
+attention on that great enterprise. But this excuse will not bear
+examination. Strength at any one point of an Empire is not
+increased by discreditable surrenders at other points. No great
+statesman would have proceeded on such an assumption.</p>
+<p>Obviously the balance of gain in these shabby transactions
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page583" id="page583"></a>[pg
+583]</span> in the north of China was enormously in favour of
+Russia. She now pushed on her railway southwards with all possible
+energy. It soon appeared that Port Arthur could not remain an open
+port, and it was closed to merchant ships. Then Talienwan was named
+in place of it, but under restrictions which made the place of
+little value to foreign merchants. Thereafter the new port of Dalny
+was set apart for purposes of commerce, but the efficacy of the
+arrangements there has never been tested. In the intentions of the
+Czar, Port Arthur was to become the Gibraltar of the Far East,
+while Dalny, as the commercial terminus of the trans-Siberian line,
+figured as the Cadiz of the new age of exploration and commerce
+opening out to the gaze of Russia.</p>
+<p>That motives of genuine philanthropy played their part in the
+Far Eastern policy of the Czar may readily be granted; but the
+enthusiasts who acclaimed him as the world's peacemaker at the
+Hague Congress (May 1899) were somewhat troubled by the thought
+that he had compelled China to cede to his enormous Empire the very
+peninsula, the acquisition of which by little Japan had been
+declared to be an unwarrantable disturbance of the balance of power
+in the Far East.</p>
+<p>These events caused a considerable sensation in Great Britain,
+even in a generation which had become inured to "graceful
+concessions." In truth, the part played by her in the Far East has
+been a sorry one; and if there be eager partisans who still
+maintain that British Imperialism is an unscrupulously aggressive
+force, ever on the search for new enemies to fight and new lands to
+annex, a course of study in the Blue Books dealing with Chinese
+affairs in 1897-99 may with some confidence be prescribed as a
+sedative and lowering diet. It seems probable that the weakness of
+British diplomacy induced the belief at St. Petersburg that no
+opposition of any account would be forthcoming. With France acting
+as the complaisant treasurer, and Germany acquiescent, the Czar and
+his advisers might well believe that they had reached the goal of
+their efforts, "the domination of the Pacific."</p>
+<p>With the Boxer movement of the years 1899-1900 we have
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page584" id="page584"></a>[pg
+584]</span> here no concern. Considered pathologically, it was only
+the spasmodic protest of a body which the dissectors believed to be
+ready for operation. To assign it solely to dislike of European
+missionaries argues sheer inability to grasp the laws of evidence.
+Missionaries had been working in China for several decades, and
+were no more disliked than other "foreign devils." The rising was
+clearly due to indignation at the rapacity of the European Powers.
+We may note that it gave the Russian governor of the town of
+Blagovestchensk an opportunity of cowing the Chinese of northern
+Manchuria by slaying and drowning some 4500 persons at that place
+(July 1900). Thereafter Russia invaded Manchuria and claimed the
+unlimited rights due to actual conquest. On April 8, 1902, she
+promised to withdraw; but her persistent neglect to fulfil that
+promise (cemented by treaty with China) led to the outbreak of
+hostilities with Japan<a name="FNanchor494"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_494">[494]</a>.</p>
+<p>We can now see that Russia, since the accession of Nicholas II.,
+has committed two great faults in the Far East. She has overreached
+herself; and she has overlooked one very important factor in the
+problem--Japan. The subjects of the Mikado quivered with rage at
+the insult implied by the seizure of Port Arthur; but, with the
+instinct of a people at once proud and practical, they thrust down
+the flames of resentment and turned them into a mighty motive
+force. Their preparations for war, steady and methodical before,
+now gained redoubled energy; and the whole nation thrilled secretly
+but irresistibly to one cherished aim, the recovery of Port Arthur.
+How great is the power of chivalry and patriotism the world has now
+seen; but it is apt to forget that love of life and fear of death
+are feelings alike primal and inalienable among the Japanese as
+among other peoples. The inspiring force which nerved some 40,000
+men gladly to lay down their lives on the hills around Port Arthur
+was the feeling that they were helping to hurl back in the face of
+Russia the gauntlet which she had there so insolently flung down as
+to an inferior race.</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_483"></a><a href="#FNanchor483">[483]</a>
+Vladimir, <i>Russia en the Pacific.</i></p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_484"></a><a href="#FNanchor484">[484]</a>
+Popowski, <i>The Rival Powers in Central Asia</i>, p. 13.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_485"></a><a href="#FNanchor485">[485]</a>
+<i>The Russo-Japanese Conflict</i>, by K. Asakawa (1904), p. 67;
+<i>Europe and the Far East</i>, by Sir R. K. Douglas (1904), p.
+191.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_486"></a><a href="#FNanchor486">[486]</a> See
+an article by Mr. J.M. Price in <i>The Fortnightly Review</i> for
+May 1905.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_487"></a><a href="#FNanchor487">[487]</a>
+<i>Russia on the Pacific</i>, by "Vladimir"; <i>The Awakening of
+the East</i>, by P. Leroy-Beaulieu, chaps, ix. x.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_488"></a><a href="#FNanchor488">[488]</a> See
+the evidence adduced by V. Chirol, <i>The Far Eastern Question,</i>
+chap, xi., as to the <i>ultimately</i> aggressive designs of China
+on Japan.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_489"></a><a href="#FNanchor489">[489]</a>
+<i>Manchu and Muscovite,</i> by B.L. Putnam Weale, p. 60.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_490"></a><a href="#FNanchor490">[490]</a>
+Asakawa, <i>op. cit.</i> p, 76.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_491"></a><a href="#FNanchor491">[491]</a>
+Asakawa, pp. 85-87.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_492"></a><a href="#FNanchor492">[492]</a>
+Asakawa, chap. ii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_493"></a><a href="#FNanchor493">[493]</a>
+Asakawa, p. 110, note.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_494"></a><a href="#FNanchor494">[494]</a>
+Asakawa, chap. vii.; and for the Korean Question, chaps. xvi,
+xvii</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page585" id="page585"></a>[pg
+585]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+<h3>THE NEW GROUPING OF THE GREAT POWERS<a name=
+"FNanchor495"></a><a href="#Footnote_495">[495]</a></h3>
+<h3>(1900-1907)</h3>
+<p>When I penned the words at the end of Chapter XX. it seemed
+probable that the mad race in armaments must lead either to war or
+to revolution. In these three supplementary chapters I seek to
+trace very briefly the causes that have led to war, in other words,
+to the ascendancy (perhaps temporary) of the national principle
+over the social, and international tendencies of the age.</p>
+<p>The collapse of the international and pacifist movement may be
+ascribed to various causes. The Franco-German and Russo-Turkish
+Wars left behind rankling hatreds which rendered it very difficult
+for nations to disarm; and, after the decline of those resentments,
+there arose others as the outcome of the Greco-Turkish War and the
+Boer War. Further, the conflict between Japan and Russia so far
+weakened the latter as to leave Germany and Austria almost supreme
+in Europe; and, while in France and the United Kingdom the social
+movement has made considerable progress, Germany and Austria have
+remained in what may be termed the national stage of development,
+which offers many advantages over the international for purposes of
+war. Then again in the Central Empires parliamentary institutions
+have not been successful, tending on the whole to accentuate the
+disputes between the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page586" id=
+"page586"></a>[pg 586]</span> dominant and the subject races. The
+same is partially true of Russia, and far more so of the Balkan
+States. Consequently, in Central and Eastern Europe the national
+idea has become militant and aggressive; while Great Britain, the
+Netherlands, and to some extent France, have sought as far as
+possible to concentrate their efforts upon social legislation,
+arming only in self-defence. In this contrast lay one of the
+dangers of the situation.</p>
+<p>Nationality caused the movements and wars of 1848-77.
+Thereafter, that principle seemed to wane. But it revived in
+redoubled force among the Balkan peoples owing partly to the brutal
+oppressions of the Sublime Porte; and the cognate idea, aiming,
+however, not at liberty but conquest, became increasingly popular
+with the German people after the accession of Kaiser William II.
+The sequel is only too well known. Civilisation has been
+overwhelmed by a recrudescence of nationalism, and the wealthiest
+age which the world has seen is a victim to the perfection and
+potency of its machinery. A recovery of the old belief in the
+solidarity of mankind and a conviction of the futility of all
+efforts for domination by any one people, are the first requisites
+towards the recovery of conditions that make for peace and
+good-will.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, recent history has had to concern itself largely with
+groupings or alliances, which have in the main resulted from
+ambition, distrust, or fear. As has already been shown, the
+Partition of Africa was arranged without a resort to arms; but
+after that appropriation of the lands of the dark races, the white
+peoples in the south came into collision late in 1899.</p>
+<p>Much has been written as to the causes of the Boer War; but the
+secret encouragements which those brave farmers received from
+Germany are still only partly known. Even in 1894 Mr. Merriman
+warned Sir Edward Grey of the danger arising from "the steady way
+in which Kr&uuml;ger was Teutonising the Transvaal." Germany
+undoubtedly stiffened the neck of Kr&uuml;ger and the reactionary
+Boers in resisting the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page587" id=
+"page587"></a>[pg 587]</span> much-needed reforms. It is
+significant that the Kaiser's telegram to Kr&uuml;ger after the
+defeat of Jameson's raiders was sent only a few days before his
+declaration, January 18, 1896, that Germany must now pursue a
+World-Policy, as she did by browbeating Japan in the Far East.
+These developments had been rendered possible by the opening of the
+Kiel-North Sea Canal in 1895, an achievement which doubled the
+naval power of Germany. Thenceforth she pushed on construction,
+especially by the Navy Bill of 1898. Reliance on her largely
+accounts for the obstinate resistance of the Boers to the just
+demands of England and the Outlanders in 1899. A German historian,
+Count Reventlow, has said that "a British South Africa could not
+but thwart all German interests"; and the anti-British fury
+prevalent in Germany in and after 1899 augured ill for the
+preservation of peace in the twentieth century so soon as her new
+fleet was ready<a name="FNanchor496"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_496">[496]</a>.</p>
+<p>The results of the Boer War were as follows. For the time Great
+Britain lost very seriously in prestige and in material resources.
+Amidst the successes gained by the Boers, the intervention of one
+or more European States in their favour seemed highly probable; and
+it is almost certain that Kr&uuml;ger relied on such an event. He
+paid visits to some of the chief European capitals, and was
+received by the French President (November 1900), but not by Kaiser
+William. The personality and aims of the Kaiser will concern us
+later; but we may notice here that in that year he had special
+reasons for avoiding a rupture with the United Kingdom. The
+Franco-Russian Alliance gave him pause, especially since June 1898,
+when a resolute man, Delcass&eacute;, became Foreign Minister at
+Paris and showed less complaisance to Germany than had of late been
+the case<a name="FNanchor497"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_497">[497]</a>. Besides, in 1898, the Kaiser had
+concluded with Great Britain a secret arrangement on <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page588" id="page588"></a>[pg 588]</span>
+African affairs, and early in 1900 acquired sole control of Samoa
+instead of the joint Anglo-American-German protectorate, which had
+produced friction. Finally, in the summer of 1900, the Boxer Rising
+in China opened up grave problems which demanded the co-operation
+of Germany and the United Kingdom.</p>
+<p>It has often been stated that the Kaiser desired to form a
+Coalition against Great Britain during the Boer War; and it is
+fairly certain that he sounded Russia and France with a view to
+joint diplomatic efforts to stop the war on the plea of humanity,
+and that, after the failure of this device, he secretly informed
+the British Government of the danger which he claimed to have
+averted<a name="FNanchor498"></a><a href="#Footnote_498">[498]</a>.
+His actions reflected the impulsiveness and impetuosity which have
+often puzzled his subjects and alarmed his neighbours; but it seems
+likely that his aims were limited either to squeezing the British
+at the time of their difficulties, or to finding means of breaking
+up the Franco-Russian alliance. His energetic fishing in troubled
+waters caused much alarm; but it is improbable that he desired war
+with Great Britain until his new navy was ready for sea. The German
+Chancellor, Prince von B&uuml;low, has since written as follows:
+"We gave England no cause to thwart us in the building of our
+fleet: . . . we never came into actual conflict with the Dual
+Alliance, which would have hindered us in the gradual acquisition
+of a navy<a name="FNanchor499"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_499">[499]</a>." This, doubtless, was the governing
+motive in German policy, to refrain from any action that would
+involve war, to seize every opportunity for pushing forward German
+claims, and, above all, to utilise the prevalent irritation at the
+helplessness of Germany at sea as a means of overcoming the still
+formidable opposition of German Liberals to the ever-increasing
+naval expenditure.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page589" id="page589"></a>[pg
+589]</span>
+<p>In order to discourage the futile anti-British diatribes in the
+German Press, B&uuml;low declared in the Reichstag that in no
+quarter was there an intention to intervene against England. There
+are grounds for questioning the sincerity of this utterance; for
+the Russian statesman, Muraviev, certainly desired to intervene, as
+did influential groups at Petrograd, Berlin, and Paris. In any
+case, the danger to Great Britain was acute enough to evoke help
+from all parts of the Empire, and implant the conviction of the
+need of closer union and of maintaining naval supremacy. The risks
+of the years 1899-1902 also revealed the very grave danger of what
+had been termed "splendid isolation," and aroused a desire for a
+friendly understanding with one or more Powers as occasion might
+offer.</p>
+<p>The war produced similar impressions on the German people.
+Dislike of England, always acute in Prussia, especially in
+reactionary circles, now spread to all parts and all classes of the
+nation; and the Kaiser, as we have seen, made skilful use of it to
+further his naval policy. His speech at Hamburg on October 18,
+1899, on the need of a great navy, marked the beginning of a new
+era, destined to end in war with Great Britain. Admiral von
+Tirpitz, in introducing the Amending Bill of February 1900,
+demanded the doubling of the navy in a scheme working automatically
+until 1920. The Socialist leader, Bebel, opposed it as certain to
+strain relations with England, a war with whom would be the
+greatest possible misfortune for the German people. On the other
+hand, the Chancellor, Prince Hohenlohe, voiced the opinions of the
+governing class and the German Navy League when he declared that
+the demand for a great navy originated in the ambition of the
+German nation to become a World-Power<a name=
+"FNanchor500"></a><a href="#Footnote_500">[500]</a>. The Bill
+passed; and thenceforth the United Kingdom and Germany became
+declared rivals at sea. Fortunately for the islanders, the new
+German Navy could not be ready for action before the year 1904;
+otherwise, a very dangerous situation would have arisen. Even as it
+was, British statesmen were induced to <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page590" id="page590"></a>[pg 590]</span> secure
+an ally and to end the Boer War as quickly as possible.</p>
+<p>During that conflict the tension between England and the Dual
+Alliance (France and Russia) was at times so acute as to render it
+doubtful whether we should not gravitate towards the rival Triple
+Alliance. The problem was the most important that had confronted
+British statesmen during a century. Kinship and tradition seemed to
+beckon us towards Germany and Austria. On the other hand, democracy
+and social intercourse told in favour of the French connection.
+Further, now that Russia was retiring more and more from her Balkan
+and Central Asian projects in order to concentrate on the Far East,
+she ceased to threaten India and the Levant. Moreover, the
+personality of the Tsar, Nicholas II., was reassuring, while that
+of Kaiser Wilhelm II. aroused distrust and alarm.</p>
+<p>In truth, the inordinate vanity, restless energy, and flamboyant
+Chauvinism of the Kaiser placed great difficulties in the way of an
+Anglo-German Entente. An article believed to have been inspired by
+Bismarck contained the following reference to the Kaiser's
+megalomania: "It causes the deepest anxiety in Germany, because it
+is feared that it may lead to some irreparable piece of want of
+tact, and thence to war. For it is argued that, vanity being at the
+bottom of it all, and the Emperor finding he is unable to gain the
+premature immortality he thirsts for by peaceful prodigies, his
+restless nervous irritability may degenerate into recklessness, and
+then his megalomania may blind him to the dangers he and, above
+all, poor blood-soaken Germany may encounter on the
+war-path<a name="FNanchor501"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_501">[501]</a>." Kaiser William possesses more power of
+self-restraint than this passage indicates; for, though he has
+spread a warlike enthusiasm through his people, he has also
+restrained it until there arrived a fit opportunity for its
+exercise. It arrived when Germany and her Allies were far better
+prepared, both by land and sea, than the Powers whom she expected
+to meet in arms.</p>
+<p>His attitude towards Great Britain has varied surprisingly.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page591" id="page591"></a>[pg
+591]</span> During several years he figured as her friend. But it
+is difficult to believe that a man of his keen intellect did not
+discern ahead the collision which his policy must involve. His many
+claims to acquire maritime supremacy and a World-Empire were either
+mere bluff or a portentous challenge. Only the good-natured,
+easy-going British race could so long have clung to the former
+explanation, thereby leaving the most diffuse, vulnerable, and
+ill-armed Empire that has ever existed face to face with an Empire
+that is compact, well-fortified, and armed to the teeth. In this
+contrast lies one of the main causes of the present war.</p>
+<p>Moreover, the internal difficulties of France and the
+preoccupation of Russia in the Far East gave to Kaiser William a
+disquietingly easy victory in the affairs of the Near East. His
+visit to Constantinople and Palestine in 1898 inaugurated a
+Levantine policy destined to have momentous results. On the
+Bosphorus he scrupled not to clasp the hand of Sultan Abdul Hamid
+II., still reeking with the blood of the Christians of Armenia and
+Macedonia. At Jerusalem he figured as the Christian knight-errant,
+but at Damascus as the champion of the Moslem creed. After laying a
+wreath on the tomb of Saladin, he made a speech which revealed his
+plan of utilising the fighting power of Islam. He said: "The three
+hundred million Mohammedans who live scattered over the globe may
+be assured of this, that the German Emperor will be their friend at
+all times." Taken in conjunction with his pro-Turkish policy, this
+implied that the Triple Alliance was to be buttressed by the most
+terrible fighting force in the East<a name=
+"FNanchor502"></a><a href="#Footnote_502">[502]</a>.</p>
+<p>During the tour he did profitable business with the Sublime
+Porte by gaining a promise for the construction of a railway to
+Bagdad and the Persian Gulf, under German auspices. The scheme took
+practical form in 1902-3, when the Sultan <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page592" id="page592"></a>[pg 592]</span>
+granted a firman for the construction of that line together with
+very extensive proprietary rights along its course. Russian
+opposition had been bought off in 1900 by the adoption of a more
+southerly course than was originally designed; and the Kaiser now
+sought to get the financial support of England to the enterprise.
+British public opinion, however, was invincibly sceptical, and with
+justice, for the scheme would have ruined our valuable trade on the
+River Tigris and the Persian Gulf; while the proposed prolongation
+of the line to Koweit on the gulf would enable Germany, Austria,
+and Turkey to threaten India.</p>
+<p>By the year 1903 Austria was so far mistress of the Balkans as
+to render it possible for her and Germany in the near future to
+send troops through Constantinople and Asia Minor by the railways
+which they controlled. Accordingly, affairs in the Near East became
+increasingly strained; and, when Russia was involved in the
+Japanese War, no Great Power could effectively oppose Austro-German
+policy in that quarter. The influence of France and Britain,
+formerly paramount both politically and commercially in the Turkish
+Empire, declined, while that of Germany became supreme. Every
+consideration of prudence therefore prompted the Governments of
+London and Paris to come to a close understanding, in order to make
+headway against the aggressive designs of the two Kaisers in the
+Balkans and Asia Minor. Looking forward, we may note that the
+military collapse of Russia in 1904-5 enabled the Central Powers to
+push on in the Levant. Germany fastened her grip on the Turkish
+Government, exploited the resources of Asia Minor, and posed as the
+champion of the Moslem creed. Early in the twentieth century that
+creed became aggressive, mainly under the impulse of Sultan Abdul
+Hamid II., who varied his propagandism by massacre with appeals to
+the faithful to look to him as their one hope in this world.
+Constantinople and Cairo were the centres of this Pan-Islamic
+movement, which, aiming at the closer union of all Moslems in Asia,
+Europe, and Africa around the Sultan, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page593" id="page593"></a>[pg 593]</span>
+threatened to embarrass Great Britain, France, and Russia. The
+Kaiser, seeing in this revival of Islam an effective force, took
+steps to encourage the "true believers" and strengthen the Sultan
+by the construction of a branch line of the Bagdad system running
+southwards through Aleppo and the district east of the Dead Sea
+towards Mecca. Purporting to be a means for lessening the hardships
+of pilgrims, it really enabled the Sultan to threaten the Suez
+Canal and Egypt.</p>
+<p>The aggressive character of these schemes explains why France,
+Great Britain, and Russia began to draw together for mutual
+support. The three Powers felt the threat implied in an
+organisation of the Moslem world under the aegis of the Kaiser. He,
+a diligent student of Napoleon's career, was evidently seeking to
+dominate the Near East, and to enrol on his side the force of
+Moslem enthusiasm which the Corsican had forfeited by his attack on
+Egypt in 1798. The construction of German railways in the Levant
+and the domination of the Balkan Peninsula by Austria would place
+in the hands of the Germanic Powers the keys of the Orient, which
+have always been the keys to World-Empire.</p>
+<p>Closely connected with these far-reaching schemes was the swift
+growth of the Pan-German movement. It sought to group the Germanic
+and cognate peoples in some form of political union--a programme
+which threatened to absorb Holland, Belgium, the greater part of
+Switzerland, the Baltic Provinces of Russia, the Western portions
+of the Hapsburg dominions, and, possibly, the Scandinavian peoples.
+The resulting State or Federation of States would thus extend from
+Ostend to Reval, from Amsterdam (or Bergen) to Trieste.</p>
+<p>Even those Germans who did not espouse these ambitious schemes
+became deeply imbued with the expansively patriotic ideas
+championed by the Kaiser. So far back as 1890 he ordered their
+enforcement in the universities and schools<a name=
+"FNanchor503"></a><a href="#Footnote_503">[503]</a>. Thenceforth
+professors and teachers vied in their eagerness <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page594" id="page594"></a>[pg 594]</span> to
+extol the greatness of Germany and the civilising mission of the
+Hohenzollerns, whose exploits in the future were to eclipse all the
+achievements of Frederick the Great and William I. Moreover, the
+new German Navy was acclaimed as a necessary means to the triumph
+of German <i>Kultur</i> throughout the world. Other nations were
+depicted as slothful, selfish, decadent; and the decline in the
+prestige of Great Britain, France, and Russia to some extent
+justified these pretensions. The Tsar, by turning away from the
+Balkans towards Korea, deadened Slav aspirations. For the time
+Pan-Slavism seemed moribund. Pan-Germanism became a far more
+threatening force.</p>
+<p>Summing up, and including one topic that will soon be dealt
+with, we may conclude as follows: Germany showed that she did not
+want England's friendship, save in so far as it would help her to
+oppose the Monroe Doctrine or supply her with money to finish the
+Bagdad Railway. For reasons that have been explained, she and
+Austria were likely to undermine British interests in the Near
+East; while, on the other hand, the diversion of Russia's
+activities from Central Asia and the Balkans to the Far East,
+lessened the Muscovite menace which had so long determined the
+trend of British policy. Moreover, Russia's ally, France, showed a
+conciliatory spirit. Forgetting the rebuff at Fashoda (see
+<i>ante</i>, pp. 501-6), she aimed at expansion in Morocco. Now,
+Korea and Morocco did not vitally concern us. The Bagdad Railway
+and the Kaiser's court to Pan-Islamism were definite threats to our
+existence as an Empire. Finally, the development of the German Navy
+and the growth of a furiously anti-British propaganda threatened
+the long and vulnerable East Coast of Great Britain.</p>
+<p>A temporary understanding with Germany could have been attained
+if we had acquiesced in her claim for maritime equality and in the
+oriental and colonial enterprises which formed its sequel. But that
+course, by yielding to her undisputed ascendancy in all parts of
+the world, would have <span class="pagenum"><a name="page595" id=
+"page595"></a>[pg 595]</span> led to a policy of partition. Now,
+since 1688, British statesmen have consistently opposed, often by
+force of arms, a policy of partition at the expense of civilised
+nations. Their aim has been to support the weaker European States
+against the stronger and more aggressive, thus assuring a Balance
+of Power which in general has proved to be the chief safeguard of
+peace. In seeking an Entente with France, and subsequently with
+Russia, British policy has followed the course consistent with the
+counsels of moderation and the teachings of experience. We may note
+here that the German historian, Count Reventlow, has pointed out
+that the Berlin Government could not frame any lasting agreement
+with the British; for, sooner or later, they would certainly demand
+the limitation of Germany's colonial aims and of her naval
+development, to neither of which could she consent. The explanation
+is highly significant<a name="FNanchor504"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_504">[504]</a>.</p>
+<p>Nevertheless, at first Great Britain sought to come to a
+friendly understanding with Germany in the Far East, probably with
+a view to preventing the schemes of partition of China which in
+1900 assumed a menacing guise. At that time Russia seemed likely to
+take the lead in those designs. But opposite to the Russian
+stronghold of Port Arthur was the German province of Kiao Chau, in
+which the Kaiser took a deep interest. His resolve to play a
+leading part in Chinese affairs appeared in his speech to the
+German troops sent out in 1900 to assist in quelling the Boxer
+Rising. He ordered them to adopt methods of terrorism like those of
+Attila's Huns, so that "no Chinaman will ever again dare to look
+askance at a German." The orders were ruthlessly obeyed. After the
+capture of Pekin by the Allies (September 1900) there ensued a time
+of wary balancing. Russia and Germany were both suspected of
+designs to cut up China; but they were opposed by Great Britain and
+Japan. This obscure situation was somewhat cleared by the statesmen
+of London and Berlin agreeing to maintain the territorial integrity
+of China and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page596" id=
+"page596"></a>[pg 596]</span> freedom of trade (October 1900). But
+in March 1901 the German Chancellor, Prince von B&uuml;low,
+nullified the agreement by officially announcing that it did not
+apply to, or limit, the expansion of Russia in Manchuria. What
+caused this <i>volte face</i> is not known; but it implied a
+renunciation of the British policy of the <i>status quo</i> in the
+Far East and an official encouragement to Russia to push forward to
+the Pacific Ocean, where she was certain to come into conflict with
+Japan. Such a collision would enfeeble those two Powers; while
+Germany, as <i>tertius gaudens</i> would be free to work her will
+both in Europe and Asia<a name="FNanchor505"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_505">[505]</a>.</p>
+<p>On the other hand, Eckardstein, the German ambassador in London,
+is said to have made proposals of an Anglo-German-Japanese Alliance
+in March-April 1901. If we may trust the work entitled <i>Secret
+Memoirs of Count Hayashi</i> (Japanese ambassador in London) these
+proposals were dangled for some weeks, why, he could never
+understand. Probably Germany was playing a double game; for Hayashi
+believed that she had a secret understanding with Russia on these
+questions. He found that the Salisbury Cabinet welcomed her
+adhesion to the principles of maintaining the territorial integrity
+of China and of freedom of commerce in the Far East<a name=
+"FNanchor506"></a><a href="#Footnote_506">[506]</a>.</p>
+<p>In October 1901 Germany proposed to the United Kingdom that each
+Power should guarantee the possessions of the other in every
+Continent except Asia. Why Asia was excepted is not clear, unless
+Germany wished to give Russia a free hand in that Continent. The
+Berlin Government laid stress on the need of our support in North
+and South America, where its aim of undermining the Monroe Doctrine
+was notorious. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page597" id=
+"page597"></a>[pg 597]</span> The proposed guarantee would also
+have compelled us to assist Germany in any dispute that might arise
+between her and France about Alsace-Lorraine or colonial questions.
+The aim was obvious, to gain the support of the British fleet
+either against the United States or France. A British diplomatist
+of high repute, who visited Berlin, has declared that the German
+Foreign Office made use of garbled and misleading documents to win
+him over to these views<a name="FNanchor507"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_507">[507]</a>. It was in vain. The British Government
+was not to be hoodwinked; and, as soon as it declined these
+compromising proposals, a storm of abuse swept through the German
+Press at the barbarities of British troops in South Africa. That
+incident ended all chance of an understanding, either between the
+two Governments or the two peoples.</p>
+<p>The inclusion of Germany in the Anglo-Japanese compact proving
+to be impossible, the two Island Powers signed a treaty of alliance
+at London on January 30, 1902. It guaranteed the maintenance of the
+<i>status quo</i> in the Far East, and offered armed assistance by
+either signatory in the event of its ally being attacked by more
+than one Power<a name="FNanchor508"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_508">[508]</a>. The alliance ended the isolation of the
+British race, and marked the entry of Japan into the circle of the
+World-Powers. The chief objections to the new departure were its
+novelty, and the likelihood of its embroiling us finally with
+Russia and France or Russia and Germany. These fears were
+groundless; for France and even Russia(!) expressed their
+satisfaction at the treaty. Lord Lansdowne's diplomatic <i>coup</i>
+not only ended the isolation of two Island States, which had been
+severally threatened by powerful rivals; it also safeguarded China;
+and finally, by raising the prestige of Great Britain, it helped to
+hasten the end of the Boer War. During the discussion of their
+future policy by the Boer delegates at <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page598" id="page598"></a>[pg 598]</span>
+Vereeniging on May 30, General Botha admitted that he no longer had
+any hope of intervention from the Continent of Europe; for their
+deputation thither had failed. All the leaders except De Wet
+agreed, and they came to terms with Lords Kitchener and Milner at
+Pretoria on May 31. That the Anglo-Japanese compact ended the last
+hopes of the Boers for intervention can scarcely be doubted.</p>
+<p>Still more significant was the new alliance as a warning to
+Russia not to push too far her enterprises in the Far East. On
+April 12, 1902, she agreed with China to evacuate Manchuria; but
+(as has appeared in Chapter XX.) she finally pressed on, not only
+in Manchuria, but also in Korea, in which the Anglo-Japanese treaty
+recognised that Japan had predominant interests. For this forward
+policy Russia had the general support of the Kaiser, whose aims in
+the Near East were obviously served by the transference thence of
+Russia's activities to the Far East. It is, indeed, probable that
+he and his agents desired to embroil Russia and Japan. Certain it
+is that the Russian people regarded the Russo-Japanese War, which
+began in February 1904, as "The War of the Grand Dukes." The
+Russian troops fought an uphill fight loyally and doggedly, but
+with none of the enthusiasm so conspicuous in the present truly
+national struggle. In Manchuria the mistakes and incapacity of
+their leaders led to an almost unbroken series of defeats, ending
+with the protracted and gigantic contests around Mukden (March
+1-10, 1905). The almost complete destruction of the Russian Baltic
+fleet by Admiral Togo at the Battle of Tsushima (May 27-28) ended
+the last hopes of the Tsar and his ministers; and, fearful of the
+rising discontent in Russia, they accepted the friendly offers of
+the United States for mediation. By the Treaty of Portsmouth (Sept.
+5, 1905) they ceded to Japan the southern half of Saghalien and the
+Peninsula on which stands Port Arthur: they also agreed to evacuate
+South Manchuria and to recognise Korea as within Japan's sphere of
+influence. No war indemnity was paid. Indeed it could not be
+exacted, as Japan occupied no Russian <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page599" id="page599"></a>[pg 599]</span>
+territory which she did not intend to annex. To Russia the material
+results of the war were the loss of some 350,000 men, killed,
+wounded, and prisoners; of two fleets; and of the valuable
+provinces and ice-free harbours for the acquisition of which she
+had constructed the Trans-Siberian Railway. So heavy a blow had not
+been dealt to a Great Power since the fall of Napoleon III.; and
+worse, perhaps, than the material loss was that of prestige in
+accepting defeat at the hands of an Island State, whose people
+fifty years before fought with bows and arrows.</p>
+<p>Japan emerged from the war triumphant, but financially
+exhausted. Accordingly, she was not loath to conclude with Russia,
+on July 30, 1907, a convention which adjusted outstanding questions
+in a friendly manner<a name="FNanchor509"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_509">[509]</a>. The truth about this Russo-Japanese
+<i>rapprochement</i> is, of course, not known; but it may
+reasonably be ascribed in part to the good services of England
+(then about to frame an <i>entente</i> with Russia); and in part to
+the suspicion of the statesmen of Petrograd and Tokio that German
+influences had secretly incited Russia to the policy of reckless
+exploitation in Korea which led to war and disaster.</p>
+<p>The chief results of the Russo-Japanese War were to paralyse
+Russia, thereby emasculating the Dual Alliance and leaving France
+as much exposed to German threats as she was before its conclusion;
+also to exalt the Triple Alliance and enable its members (Germany,
+Austria, and Italy) successively to adopt the forward policy which
+marked the years 1905, 1908, 1911, and 1914. The Russo-Japanese War
+therefore inaugurated a new era in European History. Up to that
+time the Triple Alliance had been a defensive league, except when
+the exuberant impulses of Kaiser William forced it into provocative
+courses; and then the provocations generally stopped at telegrams
+and orations. But in and after 1905 the Triple Alliance forsook the
+watchwords of Bismarck, Andrassy and <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page600" id="page600"></a>[pg 600]</span> Crispi. Expansion at the
+cost of rivals became the dominant aim.</p>
+<p>We must now return to affairs in France which predisposed her to
+come to friendly terms, first with Italy, then with Great Britain.
+Her internal history in the years 1895-1906 turns largely on the
+Dreyfus affair. In 1895, he, a Jewish officer in the French army,
+was accused and convicted of selling military secrets to Germany.
+But suspicions were aroused that he was the victim of anti-Semites
+or the scapegoat of the real offenders; and finally, thanks to the
+championship of Zola, his condemnation was proved to have been due
+to a forgery (July 1906). Meanwhile society had been rent in twain,
+and confidence in the army and in the administration of justice was
+seriously impaired. A furious anti-militarist agitation began,
+which had important consequences. Already in May 1900, the Premier,
+Waldeck-Rousseau, appointed as Minister of War General
+Andr&eacute;, who sympathised with these views and dangerously
+relaxed discipline. The Combes Ministry, which succeeded in June
+1902, embittered the strife between the clerical and anti-clerical
+sections by measures such as the separation of Church and State and
+the expulsion of the Religious Orders. In consequence France was
+almost helpless in the first years of the century, a fact which
+explains her readiness to clasp the hand of England in 1904 and, in
+1905, after the military collapse of Russia in the Far East, to
+give way before the threats of Germany<a name=
+"FNanchor510"></a><a href="#Footnote_510">[510]</a>.</p>
+<p>The weakness of France predisposed Italy to forget the wrong
+done by French statesmen in seizing Tunis twenty years before. That
+wrong (as we saw on pp. 328, 329) drove Italy into the arms of
+Germany and Austria. But now Crispi and other pro-German authors of
+the Triple Alliance had passed away; and that compact, founded on
+passing passion against France rather than community of interest or
+sentiment <span class="pagenum"><a name="page601" id=
+"page601"></a>[pg 601]</span> with the Central Empires, had
+sensibly weakened. Time after time Italian Ministers complained of
+disregard of their interests by the men of Berlin and
+Vienna<a name="FNanchor511"></a><a href="#Footnote_511">[511]</a>,
+whereas in 1898 France accorded to Italy a favourable commercial
+treaty. Victor Emmanuel III. paid his first state visit to
+Petrograd, not to Berlin. In December 1900 France and Italy came to
+an understanding respecting Tripoli and Morocco; and in May 1902
+the able French Minister, Delcass&eacute;, then intent on his
+Morocco enterprise, prepared the way for it by a convention with
+Italy, which provided that France and Italy should thenceforth
+peaceably adjust their differences, mainly arising out of
+Mediterranean questions. Seeing that Italy and Austria were at
+variance respecting Albania, the Franco-Italian Entente weakened
+the Triple Alliance; and the old hatred of Austria appeared in the
+shouts of "Viva Trento," "Viva Trieste," often raised in front of
+the Austrian embassy at Rome. Despite the renewal of the Triple
+Alliance in 1907 and 1912, the adhesion of Italy was open to
+question, unless the Allies became the object of indisputable
+aggression.</p>
+<p>Still more important was the Anglo-French Entente of 1904. That
+the Anglophobe outbursts of the Parisian Press and populace in 1902
+should so speedily give way to a friendly understanding was the
+work, partly of the friends of peace in both lands, partly of the
+personal tact and charm of Edward VII. as manifested during his
+visit to Paris in May 1903, but mainly of the French and British
+Governments. In October 1903 they agreed by treaty to refer to
+arbitration before the Hague Tribunal disputes that might arise
+between them. This agreement (one of the greatest triumphs of the
+principle of arbitration<a name="FNanchor512"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_512">[512]</a>) naturally led to more cordial relations.
+During the visit of President Loubet and M. Delcass&eacute; to
+London in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page602" id=
+"page602"></a>[pg 602]</span> July 1903, the latter discussed with
+Lord Lansdowne the questions that hindered a settlement, namely,
+our occupation of Egypt (a rankling sore in France ever since
+1882); French claims to dominate Morocco both commercially and
+politically, "the French shore" of Newfoundland, the New Hebrides,
+the French convict-station in New Caledonia, as also the
+territorial integrity of Siam, championed by England, threatened by
+France. A more complex set of problems never confronted statesmen.
+Yet a solution was found simply because both of them were anxious
+for a solution. Their anxiety is intelligible in view of the German
+activities just noticed, and of the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese
+War in February 1904. True, France was allied to Russia only for
+European affairs; and our alliance with Japan referred mainly to
+the Far East. Still, there was danger of a collision, which both
+Paris and London wished to avert. It was averted by the skill and
+tact of Lord Lansdowne and M. Delcass&eacute;, whose conversations
+of July 1903 pointed the way to the definitive compact of April 8,
+1904.</p>
+<p>Stated briefly, France gave way on most of the questions named
+above, except one, that is, Morocco. There she attained her end,
+the recognition by us of her paramount claims. For this she
+conceded most of the points in dispute between the two countries in
+Egypt, though she maintains her Law School, hospitals, mission
+schools, and a few other institutions. Thenceforth England had
+opposed to her in that land only German influence and the Egyptian
+nationalists and Pan-Islam fanatics whom it sought to encourage.
+France also renounced some of her fishing rights in Newfoundland in
+return for gains of territory on the River Gambia and near Lake
+Chad. In return for these concessions she secured from us the
+recognition of her claim to watch over the tranquillity of Morocco,
+together with an offer of assistance for all "the administrative,
+economic, financial, and military reforms which it needs." True,
+she promised not to change the political condition of Morocco, as
+also to maintain equality of <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page603" id="page603"></a>[pg 603]</span> commercial privileges.
+Great Britain gave a similar undertaking for Egypt<a name=
+"FNanchor513"></a><a href="#Footnote_513">[513]</a>.</p>
+<p>The Anglo-French Entente of 1904 is the most important event of
+modern diplomacy. Together with the preceding treaty of
+arbitration, it removed all likelihood of war between two nations
+which used to be "natural enemies"; and the fact that it in no
+respect menaced Germany appeared in the communication of its terms
+to the German ambassador in Paris shortly before its signature. On
+April 12 B&uuml;low declared to the Reichstag his approval of the
+compact as likely to end disputes in several quarters, besides
+assuring peace and order in Morocco, where Germany's interests were
+purely commercial. Two days later, in reply to the Pan-German
+leader, Count Reventlow, he said he would not embark Germany on any
+enterprise in Morocco. These statements were reasonable and just.
+The Entente lessened the friction between Great Britain and Russia
+during untoward incidents of the Russo-Japanese War. After the
+conclusion of the Entente the Russian ambassador in Paris publicly
+stated the approval of his Government, and, quoting the proverb,
+"The friends of our friends are <i>our</i> friends," added with a
+truly prophetic touch--"Who knows whether that will not be true?"
+The agreement also served to strengthen the position of France at a
+time when her internal crisis and the first Russian defeats in the
+Far East threatened to place her almost at the mercy of Germany. A
+dangerous situation would have arisen if France had not recently
+gained the friendship both of England and Italy.</p>
+<p>Finally, the Anglo-French Entente induced Italy to reconsider
+her position. Her dependence on us for coal and iron, together with
+the vulnerability of her numerous coast-towns, rendered a breach
+with the two Powers of the Entente highly <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page604" id="page604"></a>[pg 604]</span>
+undesirable, while on sentimental grounds she could scarcely take
+up the gauntlet for her former oppressor, Austria, against two
+nations which had assisted in her liberation. As we shall see, she
+declared at the Conference of Algeciras her complete solidarity
+with Great Britain.</p>
+<p>Even so, Germany held a commanding position owing to the
+completion of the first part of her naval programme, which placed
+her far ahead of France at sea. For reasons that have been set
+forth, the military and naval weakness of France was so marked as
+greatly to encourage German Chauvinists; but the Entente made them
+pause, especially when France agreed to concentrate her chief naval
+strength in the Mediterranean, while that of Great Britain was
+concentrated in the English Channel and the North Sea. It is
+certain that the Entente with France never amounted to an alliance;
+that was made perfectly clear; but it was unlikely that the British
+Government would tolerate an unprovoked attack upon the Republic,
+or look idly on while the Pan-Germans refashioned Europe and the
+other Continents. Besides, Great Britain was strong at sea. In 1905
+she possessed thirty-five battleships mounting 12-in. guns; while
+the eighteen German battleships carried only 11-in. and 9.4-in.
+guns. Further, in 1905-7 we began and finished the first
+<i>Dreadnought</i>; and the adoption of that type for the
+battle-fleet of the near future lessened the value of the
+Kiel-North Sea Canal, which was too small to receive
+<i>Dreadnoughts</i>. In these considerations may perhaps be found
+the reason for the caution of Germany at a time which was otherwise
+very favourable for aggressive action.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile Kaiser William, pressed on by the colonials, had
+intervened in a highly sensational manner in the Morocco Affair,
+thus emphasising his earlier assertion that nothing important must
+take place in any part of the world without the participation of
+Germany. Her commerce in Morocco was unimportant compared with that
+of France and Great Britain; but the position of that land,
+commanding the routes to the Mediterranean and the South Atlantic,
+was such as to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page605" id=
+"page605"></a>[pg 605]</span> interest all naval Powers, while the
+State that gained a foothold in Morocco would have a share in the
+Moslem questions then arising to prime importance. As we have seen,
+the Kaiser had in 1898 declared his resolve to befriend all Moslem
+peoples; and his Chancellor, B&uuml;low, has asserted that
+Germany's pro-Islam policy compelled her to intervene in the
+Moroccan Question. The German ambassador at Constantinople, Baron
+von Marschall, said that, if after that promise Germany sacrificed
+Morocco, she would at once lose her position in Turkey, and
+therefore all the advantages and prospects that she had painfully
+acquired by the labour of many years<a name=
+"FNanchor514"></a><a href="#Footnote_514">[514]</a>.</p>
+<p>On the other hand, the feuds of the Moorish tribes vitally
+concerned France because they led to many raids into her Algerian
+lands which she could not merely repel. In 1901 she adopted a more
+active policy, that of "pacific penetration," and, by successive
+compacts with Italy, Great Britain, and Spain, secured a kind of
+guardianship over Moroccan affairs. This policy, however, aroused
+deep resentment at Berlin. Though Germany was pacifically
+penetrating Turkey and Asia Minor, she grudged France her success
+in Morocco, not for commercial reasons but for others, closely
+connected with high diplomacy and world-policy. As the German
+historian, Rachfahl, declared, Morocco was to be a test of
+strength<a name="FNanchor515"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_515">[515]</a>.</p>
+<p>In one respect Germany had cause for complaint. On October 6,
+1904, France signed a Convention with Spain in terms that were
+suspiciously vague. They were interpreted by secret articles which
+defined the spheres of French and Spanish influence in case the
+rule of the Sultan of Morocco ceased. It does not appear that
+Germany was aware of these secret articles at the time of her
+intervention<a name="FNanchor516"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_516">[516]</a>. But their existence, even perhaps their
+general tenor, was surmised. The effective causes of her
+intervention were, firstly, her <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page606" id="page606"></a>[pg 606]</span> resolve to be consulted
+in every matter of importance, and, secondly, the disaster that
+befel the Russians at Mukden early in March 1905. At the end of the
+month, the Kaiser landed at Tangier and announced in strident terms
+that he came to visit the Sultan as an independent sovereign. This
+challenge to French claims produced an acute crisis.
+Delcass&eacute; desired to persevere with pacific penetration; but
+in the debate of April 19 the deficiencies of the French military
+system were admitted with startling frankness; and a threat from
+Berlin revealed the intention of humiliating France, and, if
+possible, of severing the Anglo-French Entente. Here, indeed, is
+the inner significance of the crisis. Germany had lately declared
+her indifference to all but commercial questions in Morocco. But
+she now made use of the collapse of Russia to seek to end the
+Anglo-French connection which she had recently declared to be
+harmless. The aim obviously was to sow discord between those two
+Powers. In this she failed. Lord Lansdowne and Delcass&eacute; lent
+each other firm support, so much so that the Paris <i>Temps</i>
+accused us of pushing France on in a dangerous affair which did not
+vitally concern her. The charge was not only unjust but ungenerous;
+for Germany had worked so as to induce England to throw over France
+or make France throw over England. The two Governments discerned
+the snare, and evaded it by holding firmly together<a name=
+"FNanchor517"></a><a href="#Footnote_517">[517]</a>.</p>
+<p>The chief difficulty of the situation was that it committed
+France to two gigantic tasks, that of pacifying Morocco and also of
+standing up to the Kaiser in Europe. In this respect the ground for
+the conflict was all in his favour; and both he and she knew it.
+Consequently, a compromise was desirable; and the Kaiser himself,
+in insisting on the holding of a <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page607" id="page607"></a>[pg 607]</span> Conference, built a
+golden bridge over which France might draw back, certainly with
+honour, probably with success; for in the diplomatic sphere she was
+at least as strong as he. When, therefore, Delcass&eacute; objected
+to the Conference, his colleagues accepted his resignation (June
+6). His fall was hailed at Berlin as a humiliation for France.
+Nevertheless, her complaisance earned general sympathy, while the
+bullying tone of German diplomacy, continued during the Conference
+held at Algeciras, hardened the opposition of nearly all the
+Powers, including the United States. Especially noteworthy was the
+declaration of Italy that her interests were identical with those
+of England. German proposals were supported by Austria alone, who
+therefore gained from the Kaiser the doubtful compliment of having
+played the part of "a brilliant second" to Germany.</p>
+<p>It is needless to describe at length the Act of Algeciras (April
+7, 1906). It established a police and a State Bank in Morocco,
+suppressed smuggling and the illicit trade in arms, reformed the
+taxes, and set on foot public works. Of course, little resulted
+from all this; but the position of France was tacitly regularised,
+and she was left free to proceed with pacific penetration. "We are
+neither victors nor vanquished," said B&uuml;low in reviewing the
+Act; and M. Rouvier echoed the statement for France. In reality,
+Germany had suffered a check. Her chief aim was to sever the
+Anglo-French Entente, and she failed. She sought to rally Italy to
+her side, and she failed; for Italy now proclaimed her accord with
+France on Mediterranean questions. Finally the <i>North German
+Gazette</i> paid a tribute to the loyal and peaceable aims of
+French policy; while other less official German papers deplored the
+mistakes of their Government, which had emphasised the isolation of
+Germany<a name="FNanchor518"></a><a href="#Footnote_518">[518]</a>.
+This is indeed the outstanding result of the Conference. The
+threatening tone of Berlin had disgusted everybody. Above all it
+brought to more cordial relations the former rivals, Great Britain
+and Russia.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page608" id="page608"></a>[pg
+608]</span>
+<p>As has already appeared, the friction between Great Britain and
+Russia quickly disappeared after the Japanese War. During the
+Congress of Algeciras the former rivals worked cordially together
+to check the expansive policy of Germany, in which now lay the
+chief cause of political unrest. In fact, the Kaiser's Turcophile
+policy acquired a new significance owing to the spread of a
+Pan-Islamic propaganda which sent thrills of fanaticism through
+North-West Africa, Egypt, and Central Asia. At St. Helena Napoleon
+often declared Islam to be vastly superior to Christianity as a
+fighting creed; and his imitator now seemed about to marshal it
+against France, Russia, and Great Britain. Naturally, the three
+Powers drew together for mutual support. Further, Germany by
+herself was very powerful, the portentous growth of her
+manufactures and commerce endowing her with wealth which she spent
+lavishly on her army and navy. In May 1906 the Reichstag agreed to
+a new Navy Bill for further construction which was estimated to
+raise the total annual expenditure on the navy from
+&pound;11,671,000 in 1905 to &pound;16,492,000 in 1917; this too
+though Bebel had warned the House that the agitation of the_ German
+Navy League had for its object a war with England.</p>
+<p>In 1906 and 1907 Edward VII. paid visits to William II., who
+returned the compliment in November 1907. But this interchange of
+courtesies could not end the distrust caused by Germany's increase
+of armaments. The peace-loving Administration of
+Campbell-Bannerman, installed in power by the General Election of
+1906, sought to come to an understanding with Berlin, especially at
+the second Hague Conference of 1907, with respect to a limitation
+of armaments. But Germany rejected all such proposals<a name=
+"FNanchor519"></a><a href="#Footnote_519">[519]</a>. The
+hopelessness of framing a friendly arrangement with her threw us
+into the arms of Russia; and on August 31, 1907, Anglo-Russian
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page609" id="page609"></a>[pg
+609]</span> Conventions were signed defining in a friendly way the
+interests of the two Powers in Persia, Afghanistan, and Thibet.
+True, the interests of Persian reformers were sacrificed by this
+bargain; but it must be viewed, firstly, in the light of the Bagdad
+Railway scheme, which threatened soon to bring Germany to the gates
+of Persia and endanger the position of both Powers in that
+land<a name="FNanchor520"></a><a href="#Footnote_520">[520]</a>;
+secondly, in that of the general situation, in which Germany and
+Austria were rapidly forcing their way to a complete military
+ascendancy and refused to consider any limitation of armaments. The
+detailed reasons which prompted the Anglo-Russian Entente are of
+course unknown. But the fact that the most democratic of all
+British Administrations should come to terms with the Russian
+autocracy is the most convincing proof of the very real danger
+which both States discerned in the aggressive conduct of the
+Central Powers. The Triple Alliance, designed by Bismarck solely to
+safeguard peace, became, in the hands of William II., a menace to
+his neighbours, and led them to form tentative and conditional
+arrangements for defence in case of attack. This is all that was
+meant by the Triple Entente. It formed a loose pendant to the Dual
+Alliance between France and Russia, which <i>was</i> binding and
+solid. With those Powers the United Kingdom formed separate
+agreements; but they were not alliances; they were friendly
+understandings on certain specific objects, and in no respect
+threatened the Triple Alliance so long as it remained
+non-aggressive<a name="FNanchor521"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_521">[521]</a>.</p>
+<p>One question remains. When was it that the friction between
+Great Britain and Germany first became acute? Some have dated it
+from the Morocco Affair of 1905-6. The assertion is inconsistent
+with the facts of the case. Long before that crisis the policy of
+the Kaiser tended increasingly towards a collision. His patronage
+of the Boers early in 1896 <span class="pagenum"><a name="page610"
+id="page610"></a>[pg 610]</span> was a threatening sign; still more
+so was his World-Policy, proclaimed repeatedly in the following
+years, when the appointments of Tirpitz and B&uuml;low showed that
+the threats of capturing the trident, and so forth, were not mere
+bravado. The outbreak of the Boer War in 1899, followed quickly by
+the Kaiser's speech at Hamburg, and the adoption of accelerated
+naval construction in 1900, brought about serious tension, which
+was not relaxed by British complaisance respecting Samoa. The
+coquetting with the Sultan, the definite initiation of the Bagdad
+scheme (1902-3), and the completion of the first part of Germany's
+new naval programme in 1904 account for the Anglo-French Entente of
+that year. The chief significance of the Morocco Affair of 1905-6
+lay in the Kaiser's design of severing that Entente. His failure,
+which was still further emphasised during the Algeciras Conference,
+proved that a policy which relies on menace and ever-increasing
+armaments arouses increasing distrust and leads the menaced States
+to form defensive arrangements. That is also the outstanding lesson
+of the career of Napoleon I. Nevertheless, the Kaiser, like the
+Corsican, persisted in forceful procedure, until Army Bills, Navy
+Bills, and the rejection of pacific proposals at the Hague, led to
+their natural result, the Anglo-Russian agreement of 1907. This
+event should have made him question the wisdom of relying on armed
+force and threatening procedure. The Entente between the Tsar and
+the Campbell-Bannerman Administration formed a tacit but decisive
+censure of the policy of Potsdam; for it realised the fears which
+had haunted Bismarck like a nightmare<a name=
+"FNanchor522"></a><a href="#Footnote_522">[522]</a>. Its
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page611" id="page611"></a>[pg
+611]</span> effect on William II. was to induce him to increase his
+military and naval preparations, to reject all proposals for the
+substitution of arbitration in place of the reign of force, and
+thereby to enclose the policy of the Great Powers in a vicious
+circle from which the only escape was a general reduction of
+armaments or war.</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_495"></a><a href="#FNanchor495">[495]</a>
+Written in May-July 1915.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_496"></a><a href="#FNanchor496">[496]</a> E,
+Lewin, <i>The Germans and Africa</i>, p. xvii. and chaps. v.-xiii.;
+J. H. Rose, <i>The Origins of the War</i>, Lectures I.-III.;
+Reventlow, <i>Deutschlands ausw&auml;rtige Politik</i>, p. 71.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_497"></a><a href="#FNanchor497">[497]</a>
+Delcass&eacute; was Foreign Minister in five Administrations until
+1905.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_498"></a><a href="#FNanchor498">[498]</a> Sir
+V. Chirol, <i>Quarterly Review</i>, Oct. 1914.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_499"></a><a href="#FNanchor499">[499]</a>
+B&uuml;low, <i>Imperial Germany</i>, pp. 98-9 (Eng. transl.);
+Rachfahl, <i>Kaiser und Reich</i> (p. 163), states that, as in
+1900-1, the German fleet, even along with those of France and
+Russia, was no match for the British fleet, Germany necessarily
+remained neutral. See, too, Hurd and Castle, <i>German Sea
+Power</i>, chap. v.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_500"></a><a href="#FNanchor500">[500]</a>
+Prince Hohenlohe, <i>Memoirs</i>, vol. ii. p. 480.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_501"></a><a href="#FNanchor501">[501]</a>
+<i>Contemporary Review</i>, April 1892.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_502"></a><a href="#FNanchor502">[502]</a> See
+Hurgronje, <i>The Holy War; made in Germany</i>, pp. 27-39, 68-78;
+also G. E. Holt, <i>Morocco the Piquant</i> (1914), who says (chap,
+xiv.): "Islam is waiting for war in Europe. . . . A war between any
+two European Powers, in my opinion, would mean the uprising of
+Islam."</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_503"></a><a href="#FNanchor503">[503]</a>
+Latterly, the catchword, <i>England ist der Feind</i> ("England is
+the enemy"), has been taught in very many schools.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_504"></a><a href="#FNanchor504">[504]</a>
+Reventlow, <i>Deutschlands ausw&auml;rtige Politik</i>, pp. 178-9;
+<i>Mr. Chamberlain's Speeches</i>, vol. ii. p. 68.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_505"></a><a href="#FNanchor505">[505]</a> In
+September 1895 the Tsar thanked Prince Hohenlohe for supporting his
+Far East policy, and said he was weary of Armenia and distrustful
+of England; so, too, in September 1896, when Russo-German relations
+were also excellent (<i>Hohenlohe Mems</i>., Eng. edit., ii. 463,
+470).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_506"></a><a href="#FNanchor506">[506]</a>
+<i>Secret Memoirs of Count Hayashi</i> (London, 1915), pp. 97-131.
+There are suspicious features about this book. I refer to it with
+all reserve. Reventlow (<i>Deutschlands ausw&auml;rtige
+Politik</i>, p. 178) thinks Eckardstein may have been playing his
+own game--an improbable suggestion.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_507"></a><a href="#FNanchor507">[507]</a>
+<i>Quarterly Review</i>, Oct. 1914, pp. 426-9.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_508"></a><a href="#FNanchor508">[508]</a>
+<i>E.g.</i>, if the Russians alone attacked Japan we were not bound
+to help her: but if the French also attacked Japan we must help
+her. The aim clearly was to prevent Japan being overborne as in
+1895 (see p. 577). The treaty was signed for five years, but was
+renewed on August 12, 1905, and in July 1911.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_509"></a><a href="#FNanchor509">[509]</a>
+Hayashi, <i>op. cit.</i> ch. viii. and App. D. On June 10, 1907,
+Japan concluded with France an agreement, for which see Hayashi,
+ch. vi. and App. C.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_510"></a><a href="#FNanchor510">[510]</a> Even
+in 1908 reckless strikes occurred, and there were no fewer than
+11,223 cases of insubordination in the army. Professor Gustave
+Herv&eacute; left the University in order to direct a paper, <i>La
+Guerre sociale</i>, which advocated a war of classes.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_511"></a><a href="#FNanchor511">[511]</a>
+Crispi, <i>Memoirs</i> (Eng. edit.) vol. ii. pp. 166, 169, 472;
+vol. iii. pp. 330, 347.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_512"></a><a href="#FNanchor512">[512]</a> Sir
+Thomas Barclay, <i>Anglo-French Reminiscences</i> (1876-1906), ch.
+xviii-xxii; M. Hanotaux (<i>La Politique de l'&Eacute;quilibre</i>,
+p. 415) claims that Mr. Chamberlain was chiefly instrumental in
+starting the negotiations leading to the Entente with France.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_513"></a><a href="#FNanchor513">[513]</a> A.
+Tardieu, <i>Questions diplomatiques de l'ann&eacute;e 1904,</i>
+Appendix II. England in 1914 annulled the promise respecting Egypt
+because of the declaration of war by Turkey and the assistance
+afforded her by the Khedive, Abbas II. (see Earl of Cromer,
+<i>Modern Egypt and Abbas II</i>.), On February 15, 1904, France
+settled by treaty with Siam frontier disputes of long standing.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_514"></a><a href="#FNanchor514">[514]</a>
+B&uuml;low, <i>Imperial Germany</i>, p. 83.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_515"></a><a href="#FNanchor515">[515]</a>
+Tardieu, <i>Questions diplomatiques de 1904</i>, pp. 56-102;
+Rachfahl, <i>Kaiser und Reich</i>, pp. 230-241; E.D. Morel,
+<i>Morocco in Diplomacy</i>, chaps, i-xii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_516"></a><a href="#FNanchor516">[516]</a>
+Rachfahl, pp. 235, 238. For details, <i>see</i> Morel, chap.
+ii.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_517"></a><a href="#FNanchor517">[517]</a> In
+an interview with M. Tardieu at Baden-Baden on October 4, 1905,
+B&uuml;low said that Germany intervened in Morocco because of her
+interests there, and also to protest against this new attempt to
+isolate her (Tardieu, <i>Questions actuelles de Politique
+&eacute;trang&egrave;re</i>, p. 87). If so, her conduct increased
+that isolation. Probably the second Anglo-Japanese Treaty of August
+12, 1905 (published on September 27), was due to fear of German
+aggression. France and Germany came to a preliminary agreement as
+to Morocco on September 28.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_518"></a><a href="#FNanchor518">[518]</a>
+Tardieu, <i>La Conference d'Algeciras</i>, pp. 410-20.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_519"></a><a href="#FNanchor519">[519]</a> See
+the cynical section in Reventlow, <i>op. cit.</i> (pp. 280-8),
+entitled "Utopien und Intrigen im Haag." For Austria's efforts to
+prevent the Anglo-Russian Entente, see H.W. Steed, <i>The Hamburg
+Monarchy</i>, p. 230.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_520"></a><a href="#FNanchor520">[520]</a>
+Rachfahl (p. 307) admits this, but accuses England of covert
+opposition everywhere, even at the Hague Conference.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_521"></a><a href="#FNanchor521">[521]</a> On
+December 24, 1908, the Russian Foreign Minister, Izvolsky, assured
+the Duma that "no open or secret agreements directed against German
+interests existed between Russia and England."</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_522"></a><a href="#FNanchor522">[522]</a>
+<i>Bismarck, his Reflections and Recollections</i>, vol. ii. pp.
+252, 289. There are grounds for thinking that William II. has been
+pushed on to a bellicose policy by the Navy, Colonial, and
+Pan-German Leagues. In 1908 he seems to have sought to pause; but
+powerful influences (as also at the time of the crises of July 1911
+and 1914) propelled him. See an article in the <i>Revue de
+Paris</i> of April 15, 1913, "Guillaume II et les pangermanistes."
+In my narrative I speak of the Kaiser as equivalent to the German
+Government; for he is absolute and his Ministers are responsible
+solely to him.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page612" id="page612"></a>[pg
+612]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+<h3>TEUTON <i>versus</i> SLAV (1908-13)</h3>
+<blockquote>"To tell the truth, the Slav seems to us a born
+slave."--TREITSCHKE, June 1876.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>On October 7, 1908, Austria-Hungary exploded a political
+bomb-shell by declaring her resolve to annex Bosnia-Herzegovina.
+Since the Treaty of Berlin of 1878, she had provisionally occupied
+and administered those provinces as mandatory of Europe (see p.
+238). But now, without consulting Europe, she appropriated her
+charge. On the other hand, she consented to withdraw from the
+Sanjak of Novi-Bazar which she had occupied by virtue of a secret
+agreement with Russia of July 1878. Even so, her annexation of a
+great province caused a sharp crisis for the following reasons: (1)
+It violated the international law of Europe without any excuse
+whatever. (2) It exasperated Servia, which hoped ultimately to
+possess Bosnia, a land peopled by her kindred and necessary to her
+expansion seawards. (3) It no less deeply offended the Young Turks,
+who were resolved to revivify the Turkish people and assert their
+authority over all parts of the Ottoman dominions. (4) It came at
+the same time as the assumption by Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria of
+the title of Tsar of the Bulgarians. This change of title, which
+implied a prospect of sovereignty over the Bulgars of Macedonia,
+had been arranged during a recent visit to Buda-Pest, and
+foreshadowed the supremacy of Austrian influence not only in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page613" id="page613"></a>[pg
+613]</span> new kingdom of Bulgaria but eventually in the Bulgar
+districts of Macedonia<a name="FNanchor523"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_523">[523]</a>.</p>
+<p>Thus, Austria's action constituted a serious challenge to the
+Powers in general, especially to Russia, Servia, and to regenerated
+Turkey<a name="FNanchor524"></a><a href="#Footnote_524">[524]</a>.
+So daring a <i>coup</i> had not been dealt by Austria since 1848,
+when Francis Joseph ascended the throne; it is believed that he
+desired to have the provinces as a jubilee gift, a set off to the
+loss of Lombardy and Venetia in 1859 and 1866. Certainly Austria
+had carried out great improvements in Bosnia; but an occupier who
+improves a farm does not gain the right to possess it except by
+agreement with others who have joint claims. Moreover, the Young
+Turks, in power since July 1908, boasted their ability to civilise
+Bosnia and all parts of their Empire. Servia also longed to include
+it in the large Servo-Croat kingdom of the future.</p>
+<p>The Bosnian Question sprang out of a conflict of racial claims,
+which two masterful men, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand and the
+Austrian Foreign Minister, Aehrenthal, were resolved to decide in
+favour of Austria. The Archduke disliked, and was disliked by, the
+Germans and Magyars on account of his pro-Slav tendencies. In 1900
+he contracted with a Slav lady, the Countess Chotek, a morganatic
+marriage, which brought him into strained relations with the
+Emperor and Court. A silent, resolute man, he determined to lessen
+German and Magyar influence in the Empire by favouring the law for
+universal suffrage (1906), and by the appointment as Foreign
+Minister of Aehrenthal, who harboured ambitiously expansive
+schemes. The Archduke also furthered a policy known as Trialism,
+that of federalising the Dual Monarchy by constituting the Slav
+provinces as the third of its component groups. The annexation of
+Bosnia would serve to advance this programme by depressing the
+hitherto dominant <span class="pagenum"><a name="page614" id=
+"page614"></a>[pg 614]</span> races, the Germans and Magyars,
+besides rescuing the monarchy from the position of "brilliant
+second" to Germany. Kaiser William was taken aback by this bold
+stroke, especially as it wounded Turkey; but he soon saw the
+advantage of having a vigorous rather than a passive Ally; and, in
+a visit which he paid to the Archduke in November 1908, their
+intercourse, which had hitherto been coldly courteous, ripened into
+friendship, which became enthusiastic admiration when the Archduke
+advocated the building of Austrian <i>Dreadnoughts</i>.</p>
+<p>The annexation of Bosnia was a defiance to Europe, because, at
+the Conference of the Powers held at London in 1871, they all
+(Austria included) solemnly agreed not to depart from their treaty
+engagements without a previous understanding with the
+co-signatories. Austria's conduct in 1908, therefore, dealt a
+severe blow to the regime of international law. But it was
+especially resented by the Russians, because for ages they had
+lavished blood and treasure in effecting the liberation of the
+Balkan peoples. Besides, in 1897, the Tsar had framed an agreement
+with the Court of Vienna for the purpose of exercising conjointly
+some measure of control over Balkan affairs; and he then vetoed
+Austria's suggestion for the acquisition of Bosnia. In 1903, when
+the two Empires drew up the "February" and "M&uuml;rzsteg"
+Programmes for more effectually dealing with the racial disputes in
+Macedonia, the Hapsburg Court did not renew the suggestion about
+Bosnia, yet in 1908 Austria annexed that province. Obviously, she
+would not have thus defied the public law of Europe and Russian,
+Servian, and Turkish interests, but for the recent humiliation of
+Russia in the Far East, which explains both the dramatic
+intervention of the Kaiser at Tangier against Russia's ally,
+France, and the sudden apparition of Austria as an aggressive
+Power. In his speech to the Austro-Hungarian Delegations Aehrenthal
+declared that he intended to continue "an active foreign policy,"
+which would enable Austria-Hungary to "occupy to the full her place
+in the world." She had to act because otherwise "affairs might have
+developed against her."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page615" id="page615"></a>[pg
+615]</span>
+<p>Thus the Eastern Question once more became a matter of acute
+controversy. The Austro-Russian agreements of 1897 and 1903 had
+huddled up and cloaked over those racial and religious disputes, so
+that there was little chance of a general war arising out of them.
+But since 1908 the Eastern Question has threatened to produce a
+general conflict unless Austria moderated her pretensions. She did
+not do so; for, as we have seen, Germany favoured them in order to
+assure uninterrupted communications between Central Europe and her
+Bagdad Railway. Already Hapsburg influence was supreme at
+Bukharest, Sofia, and in Macedonian affairs. If it could dominate
+Servia (anti-Austrian since the accession of King Peter in 1903)
+the whole of the Peninsula would be subject to Austro-German
+control. True, the influence of Germany at Constantinople at first
+suffered a shock from the Young Turk Revolution of July 1908; and
+those eager nationalists deeply resented the annexation of Bosnia,
+which they ascribed to the Austro-German alliance. The men of
+Berlin, however, so far from furthering that act, disapproved of it
+as endangering their control of Turkey and exploitation of its
+resources. In fact, Germany's task in inducing her prospective
+vassals, the Turks, to submit to spoliation at the hands of her
+ally, Austria, was exceedingly difficult; and in the tension thus
+created, the third partner of the Triple Alliance, Italy, very
+nearly parted company, from disgust at Austrian encroachments in a
+quarter where she cherished aspirations. As we have seen, Victor
+Emmanuel III., early in his reign, favoured friendly relations with
+Russia; and these ripened quickly during the "Annexation Crisis" of
+1908-9, as both Powers desired to maintain the <i>status quo</i>
+against Austria<a name="FNanchor525"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_525">[525]</a>. On December 24, 1908, the Russian
+Foreign Minister, Izvolsky, declared that, with that aim in view,
+he was acting in close concert with France, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page616" id="page616"></a>[pg 616]</span> Great
+Britain, and Italy. He urged Bulgaria, Servia, and Montenegro to
+hold closely together for the defence of their common interests:
+"Our aim must be to bring them together and to combine them with
+Turkey in a common ideal of defence of their national and economic
+development." A cordial union between the Slav States and Turkey
+now seems a fantastic notion; but it was possible then, under
+pressure of the Austro-German menace, which the Young Turks were
+actively resisting.</p>
+<p>During the early part of 1909 a general war seemed imminent; for
+Slavonic feeling was violently excited in Russia and Servia. But,
+hostilities being impossible in winter, passions had time to cool.
+It soon became evident that those States could not make head
+against Austria and Germany. Moreover, the Franco-Russian alliance
+did not bind France to act with Russia unless the latter were
+definitely attacked; and France was weakened by the widespread
+strikes of 1907-8 and the vehement anti-militarist agitation
+already described. Further, Italy was distracted by the earthquake
+at Messina, and armed intervention was not to be expected from the
+Campbell-Bannerman Ministry. Bulgaria and Roumania were
+pro-Austrian. Turkey alone could not hope to reconquer Bosnia, and
+a Turco-Serb-Russian league was beyond the range of practical
+politics. These material considerations decided the issue of
+events. Towards the close of March, Kaiser William, the hitherto
+silent backer of Austria, ended the crisis by sending to his
+ambassador at Petrograd an autograph letter, the effect of which
+upon the Tsar was decisive. Russia gave way, and dissociated
+herself from France, England, and Italy. In consideration of an
+indemnity of &pound;2,200,000 from Austria, Turkey recognised the
+annexation. Consequently no Conference of the Powers met even to
+register the <i>fait accompli</i> in Bosnia. The Germanic Empires
+had coerced Russia and Servia, despoiled Turkey, and imposed their
+will on Europe. Kaiser William characteristically asserted that it
+was his apparition "in shining armour" by the side of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page617" id="page617"></a>[pg 617]</span>
+Austria which decided the issue of events. Equally decisive,
+perhaps, was Germany's formidable shipbuilding in 1908-9, namely,
+four <i>Dreadnoughts</i> to England's two, a fact which explains
+this statement of B&uuml;low: "When at last, during the Bosnian
+crisis, the sky of international politics cleared, when German
+power on the Continent burst its encompassing bonds, we had already
+got beyond the stage of preparation in the construction of our
+fleet<a name="FNanchor526"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_526">[526]</a>."</p>
+<p>The crisis of 1908-9 revealed in a startling manner the weakness
+of international law in a case where the stronger States were
+determined to have their way. It therefore tended to discourage the
+peace propaganda and the social movement in Great Britain and
+France. The increased speed of German naval construction alarmed
+the British people, who demanded precautionary measures<a name=
+"FNanchor527"></a><a href="#Footnote_527">[527]</a>. France and
+Russia also improved their armaments, for it was clear that
+Austria, as well as Germany, intended to pursue an active foreign
+policy which would inflict other rebuffs on neighbours who were
+unprepared. Further, the Triple Entente had proved far too weak for
+the occasion. True, France and England loyally supported Russia in
+a matter which chiefly concerned her and Servia, and her sudden
+retreat before the Kaiser's menace left them in the lurch.
+Consequently, the relations between the Western Powers and Russia
+were decidedly cool during the years 1909-10, especially in and
+after November 1910, when the Tsar met Kaiser William at Potsdam,
+and framed an agreement, both as to their general relations and the
+railways then under construction towards Persia. On the other hand,
+the rapid advance of Germany and Austria alarmed Italy, who, in
+order to safeguard her interests in the Balkans (especially
+Albania), came to an understanding with Russia for the support of
+their claims. The details are not known, neither are the agreements
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page618" id="page618"></a>[pg
+618]</span> of Austria with Bulgaria and Roumania, though it seems
+probable that they were framed with the two kings rather than with
+the Governments of Sofia and Bukharest. Those sovereigns were
+German princes, and the events of 1908-9 naturally attracted them
+towards the Central Powers.</p>
+<p>In 1909-10 France and England also lost ground in Turkey. There
+the Young Turks, who seized power in July 1908, were overthrown in
+April 1909, when Abdul Hamid II. was deposed. He was succeeded by
+his weakly complaisant brother, Mohammed V. This change, however,
+did not promote the cause of reform. The Turkish Parliament became
+a bear-garden, and the reformers the tools of reaction. In the four
+years 1908-12 there were seven Ministries and countless ministerial
+crises, and the Young Turks, copying the forms and killing the
+spirit of English Liberalism, soon became the most intolerant
+oppressors of their non-Moslem subjects. In administrative matters
+they acted on the old Turkish proverb--"The Sultan's treasure is a
+sea, and he who does not draw from it is a pig." Germany found
+means to satisfy these dominating and acquisitive instincts, and
+thus regained power at the Sublime Porte. The Ottoman Empire
+therefore remained the despair of patriotic reformers, a
+hunting-ground for Teutonic <i>concessionnaires</i>, a Hell for its
+Christian subjects, and the chief storm-centre of Europe<a name=
+"FNanchor528"></a><a href="#Footnote_528">[528]</a>.</p>
+<p>The death of King Edward VII. on May 6, 1910, was a misfortune
+for the cause of peace. His tact and discernment had on several
+occasions allayed animosity and paved the way for friendly
+understandings. True, the German Press sought to represent those
+efforts as directed towards the "encircling" <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page619" id="page619"></a>[pg 619]</span>
+(<i>Einkreisung</i>) of Germany. But here we may note that (1) King
+Edward never transgressed the constitutional usage, which
+prescribed that no important agreement be arrived at apart from the
+responsible Ministers of the Crown<a name=
+"FNanchor529"></a><a href="#Footnote_529">[529]</a>. (2) The
+agreements with Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and Portugal (in
+1903-4) were for the purposes of arbitration. (3) The alliance with
+Japan and the Ententes with France and Russia were designed to end
+the perilous state of isolation which existed at the time of his
+accession. (4) At that time Germany was allied to Austria, Italy,
+and (probably) Roumania, not to speak of her secret arrangements
+with Turkey. She had no right to complain of the ending of our
+isolation. (5) The marriage of King Alfonso of Spain with Princess
+Ena of Battenberg (May 1906), was a love-match, and was not the
+result of King Edward's efforts to detach Spain from Germany. It
+had no political significance. (6) The Kaiser's sister was Crown
+Princess (now Queen) of Greece; the King of Roumania was a
+Hohenzollern; and the King of Bulgaria and the Prince Consort of
+Holland were German Princes. (7) On several occasions King Edward
+testified his friendship with Germany, notably during his visit to
+Berlin in February 1909, which Germans admit to have helped on the
+friendly Franco-German agreement of that month on Morocco; also in
+his letter of January 1910, on the occasion of the Kaiser's
+birthday, when he expressed the hope that the United Kingdom and
+Germany might always work together for the maintenance of
+peace<a name="FNanchor530"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_530">[530]</a>.</p>
+<p>The chief danger to public tranquillity arises from the vigorous
+expansion of some peoples and the decay of others. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page620" id="page620"></a>[pg 620]</span> Nearly
+all the great nations of Europe are expansive; but on their fringe
+lie other peoples, notably the Turks, Persians, Koreans, and the
+peoples of North Africa, who are in a state of decline or
+semi-anarchy. In such a state of things friction is inevitable and
+war difficult to avoid, unless in the councils of the nations
+goodwill and generosity prevail over the suspicion and greed which
+are too often the dominant motives. Scarcely was the
+Bosnian-Turkish crisis over before Morocco once more became a
+danger to the peace of the world.</p>
+<p>There the anarchy continued, with results that strained the
+relations between France and Germany. Nevertheless, on February 8,
+1909 (probably owing to the friendly offices of Great
+Britain<a name="FNanchor531"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_531">[531]</a>), the two rivals came to an agreement
+that France should respect the independence of Morocco and not
+oppose German trade in that quarter, while Germany declared that
+her sole interests there were commercial, and that she would not
+oppose "the special political interests of France in that
+country<a name="FNanchor532"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_532">[532]</a>." But, as trade depended on the
+maintenance of order, this vague compact involved difficulties.
+Clearly, if disorders continued, the task of France would be
+onerous and relatively unprofitable, for she would be working
+largely for the benefit of British and German traders. Indeed, the
+new Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, admitted to the French
+ambassador, Jules Cambon, that thenceforth Morocco was a fruit
+destined to fall into the lap of France; only she must humour
+public opinion in Germany. Unfortunately, the "Consortium," for
+joint commercial enterprises of French and Germans in Morocco and
+the French Congo, broke down on points of detail; and this produced
+a very sore feeling in Germany in the spring of 1911. Further, as
+the Moorish rebels pushed their raids up to the very gates of Fez,
+French troops in those same months proceeded to march to that
+capital (April 1911). The Kaiser saw in that move, and a
+corresponding advance of Spanish troops in the North, a design to
+partition Morocco. Failing to secure what he <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page621" id="page621"></a>[pg 621]</span>
+considered satisfactory assurances, he decided to send to Agadir a
+corvette, the <i>Panther</i> (July 1, 1911), replaced by a cruiser,
+the <i>Berlin</i>.</p>
+<p>Behind him were ambitious parties which sought to compass
+world-predominance for Germany. The Pan-German, Colonial, and Navy
+Leagues had gained enormous influence since 1905, when they induced
+the Kaiser to visit Tangiers; and early in 1911 they issued
+pamphlets urging the annexation of part of Morocco. The chief,
+termed <i>West-Marokko deutsch</i>, was inspired by the
+Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Kiderlen-W&auml;chter, who
+thereafter urged officially that the Government must take into
+account public opinion--which he himself had manipulated.</p>
+<p>Again, as at Tangiers in 1905, Germany's procedure was
+needlessly provocative if, as the agreement of 1909 declared, her
+interests in Morocco were solely commercial. If this were so, why
+send a war-ship, when diplomatic insistence on the terms of 1909
+would have met the needs of the case, especially as German trade
+with Morocco was less than half that of French firms and less than
+one-third that of British firms? Obviously, Germany was bent on
+something more than the maintenance of her trade (which, indeed,
+the French were furthering by suppressing anarchy); otherwise she
+would not have risked the chance of a collision which might at any
+time result from the presence of a German cruiser alongside French
+war-ships in a small harbour.</p>
+<p>It is almost certain that the colonial and war parties at Berlin
+sought to drive on the Kaiser to hostilities. The occasion was
+favourable. In the spring of 1911 France was a prey to formidable
+riots of vine-growers. On June 28 occurred an embarrassing change
+of Ministry. Besides, the French army and navy had not yet
+recovered from the Socialist r&eacute;gime of previous years. The
+remodelling of the Russian army was also very far from complete.
+Moreover, the Tsar and Kaiser had come to a friendly understanding
+at Potsdam in November 1910, respecting Persia and their attitude
+towards <span class="pagenum"><a name="page622" id=
+"page622"></a>[pg 622]</span> other questions, so that it was
+doubtful whether Russia would assist France if French action in
+Morocco could be made to appear irregular. As for Great Britain,
+her ability to afford sufficiently large and timely succour to the
+French was open to question. In the throes of a sharp
+constitutional crisis, and beset by acute Labour troubles, she was
+ill-fitted even to defend herself. By the close of 1911 the Navy
+would include only fourteen first-class ships as against Germany's
+nine; while Austria was also becoming a Naval Power. The weakness
+of France and England had appeared in the spring when they gave way
+before Germany's claims in Asia Minor. On March 18, 1911, by a
+convention with Turkey she acquired the right to construct from the
+Bagdad Railway a branch line to Alexandretta, together with large
+privileges over that port which made it practically German, and the
+natural outlet for Mesopotamia and North Syria, heretofore in the
+sphere of Great Britain and France. True, she waived conditionally
+her claim to push the Bagdad line to the Persian Gulf; but her
+recent bargain with the Tsar at Potsdam gave her the lion's share
+of the trade of Western Persia.</p>
+<p>After taking these strides in the Levant, Germany ought not to
+have shown jealousy of French progress in Morocco, where her
+commerce was small. As in 1905, she was clearly using the occasion
+to test the validity of the Anglo-French Entente and the
+effectiveness of British support to France. Probably, too, she
+desired either a territorial acquisition in South Morocco, for
+which the colonial party and most of the Press were clamouring; or
+she intended, in lieu of it, to acquire the French Congo. At
+present it is not clear at which of these objects she aimed.
+Kiderlen-W&auml;chter declared privately that Germany must have the
+Agadir district, and would never merely accept in exchange
+Congolese territory<a name="FNanchor533"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_533">[533]</a>.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page623" id="page623"></a>[pg
+623]</span>
+<p>Whatever were the real aims of the Kaiser, they ran counter to
+French and British interests. Moreover, the warning of Sir Edward
+Grey, on July 4, that we must be consulted as to any new
+developments, was completely ignored; and even on July 21 the
+German ambassador in London could give no assurance as to the
+policy of his Government. Consequently, on that evening Mr. Lloyd
+George, during a speech at the Mansion House, apprised Germany that
+any attempt to treat us as a negligible factor in the Cabinet of
+Nations "would be a humiliation intolerable for a great country
+like ours to endure." The tension must have been far more severe
+than appeared in the published documents to induce so peace-loving
+a Minister to speak in those terms. They aroused a storm of passion
+in the German Press; and, somewhat later, a German admiral, Stiege,
+declared that they would have justified an immediate declaration of
+war by Germany<a name="FNanchor534"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_534">[534]</a>. Certainly they were more menacing than
+is usual in diplomatic parlance; but our cavalier treatment by
+Germany (possibly due to Bethmann-Hollweg's belief in blunt
+Bismarckian ways) justified a protest, which, after all, was less
+questionable than Germany's despatching a cruiser to Agadir, owing
+to the reserve of the French Foreign Office. Up to July 27 the
+crisis remained acute; but on that day the German ambassador gave
+assurances as to a probable agreement with France.</p>
+<p>What caused the change of front at Berlin? Probably it was due
+to a sharp financial crisis (an unexpected result of the political
+crisis), which would have produced a general crash in German
+finance, then in an insecure position; and prudence may have
+counselled the adoption of the less ambitious course, namely a
+friendly negotiation with the French for territorial expansion in
+their Congo territory in return for the recognition of their
+protectorate of Morocco. Such a compromise (which, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page624" id="page624"></a>[pg 624]</span> as we
+shall see, was finally arrived at) involved no loss for Germany. On
+the contrary, she gained fertile districts in the tropics and left
+the French committed to the Morocco venture, which, at great cost
+to them, would tend finally to benefit commerce in general, and
+therefore that of Germany.</p>
+<p>Also, before the end of these discussions there occurred two
+events which might well dispose the Kaiser to a compromise with
+France. Firstly, as a result of his negotiations with Russia (then
+beset by severe dearth) he secured larger railway and trading
+concessions in Persia, the compact of August 19 opening the door
+for further German enterprises in the Levant. Secondly, on
+September 29, Italy declared war on Turkey, partly (it is said)
+because recent German activity in Tripoli menaced the ascendancy
+which she was resolved to acquire in that land. This event greatly
+deranged the Kaiser's schemes. He had hoped to keep the Triple
+Alliance intact, and yet add to it the immense potential fighting
+force of Turkey and the Moslem World. Now, however he might
+"hedge," he could hardly avoid offending either Rome or
+Constantinople; and even if he succeeded, his friends would exhaust
+each other and be useless for the near future. Consequently, the
+Italo-Turkish War (with its sequel, the Balkan War of 1912) dealt
+him a severe blow. The Triple Alliance was at once strained nearly
+to breaking-point by Austria forbidding Italy to undertake naval
+operations in the Adriatic (probably also in the Aegean). Equally
+serious was the hostility of Moslems to Europeans in general which
+compromised the Kaiser's schemes for utilising Islam. Accordingly,
+for the present, his policy assumed a more peaceful guise.</p>
+<p>Here, doubtless, are the decisive reasons for the Franco-German
+accord of November 4, 1911, whereby the Berlin Government
+recognised a French protectorate over Morocco and agreed not to
+interfere in the Franco-Spanish negotiation still pending. France
+opened certain "closed" ports (among them Agadir), and guaranteed
+equality of trading rights to all nations. She also ceded to
+Germany about 100,000 square miles of fertile land in the
+north-west of her Congo territory, which <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page625" id="page625"></a>[pg 625]</span>
+afforded access to the rivers Congo and Ubangi. The explosion of
+Teutonic wrath produced by these far from unfavourable conditions
+revealed the magnitude of the designs that prompted the <i>coup</i>
+of Agadir. The Colonial Minister at once resigned; and scornful
+laughter greeted the Chancellor when he announced to the Reichstag
+that the <i>Berlin</i> would be withdrawn from that port, the
+protection of German subjects being no longer necessary. He added
+that Germany would neither fight for Southern Morocco nor dissipate
+her strength in distant expeditions. In fact, he would "avoid any
+war which was not required by German honour." Far different was the
+tone of the Conservative leader, Herr Heydebrand, who declared Mr.
+Lloyd George's "challenge" to be one which the German people would
+not tolerate; England had sought to involve them in a war with
+France, but they now saw "where the real enemy was to be found."
+The Crown Prince, who was present, loudly applauded these
+Anglophobe outbursts. The German Press showed no less bitterness.
+Besides criticising the Chancellor's blustering beginning and
+huckstering conclusion, they manifested a resolve that Germany
+should always and everywhere succeed. The Berlin journal, the
+<i>Post</i>, went so far as to call the Kaiser <i>ce poltron
+mis&eacute;rable</i> for giving up South Morocco; and it was clear
+that a large section of the German people ardently desired war with
+the Western Powers.</p>
+<p>Many Frenchmen and Belgians credited the German colonial party
+with the design of acquiring the whole of the French Congo, as a
+first step towards annexing the Belgian Congo<a name=
+"FNanchor535"></a><a href="#Footnote_535">[535]</a>. Belgium became
+alarmed, and in 1913 greatly extended the principle of compulsory
+military service. On the other hand, the German Chauvinists
+certainly desired the acquisition of a naval base in Morocco which
+would help to link up their naval stations and facilitate the
+conquest of a World Empire. This was the policy set forth by
+Bernhardi in the closing parts of his work, <i>Germany and the next
+War,</i> where he protested against the Chancellor's surrender of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page626" id="page626"></a>[pg
+626]</span> Morocco as degrading to the nation and damaging to its
+future. Following the lead of Treitschke, he depreciated colonies
+rich merely in products; for Germany needed homes for her children
+in future generations, and she must fight for them with all her
+might at the first favourable opportunity. This is the burden of
+Bernhardi's message, which bristles with rage at the loss of
+Morocco. He regarded that land as more important than the Congo;
+for, in addition to the strategic value of its coasts, it offered a
+fulcrum in the west whereby to raise the Moslems against the Triple
+Entente. In the Epilogue he writes: "Our relations with Islam have
+changed for the worse by the abandonment of Morocco. . . . We have
+lost prestige in the whole Mohammedan world, which is a matter of
+the first importance for us."</p>
+<p>The logical conclusion of Bernhardi's thesis was that Germany
+and Austria should boldly side with the Moors and Turks against
+France and Italy, summoning Islam to arms, if need be, against
+Christendom. Perhaps if Turkey had possessed the 1,500,000 troops
+whom her War Minister, Chevket Pacha, was hopefully striving to
+raise, this might have been the outcome of events. As it was,
+<i>Realpolitik</i> counselled prudence, and the observance of the
+forms of Christianity.</p>
+<p>Certainly there was no sufficient pretext for war. France and
+Russia had humoured Germany. As to "the real enemy," light was
+thrown on her attitude during the debate of November 27, 1911, at
+Westminster. Sir Edward Grey then stated that we had consistently
+helped on, and not impeded, the Franco-German negotiations. Never
+had we played the dog-in-the-manger to Germany. In fact, the Berlin
+Government would greatly have eased the tension if she had declared
+earlier that she did not intend to take part of Morocco. Further,
+the Entente with France (made public on November 24) contained no
+secret articles; nor were there any in any compact made by the
+British Government. On December 6, Mr. Asquith declared that we had
+no secret engagement with any Power obliging us to take up arms.
+"We do not desire <span class="pagenum"><a name="page627" id=
+"page627"></a>[pg 627]</span> to stand in the light of any Power
+which wants to find its place in the sun. The first of British
+interests is, as it always has been, the peace of the world; and to
+its attainment British diplomacy and policy will be directed." The
+German Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, also said in the Reichstag,
+"We also, sirs, sincerely desire to live in peace and friendship
+with England"--an announcement received with complete silence. Some
+applause greeted his statement that he would welcome any definite
+proof that England desired friendlier relations with Germany.</p>
+<p>Thus ended the year 1911. Frenchmen were sore at discovering
+that the Entente entailed no obligation on our part to help them by
+force of arms<a name="FNanchor536"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_536">[536]</a>; and Germans, far from rejoicing at their
+easy acquisition of a new colony, harboured resentment against both
+the Western Powers. Britons had been aroused from party strifes and
+Labour quarrels by finding new proofs of the savage enmity with
+which Junkers, Colonials, and Pan-Germans regarded them; and the
+problem was--Should England seek to regain Germany's friendship,
+meanwhile remaining aloof from close connections with France and
+Russia; or should she recognise that her uncertain attitude
+possessed all the disadvantages and few of the advantages of a
+definite alliance?</p>
+<p>Early in 1912 light was thrown on the situation, and the Berlin
+Government thenceforth could not plead ignorance as to our
+intentions; for efforts, both public and private, were made to
+improve Anglo-German relations. Mr. Churchill advocated a friendly
+understanding in naval affairs. Lord Haldane also visited Berlin on
+an official invitation. He declared to that Government that "we
+would in no circumstances be a party to any sort of aggression upon
+Germany." But we must oppose a violation of the neutrality of
+Belgium, and, if the naval competition continued, we should lay
+down two keels to Germany's one. As a sequel to these discussions
+the two Governments discussed the basis of an Entente. It soon
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page628" id="page628"></a>[pg
+628]</span> appeared that Germany sought to bind us almost
+unconditionally to neutrality in all cases. To this the British
+Cabinet demurred, but suggested the following formula:</p>
+<blockquote>The two Powers being mutually desirous of securing
+peace and friendship between them, England declares that she will
+neither make, nor join in, any unprovoked attack upon Germany.
+Aggression upon Germany is not the subject, and forms no part of
+any treaty, understanding, or combination to which England is now a
+party, nor will she become a party to anything that has such an
+object.</blockquote>
+<p>Further than this it refused to go; and Mr. Asquith in his
+speech of October 2, 1914, at Cardiff thus explained the
+reason:</p>
+<blockquote>They [the Germans] wanted us to go further. They asked
+us to pledge ourselves absolutely to neutrality in the event of
+Germany being engaged in war, and this, mark you, at a time when
+Germany was enormously increasing both her aggressive and defensive
+resources, and especially upon the sea. They asked us (to put it
+quite plainly) for a free hand, so far as we were concerned, when
+they selected the opportunity to overbear, to dominate, the
+European World. To such a demand, but one answer was possible, and
+that was the answer we gave<a name="FNanchor537"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_537">[537]</a>.</blockquote>
+<p>Thus, efforts for a good understanding with Germany broke down
+owing to the exacting demands of German diplomacy for our
+neutrality in all circumstances (including, of course, a German
+invasion of Belgium). Thereupon she proceeded with a new Navy Act
+(the fifth in fourteen years) for a large increase in
+construction<a name="FNanchor538"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_538">[538]</a>.</p>
+<p>Perhaps Germany would have been more conciliatory if she had
+foreseen the events of the following autumn. As has already
+appeared, Italy's attack upon the Turks (coinciding with
+difficulties which their rigour raised up) furnished the
+opportunity--for which the Balkan States had been longing--to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page629" id="page629"></a>[pg
+629]</span> shake off the Turkish yoke. On March 13, 1912, Servia
+and Bulgaria framed a secret treaty of alliance against Turkey,
+which contained conditions as to joint action against Austria or
+Roumania, if they attacked, and a general understanding as to the
+partition of Macedonia. Greece came into the agreement
+later<a name="FNanchor539"></a><a href="#Footnote_539">[539]</a>.
+No time was fixed for action against Turkey; but in view of her
+obstinacy and intolerance action was inevitable. She precipitated
+matters by massacring Christians in and on the borders of
+Macedonia. Thereupon the three States and Montenegro demanded the
+enforcement of the reforms and toleration guaranteed by the Treaty
+of Berlin (see p. 242). The Turks having as usual temporised
+(though they were still at war with Italy<a name=
+"FNanchor540"></a><a href="#Footnote_540">[540]</a>), the four
+States demanded complete autonomy and the reconstruction of
+frontiers according to racial needs. Both sides rejected the joint
+offers of Austria and Russia for friendly intervention; whereupon
+Turkey declared war upon Bulgaria and Servia (October 17). On the
+morrow Greece declared war upon her. Montenegro had already opened
+hostilities. In view of these facts, the later assertions of the
+German Powers, that the Balkan League was a Russian plot for
+overthrowing Turkey and weakening Teutonic influence, is palpably
+false. Turkey had treated her Christian subjects (including the
+once faithful Albanians) worse than ever. Their union against
+Turkey had long been foretold. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page630" id="page630"></a>[pg 630]</span> It was helped on by
+Ottoman misrule, and finally cemented by massacre. Further, Russia
+and Austria acted together in seeking to avert an attack on Turkey;
+and the Powers collectively warned the Balkan States that no
+changes of boundary would be tolerated. Those States refused to
+accept the European fiat; for the present misrule was intolerable,
+and the inability of the Turks to cope with either the Italians or
+the Albanian rebels opened a vista of hope. The German accusations
+levelled at Russia were obviously part of the general scheme
+adopted at Berlin and Vienna for exasperating public opinion
+against the Slav cause.</p>
+<p>The Balkan States, though waging war with no combined aim,
+speedily overthrew the Turks in the most dramatic and decisive
+conflict of our age. The Greeks entered Salonica on November 8 (a
+Bulgarian force a few days later); on November 18 the Servians
+occupied Monastir, and the Albanian seaport, Durazzo, at the end of
+the month. The Bulgar army meanwhile drove the Turks southwards in
+headlong rout until in the third week of November the fortified
+Tchataldja Lines opposed an invincible obstacle. There, on December
+3, all the belligerents, except Greece, concluded an armistice, and
+negotiations for peace were begun at London on December 16. Up to
+January 22, 1913, Turkey seemed inclined towards peace; but on the
+morrow a revolution took place at Constantinople, the Ministry of
+Kiamil Pacha being ousted by the warlike faction of Enver Bey. He,
+one of the contrivers of the revolution of July 1908, had since
+been attached to the Turkish Embassy at Berlin; and his successful
+coup was a triumph of German influence. The Peace Conference at
+London broke up on February 1. In March the Greeks and Bulgars
+captured Janina and Adrianople respectively, while Scutari fell to
+the Montenegrins (April 22). The Powers (Russia included) demanded
+the evacuation of this town by Montenegro; for they had decided to
+constitute Albania (the most turbulent part of the Peninsula) an
+independent State, including Scutari.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page631" id="page631"></a>[pg
+631]</span>
+<p>In Albania, as elsewhere, the feuds of rival races had drenched
+the Balkan lands with blood; Greek and Bulgar forces had fought
+near Salonica, and there seemed slight chance of a peaceful
+settlement in Central Macedonia. That chance disappeared when the
+Powers in the resumed Peace Conference at London persisted in
+ruling the Serbs and Montenegrins out of Albania, a decision
+obviously dictated by the longings of Austria and Italy to gain
+that land at a convenient opportunity. This blow to Servia's
+aspirations aroused passionate resentment both there and in Russia.
+Finally the Serbs gave way, and claimed a far larger part of
+Macedonia than had been mapped out in their agreement with Bulgaria
+prior to the war. Hence arose strifes between their forces, in
+which the Greeks also sided against the Bulgars. Meanwhile, the
+London Conference of the Powers and the Balkan States framed terms
+of peace, which were largely due to the influence of Sir Edward
+Grey<a name="FNanchor541"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_541">[541]</a>.</p>
+<p>They may be disregarded here; for they were soon disregarded by
+all the Balkan States. Seeking to steal a march upon their rivals,
+the Bulgar forces (it is said on the instigation of their King and
+his unofficial advisers) made a sudden and treacherous attack. Now,
+the dour, pushing Bulgars are the most unpopular race in the
+Peninsula. Therefore not only Serbs and Greeks, but also Roumanians
+and Turks turned savagely upon them<a name=
+"FNanchor542"></a><a href="#Footnote_542">[542]</a>. Overwhelmed on
+all sides, Bulgaria sued for peace; and again the Great Powers had
+to revise terms that they had declared to be final. Ultimately, on
+August 10, 1913, the Peace of Bukharest was signed. It imposed the
+present boundaries of the Balkan States, and left them furious but
+helpless to resist a policy known to have been dictated largely
+from Vienna and Berlin. In May 1914 a warm friend of the Balkan
+peoples thus described its effects: "No permanent solution of the
+Balkan Question has been arrived at. The ethnographical questions
+have been ignored. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page632" id=
+"page632"></a>[pg 632]</span> A portion of each race has been
+handed over to be ruled by another which it detests. Servia has
+acquired a population which is mostly Bulgar and Albanian, though
+of the latter she has massacred and expelled many thousands.
+Bulgars have been captured by Greeks, Greeks by Bulgars, Albanians
+by Greeks, and not one of these races has as yet shown signs of
+being capable to rule another justly. The seeds have been sown of
+hatreds that will grow and bear fruit<a name=
+"FNanchor543"></a><a href="#Footnote_543">[543]</a>." Especially
+lamentable were the recovery of the Adrianople district by the
+Turks and the unprovoked seizure of the purely Bulgar district
+south of Silistria by Roumania. On the other hand, Kaiser William
+thus congratulated her king, Charles (a Hohenzollern), on the
+peace, a "splendid result, for which not only your own people but
+all the belligerent States and the whole of Europe have to thank
+your wise and truly statesmanlike policy. At the same time your
+mentioning that I have been able to contribute to what has been
+achieved is a great satisfaction to me. I rejoice at our mutual
+co-operation in the cause of peace."</p>
+<p>This telegram, following the trend of Austro-German policy,
+sought to win back Roumania to the Central Powers, from which she
+had of late sheered off. In other respects the Peace of Bukharest
+was a notable triumph for Austria and Germany. Not only had they
+rendered impossible a speedy revival of the Balkan League which had
+barred their expansion towards the Levant, but they bolstered up
+the Ottoman Power when its extrusion from Europe seemed imminent.
+They also exhausted Servia, reduced Bulgaria to ruin, and imposed
+on Albania a German prince, William of Wied, an officer in the
+Prussian army, who was destined to view his principality from the
+quarter-deck of his yacht. Such was the Treaty of Bukharest.
+Besides dealing a severe blow to the Slav cause, it perpetuated the
+recent infamous spoliations and challenged every one concerned to
+further conflicts. Within a year the whole of the Continent was in
+flames.</p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_523"></a><a href="#FNanchor523">[523]</a> H.W.
+Steed, <i>The Hapsburg Monarchy</i>, pp. 52, 214.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_524"></a><a href="#FNanchor524">[524]</a> The
+constitutional regime which the Young Turks imposed on the
+reactionary Abdul Hamid II., in July 1908, was hailed as a victory
+for British influence. The change in April 1909 favoured German
+influence. I have no space for an account of these complex
+events.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_525"></a><a href="#FNanchor525">[525]</a>
+Tittoni, <i>Italy's Foreign and Colonial Policy</i> (English
+translation, p. 128). Tittoni denied that the Triple Alliance
+empowered Italy to demand "compensation" if Austria expanded in the
+Balkans. But the Triple Alliance Treaty, as renewed in 1912,
+included such a clause, No. VII.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_526"></a><a href="#FNanchor526">[526]</a>
+B&uuml;low, <i>Imperial Germany</i>, p. 99.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_527"></a><a href="#FNanchor527">[527]</a>
+Annoyance had been caused by the Kaiser's letter of Feb. 18, 1908,
+to Lord Tweedmouth, First Lord of the Admiralty, advising (though
+in friendly terms) the cessation of suspicion towards Germany's
+naval construction. It was held to be an attempt to put us off our
+guard.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_528"></a><a href="#FNanchor528">[528]</a> Lack
+of space precludes an account of the Cretan Question, also of the
+Agram and Friedjung trials which threw lurid light on Austria's
+treatment of her South-Slav subjects, for which see Seton-Watson,
+<i>Corruption and Reform in Hungary</i>. Rohrbach, <i>Der deutsche
+Gedanke in der Welt</i> (1912), p. 172, explains the success of
+German efforts at the Porte by the belief of the Young Turks that
+Germany was the only Power that wished them well--Germany who
+helped Austria to secure Bosnia; Germany, whose Bagdad Railway
+scheme mercilessly exploited Turkish resources! (See D. Fraser,
+<i>The Short Cut to India</i>, chs. iii. iv.)</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_529"></a><a href="#FNanchor529">[529]</a> I
+have been assured of this on high authority.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_530"></a><a href="#FNanchor530">[530]</a>
+Viscount Esher, <i>the Influence of King Edward: and Other
+Essays</i>, p. 56. The "encircling" myth is worked up by Rachfahl,
+<i>Kaiser und Reich</i>, p, 228; Reventlow, <i>op, cit.</i> pp.
+254, 279, 298, etc.; and by Rohrbach, <i>Der deutsche Gedanke in
+der Welt</i> (ch. vi.), where he says that King Edward's chief idea
+from the outset was to cripple Germany. He therefore won over
+Japan, France, Spain, and Russia, his aim being to secure all
+Africa from the Cape to Cairo, and all Asia from the Sinaitic
+Peninsula to Burmah.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_531"></a><a href="#FNanchor531">[531]</a>
+Rachfahl, p. 310.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_532"></a><a href="#FNanchor532">[532]</a>
+Morel, App. XIV.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_533"></a><a href="#FNanchor533">[533]</a> The
+following facts are significant. On November 9, 1911, the
+Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, assured the Reichstag that Germany
+had never intended to annex Moroccan territory, an assertion
+confirmed by Kiderlen-W&auml;chter on Nov. 17. But during the libel
+action brought against the Berlin <i>Post</i> it was positively
+affirmed that the Government and Kiderlen-W&auml;chter had intended
+to annex South-West Morocco. A high official, Dr. Heilbronn,
+telephoned so to the <i>Post</i>, urging it to demand that
+step.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_534"></a><a href="#FNanchor534">[534]</a>
+Rear-Admiral Stiege in <i>&Uuml;berall</i> for March 1912.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_535"></a><a href="#FNanchor535">[535]</a>
+Hanotaux, <i>La Politique de l'&Eacute;quilibre</i>, p. 417.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_536"></a><a href="#FNanchor536">[536]</a>
+Hanotaux, <i>La Politique de l'&Eacute;quilibre,</i> p. 419.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_537"></a><a href="#FNanchor537">[537]</a> See
+<i>Times</i> of October 3, 1914, and July 20, 1915 (with quotations
+from the <i>North German Gazette</i>). Bethmann-Hollweg declared to
+the Reichstag, on August 19, 1915, that Asquith's statement was
+false; but in a letter published on August 26, and an official
+statement of September 1, 1915, Sir E. Grey convincingly refuted
+him.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_538"></a><a href="#FNanchor538">[538]</a>
+Castle and Hurd, <i>German Naval Power</i>, pp. 142-152.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_539"></a><a href="#FNanchor539">[539]</a> The
+claim that the Greek statesman, Venizelos, founded the league seems
+incorrect. So, too, is the rumour that Russia, through her
+minister, Hartvig, at Belgrade, framed it (but see N. Jorga,
+<i>Hist. des &Eacute;tats balcaniques</i>, p. 436). Miliukoff, in a
+"Report to the Carnegie Foundation," denies this. The plan occurred
+to many men so soon as Turkish Reform proved a sham. Venizelos is
+said to have mooted it to Mr. James Bourchier in May 1911. (R.
+Rankin, <i>Inner History of the Balkan War</i>, p. 13.)</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_540"></a><a href="#FNanchor540">[540]</a>
+Italy made peace on October 15, gaining possession of Tripoli and
+agreeing to evacuate the Aegean Isles, but on various pretexts kept
+her troops there. A little later she renewed the Triple Alliance
+with Germany and Austria for five years. This may have resulted
+from the Balkan crisis then beginning, and from the visits of the
+Russian Foreign Minister, Sazonoff, to Paris and London, whereupon
+it was officially stated that Russia adhered both to her treaty
+with France and her Entente with England. He added that the
+grouping of the great States was necessary in the interests of the
+Balance of Power.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_541"></a><a href="#FNanchor541">[541]</a> See
+<i>Times</i> of May 30, 1913; Rankin, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 517.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_542"></a><a href="#FNanchor542">[542]</a>
+Roumania's sudden intervention annoyed Austria, who had hoped for a
+longer and more exhausting war in the Balkans.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_543"></a><a href="#FNanchor543">[543]</a>
+Edith Durham, <i>The Struggle for Scutari</i>, p. 315.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page633" id="page633"></a>[pg
+633]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+<h3>THE CRISIS OF 1914</h3>
+<blockquote>"We have an interest in the independence of Belgium
+which is wider than that which we have in the literal operation of
+the guarantee. It is found in the answer to the question whether
+this country would quietly stand by and witness the perpetration of
+the direst crime that ever stained the pages of history and thus
+become participators in the sin."--GLADSTONE:<br>
+<p>Speech of August 1870.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<br>
+<p>The Prussian and German Army Bills of 1860 and onwards have
+tended to make military preparedness a weighty factor in the recent
+development of nations; and the issue of events has too often been
+determined, not by the justice of a cause, but rather by the armed
+strength at the back of it. We must therefore glance at the
+military and naval preparations which enabled the Central Powers to
+win their perilous triumph over Russia and the Slavs of the
+Balkans. In April 1912 the German Chancellor introduced to the
+Reichstag Army and Navy Bills (passed on May 21) providing for
+great increases in the navy, also forces amounting to two new army
+corps, and that, too, though Germany's financial position was
+admitted to be "very serious," and the proposed measures merely
+precautionary. Nevertheless, only Socialists, Poles, and Alsatians
+voted against them. But the events of the first Balkan War were
+cited as menacing Germany with a conflict in which she "might have
+to protect, against several enemies, frontiers which are extended
+and by nature to a large extent open." A new Army Bill was
+therefore introduced in March 1913 (passed in <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page634" id="page634"></a>[pg 634]</span> June),
+which increased the total of the forces by 145,000, and raised
+their peace strength in 1914 to more than 870,000 men. The
+Chancellor referred gratefully to "the extraordinary ability and
+spirit of conciliation" of Sir Edward Grey during the Conference at
+London, and admitted that a collision between Germans and Slavs was
+not inevitable; but Germany must take precautions, this, too, at a
+time when Russia and Austria agreed to place their forces again on
+a peace footing. Germany, far from relaxing her efforts after the
+sharp rebuff to the Slavonic cause in the summer of 1913, continued
+her military policy. It caused grave apprehension, especially as
+the new drastic taxes (estimated to produce &pound;50,000,000) were
+loudly declared a burden that could not long be borne. As to the
+naval proposals, the Chancellor commended Mr. Churchill's
+suggestion (on March 26) of a "naval holiday," but said there were
+many difficulties in the way.</p>
+<p>The British Naval Budget of 1912 had provided for a six years'
+programme of 25 <i>Dreadnoughts</i> against Germany's 14; and for
+every extra German ship two British would be added. In March 1913
+this was continued, with the offer of a "holiday" for 1914 if
+Germany would soon accept. No acceptance came. The peace strength
+of the British Regular Army was reckoned early in 1914 at 156,000
+men, with about 250,000 effective Territorials.</p>
+<p>The increases in the German army induced the French Chambers, in
+July 1913, to recur to three years' military service, that of two
+years being considered inadequate in face of the new menace from
+beyond the Rhine<a name="FNanchor544"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_544">[544]</a>. Jaur&egrave;s and the Socialists, who
+advocated a national militia on the Swiss system, were beaten by
+496 votes to 77, whereupon some of them resorted to obstructive
+tactics, and the measure was carried with some difficulty on July
+8. The General Confederation of Labour and the Anarchist Congress
+both announced their resolve to <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page635" id="page635"></a>[pg 635]</span> keep up the agitation in
+the army against the three years' service. Mutinous symptoms had
+already appeared. The military equipment of the French army was
+officially admitted to be in an unsatisfactory state during the
+debate of July 13, 1914, when it appeared that France was far from
+ready for a campaign. The peace strength of the army was then
+reckoned at 645,000 men.</p>
+<p>In Russia in 1912 the chief efforts were concentrated on the
+navy. As regards the army, it was proposed in the Budget of July
+1913 to retain 300,000 men on active service for six months longer
+than before, thus strengthening the forces, especially during the
+winter months. Apart from this measure (a reply to that of Germany)
+no important development took place in 1912-14. The peace strength
+of the Russian army for Europe in 1914 exceeded 1,200,000<a name=
+"FNanchor545"></a><a href="#Footnote_545">[545]</a>. That of
+Austria-Hungary exceeded 460,000 men, that of Italy 300,000 men.
+Consequently the Triple Entente had on foot just over 2,000,000 men
+as against 1,590,000 for the Triple Alliance; but the latter group
+formed a solid well-prepared block, while the Triple Entente were
+separate units; and the Russian and British forces could not be
+speedily marshalled at the necessary points on the Continent.
+Moreover, all great wars, especially from the time of Frederick the
+Great, have shown the advantage of the central position, if
+vigorously and skilfully used.</p>
+<p>In these considerations lies the key to the European situation
+in the summer of 1914. The simmering of fiscal discontent and
+unsated military pride in Germany caused general alarm, especially
+when the memories of the Wars of Liberation of 1813-14 were
+systematically used to excite bellicose ardour against France.
+Against England it needed no official stimulus, for professors and
+teachers had long taught that "England was the foe." In particular
+preparations had been made in South-West Africa for stirring up a
+revolt of the Boers as a preliminary to the expulsion of the
+British <span class="pagenum"><a name="page636" id=
+"page636"></a>[pg 636]</span> from South Africa. Relations had been
+established with De Wet and Maritz. In 1913 the latter sent an
+agent to the German colony asking what aid the Kaiser would give
+and how far he would guarantee the independence of South Africa.
+The reply came: "I will not only acknowledge the independence of
+South Africa, but I will even guarantee it, provided the rebellion
+is started immediately<a name="FNanchor546"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_546">[546]</a>." The reason for the delay is not known.
+Probably on further inquiry it was found that the situation was not
+ready either in Europe or in South Africa. But as to German
+preparations for a war with England both in South-West Africa and
+Egypt there can be no doubt. India and probably Ireland also were
+not neglected.</p>
+<p>In fact a considerable part of the German people looked forward
+to a war with Great Britain as equally inevitable and desirable.
+She was rich and pleasure-loving; her Government was apt to wait
+till public opinion had been decisively pronounced; her sons, too
+selfish to defend her, paid "mercenaries" to do it. Her scattered
+possessions would therefore fall an easy prey to a well-organised,
+warlike, and thoroughly patriotic nation. Let the world belong to
+the ablest race, the Germanic. Such had been the teachings of
+Treitschke and his disciples long before the Boer War or the
+Anglo-French Entente. Those events and the Morocco Question in 1905
+and 1911 sharpened the rivalry; but it is a superficial reading of
+events to suppose that Morocco caused the rivalry, which clearly
+originated in the resolve of the Germans to possess a World-Empire.
+So soon as their influential classes distinctly framed that resolve
+a conflict was inevitable with Great Britain, which blocked their
+way to the Ocean and possessed in every sea valuable colonies which
+she seemed little able to defend. The Morocco affair annoyed them
+because, firstly, they wanted that strategic position, and
+secondly, they desired to sunder the Anglo-French Entente. But
+Morocco was settled in 1911, and still the friction continued
+unabated. There remained the Eastern <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page637" id="page637"></a>[pg 637]</span> Question, a far more
+serious affair; for on it hung the hopes of Germany in the Orient
+and of Austria in the Balkans.</p>
+<p>The difficulty for Germany was, how to equate her world-wide
+ambitions with the restricted and diverse aims of Austria and
+Italy. The interests of the two Central Empires harmonised only
+respecting the Eastern Question. <i>Weltpolitik</i> in general and
+Morocco in particular did not in the least concern Austria.
+Further, the designs of Vienna and Rome on Albania clashed
+hopelessly. An effort was made in the Triple Alliance, as renewed
+in 1912, to safeguard Italian interests by insisting that, if
+Austria gained ground in the Balkans, Italy should have
+"compensation." The effort to lure the Government of Rome into
+Balkan adventures prompted the Austrian offer of August 9, 1913,
+for joint action against Servia. Italy refused, alleging that, as
+Servia was not guilty of aggression, the Austro-Italian Alliance
+did not hold good for such a venture. Germany also refused the
+Austrian offer--why is not clear. Austria was annoyed with the
+gains of Servia in the Peace of Bukharest, for which Kaiser William
+was largely responsible. Probably, then, they differed as to some
+of the details of the Balkan settlement. But it is far more
+probable that Germany checked the Austrians because she was not yet
+fully ready for vigorous action. The doctrine of complete
+preparedness was edifyingly set forth by a well-informed writer,
+Rohrbach, who, in 1912, urged his countrymen to be patient. In 1911
+they had been wrong to worry France and England about Morocco,
+where German interests were not vital. Until the Bagdad and Hedjaz
+Railways had neared their goals, Turkish co-operation in an attack
+on Egypt would be weak. Besides, adds Rohrbach, the Kiel-North Sea
+Canal was not ready, and Heligoland and other coast defences were
+not sufficiently advanced for Germany confidently to face a war
+with England. Thanks to the Kaiser, the fleet would soon be in a
+splendid condition, and then Germany could launch out boldly in the
+world. The same course was urged by Count Reventlow early in 1914.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page638" id="page638"></a>[pg
+638]</span> Germany must continue to arm, though fully conscious
+that she was "constructing for her foreign politics and diplomacy,
+a Calvary which <i>nolens volens</i> she would have to
+climb<a name="FNanchor547"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_547">[547]</a>."</p>
+<p>Other evidence, especially from Bernhardi, Frobenius, and the
+works of the Pan-German and Navy Leagues, might be quoted in proof
+of Germany's design to begin war when she was fully prepared. Now,
+the immense sums voted in the War Budget of 1913 had not as yet
+provided the stores of artillery and ammunition that were to
+astonish the world. Nor had Turkey recovered from the wounds of
+1912. Nor was the enlarged Kiel-North Sea Canal ready. Its opening
+at Midsummer 1914 created a naval situation far more favourable to
+Germany. A year earlier a French naval officer had prophesied that
+she would await the opening of the canal before declaring
+war<a name="FNanchor548"></a><a href="#Footnote_548">[548]</a>.</p>
+<p>At Midsummer 1914 the general position was as follows. Germany
+had reached the pitch of perfection in armaments, and the Kiel
+Canal was open. France was unready, though the three years' service
+promised to improve her army. The Russian forces were slowly
+improving in number and cohesion. Belgium also, alarmed by the
+German menace both in Europe and on the Congo, had in 1912-13
+greatly extended the principle of compulsory service, so that in
+1914 she would have more than 200,000 men available, and by 1926 as
+many as 340,000. In naval strength it was unlikely that Germany
+would catch up Great Britain. But the submarine promised to make
+even the most powerful ironclads of doubtful value.</p>
+<p>Consequently, Germany and her friends (except perhaps Turkey)
+could never hope to have a longer lead over the Entente Powers than
+in 1914, at least as regards efficiency and preparedness. Therefore
+in the eyes of the military party at Berlin the problem resembled
+that of 1756, which Frederick the Great thus stated: "The war was
+equally certain and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page639" id=
+"page639"></a>[pg 639]</span> inevitable. It only remained to
+calculate whether there was more advantage in deferring it a few
+months or beginning at once." We know what followed in 1756--the
+invasion of neutral Saxony, because she had not completed her
+armaments<a name="FNanchor549"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_549">[549]</a>. For William II. in 1914 the case of
+Belgium was very similar. She afforded him the shortest way of
+striking at his enemy and the richest land for feeding the German
+forces. That Prussia had guaranteed Belgian neutrality counted as
+naught; that in 1912 Lord Haldane had warned him of the hostility
+of England if he invaded Belgium was scarcely more important.
+William, like his ancestor, acted solely on military
+considerations. He despised England: for was she not distracted by
+fierce party feuds, by Labour troubles, by wild women, and by what
+seemed to be the beginnings of civil war in Ireland? All the able
+rulers of the House of Hohenzollern have discerned when to strike
+and to strike hard. In July 1914 William II.'s action was typically
+Hohenzollern; and by this time his engaging personality and fiery
+speeches, aided by professorial and Press propaganda, had
+thoroughly Prussianised Germany. In regard to <i>moral</i> as well
+as <i>mat&eacute;riel</i>, "the day" had come by Midsummer
+1914.</p>
+<p>Moreover, her generally passive partner, Austria, was then
+excited to frenzy by the murder of the heir to the throne, Archduke
+Francis Ferdinand. The criminals were Austrian Serbs; but no proof
+was then or has since been forthcoming as to the complicity of the
+Servian Government. Nevertheless, in the state of acute tension
+long existing between Servia and Austria-Hungary, the affair seemed
+the climax of a series of efforts at wrecking the Dual Monarchy and
+setting up a Serbo-Croatian Kingdom. Therefore German and Magyar
+sentiment caught flame, and war with Servia was loudly demanded.
+Dr. Dillon, while minimising the question of the murder, prophesied
+that the quarrel would develop into a gigantic struggle between
+Teuton and Slav<a name="FNanchor550"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_550">[550]</a>. In this connection we must remember
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page640" id="page640"></a>[pg
+640]</span> that the Central Empires had twice dictated to the rest
+of Europe: first, in the Bosnian crisis of 1908-9; secondly, in the
+negotiations which led to the Treaty of Bukharest (August 1913). On
+other occasions Kaiser William had bent the will of Tsar Nicholas
+II., notably in the Potsdam interview of November 1910. It is
+therefore possible that Berlin reckoned once more on the
+complaisance of Russia; and in that event Austria would have
+dragooned Servia and refashioned the Balkan lands at her will,
+Germany meanwhile "keeping the ring." This explanation of the
+crisis is, however, open to the objection that the questions at
+issue more vitally affected Russia than did those of 1908-10, and
+she had nearly recovered normal strength. Unless the politicians of
+Berlin and Vienna were blind, they must have foreseen that Russia
+would aid Servia in resisting the outrageous demands sent from
+Vienna to Belgrade on July 23. Those demands were incompatible with
+Servia's independence; and though she, within the stipulated
+forty-eight hours, acquiesced in all save two of them, the Austrian
+Government declared war (July 28). In so doing it relied on the
+assurances of the German Ambassador, von Tchirsky, that Russia
+would not fight. But by way of retort to the Austrian order for
+complete mobilisation (July 31, 1 A.M.), Russia quite early on that
+same day ordered a similar measure<a name=
+"FNanchor551"></a><a href="#Footnote_551">[551]</a>.</p>
+<p>The procedure of Austria and Germany now claims our attention.
+The policy of Count Berchtold, Austria's Foreign Minister, had
+generally been pacific. On July 28 he yielded to popular clamour
+for war against Servia, but only, it appears, because of his belief
+that "Russia would have no right to intervene after receiving his
+assurance that Austria sought no territorial aggrandisement." On
+July 30 and 31 he consented to continue friendly discussions with
+Russia. Even on August 1 the Austrian Ambassador at Petrograd
+expressed to the Foreign <span class="pagenum"><a name="page641"
+id="page641"></a>[pg 641]</span> Minister, Sazonoff, the hope that
+things had not gone too far<a name="FNanchor552"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_552">[552]</a>. There was then still a hope that Sir
+Edward Grey's offer of friendly mediation might be accepted by
+Germany, Austria, and Russia. But on August 1 Germany declared war
+on Russia.</p>
+<p>It is well to remember that by her action in August 1913 she
+held back Austria from a warlike policy. In July 1914 some of
+Germany's officials knew of the tenor of the Austrian demands on
+the Court of Belgrade; and her Ambassador at Vienna stated on July
+26 that Germany knew what she was doing in backing up Austria.
+Kaiser William, who had been on a yachting cruise, hurriedly
+returned to Berlin on the night of July 26-27. He must have
+approved of Austria's declaration of war against Servia on July 28,
+for on that day his Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, finally rejected
+Sir Edward Grey's proposal of a Peace Conference to settle that
+dispute. The Chancellor then also expressed to our Ambassador, Sir
+Edward Goschen, the belief that Russia had no right to intervene in
+the Austro-Serb affair. The Austrian Ambassador at Berlin also
+opined that "Russia neither wanted nor was in a position to make
+war." This belief was widely expressed in diplomatic circles at
+Berlin. Military men probably viewed matters from that standpoint;
+and in all probability there was a struggle between the civilians
+and the soldiers, which seems to have ended in a victory for the
+latter in an important Council meeting held at Potsdam on the
+evening of July 29. Immediately afterwards the Chancellor summoned
+Sir Edward Goschen and made to him the "infamous proposals" for the
+neutrality of Great Britain in case of a European War, provided
+that Germany (1) would engage to take no territory from the
+mainland of France (he would make no promise respecting the French
+colonies); (2) would respect the neutrality of Holland; (3) would
+restore the independence of Belgium in case the French menace
+compelled her to invade that country.</p>
+<p>These proposals prove that by the evening of July 29
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page642" id="page642"></a>[pg
+642]</span> Germany regarded war as imminent<a name=
+"FNanchor553"></a><a href="#Footnote_553">[553]</a>. But why? Even
+in the East matters did not as yet threaten such a conflict. Russia
+had declared that Servia was not to be made a vassal of the
+Hapsburgs; and, to give effect to that declaration, she had
+mobilised the southern and eastern portions of her forces as a
+retort to a similar partial mobilisation by Austria. But neither
+Russia nor, perhaps, Austria wished for, or expected, a European
+war<a name="FNanchor554"></a><a href="#Footnote_554">[554]</a>.
+Austria seems to have expected a <i>limited</i> war, <i>i.e.</i>
+only with the Serbs. She denied that the Russians had any right to
+intervene so long as she did not annex Serb land. Her aim was to
+reduce the Serbs to vassalage, and she expected Germany
+successfully to prevent Russia's intervention, as in 1909<a name=
+"FNanchor555"></a><a href="#Footnote_555">[555]</a>. The German
+proposals of July 29 are the first clear sign of a general
+conflict; for they presumed the probability of a war with France in
+which Belgium, and perhaps England, might be involved while Holland
+would be left alone. In the course of his remarks the Chancellor
+said that "he had in mind a general neutrality agreement between
+England and Germany"--a reference to the German offers of 1912
+described in this chapter. As at that time the Chancellor sought to
+tie our hands in view of any action by Germany, so, too, at present
+his object clearly was to preclude the possibility of our stirring
+on behalf of Belgium. Both Goschen and Grey must have seen the
+snare. The former referred the proposals to Grey, who of course
+decisively refused them.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page643" id="page643"></a>[pg
+643]</span>
+<p>This was the first of Grey's actions which betokened tension
+with Germany. Up to the 28th his efforts for peace had seemed not
+unlikely to be crowned with success. On July 20, that is three days
+before Austria precipitated the crisis, he begged the Berlin
+Government to seek to moderate her demands on Servia. The day after
+the Austrian Note he urged a Conference between France and England
+on one side and Germany and Italy on the other so as to counsel
+moderation to their respective Allies, Russia and Austria. It was
+Germany and Austria who negatived this by their acts of the 28th.
+Still Grey worked for peace, with the approval of Russia, and, on
+July 30 to August 1, of Austria. But on July 31 and August 1
+occurred events which frustrated these efforts. On July 31 the
+Berlin Government, hearing of the complete mobilisation by Russia
+(a retort to the similar proceeding of Austria a few hours
+earlier), sent a stiff demand to Petrograd for demobilisation
+within twelve hours; also to Paris for a reply within eighteen
+hours whether it would remain neutral in case of a Russo-German
+War.</p>
+<p>Here we must pause to notice that to ask Russia to demobilise,
+without requiring the same measure from Austria, was manifestly
+unjust. Russia could not have assented without occupying an
+inferior position to Austria. If Germany had desired peace, she
+would have suggested the same action for each of the disputants.
+Further, while blaming the Russians for mobilising, she herself had
+taken all the preliminary steps, including what is called
+<i>Kriegsgefahr</i>, which made her army far better prepared for
+war than mobilisation itself did for the Russian Empire in view of
+its comparatively undeveloped railway system. Again, if the Kaiser
+wished to avoid war, why did he not agree to await the arrival (on
+August 1) of the special envoy, Tatisheff, whom, on the night of
+July 30, the Tsar had despatched to Berlin<a name=
+"FNanchor556"></a><a href="#Footnote_556">[556]</a>? There is not a
+single <span class="pagenum"><a name="page644" id="page644"></a>[pg
+644]</span> sign that the Berlin Government really feared "the
+Eastern Colossus," though statements as to "the eastern peril" were
+very serviceable in frightening German Socialists into line.</p>
+<p>The German ultimatum failed to cow Russia; and as she returned
+no answer, the Kaiser declared war on August 1. He added by
+telegram that he had sought, <i>in accord with England,</i> to
+mediate between Russia and Austria, but the Russian mobilisation
+led to his present action. In reply to the German demand at Paris
+the French Premier, M. Viviani, declared on August 1 at 1 P.M. that
+France would do that "which her interests dictated"--an evasive
+reply designed to gain time and to see what course Russia would
+take. The Kaiser having declared war on Russia, France had no
+alternative but to come to the assistance of her Ally. But the
+Kaiser's declaration of war against France did not reach Paris
+until August 3 at 6.45 P.M.<a name="FNanchor557"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_557">[557]</a> His aim was to leave France and Belgium
+in doubt as to his intentions, and meanwhile to mass overwhelming
+forces on their borders, especially that of Belgium.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, on August 1, German officials detained and
+confiscated the cargoes of a few British ships. On August 2 German
+troops violated the neutrality of Luxemburg. On the same day Sir
+Edward Grey assured the French ambassador, M. Paul Cambon, that if
+the German fleet attacked that of France or her coasts, the British
+fleet would afford protection. This assurance depended, however, on
+the sanction of Parliament. It is practically certain that
+Parliament would have sanctioned this proceeding; and, if so, war
+would have come about owing to the naval understanding with
+France<a name="FNanchor558"></a><a href="#Footnote_558">[558]</a>,
+that is, if Germany chose to disregard it. But another incident
+brought matters to a clearer issue. On August 3, German troops
+entered Belgium, though on the previous day the German ambassador
+had assured the Government of King Albert that no such step would
+be taken. The pretext now was that the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page645" id="page645"></a>[pg 645]</span> French
+were about to invade Belgium, as to which there was then, and has
+not been since, any proof whatever.</p>
+<p>Here we must go back in order to understand the action of the
+British, French, and German Governments. They and all the Powers
+had signed the treaty of 1839 guaranteeing the independence of
+Belgium; and nothing had occurred since to end their engagement.
+The German proposals of July 29, 1914, having alarmed Sir Edward
+Grey, he required both from Paris and Berlin assurances that
+neither Power would invade Belgium. That of France on August 1 was
+clear and satisfactory. On July 31 the German Secretary of State,
+von Jagow, declined to give a reply, because "any reply they [the
+Emperor and Chancellor] might give could not but disclose a certain
+amount of their plan of campaign in the event of war ensuing." As
+on August 2 the official assurances of the German ambassador at
+Brussels were satisfactory, the British Foreign Office seems to
+have felt no great alarm on this topic. But at 7 P.M. of that
+evening the same ambassador presented a note from his Government
+demanding the right to march its troops into Belgium in order to
+prevent a similar measure by the French. On the morrow Belgium
+protested against this act, and denied the rumour as to French
+action. King Albert also telegraphed to King George asking for the
+help of the United Kingdom. The tidings reached the British Cabinet
+after it had been carefully considering whether German aggression
+on Belgium would not constitute a <i>casus belli</i><a name=
+"FNanchor559"></a><a href="#Footnote_559">[559]</a>.</p>
+<p>The news of the German demand and the King's appeal reached
+Westminster just before the first debate on August 3. Sir Edward
+Grey stated that we were not parties to the Franco-Russian
+Alliance, of which we did not know the exact terms; and there was
+no binding compact with France; but the conversations on naval
+affairs pledged us to consult her <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"page646" id="page646"></a>[pg 646]</span> with a view to
+preventing an unprovoked attack by the German navy. He explained
+his conditional promise to M. Cambon. Thereupon Mr. Redmond
+promised the enthusiastic support of all Irishmen. Mr. Ramsay
+Macdonald, though demurring to the policy of Sir Edward Grey, said,
+"If the Right Honourable gentleman could come to us and tell us
+that a small European nationality like Belgium is in danger, and
+could assure us that he is going to confine the conflict to that
+question, then we would support him." Now, the Cabinet had by this
+time resolved that the independence of Belgium should be a test
+question, as it was in 1870. Therefore, there seemed the hope that
+not only the Irish but all the Labour party would give united
+support to the Government. By the evening debate official
+information had arrived; and, apart from some cavilling criticisms,
+Parliament was overwhelmingly in favour of decided action on behalf
+of Belgium. Sir Edward Grey despatched to Berlin an ultimatum
+demanding the due recognition of Belgian neutrality by Germany. No
+answer being sent, Great Britain and Germany entered on a state of
+war shortly before midnight of August 4.</p>
+<p>The more fully the facts are known, the clearer appears the
+aggressive character of German policy. Some of her Ministers
+doubted the advisability of war, and hoped to compass their ends by
+threats as in 1909 and 1913; but they were overborne by the
+bellicose party on or shortly before July 29. Whether the Kaiser,
+the Crown Prince, or the General Staff is most to blame, it is idle
+to speculate; but German diplomacy at the crisis shows every sign
+of having been forced on by military men. Bethmann-Hollweg was
+never remarkable for breadth of view and clearness of insight; yet
+he alone could scarcely have perpetrated the follies which
+alienated Italy and outraged the sentiments of the civilised world
+in order to gain a few days' start over France and stab her
+unguarded side. It is a clumsy imitation of the policy of Frederick
+in 1756.</p>
+<p>As to the forbearance of Great Britain at the crisis, few words
+are needed. In earlier times the seizure of British <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page647" id="page647"></a>[pg 647]</span> ships
+and their cargoes (August 1) would have led to a rupture. Clearly,
+Sir Edward Grey and his colleagues clung to peace as long as
+possible. The wisdom of his procedure at one or two points has been
+sharply impugned. Critics have said that early in the crisis he
+should have empowered Sir George Buchanan, our ambassador at
+Petrograd, to join Russia and France in a declaration of our
+resolve to join them in case of war<a name=
+"FNanchor560"></a><a href="#Footnote_560">[560]</a>. But (1) no
+British Minister is justified in committing his country to such a
+course of action. (2) The terms of the Ententes did not warrant it.
+(3) A menace to Germany and Austria would, by the terms of the
+Triple Alliance, have compelled Italy to join them, and it was
+clearly the aim of the British Government to avert such a disaster.
+(4) On July 30 and 31 Grey declared plainly to Germany that she
+must not count on our neutrality in all cases, and that a
+Franco-German War (quite apart from the question of Belgium) would
+probably draw us in<a name="FNanchor561"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_561">[561]</a>.</p>
+<p>Sir Edward is also charged with not making our intentions clear
+as to what would happen in case of the violation of the neutrality
+of Belgium. But he demanded, both from France and Germany,
+assurances that they would respect that neutrality; and on August 1
+he informed the German ambassador in London of our "very great
+regret" at the ambiguity of the German reply. Also, on August 2 the
+German ambassador at Brussels protested that Belgium was quite safe
+so far as concerned Germany<a name="FNanchor562"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_562">[562]</a>. When a great Power gives those
+assurances, it does not improve matters to threaten her with war if
+she breaks them. She broke them on August 3; whereupon Grey took
+the decided action which Haldane had declared in 1912 that we would
+take. The clamour raised in Germany as to <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page648" id="page648"></a>[pg 648]</span> our
+intervention being unexpected is probably the result of blind
+adherence to a preconceived theory and of rage at a "decadent"
+nation daring to oppose an "invincible" nation. The German
+Government of course knew the truth, but its education of public
+opinion through the Press had become a fine art. Therefore, at the
+beginning of the war all Germans believed that France was about to
+invade Belgium, whereupon they stepped in to save her; that the
+Eastern Colossus had precipitated the war by its causeless
+mobilisation (a falsehood which ranged nearly all German Socialists
+on the side of the Government); that Russia and Servia had planned
+the dismemberment of Austria; that, consequently, Teutons (and
+Turks) must fight desperately for national existence in a conflict
+forced upon them by Russia, Servia, and France, England
+perfidiously appearing as a renegade to her race and creed.</p>
+<p>By these falsehoods, dinned into a singularly well-drilled and
+docile people, the Germans were worked up to a state of frenzy for
+an enterprise for which their rulers had been preparing during more
+than a decade. The colossal stores of war material, amassed
+especially in 1913-14 (some of them certain soon to deteriorate),
+the exquisitely careful preparations at all points of the national
+life, including the colonies, refute the fiction that war was
+forced upon Germany. The course of the negotiations preceding the
+war, the assiduous efforts of Germany to foment Labour troubles in
+Russia before the crisis, the unpreparedness of the Allies for the
+fierce and sustained energy of the Teutonic assault,--all these
+symptoms prove the guilt of Germany<a name=
+"FNanchor563"></a><a href="#Footnote_563">[563]</a>. The crowning
+proof is that up to the present (August 1915) she has not issued a
+complete set of diplomatic documents, and not one despatch which
+bears out the Chancellor's statement that he used his influence at
+Vienna for peace. The twenty-nine despatches published in her White
+Book are a mere fragment of her immense diplomatic correspondence
+which she has found it desirable to keep secret, and, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="page649" id="page649"></a>[pg 649]</span> as we
+have seen, her officials suppressed the Tsar's second telegram of
+July 29 urging that the Austro-Serb dispute be referred to the
+Hague Tribunal.</p>
+<p>The sets of despatches published by the Allies show conclusively
+that each of them worked for peace and was surprised by the war.
+Their unpreparedness and the absolute preparedness of Germany have
+appeared so clearly during the course of hostilities as to give the
+lie to the German pamphleteers who have striven to prove that in
+the last resort the war was "a preventive war," that is, designed
+to avert a future conflict at a time unfavourable to Germany. There
+is not a sign that any one of the Powers of the Entente was making
+more than strictly defensive preparations; and, as has been shown,
+the Entente themselves were formed in order to give mutual
+protection in case of aggression from her. The desperate nature of
+that aggression appeared in her unscrupulous but successful efforts
+to force Turkey into war (Oct.-Nov. 1914). No crime against
+Christendom has equalled that whereby the champions of
+<i>Kultur</i> sought to stir up the fanatical passions of the
+Moslem World against Europe. Fortunately, that design has failed;
+and incidentally it added to the motives which have led Italy to
+break loose from the Central Powers and assist the Allies in
+assuring the future of the oppressed nationalities of Europe.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page650" id="page650"></a>[pg
+650]</span>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/650.png" width="80%" alt=""><br>
+<b>Map of Africa (1902)</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_544"></a><a href="#FNanchor544">[544]</a> The
+<i>Temps</i> of March 30, 1913, estimated that Germany would soon
+have 500,000 men in her first line, as against 175,000 French,
+unless France recurred to three years' service. See M. Sembat,
+<i>Faites un Roi, si non faites la Paix.</i></p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_545"></a><a href="#FNanchor545">[545]</a> G.
+Alexinsky, <i>La Russie et la guerre</i>, pp. 83-88.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_546"></a><a href="#FNanchor546">[546]</a>
+General Botha's speech at Cape Town, July 25, 1915.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_547"></a><a href="#FNanchor547">[547]</a>
+Rohrbach, <i>Der deutsche Gedanke in der Welt</i> (1912), p. 216
+(more than 10,000 copies of this work were sold in a year);
+Reventlow, <i>Deutschlands ausw&auml;rtige Politik,</i> p. 251.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_548"></a><a href="#FNanchor548">[548]</a>
+<i>Revue des questions diplomatiques</i> (1913), pp. 417-18.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_549"></a><a href="#FNanchor549">[549]</a>
+Fr&eacute;d&eacute;ric, <i>Hist. de la guerre de sept Ans</i>, i.
+p. 37.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_550"></a><a href="#FNanchor550">[550]</a>
+<i>Daily Telegraph</i>, July 25, 1914.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_551"></a><a href="#FNanchor551">[551]</a>
+<i>J'accuse</i>, pp. 134-5 (German edition). The partial
+mobilisations of Austria and Russia earlier were intended to
+threaten and protect Servia. The time of Austria's order for
+complete mobilisation is shown in French Yellow Book, No. 115. That
+of Russia in Austrian "Rotbuch," No. 52, and Russian Orange Book,
+No. 77.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_552"></a><a href="#FNanchor552">[552]</a>
+Austrian "Rotbuch," Nos. 50-56; British White Papers, Miscellaneous
+(1914), No. 6 (No. 137), and No. 10, p. 3; French Yellow Book, No.
+120.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_553"></a><a href="#FNanchor553">[553]</a> M.
+Jules Cambon telegraphed from Berlin to his Government on July 30
+that late on July 29 Germany had ordered mobilisation, but
+countermanded it in view of the reserve of Sir Edward Goschen as to
+England's attitude, and owing to the Tsar's telegram of July 29 to
+the Kaiser. Berlin papers which had announced the mobilisation were
+seized. All measures preliminary to mobilisation had been taken
+(French Yellow Book, No. 107; German White Book, No. 21).</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_554"></a><a href="#FNanchor554">[554]</a>
+Russian Orange Book, Nos. 25, 40, 43, 58.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_555"></a><a href="#FNanchor555">[555]</a>
+Austrian "Rotbuch," Nos. 28, 31, 44; Brit. White Paper, Nos. 91-97,
+161. <i>J'accuse</i> (III. A) goes too far in accusing Austria of
+consciously provoking a European War; for, as I have shown, she
+wished on August 1 to continue negotiations with Russia. The retort
+that she did so only when she knew that Germany was about to throw
+down the gauntlet, seems to me far-fetched. Besides, Austria was
+not ready; Germany was.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_556"></a><a href="#FNanchor556">[556]</a>
+German White Book, No. 23<i>a</i>; <i>J'accuse</i>, Section III. B,
+pp. 153, 164 (German edit.), shows that the German White Book
+suppressed the Tsar's second telegram of July 29 to the Kaiser,
+inviting him to refer the Austro-Serb dispute to the Hague
+Tribunal. (See, too, J.W. Headlam, <i>History of Twelve Days,</i>
+p. 183.)</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_557"></a><a href="#FNanchor557">[557]</a>
+German White Book, Nos. 26, 27; French Yellow Book, No. 147.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_558"></a><a href="#FNanchor558">[558]</a>
+British White Paper, No. 105 and <i>Enclosures</i>, also No.
+116.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_559"></a><a href="#FNanchor559">[559]</a>
+British White Paper, Nos. 123, 151, 153; Belgian Grey Book, Nos.
+20-25. For a full and convincing refutation of the German charges
+that our military attach&eacute;s at Brussels in 1906 and 1912 had
+bound us by <i>conventions</i>(!) to land an army in Belgium, see
+second Belgian Grey Book, pp. 103-6; Headlam, <i>op. cit.</i>, ch.
+xvi., also p. 377, on the charge that France was about to invade
+Belgium.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_560"></a><a href="#FNanchor560">[560]</a>
+British White Paper, Nos. 6, 24, 99; Russian Orange Book, No.
+17.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_561"></a><a href="#FNanchor561">[561]</a>
+British White Paper, Nos. 101, 102, 111, 114, 119. I dissent from
+Mr. F.S. Oliver (<i>Ordeal by Battle,</i> pp. 30-34) on the
+question discussed above. For other arguments, see my <i>Origins of
+the War,</i> pp. 167-9. The ties binding Roumania to Germany and
+Austria were looser; but anything of the nature of a general threat
+to the Central Powers would probably have ranged her too on their
+side.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_562"></a><a href="#FNanchor562">[562]</a>
+British White Paper, Nos. 114, 122, 123, 125; Belgian Grey Book,
+No. 19.</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_563"></a><a href="#FNanchor563">[563]</a> See
+the damning indictment by a German in <i>J'accuse</i>, Section
+III., also the thorough and judicial examination by J.W. Headlam,
+<i>The History of Twelve Days</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page651" id="page651"></a>[pg
+651]</span>
+<h2><a name="INDEX."></a>INDEX.</h2>
+<div class="indx">
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Abdul, Aziz <a href="#page168">168-9</a></p>
+<p>Abdul Hamid II., <a href="#page169">169-70</a>, <a href=
+"#page174">174</a>, <a href="#page177">177-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page185">185-6</a>, <a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href=
+"#page223">223-4</a>, <a href="#page238">238</a>, <a href=
+"#page245">245-9</a>, <a href="#page259">259</a>, <a href=
+"#page266">266-9</a>, <a href="#page274">274-5</a>, <a href=
+"#page277">277</a>, <a href="#page285">285</a>, <a href=
+"#page328">328</a>, <a href="#page436">436</a>, <a href=
+"#page447">447-8</a>, <a href="#page453">453</a>, <a href=
+"#page457">457</a>, <a href="#page591">591-2</a>, <a href=
+"#page618">618</a></p>
+<p>Abdul Kerim, <a href="#page194">194-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page200">200</a>, <a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href=
+"#page206">206</a></p>
+<p>Abdur Rahman, <a href="#page389">389</a>, <a href=
+"#page400">400</a>, <a href="#page404">404-5</a>, <a href=
+"#page407">407</a>, <a href="#page417">417</a>, <a href=
+"#page418">418-19</a>, <a href="#page428">428-31</a>, <a href=
+"#page433">433</a></p>
+<p>Abeken, Herr, <a href="#page044">44</a></p>
+<p>Abu Klea, Battle of, <a href="#page480">480</a></p>
+<p>Abyssinia, <a href="#page335">335</a>, <a href=
+"#page487">487</a>, <a href="#page504">504</a></p>
+<p>Adam, Mme, <a href="#page333">333</a></p>
+<p>Adrianople, <a href="#page221">221</a>, <a href=
+"#page223">223</a>, <a href="#page229">229</a>, <a href=
+"#page251">251</a>, <a href="#page270">270</a></p>
+<p>Aehrenthal, Count, <a href="#page613">613-4</a></p>
+<p>Afghanistan, <a href="#page334">334</a>, <a href=
+"#page345">345-6</a>, <a href="#page366">366</a>, <a href=
+"#page378">378-9</a>, <a href="#page386">386-91</a>, <a href=
+"#page472">472</a>, <a href="#page527">527</a></p>
+<p class="i1">War in (1878-9), chap. <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_XIV">xiv</a>. <a href="#page394">394</a>
+<i>passim</i></p>
+<p>Africa, Partition of, chap. <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">xviii</a>,
+<i>passim</i>, <a href="#page586">586</a></p>
+<p>Africa, South-West, <a href="#page635">635-6</a></p>
+<p>Agadir, Coup d', <a href="#page621">621</a>, <a href=
+"#page623">623</a>, <a href="#page625">625</a></p>
+<p>Albania, <a href="#page158">158</a>, <a href=
+"#page229">229</a></p>
+<p>Albania, autonomy of, <a href="#page630">630-1</a></p>
+<p>Albert, King of Belgium, <a href="#page644">644-5</a></p>
+<p>Albrecht, Archduke, <a href="#page033">33-6</a></p>
+<p>Alexander I., <a href="#page031">31</a>, <a href=
+"#page160">160-1</a>, <a href="#page297">297</a>, <a href=
+"#page364">364</a></p>
+<p>Alexander II., <a href="#page145">145</a>, <a href=
+"#page167">167</a>, <a href="#page173">173-5</a>, <a href=
+"#page180">180-83</a>, <a href="#page192">192</a>, <a href=
+"#page204">204-5</a>, <a href="#page209">209-10</a>, <a href=
+"#page215">215</a>, <a href="#page222">222-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page234">234</a>, <a href="#page254">254-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page289">289</a>, <a href="#page293">293</a>, <a href=
+"#page295">295-8</a>, <a href="#page306">306</a>, <a href=
+"#page308">308</a>, <a href="#page313">313</a>, <a href=
+"#page318">318</a>, <a href="#page322">322</a>, <a href=
+"#page325">325</a>, <a href="#page355">355</a>, <a href=
+"#page398">398-9</a></p>
+<p>Alexander III., <a href="#page255">255-65</a>, <a href=
+"#page272">272-86</a>, <a href="#page298">298-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page301">301-4</a>, <a href="#page309">309-11</a>, <a href=
+"#page331">331</a>, <a href="#page337">337</a>, <a href=
+"#page340">340</a>, <a href="#page343">343-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page423">423-4</a>, <a href="#page428">428-9</a></p>
+<p>Alexander, Prince of Bulgaria, <a href="#page254">254</a>,
+<a href="#page260">260-82</a>, <a href="#page286">286</a>, <a href=
+"#page339">339</a>, <a href="#page428">428</a></p>
+<p>Alexandretta, <a href="#page622">622</a></p>
+<p>Alexandria, bombardment of, <a href="#page450">450-52</a></p>
+<p>Alfonso, King of Spain, <a href="#page619">619</a></p>
+<p><i>Algeciras</i>, Conference of, <a href="#page604">604</a>,
+<a href="#page606">606-8</a>, <a href="#page610">610</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Act of, <a href="#page607">607</a></p>
+<p>Alikhanoff, M., <a href="#page424">424</a></p>
+<p>Alsace, <a href="#page094">94</a>, <a href="#page105">105</a>,
+<a href="#page132">132</a>, <a href="#page133">133-4</a></p>
+<p>Alvensleben, General von, <a href="#page061">61</a>, <a href=
+"#page065">65-7</a>, <a href="#page077">77</a></p>
+<p>Amur, river, <a href="#page571">571</a>, <a href=
+"#page572">572</a>, <a href="#page580">580</a></p>
+<p>Andrassy, Count, <a href="#page164">164</a>, <a href=
+"#page232">232</a>, <a href="#page599">599</a></p>
+<p>Andr&eacute;, General, <a href="#page600">600</a></p>
+<p>Anglo-French Entente (1904), <a href="#page601">601-4</a>,
+<a href="#page606">606</a>, <a href="#page607">607</a>, <a href=
+"#page609">609</a>, <a href="#page622">622</a>, <a href=
+"#page626">626</a>, <a href="#page636">636</a></p>
+<p>Anglo-German Agreement (1890), <a href="#page520">520-523</a>,
+<a href="#page525">525</a>, <a href="#page532">532</a></p>
+<p>Anglo-Japanese Compact, <a href="#page597">597-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page602">602</a></p>
+<p>Anglo-Russian Conventions, <a href="#page608">608-10</a></p>
+<p>Angra Peque&ntilde;a, <a href="#page523">523</a>, <a href=
+"#page524">524</a></p>
+<p>Antonelli, Cardinal, <a href="#page089">89</a></p>
+<p>Arabi Pasha, <a href="#page266">266</a>, <a href=
+"#page444">444</a>, <a href="#page447">447-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page452">452</a>, <a href="#page453">453-7</a></p>
+<p>Archinard, M., <a href="#page539">539</a></p>
+<p>Argyll, Duke of, <a href="#page371">371-2</a>, <a href=
+"#page376">376</a>, <a href="#page417">417</a></p>
+<p>Armenia, <a href="#page220">220</a>, <a href="#page229">229</a>,
+<a href="#page242">242</a>, <a href="#page244">244</a>, <a href=
+"#page250">250</a>, <a href="#page307">307</a></p>
+<p>Army Bill, French (1875), <a href="#page119">119</a>, <a href=
+"#page121">121-2</a></p>
+<p>Arnim, Count von, <a href="#page123">123</a>, <a href=
+"#page318">318</a></p>
+<p>Artomoroff, Colonel, <a href="#page504">504</a></p>
+<p>Asquith, H.H., <a href="#page626">626-8</a></p>
+<p>Atbara, Battle of the, <a href="#page490">490-91</a></p>
+<p>Augustenburg, Duke of, <a href="#page016">16</a></p>
+<p>Aumale, Duc d', <a href="#page117">117</a></p>
+<p>Austria, <a href="#page004">4-23</a>, <a href=
+"#page032">32-7</a>, <a href="#page055">55</a>, <a href=
+"#page063">63</a>, <a href="#page137">137</a>, <a href=
+"#page148">148</a>, <a href="#page164">164</a>, <a href=
+"#page177">177</a>, <a href="#page180">180-81</a>, <a href=
+"#page184">184-6</a>, <a href="#page194">194</a>, <a href=
+"#page227">227-8</a>, <a href="#page231">231</a>, <a href=
+"#page232">232</a>, <a href="#page238">238</a>, <a href=
+"#page242">242</a>, <a href="#page246">246</a>, <a href=
+"#page257">257-8</a>, <a href="#page259">259</a>, <a href=
+"#page271">271</a>, <a href="#page282">282</a>, <a href=
+"#page284">284</a>, <a href="#page318">318</a>, <a href=
+"#page320">320</a>, <a href="#page323">323-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page331">331-3</a>, <a href="#page350">350-51</a>, <a href=
+"#page485">485</a>, <a href="#page585">585</a>, <a href=
+"#page592">592-3</a>, <a href="#page601">601</a>, <a href=
+"#page604">604</a>, <a href="#page607">607</a>, <a href=
+"#page609">609</a>, <a href="#page612">612-17</a>, <a href=
+"#page622">622</a>, <a href="#page629">629-32</a>, <a href=
+"#page634">634</a>, <a href="#page637">637</a>, <a href=
+"#page639">639</a>, <a href="#page644">644</a>, <a href=
+"#page647">647</a>, <a href="#page649">649</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Army of, <a href="#page635">635</a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page652" id="page652"></a>[pg
+652]</span>
+<p>Austro-German Alliance, <a href="#page324">324-7</a></p>
+<p>Austro-Prussian War (1866), <a href="#page017">17-21</a></p>
+<p>Austro-Russian Agreements (1897 and 1903), <a href=
+"#page615">615</a></p>
+<p>Austro-Russian Treaty (1877), <a href="#page179">179-180</a></p>
+<p>Ayub Khan, <a href="#page407">407</a>, <a href=
+"#page415">415</a>, <a href="#page418">418-9</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Baden, <a href="#page012">12</a>, <a href="#page021">21</a></p>
+<p>Baden, Grand Duke of, <a href="#page130">130</a></p>
+<p>Baert, Captain, <a href="#page564">564</a></p>
+<p>Bagdad Railway, <a href="#page591">591-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page609">609</a>, <a href="#page615">615</a>, <a href=
+"#page622">622</a>, <a href="#page637">637</a></p>
+<p>Bahr-el-Ghazal, the, <a href="#page504">504</a>, <a href=
+"#page506">506</a>, <a href="#page552">552</a>, <a href=
+"#page558">558-9</a></p>
+<p>Bakunin, <a href="#page282">292-5</a></p>
+<p>Balfour, Mr. A., <a href="#page431">431-2</a></p>
+<p>Balkan League, the, <a href="#page629">629</a>, <a href=
+"#page632">632</a></p>
+<p>Balkan Peninsula, <a href="#page025">25</a>, <a href=
+"#page332">332</a></p>
+<p>Balkan Question, the, <a href="#page631">631-2</a></p>
+<p>Balkan States, <a href="#page586">586</a>, <a href=
+"#page592">592</a>, <a href="#page616">616</a>, <a href=
+"#page628">628-9</a>, <a href="#page633">633</a></p>
+<p>Balkan War (1912), <a href="#page624">624</a>, <a href=
+"#page629">629-31</a>, <a href="#page633">633</a></p>
+<p>Balkh, <a href="#page399">399</a>, <a href=
+"#page433">433</a></p>
+<p>Baluchistan, <a href="#page367">367</a>, <a href=
+"#page381">381</a>, <a href="#page384">384-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page432">432</a></p>
+<p><a name="Baring"></a>Baring, Sir E., <a href="#page463">463</a>,
+<a href="#page466">466-473</a></p>
+<p>Batak, <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href=
+"#page171">171</a></p>
+<p>Batoum, <a href="#page205">205</a>, <a href="#page229">229</a>,
+<a href="#page234">234</a>, <a href="#page241">241</a>, <a href=
+"#page276">276</a></p>
+<p>Bavaria, <a href="#page018">18</a>, <a href="#page020">20</a>,
+<a href="#page021">21</a>, <a href="#page131">131</a>, <a href=
+"#page133">133-5</a></p>
+<p>Bazaine, Marshall, <a href="#page063">63-5</a>, <a href=
+"#page067">67-73</a>, <a href="#page075">75-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page097">97</a></p>
+<p>Bazeilles, <a href="#page079">79-82</a></p>
+<p><a name="Beaconsfield"></a>Beaconsfield, Earl of, <a href=
+"#page029">29</a>, <a href="#page165">165-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page171">171</a>, <a href="#page175">175</a>, <a href=
+"#page181">181</a>, <a href="#page182">182</a>, <a href=
+"#page187">187-8</a>, <a href="#page220">220</a>, <a href=
+"#page231">231</a>, <a href="#page232">232-3</a>, <a href=
+"#page234">234</a>, <a href="#page236">236-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page240">240-41</a>, <a href="#page243">243-5</a>, <a href=
+"#page287">287</a>, <a href="#page328">328</a>, <a href=
+"#page380">380</a>, <a href="#page282">282-3</a>, <a href=
+"#page391">391-3</a>, <a href="#page400">400</a>, <a href=
+"#page405">405</a>, <a href="#page440">440</a>, <a href=
+"#page516">516</a></p>
+<p>Beaumont, Battle of, <a href="#page078">78</a></p>
+<p>Bebel, Herr, <a href="#page589">589</a></p>
+<p>Bechuanaland, <a href="#page530">530-33</a></p>
+<p>Beernaert, M., <a href="#page556">556</a></p>
+<p>Belfort, <a href="#page098">98</a>, <a href="#page104">104</a>,
+<a href="#page105">105</a></p>
+<p>Belgium, <a href="#page005">5</a>, <a href="#page016">16</a>,
+<a href="#page026">26</a>, <a href="#page148">148</a>, <a href=
+"#page550">550-52</a>, <a href="#page555">555-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page567">567</a>, <a href="#page625">625</a>, <a href=
+"#page627">627-8</a>, <a href="#page638">638-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page641">641-2</a>, <a href="#page644">644-8</a></p>
+<p>Bendereff, <a href="#page271">271</a>, <a href=
+"#page278">278-9</a></p>
+<p>Benedek, General, <a href="#page018">18</a></p>
+<p>Benedetti, M., <a href="#page040">40-43</a>, <a href=
+"#page048">48</a></p>
+<p>Bentley, Rev. W.H., <a href="#page546">546</a></p>
+<p>Berber, <a href="#page473">473</a>, <a href="#page475">475</a>,
+<a href="#page478">478</a>, <a href="#page488">488</a>, <a href=
+"#page490">490</a></p>
+<p>Berchtold, Count, <a href="#page640">640</a></p>
+<p>Beresford, Lord Charles, <a href="#page480">480</a></p>
+<p>Berlin Conference (1885), <a href="#page548">548-50</a>,
+<a href="#page552">552</a>, <a href="#page559">559</a>, <a href=
+"#page562">562</a>, <a href="#page567">567</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Congress of (1878), <a href="#page228">228</a>,
+<a href="#page235">235-42</a>, <a href="#page247">247</a>, <a href=
+"#page259">259</a>, <a href="#page323">323</a>, <a href=
+"#page328">328</a>, <a href="#page345">345</a>, <a href=
+"#page388">388</a>, <a href="#page513">513</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Memorandum, the, <a href="#page167">167-9</a>,
+<a href="#page181">181</a></p>
+<p>Berlin, Treaty of (1878), <a href="#page237">237-42</a>,
+<a href="#page253">253</a>, <a href="#page267">267-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page275">275</a>, <a href="#page291">291</a>, <a href=
+"#page332">332</a>, <a href="#page353">353</a>, <a href=
+"#page612">612</a>, <a href="#page629">629</a></p>
+<p>Bernhardi, General von, <a href="#page625">625-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page638">638</a></p>
+<p>Besika Bay, <a href="#page168">168</a>, <a href=
+"#page171">171</a>, <a href="#page172">172</a>, <a href=
+"#page177">177</a>, <a href="#page224">224</a></p>
+<p>Bessarabia, <a href="#page160">160</a>, <a href=
+"#page205">205</a>, <a href="#page230">230</a>, <a href=
+"#page234">234</a>, <a href="#page260">260</a></p>
+<p>Bethman-Hollweg, Chancellor, <a href="#page620">620</a>,
+<a href="#page623">623</a>, <a href="#page625">625</a>, <a href=
+"#page627">627</a>, <a href="#page633">633-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page641">641-2</a>, <a href="#page645">645-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page648">648</a></p>
+<p>Beust, Count von, <a href="#page032">32</a>, <a href=
+"#page036">36</a>, <a href="#page037">37</a></p>
+<p>Biarritz, <a href="#page016">16</a></p>
+<p>Biddulph, General, <a href="#page398">398</a></p>
+<p>Bismarck, Prince Otto von, <a href="#page008">8</a>, <a href=
+"#page012">12-22</a>, <a href="#page027">27</a>, <a href=
+"#page030">30</a>, <a href="#page031">31</a>, <a href=
+"#page039">39</a>, <a href="#page041">41-49</a>, <a href=
+"#page085">85</a>, <a href="#page086">86</a>, <a href=
+"#page089">89</a>, <a href="#page094">94</a>, <a href=
+"#page097">97</a>, <a href="#page103">103-5</a>, <a href=
+"#page109">109</a>, <a href="#page114">114</a>, <a href=
+"#page118">118</a>, <a href="#page123">123</a>, <a href=
+"#page129">129-32</a>, <a href="#page137">137</a>, <a href=
+"#page140">140</a>, <a href="#page141">141</a>, <a href=
+"#page153">153</a>, <a href="#page164">164</a>, <a href=
+"#page168">168</a>, <a href="#page173">173</a>, <a href=
+"#page184">184</a>, <a href="#page228">228</a>, <a href=
+"#page257">257</a>, <a href="#page261">261</a>, <a href=
+"#page282">282</a>, <a href="#page317">317-27</a>, <a href=
+"#page332">332</a>, <a href="#page335">335</a>, <a href=
+"#page336">336-8</a>, <a href="#page342">342</a>, <a href=
+"#page426">426</a>, <a href="#page446">446</a>, <a href=
+"#page457">457</a>, <a href="#page513">513-15</a>, <a href=
+"#page520">520-21</a>, <a href="#page527">527</a>, <a href=
+"#page528">528</a>, <a href="#page534">534</a>, <a href=
+"#page547">547</a>, <a href="#page548">548</a>, <a href=
+"#page590">590</a>, <a href="#page599">599</a>, <a href=
+"#page609">609</a></p>
+<p class="i1">and "Protection," <a href="#page141">141-150</a></p>
+<p>Bismarck, Count Herbert, <a href="#page523">523-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page528">528</a></p>
+<p>Blagovestchensk, <a href="#page584">584</a></p>
+<p>Blowitz, M. de, <a href="#page321">321-2</a></p>
+<p>Blumenthal, Count von, <a href="#page072">72</a>, <a href=
+"#page077">77</a>, <a href="#page085">85</a>, <a href=
+"#page094">94</a></p>
+<p>Boer War, <a href="#page585">585-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page590">590</a>, <a href="#page597">597-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page610">610</a>, <a href="#page636">636</a></p>
+<p>Bokhara, <a href="#page365">365</a>, <a href=
+"#page371">371</a></p>
+<p>Bonnier, M., <a href="#page539">539</a></p>
+<p>Bordeaux, <a href="#page098">98</a>, <a href="#page099">99</a>,
+<a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href="#page105">105</a>, <a href=
+"#page106">106</a>, <a href="#page116">116</a>, <a href=
+"#page118">118</a></p>
+<p>Bosnia, <a href="#page163">163</a>, <a href="#page168">168</a>,
+<a href="#page238">238</a>, <a href="#page242">242</a>, <a href=
+"#page258">258</a>, <a href="#page332">332</a></p>
+<p>Bosnia-Herzegovina, annexation of, <a href="#page612">612</a>,
+<i>seq</i>. <a href="#page640">640</a></p>
+<p>Botha, General, <a href="#page598">598</a></p>
+<p>Boulanger, General, <a href="#page126">126</a>, <a href=
+"#page333">333</a>, <a href="#page337">337</a>, <a href=
+"#page339">339</a>, <a href="#page341">341</a></p>
+<p>Bourbaki, General, <a href="#page098">98</a></p>
+<p>Bourbon, House of, <a href="#page003">3-6</a></p>
+<p>Bourgas, <a href="#page278">278</a></p>
+<p>Bourgeois, M., <a href="#page504">504</a></p>
+<p>Boxer Movement, the, <a href="#page583">583</a></p>
+<p>Boxer Rising in China (1900), <a href="#page588">588</a>,
+<a href="#page595">595</a></p>
+<p>Brazza, M. de, <a href="#page546">546</a></p>
+<p>Bremen, <a href="#page132">132</a>, <a href=
+"#page142">142</a></p>
+<p>Bright, Mr. J., <a href="#page417">417</a>, <a href=
+"#page452">452</a></p>
+<p>British Central Africa Protectorate, <a href=
+"#page533">533</a></p>
+<p>Broadwood, General, <a href="#page487">487</a>, <a href=
+"#page496">496</a>, <a href="#page498">498</a></p>
+<p>Browne, General Sir Samuel, <a href="#page394">394</a></p>
+<p>Brussels, Conference at (1876), <a href="#page545">545</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Anti-Slavery Conference at, <a href=
+"#page534">534</a></p>
+<p>Buchanan, Sir George, <a href="#page647">647</a></p>
+<p>Bukharest, Peace of (1913), <a href="#page631">631-2</a>,
+<a href="#page637">637</a>, <a href="#page639">639</a></p>
+<p>Bukharest, Treaty of (1886), <a href="#page272">272</a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page653" id="page653"></a>[pg
+653]</span>
+<p>Bulgaria, <a href="#page157">157-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page163">163</a>, <a href="#page170">170-72</a>, <a href=
+"#page176">176</a>, <a href="#page180">180</a>, <a href=
+"#page225">225</a>, <a href="#page229">229-30</a>, <a href=
+"#page234">234</a>, <a href="#page237">237-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page251">251-288</a>, <a href="#page302">302</a>, <a href=
+"#page233">333</a>, <a href="#page334">334</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Campaigns in, <a href="#page194">194-216</a></p>
+<p>B&uuml;low, Prince von, <a href="#page588">588-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page596">596</a>, <a href="#page603">603</a>, <a href=
+"#page605">605</a>, <a href="#page607">607</a>, <a href=
+"#page617">617</a></p>
+<p>Bundesrath, the, <a href="#page133">133-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page138">138</a></p>
+<p>Burmah, <a href="#page527">527</a>, <a href=
+"#page530">530</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Annexation of, <a href="#page432">432</a></p>
+<p>Burnaby, Colonel, <a href="#page480">480</a></p>
+<p>Burrows, Brigadier-General, <a href="#page407">407</a></p>
+<p>Busa, <a href="#page540">540</a></p>
+<p>Busch, Dr., <a href="#page022">22</a>, <a href=
+"#page143">143</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Cabul, <a href="#page370">370</a>, <a href="#page381">381</a>,
+<a href="#page383">383</a>, <a href="#page387">387</a>, <a href=
+"#page388">388</a>, <a href="#page390">390</a>, <a href=
+"#page401">401-5</a>, <a href="#page412">412-413</a>, <a href=
+"#page431">431</a></p>
+<p>Cabul, Treaty of (1905), <a href="#page435">435</a></p>
+<p>Cairo, capture of, <a href="#page455">455-6</a></p>
+<p>Cairoli, Signor, <a href="#page329">329</a></p>
+<p>"Caisse de la Delte" (Egyptian), <a href="#page442">442</a>,
+<a href="#page459">459</a></p>
+<p>Cambon, Jules, <a href="#page620">620</a></p>
+<p class="i2">Paul, <a href="#page644">644</a>, <a href=
+"#page646">646</a></p>
+<p>Cameroons, <a href="#page528">528</a>, <a href=
+"#page533">533-6</a></p>
+<p>Candahar, <a href="#page367">367</a>, <a href=
+"#page381">381</a>, <a href="#page387">387</a>, <a href=
+"#page398">398</a>, <a href="#page405">405</a>, <a href=
+"#page407">407</a>, <a href="#page413">413-18</a>, <a href=
+"#page432">432</a></p>
+<p>Canning, Lord, <a href="#page368">368</a></p>
+<p>Canrobert, Marshal, <a href="#page072">72</a></p>
+<p>Caprivi, Count, <a href="#page520">520</a></p>
+<p>Carnarvon, Lord, <a href="#page225">225</a>, <a href=
+"#page525">525</a></p>
+<p>Carnot, President Sadi, <a href="#page127">127</a></p>
+<p>Casement, Mr. Roger, <a href="#page558">558</a>, <a href=
+"#page560">560-62</a>, <a href="#page565">565</a>, <a href=
+"#page566">566</a></p>
+<p>Cassini, Count, <a href="#page580">580</a></p>
+<p>Catharine II., <a href="#page361">361</a></p>
+<p>Cattier, M., <a href="#page552">552</a>, <a href=
+"#page563">563</a>, <a href="#page564">564</a></p>
+<p>Cavagnari, Sir Louis, <a href="#page401">401</a></p>
+<p>Cavour, Count, <a href="#page008">8-11</a>, <a href=
+"#page013">13</a>, <a href="#page090">90</a>, <a href=
+"#page142">142</a>, <a href="#page161">161</a></p>
+<p>Centralisation of Governments, <a href="#page111">111-112</a>,
+<a href="#page315">315</a></p>
+<p>Chad, Lake, <a href="#page537">537</a></p>
+<p>Ch&acirc;lons-sur-Marne, <a href="#page068">68</a>, <a href=
+"#page074">74</a>, <a href="#page075">75</a></p>
+<p>Chamberlain, Mr., <a href="#page417">417</a></p>
+<p>Chambord, Comte de, <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href=
+"#page122">122</a>, <a href="#page123">123</a></p>
+<p>Charasia, Battle of (1878), <a href="#page402">402-3</a></p>
+<p>Charles, King of Roumania, <a href="#page192">192</a>, <a href=
+"#page206">206</a>, <a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href=
+"#page215">215</a>, <a href="#page230">230</a>, <a href=
+"#page262">262</a>, <a href="#page632">632</a></p>
+<p>Charles Albert, King, <a href="#page006">6-8</a></p>
+<p>Chevket Pacha, <a href="#page626">626</a></p>
+<p>China, <a href="#page568">568</a>, <a href="#page571">571-2</a>,
+<a href="#page576">576-82</a>, <a href="#page595">595-7</a></p>
+<p>Chino-Japanese War, <a href="#page576">576-7</a></p>
+<p>Chitral, <a href="#page386">386</a>, <a href="#page388">388</a>,
+<a href="#page433">433</a></p>
+<p>Chotek, Countess, <a href="#page613">613</a></p>
+<p>Christian IX., <a href="#page014">14</a></p>
+<p>Churchill, Winston, <a href="#page627">627</a>, <a href=
+"#page634">634</a></p>
+<p>Clement, Bishop, <a href="#page280">280</a>, <a href=
+"#page282">282</a></p>
+<p>Cobden, Mr., <a href="#page142">142</a></p>
+<p>Colombey, Battle of, <a href="#page063">63-5</a></p>
+<p>Combes, M., <a href="#page349">349</a>, <a href=
+"#page600">600</a></p>
+<p>Congo Free State, the, <a href="#page502">502</a>, <a href=
+"#page541">541</a>, <i>passim</i> chap. <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_XIX">xix</a>.</p>
+<p>Congo, French, <a href="#page622">622</a>, <a href=
+"#page625">625</a></p>
+<p>Constantinople, Conference of (1876), <a href=
+"#page174">174</a>, <a href="#page176">176-9</a></p>
+<p>Constitution, French (1875), <a href="#page124">124-5</a></p>
+<p class="i1">German, <a href="#page132">132-7</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Turkish (1876), <a href="#page177">177-9</a></p>
+<p>Constitution of Finland, <a href="#page308">308</a>, <a href=
+"#page309">309</a></p>
+<p>Cossacks, the, <a href="#page360">360-62</a>, <a href=
+"#page344">434</a>, <a href="#page435">435</a>, <a href=
+"#page453">453</a></p>
+<p>Coulmiers, Battle of, <a href="#page097">97</a></p>
+<p>Cranbrook, Lord, <a href="#page387">387</a></p>
+<p>Crete, <a href="#page240">240</a>, <a href=
+"#page248">248</a></p>
+<p>Crimean War, <a href="#page008">8</a>, <a href=
+"#page013">13</a>, <a href="#page030">30</a>, <a href=
+"#page031">31</a>, <a href="#page161">161-2</a>, <a href=
+"#page345">345</a>, <a href="#page365">365</a>, <a href=
+"#page425">425</a>, <a href="#page434">434</a></p>
+<p>Crispi, Signor, <a href="#page336">336</a>, <a href=
+"#page337">337</a>, <a href="#page355">355</a>, <a href=
+"#page600">600</a></p>
+<p>Cromer, Lord. <i>See</i> <a href="#Baring">Baring, Sir
+E.</a></p>
+<p>Cronstadt, <a href="#page343">343</a>, <a href=
+"#page346">346</a></p>
+<p>Crown Prince of Saxony, <a href="#page074">74</a>, <a href=
+"#page130">130</a></p>
+<p>Currie, Sir Donald, <a href="#page524">524</a>, <a href=
+"#page528">528</a></p>
+<p>Curzon, Lord, <a href="#page423">423</a>, <a href=
+"#page431">431</a>, <a href="#page432">432</a>, <a href=
+"#page576">576</a></p>
+<p>Cyprus, <a href="#page328">328</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Convention, <a href="#page234">234-5</a>, <a href=
+"#page243">243-4</a>, <a href="#page250">250</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Dahomey, <a href="#page539">539</a></p>
+<p>Dalmatia, <a href="#page329">329</a></p>
+<p>Dalny, <a href="#page583">583</a></p>
+<p>Dardanelles, the, <a href="#page168">168</a>, <a href=
+"#page222">222</a>, <a href="#page224">224</a>, <a href=
+"#page225">225</a>, <a href="#page241">241</a></p>
+<p>Decazes, Duc, <a href="#page321">321-2</a>, <a href=
+"#page440">440</a></p>
+<p>Delagoa Bay, <a href="#page525">525-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page528">528</a>, <a href="#page534">534</a></p>
+<p>Delcass&eacute;, M., <a href="#page587">587</a>, <a href=
+"#page601">601</a>, <a href="#page606">606</a>, <a href=
+"#page607">607</a></p>
+<p><a name="Denghil_Tepe"></a>Denghil Tepe, Battle of, <a href=
+"#page420">420-23</a>, <a href="#page500">500</a></p>
+<p>Denmark, <a href="#page004">4</a>, <a href="#page005">5</a>,
+<a href="#page013">13-16</a>, <a href="#page035">35</a></p>
+<p>Depretis, Signor, <a href="#page329">329</a>, <a href=
+"#page335">335-6</a>, <a href="#page355">355</a></p>
+<p>Derby, Lord, <a href="#page166">166</a>, <a href=
+"#page176">176</a>, <a href="#page178">178</a>, <a href=
+"#page181">181</a>, <a href="#page222">222</a>, <a href=
+"#page224">224</a>, <a href="#page225">225</a>, <a href=
+"#page226">226</a>, <a href="#page231">231</a>, <a href=
+"#page243">243</a>, <a href="#page440">440</a>, <a href=
+"#page524">524</a>, <a href="#page530">530</a></p>
+<p>De Wet, General, <a href="#page598">598</a>, <a href=
+"#page635">635</a></p>
+<p>Dhanis, Commandant, <a href="#page553">553</a></p>
+<p>Dilke, Sir Charles, <a href="#page465">465</a>, <a href=
+"#page563">563</a></p>
+<p>Dillon, Dr., <a href="#page639">639</a></p>
+<p>Disraeli. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Beaconsfield">Beaconsfield</a></p>
+<p>Dobrudscha, <a href="#page197">197</a>, <a href=
+"#page199">199</a>, <a href="#page229">229-30</a>, <a href=
+"#page240">240</a></p>
+<p>Dodds, Colonel, <a href="#page539">539</a></p>
+<p>Dolgorukoff, General, <a href="#page280">280-81</a></p>
+<p>Dongola, <a href="#page474">474</a>, <a href="#page476">476</a>,
+<a href="#page479">479</a>, <a href="#page488">488</a>, <a href=
+"#page489">489</a></p>
+<p>Dost Mohammed, <a href="#page368">368</a>, <a href=
+"#page379">379</a></p>
+<p>Dragomiroff, General, <a href="#page197">197</a></p>
+<p>Dreyfus, M., <a href="#page600">600</a></p>
+<p>Drouyn de Lhuys, <a href="#page020">20</a></p>
+<p>Drury Lowe, General Sir, <a href="#page454">454-6</a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page654" id="page654"></a>[pg
+654]</span>
+<p><a name="Dual_Alliance"></a>Dual Alliance, <a href=
+"#page342">342-50</a>, <a href="#page587">587-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page590">590</a>, <a href="#page599">599</a>, <a href=
+"#page609">609</a>, <a href="#page616">616</a>, <a href=
+"#page644">644</a></p>
+<p>Dual Control, the (in Egypt), <a href="#page442">442</a>,
+<a href="#page443">443</a>, <a href="#page445">445</a>, <a href=
+"#page457">457</a></p>
+<p>Ducrot, General, <a href="#page080">80</a>, <a href=
+"#page081">81</a>, <a href="#page083">83</a></p>
+<p>Dufaure, M., <a href="#page126">126</a>, <a href=
+"#page245">245</a>, <a href="#page246">246</a></p>
+<p>Dufferin, Lord, <a href="#page326">326</a>, <a href=
+"#page424">424</a>, <a href="#page426">426-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page429">429</a>, <a href="#page458">458</a>, <a href=
+"#page461">461-2</a></p>
+<p>Dulcigno, <a href="#page246">246-7</a></p>
+<p>Durand, Sir Mortimer, <a href="#page433">433</a></p>
+<p>Durbar at Delhi (1878), <a href="#page383">383</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>East Africa (British), <a href="#page520">520-21</a>, <a href=
+"#page523">523</a></p>
+<p class="i1">(German), <a href="#page520">520-23</a></p>
+<p>East Africa Company (British), <a href="#page519">519-22</a></p>
+<p>Eastern Question, the, <a href="#page155">155-189</a>, <a href=
+"#page222">222-250</a>, <a href="#page383">383</a>, <a href=
+"#page615">615</a>, <a href="#page636">636-7</a></p>
+<p>Eastern Roumelia, <a href="#page238">238</a>, <a href=
+"#page253">253</a>, <a href="#page259">259</a>, <a href=
+"#page260">260</a>, <a href="#page263">263-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page268">268</a>, <a href="#page275">275-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page333">333</a></p>
+<p>Eckardstein, Herr, <a href="#page527">527</a></p>
+<p>Edward VII., <a href="#page601">601</a>, <a href=
+"#page608">608</a>, <a href="#page618">618-9</a></p>
+<p>Egypt, <a href="#page166">166</a>, <a href="#page244">244</a>,
+<a href="#page266">266</a>, <a href="#page275">275</a>, <a href=
+"#page602">602</a>, <a href="#page636">636-7</a>, <i>passim</i>
+chaps. <a href="#CHAPTER_XV">xv</a>. <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_XVI">xvi</a>. <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">xvii</a>.</p>
+<p>Einwold, Herr, <a href="#page527">527</a></p>
+<p>Elgin, Lord, <a href="#page368">368</a></p>
+<p>Elliott, Sir Henry, <a href="#page176">176</a>, <a href=
+"#page177">177</a>, <a href="#page221">221</a></p>
+<p>El Obeid, Battle of, <a href="#page461">461</a>, <a href=
+"#page462">462</a></p>
+<p>El Teb, Battle of, <a href="#page470">470</a></p>
+<p>Ems, <a href="#page042">42-5</a></p>
+<p>Ena, Queen of Spain, <a href="#page619">619</a></p>
+<p>England. <i>See</i> <a href="#Great_Britain">Great
+Britain</a></p>
+<p>Enver Bey, <a href="#page630">630</a></p>
+<p>Epirus, <a href="#page241">241</a>, <a href=
+"#page248">248</a></p>
+<p>Erzeroum, <a href="#page194">194</a>, <a href=
+"#page241">241</a></p>
+<p>Eug&eacute;nie, Empress, <a href="#page019">19</a>, <a href=
+"#page029">29</a>, <a href="#page038">38</a>, <a href=
+"#page047">47</a>, <a href="#page075">75</a>, <a href=
+"#page087">87</a>, <a href="#page097">97</a>, <a href=
+"#page139">139</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Faidherbe, M. <a href="#page538">538</a></p>
+<p>Fashoda, <a href="#page349">349</a>, <a href=
+"#page501">501-6</a>, <a href="#page594">594</a></p>
+<p>Faure, President, <a href="#page127">127</a>, <a href=
+"#page346">346</a></p>
+<p>Favre, M. Jules, <a href="#page087">87</a>, <a href=
+"#page088">88</a>, <a href="#page094">94</a>, <a href=
+"#page098">98</a>, <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href=
+"#page114">114</a></p>
+<p>Ferdinand, Prince, <a href="#page285">285-6</a></p>
+<p>Ferdinand, Tsar, of Bulgaria, <a href="#page612">612</a>,
+<a href="#page631">631</a></p>
+<p>Fergusson, Sir James, <a href="#page336">336</a></p>
+<p>Ferry, M., <a href="#page266">266</a>, <a href=
+"#page329">329</a></p>
+<p>Finland, <a href="#page304">304</a>, <a href=
+"#page307">307-14</a></p>
+<p>Flegel, Herr, <a href="#page535">535</a></p>
+<p>Floquet, M., <a href="#page126">126</a></p>
+<p>Flourens, M., <a href="#page343">343</a></p>
+<p>Forbach, Battle of, <a href="#page062">62</a>, <a href=
+"#page063">63</a></p>
+<p>Formosa, Island of, <a href="#page577">577</a></p>
+<p>Fox Bourne, Mr., <a href="#page563">563</a></p>
+<p>France, <a href="#page003">3-6</a>, <a href="#page009">9</a>,
+<a href="#page019">19</a>, <a href="#page020">20</a>, <a href=
+"#page025">25-9</a>, <a href="#page032">32</a>, <a href=
+"#page033">33</a>, <a href="#page035">35</a>, <a href=
+"#page046">46-9</a>, <a href="#page052">52-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page087">87-9</a>, <a href="#page112">112</a>, <a href=
+"#page161">161</a>, <a href="#page228">228</a>, <a href=
+"#page318">318</a>, <a href="#page320">320-24</a>, <a href=
+"#page326">326</a>, <a href="#page333">333-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page337">337-8</a>, <a href="#page341">341-5</a>, <a href=
+"#page347">347-9</a>, <a href="#page350">350</a>, <a href=
+"#page437">437-8</a>, <a href="#page442">442</a>, <a href=
+"#page446">446</a>, <a href="#page448">448</a>, <a href=
+"#page452">452-3</a>, <a href="#page457">457</a>, <a href=
+"#page458">458-9</a>, <a href="#page485">485</a>, <a href=
+"#page513">513-514</a>, <a href="#page529">529</a>, <a href=
+"#page535">535</a>, <a href="#page537">537-41</a>, <a href=
+"#page546">546-9</a>, <a href="#page558">558</a>, <a href=
+"#page559">559</a>, <a href="#page577">577-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page585">585-6</a>, <a href="#page591">591</a>, <a href=
+"#page593">593-4</a>, <a href="#page597">597</a>, <a href=
+"#page599">599-608</a>, <a href="#page614">614-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page618">618</a>, <a href="#page620">620-2</a>, <a href=
+"#page624">624</a>, <a href="#page626">626</a>, <a href=
+"#page638">638</a>, <a href="#page641">641-8</a></p>
+<p class="i1">and Morocco, <a href="#page602">602</a>, <a href=
+"#page604">604-7</a>, <a href="#page609">609-10</a>, <a href=
+"#page620">620</a> <i>seq</i>., <a href="#page636">636-7</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Army of, <a href="#page634">634-5</a></p>
+<p>France and the Sudan, <a href="#page501">501-6</a></p>
+<p>France and Tunis, <a href="#page328">328-30</a></p>
+<p>Francis Ferdinand, Archduke, <a href="#page613">613-4</a>,
+<a href="#page639">639</a></p>
+<p>Francis Joseph, <a href="#page006">6</a>, <a href=
+"#page032">32</a>, <a href="#page036">36</a>, <a href=
+"#page173">173</a>, <a href="#page232">232</a>, <a href=
+"#page318">318</a>, <a href="#page613">613</a></p>
+<p>Franco-German War, causes of, <a href="#page036">36-49</a></p>
+<p>Franco-Italian Entente, <a href="#page601">601</a></p>
+<p>Franco-Russian Alliance. (<i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Dual_Alliance">Dual Alliance</a>)</p>
+<p>Frankfurt, Treaty of, <a href="#page105">105</a>, <a href=
+"#page114">114</a></p>
+<p>Frankfurt-on-Main, <a href="#page011">11</a>, <a href=
+"#page012">12</a>, <a href="#page021">21</a>, <a href=
+"#page022">22</a></p>
+<p>Frederick the Great, <a href="#page594">594</a>, <a href=
+"#page635">635</a>, <a href="#page638">638</a>, <a href=
+"#page646">646</a></p>
+<p>Frederick III., Crown Prince of Germany and Emperor, <a href=
+"#page018">18</a>, <a href="#page074">74</a>, <a href=
+"#page076">76</a>, <a href="#page080">80</a>, <a href=
+"#page130">130</a>, <a href="#page136">136</a>, <a href=
+"#page151">151</a>, <a href="#page236">236</a></p>
+<p>Frederick VII., <a href="#page014">14</a></p>
+<p>Frederick Charles, Prince, <a href="#page066">66</a>, <a href=
+"#page068">68</a></p>
+<p>Frederick William IV., <a href="#page011">11-13</a>, <a href=
+"#page031">31</a>, <a href="#page593">593</a></p>
+<p>Free Trade (in Germany), <a href="#page141">141-3</a></p>
+<p class="i1">(in France), <a href="#page142">142</a></p>
+<p>French Congoland, <a href="#page506">506</a>, <a href=
+"#page546">546</a>, <a href="#page622">622</a>, <a href=
+"#page625">625</a></p>
+<p>French Revolution of 1830, <a href="#page005">5</a></p>
+<p>Frere, Sir Bartle, <a href="#page380">380-81</a>, <a href=
+"#page524">524</a></p>
+<p>Freycinet, M. de, <a href="#page446">446</a>, <a href=
+"#page447">447</a>, <a href="#page452">452</a>, <a href=
+"#page456">456</a>, <a href="#page502">502</a>, <a href=
+"#page503">503</a></p>
+<p>Frobenius, Herr, <a href="#page638">638</a></p>
+<p>Frossard, General, <a href="#page063">63-5</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Galatz, <a href="#page197">197</a></p>
+<p>Galbraith, Colonel, <a href="#page411">411</a></p>
+<p>Gallieni, M., <a href="#page539">539</a></p>
+<p>Gallipoli, <a href="#page222">222</a>, <a href=
+"#page226">226</a></p>
+<p>Gambetta, M., <a href="#page087">87</a>, <a href=
+"#page096">96-101</a>, <a href="#page110">110</a>, <a href=
+"#page125">125</a>, <a href="#page318">318</a>, <a href=
+"#page330">330</a>, <a href="#page446">446</a>, <a href=
+"#page452">452</a>, <a href="#page538">538</a></p>
+<p>Gandamak, Treaty of, <a href="#page400">400</a>, <a href=
+"#page418">418</a></p>
+<p>Garde Mobile, the, <a href="#page055">55</a>, <a href=
+"#page094">94</a></p>
+<p>Garde Nationale, the, <a href="#page055">55</a>, <a href=
+"#page094">94</a></p>
+<p>Garibaldi, <a href="#page006">6</a>, <a href="#page007">7</a>,
+<a href="#page009">9-11</a>, <a href="#page028">28</a>, <a href=
+"#page090">90-91</a>, <a href="#page327">327</a></p>
+<p>Gastein, Convention of, <a href="#page016">16</a></p>
+<p>Gatacre, General, <a href="#page490">490</a>, <a href=
+"#page492">492</a></p>
+<p>Gavril, Pasha, <a href="#page263">263</a></p>
+<p>Geok Tepe. <i>See</i> <a href="#Denghil_Tepe">Denghil
+Tepe</a></p>
+<p>George V., King of England, <a href="#page645">645</a></p>
+<p>George, David Lloyd, <a href="#page623">623</a>, <a href=
+"#page625">625</a></p>
+<p>German Army, <a href="#page135">135</a>, <a href=
+"#page633">633-4</a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page655" id="page655"></a>[pg
+655]</span>
+<p>German Army, Kriegsgefahr, <a href="#page643">643</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Confederation (1815-66), <a href=
+"#page004">4-22</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Constitution (1871), <a href="#page132">132-7</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Empire, <a href="#page129">129</a>. <i>See</i>
+<a href="#Germany">Germany</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Navy, <a href="#page587">587-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page594">594</a>, <a href="#page609">609</a>, <a href=
+"#page617">617</a>, <a href="#page628">628</a>, <a href=
+"#page633">633</a>, <a href="#page638">638</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Zollverein, the, <a href="#page141">141-2</a></p>
+<p><a name="Germany"></a>Germany, <a href="#page003">3-6</a>,
+<a href="#page011">11-18</a>, <a href="#page020">20-23</a>,
+<a href="#page027">27</a>, <a href="#page034">34</a>, <a href=
+"#page039">39</a>, <a href="#page045">45-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page051">51-5</a>, <a href="#page129">129-154</a>, <a href=
+"#page164">164-6</a>, <a href="#page223">223</a>, <a href=
+"#page246">246</a>, <a href="#page275">275</a>, <a href=
+"#page277">277</a>, <a href="#page282">282</a>, <a href=
+"#page318">318-27</a>, <a href="#page329">329</a>, <a href=
+"#page330">330</a>, <a href="#page337">337-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page350">350</a>, <a href="#page447">447-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page453">453</a>, <a href="#page457">457</a>, <a href=
+"#page472">472</a>, <a href="#page485">485</a>, <a href=
+"#page513">513-18</a>, <a href="#page520">520-22</a>, <a href=
+"#page524">524-30</a>, <a href="#page533">533-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page541">541</a>, <a href="#page547">547</a>, <a href=
+"#page559">559</a>, <a href="#page577">577-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page581">581</a>, <a href="#page585">585-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page592">592</a>, <a href="#page595">595-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page600">600-609</a>, <a href="#page615">615-18</a>, <a href=
+"#page620">620-21</a>, <a href="#page623">623-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page632">632</a>, <a href="#page634">634</a>, <a href=
+"#page635">635-8</a>, <a href="#page640">640-49</a></p>
+<p>Gervais, Admiral, <a href="#page343">343</a></p>
+<p>Ghaznee, Battle of, <a href="#page405">405</a></p>
+<p>Giers, M. de, <a href="#page258">258</a>, <a href=
+"#page263">263</a>, <a href="#page265">265</a>, <a href=
+"#page276">276</a>, <a href="#page281">281</a>, <a href=
+"#page285">285</a>, <a href="#page302">302</a>, <a href=
+"#page332">332</a>, <a href="#page333">333-5</a>, <a href=
+"#page337">337</a>, <a href="#page424">424</a>, <a href=
+"#page427">427</a>, <a href="#page515">515</a></p>
+<p>Gladstone, Mr., <a href="#page029">29</a>, <a href=
+"#page046">46</a>, <a href="#page172">172</a>, <a href=
+"#page223">223</a>, <a href="#page244">244</a>, <a href=
+"#page275">275</a>, <a href="#page356">356</a>, <a href=
+"#page371">371</a>, <a href="#page372">372</a>, <a href=
+"#page376">376</a>, <a href="#page380">380</a>, <a href=
+"#page392">392</a>, <a href="#page405">405</a>, <a href=
+"#page417">417</a>, <a href="#page427">427-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page446">446</a>, <a href="#page448">448-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page452">452</a>, <a href="#page458">458</a>, <a href=
+"#page461">461</a>, <a href="#page465">465</a>, <a href=
+"#page484">484-5</a>, <a href="#page502">502</a>, <a href=
+"#page517">517</a>, <a href="#page524">524</a>, <a href=
+"#page528">528</a>, <a href="#page530">530</a>, <a href=
+"#page531">531</a></p>
+<p>Glave, Mr., <a href="#page562">562</a></p>
+<p>Gold Coast, <a href="#page539">539</a></p>
+<p>Goldie, Sir George T., <a href="#page535">535</a>, <a href=
+"#page541">541</a></p>
+<p>Gontaut-Biron, M. de, <a href="#page421">421</a></p>
+<p>Gordon, General, <i>passim</i> chaps. <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_XVI">xvi</a>. <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">xvii</a>.</p>
+<p>Gortchakoff, Prince, <a href="#page164">164</a>, <a href=
+"#page168">168</a>, <a href="#page190">190</a>, <a href=
+"#page222">222</a>, <a href="#page226">226</a>, <a href=
+"#page320">320</a>, <a href="#page322">322-3</a>, <a href=
+"#page366">366</a></p>
+<p>Goschen, Lord, <a href="#page244">244</a>, <a href=
+"#page246">246</a>, <a href="#page442">442</a></p>
+<p>Goschen, Sir Edward, <a href="#page641">641-2</a></p>
+<p>Gough, General, <a href="#page404">404</a></p>
+<p>Gramont, Duc de, <a href="#page032">32</a>, <a href=
+"#page040">40</a>, <a href="#page042">42</a>, <a href=
+"#page043">43</a>, <a href="#page047">47</a></p>
+<p>Grant Duff, Sir Mountstuart, <a href="#page322">322</a></p>
+<p>Granville, Earl, <a href="#page045">45</a>, <a href=
+"#page389">389</a>, <a href="#page425">425-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page447">447</a>, <a href="#page463">463</a>, <a href=
+"#page465">465</a>, <a href="#page470">470</a>, <a href=
+"#page473">473-4</a>, <a href="#page517">517</a>, <a href=
+"#page523">523</a>, <a href="#page533">533</a>, <a href=
+"#page547">547</a></p>
+<p><a name="Gravelotte"></a>Gravelotte, Battle of, <a href=
+"#page068">68-73</a></p>
+<p><a name="Great_Britain"></a>Great Britain, <a href=
+"#page014">14</a>, <a href="#page029">29</a>, <a href=
+"#page030">30</a>, <a href="#page052">52</a>, <a href=
+"#page095">95</a>, <a href="#page145">145</a>, <a href=
+"#page147">147-9</a>, <a href="#page160">160-61</a>, <a href=
+"#page168">168-77</a>, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href=
+"#page187">187-8</a>, <a href="#page190">190</a>, <a href=
+"#page231">231</a>, <a href="#page259">259</a>, <a href=
+"#page266">266</a>, <a href="#page282">282</a>, <a href=
+"#page284">284</a>, <a href="#page322">322-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page328">328</a>, <a href="#page336">336</a>, <a href=
+"#page337">337</a>, <a href="#page342">342</a>, <a href=
+"#page364">364-6</a>, <a href="#page372">372-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page382">382-4</a>, <a href="#page392">392-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page400">400</a>, <a href="#page404">404-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page417">417</a>, <a href="#page435">435</a>, <a href=
+"#page513">513-14</a>, <a href="#page521">521</a>, <a href=
+"#page523">523-30</a>, <a href="#page533">533-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page541">541</a>, <a href="#page547">547</a>, <a href=
+"#page578">578-9</a>, <a href="#page581">581-2</a>, <a href=
+"#page585">585-7</a>, <a href="#page600">600</a>, <a href=
+"#page604">604-9</a>, <a href="#page616">616</a>, <a href=
+"#page618">618</a>, <a href="#page620">620</a>, <a href=
+"#page622">622-3</a>, <a href="#page626">626-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page636">636-9</a>, <a href="#page641">641-8</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Army of, <a href="#page634">634</a></p>
+<p>Great Britain and Egypt, <i>passim</i> chaps. <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_XV">xv</a>. <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">xvi</a>. <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_XVII">xvii</a>.</p>
+<p>Great Britain and Russia (1878), <a href=
+"#page222">222-8</a></p>
+<p>Greco-Turkish War, <a href="#page585">585</a></p>
+<p>Greece, <a href="#page005">5</a>, <a href="#page158">158</a>,
+<a href="#page160">160</a>, <a href="#page194">194</a>, <a href=
+"#page227">227</a>, <a href="#page240">240-41</a>, <a href=
+"#page245">245-8</a>, <a href="#page257">257</a>, <a href=
+"#page267">267</a></p>
+<p>Grenfell, Rev. G., <a href="#page546">546</a></p>
+<p>Gr&eacute;vy, M., <a href="#page337">337</a>, <a href=
+"#page355">355</a></p>
+<p>Grey, Sir Edward, <a href="#page503">503</a>, <a href=
+"#page586">586</a>, <a href="#page623">623</a>, <a href=
+"#page626">626</a>, <a href="#page631">631</a>, <a href=
+"#page634">634</a>, <a href="#page641">641-7</a></p>
+<p>Griffin, Sir Lepel, <a href="#page405">405-6</a></p>
+<p>Gurko, General, <a href="#page201">201-3</a>, <a href=
+"#page208">208</a>, <a href="#page219">219</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Habibulla, Ameer of Afghanistan, <a href="#page431">431</a>,
+<a href="#page435">435</a></p>
+<p>Hague Conference, <a href="#page608">608</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Congress, the (1899), <a href="#page583">583</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Tribunal, <a href="#page601">601</a>, <a href=
+"#page649">649</a></p>
+<p>Haldane, Lord, <a href="#page627">627</a>, <a href=
+"#page639">639</a>, <a href="#page647">647</a></p>
+<p>Hamburg, <a href="#page132">132</a>, <a href=
+"#page142">142</a></p>
+<p>Hanotaux, M., <a href="#page504">504</a></p>
+<p>Hanover, <a href="#page011">11</a>, <a href="#page021">21</a>,
+<a href="#page023">23</a></p>
+<p>Hartington, Lord, <a href="#page417">417</a>, <a href=
+"#page465">465</a>, <a href="#page476">476</a></p>
+<p>Hayashi, Count, <a href="#page596">596</a></p>
+<p>Heligoland, <a href="#page521">521</a>, <a href=
+"#page637">637</a></p>
+<p>Herat, <a href="#page367">367</a>, <a href="#page368">368</a>,
+<a href="#page381">381</a>, <a href="#page387">387</a>, <a href=
+"#page388">388</a>, <a href="#page405">405</a>, <a href=
+"#page425">425</a></p>
+<p>H&eacute;ricourt, Battle of, <a href="#page098">98</a></p>
+<p>Herzegovina, <a href="#page163">163-5</a>, <a href=
+"#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page238">238</a>, <a href=
+"#page332">332</a></p>
+<p>Hesse-Cassel, <a href="#page012">12</a>, <a href=
+"#page021">21</a>, <a href="#page023">23</a></p>
+<p>Hesse Darmstadt, <a href="#page020">20</a></p>
+<p>Heydebrand, Herr, <a href="#page625">625</a></p>
+<p>Hicks, Pasha, <a href="#page461">461-2</a></p>
+<p>Hinde, Captain S.L., <a href="#page553">553</a></p>
+<p>Hinterland, Question of the, <a href="#page547">547</a>,
+<a href="#page550">550</a></p>
+<p>Hohenlohe, Prince, <a href="#page589">589</a></p>
+<p>Hohenzollern, House of, <a href="#page011">11</a>, <a href=
+"#page039">39-41</a>, <a href="#page129">129</a>;</p>
+<p class="i1">also <i>see</i> <a href="#Germany">Germany</a></p>
+<p>Holland, <a href="#page005">5</a>, <a href="#page554">554-5</a>,
+<a href="#page641">641-2</a></p>
+<p>Holstein, <a href="#page005">5</a>, <a href=
+"#page026">26</a></p>
+<p>Holy Alliance, the, <a href="#page005">5</a>, <a href=
+"#page319">319</a></p>
+<p>Holy Roman Empire, the, <a href="#page136">136</a></p>
+<p>Hornby, Admiral, <a href="#page224">224</a></p>
+<p>Hoskier, M., <a href="#page340">340</a></p>
+<p>Hudson, Sir James, <a href="#page274">274</a></p>
+<p>Hungary, <a href="#page032">32</a>, <a href="#page036">36</a>,
+<a href="#page159">159</a>, <a href="#page263">263</a>, <a href=
+"#page277">277</a></p>
+<p>Hunter, General, <a href="#page487">487</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Iddesleigh, Lord, <a href="#page519">519</a></p>
+<p>Ignatieff, General, <a href="#page174">174</a>, <a href=
+"#page177">177</a>, <a href="#page181">181</a>, <a href=
+"#page229">229</a>, <a href="#page230">230</a>, <a href=
+"#page232">232</a>, <a href="#page332">332</a></p>
+<p>India, <a href="#page165">165</a>, <a href="#page212">212</a>,
+<a href="#page365">365</a>, <a href="#page368">368</a>, <a href=
+"#page592">592</a></p>
+<p>"International Association of the Congo," <a href=
+"#page545">545</a>, <a href="#page547">547-9</a></p>
+<p>"Internationale," the, <a href="#page292">292</a></p>
+<p>Isabella, Queen, <a href="#page040">40</a></p>
+<p>Ismail, Khedive, <a href="#page438">438-40</a>, <a href=
+"#page442">442</a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page656" id="page656"></a>[pg
+656]</span>
+<p>Istria, <a href="#page329">329</a></p>
+<p>Isvolsky, M., <a href="#page615">615</a></p>
+<p>"<i>Italia irredenta</i>," <a href="#page329">329</a></p>
+<p>Italo-Turkish War, the, <a href="#page624">624</a>, <a href=
+"#page628">628</a></p>
+<p>Italy, <a href="#page004">4-11</a>, <a href=
+"#page016">16-23</a>, <a href="#page028">28</a>, <a href=
+"#page030">30</a>, <a href="#page034">34</a>, <a href=
+"#page037">37</a>, <a href="#page038">38</a>, <a href=
+"#page055">55</a>, <a href="#page056">56</a>, <a href=
+"#page063">63</a>, <a href="#page089">89-92</a>, <a href=
+"#page148">148</a>, <a href="#page228">228</a>, <a href=
+"#page266">266</a>, <a href="#page284">284</a>, <a href=
+"#page319">319</a>, <a href="#page335">335</a>, <a href=
+"#page350">350</a>, <a href="#page453">453</a>, <a href=
+"#page485">485</a>, <a href="#page487">487</a>, <a href=
+"#page540">540</a>, <a href="#page541">541</a>, <a href=
+"#page567">567</a>, <a href="#page601">601</a>, <a href=
+"#page603">603-5</a>, <a href="#page607">607</a>, <a href=
+"#page615">615-17</a>, <a href="#page624">624</a>, <a href=
+"#page628">628</a>, <a href="#page631">631</a>, <a href=
+"#page636">636</a>, <a href="#page643">643</a>, <a href=
+"#page646">646-7</a>, <a href="#page649">649</a></p>
+<p>Italy and the Triple Alliance, <a href="#page327">327-331</a>,
+<a href="#page600">600</a>, <a href="#page601">601</a>, <a href=
+"#page615">615</a>, <a href="#page624">624</a>, <a href=
+"#page637">637</a>, <a href="#page647">647</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Jacob, General, <a href="#page385">385</a></p>
+<p>Jacobabad, Treaty of, <a href="#page385">385</a></p>
+<p>Jagow, Herr von, <a href="#page645">645</a></p>
+<p>Jameson, Dr. <a href="#page587">587</a></p>
+<p>Janssen, M., <a href="#page552">552</a></p>
+<p>Japan, <a href="#page348">348</a>, <a href="#page572">572-4</a>,
+<a href="#page576">576-8</a>, <a href="#page581">581-4</a>,
+<a href="#page585">585</a>, <a href="#page597">597-9</a></p>
+<p>Jaur&eacute;s, M., <a href="#page634">634</a></p>
+<p>Jermak, <a href="#page361">361</a>, <a href="#page569">569</a>,
+<a href="#page570">570</a></p>
+<p>Jesuits, the, <a href="#page138">138</a></p>
+<p>Jews, persecution of the, <a href="#page304">304</a>, <a href=
+"#page305">305</a></p>
+<p>Johnstone, Sir Harry, <a href="#page519">519</a>, <a href=
+"#page541">541</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Kamchatka, <a href="#page570">570</a>, <a href=
+"#page571">571</a></p>
+<p>Karaveloff, M., <a href="#page256">256</a>, <a href=
+"#page259">259</a>, <a href="#page280">280</a></p>
+<p>Kars, <a href="#page194">194</a>, <a href="#page229">229</a>,
+<a href="#page234">234</a></p>
+<p>Kassala, <a href="#page487">487</a>, <a href="#page488">488</a>,
+<a href="#page491">491</a></p>
+<p>Katkoff, M., <a href="#page259">259</a>, <a href=
+"#page283">283</a>, <a href="#page324">324</a>, <a href=
+"#page332">332</a>, <a href="#page333">333</a>, <a href=
+"#page334">334</a>, <a href="#page337">337</a></p>
+<p>Kaufmann, General, <a href="#page366">366</a>, <a href=
+"#page383">383</a>, <a href="#page398">398</a></p>
+<p>Kaulbars, General, <a href="#page255">255</a>, <a href=
+"#page257">257-8</a>, <a href="#page283">283</a>, <a href=
+"#page284">284</a></p>
+<p>Khalifa, <i>passim</i> chap. <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_XVII">xvii</a>.</p>
+<p>Khama, <a href="#page533">533</a></p>
+<p>Khartum, <a href="#page437">437</a>, <a href="#page439">439</a>,
+<a href="#page445">445</a>, <i>passim</i> chaps. <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_XVI">xvi</a>. <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">xvii</a>.</p>
+<p>Khelat, Khan of, <a href="#page384">384-5</a></p>
+<p>Khiva, <a href="#page365">365</a>, <a href="#page374">374</a>,
+<a href="#page377">377</a></p>
+<p>Khokand, <a href="#page383">383</a></p>
+<p>Khyber Pass, <a href="#page386">386</a>, <a href=
+"#page390">390</a>, <a href="#page394">394</a>, <a href=
+"#page401">401</a>, <a href="#page412">412</a></p>
+<p>Kiamil Pacha, <a href="#page630">630</a></p>
+<p>Kiao-chau, <a href="#page580">580-81</a></p>
+<p>Kiderlen-W&auml;chter, Herr, <a href="#page621">621-2</a></p>
+<p>Kiel, North Sea Canal, <a href="#page587">587</a>, <a href=
+"#page604">604</a>, <a href="#page637">637-8</a></p>
+<p>Kirk, Sir John, <a href="#page518">518</a>, <a href=
+"#page541">541</a></p>
+<p>Kitchener, Lord, <a href="#page441">441</a>, <a href=
+"#page479">479</a>, <a href="#page598">598</a>, <i>passim</i> chap.
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">xvii</a>.</p>
+<p>Komaroff, General, <a href="#page427">427</a>, <a href=
+"#page428">428</a></p>
+<p>K&ouml;niggr&auml;tz, Battle of, <a href=
+"#page018">18-20</a></p>
+<p>Kordofan, <a href="#page461">461</a>, <a href=
+"#page462">462</a>, <a href="#page470">470</a>, <a href=
+"#page476">476</a></p>
+<p>Korea, <a href="#page568">568</a></p>
+<p>Korsakoff, General, <a href="#page254">254</a></p>
+<p>Kossuth, <a href="#page006">6</a></p>
+<p>Kr&uuml;dener, General, <a href="#page200">200</a>, <a href=
+"#page206">206-7</a></p>
+<p>Kr&uuml;ger, President, <a href="#page586">586-7</a></p>
+<p>Kultur-Kampf, the, <a href="#page139">139-41</a></p>
+<p>Kuropatkin, General, <a href="#page311">311-12</a>, <a href=
+"#page314">314</a>, <a href="#page422">422-3</a></p>
+<p>Kurram Valley, the, <a href="#page394">394-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page400">400</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Labouchere, Mr., <a href="#page336">336</a></p>
+<p>Lado, <a href="#page502">502</a>, <a href=
+"#page558">558-9</a></p>
+<p>Lagos, <a href="#page539">539</a></p>
+<p>Lamsdorff, Count, <a href="#page575">575</a></p>
+<p>Lansdowne, Lord, <a href="#page433">433</a>, <a href=
+"#page567">567</a>, <a href="#page597">597</a>, <a href=
+"#page602">602</a>, <a href="#page606">606</a></p>
+<p>Lavigerie, Cardinal, <a href="#page534">534</a></p>
+<p>Lawrence, Lord J., <a href="#page365">365</a>, <a href=
+"#page368">368-9</a>, <a href="#page371">371</a>, <a href=
+"#page385">385</a>, <a href="#page387">387</a></p>
+<p>Layard, Sir Henry, <a href="#page221">221</a>, <a href=
+"#page226">226</a>, <a href="#page245">245</a>, <a href=
+"#page246">246</a></p>
+<p>Leboeuf, Marshall, <a href="#page047">47</a>, <a href=
+"#page053">53</a>, <a href="#page064">64</a>, <a href=
+"#page065">65</a></p>
+<p>Lebrun, General, <a href="#page034">34-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page065">65</a></p>
+<p>Lefl&ocirc;, General, <a href="#page322">322</a></p>
+<p>Le Mans, Battle of, <a href="#page098">98</a></p>
+<p>Leo XIII., <a href="#page327">327</a>, <a href=
+"#page331">331</a>, <a href="#page335">335</a></p>
+<p>Leopold II. (King of the Belgians), <a href="#page342">342</a>,
+<a href="#page465">465</a>, <a href="#page509">509</a>, <a href=
+"#page514">514</a>, <a href="#page543">543</a>, <a href=
+"#page550">550-52</a>, <a href="#page555">555-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page558">558</a>, <a href="#page565">565</a></p>
+<p>Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern, <a href="#page040">40</a>,
+<a href="#page042">42</a></p>
+<p>Lessar, M., <a href="#page424">424</a></p>
+<p>Lesseps, M. de, <a href="#page438">438</a>, <a href=
+"#page441">441</a></p>
+<p>Lewis, General, <a href="#page487">487</a></p>
+<p>Liaotung Peninsula, <a href="#page577">577</a>, <a href=
+"#page578">578</a>, <a href="#page581">581-2</a></p>
+<p>Liberation, Wars of (1813-14), <a href="#page635">635</a></p>
+<p>Li-Hung Chang, <a href="#page577">577</a>, <a href=
+"#page578">578</a>, <a href="#page582">582</a></p>
+<p>Lissa, Battle of, <a href="#page017">17</a></p>
+<p>Livingstone, D., <a href="#page508">508-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page543">543-4</a>, <a href="#page567">567</a></p>
+<p>Lob&aacute;noff, Prince, <a href="#page575">575</a></p>
+<p>Local Government (French), <a href="#page119">119</a>, <a href=
+"#page120">120</a></p>
+<p>Lomakin, General, <a href="#page420">420</a></p>
+<p>Lombardy, <a href="#page005">5-11</a>, <a href=
+"#page032">32</a></p>
+<p>London, Conference of (1867), <a href="#page015">15</a>,
+<a href="#page028">28</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Congress of (1871), <a href="#page095">95</a></p>
+<p>London, Peace Conference at (1913), <a href=
+"#page630">630-31</a>, <a href="#page634">634</a></p>
+<p>Lorraine, <a href="#page094">94</a>, <a href="#page103">103</a>,
+<a href="#page105">105</a>, <a href="#page132">132</a>, <a href=
+"#page133">133-4</a></p>
+<p>Lothaire, Commandant, <a href="#page553">553</a></p>
+<p>Loubet, M., <a href="#page127">127</a>, <a href=
+"#page601">601</a></p>
+<p>Louis Philippe, King, <a href="#page006">6</a></p>
+<p>Lovtcha, <a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href=
+"#page212">212</a></p>
+<p>L&uuml;beck, <a href="#page132">132</a>, <a href=
+"#page142">142</a></p>
+<p>L&uuml;deritz, Herr, <a href="#page523">523</a></p>
+<p>Lugard, Sir Frederick, <a href="#page522">522</a>, <a href=
+"#page537">537</a>, <a href="#page541">541</a></p>
+<p>Lumsden, Sir Peter, <a href="#page426">426</a></p>
+<p>Luxemburg, <a href="#page027">27</a>, <a href="#page028">28</a>,
+<a href="#page032">32</a>, <a href="#page039">39</a></p>
+<p>Lyttleton, Colonel, <a href="#page492">492</a></p>
+<p>Lytton, Lord, <a href="#page481">481-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page490">490-92</a>, <a href="#page405">405-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page417">417</a>, <a href="#page419">419</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page657" id=
+"page657"></a>[pg 657]</span>
+<p>Macdonald, General, <a href="#page402">402</a>, <a href=
+"#page487">487</a>, <a href="#page491">491</a>, <a href=
+"#page496">496-8</a></p>
+<p>Macdonald, Ramsay, <a href="#page646">646</a></p>
+<p>Macedonia, <a href="#page158">158</a>, <a href=
+"#page230">230</a>, <a href="#page248">248</a>, <a href=
+"#page250">250</a>, <a href="#page287">287-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page391">391</a></p>
+<p>Mackenzie, Rev. John, <a href="#page530">530-31</a>, <a href=
+"#page541">541</a></p>
+<p>Mackinnon, Sir William, <a href="#page516">516</a>, <a href=
+"#page541">541</a></p>
+<p>Maclaine, Lieutenant, <a href="#page408">408</a>, <a href=
+"#page415">415</a></p>
+<p>MacMahon, Marshall, <a href="#page059">59-61</a>, <a href=
+"#page074">74-80</a>, <a href="#page123">123</a>, <a href=
+"#page125">125-7</a>, <a href="#page322">322</a>, <a href=
+"#page525">525-6</a></p>
+<p>Mahdi, the, <a href="#page266">266</a>; chaps. <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_XVI">xvi</a>. <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">xvii</a>.
+<i>passim</i></p>
+<p>Maiwand, Battle of, <a href="#page407">407-11</a></p>
+<p>Malet, Sir Edward, <a href="#page548">548</a></p>
+<p>Malmesbury, Lord, <a href="#page047">47</a></p>
+<p>Manchuria, <a href="#page345">345-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page349">349</a>, <a href="#page568">568</a>, <a href=
+"#page578">578</a>, <a href="#page580">580</a>, <a href=
+"#page584">584</a></p>
+<p>Manc&iacute;n&iacute;, S&iacute;gnor, <a href=
+"#page355">355</a></p>
+<p>Manin, <a href="#page007">7</a></p>
+<p>Marchand, Colonel, <a href="#page501">501-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page540">540</a></p>
+<p>Maritz, General, <a href="#page635">635</a></p>
+<p>Marschall, Baron von, <a href="#page605">605</a></p>
+<p>Mars-la-Tour, Battle of, <a href="#page067">67-70</a></p>
+<p>Maxwell, General, <a href="#page487">487</a>, <a href=
+"#page491">491</a>, <a href="#page497">497</a></p>
+<p>"May Laws," the, <a href="#page139">139-41</a>, <a href=
+"#page319">319</a></p>
+<p>Mayo, Lord, <a href="#page372">372-3</a></p>
+<p>Mazzini, <a href="#page006">6</a>, <a href="#page007">7</a>,
+<a href="#page091">91</a>, <a href="#page092">92</a>, <a href=
+"#page304">304</a>, <a href="#page327">327</a></p>
+<p>Mecklenburg, <a href="#page017">17</a>, <a href=
+"#page142">142</a></p>
+<p>Mehemet Ali, Pasha, <a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href=
+"#page209">209</a>, <a href="#page215">215-16</a></p>
+<p>Melikoff, General Loris, <a href="#page194">194</a>, <a href=
+"#page296">296-8</a></p>
+<p>M&eacute;line, M., <a href="#page504">504</a></p>
+<p>Mentana, Battle of, <a href="#page028">28</a>, <a href=
+"#page090">90</a></p>
+<p>Mercantile System, the, <a href="#page150">150</a></p>
+<p>Merriman, Mr., <a href="#page586">586</a></p>
+<p>Merv, <a href="#page345">345</a>, <a href="#page374">374</a>,
+<a href="#page387">387</a>, <a href="#page388">388</a>, <a href=
+"#page423">423-5</a>, <a href="#page431">431</a>, <a href=
+"#page518">518</a></p>
+<p>Metternich, Prince, <a href="#page007">7</a>, <a href=
+"#page036">36</a></p>
+<p>Metz, <a href="#page055">55</a>, <a href="#page063">63-73</a>,
+<a href="#page097">97</a>, <a href="#page104">104</a></p>
+<p>Mexico, <a href="#page019">19</a>, <a href="#page026">26</a>,
+<a href="#page031">31</a></p>
+<p>Midhat, Pasha, <a href="#page178">178-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page186">186</a></p>
+<p>Milan, King, <a href="#page167">167</a>, <a href=
+"#page263">263</a>, <a href="#page269">269-72</a></p>
+<p>Milner, Lord, <a href="#page440">440</a>, <a href=
+"#page448">448</a>, <a href="#page598">598</a></p>
+<p>Milutin, General, <a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href=
+"#page215">215</a></p>
+<p>Mir, the, <a href="#page294">294</a>, <a href=
+"#page307">307</a></p>
+<p>Mohammed Ali, <a href="#page437">437-8</a></p>
+<p>Mohammed V., <a href="#page618">618</a></p>
+<p>Moltke, Count von, <a href="#page018">18</a>, <a href=
+"#page043">43</a>, <a href="#page065">65</a>, <a href=
+"#page066">66</a>, <a href="#page078">78</a>, <a href=
+"#page085">85</a>, <a href="#page104">104</a>, <a href=
+"#page130">130</a>, <a href="#page193">193</a>, <a href=
+"#page205">205</a>, <a href="#page320">320</a></p>
+<p>Mombasa, <a href="#page520">520</a>, <a href=
+"#page523">523</a></p>
+<p>Montenegro, <a href="#page158">158</a>, <a href=
+"#page163">163</a>, <a href="#page167">167</a>, <a href=
+"#page173">173-4</a>, <a href="#page180">180</a>, <a href=
+"#page194">194</a>, <a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href=
+"#page225">225</a>, <a href="#page229">229</a>, <a href=
+"#page232">232</a>, <a href="#page238">238</a>, <a href=
+"#page242">242</a>, <a href="#page246">246-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page263">263</a></p>
+<p>Morier, Sir Robert, <a href="#page187">187</a>, <a href=
+"#page273">273</a>, <a href="#page286">286</a>, <a href=
+"#page302">302</a>, <a href="#page428">428</a></p>
+<p>Morley, Mr. John, <a href="#page427">427</a></p>
+<p>Morocco, <a href="#page602">602</a>, <a href=
+"#page604">604-7</a>, <a href="#page609">609-10</a>, <a href=
+"#page620">620</a> <i>seq</i>., <a href="#page636">636-7</a></p>
+<p>Moslem Creed, the, and Christians, <a href="#page156">156-8</a>,
+<a href="#page186">186-7</a></p>
+<p>Mukden, <a href="#page598">598</a>, <a href=
+"#page606">606</a></p>
+<p>Mukhtar, Pasha, <a href="#page208">208</a></p>
+<p>M&uuml;nster, Count, <a href="#page523">523</a></p>
+<p>Murad V., <a href="#page169">169</a></p>
+<p>Muravieff, Count, <a href="#page571">571-3</a>, <a href=
+"#page575">575</a>, <a href="#page589">589</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Nabokoff, Captain, <a href="#page278">278</a></p>
+<p>Nachtigall, Dr., <a href="#page533">533-4</a></p>
+<p>Napoleon I., <a href="#page002">2-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page012">12</a>, <a href="#page013">13</a>, <a href=
+"#page015">15-17</a>, <a href="#page023">23</a>, <a href=
+"#page025">25</a>, <a href="#page089">89</a>, <a href=
+"#page100">100</a>, <a href="#page160">160</a>, <a href=
+"#page325">325</a>, <a href="#page437">437</a>, <a href=
+"#page537">537</a>, <a href="#page593">593</a>, <a href=
+"#page608">608</a>, <a href="#page610">610</a></p>
+<p>Napoleon III., <a href="#page006">6</a>, <a href=
+"#page007">7</a>, <a href="#page009">9-11</a>, <a href=
+"#page016">16</a>, <a href="#page017">17</a>, <a href=
+"#page019">19</a>, <a href="#page020">20</a>, <a href=
+"#page025">25-33</a>, <a href="#page037">37-40</a>, <a href=
+"#page046">46-9</a>, <a href="#page052">52</a>, <a href=
+"#page063">63-5</a>, <a href="#page075">75-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page084">84-6</a>, <a href="#page088">88-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page098">98</a>, <a href="#page099">99</a>, <a href=
+"#page105">105</a>, <a href="#page123">123</a>, <a href=
+"#page138">138</a>, <a href="#page142">142</a>, <a href=
+"#page162">162</a>, <a href="#page538">538</a>, <a href=
+"#page599">599</a></p>
+<p>Napoleon, Prince Jerome, <a href="#page020">20</a>, <a href=
+"#page037">37</a></p>
+<p>Natal, <a href="#page527">527</a>, <a href="#page528">528</a>,
+<a href="#page529">529</a>, <a href="#page534">534</a></p>
+<p>National African Company, the, <a href="#page535">535</a></p>
+<p>National Assembly, the French, <a href="#page098">98-108</a>,
+<a href="#page115">115-26</a></p>
+<p>Nationality, <a href="#page002">2-12</a>, <a href=
+"#page023">23</a>, <a href="#page025">25</a>, <a href=
+"#page026">26-8</a>, <a href="#page036">36</a>, <a href=
+"#page089">89</a>, <a href="#page586">586</a></p>
+<p>Nelidoff, Count, <a href="#page265">265</a>, <a href=
+"#page274">274</a>, <a href="#page277">277</a></p>
+<p>Nelson, <a href="#page437">437</a>, <a href=
+"#page441">441</a></p>
+<p>Nesselrode, Count, <a href="#page364">364</a></p>
+<p>Netherlands, the, <a href="#page586">586</a></p>
+<p>Nice, <a href="#page009">9</a>, <a href="#page030">30</a>,
+<a href="#page039">39</a></p>
+<p>Nicholas, I., <a href="#page160">160</a>, <a href=
+"#page289">289</a>, <a href="#page292">292</a>, <a href=
+"#page304">304</a>, <a href="#page308">308</a>, <a href=
+"#page364">364</a></p>
+<p>Nicholas II., <a href="#page289">289</a>, <a href=
+"#page311">311-14</a>, <a href="#page346">346</a>, <a href=
+"#page349">349</a>, <a href="#page506">506</a>, <a href=
+"#page575">575</a>, <a href="#page580">580</a>, <a href=
+"#page584">584</a>, <a href="#page590">590</a>, <a href=
+"#page594">594</a>, <a href="#page598">598</a>. <a href=
+"#page610">610</a>, <a href="#page614">614</a>, <a href=
+"#page617">617</a>, <a href="#page621">621-2</a>, <a href=
+"#page640">640</a>, <a href="#page643">643</a>, <a href=
+"#page649">649</a></p>
+<p>Nicholas, Grand Duke, <a href="#page192">192-3</a>, <a href=
+"#page200">200-2</a>, <a href="#page206">206</a>, <a href=
+"#page210">210</a>, <a href="#page215">215</a>, <a href=
+"#page223">223</a>, <a href="#page229">229</a>, <a href=
+"#page291">291</a>, <a href="#page292">292</a></p>
+<p>Nicholas, Prince of Montenegro, <a href="#page263">263</a></p>
+<p>Nicopolis, <a href="#page196">196</a>, <a href=
+"#page200">200-1</a>, <a href="#page206">206</a>, <a href=
+"#page217">217</a></p>
+<p>Niger, river, <a href="#page533">533-40</a>, <a href=
+"#page548">548</a></p>
+<p>Nigeria, <a href="#page534">534-7</a></p>
+<p>Nihilism, <a href="#page112">112</a>, <a href=
+"#page233">233</a>, <a href="#page266">266-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page291">291-8</a>, <a href="#page300">300-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page327">327</a></p>
+<p>Nikolsburg, <a href="#page019">19</a></p>
+<p>Northbrook, Lord, <a href="#page373">373-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page376">376</a>, <a href="#page379">379</a>, <a href=
+"#page381">381</a>, <a href="#page465">465</a></p>
+<p>Northcote, Sir Stafford, <a href="#page168">168</a>, <a href=
+"#page224">224</a>, <a href="#page225">225</a>, <a href=
+"#page243">243</a></p>
+<p>North German Confederation, <a href="#page022">22</a>, <a href=
+"#page035">35</a>, <a href="#page051">51</a>, <a href=
+"#page052">52</a>, <a href="#page136">136</a></p>
+<p>Norway, <a href="#page004">4</a>, <a href="#page005">5</a></p>
+<p>Novi-Bazar, <a href="#page332">332</a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page658" id="page658"></a>[pg
+658]</span>
+<p>Novi-Bazar, Sanjak of, <a href="#page612">612</a></p>
+<p>Nuttall, General, <a href="#page411">411</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Obock, <a href="#page504">504</a>, <a href=
+"#page540">540</a></p>
+<p>Obretchoff, General, <a href="#page324">324</a>, <a href=
+"#page326">326</a></p>
+<p>O'Donovan, Mr., <a href="#page424">424</a>, <a href=
+"#page462">462</a></p>
+<p>Ollivier, M., <a href="#page028">28</a>, <a href=
+"#page029">29</a>, <a href="#page034">34</a>, <a href=
+"#page041">41</a>, <a href="#page046">46</a>, <a href=
+"#page047">47</a>, <a href="#page055">55</a>, <a href=
+"#page065">65</a></p>
+<p>Olm&uuml;tz, Convention of, <a href="#page012">12</a>, <a href=
+"#page018">18</a></p>
+<p>Omdurman, Battle of, <a href="#page441">441</a>, <a href=
+"#page493">493-500</a></p>
+<p>Orleans, <a href="#page097">97</a></p>
+<p>Osman Digna, <a href="#page470">470</a>, <a href=
+"#page486">486</a></p>
+<p>Osman Pasha, <a href="#page196">196</a>, <a href=
+"#page200">200</a>, <a href="#page205">205</a>, <a href=
+"#page214">214-19</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Palikao, Count, <a href="#page065">65</a>, <a href=
+"#page075">75</a>, <a href="#page077">77</a>, <a href=
+"#page079">79</a>, <a href="#page087">87</a></p>
+<p>Palmerston, Lord, <a href="#page030">30</a>, <a href=
+"#page438">438</a>, <a href="#page441">441</a></p>
+<p>Pan-German Movement, <a href="#page593">593-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page621">621</a></p>
+<p>Pan-Islamic Movement, <a href="#page592">592-3</a>, <a href=
+"#page608">608</a></p>
+<p>Panjdeh, <a href="#page346">346</a>, <a href=
+"#page426">426-9</a>, <a href="#page432">432</a></p>
+<p>Papal States, the, <a href="#page009">9</a>, <a href=
+"#page010">10</a></p>
+<p>Paris, <a href="#page087">87</a>, <a href="#page088">88</a>,
+<a href="#page095">95</a>, <a href="#page097">97</a>, <a href=
+"#page098">98</a>, <a href="#page105">105</a>, <a href=
+"#page107">107-113</a>, <a href="#page120">120</a></p>
+<p>Paris Commune, the (1871), <a href="#page106">106-113</a>,
+<a href="#page116">116</a>, <a href="#page315">315</a></p>
+<p>Paris, Comte de, <a href="#page117">117</a>, <a href=
+"#page122">122</a></p>
+<p>Paris, Treaty of (1856), <a href="#page161">161</a>, <a href=
+"#page176">176</a></p>
+<p>Peiwar, Kotal, Battle at, <a href="#page396">396</a></p>
+<p>Pekin, Capture of, <a href="#page595">595</a></p>
+<p>Persia, <a href="#page367">367</a>, <a href="#page368">368</a>,
+<a href="#page374">374</a>, <a href="#page378">378</a>, <a href=
+"#page380">380</a>, <a href="#page609">609</a>, <a href=
+"#page624">624</a></p>
+<p>Persian Gulf, the, <a href="#page592">592</a></p>
+<p>Peshawur, <a href="#page394">394</a></p>
+<p>Peter, King of Servia, <a href="#page615">615</a></p>
+<p>Peters, Dr. Karl, <a href="#page517">517-19</a>, <a href=
+"#page522">522</a></p>
+<p>Phayre, General, <a href="#page416">416</a></p>
+<p>Philippopolis, <a href="#page219">219</a>, <a href=
+"#page260">260</a>, <a href="#page263">263-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page270">270</a>, <a href="#page271">271</a>, <a href=
+"#page281">281</a></p>
+<p>Picard, M., <a href="#page103">103</a></p>
+<p>Piedmont, <a href="#page007">7</a></p>
+<p>Pishin, <a href="#page400">400</a></p>
+<p>Pius IX., <a href="#page006">6</a>, <a href="#page007">7</a>,
+<a href="#page038">38</a>, <a href="#page089">89-91</a>, <a href=
+"#page122">122</a>, <a href="#page138">138-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page141">141</a>, <a href="#page327">327</a></p>
+<p>Plevna, Battles at, <a href="#page206">206-19</a></p>
+<p>Pobyedonosteff, <a href="#page299">299</a>, <a href=
+"#page300">300</a></p>
+<p>Poland, <a href="#page004">4</a>, <a href="#page005">5</a>,
+<a href="#page025">25</a>, <a href="#page026">26</a>, <a href=
+"#page031">31</a>, <a href="#page301">301</a></p>
+<p>Pondoland, <a href="#page529">529</a></p>
+<p>Port Arthur, <a href="#page346">346</a>, <a href=
+"#page580">580</a></p>
+<p>Porte, the. <i>See</i> <a href="#Turkey">Turkey</a></p>
+<p>Portsmouth, Treaty of, <a href="#page598">598</a></p>
+<p>Portugal, <a href="#page520">520</a>, <a href=
+"#page525">525</a>, <a href="#page526">526</a>, <a href=
+"#page540">540</a>, <a href="#page541">541</a>, <a href=
+"#page546">546-9</a></p>
+<p>Posen, <a href="#page141">141</a></p>
+<p>Primrose, General, <a href="#page407">407</a>, <a href=
+"#page411">411</a></p>
+<p>Prudhon, <a href="#page292">292-5</a></p>
+<p>Prussia (1815-66), <a href="#page004">4-22</a>, <a href=
+"#page026">26</a>, <a href="#page051">51-5</a>, <a href=
+"#page095">95</a>, <a href="#page130">130</a>, <a href=
+"#page140">140</a>, <a href="#page141">141</a>. <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Germany">Germany</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Quadrilateral, the Turkish, <a href="#page194">194-7</a>,
+<a href="#page199">199-200</a></p>
+<p>Quetta, <a href="#page381">381</a>, <a href="#page385">385</a>,
+<a href="#page398">398</a>, <a href="#page412">412</a>, <a href=
+"#page416">416</a>, <a href="#page432">432</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Rabinek, Herr, <a href="#page565">565</a></p>
+<p>Rachfahl, Herr, <a href="#page605">605</a></p>
+<p>Radetzky, General, <a href="#page209">209</a>, <a href=
+"#page220">220</a></p>
+<p>Radowitz, Herr von, <a href="#page321">321</a></p>
+<p>Radziwill, Princess, <a href="#page236">236-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page291">291</a></p>
+<p>Rauf Pasha, <a href="#page460">460-61</a></p>
+<p>Rawlinson, Sir Henry, <a href="#page380">380</a></p>
+<p>Redcliffe, Lord Stratford de, <a href="#page188">188</a></p>
+<p>Redmond, Mr., <a href="#page646">646</a></p>
+<p>Reichstag, the German, <a href="#page133">133-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page140">140</a>, <a href="#page141">141</a>, <a href=
+"#page145">145-6</a></p>
+<p>Reventlow, Count, <a href="#page587">587</a>, <a href=
+"#page595">595</a>, <a href="#page603">603</a>, <a href=
+"#page637">637-8</a></p>
+<p>Revolutions of 1848, <a href="#page006">6-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page011">11-12</a></p>
+<p>Rezonville, Battle of, <a href="#page067">67-70</a></p>
+<p>Rhodes, Mr. Cecil, <a href="#page530">530-32</a>, <a href=
+"#page541">541</a></p>
+<p>Rhodesia, <a href="#page532">532</a></p>
+<p>Riaz Pasha, <a href="#page445">445</a></p>
+<p>Ribot, M., <a href="#page346">346</a></p>
+<p>Ripon, Lord, <a href="#page406">406</a>, <a href=
+"#page412">412</a>, <a href="#page417">417</a></p>
+<p>Roberts, Lord, <a href="#page379">379</a>, <a href=
+"#page389">389</a>, <a href="#page392">392-3</a>, <a href=
+"#page395">395-8</a>, <a href="#page402">402-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page535">535</a></p>
+<p>Rohrbach, Herr, <a href="#page637">637</a></p>
+<p>Rome, <a href="#page007">7</a>, <a href="#page010">10</a>,
+<a href="#page038">38</a>, <a href="#page089">89-92</a>, <a href=
+"#page095">95</a>, <a href="#page138">138</a></p>
+<p>Roon, Count von, <a href="#page017">17</a>, <a href=
+"#page043">43</a></p>
+<p>Rosebery, Earl of, <a href="#page275">275</a>, <a href=
+"#page276">276</a>, <a href="#page503">503</a>, <a href=
+"#page519">519</a>, <a href="#page528">528</a></p>
+<p>Roumania, <a href="#page026">26</a>, <a href="#page157">157</a>,
+<a href="#page158">158</a>, <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href=
+"#page192">192-3</a>, <a href="#page220">220</a>, <a href=
+"#page222">222</a>, <a href="#page225">225</a>, <a href=
+"#page229">229-30</a>, <a href="#page238">238-40</a>, <a href=
+"#page257">257</a>, <a href="#page260">260-62</a>, <a href=
+"#page262">269</a></p>
+<p>Roumania, King of, <a href="#page041">41</a></p>
+<p>Rouvier, M., <a href="#page607">607</a></p>
+<p>Royal Niger Company, the, <a href="#page526">526</a>, <a href=
+"#page540">540</a></p>
+<p>Rubber Tax, in Congo State, <a href="#page565">565-7</a></p>
+<p>Russell, Lord John, <a href="#page014">14</a>, <a href=
+"#page015">15</a></p>
+<p>Russell, Lord Odo, <a href="#page322">322</a></p>
+<p>Russia, <a href="#page005">5</a>, <a href="#page009">9</a>,
+<a href="#page012">12</a>, <a href="#page013">13</a>, <a href=
+"#page026">26</a>, <a href="#page031">31</a>, <a href=
+"#page032">32</a>, <a href="#page055">55</a>, <a href=
+"#page095">95</a>, <a href="#page112">112</a>, <a href=
+"#page145">145</a>, <a href="#page148">148</a>, <a href=
+"#page161">161</a>, <a href="#page164">164-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page172">172</a>, <a href="#page182">182</a>, <a href=
+"#page190">190-92</a>, <a href="#page231">231</a>, <a href=
+"#page234">234</a>, <a href="#page240">240</a>, <a href=
+"#page289">289</a>, <a href="#page290">290</a>, <a href=
+"#page318">318</a>, <a href="#page322">322-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page331">331-5</a>, <a href="#page337">337</a>, <a href=
+"#page341">341-5</a>, <a href="#page347">347-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page371">371</a>, <a href="#page446">446</a>, <a href=
+"#page447">447-8</a>, <a href="#page457">457</a>, <a href=
+"#page458">458</a>, <a href="#page472">472</a>, <a href=
+"#page485">485</a>, <a href="#page527">527</a>, <a href=
+"#page586">586</a>, <a href="#page590">590-91</a>, <a href=
+"#page593">593-5</a>, <a href="#page597">597</a>, <a href=
+"#page603">603</a>, <a href="#page606">606-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page612">612-13</a>, <a href="#page615">615-17</a>, <a href=
+"#page621">621</a>, <a href="#page624">624</a>, <a href=
+"#page626">626</a>, <a href="#page629">629-31</a>, <a href=
+"#page633">633-4</a>, <a href="#page640">640-44</a>, <a href=
+"#page647">647-8</a></p>
+<p class="i1">and Bulgaria, <a href="#page253">253-88</a></p>
+<p class="i1">and Finland, <a href="#page307">307-14</a></p>
+<p class="i1">and Japan, <a href="#page585">585</a>, <a href=
+"#page592">592</a>, <a href="#page598">598-9</a></p>
+<p class="i1">and the Jews, <a href="#page304">304-5</a></p>
+<p class="i1">and Turkey, <a href="#page222">222-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page229">229-42</a></p>
+<p class="i1">army of, <a href="#page635">635</a>, <a href=
+"#page638">638</a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page659" id="page659"></a>[pg
+659]</span>
+<p>Russia in Central Asia, <a href="#page359">359-66</a>, <a href=
+"#page371">371-4</a>, <a href="#page376">376-80</a>, <a href=
+"#page383">383</a>, <a href="#page387">387-91</a>, <a href=
+"#page398">398-9</a>, <a href="#page403">403</a>, <a href=
+"#page419">419-30</a></p>
+<p class="i1">in the Far East, <a href="#page595">595-6</a>,
+<a href="#page598">598</a>, <a href="#page614">614</a>, chap.
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">xx</a>. <i>passim</i></p>
+<p>Russo-Japanese War, <a href="#page598">598-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page602">602</a></p>
+<p>Russo-Turkish War, <a href="#page585">585</a></p>
+<p>Rustchuk, <a href="#page194">194</a>, <a href=
+"#page199">199</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>, <a href=
+"#page265">265</a>, <a href="#page280">280-82</a>, <a href=
+"#page285">285</a>, <a href="#page334">334</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Saarbr&uuml;cken, Battle of, <a href="#page061">61</a>, <a href=
+"#page062">62</a></p>
+<p>Said, Khedive, <a href="#page438">438</a></p>
+<p>St. Hilaire, Barth&eacute;l&eacute;my de, <a href=
+"#page328">328</a></p>
+<p>St. Lucia Bay, <a href="#page519">519</a>, <a href=
+"#page525">525</a>, <a href="#page527">527</a>, <a href=
+"#page528">528</a>, <a href="#page534">534</a></p>
+<p>St. Privat, Battle of <i>See</i> <a href=
+"#Gravelotte">Gravelotte</a></p>
+<p>St. Quentin, Battle of, <a href="#page098">98</a></p>
+<p>Saladin, <a href="#page591">591</a></p>
+<p>Salisbury, Marquis of, <a href="#page176">176-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page187">187</a>, <a href="#page232">232-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page240">240</a>, <a href="#page243">243</a>, <a href=
+"#page266">266-9</a>, <a href="#page272">272</a>, <a href=
+"#page275">275</a>, <a href="#page283">283</a>, <a href=
+"#page287">287</a>, <a href="#page328">328</a>, <a href=
+"#page336">336</a>, <a href="#page380">380-81</a>, <a href=
+"#page383">383</a>, <a href="#page387">387</a>, <a href=
+"#page428">428</a>, <a href="#page505">505</a>, <a href=
+"#page519">519</a>, <a href="#page522">522</a>, <a href=
+"#page540">540</a>, <a href="#page554">554</a>, <a href=
+"#page581">581</a></p>
+<p>Salonica, <a href="#page167">167</a>, <a href=
+"#page229">229</a></p>
+<p>Samarcand, <a href="#page365">365-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page371">371</a>, <a href="#page388">388-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page604">604</a></p>
+<p>Samoa, <a href="#page588">588</a>, <a href=
+"#page610">610</a></p>
+<p>Samory, <a href="#page539">539</a></p>
+<p>San Stefano, Treaty of, <a href="#page229">229-32</a>, <a href=
+"#page233">233</a>, <a href="#page238">238</a>, <a href=
+"#page253">253</a></p>
+<p>Sandeman, Sir Robert, <a href="#page384">384-5</a></p>
+<p>Sardinia, Kingdom of, <a href="#page008">8-11</a>, <a href=
+"#page162">162</a></p>
+<p>Saxony, <a href="#page004">4</a>, <a href="#page005">5</a>,
+<a href="#page011">11</a>, <a href="#page018">18</a>, <a href=
+"#page134">134-6</a></p>
+<p>Sazonoff, M., <a href="#page641">641</a></p>
+<p>Schleswig-Holstein, <a href="#page005">5</a>, <a href=
+"#page012">12</a>, <a href="#page013">13-16</a>, <a href=
+"#page021">21</a>, <a href="#page026">26</a>, <a href=
+"#page142">142</a></p>
+<p>Schnaebele, M., <a href="#page334">334</a>, <a href=
+"#page338">338</a></p>
+<p>Sedan, Battle of, <a href="#page077">77-88</a></p>
+<p>Septennate, the (in France), <a href="#page123">123</a></p>
+<p>Serpa Pinto, <a href="#page540">540</a></p>
+<p>Servia, <a href="#page158">158-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page163">163</a>, <a href="#page167">167</a>, <a href=
+"#page173">173-4</a>, <a href="#page180">180</a>, <a href=
+"#page194">194</a>, <a href="#page225">225</a>, <a href=
+"#page229">229</a>, <a href="#page232">232</a>, <a href=
+"#page238">238</a>, <a href="#page242">242</a>, <a href=
+"#page257">257</a>, <a href="#page258">258</a>, <a href=
+"#page267">267</a>, <a href="#page612">612-13</a>, <a href=
+"#page615">615-16</a>, <a href="#page631">631</a>, <a href=
+"#page637">637</a>, <a href="#page639">639-43</a>, <a href=
+"#page648">648-9</a></p>
+<p>Seymour, Admiral, <a href="#page449">449-50</a></p>
+<p>Shan-tung, Province of, <a href="#page580">580</a>, <a href=
+"#page581">581</a></p>
+<p>Shere Ali, <a href="#page369">369-74</a>, <a href=
+"#page376">376-7</a>, <a href="#page379">379-80</a>, <a href=
+"#page384">384</a>, <a href="#page386">386-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page390">390-92</a>, <a href="#page398">398-400</a></p>
+<p>Sherpur, Engagements at (1878), <a href="#page404">404</a></p>
+<p>Shipka Pass, <a href="#page197">197</a>, <a href=
+"#page201">201-3</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>, <a href=
+"#page220">220</a></p>
+<p>Shumla, <a href="#page194">194</a>, <a href=
+"#page208">208</a></p>
+<p>Shutargardan Pass, the, <a href="#page402">402</a></p>
+<p>Shuvaloff, Count, <a href="#page233">233</a>, <a href=
+"#page235">235</a></p>
+<p>Siberia, <a href="#page361">361</a>, <a href="#page366">366</a>,
+<a href="#page570">570-72</a>, <a href="#page574">574</a></p>
+<p>Sibi, <a href="#page398">398</a>, <a href="#page400">400</a></p>
+<p>Simon, Jules, <a href="#page103">103</a></p>
+<p>Sistova, <a href="#page196">196</a>, <a href="#page197">197</a>,
+<a href="#page199">199</a>, <a href="#page208">208</a>, <a href=
+"#page217">217</a></p>
+<p>Skiernewice, <a href="#page258">258</a>, <a href=
+"#page266">266</a>, <a href="#page284">284</a>, <a href=
+"#page302">302</a>, <a href="#page332">332-5</a>, <a href=
+"#page426">426</a>, <a href="#page515">515-18</a></p>
+<p>Skobeleff, General, <a href="#page198">198-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page203">203</a>, <a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href=
+"#page211">211-15</a>, <a href="#page220">220</a>, <a href=
+"#page259">259</a>, <a href="#page330">330</a>, <a href=
+"#page388">388-9</a>, <a href="#page421">421-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page431">431</a></p>
+<p>Slave-trade, the, <a href="#page558">558</a>, <a href=
+"#page562">562</a></p>
+<p>Slavophils, the, <a href="#page310">310-12</a>, <a href=
+"#page339">339</a></p>
+<p>Slivnitza, Battle of, <a href="#page270">270-71</a></p>
+<p>Soboleff, General, <a href="#page255">255</a>, <a href=
+"#page257">257-8</a></p>
+<p>Sofia, <a href="#page210">210</a>, <a href="#page219">219</a>,
+<a href="#page271">271</a>, <a href="#page273">273</a>, <a href=
+"#page278">278-9</a></p>
+<p>Solferino, Battle of, <a href="#page009">9</a></p>
+<p>Somaliland, <a href="#page540">540</a></p>
+<p>South Africa Company, British, <a href="#page533">533</a></p>
+<p>South German Confederation, <a href="#page021">21</a>, <a href=
+"#page022">22</a>, <a href="#page035">35</a></p>
+<p>South-West Africa (German), <a href="#page523">523-7</a>,
+<a href="#page531">531-2</a></p>
+<p>Spain, <a href="#page040">40</a>, <a href="#page041">41</a>,
+<a href="#page042">42</a>, <a href="#page605">605</a></p>
+<p>Spicheren, Battle of, <a href="#page062">62</a>, <a href=
+"#page063">63</a></p>
+<p>Stambuloff, <a href="#page256">256</a>, <a href=
+"#page259">259</a>, <a href="#page264">264</a>, <a href=
+"#page289">289</a>, <a href="#page283">283-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page334">334</a></p>
+<p>Stanley, Sir H.M., <a href="#page465">465</a>, <a href=
+"#page508">508-9</a>, <a href="#page543">543-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page552">552</a>, <a href="#page553">553</a></p>
+<p>State Socialism (in Germany), <a href="#page150">150-53</a></p>
+<p>Steinmetz, General, <a href="#page071">71</a></p>
+<p>Stephenson, General, <a href="#page474">474</a></p>
+<p>Stepniak, <a href="#page294">294</a>, <a href=
+"#page303">303</a></p>
+<p>Stewart, Colonel, <a href="#page466">466</a>, <a href=
+"#page476">476</a></p>
+<p>Stewart, Sir Donald, <a href="#page398">398</a>, <a href=
+"#page405">405</a></p>
+<p>Stewart, Sit Herbert, <a href="#page480">480</a></p>
+<p>Stiege, Admiral, <a href="#page623">623</a></p>
+<p>Stoffel, Colonel, <a href="#page053">53</a></p>
+<p>Stokes, Mr., execution of, <a href="#page565">565</a></p>
+<p>Stolieteff, General, <a href="#page388">388-90</a>, <a href=
+"#page398">398</a></p>
+<p>Stundists, the, <a href="#page305">305-7</a></p>
+<p>Suakim, <a href="#page462">462</a>, <a href="#page473">473</a>,
+<a href="#page478">478</a>, <a href="#page486">486</a>, <a href=
+"#page488">488</a>, <a href="#page518">518</a></p>
+<p>Sudan, the, <i>passim</i> chaps. <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">xvi</a>.
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">xvii</a>.</p>
+<p>Suez Canal, the, <a href="#page166">166</a>, <a href=
+"#page190">190</a>, <a href="#page225">225</a>, <a href=
+"#page438">438</a>, <a href="#page439">439</a>, <a href=
+"#page457">457</a>, <a href="#page513">513</a></p>
+<p>Suleiman Pasha, <a href="#page204">204</a>, <a href=
+"#page208">208-9</a>, <a href="#page215">215</a>, <a href=
+"#page216">216</a>, <a href="#page219">219</a>, <a href=
+"#page221">221</a></p>
+<p>Swat Valley, the, <a href="#page433">433</a></p>
+<p>Sweden, <a href="#page004">4</a>, <a href="#page005">5</a></p>
+<p>Switzerland, <a href="#page098">98</a>, <a href=
+"#page148">148</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Tamai, Battle of, <a href="#page470">470</a></p>
+<p>Tangier, <a href="#page614">614</a></p>
+<p>Tashkend, <a href="#page365">365</a>, <a href=
+"#page388">388</a>, <a href="#page433">433</a></p>
+<p>Tatisheff, M., <a href="#page643">643</a></p>
+<p>Tchernayeff, General, <a href="#page174">174</a></p>
+<p>Tchirsky, Herr von, <a href="#page640">640</a></p>
+<p>Tel-el-Kebir, Battle of, <a href="#page454">454-5</a></p>
+<p>Tewfik, Khedive, <a href="#page442">442-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page452">452-3</a>, <a href="#page458">458</a>, <a href=
+"#page461">461</a>, <a href="#page466">466-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page487">487</a>, <a href="#page503">503</a>, <a href=
+"#page507">507</a></p>
+<p>Thessaly, <a href="#page240">240-41</a>, <a href=
+"#page248">248-9</a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="page660" id="page660"></a>[pg
+660]</span>
+<p>Thiers, M., <a href="#page026">26</a>, <a href=
+"#page027">27</a>, <a href="#page047">47</a>, <a href=
+"#page087">87</a>, <a href="#page094">94</a>, <a href=
+"#page100">100-6</a>, <a href="#page108">108</a>, <a href=
+"#page114">114-19</a>, <i>passim</i> chaps. <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_IV">iv</a>. <a href="#CHAPTER_V">v</a>.</p>
+<p>Thomson, Joseph, <a href="#page509">509-10</a>, <a href=
+"#page535">535-6</a>, <a href="#page541">541</a></p>
+<p>Thornton, Sir Edward, <a href="#page427">427</a></p>
+<p>Three Emperors' League, the, <a href="#page179">179</a>,
+<a href="#page184">184</a>, <a href="#page319">319-23</a>, <a href=
+"#page326">326</a>, <a href="#page332">332-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page448">448</a>, <a href="#page515">515</a></p>
+<p>Tilsit, Treaty of, <a href="#page308">308</a></p>
+<p>Timbuctu, <a href="#page539">539</a></p>
+<p>Tipu Tib, <a href="#page553">553</a></p>
+<p>Tirard, M., <a href="#page341">341</a></p>
+<p>Tirpitz, Admiral von, <a href="#page589">589</a>, <a href=
+"#page609">609</a></p>
+<p>Tisza, M., <a href="#page180">180</a>, <a href=
+"#page283">283</a></p>
+<p>Todleben, <a href="#page216">216-17</a></p>
+<p>Togo, Admiral, <a href="#page598">598</a></p>
+<p>Trans-Siberian Railway, the, <a href="#page574">574-6</a>,
+<a href="#page580">580</a>, <a href="#page582">582-3</a>, <a href=
+"#page599">599</a></p>
+<p>Transvaal, the, <a href="#page525">525</a>, <a href=
+"#page527">527</a>, <a href="#page586">586</a></p>
+<p>Treitschke, Herr, <a href="#page626">626</a>, <a href=
+"#page636">636</a></p>
+<p>Trentino, <a href="#page335">335</a></p>
+<p>Triple Alliance, the, <a href="#page021">21</a>, <a href=
+"#page327">327-33</a>, <a href="#page335">335-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page453">453</a>, <a href="#page515">515</a>, <a href=
+"#page590">590-1</a>, <a href="#page599">599-601</a>, <a href=
+"#page609">609</a>, <a href="#page615">615</a>, <a href=
+"#page624">624</a>, <a href="#page635">635</a>, <a href=
+"#page637">637</a>, <a href="#page647">647</a></p>
+<p>Triple Entente, the, <a href="#page593">593</a>, <a href=
+"#page595">595</a>, <a href="#page609">609</a>, <a href=
+"#page617">617</a>, <a href="#page635">635</a>, <a href=
+"#page647">647</a>, <a href="#page649">649</a></p>
+<p>Trochu, General, <a href="#page101">101</a></p>
+<p>Tsushima, Battle of, <a href="#page598">598</a></p>
+<p>Tunis, <a href="#page328">328-30</a>, <a href=
+"#page436">436</a>, <a href="#page448">448</a>, <a href=
+"#page513">513-14</a>, <a href="#page600">600</a></p>
+<p>Turgenieff, <a href="#page294">294</a>, <a href=
+"#page295">295</a></p>
+<p>Turkestan, <a href="#page361">361</a>, <a href=
+"#page364">364</a>, <a href="#page366">366-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page419">419-30</a></p>
+<p><a name="Turkey"></a>Turkey, <a href="#page005">5</a>, <a href=
+"#page155">155</a>, <a href="#page168">168-77</a>, <a href=
+"#page181">181</a>, <a href="#page187">187-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page190">190-221</a>, <a href="#page229">229-42</a>, <a href=
+"#page332">332</a>, <a href="#page342">342</a>, <a href=
+"#page348">348</a>,<br>
+<a href="#page436">436-8</a>, <a href="#page446">446</a>, <a href=
+"#page502">502</a>, <a href="#page567">567</a>, <a href=
+"#page592">592</a>, <a href="#page613">613</a>, <a href=
+"#page615">615-616</a>, <a href="#page618">618</a>, <a href=
+"#page624">624</a>, <a href="#page628">628-30</a>, <a href=
+"#page632">632</a>, <a href="#page638">638-9</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Uganda, <a href="#page502">502</a>, <a href=
+"#page522">522-3</a></p>
+<p>Umballa, Conference at, <a href="#page372">372-3</a></p>
+<p>Umberto I., King of Italy, <a href="#page327">327</a>, <a href=
+"#page329">329-31</a>, <a href="#page333">333</a>, <a href=
+"#page335">335</a>, <a href="#page336">336</a></p>
+<p>United Kingdom. <i>See</i> <a href="#Great_Britain">Great
+Britain</a></p>
+<p>United Netherlands, Kingdom of, <a href="#page005">5</a></p>
+<p>United States, the, <a href="#page030">30</a>, <a href=
+"#page031">31</a>, <a href="#page547">547</a>, <a href=
+"#page567">567</a>, <a href="#page578">578</a>, <a href=
+"#page581">581</a>, <a href="#page596">596-8</a>, <a href=
+"#page607">607</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Vandervelde, M., <a href="#page557">557</a></p>
+<p>Venetia, <a href="#page005">5-11</a>, <a href="#page017">17</a>,
+<a href="#page019">19</a>, <a href="#page021">21</a></p>
+<p>Verdun, <a href="#page065">65</a>, <a href="#page068">68</a></p>
+<p>Versailles, <a href="#page103">103</a>, <a href=
+"#page106">106</a>, <a href="#page108">108</a>, <a href=
+"#page109">109</a>, <a href="#page129">129</a></p>
+<p>Victor Emmanuel II., King of Italy, <a href="#page002">2-11</a>,
+<a href="#page037">37</a>, <a href="#page063">63</a>, <a href=
+"#page090">90</a>, <a href="#page327">327</a></p>
+<p>Victor Emmanuel III., <a href="#page601">601</a>, <a href=
+"#page615">615</a></p>
+<p>Victoria, Queen, <a href="#page014">14</a>, <a href=
+"#page145">145</a>, <a href="#page165">165</a>, <a href=
+"#page171">171</a>, <a href="#page223">223-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page261">261</a>, <a href="#page322">322</a></p>
+<p class="i1">proclaimed Empress of India, <a href=
+"#page382">382</a></p>
+<p>Victoria, Crown Princess of Germany, <a href=
+"#page323">323</a></p>
+<p>Vienna, Treaty of (1815), <a href="#page004">4</a>, <a href=
+"#page005">5</a></p>
+<p>Vionville, Battle of, <a href="#page067">67-70</a></p>
+<p>Viviani, M., <a href="#page644">644</a></p>
+<p>Vladivostok, <a href="#page572">572</a>, <a href=
+"#page575">575</a>, <a href="#page580">580</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Waddington, M., <a href="#page240">240</a>, <a href=
+"#page245">245</a>, <a href="#page246">246</a>, <a href=
+"#page328">328</a></p>
+<p>Wady Halfa, <a href="#page439">439</a>, <a href=
+"#page476">476</a>, <a href="#page478">478</a>, <a href=
+"#page483">483</a>, <a href="#page484">484</a>, <a href=
+"#page486">486</a>, <a href="#page489">489</a>, <a href=
+"#page502">502</a></p>
+<p>Waldeck-Rousseau, M., <a href="#page600">600</a></p>
+<p>Waldemar, Prince, <a href="#page284">284</a></p>
+<p>Walfisch Bay, <a href="#page524">524</a></p>
+<p>Wallachia, <a href="#page160">160-62</a></p>
+<p>Warren, Sir Charles, <a href="#page531">531-2</a></p>
+<p>Wei-hai-wei, <a href="#page582">582</a></p>
+<p>West Africa, <a href="#page533">533-40</a></p>
+<p>White, Major G., <a href="#page402">402</a></p>
+<p>White, Sir William, <a href="#page177">177</a>, <a href=
+"#page187">187</a>, <a href="#page265">265</a>, <a href=
+"#page267">267-9</a>, <a href="#page273">273-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page287">287</a>, <a href="#page302">302</a></p>
+<p>Widdin, <a href="#page194">194</a>, <a href="#page196">196</a>,
+<a href="#page200">200</a>, <a href="#page206">206</a>, <a href=
+"#page270">270</a></p>
+<p>William I. (King of Prussia, German Emperor), <a href=
+"#page011">11-22</a>, <a href="#page031">31</a>, <a href=
+"#page032">32</a>, <a href="#page041">41-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page073">73</a>, <a href="#page104">104</a>, <a href=
+"#page129">129-30</a>, <a href="#page137">137</a>, <a href=
+"#page152">152</a>, <a href="#page236">236</a>, <a href=
+"#page321">321-2</a>, <a href="#page325">325</a>, <a href=
+"#page335">335</a>, <a href="#page339">339</a>, <a href=
+"#page517">517</a>, <a href="#page594">594</a></p>
+<p>William II. (King of Prussia, German Emperor), <a href=
+"#page151">151-3</a>, <a href="#page339">339-40</a>, <a href=
+"#page342">342</a>, <a href="#page522">522</a>, <a href=
+"#page580">580</a>, <a href="#page582">582</a>, <a href=
+"#page586">586-93</a>, <a href="#page598">598-9</a>, <a href=
+"#page604">604</a>, <a href="#page606">606-611</a>, <a href=
+"#page614">614</a>, <a href="#page616">616-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page620">620-1</a>, <a href="#page623">623-4</a>, <a href=
+"#page632">632</a>, <a href="#page636">636-7</a>, <a href=
+"#page639">639-41</a>, <a href="#page643">643-6</a></p>
+<p>William, Crown Prince of Germany, <a href="#page625">625</a>,
+<a href="#page646">646</a></p>
+<p>William of Weid, Prince, <a href="#page632">632</a></p>
+<p>Wilson, Sir Charles, <a href="#page480">480</a></p>
+<p>Wimpffen, General de, <a href="#page079">79-86</a></p>
+<p>Winton, Sir Francis de, <a href="#page552">552</a></p>
+<p>Wissmann, Lieutenant von, <a href="#page546">546</a></p>
+<p>Wolf, Dr., <a href="#page546">546</a></p>
+<p>Wolff, Sir H. Drummond, <a href="#page485">485</a></p>
+<p>Wolseley, Lord, <a href="#page454">454-6</a>, <a href=
+"#page466">466</a>, <a href="#page475">475</a>, <a href=
+"#page476">476</a>, <a href="#page478">478</a>, <a href=
+"#page481">481</a>, <a href="#page507">507</a></p>
+<p>W&ouml;rth, Battle of, <a href="#page059">59-62</a></p>
+<p>W&uuml;rtemberg, <a href="#page021">21</a>, <a href=
+"#page131">131</a>, <a href="#page133">133-5</a>, <a href=
+"#page137">137</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Yakub Khan, <a href="#page379">379</a>, <a href=
+"#page400">400-3</a></p>
+<p>Young Turk Party, the, <a href="#page612">612-3</a>, <a href=
+"#page616">616</a>, <a href="#page618">618</a></p>
+<p class="i1">Revolution (1908), <a href="#page615">615</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>Zankoff, M., <a href="#page280">280</a></p>
+<p>Zanzibar, <a href="#page516">516-21</a>, <a href=
+"#page532">532</a>, <a href="#page553">553</a></p>
+<p>Zazulich, Vera, <a href="#page292">292</a></p>
+<p>Zebehr, Pasha, <a href="#page469">469-73</a></p>
+<p>Zemstvo, the, <a href="#page293">293</a>, <a href=
+"#page296">296</a>, <a href="#page301">301</a></p>
+<p>Zola, Emile, <a href="#page600">600</a></p>
+<p>Zulfikar Pass, the, <a href="#page428">428</a></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Development of the European
+Nations, 1870-1914 (5th ed.), by John Holland Rose
+
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Development of the European Nations,
+1870-1914 (5th ed.), by John Holland Rose
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1914 (5th ed.)
+
+Author: John Holland Rose
+
+Release Date: January 9, 2005 [EBook #14644]
+[Last updated: November 27, 2020]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EUROPEAN NATIONS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charlie Kirschner and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Campaigns 1859-71]
+
+THE DEVELOPMENT
+
+OF THE
+
+EUROPEAN NATIONS
+
+1870-1914
+
+BY
+
+J. HOLLAND ROSE LITT.D.
+
+FELLOW OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
+AUTHOR OF 'THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON,' 'THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PITT,'
+'THE ORIGINS OF THE WAR,' ETC.
+
+     'Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.'--VIRGIL.
+
+FIFTH EDITION, WITH A NEW PREFACE AND
+THREE SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTERS
+
+1915
+
+_First Edition . .  October 1905.
+   Second  "   . . November 1905.
+   Third   "   . . December 1911.
+   Fourth  "   . . November 1914.
+   Fifth   "   . .  October 1915._
+
+TO
+
+MY WIFE
+
+WITHOUT WHOSE HELP
+
+THIS WORK
+
+COULD NOT HAVE BEEN COMPLETED
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION
+
+
+In this Edition are included three new chapters (Nos. XXI.-XXIII.), in
+which I seek to describe the most important and best-ascertained facts
+of the period 1900-14. Necessarily, the narrative is tentative at many
+points; and it is impossible to attain impartiality; but I have sought
+to view events from the German as well as the British standpoint, and to
+sum up the evidence fairly. The addition of these chapters has
+necessitated the omission of the former Epilogue and Appendices. I
+regret the sacrifice of the Epilogue, for it emphasised two important
+considerations, (1) the tendency of British foreign policy towards undue
+complaisance, which by other Powers is often interpreted as weakness;
+(2) the danger arising from the keen competition in armaments. No one
+can review recent events without perceiving the significance of these
+considerations. Perhaps they may prove to be among the chief causes
+producing the terrible finale of July-August 1914. I desire to express
+my acknowledgments and thanks for valuable advice given by Mr. J.W.
+Headlam, M.A., Mr. A.B. Hinds, M.A., and Dr. R.W. Seton-Watson, D. Litt.
+
+J.H.R.
+
+CAMBRIDGE,
+
+_September_ 5, 1915.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION
+
+
+The outbreak of war in Europe is an event too momentous to be treated
+fully in this Preface. But I may point out that the catastrophe resulted
+from the two causes of unrest described in this volume, namely, the
+Alsace-Lorraine Question and the Eastern Question. Those disputes have
+dragged on without any attempt at settlement by the Great Powers. The
+Zabern incident inflamed public opinion in Alsace-Lorraine, and
+illustrated the overbearing demeanour of the German military caste;
+while the insidious attempts of Austria in 1913 to incite Bulgaria
+against Servia marked out the Hapsburg Empire as the chief enemy of the
+Slav peoples of the Balkan Peninsula after the collapse of Turkish power
+in 1912. The internal troubles of the United Kingdom, France, and Russia
+in July 1914 furnished the opportunity so long sought by the forward
+party at Berlin and Vienna; and the Austro-German Alliance, which, in
+its origin, was defensive (as I have shown in this volume), became
+offensive, Italy parting from her allies when she discovered their
+designs. Drawn into the Triple Alliance solely by pique against France
+after the Tunis affair, she now inclines towards the Anglo-French
+connection.
+
+Readers of my chapter on the Eastern Question will not fail to see how
+the neglect of the Balkan peoples by the Great Powers has left that
+wound festering in the weak side of Europe; and they will surmise that
+the Balkan troubles have, by a natural Nemesis, played their part in
+bringing about the European War. It is for students of modern Europe to
+seek to form a healthy public opinion so that the errors of the past may
+not be repeated, and that the new Europe shall be constituted in
+conformity with the aspirations of the peoples themselves.
+
+CAMBRIDGE,
+
+_September_ 25, 1914.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The line of Virgil quoted on the title-page represents in the present
+case a sigh of aspiration, not a paean of achievement. No historical
+student, surely, can ever feel the conviction that he has fathomed the
+depths of that well where Truth is said to lie hid. What, then, must be
+the feelings of one who ventures into the mazy domain of recent annals,
+and essays to pick his way through thickets all but untrodden? More than
+once I have been tempted to give up the quest and turn aside to paths
+where pioneers have cleared the way. There, at least, the whereabouts of
+that fabulous well is known and the plummet is ready to hand.
+Nevertheless, I resolved to struggle through with my task, in the
+consciousness that the work of a pioneer may be helpful, provided that
+he carefully notches the track and thereby enables those who come after
+him to know what to seek and what to avoid.
+
+After all, there is no lack of guides in the present age. The number of
+memoir-writers and newspaper correspondents is legion; and I have come
+to believe that they are fully as trustworthy as similar witnesses have
+been in any age. The very keenness of their rivalry is some guarantee
+for truth. Doubtless competition for good "copy" occasionally leads to
+artful embroidering on humdrum actuality; but, after spending much time
+in scanning similar embroidery in the literature of the Napoleonic Era,
+I unhesitatingly place the work of Archibald Forbes, and that of several
+knights of the pen still living, far above the delusive tinsel of
+Marbot, Thiebault, and Segur. I will go further and say that, if we
+could find out what were the sources used by Thucydides, we should
+notice qualms of misgiving shoot through the circles of scientific
+historians as they contemplated his majestic work. In any case, I may
+appeal to the example of the great Athenian in support of the thesis
+that to undertake to write contemporary history is no vain thing.
+
+Above and beyond the accounts of memoir-writers and newspaper
+correspondents there are Blue Books. I am well aware that they do not
+always contain the whole truth. Sometimes the most important items are
+of necessity omitted. But the information which they contain is
+enormous; and, seeing that the rules of the public service keep the
+original records in Great Britain closed for well-nigh a century, only
+the most fastidious can object to the use of the wealth of materials
+given to the world in _Parliamentary Papers_.
+
+Besides these published sources there is the fund of information
+possessed by public men and the "well-informed" of various grades.
+Unfortunately this is rarely accessible, or only under conventional
+restrictions. Here and there I have been able to make use of it without
+any breach of trust; and to those who have enlightened my darkness I am
+very grateful. The illumination, I know, is only partial; but I hope
+that its effect, in respect to the twilight of diplomacy, may be
+compared to that of the Aurora Borealis lights.
+
+After working at my subject for some time, I found it desirable to limit
+it to events which had a distinctly formative influence on the
+development of European States. On questions of motive and policy I have
+generally refrained from expressing a decided verdict, seeing that these
+are always the most difficult to probe; and facile dogmatism on them is
+better fitted to omniscient leaderettes than to the pages of an
+historical work. At the same time, I have not hesitated to pronounce a
+judgment on these questions, and to differ from other writers, where the
+evidence has seemed to me decisive. To quote one instance, I reject the
+verdict of most authorities on the question of Bismarck's treatment of
+the Ems telegram, and of its effect in the negotiations with France in
+July 1870.
+
+For the most part, however, I have dealt only with external events,
+pointing out now and again the part which they have played in the great
+drama of human action still going on around us. This limitation of aim
+has enabled me to take only specific topics, and to treat them far more
+fully than is done in the brief chronicle of facts presented by MM.
+Lavisse and Rambaud in the concluding volume of their _Histoire
+Generale_. Where a series of events began in the year 1899 or 1900, and
+did not conclude before the time with which this narrative closes, I
+have left it on one side. Obviously the Boer War falls under this head.
+Owing to lack of space my references to the domestic concerns of the
+United Kingdom have been brief. I have regretfully omitted one imperial
+event of great importance, the formation of the Australian Commonwealth.
+After all, that concerned only the British race; and in my survey of the
+affairs of the Empire I have treated only those which directly affected
+other nations as well, namely the Afghan and Egyptian questions and the
+Partition of Africa. Here I have sought to show the connection with
+"world politics," and I trust that even specialists will find something
+new and suggestive in this method of treatment.
+
+In attempting to write a history of contemporary affairs, I regard it as
+essential to refer to the original authority, or authorities, in the
+case of every important statement. I have sought to carry out this rule
+(though at the cost of great additional toil) because it enables the
+reader to check the accuracy of the narrative and to gain hints for
+further reading. To compile bibliographies, where many new books are
+coming out every year, is a useless task; but exact references to the
+sources of information never lose their value.
+
+My thanks are due to many who have helped me in this undertaking. Among
+them I may name Sir Charles Dilke, M.P., Mr. James Bryce, M.P., and Mr.
+Chedo Mijatovich, who have given me valuable advice on special topics.
+My obligations are also due to a subject of the Czar, who has placed
+his knowledge at my service, but for obvious reasons does not wish his
+name to be known. Mr. Bernard Pares, M.A., of the University of
+Liverpool, has very kindly read over the proofs of the early chapters,
+and has offered most helpful suggestions. Messrs. G. Bell and Sons have
+granted me permission to make use of the plans of the chief battles of
+the Franco-German War from Mr. Hooper's work, _Sedan and the Downfall of
+the Second Empire_, published by them. To Mr. H.W. Wilson, author of
+_Ironclads in Action_, my thanks are also due for permission to make use
+of the plan illustrating the fighting at Alexandria in 1882.
+
+J.H.R.
+
+_July, 1905._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+CHAPTER I
+THE CAUSES OF THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR.
+
+CHAPTER II
+FROM WOeRTH TO GRAVELOTTE
+
+CHAPTER III
+SEDAN
+
+CHAPTER IV
+THE FOUNDING OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
+
+CHAPTER V
+THE FOUNDING OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC--_continued_
+
+CHAPTER VI
+THE GERMAN EMPIRE
+
+CHAPTER VII
+THE EASTERN QUESTION
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR
+
+CHAPTER IX
+THE BALKAN SETTLEMENT
+
+CHAPTER X
+THE MAKING OF BULGARIA
+
+CHAPTER XI
+NIHILISM AND ABSOLUTISM IN RUSSIA
+
+CHAPTER XII
+THE TRIPLE AND DUAL ALLIANCES
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+THE CENTRAL ASIAN QUESTION
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+THE AFGHAN AND TURKOMAN CAMPAIGNS
+
+CHAPTER XV
+BRITAIN IN EGYPT
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+GORDON AND THE SUDAN
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+THE CONQUEST OF THE SUDAN
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+THE PARTITION OF AFRICA
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+THE CONGO FREE STATE
+
+CHAPTER XX
+RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+THE NEW GROUPING OF THE GREAT POWERS (1900-1907)
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+TEUTON _versus_ SLAV (1908-13)
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+THE CRISIS OF 1914
+
+INDEX
+
+MAPS AND PLANS
+
+
+Campaigns of 1859-71
+
+Sketch Map of the District between Metz and the Rhine
+
+Plan of the Battle of Woerth
+
+Plan of the Battles of Rezonville and Gravelotte
+
+Plan of the Battle of Sedan
+
+Map of Bulgaria
+
+Plan of Plevna
+
+Map of the Treaties of Berlin and San Stefano
+
+Map of Thessaly
+
+Map of Afghanistan
+
+Battle of Maiwand
+
+Battle of Alexandria (Bombardment of, 1882)
+
+Map of the Nile
+
+The Battle of Omdurman
+
+Plan of Khartum
+
+Map of Africa (1902)
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+     "The movements in the masses of European peoples are divided
+     and slow, and their progress interrupted and impeded, because
+     they are such great and unequally formed masses; but the
+     preparation for the future is widely diffused, and . . . the
+     promises of the age are so great that even the most
+     faint-hearted rouse themselves to the belief that a time has
+     arrived in which it is a privilege to live."--GERVINUS, 1853.
+
+The Roman poet Lucretius in an oft-quoted passage describes the
+satisfaction that naturally fills the mind when from some safe
+vantage-ground one looks forth on travellers tossed about on the stormy
+deep. We may perhaps use the poet's not very altruistic words as
+symbolising many of the feelings with which, at the dawn of the
+twentieth century, we look back over the stormy waters of the century
+that has passed away. Some congratulation on this score is justifiable,
+especially as those wars and revolutions have served to build up States
+that are far stronger than their predecessors, in proportion as they
+correspond more nearly with the desires of the nations that
+compose them.
+
+As we gaze at the revolutions and wars that form the storm-centres of
+the past century, we can now see some of the causes that brought about
+those storms. If we survey them with discerning eye, we soon begin to
+see that, in the main, the cyclonic disturbances had their origins in
+two great natural impulses of the civilised races of mankind. The first
+of these forces is that great impulse towards individual liberty, which
+we name Democracy; the second is that impulse, scarcely less mighty and
+elemental, that prompts men to effect a close union with their kith and
+kin: this we may term Nationality.
+
+Now, it is true that these two forces have not led up to the last and
+crowning phase of human development, as their enthusiastic champions at
+one time asserted that they would; far from that, they are accountable,
+especially so the force of Nationality, for numerous defects in the life
+of the several peoples; and the national principle is at this very time
+producing great and needless friction in the dealings of nations. Yet,
+granting all this, it still remains true that Democracy and Nationality
+have been the two chief formative influences in the political
+development of Europe during the Nineteenth Century.
+
+In no age of the world's history have these two impulses worked with so
+triumphant an activity. They have not always been endowed with living
+force. Among many peoples they lay dormant for ages and were only called
+to life by some great event, such as the intolerable oppression of a
+despot or of a governing caste that crushed the liberties of the
+individual, or the domination of an alien people over one that
+obstinately refused to be assimilated. Sometimes the spark that kindled
+vital consciousness was the flash of a poet's genius, or the heroism of
+some sturdy son of the soil. The causes of awakening have been
+infinitely various, and have never wholly died away; but it is the
+special glory of the Nineteenth Century that races which had hitherto
+lain helpless and well-nigh dead, rose to manhood as if by magic, and
+shed their blood like water in the effort to secure a free and
+unfettered existence both for the individual and the nation. It is a
+true saying of the German historian, Gervinus, "The history of this age
+will no longer be only a relation of the lives of great men and of
+princes, but a biography of nations."
+
+At first sight, this illuminating statement seems to leave out of count
+the career of the mighty Napoleon. But it does not. The great Emperor
+unconsciously called into vigorous life the forces of Democracy and
+Nationality both in Germany and in Italy, where there had been naught
+but servility and disunion. His career, if viewed from our present
+standpoint, falls into two portions: first, that in which he figured as
+the champion of Revolutionary France and the liberator of Italy from
+foreign and domestic tyrants; and secondly, as imperial autocrat who
+conquered and held down a great part of Europe in his attempt to ruin
+British commerce. In the former of these enterprises he had the new
+forces of the age acting with him and endowing him with seemingly
+resistless might; in the latter part of his life he mistook his place in
+the economy of Nature, and by his violation of the principles of
+individual liberty and racial kinship in Spain and Central Europe,
+assured his own downfall.
+
+The greatest battle of the century was the tremendous strife that for
+three days surged to and fro around Leipzig in the month of October
+1813, when Russians, Prussians, Austrians, Swedes, together with a few
+Britons, Hanoverians, and finally his own Saxon allies, combined to
+shake the imperial yoke from the neck of the Germanic peoples. This
+_Voelkerschlacht_ (Battle of the Peoples), as the Germans term it,
+decided that the future of Europe was not to be moulded by the imperial
+autocrat, but by the will of the princes and nations whom his obstinacy
+had embattled against him. Far from recognising the verdict, the great
+man struggled on until the pertinacity of the allies finally drove him
+from power and assigned to France practically the same boundaries that
+she had had in 1791, before the time of her mighty expansion. That is to
+say, the nation which in its purely democratic form had easily overrun
+and subdued the neighbouring States in the time of their old, inert,
+semi-feudal existence, was overthrown by them when their national
+consciousness had been trampled into being by the legions of the
+great Emperor.
+
+In 1814, and again after Waterloo, France was driven in on herself, and
+resumed something like her old position in Europe, save that the throne
+of the Bourbons never acquired any solidity--the older branch of that
+family being unseated by the Revolution of 1830. In the centre of the
+Continent, the old dynasties had made common cause with the peoples in
+the national struggles of 1813-14, and therefore enjoyed more
+consideration--a fact which enabled them for a time to repress popular
+aspirations for constitutional rule and national unity.
+
+Nevertheless, by the Treaties of Vienna (1814-15) the centre of Europe
+was more solidly organised than ever before. In place of the effete
+institution known as the Holy Roman Empire, which Napoleon swept away in
+1806, the Central States were reorganised in the German Confederation--a
+cumbrous and ineffective league in which Austria held the presidency.
+Austria also gained Venetia and Lombardy in Italy. The acquisition of
+the fertile Rhine Province by Prussia brought that vigorous State up to
+the bounds of Lorraine and made her the natural protectress of Germany
+against France. Russia acquired complete control over nearly the whole
+of the former Kingdom of Poland. Thus, the Powers that had been foremost
+in the struggle against Napoleon now gained most largely in the
+redistribution of lands in 1814-15, while the States that had been
+friendly to him now suffered for their devotion. Italy was split up into
+a mosaic of States; Saxony ceded nearly the half of her lands to
+Prussia; Denmark yielded up her ancient possession, Norway, to the
+Swedish Crown.
+
+In some respects the triumph of the national principle, which had
+brought victory to the old dynasties, strengthened the European fabric.
+The Treaties of Vienna brought the boundaries of States more nearly into
+accord with racial interests and sentiments than had been the case
+before; but in several instances those interests and feelings were
+chafed or violated by designing or short-sighted statesmen. The Germans,
+who had longed for an effective national union, saw with indignation
+that the constitution of the new Germanic Confederation left them under
+the control of the rulers of the component States and of the very real
+headship exercised by Austria, which was always used to repress popular
+movements. The Italians, who had also learned from Napoleon the secret
+that they were in all essentials a nation, deeply resented the
+domination of Austria in Lombardy-Venetia and the parcelling out of the
+rest of the Peninsula between reactionary kings somnolent dukes, and
+obscurantist clerics. The Belgians likewise protested against the
+enforced union with Holland in what was now called the Kingdom of the
+United Netherlands (1815-30). In the east of Europe the Poles struggled
+in vain against the fate which once more partitioned them between
+Russia, Austria, and Prussia. The Germans of Holstein, Schleswig, and
+Lauenburg submitted uneasily to the Danish rule; and only under the
+stress of demonstrations by the allies did the Norwegians accept the
+union with Sweden.
+
+It should be carefully noted that these were the very cases which caused
+most of the political troubles in the following period. In fact, most of
+the political occurrences on the Continent in the years 1815 to
+1870--the revolts, revolutions, and wars, that give a special character
+to the history of the century--resulted directly from the bad or
+imperfect arrangements of the Congress of Vienna and of the so-called
+Holy Alliance of the monarchs who sought to perpetuate them. The effect
+of this widespread discontent was not felt at once. The peoples were too
+exhausted by the terrific strain of the Napoleonic wars to do much for a
+generation or more, save in times of popular excitement. Except in the
+south-east of Europe, where Greece, with the aid of Russia, Britain, and
+France, wrested her political independence from the grasp of the Sultan
+(1827), the forty years that succeeded Waterloo were broken by no
+important war; but they were marked by oft-recurring unrest and
+sedition. Thus, when the French Revolution of 1830 overthrew the
+reactionary dynasty of the elder Bourbons, the universal excitement
+caused by this event endowed the Belgians with strength sufficient to
+shake off the heavy yoke of the Dutch; while in Italy, Germany, and
+Poland the democrats and nationalists (now working generally in accord)
+made valiant but unsuccessful efforts to achieve their ideals.
+
+The same was the case in 1848. The excitement, which this time
+originated in Italy, spread to France, overthrew the throne of Louis
+Philippe (of the younger branch of the French Bourbons), and bade fair
+to roll half of the crowns of Europe into the gutter. But these
+spasmodic efforts of the democrats speedily failed. Inexperience,
+disunion, and jealousy paralysed their actions and yielded the victory
+to the old Governments. Frenchmen, in dismay at the seeming approach of
+communism and anarchy, fell back upon the odd expedient of a Napoleonic
+Republic, which in 1852 was easily changed by Louis Napoleon into an
+Empire modelled on that of his far greater uncle. The democrats of
+Germany achieved some startling successes over their repressive
+Governments in the spring of the year 1848, only to find that they could
+not devise a working constitution for the Fatherland; and the deputies
+who met at the federal capital, Frankfurt, to unify Germany "by
+speechifying and majorities," saw power slip back little by little into
+the hands of the monarchs and princes. In the Austrian Empire
+nationalist claims and strivings led to a very Babel of discordant talk
+and action, amidst which the young Hapsburg ruler, Francis Joseph,
+thanks to Russian military aid, was able to triumph over the valour of
+the Hungarians and the devotion of their champion, Kossuth.
+
+In Italy the same sad tale was told. In the spring of that year of
+revolutions, 1848, the rulers in quick succession granted constitutions
+to their subjects. The reforming Pope, Pius IX., and the patriotic King
+of Sardinia, Charles Albert, also made common cause with their peoples
+in the effort to drive out the Austrians from Lombardy-Venetia; but the
+Pope and all the potentates except Charles Albert speedily deserted the
+popular cause; friction between the King and the republican leaders,
+Mazzini and Garibaldi, further weakened the nationalists, and the
+Austrians had little difficulty in crushing Charles Albert's forces,
+whereupon he abdicated in favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel II.
+(1849). The Republics set up at Rome and Venice struggled valiantly for
+a time against great odds--Mazzini, Garibaldi, and their volunteers
+being finally overborne at the Eternal City by the French troops whom
+Louis Napoleon sent to restore the Pope (June 1849); while, two months
+later, Venice surrendered to the Austrians whom she had long held at
+bay. The Queen of the Adriatic under the inspiring dictatorship of Manin
+had given a remarkable example of orderly constitutional government in
+time of siege.
+
+It seemed to be the lot of the nationalists and democrats to produce
+leaders who could thrill the imagination of men by lofty teachings and
+sublime heroism; who could, in a word, achieve everything but success. A
+poetess, who looked forth from Casa Guidi windows upon the tragi-comedy
+of Florentine failure in those years, wrote that what was needed was a
+firmer union, a more practical and intelligent activity, on the part
+both of the people and of the future leader:
+
+                   A land's brotherhood
+     Is most puissant: men, upon the whole,
+       Are what they can be,--nations, what they would.
+
+     Will therefore to be strong, thou Italy!
+       Will to be noble! Austrian Metternich
+     Can fix no yoke unless the neck agree.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+       Whatever hand shall grasp this oriflamme,
+     Whatever man (last peasant or first Pope
+       Seeking to free his country) shall appear,
+     Teach, lead, strike fire into the masses, fill
+       These empty bladders with fine air, insphere
+     These wills into a unity of will,
+       And make of Italy a nation--dear
+     And blessed be that man!
+
+When Elizabeth Barrett Browning penned those lines she cannot have
+surmised that two men were working their way up the rungs of the
+political ladder in Piedmont and Prussia, whose keen intellects and
+masterful wills were to weld their Fatherlands into indissoluble union
+within the space of one momentous decade. These men were Cavour
+and Bismarck.
+
+It would far exceed the limits of space of this brief Introduction to
+tell, except in the briefest outline, the story of the plodding
+preparation and far-seeing diplomacy by which these statesmen raised
+their respective countries from depths of humiliation to undreamt of
+heights of triumph. The first thing was to restore the prestige of their
+States. No people can be strong in action that has lost belief in its
+own powers and has allowed its neighbours openly to flout it. The
+history of the world has shown again and again that politicians who
+allow their country to be regarded as _une quantite negligeable_
+bequeath to some abler successor a heritage of struggle and
+war--struggle for the nation to recover its self-respect, and war to
+regain consideration and fair treatment from others. However much frothy
+talkers in their clubs may decry the claims of national prestige, no
+great statesman has ever underrated their importance. Certainly the
+first aim both of Cavour and Bismarck was to restore self-respect and
+confidence to their States after the humiliations and the dreary
+isolation of those dark years, 1848-51. We will glance, first, at the
+resurrection (_Risorgimento_) of the little Kingdom of Sardinia, which
+was destined to unify Italy.
+
+Charles Albert's abdication immediately after his defeat by the
+Austrians left no alternative to his son and successor, Victor Emmanuel
+II., but that of signing a disastrous peace with Austria. In a short
+time the stout-hearted young King called to his councils Count Cavour,
+the second son of a noble Piedmontese family, but of firmly Liberal
+principles, who resolved to make the little kingdom the centre of
+enlightenment and hope for despairing Italy. He strengthened the
+constitution (the only one out of many granted in 1848 that survived the
+time of reaction); he reformed the tariff in the direction of Free
+Trade; and during the course of the Crimean War he persuaded his
+sovereign to make an active alliance with France and England, so as to
+bind them by all the claims of honour to help Sardinia in the future
+against Austria. The occasion was most opportune; for Austria was then
+suspected and disliked both by Russia and the Western Powers owing to
+her policy of armed neutrality. Nevertheless the reward of Cavour's
+diplomacy came slowly and incompletely. By skilfully vague promises
+(never reduced to writing) Cavour induced Napoleon III. to take up arms
+against Austria; but, after the great victory of Solferino (June 24,
+1859), the French Emperor enraged the Italians by breaking off the
+struggle before the allies recovered the great province of Venetia,
+which he had pledged himself to do. Worse still, he required the cession
+of Savoy and Nice to France, if the Central Duchies and the northern
+part of the Papal States joined the Kingdom of Sardinia, as they now
+did. Thus, the net result of Napoleon's intervention in Italy was his
+acquisition of Savoy and Nice (at the price of Italian hatred), and the
+gain of Lombardy and the central districts for the national cause
+(1859-60).
+
+The agony of mind caused by this comparative failure undermined Cavour's
+health; but in the last months of his life he helped to impel and guide
+the revolutionary elements in Italy to an enterprise that ended in a
+startling and momentous triumph. This was nothing less than the
+overthrow of Bourbon rule in Sicily and Southern Italy by Garibaldi.
+Thanks to Cavour's connivance, this dashing republican organised an
+expedition of about 1000 volunteers near Genoa, set sail for Sicily, and
+by a few blows shivered the chains of tyranny in that island. It is
+noteworthy that British war-ships lent him covert but most important
+help at Palermo and again in his crossing to the mainland; this timely
+aid and the presence of a band of Britons in his ranks laid the
+foundation of that friendship which has ever since united the two
+nations. In Calabria the hero met with the feeblest resistance from the
+Bourbon troops and the wildest of welcomes from the populace. At Salerno
+he took tickets for Naples and entered the enemy's capital by railway
+train (September 7). Then he purposed, after routing the Bourbon force
+north of the city, to go on and attack the French at Rome and proclaim a
+united Italy.
+
+Cavour took care that he should do no such thing. The Piedmontese
+statesman knew when to march onwards and when to halt. As his
+compatriot, Manzoni, said of him, "Cavour has all the prudence and all
+the imprudence of the true statesman." He had dared and won in 1855-59,
+and again in secretly encouraging Garibaldi's venture. Now it was time
+to stop in order to consolidate the gains to the national cause.
+
+The leader of the red-shirts, having done what no king could do, was
+thenceforth to be controlled by the monarchy of the north. Victor
+Emmanuel came in as the _deus ex machina_; his troops pressed
+southwards, occupying the eastern part of the Papal States in their
+march, and joined hands with the Garibaldians to the north of Naples,
+thus preventing the collision with France which the irregulars would
+have brought about. Even as it was, Cavour had hard work to persuade
+Napoleon that this was the only way of curbing Garibaldi and preventing
+the erection of a South Italian Republic; but finally the French Emperor
+looked on uneasily while the Pope's eastern territories were violated,
+and while the cause of Italian Unity was assured at the expense of the
+Pontiff whom France was officially supporting in Rome. A _plebiscite_,
+or mass vote, of the people of Sicily, South Italy, and the eastern and
+central parts of the Papal States, was resorted to by Cavour in order to
+throw a cloak of legality over these irregular proceedings. The device
+pleased Napoleon, and it resulted in an overwhelming vote in favour of
+annexation to Victor Emmanuel's kingdom. Thus, in March 1861, the
+soldier-king was able amidst universal acclaim to take the title of King
+of Italy. Florence was declared to be the capital of the realm (1864),
+which embraced all parts of Italy except the Province of Venetia,
+pertaining to Austria, and the "Patrimonium Petri"--that is, Rome and
+its vicinity,--still held by the Pope and garrisoned by the French. The
+former of these was to be regained for _la patria_ in 1866, the latter
+in 1870, in consequence of the mighty triumphs then achieved by the
+principle of nationality in Prussia and Germany. To these triumphs we
+must now briefly advert.
+
+No one who looked at the state of European politics in 1861, could have
+imagined that in less than ten years Prussia would have waged three wars
+and humbled the might of Austria and France. At that time she showed no
+signs of exceptional vigour: she had as yet produced no leaders so
+inspiring as Mazzini and Garibaldi, no statesman so able as Cavour. Her
+new king, William, far from arousing the feelings of growing enthusiasm
+that centred in Victor Emmanuel, was more and more distrusted and
+disliked by Liberals for the policy of militarism on which he had just
+embarked. In fact, the Hohenzollern dynasty was passing into a "Conflict
+Time" with its Parliament which threatened to impair the influence of
+Prussia abroad and to retard her recovery from the period of
+humiliations through which she had recently passed.
+
+A brief recital of those humiliations is desirable as showing, firstly,
+the suddenness with which the affairs of a nation may go to ruin in
+slack and unskilful hands, and, secondly, the immense results that can
+be achieved in a few years by a small band of able men who throw their
+whole heart into the work of national regeneration.
+
+The previous ruler, Frederick William IV., was a gifted and learned man,
+but he lacked soundness of judgment and strength of will--qualities
+which are of more worth in governing than graces of the intellect. At
+the time of the revolutionary outbreaks of 1848 he capitulated to the
+Berlin mob and declared for a constitutional regime in which Prussia
+should merge herself in Germany; but when the excesses of the democrats
+had weakened their authority, he put them down by military force,
+refused the German Crown offered him by the popularly elected German
+Parliament assembled at Frankfurt-on-Main (April 1849); and thereupon
+attempted to form a smaller union of States, namely, Prussia, Saxony,
+and Hanover. This Three Kings' League, as it was called, soon came to
+an end; for it did not satisfy the nationalists who wished to see
+Germany united, the constitutionalists who aimed at the supremacy of
+Parliament, or the friends of the old order of things. The vacillations
+of Frederick William and the unpractical theorisings of the German
+Parliament at Frankfurt having aroused general disgust, Austria found
+little difficulty in restoring the power of the old Germanic
+Confederation in September, 1850. Strong in her alliance with Russia,
+she next compelled Frederick William to sign the Convention of Olmuetz
+(Nov. 1850). By this humiliating compact he agreed to forbear helping
+the German nationalists in Schleswig-Holstein to shake off the
+oppressive rule of the Danes; to withdraw Prussian troops from
+Hesse-Cassel and Baden, where strifes had broken out; and to acknowledge
+the supremacy of the old Federal Diet under the headship of Austria.
+Thus, it seemed that the Prussian monarchy was a source of weakness and
+disunion for North Germany, and that Austria, backed up by the might of
+Russia, must long continue to lord it over the cumbrous Germanic
+Confederation.
+
+But a young country squire, named Bismarck, even then resolved that the
+Prussian monarchy should be the means of strengthening and binding
+together the Fatherland. The resolve bespoke the patriotism of a sturdy,
+hopeful nature; and the young Bismarck was nothing if not patriotic,
+sturdy, and hopeful. The son of an ancient family in the Mark of
+Brandenburg, he brought to his life-work powers inherited from a line of
+fighting ancestors; and his mind was no less robust than his body. Quick
+at mastering a mass of details, he soon saw into the heart of a problem,
+and his solution of it was marked both by unfailing skill and by sound
+common sense as to the choice of men and means. In some respects he
+resembles Napoleon the Great. Granted that he was his inferior in the
+width of vision and the versatility of gifts that mark a world-genius,
+yet he was his equal in diplomatic resourcefulness and in the power of
+dealing lightning strokes; while his possession of the priceless gift of
+moderation endowed his greatest political achievements with a soundness
+and solidity never possessed by those of the mighty conqueror who
+"sought to give the _mot d'ordre_ to the universe." If the figure of the
+Prussian does not loom so large on the canvas of universal history as
+that of the Corsican--if he did not tame a Revolution, remodel society,
+and reorganise a Continent--be it remembered that he made a United
+Germany, while Napoleon the Great left France smaller and weaker than he
+found her.
+
+Bismarck's first efforts, like those of Cavour for Sardinia, were
+directed to the task of restoring the prestige of his State. Early in
+his official career, the Prussian patriot urged the expediency of
+befriending Russia during the Crimean War, and he thus helped on that
+_rapprochement_ between Berlin and St. Petersburg which brought the
+mighty triumphs of 1866 and 1870 within the range of possibility. In
+1857 Frederick William became insane; and his brother William took the
+reins of Government as Regent, and early in 1861 as King. The new ruler
+was less gifted than his unfortunate brother; but his homely common
+sense and tenacious will strengthened Prussian policy where it had been
+weakest. He soon saw the worth of Bismarck, employed him in high
+diplomatic positions, and when the royal proposals for strengthening the
+army were decisively rejected by the Prussian House of Representatives,
+he speedily sent for Bismarck to act as Minister-President (Prime
+Minister) and "tame" the refractory Parliament. The constitutional
+crisis was becoming more and more acute when a great national question
+came into prominence owing to the action of the Danes in
+Schleswig-Holstein affairs.
+
+Without entering into the very tangled web of customs, treaties, and
+dynastic claims that made up the Schleswig-Holstein question, we may
+here state that those Duchies were by ancient law very closely connected
+together, that the King of Denmark was only Duke of Schleswig-Holstein,
+and that the latter duchy, wholly German in population, formed part of
+the Germanic Confederation. Latterly the fervent nationalists in
+Denmark, while leaving Holstein to its German connections, had resolved
+thoroughly to "Danify" Schleswig, the northern half of which was wholly
+Danish, and they pressed on this policy by harsh and intolerant
+measures, making it difficult or well-nigh impossible for the Germans to
+have public worship in their own tongue and to secure German teachers
+for their children in the schools. Matters were already in a very
+strained state, when shortly before the death of King Frederick VII. of
+Denmark (November, 1863) the Rigsraad at Copenhagen sanctioned a
+constitution for Schleswig, which would practically have made it a part
+of the Danish monarchy. The King gave his assent to it, an act which his
+successor, Christian IX., ratified.
+
+Now, this action violated the last treaty--that signed by the Powers at
+London in 1852, which settled the affairs of the Duchies; and Bismarck
+therefore had strong ground for appealing to the Powers concerned, as
+also to the German Confederation, against this breach of treaty
+obligations. The Powers, especially England and France, sought to set
+things straight, but the efforts of our Foreign Minister, Lord John
+Russell, had no effect. The German Confederation also refused to take
+any steps about Schleswig as being outside its jurisdiction. Bismarck
+next persuaded Austria to help Prussia in defeating Danish designs on
+that duchy. The Danes, on the other hand, counted on the unofficial
+expressions of sympathy which came from the people of Great Britain and
+France at sight of a small State menaced by two powerful monarchies. In
+fact, the whole situation was complicated by this explosion of feeling,
+which seemed to the Danes to portend the armed intervention of the
+Western States, especially England, on their behalf. As far as is known,
+no official assurance to that effect ever went forth from London. In
+fact, it is certain that Queen Victoria absolutely forbade any such
+step; but the mischief done by sentimental orators, heedless
+newspaper-editors, and factious busybodies, could not be undone. As Lord
+John Russell afterwards stated in a short "Essay on the Policy of
+England": "It pleased some English advisers of great influence to
+meddle in this affair; they were successful in thwarting the British
+Government, and in the end, with the professed view, and perhaps the
+real intention, of helping Denmark, their friendship tended to deprive
+her of Holstein and Schleswig altogether." This final judgment of a
+veteran statesman is worth quoting as showing his sense of the mischief
+done by well-meant but misguided sympathy, which pushed the Danes on to
+ruin and embittered our relations with Prussia for many years.
+
+Not that the conduct of the German Powers was flawless. On January 16,
+1864, they sent to Copenhagen a demand for the withdrawal of the
+constitution for Schleswig within two days. The Danish Foreign Minister
+pointed out that, as the Rigsraad was not in session, this could not
+possibly be done within two days. In this last step, then, the German
+Powers were undoubtedly the aggressors[1]. The Prussian troops were
+ready near the River Eider, and at once invaded Schleswig. The Danes
+were soon beaten on the mainland; then a pause occurred, during which a
+Conference of the Powers concerned was held at London. It has been
+proved by the German historian, von Sybel, that the first serious
+suggestion to Prussia that she should take both the Duchies came
+secretly from Napoleon III. It was in vain that Lord John Russell
+suggested a sensible compromise, namely, the partition of Schleswig
+between Denmark and Germany according to the language-frontier inside
+the Duchy. To this the belligerents demurred on points of detail, the
+Prussian representative asserting that he would not leave a single
+German under Danish rule. The war was therefore resumed, and ended in a
+complete defeat for the weaker State, which finally surrendered both
+Duchies to Austria and Prussia (1864)[2].
+
+[1] Lord Wodehouse (afterwards Earl of Kimberley) was at that time sent
+on a special mission to Copenhagen. When his official correspondence is
+published, it will probably throw light on many points.
+
+[2] Sybel, _Die Begruendung des deutschen Reiches_, vol. iii. pp.
+299-344; Debidour, _Hist. diplomatique de l'Europe_, vol. ii. pp.
+261-273; Lowe, _Life of Bismarck_, vol. i. chap. vi.; Headlam,
+_Bismarck_, chap. viii.; Lord Malmesbury, _Memoirs of an ex-Minister_
+pp. 584-593 (small edition); Spencer Walpole, _Life of Lord J. Russell_,
+vol. ii. pp. 396-411.
+
+In several respects the cause of ruin to Denmark in 1863-64 bears a
+remarkable resemblance to that which produced war in South Africa in
+1899, viz. high-handed action of a minority towards men whom they
+treated as Outlanders, the stiff-necked obstinacy of the smaller State,
+and reliance on the vehement but (probably) unofficial offers of help or
+intervention by other nations.
+
+The question of the sharing of the Duchies now formed one of the causes
+of the far greater war between the victors; but, in truth, it was only
+part of the much larger question, which had agitated Germany for
+centuries, whether the balance of power should belong to the North or
+the South. Bismarck also saw that the time was nearly ripe for settling
+this matter once for all in favour of Prussia; but he had hard work even
+to persuade his own sovereign; while the Prussian Parliament, as well as
+public opinion throughout Germany, was violently hostile to his schemes
+and favoured the claims of the young Duke of Augustenburg to the
+Duchies--claims that had much show of right. Matters were patched up for
+a time between the two German States, by the Convention of Gastein
+(August 1865), while in reality each prepared for war and sought to
+gain allies.
+
+Here again Bismarck was successful. After vainly seeking to _buy_
+Venetia from the Austrian Court, Italy agreed to side with Prussia
+against that Power in order to wrest by force a province which she could
+not hope to gain peaceably. Russia, too, was friendly to the Court of
+Berlin, owing to the help which the latter had given her in crushing the
+formidable revolt of the Poles in 1863. It remained to keep France
+quiet. In this Bismarck thought he had succeeded by means of interviews
+which he held with Napoleon III. at Biarritz (Nov. 1865). What there
+occurred is not clearly known. That Bismarck played on the Emperor's
+foible for oppressed nationalities, in the case of Italy, is fairly
+certain; that he fed him with hopes of gaining Belgium, or a slice of
+German land, is highly probable, and none the less so because he later
+on indignantly denied in the Reichstag that he ever "held out the
+prospect to anybody of ceding a single German village, or even as much
+as a clover-field." In any case Napoleon seems to have promised to
+observe neutrality--not because he loved Prussia, but because he
+expected the German Powers to wear one another out and thus leave him
+master of the situation. In common with most of the wiseacres of those
+days he believed that Prussia and Italy would ultimately fall before the
+combined weight of Austria and of the German States, which closely
+followed her in the Confederation; whereupon he could step in and
+dictate his own terms[3].
+
+[3] Busch, _Our Chancellor_, vol. ii. p. 17 (Eng. edit.); Debidour,
+_Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe (1814-1878)_, vol ii. pp. 291-293.
+Lord Loftus in his _Diplomatic Reminiscences_ (vol. ii. p. 280) says:
+"So satisfied was Bismarck that he could count on the neutrality of
+France, that no defensive military measures were taken on the Rhine and
+western frontier. He had no fears of Russia on the eastern frontier, and
+was therefore able to concentrate the military might of Prussia against
+Austria and her South German Allies."
+
+Light has been thrown on the bargainings between Italy and Prussia by
+the _Memoirs of General Govone_, who found Bismarck a hard bargainer.
+
+Bismarck and the leaders of the Prussian army had few doubts as to the
+result. They were determined to force on the war, and early in June 1866
+brought forward proposals at the Frankfurt Diet for the "reform" of the
+German Confederation, the chief of them being the exclusion of Austria,
+the establishment of a German Parliament elected by manhood suffrage,
+and the formation of a North German army commanded by the King
+of Prussia.
+
+A great majority of the Federal Diet rejected these proposals, and war
+speedily broke out, Austria being supported by nearly all the German
+States except the two Mecklenburgs.
+
+The weight of numbers was against Prussia, even though she had the help
+of the Italians operating against Venetia. On that side Austria was
+completely successful, as also in a sea-fight near Lissa in the
+Adriatic; but in the north the Hapsburgs and their German allies soon
+found out that organisation, armament, and genius count for more than
+numbers. The great organiser, von Roon, had brought Prussia's citizen
+army to a degree of efficiency that surprised every one; and the
+quick-firing "needle-gun" dealt havoc and terror among the enemy. Using
+to the full the advantage of her central position against the German
+States, Prussia speedily worsted their isolated and badly-handled
+forces, while her chief armies overthrew those of Austria and Saxony in
+Bohemia. The Austrian plan of campaign had been to invade Prussia by two
+armies--a comparatively small force advancing from Cracow as a base into
+Silesia, while another, acting from Olmuetz, advanced through Bohemia to
+join the Saxons and march on Berlin, some 50,000 Bavarians joining them
+in Bohemia for the same enterprise. This design speedily broke down
+owing to the short-sighted timidity of the Bavarian Government, which
+refused to let its forces leave their own territory; the lack of railway
+facilities in the Austrian Empire also hampered the moving of two large
+armies to the northern frontier. Above all, the swift and decisive
+movements of the Prussians speedily drove the allies to act on the
+defensive--itself a grave misfortune in war.
+
+Meanwhile the Prussian strategist, von Moltke, was carrying out a far
+more incisive plan of operations--that of sending three Prussian armies
+into the middle of Bohemia, and there forming a great mass which would
+sweep away all obstacles from the road to Vienna. This design received
+prompt and skilful execution. Saxony was quickly overrun, and the
+irruption of three great armies into Bohemia compelled the Austrians and
+their Saxon allies hurriedly to alter their plans. After suffering
+several reverses in the north of Bohemia, their chief array under
+Benedek barred the way of the two northern Prussian armies on the
+heights north of the town of Koeniggraetz. On the morning of July 3 the
+defenders long beat off all frontal attacks with heavy loss; but about 2
+P.M. the Army of Silesia, under the Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia,
+after a forced march of twelve miles, threw itself on their right flank,
+where Benedek expected no very serious onset. After desperate fighting
+the Army of Silesia carried the village of Chlum in the heart of the
+Austrian position, and compelled Austrians and Saxons to a hurried
+retreat over the Elbe. In this the Austrian infantry was saved from
+destruction by the heroic stand made by the artillery. Even so, the
+allies lost more than 13,000 killed and wounded, 22,000 prisoners, and
+187 guns[4].
+
+[4] Sybel, _Die Begruendung des deutschen Reiches_, vol. v. pp. 174-205;
+_Journals of Field Marshal Count von Blumenthal for 1866 and 1871_ (Eng.
+edit.), pp. 37-44.
+
+Koeniggraetz (or Sadowa, as it is often called) decided the whole
+campaign. The invaders now advanced rapidly towards Vienna, and at the
+town of Nikolsburg concluded the Preliminaries of Peace with Austria
+(July 26), whereupon a mandate came from Paris, bidding them stop. In
+fact, the Emperor of the French offered his intervention in a manner
+most threatening to the victors. He sought to detach Italy from the
+Prussian alliance by the offer of Venetia as a left-handed present from
+himself--an offer which the Italian Government subsequently refused.
+
+To understand how Napoleon III. came to change front and belie his
+earlier promises, one must look behind the scenes. Enough is already
+known to show that the Emperor's hand was forced by his Ministers and by
+the Parisian Press, probably also by the Empress Eugenie. Though
+desirous, apparently, of befriending Prussia, he had already yielded to
+their persistent pleas urging him to stay the growth of the Protestant
+Power of North Germany. On June 10, at the outbreak of the war, he
+secretly concluded a treaty with Austria, holding out to her the
+prospect of recovering the great province of Silesia (torn from her by
+Frederick the Great in 1740) in return for a magnanimous cession of
+Venetia to Italy. The news of Koeniggraetz led to a violent outburst of
+anti-Prussian feeling; but Napoleon refused to take action at once, when
+it might have been very effective.
+
+The best plan for the French Government would have been to send to the
+Rhine all the seasoned troops left available by Napoleon III.'s
+ill-starred Mexican enterprise, so as to help the hard-pressed South
+German forces, offering also the armed mediation of France to the
+combatants. In that case Prussia must have drawn back, and Napoleon III.
+could have dictated his own terms to Central Europe. But his earlier
+leanings towards Prussia and Italy, the advice of Prince Napoleon
+("Plon-Plon") and Lavalette, and the wheedlings of the Prussian
+ambassador as to compensations which France might gain as a set-off to
+Prussia's aggrandisement, told on the French Emperor's nature, always
+somewhat sluggish and then prostrated by severe internal pain; with the
+result that he sent his proposals for a settlement of the points in
+dispute, but took no steps towards enforcing them. A fortnight thus
+slipped away, during which the Prussians reaped the full fruits of their
+triumph at Koeniggraetz; and it was not until July 29, three days after
+the Preliminaries of Peace were signed, that the French Foreign
+Minister, Drouyn de Lhuys, worried his master, then prostrate with pain
+at Vichy, into sanctioning the following demands from victorious
+Prussia: the cession to France of the Rhenish Palatinate (belonging to
+Bavaria), the south-western part of Hesse Darmstadt, and that part of
+Prussia's Rhine-Province lying in the valley of the Saar which she had
+acquired after Waterloo. This would have brought within the French
+frontier the great fortress of Mainz (Mayence); but the great mass of
+these gains, it will be observed, would have been at the expense of
+South German States, whose cause France proclaimed her earnest desire to
+uphold against the encroaching power of Prussia.
+
+Bismarck took care to have an official copy of these demands in writing,
+the use of which will shortly appear; and having procured this precious
+document, he defied the French envoy, telling him that King William,
+rather than agree to such a surrender of German land, would make peace
+with Austria and the German States on any terms, and invade France at
+the head of the forces of a united Germany. This reply caused another
+change of front at Napoleon's Court. The demands were disavowed and the
+Foreign Minister, Drouyn de Lhuys, resigned[5].
+
+[5] Sybel, _op. cit._ vol. v. pp. 365-374. Debidour, _op. cit._ vol. ii.
+pp. 315-318. See too volume viii. of Ollivier's work, _L'Empire
+liberal_, published in 1904; and M. de la Gorce's work, _Histoire du
+second Empire_, vol. vi. (Paris 1903).
+
+The completeness of Prussia's triumph over Austria and her German
+allies, together with the preparations of the Hungarians for revolt,
+decided the Court of Vienna to accept the Prussian terms which were
+embodied in the Treaty of Prague (Aug. 23); they were, the direct
+cession of Venetia to Italy; the exclusion of Austria from German
+affairs and her acceptance of the changes there pending; the cession to
+Prussia of Schleswig-Holstein; and the payment of 20,000,000 thalers
+(about L3,000,000) as war indemnity. The lenience of these conditions
+was to have a very noteworthy result, namely, the speedy reconciliation
+of the two Powers: within twenty years they were firmly united in the
+Triple Alliance with Italy (see Chapter X.).
+
+Some difficulties stood in the way of peace between Prussia and her late
+enemies in the German Confederation, especially Bavaria. These last were
+removed when Bismarck privately disclosed to the Bavarian Foreign
+Minister the secret demand made by France for the cession of the
+Bavarian Palatinate. In the month of August, the South German States,
+Bavaria, Wuertemberg and Baden, accepted Prussia's terms; whereby they
+paid small war indemnities and recognised the new constitution of
+Germany. Outwardly they formed a South German Confederation; but this
+had a very shadowy existence; and the three States by secret treaties
+with Prussia agreed to place their armies and all military arrangements,
+in case of war, under the control of the King of Prussia. Thus within a
+month from the close of "the Seven Weeks' War," the whole of Germany was
+quietly but firmly bound to common action in military matters; and the
+actions of France left little doubt as to the need of these timely
+precautions.
+
+On those German States which stood in the way of Prussia's territorial
+development and had shown marked hostility, Bismarck bore hard. The
+Kingdom of Hanover, Electoral Hesse (Hesse-Cassel), the Duchy of Nassau,
+and the Free City of Frankfurt were annexed outright, Prussia thereby
+gaining direct contact with her Westphalian and Rhenish Provinces. The
+absorption of Frankfurt-on-the-Main, and the formation of a new league,
+the North German Confederation, swept away all the old federal
+machinery, and marked out Berlin, not Vienna or Frankfurt, as the future
+governing centre of the Fatherland. It was doubtless a perception of the
+vast gains to the national cause which prompted the Prussian Parliament
+to pass a Bill of Indemnity exonerating the King's Ministers for the
+illegal acts committed by them during the "Conflict Time"
+(1861-66)--acts which saved Prussia in spite of her Parliament.
+
+Constitutional freedom likewise benefited largely by the results of the
+war. The new North German Confederation was based avowedly on manhood
+suffrage, not because either King William or Bismarck loved democracy,
+but because after lately pledging themselves to it as the groundwork of
+reform of the old Confederation, they could not draw back in the hour of
+triumph. As Bismarck afterwards confessed to his Secretary, Dr. Busch,
+"I accepted universal suffrage, but with reluctance, as a Frankfurt
+tradition" (_i.e._ of the democratic Parliament of Frankfurt in
+1848)[6]. All the lands, therefore, between the Niemen and the Main were
+bound together in a Confederation based on constitutional principles,
+though the governing powers of the King and his Ministers continued to
+be far larger than is the case in Great Britain. To this matter we shall
+recur when we treat of the German Empire, formed by the union of the
+North and South German Confederations of 1866.
+
+[6] Busch, _Our Chancellor_, vol. ii. p. 196 (English edit.).
+
+Austria also was soon compelled to give way before the persistent
+demands of the Hungarian patriots for their ancient constitution, which
+happily blended monarchy and democracy. Accordingly, the centralised
+Hapsburg monarchy was remodelled by the _Ausgleich_ (compromise) of
+1867, and became the Dual-Monarchy of Austria-Hungary, the two parts of
+the realm being ruled quite separately for most purposes of government,
+and united only for those of army organisation, foreign policy, and
+finance. Parliamentary control became dominant in each part of the
+Empire; and the grievances resulting from autocratic or bureaucratic
+rule vanished from Hungary. They disappeared also from Hanover and
+Hesse-Cassel, where the Guelf sovereigns and Electors had generally
+repressed popular movements.
+
+Greatest of all the results of the war of 1866, however, was the gain to
+the national cause in Germany and Italy. Peoples that had long been
+divided were now in the brief space of three months brought within sight
+of the long-wished-for unity. The rush of these events blinded men to
+their enduring import and produced an impression that the Prussian
+triumph was like that of Napoleon I., too sudden and brilliant to last.
+Those who hazarded this verdict forgot that his political arrangements
+for Europe violated every instinct of national solidarity; while those
+of 1866 served to group the hitherto divided peoples of North Germany
+and Italy around the monarchies that had proved to be the only possible
+rallying points in their respective countries. It was this harmonising
+of the claims and aspirations of monarchy, nationality, and democracy
+that gave to the settlement of 1866 its abiding importance, and fitted
+the two peoples for the crowning triumph of 1870.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE CAUSES OF THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR
+
+     "After the fatal year 1866, the Empire was in a state of
+     decadence."--L. GREGOIRE, _Histoire de France_.
+
+
+The irony of history is nowhere more manifest than in the curious
+destiny which called a Napoleon III. to the place once occupied by
+Napoleon I., and at the very time when the national movements,
+unwittingly called to vigorous life by the great warrior, were attaining
+to the full strength of manhood. Napoleon III. was in many ways a
+well-meaning dreamer, who, unluckily for himself, allowed his dreams to
+encroach on his waking moments. In truth, his sluggish but very
+persistent mind never saw quite clearly where dreams must give way to
+realities; or, as M. de Falloux phrased it, "He does not know the
+difference between dreaming and thinking[7]." Thus his policy showed an
+odd mixture of generous haziness and belated practicality.
+
+[7] _Notes from a Diary, 1851-1872_, by Sir M.E. Grant Duff, vol. i. p.
+120.
+
+Long study of his uncle's policy showed him, rightly enough, that it
+erred in trampling down the feeling of nationality in Germany and
+elsewhere. The nephew resolved to avoid this mistake and to pose as the
+champion of the oppressed and divided peoples of Italy, Germany, Poland,
+and the Balkan Peninsula--a programme that promised to appeal to the
+ideal aspirations of the French, to embarrass the dynasties that had
+overthrown the first Napoleon, and to yield substantial gains for his
+nephew. Certainly it did so in the case of Italy; his championship of
+the Roumanians also helped on the making of that interesting
+Principality (1861) and gained the good-will of Russia; but he speedily
+forfeited this by his wholly ineffective efforts on behalf of the Poles
+in 1863. His great mistakes, however, were committed in and after the
+year 1863, when he plunged into Mexican politics with the chimerical aim
+of founding a Roman Catholic Empire in Central America, and favoured the
+rise of Prussia in connection with the Schleswig-Holstein question. By
+the former of these he locked up no small part of his army in Mexico
+when he greatly needed it on the Rhine; by the latter he helped on the
+rise of the vigorous North German Power.
+
+As we have seen, he secretly advised Prussia to take both Schleswig and
+Holstein, thereby announcing his wish for the effective union of Germans
+with the one great State composed almost solely of Germans. "I shall
+always be consistent in my conduct," he said. "If I have fought for the
+independence of Italy, if I have lifted up my voice for Polish
+nationality, I cannot have other sentiments in Germany, or obey other
+principles." This declaration bespoke the doctrinaire rather than the
+statesman. Untaught by the clamour which French Chauvinists and ardent
+Catholics had raised against his armed support of the Italian national
+cause in 1859, he now proposed to further the aggrandisement of the
+Protestant North German Power which had sought to partition France
+in 1815.
+
+The clamour aroused by his leanings towards Prussia in 1864-66 was
+naturally far more violent, in proportion as the interests of France
+were more closely at stake. Prussia held the Rhine Province; and French
+patriots, who clung to the doctrine of the "natural frontiers"--the
+Ocean, Pyrenees, Alps, and Rhine--looked on her as the natural enemy.
+They pointed out that millions of Frenchmen had shed their blood in the
+Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars to win and to keep the Rhine boundary;
+and their most eloquent spokesman, M. Thiers, who had devoted his
+historical gifts to glorifying those great days, passionately declaimed
+against the policy of helping on the growth of the hereditary foe.
+
+We have already seen the results of this strife between the pro-Prussian
+foibles of the Emperor and the eager prejudices of Frenchmen, whose love
+of oppressed and divided nations grew in proportion to their distance
+from France, and changed to suspicion or hatred in the case of her
+neighbours. In 1866, under the breath of ministerial arguments and
+oratorical onslaughts Napoleon III.'s policy weakly wavered, thereby
+giving to Bismarck's statecraft a decisive triumph all along the line.
+In vain did he in the latter part of that year remind the Prussian
+statesman of his earlier promises (always discreetly vague) of
+compensation for France, and throw out diplomatic feelers for Belgium,
+or at any rate Luxemburg[8]. In vain did M. Thiers declare in the
+Chamber of Deputies that France, while recognising accomplished facts in
+Germany, ought "firmly to declare that we will not allow them to go
+further" (March 14, 1867). Bismarck replied to this challenge of the
+French orator by publishing five days later the hitherto secret military
+alliances concluded with the South German States in August 1866.
+Thenceforth France knew that a war with Prussia would be war with a
+united Germany.
+
+[8] In 1867 Bismarck's promises went so far as the framing of a secret
+compact with France, one article of which stated that Prussia would not
+object to the annexation of Belgium by France. The agreement was first
+published by the _Times_ on July 25, 1870, Bismarck then divulging the
+secret so as to inflame public opinion against France.
+
+In the following year the Zollverein, or German Customs' Union (which
+had been gradually growing since 1833), took a definitely national form
+in a Customs' Parliament which assembled in April 1868, thus unifying
+Germany for purposes of trade as well as those of war. This sharp rebuff
+came at a time when Napoleon's throne was tottering from the utter
+collapse of his Mexican expedition; when, too, he more than ever needed
+popular support in France for the beginnings of a more constitutional
+rule. Early in 1867 he sought to buy Luxemburg from Holland. This action
+aroused a storm of wrath in Prussia, which had the right to garrison
+Luxemburg; but the question was patched up by a Conference of the Powers
+at London, the Duchy being declared neutral territory under the
+guarantee of Europe; the fortifications of its capital were also to be
+demolished, and the Prussian garrison withdrawn. This success for French
+diplomacy was repeated in Italy, where the French troops supporting the
+Pope crushed the efforts of Garibaldi and his irregulars to capture
+Rome, at the sanguinary fight of Mentana (November 3, 1867). The
+official despatch, stating that the new French rifle, the _chassepot_,
+"had done wonders," spread jubilation through France and a sharp
+anti-Gallic sentiment throughout Italy.
+
+And while Italy heaved with longings for her natural capital, popular
+feelings in France and North Germany made steadily for war.
+
+Before entering upon the final stages of the dispute, it may be well to
+take a bird's-eye view of the condition of the chief Powers in so far as
+it explains their attitude towards the great struggle.
+
+The condition of French politics was strangely complex. The Emperor had
+always professed that he was the elect of France, and would ultimately
+crown his political edifice with the corner-stone of constitutional
+liberty. Had he done so in the successful years 1855-61, possibly his
+dynasty might have taken root. He deferred action, however, until the
+darker years that came after 1866. In 1868 greater freedom was allowed
+to the Press and in the case of public meetings. The General Election of
+the spring of 1869 showed large gains to the Opposition, and decided the
+Emperor to grant to the Corps Legislatif the right of initiating laws
+concurrently with himself, and he declared that Ministers should be
+responsible to it (September 1869).
+
+These and a few other changes marked the transition from autocracy to
+the "Liberal Empire." One of the champions of constitutional principles,
+M. Emile Ollivier, formed a Cabinet to give effect to the new policy,
+and the Emperor, deeming the time ripe for consolidating his power on a
+democratic basis, consulted the country in a _plebiscite_, or mass vote,
+primarily as to their judgment on the recent changes, but implicitly as
+to their confidence in the imperial system as a whole. His skill in
+joining together two topics that were really distinct, gained him a
+tactical victory. More than 7,350,000 affirmative votes were given, as
+against 1,572,000 negatives; while 1,900,000 voters registered no vote.
+This success at the polls emboldened the supporters of the Empire; and
+very many of them, especially, it is thought, the Empress Eugenie,
+believed that only one thing remained in order to place the Napoleonic
+dynasty on a lasting basis--that was, a successful war.
+
+Champions of autocracy pointed out that the growth of Radicalism
+coincided with the period of military failures and diplomatic slights.
+Let Napoleon III., they said in effect, imitate the policy of his uncle,
+who, as long as he dazzled France by triumphs, could afford to laugh at
+the efforts of constitution-mongers. The big towns might prate of
+liberty; but what France wanted was glory and strong government. Such
+were their pleas: there was much in the past history of France to
+support them. The responsible advisers of the Emperor determined to take
+a stronger tone in foreign affairs, while the out-and-out Bonapartists
+jealously looked for any signs of official weakness so that they might
+undermine the Ollivier Ministry and hark back to absolutism. When two
+great parties in a State make national prestige a catchword of the
+political game, peace cannot be secure: that was the position of France
+in the early part of 1870[9].
+
+[9] See Ollivier's great work, _L'Empire liberal_, for full details of
+this time.
+
+The eve of the Franco-German War was a time of great importance for the
+United Kingdom. The Reform Bill of 1867 gave a great accession of power
+to the Liberal Party; and the General Election of November 1868 speedily
+led to the resignation of the Disraeli Cabinet and the accession of the
+Gladstone Ministry to power. This portended change in other directions
+than home affairs. The tradition of a spirited foreign policy died with
+Lord Palmerston in 1865. With the entry of John Bright to the new
+Cabinet peace at all costs became the dominant note of British
+statesmanship. There was much to be said in favour of this. England
+needed a time of rest in order to cope with the discontent of Ireland
+and the problems brought about by the growth of democracy and
+commercialism in the larger island. The disestablishment and partial
+disendowment of the Protestant Church in Ireland (July 1869), the Irish
+Land Act (August 1870), and the Education Act of 1870, showed the
+preoccupation of the Ministry for home affairs; while the readiness with
+which, a little later, they complied with all the wishes of the United
+States in the "Alabama" case, equally proclaimed their pacific
+intentions. England, which in 1860 had exercised so powerful an
+influence on the Italian national question, was for five years a factor
+of small account in European affairs. Far from pleasing the combatants,
+our neutrality annoyed both of them. The French accused England of
+"deserting" Napoleon III. in his time of need--a charge that has lately
+been revived by M. Hanotaux. To this it is only needful to reply that
+the French Emperor entered into alliance with us at the time of the
+Crimean War merely for his own objects, and allowed all friendly feeling
+to be ended by French threats of an invasion of England in 1858 and his
+shabby treatment of Italy in the matter of Savoy and Nice a year later.
+On his side, Bismarck also complained that our feeling for the German
+cause went no further than "theoretical sympathy," and that "during the
+war England never compromised herself so far in our favour as to
+endanger her friendship with France. On the contrary." These vague and
+enigmatic charges at bottom only express the annoyance of the combatants
+at their failure to draw neutrals into the strife[10].
+
+[10] Hanotaux, _Contemporary France_, vol. i. p. 9 (Eng. ed.);
+_Bismarck: his Reflections and Reminiscences,_ vol. ii. p. 61. The
+popular Prussian view about England found expression in the comic paper
+_Kladderdatsch_:--
+
+Deutschland beziehe billige Sympathien Und Frankreich theures
+Kriegsmateriel.
+
+
+The traditions of the United States, of course, forbade their
+intervention in the Franco-Prussian dispute. By an article of their
+political creed termed the Monroe Doctrine, they asserted their resolve
+not to interfere in European affairs and to prevent the interference of
+any strictly European State in those of the New World. It was on this
+rather vague doctrine that they cried "hands off" from Mexico to the
+French Emperor; and the abandonment of his _protege_, the so-called
+Emperor Maximilian, by French troops, brought about the death of that
+unhappy prince and a sensible decline in the prestige of his patron
+(June 1867).
+
+Russia likewise remembered Napoleon III.'s championship of the Poles in
+1863, which, however Platonic in its nature, caused the Czar some
+embarrassment. Moreover, King William of Prussia had soothed the Czar's
+feelings, ruffled by the dethroning of three German dynasties in 1866,
+by a skilful reply which alluded to his (King William's) desire to be of
+service to Russian interests elsewhere--a hint which the diplomatists of
+St. Petersburg remembered in 1870 to some effect.
+
+For the rest, the Czar Alexander II. (1855-81) and his Ministers were
+still absorbed in the internal policy of reform, which in the sixties
+freed the serfs and gave Russia new judicial and local institutions,
+doomed to be swept away in the reaction following the murder of that
+enlightened ruler. The Russian Government therefore pledged itself to
+neutrality, but in a sense favourable to Prussia. The Czar ascribed the
+Crimean War to the ambition of Napoleon III., and remembered the
+friendship of Prussia at that time, as also in the Polish Revolt of
+1863[11]. Bismarck's policy now brought its reward.
+
+[11] See Sir H. Rumbold's _Recollections of a Diplomatist_ (First
+Series), vol. ii. p. 292, for the Czar's hostility to France in 1870.
+
+The neutrality of Russia is always a matter of the utmost moment for the
+Central Powers in any war on their western frontiers. Their efforts
+against Revolutionary France in 1792-94 failed chiefly because of the
+ambiguous attitude of the Czarina Catherine II.; and the collapse of
+Frederick William IV.'s policy in 1848-51 was due to the hostility of
+his eastern neighbour. In fact, the removal of anxiety about her open
+frontier on the east was now worth a quarter of a million of men
+to Prussia.
+
+But the Czar's neutrality was in one matter distinctly friendly to his
+uncle, King William of Prussia. It is an open secret that unmistakable
+hints went from St. Petersburg to Vienna to the effect that, if Austria
+drew the sword for Napoleon III. she would have to reckon with an
+irruption of the Russians into her open Galician frontier. Probably this
+accounts for the conduct of the Hapsburg Power, which otherwise is
+inexplicable. A war of revenge against Prussia seemed to be the natural
+step to take. True, the Emperor Francis Joseph had small cause to like
+Napoleon III. The loss of Lombardy in 1859 still rankled in the breast
+of every patriotic Austrian; and the suspicions which that enigmatical
+ruler managed to arouse, prevented any definite agreement resulting from
+the meeting of the two sovereigns at Salzburg in 1867.
+
+The relations of France and Austria were still in the same uncertain
+state before the War of 1870. The foreign policy of Austria was in the
+hands of Count Beust, a bitter foe of Prussia; but after the concession
+of constitutional rule to Hungary by the compromise (_Ausgleich_) of
+1867, the Dual Monarchy urgently needed rest, especially as its army was
+undergoing many changes. The Chancellor's action was therefore clogged
+on all sides. Nevertheless, when the Luxemburg affair of 1867 brought
+France and Prussia near to war, Napoleon began to make advances to the
+Court of Vienna. How far they went is not known. Beust has asserted in
+his correspondence with the French Foreign Minister, the Duc de Gramont
+(formerly ambassador at Vienna), that they never were more than
+discussions, and that they ended in 1869 without any written agreement.
+The sole understanding was to the effect that the policy of both States
+should be friendly and pacific, Austria reserving the right to remain
+neutral if France were compelled to make war. The two Empires further
+promised not to make any engagement with a third Power without informing
+the other.
+
+This statement is not very convincing. States do not usually bind
+themselves in the way just described, unless they have some advantageous
+agreement with the Power which has the first claim on their alliance. It
+is noteworthy, however, that the Duc de Gramont, in the correspondence
+alluded to above, admits that, as Ambassador and as Foreign Minister of
+France, he never had to claim the support of Austria in the war with
+Prussia[12].
+
+[12] _Memoirs of Count Beust_, vol. ii. pp. 358-359 (Appendix D, Eng.
+edit.).
+
+How are we to reconcile these statements with the undoubted fact that
+the Emperor Napoleon certainly expected help from Austria and also from
+Italy? The solution of the riddle seems to be that Napoleon, as also
+Francis Joseph and Victor Emmanuel, kept their Foreign Ministers in the
+dark on many questions of high policy, which they transacted either by
+private letters among themselves, or through military men who had their
+confidence. The French and Italian sovereigns certainly employed these
+methods, the latter because he was far more French in sympathy than his
+Ministers.
+
+As far back as the year 1868, Victor Emmanuel made overtures to Napoleon
+with a view to alliance, the chief aim of which, from his standpoint,
+was to secure the evacuation of Rome by the French troops, and the gain
+of the Eternal City for the national cause. Prince Napoleon lent his
+support to this scheme, and from an article written by him we know that
+the two sovereigns discussed the matter almost entirely by means of
+confidential letters[13]. These discussions went on up to the month of
+June 1869. Francis Joseph, on hearing of them, urged the French Emperor
+to satisfy Italy, and thus pave the way for an alliance between the
+three Powers against Prussia. Nothing definite came of the affair, and
+chiefly, it would seem, owing to the influence of the Empress Eugenie
+and the French clerics. She is said to have remarked: "Better the
+Prussians in Paris than the Italian troops in Rome." The diplomatic
+situation therefore remained vague, though in the second week of July
+1870, the Emperor again took up the threads which, with greater firmness
+and foresight, he might have woven into a firm design.
+
+[13] _Revue des deux Mondes_ for April 1, 1878.
+
+The understanding between the three Powers advanced only in regard to
+military preparations. The Austrian Archduke Albrecht, the victor of
+Custoza, burned to avenge the defeat of Koeniggraetz, and with this aim in
+view visited Paris in February to March 1870. He then proposed to
+Napoleon an invasion of North Germany by the armies of France, Austria,
+and Italy. The French Emperor developed the plan by more specific
+overtures which he made in the month of June; but his Ministers were so
+far in the dark as to these military proposals that they were then
+suggesting the reduction of the French army by 10,000 men, while
+Ollivier, the Prime Minister, on June 30 declared to the French Chamber
+that peace had never been better assured[14].
+
+[14] Seignobos, _A Political History of Contemporary Europe_, vol. ii.
+pp. 806-807 (Eng. edit.). Oncken, _Zeitalter des Kaisers Wilhelm_ (vol.
+i. pp. 720-740), tries to prove that there was a deep conspiracy against
+Prussia. I am not convinced by his evidence.
+
+And yet on that same day General Lebrun, aide-de-camp to the Emperor,
+was drawing up at Paris a confidential report of the mission with which
+he had lately been entrusted to the Austrian military authorities. From
+that report we take the following particulars. On arriving at Vienna, he
+had three private interviews with the Archduke Albrecht, and set before
+him the desirability of a joint invasion of North Germany in the autumn
+of that year. To this the Archduke demurred, on the ground that such a
+campaign ought to begin in the spring if the full fruits of victory were
+to be gathered in before the short days came. Austria and Italy, he
+said, could not place adequate forces in the field in less than six
+weeks owing to lack of railways[15].
+
+[15] _Souvenirs militaires_, by General B.L.J. Lebrun (Paris 1895), pp.
+95-148.
+
+Developing his own views, the Archduke then suggested that it
+would be desirable for France to undertake the war against
+North Germany not later than the middle of March 1871, Austria
+and Italy at the same time beginning their mobilisations, though not
+declaring war until their armies were ready at the end of six weeks. Two
+French armies should in the meantime cross the Rhine in order to sever
+the South Germans from the Confederation of the North, one of them
+marching towards Nuremberg, where it would be joined by the western army
+of Austria and the Italian forces sent through Tyrol. The other Austrian
+army would then invade Saxony or Lusatia in order to strike at Berlin.
+He estimated the forces of the States hostile to Prussia as follows:--
+
+   +------------------------------------------------------------------+
+   |                               |Men.        |Horses.   |Cannon.   |
+   +-------------------------------+------------+----------+----------+
+   |France                         |309,000     |35,000    |972       |
+   |Austria (exclusive of reserve) |360,000     |27,000    |1128      |
+   |Italy                          |68,000      |5000      |180       |
+   |Denmark                        |260,000 (?) |2000      |72        |
+   +-------------------------------+------------+----------+----------+
+
+He thus reckoned the forces of the two German Confederations:--
+
+   +-------------------------------+------------+----------+----------+
+   |                               |Men.        |Horses.   |Cannon.   |
+   |North                          |377,000     |48,000    |1284      |
+   |South                          |97,000      |10,000    |288       |
+   +-------------------------------+------------+----------+----------+
+
+but the support of the latter might be hoped for. Lebrun again urged the
+desirability of a campaign in the autumn, but the Archduke repeated that
+it must begin in the spring. In that condition, as in his earlier
+statement that France must declare war first, while her allies prepared
+for war, we may discern a deep-rooted distrust of Napoleon III.
+
+On June 14 the Archduke introduced Lebrun to the Emperor Francis Joseph,
+who informed him that he wanted peace; but, he added, "if I make war, I
+must be forced to it." In case of war Prussia might exploit the national
+German sentiment existing in South Germany and Austria. He concluded
+with these words, "But if the Emperor Napoleon, compelled to accept or
+to declare war, came with his armies into South Germany, not as an enemy
+but as a liberator, I should be forced on my side to declare that I
+[would] make common cause with him. In the eyes of my people I could do
+no other than join my armies to those of France. That is what I pray you
+to say for me to the Emperor Napoleon; I hope that he will see, as I do,
+my situation both in home and foreign affairs." Such was the report
+which Lebrun drew up for Napoleon III. on June 30. It certainly led that
+sovereign to believe in the probability of Austrian help in the spring
+of 1871, but not before that time.
+
+The question now arises whether Bismarck was aware of these proposals.
+If warlike counsels prevailed at Vienna, it is probable that some
+preparations would be made, and the secret may have leaked out in this
+way, or possibly through the Hungarian administration. In any case,
+Bismarck knew that the Austrian chancellor, Count Beust, thirsted for
+revenge for the events of 1866[16]. If he heard any whispers of an
+approaching league against Prussia, he would naturally see the advantage
+of pressing on war at once, before Austria and Italy were ready to enter
+the lists. Probably in this fact will be found one explanation of the
+origin of the Franco-German War.
+
+[Footnote 16: _Bismarck: his Reflections and Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p.
+58.]
+
+Before adverting to the proximate cause of the rupture, we may note that
+Beust's despatch of July 11, 1870, to Prince Metternich, Austrian
+ambassador at Paris, displayed genuine fear lest France should rush
+blindly into war with Prussia; and he charged Metternich tactfully to
+warn the French Government against such a course of action, which would
+"be contrary to all that we have agreed upon. . . . Even if we wished, we
+could not suddenly equip a respectably large force. . . . Our services are
+gained to a certain extent [by France]; but we shall not go further
+unless events carry us on; and we do not dream of plunging into war
+because it might suit France to do so."
+
+Again, however, the military men seem to have pushed on the
+diplomatists. The Archduke Albrecht and Count Vitzthum went to Paris
+charged with some promises of support to France in case of war.
+Thereafter, Count Beust gave the assurance at Vienna that the Austrians
+would be "faithful to our engagements, as they have been recorded in the
+letters exchanged last year between the two sovereigns. We consider the
+cause of France as ours, and we will contribute to the success of her
+arms to the utmost of our power[17]."
+
+[Footnote 17: _Memoirs of Count Beust,_ vol. ii. p. 359. _The Present
+Position of European Politics_ p. 366 (1887). By the author of _Greater
+Britain._]
+
+In the midst of this maze of cross-purposes this much is clear: that
+both Emperors had gone to work behind the backs of their Ministers, and
+that the military chiefs of France and Austria brought their States to
+the brink of war while their Ministers and diplomatists were unaware of
+the nearness of danger.
+
+As we have seen, King Victor Emmanuel II. longed to draw the sword for
+Napoleon III., whose help to Italy in 1859-60 he so curiously overrated.
+Fortunately for Italy, his Ministers took a more practical view of the
+situation; but probably they too would have made common cause with
+France had they received a definite promise of the withdrawal of French
+troops from Rome and the satisfaction of Italian desires for the Eternal
+City as the national capital. This promise, even after the outbreak of
+war, the French Emperor declined to give, though his cousin, Prince
+Napoleon, urged him vehemently to give way on that point[18].
+
+[Footnote 18: See the _Rev. des deux Mondes_ for April 1, 1878, and
+"Chronique" of the _Revue d'Histoire diplomatique_ for 1905, p. 298;
+also W.H. Stillman, _The Union of Italy, 1815-1895_, p. 348.]
+
+In truth, the Emperor could not well give way. An Oecumenical Council
+sat at Rome from December 1869 to July 1870; its Ultramontane tendencies
+were throughout strongly marked, as against the "Old Catholic" views;
+and it was a foregone conclusion that the Council would vote the dogma
+of the infallibility of the Pope in matters of religion--as it did on
+the day before France declared war against Prussia. How, then, could the
+Emperor, the "eldest son of the Church," as French monarchs have proudly
+styled themselves, bargain away Rome to the Italian Government, already
+stained by sacrilege, when this crowning aureole of grace was about to
+encircle the visible Head of the Church? There was no escape from the
+dilemma. Either Napoleon must go into war with shouts of "Judas" hurled
+at him by all pious Roman Catholics; or he must try his fortunes without
+the much-coveted help of Austria and Italy. He chose the latter
+alternative, largely, it would seem, owing to the influence of his
+vehemently Catholic Empress[19]. After the first defeats he sought to
+open negotiations, but then it was too late. Prince Napoleon went to
+Florence and arrived there on August 20; but his utmost efforts failed
+to move the Italian Cabinet from neutrality.
+
+[Footnote 19: For the relations of France to the Vatican, see _Histoire
+du second Empire_, by M. De la Gorce, vol. vi. (Paris, 1903); also
+_Histoire Contemporaine_ (_i.e._ of France in 1869-1875), by M. Samuel
+Denis, 4 vols. The Empress Eugenie once said that she was "deux fois
+Catholique," as a Spaniard and as French Empress. (Sir M.K. Grant Duff,
+_Notes from a Diary, 1851-1872_, vol. i. p. 125.)]
+
+Even this brief survey of international relations shows that Napoleon
+III. was a source of weakness to France. Having seized on power by
+perfidious means, he throughout his whole reign strove to dazzle the
+French by a series of adventures, which indeed pleased the Parisians for
+the time, but at the cost of lasting distrust among the Powers. Generous
+in his aims, he at first befriended the German and Italian national
+movements, but forfeited all the fruits of those actions by his
+pettifogging conduct about Savoy and Nice, the Rhineland and Belgium;
+while his final efforts to please French clericals and Chauvinists[20]
+by supporting the Pope at Rome, lost him the support of States that
+might have retrieved the earlier blunders. In brief, by helping on the
+nationalists of North Germany and Italy he offended French public
+opinion; and his belated and spasmodic efforts to regain popularity at
+home aroused against him the distrust of all the Powers. Their feelings
+about him may be summarised in the _mot_ of a diplomatist, "Scratch the
+Emperor and you will find the political refugee."
+
+[Footnote 20: Chauvinist is a term corresponding to our "Jingo." It is
+derived from a man named Chauvin, who lauded Napoleon I. and French
+glory to the skies.]
+
+How different were the careers of Napoleon III. and of Bismarck! By
+resolutely keeping before him the national aim, and that only, the
+Prussian statesman had reduced the tangle of German affairs to
+simplicity and now made ready for the crowning work of all. In his
+_Reminiscences_ he avows his belief, as early as 1866, "that a war with
+France would succeed the war with Austria lay in the logic of history";
+and again, "I did not doubt that a Franco-German War must take place
+before the construction of a United Germany could take place[21]." War
+would doubtless have broken out in 1867 over the Luxemburg question, had
+he not seen the need of delay for strengthening the bonds of union with
+South Germany and assuring the increase of the armies of the Fatherland
+by the adoption of Prussian methods; or, as he phrased it, "each year's
+postponement of the war would add 100,000 trained soldiers to our
+army[22]." In 1870 little was to be gained by delay. In fact, the
+unionist movement in Germany then showed ominous signs of slackening. In
+the South the Parliaments opposed any further approach to union with the
+North; and the voting of the military budget in the North for that year
+was likely to lead to strong opposition in the interests of the
+overtaxed people. A war might solve the unionist problem which was
+insoluble in time of peace; and a _casus belli _was at hand.
+
+[Footnote 21: Bismarck, _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. pp. 41, 57 (Eng.
+edit.).]
+
+[Footnote 22: _Ib._ p. 58.]
+
+Early in July 1870, the news leaked out that Prince Leopold of
+Hohenzollern was the officially accepted candidate for the throne of
+Spain, left vacant since the revolution which drove Queen Isabella into
+exile in 1868[23]. At once a thrill of rage shot through France; and the
+Duc de Gramont, Foreign Minister of the new Ollivier Ministry, gave
+expression to the prevailing feeling in his answer to a question on the
+subject in the Chamber of Deputies (July 6):--
+
+[Footnote 23: The ex-queen Isabella died in Paris in April 1904.]
+
+     We do not think that respect for the rights of a neighbouring
+     people [Spain] obliges us to allow an alien Power [Prussia],
+     by placing one of its princes on the throne of Charles V., to
+     succeed in upsetting to our disadvantage the present
+     equilibrium of forces in Europe, and imperil the interests
+     and honour of France. We have the firm hope that this
+     eventuality will not be realised. To hinder it, we count both
+     on the wisdom of the German people and on the friendship of
+     the Spanish people. If that should not be so, strong in your
+     support and in that of the nation, we shall know how to
+     fulfil our duty without hesitation and without weakness[24].
+
+[Footnote 24: Sorel, _Hist. diplomatique de la Guerre Franco-Allemande_,
+vol. i. p. 77.]
+
+The opening phrases were inaccurate. The prince in question was Prince
+Leopold of the Swabian and Roman Catholic branch of the Hohenzollern
+family, who, as the Duc de Gramont knew, could by no possibility recall
+the days when Charles V. reigned as Emperor in Germany and monarch in
+Spain. This misstatement showed the intention of the French Ministry to
+throw down the glove to Prussia--as is also clear from this statement in
+Gramont's despatch of July 10 to Benedetti: "If the King will not advise
+the Prince of Hohenzollern to withdraw, well, it is war forthwith, and
+in a few days we are at the Rhine[25]."
+
+[Footnote 25: Benedetti, _Ma Mission en Prusse_, p.34. This work
+contains the French despatches on the whole affair.]
+
+Nevertheless, those who were behind the scenes had just cause for anger
+against Bismarck. The revelations of Benedetti, French ambassador at
+Berlin, as well as the Memoirs of the King of Roumania (brother to
+Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern) leave no doubt that the candidature of
+the latter was privately and unofficially mooted in 1868, and again in
+the spring of 1869 through a Prussian diplomatist, Werthern, and that it
+met with no encouragement whatever from the Prussian monarch or the
+prince himself. But early in 1870 it was renewed in an official manner
+by the provisional Government of Spain, and (as seems certain) at the
+instigation of Bismarck, who, in May-June, succeeded in overcoming the
+reluctance of the prince and of King William. Bismarck even sought to
+hurry the matter through the Spanish Cortes so as to commit Spain to the
+plan; but this failed owing to the misinterpretation of a ciphered
+telegram from Berlin at Madrid[26].
+
+[Footnote 26: In a recent work, _Kaiser Wilhelm und die Begruendung des
+Reichs, 1866-1871_, Dr. Lorenz tries to absolve Bismarck from complicity
+in these intrigues, but without success. See _Reminiscences of the King
+of Roumania_ (edited by S. Whitman), pp. 70, 86-87, 92-95; also
+Headlam's _Bismarck_, p. 327.]
+
+Such was the state of the case when the affair became known to the
+Ollivier Ministry. Though not aware, seemingly, of all these details,
+Napoleon's advisers were justified in treating the matter, not as a
+private affair between the Hohenzollerns and Spain (as Germans then
+maintained it was) but as an attempt of the Prussian Government to place
+on the Spanish throne a prince who could not but be friendly to the
+North German Power. In fact, the French saw in it a challenge to war;
+and putting together all the facts as now known, we must pronounce that
+they were almost certainly right. Bismarck undoubtedly wanted war; and
+it is impossible to think that he did not intend to use this candidature
+as a means of exasperating the French. The man who afterwards declared
+that, at the beginning of the Danish disputes in 1863, he made up his
+mind to have Schleswig-Holstein for Prussia[27], certainly saw in the
+Hohenzollern candidature a step towards a Prusso-Spanish alliance or a
+war with France that might cement German unity.
+
+[Footnote 27: Busch, _Our Chancellor_, vol. i. p. 367.]
+
+In any case, that was the outcome of events. The French papers at once
+declaimed against the candidature in a way that aroused no less passion
+on the other side of the Rhine. For a brief space, however, matters
+seemed to be smoothed over by the calm good sense of the Prussian
+monarch and his nephew. The King was then at Ems, taking the waters,
+when Benedetti, the French ambassador, waited on him and pressed him
+most urgently to request Prince Leopold to withdraw from the candidature
+to the Spanish Crown. This the King declined to do in the way that was
+pointed out to him, rightly considering that such a course would play
+into the hands of the French by lowering his own dignity and the
+prestige of Prussia. Moreover, he, rather illogically, held the whole
+matter to be primarily one that affected the Hohenzollern family and
+Spain. The young prince, however, on hearing of the drift of events,
+solved the problem by declaring his intention not to accept the Crown of
+Spain (July 12). The action was spontaneous, emanating from Prince
+Leopold and his father Prince Antony, not from the Prussian monarch,
+though, on hearing of their decision, he informed Benedetti that he
+entirely approved it.
+
+If the French Government had really wished for peace, it would have let
+the matter end there. But it did not do so. The extreme
+Bonapartists--_plus royalistes que le roi_--all along wished to gain
+prestige for their sovereign by inflicting an open humiliation on King
+William and through him on Prussia. They were angry that he had evaded
+the snare, and now brought pressure to bear on the Ministry, especially
+the Duc de Gramont, so that at 7 P.M. of that same day (July 12) he sent
+a telegram to Benedetti at Ems directing him to see King William and
+press him to declare that he "would not again authorise this
+candidature." The Minister added: "The effervescence of spirits [at
+Paris] is such that we do not know whether we shall succeed in mastering
+it." This was true. Paris was almost beside herself. As M. Sorel says:
+"The warm July evening drove into the streets a populace greedy of shows
+and excitements, whose imagination was spoiled by the custom of
+political quackery, for whom war was but a drama and history a
+romance[28]." Such was the impulse which led to Gramont's new demand,
+and it was made in spite of the remonstrances of the British ambassador,
+Lord Lyons.
+
+[Footnote 28: Sorel, _Hist. diplomatique de la Guerre Franco-Allemande_,
+vol. i. chap. iv.; also for the tone of the French Press, Giraudeau, _La
+Verite sur la Campagne de 1870_, pp. 46-60.
+
+Ollivier tried to persuade Sir M.E. Grant Duff (_Notes from a Diary,
+1873-1881_, vol. i. p. 45) that the French demand to King William was
+quite friendly and natural.]
+
+Viewing that demand in the clearer light of the present time, we must
+say that it was not unreasonable in itself; but it was presented in so
+insistent a way that King William declined to entertain it. Again
+Gramont pressed Benedetti to urge the matter; but the utmost that the
+King would do was to state: "He gives his approbation entirely and
+without reserve to the withdrawal of the Prince of Hohenzollern: he
+cannot do more." He refused to see the ambassador further on this
+subject; but on setting out to return to Berlin--a step necessitated by
+the growing excitement throughout Germany--he took leave of Benedetti
+with perfect cordiality (July 14). The ambassador thereupon returned
+to Paris.
+
+Meanwhile, however, Bismarck had given the last flick to the restive
+courses of the Press on both sides of the Rhine. In his _Reminiscences_
+he has described his depression of spirits on hearing the news of the
+withdrawal of Prince Leopold's candidature and of his nearly formed
+resolve to resign as a protest against so tame a retreat before French
+demands. But while Moltke, Roon, and he were dining together, a telegram
+reached him from the King at Ems, dated July 13, 3.50 P.M., which gave
+him leave to inform the ambassadors and the Press of the present state
+of affairs. Bismarck saw his chance. The telegram could be cut down so
+as to give a more resolute look to the whole affair. And, after gaining
+Moltke's assurance that everything was ready for war, he proceeded to
+condense it. The facts here can only be understood by a comparison of
+the two versions. We therefore give the original as sent to Bismarck by
+Abeken, Secretary to the Foreign Office, who was then at Ems:--
+
+     His Majesty writes to me: "Count Benedetti spoke to me on the
+     promenade, in order to demand from me, finally in a very
+     importunate manner, that I should authorise him to telegraph
+     at once that I bound myself for all future time never again
+     to give my consent if the Hohenzollerns should renew their
+     candidature. I refused at last somewhat sternly, as it is
+     neither right nor possible to undertake engagements of this
+     kind _a tout jamais_. Naturally I told him that I had as yet
+     received no news, and as he was earlier informed about Paris
+     and Madrid than myself, he could see clearly that my
+     Government once more had no hand in the matter." His Majesty
+     has since received a letter from the Prince. His Majesty
+     having told Count Benedetti that he was awaiting news from
+     the Prince, has decided, with reference to the above demand,
+     upon the representation of Count Eulenburg and myself, not to
+     receive Count Benedetti again, but only to let him be
+     informed through an aide-de-camp: "That his Majesty had now
+     received from the Prince confirmation of the news which
+     Benedetti had already received from Paris, and had nothing
+     further to say to the ambassador." His Majesty leaves it to
+     your Excellency whether Benedetti's fresh demand and its
+     rejection should not be at once communicated both to our
+     ambassadors and to the Press.
+
+Bismarck cut this down to the following:--
+
+     After the news of the renunciation of the hereditary Prince
+     of Hohenzollern had been officially communicated to the
+     Imperial Government of France by the Royal Government of
+     Spain, the French ambassador at Ems further demanded of his
+     Majesty, the King, that he would authorise him to telegraph
+     to Paris that his Majesty, the King, bound himself for all
+     future time never again to give his consent if the
+     Hohenzollerns should renew their candidature. His Majesty,
+     the King, thereupon decided not to receive the French
+     ambassador again, and sent to tell him through the
+     aide-de-camp on duty that his Majesty had nothing further to
+     communicate to the ambassador.
+
+Efforts have been made to represent Bismarck's "editing" of the Ems
+telegram as the decisive step leading to war; and in his closing years,
+when seized with the morbid desire of a partly discredited statesman to
+exaggerate his influence on events, he himself sought to perpetuate this
+version. He claims that the telegram, as it came from Ems, described the
+incident there "as a fragment of a negotiation still pending, and to be
+continued at Berlin." This claim is quite untenable. A careful perusal
+of the original despatch from Ems shows that the negotiation, far from
+being "still pending," was clearly described as having been closed on
+that matter. That Benedetti so regarded it is proved by his returning at
+once to Paris. If it could have been "continued at Berlin," he most
+certainly would have proceeded thither. Finally, the words in the
+original as to the King refusing Benedetti "somewhat sternly" were
+omitted, and very properly omitted, by Bismarck in his abbreviated
+version. Had he included those words, he might have claimed to be the
+final cause of the War of 1870. As it is, his claim must be set aside as
+the offspring of senile vanity. His version of the original Ems despatch
+did not contain a single offensive word, neither did it alter any
+statement. Abeken also admitted that his original telegram was far too
+long, and that Bismarck was quite justified in abbreviating it as
+he did[29].
+
+[Footnote 29: _Heinrich Abeken_, by Hedwig Abeken, p. 375. Bismarck's
+successor in the chancellory, Count Caprivi, set matters in their true
+light in a speech in the Reichstag shortly after the publication of
+Bismarck's _Reminiscences_.
+
+I dissent from the views expressed by the well-informed reviewer of
+Ollivier's _L'Empire liberal_ (vol. viii.) in the _Times_ of May 27,
+1904, who pins his faith to an interview of Bismarck with Lord Loftus on
+July 13, 1870. Bismarck, of course wanted war; but so did Gramont, and I
+hold that _the latter_ brought it about.]
+
+If we pay attention, not to the present more complete knowledge of the
+whole affair, but to the imperfect information then open to the German
+public, war was the natural result of the second and very urgent demand
+that came from Paris. The Duc de Gramont in dispatching it must have
+known that he was playing a desperate game. Either Prussia would give
+way and France would score a diplomatic triumph over a hated rival; or
+Prussia would fight. The friends of peace in France thought matters
+hopeless when that demand was sent in so insistent a manner. As soon as
+Gladstone heard of the second demand of the Ollivier Ministry, he wrote
+to Lord Granville, then Foreign Minister: "It is our duty to represent
+the immense responsibility which will rest upon France, if she does not
+at once accept as satisfactory and conclusive the withdrawal of the
+candidature of Prince Leopold[30]."
+
+[Footnote 30: J. Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. ii. p. 328.]
+
+On the other hand, we must note that the conduct of the German Press at
+this crisis was certainly provocative of war. The morning on which
+Bismarck's telegram appeared in the official _North German Gazette_, saw
+a host of violent articles against France, and gleeful accounts of
+imaginary insults inflicted by the King on Benedetti. All this was to be
+expected after the taunts of cowardice freely levelled by the Parisian
+papers against Prussia for the last two days; but whether Bismarck
+directly inspired the many sensational versions of the Ems affair that
+appeared in North German papers on July 14 is not yet proven.
+
+However that may be, the French Government looked on the refusal of its
+last demand, the publication of Bismarck's telegram, and the insults of
+the German Press as a _casus belli_. The details of the sitting of the
+Emperor's Council at 10 P.M. on July 14, at which it was decided to call
+out the French reserves, are not yet known. Ollivier was not present.
+There had been a few hours of wavering on this question; but the tone of
+the Parisian evening papers--it was the French national day--the loud
+cries of the rabble for war, and their smashing the windows of the
+Prussian embassy, seem to have convinced the Emperor and his advisers
+that to draw back now would involve the fall of the dynasty. Report has
+uniformly pointed to the Empress as pressing these ideas on her
+consort, and the account which the Duc de Gramont later on gave to Lord
+Malmesbury of her words at that momentous Council-meeting support
+popular rumour. It is as follows:--
+
+     Before the final resolve to declare war the Emperor, Empress,
+     and Ministers went to St. Cloud. After some discussion
+     Gramont told me that the Empress, a high-spirited and
+     impressionable woman, made a strong and most excited address,
+     declaring that "war was inevitable if the honour of France
+     was to be sustained." She was immediately followed by Marshal
+     Leboeuf, who, in the most violent tone, threw down his
+     portfolio and swore that if war was not declared he would
+     give it up and renounce his military rank. The Emperor gave
+     way, and Gramont went straight to the Chamber to announce the
+     fatal news[31].
+
+[Footnote 31: This version has, I believe, not been refuted. Still, I
+must look on it with suspicion. No Minister, who had done so much to
+stir up the war-feeling, ought to have made any such confession--least
+of all against a lady, who could not answer it. M. Seignobos in his
+_Political History of Contemporary Europe_, vol. i. chap. vi. p. 184
+(Eng edit.) says of Gramont: "He it was who embroiled France in the war
+with Prussia." In the course of the parliamentary inquiry of 1872
+Gramont convicted himself and his Cabinet of folly in 1870 by using
+these words: "Je crois pouvoir declarer que si on avait eu un doute, un
+seule doute, sur notre aptitude a la guerre, on eut immediatement arrete
+la negociation" (_Enquete parlementaire_, I. vol. i. p. 108).]
+
+On the morrow (July 15) the Chamber of Deputies appointed a Commission,
+which hastily examined the diplomatic documents and reported in a sense
+favourable to the Ollivier Ministry. The subsequent debate made strongly
+for a rupture; and it is important to note that Ollivier and Gramont
+based the demand for warlike preparations on the fact that King William
+had refused to see the French ambassador, and held that that alone was a
+sufficient insult. In vain did Thiers protest against the war as
+inopportune, and demand to see all the necessary documents. The Chamber
+passed the war supplies by 246 votes to 10; and Thiers had his windows
+broken. Late on that night Gramont set aside a last attempt of Lord
+Granville to offer the mediation of England in the cause of peace, on
+the ground that this would be to the harm of France--"unless means were
+found to stop the rapid mobilisation of the Prussian armies which were
+approaching our frontier[32]." In this connection it is needful to state
+that the order for mobilising the North German troops was not given by
+the King of Prussia until late on July 15, when the war votes of the
+French Chambers were known at Berlin.
+
+[Footnote 32: Quoted by Sorel, _op. cit_. vol. i. p. 196.]
+
+Benedetti, in his review of the whole question, passes the following
+very noteworthy and sensible verdict: "It was public opinion which
+forced the [French] Government to draw the sword, and by an irresistible
+onset dictated its resolutions[33]." This is certainly true for the
+public opinion of Paris, though not of France as a whole. The rural
+districts which form the real strength of France nearly always cling to
+peace. It is significant that the Prefects of French Departments
+reported that only 16 declared in favour of war, while 37 were in doubt
+on the matter, and 34 accepted war with regret. This is what might be
+expected from a people which in the Provinces is marked by prudence
+and thrift.
+
+[Footnote 33: Benedetti, _Ma Mission en Prusse,_ p. 411.]
+
+In truth, the people of modern Europe have settled down to a life of
+peaceful industry, in which war is the most hateful of evils. On the
+other hand, the massing of mankind in great cities, where thought is
+superficial and feelings can quickly be stirred by a sensation-mongering
+Press, has undoubtedly helped to feed political passions and national
+hatred. A rural population is not deeply stirred by stories of slights
+to ambassadors. The peasant of Brittany had no active dislike for the
+peasant of Brandenburg. Each only asked to be left to till his fields in
+peace and safety. But the crowds on the Parisian boulevards and in
+_Unter den Linden_ took (and seemingly always will take) a very
+different view of life. To them the news of the humiliation of the rival
+beyond the Rhine was the greatest and therefore the most welcome of
+sensations; and, unfortunately, the papers which pandered to their
+habits set the tone of thought for no small part of France and Germany
+and exerted on national policy an influence out of all proportion to its
+real weight.
+
+The story of the Franco-German dispute is one of national jealousy
+carefully fanned for four years by newspaper editors and popular
+speakers until a spark sufficed to set Western Europe in a blaze. The
+spark was the Hohenzollern candidature, which would have fallen harmless
+had not the tinder been prepared since Koeniggratz by journalists at
+Paris and Berlin. The resulting conflagration may justly be described as
+due partly to national friction and partly to the supposed interests of
+the Napoleonic dynasty, but also to the heat engendered by a
+sensational Press.
+
+It is well that one of the chief dangers to the peace of the modern
+world should be clearly recognised. The centralisation of governments
+and of population may have its advantages; but over against them we must
+set grave drawbacks; among those of a political kind the worst are the
+growth of nervousness and excitability, and the craving for
+sensation--qualities which undoubtedly tend to embitter national
+jealousies at all times, and in the last case to drive weak dynasties or
+Cabinets on to war. Certainly Bismarck's clever shifts to bring about a
+rupture in 1870 would have failed had not the atmosphere both at Paris
+and Berlin been charged with electricity[34].
+
+[Footnote 34: Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern died at Berlin on June 8,
+1905. He was born in 1835, and in 1861 married the Infanta of Portugal.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+FROM WOeRTH TO GRAVELOTTE
+
+     "The Chief of the General Staff had his eye fixed from the
+     first upon the capture of the enemy's capital, the possession
+     of which is of more importance in France than in other
+     countries. . . . It is a delusion to believe that a plan of war
+     may be laid for a prolonged period and carried out in every
+     point."--VON MOLTKE, _The Franco-German War_.
+
+
+In olden times, before the invention of long-range arms of precision,
+warfare was decided mainly by individual bravery and strength. In the
+modern world victory has inclined more and more to that side which
+carefully prepares beforehand to throw a force, superior alike in
+armament and numbers, against the vitals of its enemy. Assuming that the
+combatants are fairly equal in physical qualities--and the spread of
+liberty has undoubtedly lessened the great differences that once were
+observable in this respect among European peoples--war becomes largely
+an affair of preliminary organisation. That is to say, it is now a
+matter of brain rather than muscle. Writers of the school of Carlyle may
+protest that all modern warfare is tame when compared with the
+splendidly rampant animalism of the Homeric fights. In the interests of
+Humanity it is to be hoped that the change will go on until war becomes
+wholly scientific and utterly unattractive. Meanwhile, the
+soldier-caste, the politician, and the tax-payer have to face the fact
+that the fortunes of war are very largely decided by humdrum costly
+preparations in time of peace.
+
+The last chapter set forth the causes that led to war in 1870. That
+event found Germany fully prepared. The lessons of the campaign of 1866
+had not been lost upon the Prussian General Staff. The artillery was
+improved alike in _materiel_ and in drill-tactics, Napoleon I.'s plan of
+bringing massed batteries to bear on decisive points being developed
+with Prussian thoroughness. The cavalry learnt to scout effectively and
+act as "the eyes and ears of an army," as well as to charge in brigades
+on a wavering foe. Universal military service had been compulsory in
+Prussia since 1813; but the organisation of territorial army corps now
+received fuller development, so that each part of Prussia, including,
+too, most of the North German Confederation, had its own small army
+complete in all arms, and reinforced from the Reserve, and, at need,
+from the Landwehr[35]. By virtue of the military conventions of 1866,
+the other German States adopted a similar system, save that while
+Prussians served for three years (with few exceptions in the case of
+successful examinees), the South Germans served with the colours for a
+shorter period. Those conventions also secured uniformity, or harmony,
+in the railway arrangements for the transport of troops.
+
+[Footnote 35: By the Prussian law of November 9, 1867, soldiers had to
+serve three years with the colours, four in the reserve, and five in the
+Landwehr. Three new army corps (9th, 10th, and 11th) were formed in the
+newly annexed or confederated lands, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Saxony, etc.
+(Maurice, _The Franco-German War_, 1900).]
+
+The General Staff of the North German Army had used these advantages to
+the utmost, by preparing a most complete plan of mobilisation--so
+complete, in fact, that the myriad orders had only to be drawn from
+their pigeon-holes and dated in the last hours of July 15. Forthwith the
+whole of the vast machinery started in swift but smooth working.
+Reservists speedily appeared at their regimental depots, there found
+their equipment, and speedily brought their regiments up to the war
+footing; trains were ready, timed according to an elaborate plan, to
+carry them Rhinewards; provisions and stores were sent forward, _ohne
+Hast, ohne Rast_, as the Germans say; and so perfect were the plans on
+rail, river, and road, that none of those blocks occurred which
+frequently upset the plans of the French. Thus, by dint of plodding
+preparation, a group of federal States gained a decisive advantage over
+a centralised Empire which left too many things to be arranged in the
+last few hours.
+
+Herein lies the true significance of the War of 1870. All Governments
+that were not content to jog along in the old military ruts saw the need
+of careful organisation, including the eventual control of all needful
+means of transport; and all that were wise hastened to adapt their
+system to the new order of things, which aimed at assuring the swift
+orderly movement of great masses of men by all the resources of
+mechanical science. Most of the civilised States soon responded to the
+new needs of the age; but a few (among them Great Britain) were content
+to make one or two superficial changes and slightly increase the number
+of troops, while leaving the all-important matter of organisation almost
+untouched; and that, too, despite the vivid contrast which every one
+could see between the machine-like regularity of the German mobilisation
+and the chaos that reigned on the French side.
+
+Outwardly, the French army appeared to be beyond the reach of criticism.
+The troops had in large measure seen active service in the various wars
+whereby Napoleon III. fulfilled his promise of 1852--"The Empire is
+peace"; and their successes in the Crimea, Lombardy, Syria, and China,
+everywhere in fact but Mexico, filled them with warlike pride. Armed
+with the _chassepot_, a newer and better rifle than the needle-gun,
+while their artillery (admittedly rather weak) was strengthened by the
+_mitrailleuse_, they claimed to be the best in the world, and burned to
+measure swords with the upstart forces of Prussia.
+
+[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF THE DISTRICT BETWEEN METZ AND THE RHINE.]
+
+But there was a sombre reverse to this bright side. All thinking
+Frenchmen, including the Emperor, were aware of grave defects--the lack
+of training of the officers[36], and the want of adaptability in the
+General Staff, which had little of that practical knowledge that the
+German Staff secured by periods of service with the troops. Add to this
+the leaven of republicanism working strongly in the army as in the
+State, and producing distrust between officers and men; above all, the
+lack of men and materials; and the outlook was not reassuring to those
+who knew the whole truth. Inclusive of the levies of the year 1869,
+which were not quite ready for active service, France would have by
+August 1, 1870, as many as 567,000 men in her regular army; but of these
+colonial, garrison, and other duties claimed as many as 230,000--a
+figure which seems designed to include the troops that existed only on
+paper. Not only the _personnel_ but the _materiel_ came far below what
+was expected. General Leboeuf, the War Minister, ventured to declare
+that all was ready even to the last button on the gaiters; but his boast
+at once rang false when at scores of military depots neither gaiters,
+boots, nor uniforms were ready for the reservists who needed them.
+
+[Footnote 36: M. de la Gorce in his _Histoire du second Empire_, vol.
+vi., tells how the French officers scouted study of the art of war,
+while most of them looked on favouritism as the only means of promotion.
+The warnings of Colonel Stoffel, French Military Attache at Berlin, were
+passed over, as those of "a Prussomane, whom Bismarck had fascinated."]
+
+Even where the organisation worked at its best, that best was slow and
+confused. There were no territorial army corps in time of peace; and the
+lack of this organisation led to a grievous waste of time and energy.
+Regiments were frequently far away from the depots which contained the
+reservists' equipment; and when these had found their equipment, they
+often wandered widely before finding their regiments on the way to the
+frontier. One general officer hunted about on the frontier for a command
+which did not exist. As a result of this lack of organisation, and of
+that control over the railways which the Germans had methodically
+enforced, France lost the many advantages which her compact territory
+and excellent railway system ought to have ensured over her more
+straggling and poorer rival.
+
+The loss of time was as fatal as it was singular under the rule of a
+Napoleon whose uncle had so often shattered his foes by swift movements
+of troops. In 1870 Napoleonic France had nothing but speed and dash on
+which to count. Numbers were against her. In 1869 Marshal Leboeuf had
+done away with the Garde Mobile, a sort of militia which had involved
+only fifteen days' drill in the year; and the Garde Nationale of the
+towns was less fit for campaigning than the re-formed Mobiles proved to
+be later on in the war. Thus France had no reserves: everything rested
+on the 330,000 men struggling towards the frontiers. It is doubtful
+whether there were more than 220,000 men in the first line by August 6,
+with some 50,000 more in reserve at Metz, etc.
+
+Against them Germany could at once put into the field 460,000 infantry,
+56,000 cavalry, with 1584 cannon; and she could raise these forces to
+some 1,180,000 men by calling out all the reserves and Landwehr. These
+last were men who had served their time and had not, as a rule, lost
+their soldierly qualities in civil life. Nearly 400,000 highly trained
+troops were ready to invade France early in August.
+
+In view of these facts it seems incredible that Ollivier, the French
+Prime Minister, could have publicly stated that he entered on war with a
+light heart. Doubtless, Ministers counted on help from Austria or Italy,
+perhaps from both; but, as it proved, they judged too hastily. As was
+stated in Chapter I. of this work, Austria was not likely to move as
+long as Russia favoured the cause of Prussia; for any threatening
+pressure of the Muscovites on the open flank of the Hapsburg States,
+Galicia, has sufficed to keep them from embarking on a campaign in the
+West. In this case, the statesmen of Vienna are said to have known by
+July 20 that Russia would quietly help Prussia; she informed the
+Hapsburg Government that any increase in its armaments would be met by a
+corresponding increase in those of Russia. The meaning of such a hint
+was clear; and Austria decided not to seek revenge for Koeniggraetz unless
+the French triumph proved to be overwhelming. As for Italy, her alliance
+with France alone was very improbable for the reasons previously stated.
+
+Another will o' the wisp which flitted before the ardent Bonapartists
+who pushed on the Emperor to war, was that the South German States would
+forsake the North and range their troops under the French eagles, as
+they had done in the years 1805-12. The first plan of campaign drawn up
+at Paris aimed at driving a solid wedge of French troops between the two
+Confederations and inducing or compelling the South to join France; it
+was hoped that Saxony would follow. As a matter of fact, very many of
+the South Germans and Saxons disliked Prussian supremacy; Catholic
+Bavaria looked askance at the growing power of Protestant Prussia.
+Wuertemberg was Protestant, but far too democratic to wish for the
+control of the cast-iron bureaucrats of Berlin. The same was even more
+true of Saxony, where hostility to Prussia was a deep-rooted tradition;
+some of the Saxon troops on leaving their towns even shouted _Napoleon
+soll leben_[37]. It is therefore quite possible that, had France struck
+quickly at the valleys of the Neckar and Main, she might have reduced
+the South German States to neutrality. Alliance perhaps was out of the
+question save under overwhelming compulsion; for France had alienated
+the Bavarian and Hessian Governments by her claims in 1866, and the
+South German people by her recent offensive treatment of the
+Hohenzollern candidature. It is, however, safe to assert that if
+Napoleon I. had ordered French affairs he would have swept the South
+Germans into his net a month after the outbreak of war, as he had done
+in 1805. But Nature had not bestowed warlike gifts on the nephew, who
+took command of the French army at Metz at the close of July 1870. His
+feeble health, alternating with periods of severe pain, took from him
+all that buoyancy which lends life to an army and vigour to the
+headquarters; and his Chief of Staff, Leboeuf, did not make good the
+lack of these qualities in the nominal chief.
+
+[Footnote 37: _I.e._ "Long live Napoleon." The author had this from an
+Englishman who was then living in Saxony.]
+
+All the initiative and vigour were on the east of the Rhine. The spread
+of the national principle to Central and South Germany had recently met
+with several checks; but the diplomatic blunders of the French
+Government, the threats of their Press that the Napoleonic troops would
+repeat the wonders of 1805; above all, admiration of the dignified
+conduct of King William under what were thought to be gratuitous insults
+from France, began to kindle the flame of German patriotism even in the
+particularists of the South. The news that the deservedly popular Crown
+Prince of Prussia, Frederick William, would command the army now
+mustering in the Palatinate, largely composed of South Germans, sent a
+thrill of joy through those States. Taught by the folly of her
+stay-at-home strategy in 1866, Bavaria readily sent her large contingent
+beyond the Rhine; and all danger of a French irruption into South
+Germany was ended by the speedy massing of the Third German Army, some
+200,000 strong in all, on the north of Alsace. For the French to cross
+the Rhine at Speyer, or even at Kehl, in front of a greatly superior
+army (though as yet they knew not its actual strength) was clearly
+impossible; and in the closing hours of July the French headquarters
+fell back on other plans, which, speaking generally, were to defend the
+French frontier from the Moselle to the Rhine by striking at the
+advanced German troops. At least, that seems to be the most natural
+explanation of the sudden and rather flurried changes then made.
+
+It was wise to hide this change to a strategic defensive by assuming a
+tactical offensive; and on August 2 two divisions of Frossard's corps
+attacked and drove back the advanced troops of the Second German Army
+from Saarbruecken. The affair was unimportant: it could lead to nothing,
+unless the French had the means of following up the success. This they
+had not; and the advance of the First and Second German Armies,
+commanded by General Steinmetz and Prince Frederick Charles, was soon to
+deprive them of this position.
+
+Meanwhile the Germans were making ready a weighty enterprise. The
+muster of the huge Third Army to the north of Alsace enabled their
+General Staff to fix August 4 for a general advance against that
+frontier. It fell to this army, under the Crown Prince of Prussia,
+Frederick William, to strike the first great blow. Early on August 4 a
+strong Bavarian division advanced against the small fortified town of
+Weissenburg, which lies deep down in the valley of the Lauter,
+surrounded by lofty hills. There it surprised a weak French division,
+the vanguard of MacMahon's army, commanded by General Abel Douay, whose
+scouts had found no trace of the advancing enemy. About 10 A.M. Douay
+fell, mortally wounded; another German division, working round the town
+to the east, carried the strong position of the Geisberg; and these
+combined efforts, frontal and on the flank, forced the French hastily to
+retreat westwards over the hills to Woerth, after losing more than
+2000 men.
+
+The news of this reverse and of the large German forces ready to pour
+into the north of Alsace led the Emperor to order the 7th French corps
+at Belfort, and the 5th in and around Bitsch, to send reinforcements to
+MacMahon, whose main force held the steep and wooded hills between the
+villages of Woerth, Froeschweiler, and Reichshofen. The line of railway
+between Strassburg and Bitsch touches Reichshofen; but, for some reason
+that has never been satisfactorily explained, MacMahon was able to draw
+up only one division from the side of Strassburg and Belfort, and not
+one from Bitsch, which was within an easy march. The fact seems to be
+that de Failly, in command at Bitsch, was a prey to conflicting orders
+from Metz, and therefore failed to bring up the 5th corps as he should
+have done. MacMahon's cavalry was also very defective in scouting, and
+he knew nothing as to the strength of the forces rapidly drawing near
+from Weissenburg and the east.
+
+Certainly his position at Woerth was very strong. The French lines were
+ranged along the steep wooded slope running north and south, with
+buttress-like projections, intersected by gullies, the whole leading up
+to a plateau on which stand the village of Froeschweiler and the hamlet
+of Elsasshausen. Behind is the wood called the Grosser Wald, while the
+hamlet is flanked on the south and in front by an outlying wood, the
+Niederwald. Behind the Grosser Wald the ground sinks away to the valley
+in which runs the Bitsch-Reichshofen railway. In front of MacMahon's
+position lay the village of Woerth, deep in the valley of the Sauerbach.
+The invader would therefore have to carry this village or cross the
+stream, and press up the long open slopes on which were ranged the
+French troops and batteries with all the advantages of cover and
+elevation on their side. A poor general, having forces smaller than
+those of his enemy, might hope to hold such a position. But there was
+one great defect. Owing to de Failly's absence MacMahon had not enough
+men to hold the whole of the position marked out by Nature for defence.
+
+Conscious of its strength, the Prussian Crown Prince ordered the leaders
+of his vanguard not to bring on a general engagement on August 6, when
+the invading army had not at hand its full striking strength[38]. But
+orders failed to hold in the ardour of the Germans under the attacks of
+the French. Affairs of outposts along the Sauerbach early on that
+morning brought on a serious fight, which up to noon went against the
+invaders. At that time the Crown Prince galloped to the front, and
+ordered an attack with all available forces. The fighting, hitherto
+fierce but spasmodic between division and division, was now fed by a
+steady stream of German reinforcements, until 87,000 of the invaders
+sought to wrest from MacMahon the heights, with their woods and
+villages, which he had but 54,000 to defend. The superiority of numbers
+soon made itself felt. Pursuant to the Crown Prince's orders, parts of
+two Bavarian corps began to work their way (but with one strangely long
+interval of inaction) through the wood to the north of the French left
+wing; on the Prussian 11th corps fell the severer task of winning their
+way up the slopes south of Woerth, and thence up to the Niederwald and
+Elsasshausen. When these woods were won, the 5th corps was to make its
+frontal attack from Woerth against Froeschweiler. Despite the desperate
+efforts of the French and their Turco regiments, and a splendid but
+hopeless charge of two regiments of Cuirassiers and one of Lancers
+against the German infantry, the Niederwald and Elsasshausen were won;
+and about four o'clock the sustained fire of fifteen German batteries
+against Froeschweiler enabled the 5th corps to struggle up that deadly
+glacis in spite of desperate charges by the defenders.
+
+[Footnote 38: See von Blumenthal's _Journals_, p. 87 (Eng. edit.): "The
+battle which I had expected to take place on the 7th, and for which I
+had prepared a good scheme for turning the enemy's right flank, came on
+of itself to-day."]
+
+Throughout the day the French showed their usual dash and devotion, some
+regiments being cut to pieces rather than retire. But by five o'clock
+the defence was outflanked on the two wings and crushed at the centre;
+human nature could stand no more after eight hours' fighting; and after
+a final despairing effort of the French Cuirassiers all their line gave
+way in a general rout down the slopes to Reichshofen and towards
+Saverne. Apart from the Wuertembergers held in reserve, few of the
+Germans were in a condition to press the pursuit. Nevertheless the
+fruits of victory were very great: 10,000 Frenchmen lay dead or wounded;
+6000 unwounded prisoners were taken, with 28 cannon and 5 mitrailleuses.
+Above all, MacMahon's fine army was utterly broken, and made no attempt
+to defend any of the positions on the north of the Vosges. Not even a
+tunnel was there blown up to delay the advance of the Germans. Hastily
+gathering up the 5th corps from Bitsch--the corps which ought to have
+been at Woerth--that gallant but unfortunate general struck out to the
+south-west for the great camp at Chalons. The triumph, however, cost the
+Germans dear. As many as 10,600 men were killed or wounded, the 5th
+Prussian corps alone losing more than half that number. Their cavalry
+failed to keep touch with the retreating French.
+
+On that same day (August 6) a disaster scarcely less serious overtook
+the French 2nd corps, which had been holding Saarbruecken. Convinced that
+that post was too advanced and too weak in presence of the foremost
+divisions of the First and Second German Armies now advancing rapidly
+against it, General Frossard drew back his vanguard some mile and a half
+to the line of steep hills between Spicheren and Forbach, just within
+the French frontier. This retreat, as it seemed, tempted General Kameke
+to attack with a single division, as he was justified in doing in order
+to find the direction and strength of the retiring force. The attack,
+when pushed home, showed that the French were bent on making a stand on
+their commanding heights; and an onset on the Rothe Berg was stoutly
+beaten off about noon.
+
+But now the speedy advance and intelligent co-operation of other German
+columns was instrumental in turning an inconsiderable repulse into an
+important victory. General Goeben was not far off, and marching towards
+the firing, sent to offer his help with the 8th corps. General von
+Alvensleben, also, with the 3rd corps had reached Neunkirchen when the
+sound of firing near Saarbruecken led him to push on for that place with
+the utmost speed. He entrained part of his corps and brought it up in
+time to strengthen the attack on the Rothe Berg and other heights nearer
+to Forbach. Each battalion as it arrived was hurled forward, and General
+von Francois, charging with his regiment, gained a lodgment half-way up
+the broken slope of the Rothe Berg, which was stoutly maintained even
+when he fell mortally wounded. Elsewhere the onsets were repelled by the
+French, who, despite their smaller numbers, kept up a sturdy resistance
+on the line of hills in the woods behind, and in the iron-works in front
+of Forbach. Even when the Germans carried the top of the Rothe Berg,
+their ranks were riddled by a cross fire; but by incredible exertions
+they managed to bring guns to the summit and retaliate with effect[39].
+
+[Footnote 39: For these details about the fighting at the Rothe Berg I
+am largely indebted to my friend, Mr. Bernard Pares, M.A., who has made
+a careful study of the ground there, as also at Woerth and Sedan.]
+
+This, together with the outflanking movement which their increasing
+numbers enabled them to carry out against the French left wing at
+Forbach, decided the day; and Frossard's corps fell back shattered
+towards the corps of Bazaine. It is noteworthy that this was but nine or
+ten miles to the rear. Bazaine had ordered three divisions to march
+towards the firing: one made for a wrong point and returned; the others
+made half-hearted efforts, and thus left Frossard to be overborne by
+numbers. The result of these disjointed movements was that both Frossard
+and Bazaine hurriedly retired towards Metz, while the First and Second
+German Armies now gathered up all their strength with the aim of
+shutting up the French in that fortress. To this end the First Army made
+for Colombey, east of Metz, while the leading part of the Second Army
+purposed to cross the Moselle south of Metz, and circle round that
+stronghold on the west.
+
+It is now time to turn to the French headquarters. These two crushing
+defeats on a single day utterly dashed Napoleon's plan of a spirited
+defence of the north-east frontier, until such time as the levies of
+1869 should be ready, or Austria and Italy should draw the sword. On
+July 26 the Austrian ambassador assured the French Ministry that Austria
+was pushing on her preparations. Victor Emmanuel was with difficulty
+restrained by his Ministers from openly taking the side of France. On
+the night of August 6 he received telegraphic news of the Battles of
+Woerth and Forbach, whereupon he exclaimed, "Poor Emperor! I pity him,
+but I have had a lucky escape." Austria also drew back, and thus left
+France face to face with the naked truth that she stood alone and
+unready before a united and triumphant Germany, able to pour treble her
+own forces through the open portals of Lorraine and northern Alsace.
+
+Napoleon III., to do him justice, had never cherished the wild dreams
+that haunted the minds of his consort and of the frothy "Mamelukes"
+lately in favour at Court; still less did the "silent man of destiny"
+indulge in the idle boasts that had helped to alienate the sympathy of
+Europe and to weld together Germany to withstand the blows of a second
+Napoleonic invasion. The nephew knew full well that he was not the Great
+Napoleon--he knew it before Victor Hugo in spiteful verse vainly sought
+to dub him the Little. True, his statesmanship proved to be mere dreamy
+philosophising about nationalities; his administrative powers, small at
+the best, were ever clogged by his too generous desire to reward his
+fellow-conspirators of the _coup d'etat_ of 1851; and his gifts for war
+were scarcely greater than those of the other _Napoleonides_, Joseph and
+Jerome. Nevertheless the reverses of his early life had strengthened
+that fund of quiet stoicism, that energy to resist if not to dare, which
+formed the backbone of an otherwise somewhat weak, shadowy, and
+uninspiring character. And now, in the rapid fall of his fortunes, the
+greatest adventurer of the nineteenth century showed to the full those
+qualities of toughness and dignified reserve which for twenty years had
+puzzled and imposed on that lively emotional people. By the side of the
+downcast braggarts of the Court and the unstrung screamers of the
+Parisian Press, his mien had something of the heroic. _Tout peut se
+retablir_--"All may yet be set right"--such was the vague but dignified
+phrase in which he summarised the results of August 6 to his people.
+
+The military situation now required a prompt retirement beyond the
+Moselle. The southerly line of retreat, which MacMahon and de Failly had
+been driven to take, forbade the hope of their junction with the main
+army at Metz in time to oppose a united front to the enemy. And it was
+soon known that their flight could not be stayed at Nancy or even at
+Toul. During the agony of suspense as to their movements and those of
+their German pursuers, the Emperor daily changed his plans. First, he
+and Leboeuf planned a retreat beyond the Moselle and Meuse; next,
+political considerations bade them stand firm on the banks of the Nied,
+some twelve miles east of Metz; and when this position seemed unsafe,
+they ended the marchings and counter-marchings of their troops by taking
+up a position at Colombey, nearer to Metz.
+
+Meanwhile at Paris the Chamber of Deputies had overthrown the Ollivier
+Ministry, and the Empress-Regent installed in office Count Palikao.
+There was a general outcry against Leboeuf, and on the 12th the Emperor
+resigned the command to Marshal Bazaine (Lebrun now acting as Chief of
+Staff), with the injunction to retreat westwards to Verdun. For the
+Emperor to order such a retreat in his own name was thought to be
+inopportune. Bazaine was a convenient scapegoat, and he himself knew it.
+Had he thrown an army corps into Metz and obeyed the Emperor's orders by
+retreating on Verdun, things would certainly have gone better than was
+now to be the case. In his printed defence Bazaine has urged that the
+army had not enough provisions for the march, and, further, that the
+outlying forts of Metz were not yet ready to withstand a siege--a
+circumstance which, if true, partly explains Bazaine's reluctance to
+leave the "virgin city[40]." Napoleon III. quitted it early on the 16th:
+he and his escort were the last Frenchmen to get free of that death-trap
+for many a week.
+
+[Footnote 40: Bazaine gave this excuse in his _Rapport sommaire sur les
+Operations de l'Armee du Rhin_; but as a staff-officer pointed out in
+his incisive _Reponse_, this reason must have been equally cogent when
+Napoleon (August 12) ordered him to retreat; and he was still bound to
+obey the Emperor's orders.]
+
+While Metz exercised this fatal fascination over the protecting army,
+the First and Second German Armies were striding westwards to envelop
+both the city and its guardians. Moltke's aim was to hold as many of the
+French to the neighbourhood of the fortress, while his left wing swung
+round it on the south. The result was the battle of Colombey on the east
+of Metz (August 14). It was a stubborn fight, costing the Germans some
+5000 men, while the French with smaller losses finally withdrew under
+the eastern walls of Metz. But that heavy loss meant a great ultimate
+gain to Germany. The vacillations of Bazaine, whose strategy was far
+more faulty than that of Napoleon III. had been, together with the delay
+caused by the defiling of a great part of the army through the narrow
+streets of Metz, gave the Germans an opportunity such as had not
+occurred since the year 1805, when Napoleon I. shut up an Austrian
+army in Ulm.
+
+The man who now saw the splendid chance of which Fortune vouchsafed a
+glimpse, was Lieutenant-General von Alvensleben, Commander of the 3rd
+corps, whose activity and resource had so largely contributed
+to the victory of Spicheren-Forbach. Though the orders of his
+Commander-in-Chief, Prince Frederick Charles, forbade an advance until
+the situation in front was more fully known, the General heard enough to
+convince himself that a rapid advance southwards to and over the Moselle
+might enable him to intercept the French retreat on Verdun, which might
+now be looked on as certain. Reporting his conviction to his chief as
+also to the royal headquarters, he struck out with all speed on the
+15th, quietly threw a bridge over the river, and sent on his advanced
+guard as far as Pagny, near Gorze, while all his corps, about 33,000
+strong, crossed the river about midnight. Soon after dawn, he pushed on
+towards Gorze, knowing by this time that the other corps of the Second
+Army were following him, while the 7th and 8th corps of the First Army
+were about to cross the river nearly opposite that town.
+
+This bold movement, which would have drawn on him sharp censure in case
+of overthrow, was more than justifiable seeing the discouraged state of
+the French troops, the supreme need of finding their line of retreat,
+and the splendid results that must follow on the interception of that
+retreat. The operations of war must always be attended with risk, and
+the great commander is he whose knowledge of the principles of strategy
+enables him quickly to see when the final gain warrants the running of
+risks, and how they may be met with the least likelihood of disaster.
+
+Alvensleben's advance was in accordance with Moltke's general plan of
+operations; but that corps-leader, finding the French to be in force
+between him and Metz, determined to attack them in order to delay their
+retreat. The result was the battle of August 16, variously known as
+Vionville, Rezonville, or Mars-la-Tour--a battle that defies brief
+description, inasmuch as it represented the effort of the Third, or
+Brandenburg, corps, with little help at first from others, to hold its
+ground against the onsets of two French corps. Early in the fight
+Bazaine galloped up, but he did not bring forward the masses in his
+rear, probably because he feared to be cut off from Metz. Even so, all
+through the forenoon, it seemed that the gathering forces of the French
+must break through the thin lines audaciously thrust into that almost
+open plain on the flank of their line of march. But Alvensleben and his
+men held their ground with a dogged will that nothing could shatter. In
+one sense their audacity saved them. Bazaine for a long time could not
+believe that a single corps would throw itself against one of the two
+roads by which his great army was about to retreat. He believed that the
+northern road might also be in danger, and therefore did not launch at
+Alvensleben the solid masses that must have swept him back towards the
+Meuse. At noon four battalions of the German 10th corps struggled up
+from the south and took their share of the hitherto unequal fight.
+
+But the crisis of the fight came a little later. It was marked by one of
+the most daring and effective strokes ever dealt in modern warfare. At 2
+o'clock, when the advance of Canrobert's 6th corps towards Vionville
+threatened to sweep away the wearied Brandenburgers, six squadrons of
+the 7th regiment of Cuirassiers with a few Uhlans flung themselves on
+the new lines of foemen, not to overpower them--that was impossible--but
+to delay their advance and weaken their impact. Only half of the brave
+horsemen returned from that ride of death, but they gained their end.
+
+The mad charge drove deep into the French array about Rezonville, and
+gave their leaders pause in the belief that it was but the first of a
+series of systematic attacks on the French left. System rather than dash
+was supposed to characterise German tactics; and the daring of their
+enemies for once made the French too methodical. Bazaine scarcely
+brought the 3rd corps and the Guard into action at all, but kept them
+in reserve. As the afternoon sun waned, the whole weight of the German
+10th corps was thrown into the fight about Vionville, and the vanguards
+of the 8th and 9th came up from Gorze to threaten the French left.
+Fearing that he might be cut off from Metz on the south--a fear which
+had unaccountably haunted him all the day--Bazaine continued to feed
+that part of his lines; and thus Alvensleben was able to hold the
+positions near the southern road to Verdun, which he had seized in the
+morning. The day closed with a great cavalry combat on the German left
+wing in which the French had to give way. Darkness alone put an end to
+the deadly strife. Little more than two German corps had sufficed to
+stay the march of an army which potentially numbered in all more than
+170,000 men.
+
+On both sides the losses were enormous, namely, some 16,000 killed and
+wounded. No cannon, standards, or prisoners were taken; but on that day
+the army of Prince Frederick Charles practically captured the whole of
+Bazaine's army. The statement may seem overdrawn, but it is none the
+less true. The advance of other German troops on that night made
+Bazaine's escape from Metz far more difficult than before, and very
+early on the morrow he drew back his lines through Gravelotte to a
+strong position nearer Metz. Thus, a battle, which in a tactical sense
+seemed to be inconclusive, became, when viewed in the light of strategy,
+the most decisive of the war. Had Bazaine used even the forces which he
+had in the field ready to hand he must have overborne Alvensleben; and
+the arrival of 170,000 good troops at Verdun or Chalons would have
+changed the whole course of the war. The campaign would probably have
+followed the course of the many campaigns waged in the valleys of the
+Meuse and Marne; and Metz, held by a garrison of suitable size, might
+have defied the efforts of a large besieging army for fully six months.
+These conjectures are not fanciful. The duration of the food supply of a
+garrison cut off from the outside world varies inversely with the size
+of that garrison. The experiences of armies invading and defending the
+East of France also show with general accuracy what might have been
+expected if the rules of sound strategy had been observed. It was the
+actual course of events which transcended experience and set all
+probabilities at defiance.
+
+The battle of Gravelotte, or St. Privat, on the 18th completed the work
+so hardily begun by the 3rd German corps on the 16th. The need of
+driving back Bazaine's army upon Metz was pressing, and his inaction on
+the 17th gave time for nearly all the forces of the First and Second
+German Armies to be brought up to the German positions, some nine miles
+west of Metz, though one corps was left to the east of that fortress to
+hinder any attempt of the French to break out on that side. Bazaine,
+however, massed his great army on the west along a ridge stretching
+north and south, and presenting, especially in the southern half, steep
+slopes to the assailants. It also sloped away to the rear, thus enabling
+the defenders (as was the case with Wellington at Waterloo) secretly to
+reinforce any part of the line. On the French left wing, too, the slopes
+curved inward, thus giving the defenders ample advantage against any
+flanking movements on that side. On the north, between Amanvillers and
+Ste. Marie-aux-Chenes, the defence had fewer strong points except those
+villages, the Jaumont Wood, and the gradual slope of the ground away to
+the little River Orne, which formed an open glacis. Bazaine massed his
+reserves on the plateau of Plappeville and to the rear of his left wing;
+but this cardinal fault in his dispositions--due to his haunting fear of
+being cut off from Metz--was long hidden by the woods and slopes in the
+rear of his centre. The position here and on the French left was very
+strong, and at several parts so far concealed the troops that up to 11
+A.M. the advancing Germans were in doubt whether the French would not
+seek to break away towards the north-west. That so great an army would
+remain merely on the defensive, a course so repugnant to the ardour of
+the French nature and the traditions of their army, entered into the
+thoughts of few.
+
+Yet such was the case. The solution of the riddle is to be found in
+Bazaine's despatch of August 17 to the Minister of War: "We are going to
+put forth every effort to make good our supplies of all kinds in order
+to resume our march in two days if that is possible[41]." That the army
+was badly hampered by lack of stores is certain; but to postpone even
+for a single day the march to Verdun by the northern road--that by way
+of Briey--was fatal. Possibly, however, he hoped to deal the Germans so
+serious a blow, if they attacked him on the 18th, as to lighten the
+heavy task of cutting his way out on the 19th.
+
+[Footnote 41: Bazaine, _Rapport sommaire, etc._ The sentence quoted
+above is decisive. The defence which Bazaine and his few defenders later
+on put forward, as well as the attacks of his foes, are of course mixed
+up with theories evolved _after_ the event.]
+
+If so, he nearly succeeded. The Germans were quite taken aback by the
+extent and strength of his lines. Their intention was to outflank his
+right wing, which was believed to stretch no further north than
+Amanvillers; but the rather premature advance of Manstein's 9th corps
+soon drew a deadly fire from that village and the heights on either
+side, which crushed the artillery of that corps. Soon the Prussian
+Guards and the 12th corps began to suffer from the fire poured in from
+the trenches that crowned the hill. On the German right, General
+Steinmetz, instead of waiting for the hoped-for flank attack on the
+north to take effect, sent the columns of the First Army to almost
+certain death in the defile in front of Gravelotte, and he persisted in
+these costly efforts even when the strength of the French position on
+that side was patent to all. For this the tough old soldier met with
+severe censure and ultimate disgrace. In his defence, however, it may be
+urged that when a great battle is raging with doubtful fortunes, the
+duty of a commander on the attacking side is to busy the enemy at as
+many points as possible, so that the final blow may be dealt with
+telling effect on a vital point where he cannot be adequately
+reinforced; and the bull-dog tactics of Steinmetz in front of
+Gravelotte, which cost the assailants many thousands of men, at any rate
+served to keep the French reserves on that side, and thereby weaken the
+support available for a more important point at the crisis of the fight.
+It so happened, too, that the action of Steinmetz strengthened the
+strange misconception of Bazaine that the Germans were striving to cut
+him off from Metz on the south.
+
+The real aim of the Germans was exactly the contrary, namely, to pin his
+whole army to Metz by swinging round their right flank on the villages
+of St. Privat and Raucourt. Having some 40,000 men under Canrobert in
+and between these villages, whose solid buildings gave the defence the
+best of cover, Bazaine had latterly taken little thought for that part
+of his lines, though it was dangerously far removed from his reserves.
+These he kept on the south, under the misconception which clung to him
+here as at Rezonville.
+
+The mistake was to prove fatal. As we have said, the German plan was to
+turn the French right wing in the more open country on the north. To
+this end the Prussian Guards and the Saxons, after driving the French
+outposts from Ste. Marie-aux-Chenes, brought all their strength to the
+task of crushing the French at their chief stronghold on the right, St.
+Privat. The struggle of the Prussian Guards up the open slope between
+that village and Amanvillers left them a mere shadow of their splendid
+array; but the efforts of the German artillery cost the defenders dear:
+by seven o'clock St. Privat was in flames, and as the Saxons (the 12th
+corps), wheeling round from the north after a long flank-march, closed
+in on the outlying village of Raucourt, Canrobert saw that the day was
+lost unless he received prompt aid from the Imperial Guard. Bourbaki,
+however, brought up only some 3000 of these choice troops, and that too
+late to save St. Privat from the persistent fury of the German onset.
+
+As dusk fell over the scene of carnage the French right fell back in
+some disorder, even from part of Amanvillers. Farther south, they held
+their ground. On the whole they had dealt to their foes a loss of 20,159
+men, or nearly a tenth of their total. Of the French forces engaged,
+some 150,000 in number, 7853 were killed and wounded, and 4419 were
+taken prisoners. The disproportion in the losses shows the toughness of
+the French defence and the (in part) unskilful character of the German
+attack. On this latter point the recently published _Journals_ of
+Field-Marshal Count von Blumenthal supply some piquant details. He
+describes the indignation of King William at the wastefulness of the
+German tactics at Gravelotte: "He complained bitterly that the officers
+of the higher grades appeared to have forgotten all that had been so
+carefully taught them at manoeuvres, and had apparently all lost their
+heads." The same authority supplies what may be in part an explanation
+of this in his comment, written shortly before Gravelotte, that he
+believed there might not be another battle in the whole war--a remark
+which savours of presumption and folly. Gravelotte, therefore, cannot be
+considered as wholly creditable to the victors. Still, the result was
+that some 180,000 French troops were shut up within the outworks
+of Metz[42].
+
+[Footnote 42: For fuller details of these battles the student should
+consult the two great works on the subject--the Staff Histories of the
+war, issued by the French and German General Staffs; Bazaine, _L'Armee
+du Rhin_, and _Episodes de la Guerre_; General Blumenthal's _Journals_;
+_Aus drei Kriegen_, by Gen. von Lignitz; Maurice, _The Franco-German
+War_; Hooper, _The Campaign of Sedan_; the War Correspondence of the
+_Times_ and the _Daily News_, published in book form.]
+
+
+
+
+NOTE THE SECOND EDITION
+
+With reference to M. Ollivier's statement (quoted on p. 55) that he
+entered on war with a light heart, it should be added that he has since
+explained his meaning to have been that the cause of France was just, that
+of Prussia unjust.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+SEDAN
+
+     "Nothing is more rash and contrary to the principles of war
+     than to make a flank-march before an army in position,
+     especially when this army occupies heights before which it is
+     necessary to defile."--NAPOLEON I.
+
+
+The success of the German operations to the south and west of Metz
+virtually decided the whole of the campaign. The Germans could now draw
+on their vast reserves ever coming on from the Rhine, throw an iron ring
+around that fortress, and thereby deprive France of her only great force
+of regular troops. The throwing up of field-works and barricades went on
+with such speed that the blockading forces were able in a few days to
+detach a strong column towards Chalons-sur-Marne in order to help the
+army of the Crown Prince of Prussia. That army in the meantime was in
+pursuit of MacMahon by way of Nancy, and strained every nerve so as to
+be able to strike at the southern railway lines out of Paris. It was,
+however, diverted to the north-west by events soon to be described.
+
+The German force detached from the neighbourhood of Metz consisted of
+the Prussian Guards, the 4th and 12th corps, and two cavalry divisions.
+This army, known as the Army of the Meuse, was placed under the command
+of the Crown Prince of Saxony. Its aim was, in common with the Third
+German Army (that of the Crown Prince of Prussia), to strike at MacMahon
+before he received reinforcements. The screen of cavalry which preceded
+the Army of the Meuse passed that river on the 22nd, when the bulk of
+the forces of the Crown Prince of Prussia crossed not many miles farther
+to the south. The two armies swept on westwards within easy distance of
+one another; and on the 23rd their cavalry gleaned news of priceless
+value, namely, that MacMahon's army had left Chalons. On the next day
+the great camp was found deserted.
+
+In fact, MacMahon had undertaken a task of terrible difficulty. On
+taking over the command at Chalons, where Napoleon III. arrived from
+Metz on the 16th, he found hopeless disorder not only among his own
+beaten troops, but among many of the newcomers; the worst were the Garde
+Mobile, many regiments of whom greeted the Emperor with shouts of _A
+Paris_. To meet the Germans in the open plains of Champagne with forces
+so incoherent and dispirited was sheer madness; and a council of war on
+the 17th came to the conclusion to fall back on the capital and operate
+within its outer forts--a step which might enable the army to regain
+confidence, repress any rising in the capital, and perhaps inflict
+checks on the Germans, until the provinces rose _en masse_ against the
+invaders. But at this very time the Empress-Regent and the Palikao
+Ministry at Paris came to an exactly contrary decision, on the ground
+that the return of the Emperor with MacMahon's army would look like
+personal cowardice and a mean desertion of Bazaine at Metz. The Empress
+was for fighting _a outrance_, and her Government issued orders for a
+national rising and the enrolling of bodies of irregulars, or
+_francs-tireurs_, to harass the Germans[43].
+
+[Footnote 43: See General Lebrun's _Guerre de 1870: Bazailles-Sedan_,
+for an account of his corps of MacMahon's army.
+
+In view of the events of the late Boer War, it is worth noting that the
+Germans never acknowledged the _francs-tireurs_ as soldiers, and
+forthwith issued an order ending with the words, "They are amenable to
+martial law and liable to be sentenced to death" (Maurice,
+_Franco-German War_, p. 215).]
+
+Their decision was telegraphed to Napoleon III. at Chalons.
+Against his own better judgment the Emperor yielded to political
+considerations--that mill-stone around the neck of the French army in
+1870--and decided to strike out to the north with MacMahon's army, and
+by way of Montmedy stretch a hand to Bazaine, who, on his side, was
+expected to make for that rendezvous. On the 21st, therefore, they
+marched to Reims. There the Emperor received a despatch which Bazaine
+had been able to get through the enemies' lines on the 19th, stating
+that the Germans were making their way in on Metz, but that he (Bazaine)
+hoped to break away towards Montmedy and so join MacMahon's army. (This,
+it will be observed, was _after_ Gravelotte had been lost.) Napoleon
+III. thereupon replied: "Received yours of the 19th at Reims; am going
+towards Montmedy; shall be on the Aisne the day after to-morrow, and
+there will act according to circumstances to come to your aid." Bazaine
+did not receive this message until August 30, and then made only two
+weak efforts to break out on the north (August 31-September 1). The
+Marshal's action in sending that message must be pronounced one of the
+most fatal in the whole war. It led the Emperor and MacMahon to a false
+belief as to the position at Metz, and furnished a potent argument to
+the Empress and Palikao at Paris to urge a march towards Montmedy at
+all costs.
+
+Doubtfully MacMahon led his straggling array from Reims in a
+north-easterly direction towards Stenay on the Meuse. Rain checked his
+progress, and dispirited the troops; but on the 27th August, while about
+half-way between the Aisne and the Meuse, his outposts touched those of
+the enemy. They were, in fact, those of the Prussian Crown Prince, whose
+army was about to cross the northern roads over the Argonne, the line of
+hills that saw the French stem the Prussian invasion in 1792. Far
+different was the state of affairs now. National enthusiasm,
+organisation, enterprise--all were on the side of the invaders. As has
+been pointed out, their horsemen found out on the 23rd that the Chalons
+camp was deserted; on the next day their scouts found out from a
+Parisian newspaper that MacMahon was at Reims; and, on the day
+following, newspaper tidings that had come round by way of London
+revealed the secret that MacMahon was striving to reach Bazaine.
+
+How it came about that this news escaped the eye of the censor has not
+been explained. If it was the work of an English journalist, that does
+not absolve the official censorship from the charge of gross
+carelessness in leaving even a loophole for the transmission of
+important secrets. Newspaper correspondents, of course, are the natural
+enemies of Governments in time of war; and the experience of the year
+1870 shows that the fate of Empires may depend on the efficacy of the
+arrangements for controlling them. As a proof of the superiority of the
+German organisation, or of the higher patriotism of their newspapers, we
+may mention that no tidings of urgent importance leaked out through the
+German Press. This may have been due to a solemn declaration made by
+German newspaper editors and correspondents that they would never reveal
+such secrets; but, from what we know of the fierce competition of
+newspapers for priority of news, it is reasonable to suppose that the
+German Government took very good care that none came in their way.
+
+As a result of the excellent scouting of their cavalry and of the
+slipshod Press arrangements of the French Government, the German Army of
+the Meuse, on the 26th, took a general turn towards the north-west. This
+movement brought its outposts near to the southernmost divisions of
+MacMahon, and sent through that Marshal's staff the foreboding thrill
+felt by the commander of an unseaworthy craft at the oncoming of the
+first gust of a cyclone. He saw the madness of holding on his present
+course and issued orders for a retreat to Mezieres, a fortress on the
+Meuse below Sedan. Once more, however, the Palikao Ministry intervened
+to forbid this salutary move--the only way out of imminent danger--and
+ordered him to march to the relief of Bazaine. At this crisis Napoleon
+III. showed the good sense which seemed to have deserted the French
+politicians: he advised the Marshal not to obey this order if he thought
+it dangerous. Nevertheless, MacMahon decided to yield to the supposed
+interests of the dynasty, which the Emperor was ready to sacrifice to
+the higher claims of the safety of France. Their roles were thus
+curiously reversed. The Emperor reasoned as a sound patriot and a good
+strategist. MacMahon must have felt the same promptings, but obedience
+to the Empress and the Ministry, or chivalrous regard for Bazaine,
+overcame his scruples. He decided to plod on towards the Meuse.
+
+The Germans were now on the alert to entrap this army that exposed its
+flank in a long line of march near to the Belgian frontier. Their
+ubiquitous horsemen captured French despatches which showed them the
+intended moves in MacMahon's desperate game; Moltke hurried up every
+available division; and the elder of the two Alvenslebens had the honour
+of surprising de Failly's corps amidst the woods of the Ardennes near
+Beaumont, as they were in the midst of a meal. The French rallied and
+offered a brisk defence, but finally fell back in confusion northwards
+on Mouzon, with the loss of 2000 prisoners and 42 guns (August 30).
+
+This mishap, the lack of provisions, and the fatigue and demoralisation
+of his troops, caused MacMahon on the 31st to fall back on Sedan, a
+little town in the valley of the Meuse. It is surrounded by ramparts
+planned by the great Vauban, but, being commanded by wooded heights, it
+no longer has the importance that it possessed before the age of
+long-range guns of precision. The chief strength of the position for
+defence lay in the deep loop of the river below the town, the dense
+Garenne Wood to the north-east, and the hollow formed by the Givonne
+brook on the east, with the important village of Bazeilles. It is
+therefore not surprising that von Moltke, on seeing the French forces
+concentrating in this hollow, remarked to von Blumenthal, Chief of the
+Staff: "Now we have them in a trap; to-morrow we must cross over the
+Meuse early in the morning."
+
+The Emperor and MacMahon seem even then, on the afternoon of the 31st,
+to have hoped to give their weary troops a brief rest, supply them with
+provisions and stores from the fortress, and on the morrow, or the 2nd,
+make their escape by way of Mezieres. Possibly they might have done so
+on that night, and certainly they could have reached the Belgian
+frontier, only some six miles distant, and there laid down their arms to
+the Belgian troops whom the resourceful Bismarck had set on the _qui
+vive._ To remain quiet even for a day in Sedan was to court disaster;
+yet passivity characterised the French headquarters and the whole army
+on that afternoon and evening. True, MacMahon gave orders for the bridge
+over the Meuse at Donchery to be blown up, but the engine-driver who
+took the engineers charged with this important task, lost his nerve when
+German shells whizzed about his engine, and drove off before the powder
+and tools could be deposited. A second party, sent later on, found that
+bridge in the possession of the enemy. On the east side, above Sedan,
+the Bavarians seized the railway bridge south of Bazeilles, driving off
+the French who sought to blow it up[44].
+
+[Footnote 44: Moltke, _The Franco-German War_, vol. i. p. 114. Hooper,
+_The Campaign of Sedan_, p. 296.]
+
+Over the Donchery bridge and two pontoon bridges constructed below that
+village the Germans poured their troops before dawn of September 1, and
+as the morning fog of that day slowly lifted, their columns were seen
+working round the north of the deep loop of the Meuse, thus cutting off
+escape on the west and north-west. Meanwhile, on the other side of the
+town, von der Tann's Bavarians had begun the fight. Pressing in on
+Bazeilles so as to hinder the retreat of the enemy (as had been so
+effectively done at Colombey, on the east of Metz), they at first
+surprised the sleeping French, but quickly drew on themselves a sharp
+and sustained counter-attack from the marines attached to the 12th
+French corps.
+
+In order to understand the persistent vigour of the French on this side,
+we must note the decisions formed by their headquarters on August 31 and
+early on September 1. At a council of war held on the afternoon of the
+31st no decision was reached, probably because the exhaustion of the
+5th and 7th corps and the attack of the Bavarians on the 12th corps at
+Bazeilles rendered any decided movement very difficult. The general
+conclusion was that the army must have some repose; and Germans
+afterwards found on the battlefield a French order--"Rest to-day for the
+whole army." But already on the 30th an officer had come from Paris
+determined to restore the morale of the army and break through towards
+Bazaine. This was General de Wimpffen, who had gained distinction in
+previous wars, and, coming lately from Algeria to Paris, was there
+appointed to supersede de Failly in command of the 5th corps. Nor was
+this all. The Palikao Ministry apparently had some doubts as to
+MacMahon's energy, and feared that the Emperor himself hampered the
+operations. De Wimpffen therefore received an unofficial mandate to
+infuse vigour into the counsels at headquarters, and was entrusted with
+a secret written order to take over the supreme command if anything were
+to happen to MacMahon. On taking command of the 5th corps on the 30th,
+de Wimpffen found it demoralised by the hurried retreat through Mouzon;
+but neither this fact nor the exhaustion of the whole army abated the
+determination of this stalwart soldier to break through towards Metz.
+
+Early on September 1 the positions held by the French formed, roughly
+speaking, a triangle resting on the right bank of the Meuse from, near
+Bazeilles to Sedan and Glaire. Damming operations and the heavy rains of
+previous days had spread the river over the low-lying meadows, thus
+rendering it difficult, if not impossible, for an enemy to cross under
+fire; but this same fact lessened the space by which the French could
+endeavour to break through. Accordingly they deployed their forces
+almost wholly along the inner slopes of the Givonne brook and of the
+smaller stream that flows from the high land about Illy down to the
+village of Floing and thence to the Meuse. The heights of Illy, crowned
+by the Calvaire, formed the apex of the French position, while Floing
+and Bazeilles formed the other corners of what was in many respects
+good fighting-ground. Their strength was about 120,000 men, though many
+of these were disabled or almost helpless from fatigue; that of the
+Germans was greater on the whole, but three of their corps could not
+reach the scene of action before 1 P.M. owing to the heaviness of the
+roads[45]. At first, then, the French had a superiority of force and a
+far more compact position, as will be seen by the accompanying plan.
+
+[Footnote 45: Maurice, _The Franco-German War_, p. 235.]
+
+We now resume the account of the battle. The fighting in and around
+Bazeilles speedily led to one very important result. At 6 A.M. a
+splinter of a shell fired by the assailants from the hills north-east of
+that village, severely wounded Marshal MacMahon as he watched the
+conflict from a point in front of the village of Balan. Thereupon he
+named General Ducrot as his successor, passing over the claims of two
+generals senior to him. Ducrot, realising the seriousness of the
+position, prepared to draw off the troops towards the Calvaire of Illy
+preparatory to a retreat on Mezieres by way of St. Menges. The news of
+this impending retreat, which must be conducted under the hot fire of
+the Germans now threatening the line of the Givonne, cut de Wimpffen to
+the quick. He knew that the Crown Prince held a force to the south-west
+of Sedan, ready to fall on the flank of any force that sought to break
+away to Mezieres; and a temporary success of his own 5th corps against
+the Saxons in la Moncelle strengthened his prepossession in favour of a
+combined move eastwards towards Carignan and Metz. Accordingly, about
+nine o'clock he produced the secret order empowering him to succeed
+MacMahon should the latter be incapacitated. Ducrot at once yielded to
+the ministerial ukase; the Emperor sought to intervene in favour of
+Ducrot, only to be waved aside by the confident de Wimpffen; and thus
+the long conflict between MacMahon and the Palikao Ministry ended in
+victory for the latter--and disaster for France[46].
+
+[Footnote 46: See Lebrun's _Guerre de 1870: Bazeilles-Sedan_, for these
+disputes.] In hazarding this last statement we do not mean to imply
+that a retreat on Mezieres would then have saved the whole army. It
+might, however, have enabled part of it to break through either to
+Mezieres or the Belgian boundary; and it is possible that Ducrot had the
+latter objective in view when he ordered the concentration at Illy. In
+any case, that move was now countermanded in favour of a desperate
+attack on the eastern assailants. It need hardly be said that the result
+of these vacillations was deplorable, unsteadying the defenders, and
+giving the assailants time to bring up troops and cannon, and thereby
+strengthen their grip on every important point. Especially valuable was
+the approach of the 2nd Bavarian corps; setting out from Raucourt at 4
+A.M. it reached the hills south of Sedan about 9, and its artillery
+posted near Frenois began a terrible fire on the town and the French
+troops near it.
+
+About the same time the Second Division of the Saxons reinforced their
+hard-pressed comrades to the north of la Moncelle, where, on de
+Wimpffen's orders, the French were making a strong forward move. The
+opportune arrival of these new German troops saved their artillery,
+which had been doing splendid service. The French were driven back
+across the Givonne with heavy loss, and the massed battery of 100 guns
+crushed all further efforts at advance on this side. Meanwhile at
+Bazeilles the marines had worthily upheld the honour of the French arms.
+Despite the terrible artillery fire now concentrated on the village,
+they pushed the German footmen back, but never quite drove them out.
+These, when reinforced, renewed the fight with equal obstinacy; the
+inhabitants themselves joined in with whatever weapons fury suggested to
+them and as that merciless strife swayed to and fro amidst the roar of
+artillery, the crash of walls, and the hiss of flame, war was seen in
+all its naked ferocity.
+
+Yet here again, as at all points, the defence was gradually overborne by
+the superiority of the German artillery. About eleven o'clock the
+French, despite their superhuman efforts, were outflanked by the
+Bavarians and Saxons on the north of the village. Even then, when the
+regulars fell back, some of the inhabitants went on with their mad
+resistance; a great part of the village was now in flames, but whether
+they were kindled by the Germans, or by the retiring French so as to
+delay the victors, has never been cleared up. In either case, several of
+the inhabitants perished in the flames; and it is admitted that the
+Bavarians burnt some of the villagers for firing on them from the
+windows[47].
+
+[Footnote 47: M. Busch, _Bismarck in the Franco-German War_, vol. i. p.
+114.]
+
+In the defence of Bazeilles the French infantry showed its usual courage
+and tenacity. Elsewhere the weary and dispirited columns were speedily
+becoming demoralised under the terrific artillery fire which the Germans
+poured in from many points of vantage. The Prussian Guards coming up
+from Villers Cernay about 10 A.M. planted their formidable batteries so
+as to sweep the Bois de Garenne and the ground about the Calvaire d'Illy
+from the eastward; and about that time the guns of the 5th and 11th
+German corps, that had early crossed the Meuse below Sedan, were brought
+to bear on the west front of that part of the French position. The apex
+of the defenders' triangle was thus severely searched by some 200 guns;
+and their discharges, soon supported by the fire of skirmishers and
+volleys from the troops, broke all forward movements of the French on
+that side. On the south and south-east as many cannon swept the French
+lines, but from a greater distance.
+
+Up to nearly noon there seemed some chance of the French bursting
+through on the north, and some of them did escape. Yet no well-sustained
+effort took place on that side, apparently because, even after the loss
+of Bazeilles at eleven o'clock, de Wimpffen clung to the belief that he
+could cut his way out towards Carignan, if not by Bazeilles, then
+perhaps by some other way, as Daigny or la Moncelle. The reasoning by
+which he convinced himself is hard to follow; for the only road to
+Carignan on that side runs through Bazeilles. Perhaps we ought to say
+that he did not reason, but was haunted by one fixed notion; and the
+history of war from the time of the Roman Varro down to the age of the
+Austrian Mack and the French de Wimpffen shows that men whose brains
+work in grooves and take no account of what is on the right hand and the
+left, are not fit to command armies; they only yield easy triumphs to
+the great masters of warfare--Hannibal, Napoleon the Great, and
+von Moltke.
+
+De Wimpffen, we say, paid little heed to the remonstrances of Generals
+Douay and Ducrot at leaving the northern apex and the north-western
+front of the defence to be crushed by weight of metal and of numbers. He
+rode off towards Balan, near which village the former defenders of
+Bazeilles were making a gallant and partly successful stand, and no
+reinforcements were sent to the hills on the north. The villages of Illy
+and Floing were lost; then the French columns gave ground even up the
+higher ground behind them, so great was the pressure of the German
+converging advance. Worst of all, skulkers began to hurry from the ranks
+and seek shelter in the woods, or even under the ramparts of Sedan far
+in the rear. The French gunners still plied their guns with steady
+devotion, though hopelessly outmatched at all points, but it was clear
+that only a great forward dash could save the day. Ducrot therefore
+ordered General Margueritte with three choice cavalry regiments
+(Chasseurs d'Afrique) and several squadrons of Lancers to charge the
+advancing lines. Moving forward from the northern edge of the Bois de
+Garenne to judge his ground, Margueritte fell mortally wounded. De
+Bauffremont took his place, and those brave horsemen swept forward on a
+task as hopeless as that of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, or that of
+the French Cuirassiers at Woerth[48]. Their conduct was as glorious; but
+the terrible power of the modern rifle was once more revealed. The
+pounding of distant batteries they could brave; disordered but defiant
+they swept on towards the German lines, but when the German infantry
+opened fire almost at pistol range, rank after rank of the horsemen
+went down as grass before the scythe. Here and there small bands of
+horsemen charged the footmen on the flank, even in a few cases on their
+rear, it is said; but the charge, though bravely renewed, did little
+except to delay the German triumph and retrieve the honour of France.
+
+[Footnote 48: Lebrun (_op. cit._ pp. 126-127; also Appendix D) maintains
+that de Bauffremont then led the charge, de Gallifet leading only the
+3rd Chasseurs d'Afrique.]
+
+By about two o'clock the French cavalry was practically disabled, and
+there now remained no Imperial Guard, as at Waterloo, to shed some rays
+of glory over the disaster. Meanwhile, however, de Wimpffen had resolved
+to make one more effort. Gathering about him a few of the best infantry
+battalions in and about Sedan, he besought the Emperor to join him in
+cutting a way out towards the east. The Emperor sent no answer to this
+appeal; he judged that too much blood had already been needlessly shed.
+Still, de Wimpffen persisted in his mad endeavour. Bursting upon the
+Bavarians in the village of Balan, he drove them back for a space until
+his men, disordered by the rush, fell before the stubborn rally of the
+Bavarians and Saxons. With the collapse of this effort and the cutting
+up of the French cavalry behind Floing, the last frail barriers to the
+enemy's advance gave way. The roads to Sedan were now thronged with
+masses of fugitives, whose struggles to pass the drawbridges into the
+little fortress resembled an African battue; for King William and his
+Staff, in order to hurry on the inevitable surrender, bade the 200 or
+more pieces on the southern heights play upon the town. Still de
+Wimpffen refused to surrender, and, despite the orders of his sovereign,
+continued the hopeless struggle. At length, to stay the frightful
+carnage, the Emperor himself ordered the white flag to be hoisted[49]. A
+German officer went down to arrange preliminaries, and to his
+astonishment was ushered into the presence of the Emperor. The German
+Staff had no knowledge of his whereabouts. On hearing the news, King
+William, who throughout the day sat on horseback at the top of the slope
+behind Frenois, said to his son, the Crown Prince: "This is indeed a
+great success; and I thank thee that thou hast contributed to it." He
+gave his hand to his son, who kissed it, and then, in turn, to Moltke
+and to Bismarck, who kissed it also. In a short time, the French General
+Reille brought to the King the following autograph letter:--
+
+     MONSIEUR MON FRERE--N'ayant pu mourir au milieu de mes
+     troupes, il ne me reste qu'a remettre mon epee entre les
+     mains de Votre Majeste.--Je suis de Votre Majeste le
+     bon Frere
+
+     NAPOLEON.
+
+     SEDAN, _le 1er Septembre, 1870_.
+
+[Footnote 49: Lebrun, _op. cit._ pp. 130 _et seq._ for the disputes
+about surrender.]
+
+The King named von Moltke to arrange the terms and then rode away to a
+village farther south, it being arranged, probably at Bismarck's
+suggestion, that he should not see the Emperor until all was settled.
+Meanwhile de Wimpffen and other French generals, in conference with von
+Moltke, Bismarck, and Blumenthal, at the village of Donchery, sought to
+gain easy terms by appealing to their generosity and by arguing that
+this would end the war and earn the gratitude of France. To all appeals
+for permission to let the captive army go to Algeria, or to lay down its
+arms in Belgium, the Germans were deaf,--Bismarck at length plainly
+saying that the French were an envious and jealous people on whose
+gratitude it would be idle to count. De Wimpffen then threatened to
+renew the fight rather than surrender, to which von Moltke grimly
+assented, but Bismarck again interposed to bring about a prolongation of
+the truce. Early on the morrow, Napoleon himself drove out to Donchery
+in the hope of seeing the King. The Bismarckian Boswell has given us a
+glimpse of him as he then appeared: "The look in his light grey eyes was
+somewhat soft and dreamy, like that of people who have lived too fast."
+[In his case, we may remark, this was induced by the painful disease
+which never left him all through the campaign, and carried him off three
+years later.] "He wore his cap a little on the right, to which side his
+head also inclined. His short legs were out of proportion to the long
+upper body. His whole appearance was a little unsoldier-like. The man
+looked too soft--I might say too spongy--for the uniform he wore."
+
+Bismarck, the stalwart Teuton who had wrecked his policy at all points,
+met him at Donchery and foiled his wish to see the King, declaring this
+to be impossible until the terms of the capitulation were settled. The
+Emperor then had a conversation with the Chancellor in a little cottage
+belonging to a weaver. Seating themselves on two rush-bottomed chairs
+beside the one deal table, they conversed on the greatest affairs of
+State. The Emperor said he had not sought this war--"he had been driven
+into it by the pressure of public opinion. I replied" (wrote Bismarck)
+"that neither had any one with us wished for war--the King least of
+all[50]." Napoleon then pleaded for generous terms, but admitted that
+he, as a prisoner, could not fix them; they must be arranged with de
+Wimpffen. About ten o'clock the latter agreed to an unconditional
+surrender for the rank and file of the French army, but those officers
+who bound themselves by their word of honour (in writing) not to fight
+again during the present war were to be set free. Napoleon then had an
+interview with the King. What transpired is not known, but when the
+Emperor came out "his eyes" (wrote Bismarck) "were full of tears."
+
+[Footnote 50: Busch, _Bismarck on the Franco-German War_, vol. i. p.
+109. Contrast this statement with his later efforts (_Reminiscences_,
+vol. ii. pp. 95-100) to prove that he helped to bring on war.]
+
+The fallen monarch accepted the King's offer of the castle of
+Wilhelmshoehe near Cassel for his residence up to the end of the war; it
+was the abode on which Jerome Bonaparte had spent millions of thalers,
+wrung from Westphalian burghers, during his brief sovereignty in
+1807-1813. Thither his nephew set out two days after the catastrophe of
+Sedan. And this, as it seems, was the end of a dynasty whose rise to
+power dated from the thrilling events of the Bridge of Lodi, Arcola,
+Rivoli, and the Pyramids. The French losses on September 1 were about
+3000 killed, 14,000 wounded, and 21,000 prisoners. On the next day
+there surrendered 83,000 prisoners by virtue of the capitulation, along
+with 419 field-pieces and 139 cannon of the fortress. Some 3000 had
+escaped, through the gap in the German lines on the north-east, to the
+Belgian frontier, and there laid down their arms.
+
+The news of this unparalleled disaster began to leak out at Paris late
+on the 2nd; on the morrow, when details were known, crowds thronged into
+the streets shouting "Down with the Empire! Long live the Republic!"
+Power still remained with the Empress-Regent and the Palikao Ministry.
+All must admit that the Empress Eugenie did what was possible in this
+hopeless position. She appealed to that charming literary man, M.
+Prosper Merimee, to go to his friend, M. Thiers (at whom we shall glance
+presently), and beg him to form a Ministry that would save the Empire
+for the young Prince Imperial. M. Thiers politely but firmly refused to
+give a helping hand to the dynasty which he looked on as the author of
+his country's ruin.
+
+On that day the Empress also summoned the Chambers--the Senate and the
+Corps Legislatif--a vain expedient, for in times of crisis the French
+look to a man, not to Chambers. The Empire had no man at hand. General
+Trochu, Governor of Paris, was suspected of being a Republican--at any
+rate he let matters take their course. On the 4th, vast crowds filled
+the streets; a rush was made to the Chamber, where various compromises
+were being discussed; the doors were forced, and amid wild excitement a
+proposal to dethrone the Napoleonic dynasty was put. Two Republican
+deputies, Gambetta and Jules Favre, declared that the Hotel de Ville was
+the fit place to declare the Republic. There, accordingly, it was
+proclaimed, the deputies for the city of Paris taking office as the
+Government of National Defence. They were just in time to prevent
+Socialists like Blanqui, Flourens, and Henri Rochefort from installing
+the "Commune" in power. The Empress and the Prince Imperial at once
+fled, and, apart from a protest by the Senate, no voice was raised in
+defence of the Empire. Jules Favre who took up the burden of Foreign
+Affairs in the new Government of National Defence was able to say in his
+circular note of September 6 that "the Revolution of September 4 took
+place without the shedding of a drop of blood or the loss of liberty to
+a single person[51]."
+
+[Footnote 51: Gabriel Hanotaux, _Contemporary France_, vol. i. p. 14
+(Eng. edit.)]
+
+That fact shows the unreality of Bonapartist rule in France. At bottom
+Napoleon III.'s ascendancy was due to several causes, that told against
+possible rivals rather than directly in his favour. Hatred of the
+socialists, whose rash political experiments had led to the bloody days
+of street fighting in Paris in June 1848, counted for much. Added to
+this was the unpopularity of the House of Orleans after the sordid and
+uninteresting rule of Louis Philippe (1830-48). The antiquated royalism
+of the Elder or Legitimist branch of that ill-starred dynasty made it
+equally an impossibility. Louis Napoleon promised to do what his
+predecessors, Monarchical and Republican, had signally failed to do,
+namely, to reconcile the claims of liberty and order at home and uphold
+the prestige of France abroad. For the first ten years the glamour of
+his name, the skill with which he promoted the material prosperity of
+France, and the successes of his early wars, promised to build up a
+lasting power. But then came the days of failing health and tottering
+prestige--of financial scandals, of the Mexican blunder, of the
+humiliation before the rising power of Prussia. To retrieve matters he
+toyed with democracy in France, and finally allowed his Ministers to
+throw down a challenge to Prussia; for, in the words of a French
+historian, the conditions on which he held power "condemned him to be
+brilliant[52]."
+
+[Footnote 52: Said in 1852 by an eminent Frenchman to our countryman,
+Nassau Senior (_Journals_, ii. _ad fin_).]
+
+Failing at Sedan, he lost all; and he knew it. His reign, in fact, was
+one long disaster for France. The canker of moral corruption began to
+weaken her public life when the creatures of whom he made use in the
+_coup d'etat _of 1851 crept into place and power. The flashy
+sensationalism of his policy, setting the tone for Parisian society, was
+fatal to the honest unseen drudgery which builds up a solid edifice
+alike in public and in private life. Even the better qualities of his
+nature told against ultimate success. As has been shown, his vague but
+generous ideas on Nationality drew French policy away from the paths of
+obvious self-interest after the year 1864, and gave an easy victory to
+the keen and objective statecraft of Bismarck. That he loved France as
+sincerely as he believed in the power of the Bonapartist tradition to
+help her, can scarcely admit of doubt. His conduct during the war of
+1870 showed him to be disinterested, while his vision was clearer than
+that of the Generals about him. But in the field of high policy, as in
+the moral events that make or mar a nation's life, his influence told
+heavily against the welfare of France; and he must have carried into
+exile the consciousness that his complex nature and ill-matched
+strivings had but served to bring his dynasty and his country to an
+unexampled overthrow.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It may be well to notice here an event of world-wide importance, which
+came as a sequel to the military collapse of France. Italians had always
+looked to the day when Rome would be the national capital. The great
+Napoleon during his time of exile at St. Helena had uttered the
+prophetic words: "Italy isolated between her natural limits is destined
+to form a great and powerful nation. . . . Rome will without doubt be
+chosen by the Italians as their capital." The political and economic
+needs of the present, coinciding herein with the voice of tradition,
+always so strong in Italian hearts, pointed imperiously to Rome as the
+only possible centre of national life.
+
+As was pointed out in the Introduction, Pius IX. after the years of
+revolution, 1848-49, felt the need of French troops in his capital, and
+his harsh and reactionary policy (or rather, that of his masterful
+Secretary of State, Antonelli) before long completely alienated the
+feelings of his subjects.
+
+After the master-mind of Cavour was removed by death, (June 1861), the
+patriots struggled desperately, but in vain, to rid Rome of the presence
+of foreign troops and win her for the national cause. Garibaldi's raids
+of 1862 and 1867 were foiled, the one by Italian, the other by French
+troops; and the latter case, which led to the sharp fight of Mentana,
+effaced any feelings of gratitude to Napoleon III. for his earlier help,
+which survived after his appropriation of Savoy and Nice. Thus matters
+remained in 1867-70, the Pope relying on the support of French bayonets
+to coerce his own subjects. Clearly this was a state of things which
+could not continue. The first great shock must always bring down a
+political edifice which rests not on its own foundations, but on
+external buttresses. These were suddenly withdrawn by the war of 1870.
+Early in August, Napoleon ordered all his troops to leave the Papal
+States; and the downfall of his power a month later absolved Victor
+Emmanuel from the claims of gratitude which he still felt towards his
+ally of 1859.
+
+At once the forward wing of the Italian national party took action in a
+way that either forced, or more probably encouraged, Victor Emmanuel's
+Government to step in under the pretext of preventing the creation of a
+Roman Republic. The King invited Pius IX. to assent to the peaceful
+occupation of Rome by the royal troops, and on receiving the expected
+refusal, moved forward 35,000 soldiers. The resistance of the 11,000
+Papal troops proved to be mainly a matter of form. The wall near the
+Porta Pia soon crumbled before the Italian cannon, and after a brief
+struggle at the breach, the white flag was hoisted at the bidding of the
+Pope (Sept. 20).
+
+Thus fell the temporal power of the Papacy. The event aroused
+comparatively little notice in that year of marvels, but its results
+have been momentous. At the time there was a general sense of relief, if
+not of joy, in Italy, that the national movement had reached its goal,
+albeit in so tame and uninspiring a manner. Rome had long been a prey to
+political reaction, accompanied by police supervision of the most
+exasperating kind. The _plebiscite_ as to the future government gave
+133,681 votes for Victor Emmanuel's rule, and only 1507 negative
+votes[53].
+
+[Footnote 53: Countess Cesaresco, _The Liberation of Italy_, p. 411.]
+
+Now, for the first time since the days of Napoleon I. and of the
+short-lived Republic for which Mazzini and Garibaldi worked and fought
+so nobly in 1849, the Eternal City began to experience the benefits of
+progressive rule. The royal government soon proved to be very far from
+perfect. Favouritism, the multiplication of sinecures, municipal
+corruption, and the prosaic inroads of builders and speculators, soon
+helped to mar the work of political reconstruction, and began to arouse
+a certain amount of regret for the more picturesque times of the Papal
+rule. A sentimental reaction of this kind is certain to occur in all
+cases of political change, especially in a city where tradition and
+emotion so long held sway.
+
+The consciences of the faithful were also troubled when the _fiat_ of
+the Pope went forth excommunicating the robber-king and all his chief
+abettors in the work of sacrilege. Sons of the Church throughout Italy
+were bidden to hold no intercourse with the interlopers and to take no
+part in elections to the Italian Parliament which thenceforth met in
+Rome. The schism between the Vatican and the King's Court and Government
+was never to be bridged over; and even to-day it constitutes one of the
+most perplexing problems of Italy.
+
+Despite the fact that Rome and Italy gained little of that mental and
+moral stimulus which might have resulted from the completion of the
+national movement solely by the action of the people themselves, the
+fact nevertheless remains that Rome needed Italy and Italy needed Rome.
+The disappointment loudly expressed by idealists, sentimentalists, and
+reactionaries must not blind us to the fact that the Italians, and above
+all the Romans, have benefited by the advent of unity, political
+freedom, and civic responsibility. It may well be that, in acting as the
+leader of a constitutional people, the Eternal City will little by
+little develop higher gifts than those nurtured under Papal tutelage,
+and perhaps as beneficent to Humanity as those which, in the ancient
+world, bestowed laws on Europe.
+
+As Mazzini always insisted, political progress, to be sound, must be
+based ultimately on moral progress. It is of its very nature slow, and
+is therefore apt to escape the eyes of the moralist or cynic who dwells
+on the untoward signs of the present. But the Rome for which Mazzini and
+his compatriots yearned and struggled can hardly fail ultimately to rise
+to the height of her ancient traditions and of that noble prophecy of
+Dante: "_There_ is the seat of empire. There never was, and there never
+will be, a people endowed with such capacity to acquire command, with
+more vigour to maintain it, and more gentleness in its exercise, than
+the Italian nation, and especially the Holy Roman people." The lines
+with which Mr. Swinburne closed his "Dedication" of _Songs before
+Sunrise_ to Joseph Mazzini are worthy of finding a place side by side
+with the words of the mediaeval seer:--
+
+     Yea, even she as at first,
+     Yea, she alone and none other,
+     Shall cast down, shall build up, shall bring home,
+     Slake earth's hunger and thirst,
+     Lighten, and lead as a mother;
+     First name of the world's names, Rome.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE FOUNDING OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
+
+     "[Greek: egigneto te logo men daemokratia, ergo de hupo tou
+     protou andros archae]."
+
+     "Thus Athens, though still in name a democracy, was in fact
+     ruled by her greatest man."--THUCYDIDES, book ii. chap. 65.
+
+
+The aim of this work being to trace the outlines only of those
+outstanding events which made the chief States of the world what they
+are to-day, we can give only the briefest glance at the remaining events
+of the Franco-German War and the splendid though hopeless rally
+attempted by the newly-installed Government of National Defence. Few
+facts in recent history have a more thrilling interest than the details
+of the valiant efforts made by the young Republic against the invaders.
+The spirit in which they were made breathed through the words of M.
+Picard's proclamation on September 4: "The Republic saved us from the
+invasion of 1792. The Republic is proclaimed."
+
+Inspiring as was this reference to the great and successful effort of
+the First Republic against the troops of Central Europe in 1792, it was
+misleading. At that time Prussia had lapsed into a state of weakness
+through the double evils of favouritism and a facing-both-ways policy.
+Now she felt the strength born of sturdy championship of a great
+principle--that of Nationality--which had ranged nearly the whole of the
+German race on her side. France, on the other hand, owing to the
+shocking blunders of her politicians and generals during the war, had
+but one army corps free, that of General Vinoy, which hastily retreated
+from the neighbourhood of Mezieres towards Paris on September 2 to 4.
+She therefore had to count almost entirely on the Garde Mobile, the
+Garde Nationale, and Francs-tireurs; but bitter experience was to show
+that this raw material could not be organised in a few weeks to
+withstand the trained and triumphant legions of Germany.
+
+Nevertheless there was no thought of making peace with the invaders. The
+last message of Count Palikao to the Chambers had been one of defiance
+to the enemy; and the Parisian deputies, nearly all of them Republicans,
+who formed the Government of National Defence, scouted all faint-hearted
+proposals. Their policy took form in the famous phrase of Jules Favre,
+Minister of Foreign Affairs: "We will give up neither an inch of our
+territory nor a stone of our fortresses." This being so, all hope of
+compromise with the Germans was vain. Favre had interviews with Bismarck
+at the Chateau de Ferrieres (September 19); but his fine oratory, even
+his tears, made no impression on the Iron Chancellor, who declared that
+in no case would an armistice be granted, not even for the election of a
+National Assembly, unless France agreed to give up Alsace and a part of
+Lorraine, allowing the German troops also to hold, among other places,
+Strassburg and Toul.
+
+Obviously, a self-constituted body like the provisional Government at
+Paris could not accept these terms, which most deeply concerned the
+nation at large. In the existing temper of Paris and France, the mention
+of such terms meant war to the knife, as Bismarck must have known. On
+their side, Frenchmen could not believe that their great capital, with
+its bulwarks and ring of outer forts, could be taken; while the
+Germans--so it seems from the Diary of General von Blumenthal--looked
+forward to its speedy capitulation. One man there was who saw the
+pressing need of foreign aid. M. Thiers (whose personality will concern
+us a little later) undertook to go on a mission to the chief Powers of
+Europe in the hope of urging one or more of them to intervene on behalf
+of France.
+
+The details of that mission are, of course, not fully known. We can
+only state here that Russia now repaid Prussia's help in crushing the
+Polish rebellion of 1863 by neutrality, albeit tinged with a certain
+jealousy of German success. Bismarck had been careful to dull that
+feeling by suggesting that she (Russia) should take the present
+opportunity of annulling the provision, made after the Crimean War,
+which prevented her from sending war-ships on to the Black Sea; and this
+was subsequently done, under a thin diplomatic disguise, at the Congress
+of London (March 1871). Bismarck's astuteness in supporting Russia at
+this time therefore kept that Power quiet. As for Austria, she
+undoubtedly wished to intervene, but did not choose to risk a war with
+Russia, which would probably have brought another overthrow. Italy would
+not unsheathe her sword for France unless the latter recognised her
+right to Rome (which the Italian troops entered on September 20). To
+this the young French Republic demurred. Great Britain, of course,
+adhered to the policy of neutrality which she at first declared[54].
+
+[Footnote 54: See Debidour, _Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe_, vol.
+ii. pp. 412-415. For Bismarck's fears of intervention, especially that
+of Austria, see his _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p. 109 (English edit.);
+Count Beust's _Aus drei Viertel-Jahrhunderten_, pt. ii. pp. 361, 395;
+for Thiers' efforts see his _Notes_ on the years 1870-73 (Paris 1904).]
+
+Accordingly, France had to rely on her own efforts. They were
+surprisingly great. Before the complete investment of Paris (September
+20), a Delegation of the Government of National Defence had gone forth
+to Tours with the aim of stirring up the provinces to the succour of the
+besieged capital. Probably the whole of the Government ought to have
+gone there; for, shut up in the capital, it lost touch with the
+provinces, save when balloons and carrier-pigeons eluded the German
+sharpshooters and brought precious news[55]. The mistake was seen in
+time to enable a man of wondrous energy to leave Paris by balloon on
+October 7, to descend as a veritable _deus ex machina_ on the faltering
+Delegation at Tours, and to stir the blood of France by his invective.
+There was a touch of the melodramatic not only in his apparition but in
+his speeches. Frenchmen, however, follow a leader all the better if he
+is a good stage-manager and a clever actor. The new leader was both; but
+he was something more.
+
+[Footnote 55: M. Gregoire in his _Histoire de France_, vol. iv. p. 647,
+states that 64 balloons left Paris during the siege, 5 were captured and
+2 lost in the sea; 363 carrier-pigeons left the city and 57 came in. For
+details of the French efforts see _Les Responsabilites de la Defense
+rationale_, by H. Genevois; also _The People's War in France,
+1870-1871_, by Col. L. Hale (The Pall Mall Military Series, 1904),
+founded on Hoenig's _Der Volkskrieg an der Loire_.]
+
+Leon Gambetta had leaped to the front rank at the Bar in the closing
+days of 1868 by a passionate outburst against the _coup d'etat_,
+uttered, to the astonishment of all, in a small Court of Correctional
+Police, over a petty case of State prosecution of a small Parisian
+paper. Rejecting the ordinary methods of defence, the young barrister
+flung defiance at Napoleon III. as the author of the _coup d'etat_ and
+of all the present degradation of France. The daring of the young
+barrister, who thus turned the tables on the authorities and impeached
+the head of the State, made a profound impression; it was redoubled by
+the Southern intensity of his thought and expression. Disdaining all
+forms of rhetoric, he poured forth a torrent of ideas, clothing them in
+the first words that came to his facile tongue, enforcing them by blows
+of the fist or the most violent gestures, and yet, again, modulating the
+roar of passion to the falsetto of satire or the whisper of emotion. His
+short, thick-set frame, vibrating with strength, doubled the force of
+all his utterances. Nor did they lack the glamour of poetry and romance
+that might be expected from his Italian ancestry. He came of a Genoese
+stock that had for some time settled in the South of France. Strange
+fate, that called him now to the front with the aim of repairing the
+ills wrought to France by another Italian House! In time of peace his
+power over men would have raised him to the highest positions had his
+Bohemian exuberance of thought and speech been tameable. It was not. He
+scorned prudence in moderation at all times, and his behaviour, when the
+wave of Revolution at last carried him to power, gave point to the taunt
+of Thiers--"c'est un fou furieux." Such was the man who now brought the
+quenchless ardour of his patriotism to the task of rousing France. As
+far as words and energy could call forth armies, he succeeded; but as he
+lacked all military knowledge, his blind self-confidence was to cost
+France dear.
+
+Possibly the new levies of the Republic might at some point have pierced
+the immense circle of the German lines around Paris (for at first the
+besieging forces were less numerous than the besieged), had not the
+assailants been strengthened by the fall of Metz (Oct. 27). This is not
+the place to discuss the culpability of Bazaine for the softness shown
+in the defence. The voluminous evidence taken at his trial shows that he
+was very slack in the critical days at the close of August; it is also
+certain that Bismarck duped him under the pretence that, on certain
+conditions to be arranged with the Empress Eugenie, his army might be
+kept intact for the sake of re-establishing the Empire[56]. The whole
+scheme was merely a device to gain time and keep Bazaine idle, and the
+German Chancellor succeeded here as at all points in his great game. On
+October 27, then, 6000 officers, 173,000 rank and file, were constrained
+by famine to surrender, along with 541 field-pieces and 800 siege guns.
+
+[Footnote 56: Bazaine gives the details from his point of view in his
+_Episodes de la Guerre de 1870 et le Blocus de Metz_ (Madrid, 1883). One
+of the go-betweens was a man Regnier, who pretended to come from the
+Empress Eugenie, then at Hastings; but Bismarck seems to have distrusted
+him and to have dismissed him curtly. The adventuress, Mme. Humbert,
+recently claimed that she had her "millions" from this Regnier. A sharp
+criticism on Bazaine's conduct at Metz is given in a pamphlet, _Reponse
+au Rapport sommaire sur les Operations de l'Armee du Rhin_, by one of
+his Staff Officers. See, too, M. Samuel Denis in his recent work,
+_Histoire Contemporaine_ (de France).]
+
+This capitulation, the greatest recorded in the history of civilised
+nations, dealt a death-blow to the hopes of France. Strassburg had
+hoisted the white flag a month earlier; and the besiegers of these
+fortresses were free to march westwards and overwhelm the new levies.
+After gaining a success at Coulmiers, near Orleans (Nov. 9), the French
+were speedily driven down the valley of the Loire and thence as far west
+as Le Mans. In the North, at St. Quentin, the Germans were equally
+successful, as also in Burgundy against that once effective free-lance,
+Garibaldi, who came with his sons to fight for the Republic. The last
+effort was made by Bourbaki and a large but ill-compacted army against
+the enemy's communications in Alsace. By a speedy concentration the
+Germans at Hericourt, near Belfort, defeated this daring move (imposed
+by the Government of National Defence on Bourbaki against his better
+judgment), and compelled him and his hard-pressed followers to pass over
+into Switzerland (January 30, 1871).
+
+Meanwhile Paris had already surrendered. During 130 days, and that too
+in a winter of unusual severity, the great city had held out with a
+courage that neither defeats, schisms, dearth of food, nor the
+bombardment directed against its southern quarters could overcome.
+Towards the close of January famine stared the defenders in the face,
+and on the 28th an armistice was concluded, which put an end to the war
+except in the neighbourhood of Belfort. That exception was due to the
+determination of the Germans to press Bourbaki hard, while the French
+negotiators were not aware of his plight. The garrison of Paris, except
+12,000 men charged with the duty of keeping order, surrendered; the
+forts were placed in the besiegers' hands. When that was done the city
+was to be revictualled and thereafter pay a war contribution of
+200,000,000 francs (L8,000,000). A National Assembly was to be freely
+elected and meet at Bordeaux to discuss the question of peace. The
+National Guards retained their arms, Favre maintaining that it would be
+impossible to disarm them; for this mistaken weakness he afterwards
+expressed his profound sorrow[57].
+
+[Footnote 57: It of course led up to the Communist revolt. Bismarck's
+relations to the disorderly elements in Paris are not fully known; but
+he warned Favre on Jan. 26 to "provoke an _emeute_ while you have an
+army to suppress it with" (_Bismarck in Franco-German War_, vol. ii.
+p. 265).]
+
+Despite the very natural protests of Gambetta and many others against
+the virtual ending of the war at the dictation of the Parisian
+authorities, the voice of France ratified their action. An overwhelming
+majority declared for peace. The young Republic had done wonders in
+reviving the national spirit: Frenchmen could once more feel the
+self-confidence which had been damped by the surrenders of Sedan and
+Metz; but the instinct of self-preservation now called imperiously for
+the ending of the hopeless struggle. In the hurried preparations for the
+elections held on February 8, few questions were asked of the candidates
+except that of peace or war; and it soon appeared that a great majority
+was in favour of peace, even at the cost of part of the eastern
+provinces.
+
+Of the 630 deputies who met at Bordeaux on February 12, fully 400 were
+Monarchists, nearly evenly divided between the Legitimists and
+Orleanists; 200 were professed Republicans; but only 30 Bonapartists
+were returned. It is not surprising that the Assembly, which met in the
+middle of February, should soon have declared that the Napoleonic Empire
+had ceased to exist, as being "responsible for the ruin, invasion, and
+dismemberment of the country" (March 1). These rather exaggerated
+charges (against which Napoleon III. protested from his place of exile,
+Chislehurst) were natural in the then deplorable condition of France.
+What is surprising and needs a brief explanation here, is the fact that
+a monarchical Assembly should have allowed the Republic to be founded.
+
+This paradoxical result sprang from several causes, some of them of a
+general nature, others due to party considerations, while the personal
+influence of one man perhaps turned the balance at this crisis in the
+history of France. We will consider them in the order here named.
+
+Stating the matter broadly, we may say that the present Assembly was not
+competent to decide on the future constitution of France; and that vague
+but powerful instinct, which guides representative bodies in such cases,
+told against any avowedly partisan effort in that direction. The
+deputies were fully aware that they were elected to decide the urgent
+question of peace or war, either to rescue France from her long agony,
+or to pledge the last drops of her life-blood in an affair of honour.
+By an instinct of self-preservation, the electors, especially in the
+country districts, turned to the men of property and local influence as
+those who were most likely to save them from the frothy followers of
+Gambetta. Accordingly, local magnates were preferred to the barristers
+and pressmen, whose oratorical and literary gifts usually carry the day
+in France; and more than 200 noblemen were elected. They were chosen not
+on account of their nobility and royalism, but because they were certain
+to vote against the _fou furieux_.
+
+Then, too, the Royalists knew very well that time would be required to
+accustom France to the idea of a King, and to adjust the keen rivalries
+between the older and the younger branches of the Bourbon House.
+Furthermore, they were anxious that the odium of signing a disastrous
+peace should fall on the young Republic, not on the monarch of the
+future. Just as the great Napoleon in 1814 was undoubtedly glad that the
+giving up of Belgium and the Rhine boundary should devolve on his
+successor, Louis XVIII., and counted on that as one of the causes
+undermining the restored monarchy, so now the Royalists intended to
+leave the disagreeable duty of ceding the eastern districts of France to
+the Republicans who had so persistently prolonged the struggle. The
+clamour of no small section of the Republican party for war _a outrance_
+still played into the hands of the royalists and partly justified this
+narrow partisanship. Events, however, were to prove here, as in so many
+cases, that the party which undertook a pressing duty and discharged it
+manfully, gained more in the end than those who shirked responsibility
+and left the conduct of affairs to their opponents. Men admire those who
+dauntlessly pluck the flower, safety, out of the nettle, danger.
+
+Finally, the influence of one commanding personality was ultimately to
+be given to the cause of the Republic. That strange instinct which in
+times of crisis turns the gaze of a people towards the one necessary
+man, now singled out M. Thiers. The veteran statesman was elected in
+twenty-six Departments. Gambetta and General Trochu, Governor of Paris,
+were each elected nine times over. It was clear that the popular voice
+was for the policy of statesmanlike moderation which Thiers now summed
+up in his person; and Gambetta for a time retired to Spain.
+
+The name of Thiers had not always stood for moderation. From the time of
+his youth, when his journalistic criticisms on the politics, literature,
+art and drama of the Restoration period set all tongues wagging, to the
+day when his many-sided gifts bore him to power under Louis Philippe, he
+stood for all that is most beloved by the vivacious sons of France. His
+early work, _The History of the French Revolution_, had endeared him to
+the survivors of the old Jacobin and Girondin parties, and his eager
+hostility to England during his term of office flattered the Chauvinist
+feelings that steadily grew in volume during the otherwise dull reign of
+Louis Philippe. In the main, Thiers was an upholder of the Orleans
+dynasty, yet his devotion to constitutional principles, the ardour of
+his Southern temperament,--he was a Marseillais by birth,--and the
+vivacious egotism that never brooked contradiction, often caused sharp
+friction with the King and the King's friends. He seemed born for
+opposition and criticism. Thereafter, his conduct of affairs helped to
+undermine the fabric of the Second Republic (1848-51). Flung into prison
+by the minions of Louis Napoleon at the time of the _coup d'etat_, he
+emerged buoyant as ever, and took up again the role that he loved
+so well.
+
+Nevertheless, amidst all the seeming vagaries of Thiers' conduct there
+emerge two governing principles--a passionate love of France, and a
+sincere attachment to reasoned liberty. The first was absolute and
+unchangeable; the second admitted of some variations if the ruler did
+not enhance the glory of France, and also (as some cynics said)
+recognise the greatness of M. Thiers. For the many gibes to which his
+lively talents and successful career exposed him, he had his revenge.
+His keen glance and incisive reasoning generally warned him of the
+probable fate of Dynasties and Ministries. Like Talleyrand, whom he
+somewhat resembled in versatility, opportunism, and undying love of
+France, he might have said that he never deserted a Government before it
+deserted itself. He foretold the fall of Louis Philippe under the
+reactionary Guizot Ministry as, later on, he foretold the fall of
+Napoleon III. He blamed the Emperor for not making war on Prussia in
+1866 with the same unanswerable logic that marked his opposition to the
+mad rush for war in 1870. And yet the war spirit had been in some sense
+strengthened by his own writings. His great work, _The History of the
+Consulate and Empire_, which appeared from 1845 to 1862--the last eight
+volumes came out during the Second Empire--was in the main a
+glorification of the First Napoleon. Men therefore asked with some
+impatience why the panegyrist of the uncle should oppose the supremacy
+of the nephew; and the action of the crowd in smashing the historian's
+windows after his great speech against the war of 1870 cannot be called
+wholly illogical, even if it erred on the side of Gallic vivacity.
+
+In the feverish drama of French politics Time sometimes brings an
+appropriate Nemesis. It was so now. The man who had divided the energies
+of his manhood between parliamentary opposition of a somewhat factious
+type and the literary cultivation of the Napoleonic legend, was now in
+the evening of his days called upon to bear a crushing load of
+responsibility in struggling to win the best possible terms of peace
+from the victorious Teuton, in mediating between contending factions at
+Bordeaux and Paris, and, finally, in founding a form of government which
+never enlisted his whole-hearted sympathy, save as the least
+objectionable expedient then open to France.
+
+For the present, the great thing was to gain peace with the minimum of
+sacrifice for France. Who could drive a better bargain than Thiers, the
+man who knew France so well, and had recently felt the pulse of the
+Governments of Europe? Accordingly, on the 17th of February, the
+Assembly named him Head of the Executive Power "until it is based upon
+the French Constitution." He declined to accept this post until the
+words "of the French Republic" were substituted for the latter clause.
+He had every reason for urging this demand. Unlike the Republic of 1848,
+the strength of which was chiefly, or almost solely, in Paris, the
+Republic was proclaimed at Lyons, Marseilles, and Bordeaux, before any
+news came of the overthrow of the Napoleonic dynasty at the capital[58].
+
+[Footnote 58: Seignobos, _A Political History of Contemporary Europe_,
+vol. i. p. 187 (Eng. edit.).]
+
+He now entrusted three important portfolios, those for Foreign Affairs,
+Home Affairs, and Public Instruction, to pronounced Republicans--Jules
+Favre, Picard, and Jules Simon. Having pacified the monarchical majority
+by appealing to them to defer all questions respecting the future
+constitution until affairs were more settled, he set out to meet
+Bismarck at Versailles.
+
+A disadvantage which almost necessarily besets parliamentary
+institutions had weakened the French case before the negotiations began.
+The composition of the Assembly implied a strong desire for peace--a
+fact which Thiers had needlessly emphasised before he left Bordeaux. On
+the other hand, Bismarck was anxious to end the war. He knew enough to
+be uneasy at the attitude of the neutral States; for public opinion was
+veering round in England, Austria, and Italy to a feeling of keen
+sympathy for France, and even Russia was restless at the sight of the
+great military Empire that had sprung into being on her flank. The
+recent proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles--an event that
+will be treated in a later chapter--opened up a vista of great
+developments for the Fatherland, not unmixed with difficulties and
+dangers. Above all, sharp differences had arisen between him and the
+military men at the German headquarters, who wished to "bleed France
+white" by taking a large portion of French Lorraine (including its
+capital Nancy), a few colonies, and part of her fleet. It is now known
+that Bismarck, with the same moderation that he displayed after
+Koeniggraetz, opposed these extreme claims, because he doubted the
+advisability of keeping Metz, with its large French population. The
+words in which he let fall these thoughts while at dinner with Busch on
+February 21 deserve to be quoted:--
+
+     If they (the French) gave us a milliard more (L40,000,000) we
+     might perhaps let them have Metz. We would then take
+     800,000,000 francs, and build ourselves a fortress a few
+     miles further back, somewhere about Falkenberg or
+     Saarbrueck--there must be some suitable spot thereabouts. We
+     should thus make a clear profit of 200,000,000 francs.
+     [N.B.--A milliard = 1,000,000,000 francs.] I do not like so
+     many Frenchmen being in our house against their will. It is
+     just the same with Belfort. It is all French there too. The
+     military men, however, will not be willing to let Metz slip,
+     and perhaps they are right[59].
+
+[Footnote 59: Busch, _Bismarck in the Franco-German War_, vol. ii. p.
+341.]
+
+A sharp difference of opinion had arisen between Bismarck and Moltke on
+this question, and the Emperor Wilhelm intervened in favour of Moltke.
+That decided the question of Metz against Thiers despite his threat that
+this might lead to a renewal of war. For Belfort, however, the French
+statesman made a supreme effort. That fortress holds a most important
+position. Strong in itself, it stands as sentinel guarding the gap of
+nearly level ground between the spurs of the Vosges and those of the
+Jura. If that virgin stronghold were handed over to Germany, she would
+easily be able to pour her legions down the valley of the Doubs and
+dominate the rich districts of Burgundy and the Lyonnais. Besides,
+military honour required France to keep a fortress that had kept the
+tricolour flying. Metz the Germans held, and it was impossible to turn
+them out. Obviously the case of Belfort was on a different footing. In
+his conference of February 24, Thiers at last defied Bismarck in these
+words: "No; I will never yield Belfort and Metz in the same breath. You
+wish to ruin France in her finances, in her frontiers. Well! Take her.
+Conduct her administration, collect her revenues, and you will have to
+govern her in the face of Europe--if Europe permits[60]."
+
+[Footnote 60: G. Hanotaux, _Contemporary France_, vol i. p. 124 (Eng.
+edit.). This work is the most detailed and authoritative that has yet
+appeared on these topics. See, too, M. Samuel Denis' work, _Histoire
+Contemporaine_.]
+
+Probably this defiance had less weight with the Iron Chancellor than his
+conviction, noticed above, that to bring two entirely French towns
+within the German Empire would prove a source of weakness; beside which
+his own motto, _Beati possidentes_, told with effect in the case of
+Belfort. That stronghold was accordingly saved for France. Thiers also
+obtained a reduction of a milliard from the impossible sum of six
+milliards first named for the war indemnity due to Germany; in this
+matter Jules Favre states that British mediation had been of some avail.
+If so, it partly accounts for the hatred of England which Bismarck
+displayed in his later years. The Preliminaries of Peace were signed at
+Versailles on February 26.
+
+One other matter remained. The Germans insisted that, if Belfort
+remained to France, part of their army should enter Paris. In vain did
+Thiers and Jules Favre point out the irritation that this would cause
+and the possible ensuing danger. The German Emperor and his Staff made
+it a point of honour, and 30,000 of their troops accordingly marched in
+and occupied for a brief space the district of the Champs Elysees. The
+terms of peace were finally ratified in the Treaty of Frankfurt (May 10,
+1871), whereby France ceded Alsace and part of Lorraine, with a
+population of some 1,600,000 souls, and underwent the other losses noted
+above. Last but not least was the burden of supporting the German army
+of occupation that kept its grip on the north-east of France until, as
+the instalments came in, the foreign troops were proportionately drawn
+away eastwards. The magnitude of these losses and burdens had already
+aroused cries of anguish in France. The National Assembly at Bordeaux,
+on first hearing the terms, passionately confirmed the deposition of
+Napoleon III.; while the deputies from the ceded districts lodged a
+solemn protest against their expatriation (March 1). Some of the
+advanced Republican deputies, refusing to acknowledge the cession of
+territory, resigned their seats in the Assembly. Thus there began a
+schism between the Radicals, especially those of Paris, and the
+Assembly, which was destined to widen into an impassable gulf. Matters
+were made worse by the decision of the Assembly to sit, not at the
+capital, but at Versailles, where it would be free from the commotions
+of the great city. Thiers himself declared in favour of Versailles;
+there the Assembly met for the first time on March 20, 1871.
+
+A conflict between this monarchical Assembly and the eager Radicals of
+Paris perhaps lay in the nature of things. The majority of the deputies
+looked forward to the return of the King (whether the Comte de Chambord
+of the elder Bourbons, or the Comte de Paris of the House of Orleans) as
+soon as France should be freed from the German armies of occupation and
+the spectre of the Red Terror. Some of their more impatient members
+openly showed their hand, and while at Bordeaux began to upbraid Thiers
+for his obstinate neutrality on this question. For his part, the wise
+old man had early seen the need of keeping the parties in check. On
+February 17 he begged them to defer questions as to the future form of
+government, working meanwhile solely for the present needs of France,
+and allowing future victory to be the meed of that party which showed
+itself most worthy of trust. "Can there be any man" (he exclaimed) "who
+would dare learnedly to discuss the articles of the Constitution, while
+our prisoners are dying of misery far away, or while our people,
+perishing of hunger, are obliged to give their last crust to the foreign
+soldiers?" A similar appeal on March led to the informal truce on
+constitutional questions known as the Compact of Bordeaux. It was at
+best an uncertain truce, certain to be broken at the first sign of
+activity on the Republican side.
+
+That activity was now put forth by the "Reds" of Paris. It would take us
+far too long to describe the origins of the municipal socialism which
+took form in the Parisian Commune of 1871. The first seeds of that
+movement had been sown by its prototype of 1792-93, which summed up all
+the daring and vigour of the revolutionary socialism of that age. The
+idea had been kept alive by the "National Workshops" of 1848, whose
+institution and final suppression by the young Republic of that year had
+been its own undoing.
+
+History shows, then, that Paris, as the head of France, was accustomed
+to think and act vigorously for herself in time of revolution. But
+experience proved no less plainly that the limbs, that is, the country
+districts, generally refused to follow the head in these fantastic
+movements. Hence, after a short spell of St. Vitus' activity, there
+always came a time of strife, followed only too often by torpor, when
+the body reduced the head to a state of benumbed subjection. The triumph
+of rural notions accounts for the reactions of 1831-47, and 1851-70.
+Paris having once more regained freedom of movement by the fall of the
+Second Empire on September 4, at once sought to begin her
+politico-social experiments, and, as we pointed out, only the
+promptitude of the "moderates," when face to face with the advancing
+Germans, averted the catastrophe of a socialistic regime in Paris during
+the siege. Even so, the Communists made two determined efforts to gain
+power; the former of these, on October 31, nearly succeeded. Other towns
+in the centre and south, notably Lyons, were also on the brink of
+revolutionary socialism, and the success of the movement in Paris might
+conceivably have led to a widespread trial of the communal experiment.
+The war helped to keep matters in the old lines.
+
+But now, the feelings of rage at the surrender of Paris and the cession
+of the eastern districts of France, together with hatred of the
+monarchical assembly that flouted the capital by sitting at the abode of
+the old Kings of France, served to raise popular passion to fever heat.
+The Assembly undoubtedly made many mistakes: it authorised the payment
+of rents and all other obligations in the capital for the period of
+siege as if in ordinary times, and it appointed an unpopular man to
+command the National Guards of Paris. At the close of February the
+National Guards formed a Central Committee to look after their interests
+and those of the capital; and when the Executive of the State sent
+troops of the line to seize their guns parked on Montmartre, the
+Nationals and the rabble turned out in force. The troops refused to act
+against the National Guards, and these murdered two Generals, Lecomte
+and Thomas (March 18). Thiers and his Ministers thereupon rather tamely
+retired to Versailles, and the capital fell into the hands of the
+Communists. Greater firmness at the outset might have averted the
+horrors that followed.
+
+The Communists speedily consulted the voice of the people by elections
+conducted in the most democratic spirit. In many respects their
+programme of municipal reforms marked a great improvement on the type of
+town-government prevalent during the Empire. That was, practically,
+under the control of the imperial _prefets_. The Communists now asserted
+the right of each town to complete self-government, with the control of
+its officials, magistrates, National Guards, and police, as well as of
+taxation, education, and many other spheres of activity. The more
+ambitious minds looked forward to a time when France would form a
+federation of self-governing Communes, whose delegates, deciding matters
+of national concern, would reduce the executive power to complete
+subservience. At bottom this Communal Federalism was the ideal of
+Rousseau and of his ideal Cantonal State.
+
+By such means, they hoped, the brain of France would control the body,
+the rural population inevitably taking the position of hewers of wood
+and drawers of water, both in a political and material sense.
+Undoubtedly the Paris Commune made some intelligent changes which
+pointed the way to reforms of lasting benefit; but it is very
+questionable whether its aims could have achieved permanence in a land
+so very largely agricultural as France then was. Certainly it started
+its experiment in the worst possible way, namely, by defying the
+constituted authorities of the nation at large, and by adopting the old
+revolutionary calendar, and the red flag, the symbol of social
+revolution. Thenceforth it was an affair of war to the knife.
+
+The National Government, sitting at Versailles, could not at first act
+with much vigour. Many of the line regiments sympathised with the
+National Guards of Paris: these were 200,000 strong, and had command of
+the walls and some of the posts to the south-west of Paris. The Germans
+still held the forts to the north and east of the capital, and refused
+to allow any attack on that side. It has even been stated that Bismarck
+favoured the Communists; but this is said to have resulted from their
+misreading of his promise to maintain a _friedlich_ (peaceful) attitude,
+as if it were _freundlich_ (friendly)[61]. The full truth as to
+Bismarck's relations to the Commune is not known. The Germans, however,
+sent back a force of French prisoners, and these with other troops,
+after beating back the Communist sortie of April 3, began to threaten
+the defences of the city. The strife at once took on a savage character,
+as was inevitable after the murder of two Generals in Paris. The
+Versailles troops, treating the Communists as mere rebels, shot their
+chief officers. Thereupon the Commune retaliated by ordering the capture
+of hostages, and by seizing the Archbishop of Paris, and several other
+ecclesiastics (April 5). It also decreed the abolition of the budget for
+Public Worship and the confiscation of clerical and monastic property
+_throughout France_--a proposal which aroused ridicule and contempt.
+
+[Footnote 61: Debidour, _Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe_, vol. ii. p.
+438-440.]
+
+It would be tedious to dwell on the details of this terrible strife.
+Gradually the regular forces overpowered the National Guards of Paris,
+drove them from the southern forts, and finally (May 21) gained a
+lodgment within the walls of Paris at the Auteuil gate. Then followed a
+week of street-fighting and madness such as Europe had not seen since
+the Peninsular War. "Room for the people, for the bare-armed fighting
+men. The hour of the revolutionary war has struck." This was the placard
+posted throughout Paris on the 22nd, by order of the Communist chief,
+Delescluze. And again, "After the barricades, our houses; after our
+houses, our ruins." Preparations were made to burn down a part of
+Central Paris to delay the progress of the Versaillese. Rumour magnified
+this into a plan of wholesale incendiarism, and wild stories were told
+of _petroleuses_ flinging oil over buildings, and of Communist firemen
+ready to pump petroleum. A squad of infuriated "Reds" rushed off and
+massacred the Archbishop of Paris and six other hostages, while
+elsewhere Dominican friars, captured regulars, and police agents fell
+victims to the rage of the worsted party.
+
+Madness seemed to have seized on the women of Paris. Even when the men
+were driven from barricades by weight of numbers or by the capture of
+houses on their flank, these creatures fought on with the fury of
+despair till they met the death which the enraged linesmen dealt out to
+all who fought, or seemed to have fought. Simpson, the British war
+correspondent, tells how he saw a brutal officer tear the red cross off
+the arm of a nurse who tended the Communist wounded, so that she might
+be done to death as a fighter[62]. Both sides, in truth, were maddened
+by the long and murderous struggle, which showed once again that no
+strife is so horrible as that of civil war. On Sunday, May 28, the last
+desperate band was cut down at the Cemetery Pere-Lachaise, and fighting
+gave way to fusillades. Most of the chiefs perished without the pretence
+of trial, and the same fate befel thousands of National Guards, who were
+mown down in swathes and cast into trenches. In the last day of
+fighting, and the horrible time that followed, 17,000 Parisians are said
+to have perished[63]. Little by little, law reasserted her sway, but
+only to doom 9600 persons to heavy punishment. Not until 1879 did
+feelings of mercy prevail, and then, owing to Gambetta's powerful
+pleading, an amnesty was passed for the surviving Communist prisoners.
+
+[Footnote 62: _The Autobiography of William Simpson_ (London, 1903), p.
+261.]
+
+[Footnote 63: G. Hanotaux, _Contemporary France_, p. 225. For further
+details see Lissagaray's _History of the Commune_; also personal details
+in Washburne's _Recollections of a Minister to France_, 1869-1877, vol.
+ii. chaps, ii.-vii.]
+
+The Paris Commune affords the last important instance of a determined
+rising in Europe against a civilised Government. From this statement we
+of course except the fitful efforts of the Carlists in Spain; and it is
+needless to say that the risings of the Bulgarians and other Slavs
+against Turkish rule have been directed against an uncivilised
+Government. The absence of revolts in the present age marks it off from
+all that have preceded, and seems to call for a brief explanation.
+Obviously, there is no lack of discontent, as the sequel will show.
+Finland, portions of Caucasia, and all the parts of the once mighty
+realm of Poland which have fallen to Russia and Prussia, now and again
+heave with anger and resentment. But these feelings are suppressed. They
+do not flame forth, as was the case in Poland as late as the year 1863.
+What is the reason for this? Mainly, it would seem, the enormous powers
+given to the modern organised State by the discoveries of mechanical
+science and the triumphs of the engineer. Telegraphy now flashes to the
+capital the news of a threatening revolt in the hundredth part of the
+time formerly taken by couriers with their relays of horses. Fully as
+great is the saving of time in the transport of large bodies of troops
+to the disaffected districts. Thus, the all-important factors that make
+for success--force, skill, and time--are all on the side of the central
+Governments[64].
+
+[Footnote 64: See _Turkey in Europe_, by "Odysseus" (p. 130), for the
+parallel instance of the enhanced power of the Sultan Abdul Hamid owing
+to the same causes.]
+
+The spread of constitutional rule has also helped to dispel
+discontent--or, at least, has altered its character. Representative
+government has tended to withdraw disaffection from the market-place,
+the purlieus of the poor, and the fastnesses of the forest, and to focus
+it noisily but peacefully in the columns of the Press and the arena of
+Parliament. The appeal now is not so much to arms as to argument; and in
+this new sphere a minority, provided that it is well organised and
+persistent, may generally hope to attain its ends. Revolt, even if it
+take the form of a refusal to pay taxes, is therefore an anachronism
+under a democracy; unless, as in the case of the American Civil War, two
+great sections of the country are irreconcilably opposed.
+
+The fact, however, that there has been no widespread revolt in Russia
+since the year 1863, shows that democracy has not been the chief
+influence tending to dissolve or suppress discontent. As we shall see in
+a later chapter, Russia has defied constitutionalism and ground down
+alien races and creeds; yet (up to the year 1904) no great rising has
+shaken her autocratic system to its base. This seems to prove that the
+immunity of the present age in regard to insurrections is due rather to
+the triumphs of mechanical science than to the progress of democracy.
+The fact is not pleasing to contemplate; but it must be faced. So also
+must its natural corollary: that the minority, if rendered desperate,
+may be driven to arm itself with new and terrible engines of destruction
+in order to shatter that superiority of force with which science has
+endowed the centralised Governments of to-day.
+
+Certain it is that desperation, perhaps brought about by a sense of
+helplessness in face of an armed nation, was one of the characteristics
+of the Paris Commune, as it was also of Nihilism in Russia. In fact the
+Communist effort of 1871 may be termed a belated attempt on the part of
+a daring minority to dominate France by seizing the machinery of
+government at Paris. The success of the Extremists of 1793 and 1848 in
+similar experiments--not to speak of the Communistic rising of Babeuf in
+1797--was only temporary; but doubtless it encouraged the "Reds" of 1871
+to make their mad bid for power. Now, however, the case was very
+different. France was no longer a lethargic mass, dominated solely by
+the eager brain of Paris. The whole country thrilled with political
+life. For the time, the provinces held the directing power, which had
+been necessarily removed from the capital; and--most powerful motive of
+all--they looked on the Parisian experiment as gross treason to _la
+patrie_, while she lay at the feet of the Germans. Thus, the very
+motives which for a space lent such prestige and power to the
+Communistic Jacobins of 1793 told against their imitators in 1871.
+
+The inmost details of their attempt will perhaps never be fully known;
+for too many of the actors died under the ruins of the building they had
+so heedlessly reared. Nevertheless, it is clear that the Commune was far
+from being the causeless outburst that it has often been represented. In
+part it resulted from the determination of the capital to free herself
+from the control of the "rurals" who dominated the National Assembly;
+and in that respect it foreshadowed, however crudely, what will probably
+be the political future of all great States, wherein the urban
+population promises altogether to outweigh and control that of the
+country. Further, it should be remembered that the experimenters of 1871
+believed the Assembly to have betrayed the cause of France by ceding her
+eastern districts, and to be on the point of handing over the Republic
+to the Monarchists. A fit of hysteria, or hypochondria, brought on by
+the exhausting siege and by exasperation at the triumphal entry of the
+Germans, added the touch of fury which enabled the Radicals of Paris to
+challenge the national authorities and thereafter to persist in their
+defiance with French logicality and ardour.
+
+France, on the other hand, looked on the Communist movement at Paris and
+in the southern towns as treason to the cause of national unity, when
+there was the utmost need of concord. Thus on both sides there were
+deplorable misunderstandings. In ordinary times they might have been
+cleared away by frank explanations between the more moderate leaders;
+but the feverish state of the public mind forbade all thoughts of
+compromise, and the very weakness brought on by the war sharpened the
+fit of delirium which will render the spring months of the year 1871 for
+ever memorable even in the thrilling annals of Paris.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE FOUNDING OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC (_continued_)
+
+
+The seemingly suicidal energy shown in the civil strifes at Paris served
+still further to depress the fortunes of France. On the very day when
+the Versailles troops entered the walls of Paris, Thiers and Favre
+signed the treaty of peace at Frankfurt. The terms were substantially
+those agreed on in the preliminaries of February, but the terms of
+payment of the indemnity were harder than before. Resistance was
+hopeless. In truth, the Iron Chancellor had recently used very
+threatening language: he accused the French Government of bad faith in
+procuring the release of a large force of French prisoners, ostensibly
+for the overthrow of the Commune, but really in order to patch up
+matters with the "Reds" of Paris and renew the war with Germany.
+Misrepresentations and threats like these induced Thiers and Favre to
+agree to the German demands, which took form in the Treaty of Frankfurt
+(May 10, 1871).
+
+Peace having been duly ratified on the hard terms[65], it remained to
+build up France almost _de nova_. Nearly everything was wanting. The
+treasury was nearly empty, and that too in face of the enormous demands
+made by Germany. It is said that in February 1871, the unhappy man who
+took up the Ministry of Finance, carried away all the funds of the
+national exchequer in his hat. As Thiers confessed to the Assembly, he
+had, for very patriotism, to close his eyes to the future and grapple
+with the problems of every day as they arose. But he had faith in
+France, and France had faith in him. The French people can perform
+wonders when they thoroughly trust their rulers. The inexhaustible
+wealth inherent in their soil, the thrift of the peasantry, and the
+self-sacrificing ardour shown by the nation when nerved by a high ideal,
+constituted an asset of unsuspected strength in face of the staggering
+blows dealt to French wealth and credit. The losses caused by the war,
+the Commune, and the cession of the eastern districts, involved losses
+that have been reckoned at more than L614,000,000. Apart from the
+1,597,000 inhabitants transferred to German rule, the loss of population
+due to the war and the civil strifes has been put as high as 491,000
+souls[66].
+
+[Footnote 65: They included the right to hold four more Departments
+until the third half milliard (L20,000,000, that is, L60,000,000 in all)
+had been paid. A commercial treaty on favourable terms, those of the
+"most favoured nation," was arranged, as also an exchange of frontier
+strips near Luxemburg and Belfort. Germany acquired Elsass (Alsace) and
+part of Lorraine, free of all their debts.
+
+We may note here that the Anglo-French Treaty of Commerce arranged in
+1860 with Napoleon largely by the aid of Cobden, was not renewed by the
+French Republic, which thereafter began to exclude British goods.
+Bismarck forced France at Frankfurt to concede favourable terms to
+German products. England was helpless. For this subject, see _Protection
+in France_, by H.O. Meredith (1905).]
+
+[Footnote 66: Quoted by M. Hanotaux, _Contemporary France_, vol. i. pp.
+323-327.]
+
+Yet France flung herself with triumphant energy into the task of paying
+off the invaders. At the close of June 1871, a loan for two milliards
+and a quarter (L90,000,000) was opened for subscription, and proved to
+be an immense success. The required amount was more than doubled. By
+means of the help of international banks, the first half milliard of the
+debt was paid off in July 1871, and Normandy was freed from the burden
+of German occupation. We need not detail the dates of the successive
+payments. They revealed the unsuspected vitality of France and the
+energy of her Government and financiers. In March 1873, the arrangements
+for the payment of the last instalment were made, and in the autumn of
+that year the last German troops left Verdun and Belfort. For his great
+services in bending all the powers of France to this great financial
+feat, Thiers was universally acclaimed as the Liberator of the
+Territory.
+
+Yet that very same period saw him overthrown. To read this riddle
+aright, we must review the outlines of French internal politics. We have
+already referred to the causes that sent up a monarchical majority to
+the National Assembly, the schisms that weakened the action of that
+majority, and the peculiar position held by M. Thiers, an Orleanist in
+theory, but the chief magistrate of the French Republic. No more
+paradoxical situation has ever existed; and its oddity was enhanced by
+the usually clear-cut logicality of French political thought. Now, after
+the war and the Commune, the outlook was dim, even to the keenest sight.
+One thing alone was clear, the duty of all citizens to defer raising any
+burning question until law, order, and the national finances were
+re-established. It was the perception of this truth that led to the
+provisional truce between the parties known as the Compact of Bordeaux.
+Flagrantly broken by the "Reds" of Paris in the spring of 1871, that
+agreement seemed doomed. The Republic itself was in danger of perishing
+as it did after the socialistic extravagances of the Revolution of 1848.
+But Thiers at once disappointed the monarchists by stoutly declaring
+that he would not abet the overthrow of the Republic: "We found the
+Republic established, as a fact of which we are not the authors; but I
+will not destroy the form of government which I am now using to restore
+order. . . . When all is settled, the country will have the liberty to
+choose as it pleases in what concerns its future destinies[67]."
+Skilfully pointing the factions to the future as offering a final reward
+for their virtuous self-restraint, this masterly tactician gained time
+in which to heal the worst wounds dealt by the war.
+
+[Footnote 67: Speech of March 27, 1871.]
+
+But it was amidst unending difficulties. The Monarchists, eager to
+emphasise the political reaction set in motion by the extravagances of
+the Paris Commune, wished to rid themselves at the earliest possible
+time of this self-confident little bourgeois who seemed to stand alone
+between them and the realisation of their hopes. Their more unscrupulous
+members belittled his services and hinted that love of power alone led
+him to cling to the Republic, and thus belie his political past. Then,
+too, the Orleans princes, the Duc d'Aumale and the Prince de Joinville,
+the surviving sons of King Louis Philippe, took their seats as deputies
+for the Oise and Haute-Marne Departments, thus keeping the monarchical
+ideal steadily before the eye of France. True, the Duc d'Aumale had
+declared to the electorate that he was ready to bow before the will of
+France whether it decided for a Constitutional Monarchy or a Liberal
+Republic; and the loyalty with which he served his country was destined
+to set the seal of honesty on a singularly interesting career. But there
+was no guarantee that the Chamber would not take upon itself to
+interpret the will of France and call from his place of exile in London
+the Comte de Paris, son of the eldest descendant of Louis Philippe,
+around whom the hopes of the Orleanists centred.
+
+Had Thiers followed his earlier convictions and declared for such a
+Restoration, it might quite conceivably have come about without very
+much resistance. But early in the year 1871, or perhaps after the fall
+of the Empire, he became convinced that France could not heal her
+grievous wounds except under a government that had its roots deep in the
+people's life. Now, the cause of monarchy in France was hopelessly
+weakened by schisms. Legitimists and Orleanists were at feud ever since,
+in 1830, Louis Philippe, so the former said, cozened the rightful heir
+out of his inheritance; and the efforts now made to fuse the claims of
+the two rival branches remained without result, owing to the stiff and
+dogmatic attitude of the Comte de Chambord, heir to the traditions of
+the elder branch. A Bonapartist Restoration was out of the question. Yet
+all three sections began more and more to urge their claims. Thiers met
+them with consummate skill. Occasionally they had reason to resent his
+tactics as showing unworthy finesse; but oftener they quailed before the
+startling boldness of his reminders that, as they constituted the
+majority of the deputies of France, they might at once undertake to
+restore the monarchy--if they could. "You do not, and you cannot, do so.
+There is only one throne and it cannot have three occupants[68]." Or,
+again, he cowed them by the sheer force of his personality: "If I were a
+weak man, I would flatter you," he once exclaimed. In the last resort he
+replied to their hints of his ambition and self-seeking by offering his
+resignation. Here again the logic of facts was with him. For many months
+he was the necessary man, and he and they knew it.
+
+[Footnote 68: De Mazade, _Thiers_, p. 467. For a sharp criticism of
+Thiers, see Samuel Denis' _Histoire Contemperaine_ (written from the
+royalist standpoint).]
+
+But, as we have seen, there came a time when the last hard bargains with
+Bismarck as to the payment of the war debt neared their end; and the
+rapier-play between the Liberator of the Territory and the parties of
+the Assembly also drew to a close. In one matter he had given them just
+cause for complaint. As far back as November 13, 1872 (that is, before
+the financial problem was solved), he suddenly and without provocation
+declared from the tribune of the National Assembly that it was time to
+establish the Republic. The proposal was adjourned, but Thiers had
+damaged his influence. He had broken the "Compact of Bordeaux" and had
+shown his hand. The Assembly now knew that he was a Republican. Finally,
+he made a dignified speech to the Assembly, justifying his conduct in
+the past, appealing from the verdict of parties to the impartial
+tribunal of History, and prophesying that the welfare of France was
+bound up with the maintenance of the Conservative Republic. The Assembly
+by a majority of fourteen decided on a course of action that he
+disapproved, and he therefore resigned (May 24, 1873).
+
+It seems that History will justify his appeal to her tribunal. Looking,
+not at the occasional shifts that he used in order to disunite his
+opponents, but rather at the underlying motives that prompted his
+resolve to maintain that form of government which least divided his
+countrymen, posterity has praised his conduct as evincing keen insight
+into the situation, a glowing love for France before which all his
+earliest predilections vanished, and a masterly skill in guiding her
+from the abyss of anarchy, civil war, and bankruptcy that had but
+recently yawned at her feet. Having set her upon the path of safety, he
+now betook himself once more to those historical and artistic studies
+which he loved better than power and office. It is given to few men not
+only to write history but also to make history; yet in both spheres
+Thiers achieved signal success. Some one has dubbed him "the greatest
+little man known to history." Granting even that the paradox is tenable,
+we may still assert that his influence on the life of France exceeded
+that of many of her so-called heroes.
+
+In fact, it would be difficult to point out in any country during the
+Nineteenth Century, since the time of Bonaparte's Consulate, a work of
+political, economic, and social renovation greater than that which went
+on in the two years during which Thiers held the reins of power. Apart
+from the unparalleled feat of paying off the Germans, the Chief of the
+Executive breathed new vigour into the public service, revived national
+spirit in so noteworthy a way as to bring down threats of war from
+German military circles in 1872 (to be repeated more seriously in 1875),
+and placed on the Statute Book two measures of paramount importance.
+These were the reform of Local Government and the Army Bill.
+
+These measures claim a brief notice. The former of them naturally falls
+into two parts, dealing severally with the Commune and the Department.
+These are the two all-important areas in French life. In rural districts
+the Commune corresponds to the English parish; it is the oldest and
+best-defined of all local areas. In urban districts it corresponds with
+the municipality or township. The Revolutionists of 1790 and 1848 had
+sought to apply the principle of manhood suffrage to communal
+government; but their plans were swept away by the ensuing reactions,
+and the dawn of the Third Republic found the Communes, both rural and
+urban, under the control of the _prefets_ and their subordinates. We
+must note here that the office of _prefet_, instituted by Bonaparte in
+1800, was designed to link the local government of the Departments
+closely to the central power: this magistrate, appointed by the
+Executive at Paris, having almost unlimited control over local affairs
+throughout the several Departments. Indeed, it was against the excessive
+centralisation of the prefectorial system that the Parisian Communists
+made their heedless and unmeasured protest. The question having thus
+been thrust to the front, the Assembly brought forward (April 1871) a
+measure authorising the election of Communal Councils elected by every
+adult man who had resided for a year in the Commune. A majority of the
+Assembly wished that the right of choosing mayors should rest with the
+Communal Councils, but Thiers, browbeating the deputies by his favourite
+device of threatening to resign, carried an amendment limiting this
+right to towns of less than 20,000 inhabitants. In the larger towns, and
+in all capitals of Departments, the mayors were to be appointed by the
+central power. Thus the Napoleonic tradition in favour of keeping local
+government under the oversight of officials nominated from Paris was to
+some extent perpetuated even in an avowedly democratic measure.
+
+Paris was to have a Municipal Council composed of eighty members elected
+by manhood suffrage from each ward; but the mayors of the twenty
+_arrondissements_, into which Paris is divided, were, and still are,
+appointed by the State; and here again the control of the police and
+other extensive powers are vested in the _Prefet_ of the Department of
+the Seine, not in the mayors of the _arrondissements_ or the Municipal
+Council. The Municipal or Communal Act of 1871, then, is a
+compromise--on the whole a good working compromise--between the extreme
+demands for local self-government and the Napoleonic tradition, now
+become an instinct with most Frenchmen in favour of central control over
+matters affecting public order[69].
+
+[Footnote 69: On the strength of this instinct see Mr. Bodley's
+excellent work, _France_, vol. i. pp. 32-42. etc. For the Act, see
+Hanotaux _op. cit._ pp. 236-238.]
+
+The matter of Army Reform was equally pressing. Here, again, Thiers had
+the ground cleared before him by a great overturn, like that which
+enabled Bonaparte in his day to remodel France, and the builders of
+Modern Prussia--Stein, Scharnhorst, and Hardenberg--to build up their
+State from its ruins. In particular, the inefficiency of the National
+Guards and of the Garde Mobile made it easy to reconstruct the French
+Army on the system of universal conscription in a regular army, the
+efficiency of which Prussia had so startlingly displayed in the
+campaigns of Koeniggraetz (Sadowa) and Sedan. Thiers, however, had no
+belief in a short service system with its result of a huge force of
+imperfectly trained troops: he clung to the old professional army; and
+when that was shown to be inadequate to the needs of the new age, he
+pleaded that the period of compulsory service should be, not three, but
+five years. On the Assembly demurring to the expense and vital strain
+for the people which this implied, he declared with passionate emphasis
+that he would resign unless the five years were voted. They were voted
+(June 10, 1872). At the same time, the exemptions, so numerous during
+the Second Empire, were curtailed and the right of buying a substitute
+was swept away. After five years' service with the active army were to
+come four years with the reserve of the active army, followed by further
+terms in the territorial army. The favour of one year's service instead
+of five was to be accorded in certain well-defined cases, as, for
+instance, to those who had distinguished themselves at the _Lycees_, or
+highest grade public schools. Such was the law which was published on
+July 27, 1872[70].
+
+[Footnote 70: Hanotaux, _op. cit._ pp. 452-465.]
+
+The sight of a nation taking on itself this heavy blood-tax (heavier
+than that of Germany, where the time of service with the colours was
+only for three years) aroused universal surprise, which beyond the Rhine
+took the form of suspicion that France was planning a war of revenge.
+That feeling grew in intensity in military circles in Berlin three years
+later, as the sequel will show. Undaunted by the thinly-veiled threats
+that came from Germany, France proceeded with the tasks of paying off
+her conquerors and reorganising her own forces; so that Thiers on his
+retirement from office could proudly point to the recovery of French
+credit and prestige after an unexampled overthrow.
+
+In feverish haste, the monarchical majority of the National Assembly
+appointed Marshal MacMahon to the Presidency (May 24, 1873). They soon
+found out, however, the impossibility of founding a monarchy. The Comte
+de Paris, in whom the hopes of the Orleanists centred, went to the
+extreme of self-sacrifice, by visiting the Comte de Chambord, the
+Legitimist "King" of France, and recognising the validity of his claims
+to the throne. But this amiable pliability, while angering very many of
+the Orleanists, failed to move the monarch-designate by one
+hair's-breadth from those principles of divine right against which the
+more liberal monarchists always protested. "Henri V." soon declared that
+he would neither accept any condition nor grant a single guarantee as to
+the character of his future rule. Above all, he declared that he would
+never give up the white flag of the _ancien regime_. In his eyes the
+tricolour, which, shortly after the fall of the Bastille, Louis XVI. had
+recognised as the flag of France, represented the spirit of the Great
+Revolution, and for that great event he had the deepest loathing. As if
+still further to ruin his cause, the Count announced his intention of
+striving with all his might for the restoration of the Temporal Power of
+the Pope. It is said that the able Bishop of Orleans, Mgr. Dupanloup, on
+reading one of the letters by which the Comte de Chambord nailed the
+white flag to the mast, was driven to exclaim, "There! That makes the
+Republic! Poor France! All is lost."
+
+Thus the attempts at fusion of the two monarchical parties had only
+served to expose the weaknesses of their position and to warn France of
+the probable results of a monarchical restoration. That the country had
+well learnt the lesson appeared in the bye-elections, which in nearly
+every case went in favour of Republican candidates. Another event that
+happened early in 1873 further served to justify Thiers' contention that
+the Republic was the only possible form of government. On January 9,
+Napoleon III. died of the internal disease which for seven years past
+had been undermining his strength. His son, the Prince Imperial, was at
+present far too young to figure as a claimant to the throne.
+
+It is also an open secret that Bismarck worked hard to prevent all
+possibility of a royalist Restoration; and when the German ambassador at
+Paris, Count Arnim, opposed his wishes in this matter, he procured his
+recall and subjected him to a State prosecution. In fact, Bismarck
+believed that under a Republic France would be powerless in war, and,
+further, that she could never form that alliance with Russia which was
+the bugbear of his later days. A Russian diplomatist once told the Duc
+de Broglie that the kind of Republic which Bismarck wanted to see in
+France was "_une Republique dissolvante_."
+
+Everything therefore concurred to postpone the monarchical question, and
+to prolong the informal truce which Thiers had been the first to bring
+about. Accordingly, in the month of November, the Assembly extended the
+Presidency of Marshal MacMahon to seven years--a period therefore known
+as the Septennate.
+
+Having now briefly shown the causes of the helplessness of the
+monarchical majority in the matter that it had most nearly at heart, we
+must pass over subsequent events save as they refer to that crowning
+paradox--the establishment of a Republican Constitution. This was due to
+the despair felt by many of the Orleanists of seeing a restoration
+during the lifetime of the Comte de Chambord, and to the alarm felt by
+all sections of the monarchists at the activity and partial success of
+the Bonapartists, who in the latter part of 1874 captured a few seats.
+Seeking above all things to keep out a Bonaparte, they did little to
+hinder the formation of a Constitution which all of them looked on as
+provisional. In fact, they adopted the policy of marking time until the
+death of the Comte de Chambord--whose hold on life proved to be no less
+tenacious than on his creed--should clear up the situation. Accordingly,
+after many diplomatic delays, the Committee which in 1873 had been
+charged to draw up the Constitution, presented its plan, which took form
+in the organic laws of February 25, 1875. They may be thus summarised:--
+
+The Legislature consists of two Assemblies--the Chamber of Deputies and
+the Senate, the former being elected by "universal" (or, more properly,
+_manhood_) suffrage. The composition of the Senate, as determined by a
+later law, lies with electoral bodies in each of the Departments; these
+bodies consist of the national deputies for that Department, the members
+of their General Councils and District Councils, and delegates from the
+Municipal Councils. Senators are elected for nine years; deputies to the
+Chamber of Deputies for four years. The President of the Republic is
+chosen by the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies sitting together for
+that purpose. He is chosen for seven years and is eligible for
+re-election; he is responsible to the Chambers only in case of high
+treason; he enjoys, conjointly with the members of the two Chambers, the
+right of proposing laws; he promulgates them when passed and supervises
+their execution; he disposes of the armed forces of France and has the
+right of pardon formerly vested in the Kings of France. Conformably to
+the advice of the Senate he may dissolve the Chamber of Deputies. Each
+Chamber may initiate proposals for laws, save that financial measures
+rest solely with the Chamber of Deputies.
+
+The Chambers may decide that the Constitution shall be revised. In that
+case, they meet together, as a National Assembly, to carry out such
+revision, which is determined by the bare majority. Each
+_arrondissement_, or district of a Department, elects one deputy. From
+1885 to 1889 the elections were decided by each Department on a list,
+but since that time the earlier plan has been revived. We may also add
+that the seat of government was fixed at Versailles; four years later
+this was altered in favour of Paris, but certain of the most important
+functions, such as the election of a new President, take place at
+Versailles.
+
+Taken as a whole, this Constitution was a clever compromise between the
+democratic and autocratic principles of government. Having its roots in
+manhood suffrage, it delegated very extensive powers to the head of the
+State. These powers are especially noteworthy if we compare them with
+those of the Ministry. The President commissions such and such a senator
+or deputy to form a Ministry (not necessarily representing the opinions
+of the majority of the Chambers); and that Ministry is responsible to
+the Chambers for the execution of laws and the general policy of the
+Government; but the President is not responsible to the Chambers, save
+in the single and very exceptional case of high treason to the State.
+Obviously, the Assembly wished to keep up the autocratic traditions of
+the past as well as to leave open the door for a revision of the
+Constitution at any time favourable to the monarchical cause. That this
+Constitution did not pave the way for the monarchy was due to several
+causes. Some we have named above.
+
+Another and perhaps a final cause was the unwillingness or inability of
+Marshal MacMahon to bring matters to the test of force. Actuated,
+perhaps, by motives similar to those which kept the Duke of Wellington
+from pushing matters to an extreme in England in 1831, the Marshal
+refused to carry out a _coup d'etat_ against the Republican majority
+sent up to the Chamber of Deputies by the General Election of January
+1876. Once or twice he seemed on the point of using force. Thus, in May
+1877, he ventured to dissolve the Chamber of Deputies; but the
+Republican party, led by the impetuous Gambetta, appealed to the country
+with decisive results. That orator's defiant challenge to the Marshal,
+either to submit or to resign (_se soumettre ou se demettre_) was taken
+up by France, with the result that nearly all the Republican deputies
+were re-elected. The President recognised the inevitable, and in
+December of that year charged M. Dufaure to form a Ministry that
+represented the Republican majority. In January 1879 even, some
+senatorial elections went against the President, and he accordingly
+resigned, January 30, 1879.
+
+In the year 1887 the Republic seemed for a time to be in danger owing
+to the intrigues of the Minister for War, General Boulanger. Making
+capital out of the difficulties of France, the financial scandals
+brought home to President Grevy, and his own popularity with the army,
+the General seemed to be preparing a _coup d'etat_. The danger increased
+when the Ministry had to resign office (May 1887). A "National party"
+was formed, consisting of monarchists, Bonapartists, clericals, and even
+some crotchety socialists--in fact, of all who hoped to make capital out
+of the fell of the Parliamentary regime. The malcontents called for a
+plebiscite as to the form of government, hoping by these means to thrust
+in Boulanger as dictator to pave the way for the Comte de Paris up to
+the throne of France. After a prolonged crisis, the scheme ignominiously
+collapsed at the first show of vigour on the Republican side. When the
+new Floquet Ministry summoned Boulanger to appear before the High Court
+of Justice, he fled to Belgium, and shortly afterwards committed
+suicide.
+
+The chief feature of French political life, if one reviews it in its
+broad outlines, is the increase of stability. When we remember that that
+veteran opportunist, Talleyrand, on taking the oath of allegiance to the
+new Constitution of 1830, could say, "It is the thirteenth," and that no
+regime after that period lasted longer than eighteen years, we shall be
+chary of foretelling the speedy overthrow of the Third Republic at any
+and every period of Ministerial crisis or political ferment. Certainly
+the Republic has seen Ministries made and unmade in bewilderingly quick
+succession; but these are at most superficial changes--the real work of
+administration being done by the hierarchy of permanent officials first
+established by the great Napoleon. Even so terrible an event as the
+murder of President Sadi Carnot (June 1894) produced none of the fatal
+events that British alarmists confidently predicted. M. Casimir Perier
+was quietly elected and ruled firmly. The same may be said of his
+successors, MM. Faure and Loubet. Sensible, businesslike men of
+bourgeois origin, they typify the new France that has grown up since
+the age when military adventurers could keep their heels on her neck
+provided that they crowned her brow with laurels. That age would seem to
+have passed for ever away. A well-known adage says: "It is the
+unexpected that happens in French politics." To forecast their course is
+notoriously unsafe in that land of all lands. That careful and sagacious
+student of French life, Mr. Bodley, believes that the nation at heart
+dislikes the prudent tameness of Parliamentary rule, and that "the day
+will come when no power will prevent France from hailing a hero of her
+choice[71]."
+
+[Footnote 71: Mr. Bodley, _France_, vol. i. _ad fin_.]
+
+Doubtless the advent of a Napoleon the Great would severely test the
+qualities of prudence and patience that have gained strength under the
+shelter of democratic institutions. Yet it must always be remembered
+that Democracy has until now never had a fair chance in France. The
+bright hopes of 1789 faded away ten years later amidst the glamour of
+military glory. As for the Republic of 1848, it scarcely outlived the
+troubles of infancy. The Third Republic, on the other hand, has attained
+to manhood. It has met and overcome very many difficulties; at the
+outset parts of two valued provinces and a vast sum of treasure were
+torn away. In those early days of weakness it also crushed a serious
+revolt. The intrigues of Monarchists and Bonapartists were foiled.
+Hardest task of all, the natural irritation of Frenchmen at playing a
+far smaller part in the world was little by little allayed.
+
+In spite of these difficulties, the Third Republic has now lasted a
+quarter of a century. That is to say, it rests on the support of a
+generation which has gradually become accustomed to representative
+institutions--an advantage which its two predecessors did not enjoy. The
+success of institutions depends in the last resort on the character of
+those who work them; and the testimony of all observers is that the
+character of Frenchmen has slowly but surely changed in the direction
+which Thiers pointed out in the dark days of February 1871 as offering
+the only means of a sound national revival--"Yes: I believe in the
+future of France: I believe in it, but on condition that we have good
+sense; that we no longer use mere words as the current coin of our
+speech, but that under words we shall place realities; that we have not
+only good sense, but good sense endowed with courage."
+
+These are the qualities that have built up the France of to-day. The toil
+has been enormous, and it has been doubled by the worries and
+disappointments incident to Parliamentarism when grafted on to a
+semi-military bureaucracy; but the toil and the disappointments have
+played their part in purging the French nature of the frothy
+sensationalism and eager irresponsibility that naturally resulted from
+the Imperialism of the two Napoleons. France seems to be outgrowing the
+stage of hobble-de-hoyish ventures, military or communistic, and to have
+taken on the staid, sober, and self-respecting mien of manhood--a
+process helped on by the burdens of debt and conscription resulting from
+her juvenile escapades. In a word, she has attained to a full sense of
+responsibility. No longer are her constructive powers hopelessly
+outmatched by her critical powers. In the political sphere she has found
+a due balance between the brain and the hand. From analysis she has
+worked her way to synthesis.
+
+
+NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION
+
+The following are the Ministries of the Republic in 1870-1900:--1870,
+Favre; 1871, Dufaure (1); 1873, De Broglie (1); 1874, Cissey; 1875,
+Buffet; 1876, Dufaure (2); 1876, Simon; 1877, De Broglie (2); 1877, De
+Rochebouet; 1877, Dufaure (3); 1879, Waddington; 1879, Freycinet (1);
+1880, Ferry (1); 1881, Gambetta; 1882, Freycinet (2); 1882, Duclerc;
+1883, Fallieres; 1883, Ferry (2); 1885, Brisson; 1886, Freycinet (3);
+1886, Goblet; 1887, Rouvier; 1887, Tirard (1); 1888, Floquet; 1889,
+Tirard (2); 1890, Freycinet (4); 1892, Loubet; 1892, Ribot (1); 1892,
+Dupuy (1); 1893, Casimir Perier; 1894, Dupuy (2); 1895, Ribot (2); 1895,
+Bourgeois; 1896, Meline; 1898, Brisson; 1898 Dupuy (3); 1899,
+Waldeck-Rousseau.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE GERMAN EMPIRE
+
+     "From the very beginning of my career my sole guiding-star
+     has been how to unify Germany, and, that being achieved, how
+     to strengthen, complete, and so constitute her unification
+     that it may be preserved enduringly and with the goodwill of
+     all concerned in it."--BISMARCK: Speech in the North German
+     Reichstag, July 9, 1869.
+
+
+On the 18th of January 1871, while the German cannon were still
+thundering against Paris, a ceremony of world-wide import occurred in
+the Palace of the Kings of France at Versailles. King William of Prussia
+was proclaimed German Emperor. The scene lacked no element that could
+appeal to the historic imagination. It took place in the Mirror Hall,
+where all that was brilliant in the life of the old French monarchy used
+to encircle the person of Louis XIV. And now, long after that dynasty
+had passed away, and when the crown of the last of the Corsican
+adventurers had but recently fallen beneath the feet of the Parisians,
+the descendant of the Prussian Hohenzollerns celebrated the advent to
+the German people of that unity for which their patriots had vainly
+struggled for centuries.
+
+The men who had won this long-deferred boon were of no common stamp.
+King William himself, as is now shown by the publication of many of his
+letters to Bismarck, had played a far larger share in the making of a
+united Germany than was formerly believed. His plain good sense and
+unswerving fortitude had many times marked out the path of safety and
+kept his country therein. The policy of the Army Bill of 1860, which
+brought salvation to Prussia in spite of her Parliament, was wholly his.
+Bismarck's masterful grip of the helm of State in and after 1862 helped
+to carry out that policy, just as von Roon's organising ability
+perfected the resulting military machine; but its prime author was the
+King, who now stood triumphant in the hall of his ancestral foes. Beside
+and behind him on the dais, in front of the colours of all the German
+States, were the chief princes of Germany--witnesses to the strength of
+the national sentiment which the wars against the First Napoleon had
+called forth, and the struggle with the nephew had now brought to
+maturity. Among their figures one might note the stalwart form of the
+Crown Prince, along with other members of the House of Prussia; the
+Grand Duke of Baden, son-in-law of the Prussian King; the Crown Prince
+of Saxony, and representatives of every reigning family of Germany.
+Still more remarkable were some of the men grouped before the King and
+princes. There was the thin war-worn face of Moltke; there, too, the
+sturdy figure of Bismarck: the latter, wrote Dr. Russell, "looking pale,
+but calm and self-possessed, elevated, as it were, by some internal
+force[72]."
+
+[Footnote 72: Quoted by C. Lowe, _Life of Bismarck_, vol. i. p. 615.]
+
+The King announced the re-establishment of the German Empire; and those
+around must have remembered that that venerable institution (which
+differed so widely from the present one that the word "re-establishment"
+was really misleading) had vanished but sixty-four years before at the
+behests of the First Napoleon. Next, Bismarck read the Kaiser's
+proclamation, stating his sense of duty to the German nation and his
+hope that, within new and stronger boundaries, which would guarantee
+them against attacks from France, they would enjoy peace and prosperity.
+The Grand Duke of Baden then called for three cheers for the Emperor,
+which were given with wild enthusiasm, and were taken up by the troops
+far round the iron ring that encircled Paris.
+
+Few events in history so much impress one, at first sight, with a sense
+of strength, spontaneity, and inevitableness. And yet, as more is known
+of the steps that led up to the closer union of the German States, that
+feeling is disagreeably warped. Even then it was known that Bavaria and
+Wuertemberg strongly objected to the closer form of union desired by the
+northern patriots, which would have reduced the secondary States to
+complete dependence on the federal Government. Owing to the great
+reluctance of the Bavarian Government and people to give up the control
+of their railways, posts and telegraphs, these were left at their
+disposal, the two other Southern States keeping the direction of the
+postal and telegraphic services in time of peace. Bavaria and Wuertemberg
+likewise reserved the control of their armed forces, though in case of
+war they were to be placed at the disposal of the Emperor--arrangements
+which also hold good for the Saxon forces. In certain legal and fiscal
+matters Bavaria also bargained for freedom of action.
+
+What was not known then, and has leaked out in more or less authentic
+ways, was the dislike, not only of most of the Bavarian people, but also
+of its Government, to the whole scheme of imperial union. It is certain
+that the letter which King Louis finally wrote to his brother princes to
+propose that union was originally drafted by Bismarck; and rumour
+asserts, on grounds not to be lightly dismissed, that the opposition of
+King Louis was not withdrawn until the Bavarian Court favourite, Count
+Holstein, came to Versailles and left it, not only with Bismarck's
+letter, but also with a considerable sum of money for his royal master
+and himself. Probably, however, the assent of the Bavarian monarch, who
+not many years after became insane, was helped by the knowledge that if
+he did not take the initiative, it would pass to the Grand Duke of
+Baden, an ardent champion of German unity.
+
+Whatever may be the truth as to this, there can be no doubt as to the
+annoyance felt by Roman Catholic Bavaria and Protestant democratic
+Wuertemberg at accepting the supremacy of the Prussian bureaucracy. This
+doubtless explains why Bismarck was so anxious to hurry through the
+negotiations, first, for the imperial union, and thereafter for the
+conclusion of peace with France.
+
+Even in a seemingly small matter he had met with much opposition, this
+time from his master. The aged monarch clung to the title King of
+Prussia; but if the title of Emperor was a political necessity, he
+preferred the title "Emperor of Germany"; nevertheless, the Chancellor
+tactfully but firmly pointed out that this would imply a kind of feudal
+over-lordship of all German lands, and that the title "German Emperor",
+as that of chief of the nation, was far preferable. In the end the King
+yielded, but he retained a sore feeling against his trusted servant for
+some time on this matter. It seems that at one time he even thought of
+abdicating in favour of his son rather than "see the Prussian title
+supplanted[73]." However, he soon showed his gratitude for the immense
+services rendered by Bismarck to the Fatherland. On his next birthday
+(March 22) he raised the Chancellor to the rank of Prince and appointed
+him Chancellor of the Empire.
+
+[Footnote 73: E. Marcks, _Kaiser Wilhelm I._ (Leipzig, 1900), pp.
+337-343.]
+
+It will be well to give here an outline of the Imperial Constitution. In
+all essentials it was an extension, with few changes, of the North
+German federal compact of the year 1866. It applied to the twenty-five
+States of Germany--inclusive, that is, of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck,
+but exclusive, for the present, of Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine).
+In those areas imperial law takes precedence of local law (save in a few
+specially reserved cases for Bavaria and the Free Cities). The same laws
+of citizenship hold good in all parts of the Empire. The Empire controls
+these laws, the issuing of passports, surveillance of foreigners and of
+manufactures, likewise matters relating to emigration and colonisation.
+Commerce, customs dues, weights and measures, coinage, banking
+regulations, patents, the consular service abroad, and matters relating
+to navigation also fall under its control. Railways, posts and
+telegraphs (with the exceptions noted above) are subject to imperial
+supervision, the importance of which during the war had been so
+abundantly manifested.
+
+The King of Prussia is _ipso facto_ German Emperor. He represents the
+Empire among foreign nations; he has the right to declare war, conclude
+peace, and frame alliances; but the consent of the Federal Council
+(Bundesrath) is needed for the declaration of war in the name of the
+Empire. The Emperor convenes, adjourns, and closes the sessions of the
+Federal Council and the Imperial Diet (Reichstag). They are convened
+every year. The Chancellor of the Empire presides in the Federal Council
+and supervises the conduct of its business. Proposals of laws are laid
+before the Reichstag in accordance with the resolutions of the Federal
+Council, and are supported by members of that Council. To the Emperor
+belongs the right of preparing and publishing the laws of the Empire:
+they must be passed by the Bundesrath and Reichstag, and then receive
+the assent of the Kaiser. They are then countersigned by the Chancellor,
+who thereby becomes responsible for their due execution.
+
+The members of the Bundesrath are appointed by the Federal Governments:
+they are sixty-two in number, and now include those from the Reichstand
+of Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine)[74]
+
+[Footnote 74: Up to 1874 the government of Alsace-Lorraine was vested
+solely in the Emperor and Chancellor. In 1874 the conquered lands
+returned deputies to the Reichstag. In October 1879 they gained local
+representative institutions, but under the strict control of the
+Governor, Marshal von Manteuffel. This control has since been relaxed,
+the present administration being quasi-constitutional.]
+
+The Prussian Government nominates seventeen members; Bavaria six; Saxony
+and Wuertemburg and Alsace-Lorraine four each; and so on. The Bundesrath
+is presided over by the Imperial Chancellor. At the beginning of each
+yearly session it appoints eleven standing committees to deal with the
+following matters: (1) Army and fortifications; (2) the Navy; (3)
+tariff, excise, and taxes; (4) commerce and trade; (5) railways, posts
+and telegraphs; (6) civil and criminal law; (7) financial accounts; (8)
+foreign affairs; (9) Alsace-Lorraine; (10) the Imperial Constitution;
+(11) Standing Orders. Each committee is presided over by a chairman. In
+each committee at least four States of the Empire must be represented,
+and each State is entitled only to one vote. To this rule there are two
+modifications in the case of the committees on the army and on foreign
+affairs. In the former of these Bavaria has a permanent seat, while the
+Emperor appoints the other three members from as many States: in the
+latter case, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Wuertemberg only are
+represented. The Bundesrath takes action on the measures to be proposed
+to the Reichstag and the resolutions passed by that body; it also
+supervises the execution of laws, and may point out any defects in the
+laws or in their execution.
+
+The members of the Reichstag, or Diet, are elected by universal (more
+properly _manhood_) suffrage and by direct secret ballot, in proportion
+to the population of the several States[75]. On the average, each of the
+397 members represents rather more than 100,000 of the population. The
+proceedings of the Reichstag are public; it has the right (concurrently
+with those wielded by the Emperor and the Bundesrath) to propose laws
+for the Empire. It sits for three years, but may be dissolved by a
+resolution of the Bundesrath, with the consent of the Emperor. Deputies
+may not be bound by orders and instructions issued by their
+constituents. They are not paid.
+
+[Footnote 75: Bismarck said in a speech to the Reichstag, on September
+16, 1878: "I accepted universal suffrage, but with repugnance, as a
+Frankfurt tradition."]
+
+As has been noted above, important matters such as railway management,
+so far as it relates to the harmonious and effective working of the
+existing systems, and the construction of new lines needful for the
+welfare and the defence of Germany, are under the Control of the
+Empire--except in the case of Bavaria. The same holds good of posts and
+telegraphs except in the Southern States. Railway companies are bound to
+convey troops and warlike stores at uniform reduced rates. In fact, the
+Imperial Government controls the fares of all lines subject to its
+supervision, and has ordered the reduction of freightage for coal, coke,
+minerals, wood, stone, manure, etc., for long distances, "as demanded by
+the interests of agriculture and industry." In case of dearth, the
+railway companies can be compelled to forward food supplies at specially
+low rates.
+
+Further, with respect to military affairs, the central authority
+exercises a very large measure of control over the federated States. All
+German troops swear the oath of allegiance to the Emperor. He appoints
+all commanders of fortresses; the power of building fortresses within
+the Empire is also vested in him; he determines the strength of the
+contingents of the federated States, and in the last case may appoint
+their commanding officers; he may even proclaim martial law in any
+portion of the Empire, if public security demands it. The Prussian
+military code applies to all parts of the Empire (save to Bavaria,
+Wuertemberg, and Saxony in time of peace); and the military organisation
+is everywhere of the same general description, especially as regards
+length of service, character of the drill, and organisation in corps and
+regiments. Every German, unless physically unfit, is subject to military
+duty and cannot shift the burden on a substitute. He must serve for
+seven years in the standing army: that is, three years in the field army
+and four in the reserve; thereafter he takes his place in the
+Landwehr[76].
+
+[Footnote 76: The three years are shortened to one year for those who
+have taken a high place in the Gymnasia (highest of the public schools);
+they feed and equip themselves and are termed "volunteers." Conscription
+is the rule on the coasts for service in the German Navy. For the text
+of the Imperial Constitution, see Lowe, _Life of Bismarck_, vol.
+ii. App. F.]
+
+The secondary States are protected in one important respect. The last
+proviso of the Imperial Constitution stipulates that any proposal to
+modify it shall fail if fourteen, or more, votes are cast against it in
+the Federal Council. This implies that Bavaria, Wuertemberg, and Saxony,
+if they vote together, can prevent any change detrimental to their
+interests. On the whole, the new system is less centralised than that of
+the North German Confederation had been; and many of the Prussian
+Liberals, with whom the Crown Prince of Prussia very decidedly ranged
+himself on this question, complained that the government was more
+federal than ever, and that far too much had been granted to the
+particularist prejudices of the Southern States[77]. To all these
+objections Bismarck could unanswerably reply that it was far better to
+gain this great end without bitterness, even if the resulting compact
+were in some respects faulty, than to force on the Southern States a
+more logically perfect system that would perpetuate the sore feeling
+of the past.
+
+[Footnote 77: J.W. Headlam, _Bismarck_, p. 367.]
+
+Such in its main outlines is the new Constitution of Germany. On the
+whole, it has worked well. That it has fulfilled all the expectations
+aroused in that year of triumph and jubilation will surprise no one who
+knows that absolute and lasting success is attained only in Utopias,
+never in practical politics. In truth, the suddenness with which German
+unity was finally achieved was in itself a danger.
+
+The English reader will perhaps find it hard to realise this until he
+remembers that the whole course of recorded history shows us the Germans
+politically disunited, or for the most part engaged in fratricidal
+strifes. When they first came within the ken of the historians of
+Ancient Rome, they were a set of warring tribes who banded together only
+under the pressure of overwhelming danger; and such was to be their fate
+for well-nigh two thousand years. Their union under the vigorous rule of
+the great Frankish chief whom the French call Charlemagne, was at best
+nominal and partial. The Holy Roman Empire, which he founded in the year
+800 by a mystically vague compact with the Pope, was never a close bond
+of union, even in his stern and able hands. Under his weak successors
+that imposing league rarely promoted peace among its peoples, while the
+splendour of its chief elective dignity not seldom conduced to war.
+Next, feudalism came in as a strong political solvent, and thus for
+centuries Germany crumbled and mouldered away, until disunion seemed to
+be the fate of her richest lands, and particularism became a rooted
+instinct of her princes, burghers, and peasants. Then again South was
+arrayed against North during and long after the time of the Reformation;
+when the strife of creeds was stayed, the rivalry of the Houses of
+Hapsburg and Hohenzollern added another cause of hatred.
+
+As a matter of fact, it was reserved for the two Napoleons, uncle and
+nephew, to force those divided peoples to comradeship in arms. The close
+of the campaign of 1813 and that of 1814 saw North and South, Prussians
+and Austrians, for the first time fighting heartily shoulder to shoulder
+in a great war--for that of 1792-94 had only served to show their rooted
+suspicion and inner hostility. Owing to reasons that cannot be stated
+here, the peace of 1814-15 led up to no effective union: it even
+perpetuated the old dualism of interests. But once more the hostility of
+France under a Napoleon strengthened the impulse to German
+consolidation, and on this occasion there was at hand a man who had
+carefully prepared the way for an abiding form of political union; his
+diplomatic campaign of the last seven years had secured Russia's
+friendship and consequently Austria's reluctant neutrality; as for the
+dislike of the Southern States to unite with the North, that feeling
+waned for a few weeks amidst the enthusiasm caused by the German
+triumphs. The opportunity was unexampled: it had not occurred even in
+1814; it might never occur again; and it was certain to pass away when
+the war fever passed by. How wise, then, to strike while the iron was
+hot! The smaller details of the welding process were infinitely less
+important than the welding itself.
+
+One last consideration remains. If the opportunity was unexampled, so
+also were the statesmanlike qualities of the man who seized it. The more
+that we know concerning the narrowly Prussian feelings of King William,
+the centralising pedantry of the Crown Prince of Prussia, and the petty
+particularism of the Governments of Bavaria and Wuertemberg, the more
+does the figure of Bismarck stand out as that of the one great statesman
+of his country and era. However censurable much of his conduct may be,
+his action in working up to and finally consummating German unity at the
+right psychological moment stands out as one of the greatest feats of
+statesmanship which history records.
+
+But obviously a wedded life which had been preceded by no wooing, over
+whose nuptials Mars shed more influence than Venus, could not be
+expected to run a wholly smooth course. In fact, this latest instance in
+ethnical lore of marriage by capture has on the whole led to a more
+harmonious result than was to be expected. Possibly, if we could lift
+the veil of secrecy which is wisely kept drawn over the weightiest
+proceedings of the Bundesrath and its committees, the scene would appear
+somewhat different. As it is, we can refer here only to some questions
+of outstanding importance the details of which are fairly well known.
+
+The first of these which subjected the new Empire to any serious strain
+was a sharp religious struggle against the new claims of the Roman
+Catholic hierarchy. Without detailing the many causes of friction that
+sprang up between the new Empire and the Roman Catholic Church, we may
+state that most of them had their roots in the activity shown by that
+Church among the Poles of Prussian Poland (Posen), and also in the dogma
+of Papal infallibility. Decreed by the Oecumenical Council at Rome on
+the very eve of the outbreak of the Franco-German War, it seemed to be
+part and parcel of that forward Jesuit policy which was working for the
+overthrow of the chief Protestant States. Many persons--among them
+Bismarck[78]--claimed that the Empress Eugenie's hatred of Prussia and
+the warlike influence which she is said to have exerted on Napoleon III.
+on that critical day, July 14, 1870, were prompted by Jesuitical
+intrigues. However that may be (and it is a matter on which no
+fair-minded man will dogmatise until her confidential papers see the
+light) there is little doubt that the Pope at Rome and the Roman
+hierarchy among the Catholics of Central and Eastern Europe did their
+best to prevent German unity and to introduce elements of discord. The
+dogma of the infallibility of the Pope in matters of faith and doctrine
+was itself a cause of strife. Many of the more learned and moderate of
+the German Catholics had protested against the new dogma, and some of
+these "Old Catholics", as they were called, tried to avoid teaching it
+in the Universities and schools. Their bishops, however, insisted that
+it should be taught, placed some recalcitrants under the lesser ban, and
+deprived them of their posts.
+
+[Footnote 78: Busch, _Our Chancellor_, vol i. p. 139, where he quotes a
+conversation of Bismarck of Nov. 1883. On the Roman Catholic policy in
+Posen, see _ibid_. pp. 143-145.]
+
+When these high-handed proceedings were extended even to the schools,
+the Prussian Government intervened, and early in 1872 passed a law
+ordaining that all school inspectors should be appointed by the King's
+Government at Berlin. This greatly irritated the Roman Catholic
+hierarchy and led up to aggressive acts on both sides, the German
+Reichstag taking up the matter and decreeing the exclusion of the
+Jesuits from all priestly and scholastic duties of whatever kind within
+the Empire (July 1872). The strife waxed ever fiercer. When the Roman
+Catholic bishops of Germany persisted in depriving "Old Catholics" of
+professorial and other charges, the central Government retorted by the
+famous "May Laws" of 1873. The first of these forbade the Roman Catholic
+Church to intervene in civil affairs in any way, or to coerce officials
+and citizens of the Empire. The second required of all ministers of
+religion that they should have passed the final examination at a High
+School, and also should have studied theology for three years at a
+German University: it further subjected all seminaries to State
+inspection. The third accorded fuller legal protection to dissidents
+from the various creeds.
+
+This anti-clerical policy is known as the "Kultur-Kampf", a term that
+denotes a struggle for civilisation against the forces of reaction. For
+some years the strife was of the sharpest kind. The Roman Catholic
+bishops continued to ban the "Old Catholics", while the State refused to
+recognise any act of marriage or christening performed by clerics who
+disobeyed the new laws. The logical sequel to this was obvious, namely,
+that the State should insist on the religious ceremony of marriage
+being supplemented by a civil contract[79]. Acts to render this
+compulsory were first passed by the Prussian Landtag late in 1873 and by
+the German Reichstag in 1875.
+
+[Footnote 79: Lowe, _Life of Bismarck_, vol. ii. p. 336, note.]
+
+It would be alike needless and tedious to detail the further stages of
+this bitter controversy, especially as several of the later "May Laws"
+have been repealed. We may, however, note its significance in the
+development of parties. Many of the Prussian nobles and squires (Junkers
+the latter were called) joined issue with Bismarck on the Civil Marriage
+Act, and this schism weakened Bismarck's long alliance with the
+Conservative party. He enjoyed, however, the enthusiastic support of the
+powerful National Liberal party, as well as the Imperialist and
+Progressive groups. Differing on many points of detail, these parties
+aimed at strengthening the fabric of the central power, and it was with
+their aid in the Reichstag that the new institutions of Germany were
+planted and took root. The General Election of 1874 sent up as many as
+155 National Liberals, and they, with the other groups just named, gave
+the Government a force of 240 votes--a good working majority as long as
+Bismarck's aims were of a moderately Liberal character. This, however,
+was not always the case even in 1874-79, when he needed their alliance.
+His demand for a permanently large military establishment alienated his
+allies in 1874, and they found it hard to satisfy the requirements of
+his exacting and rigorous nature.
+
+The harshness of the "May Laws" also caused endless friction. Out of
+some 10,000 Roman Catholic priests in Prussia (to which kingdom alone
+the severest of these laws applied) only about thirty bowed the knee to
+the State. In 800 parishes the strife went so far that all religious
+services came to an end. In the year 1875, fines amounting to 28,000
+marks (L2800) were imposed, and 103 clerics or their supporters were
+expelled from the Empire[80]. Clearly this state of things could not
+continue without grave danger to the Empire; for the Church held on her
+way with her usual doggedness, strengthened by the "protesting" deputies
+from the Reichsland on the south-west, from Hanover (where the Guelph
+feeling was still uppermost), as well as those from Polish Posen and
+Danish Schleswig. Bismarck and the anti-clerical majority of the
+Reichstag scorned any thoughts of surrender. Yet, slowly but surely,
+events at the Vatican and in Germany alike made for compromise. In
+February 1878, Pope Pius IX. passed away. That unfortunate pontiff had
+never ceased to work against the interests of Prussia and Germany, while
+his encyclicals since 1873 mingled threats of defiance of the May Laws
+with insults against Prince Bismarck. His successor, Leo XIII.
+(1878-1903), showed rather more disposition to come to a compromise, and
+that, too, at a time when Bismarck's new commercial policy made the
+support of the Clerical Centre in the Reichstag peculiarly acceptable.
+
+[Footnote 80: Busch, _Our Chancellor_, vol. i. p. 122, quotes speeches
+of his hero to prove that Bismarck himself disliked this Civil Marriage
+Law. "From the political point of view I have convinced myself that the
+State . . . is constrained by the dictates of self-defence to enact this
+law in order to avert from a portion of His Majesty's subjects the evils
+with which they are menaced by the Bishops' rebellion against the laws
+and the State" (Speech of Jan. 17, 1873). In 1849 he had opposed civil
+marriage.]
+
+Bismarck's resolve to give up the system of Free Trade, or rather of
+light customs dues, adopted by Prussia and the German Zollverein in
+1865, is so momentous a fact in the economic history of the modern
+world, that we must here give a few facts which will enable the reader
+to understand the conditions attending German commerce up to the years
+1878-79, when the great change came. The old order of things in Prussia,
+as in all German States, was strongly protective--in fact, to such an
+extent as often to prevent the passing of the necessaries of life from
+one little State to its Lilliputian neighbours. The rise of the national
+idea in Germany during the wars against the great Napoleon led to a more
+enlightened system, especially for Prussia. The Prussian law of 1818
+asserted the principle of imposing customs dues for revenue purposes,
+but taxed foreign products to a moderate extent. On this basis she
+induced neighbouring small German States to join her in a Customs Union
+(Zollverein), which gradually extended, until by 1836 it included all
+the States of the present Empire except the two Mecklenburgs, the Elbe
+Duchies, and the three Free Cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Luebeck. That
+is to say, the attractive force of the highly developed Prussian State
+practically unified Germany for purposes of trade and commerce, and
+that, too, thirty-eight years before political union was achieved.
+
+This, be it observed, was on condition of internal Free Trade, but of
+moderate duties being levied on foreign products. Up to 1840 these
+import duties were on the whole reduced; after that date a protectionist
+reaction set in; it was checked, however, by the strong wave of Free
+Trade feeling which swept over Europe after the victory of that
+principle in England in 1846-49. Of the new champions of Free Trade on
+the Continent, the foremost in point of time was Cavour, for that
+kingdom of Sardinia on which he built the foundations of a regenerated
+and united Italy. Far more important, however, was the victory which
+Cobden won in 1859-60 by inducing Napoleon III. to depart from the
+almost prohibitive system then in vogue in France. The Anglo-French
+Commercial Treaty of January 1860 seemed to betoken the speedy
+conversion of the world to the enlightened policy of unfettered exchange
+of all its products. In 1862 and 1865 the German Zollverein followed
+suit, relaxing duties on imported articles and manufactured goods--a
+process which was continued in its commercial treaties and tariff
+changes of the years 1868 and 1869.
+
+At this time Bismarck's opinions on fiscal matters were somewhat vague.
+He afterwards declared that he held Free Trade to be altogether false.
+But in this as in other matters he certainly let his convictions be
+shaped by expediency. Just before the conclusion of peace with France he
+so far approximated to Free Trade as to insist that the Franco-German
+Commercial Treaty of 1862, which the war had of course abrogated--- war
+puts an end to all treaties between the States directly engaged--should
+now be again regarded as in force and as holding good up to the year
+1887[81]. He even stated that he "would rather begin again the war of
+cannon-balls than expose himself to a war of tariffs." France and
+Germany, therefore, agreed to place one another permanently on "the most
+favoured nation" footing. Yet this same man, who so much desired to keep
+down the Franco-German tariff, was destined eight years later to
+initiate a protectionist policy which set back the cause of Free Trade
+for at least a generation.
+
+[Footnote 81: For that treaty, and Austria's desire in 1862 to enter the
+German Zollverein, see _The Diplomatic Reminiscences of Lord A. Loftus,
+_vol. ii. pp. 250-251.]
+
+What brought about this momentous change? To answer this fully would
+take up a long chapter. We can only glance at the chief forces then at
+work. Firstly, Germany, after the year 1873, passed through a severe and
+prolonged economic crisis. It was largely due to the fever of
+speculation induced by the incoming of the French milliards into a land
+where gold had been none too plentiful. Despite the efforts of the
+German Government to hold back a large part of the war indemnity for
+purposes of military defence and substantial enterprises, the people
+imagined themselves to be suddenly rich. Prices rapidly rose,
+extravagant habits spread in all directions, and in the years 1872-73
+company-promoting attained to the rank of a fine art, with the result
+that sober, hard-working Germany seemed to be almost another England at
+the time of the South Sea Bubble. Alluding to this time, Busch said to
+Bismarck early in 1887: "In the long-run the [French] milliards were no
+blessing, at least not for our manufacturers, as they led to
+over-production. It was merely the bankers who benefited, and of these
+only the big ones[82]."
+
+[Footnote 82: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History, _by M. Busch,
+vol. iii. p. 161 (English edition).]
+
+The result happened that always happens when a nation mistakes money,
+the means of commercial exchange, for the ultimate source of wealth.
+After a time of inflation came the inevitable collapse. The unsound
+companies went by the board; even sound ventures were in some cases
+overturned. How grievously public credit suffered may be seen by the
+later official admission, that liquidations and bankruptcies of public
+companies in the following ten years inflicted on shareholders a total
+loss of more than 345,000,000 marks (L17,250,000)[83].
+
+[Footnote 83: German State Paper of June 28, 1884, quoted by Dawson,
+_Bismarck and State Socialism_, App. B.]
+
+Now, it was in the years 1876-77, while the nation lay deep in the
+trough of economic depression, that the demand for "protection for home
+industries" grew loud and persistent. Whether it would not have been
+raised even if German finance and industry had held on its way in a
+straight course and on an even keel, cannot of course be determined, for
+the protectionist movement had been growing since the year 1872, owing
+to the propaganda of the "Verein fuer Sozialpolitik" (Union for Social
+Politics) founded in that year. But it is safe to say that the collapse
+of speculation due to inflowing of the French milliards greatly
+strengthened the forces of economic reaction.
+
+Bismarck himself put it in this way: that the introduction of Free Trade
+in 1865 soon produced a state of atrophy in Germany; this was checked
+for a time by the French war indemnity; but Germany needed a permanent
+cure, namely, Protection. It is true that his ideal of national life had
+always been strict and narrow--in fact, that of the average German
+official; but we may doubt whether he had in view solely the shelter of
+the presumedly tender flora of German industry from the supposed deadly
+blasts of British, Austrian, and Russian competition. He certainly hoped
+to strengthen the fabric of his Empire by extending the customs system
+and making its revenue depend more largely on that source and less on
+the contributions of the federated States. But there was probably a
+still wider consideration. He doubtless wished to bring prominently
+before the public gaze another great subject that would distract it
+from the religious feuds described above and bring about a
+rearrangement of political parties. The British people has good reason
+to know that the discussion of fiscal questions that vitally touch every
+trade and every consumer, does act like the turning of a kaleidoscope
+upon party groupings; and we may fairly well assume that so far-seeing a
+statesman as Bismarck must have forecast the course of events.
+
+Reasons of statecraft also warned him to build up the Empire four-square
+while yet there was time. The rapid recovery of France, whose milliards
+had proved somewhat of a "Greek gift" to Germany, had led to threats on
+the part of the war party at Berlin, which brought from Queen Victoria,
+as also from the Czar Alexander, private but pressing intimations to
+Kaiser Wilhelm that no war of extermination must take place. This affair
+and its results in Germany's foreign policy will occupy us in Chapter
+XII. Here we may note that Bismarck saw in it a reason for suspecting
+Russia, hating England, and jealously watching every movement in France.
+Germany's future, it seemed, would have to be safeguarded by all the
+peaceable means available. How natural, then, to tone down her internal
+religious strifes by bringing forward another topic of still more
+absorbing interest, and to aim at building up a self-contained
+commercial life in the midst of uncertain, or possibly hostile,
+neighbours. In truth, if we view the question in its broad issues in the
+life of nations, we must grant that Free Trade could scarcely be
+expected to thrive amidst the jealousies and fears entailed by the war
+of 1870. That principle presupposes trust and good-will between nations;
+whereas the wars of 1859, 1864, and 1870 left behind bitter memories and
+rankling ills. Viewed in this light, Germany's abandonment of Free Trade
+in 1878 was but the natural result of that forceful policy by which she
+had cut the Gordian knot of her national problem.
+
+The economic change was decided on in the year 1879, when the federated
+States returned to "the time-honoured ways of 1823-65." Bismarck
+appealed to the Reichstag to preserve at least the German market to
+German industry. The chances of having a large export trade were on
+every ground precarious; but Germany could, at the worst, support
+herself. All interests were mollified by having moderate duties imposed
+to check imports. Small customs dues were placed on corn and other food
+supplies so as to please the agrarian party; imports of manufactured
+goods were taxed for the benefit of German industries, and even raw
+materials underwent small imposts. The Reichstag approved the change and
+on July 7 passed the Government's proposals by 217 to 117: the majority
+comprised the Conservatives, Clericals, the Alsace-Lorrainers, and a few
+National Liberals; while the bulk of the last-named, hitherto Bismarck's
+supporters on most topics, along with Radicals and Social Democrats,
+opposed it. The new tariff came into force on January 1, 1880.
+
+On the whole, much may be said in favour of the immediate results of the
+new policy. By the year 1885 the number of men employed in iron and
+steel works had increased by 35 per cent over the numbers of 1879; wages
+also had increased, and the returns of shipping and of the export trade
+showed a considerable rise. Of course, it is impossible to say whether
+this would not have happened in any case owing to the natural tendency
+to recovery from the deep depression of the years 1875-79. The duties on
+corn did not raise its price, which appears strange until we know that
+the foreign imports of corn were less than 8 per cent of the whole
+amount consumed. In 1885, therefore, Bismarck gave way to the demands of
+the agrarians that the corn duties should be raised still further, in
+order to make agriculture lucrative and to prevent the streaming of
+rural population to the towns. Again the docile Reichstag followed his
+lead. But, two years later, it seemed that the new corn duties had
+failed to check the fall of prices and keep landlords and farmers from
+ruin; once more, then, the duties were raised, being even doubled on
+certain food products. This time they undoubtedly had one important
+result, that of making the urban population, especially that of the
+great industrial centres, more and more hostile to the agrarians and to
+the Government which seemed to be legislating in their interests. From
+this time forward the Social Democrats began to be a power in the land.
+
+And yet, if we except the very important item of rent, which in Berlin
+presses with cruel weight on the labouring classes, the general trend of
+the prices of the necessaries of life in Germany has been downwards, in
+spite of all the protectionist duties. The evidence compiled in the
+British official Blue-book on "British and Foreign Trade and Industry"
+(1903. Cd. 1761, p. 226) yields the following results. By comparing the
+necessary expenditure on food of a workman's family of the same size and
+living under the same conditions, it appears that if we take that
+expenditure for the period 1897-1901 to represent the number 100 we have
+these results:--
+
+     +-----------+-----------+-----------------+
+     |  Period.  |  Germany. | United Kingdom. |
+     +-----------+-----------+-----------------+
+     | 1877-1881 |    112    |       140       |
+     | 1882-1886 |    101    |       125       |
+     | 1887-1891 |    103    |       106       |
+     | 1892-1896 |     99    |        98       |
+     | 1897-1901 |    100    |       100       |
+     +-----------+-----------+-----------------+
+
+Thus the fall in the cost of living of a British working man's family
+has been 40 points, while that of the German working man shows a decline
+of only 12 points. It is, on the whole, surprising that there has not
+been more difference between the two countries[84].
+
+[Footnote 84: In a recent work, _England and the English_ (London,
+1904), Dr. Carl Peters says: "Considering that wages in England average
+20 per cent higher in England than in Germany, that the week has only 54
+working hours, and that all articles of food are cheaper, the
+fundamental conditions of prosperous home-life are all round more
+favourable in England than in Germany. And yet he [the British
+working-man] does not derive greater comfort from them, for the simple
+reason that a German labourer's wife is more economical and more
+industrious than the English wife."] Before dealing with the new
+social problems that resulted, at least in part, from the new duties on
+food, we may point out that Bismarck and his successors at the German
+Chancellory have used the new tariff as a means of extorting better
+terms from the surrounding countries. The Iron Chancellor has always
+acted on the diplomatic principle _do ut des_--"I give that you may
+give"--with its still more cynical corollary--"Those who have nothing
+to give will get nothing." The new German tariff on agricultural
+products was stiffly applied against Austria for many years, to compel
+her to grant more favourable terms to German manufactured goods. For
+eleven years Austria-Hungary maintained their protective barriers; but
+in 1891 German persistence was rewarded in the form of a treaty by which
+the Dual Monarchy let in German goods on easier terms provided that the
+corn duties of the northern Power were relaxed. The fiscal strife with
+Russia was keener and longer, but had the same result (1894). Of a
+friendlier kind were the negotiations with Italy, Belgium, and
+Switzerland, which led to treaties with those States in 1891. It is
+needless to say that in each of these cases the lowering of the corn
+duties was sharply resisted by the German agrarians. We may here add
+that the Anglo-German commercial treaty which expired in 1903 has been
+extended for two years; and that Germany's other commercial treaties
+were at the same time continued.
+
+It is hazardous at present to venture on any definite judgment as to the
+measure of success attained by the German protectionist policy.
+Protectionists always point to the prosperity of Germany as the crowning
+proof of its efficacy. In one respect they are, perhaps, fully justified
+in so doing. The persistent pressure which Germany brought to bear on
+the even more protectionist systems of Russia and Austria undoubtedly
+induced those Powers to grant easier terms to German goods than they
+would have done had Germany lost her bargaining power by persisting in
+her former Free Trade tendencies. Her success in this matter is the best
+instance in recent economic history of the desirability of holding back
+something in reserve so as to be able to bargain effectively with a
+Power that keeps up hostile tariffs. In this jealously competitive age
+the State that has nothing more to offer is as badly off in economic
+negotiations as one that, in affairs of general policy, has no armaments
+wherewith to face a well-equipped foe. This consideration is of course
+scouted as heretical by orthodox economists; but it counts for much in
+the workaday world, where tariff wars and commercial treaty bargainings
+unfortunately still distract the energies of mankind.
+
+On the other hand, it would be risky to point to the internal prosperity
+of Germany and the vast growth of her exports as proofs of the soundness
+of protectionist theories. The marvellous growth of that prosperity is
+very largely due to the natural richness of a great part of the country,
+to the intelligence, energy, and foresight of her people and their
+rulers, and to the comparatively backward state of German industry and
+commerce up to the year 1870. Far on into the Nineteenth Century,
+Germany was suffering from the havoc wrought by the Napoleonic wars and
+still earlier struggles. Even after the year 1850, the political
+uncertainties of the time prevented her enjoying the prosperity that
+then visited England and France. Therefore, only since 1870 (or rather
+since 1877-78, when the results of the mad speculation of 1873 began to
+wear away) has she entered on the normal development of a modern
+industrial State; and he would be an eager partisan who would put down
+her prosperity mainly to the credit of the protectionist regime. In
+truth, no one can correctly gauge the value of the complex
+causes--economic, political, educational, scientific and
+engineering--that make for the prosperity of a vast industrial
+community. So closely are they intertwined in the nature of things, that
+dogmatic arguments laying stress on one of them alone must speedily be
+seen to be the merest juggling with facts and figures.
+
+As regards the wider influences exerted by Germany's new protective
+policy, we can here allude only to one; and that will be treated more
+fully in the chapter dealing with the Partition of Africa. That policy
+gave a great stimulus to the colonial movement in Germany, and, through
+her, in all European States. As happened in the time of the old
+Mercantile System, Powers which limited their trade with their
+neighbours, felt an imperious need for absorbing new lands in the
+tropics to serve as close preserves for the mother-country. Other
+circumstances helped to impel Germany on the path of colonial expansion;
+but probably the most important, though the least obvious, was the
+recrudescence of that "Mercantilism" which Adam Smith had exploded.
+Thus, the triumph of the national principle in and after 1870 was
+consolidated by means which tended to segregate the human race in
+masses, regarding each other more or less as enemies or rivals, alike in
+the spheres of politics, commerce, and colonial expansion.
+
+We may conclude our brief survey of German constructive policy by
+glancing at the chief of the experiments which may be classed as akin to
+State Socialism.
+
+In 1882 the German Government introduced the Sickness Insurance Bill and
+the Accident Insurance Bill, but they were not passed till 1884, and did
+not take effect till 1885. For the relief of sickness the Government
+relied on existing institutions organised for that object. This was very
+wise, seeing that the great difficulty is how to find out whether a man
+really is ill or is merely shamming illness. Obviously a local club can
+find that out far better than a great imperial agency can. The local
+club has every reason for looking sharply after doubtful cases as a
+State Insurance Fund cannot do. As regards sickness, then, the Imperial
+Government merely compelled all the labouring classes, with few
+exceptions, to belong to some sick fund. They were obliged to pay in a
+sum of not less than about fourpence in the pound of their weekly wages;
+and this payment of the workman has to be supplemented by half as much,
+paid by his employer--or rather, the employer pays the whole of the
+premium and deducts the share payable by the workman from his wages.
+
+Closely linked with this is the Accident Insurance Law. Here the brunt
+of the payment falls wholly on the employer. He alone pays the premiums
+for all his work-people; the amount varies according to (1) the man's
+wage, (2) the risk incidental to the employment. The latter is
+determined by the actuaries of the Government. If a man is injured (even
+if it be by his own carelessness) he receives payments during the first
+thirteen weeks from the ordinary Sick Fund. If his accident keeps him a
+prisoner any longer, he is paid from the Accident Fund of the employers
+of that particular trade, or from the Imperial Accident Fund. Here of
+course the chance of shamming increases, particularly if the man knows
+that he is being supported out of a general fund made up entirely by the
+employers' payments. The burden on the employers is certainly very
+heavy, seeing that for all kinds of accidents relief may be claimed; the
+only exception is in cases where the injury can be shown to be wilfully
+committed[85]. A British Blue-book issued on March 31, 1905, shows that
+the enormous sum of L5,372,150 was paid in Germany in the year 1902 as
+compensation to workmen for injuries sustained while at work.
+
+[Footnote 85: For the account given above, as also that of the Old Age
+Insurance Law, I am indebted to Mr. Dawson's excellent little work,
+_Bismarck and State Socialism_ (Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1890). See also
+the Appendix to _The German Empire of To-day_, by "Veritas" (1902).]
+
+The burden of the employers does not end here. They have to bear their
+share of Old Age Insurance. This law was passed in 1889, at the close of
+the first year of the present Kaiser's reign. His father, the Emperor
+Frederick, during his brief reign had not favoured the principles of
+State Socialism; but the young Emperor William in November 1888
+announced that he would further the work begun by _his grandfather_, and
+though the difficulties of insurance for old age were very great, yet,
+with God's help, they would prove not to be insuperable.
+
+Certainly the effort was by far the greatest that had yet been made by
+any State. The young Emperor and his Chancellor sought to build up a
+fund whereby 12,000,000 of work-people might be guarded against the ills
+of a penniless old age. Their law provided for all workmen (even men in
+domestic service) whose yearly income did not exceed 2000 marks (L100).
+Like the preceding laws, it was compulsory. Every youth who is
+physically and mentally sound, and who earns more than a minimum wage,
+must begin to put by a fixed proportion of that wage as soon as he
+completes his sixteenth year. His employer is also compelled to
+contribute the same amount for him. Mr. Dawson, in the work already
+referred to, gives some figures showing what the joint payment of
+employer and employed amount to on this score. If the workman earns L15
+a year (_i.e._ about 6s. a week), the sum of 3s. 3-1/2d. is put by for
+him yearly into the State Fund. If he earns L36 a year, the joint annual
+payment will be 5s. 7-1/2d.; if he earns L78, it will be 7s. a year, and
+so on. These payments are reckoned up in various classes, according to
+the amounts; and according to the total amount is the final annuity
+payable to the worker in the evening of his days. That evening is very
+slow in coming for the German worker. For old age merely, he cannot
+begin to draw his full pension until he has attained the ripe age of
+seventy-one years. Then he will draw the full amount. He may anticipate
+that if he be incapacitated; but in that case the pension will be on a
+lower scale, proportioned to the amounts paid in and the length of time
+of the payments.
+
+The details of the measure are so complex as to cause a good deal of
+friction and discontent. The calculation of the various payments alone
+employs an army of clerks: the need of safeguarding against personation
+and other kinds of fraud makes a great number of precautions necessary;
+and thus the whole system becomes tied up with red tape in a way that
+even the more patient workman of the Continent cannot endure.
+
+In a large measure, then, the German Government has failed in its
+efforts to cure the industrial classes of their socialistic ideas. But
+its determination to attach them to the new German Empire, and to make
+that Empire the leading industrial State of the Continent, has had a
+complete triumph. So far as education, technical training, research, and
+enlightened laws can make a nation great, Germany is surely on the high
+road to national and industrial supremacy.
+
+It is a strange contrast that meets our eyes if we look back to the
+years before the advent of King William and Bismarck to power. In the
+dark days of the previous reign Germany was weak, divided, and helpless.
+In regard to political life and industry she was still almost in
+swaddling-clothes; and her struggles to escape from the irksome
+restraints of the old Confederation seemed likely to be as futile as
+they had been since the year 1815. But the advent of the King and his
+sturdy helper to power speedily changed the situation. The political
+problems were grappled with one by one, and were trenchantly solved.
+Union was won by Bismarck's diplomacy and Prussia's sword; and when the
+longed-for goal was reached in seven momentous years, the same qualities
+were brought to bear on the difficult task of consolidating that union.
+Those qualities were the courage and honesty of purpose that the House
+of Hohenzollern has always displayed since the days of the Great
+Elector; added to these were rarer gifts, namely, the width of view, the
+eagle foresight, the strength of will, the skill in the choice of means,
+that made up the imposing personality of Bismarck. It was with an eye to
+him, and to the astonishing triumphs wrought by his diplomacy over
+France, that a diplomatist thus summed up the results of the year 1870:
+"Europe has lost a mistress, but she has got a master."
+
+After the lapse of a generation that has been weighted with the cuirass
+of Militarism, we are able to appreciate the force of that remark.
+Equally true is it that the formation of the German Empire has not added
+to the culture and the inner happiness of the German people. The days
+of quiet culture and happiness are gone; and in their place has come a
+straining after ambitious aims which is a heavy drag even on the
+vitality of the Teutonic race. Still, whether for good or for evil, the
+unification of Germany must stand out as the greatest event in the
+history of the Nineteenth Century.
+
+
+
+NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION
+
+The statement on page 135 that service in the German army is compulsory
+for seven years, three in the field army and four in the reserve,
+applies to the cavalry and artillery only. In the infantry the time of
+service is two years with the colours and five years in the reserve.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE EASTERN QUESTION
+
+     "Perhaps one fact which lies at the root of all the actions
+     of the Turks, small and great, is that they are by nature
+     nomads. . . . Hence it is that when the Turk retires from a
+     country he leaves no more sign of himself than does a Tartar
+     camp on the upland pastures where it has passed the
+     summer."--_Turkey in Europe_, by "Odysseus."
+
+
+The remark was once made that the Eastern Question was destined to
+perplex mankind up to the Day of Judgment. Certainly that problem is
+extraordinarily complex in its details. For a century and a half it has
+distracted the statesmen and philanthropists of Europe; for it concerns
+not only the ownership of lands of great intrinsic and strategic
+importance, but also the welfare of many peoples. It is a question,
+therefore, which no intelligent man ought to overlook.
+
+For the benefit of the tiresome person who insists on having a
+definition of every term, the Eastern Question may be briefly described
+as the problem of finding a _modus vivendi_ between the Turks and their
+Christian subjects and the neighbouring States. This may serve as a
+general working statement. No one who is acquainted with the rules of
+Logic will accept it as a definition. Definitions can properly apply
+only to terms and facts that have a clear outline; and they can
+therefore very rarely apply to the facts of history, which are of
+necessity as many-sided as human life itself. The statement given above
+is incomplete, inasmuch as it neither hints at the great difficulty of
+reconciling the civic ideas of Christian and Turkish peoples, nor
+describes the political problems arising out of the decay of the Ottoman
+Power and the ambitions of its neighbours.
+
+It will be well briefly to see what are the difficulties that arise out
+of the presence of Christians under the rule of a great Moslem State.
+They are chiefly these. First, the Koran, though far from enjoining
+persecution of Christians, yet distinctly asserts the superiority of the
+true believer and the inferiority of "the people of the book"
+(Christians). The latter therefore are excluded from participation in
+public affairs, and in practice are refused a hearing in the law courts.
+Consequently they tend to sink to the position of hewers of wood and
+drawers of water to the Moslems, these on their side inevitably
+developing the defects of an exclusive dominant caste. This is so
+especially with the Turks. They are one of the least gifted of the
+Mongolian family of nations; brave in war and patient under suffering
+and reverses, they nevertheless are hopelessly narrow-minded and
+bigoted; and the Christians in their midst have fared perhaps worse than
+anywhere else among the Mohammedan peoples.
+
+M. de Lavelaye, who studied the condition of things in Turkey not long
+after the war of 1877-78, thus summed up the causes of the social and
+political decline of the Turks:--
+
+The true Mussulman loves neither progress, novelty, nor education; the
+Koran is enough for him. He is satisfied with his lot, therefore cares
+little for its improvement, somewhat like a Catholic monk; but at the
+same time he hates and despises the Christian _raya_, who is the
+labourer. He pitilessly despoils, fleeces, and ill-treats him to the
+extent of completely ruining and destroying those families, which are
+the only ones who cultivate the ground; it was a state of war continued
+in time of peace, and transformed into a regime of permanent spoliation
+and murder. The wife, even when she is the only one, is always an
+inferior being, a kind of slave, destitute of any intellectual culture;
+and as it is she who trains the children--boys and girls--the bad
+results are plainly seen.
+
+Matters were not always and in all parts of Turkey so bad as this; but
+they frequently became so under cruel or corrupt governors, or in times
+when Moslem fanaticism ran riot. In truth, the underlying cause of
+Turkey's troubles is the ignorance and fanaticism of her people. These
+evils result largely from the utter absorption of all devout Moslems in
+their creed and ritual. Texts from the Koran guide their conduct; and
+all else is decided by fatalism, which is very often a mere excuse for
+doing nothing[86]. Consequently all movements for reform are mere
+ripples on the surface of Turkish life; they never touch its dull
+depths; and the Sultan and officials, knowing this, cling to the old
+ways with full confidence. The protests of Christian nations on behalf
+of their co-religionists are therefore met with a polite compliance
+which means nothing. Time after time the Sublime Porte has most solemnly
+promised to grant religious liberty to its Christian subjects; but the
+promises were but empty air, and those who made them knew it. In fact,
+the firmans of reform now and again issued with so much ostentation have
+never been looked on by good Moslems as binding, because the chief
+spiritual functionary, the Sheikh-ul-Islam, whose assent is needed to
+give validity to laws, has withheld it from those very ordinances. As he
+has power to depose the Sultan for a lapse of orthodoxy, the result may
+be imagined. The many attempts of the Christian Powers to enforce their
+notions of religious toleration on the Porte have in the end merely led
+to further displays of Oriental politeness.
+
+[Footnote 86: "Islam continues to be, as it has been for twelve
+centuries, the most inflexible adversary to the Western spirit"
+_(History of Serbia and the Slav Provinces of Turkey,_ by L. von Ranke,
+Eng. edit. p. 296).]
+
+It may be asked: Why have not the Christians of Turkey united in order
+to gain civic rights? The answer is that they are profoundly divided in
+race and sentiment. In the north-east are the Roumanians, a
+Romano-Slavonic race long ago Latinised in speech and habit of mind by
+contact with Roman soldiers and settlers on the Lower Danube. South of
+that river there dwell the Bulgars, who, strictly speaking, are not
+Slavs but Mongolians. After long sojourn on the Volga they took to
+themselves the name of that river, lost their Tartar speech, and became
+Slav in sentiment and language. This change took place before the ninth
+century, when they migrated to the south and conquered the districts
+which they now inhabit. Their neighbours on the west, the Servians, are
+Slavs in every sense, and look back with pride to the time of the great
+Servian Kingdom, carved out by Stephen Dushan, which stretched
+southwards to the _AEgean_ and the Gulf of Corinth (about 1350).
+
+To the west of the present Kingdom of Servia dwell other Servians and
+Slavs, who have been partitioned and ground down by various conquerors
+and have kept fewer traditions than the Servians who won their freedom.
+But from this statement we must except the Montenegrins, who in their
+mountain fastnesses have ever defied the Turks. To the south of them is
+the large but little-known Province of Albania, inhabited by the
+descendants of the ancient Illyrians, with admixtures of Greeks in the
+south, Bulgarians in the east, and Servians in the north-east. Most of
+the Albanians forsook Christianity and are among the most fanatical and
+warlike upholders of Islam; but in their turbulent clan-life they often
+defy the authority of the Sultan, and uphold it only in order to keep
+their supremacy over the hated and despised Greeks and Bulgars on their
+outskirts. Last among the non-Turkish races of the Balkan Peninsula are
+a few Wallachs in Central Macedonia, and Greeks; these last inhabit
+Thessaly and the seaboard of Macedonia and of part of Roumelia. It is
+well said that Greek influence in the Balkans extends no further inland
+than that of the sea breezes.
+
+Such is the medley of races that complicates the Eastern Question. It
+may be said that Turkish rule in Europe survives owing to the racial
+divisions and jealousies of the Christians. The Sultan puts in force the
+old Roman motto, _Divide et impera_, and has hitherto done so, in the
+main, with success. That is the reason why Islam dominates Christianity
+in the south-east of Europe.
+
+This brief explanation will show what are the evils that affect Turkey
+as a whole and her Christian subjects in particular. They are due to the
+collision of two irreconcilable creeds and civilisations, the Christian
+and the Mohammedan. Both of them are gifted with vitality and
+propagandist power (witness the spread of the latter in Africa and
+Central Asia in our own day); and, while no comparison can be made
+between them on ideal grounds and in their ethical and civic results, it
+still remains true that Islam inspires its votaries with fanatical
+bravery in war. There is the weakness of the Christians of south-eastern
+Europe. Superior in all that makes for home life, civilisation, and
+civic excellence, they have in time past generally failed as soldiers
+when pitted against an equal number of Moslems. But the latter show no
+constructive powers in time of peace, and have very rarely assimilated
+the conquered races. Putting the matter baldly, we may say that it is a
+question of the survival of the fittest between beavers and bears. And
+in the Nineteenth Century the advantage has been increasingly with
+the former.
+
+These facts will appear if we take a brief glance at the salient
+features of the European history of Turkey. After capturing
+Constantinople, the capital of the old Eastern Empire, in the year 1453,
+the Turks for a time rapidly extended their power over the neighbouring
+Christian States, Bulgaria, Servia, and Hungary. In the year 1683 they
+laid siege to Vienna; but after being beaten back from that city by the
+valiant Sobieski, King of Poland, they gradually lost ground. Little by
+little Hungary, Transylvania, the Crimea, and parts of the Ukraine
+(South Russia) were wrenched from their grasp; and the close of the
+eighteenth century saw their frontiers limited to the River Dniester and
+the Carpathians[87]. Further losses were staved off only by the
+jealousies of the Great Powers. Joseph II. of Austria came near to
+effecting further conquests, but his schemes of partition fell through
+amidst the wholesale collapse of his too ambitious policy. Napoleon
+Bonaparte seized Egypt in 1798, but was forced by Great Britain to give
+it back to Turkey (1801-2). In 1807-12 Alexander I. of Russia resumed
+the conquering march of the Czars southward, captured Bessarabia, and
+forced the Sultan to grant certain privileges to the Principalities of
+Moldavia and Wallachia. In 1815 the Servians revolted against Turkish
+rule: they had always remembered the days of their early fame, and in
+1817 wrested from the Porte large rights of local self-government.
+
+[Footnote 87: The story that Peter the Great of Russia left a clause in
+his will, bidding Russia to go on with her southern conquests until she
+gained Constantinople, is an impudent fiction of French publicists in
+the year 1812, when Napoleon wished to keep Russia and Turkey at war. Of
+course, Peter the Great gave a mighty impulse to Russian movements
+towards Constantinople.]
+
+Ten years later the intervention of England and France in favour of the
+Greek patriots led to the battle of Navarino, which destroyed the
+Turco-Egyptian fleet and practically secured the independence of Greece.
+An even worse blow was dealt by the Czar Nicholas I. of Russia. In 1829,
+at the close of a war in which his troops drove the Turks over the
+Balkans and away from Adrianople, he compelled the Porte to sign a peace
+at that city, whereby they acknowledged the almost complete independence
+of Moldavia and Wallachia. These Danubian Principalities owned the
+suzerainty of the Sultan and paid him a yearly tribute, but in other
+respects were practically free from his control, while the Czar gained
+for the time the right of protecting the Christians of the Eastern, or
+Greek, Church in the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan also recognised the
+independence of Greece. Further troubles ensued which laid Turkey for a
+time at the feet of Russia. England and France, however, intervened to
+raise her up; and they also thwarted the efforts of Mehemet Ali, the
+rebellious Pacha of Egypt, to seize Syria from his nominal lord,
+the Sultan.
+
+Even this bare summary will serve to illustrate three important facts:
+first, that Turkey never consolidated her triumph over the neighbouring
+Christians, simply because she could not assimilate them, alien as they
+were, in race, and in the enjoyment of a higher creed and civilisation;
+second, that the Christians gained more and more support from kindred
+peoples (especially the Russians) as these last developed their
+energies; third, that the liberating process was generally (though not
+in 1827) delayed by the action of the Western Powers (England and
+France), which, on grounds of policy, sought to stop the aggrandisement
+of Austria, or Russia, by supporting the Sultan's authority.
+
+The policy of supporting the Sultan against the aggression of Russia
+reached its climax in the Crimean War (1854-55), which was due mainly to
+the efforts of the Czar Nicholas to extend his protection over the Greek
+Christians in Turkey. France, England, and later on the Kingdom of
+Sardinia made war on Russia--France, chiefly because her new ruler,
+Napoleon III., wished to play a great part in the world, and avenge the
+disasters of the Moscow campaign of 1812; England, because her
+Government and people resented the encroachments of Russia in the East,
+and sincerely believed that Turkey was about to become a civilised
+State; and Sardinia, because her statesman Cavour saw in this action a
+means of securing the alliance of the two western States in his
+projected campaign against Austria. The war closed with the Treaty of
+Paris, of 1856, whereby the signatory Powers formally admitted Turkey
+"to participate in the advantages of the public law and system
+of Europe."
+
+This, however, merely signified that the signatory Powers would resist
+encroachments on the territorial integrity of Turkey. It did not limit
+the rights of the Powers, as specified in various "Capitulations," to
+safeguard their own subjects residing in Turkey against Turkish misrule.
+The Sultan raised great hopes by issuing a firman granting religious
+liberty to his Christian subjects; this was inserted in the Treaty of
+Paris, and thereby became part of the public law of Europe. The Powers
+also became _collectively_ the guarantors of the local privileges of the
+Danubian Principalities. Another article of the Treaty provided for the
+exclusion of war-ships from the Black Sea. This of course applied
+specially to Russia and Turkey[88].
+
+[Footnote 88: For the treaty and the firman of 1856, see _The European
+Concert in the Eastern Question, _by T.E. Holland; also Debidour,
+_Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe _(1814-1878), vol. ii. pp. 150-152;
+_The Eastern Question, _by the late Duke of Argyll, vol. i. chap. i.]
+
+The chief diplomatic result of the Crimean War, then, was to substitute
+a European recognition of religious toleration in Turkey for the control
+over her subjects of the Greek Church which Russia had claimed. The
+Sublime Porte was now placed in a stronger position than it had held
+since the year 1770; and the due performance of its promises would
+probably have led to the building up of a strong State. But the promises
+proved to be mere waste-paper. The Sultan, believing that England and
+France would always take his part, let matters go on in the old bad way.
+The natural results came to pass. The Christians showed increasing
+restiveness under Turkish rule. In 1860 numbers of them were massacred
+in the Lebanon, and Napoleon III. occupied part of Syria with French
+troops. The vassal States in Europe also displayed increasing vitality,
+while that of Turkey waned. In 1861, largely owing to the diplomatic
+help of Napoleon III., Moldavia and Wallachia united and formed the
+Principality of Roumania. In 1862, after a short but terrible struggle,
+the Servians rid themselves of the Turkish garrisons and framed a
+constitution of the Western type. But the worst blow came in 1870.
+During the course of the Franco-German War the Czar's Government (with
+the good-will and perhaps the active connivance of the Court of Berlin)
+announced that it would no longer be bound by the article of the Treaty
+of Paris excluding Russian war-ships from the Black Sea. The Gladstone
+Ministry sent a protest against this act, but took no steps to enforce
+its protest. Our young diplomatist, Sir Horace Rumbold, then at St.
+Petersburg, believed that she would have drawn back at a threat of
+war[89]. Finally, the Russian declaration was agreed to by the Powers in
+a Treaty signed at London on March 31, 1871.
+
+[Footnote 89: Sir Horace Rumbold, _Recollections of a Diplomatist_
+(First Series), vol. ii. p. 295.]
+
+These warnings were all thrown away on the Porte. Its promises of
+toleration to Christians were ignored; the wheels of government clanked
+on in the traditional rusty way; governors of provinces and districts
+continued, as of yore, to pocket the grants that were made for local
+improvements; in defiance of the promises given in 1856, taxes continued
+to be "farmed" out to contractors; the evidence of Christians against
+Moslems was persistently refused a hearing in courts of justice[90]; and
+the collectors of taxes gave further turns of the financial screw in
+order to wring from the cultivators, especially from the Christians, the
+means of satisfying the needs of the State and the ever-increasing
+extravagance of the Sultan. Incidents which were observed in Bosnia by
+an Oxford scholar of high repute, in the summer of 1875, will be found
+quoted in an Appendix at the end of this volume.
+
+[Footnote 90: As to this, see Reports: _Condition of Christians in
+Turkey_ (1860). Presented to Parliament in 1861. Also Parliamentary
+Papers, Turkey, No. 16 (1877).]
+
+Matters came to a climax in the autumn of 1875 in Herzegovina, the
+southern part of Bosnia. There after a bad harvest the farmers of taxes
+and the Mohammedan landlords insisted on having their full quota; for
+many years the peasants had suffered under agrarian wrongs, which cannot
+be described here; and now this long-suffering peasantry, mostly
+Christians, fled to the mountains, or into Montenegro, whose sturdy
+mountaineers had never bent beneath the Turkish yoke[91]. Thence they
+made forays against their oppressors until the whole of that part of
+the Balkans was aflame with the old religious and racial feuds. The
+Slavs of Servia, Bulgaria, and of Austrian Dalmatia also gave secret aid
+to their kith and kin in the struggle against their Moslem overlords.
+These peoples had been aroused by the sight of the triumph of the
+national cause in Italy, and felt that the time had come to strike for
+freedom in the Balkans. Turkey therefore failed to stamp out the revolt
+in Herzegovina, fed as it was by the neighbouring Slav peoples; and it
+was clear to all the politicians of Europe that the Eastern Question was
+entering once more on an acute phase.
+
+[Footnote 91: Efforts were made by the British Consul, Holmes, and other
+pro-Turks, to assign this revolt to Panslavonic intrigues. That there
+were some Slavonic emissaries at work is undeniable; but it is equally
+certain that their efforts would have had no result but for the
+existence of unbearable ills. It is time, surely, to give up the notion
+that peoples rise in revolt merely owing to outside agitators. To revolt
+against the warlike Turks has never been child's play.]
+
+These events aroused varied feelings in the European States. The Russian
+people, being in the main of Slavonic descent, sympathised deeply with
+the struggles of their kith and kin, who were rendered doubly dear by
+their membership in the Greek Church. The Panslavonic Movement, for
+bringing the scattered branches of the Slav race into some form of
+political union, was already gaining ground in Russia; but it found
+little favour with the St. Petersburg Government owing to the
+revolutionary aims of its partisans. Sympathy with the revolt in the
+Balkans was therefore confined to nationalist enthusiasts in the towns
+of Russia. Austria was still more anxious to prevent the spread of the
+Balkan rising to the millions of her own Slavs. Accordingly, the
+Austrian Chancellor, Count Andrassy, in concert with Prince Bismarck and
+the Russian statesman, Prince Gortchakoff, began to prepare a scheme of
+reforms which was to be pressed on the Sultan as a means of conciliating
+the insurgents of Herzegovina. They comprised (1) the improvement of the
+lot of the peasantry; (2) complete religious liberty; (3) the abolition
+of the farming of taxes; (4) the application of the local taxation to
+local needs; (5) the appointment of a Commission, half of Moslems, half
+of Christians, to supervise the execution of these reforms and of others
+recently promised by the Porte[92].
+
+[Footnote 92: For the full text, see Hertslet, _The Map of Europe by
+Treaty_, iv. pp. 2418-2429.]
+
+These proposals would probably have been sent to the Porte before the
+close of 1875 but for the diplomatic intervention of the British
+Cabinet. Affairs at London were then in the hands of that skilful and
+determined statesman, Disraeli, soon to become Lord Beaconsfield. It is
+impossible to discuss fully the causes of that bias in his nature which
+prejudiced him against supporting the Christians of Turkey. Those causes
+were due in part to the Semitic instincts of his Jewish ancestry,--the
+Jews having consistently received better treatment from the Turks than
+from the Russians,--and in part to his staunch Imperialism, which saw in
+Muscovite expansion the chief danger to British communications with
+India. Mr. Bryce has recently pointed out in a suggestive survey of
+Disraeli's character that tradition had great weight with him[93]. It is
+known to have been a potent influence on the mind of Queen Victoria;
+and, as the traditional policy at Whitehall was to support Turkey
+against Russia, all the personal leanings, which count for so much, told
+in favour of a continuance in the old lines, even though the
+circumstances had utterly changed since the time of the Crimean War.
+
+[Footnote 93: Bryce, _Studies in Contemporary Biography_ (1904).]
+
+When, therefore, Disraeli became aware that pressure was about to be
+applied to the Porte by the three Powers above named, he warned them
+that he considered any such action to be inopportune, seeing that Turkey
+ought to be allowed time to carry out a programme of reforms of recent
+date. By an _irade_ of October 2, 1875, the Sultan had promised to _all_
+his Christian subjects a remission of taxation and the right of choosing
+not only the controllers of taxes, but also delegates to supervise their
+rights at Constantinople.
+
+In taking these promises seriously, Disraeli stood almost alone. But his
+speech of November 9, 1875, at the Lord Mayor's banquet, showed that he
+viewed the Eastern Question solely from the standpoint of British
+interests. His acts spoke even more forcibly than his words. That was
+the time when the dawn of Imperialism flushed all the eastern sky.
+H.R.H. the Prince of Wales had just begun his Indian tour amidst
+splendid festivities at Bombay; and the repetition of these in the
+native States undoubtedly did much to awaken interest in our Eastern
+Empire and cement the loyalty of its Princes and peoples. Next, at the
+close of the month of November, came the news that the British
+Government had bought the shares in the Suez Canal, previously owned by
+the Khedive of Egypt, for the sum of L4,500,000[94]. The transaction is
+now acknowledged by every thinking man to have been a master-stroke of
+policy, justified on all grounds, financial and Imperial. In those days
+it met with sharp censure from Disraeli's opponents. In a sense this was
+natural; for it seemed to be part of a scheme for securing British
+influence in the Levant and riding roughshod over the susceptibilities
+of the French (the constructors of the canal) and the plans of Russia.
+Everything pointed to the beginning of a period of spirited foreign
+policy which would lead to war with Russia.
+
+[Footnote 94: For details of this affair, see Chapter XV. of this work.]
+
+Meanwhile the three Empires delayed the presentation of their scheme of
+reforms for Turkey, and, as it would seem, out of deference to British
+representations. The troubles in Herzegovina therefore went on unchecked
+through the winter, the insurgents refusing to pay any heed to the
+Sultan's promises, even though these were extended by the _irade_ of
+December 12, offering religious liberty and the institution of electoral
+bodies throughout the whole of European Turkey. The statesmen of the
+Continent were equally sceptical as to the _bona fides_ of these offers,
+and on January 31, 1876, presented to the Porte their scheme of reforms
+already described. Disraeli and our Foreign Minister, Lord Derby, gave a
+cold and guarded assent to the "Andrassy Note," though they were known
+to regard it as "inopportune." To the surprise of the world, the Porte
+accepted the Note on February 11, with one reservation.
+
+This act of acceptance, however, failed to satisfy the insurgents. They
+decided to continue the struggle. Their irreconcilable attitude
+doubtless arose from their knowledge of the worthlessness of Turkish
+promises when not backed by pressure from the Powers; and it should be
+observed that the "Note" gave no hint of any such pressure[95]. But it
+was also prompted by the hope that Servia and Montenegro would soon draw
+the sword on their behalf--as indeed happened later on. Those warlike
+peoples longed to join in the struggle against their ancestral foes; and
+their rulers were nothing loth to do so. Servia was then ruled by Prince
+Milan (1868-89), of that House of Obrenovitch which has been
+extinguished by the cowardly murders of June 1903 at Belgrade. He had
+recently married Nathalie Kechko, a noble Russian lady, whose
+connections strengthened the hopes that he naturally entertained of
+armed Muscovite help in case of a war with Turkey. Prince Nikita of
+Montenegro had married his second daughter to a Russian Grand Duke,
+cousin of the Czar Alexander II., and therefore cherished the same
+hopes. It was clear that unless energetic steps were taken by the Powers
+to stop the spread of the conflagration it would soon wrap the whole of
+the Balkan Peninsula in flames. An outbreak of Moslem fanaticism at
+Salonica (May 6), which led to the murder of the French and German
+Consuls at that port, shed a lurid light on the whole situation and
+convinced the Continental Powers that sterner measures must be adopted
+towards the Porte.
+
+[Footnote 95: See Parliamentary Papers, Turkey, No. 5 (1877), for Consul
+Freeman's report of March 17, 1877, of the outrages by the Turks in
+Bosnia. The refugees declared they would "sooner drown themselves in the
+Unna than again subject themselves to Turkish oppression." The Porte
+denied all the outrages.]
+
+Such was the position, and such the considerations, that led the three
+Empires to adopt more drastic proposals. Having found, meanwhile, by
+informal conferences with the Herzegovinian leaders, what were the
+essentials to a lasting settlement, they prepared to embody them in a
+second Note, the Berlin Memorandum, issued on May 13. It was drawn up by
+the three Imperial Chancellors at Berlin, but Andrassy is known to have
+given a somewhat doubtful consent. T his "Berlin Memorandum" demanded
+the adoption of an armistice for two months; the repatriation of the
+Bosnian exiles and fugitives; the establishment of a mixed Commission
+for that purpose; the removal of Turkish troops from the rural districts
+of Bosnia; the right of the Consuls of the European Powers to see to the
+carrying out of all the promised reforms. Lastly, the Memorandum stated
+that if within two months the three Imperial Courts did not attain the
+end they had in view (viz. the carrying out of the needed reforms), it
+would become necessary to take "efficacious measures" for that
+purpose[96]. Bismarck is known to have favoured the policy of
+Gortchakoff in this affair.
+
+[Footnote 96: Hertslet, iv. pp. 2459-2463.]
+
+The proposals of the Memorandum were at once sent to the British,
+French, and Italian Governments for their assent. The two last
+immediately gave it. After a brief delay the Disraeli Ministry sent a
+decisive refusal and made no alternative proposal, though one of its
+members, Sir Stafford Northcote, is known to have formulated a
+scheme[97]. The Cabinet took a still more serious step: on May 24, it
+ordered the British fleet in the Mediterranean to steam to Besika Bay,
+near the entrance to the Dardanelles--the very position it had taken
+before the Crimean War[98]. It is needless to say that this act not only
+broke up the "European Concert," but ended all hopes of compelling
+Turkey at once to grant the much-needed reforms. That compulsion would
+have been irresistible had the British fleet joined the Powers in
+preventing the landing of troops from Asia Minor in the Balkan
+Peninsula. As it was, the Turks could draw those reinforcements without
+hindrance.
+
+[Footnote 97: _Sir Stafford Northcote, Earl of Iddesleigh_, by Andrew
+Lang, vol. ii. p. 181.]
+
+[Footnote 98: Our ambassador at Constantinople, Sir Henry Elliott, asked
+(May 9) that a squadron should be sent there to reassure the British
+subjects in Turkey; but as the fleet was not ordered to proceed thither
+until after a long interval, and was kept there in great strength and
+for many months, it is fair to assume that the aim of our Government was
+to encourage Turkey.] The Berlin Memorandum was, of course, not
+presented to Turkey, and partly owing to the rapid changes which then
+took place at Constantinople. To these we must now advert.
+
+The Sultan, Abdul Aziz, during his fifteen years of rule had
+increasingly shown himself to be apathetic, wasteful, and indifferent to
+the claims of duty. In the month of April, when the State repudiated its
+debts, and officials and soldiers were left unpaid, his life of
+luxurious retirement went on unchanged. It has been reckoned that of the
+total Turkish debt of LT200,000,000, as much as LT53,000,000 was due to
+his private extravagance[99]. Discontent therefore became rife,
+especially among the fanatical bands of theological students at
+Constantinople. These Softas, as they are termed, numbering some 20,000
+or more, determined to breathe new life into the Porte--an aim which the
+patriotic "Young Turkey" party already had in view. On May 11 large
+bands of Softas surrounded the buildings of the Grand Vizier and the
+Sheik-ul-Islam, and with wild cries compelled them to give up their
+powers in favour of more determined men. On the night of May 29-30 they
+struck at the Sultan himself. The new Ministers were on their side: the
+Sheik-ul-Islam, the chief of the Ulemas, who interpret Mohammedan
+theology and law, now gave sentence that the Sultan might be dethroned
+for mis-government; and this was done without the least show of
+resistance. His nephew, Murad Effendi, was at once proclaimed Sultan as
+Murad V.; a few days later the dethroned Sultan was secretly murdered,
+though possibly his death may have been due to suicide[100].
+
+[Footnote 99: Gallenga, _The Eastern Question_, vol. ii. p. 99.]
+
+[Footnote 100: For the aims of the Young Turkey party, see the _Life of
+Midhat Pasha_, by his son; also an article by Midhat in the _Nineteenth
+Century_ for June 1878.]
+
+We may add here that Murad soon showed himself to be a friend to reform;
+and this, rather than any incapacity for ruling, was probably the cause
+of the second palace revolution, which led to his deposition on August
+31. Thereupon his brother, the present ruler, Abdul Hamid, ascended the
+throne. His appearance was thus described by one who saw him at his
+first State progress through his capital: "A somewhat heavy and stern
+countenance . . . narrow at the temples, with a long gloomy cast of
+features, large ears, and dingy complexion. . . . It seemed to me the
+countenance of a ruler capable of good or evil, but knowing his own mind
+and determined to have his own way[101]." This forecast has been
+fulfilled in the most sinister manner.
+
+[Footnote 101: Gallenga, _The Eastern Question_, vol. ii. p. 126. Murad
+died in the year 1904.]
+
+If any persons believed in the official promise of June 1, that there
+should be "liberty for all" in the Turkish dominions, they might have
+been undeceived by the events that had just transpired to the south of
+the Balkan Mountains. The outbreak of Moslem fanaticism, which at
+Constantinople led to the dethronement of two Sultans in order to place
+on the throne a stern devotee, had already deluged with blood the
+Bulgarian districts near Philippopolis. In the first days of May, the
+Christians of those parts, angered by the increase of misrule and fired
+with hope by the example of the Herzegovinians, had been guilty of acts
+of insubordination; and at Tatar Bazardjik a few Turkish officials were
+killed. The movement was of no importance, as the Christians were nearly
+all unarmed. Nevertheless, the authorities poured into the disaffected
+districts some 18,000 regulars, along with hordes of irregulars, or
+Bashi-Bazouks; and these, especially the last, proceeded to glut their
+hatred and lust in a wild orgy which desolated the whole region with a
+thoroughness that the Huns of Attila could scarcely have excelled (May
+9-16). In the upper valley of the Maritza out of eighty villages, all
+but fifteen were practically wiped out. Batak, a flourishing town of
+some 7000 inhabitants, underwent a systematic massacre, culminating in
+the butchery of all who had taken refuge in the largest church; of the
+whole population only 2000 managed to escape[102].
+
+[Footnote 102: Mr. Baring, a secretary of the British Legation at
+Constantinople, after a careful examination of the evidence, gave the
+number of Bulgarians slain as "not fewer than 12,000"; he opined that
+163 Mussulmans were perhaps killed early in May. He admitted the Batak
+horrors. Achmet Agha, their chief perpetrator, was at first condemned to
+death by a Turkish commission of inquiry, but he was finally pardoned.
+Shefket Pasha, whose punishment was also promised, was afterwards
+promoted to a high command. Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 2 (1877), pp.
+248-249; _ibid_. No. 15 (1877), No. 77, p. 58. Mr. Layard, successor to
+Sir Henry Elliott at Constantinople, afterwards sought to reduce the
+numbers slain to 3500. Turkey, No. 26 (1877), p. 54.]
+
+It is painful to have to add that the British Government was indirectly
+responsible for these events. Not only had it let the Turks know that it
+deprecated the intervention of the European Powers in Turkey (which was
+equivalent to giving the Turks _carte blanche_ in dealing with their
+Christian subjects), but on hearing of the Herzegovina revolt, it
+pressed on the Porte the need of taking speedy measures to suppress
+them. The despatches of Sir Henry Elliott, our ambassador at
+Constantinople, also show that he had favoured the use of active
+measures towards the disaffected districts north of Philippopolis[103].
+
+[Footnote 103: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 3 (1876), pp. 144, 173,
+198-199.]
+
+Of course, neither the British Government nor its ambassador foresaw the
+awful results of this advice; but their knowledge of Turkish methods
+should have warned them against giving it without adding the cautions so
+obviously needed. Sir Henry Elliott speedily protested against the
+measures adopted by the Turks, but then it was too late[104].
+Furthermore, the contemptuous way in which Disraeli dismissed the first
+reports of the Bulgarian massacres as "coffee-house babble" revealed his
+whole attitude of mind on Turkish affairs; and the painful impression
+aroused by this utterance was increased by his declaration of July 30
+that the British fleet then at Besika Bay was kept there solely in
+defence of British interests. He made a similar but more general
+statement in the House of Commons on August 11. On the next morning the
+world heard that Queen Victoria had been pleased to confer on him the
+title of Earl of Beaconsfield. It is well known, on his own admission,
+that he could no longer endure the strain of the late sittings in the
+House of Commons and had besought Her Majesty for leave to retire. She,
+however, suggested the gracious alternative that he should continue in
+office with a seat in the House of Lords. None the less, the conferring
+of this honour was felt by very many to be singularly inopportune.
+
+[Footnote 104: See, _inter alia_, his letter of May 26, 1876, quoted in
+_Life and Correspondence of William White_ (1902), pp. 99-100.]
+
+For at this time tidings of the massacres at Batak and elsewhere began
+to be fully known. Despite the efforts of Ministers to discredit them,
+they aroused growing excitement; and when the whole truth was known, a
+storm of indignation swept over the country as over the whole of Europe.
+Efforts were made by the Turcophil Press to represent the new trend of
+popular feeling as a mere party move and an insidious attempt of the
+Liberal Opposition to exploit humanitarian sentiment; but this charge
+will not bear examination. Mr. Gladstone had retired from the Liberal
+Leadership early in 1875 and was deeply occupied in literary work; and
+Lords Granville and Hartington, on whom devolved the duty of leading the
+Opposition, had been very sparing of criticisms on the foreign policy of
+the Cabinet. They, as well as Mr. Gladstone, had merely stated that the
+Government, on refusing to join in the Berlin Memorandum, ought to have
+formulated an alternative policy. We now know that Mr. Gladstone left
+his literary work doubtfully and reluctantly[105].
+
+[Footnote 105: J. Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. ii. pp. 548-549.]
+
+Now, however, the events in Bulgaria shed a ghastly light on the whole
+situation, and showed the consequences of giving the "moral support" of
+Britain to the Turks. The whole question ceased to rest on the high and
+dry levels of diplomacy, and became one of life or death for many
+thousands of men and women. The conscience of the country was touched to
+the quick by the thought that the presence of the British Mediterranean
+fleet at Besika Bay was giving the same encouragement to the Turks as it
+had done before the Crimean War, and that, too, when they had belied the
+promises so solemnly given in 1856, and were now proved to be guilty of
+unspeakable barbarities. In such a case, the British nation would have
+been disgraced had it not demanded that no further alliance should be
+formed. It was equally the duty of the leaders of the Opposition to
+voice what was undoubtedly the national sentiment. To have kept silence
+would have been to stultify our Parliamentary institutions. The parrot
+cry that British interests were endangered by Russia's supposed designs
+on Turkey, was met by the unanswerable reply that, if those designs
+existed, the best way to check them was to maintain the European
+Concert, and especially to keep in close touch with Austria, seeing that
+that Power had as much cause as England to dread any southward extension
+of the Czar's power. Russia might conceivably fight Turkey and Great
+Britain; but she would not wage war against Austria as well. Therefore,
+the dictates of humanity as well as those of common sense alike
+condemned the British policy, which from the outset had encouraged the
+Turks to resist European intervention, had made us in some measure
+responsible for the Bulgarian massacres, and, finally, had broken up the
+Concert of the Powers, from which alone a peaceful solution of the
+Eastern Question could be expected.
+
+The union of the Powers having been dissolved by British action, it was
+but natural that Russia and Austria should come to a private
+understanding. This came about at Reichstadt in Bohemia on July 8. No
+definitive treaty was signed, but the two Emperors and their Chancellors
+framed an agreement defining their spheres of influence in the Balkans
+in case war should break out between Russia and Turkey. Francis Joseph
+of Austria covenanted to observe a neutrality friendly to the Czar under
+certain conditions that will be noticed later on. Some of those
+conditions were distasteful to the Russian Government, which sounded
+Bismarck as to his attitude in case war broke out between the Czar and
+the Hapsburg ruler. Apparently the reply of the German Chancellor was
+unfavourable to Russia[106], for it thereafter renewed the negotiations
+with the Court of Vienna. On the whole, the ensuing agreement was a
+great diplomatic triumph; for the Czar thereby secured the neutrality of
+Austria--a Power that might readily have remained in close touch with
+Great Britain had British diplomacy displayed more foresight.
+
+[Footnote 106: Bismarck, _Reflections and Reminiscences_ vol. ii. chap,
+xxviii.]
+
+The prospects of a great war, meanwhile, had increased owing to the
+action of Servia and Montenegro. The rulers of those States, unable any
+longer to hold in their peoples, and hoping for support from their
+Muscovite kinsfolk, declared war on Turkey at the end of June. Russian
+volunteers thronged to the Servian forces by thousands; but, despite the
+leadership of the Russian General, Tchernayeff, they were soon overborne
+by the numbers and fanatical valour of the Turks. Early in September,
+Servia appealed to the Powers for their mediation; and, owing chiefly to
+the efforts of Great Britain, terms for an armistice were proposed by
+the new Sultan, Abdul Hamid, but of so hard a nature that the Servians
+rejected them.
+
+On the fortune of war still inclining against the Slavonic cause, the
+Russian people became intensely excited; and it was clear that they
+would speedily join in the war unless the Turks moderated their claims.
+There is reason to believe that the Czar Alexander II. dreaded the
+outbreak of hostilities with Turkey in which he might become embroiled
+with Great Britain. The Panslavonic party in Russia was then permeated
+by revolutionary elements that might threaten the stability of the
+dynasty at the end of a long and exhausting struggle. But, feeling
+himself in honour bound to rescue Servia and Montenegro from the results
+of their ill-judged enterprise, he assembled large forces in South
+Russia and sent General Ignatieff to Constantinople with the demand,
+urged in the most imperious manner (Oct. 30), that the Porte should
+immediately grant an armistice to those States. At once Abdul Hamid
+gave way.
+
+Even so, Alexander II. showed every desire of averting the horrors of
+war. Speaking to the British ambassador at St. Petersburg on November
+2, he said that the present state of affairs in Turkey "was intolerable,
+and unless Europe was prepared to act with firmness and energy, he
+should be obliged to act alone." But he pledged his word that he desired
+no aggrandisement, and that "he had not the smallest wish or intention
+to be possessed of Constantinople[107]." At this time proposals for a
+Conference of the Powers at Constantinople were being mooted: they had
+been put forth by the British Government on October 5. There seemed,
+therefore, to be some hope of a compromise if the Powers reunited so as
+to bring pressure to bear on Turkey; for, a week later, the Sultan
+announced his intention of granting a constitution, with an elected
+Assembly to supervise the administration. But hopes of peace as well as
+of effective reform in Turkey were damped by the warlike speech of Lord
+Beaconsfield at the Lord Mayor's banquet on November 9. He then used
+these words. If Britain draws the sword "in a righteous cause; if the
+contest is one which concerns her liberty, her independence, or her
+Empire, her resources, I feel, are inexhaustible. She is not a country
+that, when she enters into a campaign, has to ask herself whether she
+can support a second or a third campaign." On the next day the Czar
+replied in a speech at Moscow to the effect that if the forthcoming
+Conference at Constantinople did not lead to practical results, Russia
+would be forced to take up arms; and he counted on the support of his
+people. A week later 160,000 Russian troops were mobilised.
+
+[Footnote 107: Hertslet, iv. p. 2508.]
+
+The issue was thus clear as far as concerned Russia. It was not so clear
+for Great Britain. Even now, we are in ignorance as to the real intent
+of Lord Beaconsfield's speech at the Guildhall. It seems probable that,
+as there were divisions in his Cabinet, he may have wished to bring
+about such a demonstration of public feeling as would strengthen his
+hands in proposing naval and military preparations. The duties of a
+Prime Minister are so complex that his words may be viewed either in an
+international sense, or as prompted by administrative needs, or by his
+relations to his colleagues, or, again, they may be due merely to
+electioneering considerations. Whatever their real intent on this
+occasion, they were interpreted by Russia as a defiance and by Turkey as
+a promise of armed help.
+
+On the other hand, if Lord Beaconsfield hoped to strengthen the
+pro-Turkish feeling in the Cabinet and the country, he failed. The
+resentment aroused by Turkish methods of rule and repression was too
+deep to be eradicated even by his skilful appeals to Imperialist
+sentiment. The Bulgarian atrocities had at least brought this much of
+good: they rendered a Turco-British alliance absolutely impossible.
+
+Lord Derby had written to this effect on August 29 to Sir Henry Elliott:
+"The impression produced here by events in Bulgaria has completely
+destroyed sympathy with Turkey. The feeling is universal and so strong
+that even if Russia were to declare war against the Porte, Her Majesty's
+Government would find it practically impossible to interfere[108]."
+
+[Footnote 108: Parliamentary Papers, Turkey, No. 6 (1877).]
+
+The assembly of a Conference of the envoys of the Powers at
+Constantinople was claimed to be a decisive triumph for British
+diplomacy. There were indeed some grounds for hoping that Turkey would
+give way before a reunited Europe. The pressure brought to bear on the
+British Cabinet by public opinion resulted in instructions being given
+to Lord Salisbury (our representative, along with Sir H. Elliott, at the
+Conference) which did not differ much from the avowed aims of Russia and
+of the other Powers. Those instructions stated that the Powers could not
+accept mere promises of reform, for "the whole history of the Ottoman
+Empire, since it was admitted into the European Concert under the
+engagements of the Treaty of Paris [1856], has proved that the Porte is
+unable to guarantee the execution of reforms in the provinces by Turkish
+officials, who accept them with reluctance and neglect them with
+impunity." The Cabinet, therefore, insisted that there must be "external
+guarantees," but stipulated that no foreign armies must be introduced
+into Turkey[109]. Here alone British Ministers were at variance with the
+other Powers; and when, in the preliminary meetings of the Conference, a
+proposal was made to bring Belgian troops in order to guarantee the
+thorough execution of the proposed reforms, Lord Salisbury did not
+oppose it. In pursuance of instructions from London, he even warned the
+Porte that Britain would not give any help in case war resulted from its
+refusal of the European proposals.
+
+[Footnote 109: Parliamentary Papers, Turkey, ii. (1877), No. 1; also, in
+part, in Hertslet, iv. p. 2517.]
+
+It is well known that Lord Salisbury was far less pro-Turkish than the
+Prime Minister or the members of the British embassy at Constantinople.
+During a diplomatic tour that he had made to the chief capitals he
+convinced himself "that no Power was disposed to shield Turkey--not even
+Austria--if blood had to be shed for the _status quo_." (The words are
+those used by his assistant, Mr., afterwards Sir, William White.) He had
+had little or no difficulty in coming to an understanding with the
+Russian plenipotentiary, General Ignatieff, despite the intrigues of Sir
+Henry Elliott and his Staff to hinder it[110]. Indeed, the situation
+shows what might have been effected in May 1876, had not the Turks then
+received the support of the British Government.
+
+[Footnote 110: _Sir William White: Life and Correspondence_, p. 117.]
+
+Now, however, there were signs that the Turks declined to take the good
+advice of the Powers seriously; and on December 23, when the "full"
+meetings of the Conference began, the Sultan and his Ministers treated
+the plenipotentiaries to a display of injured virtue and reforming zeal
+that raised the situation to the level of the choicest comedy. In the
+midst of the proceedings, after the Turkish Foreign Minister, Safvet
+Pacha, had explained away the Bulgarian massacres as a myth woven by the
+Western imagination, salvoes of cannon were heard, that proclaimed the
+birth of a new and most democratic constitution for the whole of the
+Turkish Empire. Safvet did justice to the solemnity of the occasion; the
+envoys of the Powers suppressed their laughter; and before long, Lord
+Salisbury showed his resentment at this display of oriental irony and
+stubbornness by ordering the British Fleet to withdraw from
+Besika Bay[111].
+
+[Footnote 111: See Gallenga (_The Eastern Question_, vol. ii. pp.
+255-258) as to the scepticism regarding the new constitution, felt alike
+by foreigners and natives at Constantinople.]
+
+But deeds and words were alike wasted on the Sultan and his Ministers.
+To all the proposals and warnings of the Powers they replied by pointing
+to the superior benefits about to be conferred by the new constitution.
+The Conference therefore speedily came to an end (Jan. 20). It had
+served its purpose. It had fooled Europe[112].
+
+[Footnote 112: See Parl. Papers (1878), Turkey, No. 2, p. 114, for the
+constitution; and p. 302 for Lord Salisbury's criticisms on it; also
+_ibid_, pp. 344-345, for Turkey's final rejection of the proposals of
+the Powers.]
+
+The responsibility for this act of cynical defiance must be assigned to
+one man. The Sultan had never before manifested a desire for any reform
+whatsoever; and it was not until December 19, 1876, that he named as
+Grand Vizier Midhat Pasha, who was known to have long been weaving
+constitutional schemes. This Turkish Sieyes was thrust to the front in
+time to promulgate that fundamental reform. His tenure of power, like
+that of the French constitution-monger in 1799, ended when the scheme
+had served the purpose of the real controller of events. Midhat
+obviously did not see whither things were tending. On January 24, 1877,
+he wrote to Said Pasha, stating that, according to the Turkish
+ambassador at London (Musurus Pasha), Lord Derby congratulated the
+Sublime Porte on the dissolution of the Conference, "which he considers
+a success for Turkey[113]."
+
+[Footnote 113: _Life of Midhat Pasha_, by Midhat Ali (1903), p. 142.
+Musurus must have deliberately misrepresented Lord Derby.]
+
+It therefore only remained to set the constitution in motion. After six
+days, when no sign of action was forthcoming, Midhat wrote to the Sultan
+in urgent terms, reminding him that their object in promulgating the
+constitution "was certainly not merely to find a solution of the
+so-called Eastern Question, nor to seek thereby to make a demonstration
+that should conciliate the sympathies of Europe, which had been
+estranged from us." This Note seems to have irritated the Sultan. Abdul
+Hamid, with his small, nervous, exacting nature, has always valued
+Ministers in proportion to their obedience, not to their power of giving
+timely advice. In every independent suggestion he sees the germ of
+opposition, and perhaps of a palace plot. He did so now. By way of
+reply, he bade Midhat come to the Palace. Midhat, fearing a trap,
+deferred his visit, until he received the assurance that the order for
+the reforms had been issued. Then he obeyed the summons; at once he was
+apprehended, and was hurried to the Sultan's yacht, which forthwith
+steamed away for the Aegean (Feb. 5). The fact that he remained above
+its waters, and was allowed to proceed to Italy, may be taken as proof
+that his zeal for reform had been not without its uses in the game which
+the Sultan had played against the Powers. The Turkish Parliament, which
+assembled on March 1, acted with the subservience that might have been
+expected after this lesson. The Sultan dissolved it on the outbreak of
+war, and thereafter gave up all pretence of constitutional forms. As for
+Midhat, he was finally lured back to Turkey and done to death. Such was
+the end of the Turkish constitution, of the Turkish Parliament, and of
+their contriver[114].
+
+[Footnote 114: _Life of Midhat Pasha_, chaps. v.-vii. For the Sultan's
+character and habits, see an article in the _Contemporary Review_ for
+December 1896, by D. Kelekian.]
+
+Even the dissolution of the Conference of the Powers did not bring about
+war at once. It seems probable that the Czar hoped much from the
+statesmanlike conduct of Lord Salisbury at Constantinople, or perhaps he
+expected to secure the carrying out of the needed reforms by means of
+pressure from the Three Emperors' League (see Chapter XII.). But, unless
+the Russians gave up all interest in the fate of her kinsmen and
+co-religionists in Turkey, war was now the more probable outcome of
+events. Alexander had already applied to Germany for help, either
+diplomatic or military; but these overtures, of whatever kind, were
+declined by Bismarck--so he declared in his great speech of February 6,
+1888. Accordingly, the Czar drew closer to Austria, with the result that
+the Reichstadt agreement of July 8, 1876, now assumed the form of a
+definitive treaty signed at Vienna between the two Powers on January
+15, 1877.
+
+The full truth on this subject is not known. M. Elie de Cyon, who claims
+to have seen the document, states that Austria undertook to remain
+neutral during the Russo-Turkish War, that she stipulated for a large
+addition of territory if the Turks were forced to quit Europe; also that
+a great Bulgaria should be formed, and that Servia and Montenegro should
+be extended so as to become conterminous. To the present writer this
+account appears suspect. It is inconceivable that Austria should have
+assented to an expansion of these principalities which would bar her
+road southward to Salonica[115].
+
+[Footnote 115: Elie de Cyon, _Histoire de l'Entente franco-russe_, chap,
+i.; and in _Nouvelle Revue_ for June 1, 1887. His account bears obvious
+signs of malice against Germany and Austria.]
+
+Another and more probable version was given by the Hungarian Minister,
+M. Tisza, during the course of debates in the Hungarian Delegations in
+the spring of 1887, to this effect:--(1) No Power should claim an
+exclusive right of protecting the Christians of Turkey, and the Great
+Powers should pronounce on the results of the war; (2) Russia would
+annex no land on the right (south) bank of the Danube, would respect the
+integrity of Roumania, and refrain from touching Constantinople; (3) if
+Russia formed a new Slavonic State in the Balkans, it should not be at
+the expense of non-Slavonic peoples; and she would not claim special
+rights over Bulgaria, which was to be governed by a prince who was
+neither Russian nor Austrian; (4) Russia would not extend her military
+operations to the districts west of Bulgaria. These were the terms on
+which Austria agreed to remain neutral; and in certain cases she claimed
+to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina[116].
+
+[Footnote 116: Debidour, _Hist. diplomatique de l'Europe_ (1814-1878),
+vol. ii. p. 502.] Doubtless these, or indeed any, concessions to
+Austria were repugnant to Alexander II. and Prince Gortchakoff; but her
+neutrality was essential to Russia's success in case war broke out; and
+the Czar's Government certainly acted with much skill in securing the
+friendly neutrality of the Power which in 1854 had exerted so paralysing
+a pressure on the Russian operations on the Lower Danube.
+
+Nevertheless, Alexander II. still sought to maintain the European
+Concert with a view to the exerting of pacific pressure upon Turkey.
+Early in March he despatched General Ignatieff on a mission to the
+capitals of the Great Powers; except at Westminster, that envoy found
+opinion favourable to the adoption of some form of coercion against
+Turkey, in case the Sultan still hardened his heart against good advice.
+Even the Beaconsfield Ministry finally agreed to sign a Protocol, that
+of March 31, 1877, which recounted the efforts of the six Great Powers
+for the improvement of the lot of the Christians in Turkey, and
+expressed their approval of the promises of reform made by that State on
+February 13, 1876. Passing over without notice the new Turkish
+Constitution, the Powers declared that they would carefully watch the
+carrying out of the promised reforms, and that, if no improvement in the
+lot of the Christians should take place, "they [the Powers] reserve to
+themselves to consider in common as to the means which they may deem
+best fitted to secure the wellbeing of the Christian populations, and
+the interests of the general peace[117]." This final clause contained a
+suggestion scarcely less threatening than that with which the Berlin
+Memorandum had closed; and it is difficult to see why the British
+Cabinet, which now signed the London Protocol, should have wrecked that
+earlier effort of the Powers. In this as in other matters it is clear
+that the Cabinet was swayed by a "dual control."
+
+[Footnote 117: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 9 (1877), p. 2.]
+
+But now it was all one whether the British Government signed the
+Protocol or not. Turkey would have none of it. Despite Lord Derby's
+warning that "the Sultan would be very unwise if he would not endeavour
+to avail himself of the opportunity afforded him to arrange a mutual
+disarmament," that potentate refused to move a hair's-breadth from his
+former position. On the 12th of April the Turkish ambassador announced
+to Lord Derby the final decision of his Government: "Turkey, as an
+independent State, cannot submit to be placed under any surveillance,
+whether collective or not. . . . No consideration can arrest the Imperial
+Government in their determination to protest against the Protocol of the
+31st March, and to consider it, as regards Turkey, as devoid of all
+equity, and consequently of all binding character." Lord Derby thereupon
+expressed his deep regret at this decision, and declared that he "did
+not see what further steps Her Majesty's Government could take to avert
+a war which appeared to have become inevitable[118]."
+
+[Footnote 118: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 15 (1877), pp. 354-355.]
+
+The Russian Government took the same view of the case, and on April
+7-19, 1877, stated in a despatch that, as a pacific solution of the
+Eastern Question was now impossible, the Czar had ordered his armies to
+cross the frontiers of Turkey. The official declaration of war followed
+on April 12-24. From the point of view of Lord Derby this seemed
+"inevitable." Nevertheless, on May 1 he put his name to an official
+document which reveals the curious dualism which then prevailed in the
+Beaconsfield Cabinet. This reply to the Russian despatch contained the
+assertion that the last answer of the Porte did not remove all hope of
+deference on its part to the wishes and advice of Europe, and "that the
+decision of the Russian Government is not one which can have their
+concurrence or approval." We shall not be far wrong in assuming that,
+while the hand that signed this document was the hand of Derby, the
+spirit behind it was that of Beaconsfield.
+
+In many quarters the action of Russia was stigmatised as the outcome of
+ambition and greed, rendered all the more odious by the cloak of
+philanthropy which she had hitherto worn. The time has not come when an
+exhaustive and decisive verdict can be given on this charge. Few
+movements have been free from all taint of meanness; but it is clearly
+unjust to rail against a great Power, because, at the end of a war which
+entailed frightful losses and a serious though temporary loss of
+prestige, it determined to exact from the enemy the only form of
+indemnity which was forthcoming, namely, a territorial indemnity.
+Russia's final claims, as will be seen, were open to criticism at
+several points; but the censure just referred to is puerile. It accords,
+however, with most of the criticisms passed in London "club-land," which
+were remarkable for their purblind cynicism.
+
+No one who has studied the mass of correspondence contained in the
+Blue-books relating to Turkey in 1875-77 can doubt that the Emperor
+Alexander II. displayed marvellous patience in face of a series of
+brutal provocations by Moslem fanatics and the clamour of his own people
+for a liberating crusade. Bismarck, who did not like the Czar, stated
+that he did not want war, but waged it "under stress of Panslavist
+influence[119]." That some of his Ministers and Generals had less lofty
+aims is doubtless true; but practically all authorities are now agreed
+that the maintenance of the European Concert would have been the best
+means of curbing those aims. Yet, despite the irritating conduct of the
+Beaconsfield Cabinet, the Emperor Alexander sought to re-unite Europe
+with a view to the execution of the needed reforms in Turkey. Even after
+the successive rebuffs of the rejection of the Berlin Memorandum by
+Great Britain and of the suggestions of the Powers at Constantinople by
+Turkey, he succeeded in restoring the semblance of accord between the
+Powers, and of leaving to Turkey the responsibility of finally and
+insolently defying their recommendations. A more complete diplomatic
+triumph has rarely been won. It was the reward of consistency and
+patience, qualities in which the Beaconsfield Cabinet was
+signally lacking.
+
+[Footnote 119: _Bismarck: his Reflections and Reminiscences_, vol. ii.
+p. 259 (Eng. ed.).] We may notice one other criticism: that Russia's
+agreement with Austria implied the pre-existence of aggressive designs.
+This is by no means conclusive. That the Czar should have taken the
+precaution of coming to the arrangement of January 1877 with Austria
+does not prove that he was desirous of war. The attitude of Turkey
+during the Conference at Constantinople left but the slightest hope of
+peace. To prepare for war in such a case is not a proof of a desire for
+war, but only of common prudence.
+
+Certain writers in France and Germany have declared that Bismarck was
+the real author of the Russo-Turkish War. The dogmatism of their
+assertions is in signal contrast with the thinness of their
+evidence[120]. It rests mainly on the statement that the Three Emperors'
+League (see Chapter XII.) was still in force; that Bismarck had come to
+some arrangement for securing gains to Austria in the south-east as a
+set-off to her losses in 1859 and 1866; that Austrian agents in Dalmatia
+had stirred up the Herzegovina revolt of 1875; and that Bismarck and
+Andrassy did nothing to avert the war of 1877. Possibly he had a hand in
+these events--he had in most events of the time; and there is a
+suspicious passage in his Memoirs as to the overtures made to Berlin in
+the autumn of 1876. The Czar's Ministers wished to know whether, in the
+event of a war with Austria, they would have the support of Germany. To
+this the Chancellor replied, that Germany could not allow the present
+equilibrium of the monarchical Powers to be disturbed: "The result . . .
+was that the Russian storm passed from Eastern Galicia to the
+Balkans[121]." Thereafter Russia came to terms with Austria as
+described above.
+
+[Footnote 120: Elie de Cyon, _op. cit._ chap. i.; also in _Nouvelle
+Revue_ for 1880.]
+
+[Footnote 121: Bismarck, _Recollections and Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p.
+231 (Eng. ed.).]
+
+But the passage just cited only proves that Russia might have gone to
+war with Austria over the Eastern Question. In point of fact, she went
+to war with Turkey, after coming to a friendly arrangement with Austria.
+Bismarck therefore acted as "honest-broker" between his two allies; and
+it has yet to be proved that Bismarck did not sincerely work with the
+two other Empires to make the coercion of Turkey by the civilised Powers
+irresistibly strong. In his speech of December 6, 1876, to the
+Reichstag, the Chancellor made a plain and straightforward declaration
+of his policy, namely, that of neutrality, but inclining towards
+friendship with Austria. That, surely, did not drive Russia into war
+with Turkey, still less entice her into it. As for the statement that
+Austrian intrigues were the sole cause of the Bosnian revolt, it must
+appear childish to all who bear in mind the exceptional hardships and
+grievances of the peasants of that province. Finally, the assertion of a
+newspaper, the _Czas_, that Queen Victoria wrote to Bismarck in April
+1877 urging him to protest against an attack by Russia on Turkey, may be
+dismissed as an impudent fabrication[122]. It was altogether opposed to
+the habits of her late Majesty to write letters of that kind to the
+Foreign Ministers of other Powers.
+
+[Footnote 122: Busch, _Our Chancellor_, vol. ii. p. 126.]
+
+Until documents of a contrary tenor come to light, we may say with some
+approach to certainty that the responsibility for the war of 1877-78
+rests with the Sultan of Turkey and with those who indirectly encouraged
+him to set at naught the counsels of the Powers. Lord Derby and Lord
+Salisbury had of late plainly warned him of the consequences of his
+stubbornness; but the influence of the British embassy at Constantinople
+and of the Turkish ambassador in London seems greatly to have weakened
+the force of those warnings.
+
+It must always be remembered that the Turk will concede religious
+freedom and civic equality to the "Giaours" only under overwhelming
+pressure. In such a case he mutters "Kismet" ("It is fate"), and gives
+way; but the least sign of weakness or wavering on the part of the
+Powers awakens his fanatical scruples. Then his devotion to the Koran
+forbids any surrender. History has afforded several proofs of this, from
+the time of the Battle of Navarino (1827) to that of the intervention
+of the Western Powers on behalf of the slaughtered and harried
+Christians of the Lebanon (1860). Unfortunately Abdul Hamid had now come
+to regard the Concert of the Powers as a "loud-sounding nothing." With
+the usual bent of a mean and narrow nature he detected nothing but
+hypocrisy in its lofty professions, and self-seeking in its
+philanthropic aims, together with a treacherous desire among influential
+persons to make the whole scheme miscarry. Accordingly he fell back on
+the boundless fund of inertia, with which a devout Moslem ruler blocks
+the way to western reforms. A competent observer has finely remarked
+that the Turk never changes; his neighbours, his frontiers, his
+statute-books may change, but his ideas and his practice remain always
+the same. He will not be interfered with; he will not improve[123]. To
+this statement we must add that only under dire necessity will he allow
+his Christian subjects to improve. The history of the Eastern Question
+may be summed up in these assertions.
+
+[Footnote 123: _Turkey in Europe_, by Odysseus, p. 139.]
+
+Abdul Hamid II. is the incarnation of the reactionary forces which have
+brought ruin to Turkey and misery to her Christian subjects. He owed his
+crown to a recrudescence of Moslem fanaticism; and his reign has
+illustrated the unsuspected strength and ferocity of his race and creed
+in face of the uncertain tones in which Christendom has spoken since the
+spring of the year 1876. The reasons which prompted his defiance a year
+later were revealed by his former Grand Vizier, Midhat Pasha, in an
+article in the _Nineteenth Century_ for June 1877. The following passage
+is especially illuminating:--
+
+     Turkey was not unaware of the attitude of the English
+     Government towards her; the British Cabinet had declared in
+     clear terms that it would not interfere in our dispute. This
+     decision of the English Cabinet was perfectly well known to
+     us, but we knew still better that the general interests of
+     Europe and the particular interests of England were so bound
+     up in our dispute with Russia that, in spite of all the
+     Declarations of the English Cabinet, it appeared to us to be
+     absolutely impossible for her to avoid interfering sooner or
+     later in this Eastern dispute. This profound belief, added to
+     the reasons we have mentioned, was one of the principal
+     factors of our contest with Russia[124].
+
+[Footnote 124: See, too, the official report of our pro-Turkish
+Ambassador at Constantinople, Mr. Layard (May 30, 1877), as to the
+difficulty of our keeping out of the war in its final stages (Parl.
+Papers, Turkey, No. 26 (1877), p. 52).]
+
+It appears, then, that the action of the British Government in the
+spring and summer of 1876, and the well-known desire of the Prime
+Minister to intervene in favour of Turkey, must have contributed to the
+Sultan's decision to court the risks of war rather than allow any
+intervention of the Powers on behalf of his Christian subjects.
+
+The information that has come to light from various quarters serves to
+strengthen the case against Lord Beaconsfield's policy in the years
+1875-77. The letter written by Mr. White to Sir Robert Morier on January
+16, 1877, and referred to above, shows that his diplomatic experience
+had convinced him of the futility of supporting Turkey against the
+Powers. In that letter he made use of these significant words:--"You
+know me well enough. I did not come here (Constantinople) to deceive
+Lord Salisbury or to defend an untenable Russophobe or pro-Turkish
+policy. There will probably be a difference of opinion in the Cabinet as
+to our future line of policy, and I shall not wonder if Lord Salisbury
+should upset Dizzy and take his place or leave the Government on this
+question. If he does the latter, the coach is indeed upset." Mr. White
+also referred to the _personnel_ of the British Embassy at
+Constantinople in terms which show how mischievous must have been its
+influence on the counsels of the Porte.
+
+A letter from Sir Robert Morier of about the same date proves that that
+experienced diplomatist also saw the evil results certain to accrue
+from the Beaconsfield policy:--"I have not ceased to din that into the
+ears of the F.O. (Foreign Office), to make ourselves the _point d'appui_
+of the Christians in the Turkish Empire, and thus take all the wind out
+of the sails of Russia; and after the population had seen the difference
+between an English and a Russian occupation [of the disturbed parts of
+Turkey] it would jump to the eyes even of the blind, and we should
+_debuter_ into a new policy at Constantinople with an immense
+advantage[125]." This advice was surely statesmanlike. To support the
+young and growing nationalities in Turkey would serve, not only to
+checkmate the supposed aggressive designs of Russia, but also to array
+on the side of Britain the progressive forces of the East. To rely on
+the Turk was to rely on a moribund creature. It was even worse. It
+implied an indirect encouragement to the "sick man" to enter on a strife
+for which he was manifestly unequal, and in which we did not mean to
+help him. But these considerations failed to move Lord Beaconsfield and
+the Foreign Office from the paths of tradition and routine[126].
+
+[Footnote 125: _Sir William White: Life and Correspondence_, pp.
+115-117.]
+
+[Footnote 126: For the power of tradition in the Foreign Office, see
+_Sir William White: Life and Correspondence_, p. 119.]
+
+Finally, in looking at the events of 1875-76 in their broad outlines, we
+may note the verdict of a veteran diplomatist, whose conduct before the
+Crimean War proved him to be as friendly to the interests of Turkey as
+he was hostile to those of Russia, but who now saw that the situation
+differed utterly from that which was brought about by the aggressive
+action of Czar Nicholas I. in 1854. In a series of letters to the
+_Times_ he pointed out the supreme need of joint action by all the
+Powers who signed the Treaty of Paris; that that treaty by no means
+prohibited their intervention in the affairs of Turkey; that wise and
+timely intervention would be to the advantage of that State; that the
+Turks had always yielded to coercion if it were of overwhelming
+strength, but only on those terms; and that therefore the severance of
+England from the European Concert was greatly to be deplored[127]. In
+private this former champion of Turkey went even farther, and declared
+on Sept. 10, 1876, that the crisis in the East would not have become
+acute had Great Britain acted conjointly with the Powers[128]. There is
+every reason to believe that posterity will endorse this judgment of
+Lord Stratford de Redcliffe.
+
+[Footnote 127: Letters of Dec. 31, 1875, May 16, 1876, and Sept. 9,
+1876, republished with others in _The Eastern Question_, by Lord
+Stratford de Redcliffe (1881).]
+
+[Footnote 128: J. Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. ii. p. 555.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR
+
+     "Knowledge of the great operations of war can be acquired
+     only by experience and by the applied study of the campaigns
+     of all the great captains. Gustavus, Turenne, and Frederick,
+     as well as Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar, have all acted on
+     the same principles. To keep one's forces together, to bear
+     speedily on any point, to be nowhere vulnerable,--such are
+     the principles that assure victory."--NAPOLEON.
+
+
+Despite the menace to Russia contained in the British Note of May 1,
+1877, there was at present little risk of a collision between the two
+Powers for the causes already stated. The Government of the Czar showed
+that it desired to keep on friendly terms with the Cabinet of St. James,
+for, in reply to a statement of Lord Derby that the security of
+Constantinople, Egypt, and the Suez Canal was a matter of vital concern
+for Great Britain, the Russian Chancellor, Prince Gortchakoff, on May 30
+sent the satisfactory assurance that the two latter would remain outside
+the sphere of military operations; that the acquisition of the Turkish
+capital was "excluded from the views of His Majesty the Emperor," and
+that its future was a question of common interest which could be settled
+only by a general understanding among the Powers[129]. As long as Russia
+adhered to these promises there could scarcely be any question of Great
+Britain intervening on behalf of Turkey.
+
+[Footnote 129: Hertslet, vol. iv. p. 2625.]
+
+Thus the general situation in the spring of 1877 scarcely seemed to
+warrant the hopes with which the Turks entered on the war. They stood
+alone confronting a Power which had vastly greater resources in men and
+treasure. Seeing that the Sultan had recently repudiated a large part of
+the State debt, and could borrow only at exorbitant rates of interest,
+it is even now mysterious how his Ministers managed to equip very
+considerable forces, and to arm them with quick-firing rifles and
+excellent cannon. The Turk is a born soldier, and will fight for nothing
+and live on next to nothing when his creed is in question; but that does
+not solve the problem how the Porte could buy huge stores of arms and
+ammunition. It had procured 300,000 American rifles, and bought 200,000
+more early in the war. On this topic we must take refuge in the domain
+of legend, and say that the life of Turkey is the life of a phoenix: it
+now and again rises up fresh and defiant among the flames.
+
+As regards the Ottoman army, an English officer in its service,
+Lieutenant W.V. Herbert, states that the artillery was very good,
+despite the poor supply of horses; that the infantry was very good; the
+regular cavalry mediocre, the irregular cavalry useless. He estimates
+the total forces in Europe and Asia at 700,000; but, as he admits that
+the battalions of 800 men rarely averaged more than 600, that total is
+clearly fallacious. An American authority believes that Turkey had not
+more than 250,000 men ready in Europe and that of these not more than
+165,000 were north of the Balkans when the Russians advanced towards the
+Danube[130]. Von Lignitz credits the Turks with only 215,000 regular
+troops and 100,000 irregulars (Bashi Bazouks and Circassians) in the
+whole Empire; of these he assigns two-thirds to European Turkey[131].
+
+[Footnote 130: _The Campaign in Bulgaria_, by F.V. Greene, pt. ii. ch.
+i.; W.V. Herbert, _The Defence of Plevna_, chaps, i.-ii.]
+
+[Footnote 131: _Aus drei Kriegen_, by Gen. von Lignitz, p. 99.]
+
+It seemed, then, that Russia had no very formidable task before her.
+Early in May seven army corps began to move towards that great river.
+They included 180 battalions of infantry, 200 squadrons of cavalry, and
+800 guns--in all about 200,000 men. Their cannon were inferior to those
+of the Turks, but this seemed a small matter in view of the superior
+numbers which Russia seemed about to place in the field. The
+mobilisation of her huge army, however, went on slowly, and produced by
+no means the numbers that were officially reported. Our military attache
+at the Russian headquarters, Colonel Wellesley, reported this fact to
+the British Government; and, on this being found out, incurred
+disagreeable slights from the Russian authorities[132].
+
+[Footnote 132: _With the Russians in War and Peace_, by Colonel F.A.
+Wellesley (1905), ch. xvii.]
+
+Meanwhile Russia had secured the co-operation of Roumania by a
+convention signed on April 16, whereby the latter State granted a free
+passage through that Principality, and promised friendly treatment to
+the Muscovite troops. The Czar in return pledged himself to "maintain
+and defend the actual integrity of Roumania[133]." The sequel will show
+how this promise was fulfilled. For the present it seemed that the
+interests of the Principality were fully secured. Accordingly Prince
+Charles (elder brother of the Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern, whose
+candidature for the Crown of Spain made so much stir in 1870) took the
+further step of abrogating the suzerainty of the Sultan over
+Roumania (June 3).
+
+[Footnote 133: Hertslet, vol. iv. p. 2577.]
+
+Even before the declaration of independence Roumania had ventured on a
+few acts of war against Turkey; but the co-operation of her army,
+comprising 50,000 regulars and 70,000 National Guards, with that of
+Russia proved to be a knotty question. The Emperor Alexander II., on
+reaching the Russian headquarters at Plojeschti, to the north of
+Bukharest, expressed his wish to help the Roumanian army, but insisted
+that it must be placed under the commander-in-chief of the Russian
+forces, the Grand Duke Nicholas. To this Prince Charles demurred, and
+the Roumanian troops at first took no active part in the campaign.
+Undoubtedly their non-arrival served to mar the plans of the Russian
+Staff[134].
+
+[Footnote 134: _Reminiscences of the King of Roumania_, edited by S.
+Whitman (1899), pp. 269, 274.] Delays multiplied from the outset. The
+Russians, not having naval superiority in the Black Sea which helped to
+gain them their speedy triumph in the campaign of 1828, could only
+strike through Roumania and across the Danube and the difficult passes
+of the middle Balkans. Further, as the Roumanian railways had but single
+lines, the movement of men and stores to the Danube was very slow.
+Numbers of the troops, after camping on its marshy banks (for the river
+was then in flood), fell ill of malarial fever; above all, the
+carelessness of the Russian Staff and the unblushing peculation of its
+subordinates and contractors clogged the wheels of the military machine.
+One result of it was seen in the bad bread supplied to the troops. A
+Roumanian officer, when dining with the Grand Duke Nicholas, ventured to
+compare the ration bread of the Russians with the far better bread
+supplied to his own men at cheaper rates. The Grand Duke looked at the
+two specimens and then--talked of something else[135]. Nothing could be
+done until the flood subsided and large bodies of troops were ready to
+threaten the Turkish line of defence at several points[136]. The Ottoman
+position by no means lacked elements of strength. The first of these was
+the Danube itself. The task of crossing a great river in front of an
+active foe is one of the most dangerous of all military operations. Any
+serious miscalculation of the strength, the position, or the mobility of
+the enemy's forces may lead to an irreparable disaster; and until the
+bridges used for the crossing are defended by _tetes de pont_ the
+position of the column that has passed over is precarious.
+
+[Footnote 135: Farcy, _La Guerre sur le Danube_, p. 73. For other
+malpractices see Colonel F.A. Wellesley's _With the Russians in Peace
+and War_, chs. xi. xii.]
+
+[Footnote 136: _Punch_ hit off the situation by thus parodying the
+well-known line of Horace: "Russicus expectat dum defluat amnis."]
+
+The Danube is especially hard to cross, because its northern bank is for
+the most part marshy, and is dominated by the southern bank. The German
+strategist, von Moltke, who knew Turkey well, and had written the best
+history of the Russo-Turkish War of 1828, maintained that the passage of
+the Danube must cost the invaders upwards of 50,000 men. Thereafter,
+they would be threatened by the Quadrilateral of fortresses--Rustchuk,
+Shumla, Varna, and Silistria. Three of these were connected by railway,
+which enabled the Turks to send troops quickly from the port of Varna to
+any position between the mountain stronghold of Shumla and the riverine
+fortress, Rustchuk.
+
+Even the non-military reader will see by a glance at the map that this
+Quadrilateral, if strongly held, practically barred the roads leading to
+the Balkans on their eastern side. It also endangered the march of an
+invading army through the middle of Bulgaria to the central passes of
+that chain. Moreover, there are in that part only two or three passes
+that can be attempted by an army with artillery. The fortress of Widdin,
+where Osman Pasha was known to have an army of about 40,000 seasoned
+troops, dominated the west of Bulgaria and the roads leading to the
+easier passes of the Balkans near Sofia.
+
+These being the difficulties that confronted the invaders in Europe, it
+is not surprising that the first important battles took place in Asia.
+On the Armenian frontier the Russians, under Loris Melikoff, soon gained
+decided advantages, driving back the Turks with considerable losses on
+Kars and Erzeroum. The tide of war soon turned in that quarter, but, for
+the present, the Muscovite triumphs sent a thrill of fear through
+Turkey, and probably strengthened the determination of Abdul-Kerim, the
+Turkish commander-in-chief in Europe, to maintain a cautious defensive.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF BULGARIA.]
+
+Much could be said in favour of a "Fabian" policy of delay. Large
+Turkish forces were in the western provinces warring against Montenegro,
+or watching Austria, Servia, and Greece. It is even said that
+Abdul-Kerim had not at first more than about 120,000 men in the whole of
+Bulgaria, inclusive of the army at Widdin. But obviously, if the
+invaders so far counted on his weakness as to thrust their columns
+across the Danube in front of forces that could be secretly and swiftly
+strengthened by drafts from the south and west, they would expose
+themselves to the gravest risks. The apologists of Abdul-Kerim claim
+that such was his design, and that the signs of sluggishness which he at
+first displayed formed a necessary part of a deep-laid scheme for luring
+the Russians to their doom. Let the invaders enter Central Bulgaria in
+force, and expose their flanks to Abdul-Kerim in the Quadrilateral, and
+to Osman Pasha at Widdin; then the Turks, by well-concerted moves
+against those flanks, would drive the enemy back on the Danube, and
+perhaps compel a large part of his forces to lay down their arms. Such
+is their explanation of the conduct of Abdul-Kerim.
+
+As the Turkish Government is wholly indifferent to the advance of
+historical knowledge, it is impossible even now to say whether this idea
+was definitely agreed on as the basis of the plan of campaign. There are
+signs that Abdul-Kerim and Osman Pasha adopted it, but whether it was
+ever approved by the War Council at Constantinople is a different
+question. Such a plan obviously implied the possession of great powers
+of self-control by the Sultan and his advisers, in face of the initial
+success of the Russians; and unless that self-control was proof against
+panic, the design could not but break down at the crucial point. Signs
+are not wanting that in the suggestions here tentatively offered, we
+find a key that unlocks the riddle of the Danubian campaign of 1877.
+
+At first Abdul-Kerim in the Quadrilateral, and Osman at Widdin,
+maintained a strict defensive. The former posted small bodies of troops,
+probably not more than 20,000 in all, at Sistova, Nicopolis, and other
+neighbouring points. But, apart from a heavy bombardment of Russian and
+Roumanian posts on the northern bank, neither commander did much to mar
+the hostile preparations. This want of initiative, which contrasted with
+the enterprise displayed by the Turks in 1854, enabled the invaders to
+mature their designs with little or no interruption.
+
+The Russian plan of campaign was to destroy or cripple the four small
+Turkish ironclads that patrolled the lower reaches of the river, to
+make feints at several points, and to force a passage at two
+places--first near Ibrail into the Dobrudscha, and thereafter, under
+cover of that diversion, from Simnitza to Sistova. The latter place of
+crossing combined all the possible advantages. It was far enough away
+from the Turkish Quadrilateral to afford the first essentials of safety;
+it was known to be but weakly held; its position on the shortest line of
+road between the Danube and a practicable pass of the Balkans--the
+Shipka Pass--formed a strong recommendation; while the presence of an
+island helped on the first preparations.
+
+The flood of the Danube having at last subsided, all was ready by
+midsummer. Russian batteries and torpedo-boats had destroyed two Turkish
+armoured gunboats in the lower reaches of the river, and on June 22 a
+Russian force crossed in boats from a point near Galatz to Matchin, and
+made good their hold on the Dobrudscha.
+
+Preparations were also ripe at Simnitza. In the narrow northern arm of
+the river the boats and pontoons collected by the Russians were launched
+with no difficulty, the island was occupied, and on the night of June
+26-27, a Volhynian regiment, along with Cossacks, crossed in boats over
+the broad arm of the river, there some 1000 yards wide, and gained a
+foothold on the bank. Already their numbers were thinned by a dropping
+fire from a Turkish detachment; but the Turks made the mistake of
+trusting to the bullet instead of plying the bayonet. Before dawn broke,
+the first-comers had been able to ensconce themselves under a bank until
+other boats came up. Then with rousing cheers they charged the Turks and
+pressed them back.
+
+This was the scene which greeted the eyes of General Dragomiroff as his
+boat drew near to the shore at 5 A.M. Half hidden by the morning mist,
+the issue seemed doubtful. But at his side stood a general, fresh from
+triumphs in Turkestan, who had begged to be allowed to come as volunteer
+or aide-de-camp. When Dragomiroff, in an agony of suspense, lowered his
+glass, the other continued to gaze, and at last exclaimed: "I
+congratulate you on your victory." "Where do you see that?" asked
+Dragomiroff "Where? on the faces of the soldiers. Look at them. Watch
+them as they charge the enemy. It is a pleasure to see them." The
+verdict was true. It was the verdict of Skobeleff[137].
+
+[Footnote 137: Quoted from a report by an eye-witness, by "O.K." (Madame
+Novikoff), _Skobeleff and the Slavonic Cause_, p. 38. The crossing was
+planned by the Grand Duke Nicholas; see von Lignitz, _Aus drei
+Kriegen_, p. 149.]
+
+Such was the first appearance in European warfare of the greatest leader
+of men that Russia has produced since the days of Suvoroff. The younger
+man resembled that sturdy veteran in his passion for war, his ambition,
+and that frank, bluff bearing which always wins the hearts of the
+soldiery. The grandson of a peasant, whose bravery had won him promotion
+in the great year, 1812; the son of a general whose prowess was
+renowned--Skobeleff was at once a commander and a soldier. "Ah! he knew
+the soul of a soldier as if he were himself a private." These were the
+words often uttered by the Russians about Skobeleff; similar things had
+been said of Suvoroff in his day. For champions such as these the
+emotional Slavs will always pour out their blood like water. But, like
+the captor of Warsaw, Skobeleff knew when to put aside the bayonet and
+win the day by skill. Both were hard hitters, but they had a hold on the
+principles of the art of war. The combination of these qualities was
+formidable; and many Russians believe that, had the younger man, with
+his magnificent physique and magnetic personality, enjoyed the length of
+days vouchsafed to the diminutive Suvoroff, he would have changed the
+face of two continents.
+
+The United States attache to the Russian army in the Russo-Turkish War
+afterwards spoke of his military genius as "stupendous," and prophesied
+that, should he live twenty years longer, and lead the Russian armies in
+the next Turkish war, he would win a place side by side with "Napoleon,
+Wellington, Grant, and Moltke." To equate these four names is a mark of
+transatlantic enthusiasm rather than of balanced judgment; but the
+estimate, so far as it concerns Skobeleff, reflects the opinion of
+nearly all who knew him[138].
+
+[Footnote 138: F.V. Green, _Sketches of Army Life in Russia_, p. 142.]
+
+Encouraged by the advent of Skobeleff and Dragomiroff, the Russians
+assumed the offensive with full effect, and by the afternoon of that
+eventful day, had mastered the rising ground behind Sistova. Here again
+the Turkish defence was tame. The town was unfortified, but its
+outskirts presented facilities for defence. Nevertheless, under the
+pressure of the Russian attack and of artillery fire from the north
+bank, the small Turkish garrison gave up the town and retreated towards
+Rustchuk. At many points on that day the Russians treated their foes to
+a heavy bombardment or feints of crossing, especially at Nicopolis and
+Rustchuk; and this accounts for the failure of the defenders to help the
+weak garrison on which fell the brunt of the attack. All things
+considered, the crossing of the Danube must rank as a highly creditable
+achievement, skilfully planned and stoutly carried out; it cost the
+invaders scarcely 700 men[139].
+
+[Footnote 139: Farcy, _La Guerre sur le Danube_, ch. viii.; _Daily News
+Correspondence of the War of 1877-78_, ch. viii.]
+
+They now threw a pontoon-bridge across the Danube between Simnitza and
+Sistova; and by July 2 had 65,000 men and 244 cannon in and near the
+latter town. Meanwhile, their 14th corps held the central position of
+Babadagh in the Dobrudscha, thereby preventing any attack from the
+north-east side of the Quadrilateral against their communications with
+the south of Russia.
+
+It may be questioned, however, whether the invaders did well to keep so
+large a force in the Dobrudscha, seeing that a smaller body of light
+troops patrolling the left bank of the lower Danube or at the _tete de
+pont_ at Matchin would have answered the same purpose. The chief use of
+the crossing at Matchin was to distract the attention of the enemy, an
+advance through the unhealthy district of the Dobrudscha against the
+Turkish Quadrilateral being in every way risky; above all, the retention
+of a whole corps on that side weakened the main line of advance, that
+from Sistova; and here it was soon clear that the Russians had too few
+men for the enterprise in hand. The pontoon-bridge over the Danube was
+completed by July 2--a fact which enabled those troops which were in
+Roumania to be hurried forward to the front.
+
+Obviously it was unsafe to march towards the Balkans until both flanks
+were secured against onsets from the Quadrilateral on the east, and from
+Nicopolis and Widdin on the west. At Nicopolis, twenty-five miles away,
+there were about 10,000 Turks; and around Widdin, about 100 miles
+farther up the stream, Osman mustered 40,000 more. To him Abdul-Kerim
+now sent an order to march against the flank of the invaders.
+
+Nor were the Balkan passes open to the Russians; for, after the crossing
+of the Danube, Reuf Pasha had orders to collect all available troops for
+their defence, from the Shipka Pass to the Slievno Pass farther east;
+7000 men now held the Shipka; about 10,000 acted as a general reserve at
+Slievno; 3000 were thrown forward to Tirnova, where the mountainous
+country begins, and detachments held the more difficult tracks over the
+mountains. An urgent message was also sent to Suleiman Pasha to
+disengage the largest possible force from the Montenegrin war; and, had
+he received this message in time, or had he acted with the needful speed
+and skill, events might have gone very differently.
+
+For some time the Turks seemed to be paralysed at all points by the
+vigour of the Muscovite movements. Two corps, the 13th and 14th, marched
+south-east from Sistova to the torrent of the Jantra, or Yantra, and
+seized Biela, an important centre of roads in that district. This
+secured them against any immediate attack from the Quadrilateral. The
+Grand Duke Nicholas also ordered the 9th corps, under the command of
+General Kruedener, to advance from Sistova and attack the weakly
+fortified town of Nicopolis. Aided by the Roumanian guns on the north
+bank of the Danube, this corps succeeded in overpowering the defence
+and capturing the town, along with 7000 troops and 110 guns (July 16).
+
+Thus the invaders seemed to have gained a secure base on the Danube,
+from Sistova to Nicopolis, whence they could safely push forward their
+vanguard to the Balkans. In point of fact their light troops had already
+seized one of its more difficult passes--an exploit that will always
+recall the name of that dashing leader, General Gurko. The plan now to
+be described was his conception; it was approved by the Grand Duke
+Nicholas. Setting out from Sistova and drawing part of his column from
+the forces at Biela, Gurko first occupied the important town of Tirnova,
+the small Turkish garrison making a very poor attempt to defend the old
+Bulgarian capital (July 7). The liberators there received an
+overwhelming ovation, and gained many recruits for the "Bulgarian
+Legion." Pushing ahead, the Cossacks and Dragoons seized large supplies
+of provisions stored by the Turks, and gained valuable news respecting
+the defences of the passes.
+
+The Shipka Pass, due south of Tirnova, was now strongly held, and
+Turkish troops were hurrying towards the two passes north of Slievno,
+some fifty miles farther east. Even so they had not enough men at hand
+to defend all the passes of the mountain chain that formed their chief
+line of defence. They left one of them practically undefended; this was
+the Khainkoi Pass, having an elevation of 3700 feet above the sea.
+
+A Russian diplomatist, Prince Tserteleff, who was charged to collect
+information about the passes, found that the Khainkoi enjoyed an evil
+reputation. "Ill luck awaits him who crosses the Khainkoi Pass," so ran
+the local proverb. He therefore determined to try it; by dint of
+questioning the friendly Bulgarian peasantry he found one man who had
+been through it once, and that was two years before with an ox-cart.
+Where an ox-cart could go, a light mountain gun could go. Accordingly,
+the Prince and General Rauch went with 200 Cossacks to explore the pass,
+set the men to work at the worst places, and, thanks to the secrecy
+observed by the peasantry, soon made the path to the summit practicable
+for cavalry and light guns. The Prince disguised himself as a Bulgarian
+shepherd to examine the southern outlet; and, on his bringing a
+favourable report, 11,000 men of Gurko's command began to thread the
+intricacies of the defile.
+
+Thanks to good food, stout hearts, jokes, and songs, they managed to get
+the guns up the worst places. Then began the perils of the descent. But
+the Turks knew nothing of their effort, else it might have ended far
+otherwise. At the southern end 300 Turkish regulars were peacefully
+smoking their pipes and cooking their food when the Cossack and Rifles
+in the vanguard burst upon them, drove them headlong, and seized the
+village of Khainkoi. A pass over the Balkans had been secured at the
+cost of two men killed and three wounded. Gurko was almost justified in
+sending to the Grand Duke Nicholas the proud vaunt that none but Russian
+soldiers could have brought field artillery over such a pass, and in the
+short space of three days (July 11-14)[140].
+
+[Footnote 140: _General Gurko's Advance Guard In 1877_, by Colonel
+Epauchin, translated by H. Havelock (The Wolseley Series, 1900), ch.
+ii.; _The Daily News War Correspondence_ (1877), pp. 263-270.]
+
+After bringing his column of 11,000 men through the pass, Gurko drove
+off four Turkish battalions sent against him from the Shipka Pass and
+Kazanlik. Next he sent out bands of Cossacks to spread terror
+southwards, and delude the Turks into the belief that he meant to strike
+at the important towns, Jeni Zagra and Eski Zagra, on the road to
+Adrianople. Having thus caused them to loosen their grip on Kazanlik and
+the Shipka, he wheeled his main force to the westward (leaving 3500 men
+to hold the exit of the Khainkoi), and drove the Turks successively from
+positions in front of the town, from the town itself, and then from the
+village of Shipka. Above that place towered the mighty wall of the
+Balkans, lessened somewhat at the pass itself, but presenting even there
+a seemingly impregnable position.
+
+Gurko, however, relied on the discouragement of the Turkish garrison
+after the defeats of their comrades, and at seeing their positions
+turned on the south while they were also threatened on the north. For
+another Russian column had advanced from Tirnova up the more gradual
+northern slopes of the Balkans, and now began to hammer at the defences
+of the pass on that side. The garrison consisted of six and a half
+battalions under Khulussi Pasha, and the wreckage of five battalions
+already badly beaten by Gurko's column. These, with one battery of
+artillery, held the pass and the neighbouring peaks, which they had in
+part fortified.
+
+In pursuance of a pre-arranged plan for a joint attack on July 17 of
+both Russian forces, the northern body advanced up the slopes; but, as
+Gurko's men were unable to make their diversion in time, the attack
+failed. An isolated attempt by Gurko's force on the next day also
+failed, the defenders disgracing themselves by tricking the Russians
+with the white flag and firing upon them. But the Turks were now in
+difficulties for want of food and water; or possibly they were seized
+with panic. At any rate, while amusing the Russians with proposals of
+surrender, they stole off in small bodies, early on July 19. The truth
+was, ere long, found out by outposts of the north Russian forces;
+Skobeleff and his men were soon at the summit, and there Gurko's
+vanguard speedily joined them with shouts of joy.
+
+Thus, within twenty-three days from the crossing of the Danube Gurko
+seized two passes of the Balkans, besides capturing 800 prisoners and 13
+guns. It is not surprising that a Turkish official despatch of July 21
+to Suleiman summed up the position: "The existence of the Empire hangs
+on a hair." And when Gurko's light troops proceeded to raid the valley
+of the Maritsa, it seemed that the Turkish defence would collapse as
+helplessly as in the memorable campaign of 1828. We must add here that
+the Bulgarians now began to revenge themselves for the outrages of May
+1876; and the struggle was sullied by horrible acts on both sides.
+
+The impression produced by these dramatic strokes was profound and
+widespread. The British fleet was sent to Besika Bay, a step
+preparatory, as it seemed, to steaming up the Dardanelles to the Sea of
+Marmora. At Adrianople crowds of Moslems fled away in wild confusion
+towards Constantinople. There the frequent meetings of ministers at the
+Sultan's palace testified to the extent of the alarm; and that nervous
+despot wavered between the design of transferring the seat of government
+to Brussa in Asia Minor, and that of unfurling the standard of the
+Prophet and summoning all the faithful to rally to its defence against
+the infidels. Finally he took courage from despair, and adopted the more
+manly course. But first he disgraced his ministers. The War Minister and
+Abdul-Kerim were summarily deposed, the latter being sent off as
+prisoner to the island of Lemnos.
+
+All witnesses agree that the War Minister, Redif Pasha, was incapable
+and corrupt. The age and weakness of Abdul-Kerim might have excused his
+comparative inaction in the Quadrilateral in the first half of July. It
+is probable that his plan of campaign, described above, was sound; but
+he lacked the vigour, and the authorities at Constantinople lacked the
+courage, to carry it out thoroughly and consistently.
+
+Mehemet Ali Pasha, a renegade German, who had been warring with some
+success in Montenegro, assumed the supreme command on July 22; and
+Suleiman Pasha, who, with most of his forces had been brought by sea
+from Antivari to the mouth of the River Maritsa, now gathered together
+all the available troops for the defence of Roumelia.
+
+The Czar, on his side, cherished hopes of ending the war while Fortune
+smiled on his standards. There are good grounds for thinking that he had
+entered on it with great reluctance. In its early stages he let the
+British Government know of his desire to come to terms with Turkey; and
+now his War Minister, General Milutin, hinted to Colonel F.A. Wellesley,
+British attache at headquarters, that the mediation of Great Britain
+would be welcomed by Russia. That officer on July 30 had an interview
+with the Emperor, who set forth the conditions on which he would be
+prepared to accept peace with Turkey. They were--the recovery of the
+strip of Bessarabia lost in 1856, and the acquisition of Batoum in Asia
+Minor. Alexander II. also stated that he would not occupy Constantinople
+unless that step were necessitated by the course of events; that the
+Powers would be invited to a conference for the settlement of Turkish
+affairs; and that he had no wish to interfere with the British spheres
+of interest already referred to. Colonel Wellesley at once left
+headquarters for London, but on the following day the aspect of the
+campaign underwent a complete change, which, in the opinion of the
+British Government, rendered futile all hope of a settlement on the
+conditions laid down by the Czar.[141]
+
+[Footnote 141: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 9 (1878), Nos. 2, 3. _With the
+Russians in Peace and War_, by Colonel the Hon. F.A. Wellesley, ch. xx.]
+
+For now, when the Turkish cause seemed irrevocably lost, the work of a
+single brave man to the north of the Balkans dried up, as if by magic,
+the flood of invasion, brought back victory to the standards of Islam,
+and bade fair to overwhelm the presumptuous Muscovites in the waters of
+the Danube. Moltke in his account of the war of 1828, had noted a
+peculiarity of the Ottomans in warfare (a characteristic which they
+share with the glorious defenders of Saragossa in 1808) of beginning the
+real defence when others would abandon it as hopeless. This remark, if
+not true of the Turkish army as a whole, certainly applies to that part
+of it which was thrilled to deeds of daring by Osman Pasha.
+
+More fighting had fallen to him perhaps than to any Turk of his time. He
+was now forty years of age; his frame, slight and of middle height, gave
+no promise of strength or capacity; neither did his face, until the
+observer noted the power of his eyes to take in the whole situation
+"with one slow comprehensive look[142]." This gave him a magnetic
+faculty, the effect of which was not wholly marred by his disdainful
+manners, curt speech, and contemptuous treatment of foreigners. Clearly
+here was a cold, sternly objective nature like that of Bonaparte. He
+was a good representative of the stolid Turk of the provinces, who, far
+from the debasing influence of the Court, retains the fanaticism and
+love of war on behalf of his creed that make his people terrible even in
+the days of decline[143].
+
+[Footnote 142: W.W. Herbert, _The Defence of Plevna_, p. 81.]
+
+[Footnote 143: For these qualities, see _Turkey in Europe_, by
+"Odysseus," p. 97.]
+
+In accordance with the original design of Abdul-Kerim, Osman had for
+some time remained passive at Widdin. On receiving orders from the
+commander-in-chief, he moved eastwards on July 13, with 40,000 men, to
+save Nicopolis. Finding himself too late to save that place he then laid
+his plans for the seizure of Plevna. The importance of that town, as a
+great centre of roads, and as possessing many advantages for defence on
+the hills around, had been previously pointed out to the Russian Staff
+by Prince Charles of Roumania, as indeed, earlier still, by Moltke.
+Accordingly, the Grand Duke Nicholas had directed a small force of
+cavalry towards that town. General Kruedener made the mistake of
+recalling it in order to assist in the attack on Nicopolis on July
+14-16, an unlucky move, which enabled Osman to occupy Plevna without
+resistance on July 19[144]. On the 18th the Grand Duke Nicholas ordered
+General Kruedener to occupy Plevna. Knowing nothing of Osman's
+whereabouts, his vanguard advanced heedlessly on the town, only to meet
+with a very decided repulse, which cost the Russians 3000 men (July 20).
+
+[Footnote 144: Herbert, _The Defence of Plevna_, p. 129.]
+
+Osman now entrenched himself on the open downs that stretch eastwards
+from Plevna. As will be seen by reference to the map on page 213, his
+position, roughly speaking, formed an ellipse pointing towards the
+village of Grivitza. Above that village his engineers threw up two great
+redoubts which dominated the neighbourhood. Other redoubts and trenches
+screened Plevna on the north-east and south. Finally, the crowns of
+three main slopes lying to the east of Plevna bristled with defensive
+works. West of the town lay the deep vale of the little River Wid,
+itself the chief defence on that side. We may state here that during the
+long operations against Plevna the Russians had to content themselves
+with watching this western road to Orkanye and Sofia by means of
+cavalry; but the reinforcements from Sofia generally made their way in.
+From that same quarter the Turks were also able to despatch forces to
+occupy the town of Lovtcha, between Plevna and the Shipka Pass.
+
+The Russian Staff, realising its error in not securing this important
+centre of roads, and dimly surmising the strength of the entrenchments
+which Osman was throwing up near to the base of their operations,
+determined to attack Plevna at once. Their task proved to be one of
+unexpected magnitude. Already the long curve of the outer Turkish lines
+spread along slopes which formed natural glacis, while the ground
+farther afield was so cut up by hollows as to render one combined
+assault very difficult. The strength, and even the existence, of some of
+Osman's works were unknown. Finally, the Russians are said to have had
+only 32,000 infantry men at hand with two brigades of cavalry.
+
+Nevertheless, Generals Kruedener and Schahofski received orders to attack
+forthwith. They did so on July 31. The latter, with 12,000 men took two
+of the outer redoubts on the south side, but had to fall back before the
+deadly fire that poured on him from the inner works. Kruedener operated
+against the still stronger positions on the north; but, owing to
+difficulties that beset his advance, he was too late to make any
+diversion in favour of his colleague. In a word, the attack was ill
+planned and still worse combined. Five hours of desperate fighting
+yielded the assailants not a single substantial gain; their losses were
+stated officially to be 7336 killed and wounded; but this is certainly
+below the truth. Turkish irregulars followed the retreating columns at
+nightfall, and butchered the wounded, including all whom they found in a
+field-hospital.
+
+This second reverse at Plevna was a disaster of the first magnitude. The
+prolongation of the Russian line beyond the Balkans had left their base
+and flanks too weak to stand against the terrible blows that Osman
+seemed about to deal from his point of vantage. Plevna was to their
+right flank what Biela was to their left. Troops could not be withdrawn
+from the latter point lest the Turks from Shumla and Rustchuk should
+break through and cut their way to the bridge at Sistova; and now
+Osman's force threatened that spinal cord of the Russian communications.
+If he struck how could the blow be warded off? For bad news poured in
+from all quarters. From Armenia came the tidings that Mukhtar Pasha,
+after a skilful retreat and concentration of force, had turned on the
+Russians and driven them back in utter confusion.
+
+From beyond the Balkans Gurko sent news that Suleiman's army was working
+round by way of Adrianople, and threatened to pin him to the mountain
+chain. In fact, part of Gurko's corps sustained a serious reverse at
+Eski Zagra, and had to retreat in haste through the Khainkoi Pass; while
+its other sections made their way back to the Shipka Pass, leaving a
+rearguard to hold that important position (July 30-August 8). Thus, on
+all sides, proofs accumulated that the invaders had attempted far too
+much for their strength, and that their whole plan of campaign was more
+brilliant than sound. Possibly, had not the 14th corps been thrown away
+on the unhealthy Dobrudscha, enough men would have been at hand to save
+the situation. But now everything was at stake.
+
+The whole of the month of August was a time of grave crisis for the
+Russians, and it is the opinion of the best military critics that the
+Turks, with a little more initiative and power of combination, might
+have thrown the Russians back on the Danube in utter disarray. From this
+extremity the invaders were saved by the lack among the Turks of the
+above-named gifts, on which, rather than on mere bravery, the issue of
+campaigns and the fate of nations now ultimately depend. True to their
+old renown, the Turks showed signal prowess on the field of battle, but
+they lacked the higher intellectual qualities that garner the full
+harvest of results.
+
+Osman, either because he knew not that the Russians had used up their
+last reserves at Plevna, or because he mistrusted the manoeuvring
+powers of his men, allowed Kruedener quietly to draw off his shattered
+forces towards Sistova, and made only one rather half-hearted move
+against that all-important point. The new Turkish commander-in-chief,
+Mehemet Ali, gathered a formidable array in front of Shumla and drove
+the Russian army now led by the Cesarewich back on Biela, but failed to
+pierce their lines. Finally, Suleiman Pasha, in his pride at driving
+Gurko through the Khainkoi Pass, wasted time on the southern side, first
+by harrying the wretched Bulgarians, and then by hurling his brave
+troops repeatedly against the now almost impregnable position on the
+Shipka Pass.
+
+It is believed that jealousy of the neighbouring Turkish generals kept
+Suleiman from adopting less wasteful and more effective tactics. If he
+had made merely a feint of attacking that post, and had hurried with his
+main body through the Slievno Pass on the east to the aid of Mehemet, or
+through the western defiles of the Balkans to the help of the brave
+Osman in his Plevna-Lovtcha positions, probably the gain of force to one
+or other of them might have led to really great results. As it was,
+these generals dealt heavy losses to the invaders, but failed to drive
+them back on the Danube.
+
+Moreover, Russian reinforcements began to arrive by the middle of
+August, the Emperor having already, on July 22, called out the first ban
+of the militia and three divisions of the reserve of the line, in all
+some 224,000 men[145].
+
+[Footnote 145: F.V. Greene, _The Campaign in Bulgaria_, p. 225.]
+
+The bulk of these men did not arrive until September; and meanwhile the
+strain was terrible. The war correspondence of Mr. Archibald Forbes
+reveals the state of nervous anxiety in which Alexander II. was plunged
+at this time. Forbes had been a witness of the savage tenacity of the
+Turkish attack and the Russian defence on the hills commanding the
+Shipka Pass. Finally, he had shared in the joy of the hard-pressed
+defenders at the timely advent of a rifle battalion hastily sent up on
+Cossack ponies, and the decisive charge of General Radetzky at the head
+of two companies of reserves at a Turkish breastwork in the very crisis
+of the fight (Aug. 24). Then, after riding post-haste northwards to the
+Russian headquarters at Gornisstuden, he was at once taken to the Czar's
+tent, and noted the look of eager suspense on his face until he heard
+the reassuring news that Radetzky kept his seat firm on the pass.
+
+The worst was now over. The Russian Guards, 50,000 strong, were near at
+hand, along with the other reinforcements above named. The urgency of
+the crisis also led the Grand Duke Nicholas to waive his claim that the
+Roumanian troops should be placed under his immediate command.
+Accordingly, early in August, Prince Charles led some 35,000 Roumanians
+across the Danube, and was charged with the command of all the troops
+around Plevna[146]. The hopes of the invaders were raised by Skobeleff's
+capture, on September 3, of Lovtcha, a place half-way between Plevna and
+the Balkans, which had ensured Osman's communications with Suleiman
+Pasha. The Turkish losses at Lovtcha are estimated at nearly
+15,000 men[147].
+
+[Footnote 146: _Reminiscences of the King of Roumania_, p. 275.]
+
+[Footnote 147: F.V. Greene, _op. cit._ p. 232.]
+
+This success having facilitated the attack on Plevna from the south, a
+general assault was ordered for September 11. In the meantime Osman also
+had received large reinforcements from Sofia, and had greatly
+strengthened his defences. So skilfully had outworks been thrown up on
+the north-east of Plevna that what looked like an unimportant trench was
+found to be a new and formidable redoubt, which foiled the utmost
+efforts of the 3rd Roumanian division to struggle up the steep slopes on
+that side. To their 4th division and to a Russian brigade fell an
+equally hard task, that of advancing from the east against the two
+Grivitza redoubts which had defied all assaults. The Turks showed their
+usual constancy, despite the heavy and prolonged bombardment which
+preluded the attack here and all along the lines. But the weight and
+vigour of the onset told by degrees; and the Russian and Roumanian
+supports finally carried by storm the more southerly of the two
+redoubts. The Turks made desperate efforts to retrieve this loss. From
+the northern redoubt and the rear entrenchments somewhat to the south
+there came a galling fire which decimated the victors; for a time the
+Turks succeeded in recovering the work, but at nightfall the advance of
+other Russian and Roumanian troops ousted the Moslems. Thenceforth the
+redoubt was held by the allies.
+
+Meanwhile, to the south of the village of Grivitza the 4th and 9th
+Russian Corps had advanced in dense masses against the cluster of
+redoubts that crowned the heights south-east of Plevna; but their utmost
+efforts were futile; under the fearful fire of the Turks the most solid
+lines melted away, and the corps fell back at nightfall, with the loss
+of 110 officers and 5200 men.
+
+Only on the south and south-west did the assailants seriously imperil
+Osman's defence at a vital point; and here again Fortune bestowed her
+favours on a man who knew how to wrest the utmost from her, Michael
+Dimitrievitch Skobeleff. Few men or women could look on his stalwart
+figure, frank, bold features, and keen, kindling eyes without a thrill
+of admiration. Tales were told by the camp-fires of the daring of his
+early exploits in Central Asia; how, after the capture of Khiva in 1874,
+he dressed himself in Turkoman garb, and alone explored the route from
+that city to Igdy, as well as the old bed of the River Oxus; or again
+how, at the capture of Khokand in the following year, his skill and
+daring led to the overthrow of a superior force and the seizure of
+fifty-eight guns. Thus, at thirty-two years of age he was the darling of
+the troops; for his prowess in the field was not more marked than his
+care and foresight in the camp. While other generals took little heed of
+their men, he saw to their comforts and cheered them by his jokes. They
+felt that he was the embodiment of the patriotism, love of romantic
+exploit, and soaring ambition of the Great Russians.
+
+They were right. Already, as will appear in a later chapter, he was
+dreaming of the conquest of India; and, like Napoleon, he could not only
+see visions but also master details, from the principles of strategy to
+the routine of camp life, which made those visions realisable. If
+ambition spurred him on towards Delhi, hatred of things Teutonic pointed
+him to Berlin. Ill would it have fared with the peace of the world had
+this champion of the Slavonic race lived out his life. But his fiery
+nature wore out its tenement, the baser passions, so it is said,
+contributing to hasten the end of one who lived his true life only
+amidst the smoke of battle. In war he was sublime. Having recently came
+from Central Asia, he was at first unattached to any corps, and roved
+about in search of the fiercest fighting. His insight and skill had
+warded off a deadly flank attack on Schahofski's shattered corps at
+Plevna on July 30, and his prowess had contributed largely to the
+capture of Lovtcha on September 3. War correspondents, who knew their
+craft, turned to follow Skobeleff, wherever official reports might
+otherwise direct them; and the lust of fighting laid hold of the grey
+columns when they saw the "white general" approach.
+
+On September 11 Prince Imeritinski and Skobeleff (the order should be
+inverted) commanded the extreme left of the Russian line, attacking
+Plevna from the south. Having four regiments of the line and four
+battalions of sharpshooters--about 12,000 men in all--he ranged them at
+the foot of the hill, whose summit was crowned by an all-important
+redoubt-the "Kavanlik." There were four others that flanked the
+approach. When the Russian guns had thoroughly cleared the way for an
+assault, he ordered the bands to play and the two leading regiments to
+charge up the slope. Keeping his hand firmly on the pulse of the battle,
+he saw them begin to waver under the deadly fire of the Turks; at once
+he sent up a rival regiment; the new mass carried on the charge until it
+too threatened to die away. The fourth regiment struggled up into that
+wreath of death, and with the like result.
+
+[Illustration: Plan of Plevna.]
+
+Then Skobeleff called on his sharpshooters to drive home the onset.
+Riding on horseback before the invigorating lines, he swept on the
+stragglers and waverers until all of them came under the full blast of
+the Turkish flames vomited from the redoubt. There his sword fell,
+shivered in his hand, and his horse rolled over at the very verge of the
+fosse. Fierce as ever, the leader sprang to his feet, waved the stump in
+air, and uttered a shout which put fresh heart into his men. With him
+they swarmed into the fosse, up the bank, and fell on the defenders. The
+bayonet did the rest, taking deadly revenge for the murderous volleys.
+
+But Osman's engineers had provided against such an event. The redoubt
+was dominated from the left and could be swept by cross fire from the
+rear and right. On the morrow the Turks drew in large forces from the
+north side and pressed the victors hard. In vain did Skobeleff send
+urgent messages for reinforcements to make good the gaps in his ranks.
+None were sent, or indeed could be sent. Five times his men beat off the
+foe. The sixth charge hurled them first from the Kavanlik redoubt, and
+thereafter from the flanking works and trenches out on to that fatal
+slope. A war correspondent saw Skobeleff after this heart-breaking loss,
+"his face black with powder and smoke, his eyes haggard and bloodshot,
+and his voice quite gone. I never before saw such a picture of
+battle[148]."
+
+[Footnote 148: _War Correspondence of the "Daily News,"_ pp. 479-483.
+For another character-sketch of Skobeleff see the _Fortnightly Review_
+of Oct. 1882, by W.K. Rose.]
+
+Thus all the efforts of the Russians and Roumanians had failed to wrest
+more than a single redoubt from the Moslems; and at that point they were
+unable to make any advance against the inner works. The fighting of
+September 11-12 is believed to have cost the allies 18,000 men killed
+and wounded out of the 75,000 infantrymen engaged. The mistakes of July
+31 had been again repeated. The number of assailants was too small for
+an attack on so great an extent of fortified positions defended with
+quick-firing rifles. Had the Russians, while making feints at other
+points to hold the Turks there, concentrated their efforts either on the
+two Grivitza redoubts, or on those about the Kavanlik work, they would
+almost certainly have succeeded. As it was, they hurled troops in close
+order against lines, the strength of which was not well known; and none
+of their commanders but Skobeleff employed tactics that made the most of
+their forces[149]. The depression at the Russian headquarters was now
+extreme[150]. On September 13 the Emperor held a council of war at which
+the Prince of Roumania, the Grand Duke Nicholas, General Milutin
+(Minister of War), and three other generals were present. The Grand Duke
+declared that the only prudent course was to retire to the Danube,
+construct a _tete de pont_ guarding the southern end of their bridge
+and, after receiving reinforcements, again begin the conquest of
+Bulgaria. General Milutin, however, demurred to this, seeing that
+Osman's army was not mobile enough to press them hard; he therefore
+proposed to await the reinforcements in the positions around Plevna. The
+Grand Duke thereupon testily exclaimed that Milutin had better be placed
+in command, to which the Emperor replied: "No; you shall retain the
+command; but the plan suggested by the Minister of War shall be carried
+out[151]."
+
+[Footnote 149: For an account of the battle, see Greene, _op. cit._ pt.
+ii. chap. v.]
+
+[Footnote 150: Gen. von. Lignitz, _Aus drei Kriegen_, p. 167.]
+
+[Footnote 151: Col. F.A. Wellesley, _op. cit._ p. 281.]
+
+The Emperor's decision saved the situation. The Turks made no combined
+effort to advance towards Plevna in force; and Osman felt too little
+trust in the new levies that reached him from Sofia to move into the
+open and attack Sistova. Indeed, Turkish strategy over the whole field
+of war is open to grave censure. On their side there was a manifest lack
+of combination. Mehemet Ali pounded away for a month at the army of the
+Czarewitch on the River Lom, and then drew back his forces (September
+24). He allowed Suleiman Pasha to fling his troops in vain against the
+natural stronghold of the Russians at the Shipka Pass, and had made no
+dispositions for succouring Lovtcha. Obviously he should have
+concentrated the Turkish forces so as to deal a timely and decisive blow
+either on the Lom or on the Sofia-Plevna road. When he proved his
+incapacity both as commander-in-chief and as commander of his own force,
+Turkish jealousy against the _quondam_ German flared forth; and early in
+October he was replaced by Suleiman. The change was greatly for the
+worse. Suleiman's pride and obstinacy closed the door against larger
+ideas, and it has been confidently stated that at the end of the
+campaign he was bribed by the Russians to betray his cause. However that
+may be, it is certain that the Turkish generals continued to fight, each
+for his own hand, and thus lost the campaign.
+
+It was now clear that Osman must be starved out from the position which
+the skill of his engineers and the steadiness of his riflemen had so
+speedily transformed into an impregnable stronghold. Todleben, the
+Russian engineer, who had strengthened the outworks of Sevastopol, had
+been called up to oppose trench to trench, redoubt to redoubt. Yet so
+extensive were the Turkish works, and so active was Shevket Pasha's
+force at Sofia in sending help and provisions, that not until October 24
+was the line of investment completed, and by an army which now numbered
+fully 120,000 men. By December 10 Osman came to the end of his resources
+and strove to break out on the west over the River Wid towards Sofia.
+Masking the movement with great skill, he inflicted heavy losses on the
+besiegers. Slowly, however, they closed around him, and a last scene of
+slaughter ended in the surrender of the 43,000 half-starved survivors,
+with the 77 guns that had wrought such havoc among the invaders. Osman's
+defence is open to criticism at some points, but it had cost Russia more
+than 50,000 lives, and paralysed her efforts in Europe during
+five months.
+
+The operations around Plevna are among the most instructive in modern
+warfare, as illustrating the immense power that quick-firing rifles
+confer upon the defence. Given a nucleus of well-trained troops, with
+skilled engineers, any position of ordinary strength can quickly be
+turned into a stronghold that will foil the efforts of a far greater
+number of assailants. Experience at Plevna showed that four or five
+times as many men were needed to attack redoubts and trenches as in the
+days of muzzle-loading muskets. It also proved that infantry fire is far
+more deadly in such cases than the best served artillery. And yet a
+large part of Osman's troops--perhaps the majority after August--were
+not regulars. Doubtless that explains why (with the exception of an
+obstinate but unskilful effort to break out on August 31) he did not
+attack the Russians in the open after his great victories of July 31 and
+September 11-12. On both occasions the Russians were so badly shaken
+that, in the opinion of competent judges, they could easily have been
+driven in on Nicopolis or Sistova, in which case the bridges at those
+places might have been seized. But Osman did not do so, doubtless
+because he knew that his force, weak in cavalry and unused to
+manoeuvring, would be at a disadvantage in the open. Todleben, however,
+was informed on good authority that, when the Turkish commander heard of
+the likelihood of the investment of Plevna, he begged the Porte to allow
+him to retire; but the assurance of Shevket Pasha, the commander of the
+Turkish force at Sofia, that he could keep open communications between
+that place and Plevna, decided the authorities at Constantinople to
+order the continuance of defensive tactics[152].
+
+[Footnote 152: A. Forbes, _Czar and Sultan_, p. 291. On the other hand,
+W.V. Herbert (_op. cit._ p. 456) states that it was Osman's wish to
+retire to Orkanye, on the road to Sofia, and that this was forbidden.
+For remarks on this see Greene, _op. cit._ chap. viii.]
+
+Whatever may have been the cause of this decision it ruined the Turkish
+campaign. Adherence to the defensive spells defeat now, as it has always
+done. Defeat comes more slowly now that quick-firing rifles quadruple
+the power of the defence; but all the same it must come if the assailant
+has enough men to throw on that point and then at other points. Or, to
+use technical terms, while modern inventions alter tactics, that is, the
+dispositions of troops on the field of battle--a fact which the Russians
+seemed to ignore at Plevna--they do not change the fundamental
+principles of strategy. These are practically immutable, and they doom
+to failure the side that, at the critical points, persists in standing
+on the defensive. A study of the events around Plevna shows clearly what
+a brave but ill-trained army can do and what it cannot do under modern
+conditions.
+
+From the point of view of strategy--that is, the conduct of the great
+operations of a campaign--Osman's defence of Plevna yields lessons of
+equal interest. It affords the most brilliant example in modern warfare
+of the power of a force strongly intrenched in a favourable position to
+"contain," that is, to hold or hold back, a greater force of the enemy.
+Other examples are the Austrian defence of Mantua in 1796-97, which
+hindered the young Bonaparte's invasion of the Hapsburg States;
+Bazaine's defence of Metz in 1870; and Sir George White's defence of
+Ladysmith against the Boers. We have no space in which to compare these
+cases, in which the conditions varied so greatly. Suffice it to say that
+Mantua and Plevna were the most effective instances, largely because
+those strongholds lay near the most natural and easy line of advance for
+the invaders. Metz and Ladysmith possessed fewer advantages in this
+respect; and, considering the strength of the fortress and the size and
+quality of his army, Bazaine's conduct at Metz must rank as the weakest
+on record; for his 180,000 troops "contained" scarcely more than their
+own numbers of Germans.
+
+On the other hand, Osman's force brought three times its number of
+Russians to a halt for five months before hastily constructed lines. In
+the opinion of many authorities the Russians did wrong in making the
+whole campaign depend on Plevna. When it was clear that Osman would
+cling to the defensive, they might with safety have secretly detached
+part of the besieging force to help the army of the Czarewitch to drive
+back the Turks on Shumla. This would have involved no great risk; for
+the Russians occupied the inner lines of what was, roughly speaking, a
+triangle, resting on the Shipka Pass, the River Lom, and Plevna as its
+extreme points. Having the advantage of the inner position, they could
+quickly have moved part of their force at Plevna, battered in the
+Turkish defence on the Lom, and probably captured the Slievno passes. In
+that case they would have cleared a new line of advance to
+Constantinople farther to the east, and made the possession of Plevna of
+little worth. Its value always lay in its nearness to their main line of
+advance, but they were not tied to that line. It is safe to say that, if
+Moltke had directed their operations, he would have devised some better
+plan than that of hammering away at the redoubts of Plevna.
+
+In fact, the Russians made three great blunders: first, in neglecting to
+occupy Plevna betimes; second, in underrating Osman's powers of defence;
+third, in concentrating all their might on what was a very strong, but
+not an essential, point of the campaign.
+
+The closing scenes of the war are of little interest except in the
+domain of diplomacy. Servia having declared war against Turkey
+immediately after the fall of Plevna, the Turks were now hopelessly
+outnumbered. Gurko forced his way over one of the western passes of the
+Balkans, seized Sofia (January 4, 1878), and advancing quickly towards
+Philippopolis, utterly routed Suleiman's main force near that town
+(January 17). The Turkish commander-in-chief thus paid for his mistake
+in seeking to defend a mountain chain with several passes by
+distributing his army among those passes. Experience has proved that
+this invites disaster at the hands of an enterprising foe, and that the
+true policy is to keep light troops or scouts at all points, and the
+main forces at a chief central pass and at a convenient place in the
+rear, whence the invaders may be readily assailed before they complete
+the crossing. As it was, Suleiman saw his main force, still nearly
+50,000 strong, scatter over the Rhodope mountains; many of them reached
+the Aegean Sea at Enos, whence they were conveyed by ship to the
+Dardanelles. He himself was tried by court-martial and imprisoned for
+fifteen years[153].
+
+[Footnote 153: Sir N. Layard attributed to him the overthrow of Turkey.
+See his letter of February 1, 1878, in _Sir W. White: Life and
+Correspondence_, p. 127.] A still worse fate befell those of his
+troops which hung about Radetzky's front below the Shipka Pass. The
+Russians devised skilful moves for capturing this force. On January 5-8
+Prince Mirsky threaded his way with a strong column through the deep
+snows of the Travna Pass, about twenty-five miles east of the Shipka,
+which he then approached; while Skobeleff struggled through a still more
+difficult defile west of the central position. The total strength of the
+Russians was 56,000 men. On the 8th, when their cannon were heard
+thundering in the rear of the Turkish earthworks at the foot of the
+Shipka Pass, Radetzky charged down on the Turkish positions in front,
+while Mirsky assailed them from the east. Skobeleff meanwhile had been
+detained by the difficulties of the path and the opposition of the Turks
+on the west. But on the morrow his onset on the main Turkish positions
+carried all before it. On all sides the Turks were worsted and laid down
+their arms; 36,000 prisoners and 93 guns (so the Russians claim) were
+the prize of this brilliant feat (January 9, 1878)[154].
+
+[Footnote 154: Greene, _op. cit._ chap. xi. I have been assured by an
+Englishman serving with the Turks that these numbers were greatly
+exaggerated.]
+
+In Roumelia, as in Armenia, there now remained comparatively few Turkish
+troops to withstand the Russian advance, and the capture of
+Constantinople seemed to be a matter of a few weeks. There are grounds
+for thinking that the British Ministry, or certainly its chief, longed
+to send troops from Malta to help in its defence. Colonel Wellesley,
+British attache at the Russian headquarters, returned to London at the
+time when the news of the crossing of the Balkans reached the Foreign
+Office. At once he was summoned to see the Prime Minister, who inquired
+eagerly as to the length of time which would elapse before the Russians
+occupied Adrianople. The officer thought that that event might occur
+within a month--an estimate which proved to be above the mark. Lord
+Beaconsfield was deeply concerned to hear this and added, "If you can
+only guarantee me six weeks, I see my way." He did not further explain
+his meaning; but Colonel Wellesley felt sure that he wished to move
+British troops from Malta to Constantinople[155]. Fortunately the
+Russian advance to Adrianople was so speedy--their vanguard entered that
+city on January 20--as to dispose of any such project. But it would seem
+that only the utter collapse of the Turkish defence put an end to the
+plans of part at least of the British Cabinet for an armed intervention
+on behalf of Turkey.
+
+[Footnote 155: _With the Russians in Peace and War_, by Colonel F.A.
+Wellesley, p. 272.]
+
+Here, then, as at so many points of their history, the Turks lost their
+opportunity, and that, too, through the incapacity and corruption of
+their governing class. The war of 1877 ended as so many of their wars
+had ended. Thanks to the bravery of their rank and file and the mistakes
+of the invaders, they gained tactical successes at some points; but they
+failed to win the campaign owing to the inability of their Government to
+organise soundly on a great scale, and the intellectual mediocrity of
+their commanders in the sphere of strategy. Mr. Layard, who succeeded
+Sir Henry Elliot at Constantinople early in 1878, had good reason for
+writing, "The utter rottenness of the present system has been fully
+revealed by the present war[156]." Whether Suleiman was guilty of
+perverse obstinacy, or, as has often been asserted, of taking bribes
+from the Russians, cannot be decided. What is certain is that he was
+largely responsible for the final _debacle_.
+
+[Footnote 156: _Sir William White: Life and Correspondence_, p. 128.]
+
+But in a wider and deeper sense the Turks owed their misfortunes to
+themselves--to their customs and their creed. Success in war depends
+ultimately on the brain-power of the chief leaders and organisers; and
+that source of strength has long ago been dried up in Turkey by adhesion
+to a sterilising creed and cramping traditions. The wars of the latter
+half of the nineteenth century are of unique interest, not only because
+they have built up the great national fabrics of to-day, but also
+because they illustrate the truth of that suggestive remark of the great
+Napoleon, "The general who does great things is he who also possesses
+qualities adapted for civil life."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE BALKAN SETTLEMENT
+
+     New hopes should animate the world; new light
+     Should dawn from new revealings to a race
+     Weighed down so long, forgotten so long.
+
+     ROBERT BROWNING, _Paracelsus_.
+
+
+The collapse of the Turkish defence in Roumelia inaugurated a time of
+great strain and stress in Anglo-Russian relations. On December 13,
+1877, that is, three days after the fall of Plevna, Lord Derby reminded
+the Russian Government of its promise of May 30, 1876, that the
+acquisition of Constantinople was excluded from the wishes and
+intentions of the Emperor Alexander II., and expressed the earnest hope
+that the Turkish capital would not be occupied, even for military
+purposes. The reply of the Russian Chancellor (December 16) was
+reserved. It claimed that Russia must have full right of action, which
+is the right of every belligerent, and closed with a request for a
+clearer definition of the British interests which would be endangered by
+such a step. In his answer of January 13, 1878, the British Foreign
+Minister specified the occupation of the Dardanelles as an event that
+would endanger the good relations between England and Russia; whereupon
+Prince Gortchakoff, on January 16, 1878, gave the assurance that this
+step would not be taken unless British forces were landed at Gallipoli,
+or Turkish troops were concentrated there.
+
+So far this was satisfactory; but other signs seemed to betoken a
+resolve on the part of Russia to gain time while her troops pressed on
+towards Constantinople. The return of the Czar to St. Petersburg after
+the fall of Plevna had left more power in the hands of the Grand Duke
+Nicholas and of the many generals who longed to revenge themselves for
+the disasters in Bulgaria by seizing Constantinople.
+
+In face of the probability of this event, public opinion in England
+underwent a complete change. Russia appeared no longer as the champion
+of oppressed Christians, but as an ambitious and grasping Power. Mr.
+Gladstone's impassioned appeals for non-intervention lost their effect,
+and a warlike feeling began to prevail. The change of feeling was
+perfectly natural. Even those who claimed that the war might have been
+averted by the adoption of a different policy by the Beaconsfield
+Cabinet, had to face the facts of the situation; and these were
+extremely grave.
+
+The alarm increased when it was known that Turkey, on January 3, 1878,
+had appealed to the Powers for their mediation, and that Germany had
+ostentatiously refused. It seemed probable that Russia, relying on the
+support of Germany, would endeavour to force her own terms on the Porte.
+Lord Loftus, British Ambassador at St. Petersburg, was therefore charged
+to warn the Ministers of the Czar (January 16) that any treaty made
+separately between Russia and Turkey, which affected the international
+treaties of 1856 and 1871, would not be valid without the consent of all
+the signatory Powers. Four days later the Muscovite vanguard entered
+Adrianople, and it appeared likely that peace would soon be dictated at
+Constantinople without regard to the interests of Great Britain
+and Austria.
+
+Such was the general position when Parliament met at Westminster on
+January 17. The Queen's Speech contained the significant phrase that,
+should hostilities be unfortunately prolonged, some unexpected
+occurrence might render it incumbent to adopt measures of precaution.
+Five days later it transpired that the Sultan had sent an appeal to
+Queen Victoria for her mediation with a view to arranging an armistice
+and the discussion of the preliminaries of peace. In accordance with
+this appeal, the Queen telegraphed to the Emperor of Russia in
+these terms:--
+
+     I have received a direct appeal from the Sultan which I
+     cannot leave without an answer. Knowing that you are
+     sincerely desirous of peace, I do not hesitate to communicate
+     this fact to you, in hope that you may accelerate the
+     negotiations for the conclusion of an armistice which may
+     lead to an honourable peace.
+
+This communication was sent with the approval of the Cabinet. The nature
+of the reply is not known. Probably it was not encouraging; for on the
+next day (January 23) the British Admiralty ordered Admiral Hornby with
+the Mediterranean fleet to steam up the Dardanelles to Constantinople.
+On the following day this was annulled, and the Admiral was directed not
+to proceed beyond Besika Bay[157]. The original order was the cause of
+the resignation of Lord Carnarvon. The retirement of Lord Derby was also
+announced, but he afterwards withdrew it, probably on condition that the
+fleet did not enter the Sea of Marmora.
+
+[Footnote 157: For the odd mistake in a telegram, which caused the
+original order, see _Sir Stafford Northcote, Earl of Iddesleigh_, by
+Andrew Lang, vol. ii. pp. 111-112.]
+
+Light was thus thrown on the dissensions in the Cabinet, and the
+vacillations in British policy. Disraeli once said in his whimsical way
+that there were six parties in the Ministry. The first party wanted
+immediate war with Russia; the second was for war in order to save
+Constantinople; the third was for peace at any price; the fourth would
+let the Russians take Constantinople and _then_ turn them out; the fifth
+wanted to plant the cross on the dome of St. Sofia; "and then there are
+the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who desire to
+see something done, but don't know exactly what[158]." The coupling of
+himself with the amiable Sir Stafford Northcote is a good instance of
+Disraelian irony. It is fairly certain that he was for war with Russia;
+that Lord Carnarvon constituted the third party, and Lord Derby
+the fourth.
+
+[Footnote 158: _Ibid_. pp. 105-106. For the telegrams between the First
+Lord of the Admiralty, W.H. Smith, and Admiral Hornby, see _Life and
+Times of W.H. Smith_, by Sir H. Maxwell, vol. i. chap. xi.]
+
+On the day after the resignation of Lord Carnarvon, the British Cabinet
+heard for the first time what were the demands of Russia. They included
+the formation of a Greater Bulgaria, "within the limits of the Bulgarian
+nationality," practically independent of the Sultan's direct control;
+the entire independence of Roumania, Servia, and Montenegro; a
+territorial and pecuniary indemnity to Russia for the expenses of the
+war; and "an ulterior understanding for safeguarding the rights and
+interests of Russia in the Straits."
+
+The extension of Bulgaria to the shores of the Aegean seemed at that
+time a mighty triumph for Russian influence; but it was the last item,
+vaguely foreshadowing the extension of Russian influence to the
+Dardanelles, that most aroused the alarm of the British Cabinet. Russian
+control of those straits would certainly have endangered Britain's
+connections with India by way of the Suez Canal, seeing that we then had
+no foothold in Egypt. Accordingly, on January 28, the Ministry proposed
+to Parliament the voting of an additional sum of L6,000,000 towards
+increasing the armaments of the country. At once there arose strong
+protests against this proposal, especially from the districts then
+suffering from the prolonged depression of trade. The outcry was very
+natural; but none the less it can scarcely be justified in view of the
+magnitude of the British interests then at stake. Granted that the views
+of the Czar were pacific, those of his generals at the seat of war were
+very much open to question[159]. The long coveted prize of
+Constantinople, or the Dardanelles, was likely to tempt them to
+disregard official orders from St. Petersburg, unless they knew that
+any imprudent step would bring on a European war. In any case, the vote
+of L6,000,000 was a precautionary measure; and it probably had the
+effect of giving pause to the enthusiasts at the Russian headquarters.
+
+[Footnote 159: See the compromising revelations made by an anonymous
+Russian writer in the _Revue de Paris_ for July 15, 1897. The authoress,
+"O.K.," in her book, _The Friends and Foes of Russia_ (pp. 240-241),
+states that only the autocracy could have stayed the Russian advance on
+Constantinople. General U.S. Grant told her that if he had had such an
+order, he would have put it in his pocket and produced it again when in
+Constantinople.]
+
+The preliminary bases of peace between Russia and Turkey were signed at
+Adrianople (Jan. 31) on the terms summarised above, except that the
+Czar's Ministers now withdrew the obnoxious clause about the Straits. A
+line of demarcation was also agreed on between the hostile forces; it
+passed from Derkos, a lake near the Black Sea, to the north of
+Constantinople, in a southerly direction by the banks of the Karasou
+stream as far as the Sea of Marmora. This gave to the Russians the lines
+of Tchekmedje, the chief natural defence of Constantinople, and they
+occupied this position on February 6. This fact was reported by Mr.
+Layard, Sir Henry Elliot's successor at Constantinople, in alarmist
+terms, and it had the effect of stilling the opposition at Westminster
+to the vote of credit. Though official assurances of a reassuring kind
+came from Prince Gortchakoff at St. Petersburg, the British Ministry on
+February 7 ordered a part of the Mediterranean fleet to enter the Sea of
+Marmora for the defence of British interests and the protection of
+British subjects at Constantinople. The Czar's Government thereupon
+declared that if the British fleet steamed up the Bosporus, Russian
+troops would enter Constantinople for the protection of the Christian
+population.
+
+This rivalry in philanthropic zeal was not pushed to its logical issue,
+war. The British fleet stopped short of the Bosporus, but within sight
+of the Russian lines. True, these were pushed eastwards slightly beyond
+the limits agreed on with the Turks; but an arrangement was arrived at
+between Lord Derby and Prince Gortchakoff (Feb. 19) that the Russians
+would not occupy the lines of Bulair close to Constantinople, or the
+Peninsula of Gallipoli commanding the Dardanelles, provided that British
+forces were not landed in that important strait[160]. So matters rested,
+both sides regarding each other with the sullenness of impotent wrath.
+As Bismarck said, a war would have been a fight between an elephant
+and a whale.
+
+[Footnote 160: Hertslet, iv. p. 2670.]
+
+The situation was further complicated by an invasion of Thessaly by the
+Greeks (Feb. 3); but they were withdrawn at once on the urgent
+remonstrance of the Powers, coupled with a promise that the claims of
+Greece would be favourably considered at the general peace[161].
+
+[Footnote 161: L. Sergeant, _Greece in the Nineteenth Century_ (1897),
+ch. xi.]
+
+In truth, all the racial hatreds, aspirations, and ambitions that had so
+long been pent up in the south-east of Europe now seemed on the point of
+bursting forth and overwhelming civilisation in a common ruin. Just as
+the earth's volcanic forces now and again threaten to tear their way
+through the crust, so now the immemorial feuds of Moslems and
+Christians, of Greeks, Servians, Bulgars, Wallachs, and Turks, promised
+to desolate the slopes of the Balkans, of Rhodope and the Pindus, and to
+spread the lava tide of war over the half of the Continent. The Russians
+and Bulgars, swarming over Roumelia, glutted their revenge for past
+defeats and massacres by outrages well-nigh as horrible as that of
+Batak. At once the fierce Moslems of the Rhodope Mountains rose in
+self-defence or for vengeance. And while the Russian eagles perforce
+checked their flight within sight of Stamboul, the Greeks and Armenians
+of that capital--nay, the very occupants of the foreign
+embassies--trembled at sight of the lust of blood that seized on the
+vengeful Ottomans.
+
+Nor was this all. Far away beyond the northern horizon the war cloud
+hung heavily over the Carpathians. The statesmen of Vienna, fearing that
+the terms of their bargain with Russia were now forgotten in the
+intoxication of her triumph, determined to compel the victors to lay
+their spoils before the Great Powers. In haste the Austrian and
+Hungarian troops took station on the great bastion of the Carpathians,
+and began to exert on the military situation the pressure which had been
+so fatal to Russia in her Turkish campaign of 1854.
+
+But though everything betokened war, there were forces that worked
+slowly but surely for a pacific settlement. However threatening was the
+attitude of Russia, her rulers really desired peace. The war had shown
+once again the weakness of that Power for offence. Her strength lies in
+her boundless plains, in the devotion of her millions of peasants to the
+Czar, and in the patient, stubborn strength which is the outcome of long
+centuries of struggle with the yearly tyrant, winter. Her weakness lies
+in the selfishness, frivolity, corruption, and narrowness of outlook of
+her governing class--in short, in their incapacity for organisation.
+Against the steady resisting power of her peasants the great Napoleon
+had hurled his legions in vain. That campaign of 1812 exhibited the
+strength of Russia for defence. But when, in fallacious trust in that
+precedent, she has undertaken great wars far from her base, failure has
+nearly always been the result. The pathetic devotion of her peasantry
+has not made up for the mental and moral defects of her governing
+classes. This fact had fixed itself on every competent observer in 1877.
+The Emperor Alexander knew it only too well. Now, early in 1878, it was
+fairly certain that his army would succumb under the frontal attacks of
+Turks and British, and the onset of the Austrians on their rear.
+
+Therefore when, on Feb. 4, the Hapsburg State proposed to refer the
+terms of peace to a Conference of the Powers at Vienna, the consent of
+Russia was almost certain, provided that the prestige of the Czar
+remained unimpaired. Three days later the place of meeting was changed
+to Berlin, the Conference also becoming a Congress, that is, a meeting
+where the chief Ministers of the Powers, not merely their Ambassadors,
+would take part. The United Kingdom, France, and Italy at once signified
+their assent to this proposal. As for Bismarck, he promised in a speech
+to the Reichstag (Feb. 19) that he would act as an "honest broker"
+between the parties most nearly concerned. There is little doubt that
+Russia took this in a sense favourable to her claims, and she, too,
+consented.
+
+Nevertheless, she sought to tie the hands of the Congress by binding
+Turkey to a preliminary treaty signed on March 3 at San Stefano, a
+village near to Constantinople. The terms comprised those stated above
+(p. 225), but they also stipulated the cession of frontier districts to
+Servia and Montenegro, while Russia was to acquire the Roumanian
+districts east of the River Pruth, Roumania receiving the Dobrudscha as
+an equivalent. Most serious of all was the erection of Bulgaria into an
+almost independent Principality, extending nearly as far south as Midia
+(on the Black Sea), Adrianople, Salonica, and beyond Ochrida in Albania.
+As will be seen by reference to the map (p. 239), this Principality
+would then have comprised more than half of the Balkan Peninsula,
+besides including districts on the AEgean Sea and around the town of
+Monastir, for which the Greeks have never ceased to cherish hopes. A
+Russian Commissioner was to supervise the formation of the government
+for two years; all the fortresses on the Danube were to be razed, and
+none others constructed; Turkish forces were required entirely to
+evacuate the Principality, which was to be occupied by Russian troops
+for a space of time not exceeding two years.
+
+On her side, Turkey undertook to grant reforms to the Armenians, and
+protect them from Kurds and Circassians, Russia further claimed
+1,410,000,000 roubles as war indemnity, but consented to take the
+Dobrudscha district (offered to Roumania, as stated above), and in Asia
+the territories of Batoum, Kars, Ardahan, and Bayazid, in lieu of
+1,100,000,000 roubles. The Porte afterwards declared that it signed this
+treaty under persistent pressure from the Grand Duke Nicholas and
+General Ignatieff, who again and again declared that otherwise the
+Russians would advance on the capital[162].
+
+[Footnote 162: For the text of the treaty see Parl. Papers, Turkey, No.
+22 (1878); also _The European Concert in the Eastern Question_ by T.E.
+Holland, pp. 335-348.]
+
+At once, from all parts of the Balkan Peninsula, there arose a chorus of
+protests against the Treaty of San Stefano. The Mohammedans of the
+proposed State of Bulgaria protested against subjection to their former
+helots. The Greeks saw in the treaty the death-blow to their hopes of
+gaining the northern coasts of the Aegean and a large part of Central
+Macedonia. They fulminated against the Bulgarians as ignorant peasants,
+whose cause had been taken up recently by Russia for her own
+aggrandisement[163]. The Servians were equally indignant. They claimed,
+and with justice, that their efforts against the Turks should be
+rewarded by an increase of territory which would unite to them their
+kinsfolk in Macedonia and part of Bosnia, and place them on an equality
+with the upstart State of Bulgaria. Whereas the treaty assigned to these
+proteges of Russia districts inhabited solely by Servians, thereby
+barring the way to any extension of that Principality.
+
+[Footnote 163: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 31 (1878), Nos. 6-17, and
+enclosures; _L'Hellenisme et la Macedonie_, by N. Kasasis (Paris, 1904);
+L. Sergeant, _op. cit._ ch. xii.]
+
+Still more urgent was the protest of the Roumanian Government. In return
+for the priceless services rendered by his troops at Plevna, Prince
+Charles and his Ministers were kept in the dark as to the terms arranged
+between Russia and Turkey. The Czar sent General Ignatieff to prepare
+the Prince for the news, and sought to mollify him by the hint that he
+might become also Prince of Bulgaria--a suggestion which was scornfully
+waved aside. The Government at Bukharest first learnt the full truth as
+to the Bessarabia-Dobrudscha exchange from the columns of the _Journal
+du St. Petersbourg_, which proved that the much-prized Bessarabian
+territory was to be bargained away by the Power which had solemnly
+undertaken to uphold the integrity of the Principality. The Prince, the
+Cabinet, and the people unanimously inveighed against this proposal. On
+Feb. 4 the Roumanian Chamber of Deputies declared that Roumania would
+defend its territory to the last, by armed force if necessary; but it
+soon appeared that none of the Powers took any interest in the matter,
+and, thanks to the prudence of Prince Charles, the proud little nation
+gradually schooled itself to accept the inevitable[164].
+
+[Footnote 164: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 30 (1878); also _Reminiscences
+of the King of Roumania_, chs. x. xi.]
+
+The peace of Europe now turned on the question whether the Treaty of
+San Stefano would be submitted as a whole to the Congress of the Powers
+at Berlin; England claimed that it must be so submitted. This
+contention, in its extreme form, found no support from any of the
+Powers, not even from Austria, and it met with firm opposition from
+Russia. She, however, assured the Viennese Court that the Congress would
+decide which of the San Stefano terms affected the interests of Europe
+and would pronounce on them. The Beaconsfield Cabinet later on affirmed
+that "every article in the treaty between Russia and Turkey will be
+placed before the Congress--not necessarily for acceptance, but in order
+that it may be considered what articles require acceptance or
+concurrence by the several Powers and what do not[165]."
+
+[Footnote 165: Lord Derby to Sir H. Elliot, March 13, 1878. Turkey, No.
+xxiv. (1878), No 9, p. 5.]
+
+When this much was conceded, there remained no irreconcilable
+difference, unless the treaty contained secret articles which Russia
+claimed to keep back from the Congress. As far as we know, there were
+none. But the fact is that the dispute, small as it now appears to us,
+was intensified by the suspicions and resentment prevalent on both
+sides. The final decision of the St. Petersburg Government was couched
+in somewhat curt and threatening terms: "It leaves to the other Powers
+the liberty of raising such questions at the Congress as they may think
+it fit to discuss, and reserves to itself the liberty of accepting, or
+not accepting, the discussion of these questions[166]."
+
+[Footnote 166: _Ibid_. No. 15, p. 7.]
+
+This haughty reply, received at Downing Street on March 27, again
+brought the two States to the verge of war. Lord Beaconsfield, and all
+his colleagues but one, determined to make immediate preparations for
+the outbreak of hostilities; while Lord Derby, clinging to the belief
+that peace would best be preserved by ordinary negotiations, resigned
+the portfolio for foreign affairs (March 28); two days later he was
+succeeded by the Marquis of Salisbury[167]. On April 1 the Prime
+Minister gave notice of motion that the reserves of the army and militia
+should be called out; and on the morrow Lord Salisbury published a note
+for despatch to foreign courts summarising the grounds of British
+opposition to the Treaty of San Stefano, and to Russia's contentions
+respecting the Congress.
+
+[Footnote 167: See p. 243 for Lord Derby's further reason for
+resigning.]
+
+Events took a still more threatening turn fifteen days later, when the
+Government ordered eight Indian regiments, along with two batteries of
+artillery, to proceed at once to Malta. The measure aroused strong
+differences of opinion, some seeing in it a masterly stroke which
+revealed the greatness of Britain's resources, while the more nervous of
+the Liberal watch-dogs bayed forth their fears that it was the beginning
+of a Strafford-like plot for undermining the liberties of England.
+
+So sharp were the differences of opinion in England, that Russia would
+perhaps have disregarded the threats of the Beaconsfield Ministry had
+she not been face to face with a hostile Austria. The great aim of the
+Czar's government was to win over the Dual Monarchy by offering a share
+of the spoils of Turkey. Accordingly, General Ignatieff went on a
+mission to the continental courts, especially to that of Vienna, and
+there is little doubt that he offered Bosnia to the Hapsburg Power. That
+was the least which Francis Joseph and Count Andrassy had the right to
+expect, for the secret compact made before the war promised them as
+much. In view of the enormous strides contemplated by Russia, they now
+asked for certain rights in connection with Servia and Montenegro, and
+commercial privileges that would open a way to Salonica[168]. But
+Russia's aims, as expressed at San Stefano, clearly were to dominate the
+Greater Bulgaria there foreshadowed, which would probably shut out
+Austria from political and commercial influence over the regions north
+of Salonica. Ignatieff's effort to gain over Austria therefore failed;
+and it was doubtless Lord Beaconsfield's confidence in the certainty of
+Hapsburg support in case of war that prompted his defiance alike of
+Russia and of the Liberal party at home.
+
+[Footnote 168: Debidour, _Hist. diplomatique de l'Europe_, vol. ii. p.
+515.]
+
+The Czar's Government also was well aware of the peril of arousing a
+European war. Nihilism lifted its head threateningly at home; and the
+Russian troops before Constantinople were dying like flies in autumn.
+The outrages committed by them and the Bulgarians on the Moslems of
+Roumelia had, as we have seen, led to a revolt in the district of Mount
+Rhodope; and there was talk in some quarters of making a desperate
+effort to cut off the invaders from the Danube[169]. The discontent of
+the Roumanians might have been worked upon so as still further to
+endanger the Russian communications. Probably the knowledge of these
+plans and of the warlike preparations of Great Britain induced the
+Russian Government to moderate its tone. On April 9 it expressed a wish
+that Lord Salisbury would formulate a definite policy.
+
+[Footnote 169: For these outrages, see Parl. Papers, Turkey (1878), Nos.
+42 and 45, with numerous enclosures. The larger plans of the Rhodope
+insurgents and their abettors at Constantinople are not fully known. An
+Englishman, Sinclair, and some other free-lances were concerned in the
+affair. The Rhodope district long retained a kind of independence, see
+_Les Evenements politiques en Bulgarie_, by A.G. Drandar, Appendix.]
+
+The new Foreign Minister speedily availed himself of this offer; and the
+cause of peace was greatly furthered by secret negotiations which he
+carried on with Count Shuvaloff. The Russian ambassador in London had
+throughout bent his great abilities to a pacific solution of the
+dispute, and, on finding out the real nature of the British objections
+to the San Stefano Treaty, he proceeded to St. Petersburg to persuade
+the Emperor to accept certain changes. In this he succeeded, and on his
+return to London was able to come to an agreement with Lord Salisbury
+(May 30), the chief terms of which clearly foreshadowed those finally
+adopted at Berlin.
+
+In effect they were as follows: The Beaconsfield Cabinet strongly
+objected to the proposed wide extension of Bulgaria at the expense of
+other nationalities, and suggested that the districts south of the
+Balkans, which were peopled almost wholly by Bulgarians, should not be
+wholly withdrawn from Turkish control, but "should receive a large
+measure of administrative self-government . . . with a Christian
+governor." To these proposals the Russian Government gave a conditional
+assent. Lord Salisbury further claimed that the Sultan should have the
+right "to canton troops on the frontiers of southern Bulgaria"; and that
+the militia of that province should be commanded by officers appointed
+by the Sultan with the consent of Europe. England also undertook to see
+that the cause of the Greeks in Thessaly and Epirus received the
+attention of all the Powers, in place of the intervention of Russia
+alone on their behalf, as specified in the San Stefano Treaty.
+
+Respecting the cession of Roumanian Bessarabia to Russia, on which the
+Emperor Alexander had throughout insisted (see page 205), England
+expressed "profound regret" at that demand, but undertook not to dispute
+it at the Congress. On his side the Emperor Alexander consented to
+restore Bayazid in Asia Minor to the Turks, but insisted on the
+retention of Batoum, Kars, and Ardahan. Great Britain acceded to this,
+but hinted that the defence of Turkey in Asia would thenceforth rest
+especially upon her--a hint to prepare Russia for the Cyprus Convention.
+
+For at this same time the Beaconsfield Cabinet had been treating
+secretly with the Sublime Porte. When Lord Salisbury found out that
+Russia would not abate her demands for Batoum, Ardahan, and Kars, he
+sought to safeguard British interests in the Levant by acquiring
+complete control over the island of Cyprus. His final instructions to
+Mr. Layard to that effect were telegraphed on May 30, that is, on the
+very day on which peace with Russia was practically assured[170]. The
+Porte, unaware of the fact that there was little fear of the renewal of
+hostilities, agreed to the secret Cyprus Convention on June 4; while
+Russia, knowing little or nothing as to Britain's arrangement with the
+Porte, acceded to the final arrangements for the discussion of Turkish
+affairs at Berlin. It is not surprising that this manner of doing
+business aroused great irritation both at St. Petersburg and
+Constantinople. Count Shuvaloff's behaviour at the Berlin Congress when
+the news came out proclaimed to the world that he considered himself
+tricked by Lord Beaconsfield; while that statesman disdainfully sipped
+nectar of delight that rarely comes to the lips even of the gods of
+diplomacy.
+
+[Footnote 170: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 36 (1878). See, too, _ibid_.
+No. 43.]
+
+The terms of the Cyprus Convention were to the effect that, if Russia
+retained the three districts in Asia Minor named above, or any of them
+(as it was perfectly certain that she would); or if she sought to take
+possession of any further Turkish territory in Asia Minor, Great Britain
+would help the Sultan by force of arms. He, on his side assigned to
+Great Britain the island of Cyprus, to be occupied and administered by
+her. He further promised "to introduce necessary reforms, to be agreed
+upon later between the two Powers, into the government, and for the
+protection of the Christian and other subjects of the Porte in these
+territories." On July I Britain also covenanted to pay to the Porte the
+surplus of revenue over expenditure in Cyprus, calculated upon the
+average of the last five years, and to restore Cyprus to Turkey if
+Russia gave up Kars and her other acquisitions[171].
+
+[Footnote 171: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 36 (1878); Hertslet, vol. iv.
+pp. 2722-2725; Holland, _op. cit._, pp. 354-356.]
+
+Fortified by the secret understanding with Russia, and by the equally
+secret compact with Turkey, the British Government could enter the
+Congress of the Powers at Berlin with complete equanimity. It is true
+that news as to the agreement with Russia came out in a London newspaper
+which at once published a general description of the Anglo-Russian
+agreement of May 30; and when the correctness of the news was stoutly
+denied by Ministers, the original deed was given to the world by the
+same newspaper on June 14; but again vigorous disclaimers and denials
+were given from the ministerial bench in Parliament[172]. Thus, when
+Lords Beaconsfield and Salisbury proceeded to Berlin for the opening of
+the Congress (June 13), they were believed to hold the destinies of the
+British Empire in their hands, and the world waited with bated breath
+for the scraps of news that came from that centre of diplomacy.
+
+[Footnote 172: Mr. Charles Marvin, a clerk in the Foreign Office, was
+charged with this offence, but the prosecution failed (July 16) owing to
+lack of sufficient evidence.]
+
+On various details there arose sharp differences which the tactful
+humour of the German Chancellor could scarcely set at rest. The fate of
+nations seemed to waver in the balance when Prince Gortchakoff gathered
+up his maps and threatened to hurry from the room, or when Lord
+Beaconsfield gave pressing orders for a special train to take him back
+to Calais; but there seemed good grounds for regarding these incidents
+rather as illustrative of character, or of the electioneering needs of a
+sensational age, than as throes in the birth of nationalities. The
+"Peace with honour," which the Prime Minister on his return announced at
+Charing Cross to an admiring crowd, had virtually been secured at
+Downing Street before the end of May respecting all the great points in
+dispute between England and Russia.
+
+We know little about the inner history of the Congress of Berlin, which
+is very different from the official Protocols that half reveal and half
+conceal its debates. One fact and one incident claim attention as
+serving to throw curious sidelights on policy and character
+respectively. The Emperor William had been shot at and severely wounded
+by a socialist fanatic, Dr. Nobiling, on June 2, 1878, and during the
+whole time of the Congress the Crown Prince Frederick acted as regent of
+the Empire. Limited as his powers were by law, etiquette, and Bismarck,
+he is said to have used them on behalf of Austria and England. The old
+Emperor thought so; for in a moment of confiding indiscretion he hinted
+to the Princess Radziwill (a Russian by birth) that Russian interests
+would have fared better at Berlin had he then been steering the ship of
+State[173]. Possibly this explains why Bismarck always maintained that
+he had done what he could for his Eastern neighbour, and that he really
+deserved a Russian decoration for his services during the Congress.
+
+[Footnote 173: Princess Radziwill, _My Recollections_ (Eng. ed. 1900),
+p. 91.]
+
+The incident, which flashes a search-light into character and discloses
+the _recherche_ joys of statecraft, is also described in the sprightly
+Memoirs of Princess Radziwill. She was present at a brilliant reception
+held on the evening of the day when the Cyprus Convention had come to
+light. Diplomatists and generals were buzzing eagerly and angrily when
+the Earl of Beaconsfield appeared. A slight hush came over the wasp-like
+clusters as he made his way among them, noting everything with his
+restless, inscrutable eyes. At last he came near the Princess, once a
+bitter enemy, but now captivated and captured by his powers of polite
+irony. "What are you thinking of," she asked. "I am not thinking at
+all," he replied, "I am enjoying myself[174]." After that one can
+understand why Jew-baiting became a favourite sport in Russia throughout
+the next two decades.
+
+[Footnote 174: _Ibid_. p. 149.]
+
+We turn now to note the terms of the Treaty of Berlin (July 13,
+1878)[175]. The importance of this compact will be seen if its
+provisions are compared with those of the Treaty of San Stefano, which
+it replaced. Instead of the greater Bulgaria subjected for two years to
+Russian control, the Congress ordained that Bulgaria proper should not
+extend beyond the main chain of the Balkans, thus reducing its extent
+from 163,000 square kilometres to 64,000, and its population from four
+millions to a million and a half. The period of military occupation and
+supervision of the new administration by Russia was reduced to nine
+months. At the end of that time, and on the completion of the "organic
+law," a Prince was to be elected "freely" by the population of the
+Principality. The new State remained under the suzerainty of Turkey, the
+Sultan confirming the election of the new Prince of Bulgaria, "with the
+assent of the Powers."
+
+[Footnote 175: For the Protocols, see Parl. Papers, Turkey (1878), No.
+39. For the Treaty see _ibid_. No. 44; also _The European Concert in the
+Eastern Question_, by T.E. Holland, pp. 277-307.]
+
+Another important departure from the San Stefano terms was the creation
+of the Province of Eastern Roumelia, with boundaries shown in the
+accompanying map. While having a Christian governor, and enjoying the
+rights of local self-government, it was to remain under "the direct
+political and military authority of the Sultan, under conditions of
+administrative autonomy." The Sultan retained the right of keeping
+garrisons there, though a local militia was to preserve internal order.
+As will be shown in the next chapter, this anomalous state of things
+passed away in 1885, when the province threw off Turkish control and
+joined Bulgaria.
+
+The other Christian States of the Balkans underwent changes of the
+highest importance. Montenegro lost half of her expected gains, but
+secured access to the sea at Antivari. The acquisitions of Servia were
+now effected at the expense of Bulgaria. These decisions were greatly in
+favour of Austria. To that Power the occupation of Bosnia and
+Herzegovina was now entrusted for an indefinite period in the interest
+of the peace of Europe, and she proceeded forthwith to drive a wedge
+between the Serbs of Servia and Montenegro. It is needless to say that,
+in spite of the armed opposition of the Mohammedan people of those
+provinces--which led to severe fighting in July to September of that
+year--Austria's occupation has been permanent, though nominally they
+still form part of the Turkish Empire.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THE TREATIES OF BERLIN AND SAN STEFANO.]
+
+Roumania and Servia gained complete independence and ceased to pay
+tribute to the Sultan, but both States complained of the lack of support
+accorded to them by Russia, considering the magnitude of their efforts
+for the Slavonic cause. Roumania certainly fared very badly at the hands
+of the Power for which it had done yeoman service in the war. The
+pride of the Roumanian people brooked no thought of accepting the
+Dobrudscha, a district in great part marshy and thinly populated, as an
+exchange for a fertile district peopled by their kith and kin. They let
+the world know that Russia appropriated their Bessarabian district by
+force, and that they accepted the Dobrudscha as a war indemnity. By dint
+of pressure exerted at the Congress their envoys secured a southern
+extension of its borders at the expense of Bulgaria, a proceeding which
+aroused the resentment of Russia.
+
+The conduct of the Czar's Government in this whole matter was most
+impolitic. It embittered the relations between the two States and drove
+the Government of Prince Charles to rely on Austria and the Triple
+Alliance. That is to say, Russia herself closed the door which had been
+so readily opened for her into the heart of the Sultan's dominions in
+1828, 1854, and 1877[176]. We may here remark that, on the motion of the
+French plenipotentiaries at the Congress, that body insisted that Jews
+must be admitted to the franchise in Roumania. This behest of the Powers
+aroused violent opposition in that State, but was finally, though by no
+means fully, carried out.
+
+[Footnote 176: Frederick, Crown Prince of Germany, expressed the general
+opinion in a letter written to Prince Charles after the Berlin Congress:
+"Russia's conduct, after the manful service you did for that colossal
+Empire, meets with censure on all sides." (_Reminiscences of the King of
+Roumania_, p. 325).]
+
+Another Christian State of the Peninsula received scant consideration at
+the Congress. Greece, as we have seen, had recalled her troops from
+Thessaly on the understanding that her claims should be duly considered
+at the general peace. She now pressed those claims; but, apart from
+initial encouragement given by Lord Salisbury, she received little or no
+support. On the motion of the French plenipotentiary, M. Waddington, her
+desire to control the northern shores of the Aegean and the island of
+Crete was speedily set aside; but he sought to win for her practically
+the whole of Thessaly and Epirus. This, however, was firmly opposed by
+Lord Beaconsfield, who objected to the cession to her of the southern
+and purely Greek districts of Thessaly and Epirus. He protested against
+the notion that the plenipotentiaries had come to Berlin in order to
+partition "a worn-out State" (Turkey). They were there to "strengthen an
+ancient Empire--essential to the maintenance of peace."
+
+"As for Greece," he said, "States, like individuals, which have a future
+are in a position to be able to wait." True, he ended by expressing "the
+hope and even the conviction" that the Sultan would accept an equitable
+solution of the question of the Thessalian frontier; but the Congress
+acted on the other sage dictum and proceeded to subject the Hellenes to
+the educative influences of hope deferred. Protocol 13 had recorded the
+opinion of the Powers that the northern frontier of Greece should follow
+the courses of the Rivers Salammaria and Kalamas; but they finally
+decided to offer their mediation to the disputants only in case no
+agreement could be framed. The Sublime Porte, as we shall see, improved
+on the procrastinating methods of the Nestors of European
+diplomacy[177].
+
+[Footnote 177: See Mr. L. Sergeant's _Greece in the Nineteenth Century_
+(1897), ch. xii., for the speeches of the Greek envoys at the Congress;
+also that of Sir Charles Dilke in the House of Commons in the debate of
+July 29-August 2, 1878, as to England's desertion of the Greek cause
+after the ninth session (June 29) of the Berlin Congress.]
+
+As regards matters that directly concerned Turkey and Russia, we may
+note that the latter finally agreed to forego the acquisition of the
+Bayazid district and the lands adjoining the caravan route from the
+Shah's dominions to Erzeroum. The Czar's Government also promised that
+Batoum should be a free port, and left unchanged the regulations
+respecting the navigation of the Dardanelles and Bosporus. By a
+subsequent treaty with Turkey of February 1879 the Porte agreed to pay
+to Russia a war indemnity of about L32,000,000.
+
+More important from our standpoint are the clauses relating to the good
+government of the Christians of Turkey. By article 61 of the Treaty of
+Berlin the Porte bound itself to carry out "the improvements and
+reforms demanded by local requirements in the provinces inhabited by the
+Armenians, and to guarantee their security against the Circassians and
+Kurds." It even added the promise "periodically" to "make known the
+steps taken to this effect to the Powers who will superintend their
+application." In the next article Turkey promised to "maintain" the
+principle of religious liberty and to give it the widest application.
+Differences of religion were to be no bar to employment in any public
+capacity, and all persons were to "be admitted, without distinction of
+religion, to give evidence before the tribunals."
+
+Such was the Treaty of Berlin (July 13, 1878). Viewed in its broad
+outlines, it aimed at piecing together again the Turkish districts which
+had been severed at San Stefano; the Bulgars and Serbs who there gained
+the hope of effecting a real union of those races were now sundered once
+more, the former in three divisions; while the Serbs of Servia, Bosnia,
+and Montenegro were wedged apart by the intrusion of the Hapsburg Power.
+Yet, imperfect though it was in several points, that treaty promised
+substantial gains for the Christians of Turkey. The collapse of the
+Sultan's power had been so complete, so notorious, that few persons
+believed he would ever dare to disregard the mandate of the Great Powers
+and his own solemn promises stated above. But no one could then foresee
+the exhibition of weakness and cynicism in the policy of those Powers
+towards Turkey, which disgraced the polity of Europe in the last decades
+of the century. The causes that brought about that state of mental
+torpor in the face of hideous massacres, and of moral weakness displayed
+by sovereigns and statesmen in the midst of their millions of armed men,
+will be to some extent set forth in the following chapters.
+
+As regards the welfare of the Christians in Asia Minor, the Treaty of
+Berlin assigned equal responsibilities to all the signatory Powers. But
+the British Government had already laid itself under a special charge on
+their behalf by the terms of the Cyprus Convention quoted above. Five
+days before that treaty was signed the world heard with a gasp of
+surprise that England had become practically mistress of Cyprus and
+assumed some measure of responsibility for the good government of the
+Christians of Asiatic Turkey. No limit of time was assigned for the
+duration of the Convention, and apparently it still holds good so far as
+relates to the material advantages accruing from the possession of
+that island.
+
+It is needless to say that the Cypriotes have benefited greatly by the
+British administration; the value of the imports and exports nearly
+doubled between 1878 and 1888. But this fact does not and cannot dispose
+of the larger questions opened up as to the methods of acquisition and
+of the moral responsibilities which it entailed. These at once aroused
+sharp differences of opinion. Admiration at the skill and daring which
+had gained for Britain a point of vantage in the Levant and set back
+Russia's prestige in that quarter was chequered by protests against the
+methods of secrecy, sensationalism, and self-seeking that latterly had
+characterised British diplomacy.
+
+One more surprise was still forthcoming. Lord Derby, speaking in the
+House of Lords on July 18, gave point to these protests by divulging a
+State secret of no small importance, namely, that one of the causes of
+his retirement at the end of March was a secret proposal of the Ministry
+to send an expedition from India to seize Cyprus and one of the Syrian
+ports with a view to operations against Russia, and that, too, with _or
+without_ the consent of the Sultan. Whether the Cabinet arrived at
+anything like a decision in this question is very doubtful. Lord
+Salisbury stoutly denied the correctness of his predecessor's statement.
+The papers of Sir Stafford Northcote also show that the scheme at that
+time came up for discussion, but was "laid aside[178]." Lord Derby,
+however, stated that he had kept private notes of the discussion; and it
+is improbable that he would have resigned on a question that was merely
+mooted and entirely dismissed. The mystery in which the deliberations
+of the Cabinet are involved, and very rightly involved, broods over this
+as over so many topics in which Lord Beaconsfield was concerned.
+
+[Footnote 178: _Sir Stafford Northcote_, vol. ii. p. 108.]
+
+On another and far weightier point no difference of opinion is possible.
+Viewed by the light of the Cyprus Convention, Britain's responsibility
+for assuring a minimum of good government for the Christians of Asiatic
+Turkey is undeniable. Unfortunately it admits of no denial that the
+duties which that responsibility involves have not been discharged. The
+story of the misgovernment and massacre of the Armenian Christians is
+one that will ever redound to the disgrace of all the signatories of the
+Treaty of Berlin; it is doubly disgraceful to the Power which framed the
+Cyprus Convention.
+
+A praiseworthy effort was made by the Beaconsfield Government to
+strengthen British influence and the cause of reform by sending a
+considerable number of well-educated men as Consuls to Asia Minor, under
+the supervision of the Consul-General, Sir Charles Wilson. In the first
+two years they effected much good, securing the dismissal of several of
+the worst Turkish officials, and implanting hope in the oppressed Greeks
+and Armenians. Had they been well supported from London, they might have
+wrought a permanent change. Such, at least, is the belief of Professor
+Ramsay after several years' experience in Asia Minor.
+
+Unfortunately, the Gladstone Government, which came into power in the
+spring of 1880, desired to limit its responsibilities on all sides,
+especially in the Levant. The British Consuls ceased to be supported,
+and after the arrival of Mr. (now Lord) Goschen at Constantinople in May
+1880, as Ambassador Extraordinary, British influence began to suffer a
+decline everywhere through Turkey, partly owing to the events soon to be
+described. The outbreak of war in Egypt in 1882 was made a pretext by
+the British Government for the transference of the Consuls to Egypt; and
+thereafter matters in Asia Minor slid back into the old ruts. The
+progress of the Greeks and Armenians, the traders of that land, suffered
+a check; and the remarkable Moslem revival which the Sultan inaugurated
+in that year (the year 1300 of the Mohammedan calendar) gradually led up
+to the troubles and massacres which culminated in the years 1896 and
+1897. We may finally note that when the Gladstone Ministry left the
+field open in Asia Minor, the German Government promptly took
+possession; and since 1883 the influence of Berlin has more and more
+penetrated into the Sultan's lands in Europe and Asia[179].
+
+[Footnote 179: See _Impressions of Turkey_, by Professor W.M. Ramsay
+(1897), chap. vi.]
+
+The collapse of British influence at Constantinople was hastened on by
+the efforts made by the Cabinet of London, after Mr. Gladstone's
+accession to office, on behalf of Greece. It soon appeared that Abdul
+Hamid and his Ministers would pay no heed to the recommendations of the
+Great Powers on this head, for on July 20, 1878, they informed Sir Henry
+Layard of their "final" decision that no Thessalian districts would be
+given up to Greece. Owing to pressure exerted by the Dufaure-Waddington
+Ministry in France, the Powers decided that a European Commission should
+be appointed to consider the whole question. To this the Beaconsfield
+Government gave a not very willing assent.
+
+The Porte bettered the example. It took care to name as the first place
+of meeting of the Commissioners a village to the north of the Gulf of
+Arta which was not discoverable on any map. When at last this mistake
+was rectified, and the Greek envoys on two occasions sought to steam
+into the gulf, they were fired on from the Turkish forts. After these
+amenities, the Commission finally met at Prevesa, only to have its
+report shelved by the Porte (January-March 1879). Next, in answer to a
+French demand for European intervention, the Turks opposed various
+devices taken from the inexhaustible stock of oriental subterfuges. So
+the time wore on until, in the spring of 1880, the fall of the
+Beaconsfield Ministry brought about a new political situation.
+
+The new Prime Minister, Mr. Gladstone, was known as the statesman who
+had given the Ionian Isles to Greece, and who advocated the expulsion
+of the Turks, "bag and baggage," from Europe. At once the despatches
+from Downing Street took on a different complexion, and the substitution
+of Mr. Goschen for Sir Henry Layard at Constantinople enabled the Porte
+to hear the voice of the British people, undimmed by official checks. A
+Conference of the Powers met at Berlin to discuss the carrying out of
+their recommendations on the Greek Question, and of the terms of the
+late treaty respecting Montenegro.
+
+On this latter affair the Powers finally found it needful to make a
+joint naval demonstration against the troops of the Albanian League who
+sought to prevent the handing over of the seaport of Dulcigno to
+Montenegro, as prescribed by the Treaty of Berlin. But, as happened
+during the Concert of the Powers in the spring of 1876, a single
+discordant note sufficed to impair the effect of the collective voice.
+Then it was England which refused to employ any coercive measures; now
+it was Austria and Germany, and finally (after the resignation of the
+Waddington Ministry) France. When the Sultan heard of this discord in
+the European Concert, his Moslem scruples resumed their wonted sway, and
+the Albanians persisted in defying Europe.
+
+The warships of the Powers might have continued to threaten the Albanian
+coast with unshotted cannon to this day, had not the Gladstone Cabinet
+proposed drastic means for bringing the Sultan to reason. The plan was
+that the united fleet should steam straightway to Smyrna and land
+marines for the sequestration of the customs' dues of that important
+trading centre. Here again the Powers were not of one mind. The three
+dissentients again hung back; but they so far concealed their refusal,
+or reluctance, as to leave on Abdul Hamid's mind the impression that a
+united Christendom was about to seize Smyrna[180]. This was enough. He
+could now (October 10, 1880) bow his head resignedly before superior
+force without sinning against the Moslem's unwritten but inviolable
+creed of never giving way before Christians save under absolute
+necessity. At once he ordered his troops to carry out the behests of the
+Powers; and after some fighting, Dervish Pasha drove the Albanians out
+of Dulcigno, and surrendered it to the Montenegrins (Nov.-Dec. 1880).
+Such is the official account; but, seeing that the Porte knows how to
+turn to account the fanaticism and turbulence of the Albanians[181], it
+may be that their resistance all along was but a device of that
+resourceful Government to thwart the will of Europe.
+
+[Footnote 180: _Life of Gladstone_, by J. Morley, vol. iii. p. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 181: See _Turkey in Europe_, by "Odysseus," p. 434.]
+
+The same threat as to the seizure of the Turkish customs-house at Smyrna
+sufficed to help on the solution of the Greek Question. The delays and
+insults of the Turks had driven the Greeks to desperation, and only the
+urgent remonstrances of the Powers availed to hold back the Cabinet of
+Athens from a declaration of war. This danger by degrees passed away;
+but, as usually happens where passions are excited on both sides, every
+compromise pressed on the litigants by the arbiters presented great
+difficulty. The Congress of Berlin had recommended the extension of
+Greek rule over the purely Hellenic districts of Thessaly, assigning as
+the new boundaries the course of the Rivers Salammaria and Kalamas, the
+latter of which flows into the sea opposite the Island of Corfu.
+
+Another Conference of the Powers (it was the third) met to decide the
+details of that proposal; but owing to the change of Government in
+France, along with other causes, the whole question proved to be very
+intricate. In the end, the Powers induced the Sultan to sign the
+Convention of May 24, 1881, whereby the course of the River Arta was
+substituted for that of the Kalamas.
+
+As a set-off to this proposal, which involved the loss of Jannina and
+Prevesa for Greece, they awarded to the Hellenes some districts north of
+the Salammaria which helped partially to screen the town of Larissa from
+the danger of Turkish inroads[182]. To this arrangement Moslems and
+Christians sullenly assented. On the whole the Greeks gained 13,200
+square kilometres in territory and about 150,000 inhabitants, but their
+failure to gain several Hellenic districts of Epirus rankled deep in the
+popular consciousness and prepared the way for the events of 1885
+and 1897.
+
+[Footnote 182: _The European Concert in the Eastern Question_, by T.E.
+Holland, pp. 60-69.]
+
+These later developments can receive here only the briefest reference.
+In the former year, when the two Bulgarias framed their union, the
+Greeks threatened Turkey with war, but were speedily brought to another
+frame of mind by a "pacific" blockade by the Powers. Embittered by this
+treatment, the Hellenes sought to push on their cause in Macedonia and
+Crete through a powerful Society, the "Ethnike Hetairia." The chronic
+discontent of the Cretans at Turkish misrule and the outrages of the
+Moslem troops led to grave complications in 1897. At the beginning of
+that year the Powers intervened with a proposal for the appointment of a
+foreign gendarmerie (January 1897). In order to defeat this plan the
+Sultan stirred up Moslem fanaticism in the island, until the resulting
+atrocities brought Greece into the field both in Thessaly and Crete.
+During the ensuing strifes in Crete the Powers demeaned themselves by
+siding against the Christian insurgents, and some Greek troops sent from
+Athens to their aid. Few events in our age have caused a more painful
+sensation than the bombardment of Cretan villages by British and French
+warships. The Powers also proclaimed a "pacific" blockade of Crete
+(March-May 1897). The inner reasons that prompted these actions are not
+fully known. It may safely be said that they will need far fuller
+justification than that which was given in the explanations of Ministers
+at Westminster.
+
+Meanwhile the passionate resentment felt by the Greeks had dragged the
+Government of King George into war with Turkey (April 18, 1897). The
+little kingdom was speedily overpowered by Turks and Albanians; and
+despite the recall of their troops from Crete, the Hellenes were unable
+to hold Phersala and other positions in the middle of Thessaly. The
+Powers, however, intervened on May 12, and proceeded to pare down the
+exorbitant terms of the Porte, allowing it to gain only small strips in
+the north of Thessaly, as a "strategic rectification" of the frontier.
+The Turkish demand of LT10,000,000 was reduced to T4,000,000
+(September 18).
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THESSALY.]
+
+This successful war against Greece raised the prestige of Turkey and
+added fuel to the flames of Mohammedan bigotry. These, as we have seen,
+had been assiduously fanned by Abdul Hamid II. ever since the year 1882,
+when a Pan-Islam movement began. The results of this revival were
+far-reaching, being felt even among the hill tribes on the Afghan-Punjab
+border (see Chapter XIV.). Throughout the Ottoman Empire the Mohammedans
+began to assert their superiority over Christians; and, as Professor
+Ramsay has observed, "the means whereby Turkish power is restored is
+always the same--massacre[183]."
+
+[Footnote 183: _Impressions of Turkey_, by W.M. Ramsay, p. 139.]
+
+It would be premature to inquire which of the European Powers must be
+held chiefly responsible for the toleration of the hideous massacres of
+the Armenians in 1896-97, and the atrocious misgovernment of Macedonia,
+by the Turks. All the Great Powers who signed the Berlin Treaty are
+guilty; and, as has been stated above, the State which framed the Cyprus
+Convention is doubly guilty, so far as concerns the events in Armenia. A
+grave share of responsibility also rests with those who succeeded in
+handing back a large part of Macedonia to the Turks. But the writer who
+in the future undertakes to tell the story of the decline of European
+morality at the close of the nineteenth century, and the growth of
+cynicism and selfishness, will probably pass still severer censures on
+the Emperors of Germany and Russia, who, with the unequalled influence
+which they wielded over the Porte, might have intervened with effect to
+screen their co-religionists from unutterable wrongs, and yet, as far as
+is known, raised not a finger on their behalf. The Treaty of Berlin,
+which might have inaugurated an era of good government throughout the
+whole of Turkey if the Powers had been true to their trust, will be
+cited as damning evidence in the account of the greatest betrayal of a
+trust which Modern History records.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTE.--For the efforts made by the British Government on behalf of the
+Armenians, the reader should consult the last chapter of Mr. James
+Bryce's book, _Transcaucasia and Mount Ararat_ (new edition, 1896).
+Further information may be expected in the _Life of Earl Granville_,
+soon to appear, from the pen of Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE MAKING OF BULGARIA
+
+     "If you can help to build up these peoples into a bulwark of
+     independent States and thus screen the 'sick man' from the
+     fury of the northern blast, for God's sake do it."--SIR R.
+     MORIER to SIR W. WHITE, _December 27, 1885_.
+
+
+The failure which attended the forward Hellenic movement during the
+years 1896-97 stands in sharp relief with the fortunes of the
+Bulgarians. To the rise of this youngest, and not the least promising,
+of European States, we must devote a whole chapter; for during a decade
+the future of the Balkan Peninsula and the policy of the Great Powers
+turned very largely on the emancipation of this interesting race from
+the effective control of the Sultan and the Czar.
+
+The rise of this enigmatical people affords a striking example of the
+power of national feeling to uplift the downtrodden. Until the year
+1876, the very name Bulgarian was scarcely known except as a
+geographical term. Kinglake, in his charming work, _Eothen_, does not
+mention the Bulgarians, though he travelled on horseback from Belgrade
+to Sofia and thence to Adrianople. And yet in 1828, the conquering march
+of the Russians to Adrianople had awakened that people to a passing
+thrill of national consciousness. Other travellers,--for instance,
+Cyprien Robert in the "thirties,"--noted their sturdy patience in toil,
+their slowness to act, but their great perseverance and will-power, when
+the resolve was formed.
+
+These qualities may perhaps be ascribed to their Tatar (Tartar) origin.
+Ethnically, they are closely akin to the Magyars and Turks, but, having
+been long settled on the banks of the Volga (hence their name, Bulgarian
+= Volgarian), they adopted the speech and religion of the Slavs. They
+have lived this new life for about a thousand years[184]; and in this
+time have been completely changed. Though their flat lips and noses
+bespeak an Asiatic origin, they are practically Slavs, save that their
+temperament is less nervous, and their persistence greater than that of
+their co-religionists[185]. Their determined adhesion to Slav ideals and
+rejection of Turkish ways should serve as a reminder to anthropologists
+that peoples are not mainly to be judged and divided off by
+craniological peculiarities. Measurement of skulls may tell us something
+concerning the basal characteristics of tribes: it leaves untouched the
+boundless fund of beliefs, thoughts, aspirations, and customs which
+mould the lives of nations. The peoples of to-day are what their creeds,
+customs, and hopes have made them; as regards their political life, they
+have little more likeness to their tribal forefathers than the average
+man has to the chimpanzee.
+
+[Footnote 184: _The Peasant State: Bulgaria in 1894_, by E. Dicey, C.B.
+(1904), p. 11.]
+
+[Footnote 185: _Turkey in Europe_, by "Odysseus," pp. 28, 356, 367.]
+
+The first outstanding event in the recent rise of the Bulgarian race was
+the acquisition of spiritual independence in 1869-70. Hitherto they, in
+common with nearly all the Slavs, had belonged to the Greek Church, and
+had recognised the supremacy of its Patriarch at Constantinople, but, as
+the national idea progressed, the Bulgarians sought to have their own
+Church. It was in vain that the Greeks protested against this schismatic
+attempt. The Western Powers and Russia favoured it; the Porte also was
+not loth to see the Christians further divided. Early in the year 1870,
+the Bulgarian Church came into existence, with an Exarch of its own at
+Constantinople who has survived the numerous attempts of the Greeks to
+ban him as a schismatic from the "Universal Church." The Bulgarians
+therefore took rank with the other peoples of the Peninsula as a
+religious entity., the Roumanian and Servian Churches having been
+constituted early in the century. In fact, the Porte recognises the
+Bulgarians, even in Macedonia, as an independent religious community, a
+right which it does not accord to the Servians; the latter, in
+Macedonia, are counted only as "Greeks[186]."
+
+[Footnote 186: _Turkey in Europe_, by "Odysseus," pp. 280-283, 297; _The
+Peasant State_, by E. Dicey, pp. 75-77.]
+
+The Treaty of San Stefano promised to make the Bulgarians the
+predominant race of the Balkan Peninsula for the benefit of Russia; but,
+as we have seen, the efforts of Great Britain and Austria, backed by the
+jealousies of Greeks and Servians, led to a radical change in those
+arrangements. The Treaty of Berlin divided that people into three
+unequal parts. The larger mass, dwelling in Bulgaria Proper, gained
+entire independence of the Sultan, save in the matter of suzerainty; the
+Bulgarians on the southern slopes of the Balkans acquired autonomy only
+in local affairs, and remained under the control of the Porte in
+military affairs and in matters of high policy; while the Bulgarians who
+dwelt in Macedonia, about 1,120,000 in number, were led to hope
+something from articles 61 and 62 of the Treaty of Berlin, but remained
+otherwise at the mercy of the Sultan[187].
+
+[Footnote 187: Recius, Kiepert, Ritter, and other geographers and
+ethnologists, admit that the majority in Macedonia is Bulgarian.]
+
+This unsatisfactory state of things promised to range the Principality
+of Bulgaria entirely on the side of Russia, and at the outset the hope
+of all Bulgarians was for a close friendship with the great Power that
+had effected their liberation. These sentiments, however, speedily
+cooled. The officers appointed by the Czar to organise the Principality
+carried out their task in a high-handed way that soon irritated the
+newly enfranchised people. Gratitude is a feeling that soon vanishes,
+especially in political life. There, far more than in private life, it
+is a great mistake for the party that has conferred a boon to remind
+the recipient of what he owes, especially if that recipient be young and
+aspiring. Yet that was the mistake committed everywhere throughout
+Bulgaria. The army, the public service--everything--was modelled on
+Russian lines during the time of the occupation, until the overbearing
+ways of the officials succeeded in dulling the memory of the services
+rendered in the war. The fact of the liberation was forgotten amidst the
+irritation aroused by the constant reminders of it.
+
+The Russians succeeded in alienating even the young German prince who
+came, with the full favour of the Czar Alexander II., to take up the
+reins of Government. A scion of the House of Hesse Darmstadt by a
+morganatic marriage, Prince Alexander of Battenberg had been sounded by
+the Russian authorities, with a view to his acceptance of the Bulgarian
+crown. By the vote of the Bulgarian Chamber, it was offered to him on
+April 29, 1879. He accepted it, knowing full well that it would be a
+thorny honour for a youth of twenty-two years of age. His tall
+commanding frame, handsome features, ability and prowess as a soldier,
+and, above all, his winsome address, seemed to mark him out as a natural
+leader of men; and he received a warm welcome from the Bulgarians in the
+month of July.
+
+His difficulties began at once. The chief Russian administrator,
+Dondukoff Korsakoff, had thrust his countrymen into all the important
+and lucrative posts, thereby leaving out in the cold the many
+Bulgarians, who, after working hard for the liberation of their land,
+now saw it transferred from the slovenly overlordship of the Turk to the
+masterful grip of the Muscovite. The Principality heaved with
+discontent, and these feelings finally communicated themselves to the
+sympathetic nature of the Prince. But duty and policy alike forbade him
+casting off the Russian influence. No position could be more trying for
+a young man of chivalrous and ambitious nature, endowed with a strain of
+sensitiveness which he probably derived from his Polish mother. He early
+set forth his feelings in a private letter to Prince Charles of
+Roumania:--
+
+Devoted with my whole heart to the Czar Alexander, I am anxious to do
+nothing that can be called anti-Russian. Unfortunately the Russian
+officials have acted with the utmost want of tact; confusion prevails in
+every office, and peculation, thanks to Dondukoff's decrees, is all but
+sanctioned. I am daily confronted with the painful alternative of having
+to decide either to assent to the Russian demands or to be accused in
+Russia of ingratitude and of "injuring the most sacred feelings of the
+Bulgarians." My position is truly terrible.
+
+The friction with Russia increased with time. Early in the year 1880,
+Prince Alexander determined to go to St. Petersburg to appeal to the
+Czar in the hope of allaying the violence of the Panslavonic intriguers.
+Matters improved for a time, but only because the Prince accepted the
+guidance of the Czar. Thereafter he retained most of his pro-Russian
+Ministers, even though the second Legislative Assembly, elected in the
+spring of that year, was strongly Liberal and anti-Russian. In April
+1881 he acted on the advice of one of his Ministers, a Russian general
+named Ehrenroth, and carried matters with a high hand: he dissolved the
+Assembly, suspended the constitution, encouraged his officials to
+browbeat the voters, and thereby gained a docile Chamber, which carried
+out his behests by decreeing a Septennate, or autocratic rule for seven
+years. In order to prop up his miniature czardom, he now asked the new
+Emperor, Alexander III., to send him two Russian Generals. His request
+was granted in the persons of Generals Soboleff and Kaulbars, who became
+Ministers of the Interior and for War; a third, General Tioharoff, being
+also added as Minister of Justice.
+
+The triumph of Muscovite influence now seemed to be complete, until the
+trio just named usurped the functions of the Bulgarian Ministers and
+informed the Prince that they took their orders from the Czar, not from
+him. Chafing at these self-imposed Russian bonds, the Prince now leant
+more on the moderate Liberals, headed by Karaveloff; and on the
+Muscovites intriguing in the same quarter, and with the troops, with a
+view to his deposition, they met with a complete repulse. An able and
+vigorous young Bulgarian, Stambuloff, was now fast rising in importance
+among the more resolute nationalists. The son of an innkeeper of
+Tirnova, he was sent away to be educated at Odessa; there he early
+became imbued with Nihilist ideas, and on returning to the Danubian
+lands, framed many plots for the expulsion of the Turks from Bulgaria.
+His thick-set frame, his force of will, his eloquent, passionate speech,
+and, above all, his burning patriotism, soon brought him to the front as
+the leader of the national party; and he now strove with all his might
+to prevent his land falling to the position of a mere satrapy of the
+liberators. Better the puny autocracy of Prince Alexander than the very
+real despotism of the nominees of the Emperor Alexander III.
+
+The character of the new Czar will engage our attention in the following
+chapter; here we need only say that the more his narrow, hard, and
+overbearing nature asserted itself, the greater appeared the danger to
+the liberties of the Principality. At last, when the situation became
+unbearable, the Prince resolved to restore the Bulgarian constitution;
+and he took this momentous step, on September 18, 1883, without
+consulting the three Russian Ministers, who thereupon resigned[188].
+
+[Footnote 188: For the scenes which then occurred, see _Le Prince
+Alexandre de Battenberg en Bulgarie_, by A.G. Drandar, pp. 169 _et
+seq_.; also A. Koch, _Fuerst Alexander von Bulgarien_, pp. 144-147.
+
+For the secret aims of Russia, see _Documents secrets de la Politique
+russe en Orient_, by R. Leonoff (Berlin, 1893), pp. 49-65. General
+Soboleff, _Der erste Fuerst von Bulgarian_ (Leipzig, 1896), has given a
+highly coloured Russian account of all these incidents.]
+
+At once the Prince summoned Karaveloff, and said to him: "My dear
+Karaveloff--For the second time I swear to thee that I will be entirely
+submissive to the will of the people, and that I will govern in full
+accordance with the constitution of Tirnova. Let us forget what passed
+during the _coup d'etat_ [of 1881], and work together for the
+prosperity of the country." He embraced him; and that embrace was the
+pledge of a close union of hearts between him and his people[189].
+
+[Footnote 189: See Laveleye's _The Balkan Peninsula_, pp. 259-262, for
+an account of Karaveloff.]
+
+The Czar forthwith showed his anger at this act of independence, and,
+counting it a sign of defiance, allowed or encouraged his agents in
+Bulgaria to undermine the power of the Prince, and procure his
+deposition. For two years they struggled in vain. An attempt by the
+Russian Generals Soboleff and Kaulbars to kidnap the Prince by night
+failed, owing to the loyalty of Lieutenant Martinoff, then on duty at
+his palace; the two ministerial plotters forthwith left Bulgaria[190].
+
+[Footnote 190: J.G.C. Minchin, _The Growth of Freedom in the Balkan
+Peninsula_ (1886) p. 237. The author, Consul-General for Servia in
+London, had earlier contributed many articles to the _Times_ and
+_Morning Advertiser_ on Balkan affairs.]
+
+Even now the scales did not fall from the eyes of the Emperor Alexander
+III. Bismarck was once questioned by the faithful Busch as to the
+character of that potentate. The German Boswell remarked that he had
+heard Alexander III. described as "stupid, exceedingly stupid";
+whereupon the Chancellor replied: "In a general way that is saying too
+much[191]." Leaving to posterity the task of deciding that question, we
+may here point out that Muscovite policy in the years 1878-85 achieved a
+truly remarkable feat in uniting all the liberated races of the Balkan
+Peninsula against their liberators. By the terms of the Treaty of San
+Stefano, Russia had alienated the Roumanians, Servians, and Greeks; so
+that when the Princes of those two Slav Principalities decided to take
+the kingly title (as they did in the spring of 1881 and 1882
+respectively), it was after visits to Berlin and Vienna, whereby they
+tacitly signified their friendliness to the Central Powers.
+
+[Footnote 191: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, by Dr. M.
+Busch (Note of January 5, 1886), vol. iii. p. 150 (English edition).]
+
+In the case of Servia this went to the length of alliance. On June 25,
+1881, the Foreign Minister, M. Mijatovich, concluded with
+Austria-Hungary a secret convention, whereby Servia agreed to
+discourage any movement among the Slavs of Bosnia, while the Dual
+Monarchy promised to refrain from any action detrimental to Servian
+hopes for what is known as old Servia. The agreement was for eight
+years; but it was not renewed in 1889[192]. The fact, however, that such
+a compact could be framed within three years of the Berlin Congress,
+shows how keen was the resentment of the Servian Government at the
+neglect of its interests by Russia, both there and at San Stefano.
+
+[Footnote 192: The treaty has not been published; for this general
+description of it I am indebted to the kindness of M. Mijatovich
+himself.]
+
+The gulf between Bulgaria and Russia widened more slowly, but with the
+striking sequel that will be seen. The Dondukoffs, Soboleffs, and
+Kaulbars first awakened and then estranged the formerly passive and
+docile race for whose aggrandisement Russia had incurred the resentment
+of the neighbouring peoples. Under Muscovite tutelage the "ignorant
+Bulgarian peasants" were developing a strong civic and political
+instinct. Further, the Czar's attacks, now on the Prince, and then on
+the popular party, served to bind these formerly discordant elements
+into an alliance. Stambuloff, the very embodiment of young Bulgaria in
+tenacity of purpose and love of freedom, was now the President of the
+Sobranje, or National Assembly, and he warmly supported Prince Alexander
+so long as he withstood Russian pretensions. At the outset the strifes
+at Sofia had resembled a triangular duel, and the Russian agents could
+readily have disposed of the third combatant had they sided either with
+the Prince or with the Liberals. By browbeating both they simplified the
+situation to the benefit both of the Prince and of the nascent liberties
+of Bulgaria.
+
+Alexander III. and his Chancellor, de Giers, had also tied their hands
+in Balkan affairs by a treaty which they framed with Austria and
+Germany, and signed and ratified at the meeting of the three Emperors at
+Skiernewice (September 1884--see Chapter XII.). The most important of
+its provisions from our present standpoint was that by which, in the
+event of two of the three Empires disagreeing on Balkan questions, the
+casting vote rested with the third Power. This gave to Bismarck the same
+role of arbiter which he had played at the Berlin Congress.
+
+But in the years 1885 and 1886, the Czar and his agents committed a
+series of blunders, by the side of which their earlier actions seemed
+statesmanlike. The welfare of the Bulgarian people demanded an early
+reversal of the policy decided on at the Congress of Berlin (1878),
+whereby the southern Bulgarians were divided from their northern
+brethren in order that the Sultan might have the right to hold the
+Balkan passes in time of war. That is to say, the Powers, especially
+Great Britain and Austria, set aside the claims of a strong racial
+instinct for purely military reasons. The breakdown of this artificial
+arrangement was confidently predicted at the time; and Russian agents at
+first took the lead in preparing for the future union. Skobeleff,
+Katkoff, and the Panslavonic societies of Russia encouraged the
+formation of "gymnastic societies" in Eastern Roumelia, and the youth of
+that province enrolled themselves with such ardour that by the year 1885
+more than 40,000 were trained to the use of arms. As for the protests of
+the Sultan and those of his delegates at Philippopolis, they were
+stilled by hints from St. Petersburg, or by demands for the prompt
+payment of Turkey's war debt to Russia. All the world knew that, thanks
+to Russian patronage, Eastern Roumelia had slipped entirely from the
+control of Abdul Hamid.
+
+By the summer of 1885, the unionist movement had acquired great
+strength. But now, at the critical time, when Russia should have led
+that movement, she let it drift, or even, we may say, cast off the
+tow-rope. Probably the Czar and his Ministers looked on the Bulgarians
+as too weak or too stupid to act for themselves. It was a complete
+miscalculation; for now Stambuloff and Karaveloff had made that aim
+their own, and brought to its accomplishment all the skill and zeal
+which they had learned in a long career of resistance to Turkish and
+Russian masters. There is reason to think that they and their
+coadjutors at Philippopolis pressed on events in the month of September
+1885, because the Czar was then known to disapprove any
+immediate action.
+
+In order to understand the reason for this strange reversal of Russia's
+policy, we must scrutinise events more closely. The secret workings of
+that policy have been laid bare in a series of State documents, the
+genuineness of which is not altogether established. They are said to
+have been betrayed to the Bulgarian patriots by a Russian agent, and
+they certainly bear signs of authenticity. If we accept them (and up to
+the present they have been accepted by well-informed men) the truth is
+as follows:--
+
+Russia would have worked hard for the union of Eastern Roumelia to
+Bulgaria, provided that the Prince abdicated and his people submitted
+completely to Russian control. Quite early in his reign Alexander III.
+discovered in them an independence which his masterful nature ill
+brooked. He therefore postponed that scheme until the Prince should
+abdicate or be driven out. As one of the Muscovite agents phrased it in
+the spring of 1881, the union must not be brought about until a Russian
+protectorate should be founded in the Principality; for if they made
+Bulgaria too strong, it would become "a second Roumania," that is, as
+"ungrateful" to Russia as Roumania had shown herself after the seizure
+of her Bessarabian lands. In fact, the Bulgarians could gain the wish of
+their hearts only on one condition--that of proclaiming the Emperor
+Alexander Grand Duke of the greater State of the future[193].
+
+[Footnote 193: _Documents secrets de la Politique russe en Orient,_ ed.
+by R. Leonoff (Berlin, 1893), pp. 8, 48. This work is named by M. Malet
+in his _Bibliographie_ on the Eastern Question on p. 448, vol. ix., of
+the _Histoire Generale of _MM. Lavisse and Rambaud. I have been assured
+of its genuineness by a gentleman well versed in the politics of the
+Balkan States.]
+
+The chief obstacles in the way of Russia's aggrandisement were the
+susceptibilities of "the Battenberger," as her agents impertinently
+named him, and the will of Stambuloff. When the Czar, by his malevolent
+obstinacy, finally brought these two men to accord, it was deemed
+needful to adopt various devices in order to shatter the forces which
+Russian diplomacy had succeeded in piling up in its own path. But here
+again we are reminded of the Horatian precept--
+
+     Vis consili expers mole ruit sua.
+
+To the hectorings of Russian agents the "peasant State" offered an ever
+firmer resistance, and by the summer of 1885 it was clear that bribery
+and bullying were equally futile.
+
+Of course the Emperor of all the Russias had it in his power to harry
+the Prince in many ways. Thus in the summer of 1885, when a marriage was
+being arranged between him and the Princess Victoria, daughter of the
+Crown Princess of Germany, the Czar's influence at Berlin availed to
+veto an engagement which is believed to have been the heartfelt wish of
+both the persons most nearly concerned. In this matter Bismarck, true to
+his policy of softening the Czar's annoyance at the Austro-German
+alliance by complaisance in all other matters, made himself Russia's
+henchman, and urged his press-trumpet, Busch, to write newspaper
+articles abusing Queen Victoria as having instigated this match solely
+with a view to the substitution of British for Russian influence in
+Bulgaria[194]. The more servile part of the German Press improved on
+these suggestions, and stigmatised the Bulgarian Revolution of the
+ensuing autumn as an affair trumped up at London. So far is it possible
+for minds of a certain type to read their own pettiness into events.
+
+[Footnote 194: For Bismarck's action and that of the Emperor William I.
+in 1885, see _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, by M. Busch,
+vol. iii. pp. 171, 180, 292, also p. 335. Russian agents came to
+Stambuloff in the summer of 1885 to say that "Prince Alexander must be
+got rid of before he can ally himself with the German family regnant."
+Stambuloff informed the Prince of this. See _Stambuloff_, by A.H.
+Beaman, p. 52.]
+
+Meanwhile, if we may credit the despatches above referred to, the
+Russian Government was seeking to drag Bulgaria into fratricidal strife
+with Roumania over some trifling disputes about the new border near
+Silistria. That quarrel, if well managed, promised to be materially
+advantageous to Russia and mentally soothing to her ruler. It would
+weaken the Danubian States and help to bring them back to the heel of
+their former protector. Further, seeing that the behaviour of King
+Charles to his Russian benefactors was no less "ungrateful" than that of
+Prince Alexander, it would be a fit Nemesis for these _ingrats_ to be
+set by the ears. Accordingly, in the month of August 1885, orders were
+issued to Russian agents to fan the border dispute; and on August 12/30
+the Director of the Asiatic Department at St. Petersburg wrote the
+following instructions to the Russian Consul-General at Rustchuk:--
+
+     You remember that the union [of the two Bulgarias] must not
+     take place until after the abdication of Prince Alexander.
+     However, the ill-advised and hostile attitude of King Charles
+     of Roumania [to Russia] obliges the imperial government to
+     postpone for some time the projected union of Eastern
+     Roumelia to the Principality, as well as the abdication and
+     expulsion of the Prince of Bulgaria. In the session of the
+     Council of [Russian] Ministers held yesterday it was decided
+     to beg the Emperor to call Prince Alexander to Copenhagen or
+     to St. Petersburg in order to inform him that, according to
+     the will of His Majesty, Bulgaria must defend by armed force
+     her rights over the points hereinbefore mentioned[195].
+
+[Footnote 195: R. Leonoff, _op. cit._ pp. 81-84.]
+
+The despatch then states that Russia will keep Turkey quiet and will
+eventually make war on Roumania; also, that if Bulgaria triumphs over
+Roumania, the latter will pay her in territory or money, or in both.
+Possibly, however, the whole scheme may have been devised to serve as a
+decoy to bring Prince Alexander within the power of his imperial
+patrons, who, in that case, would probably have detained and
+dethroned him.
+
+Further light was thrown on the tortuous course of Russian diplomacy by
+a speech of Count Eugen Zichy to the Hungarian Delegations about a year
+later. He made the startling declaration that in the summer of 1885
+Russia concluded a treaty with Montenegro with the aim of dethroning
+King Milan and Prince Alexander, and the division of the Balkan States
+between Prince Nicholas of Montenegro and the Karageorgevich Pretender
+who has since made his way to the throne at Belgrade. The details of
+these schemes are not known, but the searchlight thrown upon them from
+Buda-Pesth revealed the shifts of the policy of those "friends of
+peace," the Czar Alexander III. and his Chancellor, de Giers.
+
+Prince Alexander may not have been aware of these schemes in their full
+extent, but he and his friends certainly felt the meshes closing around
+them. There were only two courses open, either completely to submit to
+the Czar (which, for the Prince, implied abdication) or to rely on the
+Bulgarian people. The Prince took the course which would have been taken
+by every man worthy of the name. It is, however, almost certain that he
+did not foresee the events at Philippopolis. He gave his word to a
+German officer, Major von Huhn, that he had not in the least degree
+expected the unionist movement to take so speedy and decisive a step
+forward as it did in the middle of September. The Prince, in fact, had
+been on a tour throughout Europe, and expressed the same opinion to the
+Russian Chancellor, de Giers, at Franzensbad.
+
+But by this time everything was ready at Philippopolis. As the men of
+Eastern Roumelia were all of one mind in this matter, it was the easiest
+of tasks to surprise the Sultan's representative, Gavril Pasha, to
+surround his office with soldiers, and to request him to leave the
+province (September 18). A carriage was ready to conduct him towards
+Sofia. In it sat a gaily dressed peasant girl holding a drawn sword.
+Gavril turned red with rage at this insult, but he mounted the vehicle,
+and was driven through the town and thence towards the Balkans.
+
+Such was the departure of the last official of the Sultan from the land
+which the Turks had often drenched with blood; such was the revenge of
+the southern Bulgarians for the atrocities of 1876. Not a drop of blood
+was shed; and Major von Huhn, who soon arrived at Philippopolis, found
+Greeks and Turks living contentedly under the new government. The word
+"revolution" is in such cases a misnomer. South Bulgaria merely returned
+to its natural state[196]. But nothing will convince diplomatists that
+events can happen without the pulling of wires by themselves or their
+rivals. In this instance they found that Prince Alexander had made the
+revolution.
+
+[Footnote 196: _The Struggle of the Bulgarians for National
+Independence_, by Major A. von Huhn, chap. ii. See, too, Parl. Papers,
+Turkey, No. 1 (1886), p. 83.]
+
+At first, however, the Prince doubted whether he should accept the crown
+of a Greater Bulgaria which the men of Philippopolis now
+enthusiastically offered to him. Stambuloff strongly urged him to
+accept, even if he thereby still further enraged the Czar: "Sire," he
+said, "two roads lie before you: the one to Philippopolis and as far
+beyond as God may lead; the other to Sistova and Darmstadt. I counsel
+you to take the crown the nation offers you." On the 20th the Prince
+announced his acceptance of the crown of a united Bulgaria. As he said
+to the British Consul at Philippopolis, he would have been a "sharper"
+(_filou_) not to side with his people[197].
+
+[Footnote 197: _Stambuloff_, by A.H. Beaman, chap. iii.; Parl. Papers,
+_ibid_. p. 81.]
+
+Few persons were prepared for the outburst of wrath of the Czar at
+hearing this news. Early in his reign he had concentrated into a single
+phrase--"silly Pole"--the spleen of an essentially narrow nature at
+seeing a kinsman and a dependant dare to think and act for himself[198].
+But on this occasion, as we can now see, the Prince had marred Russia's
+plans in the most serious way. Stambuloff and he had deprived her of her
+unionist trump card. The Czar found his project of becoming Grand Duke
+of a Greater Bulgaria blocked by the action of this same hated kinsman.
+Is it surprising that his usual stolidity gave way to one of those fits
+of bull-like fury which aroused the fear of all who beheld them?
+Thenceforth between the Emperor Alexander and Prince Alexander the
+relations might be characterised by the curt phrase which Palafox hurled
+at the French from the weak walls of Saragossa--"War to the knife." Like
+Palafox, the Prince now had no hope but in the bravery of his people.
+
+[Footnote 198: _Bismarck: Reflections and Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p.
+116 (Eng. ed.).]
+
+In the ciphered telegrams of September 19 and 20, which the Director of
+the Asiatic Department at St. Petersburg sent to the Russian
+Consul-General at Rustchuk, the note of resentment and revenge was
+clearly sounded. The events in Eastern Roumelia had changed "all our
+intentions." The agent was therefore directed to summon the chief
+Russian officers in Bulgaria and ask them whether the "young" Bulgarian
+officers could really command brigades and regiments, and organise the
+artillery; also whether that army could alone meet the army of "a
+neighbouring State." The replies of the officers being decidedly in the
+negative, they were ordered to leave Bulgaria[199]. Nelidoff, the
+Russian ambassador at Constantinople, also worked furiously to spur on
+the Sultan to revenge the insult inflicted on him by Prince Alexander.
+
+[Footnote 199: R. Leonoff, _op. cit._ Nos. 75, 77.]
+
+Sir William White believed that the _volte face_ in Russian policy was
+due solely to Nelidoff's desire to thwart the peaceful policy of the
+Russian Chancellor, de Giers, who at that time chanced to be absent in
+Tyrol, while the Czar also was away at Copenhagen[200]. But it now
+appears that the Russian Foreign Office took Nelidoff's view, and bade
+him press Turkey to restore the "legal order" of things in Eastern
+Roumelia. Further, the Ministers of the Czar found that Servia, Greece,
+and perhaps also Roumania, intended to oppose the aggrandisement of
+Bulgaria; and it therefore seemed easy to chastise "the Battenberger"
+for his wanton disturbance of the peace of Europe.
+
+[Footnote 200: _Sir William White: Memoirs and Correspondence_, by H.
+Sutherland Edwards, pp. 231-232.]
+
+Possibly Russia would herself have struck at Bulgaria but for the
+difficulties of the general situation. How great these were will be
+realised by a perusal of the following chapters, which deal with the
+spread of Nihilism in Russia, the formation of the Austro-German
+alliance, and the favour soon shown to it by Italy, the estrangement of
+England and the Porte owing to the action taken by the former in Egypt,
+and the sharp collision of interests between Russia and England at
+Panjdeh on the Afghan frontier. When it is further remembered that
+France fretted at the untoward results of M. Ferry's forward policy in
+Tonquin; that Germany was deeply engaged in colonial efforts; and that
+the United Kingdom was distracted by those efforts, by the failure of
+the expedition to Khartum, and by the Parnellite agitation in
+Ireland--the complexity of the European situation will be sufficiently
+evident. Assuredly the events of the year 1885 were among the most
+distracting ever recorded in the history of Europe.
+
+This clash of interests among nations wearied by war, and alarmed at the
+apparition of the red spectre of revolution in their midst, told by no
+means unfavourably on the fortunes of the Balkan States. The dominant
+facts of the situation were, firstly, that Russia no longer had a free
+hand in the Balkan Peninsula in face of the compact between the three
+Emperors ratified at Skiernewice in the previous autumn (see Chapter
+XII.); and, secondly, that the traditional friendship between England
+and the Porte had been replaced by something like hostility. Seeing that
+the Sultan had estranged the British Government by his very suspicious
+action during the revolts of Arabi Pasha and of the Mahdi, even those
+who had loudly proclaimed the need of propping up his authority as
+essential to the stability of our Eastern Empire now began to revise
+their prejudices.
+
+Thus, when Lord Salisbury came to office, if not precisely to power, in
+June 1885, he found affairs in the East rapidly ripening for a change of
+British policy--a change which is known to have corresponded with his
+own convictions. Finally, the marriage of Princess Beatrice to Prince
+Henry of Battenberg, on July 23, 1885, added that touch of personal
+interest which enabled Court circles to break with the traditions of the
+past and to face the new situation with equanimity. Accordingly the
+power of Britain, which in 1876-78 had been used to thwart the growth of
+freedom in the Balkan Peninsula, was now put forth to safeguard the
+union of Bulgaria. During these critical months Sir William White acted
+as ambassador at Constantinople, and used his great knowledge of the
+Balkan peoples with telling effect for this salutary purpose.
+
+Lord Salisbury advised the Sultan not to send troops into Southern
+Bulgaria; and the warning chimed in with the note of timorous cunning
+which formed the undertone of that monarch's thought and policy.
+Distracted by the news of the warlike preparations of Servia and Greece,
+Abdul Hamid looked on Russia's advice in a contrary sense as a piece of
+Muscovite treachery. About the same time, too, there were rumours of
+palace plots at Constantinople; and the capricious recluse of Yildiz
+finally decided to keep his best troops near at hand. It appears, then,
+that Nihilism in Russia and the spectre of conspiracy always haunting
+the brain of Abdul Hamid played their part in assuring the liberties
+of Bulgaria.
+
+Meanwhile the Powers directed their ambassadors at Constantinople to
+hold a preliminary Conference at which Turkey would be represented. The
+result was a declaration expressing formal disapproval of the violation
+of the Treaty of Berlin, and a hope that all parties concerned would
+keep the peace. This mild protest very inadequately reflected the
+character of the discussions which had been going on between the several
+Courts. Russia, it is known, wished to fasten the blame for the
+revolution on Prince Alexander; but all public censure was vetoed
+by England.
+
+Probably her action was as effective in still weightier matters. A
+formal Conference of the ambassadors of the Powers met at Constantinople
+on November 5; and there again Sir William White, acting on instructions
+from Lord Salisbury, defended the Bulgarian cause, and sought to bring
+about a friendly understanding between the Porte and "a people occupying
+so important a position in the Sultan's dominions." Lord Salisbury also
+warned the Turkish ambassador in London that if Turkey sought to expel
+Prince Alexander from Eastern Roumelia, she would "be making herself the
+instrument of those who desired the fall of the Ottoman Empire[201]."
+
+[Footnote 201: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 1 (1886), pp. 214-215. See,
+too, _ibid_. pp. 197 _et seq_. for Lord Salisbury's instructions to Sir
+William White for the Conference. In view of them it is needless to
+waste space in refuting the arguments of the Russophil A.G. Drandar,
+_op. cit._ p. 147, that England sought to make war between the
+Balkan States.]
+
+This reference to the insidious means used by Russia for bringing the
+Turks to a state of tutelage, as a preliminary to partition, was an
+effective reminder of the humiliations which they had undergone at the
+hands of Russia by the Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi (1833). France also
+showed no disposition to join the Russian and Austrian demand that the
+Sultan should at once re-establish the _status quo_; and by degrees the
+more intelligent Turks came to see that a strong Bulgaria, independent
+of Russian control, might be an additional safeguard against the
+Colossus of the North. Russia's insistence on the exact fulfilment of
+the Treaty of Berlin helped to open their eyes, and lent force to Sir
+William White's arguments as to the need of strengthening that treaty by
+"introducing into it a timely improvement[202]."
+
+[Footnote 202: _Ibid_. pp. 273-274, 288, for Russia's policy; p. 284 for
+Sir W. White's argument.]
+
+Owing to the opposition offered by Great Britain, and to some extent by
+France, to the proposed restoration of the old order of things in
+Eastern Roumelia, the Conference came to an end at the close of
+November, the three Imperial Powers blaming Sir William White for his
+obstructive tactics. The charges will not bear examination, but they
+show the irritation of those Governments at England's championship of
+the Bulgarian cause[203]. The Bulgarians always remember the names of
+Lord Salisbury and Sir William White as those of friends in need.
+
+[Footnote 203: _Ibid_. pp. 370-372.]
+
+In the main, however, the consolidation of Bulgaria was achieved by her
+own stalwart sons. While the Imperial Powers were proposing to put back
+the hands of the clock, an alarum sounded forth, proclaiming the advent
+of a new era in the history of the Balkan peoples. The action which
+brought about this change was startling alike in its inception, in the
+accompanying incidents, and still more in its results.
+
+Where Abdul Hamid forebore to enter, even as the mandatory of the
+Continental Courts, there Milan of Servia rushed in. As an excuse for
+his aggression, the Kinglet of Belgrade alleged the harm done to Servian
+trade by a recent revision of the Bulgarian tariff. But the Powers
+assessed this complaint and others at their due value, and saw in his
+action merely the desire to seize a part of Western Bulgaria as a
+set-off to the recent growth of that Principality. On all sides his
+action in declaring war against Prince Alexander (November 14) met with
+reprobation, even on the part of his guide and friend, Austria. A recent
+report of the Hungarian Committee on Foreign Affairs contained a
+recommendation which implied that he ought to receive compensation; and
+this seemed to show the wish of the more active part of the Dual
+Monarchy peacefully but effectively to champion his cause[204].
+
+[Footnote 204: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 1 (1886), p. 250.]
+
+Nevertheless, the King decided to carve out his fortunes by his own
+sword. He had some grounds for confidence. If a Bulgarian _fait
+accompli_ could win tacit recognition from the Powers, why should not a
+Servian triumph over Bulgaria force their hands once more? Prince
+Alexander was unsafe on his throne; thanks to the action of Russia his
+troops had very few experienced officers; and in view of the Sultan's
+resentment his southern border could not be denuded of troops. Never did
+a case seem more desperate than that of the "Peasant State," deserted
+and flouted by Russia, disliked by the Sultan, on bad terms with
+Roumania, and publicly lectured by the Continental Powers for her
+irregular conduct. Servia's triumph seemed assured.
+
+But now there came forth one more proof of the vitalising force of the
+national principle. In seven years the downtrodden peasants of Bulgaria
+had become men, and now astonished the world by their prowess. The
+withdrawal of the Russian officers left half of the captaincies vacant;
+but they were promptly filled up by enthusiastic young lieutenants.
+Owing to the blowing up of the line from Philippopolis to Adrianople,
+only five locomotives were available for carrying back northwards the
+troops which had hitherto been massed on the southern border; and these
+five were already overstrained. Yet the engineers now worked them still
+harder and they did not break down[205]. The hardy peasants tramped
+impossibly long distances in their longing to meet the Servians. The
+arrangements were carried through with a success which seems miraculous
+in an inexperienced race. The explanation was afterwards rightly
+discerned by an English visitor to Bulgaria. "This is the secret of
+Bulgarian independence--everybody is in grim earnest. The Bulgarians do
+not care about amusements[206]." In that remark there is food for
+thought. Inefficiency has no place among a people that looks to the
+welfare of the State as all in all. Breakdowns occur when men think more
+about "sport" and pleasure than about doing their utmost for
+their country.
+
+[Footnote 205: A. von Huhn, _op. cit._ p. 105.]
+
+[Footnote 206: E.A.B. Hodgetts, _Round about Armenia_, p. 7.]
+
+The results of this grim earnestness were to astonish the world. The
+Servians at first gained some successes in front of Widdin and
+Slivnitza; but the defenders of the latter place (an all-important
+position north-west of Sofia) hurried up all possible forces. Two
+Bulgarian regiments are said to have marched 123 kilometres in thirty
+hours in order to defend that military outwork of their capital; while
+others, worn out with marching, rode forward on horseback, two men to
+each horse, and then threw themselves into the fight. The Bulgarian
+artillery was well served, and proved to be very superior to that of
+the Servians.
+
+Thus, on the first two days of conflict at Slivnitza, the defenders beat
+back the Servians with some loss. On the third day (November 19), after
+receiving reinforcements, they took the offensive, with surprising
+vigour. A talented young officer, Bendereff, led their right wing, with
+bands playing and colours flying, to storm the hillsides that dominated
+the Servian position. The hardy peasants scaled the hills and delivered
+the final bayonet charge so furiously that there and on all sides the
+invaders fled in wild panic, and scarcely halted until they reached
+their own frontier.
+
+Thenceforth King Milan had hard work to keep his men together. Many of
+them were raw troops; their ammunition was nearly exhausted; and their
+_morale_ had vanished utterly. Prince Alexander had little difficulty in
+thrusting them forth from Pirot, and seemed to have before him a clear
+road to Belgrade, when suddenly he was brought to a halt by a menace
+from the north[207].
+
+[Footnote 207: Drandar, _Evenements politiques en Bulgarie_, pp. 89-116;
+von Huhn, _op. cit._ chaps. x. xi.]
+
+A special envoy sent by the Hapsburgs, Count Khevenhueller, came in haste
+to the headquarters of the Prince on November 28, and in imperious terms
+bade him grant an armistice to Servia, otherwise Austrian troops would
+forthwith cross the frontier to her assistance. Before this threat
+Alexander gave way, and was blamed by some of his people for this act of
+complaisance. But assuredly he could not well have acted otherwise. The
+three Emperors, of late acting in accord in Balkan questions, had it in
+their power to crush him by launching the Turks against Philippopolis,
+or their own troops against Sofia. He had satisfied the claims of
+honour; he had punished Servia for her peevish and unsisterly jealousy.
+Under his lead the Bulgarians had covered themselves with glory, and had
+leaped at a bound from political youth to manhood. Why should he risk
+their new-found unity merely in order to abase Servia? The Prince never
+acted more prudently than when he decided not to bring into the field
+the Power which, as he believed, had pushed on Servia to war[208].
+
+[Footnote 208: Drandar, _op. cit._ chap. iii.; Kuhn, _op. cit._ chap.
+xviii.]
+
+Had he known that the Russian Chancellor, de Giers, on hearing of
+Austria's threat to Bulgaria, informed the Court of Vienna of the Czar's
+condign displeasure if that threat were carried into effect, perhaps he
+would have played a grand game, advancing on Belgrade, dethroning the
+already unpopular King Milan, and offering to the Czar the headship of a
+united Servo-Bulgarian State. He might thus have appeased that
+sovereign, but at the cost of a European war. Whether from lack of
+information, or from a sense of prudence and humanity, the Prince held
+back and decided for peace with Servia. Despite many difficulties thrown
+in the way by King Milan, this was the upshot of the ensuing
+negotiations. The two States finally came to terms by the Treaty of
+Bukharest, where, thanks to the good sense of the negotiators and the
+efforts of Turkey to compose these strifes, peace was assured on the
+basis of the _status quo ante bellum_ (March 3, 1886).
+
+Already the Porte had manifested its good-will towards Bulgaria in the
+most signal manner. This complete reversal of policy may be assigned to
+several causes. Firstly, Prince Alexander, on marching against the
+Servians, had very tactfully proclaimed that he did so on behalf of the
+existing order of things, which they were bent on overthrowing. His
+actions having corresponded to his words, the Porte gradually came to
+see in him a potent defender against Russia. This change in the attitude
+of the Sultan was undoubtedly helped on by the arguments of Lord
+Salisbury to the Turkish ambassador at London. He summarised the whole
+case for a recognition of the union of the two Bulgarias in the
+following remarks (December 23, 1885):--
+
+     Every week's experience showed that the Porte had little to
+     dread from the subserviency of Bulgaria to foreign influence,
+     if only Bulgaria were allowed enjoyment of her unanimous
+     desires, and the Porte did not gratuitously place itself in
+     opposition to the general feeling of the people. A Bulgaria,
+     friendly to the Porte, and jealous of foreign influence,
+     would be a far surer bulwark against foreign aggression than
+     two Bulgarias, severed in administration, but united in
+     considering the Porte as the only obstacle to their national
+     development[209].
+
+[Footnote 209: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 1 (1886), p. 424.]
+
+Events served to reveal the soundness of this statesmanlike
+pronouncement. At the close of the year Prince Alexander returned from
+the front to Sofia and received an overwhelming ovation as the champion
+of Bulgarian liberties. Further, he now found no difficulty in coming to
+an understanding with the Turkish Commissioners sent to investigate the
+state of opinion in Southern Bulgaria. Most significant of all was the
+wrath of the Czar at the sight of his popularity, and the utter collapse
+of the Russian party at Sofia.
+
+Meanwhile the Powers found themselves obliged little by little to
+abandon their pedantic resolve to restore the Treaty of Berlin. Sir
+Robert Morier, British ambassador at St. Petersburg, in a letter of
+December 27, 1885, to Sir William White, thus commented on the causes
+that assured success to the Bulgarian cause:
+
+     The very great prudence shown by Lord Salisbury, and the
+     consummate ability with which you played your part, have made
+     it a successful game; but the one crowning good fortune,
+     which we mainly owe to the incalculable folly of the Servian
+     attack, has been that Prince Alexander's generalship and the
+     fighting capacities of his soldiers have placed our rival
+     action [his own and that of Sir W. White] in perfect harmony
+     with the crushing logic of fact. The rivalry is thus
+     completely swamped in the bit of cosmic work so successfully
+     accomplished. A State has been evolved out of the protoplasm
+     of Balkan chaos.
+
+Sir Robert Morier finally stated that if Sir William White succeeded in
+building up an independent Bulgaria friendly to Roumania, he would have
+achieved the greatest feat of diplomacy since Sir James Hudson's
+statesmanlike moves at Turin in the critical months of 1859-60 gained
+for England a more influential position in Italy than France had secured
+by her aid in the campaign of Solferino. The praise is overstrained,
+inasmuch as it leaves out of count the statecraft of Bismarck in the
+years 1863-64 and 1869-70; but certainly among the _peaceful_ triumphs
+of recent years that of Sir William White must rank very high.
+
+If, however, we examine the inner cause of the success of the diplomacy
+of Hudson and White we must assign it in part to the mistakes of the
+liberating Powers, France and Russia. Napoleon III., by requiring the
+cession of Savoy and Nice, and by revealing his design to Gallicise the
+Italian Peninsula, speedily succeeded in alienating the Italians. The
+action of Russia, in compelling Bulgaria to give up the Dobrudscha as an
+equivalent to the part of Bessarabia which she took from Roumania, also
+strained the sense of gratitude of those peoples; and the conduct of
+Muscovite agents in Bulgaria provoked in that Principality feelings
+bitterer than those which the Italians felt at the loss of Savoy and
+Nice. So true is it that in public as in private life the manner in
+which a wrong is inflicted counts for more than the wrong itself. It was
+on this sense of resentment (misnamed "ingratitude" by the "liberators")
+that British diplomacy worked with telling effect in both cases. It
+conferred on the "liberated" substantial benefits; but their worth was
+doubled by the contrast which they offered to the losses or the
+irritation consequent on the actions of Napoleon III. and of
+Alexander III.
+
+To the present writer it seems that the great achievements of Sir
+William White were, first, that he kept the Sultan quiet (a course, be
+it remarked, from which that nervous recluse was never averse) when
+Nelidoff sought to hound him on against Bulgaria; and, still more, that
+he helped to bring about a good understanding between Constantinople and
+Sofia. In view of the hatred which Abdul Hamid bore to England after
+her intervention in Egypt in 1882, this was certainly a great diplomatic
+achievement; but possibly Abdul Hamid hoped to reap advantages on the
+Nile from his complaisance to British policy in the Balkans.
+
+The outcome of it all was the framing of a Turco-Bulgarian Convention
+(February 1, 1886) whereby the Porte recognised Prince Alexander as
+Governor of Eastern Roumelia for a term of five years; a few border
+districts in Rhodope, inhabited by Moslems, were ceded to the Sultan,
+and (wonder of wonders!) Turkey and Bulgaria concluded an offensive and
+defensive alliance. In case of foreign aggression on Bulgaria, Turkish
+troops would be sent thither to be commanded by the Prince; if Turkey
+were invaded, Bulgarian troops would form part of the Sultan's army
+repelling the invader. In other respects the provisions of the Treaty of
+Berlin remained in force for Southern Bulgaria[210].
+
+[Footnote 210: Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 2 (1886).]
+
+On that same day, as it chanced, the Salisbury Cabinet resigned office,
+and Mr. Gladstone became Prime Minister, Lord Rosebery taking the
+portfolio for Foreign Affairs. This event produced little variation in
+Britain's Eastern policy, and that statement will serve to emphasise the
+importance of the change of attitude of the Conservative party towards
+those affairs in the years 1878-85--a change undoubtedly due in the main
+to the Marquis of Salisbury.
+
+In the official notes of the Earl of Rosebery there is manifest somewhat
+more complaisance to Russia, as when on February 12 he instructed Sir
+William White to advise the Porte to modify its convention with Bulgaria
+by abandoning the stipulation as to mutual military aid. Doubtless this
+advice was sound. It coincided with the known opinions of the Court of
+Vienna; and at the same time Russia formally declared that she could
+never accept that condition[211]. As Germany took the same view the
+Porte agreed to expunge the obnoxious clause. The Government of the Czar
+also objected to the naming of Prince Alexander in the Convention. This
+unlooked-for slight naturally aroused the indignation of the Prince;
+but as the British Government deferred to Russian views on this matter,
+the Convention was finally signed at Constantinople on April 5, 1886.
+The Powers, including Turkey, thereby recognised "the Prince of
+Bulgaria" (not named) as Governor of Eastern Roumelia for a term of five
+years, and referred the "Organic Statute" of that province to revision
+by a joint Conference.
+
+[Footnote 211: _Ibid_. pp. 96-98.]
+
+The Prince submitted to this arrangement, provisional and humiliating
+though it was. But the insults inflicted by Russia bound him the more
+closely to his people; and at the united Parliament, where 182 members
+out of the total 300 supported his Ministers, he advocated measures that
+would cement the union. Bulgarian soon became the official language
+throughout South Bulgaria, to the annoyance of the Greek and Turkish
+minorities. But the chief cause of unrest continued to be the intrigues
+of Russian agents.
+
+The anger of the Czar at the success of his hated kinsman showed itself
+in various ways. Not content with inflicting every possible slight and
+disturbing the peace of Bulgaria through his agents, he even menaced
+Europe with war over that question. At Sevastopol on May 19, he declared
+that circumstances might compel him "to defend by force of arms the
+dignity of the Empire"--a threat probably aimed at Bulgaria and Turkey.
+On his return to Moscow he received an enthusiastic welcome from the
+fervid Slavophils of the old Russian capital, the Mayor expressing in
+his address the hope that "the cross of Christ will soon shine on St.
+Sofia" at Constantinople. At the end of June the Russian Government
+repudiated the clause of the Treaty of Berlin constituting Batoum a free
+port[212]. Despite a vigorous protest by Lord Rosebery against this
+infraction of treaty engagements, the Czar and M. de Giers held to their
+resolve, evidently by way of retort to the help given from London to the
+union of the two Bulgarias.
+
+[Footnote 212: Parl. Papers, Russia (1886), p. 828.]
+
+The Dual Monarchy, especially Hungary, also felt the weight of Russia's
+displeasure in return for the sympathy manifested for the Prince at
+Pesth and Vienna; and but for the strength which the friendship of
+Germany afforded, that Power would almost certainly have encountered war
+from the irate potentate of the North.
+
+Turkey, having no champion, was in still greater danger; her conduct in
+condoning the irregularities of Prince Alexander was as odious to
+Alexander III. as the atrocities of her Bashi-bazouks ten years before
+had been to his more chivalrous sire. It is an open secret that during
+the summer of 1886 the Czar was preparing to deal a heavy blow. The
+Sultan evaded it by adroitly shifting his ground and posing as a
+well-wisher of the Czar, whereupon M. Nelidoff, the Russian ambassador
+at Constantinople, proposed an offensive and defensive alliance, and
+went to the length of suggesting that they should wage war against
+Austria and England in order to restore the Sultan's authority over
+Bosnia and Egypt at the expense of those intrusive Powers. How far
+negotiations went on this matter and why they failed is not known. The
+ordinary explanation, that the Czar forbore to draw the sword because of
+his love of peace, hardly tallies with what is now known of his
+character and his diplomacy. It is more likely that he was appeased by
+the events now to be described, and thereafter attached less importance
+to a direct intervention in Balkan affairs.
+
+No greater surprise has happened in this generation than the kidnapping
+of Prince Alexander by officers of the army which he had lately led to
+victory. Yet the affair admits of explanation. Certain of their number
+nourished resentment against him for his imperfect recognition of their
+services during the Servian War, and for the introduction of German
+military instructors at its close. Among the malcontents was Bendereff,
+the hero of Slivnitza, who, having been guilty of discourtesy to the
+Prince, was left unrewarded. On this discontented knot of men Russian
+intriguers fastened themselves profitably, with the result that one
+regiment at least began to waver in its allegiance.
+
+A military plot was held in reserve as a last resort. In the first
+place, a Russian subject, Captain Nabokoff, sought to simplify the
+situation by hiring some Montenegrin desperadoes, and by seeking to
+murder or carry off the Prince as he drew near to Bourgas during a tour
+in Eastern Bulgaria. This plan came to light through the fidelity of a
+Bulgarian peasant, whereupon Nabokoff and a Montenegrin priest were
+arrested (May 18). At once the Russian Consul at that seaport appeared,
+demanded the release of the conspirators, and, when this was refused,
+threatened the Bulgarian authorities if justice took its course. It is
+not without significance that the Czar's warlike speech at Sevastopol
+startled the world on the day after the arrest of the conspirators at
+Bourgas. Apparently the arrest of Nabokoff impelled the Czar of all the
+Russias to uphold the dignity of his Empire by hurling threats against a
+State which protected itself from conspiracy. The champion of order in
+Russia thereby figured as the abettor of plotters in the Balkans.
+
+The menaces of the Northern Power availed to defer the trial of the
+conspirators, and the affair was still undecided when the conspirators
+at Sofia played their last card. Bendereff was at that time acting as
+Minister of War, and found means to spread broadcast a rumour that
+Servia was arming as if for war. Sending northwards some faithful troops
+to guard against this baseless danger, he left the capital at the mercy
+of the real enemy.
+
+On August 21, when all was ready, the Struma Regiment hastily marched
+back by night to Sofia, disarmed the few faithful troops there in
+garrison, surrounded the palace of the Prince, while the ringleaders
+burst into his bedchamber. He succeeded in fleeing through a corridor
+which led to the garden, only to be met with levelled bayonets and cries
+of hatred. The leaders thrust him into a corner, tore a sheet out of the
+visitors' book which lay on a table close by, and on it hastily scrawled
+words implying abdication; the Prince added his signature, along with
+the prayer, "God save Bulgaria." At dawn the mutineers forced him into a
+carriage, Bendereff and his accomplices crowding round to dismiss him
+with jeers and screen him from the sight of the public. Thence he was
+driven at the utmost speed through byways towards the Danube. There the
+conspirators had in readiness his own yacht, which they had seized, and
+carried him down the stream towards Russian territory.
+
+The outburst of indignation with which the civilised world heard of this
+foul deed had its counterpart in Bulgaria. So general and so keen was
+the reprobation (save in the Russian and Bismarckian Press) that the
+Russian Government took some steps to dissociate itself from the plot,
+while profiting by its results. On August 24, when the Prince was put on
+shore at Reni, the Russian authorities kept him under guard, and that,
+too, despite an order of the Czar empowering him to "continue his
+journey exactly as he might please." Far from this, he was detained for
+some little time, and then was suffered to depart by train only in a
+northerly direction. He ultimately entered Austrian territory by way of
+Lemberg in Galicia, on August 27. The aim of the St. Petersburg
+Government evidently was to give full time for the conspirators at Sofia
+to consolidate their power[213].
+
+[Footnote 213: A. von Huhn, _op. cit._ chap. iv.]
+
+Meanwhile, by military display, the distribution of money, and a _Te
+Deum_ at the Cathedral for "liberation from Prince Battenberg," the
+mutineers sought to persuade the men of Sofia that peace and prosperity
+would infallibly result from the returning favour of the Czar. The
+populace accepted the first tokens of his good-will and awaited
+developments. These were not promising for the mutineers. The British
+Consul at Philippopolis, Captain Jones, on hearing of the affair,
+hurried to the commander of the garrison, General Mutkuroff, and
+besought him to crush the plotters[214]. The General speedily enlisted
+his own troops and those in garrison elsewhere on the side of the
+Prince, with the result that a large part of the army refused to take
+the oath of allegiance to the new Russophil Ministry, composed of
+trimmers like Bishop Clement and Zankoff. Karaveloff also cast in his
+influence against them.
+
+[Footnote 214: See Mr. Minchin's account in the _Morning Advertiser_ for
+September 23, 1886.]
+
+Above all, Stambuloff worked furiously for the Prince; and when a mitred
+Vicar of Bray held the seals of office and enjoyed the official counsels
+of traitors and place-hunters, not all the prayers of the Greek Church
+and the gold of Russian agents could long avail to support the
+Government against the attacks of that strong-willed, clean-handed
+patriot. Shame at the disgrace thus brought on his people doubled his
+powers; and, with the aid of all that was best in the public life of
+Bulgaria, he succeeded in sweeping Clement and his Comus rout back to
+their mummeries and their underground plots. So speedy was the reverse
+of fortune that the new Provisional Government succeeded in thwarting
+the despatch of a Russian special Commissioner, General Dolgorukoff,
+through whom Alexander III. sought to bestow the promised blessings on
+that "much-tried" Principality.
+
+The voice of Bulgaria now made itself heard. There was but one cry--for
+the return of Prince Alexander. At once he consented to fulfil his
+people's desire; and, travelling by railway through Bukharest, he
+reached the banks of the Danube and set foot on his yacht, not now a
+prisoner, but the hero of the German, Magyar, and Balkan peoples. At
+Rustchuk officers and deputies bore him ashore shoulder-high to the
+enthusiastic people. He received a welcome even from the Consul-General
+for Russia--a fact which led him to take a false step. Later in the day,
+when Stambuloff was not present, he had an interview with this agent,
+and then sent a telegram to the Czar, announcing his return, his thanks
+for his friendly reception by Russia's chief agent, and his readiness to
+accept the advice of General Dolgorukoff. The telegram ended thus:--
+
+     I should be happy to be able to give to Your Majesty the
+     definitive proof of the devotion with which I am animated
+     towards Your august person. The monarchical principle forces
+     me to re-establish the reign of law (_la legalite_) in
+     Bulgaria and Roumelia. Russia having given me my crown, I am
+     ready to give it back into the hands of its Sovereign.
+
+To this the Czar sent the following telegraphic reply, and allowed it to
+appear at once in the official paper at St. Petersburg:--
+
+     I have received Your Highness's telegram. I cannot approve
+     your return to Bulgaria, as I foresee the sinister
+     consequences that it may bring on Bulgaria, already so much
+     tried. The mission of General Dolgorukoff is now inopportune.
+     I shall abstain from it in the sad state of things to which
+     Bulgaria is reduced so long as you remain there. Your
+     Highness will understand what you have to do. I reserve my
+     judgment as to what is commanded me by the venerated memory
+     of my father, the interests of Russia, and the peace of the
+     Orient[215].
+
+[Footnote 215: A. von Huhn, _The Kidnapping of Prince Alexander_, chap.
+xi. (London, 1887). Article III. of the Treaty of Berlin ran thus: "The
+Prince of Bulgaria shall be freely elected by the population and
+confirmed by the Sublime Porte, with the assent of the Powers." Russia
+had no right to _choose_ the Prince, and her _assent_ to his election
+was only that of _one_ among the six Great Powers. The mistake of Prince
+Alexander is therefore inexplicable.]
+
+What led the Prince to use the extraordinary words contained in the last
+sentence of his telegram can only be conjectured. The substance of his
+conversation with the Russian Consul-General is not known; and until the
+words of that official are fully explained he must be held open to the
+suspicion of having played on the Prince a diplomatic version of the
+confidence trick. Another version, that of M. Elie de Cyon, is that he
+acted on instructions from the Russian Chancellor, de Giers, who
+believed that the Czar would relent. On the contrary, he broke loose,
+and sent the answer given above[216].
+
+[Footnote 216: _Histoire de l'Entente franco-russe_, by Elie de Cyon, p.
+158.]
+
+It is not surprising that, after receiving the Czar's retort, the Prince
+seemed gloomy and depressed where all around him were full of joy. At
+Tirnova and Philippopolis he had the same reception; but an attempt to
+derail his train on the journey to Sofia showed that the malice of his
+foes was still unsated. The absence of the Russian and German Consuls
+from the State reception accorded to the Prince at the capital on
+September 3 showed that he had to reckon with the hostility or
+disapprobation of those Governments; and there was the ominous fact that
+the Russian agent at Sofia had recently intervened to prevent the
+punishment of the mutineers and Bishop Clement. Few, however, were
+prepared for what followed. On entering his palace, the Prince called
+his officers about him and announced that, despairing of overcoming the
+antipathy of the Czar to him, he must abdicate. Many of them burst into
+tears, and one of them cried, "Without your Highness there is no
+Bulgaria."
+
+This action, when the Prince seemed at the height of popularity, caused
+intense astonishment. The following are the reasons that probably
+dictated it. Firstly, he may have felt impelled to redeem the pledges
+which he too trustfully made to the Czar in his Rustchuk telegram, and
+of which that potentate took so unchivalrous an advantage. Secondly, the
+intervention of Russia to protect the mutineers from their just
+punishment betokened her intention to foment further plots. In this
+intervention, strange to say, she had the support of the German
+Government, Bismarck using his influence at Berlin persistently against
+the Prince, in order to avert the danger of war, which once or twice
+seemed to be imminent between Russia and Germany.
+
+Further, we may note that Austria and the other States had no desire to
+court an attack from the Eastern Power, on account of a personal affair
+between the two Alexanders. Great Britain also was at that time too
+hampered by domestic and colonial difficulties to be able to do more
+than offer good wishes.
+
+Thus the weakness or the weariness of the States friendly to Bulgaria
+left the Czar a free hand in the personal feud on which he set such
+store. Accordingly, on September 7, the Prince left Bulgaria amidst the
+lamentations of that usually stolid people and the sympathy of manly
+hearts throughout the world. At Buda-Pesth and London there were
+ominous signs that the Czar must not push his triumph further. Herr
+Tisza at the end of the month assured the Hungarian deputies that, if
+the Sultan did not choose to restore the old order of things in Southern
+Bulgaria, no other Power had the right to intervene there by force of
+arms. Lord Salisbury, also, at the Lord Mayor's banquet, on November 9,
+inveighed with startling frankness against the "officers debauched by
+foreign gold," who had betrayed their Prince. He further stated that all
+interest in foreign affairs centred in Bulgaria, and expressed the
+belief that the freedom of that State would be assured.
+
+These speeches were certainly intended as a warning to Russia and a
+protest against her action in Bulgaria. After the departure of Prince
+Alexander, the Czar hit upon the device of restoring order to that
+"much-tried" country through the instrumentality of General Kaulbars, a
+brother of the General who had sought to kidnap Prince Alexander three
+years before. It is known that the despatch of the younger Kaulbars was
+distasteful to the more pacific and Germanophil chancellor, de Giers,
+who is said to have worked against the success of his mission. Such at
+least is the version given by his private enemies, Katkoff and de
+Cyon[217]. Kaulbars soon succeeded in adding to the reputation of his
+family. On reaching Sofia, on September 25, he ordered the liberation of
+the military plotters still under arrest, and the adjournment of the
+forthcoming elections for the Sobranje; otherwise Russia would not
+regard them as legal. The Bulgarian Regents, Stambuloff at their head,
+stoutly opposed these demands and fixed the elections for October the
+10th; whereupon Kaulbars treated the men of Sofia, and thereafter of all
+the chief towns, to displays of bullying rhetoric, which succeeded in
+blotting out all memories of Russian exploits of nine years before[218].
+
+[Footnote 217: Elie de Cyon, _Histoire de l'Entente franco-russe_, pp.
+177-178.]
+
+[Footnote 218: The Russophil Drandar (_op. cit._ p. 214) calls these
+demands "remarqueblement moderees et sages"! For further details of
+Kaulbars' electioneering devices see Minchin, _op. cit._ pp. 327-330.]
+
+Despite his menace, that 100,000 Russian troops were ready to occupy
+Bulgaria, despite the murder of four patriots by his bravos at Dubnitza,
+Bulgaria flung back the threats by electing 470 supporters of
+independence and unity, as against 30 Russophils and 20 deputies of
+doubtful views. The Sobranje met at Tirnova, and, disregarding his
+protest, proceeded to elect Prince Waldemar of Denmark; it then
+confirmed Stambuloff in his almost dictatorial powers. The Czar's
+influence over the Danish Royal House led to the Prince promptly
+refusing that dangerous honour, which it is believed that Russia then
+designed for the Prince of Mingrelia, a dignitary of Russian Caucasia.
+
+The aim of the Czar and of Kaulbars now was to render all government
+impossible; but they had to deal with a man far more resolute and astute
+than Prince Alexander. Stambuloff and his countrymen fairly wearied out
+Kaulbars, until that imperial agent was suddenly recalled (November 19).
+He also ordered the Russian Consuls to withdraw.
+
+It is believed that the Czar recalled him partly because of the obvious
+failure of a hectoring policy, but also owing to the growing
+restlessness of Austria-Hungary, England, and Italy at Russia's
+treatment of Bulgaria. For several months European diplomacy turned on
+the question of Bulgaria's independence; and here Russia could not yet
+count on a French alliance. As has been noted above, Alexander III. and
+de Giers had tied their hands by the alliance contracted at Skiernewice
+in 1884; and the Czar had reason to expect that the Austro-German
+compact would hold good against him if he forced on his solution of the
+Balkan Question.
+
+Probably it was this consideration which led him to trust to underground
+means for assuring the dependence of Bulgaria. If so, he was again
+disappointed. Stambuloff met his agents everywhere, above ground and
+below ground. That son of an innkeeper at Tirnova now showed a power of
+inspiring men and controlling events equal to that of the innkeeper of
+the Pusterthal, Andreas Hofer. The discouraged Bulgarians everywhere
+responded to his call; at Rustchuk they crushed a rising of Russophil
+officers, and Stambuloff had nine of the rebels shot (March 7, 1887).
+Thereafter he acted as dictator and imprisoned numbers of suspects. His
+countrymen put up with the loss of civic freedom in order to secure the
+higher boon of national independence.
+
+In the main, however, the freedom of Bulgaria from Russian control was
+due to events transpiring in Central Europe. As will appear in Chapter
+XII. of this work, the Czar and de Giers became convinced, early in the
+year 1887, that Bismarck was preparing for war against France, and they
+determined to hold aloof from other questions, in order to be free to
+checkmate the designs of the war party at Berlin. The organ usually
+inspired by de Giers, the _Nord_, uttered an unmistakable warning on
+February 20, 1887, and even stated that, with this aim in view, Russia
+would let matters take their course in Bulgaria.
+
+Thus, once again, the complexities of the general situation promoted the
+cause of freedom in the Balkans; and the way was cleared for a resolute
+man to mount the throne at Sofia. In the course of a tour to the
+European capitals, a Bulgarian delegation found that man. The envoys
+were informed that Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, a grandson of Louis
+Philippe on the spindle-side, would welcome the dangerous honour. He was
+young, ambitious, and, as events were to prove, equally tactful and
+forceful according to circumstances. In vain did Russia seek to prevent
+his election by pushing on the Sultan to intervene. Abdul Hamid was not
+the man to let himself long be the catspaw of Russia, and now invited
+the Powers to name one or two candidates for the throne of Bulgaria.
+Stambuloff worked hard for the election of Prince Ferdinand; and on July
+7, 1887, he was unanimously elected by the Sobranje. Alone among the
+Great Powers, Russia protested against his election and threw many
+difficulties in his path. In order to please the Czar, the Sultan added
+his protest; but this act was soon seen to be merely a move in the
+diplomatic game.
+
+Limits of space, however, preclude the possibility of noting later
+events in the history of Bulgaria, such as the coolness that clouded the
+relations of the Prince to Stambuloff, the murder of the latter, and the
+final recognition of the Prince by the Russian Government after the
+"conversion" of his little son, Boris, to the Greek Church (Feb. 1896).
+In this curious way was fulfilled the prophetic advice given by Bismarck
+to the Prince not long after his acceptance of the crown of Bulgaria:
+"Play the dead (_faire mort_). . . . Let yourself be driven gently by the
+stream, and keep yourself, as hitherto, above water. Your greatest ally
+is time--force of habit. Avoid everything that might irritate your
+enemies. Unless you give them provocation, they cannot do you much harm,
+and in course of time the world will become accustomed to see you on the
+throne of Bulgaria[219]."
+
+[Footnote 219: _Personal Reminiscences of Prince Bismarck_, by S.
+Whitman, p. 179.]
+
+Time has worked on behalf of Bulgaria, and has helped to strengthen this
+Benjamin of the European family. Among the events which have made the
+chief States of to-day, none are more remarkable than those which
+endowed a population of downtrodden peasants with a passionate desire
+for national existence. Thanks to the liberating armies of Russia, to
+the prowess of Bulgarians themselves, to the inspiring personality of
+Prince Alexander and the stubborn tenacity of Stambuloff, the young
+State gained a firm grip on life. But other and stranger influences were
+at work compelling that people to act for itself; these are to be found
+in the perverse conduct of Alexander III. and of his agents. The policy
+of Russia towards Bulgaria may be characterised by a remark made by Sir
+Robert Morier to Sir M. Grant Duff in 1888: "Russia is a great
+bicephalic creature, having one head European, and the other Asiatic,
+but with the persistent habit of turning its European face to the East,
+and its Asiatic face to the West[220]." Asiatic methods, put in force
+against Slavised Tartars, have certainly played no small part in the
+upbuilding of this youngest of the European States.
+
+[Footnote 220: Sir M. Grant Duff, _Notes from a Diary (1886-88)_, vol.
+ii. p. 139.]
+
+In taking leave of the Balkan peoples, we may note the strange tendency
+of events towards equipoise in the Europe of the present age. Thirty
+years ago the Turkish Empire seemed at the point of dissolution. To-day
+it is stronger than ever; and this cause is to be found, not so much in
+the watchful cunning of Abdul Hamid, as in the vivifying principle of
+nationality, which has made of Bulgaria and Roumania two strong barriers
+against Russian aggression in that quarter. The feuds of those States
+have been replaced by something like friendship, which in its turn will
+probably ripen into alliance. Together they could put 250,000 good
+troops in the field--that is, a larger force than that which the Turks
+had in Europe during the war with Russia. Turkey is therefore fully as
+safe as she was under Abdul Aziz.
+
+An enlightened ruler could consolidate her position still further. Just
+as Austria has gained in strength by having Venetia as a friendly and
+allied land, rather than a subject province heaving with discontent, so,
+too, it is open to the Porte to secure the alliance of the Balkan States
+by treating them in an honourable way, and by according good government
+to Macedonia.
+
+Possibly the future may see the formation of a federation of all the
+States of European Turkey. If so, Russia will lose all foothold in a
+quarter where she formerly had the active support of three-fourths of
+the population. However that may be, it is certain that her mistakes in
+and after the year 1878 have profoundly modified the Eastern Question.
+They have served to cancel those which, as it seems to the present
+writer, Lord Beaconsfield committed in the years 1876-77; and the
+skilful diplomacy of Lord Salisbury and Sir William White has regained
+for England the prestige which she then lost among the rising peoples of
+the Peninsula.
+
+The final solution of the tangled racial problems of Mace donia cannot
+be long deferred, in spite of the timorous selfishness of the Powers who
+incurred treaty obligations for the welfare of that land; and, when that
+question can be no longer postponed or explained away, it is to be hoped
+that the British people, taking heed of the lessons of the past, will
+insist on a solution that will conform to the claims of humanity, which
+have been proved to be those of enlightened statesmanship[221].
+
+[Footnote 221: For the recent developments of the Macedonian Question,
+see _Turkey in Europe_, by "Odysseus" (1900); _the Middle Eastern
+Question_, by V. Chirol, 18s. net (Murray); _A Tour in Macedonia_, by
+G.F. Abbot (1903); _The Burden of the Balkans_, by Miss Edith Durham
+(1904); _The Balkans from Within_, by R. Wyon (1904); _The Balkan
+Question_, edited by L. Villari (1904); _Critical Times in Turkey_, by
+G. King-Lewis (1904); _Pro Macedonia_, by V. Berard (Paris, 1904); _La
+Peninsule balkanique_, by Capitaine Lamouche (Paris, 1899).]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+NIHILISM AND ABSOLUTISM IN RUSSIA
+
+
+                  THE HOUSE OF ROMANOFF
+
+                        Catharine II.
+                        (1762-1796.)
+                             |
+                             |
+                           Paul.
+                        (1796-1801.)
+                             |
+                    ___________________
+                   |                   |
+              Alexander I.         Nicholas I.
+             (1801-1825.)         (1825-1855.)
+                                       |
+                          ________________________________________
+                         |             |             |            |
+                   Alexander II.   Constantine.   Nicholas.   Michael.
+                   (1855-1881.)
+                         |
+       ___________________________________________________________
+      |            |            |        |            |           |
+     Nicholas. Alexander III. Alexis.  Marie.      Sergius.      Paul.
+     (Died in   (1881-1894.)         (Duchess of (Assassinated
+     1865.)        |                 Edinburgh.) Feb. 17, 1905.)
+                   |
+              Nicholas II.
+              (1894--.)
+
+
+The Whig statesman, Charles James Fox, once made the profound though
+seemingly paradoxical assertion that the most dangerous part of a
+Revolution was the Restoration that ended it. In a similar way we may
+hazard the statement that the greatest danger brought about by war lies
+in the period of peace immediately following. Just as the strain
+involved by any physical effort is most felt when the muscles and nerves
+resume their normal action, so, too, the body politic is liable to
+depression when once the time of excitement is over and the artificial
+activities of war give place to the tiresome work of paying the bill.
+England after Waterloo, France and Germany after the war of 1870, afford
+examples of this truth; but never perhaps has it been more signally
+illustrated than in the Russia of 1878-82.
+
+There were several reasons why the reaction should be especially sharp
+in Russia. The Slav peoples that form the great bulk of her population
+are notoriously sensitive. Shut up for nearly half the year by the
+rigours of winter, they naturally develop habits of brooding
+introspection or coarse animalism--witness the plaintive strains of
+their folk-songs, the pessimism that haunts their literature, and the
+dram-drinking habits of the peasantry. The Muscovite temperament and the
+Muscovite climate naturally lead to idealist strivings against the
+hardships of life or a dull grovelling amongst them. Melancholy or vodka
+is the outcome of it all.
+
+The giant of the East was first aroused to a consciousness of his
+strength by the invasion of Napoleon the Great. The comparative ease
+with which the Grand Army was engulfed left on the national mind of
+Russia a consciousness of pride never to be lost even amidst the cruel
+disappointments of the Crimean War. Holy Russia had once beaten back the
+forces of Europe marshalled by the greatest captain of all time. She was
+therefore a match for the rest of the Continent. Such was the belief of
+every patriotic Muscovite. As for the Turks, they were not worthy of
+entering the lists against the soldiers of the Czar. Did not every
+decade bring further proofs of the decline of the Ottomans in governing
+capacity and military prowess? They might harry Bulgarian peasants and
+win laurels over the Servian militia. But how could that bankrupt State
+and its undisciplined hordes hold up against the might of Russia and the
+fervour of her liberating legions?
+
+After the indulgence of these day dreams the disillusionment caused by
+the events at Plevna came the more cruelly. One general after another
+became the scapegoat for the popular indignation. Then the General
+Staff was freely censured, and whispers went round that the Grand Duke
+Nicholas, brother of the Czar, was not only incompetent to conduct a
+great war, but guilty of underhand dealings with the contractors who
+defrauded the troops and battened on the public funds. Letters from the
+rank and file showed that the bread was bad, the shoes were rotten, the
+rifles outclassed by those of the Turks, and that trenching-tools were
+lacking for many precious weeks[222]. Then, too, the Bulgarian peasants
+were found to be in a state of comfort superior to that of the bulk of
+their liberators--a discovery which aroused in the Russian soldiery
+feelings like those of the troops of the old French monarchy when they
+fought side by side with the soldiers of Washington for the triumph of
+democracy in the New World. In both cases the lessons were stored up, to
+be used when the champions of liberty returned home and found the old
+order of things clanking on as slowly and rustily as ever.
+
+[Footnote 222: _Russia Before and After the War_, translated by E.F.
+Taylor (London, 1880), chap. xvi.: "We have been cheated by blockheads,
+robbed by people whose incapacity was even greater than their
+villainy."]
+
+Finally, there came the crushing blow of the Treaty of Berlin. The
+Russian people had fought for an ideal: they longed to see the cross
+take the place of the crescent which for five centuries had flashed
+defiance to Christendom from the summit of St. Sofia at Constantinople.
+But Britain's ironclads, Austria's legions, and German diplomacy barred
+the way in the very hour of triumph; and Russia drew back. To the Slav
+enthusiasts of Moscow even the Treaty of San Stefano had seemed a
+dereliction of a sacred duty; that of Berlin seemed the most
+cowardly of betrayals. As the Princess Radziwill confesses in her
+_Recollections_--that event made Nihilism possible.
+
+As usual, the populace, whether reactionary Slavophils or Liberals of
+the type of Western Europe, vented its spleen on the Government. For a
+time the strongest bureaucracy in Europe was driven to act on the
+defensive. The Czar returned stricken with asthma and prematurely aged
+by the privations and cares of the campaign. The Grand Duke Nicholas was
+recalled from his command, and, after bearing the signs of studied
+hostility of the Czarevitch, was exiled to his estates in February 1879.
+The Government inspired contempt rather than fear; and a new spirit of
+independence pervaded all classes. This was seen even as far back as
+February 1878, in the acquittal of Vera Zazulich, a lady who had shot
+the Chief of the Police at St. Petersburg, by a jury consisting of
+nobles and high officials; and the verdict, given in the face of damning
+evidence, was generally approved. Similar crimes occurred nearly every
+week[223]. Everything therefore, favoured the designs of those who
+sought to overthrow all government. In a word, the outcome of the war
+was Nihilism.
+
+[Footnote 223: _Ibid_. chap. xvii. The Government thereafter dispensed
+with the ordinary forms of justice for political crimes and judged them
+by special Commissions.]
+
+The father of this sombre creed was a wealthy Russian landlord named
+Bakunin; or rather, he shares this doubtful honour with the Frenchman
+Prudhon. Bakunin, who was born in 1814, entered on active life in the
+time of soulless repression inaugurated by the Czar Nicholas I.
+(1825-1855). Disgusted by Russian bureaucracy, the youth eagerly drank
+in the philosophy of Western Europe, especially that of Hegel. During a
+residence at Paris, he embraced and developed Prudhon's creed that
+"property is theft," and sought to prepare the way for a crusade against
+all Governments by forming the Alliance of Social Democracy (1869),
+which speedily became merged in the famous "Internationale." Driven
+successively from France and Central Europe, he was finally handed over
+to the Russians and sent to Siberia; thence he escaped to Japan and came
+to England, finally settling in Switzerland. His writings and speeches
+did much to rouse the Slavs of Austria, Poland, and Russia to a sense of
+their national importance, and of the duty of overthrowing the
+Governments that cramped their energies.
+
+As in the case of Prudhon his zeal for the non-existent and hatred of
+the actual bordered on madness, as when he included most of the results
+of art, literature, and science in his comprehensive anathemas.
+Nevertheless his crusade for destruction appealed to no small part of
+the sensitive peoples of the Slavonic race, who, differing in many
+details, yet all have a dislike of repression and a longing to have
+their "fling[224]." A union in a Panslavonic League for the overthrow of
+the Houses of Romanoff, Hapsburg, and Hohenzollern promised to satisfy
+the vague longings of that much-baffled race, whose name, denoting
+"glorious," had become the synonym for servitude of the lowest type.
+Such was the creed that disturbed Eastern and Central Europe throughout
+the period 1847-78, now and again developing a kind of iconoclastic
+frenzy among its votaries.
+
+[Footnote 224: For this peculiarity and a consequent tendency to
+extremes, see Prof. G. Brandes _Impressions of Russia_, p. 22.]
+
+This revolutionary creed absorbed another of a different kind. The
+second creed was scientific and self-centred; it had its origin in the
+Liberal movement of the sixties, when reforms set in, even in
+governmental circles. The Czar, Alexander II., in 1861 freed the serfs
+from the control of their lords, and allotted to them part of the plots
+which they had hitherto worked on a servile tenure. For various reasons,
+which we cannot here detail, the peasants were far from satisfied with
+this change, weighted, as it was, by somewhat onerous terms, irksome
+restrictions, and warped sometimes by dishonest or hostile officials.
+Limited powers of local government were also granted in 1864 to the
+local Zemstvos or land-organisations; but these again failed to satisfy
+the new cravings for a real system of self-government; and the Czar,
+seeing that his work produced more ferment than gratitude, began at the
+close of the sixties to fall back into the old absolutist ways[225].
+
+[Footnote 225: See Wallace's _Russia_, 2 vols.; _Russia under the
+Tzars_, by "Stepniak," vol. ii. chap. xxix.; also two lectures on
+Russian affairs by Prof. Vinogradoff, in _Lectures on the History of the
+Nineteenth Century_ (Camb. 1902).]
+
+At that time, too, a band of writers, of whom the novelist Turgenieff
+is the best known, were extolling the triumphs of scientific research
+and the benefits of Western democracy. He it was who adapted to
+scientific or ethical use the word "Nihilism" (already in use in France
+to designate Prudhon's theories), so as to represent the revolt of the
+individual against the religious creed and patriarchal customs of old
+Russia. "The fundamental principle of Nihilism," says "Stepniak," "was
+absolute individualism. It was the negation, in the name of individual
+liberty, of all the obligations imposed upon the individual by society,
+by family life, and by religion[226]."
+
+[Footnote 226: _Underground Russia_, by "Stepniak," Introduction, p. 4.
+Or, as Turgenieff phrased it in one of his novels: "a Nihilist is a man
+who submits to no authority, who accepts not a single principle upon
+faith merely, however high such a principle may stand in the eyes of
+men." In short, a Nihilist was an extreme individualist and
+rationalist.]
+
+For a time these disciples of Darwin and Herbert Spencer were satisfied
+with academic protests against autocracy; but the uselessness of such
+methods soon became manifest; the influence of professors and
+philosophic Epicureans could never permeate the masses of Russia and
+stir them to their dull depths. What "the intellectuals" needed was a
+creed which would appeal to the many.
+
+This they gained mainly from Bakunin. He had pointed the way to what
+seemed a practical policy, the ownership of the soil of Russia by the
+Mirs, the communes of her myriad villages. As to methods, he advocated a
+propaganda of violence. "Go among the people," he said, and convert them
+to your aims. The example of the Paris Communists in 1871 enforced his
+pleas; and in the subsequent years thousands of students, many of them
+of the highest families, quietly left their homes, donned the peasants'
+garb, smirched their faces, tarred their hands, and went into the
+villages or the factories in the hope of stirring up the thick
+sedimentary deposit of the Russian system[227]. In many cases their
+utmost efforts ended in failure, the tragi-comedy of which is finely
+set forth in Turgenieff's _Virgin Soil_. Still more frequently their
+goal proved to be--Siberia. But these young men and women did not toil
+for nought. Their efforts hastened the absorption of philosophic
+Nihilism in the creed of Prudhon and Bakunin. The Nihilist of
+Turgenieff's day had been a hedonist of the clubs, or a harmless weaver
+of scientific Utopias; the Nihilist of the new age was that most
+dangerous of men, a desperado girt with a fighting creed.
+
+[Footnote 227: _Russia in Revolution_, by G.H. Perriss, pp. 204-206,
+210-214; Arnaudo, _I Nihilismo_ (Turin, 1879). See, too, the chapters
+added by Sir D.M. Wallace to the new edition of his work
+_Russia_ (1905).]
+
+The fusing of these two diverse elements was powerfully helped on by the
+white heat of indignation that glowed throughout Russia when details of
+the official peculation and mismanagement of the war with Turkey became
+known. Everything combined to discredit the Government; and enthusiasts
+of all kinds felt that the days for scientific propaganda and stealthy
+agitation were past. Voltaire must give way to Marat. It was time for
+the bomb and the dagger to do their work.
+
+The new Nihilists organised an executive committee for the removal of
+the most obnoxious officials. Its success was startling. To name only a
+few of their chief deeds: on August 15, 1878, a Chief of the Police was
+slain near one of the Imperial Palaces at the capital; and, in February
+1879, the Governor of Kharkov was shot, the Nihilists succeeding in
+announcing his condemnation by placards mysteriously posted up in every
+large town. In vain did the Government intervene and substitute a
+military Commission in place of trial by jury. Exile and hanging only
+made the Nihilists more daring, and on more than one occasion the Czar
+nearly fell a victim to their desperadoes.
+
+The most astounding of these attempts was the explosion of a mine under
+the banqueting-hall of the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg on the
+evening of February 17, 1880, when the Imperial family escaped owing to
+a delay in the arrival of the Grand Duke of Hesse. Ten soldiers were
+killed and forty-eight wounded in and near the guard-room.
+
+The Czar answered outrage by terrorism. A week after this outrage he
+issued a ukase suspending the few remaining rights of local
+self-government hitherto spared by the reaction, and vesting practically
+all executive powers in a special Commission, presided over by General
+Loris Melikoff. This man was an Armenian by descent, and had
+distinguished himself as commander in the recent war in Asia, the
+capture of Kars being largely due to his dispositions. To these warlike
+gifts, uncommon in the Armenians of to-day, he added administrative
+abilities of a high order. Enjoying in a peculiar degree the confidence
+of Alexander II., he was charged with the supervision of all political
+trials and a virtual control of all the Governors-General of the Empire.
+Thereupon the central committee of the Nihilists proclaimed war _a
+outrance_ until the Czar conceded to a popularly elected National
+Assembly the right to reform the life of Russia.
+
+Here was the strength of the Nihilist party. By violent means it sought
+to extort what a large proportion of the townsfolk wished for and found
+no means of demanding in a lawful manner. Loris Melikoff, gifted with
+the shrewdness of his race, saw that the Government would effect little
+by terrorism alone. Wholesale arrests, banishment, and hangings only
+added to the number of the disaffected, especially as the condemned went
+to their doom with a calm heroism that inspired the desire of imitation
+or revenge. Repression must clearly be accompanied by reforms that would
+bridge over the gulf ever widening between the Government and the
+thinking classes of the people. He began by persuading the Emperor to
+release several hundreds of suspects and to relax the severe measures
+adopted against the students of the Universities. Lastly, he sought to
+induce the Czar to establish representative institutions, for which even
+the nobles were beginning to petition. Little by little he familiarised
+him with the plan of extending the system of the Zemstvos, so that there
+should be elective councils for towns and provinces, as well as
+delegations from the provincial _noblesse_. He did not propose to
+democratise the central Government. In his scheme the deputies of
+nobles and representatives of provinces and towns were to send delegates
+to the Council of State, a purely consultative body which Alexander I.
+had founded in 1802.
+
+Despite the tentative nature of these proposals, and the favourable
+reception accorded to them by the Council of State, the Czar for several
+days withheld his assent. On March 9 he signed the ukase, only to
+postpone its publication until March 12. Not until the morning of March
+13 did he give the final order for its publication in the _Messager
+Officiel_. It was his last act as lawgiver. On that day (March 1, and
+Sunday, in the Russian calendar) he went to the usual military parade,
+despite the earnest warnings of the Czarevitch and Loris Melikoff as to
+a rumoured Nihilist plot. To their pleadings he returned the answer,
+"Only Providence can protect me, and when it ceases to do so, these
+Cossacks cannot possibly help." On his return, alongside of the
+Catharine Canal, a bomb was thrown under his carriage; the explosion
+tore the back off the carriage, injuring some of his Cossack escort, but
+leaving the Emperor unhurt. True to his usual feelings of compassion, he
+at once alighted to inquire after the wounded. This act cost him his
+life. Another Nihilist quickly approached and flung a bomb right at his
+feet. As soon as the smoke cleared away, Alexander was seen to be
+frightfully mangled and lying in his blood. He could only murmur,
+"Quick, home; carry to the Palace; there die." There, surrounded by his
+dearest ones, Alexander II. breathed his last.
+
+In striking down the liberator of the serfs when on the point of
+recurring to earlier and better methods of rule, the Nihilists had dealt
+the death-blow to their own cause. As soon as the details of the outrage
+were known, the old love for the Czar welled forth: his imperfections in
+public and private life, the seeming weakness of his foreign policy, and
+his recent use of terrorism against the party of progress were
+forgotten; and to the sensitive Russian nature, ever prone to extremes,
+his figure stood forth as the friend of peace, and the would-be
+reformer, hindered in his efforts by unwise advisers and an
+untoward destiny.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+His successor was a man cast in a different mould. It is one of the
+peculiarities of the recent history of Russia that her rulers have
+broken away from the policy of their immediate predecessors, to recur to
+that which they had discarded. The vague and generous Liberalism of
+Alexander I. gave way in 1825 to the stern autocracy of his brother,
+Nicholas I. This being shattered by the Crimean War, Alexander II.
+harked back to the ideals of his uncle, and that, too, in the wavering
+and unsatisfactory way which had brought woe to that ruler and unrest to
+the people. Alexander III., raised to the throne by the bombs of the
+revolutionaries, determined to mould his policy on the principles of
+autocracy and orthodoxy. To pose as a reformer would have betokened fear
+of the Nihilists; and the new ruler, gifted with a magnificent physique,
+a narrow mind, and a stern will, ever based his conduct on elementary
+notions that appealed to the peasant and the common soldier. In 1825
+Nicholas I. had cowed the would-be rebels at his capital by a display of
+defiant animal courage. Alexander III. resolved to do the like. He had
+always been noted for a quiet persistence on which arguments fell in
+vain. The nickname, "bullock," which his father early gave him
+(shortened by his future subjects to "bull"), sufficiently summed up the
+supremacy of the material over the mental that characterised the new
+ruler. Bismarck, who knew him, had a poor idea of his abilities, and
+summed up his character by saying that he looked at things from the
+point of view of a Russian peasant[228]. That remark supplies a key to
+Russian politics during the years 1881-94.
+
+[Footnote 228: _Reminiscences of Bismarck_, by S. Whitman, p. 114;
+_Bismarck: some Secret Pages of his History_, by M. Busch, vol. iii.
+p. 150.]
+
+At first, when informed by Melikoff that the late Czar was on the point
+of making the constitutional experiment described above, Alexander III.
+exclaimed, "Change nothing in the orders of my father. This shall count
+as his will and testament." If he had held to this generous resolve the
+world's history would perhaps have been very different. Had he published
+his father's last orders; had he appealed to the people, like another
+Antony over the corpse of Caear, the enthusiastic Slav temperament
+would have eagerly responded to this mark of Imperial confidence.
+Loyalty to the throne and fury against the Nihilists would have been the
+dominant feelings of the age, impelling all men to make the wisest use
+of the thenceforth sacred bequest of constitutional freedom.
+
+The man who is believed to have blighted these hopes was Pobyedonosteff,
+the Procureur of the highest Ecclesiastical Court of the Empire. To him
+had been confided the education of the present Czar; and the fervour of
+his orthodoxy, as well as the clear-cut simplicity of his belief in old
+Muscovite customs, had gained complete ascendancy over the mind of his
+pupil. Different estimates have been formed as to the character of
+Pobyedonosteff. In the eyes of some he is a conscientious zealot who
+believes in the mission of Holy Russia to vivify an age corrupted by
+democracy and unbelief; others regard him as the Russian Macchiavelli,
+straining his beliefs to an extent which his reason rejects, in order to
+gain power through the mechanism of the autocracy and the Greek Church.
+The thin face, passionless gaze, and coldly logical utterance bespeak
+the politician rather than the zealot; yet there seems to be good reason
+for believing that he is a "fanatic by reflection," not by
+temperament[229]. A volume of _Reflections_ which he has given to the
+world contains some entertaining judgments on the civilisation of the
+West. It may be worth while to select a few, as showing the views of the
+man who, through his pupil, influenced the fate of Russia and of
+the world.
+
+[Footnote 229: _Russia under Alexander III._, by H. von
+Samson-Himmelstierna, Eng. ed. ch. vii.]
+
+     Parliament is an institution serving for the satisfaction of
+     the personal ambition, vanity, and self-interest of its
+     members. The institution of Parliament is indeed one of the
+     greatest illustrations of human delusion. . . . On the pediment
+     of this edifice is inscribed, "All for the public good." This
+     is no more than a lying formula: Parliamentarism is the
+     triumph of egoism--its highest expression. . . .
+
+     From the day that man first fell, falsehood has ruled the
+     world--ruled it in human speech, in the practical business of
+     life, in all its relations and institutions. But never did
+     the Father of Lies spin such webs of falsehood of every kind
+     as in this restless age. . . . The press is one of the falsest
+     institutions of our time.
+
+In the chapter "Power and Authority" the author holds up to the gaze of
+a weary world a refreshing vision of a benevolent despotism which will
+save men in spite of themselves.
+
+     Power is the depository of truth, and needs, above all
+     things, men of truth, of clear intellects, of strong
+     understandings, and of sincere speech, who know the limits of
+     "yes" and "no," and never transcend them, etc[230].
+
+[Footnote 230: _Pobyedonosteff; his Reflections_, Eng. ed.]
+
+To this Muscovite Laud was now entrusted the task of drafting a
+manifesto in the interests of "power" and "truth."
+
+Meanwhile the Nihilists themselves had helped on the cause of reaction.
+Even before the funeral of Alexander II. their executive committee had
+forwarded to his successor a document beseeching him to give up
+arbitrary power and to take the people into his confidence. While
+purporting to impose no conditions, the Nihilist chiefs urged him to
+remember that two measures were needful preliminaries to any general
+pacification, namely, a general amnesty of all political offenders, as
+being merely "executors of a hard civic duty"; and "the convocation of
+representatives of all the Russian people for a revision and reform of
+all the private laws of the State, according to the will of the nation."
+In order that the election of this Assembly might be a reality, the Czar
+was pressed to grant freedom of speech and of public meetings[231].
+
+[Footnote 231: The whole document is printed in the Appendix to
+"Stepniak's" _Underground Russia_.]
+
+It is difficult to say whether the Nihilists meant this document as an
+appeal, or whether the addition of the demand of a general amnesty was
+intended to anger the Czar and drive him into the arms of the
+reactionaries. In either case, to press for the immediate pardon of his
+father's murderers appeared to Alexander III. an unpardonable insult.
+Thenceforth between him and the revolutionaries there could be no truce.
+As a sop to quiet the more moderate reformers, he ordered the
+appointment of a Commission, including a few members of Zemstvos, and
+even one peasant, to inquire into the condition of public-houses and the
+excessive consumption of vodka. Beyond this humdrum though useful
+question the imperial reformer did not deign to move.
+
+After a short truce, the revolutionaries speedily renewed their efforts
+against the chief officials who were told off to crush them; but it soon
+became clear that they had lost the good-will of the middle class. The
+Liberals looked on them, not merely as the murderers of the liberating
+Czar, but as the destroyers of the nascent constitution; and the masses
+looked on unmoved while five of the accomplices in the outrage of March
+13 were slowly done to death. In the next year twenty-two more suspects
+were arrested on the same count; ten were hanged and the rest exiled to
+Siberia. Despite these inroads into the little band of desperadoes, the
+survivors compassed the murder of the Public Prosecutor as he sat in a
+cafe at Odessa (March 30, 1882). On the other hand, the official police
+were helped for a time by zealous loyalists, who formed a "Holy Band"
+for secretly countermining the Nihilist organisation. These amateur
+detectives, however, did little except appropriate large donations,
+arrest a few harmless travellers and no small number of the secret
+police force. The professionals thereupon complained to the Czar, who
+suppressed the "Holy Band."
+
+The events of the years 1883 and 1884 showed that even the army, on
+which the Czar was bestowing every care, was permeated with Nihilism,
+women having by their arts won over many officers to the revolutionary
+cause. Poland, also, writhing with discontent under the Czar's stern
+despotism, was worked on with success by their emissaries; and the
+ardour of the Poles made the recruits especially dangerous to the
+authorities, ever fearful of another revolt in that unhappy land.
+Finally, the Czar was fain to shut himself up in nearly complete
+seclusion in his palace at Gatchina, near St. Petersburg, or in his
+winter retreat at Livadia, on the southern shores of the Crimea.
+
+These facts are of more than personal and local importance. They
+powerfully affected the European polity. These were the years which saw
+the Bulgarian Question come to a climax; and the impotence of Russia
+enabled that people and their later champions to press on to a solution
+which would have been impossible had the Czar been free to strike as he
+undoubtedly willed. For the present he favoured the cause of peace
+upheld by his chancellor, de Giers; and in the autumn of the year 1884,
+as will be shown in the following chapter, he entered into a compact at
+Skiernewice, which virtually allotted to Bismarck the arbitration on all
+urgent questions in the Balkans. As late as November 1885, we find Sir
+Robert Morier, British ambassador at the Russian Court, writing
+privately and in very homely phrase to his colleague at Constantinople,
+Sir William White: "I am convinced Russia does not want a general war in
+Europe about Turkey now, and that she is really suffering from a
+gigantic _Katzenjammer_ (surfeit) caused by the last war[232]." It is
+safe to say that Bulgaria largely owes her freedom from Russian control
+to the Nihilists.
+
+[Footnote 232: _Memoirs and Correspondence of Sir William White_, edited
+by H.S. Edwards, ch. xviii.]
+
+For the Czar the strain of prolonged warfare against unseen and
+desperate foes was terrible. Surrounded by sentries, shadowed by secret
+police, the lonely man yet persisted in governing with the assiduity and
+thoroughness of the great Napoleon. He tried to pry into all the affairs
+of his vast empire; and, as he held aloof even from his chief Ministers,
+he insisted that they should send to him detailed reports on all the
+affairs of State, foreign and domestic, military and naval, religious
+and agrarian. What wonder that the Nihilists persisted in their efforts,
+in the hope that even his giant strength must break down under the
+crushing burdens of toil and isolation. That he held up so long shows
+him to have been one of the strongest men and most persistent workers
+known to history. He had but one source of inspiration, religious zeal,
+and but one form of relaxation, the love of his devoted Empress.
+
+It is needless to refer to the later phases of the revolutionary
+movement. Despite their well-laid plans, the revolutionaries gradually
+lost ground; and in 1892 even Stepniak confessed that they alone could
+not hope to overthrow the autocracy. About that time, too, their party
+began to split in twain, a younger group claiming that the old terrorist
+methods must be replaced by economic propaganda of an advanced
+socialistic type among the workers of the towns. For this new departure
+and its results we must refer our readers to the new materials brought
+to light by Sir D. Mackenzie Wallace in the new edition of his work
+_Russia_ (1905).
+
+Here we can point out only a few of the more general causes that
+contributed to the triumph of the Czar. In the first place, the
+difficulties in the way of common action among the proletariat of Russia
+are very great. Millions of peasants, scattered over vast plains, where
+the great struggle is ever against the forces of nature, cannot
+effectively combine. Students of history will observe that even where
+the grievances are mainly agrarian, as in the France of 1789, the first
+definite outbreak is wont to occur in great towns. Russia has no Paris,
+eager to voice the needs of the many.
+
+Then again, the Russian peasants are rooted in customs and superstitions
+which cling about the Czar with strange tenacity and are proof against
+the reasoning of strangers. Their rising could, therefore, be very
+partial; besides which, the land is for the most part unsuited to the
+guerilla tactics that so often have favoured the cause of liberty in
+mountainous lands. The Czar and his officials know that the strength of
+their system lies in the ignorance of the peasants, in the soldierly
+instincts of their immense army, and in the spread of railways and
+telegraphs, which enables the central power to crush the beginnings of
+revolt. Thus the Czar's authority, resting incongruously on a faith dumb
+and grovelling as that of the Dark Ages, and on the latest developments
+of mechanical science, has been able to defy the tendencies of the age
+and the strivings of Russian reformers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The aim of this work prescribes a survey of those events alone which
+have made modern States what they are to-day; but the victory of
+absolutism in Russia has had so enormous an influence on the modern
+world--not least in the warping of democracy in France--that it will be
+well to examine the operation of other forces which contributed to the
+set back of reform in that Empire, especially as they involved a change
+in the relations of the central power to alien races in general, and to
+the Grand Duchy of Finland in particular.
+
+These forces, or ideals, may be summed up in the old Slavophil motto,
+"Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality." These old Muscovite ideals had lent
+strength to Nicholas I. in his day; and his grandson now determined to
+appeal to the feeling of Nationality in its narrowest and strongest
+form. That instinct, which Mazzini looked on as the means of raising in
+turn all the peoples of the world to the loftier plane of Humanity, was
+now to be the chief motive in the propulsion of the Juggernaut car of
+the Russian autocracy.
+
+The first to feel the weight of the governmental machine were the Jews.
+Rightly or wrongly, they were thought to be concerned in the peculations
+that disgraced the campaign of 1877 and in the plot for the murder of
+Alexander II. In quick succession the officials and the populace found
+out that outrages on the Jews would not be displeasing at headquarters.
+The secret once known, the rabble of several towns took the law into
+their own hands. In scores of places throughout the years 1881 and 1882,
+the mob plundered and fired their shops and houses, beat the wretched
+inmates, and in some cases killed them outright. At Elisabetgrad and
+Kiev the Jewish quarters were systematically pillaged and then given
+over to the flames. The fury reached its climax at the small town of
+Balta; the rabble pillaged 976 Jewish houses, and, not content with
+seizing all the wealth that came to hand, killed eight of the traders,
+besides wounding 211 others.
+
+Doubtless these outrages were largely due to race-hatred as well as to
+spite on the part of the heedless, slovenly natives against the keen and
+grasping Hebrews. The same feelings have at times swept over Roumania,
+Austria, Germany, and France. Jew-baiting has appealed even to nominally
+enlightened peoples as a novel and profitable kind of sport; and few of
+its votaries have had the hypocritical effrontery to cloak their conduct
+under the plea of religious zeal. The movement has at bottom everywhere
+been a hunt after Jewish treasure, embittered by the hatred of the clown
+for the successful trader, of the individualist native for an alien,
+clannish, and successful community. In Russia religious motives may
+possibly have weighed with the Czar and the more ignorant and bigoted of
+the peasantry; but levelling and communistic ideas certainly accounted
+for the widespread plundering--witness the words often on the lips of
+the rioters: "We are breakfasting on the Jews; we shall dine on the
+landlords, and sup on the priests." In 1890 there appeared a ukase
+ordering the return of the Jews to those provinces and districts where
+they had been formerly allowed to settle--that is, chiefly in the South
+and West; and all foreign Jews were expelled from the Empire. It is
+believed that as many as 225,000 Jewish families left Russia in the
+sixteen months following[233].
+
+[Footnote 233: Rambaud, _Histoire de la Russie_, ch. xxxviii.; Lowe,
+_Alexander III. of Russia_, ch. viii.; H. Frederic, _The New Exodus_;
+Professor Errera, _The Russian Jews_.]
+
+The next onslaught was made against a body of Christian dissenters, the
+humble community known as Stundists. These God-fearing peasants had
+taken a German name because the founder of their sect had been converted
+at the _Stunden_, or hour-long services, of German Lutherans long
+settled in the south of Russia; they held a simple evangelical faith;
+their conduct was admittedly far better than that of the peasants, who
+held to the mass of customs and superstitions dignified by the name of
+the orthodox Greek creed; and their piety and zeal served to spread the
+evangelical faith, especially among the more emotional people of South
+Russia, known as Little Russians.
+
+Up to the year 1878, Alexander II. refrained from persecuting them,
+possibly because he felt some sympathy with men who were fast raising
+themselves and their fellows above the old level of brutish ignorance.
+But in that year the Greek Church pressed him to take action. If he
+chastised them with whips, his son lashed them with scorpions. He saw
+that they were sapping the base of one of the three pillars that
+supported the imperial fabric--Orthodoxy, in the Russian sense. Orders
+went forth to stamp out the heretic pest. At once all the strength of
+the governmental machine was brought to bear on these non-resisting
+peasants. Imprisonment, exile, execution--such was their lot. Their
+communities, perhaps the happiest then to be found in rural Russia, were
+broken up, to be flung into remote corners of Transcaucasia or Siberia,
+and there doomed to the regime of the knout or the darkness of the
+mines[234]. According to present appearances the persecutors have
+succeeded. The evangelical faith seems to have been almost stamped out
+even in South Russia; and the Greek Church has regained its hold on the
+allegiance, if not on the beliefs and affections, of the masses.
+
+[Footnote 234: See an article by Count Leo Tolstoy in the _Contemporary
+Review_ for November 1895; also a pamphlet on "The Stundists," with
+Preface by Rev. J. Brown, D.D.]
+
+To account for this fact, we must remember the immense force of
+tradition and custom among a simple rural folk, also that very many
+Russians sincerely believe that their institutions and their national
+creed were destined to regenerate Europe. See, they said in effect,
+Western Europe oscillates between papal control and free thought; its
+industries, with their _laissez faire_ methods, raise the few to
+enormous wealth and crush the many into a new serfdom worse than the
+old. For all these evils Russia has a cure; her autocracy saves her from
+the profitless wrangling of Parliaments; her national Church sums up the
+beliefs and traditions of nobles and peasants; and at the base of her
+social system she possesses in the "Mir" a patriarchal communism against
+which the forces of the West will beat in vain. Looking on the Greek
+Church as a necessary part of the national life, they sought to wield
+its powers for nationalising all the races of that motley Empire.
+"Russia for the Russians," cried the Slavophils. "Let us be one people,
+with one creed. Let us reverence the Czar as head of the Church and of
+the State. In this unity lies our strength." However defective the
+argument logically, yet in the realm of sentiment, in which the Slavs
+live, move, and have their being, the plea passed muster. National pride
+was pressed into the service of the persecutors; and all dissenters,
+whether Roman Catholics of Poland, Lutherans of the Baltic Provinces, or
+Stundists of the Ukraine, felt the remorseless grinding of the State
+machine, while the Greek Church exalted its horn as it had not done for
+a century past.
+
+Other sides of this narrowly nationalising policy were seen in the
+determined repression of Polish feelings, of the Germans in the Baltic
+provinces, and of the Armenians of Transcaucasia. Finally, remorseless
+pressure was brought to bear on that interesting people, the Finns. We
+can here refer only to the last of these topics. The Germans in the
+Provinces of Livonia, Courland, and Esthonia formed the majority only
+among the land-holding and merchant classes; and the curbing of their
+semi-feudal privileges wore the look of a democratic reform.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The case was far different with the Finns. They are a non-Aryan people,
+and therefore differ widely from the Swedes and Russians. For centuries
+they formed part of the Swedish monarchy, deriving thence in large
+measure their literature, civilisation, and institutions. To this day
+the Swedish tongue is used by about one-half of their gentry and
+burghers. On the annexation of Finland by Alexander I., in consequence
+of the Franco-Russian compact framed at Tilsit in 1807, he made to their
+Estates a solemn promise to respect their constitution and laws. Similar
+engagements have been made by his successors. Despite some attempts by
+Nicholas I. to shelve the constitution of the Grand Duchy, local
+liberties remained almost intact up to a comparatively recent time. In
+the year 1869 the Finns gained further guarantees of their rights.
+Alexander II. then ratified the laws of Finland, and caused a statement
+of the relations between Finland and Russia to be drawn up.
+
+In view of the recent struggle between the Czar and the Finnish people,
+it may be well to give a sketch of their constitution. The sovereign
+governs, not as Emperor of Russia, but as Grand Duke of Finland. He
+delegates his administrative powers to a Senate, which is presided over
+by a Governor-General. This important official, as a matter of fact, has
+always been a Russian; his powers are, or rather were[235], shared by
+two sections of the Finnish Senate, each composed of ten members
+nominated by the Grand Duke. The Senate prepares laws and ordinances
+which the Grand Duke then submits to the Diet. This body consists of
+four Orders--nobles, clergy, burghers, and peasants. Since 1886 it has
+enjoyed to a limited extent the right of initiating laws. The Orders sit
+and vote separately. In most cases a resolution that is passed by three
+of them becomes law, when it has received the assent of the Grand Duke.
+But the assent of a majority in each of the four Orders is needed in the
+case of a proposal that affects the constitution of the Grand Duchy and
+the privileges of the Orders. In case a Bill is accepted by two Orders
+and is rejected by the other two, a deadlock is averted by each of the
+Orders appointing fifteen delegates; these sixty delegates, meeting
+without discussion, vote by ballot, and a bare majority carries the day.
+Measures are then referred to the Grand Duke, who, after consulting the
+Senate, gives or witholds his assent[236].
+
+[Footnote 235: A law of the autumn of 1902 altered this. It delegated
+the administration to the Governor-General, _assisted by_ the Senate.]
+
+[Footnote 236: For the constitution of Finland and its relation to
+Russia, see _A Precis of the Public Law of Finland_, by L. Mechelin,
+translated by C.J. Cooke (1889); _Pour la Finlande_, par Jean Deck;
+_Pour la Finlande, La Constitution du Grand Duche de Finlande_ (Paris,
+1900). J.R. Danielsson, _Finland's Union with the Russian Empire_
+(Borga, 1891).]
+
+A very important clause of the law of 1869 declares that "Fundamental
+laws can be made, altered, explained, or repealed, only on the
+representation of the Emperor and Grand Duke, and with the consent of
+all the Estates." This clause sharply marked off Finland from Russia,
+where the power of the Czar is theoretically unlimited. New taxes may
+not be imposed nor old taxes altered without the consent of the Finnish
+Diet; but, strange to say, the customs dues are fixed by the Government
+(that is, by the Grand Duke and the Senate) without the co-operation of
+the Diet. Despite the archaic form of its representation, the Finnish
+constitution (an offshoot of that of Sweden) has worked extremely well;
+and in regard to civil freedom and religious toleration, the Finns take
+their place among the most progressive communities of the world.
+Moreover, the constitution is no recent and artificial creation; it
+represents customs and beliefs that are deeply ingrained in a people
+who, like their Magyar kinsmen, cling firmly to the old, even while they
+hopefully confront the facts of the present. There was every ground for
+hope. Between the years 1812 and 1886 the population grew from 900,000
+to 2,300,000, and the revenue from less than 7,000,000 marks (a Finnish
+mark = about ten pence) to 40,000,000 marks.
+
+Possibly this prosperity prompted in the Russian bureaucracy the desire
+to bring the Grand Duchy closely into line with the rest of the Empire.
+On grounds other than constitutional, the bureaucrats had a case. They
+argued that while the revenue of Finland was increasing faster than that
+of Russia Proper, yet the Grand Duchy bore no share of the added
+military burdens. It voted only 17 per cent of its revenue for military
+defence as against 28 per cent set apart in the Russian Budget. The fact
+that the Swedish and Finnish languages, as well as Finnish money, were
+alone used on the railways of the Grand Duchy, even within a few miles
+of St. Petersburg, also formed a cause of complaint. When, therefore,
+the Slavophils began to raise a hue and cry against everything that
+marred the symmetry of the Empire, an anti-Finnish campaign lay in the
+nature of things. Historical students discovered that the constitution
+was the gift of the Czars, and that their goodwill had been grossly
+misused by the Finns. Others, who could not deny the validity of the
+Finnish constitution, claimed that even constitutions and laws must
+change with changing circumstances; that a narrow particularism was out
+of place in an age of railways and telegraphs; and that Finland must
+take its fair share in the work of national defence[237].
+
+[Footnote 237: See for the Russian case d'Elenew, _Les Pretentions des
+Separatistes finlandais_ (1895); also _La Conquete de la Finlande_, by
+K. Ordine (1889)--answered by J.R. Danielsson, _op. cit._; also
+_Russland und Finland vom russischen Standpunkte aus betrachtet_, by
+"Sarmatus" (1903).]
+
+Little by little Alexander III. put in force this Slavophil creed
+against Finland. His position as Grand Duke gave him the right of
+initiating laws; but he overstepped his constitutional powers by
+imposing various changes. In January 1890 he appointed three committees,
+sitting at St. Petersburg, to bring the coinage, the customs system, and
+the postal service of Finland into harmony with those of Russia. In June
+there appeared an imperial ukase assimilating the postal service of
+Finland to that of Russia--an illegal act which led to the resignation
+of the Finnish Ministers. In May 1891 the "Committee for Finnish
+Affairs," sitting at St. Petersburg, was abolished; and that year saw
+other efforts curbing the liberty of the Press, and extending the use of
+the Russian language in the government of the Grand Duchy.
+
+The trenches having now been pushed forward against the outworks of
+Finnish freedom, an assault was prepared against the ramparts--the
+constitution itself. The assailants discovered in it a weak point, a
+lack of clearness in the clauses specifying the procedure to be followed
+in matters where common action had to be taken in Finland and in Russia.
+They saw here a chance of setting up an independent authority, which,
+under the guise of _interpreting_ the constitution, could be used for
+its suspension and overthrow. A committee, consisting of six Russians
+and four Finns, was appointed at the close of the year 1892 to codify
+laws and take the necessary action. It sat at St. Petersburg; but the
+opposition of the Finnish members, backed up by the public opinion of
+the whole Duchy, sufficed to postpone any definite decision. Probably
+this time of respite was due to the reluctance felt by Alexander III. in
+his closing days to push matters to an extreme.
+
+The alternating tendencies so well marked in the generations of the
+Romanoff rulers made themselves felt at the accession of Nicholas II.
+(Nov. 1, 1894). Lacking the almost animal force which carried Alexander
+III. so far in certain grooves, he resembles the earlier sovereigns of
+that name in the generous cosmopolitanism and dreamy good nature which
+shed an autumnal haze over their careers. Unfortunately the reforming
+Czars have been without the grit of the crowned Boyars, who trusted in
+Cossack, priest, and knout; and too often they have bent before the
+reactionary influences always strong at the Russian Court. To this
+peculiarity in the nature of Nicholas II. we may probably refer the
+oscillations in his Finnish policy. In the first years of his reign he
+gradually abated the rigour of his father's regime, and allowed greater
+liberty of the Press in Finland. The number of articles suppressed sank
+from 216 in the year 1893 to 40 in 1897[238].
+
+[Footnote 238: _Pour la Finlande_, par Jean Deck, p. 36.]
+
+The hopes aroused by this display of moderation soon vanished. Early in
+1898 the appointment of General Kuropatkin to the Ministry for War for
+Russia foreboded evil to the Grand Duchy. The new Minister speedily
+counselled the exploitation of the resources of Finland for the benefit
+of the Empire. Already the Russian General Staff had made efforts in
+this direction; and now Kuropatkin, supported by the whole weight of the
+Slavophil party, sought to convince the Czar of the danger of leaving
+the Finns with a separate military organisation. A military committee,
+in which there was only one Finn, the Minister Procope, had for some
+time been sitting at St. Petersburg, and finally gained over Nicholas
+II. to its views. He is said to have formed his final decision during
+his winter stay at Livadia in the Crimea, owing to the personal
+intervention of Kuropatkin, and that too in face of a protest from the
+Finnish Minister, Procope, against the suspension by imperial ukase of a
+fundamental law of the Grand Duchy. The Czar must have known of the
+unlawfulness of the present procedure, for on November 6/18, 1894,
+shortly after his accession, he signed the following declaration:--
+
+     . . . We have hereby desired to confirm and ratify the
+     religion, the fundamental laws, the rights and privileges of
+     every class in the said Grand Duchy, in particular, and all
+     its inhabitants high and low in general, which they,
+     according to the constitution of this country, had enjoyed,
+     promising to preserve the same steadfastly and in full
+     force[239].
+
+[Footnote 239: _The Rights of Finland_, p. 4 (Stockholm 1899). See too
+for the whole question _Finland and the Tsars, 1809-1899_, by J.R.
+Fisher (London, 2nd Edit. 1900).]
+
+The military system of Finland having been definitely organised by the
+Finnish law of 1878, that statute clearly came within the scope of those
+"fundamental laws" which Nicholas II. had promised to uphold in full
+force. We can imagine, then, the astonishment which fell on the Finnish
+Diet and people on the presentation of the famous Imperial Manifesto of
+February 3/15, 1899. While expressing a desire to leave purely Finnish
+affairs to the consideration of the Government and Diet of the Grand
+Duchy, the Czar warned his Finnish subjects that there were others that
+could not be so treated, seeing that they were "closely bound up with
+the needs of the whole Empire." As the Finnish constitution pointed out
+no way of treating such subjects, it was needful now to complete the
+existing institutions of the Duchy. The Manifesto proceded as follows:--
+
+     Whilst maintaining in full force the now prevailing statutes
+     which concern the promulgation of local laws touching
+     exclusively the internal affairs of Finland, We have found it
+     necessary to reserve to Ourselves the ultimate decision as to
+     which laws come within the scope of the general legislation
+     of the Empire. With this in view, We have with Our Royal Hand
+     established and confirmed the fundamental statutes for the
+     working out, revision, and promulgation of laws issued for
+     the Empire, including the Grand Duchy of Finland, which are
+     proclaimed simultaneously herewith[240].
+
+[Footnote 240: _The Rights of Finland_, pp. 6-7 also in _Pour la
+Finlande_, par J. Deck, p. 43.]
+
+The accompanying enactments made it clear that the Finnish Diet would
+thenceforth have only consultative duties in respect to any measure
+which seemed to the Czar to involve the interests of Russia as well as
+of Finland. In fact, the proposals of February 15 struck at the root of
+the constitution, subjecting it in all important matters to the will of
+the autocrat at St. Petersburg. At once the Finns saw the full extent of
+the calamity. They observed the following Sunday as a day of mourning;
+the people of Helsingfors, the capital, gathered around the statue of
+Alexander II., the organiser of their liberties, as a mute appeal to the
+generous instincts of his grandson. Everywhere, even in remote villages,
+solemn meetings of protest were held; but no violent act marred the
+impressiveness of these demonstrations attesting the surprise and grief
+of a loyal people.
+
+By an almost spontaneous impulse a petition was set on foot begging the
+Czar to reconsider his decision. If ever a petition deserved the name
+"national," it was that of Finland. Towns and villages signed almost _en
+masse_. Ski-runners braved the hardships of a severe winter in the
+effort to reach remote villages within the Arctic Circle; and within
+five days (March 10-14) 529,931 names were signed, the marks of
+illiterates being rejected. All was in vain. The Czar refused to receive
+the petition, and ordered the bearers of it to return home[241].
+
+[Footnote 241: _The Rights of Finland_, pp. 23-30.]
+
+The Russian Governor-General of Finland then began a brisk campaign
+against the Finnish newspapers. Four were promptly suppressed, while
+there were forty-three cases of "suspension" in the year 1899 alone. The
+public administration also underwent a drastic process of russification,
+Finnish officials and policemen being in very many cases ousted by
+Muscovites. Early in the year 1901 local postage stamps gave place to
+those of the Empire. Above all, General Kuropatkin was able almost
+completely to carry out his designs against the Finnish army, the law of
+1901 practically abolishing the old constitutional force and compelling
+Finns to serve in any part of the Empire--in defiance of the old
+statutes which limited their services to the Grand Duchy itself.
+
+The later developments of this interesting question fall without the
+scope of this volume. We can therefore only state that the steadfast
+opposition of the Finns to these illegal proceedings led to still
+harsher treatment, and that the few concessions granted since the
+outbreak of the Japanese War have apparently failed to soothe the
+resentment aroused by the former unprovoked attacks upon the liberties
+of Finland.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One fact, which cannot fail to elicit the attention of thoughtful
+students of contemporary history, is the absence of able leaders in the
+popular struggles of the age. Whether we look at the orderly resistance
+of the Finns, the efforts of the Russian revolutionaries, or the fitful
+efforts now and again put forth by the Poles, the same discouraging
+symptom is everywhere apparent. More than once the hour seemed to have
+struck for the overthrow of the old order, but no man appeared. Other
+instances might of course be cited to show that the adage about the
+hour and the man is more picturesque than true. The democratic movements
+of 1848-49 went to pieces largely owing to the coyness of the requisite
+hero. Or rather, perhaps, we ought to say that the heroes were there, in
+the persons of Cavour and Garibaldi, Bismarck and Moltke; but no one was
+at hand to set them in the places which they filled so ably in 1858-70.
+Will the future see the hapless, unguided efforts of to-day championed
+in an equally masterful way? If so, the next generation may see strange
+things happen in Russia, as also elsewhere.
+
+Two suggestions may be advanced, with all diffidence, as to the reasons
+for the absence of great leaders in the movements of to-day. As we noted
+in the chapter dealing with the suppression of the Paris Commune of
+1871, the centralised Governments now have a great material advantage in
+dealing with local disaffection owing to their control of telegraphs,
+railways, and machine-guns. This fact tells with crushing force, not
+only at the time of popular rising, but also on the men who work to that
+end. Little assurance was needed in the old days to compass the
+overthrow of Italian Dukes and German Translucencies. To-day he would be
+a man of boundlessly inspiring power who could hopefully challenge Czar
+or Kaiser to a conflict. The other advantage which Governments possess
+is in the intellectual sphere. There can be no doubt that the mere size
+of the States and Governments of the present age exercises a deadening
+effect on the minds of individuals. As the vastness of London produces
+inertia in civic affairs, so, too, the great Empires tend to deaden the
+initiative and boldness of their subjects. Those priceless qualities are
+always seen to greatest advantage in small States like the Athens of
+Pericles, the England of Elizabeth, or the Geneva of Rousseau; they are
+stifled under the pyramidal mass of the Empire of the Czars; and as a
+result there is seen a respectable mediocrity, equal only to the task of
+organising street demonstrations and abortive mutinies. It may be that
+in the future some commanding genius will arise, able to free himself
+from the paralysing incubus, to fire the dull masses with hope, and to
+turn the very vastness of the governmental machine into a means of
+destruction. But, for that achievement, he will need the magnetism of a
+Mirabeau, the savagery of a Marat, and the organising powers of a
+Bonaparte.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE TRIPLE AND DUAL ALLIANCES
+
+     "International policy is a fluid element which, under certain
+     conditions, will solidify, but, on a change of atmosphere,
+     reverts to its original condition."--Bismarck's _Reflections
+     and Reminiscences._
+
+
+It is one thing to build up a system of States: it is quite another
+thing to guarantee their existence. As in the life of individuals, so in
+that of nations, longevity is generally the result of a sound
+constitution, a healthy environment, and prudent conduct. That the new
+States of Europe possessed the first two of these requisites will be
+obvious to all who remember that they are co-extensive with those great
+limbs of Humanity, nations. Yet even so they needed protection from the
+intrigues of jealous dynasties and of dispossessed princes or priests,
+which have so often doomed promising experiments to failure. It is
+therefore essential to our present study to observe the means which
+endowed the European system with stability.
+
+Here again the master-builder was Bismarck. As he had concentrated all
+the powers of his mind on the completion of German unity (with its
+natural counterpart in Italy), so, too, he kept them on the stretch for
+its preservation. For two decades his policy bestrode the continent like
+a Colossus. It rested on two supporting ideas. The one was the
+maintenance of alliance with Russia, which had brought the events of the
+years 1863-70 within the bounds of possibility; the other aim was the
+isolation of France. Subsidiary notions now and again influenced him, as
+in 1884 when he sought to make bad blood between Russia and England in
+Central Asian affairs (see Chapter XIV.), or to busy all the Powers in
+colonial undertakings: but these considerations were secondary to the
+two main motives, which at one point converged and begot a haunting fear
+(the realisation of which overclouded his last years) that Russia and
+France would unite against Germany.
+
+In order, as he thought, to obviate for ever a renewal of the "policy of
+Tilsit" of the year 1807, he sought to favour the establishment of the
+Republic in France. In his eyes, the more Radical it was the better: and
+when Count von Arnim, the German ambassador at Paris, ventured to
+contravene his instructions in this matter, he subjected him to severe
+reproof and finally to disgrace. However harsh in his methods, Bismarck
+was undoubtedly right in substance. The main consideration was that
+which he set forth in his letter of December 20, 1872, to the
+Count:--"We want France to leave us in peace, and we have to prevent
+France finding an ally if she does not keep the peace. As long as France
+has no allies she is not dangerous to Germany." A monarchical reaction,
+he thought, might lead France to accord with Russia or Austria. A
+Republic of the type sought for by Gambetta could never achieve that
+task. Better, then, the red flag waving at Paris than the
+_fleur-de-lys._
+
+Still more important was it to bring about complete accord between the
+three empires. Here again the red spectre proved to be useful. Various
+signs seemed to point to socialism as the common enemy of them all. The
+doctrines of Bakunin, Herzen, and Lassalle had already begun to work
+threateningly in their midst, and Bismarck discreetly used this
+community of interest in one particular to bring about an agreement on
+matters purely political. In the month of September 1872 he realised one
+of his dearest hopes. The Czar, Alexander II., and the Austrian Emperor,
+Francis Joseph, visited Berlin, where they were most cordially received.
+At that city the chancellors of the three empires exchanged official
+memoranda--there seems to have been no formal treaty[242]--whereby they
+agreed to work together for the following purposes: the maintenance of
+the boundaries recently laid down, the settlement of problems arising
+from the Eastern Question, and the repression of revolutionary movements
+in Europe.
+
+[Footnote 242: In his speech of February 19, 1878, Bismarck said, "The
+_liaison_ of the three Emperors, which is habitually designated an
+alliance, rests on no written agreement and does not compel any one of
+the three Emperors to submit to the decisions of the two others."]
+
+Such was the purport of the Three Emperors' League of 1872. There is
+little doubt that Bismarck had worked on the Czar, always nervous as to
+the growth of the Nihilist movement in Russia, in order to secure his
+adhesion to the first two provisions of the new compact, which certainly
+did not benefit Russia. The German Chancellor has since told us that, as
+early as the month of September 1870, he sought to form such a league,
+with the addition of the newly-united Italian realm, in order to
+safeguard the interests of monarchy against republicans and
+revolutionaries[243]. After the lapse of two years his wish took effect,
+though Italy as yet did not join the cause of order. The new league
+stood forth as the embodiment of autocracy and a terror to the
+dissatisfied, whether revengeful Gauls, Danes, or Poles, intriguing
+cardinals--it was the time of the "May Laws"--or excited men who waved
+the red flag. It was a new version of the Holy Alliance formed after
+Waterloo by the monarchs of the very same Powers, which, under the plea
+of watching against French enterprises, succeeded in bolstering up
+despotism on the Continent for a whole generation.
+
+[Footnote 243: Debidour, _Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe_, vol. ii.
+pp. 458-59; Bismarck, _Reflections and Reminiscences_, vol. ii.
+ch. xxix.]
+
+Fortunately for the cause of liberty, the new league had little of the
+solidity of its predecessor. Either because the dangers against which it
+guarded were less serious, or owing to the jealousies which strained its
+structure from within, signs of weakness soon appeared, and the imposing
+fabric was disfigured by cracks which all the plastering of
+diplomatists failed to conceal. An eminent Russian historian, M.
+Tatischeff, has recently discovered the hidden divulsive agency. It
+seems that, not long after the formation of the Three Emperors' League,
+Germany and Austria secretly formed a separate compact, whereby the
+former agreed eventually to secure to the latter due compensation in the
+Balkan Peninsula for her losses in the wars of 1859 and 1866 (Lombardy,
+Venetia, and the control of the German Confederation, along with
+Holstein)[244].
+
+[Footnote 244: _The Emperor Alexander II.: His Life and Reign_, by S.S.
+Tatischeff (St. Petersburg, 1903), Appendix to vol. ii.]
+
+That is, the two Central Powers in 1872 secretly agreed to take action
+in the way in which Austria advanced in 1877-78, when she secured
+Herzegovina. When and to what extent Russian diplomatists became aware
+of this separate agreement is not known, but their suspicion or their
+resentment appears to have prompted them to the unfriendly action
+towards Germany which they took in the year 1875. According to the
+Bismarck _Reflections and Reminiscences_, the Russian Chancellor, Prince
+Gortchakoff, felt so keenly jealous of the rapid rise of the German
+Chancellor to fame and pre-eminence as to spread "the lie" that Germany
+was about to fall upon France. Even the uninitiated reader might feel
+some surprise that the Russian Chancellor should have endangered the
+peace of Europe and his own credit as a statesman for so slight a
+motive; but it now seems that Bismarck's assertion must be looked on as
+a "reflection," not as a "reminiscence."
+
+The same remark may perhaps apply to his treatment of the "affair of
+1875," which largely determined the future groupings of the Powers. At
+that time the recovery of France from the wounds of 1870 was well nigh
+complete; her military and constitutional systems were taking concrete
+form; and in the early part of the year 1875 the Chambers decreed a
+large increase to the armed forces in the form of "the fourth
+battalions." At once the military party at Berlin took alarm, and
+through their chief, Moltke, pressed on the Emperor William the need of
+striking promptly at France. The Republic, so they argued, could not
+endure the strain which it now voluntarily underwent; the outcome must
+be war; and war at once would be the most statesmanlike and merciful
+course. Whether the Emperor in any way acceded to these views is not
+known. He is said to have more than once expressed a keen desire to end
+his reign in peace.
+
+The part which Bismarck played at this crisis is also somewhat obscure.
+If the German Government wished to attack France, the natural plan would
+have been to keep that design secret until the time for action arrived.
+But it did not do so. Early in the month of April, von Radowitz, a man
+of high standing at the Court of Berlin, took occasion to speak to the
+French ambassador, de Gontaut-Biron, at a ball, and warned him in the
+most significant manner of the danger of war owing to the increase of
+French armaments. According to de Blowitz, the Paris correspondent of
+the _Times_ (who had his information direct from the French Premier, the
+Duc Decazes), Germany intended to "bleed France white" by compelling her
+finally to pay ten milliards of francs in twenty instalments, and by
+keeping an army of occupation in her Eastern Departments until the last
+half-milliard was paid. The French ambassador also states in his account
+of these stirring weeks that Bismarck had mentioned to the Belgian envoy
+the impossibility of France keeping up armaments, the outcome of which
+must be war[245].
+
+[Footnote 245: De Blowitz, _Memoirs_, ch. v.; _An Ambassador of the
+Vanquished_ (ed. by the Duc de Broglie), pp. 180 _et seq_. Probably the
+article "Krieg in Sicht," published in the _Berlin Post_ of April 15,
+1875, was "inspired."]
+
+As Radowitz continued in favour with Bismarck, his disclosure of German
+intentions seems to have been made with the Chancellor's approval; and
+we may explain his action as either a threat to compel France to reduce
+her army, a provocation to lead her to commit some indiscretion, or a
+means of undermining the plans of the German military party. Leaving
+these questions on one side, we may note that Gontaut-Biron's report to
+the Duc Decazes produced the utmost anxiety in official circles at
+Paris. The Duke took the unusual step of confiding the secret to
+Blowitz, showed him the document, along with other proofs of German
+preparations for war, and requested him to publish the chief facts in
+the _Times_. Delane, the editor of the _Times_, having investigated the
+affair, published the information on May 4. It produced an immense
+sensation. The Continental Press denounced it as an impudent fabrication
+designed to bring on war. We now know that it was substantially correct.
+Meanwhile Marshal MacMahon and the Duc Decazes had taken steps to
+solicit the help of the Czar if need arose. They despatched to St.
+Petersburg General Leflo, armed with proofs of the hostile designs of
+the German military chiefs. A perusal of them convinced Alexander II. of
+the seriousness of the situation; and he assured Leflo of his resolve to
+prevent an unprovoked attack on France. He was then about to visit his
+uncle, the German Emperor; and there is little doubt that his influence
+at Berlin helped to end the crisis.
+
+Other influences were also at work, emanating from Queen Victoria and
+the British Government. It is well known that Her late Majesty wrote to
+the Emperor William stating that it would be "easy to prove that her
+fears [of a Franco-German war] were not exaggerated[246]." The source of
+her information is now known to have been unexceptionable. It reached
+our Foreign Office through the medium of German ambassadors. Such is the
+story imparted by Lord Odo Russell, our Ambassador at Berlin, to his
+brother, and by him communicated to Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff. It
+concerns an interview between Gortchakoff and Bismarck in which the
+German Chancellor inveighed against the Russian Prince for blurting out,
+at a State banquet held the day before, the news that he had received a
+letter from Queen Victoria, begging him to work in the interests of
+peace. Bismarck thereafter sharply upbraided Gortchakoff for this
+amazing indiscretion. Lord Odo Russell was present at their interview
+in order to support the Russian Chancellor, who parried Bismarck's
+attack by affecting a paternal interest in his health:--
+
+     "Come, come, my dear Bismarck, be calm. You know that I am
+     very fond of you. I have known you since your childhood. But
+     I do not like you when you are hysterical. Come, you are
+     going to be hysterical. Pray be calm: come, come, my dear
+     fellow." A short time after this interview Bismarck
+     complained to Odo of "the preposterous folly and ignorance of
+     the English and all other Cabinets, who had mistaken stories
+     got up for speculations on the Bourse for the true policy of
+     the German Government." "Then will you," asked Odo, "censure
+     your four ambassadors who have misled us and the other
+     Powers?" Bismarck made no reply[247].
+
+[Footnote 246: _Bismarck: his Reflections_, etc., vol. ii. pp. 191-193,
+249-153 (Eng. ed.); the _Bismarck Jahrbuch_, vol. iv. p. 35.]
+
+[Footnote 247: Sir M. Grant Duff, _Notes from a Diary, 1886-88_, vol. i.
+p. 129. See, too, other proofs of the probability of an attack by
+Germany on France in Professor Geffcken's _Frankreich, Russland, und der
+Dreibund_, pp. 90 _et seq._]
+
+It seems, then, that the German Chancellor had no ground for suspicion
+against the Crown Princess as having informed Queen Victoria of the
+suggested attack on France; but thenceforth he had an intense dislike of
+these august ladies, and lost no opportunity of maligning them in
+diplomatic circles and through the medium of the Press. Yet, while
+nursing resentful thoughts against Queen Victoria, her daughter, and the
+British Ministry, the German Chancellor reserved his wrath mainly for
+his personal rival at St. Petersburg. The publication of Gortchakoff's
+circular despatch of May 10, 1875, beginning with the words, "Maintenant
+la paix est assuree," was in his eyes the crowning offence.
+
+The result was the beginning of a good understanding between Russia and
+France, and the weakening of the Three Emperors' League[248]. That
+league went to pieces for a time amidst the disputes at the Berlin
+Congress on the Eastern Question, where Germany's support of Austria's
+resolve to limit the sphere of Muscovite influence robbed the Czar of
+prospective spoils and placed a rival Power as "sentinel on the
+Balkans." Further, when Germany favoured Austrian interests in the many
+matters of detail that came up for settlement in those States, the rage
+in Russian official circles knew no bounds. Newspapers like the _Journal
+de St. Petersbourg_, the _Russki Mir_, and the _Golos_, daily poured out
+the vials of their wrath against everything German; and that prince of
+publicists, Katkoff, with his coadjutor, Elie de Cyon, moved heaven and
+earth in the endeavour to prove that Bismarck alone had pushed Russia on
+to war with Turkey, and then had intervened to rob her of the fruits of
+victory. Amidst these clouds of invective, friendly hands were thrust
+forth from Paris and Moscow, and the effusive salutations of would-be
+statesmen marked the first beginnings of the present alliance. A Russian
+General--Obretchoff--went to Paris and "sounded the leading personages
+in Paris respecting a Franco-Russian alliance[249]."
+
+[Footnote 248: _Histoire de l'Entente franco-russe_, by Elie de Cyon,
+ch. i. (1895).]
+
+[Footnote 249: _Our Chancellor_, by M. Busch, vol. ii. pp. 137-138.]
+
+Clearly, it was high time for the two Central Powers to draw together.
+There was little to hinder their _rapprochement_. Bismarck's clemency to
+the Hapsburg Power in the hour of Prussia's triumph in 1866 now bore
+fruit; for when Russia sent a specific demand that the Court of Berlin
+must cease to support Austrian interests or forfeit the friendship of
+Russia, the German Chancellor speedily came to an understanding with
+Count Andrassy in an interview at Gastein on August 27-28, 1879. At
+first it had reference only to a defensive alliance against an attack by
+Russia, Count Andrassy, then about to retire from his arduous duties,
+declining to extend the arrangement to an attack by another
+Power--obviously France. The plan of the Austro-German alliance was
+secretly submitted by Bismarck to the King of Bavaria, who signified his
+complete approval[250]. It received a warm welcome from the Hapsburg
+Court; and, when the secret leaked out, Bismarck had enthusiastic
+greetings on his journey to Vienna and thence northwards to Berlin. The
+reason is obvious. For the first time in modern history the centre of
+Europe seemed about to form a lasting compact, strong enough to impose
+respect on the restless extremities. That of 1813 and 1814 had aimed
+only at the driving of Napoleon I. from Germany. The present alliance
+had its roots in more abiding needs.
+
+[Footnote 250: _Bismarck: Reflections and Reminiscences_, vol. ii. pp.
+251-289.]
+
+Strange to say, the chief obstacle was Kaiser Wilhelm himself. The old
+sovereign had very many claims on the gratitude of the German race, for
+his staunchness of character, singleness of aim, and homely good sense
+had made the triumphs of his reign possible. But the newer light of
+to-day reveals the limitations of his character. He never saw far ahead,
+and even in his survey of the present situation Prussian interests and
+family considerations held far too large a space. It was so now. Against
+the wishes of his Chancellor, he went to meet the Czar at Alexandrovo;
+and while the Austro-German compact took form at Gastein and Vienna,
+Czar and Kaiser were assuring each other of their unchanging friendship.
+Doubtless Alexander II. was sincere in these professions of affection
+for his august uncle; but Bismarck paid more heed to the fact that
+Russia had recently made large additions to her army, while dense clouds
+of her horsemen hung about the Polish border, ready to flood the
+Prussian plains. He saw safety only by opposing force to force. As he
+said to his secretary, Busch: "When we [Germany and Austria] are united,
+with our two million soldiers back to back, they [the Russians], with
+their Nihilism, will doubtless think twice before disturbing the peace."
+Finally the Emperor William agreed to the Austro-German compact,
+provided that the Czar should be informed that if he attacked Austria he
+would be opposed by both Powers[251].
+
+[Footnote 251: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, by M.
+Busch, vol. ii. p. 404; _Bismarck: Reflections and Reminiscences_, vol.
+ii. p. 268.]
+
+It was not until November 5, 1887, that the terms of the treaty were
+made known, and then through the medium of the _Times_. The official
+publication did not take place until February 3, 1888, at Berlin,
+Vienna, and Buda-Pesth. The compact provides that if either Germany or
+Austria shall be attacked by Russia, each Power must assist its
+neighbour with all its forces. If, however, the attack shall come from
+any other Power, the ally is pledged merely to observe neutrality; and
+not until Russia enters the field is the ally bound to set its armies in
+motion. Obviously the second case implies an attack by France on
+Germany; in that case Austria would remain neutral, carefully watching
+the conduct of Russia. As far as is known, the treaty does not provide
+for joint action, or mutual support, in regard to the Eastern Question,
+still less in matters further afield.
+
+In order to give pause to Russia, Bismarck even indulged in a passing
+flirtation with England. At the close of 1879, Lord Dufferin, then
+British ambassador at St. Petersburg, was passing through Berlin, and
+the Chancellor invited him to his estate at Varzin, and informed him
+that Russian overtures had been made to France through General
+Obretcheff, "but Chanzy [French ambassador at St. Petersburg], having
+reported that Russia was not ready, the French Government became less
+disposed than ever to embark on an adventurous policy[252]."
+
+[Footnote 252: _The Life of the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava_, by Sir A.
+Lyall (1905), vol. i. p. 304.]
+
+To the end of his days Bismarck maintained that the Austro-German
+alliance did not imply the lapse of the Three Emperors' League, but that
+the new compact, by making a Russian attack on Austria highly dangerous,
+if not impossible, helped to prolong the life of the old alliance.
+Obviously, however, the League was a mere "loud-sounding nothing" (to
+use a phrase of Metternich's) when two of its members had to unite to
+guard the weakest of the trio against the most aggressive. In the spirit
+of that statesmanlike utterance of Prince Bismarck, quoted as motto at
+the head of this chapter, we may say that the old Triple Alliance slowly
+dissolved under the influence of new atmospheric conditions. The three
+Emperors met for friendly intercourse in 1881, 1884, and 1885; and at or
+after the meeting of 1884, a Russo-German agreement was formed, by
+which the two Powers promised to observe a friendly neutrality in case
+either was attacked by a third Power. Probably the Afghan question, or
+Nihilism, brought Russia to accept Bismarck's advances; but when the
+fear of an Anglo-Russian war passed away, and the revolutionists were
+curbed, this agreement fell to the ground; and after the fall of
+Bismarck the compact was not renewed[253].
+
+[Footnote 253: On October 24, 1896, the _Hamburger Nachrichten_, a paper
+often inspired by Bismarck, gave some information (all that is known)
+about this shadowy agreement.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It will be well now to turn to the events which brought Italy into line
+with the Central Powers and thus laid the foundation of the Triple
+Alliance of to-day.
+
+The complex and uninteresting annals of Italy after the completion of
+her unity do not concern us here. The men whose achievements had
+ennobled the struggle for independence passed away in quick succession
+after the capture of Rome for the national cause. Mazzini died in March
+1872 at Pisa, mourning that united Italy was so largely the outcome of
+foreign help and monarchical bargainings. Garibaldi spent his last years
+in fulminating against the Government of Victor Emmanuel. The
+soldier-king himself passed away in January 1878, and his relentless
+opponent, Pius IX., expired a month later. The accession of Umberto I.
+and the election of Leo XIII. promised at first to assuage the feud
+between the Vatican and the Quirinal, but neither the tact of the new
+sovereign nor the personal suavity of the Pope brought about any real
+change. Italy remained a prey to the schism between Church and State. A
+further cause of weakness was the unfitness of many parts of the
+Peninsula for constitutional rule. Naples and the South were a century
+behind the North in all that made for civic efficiency, the taint of
+favouritism and corruption having spread from the governing circles to
+all classes of society. Clearly the time of wooing had been too short
+and feverish to lead up to a placid married life.
+
+During this period of debt and disenchantment came news of a slight
+inflicted by the Latin sister of the North. France had seized Tunis, a
+land on which Italian patriots looked as theirs by reversion, whereas
+the exigencies of statecraft assigned it to the French. It seems that
+during the Congress of Berlin (June-July 1878) Bismarck and Lord
+Salisbury unofficially dropped suggestions that their Governments would
+raise no objections to the occupation of Tunis by France. According to
+de Blowitz, Bismarck there took an early opportunity of seeing Lord
+Beaconsfield and of pointing out the folly of England quarrelling with
+Russia, when she might arrange matters more peaceably and profitably
+with her. England, said he, should let Russia have Constantinople and
+take Egypt in exchange; "France would not prove inexorable--besides, one
+might give her Tunis or Syria[254]." Another Congress story is to the
+effect that Lord Salisbury, on hearing of the annoyance felt in France
+at England's control over Cyprus, said to M. Waddington at Berlin: "Do
+what you like with Tunis; England will raise no objections." A little
+later, the two Governments came to a written understanding that France
+might occupy Tunis at a convenient opportunity.
+
+[Footnote 254: De Blowitz, _Memoirs_, ch. vi., also Busch, _Our
+Chancellor_, vol. ii. pp. 92-93.]
+
+The seizure of Tunis by France aroused all the more annoyance in Italy
+owing to the manner of its accomplishment. On May 11, 1881, when a large
+expedition was being prepared in her southern ports, M. Barthelemy de
+St. Hilaire disclaimed all idea of annexation, and asserted that the
+sole aim of France was the chastisement of a troublesome border tribe,
+the Kroumirs; but on the entry of the "red breeches" into Kairwan and
+the collapse of the Moslem resistance, the official assurance proved to
+be as unsubstantial as the inroads of the Kroumirs. Despite the protests
+that came from Rome and Constantinople, France virtually annexed that
+land, though the Sultan's representative, the Bey, still retains the
+shadow of authority[255].
+
+[Footnote 255: It transpired later on that Barthelemy de St. Hilaire did
+not know of the extent of the aims of the French military party, and
+that these subsequently gained the day; but this does not absolve the
+Cabinet and him of bad faith. Later on France fortified Bizerta, in
+contravention (so it is said) of an understanding with the British
+Government that no part of that coast should be fortified.]
+
+In vain did King Umberto's ministers appeal to Berlin for help against
+France. They received the reply that the affair had been virtually
+settled at the time of the Berlin Congress[256]. The resentment produced
+by these events in Italy led to the fall of the Cairoli Ministry, which
+had been too credulous of French assurances; and Depretis took the helm
+of State. Seeing that Bismarck had confessed his share in encouraging
+France to take Tunis, Italy's _rapprochement_ to Germany might seem to
+be unnatural. It was so. In truth, her alliance with the Central Powers
+was based, not on good-will to them, but on resentment against France.
+The Italian Nationalists saw in Austria the former oppressor, and still
+raised the cry of _Italia irredenta _for the recovery of the Italian
+districts of Tyrol, Istria, and Dalmatia. In January 1880, we find
+Bismarck writing: "Italy must not be numbered to-day among the
+peace-loving and conservative Powers, who must reckon with this fact. . . .
+We have much more ground to fear that Italy will join our adversaries
+than to hope that she will unite with us, seeing that we have no more
+inducements to offer her[257]."
+
+[Footnote 256: _Politische Geschichte der Gegenwart_, for 1881, p. 176;
+quoted by Lowe, _Life of Bismarck_, vol. ii. p. 133.]
+
+[Footnote 257: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages_, etc., vol. iii. p. 291.]
+
+This frame of mind changed after the French acquisition of Tunis.
+
+     Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes
+
+should have been the feeling of MM. Waddington and Ferry when Bismarck
+encouraged them to undertake that easiest but most expensive of
+conquests. The nineteenth century offers, perhaps, no more successful
+example of Macchiavellian statecraft. The estrangement of France and
+Italy postponed at any rate for a whole generation, possibly for the
+present age, that war of revenge in which up to the spring of 1881 the
+French might easily have gained the help of Italy. Thenceforth they had
+to reckon on her hostility. The irony of the situation was enhanced by
+the fact that the Tunis affair, with the recriminations to which it led,
+served to bring to power at Paris the very man who could best have
+marshalled the French people against Germany.
+
+Gambetta was the incarnation of the spirit of revenge. On more than one
+occasion he had abstained from taking high office in the shifting
+Ministries of the seventies; and it seems likely that by this
+calculating coyness he sought to keep his influence intact, not for the
+petty personal ends which have often been alleged, but rather with a
+view to the more effective embattling of all the national energies
+against Germany. Good-will to England and to the Latin peoples,
+hostility to the Power which had torn Elsass-Lothringen from
+France--such was the policy of Gambetta. He had therefore protested,
+though in vain, against the expedition to Tunis; and now, on his
+accession to power (November 9, 1881), he found Italy sullenly defiant,
+while he and his Radical friends could expect no help from the new
+autocrat of all the Russias. All hope of a war of revenge proved to be
+futile; and he himself fell from power on January 26, 1882[258]. The
+year to which he looked forward with high hopes proved to be singularly
+fatal to the foes of Germany. The armed intervention of Britain in Egypt
+turned the thoughts of Frenchmen from the Rhine to the Nile. Skobeleff,
+the arch enemy of all things Teutonic, passed away in the autumn; and
+its closing days witnessed the death of Gambetta at the hands of
+his mistress.
+
+[Footnote 258: Seignobos, _A Political History of Contemporary Europe_,
+vol. i. p. 210 (Eng. Ed.).]
+
+The resignation of Gambetta having slackened the tension between Germany
+and France, Bismarck displayed less desire for the alliance of Italy.
+Latterly, as a move in the German parliamentary game, he had coquetted
+with the Vatican; and as a result of this off-hand behaviour, Italy was
+slow in coming to accord with the Central Powers. Nevertheless, her
+resentment respecting Tunis overcame her annoyance at Bismarck's
+procedure; and on May 20, 1882, treaties were signed which bound Italy
+to the Central Powers for a term of five years. Their conditions have
+not been published, but there are good grounds for thinking that the
+three allies reciprocally guaranteed the possession of their present
+territories, agreed to resist attack on the lands of any one of them,
+and stipulated the amount of aid to be rendered by each in case of
+hostilities with France or Russia, or both Powers combined. Subsequent
+events would seem to show that the Roman Government gained from its
+northern allies no guarantee whatever for its colonial policy, or for
+the maintenance of the balance of power in the Mediterranean[259].
+
+[Footnote 259: For the Triple Alliance see the _Rev. des deux Mondes_,
+May 1, 1883; also Chiala, _Storia contemporanea--La Triplice e la
+Duplice Alleanza_ (1898).]
+
+Very many Italians have sharply questioned the value of the Triple
+Alliance to their country. Probably, when the truth comes fully to
+light, it will be found that the King and his Ministers needed some
+solid guarantee against the schemes of the Vatican to drive the monarchy
+from Rome. The relations between the Vatican and the Quirinal were very
+strained in the year 1882; and the alliance of Italy with Austria
+removed all fear of the Hapsburgs acting on behalf of the Jesuits and
+other clerical intriguers. The annoyance with which the clerical party
+in Italy received the news of the alliance shows that it must have
+interfered with their schemes. Another explanation is that Italy
+actually feared an attack from France in 1882 and sought protection from
+the Central Powers. We may add that on the renewal of the Triple
+Alliance in 1891, Italy pledged herself to send two corps through Tyrol
+to fight the French on their eastern frontier if they attacked Germany.
+But it is said that that clause was omitted from the treaty on its last
+renewal, in 1902.
+
+The accession of Italy to the Austro-German Alliance gave pause to
+Russia. The troubles with the Nihilists also indisposed Alexander III.
+from attempting any rash adventures, especially in concert with a
+democratic Republic which changed its Ministers every few months. His
+hatred of the Republic as the symbol of democracy equalled his distrust
+of it as a political kaleidoscope; and more than once he rejected the
+idea of a _rapprochement_ to the western Proteus because of "the absence
+of any personage authorised to assume the responsibility for a treaty of
+alliance[260]." These were the considerations, doubtless, which led him
+to dismiss the warlike Ignatieff, and to entrust the Ministry of Foreign
+Affairs to a hard-headed diplomatist, de Giers (June 12, 1882). His
+policy was peaceful and decidedly opposed to the Slavophil propaganda of
+Katkoff, who now for a time lost favour.
+
+[Footnote 260: Elie de Cyon, _op. cit._ p. 38.]
+
+For the present, then, Germany was safe. Russia turned her energies
+against England and achieved the easy and profitable triumphs in Central
+Asia which nearly brought her to war with the British Government (see
+Chapter xiv.).
+
+In the year 1884 Bismarck gained another success in bringing about the
+signature of a treaty of alliance between the three Empires. It was
+signed on March 24, 1884, at Berlin, but was not ratified until
+September, during a meeting of the three Emperors at Skiernewice. M.
+Elie de Cyon gives its terms as follows:
+
+(1) If one of the three contracting parties makes war on a fourth Power,
+the other two will maintain a benevolent neutrality. (To this Bismarck
+sought to add a corollary, that if two of them made war on a fourth
+Power, the third would equally remain neutral; but the Czar is said to
+have rejected this, in the interests of France.) (2) In case of a
+conflict in the Balkan Peninsula, the three Powers shall consult their
+own interests; and in the case of disagreement the third Power shall
+give a casting vote. (A protocol added here that Austria might annex
+Bosnia and Herzegovina, and occupy Novi-Bazar.) (3) The former special
+treaties between Russia and Germany, or Russia and Austria, are
+annulled. (4) The three Powers will supervise the execution of the terms
+of the Treaty of Berlin respecting Turkey; and if the Porte allows a
+fourth Power (evidently England) to enter the Dardanelles, it will
+incur the hostility of one of the three Powers (Russia). (5) They will
+not oppose the union of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia "if it comes about
+by the force of circumstances"; and will not allow Turkey to fortify the
+Balkan Passes. Finally, by Article 6, they forbid any one of the
+contracting Powers to occupy the Balkan Principalities. The compact held
+good only for three years.
+
+If these terms are correctly stated, the treaty was a great triumph for
+Austria and Germany at the expense of Russia. It is not surprising that
+the Czar finally broke away from the constraint imposed by the
+Skiernewice compact. As we have seen, his conduct towards Bulgaria in
+1885-86 brought him very near to a conflict with the Central Powers. The
+mystery is why he ever joined them on terms so disadvantageous. The
+explanation would seem to be that, like the King of Italy, he felt an
+alliance with the "conservative" Powers of Central Europe to be some
+safeguard against the revolutionary elements then so strong in Russia.
+
+In the years 1886-87 that danger became less acute, and the dictates of
+self-interest in foreign affairs resumed their normal sway. At the
+beginning of the year 1887 Katkoff regained his influence over the mind
+of the Czar by convincing him that the troubles in the Balkan Peninsula
+were fomented by the statesmen of Berlin and Vienna in order to distract
+his attention from Franco-German affairs. Let Russia and France join
+hands, said Katkoff in effect, and then Russia would have a free hand in
+Balkan politics and could lay down the law in European matters
+generally.
+
+In France the advantage of a Russian alliance was being loudly asserted
+by General Boulanger--then nearing the zenith of his popularity--as also
+by that brilliant leader of society, Mme. Adam, and a cluster of
+satellites in the Press. Even de Giers bowed before the idea of the
+hour, and allowed the newspaper which he inspired, _Le Nord_, to use
+these remarkable words (February 20, 1887):
+
+     Henceforth Russia will watch the events on the Rhine, and
+     relegates the Eastern Question to the second place. The
+     interests of Russia forbid her, in case of another
+     Franco-German war, observing the same benevolent neutrality
+     which she previously observed. The Cabinet of St. Petersburg
+     will in no case permit a further weakening of France. In
+     order to keep her freedom of action for this case, Russia
+     will avoid all conflict with Austria and England, and will
+     allow events to take their course in Bulgaria.
+
+Thus, early in the year 1887, the tendency towards that equilibrium of
+the Powers, which is the great fact of recent European history, began to
+exercise a sedative effect on Russian policy in Bulgaria and in Central
+Asia. That year saw the delimitation of the Russo-Afghan border, and the
+adjustment in Central Asian affairs of a balance corresponding to the
+equilibrium soon to be reached in European politics. That, too, was the
+time when Bulgaria began firmly and successfully to assert her
+independence and to crush every attempt at a rising on the part of her
+Russophil officers. This was seen after an attempt which they made at
+Rustchuk, when Stambuloff condemned nine of them to death. The Russian
+Government having recalled all its agents from Bulgaria, the task of
+saving these rebels devolved on the German Consuls, who were then doing
+duty for Russia. Their efforts were futile, and Katkoff used their
+failure as a means of poisoning the Czar's mind not only against
+Germany, but also against de Giers, who had suggested the supervision of
+Russian interests by German Consuls[261].
+
+[Footnote 261: Elie de Cyon, _op. cit._ p. 274.]
+
+Another incident of the spring-tide of 1887 kindled the Czar's anger
+against the Teutons more fiercely and with more reason. On April 20, a
+French police commissioner, Schnaebele, was arrested by two German
+agents or spies on the Alsacian border in a suspiciously brutal manner,
+and thrown into prison. Far from soothing the profound irritation which
+this affair produced in France, Bismarck poured oil upon the flames a
+few days later by a speech which seemed designed to extort from France a
+declaration of war. That, at least, was the impression produced on the
+mind of Alexander III., who took the unusual step of sending an
+autograph letter to the Emperor William I. He, in his turn, without
+referring the matter to Bismarck, gave orders for the instant release of
+Schnaebele[262]. Thus the incident closed; but the disagreeable
+impression which it created ended all chance of renewing the Three
+Emperors' League. The Skiernewice compact, which had been formed for
+three years, therefore came to an end.
+
+[Footnote 262: See the _Nouvelle Revue_ for April 15, 1890, for Cyon's
+version of the whole affair, which is treated with prudent brevity by
+Oncken, Blum, and Delbrueck.]
+
+Already, if we may trust the imperfect information yet available, France
+and Russia had sought to break up the Triple Alliance. In the closing
+weeks of 1886 de Giers sought to entice Italy into a compact with Russia
+with a view to an attack on the Central States (her treaty with them
+expired in the month of May following), and pointed to Trieste and the
+Italian districts of Istria as a reward for this treachery. The French
+Government is also believed to have made similar overtures, holding out
+the Trentino (the southern part of Tyrol) as the bait. Signor Depretis,
+true to the policy of the Triple Alliance, repelled these offers--an act
+of constancy all the more creditable seeing that Bismarck had on more
+than one occasion shown scant regard for the interests of Italy.
+
+Even now he did little to encourage the King's Government to renew the
+alliance framed in 1882. Events, however, again brought the Roman
+Cabinet to seek for support. The Italian enterprise in Abyssinia had
+long been a drain on the treasury, and the annihilation of a force by
+those warlike mountaineers on January 26, 1887, sent a thrill of horror
+through the Peninsula. The internal situation was also far from
+promising. The breakdown of attempts at a compromise between the
+monarchy and Pope Leo XIII. revealed the adamantine hostility of the
+Vatican to the King's Government in Rome. A prey to these
+discouragements, King Umberto and his advisers were willing to renew
+the Triple Alliance (March 1887), though on terms no more advantageous
+than before. Signor Depretis, the chief champion of the alliance, died
+in July; but Signor Crispi, who thereafter held office, proved to be no
+less firm in its support. After a visit to Prince Bismarck at his abode
+of Friedrichsruh, near Hamburg, the Italian Prime Minister came back a
+convinced Teutophil, and announced that Italy adhered to the Central
+Powers in order to assure peace to Europe.
+
+Crispi also hinted that the naval support of England might be
+forthcoming if Italy were seriously threatened; and when the naval
+preparations at Toulon seemed to portend a raid on the ill-protected
+dockyard of Spezzia, British warships took up positions at Genoa in
+order to render help if it were needed. This incident led to a
+discussion in the _Neue Freie Presse_ of Vienna, owing to a speech made
+by Signor Chiala at Rome. Mr. Labouchere also, on February 10, 1888,
+sharply questioned Sir James Fergusson in the House of Commons on the
+alleged understanding between England and Italy. All information,
+however, was refused[263].
+
+[Footnote 263: Hansard, vol. cccxii. pp. 1180 _et seq._; Chiala, _La
+Triplice e la Duplice Alleanza_, app. ii.; Mr. Stillman, _Francesco
+Crispi_ (p. 177), believes in the danger to Spezzia.]
+
+Next to nothing, then, is known on the interesting question how far the
+British Government went in framing an agreement with Italy, and through
+her, with the Triple Alliance. We can only conjecture the motives which
+induced the Salisbury Cabinet to make a strategic turn towards that
+"conservative" alliance, and yet not definitely join it. The isolation
+of England proved, in the sequel, to be not only a source of annoyance
+to the Continental Powers but of weakness to herself, because her
+statesmen failed to use to the full the potential advantages of their
+position at the middle of the see-saw. Bismarck's dislike of England was
+not incurable; he was never a thorough-going "colonial"; and it is
+probable that the adhesion of England to his league would have
+inaugurated a period of mutual good-will in politics, colonial policy,
+and commerce. The abstention of England has in the sequel led German
+statesmen to show all possible deference to Russia, generally at the
+expense of British interests.
+
+The importance of this consideration becomes obvious when the dangers of
+the year 1887 are remembered. The excitement caused in Russia and France
+by the Rustchuk and Schnaebele affairs, the tension in Germany produced
+by the drastic proposals of a new Army Bill, and, above all, the
+prospect of the triumph of Boulangist militarism in France, kept the
+Continent in a state of tension for many months. In May, Katkoff nearly
+succeeded in persuading the Czar to dismiss de Giers and adopt a warlike
+policy, in the belief that a strong Cabinet was about to be formed at
+Paris with Boulanger as the real motive power. After a long ministerial
+crisis the proposed ministerial combination broke down; Boulanger was
+shelved, and the Czar is believed to have sharply rebuked Katkoff for
+his presumption[264]. This disappointment of his dearest hopes preyed on
+the health of that brilliant publicist and hastened his end, which
+occurred on August 1, 1887.
+
+[Footnote 264: This version (the usual one) is contested by Cyon, who
+says that Katkoff's influence over the Czar was undermined by a mean
+German intrigue.]
+
+The seed which Katkoff had sown was, however, to bring forth fruit.
+Despite the temporary discomfiture of the Slavophils, events tended to
+draw France and Russia more closely together. The formal statement of
+Signor Crispi that the Triple Alliance was a great and solid fact would
+alone have led to some counter move; and all the proofs of the
+instability of French politics furnished by the Grevy-Wilson scandals
+could not blind Russian statesmen to the need of some understanding with
+a great Power[265].
+
+[Footnote 265: See the Chauvinist pamphlets, _Echec et Mat a la
+Politique de l'Ennemi de la France_, by "un Russe" (Paris, 1887); and
+_Necessite de l'Alliance franco-russe_, by P. Pader (Toulouse, 1888).]
+
+Bismarck sought to give the needed hand-grip. In November 1887, during
+an interview with the Czar at Berlin, he succeeded in exposing the
+forgery of some documents concerning Bulgaria which had prejudiced
+Alexander against him. He followed up this advantage by secretly
+offering the Cabinet of St. Petersburg a guarantee of German support in
+case of an attack from Austria; but it does not appear that the Czar
+placed much trust in the assurance, especially when Bismarck made his
+rhetorical fanfare of February 6, 1888, in order to ensure the raising
+of a loan of 28,000,000 marks for buying munitions of war.
+
+That speech stands forth as a landmark in European politics. In a
+simple, unadorned style the German Chancellor set forth the salient
+facts of the recent history of his land, showing how often its peace had
+been disturbed, and deducing the need for constant preparation in a
+State bordered, as Germany was, by powerful neighbours:--"The pike in
+the European pool prevent us from becoming carp; but we must fulfil the
+designs of Providence by making ourselves so strong that the pike can do
+no more than amuse us." He also traced the course of events which led to
+the treaties with Austria and Italy, and asserted that by their
+formation and by the recent publication of the treaty of 1882 with
+Austria the German Government had not sought in any way to threaten
+Russia. The present misunderstandings with that Power would doubtless
+pass away; but seeing that the Russian Press had "shown the door to an
+old, powerful, and effective friend, which we were, we shall not knock
+at it again."
+
+Bismarck's closing words--"We Germans fear God and nothing else in the
+world; and it is the fear of God which makes us seek peace and ensue
+it"--carried the Reichstag with him, with the result that the proposals
+of the Government were adopted almost unanimously, and Bismarck received
+an overwhelming ovation from the crowd outside. These days marked the
+climax of the Chancellor's career and the triumph of the policy which
+led to the Triple Alliance.
+
+The question, which of the two great hostile groups was the more sincere
+in its championship of peace principles, must remain one of the riddles
+of the age. Bismarck had certainly given much provocation to France in
+the Schnaebele affair; but in the year 1888 the chief danger to the
+cause of peace came from Boulanger and the Slavophils of Russia. The
+Chancellor, having carried through his army proposals, posed as a
+peacemaker; and Germany for some weeks bent all her thoughts on the
+struggle between life and death which made up the ninety days' reign of
+the Emperor Frederick III. Cyon and other French writers have laboured
+to prove that Bismarck's efforts to prevent his accession to the throne,
+on the ground that he was the victim of an incurable disease, betokened
+a desire for immediate war with France.
+
+It appears, however, that the contention of the Chancellor was strictly
+in accord with one of the fundamental laws of the Empire. His attitude
+towards France throughout the later phases of the Boulanger affair was
+coldly "correct," while he manifested the greatest deference towards the
+private prejudices of the Czar when the Empress Frederick allowed the
+proposals of marriage between her daughter and Prince Alexander of
+Battenberg to be renewed. Knowing the unchangeable hatred of the Czar
+for the ex-Prince of Bulgaria, Bismarck used all his influence to thwart
+the proposal, which was defeated by the personal intervention of the
+present Kaiser[266]. According to our present information, then, German
+policy was sincerely peaceful, alike in aim and in tone, during the
+first six months of the year; and the piling up of armaments which then
+went on from the Urals to the Pyrenees may be regarded as an
+unconsciously ironical tribute paid by the Continental Powers to the
+cause of peace.
+
+[Footnote 266: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages, etc._ vol. iii. p. 335.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A change came over the scene when William II. ascended the throne of
+Germany (June 15, 1888). At once he signalised the event by issuing a
+proclamation to the army, in which occurred the words: "I swear ever to
+remember that the eyes of my ancestors look down upon me from the other
+world, and that I shall one day have to render account to them of the
+glory and honour of the army." The navy received his salutation on that
+same day; and not until three days later did a proclamation go forth to
+his people. Men everywhere remembered that "Frederick the Noble" had
+first addressed his people, and then his army and navy. The inference
+was unavoidable that the young Kaiser meant to be a Frederick the Great
+rather than a "citizen Emperor," as his father had longed to be known.
+The world has now learnt to discount the utterances of the most
+impulsive of Hohenzollern rulers; but in those days, when it knew not
+his complex character, such an army order seemed to portend the advent
+of another Napoleon.
+
+Not only France but Russia felt some alarm. True, the young Kaiser
+speedily paid a visit to his relative at St. Petersburg; but it soon
+appeared that the stolid and very reserved Alexander III. knew not what
+to make of the versatile personality that now controlled the policy of
+Central Europe. It was therefore natural that France and Russia should
+take precautionary measures; and we now know that these were begun in
+the autumn of that year.
+
+In the first instance, they took the form of loans. A Parisian
+financier, M. Hoskier, Danish by descent, but French by naturalisation
+and sympathy, had long desired to use the resources of Paris as a means
+of cementing friendship, and, if possible, alliance with Russia. For
+some time he made financial overtures at St. Petersburg, only to find
+all doors closed against him by German capitalists. But in the spring of
+the year 1888 the Berlin Bourse had been seized by a panic at the
+excessive amount of Russian securities held by German houses; large
+sales took place, and thenceforth it seemed impossible for Russia to
+raise money at Berlin or Frankfurt except on very hard terms.
+
+Now was the opportunity for which the French houses had been waiting and
+working. In October 1888, Hoskier received an invitation to repair to
+St. Petersburg secretly, in order to consider the taking up of a loan of
+500,000,000 francs at 4 per cent, to replace war loans contracted in
+1877 at 5 per cent. At once he assured the Russian authorities that his
+syndicate would accept the offer, and though the German financiers
+raged and plotted against him, the loan went to Paris. This was the
+beginning of a series of loans launched by Russia at Paris, and so
+successfully that by the year 1894 as much as four milliards of francs
+(L160,000,000) is said to have been subscribed in that way[267]. Thus
+the wealth of France enabled Russia to consolidate her debt on easier
+terms, to undertake strategic railways, to build a new navy, and arm her
+immense forces with new and improved weapons. It is well known that
+Russia could not otherwise have ventured on these and other costly
+enterprises; and one cannot but admire the skill which she showed in
+making so timely a use of Gallic enthusiasm, as well as the
+statesmanlike foresight of the French in piling up these armaments on
+the weakest flank of Germany.
+
+[Footnote 267: E. Daudet, _Histoire diplomatique de l'Alliance
+franco-russe_, pp. 270-279.]
+
+Meanwhile the Boulangist bubble had burst. After his removal from the
+army on the score of insubordination, "le brav' general" entered into
+politics, and, to the surprise of all, gained an enormous majority in
+the election for a district of Paris (January 1889). It is believed
+that, had he rallied his supporters and marched against the Elysee, he
+might have overthrown the parliamentary Republic. But, like Robespierre
+at the crisis of his career, he did not strike--he discoursed of reason
+and moderation. For once the authorities took the initiative; and when
+the new Premier, Tirard, took action against him for treason, he fled to
+Brussels on the appropriate date of the 1st of April. Thenceforth, the
+Royalist-Bonapartist-Radical hybrid, known as Boulangism, ceased to
+scare the world; and its challenging snorts died away in sounds which
+were finally recognised as convulsive brayings. How far the Slavophils
+of Russia had a hand in goading on the creature is not known. Elie de
+Cyon, writing at a later date, declared that he all along saw through
+and distrusted Boulanger. Disclaimers of this kind were plentiful in the
+following years[268].
+
+[Footnote 268: De Cyon, _op. cit._ pp. 394 _et seq._]
+
+After the exposure of that hero of the Boulevards, it was natural that
+the Czar should decline to make a binding compact with France; and he
+signalised the isolation of Russia by proposing a toast to the Prince of
+Montenegro as "the only sincere and faithful friend of Russia."
+Nevertheless, the dismissal of Bismarck by William II., in March 1890,
+brought about a time of strain and friction between Russia and Germany
+which furthered the prospects of a Franco-Russian _entente_. Thenceforth
+peace depended on the will of a young autocrat who now and again gave
+the impression that he was about to draw the sword for the satisfaction
+of his ancestral _manes_. A sharp and long-continued tariff war between
+Germany and Russia also embittered the relations between the two Powers.
+
+Rumours of war were widespread in the year 1891. Wild tales were told as
+to a secret treaty between Germany and Belgium for procuring a passage
+to the Teutonic hosts through that neutralised kingdom, and thus turning
+the new eastern fortresses which France had constructed at enormous
+cost[269]. Parts of Northern France were to be the reward of King
+Leopold's complaisance, and the help of England and Turkey was to be
+secured by substantial bribes[270]. The whole scheme wears a look of
+amateurish grandiosity; but, on the principle that there is no smoke
+without fire (which does not always hold good for diplomatic smoke),
+much alarm was felt at Paris. The renewal of the Triple Alliance in June
+1891, for a term of six years, was followed up a month later by a visit
+of the Emperor William to England, during which he took occasion at the
+Guildhall to state his desire "to maintain the historical friendship
+between these our two nations" (July 10). Balanced though this assertion
+was by an expression of a hope in the peaceful progress of all peoples,
+the words sent an imaginative thrill to the banks of the Seine and
+the Neva.
+
+[Footnote 269: In the French Chamber of Deputies it was officially
+stated in 1893, that in two decades France had spent the sum of
+L614,000,000 on her army and the new fortresses, apart from that on
+strategic railways and the fleet.]
+
+[Footnote 270: Notovich, _L'Empereur Alexandre III._ ch. viii.]
+
+The outcome of it all was the visit of the French Channel Fleet to
+Cronstadt at the close of July; and the French statesman M. Flourens
+asserts that the Czar himself took the initiative in this matter[271].
+The fleet received an effusive welcome, and, to the surprise of all
+Europe, the Emperor visited the flagship of Admiral Gervais and remained
+uncovered while the band played the national airs of the two nations.
+Few persons ever expected the autocrat of the East to pay that tribute
+to the _Marseillaise_. But, in truth, French democracy was then entering
+on a new phase at home. Politicians of many shades of opinion had begun
+to cloak themselves with "opportunism"--a conveniently vague term, first
+employed by Gambetta, but finally used to designate any serviceable
+compromise between parliamentary rule, autocracy, and flamboyant
+militarism. The Cronstadt _fetes_ helped on the warping process.
+
+[Footnote 271: L.E. Flourens, _Alexandre III.: sa Vie, son Oeuvre_, p.
+319.]
+
+Whether any definite compact was there signed is open to doubt. The
+_Times_ correspondent, writing on July 31 from St. Petersburg, stated
+that Admiral Gervais had brought with him from Paris a draft of a
+convention, which was to be considered and thereafter signed by the
+Russian Ministers for Foreign Affairs, War, and the Navy, but not by the
+Czar himself until the need for it arose. Probably, then, no alliance
+was formed, but military and naval conventions were drawn up to serve as
+bases for common action if an emergency should arise. These agreements
+were elaborated in conferences held by the Russian generals, Vanoffski
+and Obrucheff, with the French generals, Saussier, Miribel, and
+Boisdeffre. A Russian loan was soon afterwards floated at Paris amidst
+great enthusiasm.
+
+For the present the French had to be satisfied with this exchange of
+secret assurances and hard cash. The Czar refused to move further,
+mainly because the scandals connected with the Panama affair once more
+aroused his fears and disgust. De Cyon states that the degrading
+revelations which came to light, at the close of 1891 and early in 1892,
+did more than anything to delay the advent of a definite alliance. The
+return visit of a Russian squadron to French waters was therefore
+postponed to the month of October 1893, when there were wild rejoicings
+at Toulon. The Czar and President exchanged telegrams, the former
+referring to "the bonds which unite the two countries."
+
+It appeared for a time that Russia meant to keep her squadron in the
+Mediterranean; and representations on this subject are known to have
+been made by England and Italy, which once again drew close together. A
+British squadron visited Italian ports--an event which seemed to
+foreshadow the entrance of the Island Power to the Triple Alliance. The
+Russian fleet, however, left the Mediterranean, and the diplomatic
+situation remained unchanged. Despite all the passionate wooing of the
+Gallic race, no contract of marriage took place during the life of
+Alexander III. He died on November 1, 1894, and his memory was extolled
+in many quarters as that of the great peacemaker of the age.
+
+How far he deserved this praise, to which every statesman of the first
+rank laid claim, is matter for doubt. It is certain that he disliked war
+on account of the evil results accruing from the Russo-Turkish conflict;
+but whether his love of peace rested on grounds other than prudential
+will be questioned by those who remember his savage repression of
+non-Russian peoples in his Empire, his brutal treatment of the
+Bulgarians and of their Prince, his underhand intrigues against Servia
+and Roumania, and the favour which he showed to the commander who
+violated international law at Panjdeh. That the French should enshrine
+his memory in phrases to which their literary skill gives a world-wide
+vogue is natural, seeing that he ended their days of isolation and saved
+them from the consequences of Boulangism; but it still has to be proved
+that, apart from the Schnaebele affair, Germany ever sought a quarrel
+with France during the reign of Alexander III.; and it may finally
+appear that the Triple Alliance was the genuinely conservative league
+which saved Europe from the designs of the restless Republic and the
+exacting egotism of Alexander III.
+
+Another explanation of the Franco-Russian _entente_ is fully as tenable
+as the theory that the Czar based his policy on the seventh beatitude. A
+careful survey of the whole of that policy in Asia, as well as in
+Europe, seems to show that he drew near to the Republic in order to
+bring about an equilibrium in Europe which would enable him to throw his
+whole weight into the affairs of the Far East. Russian policy has
+oscillated now towards the West, now towards the East; but old-fashioned
+Russians have always deplored entanglement in European affairs, and have
+pointed to the more hopeful Orient. Even during the pursuit of
+Napoleon's shattered forces in their retreat from Moscow in 1812, the
+Russian Commander, Kutusoff, told Sir Robert Wilson that Napoleon's
+overthrow would benefit, not the world at large, but only England[272].
+He failed to do his utmost, largely because he looked forward to peace
+with France and a renewal of the Russian advance on India.
+
+[Footnote 272: _The French Invasion of Russia_, by Sir R. Wilson, p.
+234.]
+
+The belief that England was the enemy came to be increasingly held by
+leading Russians, especially, of course, after the Crimean War and the
+Berlin Congress. Russia's true mission, they said, lay in Asia. There,
+among those ill-compacted races, she could easily build up an Empire
+that never could be firmly founded on tough, recalcitrant Bulgars or
+warlike Turks. The Triple Alliance having closed the door to Russia on
+the West, there was the greater temptation to take the other alternative
+course--that line of least resistance which led towards Afghanistan and
+Manchuria. The value of an understanding with France was now clear to
+all. As we have seen, it guarded Russia's exposed frontier in Poland,
+and poured into the exchequer treasures which speedily took visible form
+in the Siberian railway, as well as the extensions of the lines leading
+to Merv and Tashkend.
+
+But this eastern trend of Russian policy can scarcely be called
+peaceful. The Panjdeh incident (March 29, 1885) would have led any other
+Government than that of Mr. Gladstone to declare war on the aggressor.
+Events soon turned the gaze of the Russians towards Manchuria, and the
+Franco-Russian agreement enabled them to throw their undivided energies
+in that direction (see Chapter XX.). It was French money which enabled
+Russia to dominate Manchuria, and, for the time, to overawe Japan. In
+short, the Dual Alliance peacefully conducted the Muscovites to
+Port Arthur.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The death of Alexander III. in November 1894 brought to power a very
+different personality, kindlier and more generous, but lacking the
+strength and prudence of the deceased ruler. Nicholas II. had none of
+that dislike of Western institutions which haunted his father. The way
+was therefore open for a more binding compact with France, the need for
+which was emphasised by the events of the years 1894-95 in the Far East.
+But the manner in which it came about is still but dimly known. Members
+of the House of Orleans are said to have taken part in the overtures,
+perhaps with the view of helping on the hypnotising influence which
+alliance with the autocracy of the East exerts on the democracy of
+the West.
+
+The Franco-Russian _entente_ ripened into an alliance in the year 1895.
+So, at least, we may judge from the reference to Russia as "notre allie"
+by the Prime Minister, M. Ribot, in the debate of June 10, 1895.
+Nicholas II., at the time of his visit to Paris in 1896, proclaimed his
+close friendship with the Republic; and during the return visit of
+President Faure to Cronstadt and St. Petersburg he gave an even more
+significant sign that the two nations were united by something more than
+sentiment and what Carlyle would have called the cash-nexus. On board
+the French warship _Pothuau_ he referred in his farewell speech to the
+"nations amies et alliees" (August 26, 1897).
+
+The treaty has never been made public, but a version of it appeared in
+the _Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung_ of September 21, 1901, and in the Paris
+paper, _La Liberte_ five days later. Mr. Henry Norman gives the
+following summary of the information there unofficially communicated.
+After stating that the treaty contains no direct reference to Germany,
+he proceeds: "It declares that if either nation is attacked, the other
+will come to its assistance with the whole of its military and naval
+forces, and that peace shall only be concluded in concert and by
+agreement between the two. No other _casus belli_ is mentioned, no term
+is fixed to the duration of the treaty, and the whole instrument
+consists of only a few clauses[273]."
+
+[Footnote 273: H. Norman, M.P., _All the Russias_, p. 390 (Heinemann,
+1902). See the articles on the alliance as it affects Anglo-French
+relations by M. de Pressense in the _Nineteenth Century_ for February
+and November 1896; also Mr. Spenser Wilkinson's _The Nation's
+Awakening_, ch. v.]
+
+Obviously France and Russia cannot help one another with all their
+forces unless the common foe were Germany, or the Triple Alliance as a
+whole. In that case alone would such a clause be operative. The pressure
+of France and Russia on the flanks of the German Empire would be
+terrible; and it is inconceivable that Germany would attack France,
+knowing that such action would bring the weight of Russia upon her
+weakest frontier. It is, however, conceivable that the three central
+allies might deem the strain of an armed peace to be unendurable and
+attack France or Russia. To such an attack the Dual Alliance would
+oppose about equal forces, though now hampered by the weakening of the
+Empire in the Far East.
+
+Another account, also unofficial and discreetly vague, was given to the
+world by a diplomatist at the time when the Armenian outrages had for a
+time quickened the dull conscience of Christendom[274]. Assuming that
+the Sick Man of the East was at the point of death, the anonymous writer
+hinted at the profitable results obtainable by the Continental States
+if, leaving England out of count, they arranged the Eastern Question _a
+l'aimable_ among themselves. The Dual Alliance, he averred, would not
+meet the needs of the situation; for it did not contemplate the
+partition of Turkey or a general war in the East.
+
+[Footnote 274: _L'Alliance Franco-russe devant la Crise Orientale_, par
+un Diplomate etranger. (Paris, Plon. 1897).]
+
+     Both parties [France and Russia] have examined the course to
+     be taken in the case of aggression by one or more members of
+     the Triple Alliance; an understanding has been arrived at on
+     the great lines of general policy; but of necessity they did
+     not go further. If the Russian Government could not undertake
+     to place its sword at the service of France with a view to a
+     revision of the Treaty of Frankfurt--a demand, moreover,
+     which France did not make--it cannot claim that France should
+     mobilise her forces to permit it to extend its territory in
+     Europe or in Asia. They know that very well on the banks of
+     the Neva.
+
+To this interesting statement we may add that France and Russia have
+been at variance on the Eastern Question. Thus, when, in order to press
+her rightful claims on the Sultan, France determined to coerce him by
+the seizure of Mitylene, if need be, the Czar's Government is known to
+have discountenanced this drastic proceeding. Speaking generally, it is
+open to conjecture whether the Dual Alliance refers to other than
+European questions. This may be inferred from the following fact. On the
+announcement of the Anglo-Japanese compact early in 1902, by which
+England agreed to intervene in the Far Eastern Question if another Power
+helped Russia against Japan, the Governments of St. Petersburg and Paris
+framed a somewhat similar convention whereby France definitely agreed to
+take action if Russia were confronted by Japan and a European or
+American Power in these quarters. No such compact would have been needed
+if the Franco-Russian alliance had referred to the problems of the
+Far East.
+
+Another "disclosure" of the early part of 1904 is also noteworthy. The
+Paris _Figaro_ published official documents purporting to prove that
+the Czar Nicholas II., on being sounded by the French Government at the
+time of the Fashoda incident, declared his readiness to abide by his
+engagements in case France took action against Great Britain. The
+_Figaro_ used this as an argument in favour of France actively
+supporting Russia against Japan, if an appeal came from St. Petersburg.
+This contention would now meet with little support in France. The events
+of the Russo-Japanese War and the massacre of workmen in St. Petersburg
+on January 22, 1905, have visibly strained Franco-Russian relations.
+This is seen in the following speech of M. Anatole France on February 1,
+1905, with respect to his interview with the Premier, M. Combes:--
+
+     At the beginning of this war I had heard it said very vaguely
+     that there existed between France and Russia firm and fast
+     engagements, and that, if Russia came to blows with a second
+     Power, France would have to intervene. I asked M. Combes,
+     then Prime Minister, whether anything of the kind existed. M.
+     Combes thought it due to his position not to give a precise
+     answer; but he declared to me in the clearest way that so
+     long as he was Minister we need not fear that our sailors and
+     our soldiers would be sent to Japan. My own opinion is that
+     this folly is not to be apprehended under any Ministry. (_The
+     Times_. February 3.)
+
+At present, then, everything tends to show that the Franco-Russian
+alliance refers solely to European questions and is merely a defensive
+agreement in view of a possible attack from one or more members of the
+Triple Alliance. Seeing that the purely defensive character of the
+latter has always been emphasised, doubts are very naturally expressed
+in many quarters as to the use of these alliances. The only tangible
+advantage gained by any one of the five Powers is that Russia has had
+greater facilities for raising loans in France and in securing her hold
+on Manchuria. On the other hand, Frenchmen complain that the alliance
+has entailed an immense financial responsibility, which is dearly bought
+by the cessation of those irritating frontier incidents of the
+Schnaebele type which they had to put up with from Bismarck in the days
+of their isolation[275].
+
+[Footnote 275: See an article by Jules Simon in the _Contemporary
+Review_, May 1894.]
+
+Italy also questions the wisdom of her alliance with the Central Powers
+which brings no obvious return except in the form of slightly enhanced
+consideration from her Latin sister. In cultured circles on both sides
+of the Maritime Alps there is a strong feeling that the present
+international situation violates racial instincts and tradition; and, as
+we have already seen, Italy's attitude towards France is far different
+now from what it was in 1882. It is now practically certain that
+Italians would not allow the King's Government to fight France in the
+interests of the Central Powers. Their feelings are quite natural. What
+have Italians in common with Austrians and Prussians? Little more, we
+may reply, than French republicans with the subjects of the Czar. In
+truth both of these alliances rest, not on whole-hearted regard or
+affection, but on fear and on the compulsion which it exerts.
+
+To this fact we may, perhaps, largely attribute the _malaise_ of Europe.
+The Greek philosopher Empedocles looked on the world as the product of
+two all-pervading forces, love and hate, acting on blind matter: love
+brought cognate particles together and held them in union; hate or
+repulsion kept asunder the unlike or hostile elements. We may use the
+terms of this old cosmogony in reference to existing political
+conditions, and assert that these two elemental principles have drawn
+Europe apart into two hostile masses; with this difference, that the
+allies for the most part are held together, not so much by mutual regard
+as by hatred of their opposites. From this somewhat sweeping statement
+we must mark off one exception. There were two allies who came together
+with the ease which betokens a certain amount of affinity. Thanks to the
+statesmanlike moderation of Bismarck after Koeniggraetz, Austria willingly
+entered into a close compact with her former rival. At least that was
+the feeling among the Germans and Magyars of the Dual Monarchy. The
+Austro-German alliance, it may be predicted, will hold good while the
+Dual Monarchy exists in its present form; but even in that case fear of
+Russia is the one great binding force where so much else is centrifugal.
+If ever the Empire of the Czar should lose its prestige, possibly the
+two Central Powers would drift apart.
+
+Although there are signs of weakness in both alliances, they will
+doubtless remain standing as long as the need which called them into
+being remains. Despite all the efforts made on both sides, the military
+and naval resources of the two great leagues are approximately equal. In
+one respect, and in one alone, Europe has benefited from these
+well-matched efforts. The uneasy truce that has been dignified by the
+name of peace since the year 1878 results ultimately from the fact that
+war will involve the conflict of enormous citizen armies of nearly
+equal strength.
+
+So it has come to this, that in an age when the very conception of
+Christendom has vanished, and ideal principles have been well-nigh
+crushed out of life by the pressure of material needs, peace again
+depends on the once-derided principle of the balance of power. That it
+should be so is distressing to all who looked to see mankind win its way
+to a higher level of thought on international affairs. The level of
+thought in these matters could scarcely be lower than it has been since
+the Armenian massacres. The collective conscience of Europe is as torpid
+as it was in the eighteenth century, when weak States were crushed or
+partitioned, and armed strength came to be the only guarantee of safety.
+
+At the close of this volume we shall glance at some of the influences
+which the Tantalus toil of the European nations has exerted on the life
+of our age. It is not for nothing that hundreds of millions of men are
+ever striving to provide the sinews of war, and that rulers keep those
+sinews in a state of tension. The result is felt in all the other organs
+of the body politic. Certainly the governing classes of the Continent
+must be suffering from atrophy of the humorous instinct if they fail to
+note the practical nullity of the efforts which they and their subjects
+have long put forth. Perhaps some statistical satirist of the twentieth
+century will assess the economy of the process which requires nearly
+twelve millions of soldiers for the maintenance of peace in the most
+enlightened quarter of the globe.
+
+NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION
+
+In the _Echo de Paris_ of July 3, 1905, the Comte de Nion published
+documents which further prove the importance of the services rendered by
+Great Britain to France at the time of the war scare of May 1875. They
+confirm the account as given in this chapter, but add a few more
+details. See, too, corroborative evidence in the _Times_ for July
+4, 1905.
+
+NOTE TO THE THIRD EDITION
+
+It has been stated, apparently on good authority, that the informal
+conversations which went on during the Congress of Berlin between the
+plenipotentiaries of the Powers (see _ante_, p. 328) furnished Italy
+with an assurance that, in the event of France expanding in North
+Africa, Italy should find "compensation" in Tripoli. Apparently this
+explains her recent action there (October 1911).
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE CENTRAL ASIAN QUESTION
+
+     "The Germans have reached their day, the English their
+     mid-day, the French their afternoon, the Italians their
+     evening, the Spanish their night; but the Slavs stand on the
+     threshold of the morning."--MADAME NOVIKOFF ("O.K.")--_The
+     Friends and Foes of Russia_.
+
+
+The years 1879-85 which witnessed the conclusion of the various
+questions opened up by the Treaty of Berlin and the formation of the
+Triple Alliance mark the end of a momentous period in European history.
+The quarter of a century which followed the Franco-Austrian War of 1859
+in Northern Italy will always stand out as one of the most momentous
+epochs in State-building that the world has ever seen. Italy, Denmark,
+Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Turkey, assumed their present form. The
+Christians of the Balkan Peninsula made greater strides towards liberty
+than they had taken in the previous century. Finally, the new diplomatic
+grouping of the Powers helped to endow these changes with a permanence
+which was altogether wanting to the fitful efforts of the period
+1815-59. That earlier period was one of feverish impulse and picturesque
+failure; the two later decades were characterised by stern organisation
+and prosaic success.
+
+It generally happens to nations as to individuals that a period devoted
+to recovery from internal disorders is followed by a time of great
+productive and expansive power. The introspective epoch gives place to
+one of practical achievement. Faust gives up his barren speculations
+and feels his way from thought to action. From "In the beginning was the
+Word" he wins his way onward through "the Thought" and "the Might,"
+until he rewrites the dictum "In the beginning was the Deed." That is
+the change which came over Germany and Europe in the years 1850-80. The
+age of the theorisers of the _Vor-Parlament_ at Frankfurt gave place to
+the age of Bismarck. The ideals of Mazzini paled in the garish noonday
+of the monarchical triumph at Rome.
+
+Alas! too, the age of great achievement, that of the years 1859-85,
+makes way for a period characterised by satiety, torpor, and an
+indefinable _malaise_. Europe rests from the generous struggles of the
+past, and settles down uneasily into a time of veiled hostility and
+armed peace. Having framed their State systems and covering alliances,
+the nations no longer give heed to constitutions, rights of man, or
+duties of man; they plunge into commercialism, and search for new
+markets. Their attitude now is that of Ancient Pistol when he exclaims
+
+                  "The world's mine oyster,
+     Which I with sword will open."
+
+In Europe itself there is little to chronicle in the years 1885-1900,
+which are singularly dull in regard to political achievement. No popular
+movement (not even those of the distressed Cretans and Armenians) has
+aroused enough sympathy to bring it to the goal. The reason for this
+fact seems to be that the human race, like the individual, is subject to
+certain alternating moods which may be termed the enthusiastic and the
+practical; and that, during the latter phase, the material needs of life
+are so far exalted at the expense of the higher impulses that small
+struggling communities receive not a tithe of the sympathy which they
+would have aroused in more generous times.
+
+The fact need not beget despair. On the contrary, it should inspire the
+belief that, when the fit passes away, the healthier, nobler mood will
+once more come; and then the world will pulsate with new life, making
+wholesome use of the wealth previously stored up but not assimilated. It
+is significant that Gervinus, writing in 1853, spoke of that epoch as
+showing signs of disenchantment and exhaustion in the political sphere.
+In reality he was but six years removed from the beginning of an age of
+constructive activity the like of which has never been seen.
+
+Further, we may point out that the ebb in the tide of human affairs
+which set in about the year 1885 was due to specific causes operating
+with varied force on different peoples. First in point of time, at the
+close of the year 1879, came the decision of Bismarck and of the German
+Reichstag to abandon the cause of Free Trade in favour of a narrow
+commercial nationalism. Next came the murder of the Czar Alexander II.
+(March 1881), and the grinding down of the reformers and of all alien
+elements by his stern successor. Thus, the national impulse, which had
+helped on that of democracy in the previous generation, now lent its
+strength to the cause of economic, religious, and political reaction in
+the two greatest of European States.
+
+In other lands that vital force frittered itself away in the frothy
+rhetoric of Deroulede and the futile prancings of Boulanger, in the
+gibberings of _Italia Irredenta_, or in the noisy obstruction of Czechs
+and Parnellites in the Parliaments of Vienna and London. Everything
+proclaimed that the national principle had spent its force and could now
+merely turn and wobble until it came to rest.
+
+A curious series of events also served to discredit the party of
+progress in the constitutional States. Italian politics during the
+ascendancy of Depretis, Mancini, and Crispi became on the one side a
+mere scramble for power, on the other a nervous edging away from the
+gulf of bankruptcy ever yawning in front. France, too, was slow to
+habituate herself to parliamentary institutions, and her history in the
+years 1887 to 1893 is largely that of a succession of political scandals
+and screechy recriminations, from the time of the Grevy-Wilson affair to
+the loathsome end of the Panama Company. In the United Kingdom the
+wheels of progress lurched along heavily after the year 1886, when
+Gladstone made his sudden strategic turn towards the following of
+Parnell. Thus it came about that the parties of progress found
+themselves almost helpless or even discredited; and the young giant of
+Democracy suddenly stooped and shrivelled as if with premature decay.
+
+The causes of this seeming paralysis were not merely political and
+dynamic: they were also ethical. The fervour of religious faith was
+waning under the breath of a remorseless criticism and dogmatic
+materialism. Already, under their influence, the teachers of the earlier
+age, Carlyle, Tennyson, and Browning, had lost their joyousness and
+spontaneity; and the characteristic thinkers of the new age were chiefly
+remarkable for the arid formalism with which they preached the gospel of
+salvation for the strong and damnation to the weak. The results of the
+new creed were not long in showing themselves in the political sphere.
+If the survival of the fittest were the last word of philosophy, where
+was the need to struggle on behalf of the weak and oppressed? In that
+case, it might be better to leave them to the following clutch of the
+new scientific devil; while those who had charged through to the head of
+the rout enjoyed themselves with utmost abandon. Such was, and is, the
+deduction from the new gospel (crude enough, doubtless, in many
+respects), which has finally petrified in the lordly egotism of Nietzche
+and in the unlovely outlines of one or two up-to-date Utopias.
+
+These fashions will have their day. Meanwhile it is the duty of the
+historian to note that self-sacrifice and heroism have a hard struggle
+for life in an age which for a time exalted Herbert Spencer to the
+highest pinnacle of greatness, which still riots in the calculating
+selfishness of Nietzsche and raves about Omar Khayyam.
+
+Seeing, then, that the last fifteen years of the nineteenth century in
+Europe were almost barren of great formative movements such as had
+ennobled the previous decades, we may well leave that over-governed,
+over-drilled continent weltering in its riches and discontent, its
+militarism and moral weakness, in order to survey events further afield
+which carried on the State-building process to lands as yet chaotic or
+ill-organised. There, at least, we may chronicle some advance, hampered
+though it has been by the moral languor or laxity that has warped the
+action of Europeans in their new spheres.
+
+The transference of human interest from European history to that of Asia
+and Africa is certainly one of the distinguishing features of the years
+in question. The scene of great events shifts from the Rhine and the
+Danube to the Oxus and the Nile. The affairs of Rome, Alsace, and
+Bulgaria being settled for the present, the passions of great nations
+centre on Herat and Candahar, Alexandria and Khartum, the Cameroons,
+Zanzibar, and Johannesburg, Port Arthur and Korea. The United States,
+after recovering from the Civil War and completing their work of
+internal development, enter the lists as a colonising Power, and drive
+forth Spain from two of her historic possessions. Strife becomes keen
+over the islands of the Pacific. Australia seeks to lay hands on New
+Guinea, and the European Powers enter into hot discussions over
+Madagascar, the Carolines, Samoa, and many other isles.
+
+In short, these years saw a repetition of the colonial strifes that
+marked the latter half of the eighteenth century. Just as Europe, after
+solving the questions arising out of the religious wars, betook itself
+to marketing in the waste lands over the seas, so too, when the impulses
+arising from the incoming of the principles of democracy and nationality
+had worn themselves out, the commercial and colonial motive again came
+uppermost. And, as in the eighteenth century, so too after 1880 there
+was at hand an economic incentive spurring on the Powers to annexation
+of new lands. France had recurred to protective tariffs in 1870.
+Germany, under Bismarck, followed suit ten years later; and all the
+continental Powers in turn, oppressed by armaments and girt around with
+hostile tariffs, turned instinctively to the unclaimed territories
+oversea as life-saving annexes for their own overstocked
+industrial centres.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It will be convenient to begin the recital of extra-European events by
+considering the expansion of Russia and Great Britain in Central Asia.
+There, it is true, the commercial motive is less prominent than that of
+political rivalry; and the foregoing remarks apply rather to the recent
+history of Africa than to that of Central Asia. But, as the plan of this
+work is to some extent chronological, it seems better to deal first with
+events which had their beginning further back than those which relate to
+the partition of Africa.
+
+The two great colonising and conquering movements of recent times are
+those which have proceeded from London and Moscow as starting-points. In
+comparison with them the story of the enterprise of the Portuguese and
+Dutch has little more than the interest that clings around an almost
+vanished past. The halo of romance that hovers over the exploits of
+Spaniards in the New World has all but faded away. Even the more solid
+achievements of the gallant sons of France in a later age are of small
+account when compared with the five mighty commonwealths that bear
+witness to the strength of the English stock and the adaptability of its
+institutions, or with the portentous growth of the Russian Empire
+in Asia.
+
+The methods of expansion of these two great colonial Empires are
+curiously different; and students of Ancient History will recall a
+similar contrast in the story of the expansion of the Greek and Latin
+races. The colonial Empire of England has been sown broadcast over the
+seas by adventurous sailors, the freshness and spontaneity of whose
+actions recall corresponding traits in the maritime life of Athens.
+Nursed by the sea, and filled with the love of enterprise and freedom
+which that element inspires, both peoples sought wider spheres for their
+commerce, and homes more spacious and wealthy than their narrow cradles
+offered; but, above all, they longed to found a microcosm of Athens or
+England, with as little control from the mother-land as might be.
+
+The Russian Empire, on the other hand, somewhat resembles that of Rome
+in its steady, persistent extension of land boundaries by military and
+governmental methods. The Czars, like the Consuls and Emperors of Rome,
+set to work with a definite purpose, and brought to bear on the
+shifting, restless tribes beyond their borders the pressure of an
+unchanging policy and of a well-organised administration. Both States
+relied on discipline and civilisation to overcome animal strength and
+barbarism; and what they won by the sword, they kept by means of a good
+system of roads and by military colonies. In brief, while Ancient Greece
+and Modern England worked through sailors and traders, Rome and Russia
+worked through soldiers, road-makers, and proconsuls. The Sea Powers
+trusted mainly to individual initiative and civic freedom; the Land
+Powers founded their empires on organisation and order. The dominion of
+the former was sporadic and easily dissolvable; that of the latter was
+solid, and liable to be destroyed only by some mighty cataclysm. The
+contrast between them is as old and ineffaceable as that which subsists
+between the restless sea and the unchanging plain.
+
+While the comparison between England and Athens is incomplete, and at
+some points fallacious, that between the Czars and the Caesars is in many
+ways curiously close and suggestive. As soon as the Roman eagles soared
+beyond the mighty ring of the Alps and perched securely on the slopes of
+Gaul and Rhaetia, the great Republic had the military advantage of
+holding the central position as against the mutually hostile tribes of
+Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. Thanks to that advantage, to her
+organisation, and to her military colonies, she pushed forward an
+ever-widening girdle of empire, finally conferring the blessings of the
+_pax Romana_ on districts as far remote as the Tyne, the Lower Rhine and
+Danube, the Caucasus, and the Pillars of Hercules.
+
+Russia also has used to the full the advantages conferred by a central
+position, an inflexible policy, and a military-agrarian system well
+adapted to the needs of the nomadic peoples on her borders. In the
+fifteenth century, her polity emerged victorious from the long struggle
+with the Golden Horde of Tartars [I keep the usual spelling, though
+"Tatars" is the correct form]; and, as the barbarous Mongolians lost
+their hold on the districts of the middle Volga, the power of the Czars
+began its forward march, pressing back Asiatics on the East and Poles on
+the West. In 1556, Ivan the Terrible seized Astrakan at the mouth of the
+Volga, and victoriously held Russia's natural frontiers on the East, the
+Ural Mountains, and the northern shore of the Caspian Sea. We shall deal
+in a later chapter with her conquest of Siberia, and need only note here
+that Muscovite pioneers reached the shores of the Northern Pacific as
+early as the year 1636.
+
+Russia's conquests at the expense of Turks, Circassians, and Persians is
+a subject alien to this narrative; and the tragic story of the overthrow
+of Poland at the hand of the three partitioning Powers, Russia, Prussia,
+and Austria, does not concern us here.
+
+It is, however, needful to observe the means by which she was able to
+survive the dire perils of her early youth and to develop the colonising
+and conquering agencies of her maturer years. They may be summed up in
+the single word, "Cossacks."
+
+The Cossacks are often spoken of as though they were a race. They are
+not; they are bands or communities, partly military, partly nomadic or
+agricultural, as the case may be. They can be traced back to bands of
+outlaws who in the time of Russia's weakness roamed about on the verge
+of her settlements, plundering indifferently their Slavonic kinsmen, or
+the Tartars and Turks farther south. They were the "men of the plain,"
+who had fled from the villages of the Slavs, or (in fewer cases) from
+the caravans of the Tartars, owing to private feuds, or from love of a
+freer and more lucrative life than that of the village or the
+encampment. In this debatable land their numbers increased until, Slavs
+though they mainly were, they became a menace to the growing power of
+the Czars. Ivan the Terrible sent expeditions against them, transplanted
+many of their number, and compelled those who remained in the space
+between the rivers Don and Ural to submit to his authority, and to give
+military service in time of war in return for rights of pasturage and
+tillage in the districts thenceforth recognised as their own. Some of
+them transferred their energies to Asia; and it was a Cossack outlaw,
+Jermak, who conquered a great part of Siberia. The Russian pioneers, who
+early penetrated into Siberia or Turkestan, found it possible at a later
+time to use these children of the plain as a kind of protective belt
+against the warlike natives. The same use was made of them in the South
+against Turks. Catharine II. broke the power of the "Zaporoghians"
+(Cossacks of the Dnieper), and settled large numbers of them on the
+River Kuban to fight the Circassians.
+
+In short, out of the driftwood and wreckage of their primitive social
+system the Russians framed a bulwark against the swirling currents of
+the nomad world outside. In some respects the Cossacks resemble the
+roving bands of Saxons and Franks who pushed forward roughly but
+ceaselessly the boundaries of the Teutonic race[276]. But, whereas those
+offshoots soon came to have a life of their own, apart from the parent
+stems, Russia, on the other hand, has known how to keep a hold on her
+boisterous youth, turning their predatory instincts against her worst
+neighbours, and using them as hardy irregulars in her wars.
+
+[Footnote 276: See Caesar, _Gallic War_, bk. vi., for an account of the
+formation, at the tribal meeting, of a roving band.]
+
+Considering the number of times that the Russian Government crushed the
+Cossack revolts, broke up their self-made organisation, and transplanted
+unruly bands to distant parts, their almost invariable loyalty to the
+central authority is very remarkable. It may be ascribed either to the
+veneration which they felt for the Czar, to the racial sentiment which
+dwells within the breast of nearly every Slav, or to their proximity to
+alien peoples whom they hated as Mohammedans or despised as godless
+pagans. In any case, the Russian autocracy gained untold advantages from
+the Cossack fringe on the confines of the Empire.
+
+Some faint conception of the magnitude of that gain may be formed, if,
+by way of contrast, we try to picture the Teutonic peoples always acting
+together, even through their distant offshoots; or, again, if by a
+flight of fancy we can imagine the British Government making a wise use
+of its old soldiers and the flotsam and jetsam of our cities for the
+formation of semi-military colonies on the most exposed frontiers of the
+Empire. That which our senators have done only in the case of the
+Grahamstown experiment of 1819, Russia has done persistently and
+successfully with materials far less promising--a triumph of
+organisation for which she has received scant credit.
+
+The roving Cossacks have become practically a mounted militia, highly
+mobile in peace and in war. Free from taxes, and enjoying certain
+agrarian or pastoral rights in the district which they protect, their
+position in the State is fully assured. At times the ordinary Russian
+settlers are turned into Cossacks. Either by that means, or by migration
+from Russia, or by a process of accretion from among the conquered
+nomads, their ranks are easily recruited; and the readiness with which
+Tartars and Turkomans are absorbed into this cheap and effective militia
+has helped to strengthen Russia alike in peace and war. The source of
+strength open to her on this side of her social system did not escape
+the notice of Napoleon--witness his famous remark that within fifty
+years Europe would be either Republican or Cossack[277].
+
+[Footnote 277: For the Cossacks, see D.M. Wallace's _Russia_, vol. ii.
+pp. 80-95; and Vladimir's _Russia on the Pacific_, pp. 46-49. The former
+points out that their once democratic organisation has vanished under
+the autocracy; and that their officers, appointed by the Czar, own most
+of the land, formerly held in common.]
+
+The firm organisation which Central Europe gained under the French
+Emperor's hammer-like blows served to falsify the prophecy; and the
+stream of Russian conquest, dammed up on the west by the
+newly-consolidated strength of Prussia and Austria, set strongly towards
+Asia. Pride at her overthrow of the great conqueror in 1812 had
+quickened the national consciousness of Russia; and besides this
+praiseworthy motive there was another perhaps equally potent, namely,
+the covetousness of her ruling class. The Memoirs written by her
+bureaucrats and generals reveal the extravagance, dissipation, and
+luxury of the Court circles. Fashionable society had as its main
+characteristic a barbaric and ostentatious extravagance, alike in
+gambling and feasting, in the festivals of the Court or in the scarcely
+veiled debauchery of its devotees. Baron Loewenstern, who moved in its
+higher ranks, tells of cases of a license almost incredible to those who
+have not pried among the garbage of the Court of Catharine II. This
+recklessness, resulting from the tendency of the Muscovite nature, as of
+the Muscovite climate, to indulge in extremes, begot an imperious need
+of large supplies of money; and, ground down as were the serfs on the
+broad domains of the nobles, the resulting revenues were all too scanty
+to fill up the financial void created by the urgent needs of St.
+Petersburg, Gatchina, or Monte Carlo. Larger domains had to be won in
+order to outvie rivals or stave off bankruptcy; and these new domains
+could most easily come by foreign conquest.
+
+For an analogous reason, the State itself suffered from land hunger. Its
+public service was no less corrupt than inefficient. Large sums
+frequently vanished, no one knew whither; but one infallible cure for
+bankruptcy was always at hand, namely, conquests over Poles, Turks,
+Circassians, or Tartars. To this Catharine II. had looked when she
+instituted the vicious practice of paying the nobles for their services
+at Court; and during her long career of conquest she greatly developed
+the old Muscovite system of meeting the costs of war out of the domains
+of the vanquished, besides richly dowering the Crown, and her generals
+and favoured courtiers. One of the Russian Ministers, referring to the
+notorious fact that his Government made war for the sake of booty as
+well as glory, said to a Frenchman, "We have remained somewhat Asiatic
+in that respect[278]." It is not always that a Minister reveals so
+frankly the motives that help to mould the policy of a great State.
+
+[Footnote 278: Quoted by Vandal, _Napoleon I. et Alexandre,_ vol. i. p.
+136.]
+
+The predatory instinct, once acquired, does not readily pass away.
+Alexander I. gratified it by forays in Circassia, even at the time when
+he was face to face with the might of the great Napoleon; and after the
+fall of the latter, Russia pushed on her confines in Georgia until they
+touched those of Persia. Under Nicholas I. little territory was added
+except the Kuban coast on the Black Sea, Erivan to the south of Georgia,
+and part of the Kirghiz lands in Turkestan.
+
+The reason for this quiescence was that almost up to the verge of the
+Crimean War Nicholas hoped to come to an understanding with England
+respecting an eventual partition of the Turkish Empire, Austria also
+gaining a share of the spoils. With the aim of baiting these proposals,
+he offered, during his visit to London in 1844, to refrain from any
+movement against the Khanates of Central Asia, concerning which British
+susceptibilities were becoming keen. His Chancellor, Count Nesselrode,
+embodied these proposals in an important Memorandum, containing a
+promise that Russia would leave the Khanates of Turkestan as a neutral
+zone in order to keep the Russian and British possessions in Asia "from
+dangerous contact[279]."
+
+[Footnote 279: Quoted on p. 14 of _A Diplomatic Study on the Crimean
+War,_ issued by the Russian Foreign Office, and attributed to Baron
+Jomini (Russian edition, 1879; English edition, 1882).]
+
+For reasons which we need not detail, British Ministers rejected these
+overtures, and by degrees England entered upon the task of defending the
+Sultan's dominions, largely on the assumption that they formed a
+necessary bulwark of her Indian Empire. It is not our purpose to
+criticise British policy at that time. We merely call attention to the
+fact that there seemed to be a prospect of a friendly understanding with
+Russia respecting Turkey, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Central Asia; and that
+the British Government decided to maintain the integrity of Turkey by
+attacking the Power which seemed about to impugn it. As a result, Turkey
+secured a new lease of life by the Crimean War, while Alexander II.
+deemed himself entirely free to press on Asiatic conquests from which
+his father had refrained. Thus, the two great expanding Powers entered
+anew on that course of rivalry in Asia which has never ceased, and which
+forms to-day the sole barrier to a good understanding between them.
+
+After the Crimean War circumstances favoured the advance of the Russian
+arms. England, busied with the Sepoy Mutiny in India, cared little what
+became of the rival Khans of Turkestan; and Lord Lawrence,
+Governor-General of India in 1863-69, enunciated the soothing doctrine
+that "Russia might prove a safer neighbour than the wild tribes of
+Central Asia." The Czar's emissaries therefore had easy work in
+fomenting the strifes that constantly arose in Bokhara, Khiva, and
+Tashkend, with the result that in 1864 the last-named was easily
+acquired by Russia. We may add here that Tashkend is now an important
+railway centre in the Russian Central Asian line, and that large stores
+of food and material are there accumulated, which may be utilised in
+case Russia makes a move against Afghanistan or Northern India.
+
+In 1868 an outbreak of Mohammedan fanaticism in Bokhara brought the
+Ameer of that town into collision with the Russians, who thereupon
+succeeded in taking Samarcand. The capital of the empire of Tamerlane,
+"the scourge of Asia," now sank to the level of an outpost of Russian
+power, and ultimately to that of a mart for cotton. The Khan of Bokhara
+fell into a position of complete subservience, and ceded to the
+conquerors the whole of his province of Samarcand[280].
+
+[Footnote 280: For an account of Samarcand and Bokhara, see _Russia in
+Central Asia,_ by Hon. G. (Lord) Curzon (1889); A. Vambery's _Travels in
+Central Asia_ (1867-68); Rev. H. Lansdell, _Russian Central Asia,_ 2
+vols. (1885); E. Schuyler, _Journey in Russian Turkestan,_ etc., 2 vols.
+(1876); E. O'Donovan, _The Merv Oasis,_ 2 vols. (1883).]
+
+It is believed that the annexation of Samarcand was contrary to the
+intentions of the Czar. Alexander II. was a friend of peace; and he had
+no desire to push forward his frontiers to the verge of Afghanistan,
+where friction would probably ensue with the British Government. Already
+he had sought to allay the irritation prevalent in Russophobe circles in
+England. In November 1864, his Chancellor, Prince Gortchakoff, issued a
+circular setting forth the causes that impelled the Russians on their
+forward march. It was impossible, he said, to keep peace with
+uncivilised and predatory tribes on their frontiers. Russia must press
+on until she came into touch with a State whose authority would
+guarantee order on the boundaries. The argument was a strong one; and it
+may readily be granted that good government, civilisation, and commerce
+have benefited by the extension of the _pax Russica_ over the
+slave-hunting Turkomans and the inert tribes of Siberia.
+
+Nevertheless, as Gortchakoff's circular expressed the intention of
+refraining from conquest for the sake of conquest, the irritation in
+England became very great when the conquest of Tashkend, and thereafter
+of Samarcand, was ascribed, apparently on good grounds, to the ambition
+of the Russian commanders, Tchernaieff and Kaufmann respectively. On the
+news of the capture of Samarcand reaching London, the Russian ambassador
+hastened to assure the British Cabinet that his master did not intend to
+retain his conquest. Nevertheless, it was retained. The doctrine of
+political necessity proved to be as expansive as Russia's boundaries;
+and, after the rapid growth of the Indian Empire under Lord Dalhousie,
+the British Government could not deny the force of the plea.
+
+This mighty stride forward brought Russia to the northern bounds of
+Afghanistan, a land which was thenceforth to be the central knot of
+diplomatic problems of vast magnitude. It will therefore be well, in
+beginning our survey of a question which was to test the efficacy of
+autocracy and democracy in international affairs, to gain some notion
+of the physical and political conditions of the life of that people.
+
+As generally happens in a mountainous region in the midst of a great
+continent, their country exhibits various strata of conquest and
+settlement. The northern district, sloping towards Turkestan, is
+inhabited mainly by Turkomans who have not yet given up their roving
+habits. The rugged hill country bordering on the Punjab is held by
+Pathans and Ghilzais, who are said by some to be of the same stock as
+the Afghans. On the other hand, a well-marked local legend identifies
+the Afghans proper with the lost ten tribes of Israel; and those who
+love to speculate on that elusive and delusive subject may long use
+their ingenuity in speculating whether the oft-quoted text as to the
+chosen people possessing the gates of their enemies is more applicable
+to the sea-faring and sea-holding Anglo-Saxons or to the
+pass-holding Afghans.
+
+That elevated plateau, ridged with lofty mountains and furrowed with
+long clefts, has seen Turkomans, Persians, and many other races sweep
+over it; and the mixture of these and other races, perhaps including
+errant Hebrews, has there acquired the sturdiness, tenacity, and
+clannishness that mark the fragments of three nations clustering
+together in the Alpine valleys; while it retains the turbulence and
+fierceness of a full-blooded Asiatic stock. The Afghan problem is
+complicated by these local differences and rivalries; the north cohering
+with the Turkomans, Herat and the west having many affinities and
+interests in common with Persia, Candahar being influenced by
+Baluchistan, while the hill tribes of the north-east bristle with local
+peculiarities and aboriginal savagery. These districts can be welded
+together only by the will of a great ruler or in the white heat of
+religious fanaticism; and while Moslem fury sometimes unites all the
+Afghan clans, the Moslem marriage customs result fully as often in a
+superfluity of royal heirs, which gives rein to all the forces that make
+for disruption. Afghanistan is a hornet's nest; and yet, as we shall see
+presently, owing to geographical and strategical reasons, it cannot be
+left severely alone. The people are to the last degree clannish; and
+nothing but the grinding pressure of two mighty Empires has endowed them
+with political solidarity.
+
+It is not surprising that British statesmen long sought to avoid all
+responsibility for the internal affairs of such a land. As we have seen,
+the theory which found favour with Lord Lawrence was that of intervening
+as little as possible in the affairs of States bordering on India, a
+policy which was termed "masterly inactivity" by the late Mr. J.W.S.
+Wyllie. It was the outcome of the experience gained in the years
+1839-42, when, after alienating Dost Mohammed, the Ameer of Afghanistan,
+by its coolness, the Indian Government rushed to the other extreme and
+invaded the country in order to tear him from the arms of the more
+effusive Russians.
+
+The results are well known. Overweening confidence and military
+incapacity finally led to the worst disaster that befell a British army
+during the nineteenth century, only one officer escaping from among the
+4500 troops and 12,000 camp followers who sought to cut their way back
+through the Khyber Pass[281]. A policy of non-intervention in the
+affairs of so fickle and savage a people naturally ensued, and was
+stoutly maintained by Lords Canning, Elgin, and Lawrence, who held sway
+during and after the great storm of the Indian Mutiny. The worth of that
+theory of conduct came to be tested in 1863, on the occasion of the
+death of Dost Mohammed, who had latterly recovered Herat from Persia,
+and brought nearly the whole of the Afghan clans under his sway. He had
+been our friend during the Mutiny, when his hostility might readily have
+turned the wavering scales of war; and he looked for some tangible
+return for his loyal behaviour in preventing the attempt of some of his
+restless tribesmen to recover the once Afghan city of Peshawur.
+
+[Footnote 281: Sir J.W. Kaye, _History of the War in Afghanistan_, 5
+vols. (1851-78).]
+
+To his surprise and disgust he met with no return whatever, even in a
+matter which most nearly concerned his dynasty and the future of
+Afghanistan. As generally happens with Moslem rulers, the aged Ameer
+occupied his declining days with seeking to provide against the troubles
+that naturally resulted from the oriental profusion of his marriages.
+Dost Mohammed's quiver was blessed with the patriarchal equipment of
+sixteen sons--most of them stalwart, warlike, and ambitious. Eleven of
+them limited their desires to parts of Afghanistan, but five of them
+aspired to rule over all the tribes that go to make up that seething
+medley. Of these, Shere Ali was the third in age but the first in
+capacity, if not in prowess. Moreover, he was the favourite son of Dost
+Mohammed; but where rival mothers and rival tribes were concerned, none
+could foresee the issue of the pending conflict[282].
+
+[Footnote 282: G.B. Malleson, _History of Afghanistan_, p. 421.]
+
+Dost Mohammed sought to avert it by gaining the effective support of the
+Indian Government for his Benjamin. He pleaded in vain. Lord Canning,
+Governor-General of India at the time of the Mutiny, recognised Shere
+Ali as heir-apparent, but declined to give any promise of support either
+in arms or money. Even after the Mutiny was crushed, Lord Canning and
+his successor, Lord Elgin, adhered to the former decision, refusing even
+a grant of money and rifles for which father and son pleaded.
+
+As we have said, Dost Mohammed died in 1863; but even when Shere Ali was
+face to face with formidable family schisms and a widespread revolt,
+Lord Lawrence clung to the policy of recognising only "_de facto_
+Powers," that is, Powers which actually existed and could assert their
+authority. All that he offered was to receive Shere Ali in conference,
+and give him good advice; but he would only recognise him as Ameer of
+Afghanistan if he could prevail over his brothers and their tribesmen.
+He summed it up in this official letter of April 17, 1866, sent to the
+Governor of the Punjab:--
+
+It should be our policy to show clearly that we will not interfere in
+the struggle, that we will not aid either party, that we will leave the
+Afghans to settle their own quarrels, and that we are willing to be on
+terms of amity and good-will with the nation and with their rulers _de
+facto_. Suitable opportunities can be taken to declare that these are
+the principles which will guide our policy; and it is the belief of the
+Governor-General that such a policy will in the end be appreciated[283].
+
+[Footnote 283: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), p. 10. For a
+defence of this policy of "masterly inactivity," see Mr. Bosworth
+Smith's _Life of Lord Lawrence_, vol. ii. pp. 570-590; also Mr. J.W.S.
+Wyllie's _Essays on the External Policy of India_.]
+
+The Afghans did not appreciate it. Shere All protested that it placed a
+premium on revolt; he also complained that the Viceroy not only gave him
+no help, but even recognised his rival, Ufzul, when the latter captured
+Cabul. After the death of Ufzul and the assumption of authority at Cabul
+by a third brother, Azam, Shere Ali by a sudden and desperate attempt
+drove his rival from Cabul (September 8, 1868) and practically ended the
+schisms and strifes which for five years had rent Afghanistan in twain.
+Then, but then only, did Lord Lawrence consent to recognise him as Ameer
+of the whole land, and furnish him with L60,000 and a supply of arms. An
+act which, five years before, would probably have ensured the speedy
+triumph of Shere Ali and his lasting gratitude to Great Britain, now
+laid him under no sense of obligation[284]. He might have replied to
+Lord Lawrence with the ironical question with which Dr. Johnson declined
+Lord Chesterfield's belated offer of patronage: "Is not a patron, my
+lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the
+water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help?"
+
+[Footnote 284: The late Duke of Argyll in his _Eastern Question_ (vol.
+ii. p. 42) cited the fact of this offer of money and arms as a proof
+that Lord Lawrence was not wedded to the theory of "masterly
+inactivity," and stated that the gift helped Shere Ali to complete his
+success. It is clear, however, that Lord Lawrence waited to see whether
+that success was well assured before the offer was made.
+
+The Duke of Argyll proves one thing, that the action of Lord Lawrence in
+September 1868 was not due to Sir Henry Rawlinson's despatch from London
+(dated July 20, 1868) in favour of more vigorous action. It was due to
+Lawrence's perception of the change brought about by Russian action in
+the Khanate of Bokhara, near the Afghan border.]
+
+Moreover, there is every reason to think that Shere Ali, with the
+proneness of orientals to refer all actions to the most elemental
+motives, attributed the change of front at Calcutta solely to fear. That
+was the time when the Russian capture of Samarcand cowed the Khan of
+Bokhara and sent a thrill through Central Asia. In the political
+psychology of the Afghans, the tardy arrival at Cabul of presents from
+India argued little friendship for Shere Ali, but great dread of the
+conquering Muscovites.
+
+Such, then, was the policy of "masterly inactivity" in 1863-68, cheap
+for India, but excessively costly for Afghanistan. Lord Lawrence
+rendered incalculable services to India before and during the course of
+the Mutiny, but his conduct towards Shere Ali is certainly open to
+criticism. The late Duke of Argyll, Secretary of State for India in the
+Gladstone Ministry (1868-74), supported it in his work, _The Eastern
+Question,_ on the ground that the Anglo-Afghan treaty of 1855 pledged
+the British not to interfere in the affairs of Afghanistan[285]. But
+uncalled for interference is one thing; to refuse even a slight measure
+of help to an ally, who begs it as a return for most valuable services,
+is quite another thing.
+
+[Footnote 285: The Duke of Argyll, _op. cit._ vol. ii. p. 226 (London,
+1879). For the treaty, see Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878),
+p. 1.]
+
+Moreover, the Viceroy himself was brought by the stern logic of events
+implicitly to give up his policy. In one of his last official
+despatches, written on January 4, 1869, he recognised the gain to Russia
+that must accrue from our adherence to a merely passive policy in
+Central Asian affairs. He suggested that we should come to a "clear
+understanding with the Court of St. Petersburg as to its projects and
+designs in Central Asia, and that it might be given to understand in
+firm but courteous language, that it cannot be permitted to interfere in
+the affairs of Afghanistan, or in those of any State which lies
+contiguous to our frontier."
+
+This sentence tacitly implied a change of front; for any prohibition to
+Russia to interfere in the affairs of Afghanistan virtually involved
+Britain's claim to exercise some degree of suzerainty in that land. The
+way therefore seemed open for a new departure, especially as the new
+Governor-General, Lord Mayo, was thought to favour the more vigorous
+ideas latterly prevalent at Westminster. But when Shere Ali met the new
+Viceroy in a splendid Durbar at Umballa (March 1869) and formulated his
+requests for effective British support, in case of need, they were, in
+the main, refused[286].
+
+[Footnote 286: Sir W.W. Hunter, _The Earl of Mayo_, p. 125 (Oxford,
+1891); the Duke of Argyll, _op. cit._ vol. ii, p. 252.]
+
+We may here use the words in which the late Duke of Argyll summed up the
+wishes of the Ameer and the replies of Lord Mayo:--
+
+He (the Ameer) wanted to have an unconditional treaty, offensive and
+defensive. He wanted to have a fixed subsidy. He wanted to have a
+dynastic guarantee. He would have liked sometimes to get the loan of
+English officers to drill his troops, or to construct his
+forts--provided they retired the moment they had done this work for him.
+On the other hand, officers "resident" in his country as political
+agents of the British Government were his abhorrence.
+
+Lord Mayo's replies, or pledges, were virtually as follows:--
+
+The first pledge (says the Duke of Argyll) was that of non-interference
+in his (the Ameer's) affairs. The second pledge was that "we would
+support his independence." The third pledge was "that we would not force
+European officers, or residents, upon him against his wish[287]."
+
+[Footnote 287: Argyll, _op. cit._ vol. i. Preface, pp. xxiii.-xxvi.]
+
+There seems to have been no hopeless contrariety between the views of
+the Ameer and the Viceroy save in one matter that will be noted
+presently. It is also of interest to learn from the Duke's narrative,
+which claims to be official in substance, however partisan it may be in
+form, that there was no difference of opinion on this important subject
+between Lord Mayo and the Gladstone Ministry, which came to power
+shortly after his departure for India. The new Viceroy summed up his
+views in the following sentence, written to the Duke of Argyll: "The
+safe course lies in watchfulness, and friendly intercourse with
+neighbouring tribes."
+
+Apparently, then, there was a fair chance of arriving at an agreement
+with the Ameer. But the understanding broke down on the question of the
+amount of support to be accorded to Shere Ali's dynasty. That ruler
+wished for an important modification of the Anglo-Afghan treaty of 1855,
+which had bound his father to close friendship with the old Company
+without binding the Company to intervene in his favour. That, said Shere
+Ali, was a "dry friendship." He wanted a friendship more fruitful than
+that of the years 1863-67, and a direct support to his dynasty whenever
+he claimed it. The utmost concession that Lord Mayo would grant was that
+the British Government would "view with severe displeasure any attempt
+to disturb your position as Ruler of Cabul, and rekindle civil
+war[288]."
+
+[Footnote 288: Argyll, _op. cit._ vol. ii. p. 263.]
+
+It seems that Shere Ali thought lightly of Britain's "displeasure," for
+he departed ill at ease. Not even the occasional presents of money and
+weapons that found their way from Calcutta to Cabul could thenceforth
+keep his thoughts from turning northwards towards Russia. At Umballa he
+had said little about that Power; and the Viceroy had very wisely
+repressed any feelings of anxiety that he may have had on that score.
+Possibly the strength and cheeriness of Lord Mayo's personality would
+have helped to assuage the Ameer's wounded feelings; but that genial
+Irishman fell under the dagger of a fanatic during a tour in the Andaman
+Islands (February 1872). His death was a serious event. Shere Ali
+cherished towards him feelings which he did not extend to his successor,
+Lord Northbrook (1872-76).
+
+Yet, during that vice-royalty, the diplomatic action of Great Britain
+secured for the Ameer the recognition of his claims over the northern
+part of Afghanistan, as far as the banks of the Upper Oxus. In the
+years 1870-72 Russia stoutly contested those claims, but finally
+withdrew them, the Emperor declaring at the close of the latter year
+"that such a question should not be a cause of difference between the
+two countries, and he was determined it should not be so." It is further
+noteworthy that Russian official communications more than once referred
+to the Ameer of Afghanistan as being "under the protection of the Indian
+Government[289]".
+
+[Footnote 289: Argyll, _op. cit._ vol. ii. pp. 289, 292. For the Czar's
+assurance that "extension of territory" was "extension of weakness," see
+Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), p. 101.]
+
+These signal services of British diplomacy counted for little at Cabul
+in comparison with the question of the dynastic guarantee which we
+persistently withheld. In the spring of 1873, when matters relating to
+the Afghan-Persian frontier had to be adjusted, the Ameer sent his Prime
+Minister to Simla with the intention of using every diplomatic means for
+the extortion of that long-delayed boon.
+
+The time seemed to favour his design. Apart from the Persian boundary
+questions (which were settled in a manner displeasing to the Ameer),
+trouble loomed ahead in Central Asia. The Russians were advancing on
+Khiva; and the Afghan statesman, during his stay at Simla, sought to
+intimidate Lord Northbrook by parading this fact. He pointed out that
+Russia would easily conquer Khiva and then would capture Merv, near the
+western frontier of Afghanistan, "either in the current year or the
+next." Equally obvious was his aim in insisting that "the interests of
+the Afghan and English Governments are identical," and that "the border
+of Afghanistan is in truth the border of India." These were ingenious
+ways of working his intrenchments up to the hitherto inaccessible
+citadel of Indian border policy. The news of the Russian advance on
+Khiva lent strength to his argument.
+
+[Illustration: AFGHANISTAN]
+
+Yet, when he came to the question of the guarantee of Shere Ali's
+dynasty, he again met with a rebuff. In truth, Lord Northbrook and his
+advisers saw that the Ameer was seeking to frighten them about Russia
+in order to improve his own family prospects in Afghanistan; and, paying
+too much attention, perhaps, to the oriental artfulness of the method of
+request, and too little to the importance of the questions then at
+stake, he decided to meet the Ameer in regard to non-essentials, though
+he failed to satisfy him on the one thing held to be needful at the
+palace of Cabul.
+
+Anxious, however, to consult the Home Government on a matter of such
+importance, now that the Russians were known to be at Khiva, Lord
+Northbrook telegraphed to the Duke of Argyll on July 24, 1873:--
+
+Ameer of Cabul alarmed at Russian progress, dissatisfied with general
+assurance, and anxious to know how far he may rely on our help if
+invaded. I propose assuring him that if he unreservedly accepts and acts
+on our advice in all external relations, we will help him with money,
+arms, and troops, if necessary, to expel unprovoked aggression. We to be
+the judge of the necessity. Answer by telegraph quickly.
+
+The Gladstone Ministry was here at the parting of the ways. The Ameer
+asked them to form an alliance on equal terms. They refused, believing,
+as it seems, that they could keep to the old one-sided arrangement of
+1855, whereby the Ameer promised effective help to the Indian
+Government, if need be, and gained only friendly assurance in return.
+The Duke of Argyll telegraphed in reply on July 26:--
+
+Cabinet thinks you should inform Ameer that we do not at all share his
+alarm, and consider there is no cause for it; but you may assure him we
+shall maintain our settled policy in favour of Afghanistan if he abides
+by our advice in external affairs[290].
+
+[Footnote 290: Argyll, _op. cit._ vol. ii. 331. The Gladstone Cabinet
+clearly weakened Lord Northbrook's original proposal, and must therefore
+bear a large share of responsibility for the alienation of the Ameer
+which soon ensued. The Duke succeeded in showing up many inaccuracies in
+the versions of these events afterwards given by Lord Lytton and Lord
+Cranbrook; but he was seemingly quite unconscious of the consequences
+resulting from adherence to an outworn theory.]
+
+This answer, together with a present of L100,000 and 20,000 rifles, was
+all that the Ameer gained; his own shrewd sense had shown him long
+before that Britain must in any case defend Afghanistan against Russia.
+What he wanted was an official recognition of his own personal position
+as ruler, while he acted, so to speak, as the "Count of the Marches" of
+India. The Gladstone Government held out no hopes of assuring the future
+of their _Mark-graf_ or of his children after him. The remembrance of
+the disaster in the Khyber Pass in 1841 haunted them, as it had done
+their predecessors, like a ghost, and scared them from the course of
+action which might probably have led to the conclusion of a close
+offensive and defensive alliance between India and Afghanistan.
+
+Such a consummation was devoutly to be hoped for in view of events which
+had transpired in Central Asia. Khiva had been captured by the Russians.
+This Khanate intervened between Bokhara and the Caspian Sea, which the
+Russians used as their base of operations on the west. The plea of
+necessity was again put forward, and it might have been urged as
+forcibly on geographical and strategic grounds as on the causes that
+were alleged for the rupture. They consisted mainly of the frontier
+incidents that are wont to occur with restless, uncivilised neighbours.
+The Czar's Government also accused the Khivans of holding some Russian
+subjects in captivity, and of breaking their treaty of 1842 with Russia
+by helping the Khirgiz Horde in a recent revolt against their
+new masters.
+
+Russia soon had ready three columns, which were to converge on Khiva:
+one was stationed on the River Ural, a second at the rising port of
+Krasnovodsk on the Caspian Sea, and a third, under General Kaufmann, at
+Tashkend. So well were their operations timed that, though the distances
+to be traversed varied from 480 to 840 miles, in parts over a waterless
+desert, yet the three chief forces arrived almost simultaneously at
+Khiva and met with the merest show of resistance (June 1873). Setting
+the young Khan on the throne of his father, they took from him his
+ancestral lands of the right bank of the Amu Daria (Oxus) and imposed
+on him a crushing war indemnity of 2,200,000 roubles, which assured his
+entire dependence on his new creditors. They further secured their hold
+on these diminished territories by erecting two forts on the river[291].
+The Czar's Government was content with assuring its hold upon Khiva,
+without annexing the Khanate outright, seeing that it had disclaimed any
+such intention[292]. All the same, Russia was now mistress of nearly the
+whole of Central Asia; and the advance of roads and railways portended
+further conquests at the expense of Persia and the few remaining
+Turkoman tribes.
+
+[Footnote 291: J. Popowski, _The Rival Powers in Central Asia_, p. 47
+(Eng. edit).; A. Vambery, _The Coming Struggle for India_, p. 21; A.R.
+Colquhoun, _Russia against India_, pp. 24-26; Lavisse and Rambaud,
+_Histoire Generale_, vol. xii. pp. 793-794.]
+
+[Footnote 292: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), p. 101.]
+
+In order to estimate the importance of these facts, it must be
+remembered that the teachings of Geography and History concur in showing
+the practicability of an invasion of India from Central Asia. Touching
+first the geographical facts, we may point out that India and
+Afghanistan stand in somewhat the same relation to the Asiatic continent
+that Italy and Switzerland hold to that of Europe. The rich lands and
+soft climate of both Peninsulas have always been an irresistible
+attraction to the dwellers among the more barren mountains and plains of
+the North; and the lie of the land on the borders of both of these
+seeming Eldorados favours the advance of more virile peoples in their
+search for more genial conditions of life. Nature, which enervates the
+defenders in their sultry plains, by her rigorous training imparts a
+touch of the wolf to the mountaineers or plain-dwellers of the North;
+and her guides (rivers and streams) conduct the hardy seekers for the
+sun by easy routes up to the final mountain barriers. Finally, those
+barriers, the Alps and the Hindu Koosh, are notched by passes that are
+practicable for large armies, as has been seen now and again from the
+times of Alexander the Great and Hannibal to those of Nadir Shah
+and Napoleon.
+
+In these conditions, physical and climatic, is to be found the reason
+for the success that has so often attended the invasions of Italy and
+India. Only when the Romans organised all the forces of their Peninsula
+and the fresh young life beyond, were the defensive powers of Italy
+equal to her fatally attractive powers. Only when Britain undertook the
+defence of India, could her peoples feel sure of holding the North-West
+against the restless Pathans and Afghans; and the situation was wholly
+changed when a great military Empire pushed its power to the river-gates
+of Afghanistan.
+
+The friendship of the Ameer was now a matter of vital concern; and yet,
+as we have seen, Lord Northbrook alienated him, firstly by giving an
+unfavourable verdict in regard to the Persian boundary in the district
+of Seistan, and still more so by refusing to grant the long-wished-for
+guarantee of his dynasty.
+
+The year 1873 marks a fatal turning-point in Anglo-Afghan relations.
+Yakub Khan told Lord Roberts at Cabul in 1879 that his father, Shere
+Ali, had been thoroughly disgusted with Lord Northbrook in 1873, "and at
+once made overtures to the Russians, with whom constant intercourse had
+since been kept up[293]."
+
+[Footnote 293: Lord Roberts, _Forty-one Years in India_, vol. ii. p.
+247; also _Life of Abdur Rahman_, by Mohammed Khan, 2 vols. (1900), vol.
+i. p. 149.]
+
+In fact, all who are familiar with the events preceding the first Afghan
+War (1839-42) can now see that events were fast drifting into a position
+dangerously like that which led Dost Mohammed to throw himself into the
+arms of Russia. At that time also the Afghan ruler had sought to gain
+the best possible terms for himself and his dynasty from the two rivals;
+and, finding that the Russian promises were far more alluring than those
+emanating from Calcutta, he went over to the Muscovites. At bottom that
+had been the determining cause of the first Afghan War; and affairs were
+once more beginning to revolve in the same vicious circle. Looking back
+on the events leading up to the second Afghan War, we can now see that a
+frank compliance with the demands of Shere Ali would have been far less
+costly than the non-committal policy which in 1873 alienated him.
+Outwardly he posed as the aggrieved but still faithful friend. In
+reality he was looking northwards for the personal guarantee which never
+came from Calcutta.
+
+It should, however, be stated that up to the time of the fall of the
+Gladstone Ministry (February 1874), Russia seemed to have no desire to
+meddle in Afghan affairs. The Russian Note of January 21, 1874, stated
+that the Imperial Government "continued to consider Afghanistan as
+entirely beyond its sphere of action[294]." Nevertheless, that
+declaration inspired little confidence. The Russophobes, headed by Sir
+Henry Rawlinson and Sir Bartle Frere, could reply that they distrusted
+Russian disclaimers concerning Afghanistan, when the plea of necessity
+had so frequently and so speedily relegated to oblivion the earlier
+"assurances of intention."
+
+[Footnote 294: Argyll, _Eastern Question_, vol. ii. p. 347. See,
+however, the letters that passed between General Kaufmann, Governor of
+Turkestan, and Cabul in 1870-74, in Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1
+(1881), pp. 2-10.]
+
+Such was the state of affairs when, in February 1874, Disraeli came to
+power at Westminster with Lord Salisbury as Secretary of State for
+India. The new Ministry soon showed the desire to adopt a more spirited
+foreign policy than their predecessors, who had fretted public opinion
+by their numerous acts of complaisance or surrender. Russia soon gave
+cause for complaint. In June 1874 the Governor of the trans-Caspian
+province issued a circular, warning the nomad Turkomans of the Persian
+border-lands against raiding; it applied to tribes inhabiting districts
+within what were considered to be the northern boundaries of Persia.
+This seemed to contravene the assurances previously given by Russia that
+she would not extend her possessions in the southern part of Central
+Asia[295]. It also foreshadowed another stride forward at the expense of
+the Turkoman districts both of Persia and Afghanistan.
+
+[Footnote 295: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), p. 107.]
+
+As no sufficient disclaimer appeared, the London partisans of the
+Indian "forward policy" sought to induce Lord Derby and Lord Salisbury
+to take precautionary measures. Their advice was summed up in the Note
+of January 11, 1875, written by that charming man and able
+administrator, Sir Bartle Frere. Its chief practical recommendation was,
+firstly, the despatch of British officers to act as political agents at
+Cabul, Candahar, and Herat; and, secondly, the occupation of the
+commanding position of Quetta, in Baluchistan, as an outpost commanding
+the chief line of advance from Central Asia into India[296].
+
+[Footnote 296: General Jacob had long before advocated the occupation of
+this strong flanking position. It was supported by Sir C. Dilke in his
+_Greater Britain_ (1867).]
+
+This Note soon gained the ear of the Cabinet; and on January 22, 1875,
+Lord Salisbury urged Lord Northbrook to take measures to procure the
+assent of the Ameer to the establishment of British officers at Candahar
+and Herat (not at Cabul)[297]. The request placed Lord Northbrook in an
+embarrassing position, seeing that he knew full well the great
+reluctance of the Ameer at all times to receive any British Mission. On
+examining the evidence as to the Ameer's objection to receive British
+Residents, the viceroy found it to be very strong, while there is ground
+for thinking that Ministers and officials in London either ignored it or
+sought to minimise its importance. The pressure which they brought to
+bear on Lord Northbrook was one of the causes that led to his
+resignation (February 1876). He believed that he was in honour bound by
+the promise, given to the Ameer at the Umballa Conference, not to impose
+a British Resident on him against his will.
+
+[Footnote 297: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), pp. 128-129.]
+
+He was succeeded by a man of marked personality, Lord Lytton. The only
+son of the celebrated novelist, he inherited decided literary gifts,
+especially an unusual facility of expression both in speech and writing,
+in prose and verse. Any tendency to redundance in speech is generally
+counted unfavourable to advancement in diplomatic circles, where
+Talleyrand's _mot_ as to language being a means of _concealing_ thought
+still finds favour. Owing, however, to the influence of his uncle, then
+British Ambassador at Washington, but far more to his own talents,
+Lytton rose rapidly in the diplomatic service, holding office in the
+chief embassies, until Disraeli discerned in the brilliant speaker and
+writer the gifts that would grace the new imperial policy in the East.
+
+In ordinary times the new Viceroy would probably have crowned the new
+programme with success. His charm and vivacity of manner appealed to
+orientals all the more by contrast with the cold and repellent behaviour
+that too often characterises Anglo-Indian officials in their dealings
+with natives. Lytton's mind was tinged with the eastern glow that lit up
+alike the stories, the speeches, and the policy of his chief. It is
+true, the imperialist programme was as grandiosely vague as the meaning
+of _Tancred_ itself; but in a land where forms and words count for much
+the lack of backbone in the new policy was less observed and commented
+on than by the matter-of-fact islanders whom it was designed to glorify.
+
+The apotheosis of the new policy was the proclamation of Queen Victoria
+as Empress of India (July 1, 1877), an event which was signalised by a
+splendid Durbar at Delhi on January 1, 1878. The new title warned the
+world that, however far Russia advanced in Central Asia, England nailed
+the flag of India to her masthead. It was also a useful reminder to the
+small but not uninfluential Positivist school in England that their
+"disapproval" of the existence of a British Empire in India was wholly
+Platonic. Seeing also that the name "Queen" in Hindu (_Malika_) was one
+of merely respectable mediocrity in that land of splendour, the new
+title, "Kaisar-i-Hind," helped to emphasise the supremacy of the British
+Raj over the Nizam and Gaekwar. In fact, it is difficult now to take
+seriously the impassioned protests with which a number of insulars
+greeted the proposal.
+
+Nevertheless, in one sense the change of title came about most
+inopportunely. Fate willed that over against the Durbar at Delhi there
+stood forth the spectral form of Famine, bestriding the dusty plains of
+the Carnatic. By the glint of her eyes the splendours of Delhi shone
+pale, and the viceregal eloquence was hushed in the distant hum of her
+multitudinous wailing. The contrast shocked all beholders, and unfitted
+them for a proper appreciation of the new foreign policy.
+
+That policy may also be arraigned on less sentimental grounds. The year
+1876 witnessed the re-opening of the Eastern Question in a most
+threatening manner, the Disraeli Ministry taking up what may be termed
+the Palmerstonian view that the maintenance of Turkey was essential to
+the stability of the Indian Empire. As happened in and after 1854,
+Russia, when thwarted in Europe, sought for her revenge in the lands
+bordering on India. No district was so favourable to Muscovite schemes
+as the Afghan frontier, then, as now, the weakest point in Great
+Britain's imperial armour. Thenceforth the Afghan Question became a
+pendant of the Eastern Question.
+
+Russia found ready to hand the means of impressing the Ameer with a
+sense of her irresistible power. The Czar's officials had little
+difficulty in picking a quarrel with the Khanate of Khokand. Under the
+pretext of suppressing a revolt (which Vambery and others consider to
+have been prepared through Muscovite agencies) they sent troops,
+ostensibly with the view of favouring the Khan. The expedition gained a
+complete success, alike over the rebels and the Khan himself, who
+thenceforth sank to the level of pensioner of his liberators (1876). It
+is significant that General Kaufmann at once sent to the Ameer at Cabul
+a glowing account of the Russian success[298]; and the news of this
+communication increased the desire of the British Government to come to
+a clear understanding with the Ameer.
+
+[Footnote 298: Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1881), pp. 12-14;
+Shere Ali's letters to him (some of them suspicious) and the replies are
+also printed.]
+
+Unfortunately our authorities set to work in a way that increased his
+irritation. Lord Salisbury on February 28, 1876, instructed Lord Lytton
+to offer slightly larger concessions to Shere Ali; but he refused to go
+further than to allow "a frank recognition (not a guarantee) of a _de
+facto_ order in the succession" to the throne of Afghanistan, and
+undertook to defend his dominions against external attack "only in some
+clear case of unprovoked aggression." On the other hand, the British
+Government stated that "they must have, for their own agents, undisputed
+access to [the] frontier positions [of Afghanistan][299]." Thus, while
+granting very little more than before, the new Ministry claimed for
+British agents and officers a right of entry which wounded the pride of
+a suspicious ruler and a fanatical people.
+
+[Footnote 299: Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1881), pp. 156-159.]
+
+To sum up, we gave Shere Ali no help while he was struggling for power
+with his rivals; and after he had won the day, we pinned him to the
+terms of a one-sided alliance. In the matter of the Seistan frontier
+dispute with Persia, British arbitration was insolently defied by the
+latter Power, yet we urged the Ameer to accept the Shah's terms.
+According to Lord Napier of Magdala, he felt the loss of the once Afghan
+district of Seistan more keenly than anything else, and thenceforth
+regarded us as weak and untrustworthy[300].
+
+[Footnote 300: _Ibid_. pp. 225-226.]
+
+The Ameer's irritation increased at the close of the year when the
+Viceroy concluded an important treaty with the Khan of Khelat in
+Baluchistan. It would take us too far from our main path to turn aside
+into the jungle of Baluchee politics. Suffice it to say that the long
+series of civil strifes in that land had come to an end largely owing to
+the influence of Major (afterwards Sir Robert) Sandeman. His fine
+presence, masterful personality, frank, straightforward, and kindly
+demeanour early impressed the Khan and his turbulent Sirdars. In two
+Missions which he undertook to Khelat in the years 1875 and 1876, he
+succeeded in stilling their internal feuds and in clearing away the
+misunderstandings which had arisen with the Indian Government. But he
+saw still further ahead. Detecting signs of foreign intrigue in that
+land, he urged that British mediation should, if possible, become
+permanent. His arguments before long convinced the new Viceroy, Lord
+Lytton, who had at first doubted the advisability of the second Mission;
+and in the course of a tour along the north-west frontier, he held at
+Jacobabad a grand Durbar, which was attended by the Khan of Khelat and
+his once rebellious Sirdars. There on December 8, 1876, he signed a
+treaty with the Khan, whereby the British Government became the final
+arbiter in all disputes between him and his Sirdars, obtained the right
+of stationing British troops in certain parts of Baluchistan, and of
+constructing railways and telegraphs. Three lakhs of rupees were given
+to the Khan, and his yearly subsidy of Rs. 50,000 was doubled[301].
+
+[Footnote 301: _Sir Robert Sandeman_, by T.H. Thornton, chaps, ix.-x.;
+Parl. Papers relating to the Treaty . . . of 8th Dec. 1876; _The Forward
+Policy and its Results_, by R.I. Bruce; _Lord Lytton's Indian
+Administration,_ by Lady Betty Balfour, chap. iii.
+
+The Indian rupee is worth sixteen pence.]
+
+The Treaty of Jacobabad is one of the most satisfactory diplomatic
+triumphs of the present age. It came, not as the sequel to a sanguinary
+war, but as a sign of the confidence inspired in turbulent and sometimes
+treacherous chiefs by the sterling qualities of those able frontier
+statesmen, the Napiers, the Lawrences, General Jacob, and Major
+Sandeman. It spread the _pax Britannica_ over a land as large as Great
+Britain, and quietly brought a warlike people within the sphere of
+influence of India. It may be compared with Bonaparte's Act of Mediation
+in Switzerland (1803), as marking the triumph of a strong organising
+intelligence over factious groups, to which it imparted peace and order
+under the shelter of a generally beneficent suzerainty. Before long a
+strong garrison was posted at Quetta, and we gained the right to enlist
+Baluchee troops of excellent fighting powers. The Quetta position is a
+mountain bastion which strengthens the outer defences of India, just as
+the Alps and Juras, when under Napoleon's control, menaced any invaders
+of France.
+
+This great advantage was weighted by one considerable drawback. The
+victory of British influence in Baluchistan aroused the utmost
+resentment of Shere Ali, who now saw his southern frontier outflanked by
+Britain. Efforts were made in January-February 1877 to come to an
+understanding; but, as Lord Lytton insisted on the admission of British
+Residents to Afghanistan, a long succession of interviews at Peshawur,
+between the Ameer's chief adviser and Sir Lewis Pelly, led to no other
+result than an increase of suspicion on both sides. The Viceroy
+thereupon warned the Ameer that all supplies and subsidies would be
+stopped until he became amenable to advice and ceased to maltreat
+subjects known to be favourable to the British alliance. As a retort the
+Ameer sought to call the border tribes to a _Jehad_, or holy war,
+against the British, but with little success. He had no hold over the
+tribes between Chitral and the Khyber Pass; and the incident served only
+to strengthen the Viceroy's aim of subjecting them to Britain. In the
+case of the Jowakis we succeeded, though only after a campaign which
+proved to be costly in men and money.
+
+In fact, Lord Lytton was now convinced of the need of a radical change
+of frontier policy. He summed up his contentions in the following
+phrases in his despatches of the early summer of 1877:--"Shere Ali has
+irrevocably slipped out of our hands; . . . I conceive that it is rather
+the disintegration and weakening, than the consolidation and
+establishment, of the Afghan power at which we must now begin to aim."
+As for the mountain barrier, in which men of the Lawrence school had
+been wont to trust, he termed it "a military mouse-trap," and he stated
+that Napoleon I. had once for all shown the futility of relying on a
+mountain range that had several passes[302]. These assertions show what
+perhaps were the weak points of Lord Lytton in practical politics--an
+eager and impetuous disposition, too prone to be dazzled by the very
+brilliance of the phrases which he coined.
+
+[Footnote 302: Lady B. Balfour, _op. cit._ pp.166-185, 247-148.]
+
+At the close of his despatch of April 8, 1878, to Lord Cranbrook (Lord
+Salisbury's successor at the India Office) he sketched out, as "the best
+arrangement," a scheme for breaking up the Cabul power and bringing
+about "the creation of a West Afghan Khanate, including Merv, Maimena,
+Balkh, Candahar, and Herat, under some prince of our own selection, who
+would be dependent on our support. With Western Afghanistan thus
+disposed of, and a small station our own, close to our frontier in the
+Kurram valley, the destinies of Cabul itself would be to us a matter of
+no importance[303]."
+
+[Footnote 303: _Ibid_. pp. 246-247.]
+
+This, then, was the new policy in its widest scope. Naturally it met
+with sharp opposition from Lord Lawrence and others in the India Council
+at Whitehall. Besides involving a complete change of front, it would
+naturally lead to war with the Ameer, and (if the intentions about Merv
+were persisted in) with Russia as well. And for what purpose? In order
+that we might gain an advanced frontier and break in pieces the one
+important State which remained as a buffer between India and Russian
+Asia. In the eyes of all but the military men this policy stood
+self-condemned. Its opponents pointed out that doubtless Russian
+intrigues were going on at Cabul; but they were the result of the marked
+hostility between England and Russia in Europe, and a natural retort to
+the sending of Indian troops to Malta. Besides, was it true that British
+influence at Cabul was permanently lost? Might it not be restored by
+money and diplomacy? Or if these means failed, could not affairs be so
+worked at Cabul as to bring about the deposition of the Ameer in favour
+of some claimant who would support England? In any case, the extension
+of our responsibilities to centres so remote as Balkh and Herat would
+overstrain the already burdened finances of India, and impair her power
+of defence at vital points.
+
+These objections seem to have had some weight at Whitehall, for by the
+month of August the Viceroy somewhat lowered his tone; he gave up all
+hope of influencing Merv, and consented to make another effort to win
+back the Ameer, or to seek to replace him by a more tractable prince.
+But, failing this, he advised, though with reluctance on political
+grounds, the conquest and occupation of so much of Afghan territory as
+would "be absolutely requisite for the permanent maintenance of our
+North-West frontier[304]."
+
+[Footnote 304: Lady B. Balfour, _op. cit._ p. 255. For a defence of this
+on military grounds see Lord Roberts' _Forty-One Years in India_, vol.
+ii, p. 187; and Thorburn's _Asiatic Neighbours_, chap. xiv.]
+
+But by this time all hope of peace had become precarious. On June 13,
+the day of opening of the Congress of Berlin, a Russian Mission, under
+General Stolieteff, left Samarcand for Cabul. The Ameer is said to have
+heard this news with deep concern, and to have sought to prevent it
+crossing the frontier. The Russians, however, refused to turn back, and
+entered Cabul on July 22[305]. As will be seen by reference to
+Skobeleff's "Plan for the Invasion of India" (Appendix II.), the Mission
+was to be backed up by columns of troops; and, with the aim of
+redoubling the pressure of Russian diplomacy in Europe, the Minister for
+War at St. Petersburg had issued orders on April 25, 1878, for the
+despatch of three columns of troops which were to make a demonstration
+against India. The chief force, 12,000 strong, with 44 guns and a rocket
+battery, was to march from Samarcand and Tashkend on Cabul; the second,
+consisting of only 1700 men, was to stir up the mountain tribes of the
+Chitral district to raid the north of the Punjab; while the third, of
+the same strength, moved from the middle part of the Amu Daria (Oxus)
+towards Merv and Herat. The main force set out from Tashkend on June 13,
+and after a most trying march reached the Russo-Bokharan border, only to
+find that its toils were fruitless owing to the signature of the Treaty
+of Berlin (July 13). The same disappointing news dispelled the dreams of
+conquest which had nerved the other columns in their burning march.
+
+[Footnote 305: Parl Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1878), pp.242-243;
+_ibid._ Central Asia, No. 1, pp.165 _et seq._]
+
+Thus ended the scheme of invasion of India to which Skobeleff had
+lately given shape and body. In January 1877, while in his Central Asian
+command, he had drawn up a detailed plan, the important parts of which
+will be found in the Appendices of this volume. During the early spring
+of 1878, when the Russian army lay at San Stefano, near Constantinople,
+he drew up another plan of the same tenour. It seems certain that the
+general outline of these projects haunted the minds of officers and men
+in the expeditions just referred to; for the columns withdrew northwards
+most slowly and reluctantly[306].
+
+[Footnote 306: For details see _Russia's Advance towards India_, by "an
+Indian Officer," vol. ii. pp.109 _et seq._]
+
+A perusal of Skobeleff's plan will show that he relied also on a
+diplomatic Mission to Cabul and on the despatch of the Afghan pretender,
+Abdur Rahman, from Samarcand to the Afghan frontier. Both of these
+expedients were adopted in turn; the former achieved a startling but
+temporary success.
+
+As has been stated above, General Stolieteff's Mission entered Cabul on
+July 22. The chief himself returned on August 24; but other members of
+his Mission remained several weeks longer. There seem to be good grounds
+for believing that the Ameer, Shere Ali, signed a treaty with
+Stolieteff; but as to its purport we have no other clue than the draft
+which purports to be written out from memory by a secret agent of the
+Indian Government. Other Russian documents, some of which Lord Granville
+afterwards described as containing "some very disagreeable passages . . .
+written subsequently to the Treaty of Berlin," were found by Lord
+Roberts; and the Russian Government found it difficult to give a
+satisfactory explanation of them[307].
+
+[Footnote 307: The alleged treaty is printed, along with the other
+documents, in Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1881), pp. 17-30. See
+also Lord Roberts' _Forty-one Years in India_, vol. ii. p.477.]
+
+In any case the Government of India could not stand by and witness the
+intrusion of Muscovite influence into Afghanistan. Action, however, was
+very difficult owing to the alienation of the Ameer. His resentment had
+now settled into lasting hatred. As a test question Lord Lytton sought
+to impose on him the reception of a British Mission. On August 8 he
+received telegraphic permission from London to make this demand. The
+Ameer, however, refused to allow a single British officer to enter the
+country; and the death of his son and heir on August 17 enabled him to
+decline to attend to affairs of State for a whole month.
+
+His conduct in this matter was condoned by the champions of "masterly
+inactivity" in this country, who proceeded to accuse the Viceroy of
+haste in sending forward the British Mission to the frontier before the
+full time of mourning was over[308]. We now know, however, that this
+sympathy was misplaced. Shere Ali's grief did not prevent him seeing
+officers of the Russian Mission after his bereavement, and (as it seems)
+signing an alliance with the emissaries of the Czar. Lord Lytton was
+better informed as to the state of things at Cabul than were his very
+numerous critics, one of whom, under the shield of anonymity,
+confidently stated that the Russian Mission to Cabul was either an
+affair of etiquette or a means of warding off a prospective attack from
+India on Russian Turkestan; that the Ameer signed no treaty with the
+Mission, and was deeply embarrassed by its presence; while Lord Lytton's
+treatment of the Ameer was discourteous[309].
+
+[Footnote 308: Duke of Argyll, _The Eastern Question, _vol. ii. pp.
+504-507.]
+
+[Footnote 309: _The Causes of the Afghan War, _pp. 305 _et seq._]
+
+In the light of facts as now known, these charges are seen to be the
+outcome of a vivid imagination or of partisan malice. There can be no
+doubt that Shere Ali had played us false. Apart from his intrigues with
+Russia, he had condoned the murder of a British officer by keeping the
+murderer in office, and had sought to push on the frontier tribes into a
+holy war. Finally, he sent orders to stop the British Mission at Ali
+Musjid, the fort commanding the entrance to the Khyber Pass. This
+action, which occurred on September 22, must be pronounced a deliberate
+insult, seeing that the progress of that Mission had been so timed as
+that it should reach Cabul after the days of mourning were over. In the
+Viceroy's view, the proper retort would have been a declaration of war;
+but again the Home Government imposed caution, urging the despatch of an
+ultimatum so as to give time for repentance at Cabul. It was sent on
+November 2, with the intimation that if no answer reached the frontier
+by November 20, hostilities would begin. No answer came until a later
+date, and then it proved to be of an evasive character.
+
+Such, in brief outline, were the causes of the second Afghan War. In the
+fuller light of to-day it is difficult to account for the passion which
+the discussion of them aroused at the time. But the critics of the
+Government held strong ground at two points. They could show, first,
+that the war resulted in the main from Lord Beaconsfield's persistent
+opposition to Russia in the Eastern Question, also that the Muscovite
+intrigues at Cabul were a natural and very effective retort to the showy
+and ineffective expedient of bringing Indian troops to Malta; in short,
+that the Afghan War was due largely to Russia's desire for revenge.
+
+Secondly, they fastened on what was undoubtedly a weak point in the
+Ministerial case, namely, that Lord Beaconsfield's speech at the Lord
+Mayor's Banquet, on November 9, 1878, laid stress almost solely on the
+need for acquiring a scientific frontier on the north-west of India. In
+the parliamentary debate of December 9 he sought to rectify this mistake
+by stating that he had never asserted that a new frontier was the object
+of the war, but rather a possible consequence. His critics refused to
+accept the correction. They pinned him to his first words. If this were
+so, they said, what need of recounting our complaints against Shere Ali?
+These were merely the pretexts, not the causes, of a war which was to be
+waged solely in the cold-blooded quest for a scientific frontier. Perish
+India, they cried, if her fancied interests required the sacrifice of
+thousands of lives of brave hillmen on the altar of the new Imperialism.
+
+These accusations were logically justifiable against Ministers who dwelt
+largely on that frigid abstraction, the "scientific frontier," and laid
+less stress on the danger of leaving an ally of Russia on the throne of
+Afghanistan. The strong point of Lord Lytton's case lay in the fact that
+the policy of the Gladstone Ministry had led Shere Ali to side with
+Russia; but this fact was inadequately explained, or, at least, not in
+such a way as to influence public opinion. The popular fancy caught at
+the phrase "scientific frontier"; and for once Lord Beaconsfield's
+cleverness in phrase-making conspired to bring about his overthrow.
+
+But the logic of words does not correspond to the logic of facts. Words
+are for the most part simple, downright, and absolute. The facts of
+history are very rarely so. Their importance is very often relative, and
+is conditioned by changing circumstances. It was so with the events that
+led up to the second Afghan War. They were very complex, and could not
+be summed up, or disposed of, by reference to a single formula.
+Undoubtedly the question of the frontier was important; but it did not
+become of supreme importance until, firstly, Shere Ali became our enemy,
+and, secondly, showed unmistakable signs of having a close understanding
+with Russia. Thenceforth it became a matter of vital import for India to
+have a frontier readibly defensible against so strong a combination as
+that of Russia and Afghanistan.
+
+It would be interesting to know what Mr. Gladstone and his supporters
+would have done if they had come into power in the summer of 1878. That
+they blamed their opponents on many points of detail does not prove that
+they would not have taken drastic means to get rid of Shere Ali. In the
+unfortunate state into which affairs had drifted in 1878, how was that
+to be effected without war? The situation then existing may perhaps best
+be summed up in the words which General Roberts penned at Cabul on
+November 22, 1879, after a long and illuminating conversation with the
+new Ameer concerning his father's leanings towards Russia: "Our recent
+rupture with Shere Ali has, in fact, been the means of unmasking and
+checking a very serious conspiracy against the peace and security of our
+Indian Empire[310]."
+
+[Footnote 310: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1880), p. 171.]
+
+Given the situation actually existing in 1878, the action of the British
+Government is justifiable as regards details. The weak point of the
+Beaconsfield policy was this: that the situation need not have existed.
+As far as can be judged from the evidence hitherto published (if we
+except some wild talk on the part of Muscovite Chauvinists), Russia
+would not have interfered in Afghanistan except in order to paralyse
+England's action in Turkish affairs. As has been pointed out above, the
+Afghan trouble was a natural sequel to the opposition offered by
+Disraeli to Russia from the time of the re-opening of the Balkan problem
+in 1875-76; and the consideration of the events to be described in the
+following chapter will add one more to the many proofs already existing
+as to the fatefulness of the blunder committed by him when he wrecked
+the Berlin Memorandum, dissolved the Concert of the Powers, and rendered
+hopeless a peaceful solution of the Eastern Question.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE AFGHAN AND TURKOMAN CAMPAIGNS
+
+     "The Forward Policy--in other words, the policy of
+     endeavouring to extend our influence over, and establish law
+     and order on, that part of the [Indian] Border, where
+     anarchy, murder, and robbery up to the present time have
+     reigned supreme, a policy which has been attended with the
+     happiest results in Baluchistan and on the Gilgit
+     frontier--is necessitated by the incontrovertible fact that a
+     great Military Power is now within striking distance of our
+     Indian possessions, and in immediate contact with a State for
+     the integrity of which we have made ourselves
+     responsible."--LORD ROBERTS: Speech in the House of Lords,
+     March 7, 1898.
+
+
+The operations at the outset of the Afghan War ended with so easy a
+triumph for the British arms that it is needless to describe them in
+much detail. They were planned to proceed at three points on the
+irregular arc of the south-eastern border of Afghanistan. The most
+northerly column, that of General Sir Samuel Browne, had Peshawur as its
+base of supplies. Some 16,000 strong, it easily captured the fort of Ali
+Musjid at the mouth of the Khyber Pass, then threaded that defile with
+little or no opposition, and pushed on to Jelalabad. Around that town
+(rendered famous by General Sale's defence in 1841-2) it dealt out
+punishment to the raiding clans of Afridis.
+
+The column of the centre, acting from Kohat as a base against the Kurram
+Valley, was commanded by a general destined to win renown in the later
+phases of the war. Major-General Roberts represented all that was
+noblest and most chivalrous in the annals of the British Army in India.
+The second son of General Sir Abraham Roberts, G.C.B., and born at
+Cawnpore in 1832, he inherited the traditions of the service which he
+was to render still more illustrious. His frame, short and slight,
+seemed scarcely to fit him for warlike pursuits; and in ages when great
+stature and sturdy sinews were alone held in repute, he might have been
+relegated to civil life; but the careers of William III., Luxemburg,
+Nelson, and Roberts show that wiriness is more essential to a commander
+than animal strength, and that mind rather than muscle determines the
+course of campaigns. That the young aspirant for fame was not deficient
+in personal prowess appeared at Khudaganj, one of the battles of the
+Mutiny, when he captured a standard from two sepoys, and, later on the
+same day, cut down a third sepoy. But it was his clear insight into men
+and affairs, his hold on the principles of war, his alertness of mind,
+and his organising power, that raised him above the crowd of meritorious
+officers who saved India for Britain in those stormy days.
+
+His achievements as Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General at Delhi and
+elsewhere at that time need not be referred to here; for he himself has
+related them in clear, life-like, homely terms which reveal one of the
+sources of his personal influence. Englishmen admire a man who is active
+without being fussy, who combines greatness with simplicity, whose
+kindliness is as devoid of ostentation as his religion is of
+mawkishness, and with whom ambition is ever the handmaid of patriotism.
+The character of a commander perhaps counts for more with British troops
+than with any others, except the French; and the men who marched with
+Roberts from Cabul to Candahar, and from Paardeberg to Bloemfontein,
+could scarcely have carried out those feats of endurance for a general
+who did not possess both their trust and their love.
+
+The devotion of the Kurram column to its chief was soon put to the test.
+After advancing up that valley, girt on both sides with lofty mountains
+and scored with numerous gulleys, the force descried the Peiwar Kotal
+Pass at its head--a precipitous slope furrowed only in one place where a
+narrow zigzag path ran upwards through pines and giant boulders. A
+reconnaissance proved that the Afghans held the upper part in force; and
+for some time Roberts felt the gravest misgivings. Hiding these
+feelings, especially from his native troops, he spent a few days in
+reconnoitring this formidable position. These efforts resulted in the
+discovery by Major Collett of another practicable gorge further to the
+north leading up to a neighbouring height, the Peiwar Spingawi, whence
+the head of the Kotal might possibly be turned.
+
+To divide a column, comprising only 889 British and 2415 native troops,
+and that too in face of the superior numbers of the enemy, was a risky
+enterprise, but General Roberts determined to try the effect of a night
+march up to the Spingawi. He hoped by an attack at dawn on the Afghan
+detachment posted there, to turn the main position on the Kotal, and
+bring about its evacuation. This plan had often succeeded against
+Afghans. Their characteristics both in peace and war are distinctly
+feline. Prone to ease and enjoyment at ordinary times, yet, when stirred
+by lust of blood or booty, they are capable of great feats of swift
+fierce onset; but, like all men and animals dominated by sudden
+impulses, their bravery is fitful, and is apt to give way under
+persistent attack, or when their rear is threatened. The cat-like,
+stalking instinct has something of strategic caution, even in its
+wildest moods; it likes to be sure of the line of retreat[311].
+
+[Footnote 311: General [Sir] J.L. Vaughan, in a Lecture on "Afghanistan
+and the Military Operations therein" (December 6, 1878), said of the
+Afghans: "When resolutely attacked they rarely hold their ground with
+any tenacity, and are always anxious about their rear."]
+
+The British commander counted on exploiting these peculiarities to the
+full by stalking the enemy on their left flank, while he left about 1000
+men to attack them once more in front. Setting out at nightfall of
+December 1, he led the remainder northwards through a side valley, and
+then up a gully on the side of the Spingawi. The ascent through pine
+woods and rocks, in the teeth of an icy wind, was most trying; and the
+movement came near to failure owing to the treachery of two Pathan
+soldiers in the ranks, who fired off their rifles in the hope of warning
+the Afghans above them. The reports, it afterwards transpired, were
+heard by a sentry, who reported the matter to the commander of the
+Afghan detachment; he, for his part, did nothing. Much alarm was felt in
+the British column when the shots rang out in the darkness; a native
+officer hard by came up at once, and, by smelling the rifles of all his
+men, found out the offenders; but as they were Mohammedans, he said
+nothing, in the hope of screening his co-religionists. Later on, these
+facts transpired at a court-martial, whereupon the elder of the two
+offenders, who was also the first to fire, was condemned to death, and
+the younger to a long term of imprisonment. The defaulting officer
+likewise received due punishment[312].
+
+[Footnote 312: Lord Roberts, _Forty-One Years in India_, vol. ii. p. 130
+_et seq_.; Major J.A.S. Colquhoun, _With the Kurram Field Force,
+1878-79_, pp. 101-102.]
+
+After this alarming incident, the 72nd Highlanders were sent forward to
+take the place of the native regiment previously leading; and once more
+the little column struggled on through the darkness up the rocky path.
+Their staunchness met its reward. At dawn the Highlanders and 5th
+Gurkhas charged the Afghan detachment in its entrenchments and
+breastworks of trees, and were soon masters of the Spingawi position. A
+long and anxious time of waiting now ensued, caused by the failure of
+the first frontal attack on the Kotal; but Roberts' pressure on the
+flank of the main Afghan position and another frontal attack sent the
+enemy flying in utter rout, leaving behind guns and waggons. The Kurram
+column had driven eight Afghan regiments and numbers of hillmen from a
+seemingly impregnable position, and now held the second of the outer
+passes leading towards Cabul (December 2, 1878). The Afghans offered but
+slight resistance at the Shutargardan Pass further on, and from that
+point the invaders looked down on valleys that conducted them easily to
+the Ameer's capital[313].
+
+[Footnote 313: Lord Roberts, _op. cit._, vol. ii. pp. 135-149; S.H.
+Shadbolt, _The Afghan Campaigns of 1878-80_, vol. i. pp. 21-25
+(with plan).]
+
+Meanwhile equal success was attending the 3rd British column, that of
+General Biddulph, which operated from Quetta. It occupied Sibi and the
+Khojak Pass; and on January 8, 1879, General Stewart and the vanguard
+reached Candahar, which they entered in triumph. The people seemed to
+regard their entry with indifference. This was but natural. Shere Ali
+had ruined his own cause. Hearing of the first defeats he fled from
+Cabul in company with the remaining members of the Russian Mission still
+at that city (December 13), and made for Afghan Turkestan in the hope of
+inducing his northern allies to give active aid.
+
+He now discovered his error. The Czar's Government had been most active
+in making mischief between England and the Ameer, especially while the
+diplomatic struggle was going on at Berlin; but after the signature of
+the Treaty of Berlin (July 13, 1878), the natural leaning of Alexander
+II. towards peace and quietness began by degrees to assert itself. The
+warlike designs of Kaufmann and his officials in Turkestan received a
+check, though not so promptly as was consistent with strict neutrality.
+
+Gradually the veil fell from the ex-Ameer's eyes. On the day of his
+flight (December 13), he wrote to the "Officers of the British
+Government," stating that he was about to proceed to St. Petersburg,
+"where, before a Congress, the whole history of the transactions between
+myself and yourselves will be submitted to all the Powers[314]." But
+nine days later he published a firman containing a very remarkable
+letter purporting to come from General Stolieteff at Livadia in the
+Crimea, where he was staying with the Czar. After telling him that the
+British desired to come to terms with him (the Ameer) through the
+intervention of the Sultan, the letter proceeded as follows:--
+
+     But the Emperor's desire is that you should not admit the
+     English into your country, and like last year, you are to
+     treat them with deceit and deception until the present cold
+     season passes away. Then the Almighty's will will be made
+     manifest to you, that is to say, the [Russian] Government
+     having repeated the Bismillah, the Bismillah will come to
+     your assistance. In short you are to rest assured that
+     matters will end well. If God permits, we will convene a
+     Government meeting at St. Petersburg, that is to say, a
+     Congress, which means an assemblage of Powers. We will then
+     open an official discussion with the English Government, and
+     either by force of words and diplomatic action we will
+     entirely cut off all English communications and interference
+     with Afghanistan, or else events will end in a mighty and
+     important war. By the help of God, by spring not a symptom or
+     a vestige of trouble and dissatisfaction will remain in
+     Afghanistan.
+
+[Footnote 314: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 7, (1879), p. 9. He also
+states on p. 172 that the advice of the Afghan officials who accompanied
+Shere Ali in his flight was (even in April-May 1879) favourable to a
+Russian alliance, and that they advised Yakub in this sense. See
+Kaufmann's letters to Yakub, in Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No.
+9 (1879).]
+
+It is impossible to think that the Czar had any knowledge of this
+treacherous epistle, which, it is to be hoped, originated with the
+lowest of Russian agents, or emanated from some Afghan chief in their
+pay. Nevertheless the fact that Shere Ali published it shows that he
+hoped for Russian help, even when the British held the keys of his
+country in their hands. But one hope after another faded away, and in
+his last days he must have come to see that he had been merely the
+catspaw of the Russian bear. He died on February 21, 1879, hard by the
+city of Bactra, the modern Balkh.
+
+That "mother of cities" has seen strange vicissitudes. It nourished the
+Zoroastrian and Buddhist creeds in their youth; from its crowded
+monasteries there shone forth light to the teeming millions of Asia,
+until culture was stamped out under the heel of Genghis Khan, and later,
+of Timur. In a still later day it saw the dawning greatness of that most
+brilliant but ill-starred of the Mogul Emperors, Aurungzebe. Its fallen
+temples and convents, stretching over many a mile, proclaim it to be
+the city of buried hopes. There was, then, something fitting in the
+place of Shere Ali's death. He might so readily have built up a powerful
+Afghan State in friendly union with the British Raj; he chose otherwise,
+and ended his life amidst the wreckage of his plans and the ruin of his
+kingdom. This result of the trust which he had reposed in Muscovite
+promises was not lost on the Afghan people and their rulers.
+
+There is no need to detail the events of the first half of the year 1879
+in Afghanistan. On the assembly of Parliament in February, Lord
+Beaconsfield declared that our objects had been attained in that land
+now that the three chief mountain highways between Afghanistan and India
+were completely in our power. It remained to find a responsible ruler
+with whom a lasting peace could be signed. Many difficulties were in the
+way owing to the clannish feuds of the Afghans and the number of
+possible claimants for the crown. Two men stood forth as the most likely
+rulers, Shere Ali's rebellious son, Yakub Khan, who had lately been
+released from his long confinement, and Abdur Rahman, son of Ufzal Khan,
+who was still kept by the Russians in Turkestan under some measure of
+constraint, doubtless in the hope that he would be a serviceable trump
+card in the intricate play of rival interests certain to ensue at Cabul.
+
+About February 20, Yakub sent overtures for peace to the British
+Government; and, as the death of his father at that time greatly
+strengthened his claim, it was favourably considered at London and
+Calcutta. Despite one act at least of flagrant treachery, he was
+recognised as Ameer. On May 8 he entered the British camp at Gandarnak,
+near Jelalabad; and after negotiations, a treaty was signed there, May
+26. It provided for an amnesty, the control of the Ameer's foreign
+policy by the British Government, the establishment of a British
+Resident at Cabul, the construction of a telegraph line to that city,
+the grant of commercial facilities, and the cession to India of the
+frontier districts of Kurram, Pishin, and Sibi (the latter two are near
+Quetta). The British Government retained control over the Khyber and
+Michnee Passes and over the neighbouring tribes (which had never
+definitely acknowledged Afghan rule). It further agreed to pay to the
+Ameer and his successors a yearly subsidy of six lakhs of rupees (nearly
+L50,000)[315].
+
+[Footnote 315: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 7 (1879), p. 23; Roberts,
+_op. cit._ pp. 170-173.]
+
+General Roberts and many others feared that the treaty had been signed
+too hastily, and that the Afghans, "an essentially arrogant and
+conceited people," needed a severer lesson before they acquiesced in
+British suzerainty. But no sense of foreboding depressed Major Sir Louis
+Cavagnari, the gallant and able officer who had carried out so much of
+the work on the frontier, when he proceeded to take up his abode at
+Cabul as British Resident (July 24). The chief danger lay in the Afghan
+troops, particularly the regiments previously garrisoned at Herat, who
+knew little or nothing of British prowess, and whose fanaticism was
+inflamed by arrears of pay. Cavagnari's Journal kept at Cabul ended on
+August 19 with the statement that thirty-three Russians were coming up
+the Oxus to the Afghan frontier. But the real disturbing cause seems to
+have been the hatred of the Afghan troops to foreigners.
+
+Failure to pay was so usual a circumstance in Afghanistan as scarcely to
+account for the events that ensued. Yet it furnished the excuse for an
+outbreak. Early on September 3, when assembled for what proved to be the
+farce of payment at Bala Hissar (the citadel), three regiments mutinied,
+stoned their officers, and then rushed towards the British Embassy.
+These regiments took part in the first onset against an unfortified
+building held by the Mission and a small escort. A steady musketry fire
+from the defenders long held them at bay; but, when joined by townsfolk
+and other troops, the mutineers set fire to the gates, and then,
+bursting in, overpowered the gallant garrison. The Ameer made only
+slight efforts to quell this treacherous outbreak, and, while defending
+his own palaces by faithful troops, sent none to help the envoy. These
+facts, as reported by trustworthy witnesses, did not correspond to the
+magniloquent assurances of fidelity that came from Yakub himself[316].
+
+[Footnote 316: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 1 (1880), pp. 32-42,
+89-96.]
+
+Arrangements were at once made to retrieve this disaster, but staff and
+transport arrangements caused serious delay. At length General Roberts
+was able to advance up the Kurram Valley and carry the Shutargardan Pass
+by storm, an exploit fully equal to his former capture of the Peiwar
+Kotal in the same mountain range. Somewhat further on he met the Ameer,
+and was unfavourably impressed with him: "An insignificant-looking
+man, . . . with a receding forehead, a conical-shaped head, and no chin to
+speak of, . . . possessed moreover of a very shifty eye." Yakub justified
+this opinion by seeking on various pretexts to delay the British
+advance, and by sending to Cabul news as to the numbers of the
+British force.
+
+All told it numbered only 4000 fighting men with 18 cannon.
+Nevertheless, on nearing Cabul, it assailed a strong position at
+Charasia, held by 13 regular regiments of the enemy and some 10,000
+irregulars. The charges of Highlanders (the 72nd and 92nd), Gurkhas, and
+Punjabis proved to be irresistible, and drove the Afghans from two
+ridges in succession. This feat of arms, which bordered on the
+miraculous, served to reveal the feelings of the Ameer in a manner
+equally ludicrous and sinister. Sitting in the British camp, he watched
+the fight with great eagerness, then with growing concern, until he
+finally needed all his oriental composure for the final compliment which
+he bestowed on the victor. Later on it transpired that he and his
+adherents had laid careful plans for profiting by the defeat of the
+venturesome little force, so as to ensure its annihilation[317].
+
+[Footnote 317: Roberts, _op. cit._ vol. ii. pp. 213-224; Hensman, _The
+Afghan War of 1878-1880_.]
+
+The brilliant affair at Charasia served to bring out the conspicuous
+gallantry of two men, who were later on to win distinction in wider
+fields, Major White and Colour-Sergeant Hector Macdonald. White carried
+a ridge at the head of a body of 50 Highlanders. When the enemy fled to
+a second ridge, he resolved to spare the lives of his men by taking a
+rifle and stalking the enemy alone, until he suddenly appeared on their
+flank. Believing that his men were at his back, the Afghans turned
+and fled.
+
+On October 9 Roberts occupied the Siah Sang ridge, overlooking Cabul,
+and on the next day entered the citadel, Bala Hissar, to inspect the
+charred and blood-stained ruins of the British Embassy. In the embers of
+a fire he and his staff found numbers of human bones. On October 12
+Yakub came to the General to announce his intention of resigning the
+Ameership, as "he would rather be a grass-cutter in the English camp
+than ruler of Afghanistan." On the next day the British force entered
+the city itself in triumph, and Roberts put the Ameer's Ministers under
+arrest. The citizens were silent but respectful, and manifested their
+satisfaction when he proclaimed that only those guilty of the
+treacherous attack on the Residency would be punished. Cabul itself was
+much more Russian than English. The Afghan officers wore Russian
+uniforms, Russian goods were sold in the bazaars, and Russian money was
+found in the Treasury. It is evident that the Czar's officials had long
+been pushing on their designs, and that further persistency on the part
+of England in the antiquated policy of "masterly inactivity" would have
+led to Afghanistan becoming a Muscovite satrapy.
+
+The pendulum now swung sharply in favour of India. To that land Roberts
+despatched the ex-Ameer on December 1, on the finding of the Commission
+that he had been guilty of criminal negligence (if not worse) at the
+time of the massacre of Cavagnari and his escort. Two Afghan Sirdars,
+whose guilt respecting that tragedy had been clearly proven, were also
+deported and imprisoned. This caused much commotion, and towards the
+close of the year the preaching of a fanatic, whose name denoted
+"fragrance of the universe," stirred up hatred to the conquerors.
+
+Bands of tribesmen began to cluster around Cabul, and an endeavour to
+disperse them led to a temporary British reverse not far from the
+Sherpur cantonments where Roberts held his troops. The situation was
+serious. As generally happens with Asiatics, the hillmen rose by
+thousands at the news, and beset the line of communications with India.
+Sir Frederick Roberts, however, staunchly held his ground at the Sherpur
+camp, beating off one very serious attack of the tribesmen on December
+20-23. On the next day General Gough succeeded in breaking through from
+Gandamak to his relief. Other troops were hurried up from India, and
+this news ended the anxiety which had throbbed through the Empire at the
+news of Roberts being surrounded near Cabul.
+
+Now that the league of hillmen had been for the time broken up, it
+became more than ever necessary to find a ruler for Afghanistan, and
+settle affairs with all speed. This was also desirable in view of the
+probability of a general election in the United Kingdom in the early
+part of the year 1880, the Ministry wishing to have ready an Afghan
+settlement to act as a soporific drug on the ravening Cerberus of
+democracy at home. Unhappily, the outbreak of the Zulu War on January
+11, 1880, speedily followed by the disaster of Isandlana, redoubled the
+complaints in the United Kingdom, with the result that matters were more
+than ever pressed on in Afghanistan.
+
+Some of the tribes clamoured for the return of Yakub, only to be
+informed by General Roberts that such a step would never be allowed. In
+the midst of this uncertainty, when the hour for the advent of a strong
+man seemed to have struck, he opportunely appeared. Strange to say, he
+came from Russian Turkestan.
+
+As has been stated above, Abdur Rahman, son of Ufzal Khan, had long
+lived there as a pensioner of the Czar; his bravery and skill in
+intrigue had been well known. The Russian writer, Petrovsky, described
+him as longing, above all things, to get square with the English and
+Shere Ali. It was doubtless with this belief in the exile's aims that
+the Russians gave him L2500 and 200 rifles. His advent in Afghanistan
+seemed well calculated to add to the confusion there and to the
+difficulties of England. With only 100 followers he forded the Oxus and,
+early in 1880, began to gather around him a band in Afghan Turkestan.
+His success was startlingly rapid, and by the end of March he was master
+of all that district[318].
+
+[Footnote 318: See his adventures in _The Life of Abdur Rahman, _by
+Sultan Mohammed Khan, vol. ii, chaps, v., vi. He gave out that he came
+to expel the English (pp. 173-175).]
+
+But the political results of this first success were still more
+surprising. Lord Lytton, Sir Frederick Roberts, and Mr. Lepel Griffin
+(political commissioner in Afghanistan) soon saw the advantage of
+treating with him for his succession to the throne of Cabul. The
+Viceroy, however, true to his earlier resolve to break up Afghanistan,
+added the unpleasant condition that the districts of Candahar and Herat
+must now be severed from the north of Afghanistan. Abdur Rahman's first
+request that the whole land should form a neutral State under the joint
+protection of Great Britain and Russia was decisively negatived on the
+ground that the former Power stood pledged by the Treaty of Gandamak not
+to allow the intervention of any foreign State in Afghan affairs. A
+strong man like Abdur Rahman appreciated the decisiveness of this
+statement; and, while holding back his hand with the caution and
+suspicion natural to Afghans, he thenceforth leant more to the British
+side, despite the fact that Lord Lytton had recognised a second Shere
+Ali as "Wali," or Governor of Candahar and its district[319]. On April
+19, Sir Donald Stewart routed a large Afghan force near Ghaznee, and
+thereafter occupied that town. He reached Cabul on May 5. It appeared
+that the resistance of the natives was broken.
+
+[Footnote 319: Roberts, _op. cit._ vol. ii. pp. 315-323.]
+
+Such was the state of affairs when the General Election of April 1880
+installed Mr. Gladstone in power in place of Lord Beaconsfield. As has
+been hinted above, Afghan affairs had helped to bring about this change;
+and the world now waited to see what would be the action of the party
+which had fulminated against the "forward policy" in India. As is
+usually the case after ministerial changes, the new Prime Minister
+disappointed the hopes of his most ardent friends and the fears of his
+bitterest opponents. The policy of "scuttle" was, of course, never
+thought of; but, as the new Government stood pledged to limit its
+responsibilities in India as far as possible, one great change took
+place. Lord Lytton laid down his Viceroyalty when the full results of
+the General Election manifested themselves; and the world saw the
+strange sight of a brilliant and powerful ruler, who took precedence of
+ancient dynasties in India, retiring into private life at the bidding of
+votes silently cast in ballot-boxes far away in islands of the north.
+
+No more startling result of the working of the democratic system has
+ever been seen in Imperial affairs; and it may lead the student of Roman
+History to speculate what might have been the results in that ancient
+Empire if the populace of Italy could honestly have discharged the like
+duties with regard to the action of their proconsuls. Roman policy might
+have lacked some of its stateliness and solidity, but assuredly the
+government of the provinces would have improved. Whatever may be said as
+to the evils of change brought about by popular caprice, they are less
+serious than those which grow up under the shadow of an uncriticised and
+irresponsible bureaucracy.
+
+Some time elapsed before the new Viceroy, Lord Ripon, could take up the
+reins of power. In that interval difficulties had arisen with Abdur
+Rahman, but on July 20 the British authorities at Cabul publicly
+recognised him as Ameer of Northern Afghanistan. The question as to the
+severance of Candahar from Cabul, and the amount of the subsidy to be
+paid to the new ruler, were left open and caused some difference of
+opinion; but a friendly arrangement was practically assured a few
+days later.
+
+For many reasons this was desirable. As far back as April 11, 1880, Mr.
+(now Sir) Lepel Griffin had announced in a Durbar at Cabul that the
+British forces would withdraw from Afghanistan when the Government
+considered that a satisfactory settlement had been made; that it was the
+friend, not the enemy, of Islam, and would keep the sword for its
+enemies. The time had now come to make good these statements. In the
+closing days of July Abdur Rahman was duly installed in power at Cabul,
+and received 19-1/2 lakhs of rupees (L190,500)[320]. Meanwhile his
+champions prepared to evacuate that city and to avenge a disaster which
+had overtaken their arms in the Province of Candahar. On July 29 news
+arrived that a British brigade had been cut to pieces at Maiwand.
+
+[Footnote 320: _The Life of Abdur Rahman_, vol. ii. pp. 197-98. For
+these negotiations and the final recognition, see Parl. Papers,
+Afghanistan, No. 1 (1881), pp. 16-51.]
+
+The fact that we supported the Sirdar named Shere Ali at Candahar seemed
+to blight his authority over the tribesmen in that quarter. All hope of
+maintaining his rule vanished when tidings arrived that Ayub Khan, a
+younger brother of the deported Yakub, was marching from the side of
+Herat to claim the crown. Already the new pretender had gained the
+support of several Afghan chiefs around Herat, and now proclaimed a
+_jehad_, or holy war, against the infidels holding Cabul. With a force
+of 7500 men and 10 guns he left Herat on June 15, and moved towards the
+River Helmand, gathering around him numbers of tribesmen and
+ghazis[321].
+
+[Footnote 321: "A ghazi is a man who, purely for the sake of his
+religion, kills an unbeliever, Kaffir, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, or
+Christian, in the belief that in so doing he gains a sure title to
+Paradise" (R.I. Bruce, _The Forward Policy_, p. 245).]
+
+In order to break this gathering cloud of war betimes, the Indian
+Government ordered General Primrose, who commanded the British garrison
+at Candahar, to despatch a brigade to the Helmand. Accordingly,
+Brigadier-General Burrows, with 2300 British and Indian troops, marched
+out from Candahar on July 11. On the other side of the Helmand lay an
+Afghan force, acting in the British interest, sent thither by the
+Sirdar, Shere Ali. Two days later the whole native force mutinied and
+marched off towards Ayub Khan. Burrows promptly pursued them, captured
+their six guns, and scattered the mutineers with loss.
+
+Even so his position was most serious. In front of him, at no great
+distance, was a far superior force flushed with fanaticism and the hope
+of easy triumph; the River Helmand offered little, if any, protection,
+for at that season it was everywhere fordable; behind him stretched
+twenty-five miles of burning desert. By a speedy retreat across this
+arid zone to Khushk-i-Nakhud, Burrows averted the disaster then
+imminent, but his anxiety to carry out the telegraphic orders of the
+Commander-in-chief, and to prevent Ayub's force from reaching Ghaznee,
+led him into an enterprise which proved to be far beyond his strength.
+
+Hearing that 2000 of the enemy's horsemen and a large number of ghazis
+had hurried forward in advance of the main body to Maiwand, he
+determined to attack them there. At 6.30 A.M. on July 27 he struck camp
+and moved forwards with his little force of 2599 fighting men. Daring
+has wrought wonders in Indian warfare, but rarely has any British
+commander undertaken so dangerous a task as that to which Burrows set
+his hand on that morning.
+
+During his march he heard news from a spy that the Afghan main body was
+about to join their vanguard; but, either because he distrusted the
+news, or hoped even at the last to "pluck the flower, safety, out of the
+nettle, danger," he pushed on and sought to cut through the line of the
+enemy's advance as it made for Maiwand. About 10 A.M. his column passed
+the village of Khig and, crossing a dried watercourse, entered a parched
+plain whereon the fringe of the enemy's force could dimly be seen
+through the thick and sultry air. Believing that he had to deal with no
+large body of men, Burrows pushed on, and two of Lieutenant Maclaine's
+guns began to shell their scattered groups. Like wasps roused to fury,
+the ghazis rushed together as if for a charge, and lines of Afghan
+regulars came into view. The deceitful haze yielded up its secret.
+Burrows' brigade stood face to face with 15,000 Afghans. Moreover some
+influence, baleful to England, kept back those Asiatics from their
+usually heedless rush. Their guns came up and opened fire on Burrows'
+line. Even the white quivering groups of their ghazis forebore to charge
+with their whetted knives, but clung to a gully which afforded good
+cover 500 yards away from the British front and right flank; there the
+Afghan regulars galled the exposed khaki line, while their cannon, now
+numbering thirty pieces, kept up a fire to which Maclaine's twelve guns
+could give no adequate reply.
+
+[Illustration: Battle of Maiwand]
+
+It has been stated by military critics that Burrows erred in letting the
+fight at the outset become an affair of artillery, in which he was
+plainly the weaker. Some of his guns were put out of action; and in that
+open plain there was no cover for the fighting line, the reserves, or
+the supporting horse. All of them sustained heavy losses from the
+unusually accurate aim of the Afghan gunners. But the enemy had also
+suffered under our cannonade and musketry; and it is consonant with the
+traditions of Indian warfare to suppose that a charge firmly pushed home
+at the first signs of wavering in the hostile mass would have retrieved
+the day. Plassey and Assaye were won by sheer boldness. Such a chance is
+said to have occurred about noon at Maiwand. However that may be,
+Burrows decided to remain on the defensive, perhaps because the hostile
+masses were too dense and too full of fight to warrant the adoption of
+dashing tactics.
+
+After the sun passed his zenith the enemy began to press on the front
+and flanks. Burrows swung round his wings to meet these threatening
+moves; but, as the feline and predatory instincts of the Afghans kindled
+more and more at the sight of the weak, bent, and stationary line, so
+too the _morale_ of the defenders fell. The British and Indian troops
+alike were exhausted by the long march and by the torments of thirst in
+the sultry heat. Under the fire of the Afghan cannon and the frontal and
+flank advance of the enemy, the line began to waver about 2 P.M., and
+two of the foremost guns were lost. A native regiment in the centre,
+Jacob's Rifles, fled in utter confusion and spread disorder on the
+flanks, where the 1st Bombay Grenadiers and the 66th line regiment had
+long maintained a desperate fight. General Nuttall now ordered several
+squadrons of the 3rd Light Cavalry and 3rd Sind Horse to recover the
+guns and stay the onrushing tide, but their numbers were too small for
+the task, and the charge was not pressed home. Finally the whole mass of
+pursued and pursuers rolled towards the village of Khig and its outlying
+enclosures.
+
+There a final stand was made. Colonel Galbraith and about one hundred
+officers and men of the 66th threw themselves into a garden enclosure,
+plied the enemy fiercely with bullets, and time after time beat back
+every rush of the ghazis, now rioting in that carnival of death.
+Surrounded by the flood of the Afghan advance, the little band fought
+on, hopeless of life, but determined to uphold to the last the honour
+of their flag and country. At last only eleven were left. These heroes
+determined to die in the open; charging out on the masses around, they
+formed square, and back to back stood firing on the foe. Not until the
+last of them fell under the Afghan rifles did the ghazis venture to
+close in with their knives, so dauntless had been the bearing of this
+band[322].
+
+[Footnote 322: Report of General Primrose in Parl. Papers, Afghanistan,
+No. 3 (1880), p. 156.]
+
+They had not fought in vain. Their stubborn stand held back the Afghan
+pursuit and gave time for the fugitives to come together on the way back
+to Candahar. Had the pursuit been pushed on with vigour few, if any,
+could have survived. Even so, Maiwand was one of the gravest disasters
+ever sustained by our Indian army. It cost Burrows' force nearly half
+its numbers; 934 officers and men were killed and 175 wounded. The
+strange disproportion between these totals may serve as a measure of the
+ferocity of Afghans in the hour of victory. Of the non-combatants 790
+fell under the knives of the ghazis. The remnant struggled towards
+Candahar, whence, on the 28th, General Primrose despatched a column to
+the aid of the exhausted survivors. In the citadel of that fortress
+there mustered as many as 4360 effectives as night fell. But what were
+these in face of Ayub's victorious army, now joined by tribesmen eager
+for revenge and plunder[323]?
+
+[Footnote 323: S.H. Shadbolt, _The Afghan Campaigns of_ 1878-80, pp.
+96-100. Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 2 (1880), p. 21; No. 3, pp.
+103-5; Lord Roberts, _op. cit._ vol. ii. pp. 333-5; Hensman, _op. cit._
+pp. 553-4.]
+
+In face of this disaster, the British generals in Northern Afghanistan
+formed a decision commendable alike for its boldness and its sagacity.
+They decided to despatch at once all available troops from Cabul to the
+relief of the beleaguered garrison at Candahar. General Sir Frederick
+Roberts had handed over the command at Cabul to Sir Donald Stewart, and
+was about to operate among the tribes on the Afghan frontier when the
+news of the disaster sent him hurrying back to confer with the new
+commander-in-chief. Together they recommended the plan named above.
+
+It involved grave dangers: for affairs in the north of Afghanistan were
+unsettled; and to withdraw the rest of our force from Cabul to the
+Khyber would give the rein to local disaffection. The Indian authorities
+at Simla inclined to the despatch of the force at Quetta, comprising
+seven regiments of native troops, from Bombay. The route was certainly
+far easier; for, thanks to the toil of engineers, the railway from the
+Indus Valley towards Quetta had been completed up to a point in advance
+of Sibi; and the labours of Major Sandeman, Bruce, and others, had kept
+that district fairly quiet[324]. But the troops at Quetta and Pishin
+were held to be incapable of facing a superior force of victorious
+Afghans. At Cabul there were nine regiments of infantry, three of
+cavalry, and three mountain-batteries, all of them British or picked
+Indian troops. On August 3, Lord Ripon telegraphed his permission for
+the despatch of the Cabul field-force to Candahar. It amounted to 2835
+British (the 72nd and 92nd Highlanders and 2nd battalion of the 60th
+Rifles, and 9th Lancers), 7151 Indian troops, together with 18 guns. On
+August 9 it struck camp and set out on a march which was destined to
+be famous.
+
+[Footnote 324: _Colonel Sandeman: His Life and Work on our Indian
+Frontier,_ by T.H. Thornton; R.I. Bruce, _The Forward Policy and its
+Results_ (1900), chaps. iv. v.; _Candahar in 1879; being the Diary of
+Major Le Mesurier, R.E._ (1880). The last had reported in 1879 that the
+fortifications of Candahar were weak and the citadel in bad repair.]
+
+Fortunately before it left the Cabul camp on August 9, matters were
+skilfully arranged by Mr. Griffin with Abdur Rahman, on terms which will
+be noticed presently. In spite of one or two suspicious incidents, his
+loyalty to the British cause now seemed to be assured, and that, too, in
+spite of the remonstrances of many of his supporters. He therefore sent
+forward messengers to prepare the way for Roberts' force. They did so by
+telling the tribesmen that the new Ameer was sending the foreign army
+out of the land by way of Candahar! This pleasing fiction in some
+measure helped on the progress of the force, and the issue of events
+proved it to be no very great travesty of the truth.
+
+Every possible device was needed to ensure triumph over physical
+obstacles. In order to expedite the march through the difficult country
+between Cabul and Candahar, no wheeled guns or waggons went with the
+force. As many as 8000 native bearers or drivers set out with the force,
+but very many of them deserted, and the 8255 horses, mules and donkeys
+were thenceforth driven by men told off from the regiments. The line of
+march led at first through the fertile valley of the River Logar, where
+the troops and followers were able to reap the ripening crops and
+subsist in comfort. Money was paid for the crops thus appropriated.
+After leaving this fertile district for the barren uplands, the question
+of food and fuel became very serious; but it was overcome by ingenuity
+and patience, though occasional times of privation had to be faced, as,
+for instance, when only very small roots were found for the cooking of
+corn and meat. A lofty range, the Zamburak Kotal, was crossed with great
+toil and amidst biting cold at night-time; but the ability of the
+commander, the forethought and organising power of his Staff, and the
+hardihood of the men overcame all trials and obstacles.
+
+The army then reached the more fertile districts around Ghazni, and on
+August 15 gained an entry without resistance to that once formidable
+stronghold. Steady marching brought the force eight days later to the
+hill fort of Kelat-i-Ghilzai, where it received a hearty welcome from
+the British garrison of 900 men. Sir Frederick Roberts determined to
+take on these troops with him, as he needed all his strength to cope
+with the growing power of Yakub. After a day's rest (well earned, seeing
+that the force had traversed 225 miles in 14 days), the column set forth
+on its last stages, cheered by the thought of rescuing their comrades at
+Candahar, but more and more oppressed by the heat, which, in the lower
+districts of South Afghanistan, is as fierce as anywhere in the world.
+Mr. Hensman, the war correspondent of the _Daily News,_ summed up in one
+telling phrase the chief difficulties of the troops. "The sun laughed to
+scorn 100 deg. F. in the shade." On the 27th the commander fell with a sharp
+attack of fever.
+
+Nevertheless he instructed the Indian cavalry to push on to Robat and
+open up heliographic communication with Candahar. It then transpired
+that the approach of the column had already changed the situation.
+Already, on August 23, Ayub had raised the siege and retired to the
+hills north of the city. That relief came none too soon appeared on the
+morning of the 31st, when the thin and feeble cheering that greeted the
+rescuers on their entrance to the long beleaguered town told its sad
+tale of want, disease, and depression of heart. The men who had marched
+313 miles in 22 days--an average of 14-1/4 miles a day--felt a thrill of
+sympathy, not unmixed with disgust in some cases, at the want of spirit
+too plainly discernible among the defenders. The Union Jack was not
+hoisted on the citadel until the rescuers were near at hand[325].
+General Roberts might have applied to them Hecuba's words to Priam:--
+
+     Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis
+     Tempus eget.
+
+As for the _morale_ of the relieving force, it now stood at the zenith,
+as was seen on the following day. Framing his measures so as to
+encourage Ayub to stand his ground, Roberts planned his attack in the
+way that had already led to success, namely, a frontal attack more
+imposing than serious, while the enemy's flank was turned and his
+communications threatened. These moves were carried out by Generals Ross
+and Baker with great skill. Under the persistent pressure of the British
+onset the Afghans fell back from position to position, north-west of
+Candahar; until finally Major White with the 92nd, supported by Gurkhas
+and the 23rd Pioneers, drove them back to their last ridge, the Baba
+Wali Kotal, swarmed up its western flank, and threw the whole of the
+hostile mass in utter confusion into the plain beyond. Owing to the very
+broken nature of the ground, few British and Indian horsemen were at
+hand to reap the full fruits of victory; but many of Ayub's regulars and
+ghazis fell under their avenging sabres. The beaten force deserved no
+mercy. When the British triumph was assured, the Afghan chief ordered
+his prisoner, Lieutenant Maclaine, to be butchered; whereupon he himself
+and his suite took to flight. The whole of his artillery, twenty-seven
+pieces, including the two British guns lost at Maiwand, fell into the
+victor's hands. In fact, Ayub's force ceased to exist; many of his
+troops at once assumed the garb of peaceful cultivators, and the
+Pretender himself fled to Herat[326].
+
+[Footnote 325: Roberts, _op. cit._ vol. ii. p. 357.]
+
+[Footnote 326: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 3 (1880), p. 82. Hensman,
+_The Afghan War;_ Shadbolt, _op. cit._ pp. 108-110. The last reckons
+Ayub's force at 12,800, of whom 1200 were slain.]
+
+Thus ended an enterprise which, but for the exercise of the highest
+qualities on the part of General Roberts, his Staff, the officers, and
+rank and file, might easily have ended in irretrievable disaster. This
+will appear from the following considerations. The question of food and
+water during a prolonged march in that parched season of the year might
+have caused the gravest difficulties; but they were solved by a wise
+choice of route along or near water-courses where water could generally
+be procured. The few days when little or no water could be had showed
+what might have happened. Further, the help assured by the action of the
+Ameer's emissaries among the tribesmen was of little avail after the
+valley of the Logar was left behind. Many of the tribes were actively
+hostile, and cut off stragglers and baggage-animals.
+
+Above and beyond these daily difficulties, there was the problem as to
+the line of retreat to be taken in case of a reverse inflicted by the
+tribes _en route._ The army had given up its base of operations; for at
+the same time the remaining British and Indian regiments at Cabul were
+withdrawn to the Khyber Pass. True, there was General Phayre's force
+holding Quetta, and endeavouring to stretch out a hand towards Candahar;
+but the natural obstacles and lack of transport prevented the arrival of
+help from that quarter. It is, however, scarcely correct to say that
+Roberts had no line of retreat assured in case of defeat[327]. No
+serious fighting was to be expected before Candahar; for the Afghan
+plundering instinct was likely to keep Ayub near to that city, where the
+garrison was hard pressed. After leaving Ghazni, the Quetta route became
+the natural way of retirement.
+
+[Footnote 327: Shadbolt, _op. cit._ p. 107.]
+
+As it happened, the difficulties were mainly those inflicted by the
+stern hand of Nature herself; and their severity may be gauged by the
+fact that out of a well-seasoned force of less than 10,000 fighting men
+as many as 940 sick had at once to go into hospital at Candahar. The
+burning days and frosty nights of the Afghan uplands were more fatal
+than the rifles of Ayub and the knives of the ghazis. As Lord Roberts
+has modestly admitted, the long march gained in dramatic effect because
+for three weeks he and his army were lost to the world, and, suddenly
+emerging from the unknown, gained a decisive triumph. But, allowing for
+this element of picturesqueness, so unusual in an age when the daily din
+of telegrams dulls the perception of readers, we may still maintain that
+the march from Cabul to Candahar will bear comparison with any similar
+achievement in modern history.
+
+The story of British relations with Afghanistan is one which
+illustrates the infinite capacity of our race to "muddle through" to
+some more or less satisfactory settlement. This was especially the case
+in the spring and summer of 1880, when the accession of Mr. Gladstone to
+power and the disaster of Maiwand changed the diplomatic and military
+situation. In one sense, and that not a cryptic one, these events served
+to supplement one another. They rendered inevitable the entire
+evacuation of Afghanistan. That, it need hardly be said, was the policy
+of Mr. Gladstone, of the Secretary for India, Lord Hartington (now Duke
+of Devonshire), and of Lord Ripon.
+
+On one point both parties were agreed. Events had shown how undesirable
+it was to hold Cabul and Central Afghanistan. The evacuation of all
+these districts was specified in Lord Lytton's last official Memorandum,
+that which he signed on June 7, 1880, as certain to take place as soon
+as the political arrangements at Cabul were duly settled. The retiring
+Viceroy, however, declared that in his judgment the whole Province of
+Candahar must be severed from the Cabul Power, whether Abdur Rahman
+assented to it or not[328]. Obviously this implied the subjection of
+Candahar to British rule in some form. General Roberts himself argued
+stoutly for the retention of that city and district; and so did most of
+the military men. Lord Wolseley, on the other hand, urged that it would
+place an undesirable strain upon the resources of India, and that the
+city could readily be occupied from the Quetta position, if ever the
+Russians advanced to Herat. The Cabinet strongly held this opinion. The
+exponents of Whig ideas, Lord Hartington and the Duke of Argyll, herein
+agreeing with the exponents of a peaceful un-Imperial commercialism, Mr.
+Bright and Mr. Chamberlain. Consequently the last of the British troops
+were withdrawn from Candahar on April 15, 1881.
+
+[Footnote 328: Lady B. Balfour, _op. cit._ pp. 430, 445. On June 8 Lord
+Ripon arrived at Simla and took over the Viceroyalty from Lord Lytton;
+the latter was raised to an earldom.]
+
+The retirement was more serious in appearance than in reality. The war
+had brought some substantial gains. The new frontier acquired by the
+Treaty of Gandamak--and the terms of that compact were practically void
+until Roberts' victory at Candahar gave them body and life--provided
+ample means for sending troops easily to the neighbourhood of Cabul,
+Ghazni, and Candahar; and experience showed that troops kept in the hill
+stations on the frontier preserved their mettle far better than those
+cantoned in or near the unhealthy cities just named. The Afghans had
+also learnt a sharp lesson of the danger and futility of leaning on
+Russia; and to this fact must be attributed the steady adherence of the
+new Ameer to the British side.
+
+Moreover, the success of his rule depended largely on our evacuation of
+his land. Experience has shown that a practically independent and united
+Afghanistan forms a better barrier to a Russian advance than an
+Afghanistan rent by the fanatical feuds that spring up during a foreign
+occupation. Finally, the great need of India after the long famine was
+economy. A prosperous and contented India might be trusted to beat off
+any army that Russia could send; a bankrupt India would be the
+breeding-ground of strife and mutiny; and on these fell powers Skobeleff
+counted as his most formidable allies[329].
+
+[Footnote 329: See Appendix; also Lord Hartington's speeches in the
+House of Commons, March 25-6, 1881]
+
+It remained to be seen whether Abdur Rahman could win Candahar and
+Herat, and, having won them, keep them. At first Fortune smiled on his
+rival, Ayub. That pretender sent a force from Herat southwards against
+the Ameer's troops, defeated them, and took Candahar (July 1881). But
+Abdur Rahman had learnt to scorn the shifts of the fickle goddess. With
+a large force he marched to that city, bought over a part of Ayub's
+following, and then utterly defeated the remainder. This defeat was the
+end of Ayub's career. Flying back to Herat, he found it in the hands of
+the Ameer's supporters, and was fain to seek refuge in Persia. Both of
+these successes seem to have been due to the subsidies which the new
+Ameer drew from India[330].
+
+[Footnote 330: Abdur Rahman's own account (_op. cit._ ch. ix.) ascribes
+his triumph to his own skill and to Ayub's cowardice.]
+
+We may here refer to the last scene in which Ayub played a part before
+Englishmen. Foiled of his hopes in Persia, he finally retired to India.
+At a later day he appeared as a pensioner on the bounty of that
+Government at a review held at Rawal Pindi in the Punjab in honour of
+the visit of H.R.H. Prince Victor. The Prince, on being informed of his
+presence, rode up to his carriage and saluted the fallen Sirdar. The
+incident profoundly touched the Afghans who were present. One of them
+said: "It was a noble act. It shows that you English are worthy to be
+the rulers of this land[331]."
+
+[Footnote 331: _Eighteen Years in the Khyber Pass (1879-1898)_, by
+Colonel Sir R. Warburton, p. 213. The author's father had married a
+niece of the Ameer Dost Mohammed.]
+
+The Afghans were accustomed to see the conquered crushed and scorned by
+the conqueror. Hence they did not resent the truculent methods resorted
+to by Abdur Rahman in the consolidation of his power. In his relentless
+grip the Afghan tribes soon acquired something of stability. Certainly
+Lord Lytton never made a wiser choice than that of Abdur Rahman for the
+Ameership; and, strange to say, that choice obviated the evils which the
+Viceroy predicted as certain to accrue from the British withdrawal from
+Candahar[332]. Contrasting the action of Great Britain towards himself
+with that of Russia towards Shere Ali in his closing days, the new Ameer
+could scarcely waver in his choice of an alliance. And while he held the
+Indian Government away at arm's length, he never wavered at heart.
+
+[Footnote 332: Lord Lytton's speech in the House of Lords, Jan. 1881.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For in the meantime Russia had resumed her southward march, setting to
+work with the doggedness that she usually displays in the task of
+avenging slights and overbearing opposition. The penury of the
+exchequer, the plots of the Nihilists, and the discontent of the whole
+people after the inglorious struggle with Turkey, would have imposed on
+any other Government a policy of rest and economy. To the stiff
+bureaucracy of St. Petersburg these were so many motives for adopting a
+forward policy in Asia. Conquests of Turkoman territory would bring
+wealth, at least to the bureaucrats and generals; and military triumphs
+might be counted on to raise the spirit of the troops, silence the talk
+about official peculations during the Turkish campaign, and act in the
+manner so sagaciously pointed out by Henry IV. to Prince Hal:--
+
+                          Therefore, my Harry,
+     Be it thy course to busy giddy minds
+     With foreign quarrels, that action, hence borne out,
+     May waste the memory of the former days.
+
+In the autumn of 1878 General Lomakin had waged an unsuccessful campaign
+against the Tekke Turkomans, and finally fell back with heavy losses on
+Krasnovodsk, his base of operations on the Caspian Sea. In the summer of
+1879 another expedition set out from that port to avenge the defeat.
+Owing to the death of the chief, Lomakin again rose to the command. His
+bad dispositions at the climax of the campaign led him to a more serious
+disaster. On coming up to the fortress of Denghil Tepe, near the town of
+Geok Tepe, he led only 1400 men, or less than half of his force, to
+bombard and storm a stronghold held by some 15,000 Turkomans, and
+fortified on the plan suggested by a British officer, Lieutenant
+Butler[333]. Preluding his attack by a murderous cannonade, he sent
+round his cavalry to check the flight of the faint-hearted among the
+garrison; and, before his guns had fully done their work, he ordered the
+whole line to advance and carry the walls by storm. At once the Turkoman
+fire redoubled in strength, tore away the front of every attacking
+party, and finally drove back the assailants everywhere with heavy loss
+(Sept. 9, 1879). On the morrow the invaders fell back on the River Atrek
+and thence made their way back to the Caspian in sore straits[334].
+
+[Footnote 333: This officer wrote to the _Globe_ on January 25, 1881,
+stating that he had fortified two other posts east of Denghil Tepe. This
+led Skobeleff to push on to Askabad after the capture of that place; but
+he found no strongholds. See Marvin's _Russian Advance towards
+India_, p. 85.]
+
+[Footnote 334: Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1880), pp. 167-173,
+182.]
+
+The next year witnessed the advent of a great soldier on the scene.
+Skobeleff, the stormy petrel of Russian life, the man whose giant frame
+was animated by a hero's soul, who, when pitched from his horse in the
+rush on one of the death-dealing redoubts at Plevna, rose undaunted to
+his feet, brandished his broken sword in the air and yelled at the enemy
+a defiance which thrilled his broken lines to a final mad charge over
+the rampart--Skobeleff was at hand. He had culled his first laurels at
+Khiva and Khokand, and now came to the shores of the Caspian to carry
+forward the standards which he hoped one day to plant on the walls of
+Delhi. That he cherished this hope is proved by the Memorandum which
+will be found in the Appendix of this volume. His disclaimer of any such
+intention to Mr. Charles Marvin (which will also be found there) shows
+that under his frank exterior there lay hidden the strain of Oriental
+duplicity so often found among his countrymen in political life.
+
+At once the operations felt the influence of his active, cheery, and
+commanding personality. The materials for a railway which had been lying
+unused at Bender were now brought up; and Russia found the money to set
+about the construction of a railway from Michaelovsk to the Tekke
+Turkoman country--an undertaking which was destined wholly to change the
+conditions of warfare in South Turkestan and on the Afghan border. By
+the close of the year more than forty miles were roughly laid down, and
+Skobeleff was ready for his final advance from Kizil Arvat towards
+Denghil Tepe.
+
+Meanwhile the Tekkes had gained reinforcements from their kinsmen in the
+Merv oasis, and had massed nearly 40,000 men--so rumour ran--at their
+stronghold. Nevertheless, they offered no serious resistance to the
+Russian advance, doubtless because they hoped to increase the
+difficulties of his retreat after the repulse which they determined to
+inflict at their hill fortress. But Skobeleff excelled Lomakin in skill
+no less than in prowess and magnetic influence. He proceeded to push his
+trenches towards the stronghold, so that on January 23, 1881, his men
+succeeded in placing 2600 pounds of gunpowder under the south-eastern
+corner of the rampart. Early on the following day the Russians began the
+assault; and while cannon and rockets wrought death and dismay among the
+ill-armed defenders, the mighty shock of the explosion tore away fifty
+yards of their rampart.
+
+At once the Russian lines moved forward to end the work begun by
+gunpowder. With the blare of martial music and with ringing cheers, they
+charged at the still formidable walls. A young officer, Colonel
+Kuropatkin, who has since won notoriety in other lands, was ready with
+twelve companies to rush into the breach. Their leading files swarmed up
+it before the Tekkes fully recovered from the blow dealt by the hand of
+western science; but then the brave nomads closed in on foes with whom
+they could fight, and brought the storming party to a standstill.
+Skobeleff was ready for the emergency. True to his Plevna tactics of
+ever feeding an attack at the crisis with new troops, he hurled forward
+two battalions of the line and companies of dismounted Cossacks. These
+pushed on the onset, hewed their way through all obstacles, and soon met
+the smaller storming parties which had penetrated at other points. By 1
+p.m. the Russian standard waved in triumph from the central hill of the
+fortress, and thenceforth bands of Tekkes began to stream forth into the
+desert on the further side.
+
+Now Skobeleff gave to his foes a sharp lesson, which, he claimed, was
+the most merciful in the end. He ordered his men, horse and foot alike,
+to pursue the fugitives and spare no one. Ruthlessly the order was
+obeyed. First, the flight of grape shot from the light guns, then the
+bayonet, and lastly the Cossack lance, strewed the plain with corpses
+of men, women, and children; darkness alone put an end to the butchery,
+and then the desert for eleven miles eastwards of Denghil Tepe bore
+witness to the thoroughness of Muscovite methods of warfare. All the men
+within the fortress were put to the sword. Skobeleff himself estimated
+the number of the slain at 20,000[335]. Booty to the value of L600,000
+fell to the lot of the victors. Since that awful day the once predatory
+tribes of Tekkes have given little trouble. Skobeleff sent his righthand
+man, Kuropatkin, to occupy Askabad, and reconnoitre towards Merv. But
+these moves were checked by order of the Czar.
+
+[Footnote 335: _Siege and Assault of Denghil Tepe_. By General Skobeleff
+(translated). London, 1881.]
+
+A curious incident, told to Lord Curzon, illustrates the dread in which
+Russian troops have since been held. At the opening of the railway to
+Askabad, five years later, the Russian military bands began to play. At
+once the women and children there present raised cries and shrieks of
+dread, while the men threw themselves on the ground. They imagined that
+the music was a signal for another onslaught like that which preluded
+the capture of their former stronghold[336].
+
+[Footnote 336: _Russia in Central Asia in 1889_. By the Hon. G.N. Curzon
+(1889), p. 83.]
+
+This victory proved to be the last of Skobeleff's career. The Government
+having used their knight-errant, now put him on one side as too
+insubordinate and ambitious for his post. To his great disgust, he was
+recalled. He did not long survive. Owing to causes that are little
+known, among which a round of fast-living is said to have played its
+part, he died suddenly from failure of the heart at his residence near
+Moscow (July 7 1882). Some there were who whispered dark things as to
+his militant notions being out of favour with the new Czar, Alexander
+III.; others pointed significantly to Bismarck. Others again prattled of
+Destiny; but the best comment on the death of Skobeleff would seem to be
+that illuminating saying of Novalis--"Character is Destiny." Love of
+fame prompted in him the desire one day to measure swords with Lord
+Roberts in the Punjab; but the coarser strain in his nature dragged him
+to earth at the age of thirty-nine.
+
+The accession of Alexander III., after the murder of his father on March
+13, 1881, promised for a short time to usher in a more peaceful policy;
+but, in truth, the last important diplomatic assurance of the reign of
+Alexander II. was that given by the Minister M. de Giers, to Lord
+Dufferin, as to Russia's resolve not to occupy Merv. "Not only do we not
+want to go there, but, happily, there is nothing which can require us to
+go there."
+
+In spite of a similar assurance given on April 5 to the Russian
+ambassador in London, both the need and the desire soon sprang into
+existence. Muscovite agents made their way to the fruitful oasis of
+Merv; and a daring soldier, Alikhanoff, in the guise of a merchant's
+clerk, proceeded thither early in 1882, skilfully distributed money to
+work up a Russian party, and secretly sketched a plan of the fortress.
+Many chiefs and traders opposed Russia bitterly, for our brilliant and
+adventurous countryman, O'Donovan, while captive there, sought to open
+their eyes to the coming danger. But England's influence had fallen to
+zero since Skobeleff's victory and her own withdrawal from
+Candahar[337].
+
+[Footnote 337: C. Marvin, _Merv, the Queen of the World_ (1881); E.
+O'Donovan, _The Merv Oasis_, 2 vols. (1882-83), and _Merv_ (1883).]
+
+In 1882 a Russian Engineer officer, Lessar, in the guise of a scientific
+explorer, surveyed the route between Merv and Herat, and found that it
+presented far fewer difficulties than had been formerly reported to
+exist[338]. Finally, in 1884, the Czar's Government sought to revenge
+itself for Britain's continued occupation of Egypt by fomenting trouble
+near the Afghan border. Alikhanoff then reappeared, not in disguise,
+browbeat the hostile chieftains at Merv by threats of a Russian
+invasion, and finally induced them to take an oath of allegiance to
+Alexander III. (Feb. 12, 1884)[339].
+
+[Footnote 338: See his reports in Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1
+(1884), pp. 26, 36, 39, 63, 96, 106.]
+
+[Footnote 339: _Ibid_. p. 119.]
+
+There was, however, some reason for Russia's violation of her repeated
+promises respecting Merv. In practical politics the theory of
+compensation has long gained an assured footing; and, seeing that
+Britain had occupied Egypt partly as the mandatory of Europe, and now
+refused to evacuate that land, the Russian Government had a good excuse
+for retaliation. As has happened at every time of tension between the
+two Empires since 1855, the Czar chose to embarrass the Island Power by
+pushing on towards India. As a matter of fact, the greater the pressure
+that Russia brought to bear on the Afghan frontier, the greater became
+the determination of England not to withdraw from Egypt. Hence, in the
+years 1882-4, both Powers plunged more deeply into that "vicious circle"
+in which the policy of the Crimean War had enclosed them, and from which
+they have never freed themselves.
+
+The fact is deplorable. It has produced endless friction and has
+strained the resources of two great Empires; but the allegation of
+Russian perfidy in the Merv affair may be left to those who look at
+facts solely from the insular standpoint. In the eyes of patriotic
+Russians England was the offender, first by opposing Muscovite policy
+tooth and nail in the Balkans, secondly by seizing Egypt, and thirdly by
+refusing to withdraw from that commanding position. The important fact
+to notice is that after each of these provocations Russia sought her
+revenge on that flank of the British Empire to which she was guided by
+her own sure instincts and by the shrieks of insular Cassandras. By
+moving a few sotnias of Cossacks towards Herat she compelled her rival
+to spend a hundredfold as much in military preparations in India.
+
+It is undeniable that Russia's persistent breach of her promises in
+Asiatic affairs exasperated public opinion, and brought the two Empires
+to the verge of war. Conduct of that description baffles the resources
+of diplomacy, which are designed to arrange disputes. Unfortunately,
+British foreign affairs were in the hands of Lord Granville, whose
+gentle reproaches only awakened contempt at St. Petersburg. The recent
+withdrawal of Lord Dufferin from St. Petersburg to Constantinople, on
+the plea of ill-health, was also a misfortune; but his appointment to
+the Viceroyalty of India (September 1884) placed at Calcutta a
+Governor-General superior to Lord Ripon in diplomatic experience.
+
+There was every need for the exercise of ability and firmness both at
+Westminster and Calcutta. The climax in Russia's policy of lance-pricks
+was reached in the following year; and it has been assumed, apparently
+on good authority, that the understanding arrived at by the three
+Emperors in their meeting at Skiernewice (September 1884) implied a
+tacit encouragement of Russia's designs in Central Asia, however much
+they were curbed in the Balkan Peninsula. This was certainly the aim of
+Bismarck, and that he knew a good deal about Russian movements is clear
+from his words to Busch on November 24, 1884: "Just keep a sharp
+look-out on the news from Afghanistan. Something will happen there
+soon[340]."
+
+[Footnote 340: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, vol. iii.
+pp. 124, 133 (Eng. ed.).]
+
+This was clearly more than a surmise. At that time an Anglo-Russian
+Boundary Commission was appointed to settle the many vexed questions
+concerning the delimitation of the Russo-Afghan boundary. General Sir
+Peter Lumsden proceeded to Sarrakhs, expecting there to meet the Russian
+Commissioners by appointment in the middle of October 1884. On various
+pretexts the work of the Commission was postponed in accordance with
+advices sent from St. Petersburg. The aim of this dilatory policy soon
+became evident. That was the time when (as will appear in Chapter XVI.)
+the British expedition was slowly working its way towards Khartum in the
+effort to unravel the web of fate then closing in on the gallant Gordon.
+The news of his doom reached England on February 5, 1885. Then it was
+that Russia unmasked her designs. They included the appropriation of the
+town and district of Panjdeh, which she herself had previously
+acknowledged to be in Afghan territory. In vain did Lord Granville
+protest; in vain did he put forward proposals which conceded very much
+to the Czar, but less than his Ministers determined to have. All that he
+could obtain was a promise that the Russians would not advance further
+during the negotiations.
+
+On March 13, Mr. Gladstone officially announced that an agreement to
+this effect had been arrived at with Russia. The Foreign Minister at St.
+Petersburg, M. de Giers, on March 16 assured our ambassador, Sir Edward
+Thornton, that that statement was correct. On March 26, however, the
+light troops of General Komaroff advanced beyond the line of demarcation
+previously agreed on, and on the following day pushed past the Afghan
+force holding positions in front of Panjdeh. The Afghans refused to be
+drawn into a fight, but held their ground; thereupon, on March 29,
+Komaroff sent them an ultimatum ordering them to withdraw beyond
+Panjdeh. A British staff-officer requested him to reconsider and recall
+this demand, but he himself was waived aside. Finally, on March 30,
+Komaroff attacked the Afghan position, and drove out the defenders with
+the loss of 900 men. The survivors fell back on Herat, General Lumsden
+and his escort retired in the same direction, and Russia took possession
+of the coveted prize[341].
+
+[Footnote 341: See Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1885), for General
+Lumsden's refutation of Komaroff's misstatements; also for the general
+accounts, _ibid_. No. 5 (1885), pp. 1-7.]
+
+The news of this outrage reached England on April 7, and sent a thrill
+of indignation through the breasts of the most peaceful. Twenty days
+later Mr. Gladstone proposed to Parliament to vote the sum of
+L11,000,000 for war preparations. Of this sum all but L4,500,000 (needed
+for the Sudan) was devoted to military and naval preparations against
+Russia; and we have the authority of Mr. John Morley for saying that
+this vote was supported by Liberals "with much more than a mechanical
+loyalty[342]." Russia had achieved the impossible; she had united
+Liberals of all shades of thought against her, and the joke about
+"Mervousness" was heard no more.
+
+[Footnote 342: J. Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii. p. 184.]
+
+Nevertheless the firmness of the Government resembled that of Bob
+Acres: it soon oozed away. Ministers deferred to the Czar's angry
+declaration that he would allow no inquiry into the action of General
+Komaroff. This alone was a most mischievous precedent, as it tended to
+inflate Russian officers with the belief that they could safely set at
+defiance the rules of international law. Still worse were the signs of
+favour showered on the violator of a truce by the sovereign who gained
+the reputation of being the upholder of peace. From all that is known
+semi-officially with respect to the acute crisis of the spring of 1885,
+it would appear that peace was due solely to the tact of Sir Robert
+Morier, our ambassador at St. Petersburg, and to the complaisance of the
+Gladstone Cabinet.
+
+Certainly this quality carried Ministers very far on the path of
+concession. When negotiations were resumed, the British Government
+belied its former promises of firmness in a matter that closely
+concerned our ally, and surrendered Panjdeh to Russia, but on the
+understanding that the Zulfikar Pass should be retained by the Afghans.
+It should be stated, however, that Abdur Rahman had already assured Lord
+Dufferin, during interviews which they had at Rawal Pindi early in
+April, of his readiness to give up Panjdeh if he could retain that pass
+and its approaches. The Russian Government conceded this point; but
+their negotiators then set to work to secure possession of heights
+dominating the pass. It seemed that Lord Granville was open to
+conviction even on this point.
+
+Such was the state of affairs when, on June 9, 1885, Mr. Gladstone's
+Ministry resigned owing to a defeat on a budget question. The accession
+of Lord Salisbury to power after a brief interval helped to clear up
+these disputes. The crisis in Bulgaria of September 1885 (see Chapter
+X.) also served to distract the Russian Government, the Czar's chief
+pre-occupation now being to have his revenge on Prince Alexander of
+Battenberg. Consequently the two Powers came to a compromise about the
+Zulfikar Pass[343]. There still remained several questions outstanding,
+and only after long and arduous surveys, not unmixed with disputes, was
+the present boundary agreed on in a Protocol signed on July 22, 1887. We
+may here refer to a prophecy made by one of Bismarck's _confidantes_,
+Bucher, at the close of May 1885: "I believe the [Afghan] matter will
+come up again in about five years, when the [Russian] railways are
+finished[344]."
+
+[Footnote 343: Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 4 (1885), pp. 41-72.]
+
+[Footnote 344: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages,_ etc., vol. iii. p. 135.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thus it was that Russia secured her hold on districts dangerously near
+to Herat. Her methods at Panjdeh can only be described as a deliberate
+outrage on international law. It is clear that Alexander III. and his
+officials cared nothing for the public opinion of Europe, and that they
+pushed on their claims by means which appealed with overpowering force
+to the dominant motive of orientals--fear. But their action was based on
+another consideration. Relying on Mr. Gladstone's well-known love of
+peace, they sought to degrade the British Government in the eyes of the
+Asiatic peoples. In some measure they succeeded. The prestige of Britain
+thenceforth paled before that of the Czar; and the ease and decisiveness
+of the Russian conquests, contrasting with the fitful advances and
+speedy withdrawals of British troops, spread the feeling in Central Asia
+that the future belonged to Russia.
+
+Fortunately, this was not the light in which Abdur Rahman viewed the
+incident. He was not the man to yield to intimidation. That "strange,
+strong creature," as Lord Dufferin called him, "showed less emotion than
+might have been expected," but his resentment against Russia was none
+the less keen[345]. Her pressure only served to drive him to closer
+union with Great Britain. Clearly the Russians misunderstood Abdur
+Rahman. Their miscalculation was equally great as regards the character
+of the Afghans and the conditions of life among those mountain clans.
+Russian officers and administrators, after pushing their way easily
+through the loose rubble of tribes that make up Turkestan, did not
+realise that they had to deal with very different men in Afghanistan. To
+ride roughshod over tribes who live in the desert and have no natural
+rallying-point may be very effective; but that policy is risky when
+applied to tribes who cling to their mountains.
+
+[Footnote 345: In his _Life_ (vol. i, pp. 244-246) he also greatly
+blames British policy.]
+
+The analogy of Afghanistan to Switzerland may again serve to illustrate
+the difference between mountaineers and plain-dwellers. It was only when
+the Hapsburgs or the French threatened the Swiss that they formed any
+effective union for the defence of the Fatherland. Always at variance in
+time of peace, the cantons never united save under the stress of a
+common danger. The greater the pressure from without, the closer was the
+union. That truth has been illustrated several times from the age of the
+legendary Tell down to the glorious efforts of 1798. In a word, the
+selfsame mountaineers who live disunited in time of peace, come together
+and act closely together in war, or under threat of war.
+
+Accordingly, the action of England in retiring from Candahar,
+contrasting as it did with Russia's action at Panjdeh, marked out the
+line of true policy for Abdur Rahman. Thenceforth he and his tribesmen
+saw more clearly than ever that Russia was the foe; and it is noteworthy
+that under the shadow of the northern peril there has grown up among
+those turbulent clans a sense of unity never known before. Unconsciously
+Russia has been playing the part of a Napoleon I.; she has ground
+together some at least of the peoples of Central Asia with a
+thoroughness which may lead to unexpected results if ever events favour
+a general rising against the conqueror.
+
+Amidst all his seeming vacillations of policy, Abdur Rahman was governed
+by the thought of keeping England, and still more Russia, from his land.
+He absolutely refused to allow railways and telegraphs to enter his
+territories; for, as he said: "Where Europeans build railways, their
+armies quickly follow. My neighbours have all been swallowed up in this
+manner. I have no wish to suffer their fate."
+
+His judgment was sound. Skobeleff conquered the Tekkes by his railway;
+and the acquisition of Merv and Panjdeh was really the outcome of the
+new trans-Caspian line, which, as Lord Curzon has pointed out,
+completely changed the problem of the defence of India. Formerly the
+natural line of advance for Russia was from Orenburg to Tashkend and the
+upper Oxus; and even now that railway would enable her to make a
+powerful diversion against Northern Afghanistan[346]. But the route from
+Krasnovodsk on the Caspian to Merv and Kushk presents a shorter and far
+easier route, leading, moreover, to the open side of Afghanistan, Herat,
+and Candahar. Recent experiments have shown that a division of troops
+can be sent in eight days from Moscow to Kushk within a short distance
+of the Afghan frontier. In a word, Russia can operate against
+Afghanistan by a line (or rather by two lines) far shorter and easier
+than any which Great Britain can use for its defence[347].
+
+[Footnote 346: See Col. A. Durand's _The Making of a Frontier_ (1899),
+pp. 41-43.]
+
+[Footnote 347: Colquhoun, _Russia against India_, p. 170. Lord Curzon in
+1894 went over much of the ground between Sarrakhs and Candahar and
+found it quite easy for an army (except in food supply).]
+
+It is therefore of the utmost importance to prevent her pushing on her
+railways into that country. This is the consideration which inspired Mr.
+Balfour's noteworthy declaration of May 11, 1905, in the House of
+Commons:--
+
+     As transport is the great difficulty of an invading army, we
+     must not allow anything to be done which would facilitate
+     transport. It ought in my opinion to be considered as an act
+     of direct aggression upon this country that any attempt
+     should be made to build a railway, in connection with the
+     Russian strategic railways, within the territory of
+     Afghanistan.
+
+It is fairly certain that the present Ameer, Habibulla, who succeeded
+his father in 1901, holds those views. This doubtless was the reason
+why, early in 1905, he took the unprecedented step of _inviting_ the
+Indian Government to send a Mission to Cabul. In view of the increase of
+Russia's railways in Central Asia there was more need than ever of
+coming to a secret understanding with a view to defence against
+that Power.
+
+Finally, we may note that Great Britain has done very much to make up
+for her natural defects of position. The Panjdeh affair having relegated
+the policy of "masterly inactivity" to the limbo of benevolent
+futilities, the materials for the Quetta railway, which had been in
+large part sent back to Bombay in the year 1881, were now brought back
+again; and an alternative route was made to Quetta. The urgent need of
+checkmating French intrigues in Burmah led to the annexation of that
+land (November 1885); and the Kurram Valley, commanding Cabul, which the
+Gladstone Government had abandoned, was reoccupied. The Quetta district
+was annexed to India in 1887 under the title of British Baluchistan. The
+year 1891 saw an important work undertaken in advance of Quetta, the
+Khojak tunnel being then driven through a range close by the Afghan
+frontier, while an entrenched camp was constructed near by for the
+storage of arms and supplies. These positions, and the general hold
+which Britain keeps over the Baluchee clans, enable the defenders of
+India to threaten on the flank any advance by the otherwise practicable
+route from Candahar to the Indus.
+
+Certainly there is every need for careful preparations against any such
+enterprise. Lord Curzon, writing before Russia's strategic railways were
+complete, thought it feasible for Russia speedily to throw 150,000 men
+into Afghanistan, feed them there, and send on 90,000 of them against
+the Indus[348]. After the optimistic account of the problem of Indian
+defence given by Mr. Balfour in the speech above referred to, it is well
+to remember that, though Russia cannot invade India until she has
+conquered Afghanistan, yet for that preliminary undertaking she has the
+advantages of time and position nearly entirely on her side. Further,
+the completion of her railways almost up to the Afghan frontier (the
+Tashkend railway is about to be pushed on to the north bank of the Oxus,
+near Balkh) minimises the difficulties of food supply and transport in
+Afghanistan, on which the Prime Minister laid so much stress.
+
+[Footnote 348: _Op. cit._ p. 307. Other authorities differ as to the
+practicability of feeding so large a force even in the comparatively
+fertile districts of Herat and Candahar.]
+
+It is, however, indisputable that the security of India has been greatly
+enhanced by the steady pushing on of that "Forward Policy," which all
+friends of peace used to decry. The Ameer, Abdur Rahman, irritated by
+the making of the Khojak tunnel, was soothed by Sir Mortimer Durand's
+Mission in 1893; and in return for an increase of subsidy and other
+advantages, he agreed that the tribes of the debatable borderland--the
+Waziris, Afridis, and those of the Swat and Chitral valleys--should be
+under the control of the Viceroy. Russia showed her annoyance at this
+Mission by seeking to seize an Afghan town, Murghab; but the Ameer's
+troops beat them off[349]. Lord Lansdowne claimed that this right of
+permanently controlling very troublesome tribes would end the days of
+futile "punitive expeditions." In the main he was right. The peace and
+security of the frontier depend on the tact with which some few scores
+of officers carry on difficult work of which no one ever hears[350].
+
+[Footnote 349: _Life of Abdur Rahman,_ vol. i. p. 287.]
+
+[Footnote 350: For this work see _The Life of Sir R. Sandeman_; Sir R.
+Warburton, _Eighteen Years in the Khyber_; Durand, _op. cit._; Bruce,
+_The Forward Policy and its Results_; Sir James Willcock's _From Cabul
+to Kumassi_; S.S. Thorburn, _The Punjab in Peace and War_.]
+
+In nearly all cases they have succeeded in their heroic toil. But the
+work of pacification was disturbed in the year 1895 by a rising in the
+Chitral Valley, which cut off in Chitral Fort a small force of Sikhs and
+loyal Kashmir troops with their British officers. Relieving columns from
+the Swat Valley and Gilgit cut their way through swarms of hillmen and
+relieved the little garrison after a harassing leaguer of forty-five
+days[351]. The annoyance evinced by Russian officers at the success of
+the expedition and the retention of the whole of the Chitral district
+(as large as Wales) prompts the conjecture that they had not been
+strangers to the original outbreak. In this year Russia and England
+delimited their boundaries in the Pamirs.
+
+[Footnote 351: _The Relief of Chitral_, by Captains G.J. and F.E.
+Younghusband (1895).]
+
+The year 1897 saw all the hill tribes west and south of Peshawur rise
+against the British Raj. Moslem fanaticism, kindled by the Sultan's
+victories over the Greeks, is said to have brought about the explosion,
+though critics of the Calcutta Government ascribe it to official
+folly[352]. With truly Roman solidity the British Government quelled the
+risings, the capture of the heights of Dargai by the "gay Gordons"
+showing the sturdy hillmen that they were no match for our best troops.
+Since then the "Forward Policy" has amply justified itself, thousands of
+fine troops being recruited from tribes which were recently daring
+marauders, ready for a dash into the plains of the Punjab at the bidding
+of any would-be disturber of the peace of India. In this case, then,
+Britain has transformed a troublesome border fringe into a
+protective girdle.
+
+[Footnote 352: See _The Punjab in Peace and War_, by S.S. Thorburn, _ad
+fin._]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Whether the Russian Government intends in the future to invade India is
+a question which time alone can answer. Viewing her Central Asian policy
+from the time of the Crimean War, the student must admit that it bears
+distinct traces of such a design. Her advance has always been most
+conspicuous in the years succeeding any rebuff dealt by Great Britain,
+as happened after that war, and still more, after the Berlin Congress.
+At first, the theory that a civilised Power must swallow up restless
+raiding neighbours could be cited in explanation of such progress; but
+such a defence utterly fails to account for the cynical aggression at
+Panjdeh and the favour shown by the Czar to the general who violated a
+truce. Equally does it fail to explain the pushing on of strategic
+railways since the time of the conclusion of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty
+of 1902. Possibly Russia intends only to exert upon that Achilles heel
+of the British Empire the terrible but nominally pacific pressure which
+she brings to bear on the open frontiers of Germany and Austria; and
+the constant discussion by her officers of plans of invasion of India
+may be wholly unofficial. At the same time we must remember that the
+idea has long been a favourite one with the Russian bureaucracy; and the
+example of the years 1877-81 shows that that class is ready and eager to
+wipe out by a campaign in Central Asia the memory of a war barren of
+fame and booty. But that again depends on more general questions,
+especially those of finance (now a very serious question for Russia,
+seeing that she has drained Paris and Berlin of all possible loans) and
+of alliance with some Great Power, or Powers, anxious to effect the
+overthrow of Great Britain.
+
+If Great Britain be not enervated by luxury; if she be not led astray
+from the paths of true policy by windy talk about "splendid isolation";
+if also she can retain the loyal support of the various peoples of
+India,--she may face the contingency of such an invasion with firmness
+and equanimity. That it will come is the opinion of very many
+authorities of high standing. A native gentleman of high official rank,
+who brings forward new evidence on the subject, has recently declared it
+to be "inevitable[353]." Such, too, is the belief of the greatest
+authority on Indian warfare. Lord Roberts closes his Autobiography by
+affirming that an invasion is "inevitable in the end. We have done much,
+and may do still more to delay it; but when that struggle comes, it will
+be incumbent upon us, both for political and military reasons, to make
+use of all the troops and war material that the Native States can place
+at our disposal."
+
+[Footnote 353: See _The Nineteenth Century and After_ for May 1905.]
+
+POSTSCRIPT
+
+On May 22, 1905, the _Times_ published particulars concerning the
+Anglo-Afghan Treaty recently signed at Cabul. It renewed the compact
+made with the late Ameer, whereby he agreed to have no relations with
+any foreign Power except Great Britain, the latter agreeing to defend
+him against foreign aggression. The subsidy of L120,000 a year is to be
+continued, but the present Ameer, Habibulla, henceforth receives a title
+equivalent to "King" and is styled "His Majesty."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+BRITAIN IN EGYPT
+
+
+It will be well to begin the story of the expansion of the nations of
+Europe in Africa by a brief statement of the events which brought
+Britain to her present position in Egypt. As we have seen, the French
+conquest of Tunis, occurring a year earlier, formed the first of the
+many expeditions which inaugurated "the partition of Africa"--a topic
+which, as regards the west, centre, and south of that continent, will
+engage our attention subsequently. In this chapter and the following it
+will be convenient to bring together the facts concerning the valley of
+the Nile, a district which up to a recent time has had only a slight
+connection with the other parts of that mighty continent. In his quaint
+account of that mysterious land, Herodotus always spoke of it as
+distinct from Libya; and this aloofness has characterised Lower Egypt
+almost down to the present age, when the events which we are about to
+consider brought it into close touch with the equatorial regions.
+
+The story of the infiltration of British influence into Egypt is one of
+the most curious in all history. To this day, despite the recent
+agreement with France (1904), the position of England in the valley of
+the Lower Nile is irregular, in view of the undeniable fact that the
+Sultan is still the suzerain of that land. What is even stranger, it
+results from the gradual control which the purse-holder has imposed on
+the borrower. The power that holds the purse-strings counts for much in
+the political world, as also elsewhere. Both in national and domestic
+affairs it ensures, in the last instance, the control of the earning
+department over the spending department. It is the _ultima ratio_ of
+Parliaments and husbands.
+
+In order fully to understand the relations of Egypt to Turkey and to the
+purse-holders of the West, we must glance back at the salient events in
+her history for the past century. The first event that brought the land
+of the Pharaohs into the arena of European politics was the conquest by
+Bonaparte in 1798. He meant to make Egypt a flourishing colony, to have
+the Suez Canal cut, and to use Alexandria and Suez as bases of action
+against the British possessions in India. This daring design was foiled
+by Nelson's victory at the Nile, and by the Abercromby-Hutchinson
+expedition of 1801, which compelled the surrender of the French army
+left by Bonaparte in Egypt. The three years of French occupation had no
+great political results except the awakening of British statesmanship to
+a sense of the value of Egypt for the safeguarding of India. They also
+served to weaken the power of the Mamelukes, a Circassian military caste
+which had reduced the Sultan's authority over Egypt to a mere shadow.
+The ruin of this warlike cavalry was gradually completed by an Albanian
+soldier of fortune named Mohammed Ali, who, first in the name of the
+Sultan, and later in defiance of his power, gradually won the allegiance
+of the different races of Egypt and made himself virtually ruler of the
+land. This powerful Pasha conquered the northern part of the Sudan, and
+founded Khartum as the southern bulwark of his realm (1823). He seems to
+have grasped the important fact that, as Egypt depends absolutely on the
+waters poured down by the Nile in its periodic floods, her rulers must
+control that river in its upper reaches--an idea also held by the ablest
+of the Pharaohs. To secure this control, what place could be so suitable
+as Khartum, at the junction of the White and Blue Niles?
+
+Mohammed Ali was able to build up an army and navy, which in 1841 was on
+the point of overthrowing Turkish power in Syria, when Great Britain
+intervened, and by the capture of Acre compelled the ambitious Pasha to
+abandon his northern schemes and own once more the suzerainty of the
+Porte. The Sultan, however, acknowledged that the Pashalic of Egypt
+should be hereditary in his family. We may remark here that England and
+France had nearly come to blows over the Syrian question of that year;
+but, thanks to the firm demeanour of Lord Palmerston, their rivalry
+ended, as in 1801, in the triumph of British influence and the assertion
+of the nominal ascendancy of the Sultan in Egypt. Mohammed was to pay
+his lord L363,000 a year. He died in 1849.
+
+No great event took place during the rule of the next Pashas, or
+Khedives as they were now termed, Abbas I. (1849-54), and Said
+(1854-63), except that M. de Lesseps, a French engineer, gained the
+consent of Said in 1856 to the cutting of a ship canal, the northern
+entrance to which bears the name of that Khedive. Owing to the rivalry
+of Britain and France over the canal it was not finished until 1869,
+during the rule of Ismail (1863-79). We may note here that, as the
+concession was granted to the Suez Canal Company only for ninety-nine
+years, the canal will become the property of the Egyptian Government in
+the year 1968.
+
+The opening of the canal placed Egypt once more on one of the greatest
+highways of the world's commerce, and promised to bring endless wealth
+to her ports. That hope has not been fulfilled. The profits have gone
+almost entirely to the foreign investors, and a certain amount of trade
+has been withdrawn from the Egyptian railways. Sir John Stokes, speaking
+in 1887, said he found in Egypt a prevalent impression that the country
+had been injured by the canal[354].
+
+[Footnote 354: Quoted by D.A. Cameron, _Egypt in the Nineteenth
+Century_, p. 242.]
+
+Certainly Egypt was less prosperous after its opening, but probably
+owing to another and mightier event which occurred at the beginning of
+Ismail's rule. This was the American Civil War. The blockade of the
+Southern States by the federal cruisers cut off from Lancashire and
+Northern France the supplies of raw cotton which are the life-blood of
+their industries. Cotton went up in price until even the conservative
+fellahin of Egypt saw the desirability of growing that strange new
+shrub--the first instance on record of a change in their tillage that
+came about without compulsion. So great were the profits reaped by
+intelligent growers that many fellahin bought Circassian and Abyssinian
+wives, and established harems in which jewels, perfumes, silks, and
+mirrors were to be found. In a word, Egypt rioted in its new-found
+wealth. This may be imagined from the totals of exports, which in three
+years rose from L4,500,000 to considerably more than L13,000,000[355].
+
+[Footnote 355: _Egypt and the Egyptian Question_, by Sir D. Mackenzie
+Wallace (1883), pp. 318-320.]
+
+But then came the end of the American Civil War. Cotton fell to its
+normal price, and ruin stared Egypt in the face. For not only merchants
+and fellahin, but also their ruler, had plunged into expenditure, and on
+the most lavish scale. Nay! Believing that the Suez Canal would bring
+boundless wealth to his land, Ismail persisted in his palace-building
+and other forms of oriental extravagance, with the result that in the
+first twelve years of his reign, that is, by the year 1875, he had spent
+more than L100,000,000 of public money, of which scarcely one-tenth had
+been applied to useful ends. The most noteworthy of these last were the
+Barrage of the Nile in the upper part of the Delta, an irrigation canal
+in Upper Egypt, the Ibrahimiyeh Canal, and the commencement of the Wady
+Haifa-Khartum railway. The grandeur of his views may be realised when it
+is remembered that he ordered this railway to be made of the same gauge
+as those of South Africa, because "it would save trouble in the end."
+
+As to the sudden fall in the price of cotton, his only expedient for
+making good the loss was to grow sugar on a great scale, but this was
+done so unwisely as to increase the deficits. As a natural consequence,
+the Egyptian debt, which at his accession stood at L3,000,000, reached
+the extraordinary sum of L89,000,000 in the year 1876, and that, too,
+despite the increase of the land tax by one-half. All the means which
+oriental ingenuity has devised for the systematic plunder of a people
+were now put in force; so that Sir Alfred Milner (now Lord Milner),
+after unequalled opportunities of studying the Egyptian Question,
+declared: "There is nothing in the financial history of any country,
+from the remotest ages to the present time, to equal this carnival of
+extravagance and oppression[356]."
+
+[Footnote 356: _England in Egypt_, by Sir Alfred Milner (Lord Milner),
+1892, pp. 216-219. (The Egyptian L is equal to L1:0:6.) I give the
+figures as pounds sterling.]
+
+The Khedive himself had to make some sacrifices of a private nature, and
+one of these led to an event of international importance. Towards the
+close of the year 1875 he decided to sell the 177,000 shares which he
+held in the Suez Canal Company. In the first place he offered them
+secretly to the French Government for 100,000,000 francs; and the
+Foreign Minister, the Duc Decazes, it seems, wished to buy them; but the
+Premier, M. Buffet, and other Ministers hesitated, perhaps in view of
+the threats of war from Germany, which had alarmed all responsible men.
+In any case, France lost her chance[357]. Fortunately for Great Britain,
+news of the affair was sent to one of her ablest journalists, Mr.
+Frederick Greenwood, who at once begged Lord Derby, then Minister for
+Foreign Affairs, to grant him an interview. The result was an urgent
+message from Lord Derby to Colonel Staunton, the British envoy in Egypt,
+to find out the truth from the Khedive himself. The tidings proved to be
+correct, and the Beaconsfield Cabinet at once sanctioned the purchase of
+the shares for the sum of close on L4,000,000.
+
+[Footnote 357: _La Question d'Egypte_, by C. de Freycinet (1905), p.
+151.]
+
+It is said that the French envoy to Egypt was playing billiards when he
+heard of the purchase, and in his rage he broke his cue in half. His
+anger was natural, quite apart from financial considerations. In that
+respect the purchase has been a brilliant success; for the shares are
+now worth more than L30,000,000, and yield an annual return of about a
+million sterling; but this monetary gain is as nothing when compared
+with the influence which the United Kingdom has gained in the affairs of
+a great undertaking whereby M. de Lesseps hoped to assure the ascendancy
+of France in Egypt.
+
+The facts of history, it should be noted, lent support to this
+contention of "the great Frenchman." The idea of the canal had
+originated with Napoleon I., and it was revived with much energy by the
+followers of the French philosopher, St. Simon, in the years
+1833-37[358]. The project, however, then encountered the opposition of
+British statesmen, as it did from the days of Pitt to those of
+Palmerston. This was not unnatural; for it promised to bring back to the
+ports of the Mediterranean the preponderant share in the eastern trade
+which they had enjoyed before the discovery of the route by the Cape of
+Good Hope. The political and commercial interests of England were bound
+up with the sea route, especially after the Cape was definitively
+assigned to her by the Peace of Paris of 1814; but she could not see
+with indifference the control by France of a canal which would divert
+trade once more to the old overland route. That danger was now averted
+by the financial _coup_ just noticed--an affair which may prove to have
+been scarcely less important in a political sense than Nelson's victory
+at the Nile.
+
+[Footnote 358: _La Question d'Egypte_, by C. de Freycinet, p. 106.]
+
+In truth, the Sea Power has made up for her defects of position as
+regards Egypt by four great strokes--the triumph of her great admiral,
+the purchase of Ismail's canal shares, the repression of Arabi's revolt,
+and Lord Kitchener's victory at Omdurman. The present writer has not
+refrained from sharp criticism on British policy in the period
+1870-1900; and the Egyptian policy of the Cabinets of Queen Victoria has
+been at times open to grave censure; but, on the whole, it has come out
+well, thanks to the ability of individuals to supply the qualities of
+foresight, initiative, and unswerving persistence, in which Ministers
+since the time of Chatham have rarely excelled.
+
+The sale of Ismail's canal shares only served to stave off the
+impending crash which would have formed the natural sequel to this new
+"South Sea Bubble." All who took part in this carnival of folly ought to
+have suffered alike, Ismail and his beys along with the stock-jobbers
+and dividend-hunters of London and Paris. In an ordinary case these last
+would have lost their money; but in this instance the borrower was weak
+and dependent, while the lenders were in a position to stir up two
+powerful Governments to action. Nearly the whole of the Egyptian loans
+was held in England and France; and in 1876, when Ismail was floating
+swiftly down stream to the abyss of bankruptcy, the British and French
+bondholders cast about them for means to secure their own safety. They
+organised themselves for the protection of their interests. The Khedive
+consented to hear the advice of their representatives, Messrs. Goschen
+and Joubert; but it was soon clear that he desired merely a comfortable
+liquidation and the continuance of his present expenditure.
+
+That year saw the institution of the "Caisse de la Dette," with power to
+receive the revenue set aside for the service of the debt, and to
+sanction or forbid new loans; and in the month of November 1876 the
+commission of bondholders took the form of the "Dual Control." In 1878 a
+Commission was appointed with power to examine the whole of the Egyptian
+administration. It met with the strongest opposition from the Khedive,
+until in the next year means were found to bring about his abdication by
+the act of the Sultan (June 26, 1879). His successor was his son Tewfik
+(1879-92).
+
+On their side the bondholders had to submit to a reduction of rates of
+interest to a uniform rate of 4 per cent on the Unified Debt. Even so,
+it was found in the year 1881--a prosperous year--that about half of the
+Egyptian revenue, then L9,229,000, had to be diverted to the payment of
+that interest[359]. Again, one must remark that such a situation in an
+overtaxed country would naturally end in bankruptcy; but this was
+prevented by foreign control, which sought to cut down expenditure in
+all directions. As a natural result, many industries suffered from the
+lack of due support; for even in the silt-beds formed by the Nile (and
+they are the real Egypt) there is need of capital to bring about due
+results. In brief, the popular discontent gave strength to a movement
+which aimed at ousting foreign influences of every kind, not only the
+usurers and stock-jobbers that sucked the life-blood of the land, but
+even the engineers and bankers who quickened its sluggish circulation.
+This movement was styled a national movement; and its abettors raised
+that cry of "Egypt for Egyptians," which has had its counterpart
+wherever selfish patriots seek to keep all the good things of the land
+to themselves. The Egyptian troubles of the year 1882 originated partly
+in feelings of this narrow kind, and partly in the jealousies and
+strifes of military cliques.
+
+[Footnote 359: _England in Egypt_, etc. p. 222. See there for details as
+to the Dual Control; also de Freycinet, _op. cit_. chap. ii., and _The
+Expansion of Egypt_, by A. Silva White, chap. vi.]
+
+Sir D. Mackenzie Wallace, after carefully investigating the origin of
+the "Arabi movement," came to the conclusion that it was to be found in
+the determination of the native Egyptian officers to force their way to
+the higher grades of that army, hitherto reserved for Turks or
+Circassians. Said and Ismail had favoured the rise of the best soldiers
+of the fellahin class (that is, natives), and several of them, on
+becoming colonels, aimed at yet higher posts. This aroused bitter
+resentment in the dominant Turkish caste, which looked on the fellahin
+as born to pay taxes and bear burdens. Under the masterful Ismail these
+jealousies were hidden; but the young and inexperienced Tewfik, the
+nominee of the rival Western Powers, was unable to bridle the restless
+spirits of the army, who looked around them for means to strengthen
+their position at the expense of their rivals. These jealousies were
+inflamed by the youthful caprice of Tewfik. At first he extended great
+favour to Ali Fehmi, an officer of fellah descent, only to withdraw it
+owing to the intrigues of a Circassian rival. Ali Fehmi sought for
+revenge by forming a cabal with other fellah colonels, among whom a
+popular leader soon came to the front. This was Arabi Bey.
+
+Arabi's frame embodied the fine animal qualities of the better class of
+fellahin, but to these he added mental gifts of no mean order. After
+imbibing the rather narrow education of a devout Moslem, he formed some
+acquaintance with western thought, and from it his facile mind selected
+a stock of ideas which found ready expression in conversation. His soft
+dreamy eyes and fluent speech rarely failed to captivate men of all
+classes[360]. His popularity endowed the discontented camarilla with new
+vigour, enabling it to focus all the discontented elements, and to
+become a movement of almost national import. Yet Arabi was its
+spokesman, or figure-head, rather than the actual propelling power. He
+seems to have been to a large extent the dupe of schemers who pushed him
+on for their own advantage. At any rate it is significant that after his
+fall he declared that British supremacy was the one thing needful for
+Egypt; and during his old age, passed in Ceylon, he often made similar
+statements[361].
+
+[Footnote 360: Sir D.M. Wallace, _Egypt and the Egyptian Question_, p.
+67.]
+
+[Footnote 361: Mr. Morley says (_Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii. p. 73)
+that Arabi's movement "was in truth national as well as military; it was
+anti-European, and above all, it was in its objects anti-Turk."--In view
+of the evidence collected by Sir D.M. Wallace, and by Lord Milner
+(_England in Egypt_), I venture to question these statements. The
+movement clearly was military and anti-Turk in its beginning. Later on
+it sought support in the people, and became anti-European and to some
+extent national; but to that extent it ceased to be anti-Turk. Besides,
+why should the Sultan have encouraged it? How far it genuinely relied on
+the populace must for the present remain in doubt; but the evidence
+collected by Mr. Broadley, _How We Defended Arabi_ (1884), seems to show
+that Arabi and his supporters were inspired by thoroughly patriotic and
+enlightened motives.]
+
+The Khedive's Ministers, hearing of the intrigues of the discontented
+officers, resolved to arrest their chiefs; but on the secret leaking
+out, the offenders turned the tables on the authorities, and with
+soldiers at their back demanded the dismissal of the Minister of War and
+the redress of their chief grievance--the undue promotion of Turks and
+Circassians.
+
+The Khedive felt constrained to yield, and agreed to the appointment of
+a Minister of War who was a secret friend of the plotters. They next
+ventured on a military demonstration in front of the Khedive's palace,
+with a view to extorting the dismissal of the able and energetic Prime
+Minister, Riaz Pasha. Again Tewfik yielded, and consented to the
+appointment of the weak and indolent Sherif Pasha. To consolidate their
+triumph the mutineers now proposed measures which would please the
+populace. Chief among them was a plan for instituting a consultative
+National Assembly. This would serve as a check on the Dual Control and
+on the young Khedive, whom it had placed in his present
+ambiguous position.
+
+A Chamber of Notables met in the closing days of 1881, and awakened
+great hopes, not only in Egypt, but among all who saw hope in the
+feeling of nationality and in a genuine wish for reform among a Moslem
+people. What would have happened had the Notables been free to work out
+the future of Egypt, it is impossible to say. The fate of the Young
+Turkish party and of Midhat's constitution of December 1877 formed by no
+means a hopeful augury. In the abstract there is much to be said for the
+two chief demands of the Notables--that the Khedive's Ministers should
+be responsible to the people's representatives, and that the Dual
+Control of Great Britain and France should be limited to the control of
+the revenues set apart for the purposes of the Egyptian public debt. The
+petitioners, however, ignored the fact that democracy could scarcely be
+expected to work successfully in a land where not one man in a hundred
+had the least notion what it meant, and, further, that the Western
+Powers would not give up their coign of vantage at the bidding of
+Notables who really represented little more than the dominant military
+party. Besides, the acts of this party stamped it as oriental even while
+it masqueraded in the garb of western democracy. Having grasped the
+reins of government, the fellahin colonels proceeded to relegate their
+Turkish and Circassian rivals to service at Khartum--an ingenious form
+of banishment. Against this and other despotic acts the representatives
+of Great Britain and France energetically protested, and, seeing that
+the Khedive was helpless, they brought up ships of war to make a
+demonstration against the _de facto_ governors of Egypt.
+
+It should be noted that these steps were taken by the Gladstone and
+Gambetta Cabinets, which were not likely to intervene against a
+genuinely democratic movement merely in the interests of British and
+French bondholders. On January 7, 1882, the two Cabinets sent a Joint
+Note to the Khedive assuring him of their support and of their desire to
+remove all grievances, external and internal alike, that threatened the
+existing order[362].
+
+[Footnote 362: For Gambetta's despatches see de Freycinet, _op. cit._
+pp. 209 _et seq_.]
+
+While, however, the Western Powers sided with the Khedive, the other
+European States, including Turkey, began to show signs of impatience and
+annoyance at any intervention on their part. Russia saw the chance of
+revenge on England for the events of 1878, and Bismarck sought to gain
+the favour of the Sultan. As for that potentate, his conduct was as
+tortuous as usual. From the outset he gave secret support to Arabi's
+party, probably with the view of undermining the Dual Control and the
+Khedive's dynasty alike. He doubtless saw that Turkish interests might
+ultimately be furthered even by the men who had imprisoned or disgraced
+Turkish officers and Ministers.
+
+Possibly the whole question might have been peaceably solved had
+Gambetta remained in power; for he was strongly in favour of a joint
+Anglo-French intervention in case the disorders continued. The Gladstone
+Government at that time demurred to such intervention, and claimed that
+it would come more legally from Turkey, or, if this were undesirable,
+from all the Powers; but this divergence of view did not prevent the two
+Governments from acting together on several matters. Gambetta, however,
+fell from power at the end of January 1882, and his far weaker
+successor, de Freycinet, having to face a most complex parliamentary
+situation in France and the possible hostility of the other Powers, drew
+back from the leading position which Gambetta's bolder policy had
+accorded to France. The vacillations at Paris tended alike to weaken
+Anglo-French action and to encourage the Arabi party and the Sultan. As
+matters went from bad to worse in Egypt, the British Foreign Minister,
+Lord Granville, proposed on May 24 that the Powers should sanction an
+occupation of Egypt by Turkish troops. To this M. de Freycinet demurred,
+and, while declaring that France would not send an expedition, proposed
+that a European Conference should be held on the Egyptian Question.
+
+The Gladstone Cabinet at once agreed to this, and the Conference met for
+a short time at the close of June, but without the participation of
+Turkey[363]. For the Sultan, hoping that the divisions of the Powers
+would enable him to restore Turkish influence in Egypt, now set his
+emissaries to work to arouse there the Moslem fanaticism which he has so
+profitably exploited in all parts of his Empire. A Turkish Commission
+had been sent to inquire into matters--with the sole result of enriching
+the chief commissioner. In brief, thanks to the perplexities and
+hesitations of the Western Powers and the ill-humour manifested by
+Germany and Russia, Europe was helpless, and the Arabi party felt that
+they had the game in their own hands. Bismarck said to his secretary,
+Busch, on June 8: "They [the British] set about the affair in an awkward
+way, and have got on a wrong track by sending their ironclads to
+Alexandria, and now, finding that there is nothing to be done, they want
+the rest of Europe to help them out of their difficulty by means of a
+Conference[364]."
+
+[Footnote 363: Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, iii. p. 79.]
+
+[Footnote 364: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, vol. iii.
+p. 51.]
+
+Already, on May 27, the Egyptian malcontents had ventured on a great
+military demonstration against the Khedive, which led to Arabi being
+appointed Minister of War. His followers also sought to inflame the
+hatred to foreigners for which the greed of Greek and Jewish usurers was
+so largely responsible. The results perhaps surpassed the hopes of the
+Egyptian nationalists. Moslem fanaticism suddenly flashed into flame.
+On the 11th of June a street brawl between a Moslem and a Maltese led to
+a fierce rising. The "true believers" attacked the houses of the
+Europeans, secured a great quantity of loot, and killed about fifty of
+them, including men from the British squadron. The English party that
+always calls out for non-intervention made vigorous efforts at that
+time, and subsequently, to represent this riot and massacre as a mere
+passing event which did not seriously compromise the welfare of Egypt;
+but Sir Alfred Milner in his calm and judicial survey of the whole
+question states that the fears then entertained by Europeans in Egypt
+"so far from being exaggerated, . . . perhaps even fell short of the
+danger which was actually impending[365]."
+
+[Footnote 365: _England in Egypt_, p. 16. For details of the massacre
+and its preconcerted character, sec Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 4 (1884).]
+
+The events at Alexandria and Tantah made armed intervention inevitable.
+Nothing could be hoped for from Turkey. The Sultan's special envoy,
+Dervish Pasha, had arrived in Egypt only a few days before the outbreak;
+and after that occurrence Abdul Hamid thought fit to send a decoration
+to Arabi. Encouraged by the support of Turkey and by the well-known
+jealousies of the Powers, the military party now openly prepared to defy
+Europe. They had some grounds for hope. Every one knew that France was
+in a very cautious mood, having enough on her hands in Tunis and
+Algeria, while her relations to England had rapidly cooled[366].
+Germany, Russia, and Austria seemed to be acting together according to
+an understanding arrived at by the three Emperors after their meeting at
+Danzig in 1881; and Germany had begun that work of favouring the Sultan
+which enabled her to supplant British influence at Constantinople.
+Accordingly, few persons, least of all Arabi, believed that the
+Gladstone Cabinet would dare to act alone and strike a decisive blow.
+But they counted wrongly. Gladstone's toleration in regard to foreign
+affairs was large-hearted, but it had its limits. He now declared in
+Parliament that Arabi had thrown off the mask and was evidently working
+to depose the Khedive and oust all Europeans from Egypt; England would
+intervene to prevent this--if possible with the authority of Europe,
+with the support of France, and the co-operation of Turkey; but, if
+necessary, alone[367].
+
+[Footnote 366: For the reasons of de Freycinet's caution, see his work,
+ch. iii., especially pp. 236 _et seq_.]
+
+[Footnote 367: See, too, Gladstone's speech of July 25, 1882, in which
+he asserted that there was not a shred of evidence to support Arabi's
+claim to be the leader of a national party; also, his letter of July 14
+to John Bright, quoted by Mr. Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii. pp.
+84-85. Probably Gladstone was misinformed.]
+
+Even this clear warning was lost on Arabi and his following. Believing
+that Britain was too weak, and her Ministry too vacillating, to make
+good these threats, they proceeded to arm the populace and strengthen
+the forts of Alexandria. Sir Beauchamp Seymour, now at the head of a
+strong squadron, reported to London that these works were going on in a
+threatening manner, and on July 6 sent a demand to Arabi that the
+operations should cease at once. To this Arabi at once acceded.
+Nevertheless, the searchlight, when suddenly turned on, showed that work
+was going on at night. A report of an Egyptian officer was afterwards
+found in one of the forts, in which he complained of the use of the
+electric light by the English as distinctly discourteous. It may here be
+noted that M. de Freycinet, in his jaundiced survey of British action at
+this time, seeks to throw doubt on the resumption of work by Arabi's
+men. But Admiral Seymour's reports leave no loophole for doubt. Finally,
+on July 10, the admiral demanded, not only the cessation of hostile
+preparations, but the surrender of some of the forts into British hands.
+The French fleet now left the harbour and steamed for Port Said. Most of
+the Europeans of Alexandria had withdrawn to ships provided for them;
+and on the morrow, when the last of the twenty-four hours of grace
+brought no submission, the British fleet opened fire at 7 A.M.
+
+The ensuing action is of great interest as being one of the very few
+cases in modern warfare where ships have successfully encountered modern
+forts. The seeming helplessness of the British unarmoured ships before
+Cronstadt during the Crimean War, their failure before the forts of
+Sevastopol, and the uselessness of the French navy during the war of
+1870, had spread the notion that warships could not overpower modern
+fortifications. Probably this impression lay at the root of Arabi's
+defiance. He had some grounds for confidence. The British fleet
+consisted of eight battleships (of which only the _Inflexible_ and
+_Alexandra_ were of great fighting power), along with five unarmoured
+vessels. The forts mounted 33 rifled muzzle-loading guns, 3 rifled
+breech-loaders, and 120 old smooth-bores. The advantage in gun-power lay
+with the ships, especially as the sailors were by far the better
+marksmen. Yet so great is the superiority of forts over ships that the
+engagement lasted five hours or more (7 A.M. till noon) before most of
+the forts were silenced more or less completely. Fort Pharos continued
+to fire till 4 P.M. On the whole, the Egyptian gunners stood manfully to
+their guns. Considering the weight of metal thrown against the forts,
+namely, 1741 heavy projectiles and 1457 light, the damage done to them
+was not great, only 27 cannon being silenced completely, and 5
+temporarily. On the other hand, the ships were hit only 75 times and
+lost only 6 killed and 27 wounded. The results show that the
+comparatively distant cannonades of to-day, even with great guns, are
+far less deadly than the old sea-fights when ships were locked yard-arm
+to yard-arm.
+
+[Illustration: BATTLE OF ALEXANDRIA (BOMBARDMENT OF, 1882).]
+
+Had Admiral Seymour at once landed a force of marines and bluejackets,
+all the forts would probably have been surrendered at once. For some
+reason not fully known, this was not done. Spasmodic firing began again
+in the morning, but a truce was before long arranged, which proved to be
+only a device for enabling Arabi and his troops to escape. The city,
+meanwhile, was the scene of a furious outbreak against Europeans, in
+which some 400 or 500 persons perished. Damage, afterwards assessed at
+L7,000,000, was done by fire and pillage. It was not till the 14th
+that the admiral, after receiving reinforcements, felt able to send
+troops into the city, when a few severe examples cowed the plunderers
+and restored order. The Khedive, who had shut himself up in his palace
+at Ramleh, now came back to the seaport under the escort of a British
+force, and thenceforth remained virtually, though not in name, under
+British protection.
+
+The bombardment of Alexandria brought about the resignation of that
+sturdy Quaker, and friend of peace, Mr. John Bright from the Gladstone
+Ministry; but everything tends to show (as even M. de Freycinet admits)
+that the crisis took Ministers by surprise. Nothing was ready at home
+for an important campaign; and it would seem that hostilities resulted,
+firstly, from the violence of Arabi's supporters in Alexandria, and,
+secondly, from their persistence in warlike preparations which might
+have endangered the safety of Admiral Seymour's fleet. The situation was
+becoming like that of 1807 at the Dardanelles, when the Turks gave
+smooth promises to Admiral Duckworth, all the time strengthening their
+forts, with very disagreeable results. Probably the analogy of 1807,
+together with the proven perfidy of Arabi's men, brought on hostilities,
+which the British Ministers up to the end were anxious to avoid.
+
+In any case, the die was now cast, and England entered questioningly on
+a task, the magnitude and difficulty of which no one could then foresee.
+She entered on it alone, and that, too, though the Gladstone Ministry
+had made pressing overtures for the help of France, at any rate as
+regarded the protection of the Suez Canal. To this extent, de Freycinet
+and his colleagues were prepared to lend their assistance; but, despite
+Gambetta's urgent appeal for common action with England at that point,
+the Chamber of Deputies still remained in a cautiously negative mood,
+and to that frame of mind M. Clemenceau added strength by a speech
+ending with a glorification of prudence. "Europe," he said, "is covered
+with soldiers; every one is in a state of expectation; all the Power
+are reserving their future liberty of action; do you reserve the
+liberty of action of France." The restricted co-operation with England
+which the Cabinet recommended found favour with only seventy-five
+deputies; and, when face to face with a large hostile majority, de
+Freycinet and his colleagues resigned (July 29, 1882)[368]. Prudence,
+fear of the newly-formed Triple Alliance, or jealousy of England, drew
+France aside from the path to which her greatest captains, thinkers, and
+engineers had beckoned her in time past. Whatever the predominant motive
+may have been, it altered the course of history in the valley of
+the Nile.
+
+[Footnote 368: De Freycinet, _op, cit._ pp. 311-312.]
+
+After the refusal of France to co-operate with England even to the
+smallest extent, the Conference of the Powers became a nullity, and its
+sessions ceased despite the lack of any formal adjournment[369]. Here,
+as on so many other occasions, the Concert of the Powers displayed its
+weakness; and there can be no doubt that the Sultan and Arabi counted on
+that weakness in playing the dangerous game which brought matters to the
+test of the sword. The jealousies of the Powers now stood fully
+revealed. Russia entered a vigorous protest against England's action at
+Alexandria; Italy evinced great annoyance, and at once repelled a
+British proposal for her co-operation; Germany also showed much
+resentment, and turned the situation to profitable account by
+substituting her influence for that of Britain in the counsels of the
+Porte. The Sultan, thwarted in the midst of his tortuous intrigues for a
+great Moslem revival, showed his spleen and his diplomatic skill by
+loftily protesting against Britain's violation of international law, and
+thereafter by refusing (August 1) to proclaim Arabi a rebel against the
+Khedive's authority. The essential timidity of Abdul Hamid's nature in
+presence of superior force was shown by a subsequent change of front. On
+hearing of British successes, he placed Arabi under the ban
+(September 8).
+
+[Footnote 369: For its proceedings, see Parl. Papers, Egypt, 1882
+(Conference on Egyptian Affairs).]
+
+Meanwhile, the British expedition of some 10,000 men, despatched to
+Egypt under the command of Sir Garnet Wolseley made as though it would
+attack Arabi from Alexandria as a base. But on nearing that port at
+nightfall it steered about and occupied Port Said (August 15). Kantara
+and Ismailia, on the canal, were speedily seized; and the Seaforth
+Highlanders by a rapid march occupied Chalouf and prevented the cutting
+of the freshwater canal by the rebels. Thenceforth the little army had
+the advantage of marching near fresh water, and by a route on which
+Arabi was not at first expecting them. Sir Garnet Wolseley's movements
+were of that quick and decisive order which counts for so much against
+orientals. A sharp action at Tel-el-Mahuta obliged Arabi's forces, some
+10,000 strong, to abandon entrenchments thrown up at that point
+(August 24).
+
+Four days later there was desperate fighting at Kassassin Lock on the
+freshwater canal. There the Egyptians flung themselves in large numbers
+against a small force sent forward under General Graham to guard that
+important point. The assailants fought with the recklessness begotten by
+the proclamation of a holy war against infidels, and for some time the
+issue remained in doubt. At length, about sundown, three squadrons of
+the Household Cavalry, and the 7th Dragoon Guards, together with four
+light guns, were hastily sent forward from the main body in the rear to
+clinch the affair. General Drury Lowe wheeled this little force round
+the left flank of the enemy, and, coming up unperceived in the gathering
+darkness, charged with such fury as to scatter the hostile array in
+instant rout[370]. The enemy fell back on the entrenchments at
+Tel-el-Kebir, while the whole British force (including a division from
+India) concentrated at Kassassin, 17,400 strong, with 61 guns and
+6 Gatlings.
+
+[Footnote 370: _History of the Campaign in Egypt_ (War Office), by Col.
+J.F. Maurice, pp. 62-65.]
+
+The final action took place on September 13, at Tel-el-Kebir. There
+Arabi had thrown up a double line of earthworks of some strength,
+covering about four miles, and lay with a force that has been estimated
+at 20,000 to 25,000 regulars and 7000 irregulars. Had the assailants
+marched across the desert and attacked these works by day, they must
+have sustained heavy losses. Sir Garnet therefore determined to try the
+effect of a surprise at dawn, and moved his men forward after sunset of
+the 12th until they came within striking distance of the works. After a
+short rest they resumed their advance shortly before the time when the
+first streaks of dawn would appear on the eastern sky. At about 500
+yards from the works, the advance was dimly silhouetted against the
+paling orient. Shortly before five o'clock, an Egyptian rifle rang out a
+sharp warning, and forthwith the entrenchments spurted forth smoke and
+flame. At once the British answered by a cheer and a rush over the
+intervening ground, each regiment eager to be the first to ply the
+bayonet. The Highlanders, under the command of General Graham, were
+leading on the left, and therefore won in this race for glory; but on
+all sides the invaders poured almost simultaneously over the works. For
+several minutes there was sharp fighting on the parapet; but the British
+were not to be denied, and drove before them the defenders as a kind of
+living screen against the fire that came from the second entrenchments;
+these they carried also, and thrust the whole mass out into the
+desert[371]. There hundreds of them fell under the sabres of the British
+cavalry which swept down from the northern end of the lines; but the
+pursuit was neither prolonged nor sanguinary. Sir Garnet Wolseley was
+satisfied with the feat of dissolving Arabi's army into an armed or
+unarmed rabble by a single sharp blow, and now kept horses and men for
+further eventualities.
+
+[Footnote 371: _Life, Letters, and Diaries of General Sir Gerald Graham_
+(1901). J.F. Maurice, _op. cit._ pp. 84-95.]
+
+By one of those flashes of intuition that mark the born leader of men,
+the British commander perceived that the whole war might be ended if a
+force of cavalry pushed on to Cairo and demanded the surrender of its
+citadel at the moment when the news of the disaster at Tel-el-Kebir
+unmanned its defenders. The conception must rank as one of the most
+daring recorded in the annals of war. In the ancient capital of Egypt
+there were more than 300,000 Moslems, lately aroused to dangerous
+heights of fanaticism by the proclamation of a "holy war" against
+infidels. Its great citadel, towering some 250 feet above the city,
+might seem to bid defiance to all the horsemen of the British army.
+Finally, Arabi had repaired thither in order to inspire vigour into a
+garrison numbering some 10,000 men. Nevertheless, Wolseley counted on
+the moral effect of his victory to level the ramparts of the citadel and
+to abase the mushroom growth of Arabi's pride.
+
+His surmise was more than justified by events. While his Indian
+contingent pushed on to occupy Zagazig, Sir Drury Lowe, with a force
+mustering fewer than 500 sabres, pressed towards Cairo by a desert road
+in order to summon it on the morrow. After halting at Belbeis the
+troopers gave rein to their steeds; and a ride of nearly 40 miles
+brought them to the city about sundown. Rumour magnified their numbers;
+while the fatalism that used to nerve the Moslem in his great days now
+predisposed him to bow the knee and mutter _Kismet_ at the advent of the
+seemingly predestined masters of Egypt. To this small, wearied, but
+lordly band Cairo surrendered, and Arabi himself handed over his sword.
+On the following day the infantry came up and made good this
+precarious conquest.
+
+In presence of this startling triumph the Press of the Continent sought
+to find grounds for the belief that Arabi, and Cairo as well, had been
+secretly bought over by British gold. It is somewhat surprising to find
+M. de Freycinet[372] repeating to-day this piece of spiteful silliness,
+which might with as much reason be used to explain away the victories of
+Clive and Coote, Outram and Havelock. The slanders of continental
+writers themselves stand in need of explanation. It is to be found in
+their annoyance at discovering that England had an army which could
+carry through a difficult campaign to a speedy and triumphant
+conclusion. Their typical attitude had been that of Bismarck, namely,
+of exultation at her difficulties and of hope of her discomfiture. Now
+their tone changed to one of righteous indignation at the irregularity
+of her conduct in acting on behalf of Europe without any mandate from
+the Powers, and in using the Suez Canal as a base of operations.
+
+[Footnote 372: _Op. cit._ p. 316.]
+
+In this latter respect Britain's conduct was certainly open to
+criticism[373]. On the other hand, it is doubtful whether Arabi would
+have provoked her to action had he not been tacitly encouraged by the
+other Powers, which, while professing their wish to see order restored
+in Egypt, in most cases secretly sought to increase her difficulties in
+undertaking that task. As for the Sultan, he had now trimmed his sails
+by declaring Arabi a rebel to the Khedive's authority; and in due course
+that officer was tried, found guilty, and exiled to Ceylon early in
+1883. The conduct of France, Germany, and Russia, if we may judge by the
+tone of their officially inspired Press, was scarcely more
+straightforward, and was certainly less discreet. On all sides there
+were diatribes against Britain's high-handed and lawless behaviour, and
+some German papers affected to believe that Hamburg might next be chosen
+for bombardment by the British fleet. These outbursts, in the case of
+Germany, may have been due to Bismarck's desire to please Russia, and
+secondarily France, in all possible ways. It is doubtful whether he
+gained this end. Certainly he and his underlings in the Press widened
+the gulf that now separated the two great Teutonic peoples.
+
+[Footnote 373: It is said, however, that Arabi had warned M. de Lesseps
+that "the defence of Egypt requires the temporary destruction of the
+Canal" (Traill, _England, Egypt, and the Sudan_, p. 57). The status of
+the Canal was defined in 1885. _Ibid_. p. 59.]
+
+The annoyance of France was more natural. She had made the Suez Canal,
+and had participated in the Dual Control; but her mistake in not sharing
+in the work of restoring order was irreparable. Every one in Egypt saw
+that the control of that country must rest with the Power which had
+swept away Arabi's Government and re-established the fallen authority
+of the Khedive. A few persons in England, even including one member of
+the Gladstone Administration, Mr. Courtney, urged a speedy withdrawal;
+but the Cabinet, which had been unwillingly but irresistibly drawn thus
+far by the force of circumstances, could not leave Egypt a prey to
+anarchy; and, clearly, the hand that repressed anarchy ruled the country
+for the time being. It is significant that on April 4, 1883, more than
+2600 Europeans in Egypt presented a petition begging that the British
+occupation might be permanent[374].
+
+[Footnote 374: Sir A. Milner, _England in Egypt_, p. 31.]
+
+Mr. Gladstone, however, and others of his Cabinet, had declared that it
+would be only temporary, and would, in fact, last only so long as to
+enable order and prosperity to grow up under the shadow of new and
+better institutions. These pledges were given with all sincerity, and
+the Prime Minister and his colleagues evidently wished to be relieved
+from what was to them a disagreeable burden. The French in Egypt, of
+course, fastened on these promises, and one of their newspapers, the
+_Journal Egyptien_, printed them every day at the head of its front
+columns[375]. Mr. Gladstone, who sought above all things for a friendly
+understanding with France, keenly felt, even to the end of his career,
+that the continued occupation of Egypt hindered that most desirable
+consummation. He was undoubtedly right. The irregularity of England's
+action in Egypt hampered her international relations at many points; and
+it may be assigned as one of the causes that brought France into
+alliance with Russia.
+
+[Footnote 375: H.F. Wood, _Egypt under the British_, p. 59 (1896).]
+
+What, then, hindered the fulfilment of Mr. Gladstone's pledges? In the
+first place, the dog-in-the-manger policy of French officials and
+publicists increased the difficulties of the British administrators who
+now, in the character of advisers of the Khedive, really guided him and
+controlled his Ministers. The scheme of administration adopted was in
+the main that advised by Lord Dufferin in his capacity of Special
+Envoy. The details, however, are too wide and complex to be set forth
+here. So also are those of the disputes between our officials and those
+of France. Suffice it to say that by shutting up the funds of the
+"Caisse de la Dette," the French administrators of that great reserve
+fund hoped to make Britain's position untenable and hasten her
+evacuation. In point of fact, these and countless other pin-pricks
+delayed Egypt's recovery and furnished a good reason why Britain should
+not withdraw[376].
+
+[Footnote 376: The reader should consult for full details Sir A. Milner,
+_England in Egypt_ (1892); Sir D.M. Wallace, _The Egyptian Question_
+(1883), especially chaps, xi.-xiii.; and A. Silva White, _The Expansion
+of Egypt_ (1899), the best account of the Anglo-Egyptian administration,
+with valuable Appendices on the "Caisse," etc.
+
+A far more favourable light is thrown on the conduct of Arabi and his
+partisans by Mr. A.M. Broadley in his work _How We Defended
+Arabi_ (1884).]
+
+But above and beyond these administrative details, there was one
+all-compelling cause, the war-cloud that now threatened the land of the
+Pharaohs from that home of savagery and fanaticism, the Sudan.
+
+NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION
+
+For new light on the nationalist movement in Egypt and the part which
+Arabi played in it, the reader should consult _How we defended Arabi_,
+by A.M. Broadley (London, 1884). The same writer in his _Tunis, Past and
+Present_ (2 vols. 1882) has thrown much light on the Tunis Question and
+on the Pan-Islamic movement in North Africa.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+GORDON AND THE SUDAN
+
+     What were my ideas in coming out? They were these: _Agreed
+     abandonment of Sudan, but extricate the garrisons_; and these
+     were the instructions of the Government (Gordon's _Journal_,
+     October 8, 1885).
+
+
+It is one of the peculiarities of the Moslem faith that any time of
+revival is apt to be accompanied by warlike fervour somewhat like that
+which enabled its early votaries to sweep over half of the known world
+in a single generation. This militant creed becomes dangerous when it
+personifies itself in a holy man who can make good his claim to be
+received as a successor of the Prophet. Such a man had recently appeared
+in the Sudan. It is doubtful whether Mohammed Ahmed was a genuine
+believer in his own extravagant claims, or whether he adopted them in
+order to wreak revenge on Rauf Pasha, the Egyptian Governor of the
+Sudan, for an insult inflicted by one of his underlings. In May 1881,
+while living near the island of Abba in the Nile, he put forward his
+claim to be the Messiah or Prophet, foretold by the founder of that
+creed. Retiring with some disciples to that island, he gained fame by
+his fervour and asceticism. His followers named him "El Mahdi," the
+leader, but his claims were scouted by the Ulemas of Khartum, Cairo, and
+Constantinople, on the ground that the Messiah of the Moslems was to
+arise in the East. Nevertheless, while the British were crushing Arabi's
+movement, the Mahdi stirred the Sudan to its depths, and speedily shook
+the Egyptian rule to its base[377].
+
+[Footnote 377: See the Report of the Intelligence Department of the War
+Office, printed in _The Journals of Major-General C.G. Gordon at
+Khartum_, Appendix to Bk. iv.]
+
+There was every reason to fear a speedy collapse. In the years 1874-76
+the Province of the White Nile had known the benefits of just and
+tactful rule under that born leader of men, Colonel Gordon; and in the
+three following years, as Governor-General of the Sudan, he gained
+greater powers, which he felt to be needful for the suppression of the
+slave-trade and other evils. Ill-health and underhand opposition of
+various kinds caused him to resign his post in 1879. Then, to the
+disgust of all, the Khedive named as his successor Rauf Pasha, whom
+Gordon had recently dismissed for maladministration of the Province of
+Harrar, on the borders of Abyssinia[378]. Thus the Sudan, after
+experiencing the benefits of a just and able government, reeled back
+into the bad old condition, at the time when the Mahdi was becoming a
+power in the land. No help was forthcoming from Egypt in the summer of
+1882, and the Mahdi's revolt rapidly made headway even despite several
+checks from the Egyptian troops.
+
+[Footnote 378: See Gordon's letter of April 1880, quoted in the
+Introduction to _The Journals of Major-General C.G. Gordon at Khartum_
+(1885), p. xvii.]
+
+Possibly, if Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues had decided to crush it in
+that autumn, the task might have been easy. But, far from doing so, they
+sought to dissuade the Khedive from attempting to hold the most
+disturbed districts, those of Kordofan and Darfur, beyond Khartum. This
+might have been the best course, if the evacuation could have been
+followed at once and without risk of disaster at the hands of the
+fanatics. But Tewfik willed otherwise. Against the advice of Lord
+Dufferin, he sought to reconquer the Sudan, and that, too, by wholly
+insufficient forces. The result was a series of disasters, culminating
+in the extermination of Hicks Pasha's Egyptian force by the Mahdi's
+followers near El Obeid, the capital of Kordofan (November 5, 1883).
+
+The details of the disaster are not fully known. Hicks Pasha was
+appointed, on August 20, 1883, by the Khedive to command the expedition
+into that province. He set out from Omdurman on September 9, with 10,000
+men, 4 Krupp guns and 16 light guns, 500 horses and 5500 camels. His
+last despatch, dated October 3, showed that the force had been greatly
+weakened by want of water and provisions, and most of all by the spell
+cast on the troops by the Mahdi's claim to invincibility. Nevertheless,
+Hicks checked the rebels in two or three encounters, but, according to
+the tale of one of the few survivors, a camel-driver, the force finally
+succumbed to a fierce charge on the Egyptian square at the close of an
+exhausting march, prolonged by the treachery of native guides. Nearly
+the whole force was put to the sword. Hicks Pasha perished, along with
+five British and four German officers, and many Egyptians of note. The
+adventurous newspaper correspondents, O'Donovan and Vizetelly, also met
+their doom (November 5, 1883)[379].
+
+[Footnote 379: Gordon's _Journals_, pp. 347-351; also Parl. Papers,
+Egypt, No. 12 (1884), pp. 85 and 127-131 for another account. See, too,
+Sir F.R. Wingate's _Mahdism_, chaps. i.-iii., for the rise of the Mahdi
+and his triumph over Hicks.]
+
+This catastrophe decided the history of the Sudan for many years. The
+British Government was in no respect responsible for the appointment of
+General Hicks to the Kordofan command. Lord Dufferin and Sir E. Malet
+had strongly urged the Khedive to abandon Kordofan and Darfur; but it
+would seem that the desire of the governing class at Cairo to have a
+hand in the Sudan administration overbore these wise remonstrances, and
+hence the disaster near El Obeid with its long train of evil
+consequences[380]. It was speedily followed by another reverse at Tokar
+not far from Suakim, where the slave-raiders and tribesmen of the Red
+Sea coast exterminated another force under the command of Captain
+Moncrieff.
+
+[Footnote 380: J. Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii. p. 146; Sir A.
+Lyall, _Life of Lord Dufferin_, vol. ii. chap. ii.]
+
+The Gladstone Ministry and the British advisers of the Khedive, among
+whom was Sir Evelyn Baring (the present Lord Cromer), again urged the
+entire evacuation of the Sudan, and the limitation of Egyptian authority
+to the strong position of the First Cataract at Assuan. This policy then
+received the entire approval of the man who was to be alike the hero and
+the martyr of that enterprise[381]. But how were the Egyptian garrisons
+to be withdrawn? It was a point of honour not to let them be slaughtered
+or enslaved by the cruel fanatics of the Mahdi. Yet under the lead of
+Egyptian officers they would almost certainly suffer one of these fates.
+A way of escape was suggested--by a London evening newspaper in the
+first instance. The name of Gordon was renowned for justice and
+hardihood all through the Sudan. Let this knight-errant be sent--so said
+this Mentor of the Press--and his strange power over men would
+accomplish the impossible. The proposal carried conviction everywhere,
+and Lord Granville, who generally followed any strong lead, sent for
+the General.
+
+[Footnote 381: Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii. p. 147.]
+
+Charles George Gordon, born at Woolwich in 1833, was the scion of a
+staunch race of Scottish fighters. His great-grandfather served under
+Cope at Prestonpans; his grandfather fought in Boscawen's expedition at
+Louisburg and under Wolfe at Quebec. His father attained the rank of
+Lieutenant-General. From his mother, too, he derived qualities of
+self-reliance and endurance of no mean order. Despite the fact that she
+had eleven children, and that three of her sons were out at the Crimea,
+she is said never to have quailed during that dark time. Of these sons,
+Charles George was serving in the Engineers; he showed at his first
+contact with war an aptitude and resource which won the admiration of
+all. "We used always to send him out to find what new move the Russians
+were making"--such was the testimony of one of his superior officers. Of
+his subsequent duties in delimiting the new Bessarabian frontier and his
+miraculous career in China we cannot speak in detail. By the consent of
+all, it was his soldierly spirit that helped to save that Empire from
+anarchy at the hands of the Taeping rebels, whose movement presented a
+strange medley of perverted Christianity, communism, and freebooting.
+There it was that his magnetic influence over men first had free play.
+Though he was only thirty years of age, his fine physique, dauntless
+daring, and the spirit of unquestionable authority that looked out from
+his kindly eyes, gained speedy control over the motley set of officers
+and the Chinese rank and file--half of them ex-rebels--that formed the
+nucleus of the "ever victorious army." What wonder that he was
+thenceforth known as "Chinese Gordon"?
+
+In the years 1865-71, which he spent at Gravesend in supervising the
+construction of the new forts at the mouth of the river, the religious
+and philanthropic side of his character found free play. His biographer,
+Mr. Hake, tells of his interest in the poor and suffering, and, above
+all, in friendless boys, who came to idolise his manly yet sympathetic
+nature. Called thereafter by the Khedive to succeed Sir Samuel Baker in
+the Governorship of the Sudan, he grappled earnestly with the fearful
+difficulties that beset all who have attempted to put down the
+slave-trade in its chief seat of activity. Later on he expressed the
+belief that "the Sudan is a useless possession, ever was so, ever will
+be so." These words, and certain episodes in his official career in
+India and in Cape Colony, revealed the weak side of a singularly noble
+nature. Occasionally he was hasty and impulsive in his decisions, and
+the pride of his race would then flash forth. During his cadetship at
+Woolwich he was rebuked for incompetence, and told that he would never
+make an officer. At once he tore the epaulets from his shoulders and
+flung them at his superior's feet. A certain impatience of control
+characterised him throughout life. No man was ever more chivalrous, more
+conscientious, more devoted, or abler in the management of inferiors;
+but his abilities lay rather in the direction of swift intuitions and
+prompt achievement than in sound judgment and plodding toil. In short,
+his qualities were those of a knight-errant, not those of a statesman.
+The imperious calls of conscience and of instinct endowed him with
+powers uniquely fitted to attract and enthral simple straightforward
+natures, and to sway orientals at his will. But the empire of
+conscience, instinct, and will-power consorts but ill with those
+diplomatic gifts of effecting a timely compromise which go far to make
+for success in life. This was at once the strength and the weakness of
+Gordon's being. In the midst of a _blase_, sceptical age, his
+personality stood forth, God-fearing as that of a Covenanter, romantic
+as that of a Coeur de Lion, tender as that of a Florence Nightingale. In
+truth, it appealed to all that is most elemental in man.
+
+At that time Gordon was charged by the King of the Belgians to proceed
+to the Congo River to put down the slave-trade. Imagination will persist
+in wondering what might have been the result if he had carried out this
+much-needed duty. Possibly he might have acquired such an influence as
+to direct the "Congo Free State" to courses far other than those to
+which it has come. He himself discerned the greatness of the
+opportunity. In his letter of January 6, 1884, to H.M. Stanley, he
+stated that "no such efficacious means of cutting at root of slave-trade
+ever was presented as that which God has opened out to us through the
+kind disinterestedness of His Majesty."
+
+The die was now cast against the Congo and for the Nile. Gordon had a
+brief interview with four members of the Cabinet--Lords Granville,
+Hartington, Northbrooke, and Sir Charles Dilke,--Mr. Gladstone was
+absent at Hawarden; and they forthwith decided that he should go to the
+Upper Nile. What transpired in that most important meeting is known only
+from Gordon's account of it in a private letter:--
+
+     At noon he, Wolseley, came to me and took me to the
+     Ministers. He went in and talked to the Ministers, and came
+     back and said, "Her Majesty's Government want you to
+     undertake this. Government are determined to evacuate the
+     Sudan, for they will not guarantee future government. Will
+     you go and do it?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Go in." I went
+     in and saw them. They said, "Did Wolseley tell you our
+     orders?" I said, "Yes." I said, "You will not guarantee
+     future government of the Sudan, and you wish me to go up to
+     evacuate now?" They said, "Yes," and it was over, and I left
+     at 8 P.M. for Calais.
+
+Before seeing the Ministers, Gordon had a long interview with Lord
+Wolseley, who in the previous autumn had been named Baron Wolseley of
+Cairo. That conversation is also unknown to us, but obviously it must
+have influenced Gordon's impressions as to the scope of the duties
+sketched for him by the Cabinet. We turn, then, to the "Instructions to
+General Gordon," drawn up by the Ministry on Jan. 18, 1884. They
+directed him to "proceed at once to Egypt, to report to them on the
+military situation in the Sudan, and on the measures which it may be
+advisable to take for the security of the Egyptian garrisons still
+holding positions in that country and for the safety of the European
+population in Khartum." He was also to report on the best mode of
+effecting the evacuation of the interior of the Sudan and on measures
+that might be taken to counteract the consequent spread of the
+slave-trade. He was to be under the instructions of H.M.'s
+Consul-General at Cairo (Sir Evelyn Baring). There followed this
+sentence: "You will consider yourself authorised and instructed to
+perform such other duties as the Egyptian Government may desire to
+entrust to you, and as may be communicated to you by Sir Evelyn
+Baring[382]."
+
+[Footnote 382: Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 2 (1884), p. 3.]
+
+After receiving these instructions, Gordon started at once for Egypt,
+accompanied by Colonel Stewart. At Cairo he had an interview with Sir
+Evelyn Baring, and was appointed by the Khedive Governor-General of the
+Sudan. The firman of Jan. 26 contained these words: "We trust that you
+will carry out our good intentions for the establishment of justice and
+order, and that you will assure the peace and prosperity of the people
+of the Sudan by maintaining the security of the roads," etc. It
+contained not a word about the evacuation of the Sudan, nor did the
+Khedive's proclamation of the same date to the Sudanese. The only
+reference to evacuation was in his letter of the same date to Gordon,
+beginning thus: "You are aware that the object of your arrival here and
+of your mission to the Sudan is to carry into execution the evacuation
+of those territories and to withdraw our troops, civil officials, and
+such of the inhabitants, together with their belongings, as may wish to
+leave for Egypt. . . ." After completing this task he was to "take the
+necessary steps for establishing an organised Government in the
+different provinces of the Sudan for the maintenance of order and the
+cessation of all disasters and incitement to revolt[383]." How Gordon,
+after sending away all the troops, was to pacify that enormous territory
+His Highness did not explain.
+
+[Footnote 383: Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 12 (1884), pp. 27, 28.]
+
+There is almost as much ambiguity in the "further instructions" which
+Sir Evelyn Baring drew up on January 25 at Cairo. After stating that the
+British and Egyptian Governments had agreed on the necessity of
+"evacuating" the Sudan, he noted the fact that Gordon approved of it and
+thought it should on no account be changed; the despatch proceeds:--
+
+     You consider that it may take a few months to carry it out
+     with safety. You are further of opinion that "the restoration
+     of the country should be made to the different petty Sultans
+     who existed at the time of Mohammed Ali's conquest, and whose
+     families still exist"; and that an endeavour should be made
+     to form a confederation of those Sultans. In this view the
+     Egyptian Government entirely concur. It will of course be
+     fully understood that the Egyptian troops are not to be kept
+     in the Sudan merely with a view to consolidating the powers
+     of the new rulers of the country. But the Egyptian Government
+     has the fullest confidence in your judgment, your knowledge
+     of the country, and your comprehension of the general line of
+     policy to be pursued. You are therefore given full
+     discretionary power to retain the troops for such reasonable
+     period as you may think necessary, in order that the
+     abandonment of the country may be accomplished with the least
+     possible risk to life and property. A credit of L100,000 has
+     been opened for you at the Finance Department[384]. . . .
+
+[Footnote 384: Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 6 (1884), p. 3.]
+
+In themselves these instructions were not wholly clear. An officer who
+is allowed to use troops for the settlement or pacification of a vast
+tract of country can hardly be the agent of a policy of mere
+"abandonment." Neither Gordon nor Baring seems at that time to have felt
+the incongruity of the two sets of duties, but before long it flashed
+across Gordon's mind. At Abu Hammed, when nearing Khartum, he
+telegraphed to Baring: "I would most earnestly beg that evacuation but
+not abandonment be the programme to be followed." Or, as he phrased it,
+he wanted Egypt to recognise her "moral control and suzerainty" over the
+Sudan[385]. This, of course, was an extension of the programme to which
+he gave his assent at Cairo; it differed _toto caelo_ from the policy of
+abandonment laid down at London.
+
+[Footnote 385: Egypt, No. 12 (1884), p. 133.]
+
+Even now it is impossible to see why Ministers did not at once simplify
+the situation by a clear statement of their orders to Gordon, not of
+course as Governor-General of the Sudan, but as a British officer
+charged by them with a definite duty. At a later date they sought to
+limit him to the restricted sphere sketched out at London; but then it
+was too late to bend to their will a nature which, firm at all times,
+was hard as adamant when the voice of conscience spoke within. Already
+it had spoken, and against "abandonment."
+
+There were other confusing elements in the situation. Gordon believed
+that the "full discretionary power" granted to him by Sir E. Baring was
+a promise binding on the British Government; and, seeing that he was
+authorised to perform such other duties as Sir Evelyn Baring would
+communicate to him, he was right. But Ministers do not seem to have
+understood that this implied an immense widening of the original
+programme. Further, Sir Evelyn Baring used the terms "evacuation" and
+"abandonment" as if they were synonymous; while in Gordon's view they
+were very different. As we shall see, his nature, at once conscientious,
+vehement, and pertinacious, came to reject the idea of abandonment as
+cowardly and therefore impossible.
+
+Lastly, we may note that Gordon was left free to announce the
+forthcoming evacuation of the Sudan, or not, as he judged best[386]. He
+decided to keep it secret. Had he kept it entirely so for the present,
+he would have done well; but he is said to have divulged it to one or
+two officials at Berber; if so, it was a very regrettable imprudence,
+which compromised the defence of that town. But surely no man was ever
+charged with duties so complex and contradictory. The qualities of
+Nestor, Ulysses, and Achilles combined in one mortal could scarcely have
+availed to untie or sever that knot.
+
+[Footnote 386: _Ibid_. p. 27.]
+
+The first sharp collision between Gordon and the Home Government
+resulted from his urgent request for the employment of Zebehr Pasha as
+the future ruler of the Sudan. A native of the Sudan, this man had risen
+to great wealth and power by his energy and ambition, and figured as a
+kind of king among the slave-raiders of the Upper Nile, until, for some
+offence against the Egyptian Government, he was interned at Cairo. At
+that city Gordon had a conference with Zebehr in the presence of Sir E.
+Baring, Nubar Pasha, and others. It was long and stormy, and gave the
+impression of undying hatred felt by the slaver for the slave-liberator.
+This alone seemed to justify the Gladstone Ministry in refusing Gordon's
+request[387]. Had Zebehr gone with Gordon, he would certainly have
+betrayed him--so thought Sir Evelyn Baring.
+
+[Footnote 387: _Ibid_. pp. 38-41.]
+
+Setting out from Cairo and travelling quickly up the Nile, Gordon
+reached Khartum on February 18, and received an enthusiastic welcome
+from the discouraged populace. At once he publicly burned all
+instruments of torture and records of old debts; so that his popularity
+overshadowed that of the Mahdi. Again he urged the despatch of Zebehr
+as his "successor," after the withdrawal of troops and civilians from
+the Sudan. But, as Sir Evelyn Baring said in forwarding Gordon's request
+to Downing Street, it would be most dangerous to place them together at
+Khartum. It should further be noted that Gordon's telegrams showed his
+belief that the Mahdi's power was overrated, and that his advance in
+person on Khartum was most unlikely[388]. It is not surprising, then,
+that Lord Granville telegraphed to Sir E. Baring on February 22 that the
+public opinion of England "would not tolerate the appointment of Zebehr
+Pasha[389]." Already it had been offended by Gordon's proclamation at
+Khartum that the Government would not interfere with the buying and
+selling of slaves, though, as Sir Evelyn Baring pointed out, the
+re-establishment of slavery resulted quite naturally from the policy of
+evacuation; and he now strongly urged that Gordon should have "full
+liberty of action to complete the execution of his general plans[390]."
+
+[Footnote 388: Egypt, No. 12 (1884), pp. 74, 82, 88.]
+
+[Footnote 389: _Ibid_. p. 95.]
+
+[Footnote 390: _Ibid_. p. 94.]
+
+Here it is desirable to remember that the Mahdist movement was then
+confined almost entirely to three chief districts--Kordofan, parts of
+the lands adjoining the Blue Nile, and the tribes dwelling west and
+south-west of Suakim. For the present these last were the most
+dangerous. Already they had overpowered and slaughtered two Egyptian
+forces; and on February 22 news reached Cairo of the fall of Tokar
+before the valiant swordsmen of Osman Digna. But this was far away from
+the Nile and did not endanger Gordon. British troops were landed at
+Suakim for the protection of that port, but this step implied no change
+of policy respecting the Sudan. The slight impression which two
+brilliant but costly victories, those of El Teb and Tamai, made on the
+warlike tribes at the back of Suakim certainly showed the need of
+caution in pushing a force into the Sudan when the fierce heats of
+summer were coming on[391].
+
+[Footnote 391: For details of these battles, see Sir F. Wingate's
+_Mahdism_, chap, iii., and _Life of Sir Gerald Graham_ (1901).]
+
+The first hint of any change of policy was made by Gordon in his
+despatch of Feb. 26, to Sir E. Baring. After stating his regret at the
+refusal of the British Government to allow the despatch of Zebehr as his
+successor, he used these remarkable words:--
+
+You must remember that when evacuation is carried out, Mahdi will come
+down here, and, by agents, will not let Egypt be quiet. Of course my
+duty is evacuation, and the best I can for establishing a quiet
+government. The first I hope to accomplish. The second is a more
+difficult task, and concerns Egypt more than me. If Egypt is to be
+quiet, Mahdi must be smashed up. Mahdi is most unpopular, and with care
+and time could be smashed. Remember that once Khartum belongs to Mahdi,
+the task will be far more difficult; yet you will, for safety of Egypt,
+execute it. If you decide on smashing Mahdi, then send up another
+L100,000 and send up 200 Indian troops to Wady Haifa, and send officer
+up to Dongola under pretence to look out quarters for troops. Leave
+Suakim and Massowah alone. I repeat that evacuation is possible, but you
+will feel effect in Egypt, and will be forced to enter into a far more
+serious affair in order to guard Egypt. At present, it would be
+comparatively easy to destroy Mahdi[392].
+
+[Footnote 392: Egypt, No. 12 (1884), p. 115.]
+
+This statement arouses different opinions according to the point of view
+from which we regard it. As a declaration of general policy it is no
+less sound than prophetic; as a despatch from the Governor-General of
+the Sudan to the Egyptian Government, it claimed serious attention; as a
+recommendation sent by a British officer to the Home Government, it was
+altogether beyond his powers. Gordon was sent out for a distinct aim; he
+now proposed to subordinate that aim to another far vaster aim which lay
+beyond his province. Nevertheless, Sir E. Baring on February 28, and on
+March 4, urged the Gladstone Ministry even now to accede to Gordon's
+request for Zebehr Pasha as his successor, on the ground that some
+Government must be left in the Sudan, and Zebehr was deemed at Cairo to
+be the only possible governor. Again the Home Government refused, and
+thereby laid themselves under the moral obligation of suggesting an
+alternate course. The only course suggested was to allow the despatch of
+a British force up the Nile, if occasion seemed to demand it[393].
+
+[Footnote 393: Egypt, No. 12 (1884) p. 119.]
+
+In this connection it is well to remember that the question of Egypt and
+the Sudan was only one of many that distracted the attention of
+Ministers. The events outside Suakim alone might give them pause before
+they plunged into the Sudan; for that was the time when Russia was
+moving on towards Afghanistan; and the agreement between the three
+Emperors imposed the need of caution on a State as isolated and
+unpopular as England then was. In view of the designs of the German
+colonial party (see Chapter XVII.) and the pressure of the Irish
+problem, the Gladstone Cabinet was surely justified in refusing to
+undertake any new responsibilities, except on the most urgent need.
+Vital interests were at stake in too many places to warrant a policy of
+Quixotic adventure up the Nile.
+
+Nevertheless, it is regrettable that Ministers took up on the Sudan
+problem a position that was logically sound but futile in the sphere of
+action. Gordon's mission, according to Earl Granville, was a peaceful
+one, and he inquired anxiously what progress had been made in the
+withdrawal of the Egyptian garrisons and civilians. This question he
+put, even in the teeth of Gordon's positive statement in a telegram of
+March 8:--
+
+If you do not send Zebehr, you have no chance of getting the garrisons
+away; . . . Zebehr here would be far more powerful than the Mahdi, and he
+would make short work of the Mahdi[394].
+
+[Footnote 394: _Ibid_. p. 145.]
+
+A week earlier Gordon had closed a telegram with the despairing words:--
+
+I will do my best to carry out my instructions, but I feel conviction I
+shall be caught in Khartum[395].
+
+[Footnote 395: _Ibid_. p. 152.]
+
+It is not surprising that Ministers were perplexed by Gordon's
+despatches, or that Baring telegraphed to Khartum that he found it very
+difficult to understand what the General wanted. All who now peruse his
+despatches must have the same feeling, mixed with one of regret that he
+ever weakened his case by the proposal to "smash the Mahdi." Thenceforth
+the British Government obviously felt some distrust of their envoy; and
+in this disturbing factor, and the duality of Gordon's duties, we may
+discern one cause at least of the final disaster.
+
+On March 11, the British Government refused either to allow the
+appointment of Zebehr, or to send British or Indian troops from Suakim
+to Berber. Without wishing to force Gordon's hand prematurely, Earl
+Granville urged the need of evacuation at as early a date as might be
+practicable. On March 16, after hearing ominous news as to the spread of
+the Mahdi's power near to Khartum and Berber, he advised the evacuation
+of the former city at the earliest possible date[396]. We may here note
+that the rebels began to close round it on March 18.
+
+[Footnote 396: _Ibid_. pp. 158, 162, 166.]
+
+Earl Granville's advice directly conflicted with Gordon's sense of
+honour. As he stated, on or about March 20, the fidelity of the people
+of Khartum, while treachery was rife all around, bound him not to leave
+them until he could do so "under a Government which would give them some
+hope of peace." Here again his duty as Governor of the Sudan, or his
+extreme conscientiousness as a man, held him to his post despite the
+express recommendations of the British Government. His decision is ever
+to be regretted; but it redounds to his honour as a Christian and a
+soldier. At bottom, the misunderstanding between him and the Cabinet
+rested on a divergent view of duty. Gordon summed up his scruples in his
+telegram to Baring:--
+
+You must see that you could not recall me, nor could I possibly obey,
+until the Cairo _employes_ get out from all the places. I have named men
+to different places, thus involving them with the Mahdi. How could I
+look the world in the face if I abandoned them and fled? As a gentleman,
+could you advise this course?
+
+Earl Granville summed up his statement of the case in the words:--
+
+The Mission of General Gordon, as originally designed and decided upon,
+was of a pacific nature and in no way involved any movement of British
+forces. . . . He was, in addition, authorised and instructed to perform
+such other duties as the Egyptian Government might desire to entrust to
+him and as might be communicated by you to him. . . . Her Majesty's
+Government, bearing in mind the exigencies of the occasion, concurred in
+these instructions [those of the Egyptian Government], which virtually
+altered General Gordon's Mission from one of advice to that of
+executing, or at least directing, the evacuation not only of Khartum but
+of the whole Sudan, and they were willing that General Gordon should
+receive the very extended powers conferred upon him by the Khedive to
+enable him to effect his difficult task. But they have throughout joined
+in your anxiety that he should not expose himself to unnecessary
+personal risk, or place himself in a position from which retreat would
+be difficult[397].
+
+[Footnote 397: Egypt, No. 13 (1884), pp. 5, 6. Earl Granville made the
+same statement in his despatch of April 23. See, too, _The Life of Lord
+Granville_.]
+
+He then states that it is clear that Khartum can hold out for at least
+six months, if it is attacked, and, seeing that the British occupation
+of Egypt was only "for a special and temporary purpose," any expedition
+into the Sudan would be highly undesirable on general as well as
+diplomatic grounds.
+
+Both of these views of duty are intelligible as well as creditable to
+those who held them. But the former view is that of a high-souled
+officer; the latter, that of a responsible and much-tried Minister and
+diplomatist. They were wholly divergent, and divergence there
+spelt disaster.
+
+On hearing of the siege of Khartum, General Stephenson, then commanding
+the British forces in Egypt, advised the immediate despatch of a brigade
+to Dongola--a step which would probably have produced the best results;
+but that advice was overruled at London for the reasons stated above.
+Ministers seem to have feared that Gordon might use the force for
+offensive purposes. An Egyptian battalion was sent up the Nile to
+Korosko in the middle of May; but the "moral effect" hoped for from that
+daring step vanished in face of a serious reverse. On May 19, the
+important city of Berber was taken by the Mahdists[398].
+
+[Footnote 398: Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 25 (1884), pp. 129-131.]
+
+Difficult as the removal of about 10,000 to 15,000[399] Egyptians from
+Khartum had always been--and there were fifteen other garrisons to be
+rescued--it was now next to impossible, unless some blow were dealt at
+the rebels in that neighbourhood. The only effective blow would be that
+dealt by British or Indian troops, and this the Government refused,
+though Gordon again and again pointed out that a small well-equipped
+force would do far more than a large force. "A heavy, lumbering column,
+however strong, is nowhere in this land (so he wrote in his _Journals_
+on September 24). . . . It is the country of the irregular, not of the
+regular." A month after the capture of Berber a small British force left
+Siut, on the Nile, for Assuan; but this move, which would have sent a
+thrill through the Sudan in March, had little effect at midsummer. Even
+so, a prompt advance on Dongola and thence on Berber would probably have
+saved the situation at the eleventh hour.
+
+[Footnote 399: This is the number as estimated by Gordon in his
+_Journals_ (Sept. 10, 1884), p. 6.]
+
+But first the battle of the routes had to be fought out by the military
+authorities. As early as April 25, the Government ordered General
+Stephenson to report on the best means of relieving Gordon; after due
+consideration of this difficult problem he advised the despatch of
+10,000 men to Berber from Suakim in the month of September. Preparations
+were actually begun at Suakim; but in July experts began to favour the
+Nile route. In that month Lord Wolseley urged the immediate despatch of
+a force up that river, and he promised that it should be at Dongola by
+the middle of October. Even so, official hesitations hampered the
+enterprise, and it was not until July 29 that the decision seems to have
+been definitely formed in favour of the Nile route. Even on August 8,
+Lord Hartington, then War Minister, stated that help would be sent to
+Gordon, _if it proved to be necessary_[400]. On August 26, Lord Wolseley
+was appointed to the command of the relief expedition gathering on the
+Nile, but not until October 5 did he reach Wady Haifa, below the
+Second Cataract.
+
+[Footnote 400: Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii. p. 164.]
+
+Meanwhile the web of fate was closing in on Khartum. In vain did Gordon
+seek to keep communications open. All that he could do was to hold
+stoutly to that last bulwark of civilisation. There were still some
+grounds for hope. The Mahdi remained in Kordofan, want of food
+preventing his march northwards in force. Against his half-armed
+fanatics the city opposed a strong barrier. "Crows' feet" scattered on
+the ground ended their mad rushes, and mines blew them into the air by
+hundreds. Khartum seemed to defy those sons of the desert. The fire of
+the steamers drove them from the banks and pulverised their forts[401].
+The arsenal could turn out 50,000 Remington cartridges a week. There was
+every reason, then, for holding the city; for, as Gordon jotted down in
+his _Journal_ on September 17, if the Mahdi took Khartum, it would need
+a great force to stay his propaganda. Here and there in those pathetic
+records of a life and death struggle we catch a glimpse of Gordon's hope
+of saving Khartum for civilisation. More than once he noted the ease of
+holding the Sudan from the Nile as base. With forts at the cataracts and
+armed steamers patrolling the clear reaches of the river, the defence of
+the Sudan, he believed, was by no means impossible[402].
+
+[Footnote 401: For details, see _Letters from Khartum_, by Frank Power.]
+
+[Footnote 402: _Journal_, p. 35, etc.]
+
+On September 10 he succeeded in sending away down stream by steamer
+Colonel Stewart and Messrs. Power and Herbin; but unfortunately they
+were wrecked and murdered by Arabs near Korti. The advice and help of
+that gallant officer would have been of priceless service to the
+relieving force. On September 10, when the _Journals_ begin, Gordon was
+still hopeful of success, though food was scarce.
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF THE NILE.]
+
+At this time the rescue expedition was mustering at Wady Haifa, a point
+which the narrowing gorge of the Nile marks out as one of the natural
+defences of its lower valley. There the British and Egyptian Governments
+were collecting a force that soon amounted to 2570 British troops and
+some Egyptians, who were to be used solely for transport and portage
+duties. A striking tribute to the solidarity of the Empire was the
+presence of 350 Canadians, mostly French, whose skill in working boats
+up rapids won admiration on all sides. The difficulties of the Nile
+route were soon found to be far greater than had been imagined. Indeed
+many persons still believe that the Suakim-Berber route would have been
+far preferable. The Nile was unfortunately lower than usual, and many
+rapids, up which small steamers had been hauled when the waters ran deep
+and full, were impassable even for the whale-boats on which the
+expedition depended for its progress as far as Korti. Many a time all
+the boats had to be hauled up the banks and carried by Canadians or
+Egyptians to the next clear reaches. The letters written by Gordon in
+1877 in a more favourable season were now found to be misleading, and in
+part led to the miscalculation of time which was to prove so disastrous.
+
+Another untoward fact was the refusal of the authorities to push on the
+construction of the railway above Sarras. It had been completed from
+Wady Haifa up to that point, and much work had been done on it for about
+fifteen miles further. But, either from lack of the necessary funds, or
+because the line could not be completed in time, the construction was
+stopped by Lord Wolseley's orders early in October. Consequently much
+time was lost in dragging the boats and their stores up or around the
+difficult rapids above Semneh[403].
+
+[Footnote 403: See Gordon's letters of the year 1877, quoted in the
+Appendix of A. Macdonald's _Too Late for Gordon and Khartum_ (1887);
+also chap. vi. of that book.]
+
+Meanwhile a large quantity of stores had been collected at Dongola and
+Debbeh; numbers of boats were also there, so that a swift advance of a
+vanguard thence by the calmer reaches farther up the Nile seemed to
+offer many chances of success. It was in accord with Gordon's advice to
+act swiftly with small columns; but, for some reason, the plan was not
+acted on, though Colonel Kitchener, who had collected those stores,
+recommended it. Another argument for speedy action was the arrival on
+November 14, of a letter from Gordon, dated ten days before, in which he
+stated that he could hold out for forty days, but would find it hard to
+do so any longer.
+
+The advance of the main body to Dongola was very slow, despite the
+heroic toil of all concerned. We now know that up to the middle of
+September the Gladstone Ministry cherished the belief that the force
+need not advance beyond Dongola. Their optimism was once again at fault.
+The Mahdists were pressing on the siege of Khartum, and had overpowered
+and slaughtered faithful tribes farther down the river. Such was the
+news sent by Gordon and received by Lord Wolseley on December 31 at
+Korti. The "secret and confidential" part of Gordon's message was to the
+effect that food was running short, and the rescuers must come quickly;
+they should come by Metammeh or Berber, and inform Gordon by the
+messenger when they had taken Berber.
+
+The last entries in Gordon's _Journals_ or in that part which has
+survived, contain the following statements:--
+
+December 13. ". . . All that is absolutely necessary is for fifty of the
+expeditionary force to get on board a steamer and come up to Halfeyeh,
+and thus let their presence be felt; this is not asking much, but it
+must happen at once; or it will (as usual) be too late."
+
+December 14. [After stating that he would send down a steamer with the
+"Journal" towards the expeditionary force]. . . . "Now mark this, if the
+expeditionary force, and I ask for no more than two hundred men, does
+not come in ten days _the town may fall_; and I have done my best for
+the honour of our country. Good bye."
+
+Owing to lack of transport and other difficulties, the vanguard of the
+relieving force could not begin its march from the new Nile base, near
+Korti, until December 30. Thence the gallant Sir Herbert Stewart led a
+picked column of men with 1800 camels across the desert towards
+Metammeh. Lord Wolseley remained behind to guard the new base of
+operations. At Abu Klea wells, when nearing the Nile, the column was
+assailed by a great mass of Arabs. They advanced in five columns, each
+having a wedge-shaped head designed to pierce the British square. With a
+low murmuring cry or chant they rushed on in admirable order,
+disregarding the heavy losses caused by the steady fire of three faces
+of the square. Their leaders soon saw the weak place in the defence,
+namely, at one of the rear corners, where belated skirmishers were still
+running in for shelter, where also one of the guns jammed at the
+critical moment. One of their Emirs, calmly reciting his prayers, rode
+in through the gap thus formed, and for ten minutes bayonet and spear
+plied their deadly thrusts at close quarters. Thanks to the firmness of
+the British infantry, every Arab that forced his way in perished; but in
+this _melee_ there perished a stalwart soldier whom England could ill
+spare, Colonel Burnaby, hero of the ride to Khiva. Lord Charles
+Beresford, of the Naval Brigade, had a narrow escape while striving to
+set right the defective cannon. In all we lost 65 killed and 60 wounded,
+a proportion which tells its own tale as to the fighting[404].
+
+[Footnote 404: Sir C.W. Wilson, _From Korti to Khartum_, pp. 28-35; also
+see Hon. R. Talbot's article on "Abu Klea," in the _Nineteenth Century_
+for January 1886.]
+
+Two days later, while the force was beating off an attack of the Arabs
+near Metammeh, General Stewart received a wound which proved to be
+mortal. The command now devolved on Sir Charles Wilson of the Royal
+Engineers. After repelling the attacks of other Mahdists and making good
+his position on the Nile, the new commander came into touch with
+Gordon's steamers, which arrived there on the 21st, with 190 Sudanese.
+Again, however, the advance of other Arabs from Omdurman caused a delay
+until a fortified camp or zariba could be formed. Wilson now had but
+1322 unwounded men; and he saw that the Mahdists were in far greater
+force than Lord Wolseley or General Gordon had expected. Not until
+January 24 could the commander steam away southwards with 20 men of the
+Sussex regiment and the 190 Sudanese soldiers on the two largest of
+Gordon's boats--his "penny steamers" as he whimsically termed them.
+
+The sequel is well known. After overcoming many difficulties caused by
+rocks and sandbanks, after running the gauntlet of the Mahdist fire,
+this forlorn hope neared Khartum on the 28th, only to find that the
+place had fallen. There was nothing for it but to put about and escape
+while it was possible. Sir Charles Wilson has described the scene: "The
+masses of the enemy with their fluttering banners near Khartum, the long
+rows of riflemen in the shelter-trenches at Omdurman, the numerous
+groups of men on Tuti [Island], the bursting of shells, and the water
+torn up by hundreds of bullets, and occasionally heavier shot, made an
+impression never to be forgotten. Looking out over the stormy scene, it
+seemed almost impossible that we should escape[405]."
+
+[Footnote 405: Sir C.W. Wilson, _op. cit._ pp. 176-177.]
+
+Weighed down by grief at the sad failure of all their strivings, the
+little band yet succeeded in escaping to Metammeh. They afterwards found
+out that they were two days too late. The final cause of the fall of
+Khartum is not fully known. The notion first current, that it was due to
+treachery, has been discredited. Certainly the defenders were weakened
+by privation and cowed by the Mahdist successes. The final attack was
+also given at a weak place in the long line of defence; but whether the
+defenders all did their best, or were anxious to make terms with the
+Mahdi, will probably never be known. The conduct of the assailants in at
+once firing on the relieving force forbids the notion that they all
+along intended to get into Khartum by treachery just before the approach
+of the steamers. Had that been their aim, they would surely have added
+one crowning touch of guile, that of remaining quiet until Wilson and
+his men landed at Khartum. The capture of the town would therefore seem
+to be due to force, not to treachery.
+
+All these speculations are dwarfed by the overwhelming fact that Gordon
+perished. Various versions have been given of the manner of his death.
+One that rests on good authority is that he died fighting. Another
+account, which seems more consistent with his character, is that, on
+hearing of the enemy's rush into the town, he calmly remarked: "It is
+all finished; to-day Gordon will be killed." In a short time a chief of
+the Baggara Arabs with a few others burst in and ordered him to come to
+the Mahdi. Gordon refused. Thrice the Sheikh repeated the command.
+Thrice Gordon calmly repeated his refusal. The sheikh then drew his
+sword and slashed at his shoulder. Gordon still looked him steadily in
+the face. Thereupon the miscreant struck at his neck, cut off his head,
+and carried it to the Mahdi[406].
+
+[Footnote 406: A third account given by Bordeini Bey, a merchant of
+Khartum, differs in many details. It is printed by Sir F.R. Wingate in
+his _Mahdism_, p. 171.]
+
+Whatever may be the truth as to details, it is certain that no man ever
+looked death in the face so long and so serenely as Gordon. For him life
+was but duty--duty to God and duty to man. We may fitly apply to him the
+noble lines which Tennyson offered to the memory of another
+steadfast soul--
+
+     He, that ever following her commands,
+     On with toil of heart and knees and hands,
+     Thro' the long gorge to the far light has won
+     His path upward, and prevail'd,
+     Shall find the toppling crags of Duty scaled
+     Are close upon the shining table-lands
+     To which our God Himself is moon and sun.
+
+NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION
+
+Shortly before the publication of this work, Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice
+published his _Life of Earl Granville_, some of the details of which
+tend somewhat to modify the account of the relations subsisting between
+the Earl and General Gordon. See too the issue of the _Times_ of
+December 10, 1905 (Weekly Edition), for a correction of some of the
+statements, made in the _Life of Earl Granville_, by Lord Cromer (Sir
+Evelyn Baring).]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE CONQUEST OF THE SUDAN
+
+     "The Sudan, if once proper communication was established,
+     would not be difficult to govern. The only mode of improving
+     the access to the Sudan, seeing the impoverished state of
+     Egyptian finances, and the mode to do so without an outlay of
+     more than L10,000, is by the Nile."--_Gordon's Journals_
+     (Sept. 19, 1884).
+
+
+It may seem that an account of the fall of Khartum is out of place in a
+volume which deals only with formative events. But this is not so. The
+example of Gordon's heroism was of itself a great incentive to action
+for the cause of settled government in that land. For that cause he had
+given his life, and few Britons were altogether deaf to the mute appeal
+of that lonely struggle. Then again, the immense increase to the Mahdi's
+power resulting from the capture of the arsenal of Khartum constituted
+(as Gordon had prophesied) a serious danger to Egypt. The continued
+presence of British troops at Wady Haifa, and that alone, saved the
+valley of the Lower Nile from a desolating flood of savagery. This was a
+fact recognised by every one at Cairo, even by the ultra-Gallic party.
+Egypt alone has rarely been able to hold at bay any great downward
+movement of the tribes of Ethiopia and Nubia; and the danger was never
+so great as in and after 1885. The Mahdi's proclamations to the faithful
+now swelled with inconceivable pride. To a wavering sheikh he sent the
+warning: "If you live long enough you will see the troops of the Mahdi
+spreading over Europe, Rome, and Constantinople, after which there will
+be nothing left for you but hell and damnation." The mistiness of the
+geography was hidden by the vigour of the theology, and all the sceptics
+of Nubia hastened to accept the new prophet.
+
+But his time of tyranny soon drew to a close. A woman of Khartum, who
+had been outraged by him or his followers, determined to wreak her
+vengeance. On June 14, 1885, she succeeded in giving him slow poison,
+which led him to his death amidst long-drawn agonies eight days later.
+This ought to have been the death of Mahdism as well, but superstitions
+die hard in that land of fanatics. The Mahdi's factotum, an able
+intriguer named Abdullah Taashi, had previously gained from his master a
+written declaration that he was to be Khalifa after him; he now produced
+this document, and fortified its influence by describing in great detail
+a vision in which the ghost of the Mahdi handed him a sacred hair of
+inestimable worth, and an oblong-shaped light which had come direct from
+the hands of the true Prophet, who had received it from the hands of the
+angel Gabriel, to whom it had been entrusted by the Almighty.
+
+This silly story was eagerly believed by the many, the questioning few
+also finding it well to still their doubts in presence of death or
+torture. Piety and politics quickly worked hand in hand to found the
+impostor's authority. A mosque began to rise over the tomb of the Mahdi
+in his chosen capital, Omdurman; and his successor gained the support
+and the offerings of the thousands of pilgrims who came to visit that
+wonder-working shrine. Such was the basis of the new rule, which spread
+over the valley of the Upper and Middle Nile, and carried terror nearly
+to the borders of Egypt[407].
+
+[Footnote 407: Wingate, _Mahdism_, pp. 228-233.]
+
+There law and order slowly took root under the shadow of the British
+administration, but Egypt ceased to control the lands south of Wady
+Halfa. Mr. Gladstone announced that decision in the House of Commons on
+May 11, 1885; and those who discover traces of the perfidy of Albion
+even in the vacillations of her policy, maintain that that declaration
+was made with a view to an eventual annexation of the Sudan by England.
+Their contention would be still more forcible if they would prove that
+the Gladstone Ministry deliberately sacrificed Gordon at Khartum in
+order to increase the Mahdi's power and leave Egypt open to his blows,
+thereby gaining one more excuse for delaying the long-promised
+evacuation of the Nile delta by the redcoats. This was the _outcome_ of
+events; and those who argue backwards should have the courage of their
+convictions and throw all the facts of the case into their syllogisms.
+
+All who have any knowledge of the trend of British statesmanship in the
+eighties know perfectly well that the occupation of Egypt was looked on
+as a serious incubus. The Salisbury Cabinet sought to give effect to the
+promises of evacuation, and with that aim in view sent Sir Henry
+Drummond Wolff to Constantinople in the year 1887 for the settlement of
+details. The year 1890 was ultimately fixed, provided that no danger
+should accrue to Egypt from such action, and that Great Britain should
+"retain a treaty-right of intervention if at any time either the
+internal peace or external security [of Egypt] should be seriously
+threatened." To this last stipulation the Sultan seemed prepared to
+agree. Austria, Germany, and Italy notified their complete agreement
+with it; but France and Russia refused to accept the British offer with
+this proviso added, and even influenced the Sultan so that he too
+finally opposed it. Their unfriendly action can only be attributed to a
+desire of humiliating Great Britain, and of depriving her of any
+effective influence in the land which, at such loss of blood and
+treasure to herself, she had saved from anarchy. Their opposition
+wrecked the proposal, and the whole position therefore remained
+unchanged. British officials continued to administer Egypt in spite of
+opposition from the French in all possible details connected with the
+vital question of finance[408].
+
+[Footnote 408: _England in Egypt_, by Sir Alfred Milner, pp. 145-153.]
+
+Other incidents that occurred during the years intervening between the
+fall of Gordon and the despatch of Sir Herbert Kitchener's expedition
+need not detain us here[409]. The causes which led to this new departure
+will be more fitly considered when we come to notice the Fashoda
+incident; but we may here remark that they probably arose out of the
+French and Belgian schemes for the partition of Central Africa. A desire
+to rescue the Sudan from a cruel and degrading tyranny and to offer a
+tardy reparation to the memory of Gordon doubtless had some weight with
+Ministers, as it undoubtedly had with the public. Indeed, it is doubtful
+whether the _vox populi_ would have allowed the expedition but for these
+more sentimental considerations. But, in the view of the present writer,
+the Sudan expedition presents the best instance of foresight, resolve,
+and able execution that is to be found in the recent annals of Britain.
+
+[Footnote 409: For the Sudan in this period see Wingate's _Mahdism_;
+Slatin's _Fire and Sword in the Sudan_; C. Neufeld's _A Prisoner of the
+Khalifa_.]
+
+With the hour had come the man. During the dreary years of the "mark
+time" policy Colonel Kitchener had gained renown as a determined fighter
+and able organiser. For some time he acted as governor of Suakim, and
+showed his powers of command by gaining over some of the neighbouring
+tribes and planning an attack on Osman Digna which came very near to
+success. Under him and many other British officers the Egyptians and
+Sudanese gradually learnt confidence, and broke the spell of
+invincibility that so long had rested with the Dervish hordes. On all
+sides the power of the Khalifa was manifestly waning. The powerful
+Hadendowa tribe, near Suakim, which had given so much trouble in
+1883-84, became neutral. On the Nile also the Dervishes lost ground. The
+Anglo-Egyptian troops wrested from them the post of Sarras, some thirty
+miles south of Wady Halfa; and the efforts of the fanatics to capture
+the wells along desert routes far to the east of the river were bloodily
+repulsed. As long as Sarras, Wady Halfa, and those wells were firmly
+held, Egypt was safe.
+
+At Gedaref, not very far from Omdurman, the Khalifa sustained a severe
+check from the Italians (December 1893), who thereupon occupied the town
+of Kassala. It was not to be for any length of time. In all their
+enterprises against the warlike Abyssinians they completely failed; and,
+after sustaining the disastrous defeat of Adowa (March 1, 1896), the
+whole nation despaired of reaping any benefit from the Hinterland of
+their colony around Massowah. The new Cabinet at Rome resolved to
+withdraw from the districts around Kassala. On this news being
+communicated to the British Ministers, they sent a request to Rome that
+the evacuation of Kassala might be delayed until Anglo-Egyptian troops
+could be despatched to occupy that important station. In this way the
+intended withdrawal of the Italians served to strengthen the resolve of
+the British Government to help the Khedive in effecting the recovery of
+the Sudan[410].
+
+[Footnote 410: See _articles_ by Dr. E.J. Dillon and by Jules Simon in
+the _Contemporary Review_ for April and May 1896. Kassala was handed
+over to an Egyptian force under Colonel Parsons in December 1897. _The
+Egyptian Sudan_, by H.S.L. Alford and W.D. Sword (1898).]
+
+Preparations for the advance southwards went forward slowly and
+methodically through the summer and autumn of 1896. For the present the
+operations were limited to the recapture of Dongola. Sir Herbert
+Kitchener, then the Sirdar of the Egyptian army, was placed in command.
+Under him were men who had proved their worth in years of desultory
+fighting against the Khalifa--Broadwood, Hunter, Lewis, Macdonald,
+Maxwell, and many others. The training had been so long and severe as to
+weed out all weaklings; and the Sirdar himself was the very incarnation
+of that stern but salutary law of Nature which ordains the survival of
+the fittest. Scores of officers who failed to come up to his
+requirements were quietly removed; and the result was seen in a finely
+seasoned body of men, apt at all tasks, from staff duties to railway
+control. A comparison of the Egyptian army that fought at Omdurman with
+that which thirteen years before ran away screaming from a tenth of its
+number of Dervishes affords the most impressive lesson of modern times
+of the triumph of mind over matter, of western fortitude over the weaker
+side of eastern fatalism.
+
+Such a building up of character as this implies could not take place in
+a month or two, for the mind of Egyptians and Sudanese was at first an
+utter blank as to the need of prompt obedience and still prompter
+action. An amusing case of their incredible slackness has been recorded.
+On the first parade of a new camel transport corps before Lord
+Kitchener, the leading driver stopped his animal, and therefore all that
+followed, immediately in front of the Sirdar, in order to light a
+cigarette. It is needless to say, the cigarette was not lighted, but the
+would-be smoker had his first lesson as to the superiority of the claims
+of collectivism over the whims of the individual[411].
+
+[Footnote 411: _Sudan Campaign_, 1896-97, by "An Officer," p. 20.]
+
+As will be seen by reference to the map on page 477, the decision to
+limit the campaign to Dongola involved the choice of the Nile route. If
+the blow had been aimed straight at Khartum, the Suakim-Berber route, or
+even that by way of Kassala, would have had many advantages. Above all,
+the river route held out the prospect of effective help from gunboats in
+the final attacks on Berber, Omdurman, and Khartum. Seeing, however,
+that the greater part of the river's course between Sarras and Dongola
+was broken up by rapids, the railway and the camel had at first to
+perform nearly the whole of the transport duties for which the Nile was
+there unsuited. The work of repairing the railway from Wady Haifa to
+Sarras, and thenceforth of constructing it through rocky wastes, amidst
+constant risk of Dervish raids, called into play every faculty of
+ingenuity, patience, and hardihood. But little by little the line crept
+on; the locomotives carried the piles of food, stores, and ammunition
+further and further south, until on June 6, 1897, the first blow was
+dealt by the surprise and destruction of the Dervish force at Ferket.
+
+There a halt was called; for news came in that an unprecedented
+rain-storm further north had washed away the railway embankments from
+some of the gulleys. To make good the damage would take thirty days, it
+was said. The Sirdar declared that the line must be ready in twelve
+days; he went back to push on the work; in twelve days the line was
+ready. As an example of the varied difficulties that were met and
+overcome, we may mention one. The work of putting together a steamer,
+which had been brought up in sections, was stopped because an
+all-important nut had been lost in transit. At once the Sirdar ordered
+horsemen to patrol the railway line--and the nut was found. At last the
+vessel was ready; but on her trial trip she burst a cylinder and had to
+be left behind[412]. Three small steamers and four gunboats were,
+however, available for service in the middle of September, when the
+expedition moved on.
+
+[Footnote 412: _Ibid_, p. 54.]
+
+By this time the effective force numbered about 12,000 men. The
+Dervishes had little heart for fighting to the north of Dongola; and
+even at that town the Dervishes made but a poor stand, cowed as they
+were by the shells of the steamers and perplexed by the enveloping moves
+which the Sirdar ordered; 700 were taken in Dongola, and the best 300 of
+these were incorporated in the Sirdar's Sudanese regiments (Sept.
+23, 1896).
+
+Thus ended the first part of the expedition. Events had justified
+Gordon's statement that a small well-equipped expedition could speedily
+overthrow the Mahdi--that is, in the days of his comparative weakness
+before the capture of Khartum. The ease with which Dongola had been
+taken and the comparative cheapness of the expedition predisposed the
+Egyptian Government and the English public to view its extension
+southwards with less of disfavour.
+
+Again the new stride forward had to be prepared for by careful
+preparations at the base. The question of route also caused delay. It
+proved to be desirable to begin a new railway from Wady Haifa across the
+desert to Abu Hamed at the northern tip of the deep bend which the Nile
+makes below Berber. To drive a line into a desert in order to attack an
+enemy holding a good position beyond seemed a piece of fool-hardiness.
+Nevertheless it was done, and at the average rate of about 1 1/4 miles a
+day. In due course General Hunter pushed on and captured Abu Hamed, the
+inhabitants of which showed little fight, being thoroughly weary of
+Dervish tyranny (August 6, 1897).
+
+The arrival of gunboats after a long struggle with the rapids below Abu
+Hamed gave Hunter's little force a much-needed support; and before he
+could advance further, news reached him that the Dervishes had abandoned
+Berber. This step caused general surprise, and it has never been fully
+explained. Some have averred that a panic seized the wives of the
+Dervish garrison at Berber, and that when they rushed out of the town
+southwards their husbands followed them[413]. Certain it is that family
+feelings, which the Dervishes so readily outraged in others, played a
+leading part in many of their movements. Whatever the cause may have
+been, the abandonment of Berber greatly facilitated the work of Sir
+Herbert Kitchener. A strong force soon mustered at that town, and the
+route to the Red Sea was reopened by a friendly arrangement with the
+local sheikhs.
+
+[Footnote 413: _The Downfall of the Dervishes_, by E.N. Bennett, M.A.,
+p. 23.]
+
+The next important barrier to the advance was the river Atbara. Here the
+Dervishes had a force some 18,000 strong; but before long the Sirdar
+received timely reinforcement of a British brigade, consisting of the
+Cameron and Seaforth Highlanders and the Lincolnshire and Warwickshire
+regiments, under General Gatacre. Various considerations led the Sirdar
+to wait until he could strike a telling blow. What was most to be
+dreaded was the adoption of Parthian tactics by the enemy. Fortunately
+they had constructed a zariba (a camp surrounded by thorn-bushes) on the
+north bank of the Atbara at a point twenty miles above its confluence
+with the Nile. At last, on April 7, 1898, after trying to tempt the
+enemy to a battle in the open, the Sirdar moved forward his 14,000 men
+in the hope of rushing the position soon after dawn of the following
+day, Good Friday.
+
+Before the first streaks of sunrise tinged the east, the assailants
+moved forward to a ridge overlooking the Dervish position; but very few
+heads were seen above the thorny rampart in the hollow opposite. It was
+judged to be too risky at once to charge a superior force that clung to
+so strong a shelter; and for an hour and a half the British and Egyptian
+guns plied the zariba in the hope of bringing the fanatics out to fight.
+Still they kept quiet; and their fortitude during this time of carnage
+bore witness to their bravery and discipline[414].
+
+[Footnote 414: _The Egyptian Sudan: its Loss and Recovery,_ by H.S.L.
+Alford and W.D. Sword, ch. iv.]
+
+At 7.45 the Sirdar ordered the advance. The British brigade held the
+left wing, the Camerons leading in line formation, while behind them in
+columns were ranged the Warwicks, Seaforths, and Lincolns, to add weight
+to the onset. Macdonald's and Maxwell's Egyptian and Sudanese Brigades,
+drawn up in lines, formed the centre and right. Squadrons of Egyptian
+horse and a battery of Maxims confronted the Dervish horsemen ranged
+along; the front of a dense scrub to the left of the zariba. As the
+converging lines advanced, they were met by a terrific discharge;
+fortunately it was aimed too high, or the loss would have been fearful.
+Then the Highlanders and Sudanese rushed in, tore apart the thorn bushes
+and began a fierce fight at close quarters. From their shelter trenches,
+pits, and huts the Dervishes poured in spasmodic volleys, or rushed at
+their assailants with spear or bayonet. Even at this the fanatics of the
+desert were no match for the seasoned troops of the Sirdar; and soon the
+beaten remnant streamed out through the scrub or over the dry bed of the
+Atbara. About 2500 were killed, and 2000, including Mahmud, the
+commander, were taken prisoners. Those who attempted to reach the
+fertile country round Kassala were there hunted down or captured by the
+Egyptian garrison that lately had arrived there.
+
+As on previous occasions, the Sirdar now waited some time until the
+railway could be brought up to the points lately conquered. More
+gunboats were also constructed for the final stage of the expedition.
+The dash at Omdurman and Khartum promised to tax to the uttermost the
+strength of the army; but another brigade of British troops, commanded
+by Colonel Lyttelton, soon joined the expedition, bringing its effective
+strength up to 23,000 men. General Gatacre received the command of the
+British division. Ten gunboats, five transport steamers, and eight
+barges promised to secure complete command of the river banks and to
+provide means for transporting the army and all needful stores to the
+western bank of the Nile whenever the Sirdar judged it to be advisable.
+The midsummer rains in the equatorial districts now made their influence
+felt, and in the middle of August the Nile covered the sandbanks and
+rocks that made navigation dangerous at the time of "low Nile." In the
+last week of that month all was ready for the long and carefully
+prepared advance. The infantry travelled in steamers or barges as far as
+the foot of the Shabluka, or Sixth Cataract, and this method of advance
+left the Dervishes in some doubt by which bank the final advance
+would be made.
+
+By an unexpected piece of good fortune the Dervishes had evacuated the
+rocky heights of the Shabluka gorge. This was matter for rejoicing.
+There the Nile, which above and below is a mile wide, narrows to a
+channel of little more than a hundred yards in width. It is the natural
+defence of Khartum on the north. The strategy of the Khalifa was here
+again inexplicable, as also was his abandonment of the ridge at Kerreri,
+some seven miles north of Omdurman. Mr. Bennett Burleigh in his account
+of the campaign states that the Khalifa had repaired thither once a year
+to give thanks for the triumph about to be gained there.
+
+At last on September 1, on topping the Kerreri ridge, the invaders
+caught their first glimpse of Omdurman. Already the gunboats were
+steaming up to the Mahdist capital to throw in their first shells. They
+speedily dismounted several guns, and one of the shells tore away a
+large portion of the gaudy cupola that covered the Mahdi's tomb. Apart
+from this portent, nothing of moment was done on that day; but it seems
+probable that the bombardment led the Khalifa to hazard an attack on the
+invaders in the desert on the side away from the Nile. Nearer to the
+Sirdar's main force the skirmishing of the 21st Lancers, new to war but
+eager to "win their spurs," was answered by angry but impotent charges
+of the Khalifa's horse and foot, until at sunset both sides retired for
+the night's rest.
+
+The Anglo-Egyptian force made a zariba around the village of el-Gennuaia
+on the river bank; and there, in full expectation of a night attack,
+they sought what slumber was to be had. What with a panic rush of
+Sudanese servants and the stampede of an angry camel, the night wore
+away uneasily; but there was no charge of Dervishes such as might have
+carried death to the heart of that small zariba. It is said that the
+Sirdar had passed the hint to some trusty spies to pretend to be
+deserters and warn the enemy that _he_ was going to attack them by
+night. If this be so, spies have never done better service.
+
+When the first glimmer of dawn came on September 2, every man felt
+instinctively that the Khalifa had thrown away his last chance. Yet few
+were prepared for the crowning act of madness. Every one feared that he
+would hold fast to Omdurman and fight the new crusaders from house to
+house. Possibly the seeming weakness of the zariba tempted him to a
+concentric attack from the Kerreri Hills and the ridge which stretches
+on both sides of the steep slopes of the hill, Gebel Surgham. A glance
+at the accompanying plan will show that the position was such as to
+tempt a confident enemy. The Sirdar also manoeuvred so as to bring on an
+attack. He sent out the Egyptian cavalry and camel corps soon after dawn
+to the plain lying between Gebel Surgham and Omdurman to lure on the
+Khalifa's men.
+
+The device was completely successful. Believing that they could catch
+the horsemen in the rocky ridge alongside of Gebel Surgham, the
+Dervishes came forth from their capital in swarms, pressed them hard,
+and inflicted some losses. Retiring in good order, the cavalry drew on
+the eager hordes, until about 6.30 A.M. the white glint of their
+gibbehs, or tunics, showed thickly above the tawny slopes on either side
+of Gebel Surgham. On they came in unnumbered throngs, until, pressing
+northwards along the sky-line, their lines also topped the Kerreri Hills
+to the north of the zariba. Their aim was obvious: they intended to
+surround the invaders, pen them up in their zariba, and slaughter them
+there. To all who did not know the value of the central position in war
+and the power of modern weapons, the attack seemed to promise complete
+success. The invaders were 1300 miles away from Cairo and defeat would
+mean destruction.
+
+Religious zeal lent strength to the onset. From the converging crescent
+of the Mahdists a sound as of a dim murmur was wafted to the zariba.
+Little by little it deepened to a hoarse roar, as the host surged on,
+chanting the pious invocations that so often had struck terror into the
+Egyptians. Now they heard the threatening din with hearts unmoved; nay,
+with spirits longing for revenge for untold wrongs and insults. Thus for
+some minutes in that vast amphitheatre the discipline and calm
+confidence of the West stood quietly facing the fanatic fury of the
+East. Two worlds were there embattled: the world of Mohammedanism and
+the world of Christian civilisation; the empire of untutored force and
+the empire of mind.
+
+At last, after some minutes of tense expectancy, the cannon opened fire,
+and speedily gaps were seen in the white masses. Yet the crescent never
+slackened its advance, except when groups halted to fire their muskets
+at impossible ranges. Waving their flags and intoning their prayers, the
+Dervishes charged on in utter scorn of death; but when their ranks came
+within range of the musketry fire, they went down like swathes of grass
+under the scythe. Then was seen a marvellous sight. When the dead were
+falling their fastest, a band of about 150 Dervish horsemen formed
+near the Khalifa's dark-green standard in the centre and rushed across
+the fire zone, determined to snatch at triumph or gain the sensuous joys
+of the Moslem paradise. None of them rode far.
+
+[Illustration: THE DERVISH ATTACK ON MACDONALD.]
+
+[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF OMDURMAN.]
+
+Only on the north, where the camel-corps fell into an awkward plight
+among the rocks of the Kerreri slope, had the attack any chance of
+success; and there the shells of one of the six protecting gunboats
+helped to check the assailants. On this side, too, Colonel Broadwood and
+his Egyptian cavalry did excellent service by leading no small part of
+the Dervish left away from the attack on the zariba. At the middle of
+the fiery crescent the assailants did some execution by firing from a
+dip in the ground some 400 yards away; but their attempts to rush the
+intervening space all ended in mere slaughter. Not long after eight
+o'clock the Khalifa, seeing the hopelessness of attempting to cross the
+zone of fire around el-Gennuaia, now thickly strewn with his dead, drew
+off the survivors beyond the ridge of Gebel Surgham; and those who had
+followed Broadwood's horse also gave up their futile pursuit, and began
+to muster on the Kerreri ridge.
+
+The Sirdar now sought to force on a fight in the open; and with this aim
+in view commanded a general advance on Omdurman. In order, as it would
+seem, to keep a fighting formation that would impose respect on the
+bands of Dervishes on the Kerreri Hills, he adopted the formation known
+as echelon of brigades from the left. Macdonald's Sudanese brigade,
+which held the northern face of the zariba, was therefore compelled to
+swing round and march diagonally towards Gebel Surgham; and, having a
+longer space to cover than the other brigades, it soon fell behind them.
+
+For the present, however, the brunt of the danger fell, not on
+Macdonald, but on the vanguard. The 21st Lancers had been sent forward
+over the ridge between Gebel Surgham and the Nile with orders to
+reconnoitre, and, if possible, to head the Dervishes away from their
+city. Throwing out scouts, they rode over the ridge, but soon
+afterwards came upon a steep and therefore concealed khor or gulley
+whence a large body of concealed Dervishes poured a sharp fire[415]. At
+once Colonel Martin ordered his men to dash at the enemy. Eagerly the
+troopers obeyed the order and jumped their horses down the slope into
+the mass of furious fanatics below; these slashed to pieces every one
+that fell, and viciously sought to hamstring the horses from behind.
+Pushing through the mass, the lancers scrambled up the further bank,
+re-formed, and rushed at the groups beyond; after thrusting these aside,
+they betook themselves to less dramatic but more effective methods.
+Dismounting, they opened a rapid and very effective fire from their
+carbines on the throngs that still clustered in or near the gulley. The
+charge, though a fine display of British pluck, cost the horsemen dear:
+out of a total of 320 men 60 were killed and wounded; 119 horses were
+killed or made useless[416].
+
+[Footnote 415: Some accounts state that the Lancers had no scouts, but
+"an officer" denies this (_Sudan Campaign_, 1896-99, p. 198).]
+
+[Footnote 416: The general opinion of the army was that the charge of
+the Lancers "was magnificent, but was not war." See G.W. Steevens' _With
+Kitchener to Khartum_, ch. xxxii.]
+
+Meanwhile, Macdonald's brigade, consisting of one Egyptian and three
+Sudanese battalions, stood on the brink of disaster. The bands from the
+Kerreri Hills were secretly preparing to charge its rear, while masses
+of the Khalifa's main following turned back, rounded the western spurs
+of Gebel Surgham, and threatened to envelop its right flank. The Sirdar,
+on seeing the danger, ordered Wauchope's brigade to turn back to the
+help of Macdonald, while Maxwell's Sudanese, swarming up the eastern
+slopes of Gebel Surgham, poured deadly volleys on the Khalifa's
+following. Collinson's division and the camel corps were ordered to
+advance from the neighbourhood of the zariba and support Macdonald on
+that side. Before these dispositions were complete, that sturdy Scotsman
+and his Sudanese felt the full weight of the Khalifa's onset. Excited
+beyond measure, Macdonald's men broke into spasmodic firing as the enemy
+came on; the deployment into line was thereby disordered, and it needed
+all Macdonald's power of command to make good the line. His steadiness
+stiffened the defence, and before the potent charm of western discipline
+the Khalifa's onset died away.
+
+But now the storm cloud gathering in the rear burst with unexpected
+fury. Masses of men led by the Khalifa's son, the Sheikh ed Din, rushed
+down the Kerreri slopes and threatened to overwhelm the brigade. Again
+there was seen a proof of the ascendancy of mind over brute force. At
+once Macdonald ordered the left part of his line to wheel round, keeping
+the right as pivot, so that the whole speedily formed two fronts
+resembling a capital letter V, pointing outwards to the two hostile
+forces. Those who saw the movement wondered alike at the masterly
+resolve, the steadiness of execution, and the fanatical bravery which
+threatened to make it all of no avail. On came the white swarms of Arabs
+from the north, until the Sudanese firing once more became wild and
+ineffective; but, as the ammunition of the blacks ran low and they
+prepared to trust to the bayonet, the nearest unit of the British
+division, the Lincolns, doubled up, prolonged Macdonald's line to the
+right, and poured volley upon volley obliquely into the surging flood.
+It slackened, stood still, and then slowly ebbed. Macdonald's coolness
+and the timely arrival of the Lincolns undoubtedly averted a serious
+disaster[417].
+
+[Footnote 417: See Mr. Winston Churchill's _The River War_, vol. ii. pp.
+160-163, for the help given by the Lincolns.]
+
+Meanwhile, the Khalifa's main force had been held in check and decimated
+by the artillery now planted on Gebel Surgham and by the fire of the
+brigades on or near its slopes; so that about eleven o'clock the
+Sirdar's lines could everywhere advance. After beating off a desperate
+charge of Baggara horsemen from the west, Macdonald unbent his brigade
+and drove back the sullen hordes of ed Din to the western spurs of the
+Kerreri Hills, where they were harassed by Broadwood's horse. All was
+now ended, except at the centre of the Khalifa's force, where a
+faithful band clustered about the dark-green standard of their leader
+and chanted defiance to the infidels till one by one they fell. The
+chief himself, unworthy object of this devotion, fled away on a swift
+dromedary some time before the last group of stalwarts bit the sand.
+
+[Illustration: KHARTUM.]
+
+Despite the terrible heat and the thirst of his men, the Sirdar allowed
+only a brief rest before he resumed the march on Omdurman. Leaving no
+time for the bulk of the Dervish survivors to reach their capital, he
+pushed on at the head of Maxwell's brigade, while once more the shells
+of the gunboats spread terror in the city. The news brought by a few
+runaways and the sight of the Khalifa's standard carried behind the
+Egyptian ensign dispelled all hopes of resisting the disciplined
+Sudanese battalions; and, in order to clinch matters, the Sirdar with
+splendid courage rode at the head of the brigade to summon the city to
+surrender. Through the clusters of hovels on the outskirts he rode on
+despite the protests of his staff against any needless exposure of his
+life. He rightly counted on the effect which such boldness on the part
+of the chief must have on an undecided populace. Fanatics here and there
+fired on the conquerors, but the news of the Khalifa's cowardly flight
+from the city soon decided the wavering mass to bow before the
+inscrutable decrees of fate, and ask for backsheesh from the victors.
+
+Thus was Omdurman taken. Neufeld, an Austrian trader, and some Greeks
+and nuns who had been in captivity for several years, were at once set
+free. It was afterwards estimated that about 10,000 Dervishes perished
+in the battle; very many died of their wounds upon the field or were
+bayoneted owing to their persistence in firing on the victors. This
+episode formed the darkest side of the triumph; but it was malignantly
+magnified by some Continental journals into a wholesale slaughter. This
+is false. Omdurman will bear comparison with Skobeleff's victory at
+Denghil Tepe at all points.
+
+Two days after his triumph the Sirdar ordered a parade opposite the
+ruins of the palace in Khartum where Gordon had met his doom. The
+funeral service held there in memory of the dead hero was, perhaps, the
+most affecting scene that this generation has witnessed. Detachments of
+most of the regiments of the rescue force formed a semicircle round the
+Sirdar; and by his side stood a group of war-worn officers, who with him
+had toiled for years in order to see this day. The funeral service was
+intoned; the solemn assembly sang Gordon's favourite hymn, "Abide with
+me," and the Scottish pipes wailed their lament for the lost chieftain.
+Few eyes were undimmed by tears at the close of this service, a slight
+but affecting reparation for the delays and blunders of fourteen years
+before. Then the Union Jack and the Egyptian Crescent flag were hoisted
+and received a salute of 21 guns.
+
+The recovery of the Sudan by Egypt and Great Britain was not to pass
+unchallenged. All along France had viewed the reconquest of the valley
+of the upper Nile with ill-concealed jealousy, and some persons have
+maintained that the French Government was not a stranger to designs
+hatched in France for helping the Khalifa[418]. Now that these questions
+have been happily buried by the Anglo-French agreement of the year 1904,
+it would be foolish to recount all that was said amidst the excitements
+of the year 1898. Some reference must, however, be made to the Fashoda
+incident, which for a short space threatened to bring Great Britain and
+France to an open rupture.
+
+[Footnote 418: See an unsigned article in the _Contemporary Review_ for
+Dec. 1897.]
+
+On September 5, a steamer, flying the white flag, reached Omdurman. The
+ex-Dervish captain brought the news that at Fashoda he had been fired
+upon by white men bearing a strange flag. The Sirdar divined the truth,
+namely, that a French expedition under Major (now Colonel) Marchand must
+have made its way from the Congo to the White Nile at Fashoda with the
+aim of annexing that district for France.
+
+Now that the dust of controversy has cleared away, we can see facts in
+their true proportions, especially as the work recently published by M.
+de Freycinet and the revelations of Colonel Marchand have thrown more
+light on the affair. Briefly stated, the French case is as follows. Mr.
+Gladstone on May 11, 1885, declared officially that Egypt limited her
+sway to a line drawn through Wady Haifa. The authority of the Khedive
+over the Sudan therefore ceased, though this did not imply the cessation
+of the Sultan's suzerainty in those regions. Further, England had acted
+as if the Sudan were no man's land by appropriating the southernmost
+part in accordance with the Anglo-German agreement of July I, 1890; and
+Uganda became a British Protectorate in August 1894. The French
+protested against this extension of British influence over the Upper
+Nile; and we must admit that, in regard to international law, they were
+right. The power to will away that district lay with the Sultan, the
+Khedive's claims having practically lapsed. Germany, it is true, agreed
+not to contest the annexation of Uganda, but France did contest it.
+
+The Republic also entered a protest against the Anglo-Congolese
+Convention of May 12, 1894, whereby, in return for the acquisition of
+the right bank of the Upper Nile, England ceded to the Congo Free State
+the left bank[419]. That compact was accordingly withdrawn, and on
+August 14, 1894, France secured from the Free State the recognition of
+her claims to the left bank of the Nile with the exception of the Lado
+district below the Albert Nyanza. This action on the part of France
+implied a desire on her part to appropriate these lands, and to contest
+the British claim to the right bank. In regard to law, she was justified
+in so doing; and had she, acting as the mandatory of the Sultan, sent an
+expedition from the Congo to the Upper Nile, her conduct in proclaiming
+a Turco-Frankish condominium would have been unexceptionable. That of
+Britain was open to question, seeing that we practically ignored the
+Sultan[420] and acted (so far as is known) on our own initiative in
+reversing the policy of abandonment officially announced in May 1885.
+From the standpoint of equity, however, the Khedive had the first claim
+to the territories then given up under stress of circumstances; and the
+Power that helped him to regain the heritage of his sires obviously had
+a strong claim to consideration so long as it acted with the full
+consent of that potentate.
+
+[Footnote 419: Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 2 (1898), pp. 13-14.]
+
+[Footnote 420: The Earl of Kimberley's reply of Aug. 14, 1894, to M.
+Hanotaux, is very weak on this topic. Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 2 (1898),
+pp. 14-15.]
+
+The British Cabinet, that of Lord Rosebery, frankly proclaimed its
+determination to champion the claims of the Khedive against all comers,
+Sir Edward Grey declaring officially in the debate of March 28, 1895,
+that the despatch of a French expedition to the Upper Nile would be "an
+unfriendly act[421]." We know now, through the revelations made by
+Colonel Marchand in the _Matin_ of June 20, 1905, that in June 1895 he
+had pressed the French Government to intervene in that quarter; but it
+did little, relying (so M. de Freycinet states) on the compact of August
+14, 1894, and not, apparently, on any mandate from the Sultan. If so, it
+had less right to intervene than the British Government had in virtue of
+its close connection with the Khedive. As a matter of fact, both Powers
+lacked an authoritative mandate and acted in accordance with their own
+interests. It is therefore futile to appeal to law, as M. de
+Freycinet has done.
+
+[Footnote 421: _Ibid_. p. 18.]
+
+It remained to see which of the two would act the more efficiently. M.
+Marchand states that his plan of action was approved by the French
+Minister for the Colonies, M. Berthelot, on November 16, 1895; but
+little came of it until the news of the preparations for the
+Anglo-Egyptian Expedition reached Paris. It would be interesting to hear
+what Lord Rosebery and Sir Edward Grey would say to this. For the
+present we may affirm with some confidence that the tidings of the
+Franco-Congolese compact of August 1894 and of expeditions sent under
+Monteil and Liotard towards the Nile basin must have furnished the real
+motive for the despatch of the Sirdar's army on the expedition to
+Dongola. That event in its turn aroused angry feelings at Paris, and M.
+Berthelot went so far as to inform Lord Salisbury that he would not hold
+himself responsible for events that might occur if the expedition up the
+Nile were persisted in. After giving this brusque but useful warning of
+the importance which France attached to the Upper Nile, M. Berthelot
+quitted office, and M. Bourgeois, the Prime Minister, took the portfolio
+for foreign affairs. He pushed on the Marchand expedition; so also did
+his successor, M. Hanotaux, in the Meline Cabinet which speedily
+supervened.
+
+Marchand left Marseilles on June 25, 1896, to join his expeditionary
+force, then being prepared in the French Congo. It is needless to detail
+the struggles of the gallant band. After battling for two years with the
+rapids, swamps, forests, and mountains of Eastern Congoland and the
+Bahr-el-Ghazal, he brought his flotilla down to the White Nile, thence
+up its course to Fashoda, where he hoisted the tricolour (July 12,
+1898). His men strengthened the old Egyptian fort, and beat off an
+attack of the Dervishes.
+
+Nevertheless they had only half succeeded, for they relied on the
+approach of a French Mission from the east by way of Abyssinia. A Prince
+of the House of Orleans had been working hard to this end, but owing to
+the hostility of the natives of Southern Abyssinia that expedition had
+to fall back on Kukong. A Russian officer, Colonel Artomoroff, had
+struggled on down the River Sobat, but he and his band also had to
+retire[422]. The purport of these Franco-Russian designs is not yet
+known; but even so, we can see that the situation was one of great
+peril. Had the French and Russian officers from Abyssinia joined hands
+with Marchand at Fashoda, their Governments might have made it a point
+of honour to remain, and to claim for France a belt of territory
+extending from the confines of the French Congo eastwards to Obock on
+the Red Sea.
+
+[Footnote 422: _Marchand l'Africain_, by C. Castellani, pp. 279-280. The
+author reveals his malice by the statement (p. 293) that the Sirdar,
+after the battle of Omdurman, ordered 14,000 Dervish wounded to be
+_eventres._]
+
+As it was, Marchand and his heroic little band were in much danger from
+the Dervishes when the Sirdar and his force steamed up to Fashoda. The
+interview between the two chiefs at that place was of historic interest.
+Sir Herbert Kitchener congratulated the Major on his triumph of
+exploration, but claimed that he must plant the flag of the Khedive at
+Fashoda. M. Marchand declared that he would hoist it himself over the
+village. "Over the fort, Major," replied the Sirdar. "I cannot permit
+it," exclaimed the Major, "as the French flag is there." A reference by
+the Sirdar to his superiority of force produced no effect, the French
+commander stating that if it were used he and his men would die at their
+posts. He, however, requested the Sirdar to let the matter be referred
+to the Government at Paris, to which Sir Herbert assented. After
+exchanging courteous gifts they parted, the Sirdar leaving an Egyptian
+force in the village, and lodging a written protest against the presence
+of the French force[423]. He then proceeded up stream to the Sobat
+tributary, on the banks of which at Nassar he left half of a Sudanese
+battalion to bar the road on that side to geographical explorers
+provided with flags. He then returned to Khartum.
+
+[Footnote 423: Parl. Papers, Egypt, No. 2 (1898), p. 9; No. 3 (1898),
+pp. 3-4.]
+
+The sequel is well known. Lord Salisbury's Government behaved with
+unexpected firmness, asserting that the overthrow of the Mahdi brought
+again under the Egyptian flag all the lands which that leader had for a
+time occupied. The claim was not wholly convincing in the sphere of
+logic; but the victory of Omdurman gave it force. Clearly, then, whether
+Major Marchand was an emissary of civilisation or a pioneer of French
+rule, he had no _locus standi_ on the Nile. The French Government before
+long gave way and recalled Major Marchand, who returned to France by way
+of Cairo. This tame end to what was a heroic struggle to extend French
+influence greatly incensed the major; and at Cairo he made a speech,
+declaring that for the present France was worsted in the valley of the
+Nile, but the day might come when she would be supreme.
+
+It is generally believed that France gave way at this juncture partly
+because her navy was known to be unequal to a conflict with that of
+Great Britain, but also because Franco-German relations were none of the
+best. Or, in the language of the Parisian boulevards: "How do we know
+that while we are fighting the British for the Nile valley, Germany will
+not invade Lorraine?" As to the influences emanating from St. Petersburg
+contradictory statements have been made. Rumour asserted that the Czar
+sought to moderate the irritation in France and to bring about a
+peaceful settlement of the dispute; and this story won general
+acceptance. The astonishment was therefore great when, in the early part
+of the Russo-Japanese war, the Paris _Figaro_ published documents which
+seemed to prove that he had assured the French Government of his
+determination to fulfil the terms of the alliance if matters came to
+the sword.
+
+There we must leave the affair, merely noting that the Anglo-French
+agreement of March 1899 peaceably ended the dispute and placed the whole
+of the Egyptian Sudan, together with the Bahr-el-Ghazal district and the
+greater part of the Libyan Desert, west of Egypt, under the
+Anglo-Egyptian sphere of influence. (See map at the end of this volume.)
+
+The battle of Omdurman therefore ranks with the most decisive in modern
+history, not only in a military sense, but also because it extended
+British influence up the Nile valley as far as Uganda. Had French
+statesmen and M. Marchand achieved their aims, there is little doubt
+that a solid wedge would have been driven through north-central Africa
+from west to east, from the Ubangi Province of French Congoland to the
+mouth of the Red Sea. The Sirdar's triumph came just in time to thwart
+this design and to place in the hands that administered Egypt the
+control of the waters whence that land draws its life. Without crediting
+the stories that were put forth in the French Press as to the
+possibility of France damming up the Nile at Fashoda and diverting its
+floods into the Bahr-el-Ghazal district, we may recognise that the
+control of that river by Egypt is a vital necessity, and that the
+nation which helped the Khedive to regain that control thereby
+established one more claim to a close partnership in the administration
+at Cairo. The reasonableness of that claim was finally admitted by
+France in the Anglo-French agreement of the year 1904.
+
+That treaty set the seal, apparently, on a series of efforts of a
+strangely mixed character. The control of bondholders, the ill-advised
+strivings of Arabi, the armed intervention undertaken by Sir Beauchamp
+Seymour and Sir Garnet Wolseley, the forlorn hope of Gordon's Mission to
+Khartum, the fanaticism of the Mahdists, the diplomatic skill of Lord
+Cromer, the covert opposition of France and the Sultan, and the
+organising genius of Lord Kitchener--such is the medley of influences,
+ranging from the basest up to the noblest of which human nature is
+capable, that served to draw the Government of Great Britain deeper and
+deeper into the meshes of the Egyptian Question, until the heroism,
+skill, and stubbornness of a few of her sons brought about results which
+would now astonish those who early in the eighties tardily put forth the
+first timid efforts at intervention.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE PARTITION OF AFRICA
+
+
+In the opening up of new lands by European peoples the order of events
+is generally somewhat as follows:--First come explorers, pioneers, or
+missionaries. These having thrown some light on the character of a land
+or of its people, traders follow in their wake; and in due course
+factories are formed and settlements arise. The ideas of the new-comers
+as to the rights of property and landholding differ so widely from those
+of the natives, that quarrels and strifes frequently ensue. Warships and
+soldiers then appear on the scene; and the end of the old order of
+things is marked by the hoisting of the Union Jack, or the French or
+German tricolour. In the case of the expansion of Russia as we have
+seen, the procedure is far otherwise. But Africa has been for the most
+part explored, exploited, and annexed by agencies working from the sea
+and proceeding in the way just outlined.
+
+The period since the year 1870 has for the most part witnessed the
+operation of the last and the least romantic of these so-called
+civilising efforts. The great age of African exploration was then
+drawing to a close. In the year 1870 that devoted missionary explorer,
+David Livingstone, was lost to sight for many months owing to his
+earnest longing peacefully to solve the great problem of the waterways
+of Central Africa, and thus open up an easy path for the suppression of
+the slave-trade. But when, in 1871, Mr. H.M. Stanley, the enterprising
+correspondent of the _New York Herald_, at the head of a rescue
+expedition, met the grizzled, fever-stricken veteran near Ujiji and
+greeted him with the words--"Mr. Livingstone, I presume," the age of
+mystery and picturesqueness vanished away.
+
+A change in the spirit and methods of exploration naturally comes about
+when the efforts of single individuals give place to collective
+enterprise[424], and that change was now rapidly to come over the whole
+field of African exploration. The day of the Mungo Parks and
+Livingstones was passing away, and the day of associations and companies
+was at hand. In 1876, Leopold II., King of the Belgians, summoned to
+Brussels several of the leading explorers and geographers in order to
+confer on the best methods of opening up Africa. The specific results of
+this important Conference will be considered in the next chapter; but we
+may here note that, under the auspices of the "International Association
+for the Exploration and Civilisation of Africa" then founded, much
+pioneer work was carried out in districts remote from the River Congo.
+The vast continent also yielded up its secrets to travellers working
+their way in from the south and the north, so that in the late seventies
+the white races opened up to view vast and populous districts which
+imaginative chartographers in other ages had diversified with the
+Mountains of the Moon or with signs of the Zodiac and monstrosities of
+the animal creation.
+
+[Footnote 424: In saying this I do not underrate the achievements of
+explorers like Stanley, Thomson, Cameron, Schweinfurth, Pogge,
+Nachtigall, Pinto, de Brazza, Johnston, Wissmann, Holub, Lugard, and
+others; but apart from the first two, none of them made discoveries that
+can be called epoch-marking.]
+
+The last epoch-marking work carried through by an individual was
+accomplished by a Scottish explorer, whose achievements almost rivalled
+those of Livingstone. Joseph Thomson, a native of Dumfriesshire,
+succeeded in 1879 to the command of an exploring party which sought to
+open up the country around the lakes of Nyassa and Tanganyika. Four
+years later, on behalf of the Royal Geographical Society, he undertook
+to examine the country behind Mombasa which was little better known than
+when Vasco da Gama first touched there. In this journey Thomson
+discovered two snow-capped mountains, Kilimanjaro and Kenia, and made
+known the resources of the country as far inland as the Victoria Nyanza.
+Considering the small resources he had at hand, and the cruel and
+warlike character of the Masai people through whom he journeyed, this
+journey was by far the most remarkable and important in the annals of
+exploration during the eighties. Thomson afterwards undertook to open a
+way from the Benue, the great eastern affluent of the Niger, to Lake
+Chad and the White Nile. Here again he succeeded beyond all expectation,
+while his tactful management of the natives led to political results of
+the highest importance, as will shortly appear.
+
+These explorations and those of French, German, and Portuguese
+travellers served to bring nearly the whole of Africa within the ken of
+the civilised world, and revealed the fact that nearly all parts of
+tropical Africa had a distinct commercial value.
+
+This discovery, we may point out, is the necessary preliminary to any
+great and sustained work of colonisation and annexation. Three
+conditions may be looked on as essential to such an effort. First, that
+new lands should be known to be worth the labour of exploitation or
+settlement; second, that the older nations should possess enough
+vitality to pour settlers and treasure into them; and thirdly, that
+mechanical appliances should be available for the overcoming of natural
+obstacles.
+
+Now, a brief glance at the great eras of exploring and colonising
+activity will show that in all these three directions the last thirty
+years have presented advantages which are unique in the history of the
+world. A few words will suffice to make good this assertion. The wars
+which constantly devastated the ancient world, and the feeble resources
+in regard to navigation wielded by adventurous captains, such as Hanno
+the Carthaginian, grievously hampered all the efforts of explorers by
+sea, while mechanical appliances were so weak as to cripple man's
+efforts at penetrating the interior. The same is true of the mediaeval
+voyagers and travellers. Only the very princes among men, Columbus,
+Magellan, Vasco da Gama, Cabot, Cabral, Gilbert, and Raleigh, could have
+done what they did with ships that were mere playthings. Science had to
+do her work of long and patient research before man could hopefully face
+the mighty forces and malignant influences of the tropics. Nor was the
+advance of knowledge and invention sufficient by itself to equip man for
+successful war against the ocean, the desert, the forest, and the swamp.
+The political and social development of the older countries was equally
+necessary. In order that thousands of settlers should be able and ready
+to press in where the one great leader had shown the way, Europe had to
+gain something like peace and stability. Only thus, when the natural
+surplus of the white races could devote itself to the task of peacefully
+subduing the earth rather than to the hideous work of mutual slaughter,
+could the life-blood of Europe be poured forth in fertilising streams
+into the waste places of the other continents.
+
+The latter half of the eighteenth century promised for a brief space to
+inaugurate such a period of expansive life. The close of the Seven
+Years' War seemed to be the starting point for a peaceful campaign
+against the unknown; but the efforts of Cook, d'Entrecasteaux, and
+others then had little practical result, owing to the American War of
+Independence, and the great cycle of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic
+Wars. These in their turn left Europe too exhausted to accomplish much
+in the way of colonial expansion until the middle of the nineteenth
+century. Even then, when the steamship and the locomotive were at hand
+to multiply man's powers, there was, as yet, no general wish, except on
+the part of the more fortunate English-speaking peoples, to enter into
+man's new heritage. The problems of Europe had to be settled before the
+age of expansive activity could dawn in its full radiance. As has been
+previously shown, Europe was in an introspective mood up to the years
+1870-1878.
+
+Our foregoing studies have shown that the years following the
+Russo-Turkish War of 1877-8, brought about a state of political
+equilibrium which made for peace and stagnation in Europe; and the
+natural forces of the Continent, cramped by the opposition of equal and
+powerful forces, took the line of least resistance--away from Europe.
+For Russia, the line of least resistance was in Central Asia. For all
+other European States it was the sea, and the new lands beyond.
+
+Furthermore, in that momentous decade the steamship and locomotive were
+constantly gaining in efficiency; electricity was entering the arena as
+a new and mighty force; by this time medical science had so far advanced
+as to screen man from many of the ills of which the tropics are profuse;
+and the repeating rifle multiplied the power of the white man in his
+conflicts with savage peoples. When all the advantages of the present
+generation are weighed in the balance against the meagre equipment of
+the earlier discoverers, the nineteenth century has scant claim for
+boasting over the fifteenth. In truth, its great achievements in this
+sphere have been practical and political. It has only fulfilled the rich
+promise of the age of the great navigators. Where they could but
+wonderingly skirt the fringes of a new world, the moderns have won their
+way to the heart of things and found many an Eldorado potentially richer
+than that which tempted the cupidity of Cortes and Pizarro.
+
+In one respect the European statesmen of the recent past tower above
+their predecessors of the centuries before. In the eighteenth century
+the "mercantilist" craze for seizing new markets and shutting out all
+possible rivals brought about most of the wars that desolated Europe. In
+the years 1880-1890 the great Powers put forth sustained and successful
+efforts to avert the like calamity, and to cloak with the mantle of
+diplomacy the eager scrambles for the unclaimed lands of the world.
+
+For various reasons the attention of statesmen turned almost solely on
+Africa. Central and South America were divided among States that were
+nominally civilised and enjoyed the protection of the Monroe Doctrine
+put forward by the United States. Australia was wholly British. In Asia
+the weakness of China was but dimly surmised; and Siam and Cochin China
+alone offered any field for settlement or conquest by European peoples
+from the sea. In Polynesia several groups of islands were still
+unclaimed; but these could not appease the land-hunger of Europe. Africa
+alone provided void spaces proportionate to the needs and ambitions of
+the white man. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 served to bring the
+east coast of that continent within easy reach of Europe; and the
+discoveries on the Upper Nile, Congo, and Niger opened a way into other
+large parts. Thus, by the year 1880, everything favoured the "partition
+of Africa."
+
+Rumour, in the guise of hints given by communicative young attaches or
+"well-informed" correspondents, ascribes the first beginnings of the
+plans for the partition of Africa to the informal conversations of
+statesmen at the time of the Congress of Berlin (1878). Just as an
+architect safeguards his creation by providing a lightning-conductor, so
+the builder of the German Empire sought to divert from that fabric the
+revengeful storms that might be expected from the south-west. Other
+statesmen were no less anxious than Bismarck to draw away the attention
+of rivals from their own political preserves by pointing the way to more
+desirable waste domains. In short, the statesmen of Europe sought to
+plant in Africa the lightning-conductors that would safeguard the new
+arrangements in Europe, including that of Cyprus. The German and British
+Governments are known then to have passed on hints to that of France as
+to the desirability of her appropriating Tunis. The Republic entered
+into the schemes, with results which have already been considered
+(Chapter XII.); and, as a sequel to the occupation of Tunis, plans were
+set on foot for the eventual conquest of the whole of the North-West of
+Africa (except Morocco and a few British, Spanish, and Portuguese
+settlements) from Cape Bon to Cape Verde, and thence nearly to the
+mouth of the River Niger. We may also note that in and after 1883 France
+matured her schemes for the conquest of part, and ultimately the whole,
+of Madagascar, a project which reached completion in the year 1885[425].
+
+[Footnote 425: For the French treaty of December 17, 1885, with
+Madagascar see Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 2 (1886).]
+
+The military occupation of Egypt by Great Britain in 1882 also served to
+quicken the interest of European Powers in Africa. It has been surmised
+that British acquiescence in French supremacy in Tunis, West Africa, and
+Madagascar had some connection with the events that transpired in Egypt,
+and that the perpetuation of British supremacy in the valley of the Nile
+was virtually bought by the surrender of most of our political and
+trading interests in these lands, the lapse of which under the French
+"protective" regime caused much heart-burning in commercial circles.
+
+Last among the special causes that concentrated attention on Africa was
+the activity of King Leopold's Association at Brussels in opening up the
+Congo district in the years 1879-1882. Everything therefore tended to
+make the ownership of tropical Africa the most complex question of the
+early part of the eighties.
+
+For various reasons Germany was a little later than France and England
+in entering the field. The hostility of France on the west, and, after
+1878, that of Russia on the east, made it inadvisable for the new Empire
+to give hostages to Fortune, in the shape of colonies, until by
+alliances it secured its position at home and possessed a fleet strong
+enough to defend distant possessions. In some measure the German
+Government had to curb the eagerness of its "colonial party." The
+present writer was in Germany in the year 1879, when the colonial
+propaganda was being pushed forward, and noted the eagerness in some
+quarters, and the distrust in others, with which pamphlets like that of
+Herr Fabri, _Bedarf Deutschland Colonien?_ were received. Bismarck
+himself at first checked the "colonials," until he felt sure of the
+European situation. That, however, was cleared up to some extent by the
+inclusion of Italy in the compact which thus became the Triple Alliance
+(May 1882), and by the advent to office of the pacific Chancellor, de
+Giers, at St. Petersburg a little later. There was therefore the less
+need officially to curb the colonising instinct of the Teutonic people.
+The formation of the German Colonial Society at Frankfurt in December
+1882, and the immense success attending its propaganda, spurred on the
+statesmen of Berlin to take action. They looked longingly (as they still
+do) towards Brazil, in whose southern districts their people had settled
+in large numbers; but over all that land the Monroe Doctrine spread its
+sheltering wings. A war with the United States would have been madness,
+and Germany therefore turned to Polynesia and Africa. We may note here
+that in 1885 she endeavoured to secure the Caroline Islands from Spain,
+whose title to them seemed to have lapsed; but Spanish pride flared up
+at the insult, and after a short space Bismarck soothed ruffled feelings
+at Madrid by accepting the mediation of the Pope, who awarded them to
+Spain--Germany, however, gaining the right to occupy an islet of the
+group as a coaling station.
+
+Africa, however, absorbed nearly all the energy of the German colonial
+party. The forward wing of that party early in the year 1884 inaugurated
+an anti-British campaign in the press, which probably had the support of
+the Government. As has been stated in chapter XII., that was the time
+when the Three Emperors' League showed signs of renewed vitality; and
+Bismarck, after signing the secret treaty of March 24, 1884 (later on
+ratified at Skiernevice), felt safe in pressing on colonial designs
+against England in Africa, especially as Russia was known to be planning
+equally threatening moves against the Queen's Empire in Asia. We do not
+know enough of what then went on between the German and Russian
+Chancellors to assert that they formed a definite agreement to harry
+British interests in those continents; but, judging from the general
+drift of Bismarck's diplomacy and from the "nagging" to which England
+was thenceforth subjected for two years, it seems highly probable that
+the policy ratified at Skiernevice aimed at marking time in European
+affairs and striding onwards in other continents at the expense of the
+Island Power.
+
+The Anglophobes of the German press at once fell foul of everything
+British; and that well-known paper the _Koelnische Zeitung_ in an article
+of April 22, 1884, used the following words:--"Africa is a large pudding
+which the English have prepared for themselves at other people's
+expense, and the crust of which is already fit for eating. Let us hope
+that our sailors will put a few pepper-corns into it on the Guinea
+coast, so that our friends on the Thames may not digest it too rapidly."
+The sequel will show whether the simile correctly describes either the
+state of John Bull's appetite or the easy aloofness of the
+Teutonic onlooker.
+
+It will be convenient to treat this great and complex subject on a
+topographical basis, and to begin with a survey of the affairs of East
+Africa, especially the districts on the mainland north and south of the
+island of Zanzibar. At that important trade centre, the natural starting
+point then for the vast district of the Great Lakes, the influence of
+British and Indian traders had been paramount; and for many years the
+Sultan of Zanzibar had been "under the direct influence of the United
+Kingdom and of the Government of India[426]." Nevertheless, in and after
+1880 German merchants, especially those of Hamburg, pressed in with
+great energy and formed plans for annexing the neighbouring territories
+on the mainland.
+
+[Footnote 426: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1886), p. 2.]
+
+Their energy was in strange contrast to the lethargy shown by the
+British Government in the protection of Anglo-Indian trade interests. In
+the year 1878 the Sultan of Zanzibar, who held a large territory on the
+mainland, had offered the control of all the commerce of his dominions
+to Sir W. Mackinnon, Chairman of the British-India Steam Navigation
+Company; but, for some unexplained reason, the Beaconsfield Cabinet
+declined to be a party to this arrangement, which, therefore, fell
+through[427]. Despite the fact that England and France had in 1862
+agreed to recognise the independence of the Sultan of Zanzibar, the
+Germans deemed the field to be clear, and early in November 1884, Dr.
+Karl Peters and two other enthusiasts of the colonial party landed at
+Zanzibar, disguised as mechanics, with the aim of winning new lands for
+their Fatherland. They had with them several blank treaty forms, the
+hidden potency of which was soon to be felt by dusky potentates on the
+mainland. Before long they succeeded in persuading some of these novices
+in diplomacy to set their marks to these documents, an act which
+converted them into subjects of the Kaiser, and speedily secured 60,000
+square miles for the German tricolour. It is said that the Government of
+Berlin either had no knowledge of, or disapproved of, these proceedings;
+and, when Earl Granville ventured on some representations respecting
+them, he received the reply, dated November 28, 1884, that the Imperial
+Government had no design of obtaining a protectorate over Zanzibar[428].
+It is difficult to reconcile these statements with the undoubted fact
+that on February 17, 1885, the German Emperor gave his sanction to the
+proceedings of Dr. Peters by extending his suzerainty over the signatory
+chiefs[429]. This event caused soreness among British explorers and
+Indian traders who had been the first to open up the country to
+civilisation. Nevertheless, the Gladstone Ministry took no effective
+steps to safeguard their interests.
+
+[Footnote 427: _The Partition of Africa_, by J. Scott Keltie (1893), pp.
+157, 225.]
+
+[Footnote 428: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1886), p. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 429: _Ibid_. pp. 12-20.]
+
+In defence of their academic treatment of this matter some
+considerations of a general nature may be urged.
+
+The need of colonies felt by Germany was so natural, so imperious, that
+it could not be met by the high and dry legal argument as to the
+priority of Great Britain's commercial interests. Such an attitude would
+have involved war with Germany about East Africa and war with France
+about West Africa, at the very time when we were on the brink of
+hostilities with Russia about Merv, and were actually fighting the
+Mahdists behind Suakim. The "weary Titan"--to use Matthew Arnold's
+picturesque phrase--was then overburdened. The motto, "Live and let
+live," was for the time the most reasonable, provided that it was not
+interpreted in a weak and maudlin way on essential points.
+
+Many critics, however, maintain that Mr. Gladstone's and Lord
+Granville's diplomatic dealings with Germany in the years 1884 and 1885
+displayed most lamentable weakness, even when Dr. Peters and others were
+known to be working hard at the back of Zanzibar, with the results that
+have been noted. In April 1885 the Cabinet ordered Sir John Kirk,
+British representative at Zanzibar, and founder of the hitherto
+unchallenged supremacy of his nation along that coast, forthwith to undo
+the work of a lifetime by "maintaining friendly relations" with the
+German authorities at that port. This, of course, implied a tacit
+acknowledgment by Britain of what amounted to a German protectorate over
+the mainland possessions of the Sultan. It is not often that a
+Government, in its zeal for "live and let live," imposes so humiliating
+a task on a British representative. The Sultan did not take the serene
+and philosophic view of the situation that was held at Downing Street,
+and the advent of a German squadron was necessary in order to procure
+his consent to these arrangements (August-December 1885.)[430]
+
+[Footnote 430: J. Scott Keltie, _The Partition of Africa_, ch. xv.]
+
+The Blue Book dealing with Zanzibar (Africa, No. 1, 1886) by no means
+solves the riddle of the negotiations which went on between London and
+Berlin early in the year 1885. From other sources we know that the most
+ardent of the German colonials were far from satisfied with their
+triumph. Curious details have appeared showing that their schemes
+included the laying of a trap for the Sultan of Zanzibar, which failed
+owing to clumsy baiting and the loquacity of the would-be captor. Lord
+Rosebery also managed, according to German accounts, to get the better
+of Count Herbert Bismarck in respect of St. Lucia Bay (see page 528)
+and districts on the Benue River; so that this may perhaps be placed
+over against the losses sustained by Britain on the coast opposite
+Zanzibar. Even there, as we have seen, results did not fully correspond
+to the high hopes entertained by the German Chauvinists[431].
+
+[Footnote 431: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, vol. iii.
+pp. 135, 144-45. Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1886), pp. 39-45, 61 _et
+seq_.; also No. 3 (1886), pp. 4, 15.]
+
+In the meantime (June 1885) the Salisbury Cabinet came into office for a
+short time, but the evil effects of the slackness of British diplomacy
+were not yet at an end. At this time British merchants, especially those
+of Manchester, were endeavouring to develop the mountainous country
+around the giant cone of Mt. Kilimanjaro, where Mr. (now Sir) Harry
+Johnston had, in September 1884, secured some trading and other rights
+with certain chiefs. A company had been formed in order to further
+British interests, and this soon became the Imperial British East Africa
+Company, which aspired to territorial control in the parts north of
+those claimed by Dr. Peters' Company. A struggle took place between the
+two companies, the German East Africa Company laying claim to the
+Kilimanjaro district. Again it proved that the Germans had the more
+effective backing, and, despite objections urged by our Foreign
+Minister, Lord Rosebery, against the proceedings of German agents in
+that tract, the question of ownership was referred to the decision of an
+Anglo-German boundary commission.
+
+Lord Iddesleigh assumed control of the Foreign Office in August, but the
+advent of the Conservatives to power in no way helped on the British
+case. By an agreement between the two Powers, dated November 1, 1886,
+the Kilimanjaro district was assigned to Germany. From the northern
+spurs of that mountain the dividing line ran in a north-westerly
+direction towards the Victoria Nyanza. The same agreement recognised
+the authority of the Sultan of Zanzibar as extending over the island of
+that name, those of Pemba and Mafia, and over a strip of coastline ten
+nautical miles in width; but the ownership of the district of Vitu north
+of Mombasa was left open[432]. (See map at the close of this volume.)
+
+[Footnote 432: Banning, _op. cit._ pp. 45-50; Parl. Papers, Africa, No.
+3 (1887), pp. 46, 59.]
+
+On the whole, the skill which dispossessed a sovereign of most of his
+rights, under a plea of diplomatic rearrangements and the advancement of
+civilisation, must be pronounced unrivalled; and Britain cut a sorry
+figure as the weak and unwilling accessory to this act. The only
+satisfactory feature in the whole proceeding was Britain's success in
+leasing from the Sultan of Zanzibar administrative rights over the coast
+region around Mombasa. The gain of that part secured unimpeded access
+from the coast to the northern half of Lake Victoria Nyanza. The German
+Company secured similar rights over the coastline of their district, and
+in 1890 bought it outright. By an agreement of December 1896, the River
+Rovuma was recognised by Germany and Portugal as the boundary of their
+East African possessions.
+
+The lofty hopes once entertained by the Germans as to the productiveness
+of their part of East Africa have been but partially realised[433].
+Harsh treatment of the natives brought about a formidable revolt in
+1888-89. The need of British co-operation in the crushing of this revolt
+served to bring Germany to a more friendly attitude towards this
+country. Probably the resignation, or rather the dismissal, of Bismarck
+by the present Emperor, in March 1890, also tended to lessen the
+friction between England and Germany. The Prince while in retirement
+expressed strong disapproval of the East African policy of his
+successor, Count Caprivi.
+
+[Footnote 433: See the Report on German East Africa for 1900, in our
+_Diplomatic and Consular Reports_.]
+
+Its more conciliatory spirit found expression in the Anglo-German
+agreement of July 1, 1890, which delimited the districts claimed by the
+two nations around the Victoria Nyanza in a sense favourable to Great
+Britain and disappointing to that indefatigable treaty-maker, Dr.
+Peters. It acknowledged British claims to the northern half of the
+shores and waters of that great lake and to the valley of the Upper
+Nile, as also to the coast of the Indian Ocean about Vitu and thence
+northwards to Kismayu.
+
+On the other hand, Germany acquired the land north of Lake Nyassa, where
+British interests had been paramount. The same agreement applied both to
+the British and German lands in question the principle of free or
+unrestricted transit of goods, as also between the great lakes. Germany
+further recognised a British Protectorate over the islands held by the
+Sultan of Zanzibar, reserving certain rights for German commerce in the
+case of the Island of Mafia. Finally, Great Britain ceded to Germany the
+Island of Heligoland in the North Sea. On both sides of the North Sea
+the compact aroused a storm of hostile comment, which perhaps served to
+emphasise its fairness[434]. Bismarck's opinion deserves quotation:--
+
+     Zanzibar ought not to have been left to the English. It would
+     have been better to maintain the old arrangement. We could
+     then have had it at some later time when England required our
+     good offices against France or Russia. In the meantime our
+     merchants, who are cleverer, and, like the Jews, are
+     satisfied with smaller profits, would have kept the upper
+     hand in business. To regard Heligoland as an equivalent shows
+     more imagination than sound calculation. In the event of war
+     it would be better for us that it should be in the hands of a
+     neutral Power. It is difficult and most expensive to
+     fortify[435].
+
+[Footnote 434: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 6 (1890).]
+
+[Footnote 435: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, vol. iii.
+p. 353. See, too, S. Whitman, _Personal Reminiscences of Prince
+Bismarck_, p. 122.]
+
+The passage is instructive as showing the aim of Bismarck's colonial
+policy, namely, to wait until England's difficulties were acute (or
+perhaps to augment those difficulties, as he certainly did by furthering
+Russian schemes against Afghanistan in 1884-85[436]), and then to apply
+remorseless pressure at all points where the colonial or commercial
+interests of the two countries clashed.
+
+[Footnote 436: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, vol. iii.
+pp. 124, 133: also see p. 426 of this work.]
+
+The more his policy is known, the more dangerous to England it is seen
+to have been, especially in the years 1884-86. In fact, those persons
+who declaim against German colonial ambitions of to-day may be asked to
+remember that the extra-European questions recently at issue between
+Great Britain and Germany are trivial when compared with the momentous
+problems that were peacefully solved by the agreement of the year 1890.
+Of what importance are Samoa, Kiao-chow, and the problem of Morocco,
+compared with the questions of access to the great lakes of Africa and
+the control of the Lower Niger? It would be unfair to Wilhelm II., as
+also to the Salisbury Cabinet, not to recognise the statesmanlike
+qualities which led to the agreement of July 1, 1890--one of the most
+solid gains peacefully achieved for the cause of civilisation throughout
+the nineteenth century.
+
+Among its many benefits may be reckoned the virtual settlement of long
+and tangled disputes for supremacy in Uganda. We have no space in which
+to detail the rivalries of French and British missionaries and agents at
+the Court of King M'tesa and his successor M'wanga, or the futile
+attempt of Dr. Peters to thrust in German influence. Even the
+Anglo-German agreement of 1890 did not end the perplexities of the
+situation; for though the British East Africa Company (to which a
+charter had been granted in 1888) thenceforth had the chief influence on
+the northern shores of Victoria Nyanza, the British Government declined
+to assume any direct responsibility for so inaccessible a district.
+Thanks, however, to the activity and tact of Captain Lugard,
+difficulties were cleared away, with the result that the large and
+fertile territory of Uganda (formerly included in the Khedive's
+dominions) became a British Protectorate in August 1894 (see
+Chapter XVII).
+
+The significance of the events just described will be apparent when it
+is remembered that British East Africa, inclusive of Uganda and the
+Upper Nile basin, comprises altogether 670,000 square miles, to a large
+extent fertile, and capable of settlement by white men in the more
+elevated tracts of the interior. German East Africa contains 385,000
+square miles, and is also destined to have a future that will dwarf that
+of many of the secondary States of to-day.
+
+The prosperity of British East Africa was greatly enhanced by the
+opening of a railway, 580 miles long, from Mombasa to Victoria Nyanza in
+1902. Among other benefits, it has cut the ground from under the
+slave-trade, which used to depend on the human beast of burden for the
+carriage of all heavy loads[437].
+
+[Footnote 437: For the progress and prospects of this important colony,
+see Sir G. Portal, _The British Mission to Uganda in 1893_; Sir Charles
+Elliot, _British East Africa_ (1905); also Lugard, _Our East African
+Empire_; Sir H. Johnston, _The Uganda Protectorate_.]
+
+The Anglo-German agreement of 1890 also cleared up certain questions
+between Britain and Germany relating to South-West Africa which had made
+bad blood between the two countries. In and after the year 1882 the
+attention of the colonial party in Germany was turned to the district
+north of the Orange River, and in the spring of the year 1883 Herr
+Luederitz founded a factory and hoisted the German flag at Angra Pequena.
+There are grounds for thinking that that district was coveted, not so
+much for its intrinsic value, which is slight, as because it promised to
+open up communications with the Boer Republics. Lord Granville ventured
+to express his doubts on that subject to Count Herbert Bismarck, whom
+the Chancellor had sent to London in the summer of 1884 in order to take
+matters out of the hands of the too Anglophil ambassador, Count Muenster.
+Anxious to show his mettle, young Bismarck fired up, and informed Lord
+Granville that his question was one of mere curiosity; later on he
+informed him that it was a matter which did not concern him[438].
+
+[Footnote 438: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, vol. iii.
+p. 120.]
+
+It must be admitted, however, that the British Government had acted in
+a dilatory and ineffective manner. Sir Donald Currie had introduced a
+deputation to Lord Derby, Colonial Minister in the Gladstone Cabinet,
+which warned him seriously as to German aims on the coast of Damaraland;
+in reply to which that phlegmatic Minister stated that Germany was not a
+colonising Power, and that the annexation of those districts would be
+resented by Great Britain as an "unfriendly act[439]." In November 1883
+the German ambassador inquired whether British protection would be
+accorded to a few German settlers on the coast of Damaraland. No
+decisive answer was given, though the existence of British interests
+there was affirmed. Then, when Germany claimed the right to annex it, a
+counter-claim was urged from Whitehall (probably at the instigation of
+the Cape Government) that the land in question was a subject of close
+interest to us, as it might be annexed in the future. It was against
+this belated and illogical plea that Count Bismarck was sent to lodge a
+protest; and in August 1884 Germany clinched the matter by declaring
+Angra Pequena and surrounding districts to be German territory. (See
+note at the end of the chapter.)
+
+[Footnote 439: See Sir D. Currie's paper on South Africa to the members
+of the Royal Colonial Institute, April 10, 1888 (_Proceedings_, vol.
+xix. p. 240).]
+
+In this connection we may remark that Angra Pequena had recently figured
+as a British settlement on German maps, including that of Stieler of the
+year 1882. Walfisch Bay, farther to the north, was left to the Union
+Jack, that flag having been hoisted there by official sanction in 1878
+owing to the urgent representations of Sir Bartle Frere, the Governor of
+Cape Colony. The rest of the coast was left to Germany; the Gladstone
+Government informed that of Berlin that no objection would be taken to
+her occupation of that territory. Great annoyance was felt at the Cape
+at what was looked on as an uncalled for surrender of British claims,
+especially when the Home Government failed to secure just treatment for
+the British settlers. Sir Charles Dilke states in his _Problems of
+Greater Britain_ that only the constant protests of the Cape Ministry
+prevented the authorities at Whitehall from complying with German
+unceasing requests for the cession of Walfisch Bay, doubtless as an item
+for exchange during the negotiations of 1889-90[440].
+
+[Footnote 440: _Op. cit._ vol. i. p. 502.]
+
+We may add here that in 1886 Germany defined the northern limits of
+"South-West Africa"--such was the name of the new colony--by an
+agreement with Portugal; and in 1890 an article of the Anglo-German
+agreement above referred to gave an eastward extension of that northern
+border which brought it to the banks of the River Zambesi.
+
+The British Government took a firmer stand in a matter that closely
+concerned the welfare of Natal and the relations of the Transvaal
+Republic to Germany. In 1884 some German prospectors sought to gain a
+footing in St. Lucia Bay in Zululand and to hoist the German flag. The
+full truth on this interesting matter is not yet known; it formed a
+pendant to the larger question of Delagoa Bay, which must be briefly
+noticed here.
+
+Friction had arisen between Great Britain and Portugal over conflicting
+claims respecting Delagoa Bay and its adjoining lands; and in this
+connection it may be of interest to note that the Disraeli Ministry had
+earlier missed an opportunity of buying out Portuguese claims. The late
+Lord Carnarvon stated that, when he took the portfolio for colonial
+affairs in that Ministry, he believed the purchase might have been
+effected for a comparatively small sum. Probably the authorities at
+Lisbon were aroused to a sense of the potential value of their Laurenco
+Marquez domain by the scramble for Africa which began early in the
+eighties; and it must be regretted that the British Government, with the
+lack of foresight which has so often characterised it, let slip the
+opportunity of securing Delagoa Bay until its value was greatly
+enhanced. It then agreed to refer the questions in dispute to the
+arbitration of General MacMahon, President of the French Republic
+(1875). As has generally happened when foreign potentates have
+adjudicated on British interests, his verdict was wholly hostile to us.
+It even assigned to Portugal a large district to the south of Delagoa
+Bay which the Portuguese had never thought of claiming from its native
+inhabitants, the Tongas[441]. In fact, a narrative of all the gains
+which have accrued to Portugal in Delagoa Bay, and thereafter to the
+people who controlled its railway to Pretoria, would throw a sinister
+light on the connection that has too often subsisted between the noble
+theory of arbitration and the profitable practice of peacefully willing
+away, or appropriating, the rights and possessions of others. Portugal
+soon proved to be unable to avail herself of the opportunities opened up
+by the gift unexpectedly awarded her by MacMahon. She was unable to
+control either the Tongas or the Boers.
+
+[Footnote 441: Sir C. Dilke, _Problems of Greater Britain_, vol. i. pp.
+553-556.]
+
+England having been ruled out, there was the chance for some other Power
+to step in and acquire St. Lucia Bay, one of the natural outlets of the
+southern part of the Transvaal Republic. It is an open secret that the
+forerunners of the "colonial party" in Germany had already sought to
+open up closer relations with the Boer Republics. In 1876 the President
+of the Transvaal, accompanied by a Dutch member of the Cape Parliament,
+visited Berlin, probably with the view of reciprocating those advances.
+They had an interview with Bismarck, the details of which are not fully
+known. Nothing, however, came of it at the time, owing to Bismarck's
+preoccupation in European affairs. Early in the "eighties," the German
+colonial party, then beginning its campaign, called attention repeatedly
+to the advantages of gaining a foothold in or near Delagoa Bay; but the
+rise of colonial feeling in Germany led to a similar development in the
+public sentiment of Portugal, and indeed of all lands; so that, by the
+time that Bismarck was won over to the cause of Teutonic Expansion, the
+Portuguese refused to barter away any of their ancient possessions. This
+probably accounts for the concentration of German energies on other
+parts of the South African coast, which, though less valuable in
+themselves, might serve as _points d'appui_ for German political agents
+and merchants in their future dealings with the Boers, who were then
+striving to gain control over Bechuanaland. The points selected by the
+Germans for their action were on the coast of Damaraland, as already
+stated, and St. Lucia Bay in Zululand, a position which President
+Burgers had striven to secure for the Transvaal in 1878.
+
+In reference to St. Lucia Bay our narrative must be shadowy in outline
+owing to the almost complete secrecy with which the German Government
+wisely shrouds a failure. The officials and newspaper writers of Germany
+have not yet contracted the English habit of proclaiming their
+intentions beforehand and of parading before the world their
+recriminations in case of a fiasco. All that can be said, then, with
+certainty is that in the autumn of 1884 a German trader named Einwold
+attempted to gain a footing in St. Lucia Bay and to prepare the way for
+the recognition of German claims if all went well. In fact, he could
+either be greeted as a _Mehrer des Reichs_, or be disowned as an
+unauthorised busybody.
+
+We may here cite passages from the Diary of Dr. Busch, Bismarck's
+secretary, which prove that the State took a lively interest in
+Einwold's adventure. On February 25, 1885, Busch had a conversation with
+Herr Andrae, in the course of which they "rejoiced at England's
+difficulties in the Sudan, and I expressed the hope that Wolseley's head
+would soon arrive in Cairo, nicely pickled and packed." Busch then
+referred to British friction with Russia in Afghanistan and with France
+in Burmah, and then put the question to Andrae, "'Have we given up South
+Africa; or is the Lucia Bay affair still open?' He said that the matter
+was still under consideration[442]."
+
+[Footnote 442: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, vol. iii.
+p. 132.]
+
+It has since transpired that the British Government might have yielded
+to pressure from Berlin, had not greater pressure been exercised from
+Natal and from British merchants and shipowners interested in the South
+African trade. Sir Donald Currie, in the paper already referred to,
+stated that he could easily have given particulars of the means which
+had to be used in order to spur on the British Government to decisive
+action. Unfortunately he was discreetly reticent, and merely stated that
+not only St. Lucia Bay, but the whole of the coast between Natal and the
+Delagoa Bay district was then in question, and that the Gladstone
+Ministry was finally induced to telegraph instructions to Cape Town for
+the despatch of a cruiser to assert British claims to St. Lucia Bay.
+H.M.S. _Goshawk_ at once steamed thither, and hoisted the British flag,
+by virtue of a treaty made with a Zulu chief in 1842. Then ensued the
+usual interchange of angry notes between Berlin and London; Bismarck and
+Count Herbert sought to win over, or browbeat, Lord Rosebery, then
+Colonial Minister. In this, however, he failed; and the explanation of
+the failure given to Busch was that Lord Rosebery was too clever for him
+and "quite mesmerised him." On May 7, 1885, Germany gave up her claims
+to that important position, in consideration of gaining at the expense
+of England in the Cameroons[443]. Here again a passage from Busch's
+record deserves quotation. In a conversation which he had with Bismarck
+on January 5, 1886, he put the question:--
+
+     "Why have we not been able to secure the Santa Lucia Bay?" I
+     asked. "Ah!" he replied, "it is not so valuable as it seemed
+     to be at first. People who were pursuing their own interests
+     on the spot represented it to be of greater importance than
+     it really was. And then the Boers were not disposed to take
+     any proper action in the matter. The bay would have been
+     valuable to us if the distance from the Transvaal were not so
+     great. And the English attached so much importance to it that
+     they declared it was impossible for them to give it up, and
+     they ultimately conceded a great deal to us in New Guinea and
+     Zanzibar. In colonial matters we must not take too much in
+     hand at a time, and we already have enough for a beginning.
+     We must now hold rather with the English, while, as you
+     know, we were formerly more on the French side[444]. But, as
+     the last elections in France show, every one of any
+     importance there had to make a show of hostility to us."
+
+[Footnote 443: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 6 (1885), p. 2.]
+
+[Footnote 444: He here referred to the Franco-German agreement of Dec.
+24, 1885, whereby the two Powers amicably settled the boundaries of
+their West African lands, and Germany agreed not to thwart French
+designs on Tahiti, the Society Isles, the New Hebrides, etc. See
+Banning, _Le Partage politique de l'Afrique_, pp. 22-26.]
+
+This passage explains, in part at least, why Bismarck gave up the
+nagging tactics latterly employed towards Great Britain. Evidently he
+had hoped to turn the current of thought in France from the
+Alsace-Lorraine question to the lands over the seas, and his henchmen in
+the Press did all in their power to persuade people, both in Germany and
+France, that England was the enemy. The Anglophobe agitation was fierce
+while it lasted; but its artificiality is revealed by the passage
+just quoted.
+
+We may go further, and say that the more recent outbreak of Anglophobia
+in Germany may probably be ascribed to the same official stimulus; and
+it too may be expected to cease when the politicians of Berlin see that
+it no longer pays to twist the British lion's tail. That sport ceased in
+and after 1886, because France was found still to be the enemy.
+Frenchmen did not speak much about Alsace-Lorraine. They followed
+Gambetta's advice: "Never speak about it, but always think of it." The
+recent French elections revealed that fact to Bismarck; and, lo! the
+campaign of calumny against England at once slackened.
+
+We may add that two German traders settled on the coast of Pondoland,
+south of Natal; and in August 1885 the statesmen of Berlin put forth
+feelers to Whitehall with a view to a German Protectorate of that coast.
+They met with a decisive repulse[445].
+
+[Footnote 445: Cape Colony, Papers on Pondoland, 1887, pp. 1, 41. For
+the progress of German South-West Africa and East Africa, see Parl.
+Papers, Germany, Nos. 474, 528, 2790.]
+
+Meanwhile, the dead-set made by Germany, France, and Russia against
+British interests in the years 1883-85 had borne fruit in a way little
+expected by those Powers, but fully consonant with previous experience.
+It awakened British statesmen from their apathy, and led them to adopt
+measures of unwonted vigour. The year 1885 saw French plans in
+Indo-China checked by the annexation of Burmah. German designs in South
+Africa undoubtedly quickened the resolve of the Gladstone Ministry to
+save Bechuanaland for the British Empire.
+
+It is impossible here to launch upon the troublous sea of Boer politics,
+especially as the conflict naturally resulting from two irreconcilable
+sets of ideas outlasted the century with which this work is concerned.
+We can therefore only state that filibustering bands of Boers had raided
+parts of Bechuanaland, and seemed about to close the trade-route
+northwards to the Zambesi. This alone would have been a serious bar to
+the prosperity of Cape Colony; but the loyalists had lost their
+confidence in the British Government since the events of 1880, while a
+large party in the Cape Ministry, including at that time Mr. Cecil
+Rhodes, seemed willing to abet the Boers in all their proceedings. A
+Boer deputation went to England in the autumn of 1883, and succeeded in
+cajoling Lord Derby into a very remarkable surrender. Among other
+things, he conceded to them an important strip of land west of the River
+Harts[446].
+
+[Footnote 446: For the negotiations and the Convention of February 27,
+1884, see Papers relating to the South African Republic, 1887.]
+
+Far from satisfying them, this act encouraged some of their more
+restless spirits to set up two republics named Stellaland and Goshen.
+There, however, they met a tough antagonist, John Mackenzie. That
+devoted missionary, after long acquaintance with Boers and Bechuanas,
+saw how serious would be the loss to the native tribes and to the cause
+of civilisation if the raiders were allowed to hold the routes to the
+interior. By degrees he aroused the sympathy of leading men in the
+Press, who thereupon began to whip up the laggards of Whitehall and
+Downing Street. Consequently, Mackenzie, on his return to South Africa,
+was commissioned to act as British Resident in Bechuanaland, and in that
+capacity he declared that country to be under British protection (May
+1884). At once the Dutch throughout South Africa raised a hue and cry
+against him, in which Mr. Rhodes joined, with the result that he was
+recalled on July 30.
+
+His place was taken by a statesman whose exploits raised him to a high
+place among builders of the Empire. However much Cecil Rhodes differed
+from Mackenzie on the native question and other affairs, he came to see
+the urgent need of saving for the Empire the central districts which, as
+an old Boer said, formed "the key of Africa." Never were the loyalists
+more dispirited at the lack of energy shown by the Home Government; and
+never was there greater need of firmness. In a sense, however, the
+action of the Germans on the coast of Damaraland (August-October 1884)
+helped to save the situation. The imperious need of keeping open the
+route to the interior, which would be closed to trade if ever the Boers
+and Germans joined hands, spurred on the Gladstone Ministry to support
+the measures proposed by Mr. Rhodes and the loyalists of Cape Colony.
+When the whole truth on that period comes to be known, it will probably
+be found that British rule was in very grave danger in the latter half
+of the year 1884.
+
+Certainly no small expedition ever accomplished so much for the Empire,
+at so trifling a cost and without the effusion of blood, as that which
+was now sent out. It was entrusted to Sir Charles Warren. He recruited
+his force mainly from the loyalists of South Africa, though a body named
+Methuen's Horse went out from these islands. In all it numbered nearly
+5000 men. Moving quickly from the Orange River through Griqualand West,
+he reached the banks of the Vaal at Barkly Camp by January 22, 1885,
+that is, only six weeks after his arrival at Cape Town. At the same time
+3000 troops took their station in the north of Natal in readiness to
+attack the Transvaal Boers, should they fall upon Warren. It soon
+transpired, however, that the more respectable Boers had little sympathy
+with the raiders into Bechuanaland. These again were so far taken aback
+by the speed of his movements and the thoroughness of his organisation
+as to manifest little desire to attack a force which seemed ever ready
+at all points and spied on them from balloons. The behaviour of the
+commander was as tactful as his dispositions were effective; and, as a
+result of these favouring circumstances (which the superficial may
+ascribe to luck), he was able speedily to clear Bechuanaland of those
+intruders[447].
+
+[Footnote 447: See Sir Charles Warren's short account of the expedition,
+in the _Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute for _1885-86, pp.
+5-45; also Mackenzie's _Austral Africa_, vol. ii. _ad init_., and _John
+Mackenzie_, by W.D. Mackenzie (1902).]
+
+On September 30 it became what it has since remained--a British
+possession, safeguarding the route into the interior and holding apart
+the Transvaal Boers from the contact with the Germans of Damaraland
+which could hardly fail to produce an explosion. The importance of the
+latter fact has already been made clear. The significance of the former
+will be apparent when we remember that Mr. Rhodes, in his later and
+better-known character of Empire-builder, was able from Bechuanaland as
+a base to extend the domain of his Chartered Company up to the southern
+end of Lake Tanganyika in the year 1889.
+
+It is well known that Rhodes hoped to extend the domain of his company
+as far north as the southern limit of the British East Africa Company.
+Here, however, the Germans forestalled him by their energy in Central
+Africa. Finally, the Anglo-German agreement of 1890 assigned to Germany
+all the _hinterland_ of Zanzibar as far west as the frontier of the
+Congo Free State, thus sterilising the idea of an all-British route from
+the Cape to Cairo, which possessed for some minds an alliterative and
+all-compelling charm.
+
+As for the future of the vast territory which came to be known popularly
+as Rhodesia, we may note that the part bordering on Lake Nyassa was
+severed from the South Africa Company in 1894, and was styled the
+British Central Africa Protectorate. In 1895 the south of Bechuanaland
+was annexed to Cape Colony, a step greatly regretted by many
+well-wishers of the natives. The intelligent chief, Khama, visited
+England in that year, mainly in order to protest against the annexation
+of his lands by Cape Colony and by the South Africa Company. In this he
+was successful; he and other chiefs are directly under the protection of
+the Crown, but parts of the north and east of Bechuanaland are
+administered by the British South Africa Company. The tracts between the
+Rivers Limpopo and Zambesi, and thence north to the Tanganyika, form a
+territory vaster and more populous than any which has in recent years
+been administered by a company; and its rule leaves much to be desired.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is time now to turn to the expansion of German and British spheres of
+influence in the Bight of Guinea and along the course of the Rivers
+Niger and Benue. In the innermost part of the Bight of Guinea, British
+commercial interests had been paramount up to about 1880; but about that
+time German factories were founded in increasing numbers, and, owing to
+the dilatory action of British firms, gained increasing hold on the
+trade of several districts. The respect felt by native chiefs for
+British law was evinced by a request of five of the "Kings" of the
+Cameroons that they might have it introduced into their lands (1879).
+Authorities at Downing Street and Whitehall were deaf to the request. In
+striking contrast to this was the action of the German Government, which
+early in the year 1884 sent Dr. Nachtigall to explore those districts.
+The German ambassador in London informed Earl Granville on April 19,
+1884, that the object of his mission was "to complete the information
+now in possession of the Foreign Office at Berlin on the state of German
+commerce on that coast." He therefore requested that the British
+authorities there should be furnished with suitable recommendations for
+his reception[448]. This was accordingly done, and, after receiving
+hospitality at various consulates, he made treaties with native chiefs,
+and hoisted the German flag at several points previously considered to
+be under British influence. This was especially the case on the coast to
+the east of the River Niger.
+
+[Footnote 448: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1885), p. 14.]
+
+The British Government was incensed at this procedure, and all the more
+so as plans were then on foot for consolidating British influence in the
+Cameroons. On that river there were six British, and two German firms,
+and the natives had petitioned for the protection of England; but H.M.S.
+_Flint_, on steaming into that river on July 20, found that the German
+flag had been hoisted by the officers of the German warship _Moewe_.
+Nachtigall had signed a treaty with "King Bell" on July 12, whereby
+native habits were to remain unchanged and no customs dues levied, but
+the whole district was placed under German suzerainty[449]. The same had
+happened at neighbouring districts. Thereupon Consul Hewitt, in
+accordance with instructions from London, established British supremacy
+at the Oil Rivers, Old and New Calabar, and several other points
+adjoining the Niger delta as far west as Lagos.
+
+[Footnote 449: _Ibid_. p. 24.]
+
+For some time there was much friction between London and Berlin on these
+questions, but on May 7, 1885, an agreement was finally arrived at, a
+line drawn between the Rio del Rey and the Old Calabar River being fixed
+on as the boundary of the spheres of influence of the two Powers, while
+Germany further recognised the sovereignty of Britain over St. Lucia Bay
+in Zululand, and promised not to annex any land between Natal and
+Delagoa Bay[450]. Many censures were lavished on this agreement, which
+certainly sacrificed important British interests in the Cameroons in
+consideration of the abandonment of German claims on the Zulu coast
+which were legally untenable. Thus, by pressing on various points
+formerly regarded as under British influence, Bismarck secured at least
+one considerable district--one moreover that is the healthiest on the
+West African coast. Subsequent expansion made of the Cameroons a colony
+containing some 140,000 square miles with more than 1,100,000
+inhabitants.
+
+[Footnote 450: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 6 (1885), p. 2.]
+
+It is an open secret that Germany was working hard in 1884-85 to get a
+foothold on the Lower Niger and its great affluent, the Benue. Two
+important colonial societies combined to send out Herr Flegel in the
+spring of 1885 to secure possession of districts on those rivers where
+British interests had hitherto been paramount. Fortunately for the cause
+of Free Trade (which Germany had definitely abandoned in 1880) private
+individuals had had enough foresight and determination to step in with
+effect, and to repair the harm which otherwise must have come from the
+absorption of Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues in home affairs.
+
+In the present case, British merchants were able to save the situation,
+because in the year 1879 the firms having important business dealings
+with the River Niger combined to form the National African Company in
+order to withstand the threatening pressure of the French advance soon
+to be described. In 1882 the Company's powers were extended, largely
+owing to Sir George Taubman Goldie, and it took the name of the National
+African Company. Extending its operations up the River Niger, it
+gradually cut the ground from under the French companies which had been
+formed for the exploitation and ultimate acquisition of those districts,
+so that after a time the French shareholders agreed to merge themselves
+in the British enterprise.
+
+This important step was taken just in time to forestall German action
+from the side of the Cameroons, which threatened to shut out British
+trade from the banks of the River Benue and the shores of Lake Chad.
+Forewarned of this danger, Sir George Goldie and his directors urged
+that bold and successful explorer, Mr. Joseph Thomson, to safeguard the
+nation's interests along the Benue and north thereof. Thomson had
+scarcely recovered from the hardships of his epoch-marking journey
+through Masailand; but he now threw himself into the breach, quickly
+travelled from England to the Niger, and by his unrivalled experience
+alike of the means of travel and of native ways, managed to frame
+treaties with the Sultans of Sokoto and Gando, before the German envoy
+reached his destination (1885). The energy of the National African
+Company and the promptitude and tact of Mr. Thomson secured for his
+countrymen undisputed access to Lake Chad and the great country peopled
+by the warlike Haussas[451].
+
+[Footnote 451: This greatest among recent explorers of Africa died in
+1895. He never received any appropriate reward from the Court for his
+great services to science and to the nation at large.]
+
+Seeing that both France and Germany seek to restrict foreign trade in
+their colonies, while Great Britain gives free access to all merchants
+on equal terms, we may regard this brilliant success as a gain, not only
+for the United Kingdom, but for the commerce of the world. The annoyance
+expressed in influential circles in Germany at the failure of the plans
+for capturing the trade of the Benue district served to show the
+magnitude of the interests which had there been looked upon as
+prospectively and exclusively German. The delimitation of the new
+British territory with the Cameroon territory and its north-eastern
+extension to Lake Chad was effected by an Anglo-German agreement of
+1886, Germany gaining part of the upper Benue and the southern shore of
+Lake Chad. In all, the territories controlled by the British Company
+comprised about 500,000 square miles (more than four times the size of
+the United Kingdom).
+
+It is somewhat characteristic of British colonial procedure in that
+period that many difficulties were raised as to the grant of a charter
+to the company which had carried through this work of national
+importance; but on July 10, 1886, it gained that charter with the title
+of the Royal Niger Company. The chief difficulties since that date have
+arisen from French aggressions on the west, which will be noticed
+presently.
+
+In 1897 the Royal Niger Company overthrew the power of the turbulent and
+slave-raiding Sultan of Nupe, near the Niger, but, as has so often
+happened, the very success of the company doomed it to absorption by the
+nation. On January 1, 1900, its governing powers were handed over to the
+Crown; the Union Jack replaced the private flag; and Sir Frederick
+Lugard added to the services which he had rendered to the Empire in
+Uganda by undertaking the organisation of this great and fertile colony.
+In an interesting paper, read before the Royal Geographical Society in
+November 1903, he thus characterised his administrative methods: "To
+rule through the native chiefs, and, while checking the extortionate
+levies of the past, fairly to assess and enforce the ancient tribute. By
+this means a fair revenue will be assured to the emirs, in lieu of their
+former source of wealth, which consisted in slaves and slave-raiding,
+and in extortionate taxes on trade. . . . Organised slave-raiding has
+become a thing of the past in the country where it lately existed in its
+worst form." He further stated that the new colony has made satisfactory
+progress; but light railways were much needed to connect Lake Chad with
+the Upper Nile and with the Gulf of Guinea. The area of Nigeria (apart
+from the Niger Coast Protectorate) is about 500,000 square miles[452].
+
+[Footnote 452: _The Geographical Journal_, January 1, 1904, pp. 5, 18,
+27.]
+
+The result, then, of the activity of French and Germans in West Africa
+has, on the whole, not been adverse to British interests. The efforts
+leading to these noteworthy results above would scarcely have been made
+but for some external stimulus. As happened in the days of Dupleix and
+Montcalm, and again at the time of the little-known efforts of Napoleon
+I. to appropriate the middle of Australia, the spur of foreign
+competition furthered not only the cause of exploration but also the
+expansion of the British Empire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The expansion of French influence in Africa has been far greater than
+that of Germany; and, while arousing less attention on political
+grounds, it has probably achieved more solid results--a fact all the
+more remarkable when we bear in mind the exhaustion of France in 1871,
+and the very slow growth of her population at home. From 1872 to 1901
+the number of her inhabitants rose from 36,103,000 to 38,962,000; while
+in the same time the figures for the German Empire showed an increase
+from 41,230,000 to 56,862,000. To some extent, then, the colonial growth
+of France is artificial; at least, it is not based on the imperious need
+which drives forth the surplus population of Great Britain and Germany.
+Nevertheless, so far as governmental energy and organising skill can
+make colonies successful, the French possessions in West Africa,
+Indo-China, Madagascar, and the Pacific, have certainly justified their
+existence[453]. No longer do we hear the old joke that a French colonial
+settlement consists of a dozen officials, a _restaurateur_, and a
+hair-dresser.
+
+[Footnote 453: See _La Colonisation chez les Peuples modernes_, by Paul
+Leroy-Beaulieu; _Discours et Opinions_, by Jules Ferry; _La France
+coloniale_ (6th edit. 1893), by Alfred Rambaud; _La Colonisation de
+l'Indo-Chine_ (1902), by Chailley-Bert; _L'Indo-Chine francaise_ (1905),
+by Paul Doumer (describing its progress under his administration);
+_Notre Epopee coloniale_ (1901), by P. Legendre; _La Mise en Valeur de
+notre Domaine coloniale_ (1903), by C. Guy; _Un Siecle d'Expansion
+coloniale_ (1900), by M. Dubois and A. Terrier; _Le Partage de
+l'Afrique_ (1898), by V. Deville.]
+
+In the seventies the French Republic took up once more the work of
+colonial expansion in West Africa, in which the Emperor Napoleon III.
+had taken great interest. The Governor of Senegal, M. Faidherbe, pushed
+on expeditions from that colony to the head waters of the Niger in the
+years 1879-81. There the French came into collision with a powerful
+slave-raiding chief, Samory, whom they worsted in a series of campaigns
+in the five years following. Events therefore promised to fulfil the
+desires of Gambetta, who, during his brief term of office in 1881,
+initiated plans for the construction of a trans-Saharan railway (never
+completed) and the establishment of two powerful French companies on the
+Upper Niger. French energy secured for the Republic the very lands which
+the great traveller Mungo Park first revealed to the gaze of civilised
+peoples. It is worthy of note that in the year 1865 the House of
+Commons, when urged to promote British trade and influence on that
+mighty river, passed a resolution declaring that any extension of our
+rule in that quarter was inexpedient. So rapid, however, was the
+progress of the French arms on the Niger, and in the country behind our
+Gold Coast settlements, that private individuals in London and Liverpool
+began to take action. Already in 1878 the British firms trading with the
+Lower Niger had formed the United African Company, with the results
+noted above. A British Protectorate was also established in the year
+1884 over the coast districts around Lagos, "with the view of guarding
+their interests against the advance of the French and Germans[454]."
+
+[Footnote 454: For its progress see Colonial Reports, Niger Coast
+Protectorate, for 1898-99. For the Franco-German agreement of December
+24, 1885, delimiting their West African lands, see Banning, _Le Partage
+politique de l'Afrique_, pp. 22-26. For the Anglo-French agreement of
+August 10, 1889, see Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 3 (1890).]
+
+Meanwhile the French were making rapid progress under the lead of
+Gallieni and Archinard. In 1890 the latter conquered Segu-Sikoro, and a
+year later Bissandugu. A far greater prize fell to the tricolour at the
+close of 1893. Boiteux and Bonnier succeeded in leading a flotilla and a
+column to the mysterious city of Timbuctu; but a little later a French
+force sustained a serious check from the neighbouring tribes. The affair
+only spurred on the Republic to still greater efforts, which led finally
+to the rout of Samory's forces and his capture in the year 1898. That
+redoubtable chief, who had defied France for fifteen years, was sent as
+a prisoner to Gaboon.
+
+These campaigns and other more peaceful "missions" added to the French
+possessions a vast territory of some 800,000 square kilometres in the
+basin of the Niger. Meanwhile disputes had occurred with the King of
+Dahomey, which led to the utter overthrow of his power by Colonel Dodds
+in a brilliant little campaign in 1892. The crowned slave-raider was
+captured and sent to Martinique.
+
+These rapid conquests, especially those on the Niger, brought France
+and England more than once to the verge of war. In the autumn of the
+year 1897, the aggressions of the French at and near Bussa, on the right
+bank of the Lower Niger, led to a most serious situation. Despite its
+inclusion in the domains of the Royal Niger Company, that town was
+occupied by French troops. At the Guildhall banquet (November 9), Lord
+Salisbury made the firm but really prudent declaration that the
+Government would brook no interference with the treaty rights of a
+British company. The pronouncement was timely; for French action at
+Bussa, taken in conjunction with the Marchand expedition from the Niger
+basin to the Upper Nile at Fashoda (see Chapter XVII.), seemed to
+betoken a deliberate defiance of the United Kingdom. Ultimately,
+however, the tricolour flag was withdrawn from situations that were
+legally untenable. These questions were settled by the Anglo-French
+agreement of 1898, which, we may add, cleared the ground for the still
+more important compact of 1904.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The limits of this chapter having already been passed, it is impossible
+to advert to the parts played by Italy and Portugal in the partition of
+Africa. At best they have been subsidiary; the colonial efforts of Italy
+in the Red Sea and in Somaliland have as yet produced little else than
+disaster and disappointment. But for the part played by Serpa Pinto in
+the Zambesi basin, the role of Portugal has been one of quiescence. Some
+authorities, as will appear in the following chapter, would describe it
+by a less euphonious term; it is now known that slave-hunting goes on in
+the upper part of the Zambesi basin owned by them. The French settlement
+at Obock, opposite Perim, and the partition of Somaliland between
+England and Italy, can also only be named.
+
+The general results of the partition of Africa may best be realised by
+studying the map at the close of this volume, and by the following
+statistics as presented by Mr. Scott Keltie in the _Encyclopoedia
+Britannica_:--
+
+                                                        Square Miles.
+     French territories in Africa (inclusive of
+     the Sahara) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,804,974
+     British (inclusive of the Transvaal and
+     Orange River Colonies, but exclusive
+     of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan--610,000
+     square miles) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,713,910
+     German. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   933,380
+     Congo Free State. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   900,000
+     Portuguese. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   790,124
+     Italian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   188,500
+
+These results correspond in the main to the foresight and energy
+displayed by the several States, and to the initial advantages which
+they enjoyed on the coast of Africa. The methods employed by France and
+Germany present a happy union of individual initiative with intelligent
+and persistent direction by the State; for it must be remembered that up
+to the year 1880 the former possessed few good bases of operation, and
+the latter none whatever. The natural portals of Africa were in the
+hands of Great Britain and Portugal. It is difficult to say what would
+have been the present state of Africa if everything had depended on the
+officials at Downing Street and Whitehall. Certainly the expansion of
+British influence in that continent (apart from the Nile valley) would
+have been insignificant but for the exertions of private individuals.
+Among them the names of Joseph Thomson, Sir William Mackinnon, Sir John
+Kirk, Sir Harry Johnston, Sir George Goldie, Sir Frederick Lugard, John
+Mackenzie, and Cecil Rhodes, will be remembered as those of veritable
+Empire-builders.
+
+Viewing the matter from the European standpoint, the partition of Africa
+may be regarded as a triumph for the cause of peace. In the years
+1880-1900, France, Germany, Great Britain, Portugal, Italy, and Belgium
+came into possession of new lands far larger than those for which French
+and British fleets and armies had fought so desperately in the
+eighteenth century. If we go further back and think of the wars waged
+for the possession of the barrier towns of Flanders, the contrast
+between the fruitless strifes of that age and the peaceful settlement of
+the affairs of a mighty continent will appear still more striking. It is
+true, of course, that the cutting up of the lands of natives by white
+men is as indefensible morally as it is inevitable in the eager
+expansiveness of the present age. Further, it may be admitted that the
+methods adopted towards the aborigines have sometimes been disgraceful.
+But even so, the events of the years 1880-1900, black as some of them
+are, compare favourably with those of the long ages when the term
+"African trade" was merely a euphemism for slave-hunting.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOTE.--The Parliamentary Papers on Angra Pequena (1884) show that the
+dispute with Germany was largely due to the desire of Lord Derby to see
+whether the Government of Cape Colony would bear the cost of
+administration of that whole coast if it were annexed. Owing to a change
+of Ministry at Cape Town early in 1884, the affirmative reply was very
+long in coming; and meantime Germany took decisive action, as described
+on p. 524.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE CONGO FREE STATE
+
+     "The object which unites us here to-day is one of those which
+     deserve in the highest degree to occupy the friends of
+     humanity. To open to civilisation the only part of our globe
+     where it has not yet penetrated, to pierce the darkness which
+     envelops entire populations, is, I venture to say, a crusade
+     worthy of this century of progress."--KING LEOPOLD II.,
+     _Speech to the Geographical Congress of 1876 at Brussels_.
+
+
+The Congo Free State owes its origin, firstly, to the self-denying
+pioneer-work of Livingstone; secondly, to the energy of the late Sir
+H.M. Stanley in clearing up the problems of African exploration which
+that devoted missionary had not fully solved, and thirdly, to the
+interest which His Majesty, Leopold II., King of the Belgians, has
+always taken in the opening up of that continent. It will be well
+briefly to note the chief facts which helped to fasten the gaze of
+Europe on the Congo basin; for these events had a practical issue; they
+served to bring King Leopold and Mr. Stanley into close touch with a
+view to the establishment of a settled government in the heart
+of Africa.
+
+In 1874 Mr. H.M. Stanley (he was not knighted until the year 1899)
+received a commission from the proprietors of the _Daily Telegraph_ to
+proceed to Central Africa in order to complete the geographical
+discoveries which had been cut short by the lamented death of
+Livingstone near Lake Bangweolo. That prince of explorers had not fully
+solved the riddle of the waterways of Central Africa. He had found what
+were really the head waters of the Congo at and near Lake Moero; and
+had even struck the mighty river itself as far down as Nyangwe; but he
+could not prove that these great streams formed the upper waters of
+the Congo.
+
+Stanley's journey in 1874-1877 led to many important discoveries. He
+first made clear the shape and extent of Victoria Nyanza; he tracked the
+chief feeder of that vast reservoir; and he proved that Lake Tanganyika
+drained into the River Congo. Voyaging down its course to the mouth, he
+found great and fertile territories, thus proving what Livingstone could
+only surmise, that here was the natural waterway into the heart of "the
+Dark Continent."
+
+Up to the year 1877 nearly all the pioneer work in the interior of the
+Congo basin was the outcome of Anglo-American enterprise. Therefore, so
+far as priority of discovery confers a claim to possession, that claim
+belonged to the English-speaking peoples. King Leopold recognised the
+fact and allowed a certain space of time for British merchants to enter
+on the possession of what was potentially their natural "sphere of
+influence." Stanley, however, failed to convince his countrymen of the
+feasibility of opening up that vast district to peaceful commerce. At
+that time they were suffering from severe depression in trade and
+agriculture, and from the disputes resulting from the Eastern Question
+both in the Near East and in Afghanistan. For the time "the weary Titan"
+was preoccupied and could not turn his thoughts to commercial expansion,
+which would speedily have cured his evils. Consequently, in November
+1878, Stanley proceeded to Brussels in order to present to King Leopold
+the opportunity which England let slip.
+
+Already the King of the Belgians had succeeded in arousing widespread
+interest in the exploration of Africa. In the autumn of 1876 he convened
+a meeting of leading explorers and geographers of the six Great Powers
+and of Belgium for the discussion of questions connected with the
+opening up of that continent; but at that time, and until the results
+of Stanley's journey were made known, the King and his coadjutors
+turned their gaze almost exclusively on East Africa. It is therefore
+scarcely appropriate for one of the Belgian panegyrists of the King to
+proclaim that when Central Africa celebrates its Day of Thanksgiving for
+the countless blessings of civilisation conferred by that monarch, it
+will look back on the day of meeting of that Conference (Sept. 12, 1876)
+as the dawn of the new era of goodwill and prosperity[455]. King
+Leopold, in opening the Conference, made use of the inspiring words
+quoted at the head of this chapter, and asked the delegates to discuss
+the means to be adopted for "planting definitely the standard of
+civilisation on the soil of Central Africa."
+
+[Footnote 455: _L'Afrique nouvelle_. Par. E. Descamps, Brussels, Paris,
+1903, p. 8.]
+
+As a result of the Conference, "The International Association for the
+Exploration and Civilisation of Africa" was founded. It had committees
+in most of the capitals of Europe, but the energy of King Leopold, and
+the sums which he and his people advanced for the pioneer work of the
+Association, early gave to that of Brussels a priority of which good use
+was made in the sequel[456]. The Great Powers were at this time
+distracted by the Russo-Turkish war and by the acute international
+crisis that supervened. Thus the jealousies and weakness of the Great
+Powers left the field free for Belgian activities, which, owing to the
+energy of a British explorer, were definitely concentrated upon the
+exploitation of the Congo.
+
+[Footnote 456: For details see J. de C. Macdonell, _King Leopold II_.,
+p. 113.]
+
+On November 25, 1878, a separate committee of the International
+Association was formed at Brussels with the name of "Comite d'Etudes du
+Haut Congo." In the year 1879 it took the title of the "International
+Association of the Congo," and for all practical purposes superseded its
+progenitor. Outwardly, however, the Association was still international.
+Stanley became its chief agent on the River Congo, and in the years
+1879-1880 made numerous treaties with local chiefs. In February 1880 he
+founded the first station of the Association at Vivi, and within four
+years established twenty-four stations on the main river and its chief
+tributaries. The cost of these explorations was largely borne by
+King Leopold.
+
+The King also commissioned Lieutenant von Wissmann to complete his
+former work of discovery in the great district watered by the River
+Kasai and its affluents; and in and after 1886 he and his coadjutor, Dr.
+Wolf, greatly extended the knowledge of the southern and central parts
+of the Congo basin[457]. In the meantime the British missionaries, Rev.
+W.H. Bentley and Rev. G. Grenfell, carried on explorations, especially
+on the River Ubangi, and in the lands between it and the Congo. The part
+which missionaries have taken in the work of discovery and pacification
+entitles them to a high place in the records of equatorial exploration;
+and their influence has often been exerted beneficially on behalf of the
+natives. We may add here that M. de Brazza did good work for the French
+tricolour in exploring the land north of the Congo and Ubangi rivers; he
+founded several stations, which were to develop into the great French
+Congo colony.
+
+[Footnote 457: H. von Wissmann, _My Second Journey through Equatorial
+Africa_, 1891. Rev. W.H. Bentley, _Pioneering on the Congo_, 2 vols.]
+
+Meanwhile events had transpired in Europe which served to give stability
+to these undertakings. The energy thrown into the exploration of the
+Congo basin soon awakened the jealousy of the Power which had long ago
+discovered the mouth of the great river and its adjacent coasts. In the
+years 1883, 1884, Portugal put forward a claim to the overlordship of
+those districts on the ground of priority of discovery and settlement.
+On all sides that claim was felt to be unreasonable. The occupation of
+that territory by the Portuguese had been short-lived, and nearly all
+traces of it had disappeared, except at Kabinda and one or two points on
+the coast. The fact that Diogo Cam and others had discovered the mouth
+of the Congo in the fifteenth century was a poor argument for closing to
+other peoples, three centuries later, the whole of the vast territory
+between that river and the mouth of the Zambesi. These claims raised the
+problem of the Hinterland, that is, the ownership of the whole range of
+territory behind a coast line. Furthermore, the Portuguese officials
+were notoriously inefficient and generally corrupt; while the customs
+system of that State was such as to fetter the activities of trade with
+shackles of a truly mediaeval type.
+
+Over against these musty claims of Portugal there stood the offers of
+"The International Association of the Congo" to bring the blessings of
+free trade and civilisation to downtrodden millions of negroes, if only
+access were granted from the sea. The contrast between the dull
+obscurantism of Lisbon and the benevolent intentions of Brussels struck
+the popular imagination. At that time the eye of faith discerned in the
+King of the Belgians the ideal godfather of a noble undertaking, and
+great was the indignation when Portugal interfered with freedom of
+access to the sea at the mouth of the Congo. Various matters were also
+in dispute between Portugal and Great Britain respecting trading rights
+at that important outlet; and they were by no means settled by an
+Anglo-Portuguese Convention of February 26 (1884), in which Lord
+Granville, Foreign Minister in the Gladstone Cabinet, was thought to
+display too much deference to questionable claims. Protests were urged
+against this Convention, by the United States, France, and Germany, with
+the result that the Lisbon Government proposed to refer all these
+matters to a Conference of the Powers; and arrangements were soon made
+for the summoning of their representatives to Berlin, under the
+presidency of Prince Bismarck.
+
+Before the Conference met, the United States took the decisive step of
+recognising the rights of the Association to the government of that
+river-basin (April 10, 1884)--a proceeding which ought to have secured
+to the United States an abiding influence on the affairs of the State
+which they did so much to create. The example set by the United States
+was soon followed by the other Powers. In that same month France
+withdrew the objections which she had raised to the work of the
+Association, and came to terms with it in a treaty whereby she gained
+priority in the right of purchase of its claims and possessions. The way
+having been thus cleared, the Berlin Conference met on November 15,
+1884. Prince Bismarck suggested that the three chief topics for
+consideration were (1) the freedom of navigation and of trade in the
+Congo area; (2) freedom of navigation on the River Niger; (3) the
+formalities to be thenceforth observed in lawful and valid annexations
+of territories in Africa. The British plenipotentiary, Sir Edward Malet,
+however, pointed out that, while his Government wished to preserve
+freedom of navigation and of trade upon the Niger, it would object to
+the formation of any international commission for those purposes, seeing
+that Great Britain was the sole proprietory Power on the Lower Niger
+(see Chapter XVIII.)[458]. This firm declaration possibly prevented the
+intrusion of claims which might have led to the whittling down of
+British rights on that great river. An Anglo-French Commission was
+afterwards appointed to supervise the navigation of the Niger.
+
+[Footnote 458: See Protocols, _Parl. Papers_, Africa, No. 4 (1885), pp.
+119 _et seq_.]
+
+The main question being thus concentrated on the Congo, Portugal was
+obliged to defer to the practically unanimous refusal of the Powers to
+recognise her claims over the lower parts of that river; and on November
+19 she conceded the principle of freedom of trade on those waters. Next,
+it was decided that the Congo Association should acquire and hold
+governing rights over nearly the whole of the vast expanse drained by
+the Congo, with some reservations in favour of France on the north and
+Portugal on the south. The extension of the principle of freedom of
+trade nearly to the Indian Ocean was likewise affirmed; and the
+establishment of monopolies or privileges "of any kind" was distinctly
+forbidden within the Congo area.
+
+An effort strictly to control the sale of intoxicating liquors to
+natives lapsed owing to the strong opposition of Germany and Holland,
+though a weaker motion on the same all-important matter found acceptance
+(December 22). On January 7, 1885, the Conference passed a stringent
+declaration against the slave-trade:--". . . these regions shall not be
+used as markets or routes of transit for the trade in slaves, no matter
+of what race. Each of these Powers binds itself to use all the means at
+its disposal to put an end to this trade, and to punish those engaged
+in it."
+
+The month of February saw the settlement of the boundary claims with
+France and Portugal, on bases nearly the same as those still existing.
+The Congo Association gained the northern bank of the river at its
+mouth, but ceded to Portugal a small strip of coast line a little
+further north around Kabinda. These arrangements were, on the whole,
+satisfactory to the three parties. France now definitively gained by
+treaty right her vast Congo territory of some 257,000 square miles in
+area, while Portugal retained on the south of the river a coast nearly
+1000 miles in length and a dominion estimated at 351,000 square miles.
+The Association, though handing over to these Powers respectively 60,000
+and 45,000 square miles of land which its pioneers hoped to obtain,
+nevertheless secured for itself an immense territory of some 870,000
+square miles.
+
+The General Act of the Berlin Conference was signed on February 26,
+1885. Its terms and those of the Protocols prove conclusively that the
+governing powers assigned to the Congo Association were assigned to a
+neutral and international State, responsible to the Powers which gave it
+its existence. In particular, Articles IV. and V. of the General Act ran
+as follows:--
+
+     Merchandise imported into these regions shall remain free
+     from import and transit dues. The Powers reserve to
+     themselves to determine, after the lapse of twenty years,
+     whether this freedom of import shall be retained or not.
+
+     No Power which exercises, or shall exercise, sovereign rights
+     in the above mentioned regions shall be allowed to grant
+     therein a monopoly or favour of any kind in matters of trade.
+     Foreigners, without distinction, shall enjoy protection of
+     their persons and property, as well as the right of acquiring
+     and transferring movable and immovable possessions, and
+     national rights and treatment in the exercise of their
+     professions.
+
+Before describing the growth of the Congo State, it is needful to refer
+to two preliminary considerations. Firstly, it should be noted that the
+Berlin Conference committed the mistake of failing to devise any means
+for securing the observance of the principles there laid down. Its work,
+considered in the abstract, was excellent. The mere fact that
+representatives of the Powers could meet amicably to discuss and settle
+the administration of a great territory which in other ages would have
+provoked them to deadly strifes, was in itself a most hopeful augury,
+and possibly the success of the Conference inspired a too confident
+belief in the effective watchfulness of the Powers over the welfare of
+the young State to which they then stood as godfathers. In any case it
+must be confessed that they have since interpreted their duties in the
+easy way to which godfathers are all too prone. As in the case of the
+Treaty of Berlin of 1878, so in that of the Conference of Berlin of
+1885, the fault lay not in the promise but in the failure of the
+executors to carry out the terms of the promise.
+
+Another matter remains to be noted. It resulted from the demands urged
+by Portugal in 1883-84. By way of retort, the plenipotentiaries now
+declared any occupation of territory to be valid only when it had
+effectively taken place and had been notified to all the Powers
+represented at the Conference. It also defined a "sphere of influence"
+as the area within which one Power is recognised as possessing priority
+of claims over other States. The doctrine was to prove convenient for
+expansive States in the future.
+
+The first important event in the life of the new State was the
+assumption by King Leopold II. of sovereign powers. All nations, and
+Belgium not the least, were startled by his announcement to his
+Ministers, on April 16, 1885, that he desired the assent of the Belgian
+Parliament to this proceeding. He stated that the union between Belgium
+and the Congo State would be merely personal, and that the latter would
+enjoy, like the former, the benefits of neutrality. The Parliament on
+April 28 gave its assent, with but one dissentient voice, on the
+understanding stated above. The Powers also signified their approval. On
+August 1, King Leopold informed them of the facts just stated, and
+announced that the new State took the title of the Congo Free State
+(_L'Etat independant du Congo_)[459].
+
+[Footnote 459: _The Story of the Congo Free State_, by H.W. Wack (New
+York, 1905), p. 101; Wauters, _L'Etat independant du Congo_, pp. 36-37.]
+
+Questions soon arose concerning the delimitation of the boundary with
+the French Congo territory; and these led to the signing of a protocol
+at Brussels on April 29, 1887, whereby the Congo Free State gave up
+certain of its claims in the northern part of the Congo region (the
+right bank of the River Ubangi), but exacted in return the addition of a
+statement "that the right of pre-emption accorded to France could not be
+claimed as against Belgium, of which King Leopold is sovereign[460]."
+
+[Footnote 460: _The Congo State_, by D.C. Boulger (London, 1896), p.
+62.]
+
+There seems, however, to be some question whether this clause is likely
+to have any practical effect. The clause is obviously inoperative if
+Belgium ultimately declines to take over the Congo territory, and there
+is at least the chance that this will happen. If it does happen, King
+Leopold and the Belgian Parliament recognise the prior claim of France
+to all the Congolese territory. The King and the Congo Ministers seem to
+have made use of this circumstance so as to strengthen the financial
+relations of France to their new State in several ways, notably in the
+formation of monopolist groups for the exploitation of Congoland. For
+the present we may remark that by a clause of the Franco-Belgian Treaty
+of Feb. 5, 1895, the Government of Brussels declared that it "recognises
+the right of preference possessed by France over its Congolese
+possessions, in case of their compulsory alienation, in whole or in
+part[461]."
+
+[Footnote 461: Cattier, _Droit et Administration de l'Etat independent
+du Congo_, p. 82.]
+
+Meanwhile King Leopold proceeded as if he were the absolute ruler of the
+new State. He bestowed on it a constitution on the most autocratic
+basis. M. Cattier, in his account of that constitution sums it up by
+stating that
+
+     The sovereign is the direct source of legislative, executive,
+     and judiciary powers. He can, if he chooses, delegate their
+     exercise to certain functionaries, but this delegation has no
+     other source than his will. . . . He can issue rules, on which,
+     so long as they last, is based the validity of certain acts
+     by himself or by his delegates. But he can cancel these rules
+     whenever they appear to him troublesome, useless, or
+     dangerous. The organisation of justice, the composition of
+     the army, financial systems, and industrial and commercial
+     institutions--all are established solely by him in accordance
+     with his just or faulty conceptions as to their usefulness or
+     efficiency[462].
+
+[Footnote 462: Cattier, _op. cit._ pp. 134-135.]
+
+A natural outcome of such a line of policy was the gradual elimination
+of non-Belgian officials. In July 1886 Sir Francis de Winton, Stanley's
+successor in the administration of the Congo area, gave place to a
+Belgian "Governor-General," M. Janssen; and similar changes were made in
+all grades of the service.
+
+Meanwhile other events were occurring which enabled the officials of the
+Congo State greatly to modify the provisions laid down at the Berlin
+Conference. These events were as follows. For many years the Arab
+slave-traders had been extending their raids in easterly and
+south-easterly directions, until they began to desolate the parts of the
+Congo State nearest to the great lakes and the Bahr-el-Ghazal.
+
+Their activity may be ascribed to the following causes. The slave-trade
+has for generations been pursued in Africa. The negro tribes themselves
+have long practised it; and the Arabs, in their gradual conquest of
+many districts of Central Africa, found it to be by far the most
+profitable of all pursuits. The market was almost boundless; for since
+the Congress of Vienna (1815) and the Congress of Verona (1822) the
+Christian Powers had forbidden their subjects any longer to pursue that
+nefarious calling. It is true that kidnapping of negroes went on
+secretly, despite all the efforts of British cruisers to capture the
+slavers. It is said that the last seizure of a Portuguese schooner
+illicitly trading in human flesh was made off the Congo coast as late as
+the year 1868[463]. But the cessation of the trans-Atlantic slave-trade
+only served to stimulate the Arab man-hunters of Eastern Africa to
+greater efforts; and the rise of Mahdism quickened the demand for slaves
+in an unprecedented manner. Thus, the hateful trade went on apace,
+threatening to devastate the Continent which explorers, missionaries,
+and traders were opening up.
+
+[Footnote 463: A.J. Wauters, _L'Etat independent du Congo_, p. 52.]
+
+The civilising and the devastating processes were certain soon to clash;
+and, as Stanley had foreseen, the conflict broke out on the Upper Congo.
+There the slave-raiders, subsidised or led by Arabs of Zanzibar, were
+specially active. Working from Ujiji and other bases, they attacked some
+of the expeditions sent by the Congo Free State. Chief among the raiders
+was a half-caste Arab negro nick-named Tipu Tib ("The gatherer of
+wealth"), who by his energy and cunning had become practically the
+master of a great district between the Congo and Lake Tanganyika. At
+first (1887-1888) the Congo Free State adopted Stanley's suggestion of
+appointing Tipu Tib to be its governor of the Stanley Falls district, at
+a salary of L30 a month[464]. So artificial an arrangement soon broke
+down, and war broke out early in 1892. The forces of the Congo Free
+State, led by Commandants Dhanis and Lothaire, and by Captain S.L.
+Hinde, finally worsted the Arabs after two long and wearisome campaigns
+waged on the Upper Congo. Into the details of the war it is impossible
+to enter. The accounts of all the operations, including that of Captain
+Hinde[465], are written with a certain reserve; and the impression that
+the writers were working on behalf of civilisation and humanity is
+somewhat blurred by the startling admissions made by Captain Hinde in a
+paper read by him before the Royal Geographical Society in London, on
+March 11, 1895. He there stated that the Arabs, "despite their
+slave-raiding propensities," had "converted the Manyema and Malela
+country into one of the most prosperous in Central Africa." He also
+confessed that during the fighting the two flourishing towns, Nyangwe
+and Kasongo, had been wholly swept away. In view of these statements the
+results of the campaign cannot be regarded with unmixed satisfaction.
+
+[Footnote 464: Stanley, _In Darkest Africa_, vol. i. pp. 60-70.]
+
+[Footnote 465: _The Fall of the Congo Arabs_, by Capt. S.L. Hinde
+(London, 1897).]
+
+Such, however, was not the view taken at the time. Not long before, the
+Continent had rung with the sermons and speeches of Cardinal Lavigerie,
+Bishop of Algiers, who, like a second Peter the Hermit, called all
+Christians to unite in a great crusade for the extirpation of slavery.
+The outcome of it all was the meeting of an Anti-Slavery Conference at
+Brussels, at the close of 1889, in which the Powers that had framed the
+Berlin Act again took part. The second article passed at Brussels
+asserted among other things the duties of the Powers "in giving aid to
+commercial enterprises to watch over their legality, controlling
+especially the contracts for service entered into with natives." The
+abuses in the trade in firearms were to be carefully checked and
+controlled.
+
+Towards the close of the Conference a proposal was brought forward (May
+10, 1890) to the effect that, as the suppression of the slave-trade and
+the work of upraising the natives would entail great expense, it was
+desirable to annul the clause in the Berlin Act prohibiting the
+imposition of import duties for, at least, twenty years from that date
+(that is, up to the year 1905). The proposal seemed so plausible as to
+disarm the opposition of all the Powers, except Holland, which strongly
+protested against the change. Lord Salisbury's Government neglected to
+safeguard British interests in this matter; and, despite the
+unremitting opposition of the Dutch Government, the obnoxious change was
+finally registered on January 2, 1892, it being understood that the
+duties were not to exceed 10 per cent _ad valorem_ except in the case of
+spirituous liquors, and that no differential treatment would be accorded
+to the imports of any nation or nations.
+
+Thus the European Powers, yielding to the specious plea that they must
+grant the Congo Free State the power of levying customs dues in order to
+further its philanthropic aims, gave up one of the fundamentals agreed
+on at the Berlin Conference. The _raison d'etre_ of the Congo Free State
+was, that it stood for freedom of trade in that great area; and to sign
+away one of the birthrights of modern civilisation, owing to the plea of
+a temporary want of cash in Congoland, can only be described as the act
+of a political Esau. The General Act of the Brussels Conference received
+a provisional sanction (the clause respecting customs dues not yet being
+definitively settled) on July 2, 1890[466].
+
+[Footnote 466: On August 1, 1890, the Sultan of Zanzibar declared that
+no sale of slaves should thenceforth take place in his dominions. He
+also granted to slaves the right of appeal to him in case they were
+cruelly treated. See Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1890-91).]
+
+On the next day the Congo Free State entered into a financial
+arrangement with the Belgian Government which marked one more step in
+the reversal of the policy agreed on at Berlin five years previously. In
+this connection we must note that King Leopold by his will, dated August
+2, 1889, bequeathed to Belgium after his death all his sovereign rights
+over that State, "together with all the benefits, rights and advantages
+appertaining to that sovereignty." Apparently, the occasion that called
+forth the will was the urgent need of a loan of 10,000,000 francs which
+the Congo State pressed the Belgian Government to make on behalf of the
+Congo railway. Thus, on the very eve of the summoning of the European
+Conference at Brussels, the Congo Government (that is, King Leopold)
+had appealed, not to the Great Powers, but to the Belgian Government,
+and had sought to facilitate the grant of the desired loan by the
+prospect of the ultimate transfer of his sovereign rights to Belgium.
+
+Unquestionably the King had acted very generously in the past toward the
+Congo Association and State. It has even been affirmed that his loans
+often amounted to the sum of 40,000,000 francs a year; but, even so,
+that did not confer the right to will away to any one State the results
+of an international enterprise. As a matter of fact, however, the Congo
+State was at that time nearly bankrupt; and in this circumstance,
+doubtless, may be found an explanation of the apathy of the Powers in
+presence of an infraction of the terms of the Berlin Act of 1885.
+
+We are now in a position to understand more clearly the meaning of the
+Convention of July 3, 1890, between the Congo Free State and the Belgian
+Government. By its terms the latter pledged itself to advance a loan of
+25,000,000 francs to the Congo State in the course of ten years, without
+interest, on condition that at the close of six months after the
+expiration of that time Belgium should have the right of annexing the
+Free State with all its possessions and liabilities.
+
+Into the heated discussions which took place in the Belgian Parliament
+in the spring and summer of 1901 respecting the Convention of July 3,
+1890, we cannot enter. The King interfered so as to prevent the
+acceptance of a reasonable compromise proposed by the Belgian Prime
+Minister, M. Beernaert; and ultimately matters were arranged by a decree
+of August 7, 1901, which will probably lead to the transference of King
+Leopold's sovereign rights to Belgium at his death. In the meantime, the
+entire executive and legislative control is vested in him, and in a
+Colonial Minister and Council of four members, who are responsible
+solely to him, though the Minister has a seat in the Belgian
+Parliament[467]. To King Leopold, therefore, belongs the ultimate
+responsibility for all that is done in the Congo Free State. As M.
+Cattier phrased it in the year 1898: "Belgium has no more right to
+intervene in the internal affairs of the Congo than the Congo State has
+to intervene in Belgian affairs. As regards the Congo Government,
+Belgium has no right either of intervention, direction, or
+control[468]."
+
+[Footnote 467: H.R. Fox-Bourne, _Civilisation in Congoland_ p. 277.]
+
+[Footnote 468: M. Cattier, _op. cit._ p. 88.]
+
+Very many Belgians object strongly to the building up of an _imperium in
+imperio _in their land; and the wealth which the ivory and rubber of the
+Congo brings into their midst (not to speak of the stock-jobbing and
+company-promoting which go on at Brussels and Antwerp), does not blind
+them to the moral responsibility which the Belgian people has indirectly
+incurred. It is true that Belgium has no legal responsibility, but the
+State which has lent a large sum to the Congo Government, besides
+providing the great majority of the officials and exploiters of that
+territory, cannot escape some amount of responsibility. M. Vandervelde,
+leader of the Labour Party in Belgium, has boldly and persistently
+asserted the right of the Belgian people to a share in the control of
+its eventual inheritance, but hitherto all the efforts of his colleagues
+have failed before the groups of capitalists who have acquired great
+monopolist rights in Congoland.
+
+Having now traced the steps by which the Congolese Government reached
+its present anomalous position, we will proceed to give a short account
+of its material progress and administration.
+
+No one can deny that much has been done in the way of engineering. A
+light railway has been constructed from near Vivi on the Lower Congo to
+Stanley Pool, another from Boma into the districts north of that
+important river port. Others have been planned, or are already being
+constructed, between Stanley Falls and the northern end of Lake
+Tanganyika, with a branch to the Albert Nyanza. Another line will
+connect the upper part of the River Congo with the westernmost affluent
+of the River Kasai, thus taking the base of the arc instead of the
+immense curve of the main stream. By the year 1903, 480 kilometres of
+railway were open for traffic, while 1600 more were in course of
+construction or were being planned. It seems that the first 400
+kilometres, in the hilly region near the seaboard, cost 75,000,000
+francs in place of the 25,000,000 francs first estimated[469].
+Road-making has also been pushed on in many directions. A flotilla of
+steamers plies on the great river and its chief affluents. In 1885 there
+were but five; the number now exceeds a hundred. As many as 1532
+kilometres of telegraphs are now open. The exports advanced from
+1,980,441 francs in 1885-86 to 50,488,394 francs in 1901-02, mainly
+owing to the immense trade in rubber, of which more anon; the imports
+from 9,175,103 francs in 1893 to 23,102,064 in 19O1-O2[470].
+
+[Footnote 469: _L'Afrique nouvelle,_ by E. Descamps (1903), chap. xv.
+Much of the credit of the early railway-making was due to Colonel Thys.]
+
+[Footnote 470: _Ibid_. pp. 589-590.]
+
+Far more important is the moral gain which has resulted from the
+suppression of the slave-trade over a large part of the State. On this
+point we may quote the testimony of Mr. Roger Casement, British Consul
+at Boma, in an official report founded on observations taken during a
+long tour up the Congo. He writes: "The open selling of slaves and the
+canoe convoys which once navigated the Upper Congo have everywhere
+disappeared. No act of the Congo State Government has perhaps produced
+more laudable results than the vigorous suppression of this widespread
+evil[471]."
+
+[Footnote 471: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. I (1904), p. 26.]
+
+King Leopold has also striven hard to extend the bounds of the Congo
+State. Not satisfied with his compact with France of April 1887, which
+fixed the River Ubangi and its tributaries as the boundary of their
+possessions, he pushed ahead to the north-east of those confines, and
+early in the nineties established posts at Lado on the White Nile and in
+the Bahr-el-Ghazal basin. Clearly his aim was to conquer the districts
+which Egypt for the time had given up to the Mahdi. These efforts
+brought about sharp friction between the Congolese authorities and
+France and Great Britain. After long discussions the Cabinet of London
+agreed to the convention of May 12, 1894, whereby the Congo State gained
+the Bahr-el-Ghazal basin and the left bank of the Upper Nile, together
+with a port on the Albert Nyanza. On his side, King Leopold recognised
+the claims of England to the right bank of the Nile and to a strip of
+land between the Albert Nyanza and Lake Tanganyika. Owing to the strong
+protests of France and Germany this agreement was rescinded, and the
+Cabinet of Paris finally compelled King Leopold to give up all claims to
+the Bahr-el-Ghazal, though he acquired the right to lease the Lado
+district below the Albert Nyanza. The importance of these questions in
+the development of British policy in the Nile basin has been pointed out
+in Chapter XVII.
+
+The ostensible aim, however, of the founders of the Congo Free State
+was, not the exploitation of the Upper Nile district, the making of
+railways and the exportation of great quantities of ivory and rubber
+from Congoland, but the civilising and uplifting of Central Africa. The
+General Act of the Berlin Conference begins with an invocation to
+Almighty God; and the Brussels Conference imitated its predecessor in
+this particular. It is, therefore, as a civilising and moralising agency
+that the Congo Government will always be judged at the bar of posterity.
+
+The first essential of success in dealing with backward races is
+sympathy with their most cherished notions. Yet from the very outset one
+of these was violated. On July 1, 1885, a decree of the Congo Free State
+asserted that all vacant lands were the property of the Government, that
+is, virtually of the King himself. Further, on June 30, 1887, an
+ordinance was decreed, claiming the right to let or sell domains, and to
+grant mining or wood-cutting rights on any land, "the ownership of which
+is not recognised as appertaining to any one." These decrees, we may
+remark, were for some time kept secret, until their effects
+became obvious.
+
+All who know anything of the land systems of primitive peoples will see
+that they contravened the customs which the savage holds dear. The plots
+actually held and tilled by the natives are infinitesimally small when
+compared with the vast tracts over which their tribes claim hunting,
+pasturage, and other rights. The land system of the savage is everywhere
+communal. Individual ownership in the European sense is a comparatively
+late development. The Congolese authorities must have known this; for
+nearly all troubles with native races have arisen from the profound
+differences in the ideas of the European and the savage on the subject
+of land-holding.
+
+Yet, in face of the experience of former times, the Congo State put
+forward a claim which has led, or will lead, to the confiscation of all
+tribal or communal land-rights in that huge area. Such confiscation may,
+perhaps, be defended in the case of the United States, where the
+new-comers enormously outnumbered the Red Indians, and tilled land that
+previously lay waste. It is indefensible in the tropics, where the white
+settlers will always remain the units as compared with the millions whom
+they elevate or exploit[472]. The savage holds strongly to certain
+rudimentary ideas of justice, especially to the right, which he and his
+tribe have always claimed and exercised, of _using_ the tribal land for
+the primary needs of life. When he is denied the right of hunting,
+cutting timber, or pasturage, he feels "cribbed, cabined, and confined."
+This, doubtless, is the chief source of the quarrels between the new
+State and its _proteges_, also of the depression of spirits which Mr.
+Casement found so prevalent. The best French authorities on colonial
+development now admit that it is madness to interfere with the native
+land tenures in tropical Africa.
+
+The method used in the enlisting of men for public works and for the
+army has also caused many troubles. This question is admittedly one of
+great difficulty. Hard work must be done, and, in the tropics, the white
+man can only direct it. Besides, where life is fairly easy, men will not
+readily come forward to labour. Either the inducement offered must be
+adequate, or some form of compulsory enlistment must be adopted. The
+Belgian officials, in the plentiful lack of funds that has always
+clogged their State, have tried compulsion, generally through the native
+chiefs. These are induced, by the offer of cotton cloth or
+bright-coloured handkerchiefs, to supply men from the tribe. If the
+labourers are not forthcoming, the chief is punished, his village being
+sometimes burned. By means, then, of gaudy handkerchiefs, or firebrands,
+the labourers are obtained. They figure as "apprentices," under the law
+of November 8, 1888, which accorded "special protection to the blacks."
+
+[Footnote 472: The number of whites in Congoland is about 1700, of whom
+1060 are Belgians; the blacks number about 29,000,000, according to
+Stanley; the Belgian Governor-General, Wahis, thinks this below the
+truth. See Wauters, _L'Etat independant du Congo,_ pp. 261, 432.]
+
+The British Consul, Mr. Casement, in his report on the administration of
+the Congo, stated that the majority of the government workmen at
+Leopoldville were under some form of compulsion, but were, on the whole,
+well cared for[473].
+
+[Footnote 473: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1904), p. 27.]
+
+According to a German resident in Congoland, the lot of the apprentices
+differs little from that of slaves. Their position, as contrasted with
+that of their former relation to the chief, is humorously defined by the
+term _liberes_[474] The hardships of the labourers on the State railways
+were such that the British Government refused to allow them to be
+recruited from Sierra Leone or other British possessions.
+
+[Footnote 474: A. Boshart, _Zehn Jahre Afrikanischen Lebens_ (1898),
+quoted by Fox Bourne, _op. cit._ p. 77. For further details see the
+article by Mr. Glave, once an official of the Congo Free State, in the
+_Century Magazine_, vol. liii.; also his work, _Six Years in the
+Congo_ (1892).]
+
+However, now that a British Cabinet has allowed a great colony to make
+use of indentured yellow labour in its mines, Great Britain cannot,
+without glaring inconsistency, lodge any protest against the
+infringement, in Congoland, of the Act of the Berlin Conference in the
+matter of the treatment of hired labourers. If the lot of the Congolese
+apprentices is to be bettered, the initiative must be taken at some
+capital other than London.
+
+Another subject which nearly concerns the welfare of the Congo State is
+the recruiting and use of native troops. These are often raised from the
+most barbarous tribes of the far interior; their pay is very small; and
+too often the main inducement to serve under the blue banner with the
+golden star, is the facility for feasting and plunder at the expense of
+other natives who have not satisfied the authorities. As one of them
+naively said to Mr. Casement, _he preferred to be with the hunters
+rather than with the hunted._
+
+It seems that grave abuses first crept in during the course of the
+campaign for the extirpation of slavery and slave-raiding in the Stanley
+Falls region. The Arab slave-raiders were rich, not only in slaves, but
+in ivory--prizes which tempted the cupidity of the native troops, and
+even, it is said, of their European officers. In any case, it is certain
+that the liberating forces, hastily raised and imperfectly controlled,
+perpetrated shocking outrages on the tribes for whose sake they were
+waging war. The late Mr. Glave, in the article in the _Century Magazine_
+above referred to, found reason for doubting whether the crusade did not
+work almost as much harm as the evils it was sent to cure. His words
+were these: "The black soldiers are bent on fighting and raiding; they
+want no peaceful settlement. They have good rifles and ammunition,
+realise their superiority over the natives with their bows and arrows,
+and they want to shoot and kill and rob. Black delights to kill black,
+whether the victim be man, woman, or child, and no matter how
+defenceless." This deep-seated habit of mind is hard to eradicate; and
+among certain of the less reputable of the Belgian officers it has
+occasionally been used, in order to terrorise into obedience tribes that
+kicked against the decrees of the Congo State.
+
+Undoubtedly there is great difficulty in avoiding friction with native
+tribes. All Governments have at certain times and places behaved more or
+less culpably towards them. British annals have been fouled by many a
+misdeed on the part of harsh officials and grasping pioneers, while
+recent revelations as to the treatment of natives in Western Australia
+show the need of close supervision of officials even in a popularly
+governed colony. The record of German East Africa and the French Congo
+is also very far from clean. Still, in the opinion of all who have
+watched over the welfare of the aborigines--among whom we may name Sir
+Charles Dilke and Mr. Fox Bourne--the treatment of the natives in a
+large part of the Congo Free State has been worse than in the districts
+named above[475]. There is also the further damning fact that the very
+State which claimed to be a great philanthropic agency has, until very
+recently, refused to institute any full inquiry into the alleged defects
+of its administration.
+
+[Footnote 475: Sir Charles Dilke stated this very forcibly in a speech
+delivered at the Holborn Town Hall on June 7, 1905.]
+
+Some of these defects may be traced to the bad system of payment of
+officials. Not only are they underpaid, but they have no pension, such
+as is given by the British, French, and Dutch Governments to their
+employees. The result is that the Congolese officer looks on his term of
+service in that unhealthy climate as a time when he must enrich himself
+for life. Students of Roman History know that, when this feeling becomes
+a tradition, it is apt to lead to grave abuses, the recital of which
+adds an undying interest to the speech of Cicero against Verres. In the
+case of the Congolese administrators the State provided (doubtless
+unwittingly) an incentive to harshness. It frequently supplemented its
+inadequate stipends by "gratifications," which are thus described and
+criticised by M. Cattier: "The custom was introduced of paying to
+officials prizes proportioned to the amount of produce of the 'private
+domain' of the State, and of the taxes paid by the natives. That
+amounted to the inciting, by the spur of personal interest, of officials
+to severity and to rigour in the application of laws and regulations."
+Truly, a more pernicious application of the plan of "payment by results"
+cannot be conceived; and M. Cattier affirms that, though nominally
+abolished, it existed in reality down to the year 1898.
+
+Added to this are defects arising from the uncertainty of employment. An
+official may be discharged at once by the Governor-General on the ground
+of unfitness for service in Africa; and the man, when discharged, has no
+means of gaining redress. The natural result is the growth of a habit of
+almost slavish obedience to the authorities, not only in regard to the
+written law, but also to private and semi-official intimations[476].
+
+[Footnote 476: Cattier, _Droit et Administration . . . du Congo,_ pp.
+243-245.]
+
+Another blot on the record of the Congo Free State is the exclusive
+character of the trading corporation to which it has granted
+concessions. Despite the promises made to private firms that early
+sought to open up business in its land, the Government itself has become
+a great trading corporation, with monopolist rights which close great
+regions to private traders and subject the natives to vexatious burdens.
+This system took definite form in September 1891, when the Government
+claimed exclusive rights in trade in the extreme north and north-east.
+At the close of that year Captain Baert, the administrator of these
+districts, also enjoined the collection of rubber and other products by
+the natives for the benefit of the State.
+
+The next step was to forbid to private traders in that quarter the right
+of buying these products from natives. In May 1892 the State monopoly in
+rubber, etc., was extended to the "Equator" district, natives not being
+allowed to sell them to any one but a State official. Many of the
+merchants protested, but in vain. The chief result of their protest was
+the establishment of privileged companies, the "Societe Anversoise" and
+the "Anglo-Belgian," and the reservation to the State of large areas
+under the title of _Domaines prives_ (Oct. 1892)[477]. The apologetic
+skill of the partisans of the Congo State is very great; but it will
+hardly be equal to the task of proving that this new departure is not a
+direct violation of Article V. of the General Act of the Berlin
+Conference of 1885, quoted above.
+
+[Footnote 477: For a map of the domains now appropriated by these and
+other privileged "Trusts," see Morel, _op. cit._ p. 466.]
+
+A strange commentary on the latter part of that article, according full
+protection to all foreigners, was furnished by the execution of the
+ex-missionary, Stokes, at the hands of Belgian officials in 1895--a
+matter for which the Congo Government finally made grudging and
+incomplete reparation[478]. Another case was as bad. In 1901 an Austrian
+trader, Rabinek, was arrested and imprisoned for "illegal" trading in
+rubber in the "Katanga Trust" country. Treated unfeelingly during his
+removal down the country, he succumbed to fever. His effects were seized
+and have not been restored to his heirs[479].
+
+[Footnote 478: See the evidence in Parl. Papers, Africa. No. 8 (1896).]
+
+[Footnote 479: Morel, _op. cit._ chaps. xxiii.-xxv.]
+
+When such treatment is meted out to white men who pursued their trade in
+reliance on the original constitution of the State, the natives may be
+expected to fare badly. Their misfortunes thickened when the Government,
+on the plea that natives must contribute towards the expenses of the
+State, began to require them to collect and hand in a certain amount of
+rubber. The evidence of Mr. Casement clearly shows that the natives
+could not understand why this should suddenly be imposed on them; that
+the amount claimed was often excessive; and that the punishment meted
+out for failure to comply with the official demands led to many
+barbarous actions on the part of officials and their native troops.
+Thus, at Bolobo, he found large numbers of industrious workers in iron
+who had fled from the "Domaine de la Couronne" (King Leopold's private
+domain) because "they had endured such ill-treatment at the hands of the
+Government officials and Government soldiers in their own country that
+life had become intolerable, that nothing had remained for them at home
+but to be killed for failure to bring in a certain amount of rubber, or
+to die of starvation or exposure in their attempts to satisfy the
+demands made upon them[480]."
+
+[Footnote 480: Parl. Papers, Africa, No. I (1904), pp. 29, 60. A
+missionary, Rev. J. Whitehead, wrote in July 1903: "During the past
+seven years this 'domaine prive' of King Leopold has been a veritable
+'hell on earth.'" (_Ibid_. p. 64).]
+
+On the north side of Lake Mantumba Mr. Casement found that the
+population had diminished by 60 or 70 per cent since the imposition of
+the rubber tax in 1893--a fact, however, which may be partly assigned to
+the sleeping sickness. The tax led to constant fighting, until at last
+the officials gave up the effort and imposed a requisition of food or
+gum-copal; the change seems to have been satisfactory there and in other
+parts where it has been tried. In the former time the native soldiers
+punished delinquents with mutilation: proofs on this subject here and in
+several other places were indisputable. On the River Lulongo, Mr.
+Casement found that the amount of rubber collected from the natives
+generally proved to be in proportion to the number of guns used by the
+collecting force[481]. In some few cases natives were shot, even by
+white officers, on account of their failure to bring in the due amount
+of rubber[482]. A comparatively venial form of punishment was the
+capture and detention of wives until their husbands made up the tale. Is
+it surprising that thousands of the natives of the north have fled into
+French Congoland, itself by no means free from the grip of monopolist
+companies, but not terrorised as are most of the tribes of the
+"Free State"?
+
+[Footnote 481: _Ibid_. pp. 34, 43, 44, 49, 76, etc.]
+
+[Footnote 482: _Ibid_. p. 70. The effort made by the Chevalier De
+Cuvelier to rebut Mr. Casement's charges consists mainly of an
+ineffective _tu quoque_. To compare the rubber-tax of the Congo State
+with the hut-tax of Sierra Leone begs the whole question. Mr. Casement
+proves (p. 27) that the natives do not object to reasonable taxation
+which comes regularly. They do object to demands for rubber which are
+excessive and often involve great privations. Above all, the punishments
+utterly cow them and cause them to flee to the forests.
+
+The efforts of Mr. Macdonnell in _King Leopold II_. (London, 1905) to
+refute Mr. Casement also seem to me weak and inconclusive. The reply of
+the Congo Free State is printed by Mr. H.W. Wack in the Appendix of his
+_Story of the Congo Free State_ (New York, 1905). It convicts Mr.
+Casement of inaccuracy on a few details. Despite all that has been
+written by various apologists, it may be affirmed that the Congo Free
+State has yet made no adequate defence. Possibly it will appear in the
+report which, it is hoped, will be published in full by the official
+commission of inquiry now sitting.]
+
+Livingstone, in his day, regarded ivory as the chief cause of the
+slave-trade in Central and Eastern Africa; but it is questionable
+whether even ivory (now a vanishing product) brought more woe to
+millions of negroes than the viscous fluid which enables the
+pleasure-seekers of Paris, London, and New York to rush luxuriously
+through space. The swift Juggernaut of the present age is accountable
+for as much misery as ever sugar or ivory was in the old slave days. But
+it seems that, so long as the motor-car industry prospers, the dumb woes
+of the millions of Africa will count for little in the Courts of Europe.
+During the session of 1904 Lord Lansdowne made praiseworthy efforts to
+call their attention to the misgovernment of the Congo State; but he met
+with no response except from the United States, Italy, and Turkey(!) A
+more signal proof of the weakness and cynical selfishness now prevalent
+in high quarters has never been given than in this abandonment of a
+plain and bounden duty.
+
+A slight amount of public spirit on the part of the signatories of the
+Berlin Act would have sufficed to prevent Congolese affairs drifting
+into the present highly anomalous situation. That land is not Belgian,
+and it is not international--except in a strictly legal sense. It is
+difficult to say what it is if it be not the private domain of King
+Leopold and of several monopolist-controlling trusts. Probably the only
+way out of the present slough of despond is the definite assumption of
+sole responsibility by the Belgian people; for it should be remembered
+that a very large number of patriotic Belgians urgently long to redress
+evils for which they feel themselves to be indirectly, and to a limited
+extent, chargeable. At present, those who carefully study the evidence
+relating to the Berlin Conference of 1885, and the facts, so far as they
+are ascertainable to-day, must pronounce the Congo experiment to be a
+terrible failure.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST
+
+     "This war, waged . . . for the command of the waters of the
+     Pacific Ocean, so urgently necessary for the peaceful
+     prosperity, not only of our own, but of other nations."--_The
+     Czar's Proclamation of March 3, 1905_.
+
+
+Of all the collisions of racial interests that have made recent history,
+none has turned the thoughts of the world to regions so remote, and
+events so dramatic in their intensity and momentous in their results, as
+that which has come about in Manchuria. The Far Eastern Question is the
+outcome of the expansion of two vigorous races, that of Russia and
+Japan, at the expense of the almost torpid polity of China. The struggle
+has taken place in the debatable lands north and west of Korea, where
+Tartars and Chinese formerly warred for supremacy, and where
+geographical and commercial considerations enhance the value of the most
+northerly of the ice-free ports of the Continent of Asia.
+
+In order to understand the significance of this great struggle, we must
+look back to the earlier stages of the extension of Russian influence.
+Up to a very recent period the eastern growth of Russia affords an
+instance of swift and natural expansion. Picture on the one side a young
+and vigorous community, dowered with patriotic pride by the long and
+eventually triumphant conflict with the Tartar hordes, and dwelling in
+dreary plains where Nature now and again drives men forth on the quest
+for a sufficiency of food. On the other hand, behold a vast territory,
+well-watered, with no natural barrier between the Urals and the Pacific,
+sparsely inhabited by tribes of nomads having little in common. The one
+active community will absorb the ill-organised units as inevitably as
+the rising tide overflows the neighbouring mud-flats when once the
+intervening barrier is overtopped. In the case of Russia and Siberia the
+only barrier is that of the Ural Mountains; and their gradual slopes
+form a slighter barrier than is anywhere else figured on the map of the
+world in so conspicuous a chain. The Urals once crossed, the slopes and
+waterways invite the traveller eastwards.
+
+The French revolutionists of 1793 used to say, "With bread and iron one
+can get to China." Russian pioneers had made good that boast nearly two
+centuries before it was uttered in Paris. The impelling force which set
+in motion the Muscovite tide originated with a man whose name is rarely
+heard outside Russia. Yet, if the fame of men were proportionate to the
+effect of their exploits, few names would be more widely known than that
+of Jermak. This man had been a hauler of boats up the banks of the
+Volga, until his strength, hardihood, and love of adventure impelled him
+to a freebooting life, wherein his powers of command and the fierce
+thoroughness of his methods speedily earned him the name of Jermak, "the
+millstone." In the year 1580, the wealthy family of the Stroganoffs,
+tempted by stories of the wealth to be gained from the fur-bearing
+animals of Siberia, turned their thoughts to Jermak and his robber band
+as the readiest tools for the conquest of those plains. The enterprise
+appealed to Jermak and the hardy Cossacks with whom he had to do. He and
+his men were no less skilled in river craft than in fighting; and the
+roving Cossack spirit kindled at the thought of new lands to harry.
+Proceeding by boat from Perm, they worked their way into the spurs of
+the Urals, and then by no very long _portage_ crossed one of its lower
+passes and found themselves on one of the tributaries of the Obi.
+
+Thenceforth their course was easy. Jermak and his small band of picked
+fighters were more than a match for the wretchedly armed and
+craven-spirited Tartars, who fled at the sound of firearms. In 1581 the
+settlement, called Sibir, fell to the invaders; and, though they soon
+abandoned this rude encampment for a new foundation, the town of
+Tobolsk, yet the name Siberia recalls their pride at the conquest of the
+enemy's capital. The traditional skill of the Cossacks in the handling
+of boats greatly aided their advance, and despite the death of Jermak in
+battle, his men pressed on and conquered nearly the half of Siberia
+within a decade. What Drake and the sea-dogs of Devon were then doing
+for England on the western main, was being accomplished for Russia by
+the ex-pirate and his band from the Volga. The two expansive movements
+were destined finally to meet on the shores of the Pacific in the
+northern creeks of what is now British Columbia.
+
+The later stages in Russian expansion need not detain us here. The
+excellence of the Cossack methods in foraying, pioneer-work, and the
+forming of military settlements, consolidated the Muscovite conquests.
+The Tartars were fain to submit to the Czar, or to flee to the nomad
+tribes of Central Asia or Northern China. The invaders reached the River
+Lena in the year 1630; and some of their adventurers voyaged down the
+Amur, and breasted the waves of the Pacific in 1636. Cossack bands
+conquered Kamchatka in 1699-1700[483].
+
+[Footnote 483: Vladimir, _Russia en the Pacific._]
+
+Meanwhile the first collision between the white and the yellow races
+took place on the River Amur, which the Chinese claimed as their own. At
+first the Russians easily prevailed; but in the year 1689 they suffered
+a check. New vigour was then manifested in the councils of Pekin, and
+the young Czar, Peter the Great, in his longing for triumphs over Swedes
+and Turks, thought lightly of gains at the expense of the "celestials."
+He therefore gave to Russian energies that trend westwards and
+southwards, which after him marked the reigns of Catharine II.,
+Alexander I., and, in part, of Nicholas I. The surrender of the Amur
+valley to China in 1689 ended all efforts of Russia in that direction
+for a century and a half. Many Russians believe that the earlier impulse
+was sounder and more fruitful in results for Russia than her meddling in
+the wars of the French Revolution and Empire.
+
+Not till 1846 did Russia resume her march down the valley of the Amur;
+and then the new movement was partly due to British action. At that time
+the hostility of Russia and Britain was becoming acute on Asiatic and
+Turkish questions. Further, the first Anglo-Chinese War (1840-42) led to
+the cession of Hong-Kong to the distant islanders, who also had five
+Chinese ports opened to their trade. This enabled Russia to pose as the
+protector of China, and to claim points of vantage whence her covering
+wings might be extended over that Empire. The statesmen of Pekin had
+little belief in the genuineness of these offers, especially in view of
+the thorough exploration of the Amur region and the Gulf of Okhotsk
+which speedily ensued.
+
+The Czar, in fact, now inaugurated a forward Asiatic policy, and
+confided it to an able governor, Muravieff (1847). The new departure was
+marked by the issue of an imperial ukase (1851) ordering the Russian
+settlers beyond Lake Baikal to conform to the Cossack system; that is,
+to become liable to military duties in return for the holding of land in
+the more exposed positions. Three years later Muravieff ordered 6000
+Cossacks to migrate from these trans-Baikal settlements to the land
+newly acquired from China on the borders of Manchuria[484]. In the same
+year the Russians established a station at the mouth of the Amur, and in
+1853 gained control over part of the Island of Saghalien.
+
+[Footnote 484: Popowski, _The Rival Powers in Central Asia_, p. 13.]
+
+For the present, then, everything seemed to favour Russia's forward
+policy. The tribes on the Amur were passive; an attack of an
+Anglo-French squadron on Petropaulovsk, a port in Kamchatka, failed
+(Aug. 1854); and the Russians hoped to be able to harry British commerce
+from this and other naval bases in the Pacific. Finally, the rupture
+with England and France, and the beginning of the Taeping rebellion in
+China, induced the Court of Pekin to agree to Russia's demands for the
+Amur boundary, and for a subsequent arrangement respecting the ownership
+of the districts between the mouth of that river and the bay on which
+now stands the port of Vladivostok (May 15, 1858). The latter concession
+left the door open for Muravieff to push on Russia's claims to this
+important wedge of territory. His action was characteristic. He settled
+Cossacks along the River Ussuri, a southern tributary of the Amur, and,
+by pressing ceaselessly on the celestials (then distracted by a war with
+England and France), he finally brought them to agree to the cession of
+the district around the new settlement, which was soon to receive the
+name of Vladivostok ("Lord of the East"). He also acquired for the Czar
+the Manchurian coast down to the bounds of Korea (November 2, 1860).
+Russia thus threw her arms around the great province which had provided
+China with her dynasty and her warrior caste, and was still one of the
+wealthiest and most cherished lands of that Empire. Having secured these
+points of vantage in Northern China, the Muscovites could await with
+confidence further developments in the decay of that once
+formidable organism.
+
+Such, in brief, is the story of Russian expansion from the Urals to the
+Sea of Japan. Probably no conquest of such magnitude was ever made with
+so little expenditure of blood and money. In one sense this is its
+justification, that is, if we view the course of events, not by the
+limelight of abstract right, but by the ordinary daylight of expediency.
+Conquests which strain the resources of the victors and leave the
+vanquished longing for revenge, carry their own condemnation. On the
+other hand, the triumph of Russia over the ill-organised tribes of
+Siberia and northern Manchuria reminds one of the easy and unalterable
+methods of Nature, which compels a lower type of life to yield up its
+puny force for the benefit of a higher. It resembles the victory of man
+over quadrupeds, of order over disorder, of well-regulated strength over
+weakness and stupidity.
+
+Muravieff deserves to rank among the makers of modern Russia. He waited
+his time, used his Cossack pawns as an effective screen to each new
+opening of the game, and pushed his foes hardest when they were at their
+weakest. Moreover, like Bismarck, he knew when to stop. He saw the limit
+that separated the practicable from the impracticable. He brought the
+Russian coast near to the latitudes where harbours are free from ice;
+but he forbore to encroach on Korea--a step which would have brought
+Japan on to the field of action. The Muscovite race, it was clear, had
+swallowed enough to busy its digestive powers for many a year; and it
+was partly on his advice that Russian North America was sold to the
+United States.
+
+Still, Russia's advance southwards towards ice-free ports was only
+checked, not stopped. In 1861 a Russian man-of-war took possession of
+the Tshushima Isles between Korea and Japan, but withdrew on the protest
+of the British admiral. Six years later the Muscovites strengthened
+their grip on Saghalien, and thereafter exercised with Japan joint
+sovereignty over that island. The natural result followed. In 1875
+Russia found means to eject her partner, the Japanese receiving as
+compensation undisputed claim to the barren Kuriles, which they already
+possessed[485].
+
+[Footnote 485: _The Russo-Japanese Conflict_, by K. Asakawa (1904), p.
+67; _Europe and the Far East_, by Sir R.K. Douglas (1904), p. 191.]
+
+Even before this further proof of Russia's expansiveness, Japan had seen
+the need of adapting herself to the new conditions consequent on the
+advent of the Great Powers in the Far East. This is not the place for a
+description of the remarkable Revolution of the years 1867-71. Suffice
+it to say that the events recounted above undoubtedly helped on the
+centralising of the powers in the hands of the Mikado, and the
+Europeanising of the institutions and armed forces of Japan. In face of
+aggressions by Russia and quarrels with the maritime Powers, a vigorous
+seafaring people felt the need of systems of organisation and
+self-defence other than those provided by the rule of feudal lords, and
+levies drilled with bows and arrows. The subsequent history of the Far
+East may be summed up in the statement that Japan faced the new
+situation with the brisk adaptability of a maritime people, while China
+plodded along on her old tracks with a patience and stubbornness
+eminently bovine.
+
+The events which finally brought Russia and Japan into collision arose
+out of the obvious need for the construction of a railway from St.
+Petersburg to the Pacific having its terminus on an ice-free port. Only
+so could Russia develop the resources of Siberia and the Amur Province.
+In the sixties and seventies trans-continental railways were being
+planned and successfully laid in North America. But there is this
+difference: in the New World the iron horse has been the friend of
+peace; in the Far East of Asia it has hurried on the advent of war; and
+for this reason, that Russia, having no ice-free harbour at the end of
+her great Siberian line, was tempted to grasp at one which the yellow
+races looked on as altogether theirs.
+
+The miscalculation was natural. The rapid extension of trade in the
+Pacific Ocean seemed to invite Russia to claim her full share in a
+development that had already enriched England, the United States, and,
+later, Germany and France; and events placed within the Muscovite grasp
+positions which fulfilled all the conditions requisite for commercial
+prosperity and military and naval domination.
+
+For many years past vague projects of a trans-Siberian railway had been
+in the air. In 1857 an English engineer offered to construct a horse
+tramway from Perm, across the Urals, and to the Pacific. An American
+also proposed to make a railway for locomotives from Irkutsk to the head
+waters of the Amur. In 1875 the Russian Government decided to construct
+a line from Perm as far as a western affluent of the River Obi; but
+owing to want of funds the line was carried no farther than Tiumen on
+the River Tobol (1880).
+
+The financial difficulty was finally overcome by the generosity of the
+French, who, as we have already seen (Chapter XII.), late in the
+eighties began to subscribe to all the Russian loans placed on the Paris
+Bourse. The scheme now became practicable, and in March 1891 an imperial
+ukase appeared sanctioning the mighty undertaking. It was made known at
+Vladivostok by the Czarevitch (now Nicholas II.) in the course of a
+lengthy tour in the Far East; and he is known then to have gained that
+deep interest in those regions which has moulded Russian policy
+throughout his reign. Quiet, unostentatious, and even apathetic on most
+subjects, he then, as we may judge from subsequent events, determined to
+give to Russian energies a decided trend towards the Pacific. As Czar,
+he has placed that aim in the forefront of his policy. With him the Near
+East has always been second to the Far East; and in the critical years
+1896-97, when the sufferings of Christians in Turkey became acute, he
+turned a deaf ear to the cries of myriads who had rarely sent their
+prayers northwards in vain. The most reasonable explanation of this
+callousness is that Nicholas II. at that time had no ears save for the
+call of the Pacific Ocean. This was certainly the policy of his
+Ministers, Prince Lobanoff, Count Muravieff, and Count Lamsdorff. It
+was oceanic.
+
+The necessary prelude to Russia's new policy was the completion of the
+trans-Siberian railway, certainly one of the greatest engineering feats
+ever attempted by man. While a large part of the route offers no more
+difficulty than the conquest of limitless levels, there are portions
+that have taxed to the utmost the skill and patience of the engineer.
+The deep trough of Lake Baikal has now (June 1905) been circumvented by
+the construction of a railway (here laid with double tracks) which
+follows the rocky southern shore. This part of the line, 244 versts (162
+miles) long, has involved enormous expense. In fifty-six miles there
+are thirty-nine tunnels, and thirteen galleries for protection against
+rock-slides. This short section is said to have cost L1,170,000. The
+energy with which the Government pushed on this stupendous work during
+the Russo-Japanese war yields one more proof of their determination to
+secure at all costs the aims which they set in view in and after the
+year 1891[486].
+
+[Footnote 486: See an article by Mr. J.M. Price in _The Fortnightly
+Review_ for May 1905.]
+
+Other parts of the track have also presented great difficulties. East of
+Lake Baikal the line gradually winds its way up to a plateau some 3000
+feet higher than the lake, and then descends to treacherous marsh lands.
+The district of the Amur bristles with obstacles, not the least being
+the terrible floods that now and again (as in 1897) turn the whole
+valley into a trough of swirling waters[487].
+
+[Footnote 487: _Russia on the Pacific_, by "Vladimir"; _The Awakening of
+the East_, by P. Leroy-Beaulieu, chaps, ix. x.]
+
+All these difficulties have been overcome in course of time; but there
+remained the question of the terminus. Up to the year 1894 the objective
+had been Vladivostok; but the outbreak of the Chino-Japanese War at that
+time opened up vast possibilities. Russia could either side with the
+islanders and share with them the spoils of Northern China, or, posing
+as the patron of the celestials, claim some profitable _douceurs_ as
+her reward.
+
+She chose the latter alternative, and, in the opinion of some of her own
+writers, wrongly. The war proved the daring, the patriotism, and the
+organising skill of the Japanese to be as signal as the sloth and
+corruptibility of their foes. Then, for the first time, the world saw
+the utter weakness of China--a fact which several observers (including
+Lord Curzon) had vainly striven to make clear. Even so, when Chinese
+generals and armies took to their heels at the slightest provocation;
+when their battleships were worsted by Japanese armoured cruisers; when
+their great stronghold, Port Arthur, was stormed with a loss of about
+400 killed, the moral of it all was hidden from the wise men of the
+West. Patronising things were said of the Japanese as conquerors--of the
+Chinese; but few persons realised that a new Power had arisen. It seemed
+the easiest of undertakings to despoil the "venomous dwarfs" of the
+fruits of their triumph over China[488].
+
+[Footnote 488: See the evidence adduced by V. Chirol, _The Far Eastern
+Question, _chap, xi., as to the _ultimately_ aggressive designs of China
+on Japan.]
+
+The chief conditions of the Chino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki (April
+17, 1895) were the handing over to Japan the island of Formosa and the
+Liaotung Peninsula. The latter was very valuable, inasmuch as it
+contained good ice-free harbours which dominated the Yellow Sea and the
+Gulf of Pechili; and herein must be sought the reason for the action of
+Russia at this crisis. Li Hung Chang, the Chinese negotiator, had
+already been bought over by Russia in an important matter[489], and he
+early disclosed the secret of the terms of peace with Japan. Russia was
+thus forewarned; and, before the treaty was ratified at Pekin, her
+Government, acting in concert with those of France and Germany,
+intervened with a menacing declaration that the cession of the Liaotung
+Peninsula would give to Japan a dangerous predominance in the affairs of
+China and disturb the whole balance of power in the Far East. The
+Russian Note addressed to Japan further stated that such a step would
+"be a perpetual obstacle to the permanent peace of the Far East." Had
+Russia alone been concerned, possibly the Japanese would have referred
+matters to the sword; but, when face to face with a combination of three
+Powers, they decided on May 4 to give way, and to restore the Liaotung
+Peninsula to China[490].
+
+[Footnote 489: _Manchu and Muscovite, _by B.L. Putnam Weale, p. 60.]
+
+[Footnote 490: Asakawa, _op. cit. _p, 76.]
+
+The reasons for the conduct of France and Germany in this matter are not
+fully known. We may safely conjecture that the Republic acted conjointly
+with the Czar in order to clinch the new Franco-Russian alliance, not
+from any special regard for China, a Power with which she had frequently
+come into collision respecting Tonquin. As for Germany, she was then
+entering on new colonial undertakings; and she doubtless saw in the
+joint intervention of 1895 a means of sterilising the Franco-Russian
+alliance, so far as she herself was concerned, and possibly of gaining
+Russia's assent to the future German expansion in the Far East.
+
+Here, of course, we are reduced to conjecture, but the conjecture is
+consonant with later developments. In any case, the new Triple Alliance
+was a temporary and artificial union, which prompt and united action on
+the part of Great Britain and the United States would have speedily
+dissolved. Unfortunately these Powers were engrossed in other concerns,
+and took no action to redress the balance which the self-constituted
+champions of political stability were upsetting to their own advantage.
+
+The effects of their action were diverse, and for the most part
+unforeseen. In the first place, Japan, far from being discouraged by
+this rebuff, set to work to perfect her army and navy, and with a
+thoroughness which Roon and Moltke would have envied. Organisation,
+weapons, drill, marksmanship (the last a weak point in the war with
+China) were improved; heavy ironclads were ordered, chiefly in British
+yards, and, when procured, were handled with wonderful efficiency. Few,
+if any, of those "disasters" which are so common in the British navy in
+time of peace, occurred in the new Japanese navy--a fact which redounds
+equally to the credit of the British instructors and to the pupils
+themselves.
+
+The surprising developments of the Far Eastern Question were soon to
+bring the new armaments to a terrible test. Japan and the whole world
+believed that the Liaotung Peninsula was made over to China in
+perpetuity. It soon appeared that the Czar and his Ministers had other
+views, and that, having used France and Germany for the purpose of
+warning off Japan, they were preparing schemes for the subjection of
+Manchuria to Russian influence. Or rather, it is probable that Li Hung
+Chang had already arranged the following terms with Russia as the price
+of her intervention on behalf of China. The needs of the Court of Pekin
+and the itching palms of its officials proved to be singularly helpful
+in the carrying out of the bargain. China being unequal to the task of
+paying the Japanese war indemnity, Russia undertook to raise a four per
+cent loan of 400,000,000 francs--of course mainly at Paris--in order to
+cover the half of that debt. In return for this favour, the Muscovites
+required the establishment of a Russo-Chinese Bank having widespread
+powers, comprising the receipt of taxes, the management of local
+finances, and the construction of such railway and telegraph lines as
+might be conceded by the Chinese authorities.
+
+This in itself was excellent "brokerage" on the French money, of which
+China was assumed to stand in need. At one stroke Russia ended the
+commercial supremacy of England in China, the result of a generation of
+commercial enterprise conducted on the ordinary lines, and substituted
+her own control, with powers almost equal to those of a Viceroy. They
+enabled her to displace Englishmen from various posts in Northern China
+and to clog the efforts of their merchants at every turn. The British
+Government, we may add, showed a singular equanimity in face of this
+procedure.
+
+But this was not all. At the close of March 1896, it appeared that the
+gratitude felt by the Chinese Andromeda to the Russian Perseus had
+ripened into a definite union. The two Powers framed a secret treaty of
+alliance which accorded to the northern State the right to make use of
+any harbour in China, and to levy Chinese troops in case of a conflict
+with an Asiatic State. In particular, the Court of Pekin granted to its
+ally the free use of Port Arthur in time of peace, or, if the other
+Powers should object, of Kiao-chau. Manchuria was thrown open to Russian
+officers for purposes of survey, etc., and it was agreed that on the
+completion of the trans-Siberian railway, a line should be constructed
+southwards to Talienwan or some other place, under the joint control of
+the two Powers[491].
+
+[Footnote 491: Asakawa, pp. 85-87.]
+
+The Treaty marks the end of the first stage in the Russification of
+Manchuria. Another stage was soon covered, and, as it seems, by the
+adroitness of Count Cassini, Russian Minister at Pekin. The details, and
+even the existence, of the Cassini Convention of September 30, 1896,
+have been disputed; but there are good grounds for accepting the
+following account as correct. Russia received permission to construct
+her line to Vladivostok across Manchuria, thereby saving the northern
+detour down the difficult valley of the Amur; also to build her own line
+to Mukden, if China found herself unable to do so; and the line
+southwards to Talienwan and Port Arthur was to be made on Russian plans.
+Further, all these new lines built by Russia might be guarded by her
+troops, presumably to protect them from natives who objected to the
+inventions of the "foreign devils." As regards naval affairs, the Czar's
+Government gained the right to "lease" from China the harbour of
+Kiao-chau for fifteen years; and, in case of war, to make use of Port
+Arthur. The last clauses granted to Russian subjects the right to
+acquire mining rights in Manchuria, and to the Czar's officers to drill
+the levies of that province in the European style, should China desire
+to reorganise them.[492]
+
+[Footnote 492: Asakawa, chap. ii.]
+
+But the protector had not reaped the full reward of his timely
+intervention in the spring of 1895. He had not yet gained complete
+control of an ice-free harbour. In fact, the prize of Kiao-chau, nearly
+within reach, now seemed to be snatched from his grasp by Kaiser
+Wilhelm. The details are well known. Two German subjects who were Roman
+Catholic missionaries in the Shan-tung province were barbarously
+murdered by Chinese ruffians on November 1, 1897. The outrage was of a
+flagrant kind, but in ordinary times would have been condoned by the
+punishment of the offenders and a fine payable by the district. But the
+occasion was far from ordinary. A German squadron therefore steamed into
+Kiao-chau and occupied that important harbour.
+
+There is reason to think that Germany had long been desirous of gaining
+a foothold in that rich province. The present writer has been assured by
+a geological expert, Professor Skertchley, who made the first map of the
+district for the Chinese authorities, that that map was urgently
+demanded by the German envoy at Pekin about this time. In any case, the
+mineral wealth of the district undoubtedly influenced the course of
+events. In accordance with a revised version of the old Christian
+saying: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of--the Empire," the
+Emperor William despatched his brother Prince Henry--the "mailed fist"
+of Germany--with a squadron to strengthen the Imperial grip on
+Kiao-chau. The Prince did so without opposition either from China or
+Russia. Finally, on March 5, 1898, the Court of Pekin confirmed to
+Germany the lease of that port and of the neighbouring parts of the
+province of Shan-tung.
+
+The whole affair caused a great stir, because it seemed to prelude a
+partition of China, and that, too, in spite of the well-meaning
+declarations of the Salisbury Cabinet in favour, first, of the integrity
+of that Empire, and, when that was untenable, of the policy of the "open
+door" for traders of all nations. Most significant of all was the
+conduct of Russia. As far as is known, she made no protest against the
+action of Germany in a district to which she herself had laid claim. It
+is reasonable, on more grounds than one, to suppose that the two Powers
+had come to some understanding, Russia conceding Kiao-chau to the
+Kaiser, provided that she herself gained Port Arthur and its peninsula.
+Obviously she could not have faced the ill-will of Japan, Great Britain,
+Germany, and the United States--all more or less concerned at her rapid
+strides southward; and it is at least highly probable that she bought
+off Germany by waiving her own claims to Kiao-chau, provided that she
+gained an ideal terminus for her Siberian line, and a great naval and
+military stronghold. It is also worth noting that the first German
+troops were landed at Kiao-chau on November 17, 1897, while three
+Russian warships steamed into Port Arthur on December 18; and that the
+German "lease" was signed at Pekin on March 5, 1898; while that
+accorded to Russia bears date March 27[493].
+
+[Footnote 493: Asakawa, p. 110, note.]
+
+If we accept the naive suggestion of the Russian author, "Vladimir," the
+occupation of Kiao-chau by Germany "forced" Russia "to claim some
+equivalent compensation." Or possibly the cession of Port Arthur was
+another of the items in Li Hung Chang's bargain with Russia. In any
+case, the Russian warships entered Port Arthur, at first as if for a
+temporary stay; when two British warships repaired thither the Czar's
+Government requested them to leave--a request with which the Salisbury
+Cabinet complied in an inexplicably craven manner (January 1898). Rather
+more pressure was needed on the somnolent mandarins of Pekin; but, under
+the threat of war with Russia if the lease of the Liao-tung Peninsula
+were not granted by March 27, it was signed on that day. She thereby
+gained control of that peninsula for twenty-five years, a period which
+might be extended "by mutual agreement." The control of all the land
+forces was vested in a Russian official; and China undertook not to
+quarter troops to the north without the consent of the Czar. Port Arthur
+was reserved to the use of Russian and Chinese ships of war; and Russia
+gained the right to erect fortifications.
+
+The British Government, which had hitherto sought to uphold the
+integrity of China, thereupon sought to "save its face" by leasing
+Wei-hai-wei (July 1). An excuse for the weakness of the Cabinet in
+Chinese affairs has been put forward, namely, that the issue of the
+Sudan campaign was still in doubt, and that the efforts of French and
+Russians to reach the Upper Nile from the French Congo and Southern
+Abyssinia compelled Ministers to concentrate their attention on that
+great enterprise. But this excuse will not bear examination. Strength at
+any one point of an Empire is not increased by discreditable surrenders
+at other points. No great statesman would have proceeded on such an
+assumption.
+
+Obviously the balance of gain in these shabby transactions in the north
+of China was enormously in favour of Russia. She now pushed on her
+railway southwards with all possible energy. It soon appeared that Port
+Arthur could not remain an open port, and it was closed to merchant
+ships. Then Talienwan was named in place of it, but under restrictions
+which made the place of little value to foreign merchants. Thereafter
+the new port of Dalny was set apart for purposes of commerce, but the
+efficacy of the arrangements there has never been tested. In the
+intentions of the Czar, Port Arthur was to become the Gibraltar of the
+Far East, while Dalny, as the commercial terminus of the trans-Siberian
+line, figured as the Cadiz of the new age of exploration and commerce
+opening out to the gaze of Russia.
+
+That motives of genuine philanthropy played their part in the Far
+Eastern policy of the Czar may readily be granted; but the enthusiasts
+who acclaimed him as the world's peacemaker at the Hague Congress (May
+1899) were somewhat troubled by the thought that he had compelled China
+to cede to his enormous Empire the very peninsula, the acquisition of
+which by little Japan had been declared to be an unwarrantable
+disturbance of the balance of power in the Far East.
+
+These events caused a considerable sensation in Great Britain, even in a
+generation which had become inured to "graceful concessions." In truth,
+the part played by her in the Far East has been a sorry one; and if
+there be eager partisans who still maintain that British Imperialism is
+an unscrupulously aggressive force, ever on the search for new enemies
+to fight and new lands to annex, a course of study in the Blue Books
+dealing with Chinese affairs in 1897-99 may with some confidence be
+prescribed as a sedative and lowering diet. It seems probable that the
+weakness of British diplomacy induced the belief at St. Petersburg that
+no opposition of any account would be forthcoming. With France acting as
+the complaisant treasurer, and Germany acquiescent, the Czar and his
+advisers might well believe that they had reached the goal of their
+efforts, "the domination of the Pacific."
+
+With the Boxer movement of the years 1899-1900 we have here no concern.
+Considered pathologically, it was only the spasmodic protest of a body
+which the dissectors believed to be ready for operation. To assign it
+solely to dislike of European missionaries argues sheer inability to
+grasp the laws of evidence. Missionaries had been working in China for
+several decades, and were no more disliked than other "foreign devils."
+The rising was clearly due to indignation at the rapacity of the
+European Powers. We may note that it gave the Russian governor of the
+town of Blagovestchensk an opportunity of cowing the Chinese of northern
+Manchuria by slaying and drowning some 4500 persons at that place (July
+1900). Thereafter Russia invaded Manchuria and claimed the unlimited
+rights due to actual conquest. On April 8, 1902, she promised to
+withdraw; but her persistent neglect to fulfil that promise (cemented by
+treaty with China) led to the outbreak of hostilities with Japan[494].
+
+[Footnote 494: Asakawa, chap. vii.; and for the Korean Question, chaps.
+xvi, xvii]
+
+We can now see that Russia, since the accession of Nicholas II., has
+committed two great faults in the Far East. She has overreached herself;
+and she has overlooked one very important factor in the problem--Japan.
+The subjects of the Mikado quivered with rage at the insult implied by
+the seizure of Port Arthur; but, with the instinct of a people at once
+proud and practical, they thrust down the flames of resentment and
+turned them into a mighty motive force. Their preparations for war,
+steady and methodical before, now gained redoubled energy; and the whole
+nation thrilled secretly but irresistibly to one cherished aim, the
+recovery of Port Arthur. How great is the power of chivalry and
+patriotism the world has now seen; but it is apt to forget that love of
+life and fear of death are feelings alike primal and inalienable among
+the Japanese as among other peoples. The inspiring force which nerved
+some 40,000 men gladly to lay down their lives on the hills around Port
+Arthur was the feeling that they were helping to hurl back in the face
+of Russia the gauntlet which she had there so insolently flung down as
+to an inferior race.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE NEW GROUPING OF THE GREAT POWERS[495]
+
+(1900-1907)
+
+
+When I penned the words at the end of Chapter XX. it seemed probable
+that the mad race in armaments must lead either to war or to revolution.
+In these three supplementary chapters I seek to trace very briefly the
+causes that have led to war, in other words, to the ascendancy (perhaps
+temporary) of the national principle over the social, and international
+tendencies of the age.
+
+[Footnote 495: Written in May-July 1915.]
+
+The collapse of the international and pacifist movement may be ascribed
+to various causes. The Franco-German and Russo-Turkish Wars left behind
+rankling hatreds which rendered it very difficult for nations to disarm;
+and, after the decline of those resentments, there arose others as the
+outcome of the Greco-Turkish War and the Boer War. Further, the conflict
+between Japan and Russia so far weakened the latter as to leave Germany
+and Austria almost supreme in Europe; and, while in France and the
+United Kingdom the social movement has made considerable progress,
+Germany and Austria have remained in what may be termed the national
+stage of development, which offers many advantages over the
+international for purposes of war. Then again in the Central Empires
+parliamentary institutions have not been successful, tending on the
+whole to accentuate the disputes between the dominant and the subject
+races. The same is partially true of Russia, and far more so of the
+Balkan States. Consequently, in Central and Eastern Europe the national
+idea has become militant and aggressive; while Great Britain, the
+Netherlands, and to some extent France, have sought as far as possible
+to concentrate their efforts upon social legislation, arming only in
+self-defence. In this contrast lay one of the dangers of the situation.
+
+Nationality caused the movements and wars of 1848-77. Thereafter, that
+principle seemed to wane. But it revived in redoubled force among the
+Balkan peoples owing partly to the brutal oppressions of the Sublime
+Porte; and the cognate idea, aiming, however, not at liberty but
+conquest, became increasingly popular with the German people after the
+accession of Kaiser William II. The sequel is only too well known.
+Civilisation has been overwhelmed by a recrudescence of nationalism, and
+the wealthiest age which the world has seen is a victim to the
+perfection and potency of its machinery. A recovery of the old belief in
+the solidarity of mankind and a conviction of the futility of all
+efforts for domination by any one people, are the first requisites
+towards the recovery of conditions that make for peace and good-will.
+
+Meanwhile, recent history has had to concern itself largely with
+groupings or alliances, which have in the main resulted from ambition,
+distrust, or fear. As has already been shown, the Partition of Africa
+was arranged without a resort to arms; but after that appropriation of
+the lands of the dark races, the white peoples in the south came into
+collision late in 1899.
+
+Much has been written as to the causes of the Boer War; but the secret
+encouragements which those brave farmers received from Germany are still
+only partly known. Even in 1894 Mr. Merriman warned Sir Edward Grey of
+the danger arising from "the steady way in which Krueger was Teutonising
+the Transvaal." Germany undoubtedly stiffened the neck of Krueger and the
+reactionary Boers in resisting the much-needed reforms. It is
+significant that the Kaiser's telegram to Krueger after the defeat of
+Jameson's raiders was sent only a few days before his declaration,
+January 18, 1896, that Germany must now pursue a World-Policy, as she
+did by browbeating Japan in the Far East. These developments had been
+rendered possible by the opening of the Kiel-North Sea Canal in 1895, an
+achievement which doubled the naval power of Germany. Thenceforth she
+pushed on construction, especially by the Navy Bill of 1898. Reliance on
+her largely accounts for the obstinate resistance of the Boers to the
+just demands of England and the Outlanders in 1899. A German historian,
+Count Reventlow, has said that "a British South Africa could not but
+thwart all German interests"; and the anti-British fury prevalent in
+Germany in and after 1899 augured ill for the preservation of peace in
+the twentieth century so soon as her new fleet was ready[496].
+
+[Footnote 496: E, Lewin, _The Germans and Africa_, p. xvii. and chaps.
+v.-xiii.; J.H. Rose, _The Origins of the War_, Lectures I.-III.;
+Reventlow, _Deutschlands auswaertige Politik_, p. 71.]
+
+The results of the Boer War were as follows. For the time Great Britain
+lost very seriously in prestige and in material resources. Amidst the
+successes gained by the Boers, the intervention of one or more European
+States in their favour seemed highly probable; and it is almost certain
+that Krueger relied on such an event. He paid visits to some of the chief
+European capitals, and was received by the French President (November
+1900), but not by Kaiser William. The personality and aims of the Kaiser
+will concern us later; but we may notice here that in that year he had
+special reasons for avoiding a rupture with the United Kingdom. The
+Franco-Russian Alliance gave him pause, especially since June 1898, when
+a resolute man, Delcasse, became Foreign Minister at Paris and showed
+less complaisance to Germany than had of late been the case[497].
+Besides, in 1898, the Kaiser had concluded with Great Britain a secret
+arrangement on African affairs, and early in 1900 acquired sole control
+of Samoa instead of the joint Anglo-American-German protectorate, which
+had produced friction. Finally, in the summer of 1900, the Boxer Rising
+in China opened up grave problems which demanded the co-operation of
+Germany and the United Kingdom.
+
+[Footnote 497: Delcasse was Foreign Minister in five Administrations
+until 1905.]
+
+It has often been stated that the Kaiser desired to form a Coalition
+against Great Britain during the Boer War; and it is fairly certain that
+he sounded Russia and France with a view to joint diplomatic efforts to
+stop the war on the plea of humanity, and that, after the failure of
+this device, he secretly informed the British Government of the danger
+which he claimed to have averted[498]. His actions reflected the
+impulsiveness and impetuosity which have often puzzled his subjects and
+alarmed his neighbours; but it seems likely that his aims were limited
+either to squeezing the British at the time of their difficulties, or to
+finding means of breaking up the Franco-Russian alliance. His energetic
+fishing in troubled waters caused much alarm; but it is improbable that
+he desired war with Great Britain until his new navy was ready for sea.
+The German Chancellor, Prince von Buelow, has since written as follows:
+"We gave England no cause to thwart us in the building of our fleet: . . .
+we never came into actual conflict with the Dual Alliance, which would
+have hindered us in the gradual acquisition of a navy[499]." This,
+doubtless, was the governing motive in German policy, to refrain from
+any action that would involve war, to seize every opportunity for
+pushing forward German claims, and, above all, to utilise the prevalent
+irritation at the helplessness of Germany at sea as a means of
+overcoming the still formidable opposition of German Liberals to the
+ever-increasing naval expenditure.
+
+[Footnote 498: Sir V. Chirol, _Quarterly Review_, Oct. 1914.]
+
+[Footnote 499: Buelow, _Imperial Germany_, pp. 98-9 (Eng. transl.);
+Rachfahl, _Kaiser und Reich_ (p. 163), states that, as in 1900-1, the
+German fleet, even along with those of France and Russia, was no match
+for the British fleet, Germany necessarily remained neutral. See, too,
+Hurd and Castle, _German Sea Power_, chap. v.]
+
+In order to discourage the futile anti-British diatribes in the German
+Press, Buelow declared in the Reichstag that in no quarter was there an
+intention to intervene against England. There are grounds for
+questioning the sincerity of this utterance; for the Russian statesman,
+Muraviev, certainly desired to intervene, as did influential groups at
+Petrograd, Berlin, and Paris. In any case, the danger to Great Britain
+was acute enough to evoke help from all parts of the Empire, and implant
+the conviction of the need of closer union and of maintaining naval
+supremacy. The risks of the years 1899-1902 also revealed the very grave
+danger of what had been termed "splendid isolation," and aroused a
+desire for a friendly understanding with one or more Powers as occasion
+might offer.
+
+The war produced similar impressions on the German people. Dislike of
+England, always acute in Prussia, especially in reactionary circles, now
+spread to all parts and all classes of the nation; and the Kaiser, as we
+have seen, made skilful use of it to further his naval policy. His
+speech at Hamburg on October 18, 1899, on the need of a great navy,
+marked the beginning of a new era, destined to end in war with Great
+Britain. Admiral von Tirpitz, in introducing the Amending Bill of
+February 1900, demanded the doubling of the navy in a scheme working
+automatically until 1920. The Socialist leader, Bebel, opposed it as
+certain to strain relations with England, a war with whom would be the
+greatest possible misfortune for the German people. On the other hand,
+the Chancellor, Prince Hohenlohe, voiced the opinions of the governing
+class and the German Navy League when he declared that the demand for a
+great navy originated in the ambition of the German nation to become a
+World-Power[500]. The Bill passed; and thenceforth the United Kingdom
+and Germany became declared rivals at sea. Fortunately for the
+islanders, the new German Navy could not be ready for action before the
+year 1904; otherwise, a very dangerous situation would have arisen. Even
+as it was, British statesmen were induced to secure an ally and to end
+the Boer War as quickly as possible.
+
+[Footnote 500: Prince Hohenlohe, _Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 480.]
+
+During that conflict the tension between England and the Dual Alliance
+(France and Russia) was at times so acute as to render it doubtful
+whether we should not gravitate towards the rival Triple Alliance. The
+problem was the most important that had confronted British statesmen
+during a century. Kinship and tradition seemed to beckon us towards
+Germany and Austria. On the other hand, democracy and social intercourse
+told in favour of the French connection. Further, now that Russia was
+retiring more and more from her Balkan and Central Asian projects in
+order to concentrate on the Far East, she ceased to threaten India and
+the Levant. Moreover, the personality of the Tsar, Nicholas II., was
+reassuring, while that of Kaiser Wilhelm II. aroused distrust and alarm.
+
+In truth, the inordinate vanity, restless energy, and flamboyant
+Chauvinism of the Kaiser placed great difficulties in the way of an
+Anglo-German Entente. An article believed to have been inspired by
+Bismarck contained the following reference to the Kaiser's megalomania:
+"It causes the deepest anxiety in Germany, because it is feared that it
+may lead to some irreparable piece of want of tact, and thence to war.
+For it is argued that, vanity being at the bottom of it all, and the
+Emperor finding he is unable to gain the premature immortality he
+thirsts for by peaceful prodigies, his restless nervous irritability may
+degenerate into recklessness, and then his megalomania may blind him to
+the dangers he and, above all, poor blood-soaken Germany may encounter
+on the war-path[501]." Kaiser William possesses more power of
+self-restraint than this passage indicates; for, though he has spread a
+warlike enthusiasm through his people, he has also restrained it until
+there arrived a fit opportunity for its exercise. It arrived when
+Germany and her Allies were far better prepared, both by land and sea,
+than the Powers whom she expected to meet in arms.
+
+[Footnote 501: _Contemporary Review_, April 1892.]
+
+His attitude towards Great Britain has varied surprisingly. During
+several years he figured as her friend. But it is difficult to believe
+that a man of his keen intellect did not discern ahead the collision
+which his policy must involve. His many claims to acquire maritime
+supremacy and a World-Empire were either mere bluff or a portentous
+challenge. Only the good-natured, easy-going British race could so long
+have clung to the former explanation, thereby leaving the most diffuse,
+vulnerable, and ill-armed Empire that has ever existed face to face with
+an Empire that is compact, well-fortified, and armed to the teeth. In
+this contrast lies one of the main causes of the present war.
+
+Moreover, the internal difficulties of France and the preoccupation of
+Russia in the Far East gave to Kaiser William a disquietingly easy
+victory in the affairs of the Near East. His visit to Constantinople and
+Palestine in 1898 inaugurated a Levantine policy destined to have
+momentous results. On the Bosphorus he scrupled not to clasp the hand of
+Sultan Abdul Hamid II., still reeking with the blood of the Christians
+of Armenia and Macedonia. At Jerusalem he figured as the Christian
+knight-errant, but at Damascus as the champion of the Moslem creed.
+After laying a wreath on the tomb of Saladin, he made a speech which
+revealed his plan of utilising the fighting power of Islam. He said:
+"The three hundred million Mohammedans who live scattered over the globe
+may be assured of this, that the German Emperor will be their friend at
+all times." Taken in conjunction with his pro-Turkish policy, this
+implied that the Triple Alliance was to be buttressed by the most
+terrible fighting force in the East[502].
+
+[Footnote 502: See Hurgronje, _The Holy War; made in Germany_, pp.
+27-39, 68-78; also G.E. Holt, _Morocco the Piquant_ (1914), who says
+(chap, xiv.): "Islam is waiting for war in Europe. . . . A war between any
+two European Powers, in my opinion, would mean the uprising of Islam."]
+
+During the tour he did profitable business with the Sublime Porte by
+gaining a promise for the construction of a railway to Bagdad and the
+Persian Gulf, under German auspices. The scheme took practical form in
+1902-3, when the Sultan granted a firman for the construction of that
+line together with very extensive proprietary rights along its course.
+Russian opposition had been bought off in 1900 by the adoption of a more
+southerly course than was originally designed; and the Kaiser now sought
+to get the financial support of England to the enterprise. British
+public opinion, however, was invincibly sceptical, and with justice, for
+the scheme would have ruined our valuable trade on the River Tigris and
+the Persian Gulf; while the proposed prolongation of the line to Koweit
+on the gulf would enable Germany, Austria, and Turkey to threaten India.
+
+By the year 1903 Austria was so far mistress of the Balkans as to render
+it possible for her and Germany in the near future to send troops
+through Constantinople and Asia Minor by the railways which they
+controlled. Accordingly, affairs in the Near East became increasingly
+strained; and, when Russia was involved in the Japanese War, no Great
+Power could effectively oppose Austro-German policy in that quarter. The
+influence of France and Britain, formerly paramount both politically and
+commercially in the Turkish Empire, declined, while that of Germany
+became supreme. Every consideration of prudence therefore prompted the
+Governments of London and Paris to come to a close understanding, in
+order to make headway against the aggressive designs of the two Kaisers
+in the Balkans and Asia Minor. Looking forward, we may note that the
+military collapse of Russia in 1904-5 enabled the Central Powers to push
+on in the Levant. Germany fastened her grip on the Turkish Government,
+exploited the resources of Asia Minor, and posed as the champion of the
+Moslem creed. Early in the twentieth century that creed became
+aggressive, mainly under the impulse of Sultan Abdul Hamid II., who
+varied his propagandism by massacre with appeals to the faithful to look
+to him as their one hope in this world. Constantinople and Cairo were
+the centres of this Pan-Islamic movement, which, aiming at the closer
+union of all Moslems in Asia, Europe, and Africa around the Sultan,
+threatened to embarrass Great Britain, France, and Russia. The Kaiser,
+seeing in this revival of Islam an effective force, took steps to
+encourage the "true believers" and strengthen the Sultan by the
+construction of a branch line of the Bagdad system running southwards
+through Aleppo and the district east of the Dead Sea towards Mecca.
+Purporting to be a means for lessening the hardships of pilgrims, it
+really enabled the Sultan to threaten the Suez Canal and Egypt.
+
+The aggressive character of these schemes explains why France, Great
+Britain, and Russia began to draw together for mutual support. The three
+Powers felt the threat implied in an organisation of the Moslem world
+under the aegis of the Kaiser. He, a diligent student of Napoleon's
+career, was evidently seeking to dominate the Near East, and to enrol on
+his side the force of Moslem enthusiasm which the Corsican had forfeited
+by his attack on Egypt in 1798. The construction of German railways in
+the Levant and the domination of the Balkan Peninsula by Austria would
+place in the hands of the Germanic Powers the keys of the Orient, which
+have always been the keys to World-Empire.
+
+Closely connected with these far-reaching schemes was the swift growth
+of the Pan-German movement. It sought to group the Germanic and cognate
+peoples in some form of political union--a programme which threatened to
+absorb Holland, Belgium, the greater part of Switzerland, the Baltic
+Provinces of Russia, the Western portions of the Hapsburg dominions,
+and, possibly, the Scandinavian peoples. The resulting State or
+Federation of States would thus extend from Ostend to Reval, from
+Amsterdam (or Bergen) to Trieste.
+
+Even those Germans who did not espouse these ambitious schemes became
+deeply imbued with the expansively patriotic ideas championed by the
+Kaiser. So far back as 1890 he ordered their enforcement in the
+universities and schools[503]. Thenceforth professors and teachers vied
+in their eagerness to extol the greatness of Germany and the civilising
+mission of the Hohenzollerns, whose exploits in the future were to
+eclipse all the achievements of Frederick the Great and William I.
+Moreover, the new German Navy was acclaimed as a necessary means to the
+triumph of German _Kultur_ throughout the world. Other nations were
+depicted as slothful, selfish, decadent; and the decline in the prestige
+of Great Britain, France, and Russia to some extent justified these
+pretensions. The Tsar, by turning away from the Balkans towards Korea,
+deadened Slav aspirations. For the time Pan-Slavism seemed moribund.
+Pan-Germanism became a far more threatening force.
+
+[Footnote 503: Latterly, the catchword, _England ist der Feind
+_("England is the enemy"), has been taught in very many schools.]
+
+Summing up, and including one topic that will soon be dealt with, we may
+conclude as follows: Germany showed that she did not want England's
+friendship, save in so far as it would help her to oppose the Monroe
+Doctrine or supply her with money to finish the Bagdad Railway. For
+reasons that have been explained, she and Austria were likely to
+undermine British interests in the Near East; while, on the other hand,
+the diversion of Russia's activities from Central Asia and the Balkans
+to the Far East, lessened the Muscovite menace which had so long
+determined the trend of British policy. Moreover, Russia's ally, France,
+showed a conciliatory spirit. Forgetting the rebuff at Fashoda (see
+_ante_, pp. 501-6), she aimed at expansion in Morocco. Now, Korea and
+Morocco did not vitally concern us. The Bagdad Railway and the Kaiser's
+court to Pan-Islamism were definite threats to our existence as an
+Empire. Finally, the development of the German Navy and the growth of a
+furiously anti-British propaganda threatened the long and vulnerable
+East Coast of Great Britain.
+
+A temporary understanding with Germany could have been attained if we
+had acquiesced in her claim for maritime equality and in the oriental
+and colonial enterprises which formed its sequel. But that course, by
+yielding to her undisputed ascendancy in all parts of the world, would
+have led to a policy of partition. Now, since 1688, British statesmen
+have consistently opposed, often by force of arms, a policy of partition
+at the expense of civilised nations. Their aim has been to support the
+weaker European States against the stronger and more aggressive, thus
+assuring a Balance of Power which in general has proved to be the chief
+safeguard of peace. In seeking an Entente with France, and subsequently
+with Russia, British policy has followed the course consistent with the
+counsels of moderation and the teachings of experience. We may note here
+that the German historian, Count Reventlow, has pointed out that the
+Berlin Government could not frame any lasting agreement with the
+British; for, sooner or later, they would certainly demand the
+limitation of Germany's colonial aims and of her naval development, to
+neither of which could she consent. The explanation is highly
+significant[504].
+
+[Footnote 504: Reventlow, _Deutschlands auswaertige Politik_, pp. 178-9;
+_Mr. Chamberlain's Speeches_, vol. ii. p. 68.]
+
+Nevertheless, at first Great Britain sought to come to a friendly
+understanding with Germany in the Far East, probably with a view to
+preventing the schemes of partition of China which in 1900 assumed a
+menacing guise. At that time Russia seemed likely to take the lead in
+those designs. But opposite to the Russian stronghold of Port Arthur was
+the German province of Kiao Chau, in which the Kaiser took a deep
+interest. His resolve to play a leading part in Chinese affairs appeared
+in his speech to the German troops sent out in 1900 to assist in
+quelling the Boxer Rising. He ordered them to adopt methods of terrorism
+like those of Attila's Huns, so that "no Chinaman will ever again dare
+to look askance at a German." The orders were ruthlessly obeyed. After
+the capture of Pekin by the Allies (September 1900) there ensued a time
+of wary balancing. Russia and Germany were both suspected of designs to
+cut up China; but they were opposed by Great Britain and Japan. This
+obscure situation was somewhat cleared by the statesmen of London and
+Berlin agreeing to maintain the territorial integrity of China and
+freedom of trade (October 1900). But in March 1901 the German
+Chancellor, Prince von Buelow, nullified the agreement by officially
+announcing that it did not apply to, or limit, the expansion of Russia
+in Manchuria. What caused this _volte face_ is not known; but it implied
+a renunciation of the British policy of the _status quo_ in the Far East
+and an official encouragement to Russia to push forward to the Pacific
+Ocean, where she was certain to come into conflict with Japan. Such a
+collision would enfeeble those two Powers; while Germany, as _tertius
+gaudens_ would be free to work her will both in Europe and Asia[505].
+
+[Footnote 505: In September 1895 the Tsar thanked Prince Hohenlohe for
+supporting his Far East policy, and said he was weary of Armenia and
+distrustful of England; so, too, in September 1896, when Russo-German
+relations were also excellent (_Hohenlohe Mems_., Eng. edit., ii.
+463, 470).]
+
+On the other hand, Eckardstein, the German ambassador in London, is said
+to have made proposals of an Anglo-German-Japanese Alliance in
+March-April 1901. If we may trust the work entitled _Secret Memoirs of
+Count Hayashi_ (Japanese ambassador in London) these proposals were
+dangled for some weeks, why, he could never understand. Probably Germany
+was playing a double game; for Hayashi believed that she had a secret
+understanding with Russia on these questions. He found that the
+Salisbury Cabinet welcomed her adhesion to the principles of maintaining
+the territorial integrity of China and of freedom of commerce in the Far
+East[506].
+
+[Footnote 506: _Secret Memoirs of Count Hayashi_ (London, 1915), pp.
+97-131. There are suspicious features about this book. I refer to it
+with all reserve. Reventlow (_Deutschlands auswaertige Politik_, p. 178)
+thinks Eckardstein may have been playing his own game--an improbable
+suggestion.]
+
+In October 1901 Germany proposed to the United Kingdom that each Power
+should guarantee the possessions of the other in every Continent except
+Asia. Why Asia was excepted is not clear, unless Germany wished to give
+Russia a free hand in that Continent. The Berlin Government laid stress
+on the need of our support in North and South America, where its aim of
+undermining the Monroe Doctrine was notorious. The proposed guarantee
+would also have compelled us to assist Germany in any dispute that might
+arise between her and France about Alsace-Lorraine or colonial
+questions. The aim was obvious, to gain the support of the British fleet
+either against the United States or France. A British diplomatist of
+high repute, who visited Berlin, has declared that the German Foreign
+Office made use of garbled and misleading documents to win him over to
+these views[507]. It was in vain. The British Government was not to be
+hoodwinked; and, as soon as it declined these compromising proposals, a
+storm of abuse swept through the German Press at the barbarities of
+British troops in South Africa. That incident ended all chance of an
+understanding, either between the two Governments or the two peoples.
+
+[Footnote 507: _Quarterly Review_, Oct. 1914, pp. 426-9.]
+
+The inclusion of Germany in the Anglo-Japanese compact proving to be
+impossible, the two Island Powers signed a treaty of alliance at London
+on January 30, 1902. It guaranteed the maintenance of the _status quo_
+in the Far East, and offered armed assistance by either signatory in the
+event of its ally being attacked by more than one Power[508]. The
+alliance ended the isolation of the British race, and marked the entry
+of Japan into the circle of the World-Powers. The chief objections to
+the new departure were its novelty, and the likelihood of its embroiling
+us finally with Russia and France or Russia and Germany. These fears
+were groundless; for France and even Russia(!) expressed their
+satisfaction at the treaty. Lord Lansdowne's diplomatic _coup_ not only
+ended the isolation of two Island States, which had been severally
+threatened by powerful rivals; it also safeguarded China; and finally,
+by raising the prestige of Great Britain, it helped to hasten the end of
+the Boer War. During the discussion of their future policy by the Boer
+delegates at Vereeniging on May 30, General Botha admitted that he no
+longer had any hope of intervention from the Continent of Europe; for
+their deputation thither had failed. All the leaders except De Wet
+agreed, and they came to terms with Lords Kitchener and Milner at
+Pretoria on May 31. That the Anglo-Japanese compact ended the last hopes
+of the Boers for intervention can scarcely be doubted.
+
+[Footnote 508: _E.g._, if the Russians alone attacked Japan we were not
+bound to help her: but if the French also attacked Japan we must help
+her. The aim clearly was to prevent Japan being overborne as in 1895
+(see p. 577). The treaty was signed for five years, but was renewed on
+August 12, 1905, and in July 1911.]
+
+Still more significant was the new alliance as a warning to Russia not
+to push too far her enterprises in the Far East. On April 12, 1902, she
+agreed with China to evacuate Manchuria; but (as has appeared in Chapter
+XX.) she finally pressed on, not only in Manchuria, but also in Korea,
+in which the Anglo-Japanese treaty recognised that Japan had predominant
+interests. For this forward policy Russia had the general support of the
+Kaiser, whose aims in the Near East were obviously served by the
+transference thence of Russia's activities to the Far East. It is,
+indeed, probable that he and his agents desired to embroil Russia and
+Japan. Certain it is that the Russian people regarded the Russo-Japanese
+War, which began in February 1904, as "The War of the Grand Dukes." The
+Russian troops fought an uphill fight loyally and doggedly, but with
+none of the enthusiasm so conspicuous in the present truly national
+struggle. In Manchuria the mistakes and incapacity of their leaders led
+to an almost unbroken series of defeats, ending with the protracted and
+gigantic contests around Mukden (March 1-10, 1905). The almost complete
+destruction of the Russian Baltic fleet by Admiral Togo at the Battle of
+Tsushima (May 27-28) ended the last hopes of the Tsar and his ministers;
+and, fearful of the rising discontent in Russia, they accepted the
+friendly offers of the United States for mediation. By the Treaty of
+Portsmouth (Sept. 5, 1905) they ceded to Japan the southern half of
+Saghalien and the Peninsula on which stands Port Arthur: they also
+agreed to evacuate South Manchuria and to recognise Korea as within
+Japan's sphere of influence. No war indemnity was paid. Indeed it could
+not be exacted, as Japan occupied no Russian territory which she did
+not intend to annex. To Russia the material results of the war were the
+loss of some 350,000 men, killed, wounded, and prisoners; of two fleets;
+and of the valuable provinces and ice-free harbours for the acquisition
+of which she had constructed the Trans-Siberian Railway. So heavy a blow
+had not been dealt to a Great Power since the fall of Napoleon III.; and
+worse, perhaps, than the material loss was that of prestige in accepting
+defeat at the hands of an Island State, whose people fifty years before
+fought with bows and arrows.
+
+Japan emerged from the war triumphant, but financially exhausted.
+Accordingly, she was not loath to conclude with Russia, on July 30,
+1907, a convention which adjusted outstanding questions in a friendly
+manner[509]. The truth about this Russo-Japanese _rapprochement_ is, of
+course, not known; but it may reasonably be ascribed in part to the good
+services of England (then about to frame an _entente_ with Russia); and
+in part to the suspicion of the statesmen of Petrograd and Tokio that
+German influences had secretly incited Russia to the policy of reckless
+exploitation in Korea which led to war and disaster.
+
+[Footnote 509: Hayashi, _op. cit._ ch. viii. and App. D. On June 10,
+1907, Japan concluded with France an agreement, for which see Hayashi,
+ch. vi. and App. C.]
+
+The chief results of the Russo-Japanese War were to paralyse Russia,
+thereby emasculating the Dual Alliance and leaving France as much
+exposed to German threats as she was before its conclusion; also to
+exalt the Triple Alliance and enable its members (Germany, Austria, and
+Italy) successively to adopt the forward policy which marked the years
+1905, 1908, 1911, and 1914. The Russo-Japanese War therefore inaugurated
+a new era in European History. Up to that time the Triple Alliance had
+been a defensive league, except when the exuberant impulses of Kaiser
+William forced it into provocative courses; and then the provocations
+generally stopped at telegrams and orations. But in and after 1905 the
+Triple Alliance forsook the watchwords of Bismarck, Andrassy and
+Crispi. Expansion at the cost of rivals became the dominant aim.
+
+We must now return to affairs in France which predisposed her to come to
+friendly terms, first with Italy, then with Great Britain. Her internal
+history in the years 1895-1906 turns largely on the Dreyfus affair. In
+1895, he, a Jewish officer in the French army, was accused and convicted
+of selling military secrets to Germany. But suspicions were aroused that
+he was the victim of anti-Semites or the scapegoat of the real
+offenders; and finally, thanks to the championship of Zola, his
+condemnation was proved to have been due to a forgery (July 1906).
+Meanwhile society had been rent in twain, and confidence in the army and
+in the administration of justice was seriously impaired. A furious
+anti-militarist agitation began, which had important consequences.
+Already in May 1900, the Premier, Waldeck-Rousseau, appointed as
+Minister of War General Andre, who sympathised with these views and
+dangerously relaxed discipline. The Combes Ministry, which succeeded in
+June 1902, embittered the strife between the clerical and anti-clerical
+sections by measures such as the separation of Church and State and the
+expulsion of the Religious Orders. In consequence France was almost
+helpless in the first years of the century, a fact which explains her
+readiness to clasp the hand of England in 1904 and, in 1905, after the
+military collapse of Russia in the Far East, to give way before the
+threats of Germany[510].
+
+[Footnote 510: Even in 1908 reckless strikes occurred, and there were no
+fewer than 11,223 cases of insubordination in the army. Professor
+Gustave Herve left the University in order to direct a paper, _La Guerre
+sociale_, which advocated a war of classes.]
+
+The weakness of France predisposed Italy to forget the wrong done by
+French statesmen in seizing Tunis twenty years before. That wrong (as we
+saw on pp. 328, 329) drove Italy into the arms of Germany and Austria.
+But now Crispi and other pro-German authors of the Triple Alliance had
+passed away; and that compact, founded on passing passion against France
+rather than community of interest or sentiment with the Central
+Empires, had sensibly weakened. Time after time Italian Ministers
+complained of disregard of their interests by the men of Berlin and
+Vienna[511], whereas in 1898 France accorded to Italy a favourable
+commercial treaty. Victor Emmanuel III. paid his first state visit to
+Petrograd, not to Berlin. In December 1900 France and Italy came to an
+understanding respecting Tripoli and Morocco; and in May 1902 the able
+French Minister, Delcasse, then intent on his Morocco enterprise,
+prepared the way for it by a convention with Italy, which provided that
+France and Italy should thenceforth peaceably adjust their differences,
+mainly arising out of Mediterranean questions. Seeing that Italy and
+Austria were at variance respecting Albania, the Franco-Italian Entente
+weakened the Triple Alliance; and the old hatred of Austria appeared in
+the shouts of "Viva Trento," "Viva Trieste," often raised in front of
+the Austrian embassy at Rome. Despite the renewal of the Triple Alliance
+in 1907 and 1912, the adhesion of Italy was open to question, unless the
+Allies became the object of indisputable aggression.
+
+[Footnote 511: Crispi, _Memoirs_ (Eng. edit.) vol. ii. pp. 166, 169,
+472; vol. iii. pp. 330, 347.]
+
+Still more important was the Anglo-French Entente of 1904. That the
+Anglophobe outbursts of the Parisian Press and populace in 1902 should
+so speedily give way to a friendly understanding was the work, partly of
+the friends of peace in both lands, partly of the personal tact and
+charm of Edward VII. as manifested during his visit to Paris in May
+1903, but mainly of the French and British Governments. In October 1903
+they agreed by treaty to refer to arbitration before the Hague Tribunal
+disputes that might arise between them. This agreement (one of the
+greatest triumphs of the principle of arbitration[512]) naturally led to
+more cordial relations. During the visit of President Loubet and M.
+Delcasse to London in July 1903, the latter discussed with Lord
+Lansdowne the questions that hindered a settlement, namely, our
+occupation of Egypt (a rankling sore in France ever since 1882); French
+claims to dominate Morocco both commercially and politically, "the
+French shore" of Newfoundland, the New Hebrides, the French
+convict-station in New Caledonia, as also the territorial integrity of
+Siam, championed by England, threatened by France. A more complex set of
+problems never confronted statesmen. Yet a solution was found simply
+because both of them were anxious for a solution. Their anxiety is
+intelligible in view of the German activities just noticed, and of the
+outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in February 1904. True, France was
+allied to Russia only for European affairs; and our alliance with Japan
+referred mainly to the Far East. Still, there was danger of a collision,
+which both Paris and London wished to avert. It was averted by the skill
+and tact of Lord Lansdowne and M. Delcasse, whose conversations of July
+1903 pointed the way to the definitive compact of April 8, 1904.
+
+[Footnote 512: Sir Thomas Barclay, _Anglo-French Reminiscences_
+(1876-1906), ch. xviii-xxii; M. Hanotaux (_La Politique de l'Equilibre_,
+p. 415) claims that Mr. Chamberlain was chiefly instrumental in starting
+the negotiations leading to the Entente with France.]
+
+Stated briefly, France gave way on most of the questions named above,
+except one, that is, Morocco. There she attained her end, the
+recognition by us of her paramount claims. For this she conceded most of
+the points in dispute between the two countries in Egypt, though she
+maintains her Law School, hospitals, mission schools, and a few other
+institutions. Thenceforth England had opposed to her in that land only
+German influence and the Egyptian nationalists and Pan-Islam fanatics
+whom it sought to encourage. France also renounced some of her fishing
+rights in Newfoundland in return for gains of territory on the River
+Gambia and near Lake Chad. In return for these concessions she secured
+from us the recognition of her claim to watch over the tranquillity of
+Morocco, together with an offer of assistance for all "the
+administrative, economic, financial, and military reforms which it
+needs." True, she promised not to change the political condition of
+Morocco, as also to maintain equality of commercial privileges. Great
+Britain gave a similar undertaking for Egypt[513].
+
+[Footnote 513: A. Tardieu, _Questions diplomatiques de l'annee 1904,
+_Appendix II. England in 1914 annulled the promise respecting Egypt
+because of the declaration of war by Turkey and the assistance afforded
+her by the Khedive, Abbas II. (see Earl of Cromer, _Modern Egypt and
+Abbas II_.), On February 15, 1904, France settled by treaty with Siam
+frontier disputes of long standing.]
+
+The Anglo-French Entente of 1904 is the most important event of modern
+diplomacy. Together with the preceding treaty of arbitration, it removed
+all likelihood of war between two nations which used to be "natural
+enemies"; and the fact that it in no respect menaced Germany appeared in
+the communication of its terms to the German ambassador in Paris shortly
+before its signature. On April 12 Buelow declared to the Reichstag his
+approval of the compact as likely to end disputes in several quarters,
+besides assuring peace and order in Morocco, where Germany's interests
+were purely commercial. Two days later, in reply to the Pan-German
+leader, Count Reventlow, he said he would not embark Germany on any
+enterprise in Morocco. These statements were reasonable and just. The
+Entente lessened the friction between Great Britain and Russia during
+untoward incidents of the Russo-Japanese War. After the conclusion of
+the Entente the Russian ambassador in Paris publicly stated the approval
+of his Government, and, quoting the proverb, "The friends of our friends
+are _our_ friends," added with a truly prophetic touch--"Who knows
+whether that will not be true?" The agreement also served to strengthen
+the position of France at a time when her internal crisis and the first
+Russian defeats in the Far East threatened to place her almost at the
+mercy of Germany. A dangerous situation would have arisen if France had
+not recently gained the friendship both of England and Italy.
+
+Finally, the Anglo-French Entente induced Italy to reconsider her
+position. Her dependence on us for coal and iron, together with the
+vulnerability of her numerous coast-towns, rendered a breach with the
+two Powers of the Entente highly undesirable, while on sentimental
+grounds she could scarcely take up the gauntlet for her former
+oppressor, Austria, against two nations which had assisted in her
+liberation. As we shall see, she declared at the Conference of Algeciras
+her complete solidarity with Great Britain.
+
+Even so, Germany held a commanding position owing to the completion of
+the first part of her naval programme, which placed her far ahead of
+France at sea. For reasons that have been set forth, the military and
+naval weakness of France was so marked as greatly to encourage German
+Chauvinists; but the Entente made them pause, especially when France
+agreed to concentrate her chief naval strength in the Mediterranean,
+while that of Great Britain was concentrated in the English Channel and
+the North Sea. It is certain that the Entente with France never amounted
+to an alliance; that was made perfectly clear; but it was unlikely that
+the British Government would tolerate an unprovoked attack upon the
+Republic, or look idly on while the Pan-Germans refashioned Europe and
+the other Continents. Besides, Great Britain was strong at sea. In 1905
+she possessed thirty-five battleships mounting 12-in. guns; while the
+eighteen German battleships carried only 11-in. and 9.4-in. guns.
+Further, in 1905-7 we began and finished the first _Dreadnought_; and
+the adoption of that type for the battle-fleet of the near future
+lessened the value of the Kiel-North Sea Canal, which was too small to
+receive _Dreadnoughts_. In these considerations may perhaps be found the
+reason for the caution of Germany at a time which was otherwise very
+favourable for aggressive action.
+
+Meanwhile Kaiser William, pressed on by the colonials, had intervened in
+a highly sensational manner in the Morocco Affair, thus emphasising his
+earlier assertion that nothing important must take place in any part of
+the world without the participation of Germany. Her commerce in Morocco
+was unimportant compared with that of France and Great Britain; but the
+position of that land, commanding the routes to the Mediterranean and
+the South Atlantic, was such as to interest all naval Powers, while the
+State that gained a foothold in Morocco would have a share in the Moslem
+questions then arising to prime importance. As we have seen, the Kaiser
+had in 1898 declared his resolve to befriend all Moslem peoples; and his
+Chancellor, Buelow, has asserted that Germany's pro-Islam policy
+compelled her to intervene in the Moroccan Question. The German
+ambassador at Constantinople, Baron von Marschall, said that, if after
+that promise Germany sacrificed Morocco, she would at once lose her
+position in Turkey, and therefore all the advantages and prospects that
+she had painfully acquired by the labour of many years[514].
+
+[Footnote 514: Buelow, _Imperial Germany_, p. 83.]
+
+On the other hand, the feuds of the Moorish tribes vitally concerned
+France because they led to many raids into her Algerian lands which she
+could not merely repel. In 1901 she adopted a more active policy, that
+of "pacific penetration," and, by successive compacts with Italy, Great
+Britain, and Spain, secured a kind of guardianship over Moroccan
+affairs. This policy, however, aroused deep resentment at Berlin. Though
+Germany was pacifically penetrating Turkey and Asia Minor, she grudged
+France her success in Morocco, not for commercial reasons but for
+others, closely connected with high diplomacy and world-policy. As the
+German historian, Rachfahl, declared, Morocco was to be a test of
+strength[515].
+
+[Footnote 515: Tardieu, _Questions diplomatiques de 1904_, pp. 56-102;
+Rachfahl, _Kaiser und Reich_, pp. 230-241; E.D. Morel, _Morocco in
+Diplomacy_, chaps, i-xii.]
+
+In one respect Germany had cause for complaint. On October 6, 1904,
+France signed a Convention with Spain in terms that were suspiciously
+vague. They were interpreted by secret articles which defined the
+spheres of French and Spanish influence in case the rule of the Sultan
+of Morocco ceased. It does not appear that Germany was aware of these
+secret articles at the time of her intervention[516]. But their
+existence, even perhaps their general tenor, was surmised. The effective
+causes of her intervention were, firstly, her resolve to be consulted
+in every matter of importance, and, secondly, the disaster that befel
+the Russians at Mukden early in March 1905. At the end of the month, the
+Kaiser landed at Tangier and announced in strident terms that he came to
+visit the Sultan as an independent sovereign. This challenge to French
+claims produced an acute crisis. Delcasse desired to persevere with
+pacific penetration; but in the debate of April 19 the deficiencies of
+the French military system were admitted with startling frankness; and a
+threat from Berlin revealed the intention of humiliating France, and, if
+possible, of severing the Anglo-French Entente. Here, indeed, is the
+inner significance of the crisis. Germany had lately declared her
+indifference to all but commercial questions in Morocco. But she now
+made use of the collapse of Russia to seek to end the Anglo-French
+connection which she had recently declared to be harmless. The aim
+obviously was to sow discord between those two Powers. In this she
+failed. Lord Lansdowne and Delcasse lent each other firm support, so
+much so that the Paris _Temps_ accused us of pushing France on in a
+dangerous affair which did not vitally concern her. The charge was not
+only unjust but ungenerous; for Germany had worked so as to induce
+England to throw over France or make France throw over England. The two
+Governments discerned the snare, and evaded it by holding firmly
+together[517].
+
+[Footnote 516: Rachfahl, pp. 235, 238. For details, _see_ Morel, chap.
+ii.]
+
+[Footnote 517: In an interview with M. Tardieu at Baden-Baden on October
+4, 1905, Buelow said that Germany intervened in Morocco because of her
+interests there, and also to protest against this new attempt to isolate
+her (Tardieu, _Questions actuelles de Politique etrangere_, p. 87). If
+so, her conduct increased that isolation. Probably the second
+Anglo-Japanese Treaty of August 12, 1905 (published on September 27),
+was due to fear of German aggression. France and Germany came to a
+preliminary agreement as to Morocco on September 28.]
+
+The chief difficulty of the situation was that it committed France to
+two gigantic tasks, that of pacifying Morocco and also of standing up to
+the Kaiser in Europe. In this respect the ground for the conflict was
+all in his favour; and both he and she knew it. Consequently, a
+compromise was desirable; and the Kaiser himself, in insisting on the
+holding of a Conference, built a golden bridge over which France might
+draw back, certainly with honour, probably with success; for in the
+diplomatic sphere she was at least as strong as he. When, therefore,
+Delcasse objected to the Conference, his colleagues accepted his
+resignation (June 6). His fall was hailed at Berlin as a humiliation for
+France. Nevertheless, her complaisance earned general sympathy, while
+the bullying tone of German diplomacy, continued during the Conference
+held at Algeciras, hardened the opposition of nearly all the Powers,
+including the United States. Especially noteworthy was the declaration
+of Italy that her interests were identical with those of England. German
+proposals were supported by Austria alone, who therefore gained from the
+Kaiser the doubtful compliment of having played the part of "a brilliant
+second" to Germany.
+
+It is needless to describe at length the Act of Algeciras (April 7,
+1906). It established a police and a State Bank in Morocco, suppressed
+smuggling and the illicit trade in arms, reformed the taxes, and set on
+foot public works. Of course, little resulted from all this; but the
+position of France was tacitly regularised, and she was left free to
+proceed with pacific penetration. "We are neither victors nor
+vanquished," said Buelow in reviewing the Act; and M. Rouvier echoed the
+statement for France. In reality, Germany had suffered a check. Her
+chief aim was to sever the Anglo-French Entente, and she failed. She
+sought to rally Italy to her side, and she failed; for Italy now
+proclaimed her accord with France on Mediterranean questions. Finally
+the _North German Gazette_ paid a tribute to the loyal and peaceable
+aims of French policy; while other less official German papers deplored
+the mistakes of their Government, which had emphasised the isolation of
+Germany[518]. This is indeed the outstanding result of the Conference.
+The threatening tone of Berlin had disgusted everybody. Above all it
+brought to more cordial relations the former rivals, Great Britain
+and Russia.
+
+[Footnote 518: Tardieu, _La Conference d'Algeciras_, pp. 410-20.]
+
+As has already appeared, the friction between Great Britain and Russia
+quickly disappeared after the Japanese War. During the Congress of
+Algeciras the former rivals worked cordially together to check the
+expansive policy of Germany, in which now lay the chief cause of
+political unrest. In fact, the Kaiser's Turcophile policy acquired a new
+significance owing to the spread of a Pan-Islamic propaganda which sent
+thrills of fanaticism through North-West Africa, Egypt, and Central
+Asia. At St. Helena Napoleon often declared Islam to be vastly superior
+to Christianity as a fighting creed; and his imitator now seemed about
+to marshal it against France, Russia, and Great Britain. Naturally, the
+three Powers drew together for mutual support. Further, Germany by
+herself was very powerful, the portentous growth of her manufactures and
+commerce endowing her with wealth which she spent lavishly on her army
+and navy. In May 1906 the Reichstag agreed to a new Navy Bill for
+further construction which was estimated to raise the total annual
+expenditure on the navy from L11,671,000 in 1905 to L16,492,000 in 1917;
+this too though Bebel had warned the House that the agitation of the_
+German Navy League had for its object a war with England.
+
+In 1906 and 1907 Edward VII. paid visits to William II., who returned
+the compliment in November 1907. But this interchange of courtesies
+could not end the distrust caused by Germany's increase of armaments.
+The peace-loving Administration of Campbell-Bannerman, installed in
+power by the General Election of 1906, sought to come to an
+understanding with Berlin, especially at the second Hague Conference of
+1907, with respect to a limitation of armaments. But Germany rejected
+all such proposals[519]. The hopelessness of framing a friendly
+arrangement with her threw us into the arms of Russia; and on August 31,
+1907, Anglo-Russian Conventions were signed defining in a friendly way
+the interests of the two Powers in Persia, Afghanistan, and Thibet.
+True, the interests of Persian reformers were sacrificed by this
+bargain; but it must be viewed, firstly, in the light of the Bagdad
+Railway scheme, which threatened soon to bring Germany to the gates of
+Persia and endanger the position of both Powers in that land[520];
+secondly, in that of the general situation, in which Germany and Austria
+were rapidly forcing their way to a complete military ascendancy and
+refused to consider any limitation of armaments. The detailed reasons
+which prompted the Anglo-Russian Entente are of course unknown. But the
+fact that the most democratic of all British Administrations should come
+to terms with the Russian autocracy is the most convincing proof of the
+very real danger which both States discerned in the aggressive conduct
+of the Central Powers. The Triple Alliance, designed by Bismarck solely
+to safeguard peace, became, in the hands of William II., a menace to his
+neighbours, and led them to form tentative and conditional arrangements
+for defence in case of attack. This is all that was meant by the Triple
+Entente. It formed a loose pendant to the Dual Alliance between France
+and Russia, which _was_ binding and solid. With those Powers the United
+Kingdom formed separate agreements; but they were not alliances; they
+were friendly understandings on certain specific objects, and in no
+respect threatened the Triple Alliance so long as it remained
+non-aggressive[521].
+
+[Footnote 519: See the cynical section in Reventlow, _op. cit._ (pp.
+280-8), entitled "Utopien und Intrigen im Haag." For Austria's efforts
+to prevent the Anglo-Russian Entente, see H.W. Steed, _The Hamburg
+Monarchy_, p. 230.]
+
+[Footnote 520: Rachfahl (p. 307) admits this, but accuses England of
+covert opposition everywhere, even at the Hague Conference.]
+
+[Footnote 521: On December 24, 1908, the Russian Foreign Minister,
+Izvolsky, assured the Duma that "no open or secret agreements directed
+against German interests existed between Russia and England."]
+
+One question remains. When was it that the friction between Great
+Britain and Germany first became acute? Some have dated it from the
+Morocco Affair of 1905-6. The assertion is inconsistent with the facts
+of the case. Long before that crisis the policy of the Kaiser tended
+increasingly towards a collision. His patronage of the Boers early in
+1896 was a threatening sign; still more so was his World-Policy,
+proclaimed repeatedly in the following years, when the appointments of
+Tirpitz and Buelow showed that the threats of capturing the trident, and
+so forth, were not mere bravado. The outbreak of the Boer War in 1899,
+followed quickly by the Kaiser's speech at Hamburg, and the adoption of
+accelerated naval construction in 1900, brought about serious tension,
+which was not relaxed by British complaisance respecting Samoa. The
+coquetting with the Sultan, the definite initiation of the Bagdad scheme
+(1902-3), and the completion of the first part of Germany's new naval
+programme in 1904 account for the Anglo-French Entente of that year. The
+chief significance of the Morocco Affair of 1905-6 lay in the Kaiser's
+design of severing that Entente. His failure, which was still further
+emphasised during the Algeciras Conference, proved that a policy which
+relies on menace and ever-increasing armaments arouses increasing
+distrust and leads the menaced States to form defensive arrangements.
+That is also the outstanding lesson of the career of Napoleon I.
+Nevertheless, the Kaiser, like the Corsican, persisted in forceful
+procedure, until Army Bills, Navy Bills, and the rejection of pacific
+proposals at the Hague, led to their natural result, the Anglo-Russian
+agreement of 1907. This event should have made him question the wisdom
+of relying on armed force and threatening procedure. The Entente between
+the Tsar and the Campbell-Bannerman Administration formed a tacit but
+decisive censure of the policy of Potsdam; for it realised the fears
+which had haunted Bismarck like a nightmare[522]. Its effect on William
+II. was to induce him to increase his military and naval preparations,
+to reject all proposals for the substitution of arbitration in place of
+the reign of force, and thereby to enclose the policy of the Great
+Powers in a vicious circle from which the only escape was a general
+reduction of armaments or war.
+
+[Footnote 522: _Bismarck, his Reflections and Recollections_, vol. ii.
+pp. 252, 289. There are grounds for thinking that William II. has been
+pushed on to a bellicose policy by the Navy, Colonial, and Pan-German
+Leagues. In 1908 he seems to have sought to pause; but powerful
+influences (as also at the time of the crises of July 1911 and 1914)
+propelled him. See an article in the _Revue de Paris_ of April 15, 1913,
+"Guillaume II et les pangermanistes." In my narrative I speak of the
+Kaiser as equivalent to the German Government; for he is absolute and
+his Ministers are responsible solely to him.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+TEUTON _versus_ SLAV (1908-13)
+
+     "To tell the truth, the Slav seems to us a born
+     slave."--TREITSCHKE, June 1876.
+
+
+On October 7, 1908, Austria-Hungary exploded a political bomb-shell by
+declaring her resolve to annex Bosnia-Herzegovina. Since the Treaty of
+Berlin of 1878, she had provisionally occupied and administered those
+provinces as mandatory of Europe (see p. 238). But now, without
+consulting Europe, she appropriated her charge. On the other hand, she
+consented to withdraw from the Sanjak of Novi-Bazar which she had
+occupied by virtue of a secret agreement with Russia of July 1878. Even
+so, her annexation of a great province caused a sharp crisis for the
+following reasons: (1) It violated the international law of Europe
+without any excuse whatever. (2) It exasperated Servia, which hoped
+ultimately to possess Bosnia, a land peopled by her kindred and
+necessary to her expansion seawards. (3) It no less deeply offended the
+Young Turks, who were resolved to revivify the Turkish people and assert
+their authority over all parts of the Ottoman dominions. (4) It came at
+the same time as the assumption by Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria of the
+title of Tsar of the Bulgarians. This change of title, which implied a
+prospect of sovereignty over the Bulgars of Macedonia, had been arranged
+during a recent visit to Buda-Pest, and foreshadowed the supremacy of
+Austrian influence not only in the new kingdom of Bulgaria but
+eventually in the Bulgar districts of Macedonia[523].
+
+[Footnote 523: H.W. Steed, _The Hapsburg Monarchy_, pp. 52, 214.]
+
+Thus, Austria's action constituted a serious challenge to the Powers in
+general, especially to Russia, Servia, and to regenerated Turkey[524].
+So daring a _coup_ had not been dealt by Austria since 1848, when
+Francis Joseph ascended the throne; it is believed that he desired to
+have the provinces as a jubilee gift, a set off to the loss of Lombardy
+and Venetia in 1859 and 1866. Certainly Austria had carried out great
+improvements in Bosnia; but an occupier who improves a farm does not
+gain the right to possess it except by agreement with others who have
+joint claims. Moreover, the Young Turks, in power since July 1908,
+boasted their ability to civilise Bosnia and all parts of their Empire.
+Servia also longed to include it in the large Servo-Croat kingdom of
+the future.
+
+[Footnote 524: The constitutional regime which the Young Turks imposed
+on the reactionary Abdul Hamid II., in July 1908, was hailed as a
+victory for British influence. The change in April 1909 favoured German
+influence. I have no space for an account of these complex events.]
+
+The Bosnian Question sprang out of a conflict of racial claims, which
+two masterful men, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand and the Austrian
+Foreign Minister, Aehrenthal, were resolved to decide in favour of
+Austria. The Archduke disliked, and was disliked by, the Germans and
+Magyars on account of his pro-Slav tendencies. In 1900 he contracted
+with a Slav lady, the Countess Chotek, a morganatic marriage, which
+brought him into strained relations with the Emperor and Court. A
+silent, resolute man, he determined to lessen German and Magyar
+influence in the Empire by favouring the law for universal suffrage
+(1906), and by the appointment as Foreign Minister of Aehrenthal, who
+harboured ambitiously expansive schemes. The Archduke also furthered a
+policy known as Trialism, that of federalising the Dual Monarchy by
+constituting the Slav provinces as the third of its component groups.
+The annexation of Bosnia would serve to advance this programme by
+depressing the hitherto dominant races, the Germans and Magyars,
+besides rescuing the monarchy from the position of "brilliant second" to
+Germany. Kaiser William was taken aback by this bold stroke, especially
+as it wounded Turkey; but he soon saw the advantage of having a vigorous
+rather than a passive Ally; and, in a visit which he paid to the
+Archduke in November 1908, their intercourse, which had hitherto been
+coldly courteous, ripened into friendship, which became enthusiastic
+admiration when the Archduke advocated the building of Austrian
+_Dreadnoughts_.
+
+The annexation of Bosnia was a defiance to Europe, because, at the
+Conference of the Powers held at London in 1871, they all (Austria
+included) solemnly agreed not to depart from their treaty engagements
+without a previous understanding with the co-signatories. Austria's
+conduct in 1908, therefore, dealt a severe blow to the regime of
+international law. But it was especially resented by the Russians,
+because for ages they had lavished blood and treasure in effecting the
+liberation of the Balkan peoples. Besides, in 1897, the Tsar had framed
+an agreement with the Court of Vienna for the purpose of exercising
+conjointly some measure of control over Balkan affairs; and he then
+vetoed Austria's suggestion for the acquisition of Bosnia. In 1903, when
+the two Empires drew up the "February" and "Muerzsteg" Programmes for
+more effectually dealing with the racial disputes in Macedonia, the
+Hapsburg Court did not renew the suggestion about Bosnia, yet in 1908
+Austria annexed that province. Obviously, she would not have thus defied
+the public law of Europe and Russian, Servian, and Turkish interests,
+but for the recent humiliation of Russia in the Far East, which explains
+both the dramatic intervention of the Kaiser at Tangier against Russia's
+ally, France, and the sudden apparition of Austria as an aggressive
+Power. In his speech to the Austro-Hungarian Delegations Aehrenthal
+declared that he intended to continue "an active foreign policy," which
+would enable Austria-Hungary to "occupy to the full her place in the
+world." She had to act because otherwise "affairs might have developed
+against her."
+
+Thus the Eastern Question once more became a matter of acute
+controversy. The Austro-Russian agreements of 1897 and 1903 had huddled
+up and cloaked over those racial and religious disputes, so that there
+was little chance of a general war arising out of them. But since 1908
+the Eastern Question has threatened to produce a general conflict unless
+Austria moderated her pretensions. She did not do so; for, as we have
+seen, Germany favoured them in order to assure uninterrupted
+communications between Central Europe and her Bagdad Railway. Already
+Hapsburg influence was supreme at Bukharest, Sofia, and in Macedonian
+affairs. If it could dominate Servia (anti-Austrian since the accession
+of King Peter in 1903) the whole of the Peninsula would be subject to
+Austro-German control. True, the influence of Germany at Constantinople
+at first suffered a shock from the Young Turk Revolution of July 1908;
+and those eager nationalists deeply resented the annexation of Bosnia,
+which they ascribed to the Austro-German alliance. The men of Berlin,
+however, so far from furthering that act, disapproved of it as
+endangering their control of Turkey and exploitation of its resources.
+In fact, Germany's task in inducing her prospective vassals, the Turks,
+to submit to spoliation at the hands of her ally, Austria, was
+exceedingly difficult; and in the tension thus created, the third
+partner of the Triple Alliance, Italy, very nearly parted company, from
+disgust at Austrian encroachments in a quarter where she cherished
+aspirations. As we have seen, Victor Emmanuel III., early in his reign,
+favoured friendly relations with Russia; and these ripened quickly
+during the "Annexation Crisis" of 1908-9, as both Powers desired to
+maintain the _status quo_ against Austria[525]. On December 24, 1908,
+the Russian Foreign Minister, Izvolsky, declared that, with that aim in
+view, he was acting in close concert with France, Great Britain, and
+Italy. He urged Bulgaria, Servia, and Montenegro to hold closely
+together for the defence of their common interests: "Our aim must be to
+bring them together and to combine them with Turkey in a common ideal of
+defence of their national and economic development." A cordial union
+between the Slav States and Turkey now seems a fantastic notion; but it
+was possible then, under pressure of the Austro-German menace, which the
+Young Turks were actively resisting.
+
+[Footnote 525: Tittoni, _Italy's Foreign and Colonial Policy_ (English
+translation, p. 128). Tittoni denied that the Triple Alliance empowered
+Italy to demand "compensation" if Austria expanded in the Balkans. But
+the Triple Alliance Treaty, as renewed in 1912, included such a
+clause, No. VII.]
+
+During the early part of 1909 a general war seemed imminent; for
+Slavonic feeling was violently excited in Russia and Servia. But,
+hostilities being impossible in winter, passions had time to cool. It
+soon became evident that those States could not make head against
+Austria and Germany. Moreover, the Franco-Russian alliance did not bind
+France to act with Russia unless the latter were definitely attacked;
+and France was weakened by the widespread strikes of 1907-8 and the
+vehement anti-militarist agitation already described. Further, Italy was
+distracted by the earthquake at Messina, and armed intervention was not
+to be expected from the Campbell-Bannerman Ministry. Bulgaria and
+Roumania were pro-Austrian. Turkey alone could not hope to reconquer
+Bosnia, and a Turco-Serb-Russian league was beyond the range of
+practical politics. These material considerations decided the issue of
+events. Towards the close of March, Kaiser William, the hitherto silent
+backer of Austria, ended the crisis by sending to his ambassador at
+Petrograd an autograph letter, the effect of which upon the Tsar was
+decisive. Russia gave way, and dissociated herself from France, England,
+and Italy. In consideration of an indemnity of L2,200,000 from Austria,
+Turkey recognised the annexation. Consequently no Conference of the
+Powers met even to register the _fait accompli_ in Bosnia. The Germanic
+Empires had coerced Russia and Servia, despoiled Turkey, and imposed
+their will on Europe. Kaiser William characteristically asserted that it
+was his apparition "in shining armour" by the side of Austria which
+decided the issue of events. Equally decisive, perhaps, was Germany's
+formidable shipbuilding in 1908-9, namely, four _Dreadnoughts_ to
+England's two, a fact which explains this statement of Buelow: "When at
+last, during the Bosnian crisis, the sky of international politics
+cleared, when German power on the Continent burst its encompassing
+bonds, we had already got beyond the stage of preparation in the
+construction of our fleet[526]."
+
+[Footnote 526: Buelow, _Imperial Germany_, p. 99.]
+
+The crisis of 1908-9 revealed in a startling manner the weakness of
+international law in a case where the stronger States were determined to
+have their way. It therefore tended to discourage the peace propaganda
+and the social movement in Great Britain and France. The increased speed
+of German naval construction alarmed the British people, who demanded
+precautionary measures[527]. France and Russia also improved their
+armaments, for it was clear that Austria, as well as Germany, intended
+to pursue an active foreign policy which would inflict other rebuffs on
+neighbours who were unprepared. Further, the Triple Entente had proved
+far too weak for the occasion. True, France and England loyally
+supported Russia in a matter which chiefly concerned her and Servia, and
+her sudden retreat before the Kaiser's menace left them in the lurch.
+Consequently, the relations between the Western Powers and Russia were
+decidedly cool during the years 1909-10, especially in and after
+November 1910, when the Tsar met Kaiser William at Potsdam, and framed
+an agreement, both as to their general relations and the railways then
+under construction towards Persia. On the other hand, the rapid advance
+of Germany and Austria alarmed Italy, who, in order to safeguard her
+interests in the Balkans (especially Albania), came to an understanding
+with Russia for the support of their claims. The details are not known,
+neither are the agreements of Austria with Bulgaria and Roumania,
+though it seems probable that they were framed with the two kings rather
+than with the Governments of Sofia and Bukharest. Those sovereigns were
+German princes, and the events of 1908-9 naturally attracted them
+towards the Central Powers.
+
+[Footnote 527: Annoyance had been caused by the Kaiser's letter of Feb.
+18, 1908, to Lord Tweedmouth, First Lord of the Admiralty, advising
+(though in friendly terms) the cessation of suspicion towards Germany's
+naval construction. It was held to be an attempt to put us off
+our guard.]
+
+In 1909-10 France and England also lost ground in Turkey. There the
+Young Turks, who seized power in July 1908, were overthrown in April
+1909, when Abdul Hamid II. was deposed. He was succeeded by his weakly
+complaisant brother, Mohammed V. This change, however, did not promote
+the cause of reform. The Turkish Parliament became a bear-garden, and
+the reformers the tools of reaction. In the four years 1908-12 there
+were seven Ministries and countless ministerial crises, and the Young
+Turks, copying the forms and killing the spirit of English Liberalism,
+soon became the most intolerant oppressors of their non-Moslem subjects.
+In administrative matters they acted on the old Turkish proverb--"The
+Sultan's treasure is a sea, and he who does not draw from it is a pig."
+Germany found means to satisfy these dominating and acquisitive
+instincts, and thus regained power at the Sublime Porte. The Ottoman
+Empire therefore remained the despair of patriotic reformers, a
+hunting-ground for Teutonic _concessionnaires_, a Hell for its Christian
+subjects, and the chief storm-centre of Europe[528].
+
+[Footnote 528: Lack of space precludes an account of the Cretan
+Question, also of the Agram and Friedjung trials which threw lurid light
+on Austria's treatment of her South-Slav subjects, for which see
+Seton-Watson, _Corruption and Reform in Hungary_. Rohrbach, _Der
+deutsche Gedanke in der Welt_ (1912), p. 172, explains the success of
+German efforts at the Porte by the belief of the Young Turks that
+Germany was the only Power that wished them well--Germany who helped
+Austria to secure Bosnia; Germany, whose Bagdad Railway scheme
+mercilessly exploited Turkish resources! (See D. Fraser, _The Short Cut
+to India_, chs. iii. iv.)]
+
+The death of King Edward VII. on May 6, 1910, was a misfortune for the
+cause of peace. His tact and discernment had on several occasions
+allayed animosity and paved the way for friendly understandings. True,
+the German Press sought to represent those efforts as directed towards
+the "encircling" (_Einkreisung_) of Germany. But here we may note that
+(1) King Edward never transgressed the constitutional usage, which
+prescribed that no important agreement be arrived at apart from the
+responsible Ministers of the Crown[529]. (2) The agreements with Spain,
+Italy, France, Germany, and Portugal (in 1903-4) were for the purposes
+of arbitration. (3) The alliance with Japan and the Ententes with France
+and Russia were designed to end the perilous state of isolation which
+existed at the time of his accession. (4) At that time Germany was
+allied to Austria, Italy, and (probably) Roumania, not to speak of her
+secret arrangements with Turkey. She had no right to complain of the
+ending of our isolation. (5) The marriage of King Alfonso of Spain with
+Princess Ena of Battenberg (May 1906), was a love-match, and was not the
+result of King Edward's efforts to detach Spain from Germany. It had no
+political significance. (6) The Kaiser's sister was Crown Princess (now
+Queen) of Greece; the King of Roumania was a Hohenzollern; and the King
+of Bulgaria and the Prince Consort of Holland were German Princes. (7)
+On several occasions King Edward testified his friendship with Germany,
+notably during his visit to Berlin in February 1909, which Germans admit
+to have helped on the friendly Franco-German agreement of that month on
+Morocco; also in his letter of January 1910, on the occasion of the
+Kaiser's birthday, when he expressed the hope that the United Kingdom
+and Germany might always work together for the maintenance of
+peace[530].
+
+[Footnote 529: I have been assured of this on high authority.]
+
+[Footnote 530: Viscount Esher, _the Influence of King Edward: and Other
+Essays_, p. 56. The "encircling" myth is worked up by Rachfahl, _Kaiser
+und Reich_, p, 228; Reventlow, _op, cit._ pp. 254, 279, 298, etc.; and
+by Rohrbach, _Der deutsche Gedanke in der Welt_ (ch. vi.), where he says
+that King Edward's chief idea from the outset was to cripple Germany. He
+therefore won over Japan, France, Spain, and Russia, his aim being to
+secure all Africa from the Cape to Cairo, and all Asia from the Sinaitic
+Peninsula to Burmah.]
+
+The chief danger to public tranquillity arises from the vigorous
+expansion of some peoples and the decay of others. Nearly all the great
+nations of Europe are expansive; but on their fringe lie other peoples,
+notably the Turks, Persians, Koreans, and the peoples of North Africa,
+who are in a state of decline or semi-anarchy. In such a state of things
+friction is inevitable and war difficult to avoid, unless in the
+councils of the nations goodwill and generosity prevail over the
+suspicion and greed which are too often the dominant motives. Scarcely
+was the Bosnian-Turkish crisis over before Morocco once more became a
+danger to the peace of the world.
+
+There the anarchy continued, with results that strained the relations
+between France and Germany. Nevertheless, on February 8, 1909 (probably
+owing to the friendly offices of Great Britain[531]), the two rivals
+came to an agreement that France should respect the independence of
+Morocco and not oppose German trade in that quarter, while Germany
+declared that her sole interests there were commercial, and that she
+would not oppose "the special political interests of France in that
+country[532]." But, as trade depended on the maintenance of order, this
+vague compact involved difficulties. Clearly, if disorders continued,
+the task of France would be onerous and relatively unprofitable, for she
+would be working largely for the benefit of British and German traders.
+Indeed, the new Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, admitted to the French
+ambassador, Jules Cambon, that thenceforth Morocco was a fruit destined
+to fall into the lap of France; only she must humour public opinion in
+Germany. Unfortunately, the "Consortium," for joint commercial
+enterprises of French and Germans in Morocco and the French Congo, broke
+down on points of detail; and this produced a very sore feeling in
+Germany in the spring of 1911. Further, as the Moorish rebels pushed
+their raids up to the very gates of Fez, French troops in those same
+months proceeded to march to that capital (April 1911). The Kaiser saw
+in that move, and a corresponding advance of Spanish troops in the
+North, a design to partition Morocco. Failing to secure what he
+considered satisfactory assurances, he decided to send to Agadir a
+corvette, the _Panther_ (July 1, 1911), replaced by a cruiser,
+the _Berlin_.
+
+[Footnote 531: Rachfahl, p. 310.]
+
+[Footnote 532: Morel, App. XIV.]
+
+Behind him were ambitious parties which sought to compass
+world-predominance for Germany. The Pan-German, Colonial, and Navy
+Leagues had gained enormous influence since 1905, when they induced the
+Kaiser to visit Tangiers; and early in 1911 they issued pamphlets urging
+the annexation of part of Morocco. The chief, termed _West-Marokko
+deutsch_, was inspired by the Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs,
+Kiderlen-Waechter, who thereafter urged officially that the Government
+must take into account public opinion--which he himself had manipulated.
+
+Again, as at Tangiers in 1905, Germany's procedure was needlessly
+provocative if, as the agreement of 1909 declared, her interests in
+Morocco were solely commercial. If this were so, why send a war-ship,
+when diplomatic insistence on the terms of 1909 would have met the needs
+of the case, especially as German trade with Morocco was less than half
+that of French firms and less than one-third that of British firms?
+Obviously, Germany was bent on something more than the maintenance of
+her trade (which, indeed, the French were furthering by suppressing
+anarchy); otherwise she would not have risked the chance of a collision
+which might at any time result from the presence of a German cruiser
+alongside French war-ships in a small harbour.
+
+It is almost certain that the colonial and war parties at Berlin sought
+to drive on the Kaiser to hostilities. The occasion was favourable. In
+the spring of 1911 France was a prey to formidable riots of
+vine-growers. On June 28 occurred an embarrassing change of Ministry.
+Besides, the French army and navy had not yet recovered from the
+Socialist regime of previous years. The remodelling of the Russian army
+was also very far from complete. Moreover, the Tsar and Kaiser had come
+to a friendly understanding at Potsdam in November 1910, respecting
+Persia and their attitude towards other questions, so that it was
+doubtful whether Russia would assist France if French action in Morocco
+could be made to appear irregular. As for Great Britain, her ability to
+afford sufficiently large and timely succour to the French was open to
+question. In the throes of a sharp constitutional crisis, and beset by
+acute Labour troubles, she was ill-fitted even to defend herself. By the
+close of 1911 the Navy would include only fourteen first-class ships as
+against Germany's nine; while Austria was also becoming a Naval Power.
+The weakness of France and England had appeared in the spring when they
+gave way before Germany's claims in Asia Minor. On March 18, 1911, by a
+convention with Turkey she acquired the right to construct from the
+Bagdad Railway a branch line to Alexandretta, together with large
+privileges over that port which made it practically German, and the
+natural outlet for Mesopotamia and North Syria, heretofore in the sphere
+of Great Britain and France. True, she waived conditionally her claim to
+push the Bagdad line to the Persian Gulf; but her recent bargain with
+the Tsar at Potsdam gave her the lion's share of the trade of
+Western Persia.
+
+After taking these strides in the Levant, Germany ought not to have
+shown jealousy of French progress in Morocco, where her commerce was
+small. As in 1905, she was clearly using the occasion to test the
+validity of the Anglo-French Entente and the effectiveness of British
+support to France. Probably, too, she desired either a territorial
+acquisition in South Morocco, for which the colonial party and most of
+the Press were clamouring; or she intended, in lieu of it, to acquire
+the French Congo. At present it is not clear at which of these objects
+she aimed. Kiderlen-Waechter declared privately that Germany must have
+the Agadir district, and would never merely accept in exchange Congolese
+territory[533].
+
+[Footnote 533: The following facts are significant. On November 9, 1911,
+the Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, assured the Reichstag that Germany had
+never intended to annex Moroccan territory, an assertion confirmed by
+Kiderlen-Waechter on Nov. 17. But during the libel action brought against
+the Berlin _Post_ it was positively affirmed that the Government and
+Kiderlen-Waechter had intended to annex South-West Morocco. A high
+official, Dr. Heilbronn, telephoned so to the _Post_, urging it to
+demand that step.]
+
+Whatever were the real aims of the Kaiser, they ran counter to French
+and British interests. Moreover, the warning of Sir Edward Grey, on July
+4, that we must be consulted as to any new developments, was completely
+ignored; and even on July 21 the German ambassador in London could give
+no assurance as to the policy of his Government. Consequently, on that
+evening Mr. Lloyd George, during a speech at the Mansion House, apprised
+Germany that any attempt to treat us as a negligible factor in the
+Cabinet of Nations "would be a humiliation intolerable for a great
+country like ours to endure." The tension must have been far more severe
+than appeared in the published documents to induce so peace-loving a
+Minister to speak in those terms. They aroused a storm of passion in the
+German Press; and, somewhat later, a German admiral, Stiege, declared
+that they would have justified an immediate declaration of war by
+Germany[534]. Certainly they were more menacing than is usual in
+diplomatic parlance; but our cavalier treatment by Germany (possibly due
+to Bethmann-Hollweg's belief in blunt Bismarckian ways) justified a
+protest, which, after all, was less questionable than Germany's
+despatching a cruiser to Agadir, owing to the reserve of the French
+Foreign Office. Up to July 27 the crisis remained acute; but on that day
+the German ambassador gave assurances as to a probable agreement
+with France.
+
+[Footnote 534: Rear-Admiral Stiege in _Ueberall_ for March 1912.]
+
+What caused the change of front at Berlin? Probably it was due to a
+sharp financial crisis (an unexpected result of the political crisis),
+which would have produced a general crash in German finance, then in an
+insecure position; and prudence may have counselled the adoption of the
+less ambitious course, namely a friendly negotiation with the French for
+territorial expansion in their Congo territory in return for the
+recognition of their protectorate of Morocco. Such a compromise (which,
+as we shall see, was finally arrived at) involved no loss for Germany.
+On the contrary, she gained fertile districts in the tropics and left
+the French committed to the Morocco venture, which, at great cost to
+them, would tend finally to benefit commerce in general, and therefore
+that of Germany.
+
+Also, before the end of these discussions there occurred two events
+which might well dispose the Kaiser to a compromise with France.
+Firstly, as a result of his negotiations with Russia (then beset by
+severe dearth) he secured larger railway and trading concessions in
+Persia, the compact of August 19 opening the door for further German
+enterprises in the Levant. Secondly, on September 29, Italy declared war
+on Turkey, partly (it is said) because recent German activity in Tripoli
+menaced the ascendancy which she was resolved to acquire in that land.
+This event greatly deranged the Kaiser's schemes. He had hoped to keep
+the Triple Alliance intact, and yet add to it the immense potential
+fighting force of Turkey and the Moslem World. Now, however he might
+"hedge," he could hardly avoid offending either Rome or Constantinople;
+and even if he succeeded, his friends would exhaust each other and be
+useless for the near future. Consequently, the Italo-Turkish War (with
+its sequel, the Balkan War of 1912) dealt him a severe blow. The Triple
+Alliance was at once strained nearly to breaking-point by Austria
+forbidding Italy to undertake naval operations in the Adriatic (probably
+also in the Aegean). Equally serious was the hostility of Moslems to
+Europeans in general which compromised the Kaiser's schemes for
+utilising Islam. Accordingly, for the present, his policy assumed a more
+peaceful guise.
+
+Here, doubtless, are the decisive reasons for the Franco-German accord
+of November 4, 1911, whereby the Berlin Government recognised a French
+protectorate over Morocco and agreed not to interfere in the
+Franco-Spanish negotiation still pending. France opened certain "closed"
+ports (among them Agadir), and guaranteed equality of trading rights to
+all nations. She also ceded to Germany about 100,000 square miles of
+fertile land in the north-west of her Congo territory, which afforded
+access to the rivers Congo and Ubangi. The explosion of Teutonic wrath
+produced by these far from unfavourable conditions revealed the
+magnitude of the designs that prompted the _coup_ of Agadir. The
+Colonial Minister at once resigned; and scornful laughter greeted the
+Chancellor when he announced to the Reichstag that the _Berlin_ would be
+withdrawn from that port, the protection of German subjects being no
+longer necessary. He added that Germany would neither fight for Southern
+Morocco nor dissipate her strength in distant expeditions. In fact, he
+would "avoid any war which was not required by German honour." Far
+different was the tone of the Conservative leader, Herr Heydebrand, who
+declared Mr. Lloyd George's "challenge" to be one which the German
+people would not tolerate; England had sought to involve them in a war
+with France, but they now saw "where the real enemy was to be found."
+The Crown Prince, who was present, loudly applauded these Anglophobe
+outbursts. The German Press showed no less bitterness. Besides
+criticising the Chancellor's blustering beginning and huckstering
+conclusion, they manifested a resolve that Germany should always and
+everywhere succeed. The Berlin journal, the _Post_, went so far as to
+call the Kaiser _ce poltron miserable_ for giving up South Morocco; and
+it was clear that a large section of the German people ardently desired
+war with the Western Powers.
+
+Many Frenchmen and Belgians credited the German colonial party with the
+design of acquiring the whole of the French Congo, as a first step
+towards annexing the Belgian Congo[535]. Belgium became alarmed, and in
+1913 greatly extended the principle of compulsory military service. On
+the other hand, the German Chauvinists certainly desired the acquisition
+of a naval base in Morocco which would help to link up their naval
+stations and facilitate the conquest of a World Empire. This was the
+policy set forth by Bernhardi in the closing parts of his work, _Germany
+and the next War,_ where he protested against the Chancellor's surrender
+of Morocco as degrading to the nation and damaging to its future.
+Following the lead of Treitschke, he depreciated colonies rich merely in
+products; for Germany needed homes for her children in future
+generations, and she must fight for them with all her might at the first
+favourable opportunity. This is the burden of Bernhardi's message, which
+bristles with rage at the loss of Morocco. He regarded that land as more
+important than the Congo; for, in addition to the strategic value of its
+coasts, it offered a fulcrum in the west whereby to raise the Moslems
+against the Triple Entente. In the Epilogue he writes: "Our relations
+with Islam have changed for the worse by the abandonment of
+Morocco. . . . We have lost prestige in the whole Mohammedan world,
+which is a matter of the first importance for us."
+
+[Footnote 535: Hanotaux, _La Politique de l'Equilibre_, p. 417.]
+
+The logical conclusion of Bernhardi's thesis was that Germany and
+Austria should boldly side with the Moors and Turks against France and
+Italy, summoning Islam to arms, if need be, against Christendom. Perhaps
+if Turkey had possessed the 1,500,000 troops whom her War Minister,
+Chevket Pacha, was hopefully striving to raise, this might have been the
+outcome of events. As it was, _Realpolitik_ counselled prudence, and the
+observance of the forms of Christianity.
+
+Certainly there was no sufficient pretext for war. France and Russia had
+humoured Germany. As to "the real enemy," light was thrown on her
+attitude during the debate of November 27, 1911, at Westminster. Sir
+Edward Grey then stated that we had consistently helped on, and not
+impeded, the Franco-German negotiations. Never had we played the
+dog-in-the-manger to Germany. In fact, the Berlin Government would
+greatly have eased the tension if she had declared earlier that she did
+not intend to take part of Morocco. Further, the Entente with France
+(made public on November 24) contained no secret articles; nor were
+there any in any compact made by the British Government. On December 6,
+Mr. Asquith declared that we had no secret engagement with any Power
+obliging us to take up arms. "We do not desire to stand in the light of
+any Power which wants to find its place in the sun. The first of British
+interests is, as it always has been, the peace of the world; and to its
+attainment British diplomacy and policy will be directed." The German
+Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, also said in the Reichstag, "We also,
+sirs, sincerely desire to live in peace and friendship with England"--an
+announcement received with complete silence. Some applause greeted his
+statement that he would welcome any definite proof that England desired
+friendlier relations with Germany.
+
+Thus ended the year 1911. Frenchmen were sore at discovering that the
+Entente entailed no obligation on our part to help them by force of
+arms[536]; and Germans, far from rejoicing at their easy acquisition of
+a new colony, harboured resentment against both the Western Powers.
+Britons had been aroused from party strifes and Labour quarrels by
+finding new proofs of the savage enmity with which Junkers, Colonials,
+and Pan-Germans regarded them; and the problem was--Should England seek
+to regain Germany's friendship, meanwhile remaining aloof from close
+connections with France and Russia; or should she recognise that her
+uncertain attitude possessed all the disadvantages and few of the
+advantages of a definite alliance?
+
+[Footnote 536: Hanotaux, _La Politique de l'Equilibre,_ p. 419.]
+
+Early in 1912 light was thrown on the situation, and the Berlin
+Government thenceforth could not plead ignorance as to our intentions;
+for efforts, both public and private, were made to improve Anglo-German
+relations. Mr. Churchill advocated a friendly understanding in naval
+affairs. Lord Haldane also visited Berlin on an official invitation. He
+declared to that Government that "we would in no circumstances be a
+party to any sort of aggression upon Germany." But we must oppose a
+violation of the neutrality of Belgium, and, if the naval competition
+continued, we should lay down two keels to Germany's one. As a sequel to
+these discussions the two Governments discussed the basis of an Entente.
+It soon appeared that Germany sought to bind us almost unconditionally
+to neutrality in all cases. To this the British Cabinet demurred, but
+suggested the following formula:
+
+     The two Powers being mutually desirous of securing peace and
+     friendship between them, England declares that she will
+     neither make, nor join in, any unprovoked attack upon
+     Germany. Aggression upon Germany is not the subject, and
+     forms no part of any treaty, understanding, or combination to
+     which England is now a party, nor will she become a party to
+     anything that has such an object.
+
+Further than this it refused to go; and Mr. Asquith in his speech of
+October 2, 1914, at Cardiff thus explained the reason:
+
+     They [the Germans] wanted us to go further. They asked us to
+     pledge ourselves absolutely to neutrality in the event of
+     Germany being engaged in war, and this, mark you, at a time
+     when Germany was enormously increasing both her aggressive
+     and defensive resources, and especially upon the sea. They
+     asked us (to put it quite plainly) for a free hand, so far as
+     we were concerned, when they selected the opportunity to
+     overbear, to dominate, the European World. To such a demand,
+     but one answer was possible, and that was the answer we
+     gave[537].
+
+[Footnote 537: See _Times_ of October 3, 1914, and July 20, 1915 (with
+quotations from the _North German Gazette_). Bethmann-Hollweg declared
+to the Reichstag, on August 19, 1915, that Asquith's statement was
+false; but in a letter published on August 26, and an official statement
+of September 1, 1915, Sir E. Grey convincingly refuted him.]
+
+Thus, efforts for a good understanding with Germany broke down owing to
+the exacting demands of German diplomacy for our neutrality in all
+circumstances (including, of course, a German invasion of Belgium).
+Thereupon she proceeded with a new Navy Act (the fifth in fourteen
+years) for a large increase in construction[538].
+
+[Footnote 538: Castle and Hurd, _German Naval Power_, pp. 142-152.]
+
+Perhaps Germany would have been more conciliatory if she had foreseen
+the events of the following autumn. As has already appeared, Italy's
+attack upon the Turks (coinciding with difficulties which their rigour
+raised up) furnished the opportunity--for which the Balkan States had
+been longing--to shake off the Turkish yoke. On March 13, 1912, Servia
+and Bulgaria framed a secret treaty of alliance against Turkey, which
+contained conditions as to joint action against Austria or Roumania, if
+they attacked, and a general understanding as to the partition of
+Macedonia. Greece came into the agreement later[539]. No time was fixed
+for action against Turkey; but in view of her obstinacy and intolerance
+action was inevitable. She precipitated matters by massacring Christians
+in and on the borders of Macedonia. Thereupon the three States and
+Montenegro demanded the enforcement of the reforms and toleration
+guaranteed by the Treaty of Berlin (see p. 242). The Turks having as
+usual temporised (though they were still at war with Italy[540]), the
+four States demanded complete autonomy and the reconstruction of
+frontiers according to racial needs. Both sides rejected the joint
+offers of Austria and Russia for friendly intervention; whereupon Turkey
+declared war upon Bulgaria and Servia (October 17). On the morrow Greece
+declared war upon her. Montenegro had already opened hostilities. In
+view of these facts, the later assertions of the German Powers, that the
+Balkan League was a Russian plot for overthrowing Turkey and weakening
+Teutonic influence, is palpably false. Turkey had treated her Christian
+subjects (including the once faithful Albanians) worse than ever. Their
+union against Turkey had long been foretold. It was helped on by
+Ottoman misrule, and finally cemented by massacre. Further, Russia and
+Austria acted together in seeking to avert an attack on Turkey; and the
+Powers collectively warned the Balkan States that no changes of boundary
+would be tolerated. Those States refused to accept the European fiat;
+for the present misrule was intolerable, and the inability of the Turks
+to cope with either the Italians or the Albanian rebels opened a vista
+of hope. The German accusations levelled at Russia were obviously part
+of the general scheme adopted at Berlin and Vienna for exasperating
+public opinion against the Slav cause.
+
+[Footnote 539: The claim that the Greek statesman, Venizelos, founded
+the league seems incorrect. So, too, is the rumour that Russia, through
+her minister, Hartvig, at Belgrade, framed it (but see N. Jorga, _Hist.
+des Etats balcaniques_, p. 436). Miliukoff, in a "Report to the Carnegie
+Foundation," denies this. The plan occurred to many men so soon as
+Turkish Reform proved a sham. Venizelos is said to have mooted it to Mr.
+James Bourchier in May 1911. (R. Rankin, _Inner History of the Balkan
+War_, p. 13.)]
+
+[Footnote 540: Italy made peace on October 15, gaining possession of
+Tripoli and agreeing to evacuate the Aegean Isles, but on various
+pretexts kept her troops there. A little later she renewed the Triple
+Alliance with Germany and Austria for five years. This may have resulted
+from the Balkan crisis then beginning, and from the visits of the
+Russian Foreign Minister, Sazonoff, to Paris and London, whereupon it
+was officially stated that Russia adhered both to her treaty with France
+and her Entente with England. He added that the grouping of the great
+States was necessary in the interests of the Balance of Power.]
+
+The Balkan States, though waging war with no combined aim, speedily
+overthrew the Turks in the most dramatic and decisive conflict of our
+age. The Greeks entered Salonica on November 8 (a Bulgarian force a few
+days later); on November 18 the Servians occupied Monastir, and the
+Albanian seaport, Durazzo, at the end of the month. The Bulgar army
+meanwhile drove the Turks southwards in headlong rout until in the third
+week of November the fortified Tchataldja Lines opposed an invincible
+obstacle. There, on December 3, all the belligerents, except Greece,
+concluded an armistice, and negotiations for peace were begun at London
+on December 16. Up to January 22, 1913, Turkey seemed inclined towards
+peace; but on the morrow a revolution took place at Constantinople, the
+Ministry of Kiamil Pacha being ousted by the warlike faction of Enver
+Bey. He, one of the contrivers of the revolution of July 1908, had since
+been attached to the Turkish Embassy at Berlin; and his successful coup
+was a triumph of German influence. The Peace Conference at London broke
+up on February 1. In March the Greeks and Bulgars captured Janina and
+Adrianople respectively, while Scutari fell to the Montenegrins (April
+22). The Powers (Russia included) demanded the evacuation of this town
+by Montenegro; for they had decided to constitute Albania (the most
+turbulent part of the Peninsula) an independent State, including
+Scutari.
+
+In Albania, as elsewhere, the feuds of rival races had drenched the
+Balkan lands with blood; Greek and Bulgar forces had fought near
+Salonica, and there seemed slight chance of a peaceful settlement in
+Central Macedonia. That chance disappeared when the Powers in the
+resumed Peace Conference at London persisted in ruling the Serbs and
+Montenegrins out of Albania, a decision obviously dictated by the
+longings of Austria and Italy to gain that land at a convenient
+opportunity. This blow to Servia's aspirations aroused passionate
+resentment both there and in Russia. Finally the Serbs gave way, and
+claimed a far larger part of Macedonia than had been mapped out in their
+agreement with Bulgaria prior to the war. Hence arose strifes between
+their forces, in which the Greeks also sided against the Bulgars.
+Meanwhile, the London Conference of the Powers and the Balkan States
+framed terms of peace, which were largely due to the influence of Sir
+Edward Grey[541].
+
+[Footnote 541: See _Times_ of May 30, 1913; Rankin, _op. cit._ p. 517.]
+
+They may be disregarded here; for they were soon disregarded by all the
+Balkan States. Seeking to steal a march upon their rivals, the Bulgar
+forces (it is said on the instigation of their King and his unofficial
+advisers) made a sudden and treacherous attack. Now, the dour, pushing
+Bulgars are the most unpopular race in the Peninsula. Therefore not only
+Serbs and Greeks, but also Roumanians and Turks turned savagely upon
+them[542]. Overwhelmed on all sides, Bulgaria sued for peace; and again
+the Great Powers had to revise terms that they had declared to be final.
+Ultimately, on August 10, 1913, the Peace of Bukharest was signed. It
+imposed the present boundaries of the Balkan States, and left them
+furious but helpless to resist a policy known to have been dictated
+largely from Vienna and Berlin. In May 1914 a warm friend of the Balkan
+peoples thus described its effects: "No permanent solution of the Balkan
+Question has been arrived at. The ethnographical questions have been
+ignored. A portion of each race has been handed over to be ruled by
+another which it detests. Servia has acquired a population which is
+mostly Bulgar and Albanian, though of the latter she has massacred and
+expelled many thousands. Bulgars have been captured by Greeks, Greeks by
+Bulgars, Albanians by Greeks, and not one of these races has as yet
+shown signs of being capable to rule another justly. The seeds have been
+sown of hatreds that will grow and bear fruit[543]." Especially
+lamentable were the recovery of the Adrianople district by the Turks and
+the unprovoked seizure of the purely Bulgar district south of Silistria
+by Roumania. On the other hand, Kaiser William thus congratulated her
+king, Charles (a Hohenzollern), on the peace, a "splendid result, for
+which not only your own people but all the belligerent States and the
+whole of Europe have to thank your wise and truly statesmanlike policy.
+At the same time your mentioning that I have been able to contribute to
+what has been achieved is a great satisfaction to me. I rejoice at our
+mutual co-operation in the cause of peace."
+
+[Footnote 542: Roumania's sudden intervention annoyed Austria, who had
+hoped for a longer and more exhausting war in the Balkans.]
+
+[Footnote 543: Edith Durham, _The Struggle for Scutari_, p. 315.]
+
+This telegram, following the trend of Austro-German policy, sought to
+win back Roumania to the Central Powers, from which she had of late
+sheered off. In other respects the Peace of Bukharest was a notable
+triumph for Austria and Germany. Not only had they rendered impossible a
+speedy revival of the Balkan League which had barred their expansion
+towards the Levant, but they bolstered up the Ottoman Power when its
+extrusion from Europe seemed imminent. They also exhausted Servia,
+reduced Bulgaria to ruin, and imposed on Albania a German prince,
+William of Wied, an officer in the Prussian army, who was destined to
+view his principality from the quarter-deck of his yacht. Such was the
+Treaty of Bukharest. Besides dealing a severe blow to the Slav cause, it
+perpetuated the recent infamous spoliations and challenged every one
+concerned to further conflicts. Within a year the whole of the Continent
+was in flames.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE CRISIS OF 1914
+
+     "We have an interest in the independence of Belgium which is
+     wider than that which we have in the literal operation of the
+     guarantee. It is found in the answer to the question whether
+     this country would quietly stand by and witness the
+     perpetration of the direst crime that ever stained the pages
+     of history and thus become participators in the
+     sin."--GLADSTONE:
+
+     Speech of August 1870.
+
+
+The Prussian and German Army Bills of 1860 and onwards have tended to
+make military preparedness a weighty factor in the recent development of
+nations; and the issue of events has too often been determined, not by
+the justice of a cause, but rather by the armed strength at the back of
+it. We must therefore glance at the military and naval preparations
+which enabled the Central Powers to win their perilous triumph over
+Russia and the Slavs of the Balkans. In April 1912 the German Chancellor
+introduced to the Reichstag Army and Navy Bills (passed on May 21)
+providing for great increases in the navy, also forces amounting to two
+new army corps, and that, too, though Germany's financial position was
+admitted to be "very serious," and the proposed measures merely
+precautionary. Nevertheless, only Socialists, Poles, and Alsatians voted
+against them. But the events of the first Balkan War were cited as
+menacing Germany with a conflict in which she "might have to protect,
+against several enemies, frontiers which are extended and by nature to a
+large extent open." A new Army Bill was therefore introduced in March
+1913 (passed in June), which increased the total of the forces by
+145,000, and raised their peace strength in 1914 to more than 870,000
+men. The Chancellor referred gratefully to "the extraordinary ability
+and spirit of conciliation" of Sir Edward Grey during the Conference at
+London, and admitted that a collision between Germans and Slavs was not
+inevitable; but Germany must take precautions, this, too, at a time when
+Russia and Austria agreed to place their forces again on a peace
+footing. Germany, far from relaxing her efforts after the sharp rebuff
+to the Slavonic cause in the summer of 1913, continued her military
+policy. It caused grave apprehension, especially as the new drastic
+taxes (estimated to produce L50,000,000) were loudly declared a burden
+that could not long be borne. As to the naval proposals, the Chancellor
+commended Mr. Churchill's suggestion (on March 26) of a "naval holiday,"
+but said there were many difficulties in the way.
+
+The British Naval Budget of 1912 had provided for a six years' programme
+of 25 _Dreadnoughts_ against Germany's 14; and for every extra German
+ship two British would be added. In March 1913 this was continued, with
+the offer of a "holiday" for 1914 if Germany would soon accept. No
+acceptance came. The peace strength of the British Regular Army was
+reckoned early in 1914 at 156,000 men, with about 250,000 effective
+Territorials.
+
+The increases in the German army induced the French Chambers, in July
+1913, to recur to three years' military service, that of two years being
+considered inadequate in face of the new menace from beyond the
+Rhine[544]. Jaures and the Socialists, who advocated a national militia
+on the Swiss system, were beaten by 496 votes to 77, whereupon some of
+them resorted to obstructive tactics, and the measure was carried with
+some difficulty on July 8. The General Confederation of Labour and the
+Anarchist Congress both announced their resolve to keep up the
+agitation in the army against the three years' service. Mutinous
+symptoms had already appeared. The military equipment of the French army
+was officially admitted to be in an unsatisfactory state during the
+debate of July 13, 1914, when it appeared that France was far from ready
+for a campaign. The peace strength of the army was then reckoned at
+645,000 men.
+
+[Footnote 544: The _Temps_ of March 30, 1913, estimated that Germany
+would soon have 500,000 men in her first line, as against 175,000
+French, unless France recurred to three years' service. See M. Sembat,
+_Faites un Roi, si non faites la Paix._]
+
+In Russia in 1912 the chief efforts were concentrated on the navy. As
+regards the army, it was proposed in the Budget of July 1913 to retain
+300,000 men on active service for six months longer than before, thus
+strengthening the forces, especially during the winter months. Apart
+from this measure (a reply to that of Germany) no important development
+took place in 1912-14. The peace strength of the Russian army for Europe
+in 1914 exceeded 1,200,000[545]. That of Austria-Hungary exceeded
+460,000 men, that of Italy 300,000 men. Consequently the Triple Entente
+had on foot just over 2,000,000 men as against 1,590,000 for the Triple
+Alliance; but the latter group formed a solid well-prepared block, while
+the Triple Entente were separate units; and the Russian and British
+forces could not be speedily marshalled at the necessary points on the
+Continent. Moreover, all great wars, especially from the time of
+Frederick the Great, have shown the advantage of the central position,
+if vigorously and skilfully used.
+
+[Footnote 545: G. Alexinsky, _La Russie et la guerre_, pp. 83-88.]
+
+In these considerations lies the key to the European situation in the
+summer of 1914. The simmering of fiscal discontent and unsated military
+pride in Germany caused general alarm, especially when the memories of
+the Wars of Liberation of 1813-14 were systematically used to excite
+bellicose ardour against France. Against England it needed no official
+stimulus, for professors and teachers had long taught that "England was
+the foe." In particular preparations had been made in South-West Africa
+for stirring up a revolt of the Boers as a preliminary to the expulsion
+of the British from South Africa. Relations had been established with
+De Wet and Maritz. In 1913 the latter sent an agent to the German colony
+asking what aid the Kaiser would give and how far he would guarantee the
+independence of South Africa. The reply came: "I will not only
+acknowledge the independence of South Africa, but I will even guarantee
+it, provided the rebellion is started immediately[546]." The reason for
+the delay is not known. Probably on further inquiry it was found that
+the situation was not ready either in Europe or in South Africa. But as
+to German preparations for a war with England both in South-West Africa
+and Egypt there can be no doubt. India and probably Ireland also were
+not neglected.
+
+[Footnote 546: General Botha's speech at Cape Town, July 25, 1915.]
+
+In fact a considerable part of the German people looked forward to a war
+with Great Britain as equally inevitable and desirable. She was rich and
+pleasure-loving; her Government was apt to wait till public opinion had
+been decisively pronounced; her sons, too selfish to defend her, paid
+"mercenaries" to do it. Her scattered possessions would therefore fall
+an easy prey to a well-organised, warlike, and thoroughly patriotic
+nation. Let the world belong to the ablest race, the Germanic. Such had
+been the teachings of Treitschke and his disciples long before the Boer
+War or the Anglo-French Entente. Those events and the Morocco Question
+in 1905 and 1911 sharpened the rivalry; but it is a superficial reading
+of events to suppose that Morocco caused the rivalry, which clearly
+originated in the resolve of the Germans to possess a World-Empire. So
+soon as their influential classes distinctly framed that resolve a
+conflict was inevitable with Great Britain, which blocked their way to
+the Ocean and possessed in every sea valuable colonies which she seemed
+little able to defend. The Morocco affair annoyed them because, firstly,
+they wanted that strategic position, and secondly, they desired to
+sunder the Anglo-French Entente. But Morocco was settled in 1911, and
+still the friction continued unabated. There remained the Eastern
+Question, a far more serious affair; for on it hung the hopes of Germany
+in the Orient and of Austria in the Balkans.
+
+The difficulty for Germany was, how to equate her world-wide ambitions
+with the restricted and diverse aims of Austria and Italy. The interests
+of the two Central Empires harmonised only respecting the Eastern
+Question. _Weltpolitik_ in general and Morocco in particular did not in
+the least concern Austria. Further, the designs of Vienna and Rome on
+Albania clashed hopelessly. An effort was made in the Triple Alliance,
+as renewed in 1912, to safeguard Italian interests by insisting that, if
+Austria gained ground in the Balkans, Italy should have "compensation."
+The effort to lure the Government of Rome into Balkan adventures
+prompted the Austrian offer of August 9, 1913, for joint action against
+Servia. Italy refused, alleging that, as Servia was not guilty of
+aggression, the Austro-Italian Alliance did not hold good for such a
+venture. Germany also refused the Austrian offer--why is not clear.
+Austria was annoyed with the gains of Servia in the Peace of Bukharest,
+for which Kaiser William was largely responsible. Probably, then, they
+differed as to some of the details of the Balkan settlement. But it is
+far more probable that Germany checked the Austrians because she was not
+yet fully ready for vigorous action. The doctrine of complete
+preparedness was edifyingly set forth by a well-informed writer,
+Rohrbach, who, in 1912, urged his countrymen to be patient. In 1911 they
+had been wrong to worry France and England about Morocco, where German
+interests were not vital. Until the Bagdad and Hedjaz Railways had
+neared their goals, Turkish co-operation in an attack on Egypt would be
+weak. Besides, adds Rohrbach, the Kiel-North Sea Canal was not ready,
+and Heligoland and other coast defences were not sufficiently advanced
+for Germany confidently to face a war with England. Thanks to the
+Kaiser, the fleet would soon be in a splendid condition, and then
+Germany could launch out boldly in the world. The same course was urged
+by Count Reventlow early in 1914. Germany must continue to arm, though
+fully conscious that she was "constructing for her foreign politics and
+diplomacy, a Calvary which _nolens volens_ she would have to
+climb[547]."
+
+[Footnote 547: Rohrbach, _Der deutsche Gedanke in der Welt_ (1912), p.
+216 (more than 10,000 copies of this work were sold in a year);
+Reventlow, _Deutschlands auswaertige Politik,_ p. 251.]
+
+Other evidence, especially from Bernhardi, Frobenius, and the works of
+the Pan-German and Navy Leagues, might be quoted in proof of Germany's
+design to begin war when she was fully prepared. Now, the immense sums
+voted in the War Budget of 1913 had not as yet provided the stores of
+artillery and ammunition that were to astonish the world. Nor had Turkey
+recovered from the wounds of 1912. Nor was the enlarged Kiel-North Sea
+Canal ready. Its opening at Midsummer 1914 created a naval situation far
+more favourable to Germany. A year earlier a French naval officer had
+prophesied that she would await the opening of the canal before
+declaring war[548].
+
+[Footnote 548: _Revue des questions diplomatiques_ (1913), pp. 417-18.]
+
+At Midsummer 1914 the general position was as follows. Germany had
+reached the pitch of perfection in armaments, and the Kiel Canal was
+open. France was unready, though the three years' service promised to
+improve her army. The Russian forces were slowly improving in number and
+cohesion. Belgium also, alarmed by the German menace both in Europe and
+on the Congo, had in 1912-13 greatly extended the principle of
+compulsory service, so that in 1914 she would have more than 200,000 men
+available, and by 1926 as many as 340,000. In naval strength it was
+unlikely that Germany would catch up Great Britain. But the submarine
+promised to make even the most powerful ironclads of doubtful value.
+
+Consequently, Germany and her friends (except perhaps Turkey) could
+never hope to have a longer lead over the Entente Powers than in 1914,
+at least as regards efficiency and preparedness. Therefore in the eyes
+of the military party at Berlin the problem resembled that of 1756,
+which Frederick the Great thus stated: "The war was equally certain and
+inevitable. It only remained to calculate whether there was more
+advantage in deferring it a few months or beginning at once." We know
+what followed in 1756--the invasion of neutral Saxony, because she had
+not completed her armaments[549]. For William II. in 1914 the case of
+Belgium was very similar. She afforded him the shortest way of striking
+at his enemy and the richest land for feeding the German forces. That
+Prussia had guaranteed Belgian neutrality counted as naught; that in
+1912 Lord Haldane had warned him of the hostility of England if he
+invaded Belgium was scarcely more important. William, like his ancestor,
+acted solely on military considerations. He despised England: for was
+she not distracted by fierce party feuds, by Labour troubles, by wild
+women, and by what seemed to be the beginnings of civil war in Ireland?
+All the able rulers of the House of Hohenzollern have discerned when to
+strike and to strike hard. In July 1914 William II.'s action was
+typically Hohenzollern; and by this time his engaging personality and
+fiery speeches, aided by professorial and Press propaganda, had
+thoroughly Prussianised Germany. In regard to _moral_ as well as
+_materiel_, "the day" had come by Midsummer 1914.
+
+[Footnote 549: Frederic, _Hist. de la guerre de sept Ans_, i. p. 37.]
+
+Moreover, her generally passive partner, Austria, was then excited to
+frenzy by the murder of the heir to the throne, Archduke Francis
+Ferdinand. The criminals were Austrian Serbs; but no proof was then or
+has since been forthcoming as to the complicity of the Servian
+Government. Nevertheless, in the state of acute tension long existing
+between Servia and Austria-Hungary, the affair seemed the climax of a
+series of efforts at wrecking the Dual Monarchy and setting up a
+Serbo-Croatian Kingdom. Therefore German and Magyar sentiment caught
+flame, and war with Servia was loudly demanded. Dr. Dillon, while
+minimising the question of the murder, prophesied that the quarrel would
+develop into a gigantic struggle between Teuton and Slav[550]. In this
+connection we must remember that the Central Empires had twice dictated
+to the rest of Europe: first, in the Bosnian crisis of 1908-9; secondly,
+in the negotiations which led to the Treaty of Bukharest (August 1913).
+On other occasions Kaiser William had bent the will of Tsar Nicholas
+II., notably in the Potsdam interview of November 1910. It is therefore
+possible that Berlin reckoned once more on the complaisance of Russia;
+and in that event Austria would have dragooned Servia and refashioned
+the Balkan lands at her will, Germany meanwhile "keeping the ring." This
+explanation of the crisis is, however, open to the objection that the
+questions at issue more vitally affected Russia than did those of
+1908-10, and she had nearly recovered normal strength. Unless the
+politicians of Berlin and Vienna were blind, they must have foreseen
+that Russia would aid Servia in resisting the outrageous demands sent
+from Vienna to Belgrade on July 23. Those demands were incompatible with
+Servia's independence; and though she, within the stipulated forty-eight
+hours, acquiesced in all save two of them, the Austrian Government
+declared war (July 28). In so doing it relied on the assurances of the
+German Ambassador, von Tchirsky, that Russia would not fight. But by way
+of retort to the Austrian order for complete mobilisation (July 31, 1
+A.M.), Russia quite early on that same day ordered a similar
+measure[551].
+
+[Footnote 550: _Daily Telegraph_, July 25, 1914.]
+
+[Footnote 551: _J'accuse_, pp. 134-5 (German edition). The partial
+mobilisations of Austria and Russia earlier were intended to threaten
+and protect Servia. The time of Austria's order for complete
+mobilisation is shown in French Yellow Book, No. 115. That of Russia in
+Austrian "Rotbuch," No. 52, and Russian Orange Book, No. 77.]
+
+The procedure of Austria and Germany now claims our attention. The
+policy of Count Berchtold, Austria's Foreign Minister, had generally
+been pacific. On July 28 he yielded to popular clamour for war against
+Servia, but only, it appears, because of his belief that "Russia would
+have no right to intervene after receiving his assurance that Austria
+sought no territorial aggrandisement." On July 30 and 31 he consented to
+continue friendly discussions with Russia. Even on August 1 the Austrian
+Ambassador at Petrograd expressed to the Foreign Minister, Sazonoff,
+the hope that things had not gone too far[552]. There was then still a
+hope that Sir Edward Grey's offer of friendly mediation might be
+accepted by Germany, Austria, and Russia. But on August 1 Germany
+declared war on Russia.
+
+[Footnote 552: Austrian "Rotbuch," Nos. 50-56; British White Papers,
+Miscellaneous (1914), No. 6 (No. 137), and No. 10, p. 3; French Yellow
+Book, No. 120.]
+
+It is well to remember that by her action in August 1913 she held back
+Austria from a warlike policy. In July 1914 some of Germany's officials
+knew of the tenor of the Austrian demands on the Court of Belgrade; and
+her Ambassador at Vienna stated on July 26 that Germany knew what she
+was doing in backing up Austria. Kaiser William, who had been on a
+yachting cruise, hurriedly returned to Berlin on the night of July
+26-27. He must have approved of Austria's declaration of war against
+Servia on July 28, for on that day his Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg,
+finally rejected Sir Edward Grey's proposal of a Peace Conference to
+settle that dispute. The Chancellor then also expressed to our
+Ambassador, Sir Edward Goschen, the belief that Russia had no right to
+intervene in the Austro-Serb affair. The Austrian Ambassador at Berlin
+also opined that "Russia neither wanted nor was in a position to make
+war." This belief was widely expressed in diplomatic circles at Berlin.
+Military men probably viewed matters from that standpoint; and in all
+probability there was a struggle between the civilians and the soldiers,
+which seems to have ended in a victory for the latter in an important
+Council meeting held at Potsdam on the evening of July 29. Immediately
+afterwards the Chancellor summoned Sir Edward Goschen and made to him
+the "infamous proposals" for the neutrality of Great Britain in case of
+a European War, provided that Germany (1) would engage to take no
+territory from the mainland of France (he would make no promise
+respecting the French colonies); (2) would respect the neutrality of
+Holland; (3) would restore the independence of Belgium in case the
+French menace compelled her to invade that country.
+
+These proposals prove that by the evening of July 29 Germany regarded
+war as imminent[553]. But why? Even in the East matters did not as yet
+threaten such a conflict. Russia had declared that Servia was not to be
+made a vassal of the Hapsburgs; and, to give effect to that declaration,
+she had mobilised the southern and eastern portions of her forces as a
+retort to a similar partial mobilisation by Austria. But neither Russia
+nor, perhaps, Austria wished for, or expected, a European war[554].
+Austria seems to have expected a _limited_ war, _i.e._ only with the
+Serbs. She denied that the Russians had any right to intervene so long
+as she did not annex Serb land. Her aim was to reduce the Serbs to
+vassalage, and she expected Germany successfully to prevent Russia's
+intervention, as in 1909[555]. The German proposals of July 29 are the
+first clear sign of a general conflict; for they presumed the
+probability of a war with France in which Belgium, and perhaps England,
+might be involved while Holland would be left alone. In the course of
+his remarks the Chancellor said that "he had in mind a general
+neutrality agreement between England and Germany"--a reference to the
+German offers of 1912 described in this chapter. As at that time the
+Chancellor sought to tie our hands in view of any action by Germany, so,
+too, at present his object clearly was to preclude the possibility of
+our stirring on behalf of Belgium. Both Goschen and Grey must have seen
+the snare. The former referred the proposals to Grey, who of course
+decisively refused them.
+
+[Footnote 553: M. Jules Cambon telegraphed from Berlin to his Government
+on July 30 that late on July 29 Germany had ordered mobilisation, but
+countermanded it in view of the reserve of Sir Edward Goschen as to
+England's attitude, and owing to the Tsar's telegram of July 29 to the
+Kaiser. Berlin papers which had announced the mobilisation were seized.
+All measures preliminary to mobilisation had been taken (French Yellow
+Book, No. 107; German White Book, No. 21).]
+
+[Footnote 554: Russian Orange Book, Nos. 25, 40, 43, 58.]
+
+[Footnote 555: Austrian "Rotbuch," Nos. 28, 31, 44; Brit. White Paper,
+Nos. 91-97, 161. _J'accuse_ (III. A) goes too far in accusing Austria of
+consciously provoking a European War; for, as I have shown, she wished
+on August 1 to continue negotiations with Russia. The retort that she
+did so only when she knew that Germany was about to throw down the
+gauntlet, seems to me far-fetched. Besides, Austria was not ready;
+Germany was.]
+
+This was the first of Grey's actions which betokened tension with
+Germany. Up to the 28th his efforts for peace had seemed not unlikely to
+be crowned with success. On July 20, that is three days before Austria
+precipitated the crisis, he begged the Berlin Government to seek to
+moderate her demands on Servia. The day after the Austrian Note he urged
+a Conference between France and England on one side and Germany and
+Italy on the other so as to counsel moderation to their respective
+Allies, Russia and Austria. It was Germany and Austria who negatived
+this by their acts of the 28th. Still Grey worked for peace, with the
+approval of Russia, and, on July 30 to August 1, of Austria. But on July
+31 and August 1 occurred events which frustrated these efforts. On July
+31 the Berlin Government, hearing of the complete mobilisation by Russia
+(a retort to the similar proceeding of Austria a few hours earlier),
+sent a stiff demand to Petrograd for demobilisation within twelve hours;
+also to Paris for a reply within eighteen hours whether it would remain
+neutral in case of a Russo-German War.
+
+Here we must pause to notice that to ask Russia to demobilise, without
+requiring the same measure from Austria, was manifestly unjust. Russia
+could not have assented without occupying an inferior position to
+Austria. If Germany had desired peace, she would have suggested the same
+action for each of the disputants. Further, while blaming the Russians
+for mobilising, she herself had taken all the preliminary steps,
+including what is called _Kriegsgefahr_, which made her army far better
+prepared for war than mobilisation itself did for the Russian Empire in
+view of its comparatively undeveloped railway system. Again, if the
+Kaiser wished to avoid war, why did he not agree to await the arrival
+(on August 1) of the special envoy, Tatisheff, whom, on the night of
+July 30, the Tsar had despatched to Berlin[556]? There is not a single
+sign that the Berlin Government really feared "the Eastern Colossus,"
+though statements as to "the eastern peril" were very serviceable in
+frightening German Socialists into line.
+
+[Footnote 556: German White Book, No. 23_a_; _J'accuse_, Section III. B,
+pp. 153, 164 (German edit.), shows that the German White Book suppressed
+the Tsar's second telegram of July 29 to the Kaiser, inviting him to
+refer the Austro-Serb dispute to the Hague Tribunal. (See, too, J.W.
+Headlam, _History of Twelve Days,_ p. 183.)]
+
+The German ultimatum failed to cow Russia; and as she returned no
+answer, the Kaiser declared war on August 1. He added by telegram that
+he had sought, _in accord with England,_ to mediate between Russia and
+Austria, but the Russian mobilisation led to his present action. In
+reply to the German demand at Paris the French Premier, M. Viviani,
+declared on August 1 at 1 P.M. that France would do that "which her
+interests dictated"--an evasive reply designed to gain time and to see
+what course Russia would take. The Kaiser having declared war on Russia,
+France had no alternative but to come to the assistance of her Ally. But
+the Kaiser's declaration of war against France did not reach Paris until
+August 3 at 6.45 P.M.[557] His aim was to leave France and Belgium in
+doubt as to his intentions, and meanwhile to mass overwhelming forces on
+their borders, especially that of Belgium.
+
+[Footnote 557: German White Book, Nos. 26, 27; French Yellow Book, No.
+147.]
+
+Meanwhile, on August 1, German officials detained and confiscated the
+cargoes of a few British ships. On August 2 German troops violated the
+neutrality of Luxemburg. On the same day Sir Edward Grey assured the
+French ambassador, M. Paul Cambon, that if the German fleet attacked
+that of France or her coasts, the British fleet would afford protection.
+This assurance depended, however, on the sanction of Parliament. It is
+practically certain that Parliament would have sanctioned this
+proceeding; and, if so, war would have come about owing to the naval
+understanding with France[558], that is, if Germany chose to disregard
+it. But another incident brought matters to a clearer issue. On August
+3, German troops entered Belgium, though on the previous day the German
+ambassador had assured the Government of King Albert that no such step
+would be taken. The pretext now was that the French were about to
+invade Belgium, as to which there was then, and has not been since, any
+proof whatever.
+
+[Footnote 558: British White Paper, No. 105 and _Enclosures_, also No.
+116.]
+
+Here we must go back in order to understand the action of the British,
+French, and German Governments. They and all the Powers had signed the
+treaty of 1839 guaranteeing the independence of Belgium; and nothing had
+occurred since to end their engagement. The German proposals of July 29,
+1914, having alarmed Sir Edward Grey, he required both from Paris and
+Berlin assurances that neither Power would invade Belgium. That of
+France on August 1 was clear and satisfactory. On July 31 the German
+Secretary of State, von Jagow, declined to give a reply, because "any
+reply they [the Emperor and Chancellor] might give could not but
+disclose a certain amount of their plan of campaign in the event of war
+ensuing." As on August 2 the official assurances of the German
+ambassador at Brussels were satisfactory, the British Foreign Office
+seems to have felt no great alarm on this topic. But at 7 P.M. of that
+evening the same ambassador presented a note from his Government
+demanding the right to march its troops into Belgium in order to prevent
+a similar measure by the French. On the morrow Belgium protested against
+this act, and denied the rumour as to French action. King Albert also
+telegraphed to King George asking for the help of the United Kingdom.
+The tidings reached the British Cabinet after it had been carefully
+considering whether German aggression on Belgium would not constitute a
+_casus belli_[559].
+
+[Footnote 559: British White Paper, Nos. 123, 151, 153; Belgian Grey
+Book, Nos. 20-25. For a full and convincing refutation of the German
+charges that our military attaches at Brussels in 1906 and 1912 had
+bound us by _conventions_(!) to land an army in Belgium, see second
+Belgian Grey Book, pp. 103-6; Headlam, _op. cit._, ch. xvi., also p.
+377, on the charge that France was about to invade Belgium.]
+
+The news of the German demand and the King's appeal reached Westminster
+just before the first debate on August 3. Sir Edward Grey stated that we
+were not parties to the Franco-Russian Alliance, of which we did not
+know the exact terms; and there was no binding compact with France; but
+the conversations on naval affairs pledged us to consult her with a
+view to preventing an unprovoked attack by the German navy. He explained
+his conditional promise to M. Cambon. Thereupon Mr. Redmond promised the
+enthusiastic support of all Irishmen. Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, though
+demurring to the policy of Sir Edward Grey, said, "If the Right
+Honourable gentleman could come to us and tell us that a small European
+nationality like Belgium is in danger, and could assure us that he is
+going to confine the conflict to that question, then we would support
+him." Now, the Cabinet had by this time resolved that the independence
+of Belgium should be a test question, as it was in 1870. Therefore,
+there seemed the hope that not only the Irish but all the Labour party
+would give united support to the Government. By the evening debate
+official information had arrived; and, apart from some cavilling
+criticisms, Parliament was overwhelmingly in favour of decided action on
+behalf of Belgium. Sir Edward Grey despatched to Berlin an ultimatum
+demanding the due recognition of Belgian neutrality by Germany. No
+answer being sent, Great Britain and Germany entered on a state of war
+shortly before midnight of August 4.
+
+The more fully the facts are known, the clearer appears the aggressive
+character of German policy. Some of her Ministers doubted the
+advisability of war, and hoped to compass their ends by threats as in
+1909 and 1913; but they were overborne by the bellicose party on or
+shortly before July 29. Whether the Kaiser, the Crown Prince, or the
+General Staff is most to blame, it is idle to speculate; but German
+diplomacy at the crisis shows every sign of having been forced on by
+military men. Bethmann-Hollweg was never remarkable for breadth of view
+and clearness of insight; yet he alone could scarcely have perpetrated
+the follies which alienated Italy and outraged the sentiments of the
+civilised world in order to gain a few days' start over France and stab
+her unguarded side. It is a clumsy imitation of the policy of
+Frederick in 1756.
+
+As to the forbearance of Great Britain at the crisis, few words are
+needed. In earlier times the seizure of British ships and their cargoes
+(August 1) would have led to a rupture. Clearly, Sir Edward Grey and his
+colleagues clung to peace as long as possible. The wisdom of his
+procedure at one or two points has been sharply impugned. Critics have
+said that early in the crisis he should have empowered Sir George
+Buchanan, our ambassador at Petrograd, to join Russia and France in a
+declaration of our resolve to join them in case of war[560]. But (1) no
+British Minister is justified in committing his country to such a course
+of action. (2) The terms of the Ententes did not warrant it. (3) A
+menace to Germany and Austria would, by the terms of the Triple
+Alliance, have compelled Italy to join them, and it was clearly the aim
+of the British Government to avert such a disaster. (4) On July 30 and
+31 Grey declared plainly to Germany that she must not count on our
+neutrality in all cases, and that a Franco-German War (quite apart from
+the question of Belgium) would probably draw us in[561].
+
+[Footnote 560: British White Paper, Nos. 6, 24, 99; Russian Orange Book,
+No. 17.]
+
+[Footnote 561: British White Paper, Nos. 101, 102, 111, 114, 119. I
+dissent from Mr. F.S. Oliver (_Ordeal by Battle,_ pp. 30-34) on the
+question discussed above. For other arguments, see my _Origins of the
+War,_ pp. 167-9. The ties binding Roumania to Germany and Austria were
+looser; but anything of the nature of a general threat to the Central
+Powers would probably have ranged her too on their side.]
+
+Sir Edward is also charged with not making our intentions clear as to
+what would happen in case of the violation of the neutrality of Belgium.
+But he demanded, both from France and Germany, assurances that they
+would respect that neutrality; and on August 1 he informed the German
+ambassador in London of our "very great regret" at the ambiguity of the
+German reply. Also, on August 2 the German ambassador at Brussels
+protested that Belgium was quite safe so far as concerned Germany[562].
+When a great Power gives those assurances, it does not improve matters
+to threaten her with war if she breaks them. She broke them on August 3;
+whereupon Grey took the decided action which Haldane had declared in
+1912 that we would take. The clamour raised in Germany as to our
+intervention being unexpected is probably the result of blind adherence
+to a preconceived theory and of rage at a "decadent" nation daring to
+oppose an "invincible" nation. The German Government of course knew the
+truth, but its education of public opinion through the Press had become
+a fine art. Therefore, at the beginning of the war all Germans believed
+that France was about to invade Belgium, whereupon they stepped in to
+save her; that the Eastern Colossus had precipitated the war by its
+causeless mobilisation (a falsehood which ranged nearly all German
+Socialists on the side of the Government); that Russia and Servia had
+planned the dismemberment of Austria; that, consequently, Teutons (and
+Turks) must fight desperately for national existence in a conflict
+forced upon them by Russia, Servia, and France, England perfidiously
+appearing as a renegade to her race and creed.
+
+[Footnote 562: British White Paper, Nos. 114, 122, 123, 125; Belgian
+Grey Book, No. 19.]
+
+By these falsehoods, dinned into a singularly well-drilled and docile
+people, the Germans were worked up to a state of frenzy for an
+enterprise for which their rulers had been preparing during more than a
+decade. The colossal stores of war material, amassed especially in
+1913-14 (some of them certain soon to deteriorate), the exquisitely
+careful preparations at all points of the national life, including the
+colonies, refute the fiction that war was forced upon Germany. The
+course of the negotiations preceding the war, the assiduous efforts of
+Germany to foment Labour troubles in Russia before the crisis, the
+unpreparedness of the Allies for the fierce and sustained energy of the
+Teutonic assault,--all these symptoms prove the guilt of Germany[563].
+The crowning proof is that up to the present (August 1915) she has not
+issued a complete set of diplomatic documents, and not one despatch
+which bears out the Chancellor's statement that he used his influence at
+Vienna for peace. The twenty-nine despatches published in her White Book
+are a mere fragment of her immense diplomatic correspondence which she
+has found it desirable to keep secret, and, as we have seen, her
+officials suppressed the Tsar's second telegram of July 29 urging that
+the Austro-Serb dispute be referred to the Hague Tribunal.
+
+[Footnote 563: See the damning indictment by a German in _J'accuse_,
+Section III., also the thorough and judicial examination by J.W.
+Headlam, _The History of Twelve Days_.]
+
+The sets of despatches published by the Allies show conclusively that
+each of them worked for peace and was surprised by the war. Their
+unpreparedness and the absolute preparedness of Germany have appeared so
+clearly during the course of hostilities as to give the lie to the
+German pamphleteers who have striven to prove that in the last resort
+the war was "a preventive war," that is, designed to avert a future
+conflict at a time unfavourable to Germany. There is not a sign that any
+one of the Powers of the Entente was making more than strictly defensive
+preparations; and, as has been shown, the Entente themselves were formed
+in order to give mutual protection in case of aggression from her. The
+desperate nature of that aggression appeared in her unscrupulous but
+successful efforts to force Turkey into war (Oct.-Nov. 1914). No crime
+against Christendom has equalled that whereby the champions of _Kultur_
+sought to stir up the fanatical passions of the Moslem World against
+Europe. Fortunately, that design has failed; and incidentally it added
+to the motives which have led Italy to break loose from the Central
+Powers and assist the Allies in assuring the future of the oppressed
+nationalities of Europe.
+
+[Illustration: THE PARTITION OF AFRICA IN 1902.]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Abdul, Aziz 168-9
+Abdul Hamid II., 169-70, 174, 177-9, 185-6, 204, 223-4, 238, 245-9,
+    259, 266-9, 274-5, 277, 285, 328, 436, 447-8, 453, 457, 591-2, 618
+Abdul Kerim, 194-6, 200, 204, 206
+Abdur Rahman, 389, 400, 404-5, 407, 417, 418-19, 428-31, 433
+Abeken, Herr, 44
+Abu Klea, Battle of, 480
+Abyssinia, 335, 487, 504
+Adam, Mme, 333
+Adrianople, 221, 223, 229, 251, 270
+Aehrenthal, Count, 613-4
+Afghanistan, 334, 345-6, 366, 378-9, 386-91, 472, 527
+  War in (1878-9), chap. xiv. 394 _passim_
+Africa, Partition of, chap. xviii, _passim_, 586
+Africa, South-West, 635-6
+Agadir, Coup d', 621, 623, 625
+Albania, 158, 229
+Albania, autonomy of, 630-1
+Albert, King of Belgium, 644-5
+Albrecht, Archduke, 33-6
+Alexander I., 31, 160-1, 297, 364
+Alexander II., 145, 167, 173-5, 180-83, 192, 204-5, 209-10, 215, 222-8,
+   234, 254-6, 289, 293, 295-8, 306, 308, 313, 318, 322, 325, 355, 398-9
+Alexander III., 255-65, 272-86, 298-9, 301-4, 309-11, 331, 337, 340,
+   343-6, 423-4, 428-9
+Alexander, Prince of Bulgaria, 254, 260-82, 286, 339, 428
+Alexandretta, 622
+Alexandria, bombardment of, 450-52
+Alfonso, King of Spain, 619
+_Algeciras_, Conference of, 604, 606-8, 610
+  Act of, 607
+Alikhanoff, M., 424
+Alsace, 94, 105, 132, 133-4
+Alvensleben, General von, 61, 65-7, 77
+Amur, river, 571, 572, 580
+Andrassy, Count, 164, 232, 599
+Andre, General, 600
+Anglo-French Entente (1904), 601-4, 606, 607, 609, 622, 626, 636
+Anglo-German Agreement (1890), 520-523,525, 532
+Anglo-Japanese Compact, 597-8, 602
+Anglo-Russian Conventions, 608-10
+Angra Pequena, 523, 524
+Antonelli, Cardinal, 89
+Arabi Pasha, 266, 444, 447-9, 452, 453-7
+Archinard, M., 539
+Argyll, Duke of, 371-2, 376, 417
+Armenia, 220, 229, 242, 244, 250, 307
+Army Bill, French (1875), 119, 121-2
+Arnim, Count von, 123, 318
+Artomoroff, Colonel, 504
+Asquith, H.H., 626-8
+Atbara, Battle of the, 490-91
+Augustenburg, Duke of, 16
+Aumale, Duc d', 117
+Austria, 4-23, 32-7, 55, 63, 137, 148, 164, 177, 180-81, 184-6, 194,
+    227-8, 231, 232, 238, 242, 246, 257-8, 259, 271, 282, 284, 318,
+    320, 323-7, 331-3, 350-51, 485, 585, 592-3, 601, 604, 607, 609,
+    612-17, 622, 629-32, 634, 637, 639, 644, 647, 649
+  Army of, 635
+Austro-German Alliance, 324-7
+Austro-Prussian War (1866), 17-21
+Austro-Russian Agreements (1897 and 1903), 615
+Austro-Russian Treaty (1877), 179-180
+Ayub Khan, 407, 415, 418-9
+
+Baden, 12, 21
+Baden, Grand Duke of, 130
+Baert, Captain, 564
+Bagdad Railway, 591-4, 609, 615, 622, 637
+Bahr-el-Ghazal, the, 504, 506, 552, 558-9
+Bakunin, 292-5
+Balfour, Mr. A., 431-2
+Balkan League, the, 629, 632
+Balkan Peninsula, 25, 332
+Balkan Question, the, 631-2
+Balkan States, 586, 592, 616, 628-9, 633
+Balkan War (1912), 624, 629-31, 633
+Balkh, 399, 433
+Baluchistan, 367, 381, 384-6, 432
+Baring, Sir E., 463, 466-473
+Batak, 170, 171
+Batoum, 205, 229, 234, 241, 276
+Bavaria, 18, 20, 21, 131, 133-5
+Bazaine, Marshall, 63-5, 67-73, 75-8, 97
+Bazeilles, 79-82
+Beaconsfield, Earl of, 29, 165-6, 171, 175, 181, 182, 187-8, 220, 231,
+    232-3, 234, 236-7, 240-41, 243-5, 287, 328, 380, 282-3, 391-3,
+    400, 405, 440, 516
+Beaumont, Battle of, 78
+Bebel, Herr, 589
+Bechuanaland, 530-33
+Beernaert, M., 556
+Belfort, 98, 104, 105
+Belgium, 5, 16, 26, 148, 550-52, 555-7, 567, 625, 627-8, 638-9, 641-2,
+    644-8
+Bendereff, 271, 278-9
+Benedek, General, 18
+Benedetti, M., 40-43, 48
+Bentley, Rev. W.H., 546
+Berber, 473, 475, 478, 488, 490
+Berchtold, Count, 640
+Beresford, Lord Charles, 480
+Berlin Conference (1885), 548-50, 552, 559, 562, 567
+  Congress of (1878), 228, 235-42, 247, 259, 323, 328, 345, 388, 513
+  Memorandum, the, 167-9, 181
+Berlin, Treaty of (1878), 237-42, 253, 267-8, 275, 291, 332, 353, 612,
+    629
+Bernhardi, General von, 625-6, 638
+Besika Bay, 168, 171, 172, 177, 224
+Bessarabia, 160, 205, 230, 234, 260
+Bethman-Hollweg, Chancellor, 620, 623, 625, 627, 633-4, 641-2, 645-6, 648
+Beust, Count von, 32, 36, 37
+Biarritz, 16
+Biddulph, General, 398
+Bismarck, Prince Otto von, 8, 12-22, 27, 30, 31, 39, 41-49, 85, 86, 89,
+    94, 97, 103-5, 109, 114, 118, 123, 129-32, 137, 140, 141, 153, 164,
+    168, 173, 184, 228, 257, 261, 282, 317-27, 332, 335, 336-8, 342, 426,
+    446, 457, 513-15, 520-21, 527, 528, 534, 547, 548, 590, 599, 609
+  and "Protection," 141-150
+Bismarck, Count Herbert, 523-4, 528
+Blagovestchensk, 584
+Blowitz, M. de, 321-2
+Blumenthal, Count von, 72, 77, 85, 94
+Boer War, 585-8, 590, 597-8, 610, 636
+Bokhara, 365, 371
+Bonnier, M., 539
+Bordeaux, 98, 99, 103, 105, 106, 116, 118
+Bosnia, 163, 168, 238, 242, 258, 332
+Bosnia-Herzegovina, annexation of, 612, _seq_. 640
+Botha, General, 598
+Boulanger, General, 126, 333, 337, 339, 341
+Bourbaki, General, 98
+Bourbon, House of, 3-6
+Bourgas, 278
+Bourgeois, M., 504
+Boxer Movement, the, 583
+Boxer Rising in China (1900), 588, 595
+Brazza, M. de, 546
+Bremen, 132, 142
+Bright, Mr. J., 417, 452
+British Central Africa Protectorate, 533
+Broadwood, General, 487, 496, 498
+Browne, General Sir Samuel, 394
+Brussels, Conference at (1876), 545
+  Anti-Slavery Conference at, 534
+Buchanan, Sir George, 647
+Bukharest, Peace of (1913), 631-2, 637, 639
+Bukharest, Treaty of (1886), 272
+Bulgaria, 157-9, 163, 170-72, 176, 180, 225, 229-30, 234, 237-9,
+    251-288, 302, 333, 334
+  Campaigns in, 194-216
+Buelow, Prince von, 588-9, 596, 603, 605, 607, 617
+Bundesrath, the, 133-4, 138
+Burmah, 527, 530
+  Annexation of, 432
+Burnaby, Colonel, 480
+Burrows, Brigadier-General, 407
+Busa, 540
+Busch, Dr., 22, 143
+
+Cabul, 370, 381, 383, 387, 388, 390, 401-5, 412-413, 431
+Cabul, Treaty of (1905), 435
+Cairo, capture of, 455-6
+Cairoli, Signor, 329
+"Caisse de la Delte" (Egyptian), 442, 459
+Cambon, Jules, 620
+  Paul, 644, 646
+Cameroons, 528, 533-6
+Candahar, 367, 381, 387, 398, 405, 407, 413-18, 432
+Canning, Lord, 368
+Canrobert, Marshal, 72
+Caprivi, Count, 520
+Carnarvon, Lord, 225, 525
+Carnot, President Sadi, 127
+Casement, Mr. Roger, 558, 560-62, 565, 566
+Cassini, Count, 580
+Catharine II., 361
+Cattier, M., 552, 563, 564
+Cavagnari, Sir Louis, 401
+Cavour, Count, 8-11, 13, 90, 142, 161
+Centralisation of Governments, 111-112, 315
+Chad, Lake, 537
+Chalons-sur-Marne, 68, 74, 75
+Chamberlain, Mr., 417
+Chambord, Comte de, 117, 122, 123
+Charasia, Battle of (1878), 402-3
+Charles, King of Roumania, 192, 206, 210, 215, 230, 262, 632
+Charles Albert, King, 6-8
+Chevket Pacha, 626
+China, 568, 571-2, 576-82, 595-7
+Chino-Japanese War, 576-7
+Chitral, 386, 388, 433
+Chotek, Countess, 613
+Christian IX., 14
+Churchill, Winston, 627, 634
+Clement, Bishop, 280, 282
+Cobden, Mr., 142
+Colombey, Battle of, 63-5
+Combes, M., 349, 600
+Congo Free State, the, 502, 541, _passim_ chap. xix.
+Congo, French, 622, 625
+Constantinople, Conference of (1876), 174, 176-9
+Constitution, French (1875), 124-5
+  German, 132-7
+  Turkish (1876), 177-9
+Constitution of Finland, 308, 309
+Cossacks, the, 360-62, 434, 435, 453
+Coulmiers, Battle of, 97
+Cranbrook, Lord, 387
+Crete, 240, 248
+Crimean War, 8, 13, 30, 31, 161-2, 345, 365, 425, 434
+Crispi, Signor, 336, 337, 355, 600
+Cromer, Lord. _See_ Baring, Sir E.
+Cronstadt, 343, 346
+Crown Prince of Saxony, 74, 130
+Currie, Sir Donald, 524, 528
+Curzon, Lord, 423, 431, 432, 576
+Cyprus, 328
+  Convention, 234-5, 243-4, 250
+
+Dahomey, 539
+Dalmatia, 329
+Dalny, 583
+Dardanelles, the, 168, 222, 224, 225, 241
+Decazes, Duc, 321-2, 440
+Delagoa Bay, 525-6, 528, 534
+Delcasse, M., 587, 601, 606, 607
+Denghil Tepe, Battle of, 420-23, 500
+Denmark, 4, 5, 13-16, 35
+Depretis, Signor, 329, 335-6, 355
+Derby, Lord, 166, 176, 178, 181, 222, 224, 225, 226, 231, 243, 440,
+    524, 530
+De Wet, General, 598, 635
+Dhanis, Commandant, 553
+Dilke, Sir Charles, 465, 563
+Dillon, Dr., 639
+Disraeli. _See_ Beaconsfield
+Dobrudscha, 197, 199, 229-30, 240
+Dodds, Colonel, 539
+Dolgorukoff, General, 280-81
+Dongola, 474, 476, 479, 488, 489
+Dost Mohammed, 368, 379
+Dragomiroff, General, 197
+Dreyfus, M., 600
+Drouyn de Lhuys, 20
+Drury Lowe, General Sir, 454-6
+Dual Alliance, 342-50, 587-8, 590, 599, 609, 616, 644
+Dual Control, the (in Egypt), 442, 443, 445, 457
+Ducrot, General, 80, 81, 83
+Dufaure, M., 126, 245, 246
+Dufferin, Lord, 326, 424, 426-8, 429, 458, 461-2
+Dulcigno, 246-7
+Durand, Sir Mortimer, 433
+Durbar at Delhi (1878), 383
+
+East Africa (British), 520-21, 523
+  (German), 520-23
+East Africa Company (British), 519-22
+Eastern Question, the, 155-189, 222-250, 383, 615, 636-7
+Eastern Roumelia, 238, 253, 259, 260, 263-4, 268, 275-6, 333
+Eckardstein, Herr, 527
+Edward VII., 601, 608, 618-9
+Egypt, 166, 244, 266, 275, 602, 636-7,
+    _passim_ chaps. xv. xvi. xvii.
+Einwold, Herr, 527
+Elgin, Lord, 368
+Elliott, Sir Henry, 176, 177, 221
+El Obeid, Battle of, 461, 462
+El Teb, Battle of, 470
+Ems, 42-5
+Ena, Queen of Spain, 619
+England. _See_ Great Britain
+Enver Bey, 630
+Epirus, 241, 248
+Erzeroum, 194, 241
+Eugenie, Empress, 19, 29, 38, 47, 75, 87, 97, 139
+
+Faidherbe, M. 538
+Fashoda, 349, 501-6, 594
+Faure, President, 127, 346
+Favre, M. Jules, 87, 88, 94, 98, 103, 114
+Ferdinand, Prince, 285-6
+Ferdinand, Tsar, of Bulgaria, 612, 631
+Fergusson, Sir James, 336
+Ferry, M., 266, 329
+Finland, 304, 307-14
+Flegel, Herr, 535
+Floquet, M., 126
+Flourens, M., 343
+Forbach, Battle of, 62, 63
+Formosa, Island of, 577
+Fox Bourne, Mr., 563
+France, 3-6, 9, 19, 20, 25-9, 32, 33, 35, 46-9, 52-6, 87-9, 112, 161,
+    228, 318, 320-24, 326, 333-6, 337-8, 341-5, 347-9, 350, 437-8,
+    442, 446, 448, 452-3, 457, 458-9, 485, 513-514, 529, 535, 537-41,
+    546-9, 558, 559, 577-9, 585-6, 591, 593-4, 597, 599-608, 614-6, 618,
+    620-2, 624, 626, 638, 641-8
+  and Morocco, 602, 604-7, 609-10, 620 _seq_., 636-7
+  Army of, 634-5
+France and the Sudan, 501-6
+France and Tunis, 328-30
+Francis Ferdinand, Archduke, 613-4, 639
+Francis Joseph, 6, 32, 36, 173, 232, 318, 613
+Franco-German War, causes of, 36-49
+Franco-Italian Entente, 601
+Franco-Russian Alliance. (_See_ Dual Alliance)
+Frankfurt, Treaty of, 105, 114
+Frankfurt-on-Main, 11, 12, 21, 22
+Frederick the Great, 594, 635, 638, 646
+Frederick III., Crown Prince of Germany and Emperor, 18, 74, 76, 80,
+    130, 136, 151, 236
+Frederick VII., 14
+Frederick Charles, Prince, 66, 68
+Frederick William IV., 11-13, 31, 593
+Free Trade (in Germany), 141-3
+  (in France), 142
+French Congoland, 506, 546, 622, 625
+French Revolution of 1830, 5
+Frere, Sir Bartle, 380-81, 524
+Freycinet, M. de, 446, 447, 452, 456, 502, 503
+Frobenius, Herr, 638
+Frossard, General, 63-5
+
+Galatz, 197
+Galbraith, Colonel, 411
+Gallieni, M., 539
+Gallipoli, 222, 226
+Gambetta, M., 87, 96-101, 110, 125, 318, 330, 446, 452, 538
+Gandamak, Treaty of, 400, 418
+Garde Mobile, the, 55, 94
+Garde Nationale, the, 55, 94
+Garibaldi, 6, 7, 9-11, 28, 90-91, 327
+Gastein, Convention of, 16
+Gatacre, General, 490, 492
+Gavril, Pasha, 263
+Geok Tepe. _See_ Denghil Tepe
+George V., King of England, 645
+George, David Lloyd, 623, 625
+German Army, 135, 633-4
+German Army, Kriegsgefahr, 643
+  Confederation (1815-66), 4-22
+  Constitution (1871), 132-7
+  Empire, 129. _See_ Germany
+  Navy, 587-9, 594, 609, 617, 628, 633, 638
+  Zollverein, the, 141-2
+Germany, 3-6, 11-18, 20-23, 27, 34, 39, 45-9, 51-5, 129-154, 164-6,
+    223, 246, 275, 277, 282, 318-27, 329, 330, 337-9, 350, 447-8, 453,
+    457, 472, 485, 513-18, 520-22, 524-30, 533-7, 541, 547, 559,
+    577-9, 581, 585-9, 592, 595-7, 600-609, 615-18, 620-21, 623-8,
+    632, 634, 635-8, 640-49
+Gervais, Admiral, 343
+Ghaznee, Battle of, 405
+Giers, M. de, 258, 263, 265, 276, 281, 285, 302, 332, 333-5, 337, 424,
+    427, 515
+Gladstone, Mr., 29, 46, 172, 223, 244, 275, 356, 371, 372, 376, 380,
+    392, 405, 417, 427-9, 446, 448-9, 452, 458, 461, 465, 484-5, 502,
+    517, 524, 528, 530, 531
+Glave, Mr., 562
+Gold Coast, 539
+Goldie, Sir George T., 535, 541
+Gontaut-Biron, M. de, 421
+Gordon, General, _passim_ chaps. xvi. xvii.
+Gortchakoff, Prince, 164, 168, 190, 222, 226, 320, 322-3, 366
+Goschen, Lord, 244, 246, 442
+Goschen, Sir Edward, 641-2
+Gough, General, 404
+Gramont, Duc de, 32, 40, 42, 43, 47
+Grant Duff, Sir Mountstuart, 322
+Granville, Earl, 45, 389, 425-6, 447, 463, 465, 470, 473-4, 517, 523,
+    533, 547
+Gravelotte, Battle of, 68-73
+Great Britain, 14, 29, 30, 52, 95, 145, 147-9, 160-61, 168-77, 181,
+    187-8, 190, 231, 259, 266, 282, 284, 322-4, 328, 336, 337, 342,
+    364-6, 372-4, 382-4, 392-4, 400, 404-6, 417, 435, 513-14, 521,
+    523-30, 533-7, 541, 547, 578-9, 581-2, 585-7, 600, 604-9, 616,
+    618, 620, 622-3, 626-8, 636-9, 641-8
+  Army of, 634
+Great Britain and Egypt, _passim_ chaps. xv. xvi. xvii.
+Great Britain and Russia (1878), 222-8
+Greco-Turkish War, 585
+Greece, 5, 158, 160, 194, 227, 240-41, 245-8, 257, 267
+Grenfell, Rev. G., 546
+Grevy, M., 337, 355
+Grey, Sir Edward, 503, 586, 623, 626, 631, 634, 641-7
+Griffin, Sir Lepel, 405-6
+Gurko, General, 201-3, 208, 219
+
+Habibulla, Ameer of Afghanistan, 431, 435
+Hague Conference, 608
+  Congress, the (1899), 583
+  Tribunal, 601, 649
+Haldane, Lord, 627, 639, 647
+Hamburg, 132, 142
+Hanotaux, M., 504
+Hanover, 11, 21, 23
+Hartington, Lord, 417, 465, 476
+Hayashi, Count, 596
+Heligoland, 521, 637
+Herat, 367, 368, 381, 387, 388, 405, 425
+Hericourt, Battle of, 98
+Herzegovina, 163-5, 170, 238, 332
+Hesse-Cassel, 12, 21, 23
+Hesse Darmstadt, 20
+Heydebrand, Herr, 625
+Hicks, Pasha, 461-2
+Hinde, Captain S.L., 553
+Hinterland, Question of the, 547, 550
+Hohenlohe, Prince, 589
+Hohenzollern, House of, 11, 39-41, 129;
+  also _see_ Germany
+Holland, 5, 554-5, 641-2
+Holstein, 5, 26
+Holy Alliance, the, 5, 319
+Holy Roman Empire, the, 136
+Hornby, Admiral, 224
+Hoskier, M., 340
+Hudson, Sir James, 274
+Hungary, 32, 36, 159, 263, 277
+Hunter, General, 487
+
+Iddesleigh, Lord, 519
+Ignatieff, General, 174, 177, 181, 229, 230, 232, 332
+India, 165, 212, 365, 368, 592
+"International Association of the Congo," 545, 547-9
+"Internationale," the, 292
+Isabella, Queen, 40
+Ismail, Khedive, 438-40, 442
+Istria, 329
+Isvolsky, M., 615
+"_Italia irredenta_," 329
+Italo-Turkish War, the, 624, 628
+Italy, 4-11, 16-23, 28, 30, 34, 37, 38, 55, 56, 63, 89-92, 148, 228,
+    266, 284, 319, 335, 350, 453, 485, 487, 540, 541, 567, 601, 603-5,
+    607, 615-17, 624, 628, 631, 636, 643, 646-7, 649
+Italy and the Triple Alliance, 327-331, 600, 601, 615, 624, 637, 647
+
+Jacob, General, 385
+Jacobabad, Treaty of, 385
+Jagow, Herr von, 645
+Jameson, Dr. 587
+Janssen, M., 552
+Japan, 348, 572-4, 576-8, 581-4, 585, 597-9
+Jaures, M., 634
+Jermak, 361, 569, 570
+Jesuits, the, 138
+Jews, persecution of the, 304, 305
+Johnstone, Sir Harry, 519, 541
+
+Kamchatka, 570, 571
+Karaveloff, M., 256, 259, 280
+Kars, 194, 229, 234
+Kassala, 487, 488, 491
+Katkoff, M., 259, 283, 324, 332, 333, 334, 337
+Kaufmann, General, 366, 383, 398
+Kaulbars, General, 255, 257-8, 283, 284
+Khalifa, _passim_ chap. xvii.
+Khama, 533
+Khartum, 437, 439, 445, _passim_ chaps. xvi. xvii.
+Khelat, Khan of, 384-5
+Khiva, 365, 374, 377
+Khokand, 383
+Khyber Pass, 386, 390, 394, 401, 412
+Kiamil Pacha, 630
+Kiao-chau, 580-81
+Kiderlen-Waechter, Herr, 621-2
+Kiel, North Sea Canal, 587, 604, 637-8
+Kirk, Sir John, 518, 541
+Kitchener, Lord, 441, 479, 598, _passim_ chap. xvii.
+Komaroff, General, 427, 428
+Koeniggraetz, Battle of, 18-20
+Kordofan, 461, 462, 470, 476
+Korea, 568
+Korsakoff, General, 254
+Kossuth, 6
+Kruedener, General, 200, 206-7
+Krueger, President, 586-7
+Kultur-Kampf, the, 139-41
+Kuropatkin, General, 311-12, 314, 422-3
+Kurram Valley, the, 394-7, 400
+
+Labouchere, Mr., 336
+Lado, 502, 558-9
+Lagos, 539
+Lamsdorff, Count, 575
+Lansdowne, Lord, 433, 567, 597, 602, 606
+Lavigerie, Cardinal, 534
+Lawrence, Lord J., 365, 368-9, 371, 385, 387
+Layard, Sir Henry, 221, 226, 245, 246
+Leboeuf, Marshall, 47, 53, 64, 65
+Lebrun, General, 34-6, 65
+Leflo, General, 322
+Le Mans, Battle of, 98
+Leo XIII., 327, 331, 335
+Leopold II. (King of the Belgians), 342, 465, 509, 514, 543,
+    550-52, 555-7, 558, 565
+Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern, 40, 42
+Lessar, M., 424
+Lesseps, M. de, 438, 441
+Lewis, General, 487
+Liaotung Peninsula, 577, 578, 581-2
+Liberation, Wars of (1813-14), 635
+Li-Hung Chang, 577, 578, 582
+Lissa, Battle of, 17
+Livingstone, D., 508-9, 543-4, 567
+Lobanoff, Prince, 575
+Local Government (French), 119, 120
+Lomakin, General, 420
+Lombardy, 5-11, 32
+London, Conference of (1867), 15, 28
+  Congress of (1871), 95
+London, Peace Conference at (1913), 630-31, 634
+Lorraine, 94, 103, 105, 132, 133-4
+Lothaire, Commandant, 553
+Loubet, M., 127, 601
+Louis Philippe, King, 6
+Lovtcha, 210, 212
+Luebeck, 132, 142
+Luederitz, Herr, 523
+Lugard, Sir Frederick, 522, 537, 541
+Lumsden, Sir Peter, 426
+Luxemburg, 27, 28, 32, 39
+Lyttleton, Colonel, 492
+Lytton, Lord, 481-7, 490-92, 405-6, 417, 419
+
+Macdonald, General, 402, 487, 491, 496-8
+Macdonald, Ramsay, 646
+Macedonia, 158, 230, 248, 250, 287-8, 391
+Mackenzie, Rev. John, 530-31, 541
+Mackinnon, Sir William, 516, 541
+Maclaine, Lieutenant, 408, 415
+MacMahon, Marshall, 59-61, 74-80, 123, 125-7, 322, 525-6
+Mahdi, the, 266; chaps. xvi. xvii. _passim_
+Maiwand, Battle of, 407-11
+Malet, Sir Edward, 548
+Malmesbury, Lord, 47
+Manchuria, 345-6, 349, 568, 578, 580, 584
+Mancini, Signor, 355
+Manin, 7
+Marchand, Colonel, 501-6, 540
+Maritz, General, 635
+Marschall, Baron von, 605
+Mars-la-Tour, Battle of, 67-70
+Maxwell, General, 487, 491, 497
+"May Laws," the, 139-41, 319
+Mayo, Lord, 372-3
+Mazzini, 6, 7, 91, 92, 304, 327
+Mecklenburg, 17, 142
+Mehemet Ali, Pasha, 204, 209, 215-16
+Melikoff, General Loris, 194, 296-8
+Meline, M., 504
+Mentana, Battle of, 28, 90
+Mercantile System, the, 150
+Merriman, Mr., 586
+Merv, 345, 374, 387, 388, 423-5, 431, 518
+Metternich, Prince, 7, 36
+Metz, 55, 63-73, 97, 104
+Mexico, 19, 26, 31
+Midhat, Pasha, 178-9, 186
+Milan, King, 167, 263, 269-72
+Milner, Lord, 440, 448, 598
+Milutin, General, 204, 215
+Mir, the, 294, 307
+Mohammed Ali, 437-8
+Mohammed V., 618
+Moltke, Count von, 18, 43, 65, 66, 78, 85, 104, 130, 193, 205, 320
+Mombasa, 520, 523
+Montenegro, 158, 163, 167, 173-4, 180, 194, 204, 225, 229, 232, 238,
+    242, 246-7, 263
+Morier, Sir Robert, 187, 273, 286, 302, 428
+Morley, Mr. John, 427
+Morocco, 602, 604-7, 609-10, 620 _seq_., 636-7
+Moslem Creed, the, and Christians, 156-8, 186-7
+Mukden, 598, 606
+Mukhtar, Pasha, 208
+Muenster, Count, 523
+Murad V., 169
+Muravieff, Count, 571-3, 575, 589
+
+Nabokoff, Captain, 278
+Nachtigall, Dr., 533-4
+Napoleon I., 2-4, 12, 13, 15-17, 23, 25, 89, 100, 160, 325, 437, 537,
+    593, 608, 610
+Napoleon III., 6, 7, 9-11, 16, 17, 19, 20, 25-33, 37-40, 46-9, 52, 63-5,
+    75-8, 84-6, 88-9, 98, 99, 105, 123, 138, 142, 162, 538, 599
+Napoleon, Prince Jerome, 20, 37
+Natal, 527, 528, 529, 534
+National African Company, the, 535
+National Assembly, the French, 98-108, 115-26
+Nationality, 2-12, 23, 25, 26-8, 36, 89, 586
+Nelidoff, Count, 265, 274, 277
+Nelson, 437, 441
+Nesselrode, Count, 364
+Netherlands, the, 586
+Nice, 9, 30, 39
+Nicholas, I., 160, 289, 292, 304, 308, 364
+Nicholas II., 289, 311-14, 346, 349, 506, 575, 580, 584, 590, 594, 598,
+    610, 614, 617, 621-2, 640, 643, 649
+Nicholas, Grand Duke, 192-3, 200-2, 206, 210, 215, 223, 229, 291, 292
+Nicholas, Prince of Montenegro, 263
+Nicopolis, 196, 200-1, 206, 217
+Niger, river, 533-40, 548
+Nigeria, 534-7
+Nihilism, 112, 233, 266-7, 291-8, 300-4, 327
+Nikolsburg, 19
+Northbrook, Lord, 373-4, 376, 379, 381, 465
+Northcote, Sir Stafford, 168, 224, 225, 243
+North German Confederation, 22, 35, 51, 52, 136
+Norway, 4, 5
+Novi-Bazar, 332
+Novi-Bazar, Sanjak of, 612
+Nuttall, General, 411
+
+Obock, 504, 540
+Obretchoff, General, 324, 326
+O'Donovan, Mr., 424, 462
+Ollivier, M., 28, 29, 34, 41, 46, 47, 55, 65
+Olmuetz, Convention of, 12, 18
+Omdurman, Battle of, 441, 493-500
+Orleans, 97
+Osman Digna, 470, 486
+Osman Pasha, 196, 200, 205, 214-19
+
+Palikao, Count, 65, 75, 77, 79, 87
+Palmerston, Lord, 30, 438, 441
+Pan-German Movement, 593-4, 621
+Pan-Islamic Movement, 592-3, 608
+Panjdeh, 346, 426-9, 432
+Papal States, the, 9, 10
+Paris, 87, 88, 95, 97, 98, 105, 107-113, 120
+Paris Commune, the (1871), 106-113, 116, 315
+Paris, Comte de, 117, 122
+Paris, Treaty of (1856), 161, 176
+Peiwar, Kotal, Battle at, 396
+Pekin, Capture of, 595
+Persia, 367, 368, 374, 378, 380, 609, 624
+Persian Gulf, the, 592
+Peshawur, 394
+Peter, King of Servia, 615
+Peters, Dr. Karl, 517-19, 522
+Phayre, General, 416
+Philippopolis, 219, 260, 263-4, 270, 271, 281
+Picard, M., 103
+Piedmont, 7
+Pishin, 400
+Pius IX., 6, 7, 38, 89-91, 122, 138-9, 141, 327
+Plevna, Battles at, 206-19
+Pobyedonosteff, 299, 300
+Poland, 4, 5, 25, 26, 31, 301
+Pondoland, 529
+Port Arthur, 346, 580
+Porte, the. _See_ Turkey
+Portsmouth, Treaty of, 598
+Portugal, 520, 525, 526, 540, 541, 546-9
+Posen, 141
+Primrose, General, 407, 411
+Prudhon, 292-5
+Prussia (1815-66), 4-22, 26, 51-5, 95, 130, 140, 141. _See_ Germany
+
+Quadrilateral, the Turkish, 194-7, 199-200
+Quetta, 381, 385, 398, 412, 416, 432
+
+Rabinek, Herr, 565
+Rachfahl, Herr, 605
+Radetzky, General, 209, 220
+Radowitz, Herr von, 321
+Radziwill, Princess, 236-7, 291
+Rauf Pasha, 460-61
+Rawlinson, Sir Henry, 380
+Redcliffe, Lord Stratford de, 188
+Redmond, Mr., 646
+Reichstag, the German, 133-4, 140, 141, 145-6
+Reventlow, Count, 587, 595, 603, 637-8
+Revolutions of 1848, 6-7, 11-12
+Rezonville, Battle of, 67-70
+Rhodes, Mr. Cecil, 530-32, 541
+Rhodesia, 532
+Riaz Pasha, 445
+Ribot, M., 346
+Ripon, Lord, 406, 412, 417
+Roberts, Lord, 379, 389, 392-3, 395-8, 402-4, 535
+Rohrbach, Herr, 637
+Rome, 7, 10, 38, 89-92, 95, 138
+Roon, Count von, 17, 43
+Rosebery, Earl of, 275, 276, 503, 519, 528
+Roumania, 26, 157, 158, 162, 192-3, 220, 222, 225, 229-30, 238-40,
+    257, 260-62, 269
+Roumania, King of, 41
+Rouvier, M., 607
+Royal Niger Company, the, 526, 540
+Rubber Tax, in Congo State, 565-7
+Russell, Lord John, 14, 15
+Russell, Lord Odo, 322
+Russia, 5, 9, 12, 13, 26, 31, 32, 55, 95, 112, 145, 148, 161, 164-8, 172,
+    182, 190-92, 231, 234, 240, 289, 290, 318, 322-7, 331-5, 337, 341-5,
+    347-9, 371, 446, 447-8, 457, 458, 472, 485, 527, 586, 590-91, 593-5,
+    597, 603, 606-8, 612-13, 615-17, 621, 624, 626, 629-31, 633-4,
+    640-44, 647-8
+  and Bulgaria, 253-88
+  and Finland, 307-14
+  and Japan, 585, 592, 598-9
+  and the Jews, 304-5
+  and Turkey, 222-7, 229-42
+  army of, 635, 638
+Russia in Central Asia, 359-66, 371-4, 376-80, 383, 387-91, 398-9, 403,
+    419-30
+  in the Far East, 595-6, 598, 614, chap. xx. _passim_
+Russo-Japanese War, 598-9, 602
+Russo-Turkish War, 585
+Rustchuk, 194, 199, 208, 265, 280-82, 285, 334
+
+Saarbruecken, Battle of, 61, 62
+Said, Khedive, 438
+St. Hilaire, Barthelemy de, 328
+St. Lucia Bay, 519, 525, 527, 528, 534
+St. Privat, Battle of _See_ Gravelotte
+St. Quentin, Battle of, 98
+Saladin, 591
+Salisbury, Marquis of, 176-7, 187, 232-4, 240, 243, 266-9, 272, 275,
+    283, 287, 328, 336, 380-81, 383, 387, 428, 505, 519, 522, 540,
+    554, 581
+Salonica, 167, 229
+Samarcand, 365-6, 371, 388-9, 604
+Samoa, 588, 610
+Samory, 539
+San Stefano, Treaty of, 229-32, 233, 238, 253
+Sandeman, Sir Robert, 384-5
+Sardinia, Kingdom of, 8-11, 162
+Saxony, 4, 5, 11, 18, 134-6
+Sazonoff, M., 641
+Schleswig-Holstein, 5, 12, 13-16, 21, 26, 142
+Schnaebele, M., 334, 338
+Sedan, Battle of, 77-88
+Septennate, the (in France), 123
+Serpa Pinto, 540
+Servia, 158-9, 163, 167, 173-4, 180, 194, 225, 229, 232, 238, 242, 257,
+    258, 267, 612-13, 615-16, 631, 637, 639-43, 648-9
+Seymour, Admiral, 449-50
+Shan-tung, Province of, 580, 581
+Shere Ali, 369-74, 376-7, 379-80, 384, 386-8, 390-92, 398-400
+Sherpur, Engagements at (1878), 404
+Shipka Pass, 197, 201-3, 208, 220
+Shumla, 194, 208
+Shutargardan Pass, the, 402
+Shuvaloff, Count, 233, 235
+Siberia, 361, 366, 570-72, 574
+Sibi, 398, 400
+Simon, Jules, 103
+Sistova, 196, 197, 199, 208, 217
+Skiernewice, 258, 266, 284, 302, 332-5, 426, 515-18
+Skobeleff, General, 198-9, 203, 210, 211-15, 220, 259, 330, 388-9,
+    421-4, 431
+Slave-trade, the, 558, 562
+Slavophils, the, 310-12, 339
+Slivnitza, Battle of, 270-71
+Soboleff, General, 255, 257-8
+Sofia, 210, 219, 271, 273, 278-9
+Solferino, Battle of, 9
+Somaliland, 540
+South Africa Company, British, 533
+South German Confederation, 21, 22, 35
+South-West Africa (German), 523-7, 531-2
+Spain, 40, 41, 42, 605
+Spicheren, Battle of, 62, 63
+Stambuloff, 256, 259, 264, 289, 283-6, 334
+Stanley, Sir H.M., 465, 508-9, 543-4, 552, 553
+State Socialism (in Germany), 150-53
+Steinmetz, General, 71
+Stephenson, General, 474
+Stepniak, 294, 303
+Stewart, Colonel, 466, 476
+Stewart, Sir Donald, 398, 405
+Stewart, Sit Herbert, 480
+Stiege, Admiral, 623
+Stoffel, Colonel, 53
+Stokes, Mr., execution of, 565
+Stolieteff, General, 388-90, 398
+Stundists, the, 305-7
+Suakim, 462, 473, 478, 486, 488, 518
+Sudan, the, _passim_ chaps. xvi. xvii.
+Suez Canal, the, 166, 190, 225, 438, 439, 457, 513
+Suleiman Pasha, 204, 208-9, 215, 216, 219, 221
+Swat Valley, the, 433
+Sweden, 4, 5
+Switzerland, 98, 148
+
+Tamai, Battle of, 470
+Tangier, 614
+Tashkend, 365, 388, 433
+Tatisheff, M., 643
+Tchernayeff, General, 174
+Tchirsky, Herr von, 640
+Tel-el-Kebir, Battle of, 454-5
+Tewfik, Khedive, 442-7, 452-3, 458, 461, 466-7, 487, 503, 507
+Thessaly, 240-41, 248-9
+Thiers, M., 26, 27, 47, 87, 94, 100-6, 108,
+    114-19, _passim_ chaps. iv. v.
+Thomson, Joseph, 509-10, 535-6, 541
+Thornton, Sir Edward, 427
+Three Emperors' League, the, 179, 184, 319-23, 326, 332-4, 448, 515
+Tilsit, Treaty of, 308
+Timbuctu, 539
+Tipu Tib, 553
+Tirard, M., 341
+Tirpitz, Admiral von, 589, 609
+Tisza, M., 180, 283
+Todleben, 216-17
+Togo, Admiral, 598
+Trans-Siberian Railway, the, 574-6, 580, 582-3, 599
+Transvaal, the, 525, 527, 586
+Treitschke, Herr, 626, 636
+Trentino, 335
+Triple Alliance, the, 21, 327-33, 335-9, 453, 515, 590-1, 599-601, 609,
+    615, 624, 635, 637, 647
+Triple Entente, the, 593, 595, 609, 617, 635, 647, 649
+Trochu, General, 101
+Tsushima, Battle of, 598
+Tunis, 328-30, 436, 448, 513-14, 600
+Turgenieff, 294, 295
+Turkestan, 361, 364, 366-7, 419-30
+Turkey, 5, 155, 168-77, 181, 187-8, 190-221, 229-42, 332, 342, 348,
+    436-8, 446, 502, 567, 592, 613, 615-616, 618, 624, 628-30, 632,
+    638-9
+
+Uganda, 502, 522-3
+Umballa, Conference at, 372-3
+Umberto I., King of Italy, 327, 329-31, 333, 335, 336
+United Kingdom. _See_ Great Britain
+United Netherlands, Kingdom of, 5
+United States, the, 30, 31, 547, 567, 578, 581, 596-8, 607
+
+Vandervelde, M., 557
+Venetia, 5-11, 17, 19, 21
+Verdun, 65, 68
+Versailles, 103, 106, 108, 109, 129
+Victor Emmanuel II., King of Italy, 2-11, 37, 63, 90, 327
+Victor Emmanuel III., 601, 615
+Victoria, Queen, 14, 145, 165, 171, 223-4, 261, 322
+  proclaimed Empress of India, 382
+Victoria, Crown Princess of Germany, 323
+Vienna, Treaty of (1815), 4, 5
+Vionville, Battle of, 67-70
+Viviani, M., 644
+Vladivostok, 572, 575, 580
+
+Waddington, M., 240, 245, 246, 328
+Wady Halfa, 439, 476, 478, 483, 484, 486, 489, 502
+Waldeck-Rousseau, M., 600
+Waldemar, Prince, 284
+Walfisch Bay, 524
+Wallachia, 160-62
+Warren, Sir Charles, 531-2
+Wei-hai-wei, 582
+West Africa, 533-40
+White, Major G., 402
+White, Sir William, 177, 187, 265, 267-9, 273-4, 287, 302
+Widdin, 194, 196, 200, 206, 270
+William I. (King of Prussia, German Emperor), 11-22, 31, 32, 41-6, 73,
+    104, 129-30, 137, 152, 236, 321-2, 325, 335, 339, 517, 594
+William II. (King of Prussia, German Emperor), 151-3, 339-40, 342, 522,
+    580, 582, 586-93, 598-9, 604, 606-611, 614, 616-7, 620-1, 623-4,
+    632, 636-7, 639-41, 643-6
+William, Crown Prince of Germany, 625, 646
+William of Weid, Prince, 632
+Wilson, Sir Charles, 480
+Wimpffen, General de, 79-86
+Winton, Sir Francis de, 552
+Wissmann, Lieutenant von, 546
+Wolf, Dr., 546
+Wolff, Sir H. Drummond, 485
+Wolseley, Lord, 454-6, 466, 475, 476, 478, 481, 507
+Woerth, Battle of, 59-62
+Wuertemberg, 21, 131, 133-5, 137
+
+Yakub Khan, 379, 400-3
+Young Turk Party, the, 612-3, 616, 618
+  Revolution (1908), 615
+
+Zankoff, M., 280
+Zanzibar, 516-21, 532, 553
+Zazulich, Vera, 292
+Zebehr, Pasha, 469-73
+Zemstvo, the, 293, 296, 301
+Zola, Emile, 600
+Zulfikar Pass, the, 428
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Development of the European
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